War Machine (vol. 2) #1
Now
The nation of Santo Marco has turned into a warzone as tribal group war with one another. The United States has not gotten involved because there are no strategic interests in getting involved in the conflict. Soldiers murder with impunity as United Nations peace keepers stand by and do nothing. The killing has taken a new level of horror as General Luis Augustine has retrofitted a Sentinel robot to more efficiently carry out his ethnic cleansing of the region.
It is such a disgusting sight that War Machine (Jim Rhodes) has decided to come and do something about it. He destroys the Sentinel robot in his first strike and spots the man in the crowd he has come looking for. Unfortunately, he is sidetracked when some soldiers grab a kid and try to use as a hostage.
Rhodes scans all of the soldiers through the database in his head and learns that each one is guilty of multiple war crimes and atrocities. Locking onto them with his weapons systems, Jim blows them all away without harming the child. As he is handing the boy over to his mother, more soldiers arrive and open fire on him. The sneak attack blows off his limbs, reminding Jim of an incident that happened to him not that long ago…
The Recent Past[1]
Jim Rhodes was back with the military and while on a mission he was caught in an explosion that took half his face and both his arms and his legs. Miraculously, Jim is still alive and as medics treat his severe trauma, his best friend Iron Man (Tony Stark) arrives on the scene. He tells Jim his mission was a success and promises that he’ll get Jim back up and walking again. At the time Rhodes wasn’t surprised that Stark can look at a disaster into an opportunity.
Rhodes wasn’t wrong, as soon Tony went to work building cybernetic parts to replace the things that Jim lost on this mission. When the installation is complete, Jim is greeted by a holographic projection of Bethany Cabe, one of Tony’s old flames.[2] Beth gives him the specs for his upgrade, saying that it is devoid of any Starktech and is completely untraceable.[3] It also has amazing capabilities that will make him a more efficient soldier. However, such a fusion of man and machine is treading new ground and they have no idea how that will affect Jim in the long term. She says that no matter what Rhodes decides to do next, he will eventually need to call for help…
Now
Rhodes bitterly thinks that it is too late to call for help now. Thanks to the battle computers in his head, he can never forget the atrocities committed by soldiers, warlords, and politicians. This has given him the drive to eliminate those who treat human lives as collateral damage in their attempts to consolidate power. He opens fire on the soldiers that blew off his limbs with his shoulder mounted rail gun but it soon runs out of ammo. The surviving soldiers think War Machine helpless and are quickly proven wrong when the weapons on his severed arms come to life and mow the rest of them down. With the immediate threat over, the severed limbs suddenly reattach themselves to War Machine’s body and he gets back up on his feet.
He then tracks down the man he was looking for, his old friend Parnell Jacobs. Scanning his retinal patterns, Jim is given a complete dossier on Jacobs. It reminds Jim how they were friends who served in the military together during the Sin-Cong Conflict.[4] After serving together, Parnell went on to marry Jim’s childhood sweetheart Doctor Glenda Sandoval. For a time he was a gun runner for General Augustine in Santo Marco. This was until he came across an old suit of War Machine armor and with the help of Stuart Clark attempted to use it to kill Iron Man.[5] According to the database, Jacobs is responsible for the deaths of 123 people, while his arms dealing can be tied to the deaths of 3256 more. Jacobs pleads with Jim to hear him out, but Rhodes knocks him out with the flick of his finger. War Machine then gathers Parnell and part of the Sentinel robot he destroyed and flies away.
When Parnell Jacobs wakes up, he finds himself in a room with no bars or guards. He thinks Jim is getting sloppy until he looks out a window and realizes that he is in a space station above the Earth. Leaving the room, he finds Jim undergoing modifications of his cybernetic systems. He is on the line with Bethany Cabe who warns Jim that his body cannot take much more punishment and he will die if he keeps on pushing himself like this. Rhodes refuses to stop because he has a mission to complete. Beth thinks he’s crazy for trying to recruit Parnell Jacobs, a known war criminal. But Jim — detecting that Jacobs is coming up behind him with a wrench — says he knows Parnell will help him out on his mission once he learns that knocking him out will suspend the life support functions on the space station. This stills Parnell’s hand, and Jim turns around and explains that he has recruited Jacobs on his mission to kill every bad guy.
