Home for Christmas

After saving the world from the Mandarin alongside Force Works, Jim Rhodes has returned home to figure out where he is going next.[1] Due to his role as director of WorldWatch, he is not entire sure if being War Machine is such a good idea anymore. After spending the night at his girlfriend Rae LaCoste’s place, he spends the morning catching up with her on what went down, including how he buried the hatchet with Tony Stark.[2] Rae has known and loved both men for a long time and is glad that they put their past behind them.[3]

Now he has to think about what to do with War Machine next since he has made such a mess of things. He recounts how, as War Machine, he helped liberate the nation if Imaya with WorldWatch’s former director, Vincent Cetewayo.[4] When Vince died, Jim agreed to take over his organization. However, the world community didn’t take kindly to this with War Machine being denounced by the United Nations. Jim was also attacked by the assassin known as Deathtoll by a mysterious group he knows nothing about.[5] War Machine’s involvement has also put WorldWatch under scrutiny and from the world community and Jim is facing pressure to denounce War Machine by the group. Rae points out that Jim is talking about War Machine like it is a separate entity and reminds him that he makes all the decisions in his life, not the armor. What they can both agree on is that Jim has a lot of work to do to try and clean up the mess he has made for himself.

That after noon, Jim heads into the WorldWatch offices and meets with Ranald Jeffries. Jeffries is not happy with Jim’s frequent absences with the crisis the organization is facing. Jeffries figures the only move now is to shut down, particularly since he has a pretty good idea what Jim has been less than truthful about. When Rhodes asks if their partner, Rebecca Bergier, has the same hunch, Ranald has no idea. Jim decides to talk to Rebecca and see what’s what with her. Meeting with Bergier in her office she is more concerned about a tabloid TV program that has been sniffing around and is threatening to reveal something about her private life. When Jim hears what that is, he is furious that someone would be so petty as to try and tear down WorldWatch over something so irrelevant.[6] Rebecca is protective of this secret as it has cost her jobs and friends in the past. Jim doesn’t think it is a big deal and when she resists his suggestion to not care he blurts out that he’s actually War Machine. Hearing this makes her laugh out loud. Jim tells her that once she composes herself to get the rest of the team together as they are going to have an important meeting.

Soon, Rebecca and Ranald are in a meeting with Sheva Joseph, Travis Berkley, and Paula Lin. That’s when Jim enters the room wearing his War Machine armor, revealing his secret to them. He asks for them all to give his leadership a second shot. Jim proposes that having War Machine as an official part of WorldWatch would be an asset. Saying that there are groups out there that don’t care about the human misery out there and actually benefit from it. He intends to use WorldWatch to try and deal with humanitarian crises as diplomatically as possible and when that doesn’t work, they send in War Machine. The others aren’t too keen on this, but Sheva Jaffries thinks Jim has the right idea given her past experience working for the Mossad and SHIELD. When Rebecca asks what Jim will do if they refuse his plan, Rhodes says he’ll walk away and they’ll never hear from him again. This proposal gives them all something to think about so Jim heads back home to wait for their decision.

Jim waits by the phone for an entire week with Rae LaCoste by his side. He is nervous about revealing the truth since WorldWatch could just as easily turn him as anything else. Luckily, he gets a call from the organization and is told that they want to try things his way for the time being. Even better, Jim has been invited to a celebratory dinner that evening and invites Rae to come along with him. That’s when Jim remembers that the the holidays are coming up and asks Rae if she wants to go back to Philadelphia with him to visit his parents. Rae is happy to go, figuring it was about time he asked her to meet his parents.

Jim then puts in a call to Mack Mendelson and asks the inventor if he would like to join WorldWatch as War Machine’s technician.[7] He then puts in a call to Stark Enterprises and calls in a favor to get young inventor Archie Park to come work for him instead.

Later that evening, Jim and Rae meet with the rest of WorldWatch for dinner. There, Ranald Jeffries explains that the group decided to give him a chance since they figure that their former director, Vincent Cetewayo must have known he was also War Machine and saw that Jim had nothing but good intentions for his alter ego. Jim isn’t sure if that’s the case, but he recounts how when Vincent died, he made a promise to carry on his legacy and keep his dream alive. He knows that War Machine is a powerful weapon that needs to be used wisely and hopes that the rest of the group can help him make sure that he is making the right decisions moving forward.

Everyone agrees and everyone proposes a toast to Vincent and to the future of WorldWatch.

Recurring Characters

War Machine, WorldWatch (Rebecca Bergier, Ranald Jeffries, Sheva Joseph, Travis Berkely, Paula Lin), Mack Mendelson, Archie Park

Continuity Notes

1. This happened during the Hands of the Mandarin event which took place in Force Works #6, Marvel Comics Presents #169-171, War Machine #9, Iron Man #311, Marvel Comics Presents #172, Force Works #7, War Machine #10, and Iron Man #312.

2. At the time of this story, Jim and Tony had a falling out that dates back to Iron Man #284, when Tony faked his death and kept it a secret from Rhodey. When Stark revealed he was still alive in Iron Man #289, Jim was furious and quit and went solo for a time. Jim and Tony made up in the aforementioned Hands of the Mandarin event.

3. Rae dated Tony on and off between Iron Man #223 and his faked death in issue #284. She and Jim were drawn together by Tony’s “passing” and have been dating ever since.

4. For more on War Machine’s involvement in the liberation of Imaya see War Machine #1-4.

5. He’s not the only one. Deathtoll was hired to eliminate both Jim Rhodes and War Machine in War Machine #5-6. He was hired by a man named Leviticus who headed a mysterious organization that was furious that War Machine was meddling in their affairs. However, as of this writing in November, 2022, what Leviticus’ whole deal was has never been revealed.

6. Rebecca Bergier has been harassed since War Machine #5 and 6 about this secret. See below for more on that.

7. Mendelson previous tried repairing the War Machine armor in War Machine #7.

Topical References

• Rebecca Bergier is worried that the tabloid news show is going to out her as a lesbian. This was a big deal in the 1990s due to the stigma that was directed toward the LGTBQ community during a time when they had less human rights than everyone else, especially in America. Being outed as gay or lesbian back then could have had negative repercussions as people routinely lost jobs, friends, and even got disowned by their family. While this sort of shit still happens now, it’s not as common place as it used to be and the idea of outing someone as being gay isn’t quite as damaging. The idea of someone having to quit a senior position at a human rights organization because she was outed as gay would be outlandish by todays standard. As such, this should be considered a topical reference as the circumstances are a product of the time in which this story was published. Jim not caring that Rebecca is a lesbian was really progressive for the time but his reaction would be quite common place today. Not sure what would be a more general issue you could slot into its place. Personally, while the overarching social commentary is now topical, I could see the story remaining the same anyway since the whole scene would play out the same regardless.

• Jim specifically states that New Years Eve is coming up. At the end of the story, Jim wishes everyone a Merry Christmas. Per the Sliding Timescale, Christmas could not happened around the time of this story. Since you could tell this same story at any time of the year it is safe to assume that references to Christmas and New Years are topical.

• Mack Mendelson is depicted trying to fix a VCR. It, and the CRT monitors in his shop should be considered topical as these are all obsolete forms of technology.