War Machine (vol. 2) #3
War Machine (Jim Rhodes) has travelled to occupied Aqiria to rescue Doctor Glenda Sandoval from the military contractor known as Eaglestar International. With remote support from his allies Parnell Jacobs and Bethany Cabe and augmented with an adaptable cyborg body, Rhodes storms Eaglestar’s headquarters by adapting tank parts into his armor. While he clashes with soldiers, former SHIELD Agent Jake Oh tries to crack the digital lock on the shipping container where Sandoval is being held prisoner.
Bethany is trying to crack the passcode remotely, but tells Jim that it will be slow going after her bunker was recently hit.[1] When Jim asks her what this means, she tells him to focus on the mission. That’s when Glenda — finally lucid after the beating she took — tells them not to open her prison. She tells War Machine to stop focusing on her and capture Eaglestar’s owner, Davis Harmon as taking him down and exposing all his dirty secrets is the only way to shut down the group for good.
As Jim charges to the evac zone where Harmon is trying to escape, Bethany gets one of her robotic fly drones into Eaglestar’s data center and begins stealing information. She pipes a video to Jim that shows that Davis personally injected Glenda with whatever they had been secretly working on. This enrages Rhodes just as he is rolling up to Davis but is reminded that they need Harmon alive. Harmon, with a sinister grin, tells Jim that he’ll help unlock the quarantine protocols on Glenda’s cell and gives the voice authorization to disengage the lock. Although Glenda appears to be fine upon initial examination, Bethany reports that whatever Harmon injected her with killed 30 other test subjects. With angers Jim and he reconsiders sparing Harmon then and there.
This entire episode is being observed remotely from Avengers Tower in New York by Norman Osborn, the head of national security. Since Eaglestar is an important asset he has deployed Ares to deal with War Machine. However, the god of war disobeys orders and charges into battle, eager to test his might against the technologically based soldier. As Ares engages War Machine, he explains that he has been looking forward to this since War Machine executed war criminals in Santo Marco and revels in their battle.
In the ensuing clash, Ares rips War Machine’s torso out of the tank that serves as his mobility and tosses the cyborg into the air. This is just as fighter planes are arriving on the scene. Crashing into one, War Machine uses his armor’s ability to adapt mechanical parts to coopt pieces of the fighter jets so he can continue the battle. Ares orders Rhodes to bow down to him as, being the god of war, he is War Machine’s inspiration. Jim has become fed up with the battle, and buries Ares under tons of rock so he can catch up with Harmon and finally capture him.
He finds Davis inside the Eaglestar facility trying to open a sealed door. When Jim confronts him and says he will face justice for his crimes. Harmon turns and shows him his Eaglestar identification card. It confirms that the organization is a private company that is hired out as contractors and because of this, their activities in Aqiria put them out of the jurisdiction of both the United States and the United Nations. He is saying this just as Jake Oh enters the room with Glenda. As Jim reiterates that the law can’t touch anyone who works for Eaglestar active in the area, Sandoval says that it is a good thing she still has her ID badge. She then takes Jake’s side arm and shoots Davis right between the eyes, seemingly killing him.[2]
As it turns out, Osborn wanted Harmon eliminated and with that out of the way, he orders Ares to return to base. However, the Olympian is curious to know what is behind the sealed door and cleaves it open with his axe. Inside are the other test subjects who have been infected with some kind of contagious technological pathogen. When Jim orders Glenda to run for it, she tells him that she is going to stay as she has been infected with this same virus as well![3]
Recurring Characters
War Machine, Ares, Eaglestar International (Davis Harmon), Parnell Jacobs, Bethany Cabe, Glenda Sandoval, Jake Oh, Norman Osborn, Victoria Hand, Ultimo Virus
Continuity Notes
Bethany Cabe’s facility was attacked by Norman Osborn who absconded with a cloned body of Jim that was being prepared for him. That happened in War Machine (vol. 2) #1. Jim will eventually recover this body and transfer his mind into it in issue #12 of this series.
Harmon somehow survives getting shot between the eyes and is seen again in Storm (vol. 3) #4 where he appears as a cyborg which is about all of the explanation we get as to how he survived a bullet to the brain.
As we’ll learn next issue, this techno-virus was created from the remains of the robot known as Ultimo.
Topical References
Some of the data on the Ultimo virus in this story references the year 1995. As Ultimo was unearthed in the Modern Age, this date reference should be considered topical.
