War Machine (vol. 2) #10
War Machine (Jim Rhodes) and the Iron Patriot (Norman Osborn) have succeeded in wiping the personality core of Ultimo, leaving a blank slate to be reprogrammed. After ending the threat posed by Ultimo, Osborn incapacitates Rhodes so that he can secure this new weapon for himself.[1] It also turns out that Jim is dying, as Osborn’s armor detects that Rhodes is having a stroke. Before his allies Suzi Endo or Glenda Sandoval can come to his aid, he is surrounded by HAMMER troops who cryogenically freeze him and place him into a prisoner transport. Glenda puts on a show by meekly trying to stop them.
In reality, this was all a ruse cooked up by War Machine, who faked his stroke. He then uses his cybernetic assimilation function to incorporate the transport into his armor, reforming it into a massive battle suit. War Machine quickly swats Iron Patriot away. He then builds Suzi a ship and sends her off with Ultimo, hoping that her skills as a cybermancer can either get it off planet, or teach it the difference between right or wrong. At first, Suzi isn’t sure if she can do it, but when Ultimo reaches out like a needy baby, she decides to see what she can do and soon both take off.
When Suzi is gone, War Machines allies — Ronin (Clint Barton), Mockingbird (Bobbi Morse), Wonder Man (Simon Williams), and Tigra (Greer Grant) — arrive after evacuating the area. He is glad that they are back because he will need them to help the rest of his team finish the real job at hand.
By the time the Iron Patriot returns, War Machines allies have all taken off in different directions on their appointed tasks. Osborn then smashes through Jim’s armor, disabling the magno-locks that enable him to assimilate other technology.
The battle is watched on the sidelines by Morgan Stark, Parnell Jacobs, and Glenda. Parnell notes that War Machine’s magno-locks will be disabled for three hours, leaving him incredibly vulnerable. When Glenda radios Jim and tells him to run, Rhodes refuses saying that as a soldier he refuses to give up ground when he is so close to succeeding in his mission.
Meanwhile, two members of Jim’s team — Jake Oh and Bethany Cabe — have been out in spare suits of War Machine armor finishing off the last of Jim’s missions. Jake goes to the town of Campville, Louisiana where he confronts Sheriff William Sampleson. Sampleson managed to get off the hook after he murdered hurricane refugees by deleting the security footage and selling the hard drive online. Jake, however, managed to track it down and recover the video footage. He then dares Sampleson and his deputies to use the Oscorp weapons given to their police force as he relishes the idea of roughing them up before turning them over to the FBI.
At the same time, Bethany Cabe has broken into an immigration prison in Bunsen, California. There she confirms that there is an untreated influenza outbreak and takes the children interred there to the local children’s hospital.
In New Mexico, both Ronin and Mockingbird have attacked the head office of Dearhart Insurance who paid their executives an illegal bonus. After blowing up the top floors of the building, the two Avengers begin handing out the money to people who need it most. While at Honeybud Industries, Wonder Man dunks the owners of the pig farm in the run off from their facility until they admit that it is toxic and polluting a local lagoon.
Reports of their deeds soon reach Avengers Tower, where Norman Osborn’s assistant — Victoria Hand — freaks out about it. The stories also catch the attention of Ben Urich, the publisher of the Front Line newspaper. Roberta Rhodes watches the news coverage from her home and is proud of what her son is doing. In Washington, DC, the President of the United States can only chuckle to himself about what’s going on. Back in New York, Victoria reports more incidents all across the country.
Her boss isn’t interested in what’s going on as all he wants to do is take down War Machine once and for all. With an army of HAMMER agents, they hammer into him until they finally crack open his outer armor, revealing the cyborg inside. Osborn scoffs at his pathetic attempt to distract him with his allies. Jim then tries to convince Norman that his real reason for this chase was to collect enough chipsets from the barrage of missiles they have been using on him in order to crack HAMMER’s control codes and send Osborn’s world toppling. The Iron Patriot scoffs at this and orders all his men to open fire at once. This blows up War Machine’s outer armor and sends Jim’s body crashing to the ground. When Osborn finds him, Jim has been reduced to a helpless torso. Osborn doesn’t understand why Rhodes focused his energies on so man little nobodies when he could have focused his energies on taking him down instead. He then tosses Jim aside and Rhodes blacks out…
Two Days Later
Norman Osborn has spun his capture of War Machine into a media victory for himself. After being hailed in a parade in New York City, Norman returns to Avengers Tower. There, Victoria tells him that something just happened. Turning on the news, they learn that there has been a HAMMER data breach and the data has been leaked online. It all contains evidence that the organization has used harsh interrogation tactics with prisoners, detaining assault victims in front of their children, and tampering with voting machines. That’s when they get a call from the White House.
Later, at a prison facility somewhere in the Colorado Mountains, Norman Osborn pays a visit to Jim Rhodes. He admits that he is impressed, the data leak led to the indictment of six Senators, 3 high ranking members of the former administration, and a five-star general. However, Osborn says that it won’t matter for much because the public will easily forget things if they are suitable distracted and he knows just how to do it: A very public war crimes trial of the traitor and terrorist Jim Rhdoes!
Recurring Characters
War Machine, Iron Patriot, Ronin, Mockingbird, Wonder Man, Tigra, Bethany Cabe, Parnell Jacobs, Glenda Sandoval, Jake Oh, Suzi Endo, HAMMER, Victoria Hand, Morgan Stark, Ultimo, Ben Urich, Roberta Rhodes
Continuity Notes
War Machine has been trying to stop the threat posed by Ultimo since War Machine (vol. 2) #6, finally stopping it last issue.
Topical References
It is stated that Sheriff William Sampleson sold the hard drive that had evidence of his murders on eBay, an online auction site. This should be considered a topical reference as this is a real world business.
Also, it is stated that he shot hurricane survivors three years prior to this story. Given that this scene is set in Louisiana, and this comic was published in 2009, they are implying that this was Hurricane Katrina, which struck Louisiana in August, 2005. This caused massive flooding that killed thousands, and displaced many more. Any allusion to this real world disaster happening in the Modern Age should be considered a topical reference. Modern readers should instead presume that they are speaking of a hurricane unique to the fiction.
Victoria Hand states that all of the Avengers deeds are being uploaded to the front page of Google, a popular search engine. This is a topical reference for the same reason eBay was.
Roberta Rhodes is depicted as having a CRT model television in her home. This should be considered a topical reference as this is now an obsolete technology.
Osborn says that three members of the previous administration were indicted as a result of Jim’s data leak. As this comic was published in 2009, it is implying that these were members of the Bush Administration, who had ended two terms in power in 2008. At the time of this story, Barack Obama had just been elected as the new President of the United States. That said, like the Hurricane Katrina reference, this one should be considered topical.