Parnell thinks Jim is insane, but Rhodes tells him that their first order of business is to track down the people who kidnapped Parnell’s wife. Parnell tells Jim that Glenda isn’t a prisoner, she just left him because she is angry with him. Scanning Jacob’s vital signs, Jim confirms that this is what Parnell really believes. He then pulls up the files on his wife and reveals that Doctor Sandoval is a prisoner of the military contractor known as Eaglestar International. After completing a course for the group in Hawaii, she was taken to their operations in Paris before finally being taken to the wartorn nation of Aqiria. The middle eastern nation has been locked in a bloody tribal war between the ruling government and insurgents in the area. To date, this conflict has killed around 30 thousand people, displaced 240 thousand more, and 15 thousand unaccounted for. He then pulls up the last known image of Glenda, and Parnell is horrified to see that someone had beaten. He then shows Parnell video footage of Eaglestar troops imprisoning her at their Aqirian headsquarters. This is all the convincing that Jacobs needs to join War Machine’s crusade but says that Jim is going to need some bigger guns.
Parnell then gets to work on cannibalizing the Sentinel tech and incorporating it into Jim’s armor as well as loading up a new weapons system. From her remote communications, Bethany Cabe tries to get Parnell to see reason. She reminds him that if Jim dies on this mission, Parnell will die as well. Jacobs doesn’t care, because he wants to see Eaglestar pay for harming his wife. With that, War Machine leaves the satellite and makes earthfall.
Moments later, Bethany’s Colorado bunker is attacked by the military. Beth tries to defend herself but is knocked out by an explosion. With the immediate battle over, Norman Osborn — the new head of National Security — arrives on site.[6] While the mission was messy, Osborn is pleased with the results as they have secured a cloned body of Jim Rhodes that is being sustained at the facility.[7]
Recurring Characters
War Machine, Parnell Jacobs, Bethany Cabe, Eaglestar International Norman Osborn, (in flashback) Iron Man
Continuity Notes
This flashback takes place prior to War Machine appearing in Avengers: The Initiative #1. This flashback is also expanded upon in War Machine (vol. 2) #7.
Bethany reminds Jim that she and Tony haven’t dated for years. First appearing in Iron Man #117, Bethany quickly started dating Tony Stark until she learned that he husband Alexander Von Tilberg was still alive and returned to him in Iron Man #152-153. However, her husband was still addicted to drugs and died of an overdose in Iron Man #211. She and Tony briefly got back together from Iron Man #320-325, but that romance was cut short due to Tony being temporarily killed in Avengers #395. When he was returned to life again in Iron Man (vol. 3) #1, Stark and Cabe have remained friends.
As we learned in War Machine: Weapon of SHIELD #33-35, Tony had done so as an insurance policy in the event that his technology was somehow compromised. This proved fortuitous as Jim was unaffected by the Skrull invasion of Earth. See Secret Invasion #1-8 for more on that.
This is the first time that in the fiction that it is stated that Jim Rhodes fought in the Sin-Cong Conflict, a fictional war that was created in order to deal with the rather messy continuity of characters that would prematurely age them due to the Sliding Timescale. In the case of Jim, he was previously stated as having fought in the Vietnam War, as seen in Iron Man #144. This is one of the few instances where Marvel has done a hard retcon on a character.
This was Jim’s original suit of War Machine armor, which he lost during a trip through the time stream circa War Machine #15-17. Jacobs later retrofitted the suit for his use in Sunset Bain’s war against Tony Stark in Iron Man (vol. 3) #11-12 and 18-20.
Norman Osborn became the new director of national security after he slew the leader of the Skrull invasion in Secret Invasion #8. He has used this position of power to enrich himself and other villains as well as come down hard on the heroes who have thwarted his past criminal deeds.
This cloned body was created to replace Jim’s damaged body. His mind will be transferred into this new body in War Machine (vol. 2) #12.
Topical References
War Machine’s flashback in this story is stated as having taken place one year prior to the main story. As this flashback takes place prior to Avengers: The Initiative #1 (published June, 2007) and War Machine (vol. 2) #1 (published February, 2009) this should be considered a topical reference as it denotes a rough passage of time between publications. In universe this incident would have happened months prior rather than a year.
