Imprisoned at the Hauge, War Machine (Jim Rhodes) is waiting to stand trail for war crimes.[1] He has been assigned Daniel Ceteweyo as his court appointed lawyer.[2] Daniel’s plan during trial is to focus less on the soldiers that he killed in Santo Marco, but the people he saved. He has called witnesses, including the little boy Jim rescued and they are all willing to testify on his behalf. However, Jim doesn’t see that he is anything but a homicidal maniac. This gets him a slap from his mother, Roberta, who asks Daniel to give her some privacy to speak with her son.

When they are alone, Roberta can’t understand why Jim is trying to tank his own trial. She points out that the Banesville Ten have been caught and are going to trial thanks to him.[3] While Rhodes knows this, he also knows that Norman Osborn is using his own trial to distract from the Banesville Ten so he can try and get them off. Jim refuses to allow that to happen. Roberta laments that while she sees her son as a hero, she always knew that he would end up dead someday, but she never thought he’d just give up. Tapping a hidden circuit on the wall of his cell, Jim assures his mother that he actually hasn’t given up yet.

This circuit puts him in communication with his support crew and he gets word from Bethany Cabe, Parnell Jacobs, Glenda Sandoval and Jake Oh, that they have succeeded in liberating the a clone of Jim’s body that was stolen by Norman Osborn.[4] They are currently transporting it close enough to the Hague so that Suzi Endo can use the nascent Ultimo that she is guiding to transfer Jim’s mind from his current body into the clone. That’s when Norman Osborn pipes in from the HAMMER helicarrier. He reveals that he has been listening in to their conversation and knows their plan now. Horrified by this, Jim orders the team to evacuate immediately, but it comes too late as they are soon swarmed by HAMMER forces. That’s when guards storm into Jim’s cell to detain him.

Rhodes tell the others they should have been focusing on preventing Osborn from getting the Banesville Ten out of the country. That’s when Norman cheerfully informs them that he has succeeded in this task, despite their interference. That’s when Ares comes smashing into the cell, however the Olympian god of war hasn’t come to fight War Machine, but to free him.

As the battle around the Hague continues, Norman Osborn — already believing that he has won — begins using the media to spin the narrative he wants to make. He tells viewers that the cyborg Jim Rhodes is merely an impostor that is built of Starktech that has been compromised by the Ultimo virus and that the real Jim Rhodes — actually the cloned body that Osborn just recovered — has been held in stasis. He then pronounces that Rhodes is innocent of the crimes that the cyborg has committed.[5] He uses this narrative to deploy HAMMER forces onto the Hague so they can eliminate Jim Rhodes without repercussion.

As Jim, his mother, and Ares flee the cell they are immediately under fire. That’s when Jim sees one of the witnesses — the boy he saved in Santo Marco — caught in the crossfire. Rather than save his own skin, Rhodes jumps into the path of the weapons fire and is seemingly killed in a hail of explosive bullets.

Believing that he has won, Osborn gets in touch with the Banesville Ten to inform them that Rhodes has been eliminated. He assures them that despite Murdock’s legal fight, Norman is working on having congress pass special legislation within the week that will grant them immunity from the law. One of the ten is furious that it was Osborn’s incompetence that got them in this situation. Suddenly, he begins to gag as something becomes wrong with all of them. That’s when Jim Rhodes emerges from the clone stasis chamber and reveals that he is alive. He then socks Osborn in the face with a right hook. As it turned out, Suzi Endo was aware that Osborn was monitoring their comms and lied about needing to be in close proximity to transfer Rhodes’ consciousness into his new body. As for the Bainsville Ten, they infected them with a new strain of the Ultimo virus. This one mimics the database that made it impossible for Jim to forget war atrocities while he was in his cyborg body. While they may escape justice for their crimes, they will be unable to forget the horrific crimes committed in their names for the rest of their lives.

Recovering from the blow, Osborn asks why Jim didn’t subject him to this punishment as well. Rhodes did a detailed psyche profile of Osborn since he took power,[6] and decided against it because Osborn probably would have taken pleasure in the intrusive thoughts. When Osborn pulls a gun on him, he discovers that it is somehow being jammed. That’s when the side of the helicarrier is blown open and Rhodes is evacuated by his team. Osborn gloats that they passed up an opportunity to eliminate him, but Jim says that leaving him with this loss is punishment enough. Norman refutes this, but once Jim and his allies are gone, he realizes that he has indeed lost and curses himself.

Two weeks later, Jim’s mother is dozing on the porch of her home on the Navajo Nation. When she wakes up, she sees that her son has brought her papaya, which she doesn’t like. Back in his old War Machine armor, Jim retorts “that’s my ma” and takes off into a sky. Picking up the fruit, Roberta Rhodes says “that’s my son!”.[7]

Recurring Characters

War Machine, Norman Osborn, Victoria Hand, Ares, Bethany Cabe, Parnell Jacobs, Glenda Sandoval, Jake Oh, Suzi Endo, Ultimo, Roberta Rhdoes, HAMMER

Continuity Notes

1. War Machine violated the Geneva Convention and other international laws by killing individuals who themselves also committed atrocities. This was all covered in War Machine (vol. 2) #1-10 and Dark Reign: New Nation #1.

2. Daniel Ceteweyo’s last name is the same as Vincent Cetewayo a peace activist and a member of the World Watch Organization, an organization that was affiliated with War Machine in the past (See War Machine #1-25). Vincent was assassinated in War Machine #4. As of this writing (October, 2024) any connection between Daniel and Vincent has yet to be made.

3. The Banesville Ten are US politicians who authorized the rape and torture of prisoners. Jim exposed them with a data leak in War Machine (vol. 2) #10.

4. Jim was left quadriplegic after a terrorist attack and was rebuilt into a cyborg as a stop gap measure to keep him alive while a cloned body was being grown for him. However, Jim has refrained from using this while he had a mission to accomplish and the body was later stolen by Osborn. See War Machine (vol. 2) #1.

5. The claim that Rhodey’s cybernetics are based on Starktech is a lie. As revealed in War Machine: Weapon of SHIELD #32, when Tony Stark built them he used old Stane International technology. This was a so that Jim wasn’t dependent on Starktech in the event that Tony’s technology was compromised. This proved fortuitous during the recent Skrull invasion of Earth (as told in Secret Invasion #1-8 and War Machine: Weapon of SHIELD #32-34).

6. Norman Osborn became the head of national security after he eliminated the leader of a Skrull invasion of Earth in Secret Invasion #8. He will hold this position until Siege #4.

7. As this series wraps up, we don’t really get to know where much of the cast goes from here. Following this series:

   • War Machine will go on to be involved in the Black Panther’s war with Doctor Doom, as seen in Doomwar #5-6.

   • Bethany Cabe will go back to working as head of security for Tony Stark’s latest venture, Stark Resilient in Invincible Iron Man #504.

   • Time of this writing (October, 2024), this is the last we see of both Parnell Jacobs and Glenda Sandoval. Their subsequent fate is unknown at this time.

   • Jake Oh will eventually return to working for SHIELD, as we’ll see in Totally Awesome Hulk #9.

   • Suzi Endo will end up working for the Organization of American States and get involved when Galactus tries to eat the sun. See Silver Surfer (vol. 6) #1-5.

   • What exactly happened to the Ultimo sphere after this is not clearly explained as of this writing. A remote control Ultimo drone is built by AIM in New Avengers (vol. 2) #17. A seemingly restored Ultimo will be revived by MODOK in 2020 Force Works #1-3.