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After spending much of the 00s jumping from new interpretation to new interpretation (as detailed in Part 3, Missing in Action), Rhodey Rhodes was given a leadership role as he returned to his classic black and silver War Machine armor in Avengers: The Initiative.

Only this Rhodey was now disfigured and more machine than man. The explanation for this came in War Machine: Weapon of SHIELD (a.k.a. Iron Man Director of SHIELD) #33-35 by Christos Gage and Sean Chen, my personal favorite modern War Machine story (as for classics, I recommend Iron Man #281-291). [Check out my Top 9 favorite War Machine stories next Monday!!! P.S. That link won't work until then!]

Readers finally found out how Rhodey became deformed and robotic. Apparently, somewhere between Marvel's Civil War and the start of The Initiative, Rhodey was seriously injured while fighting on behalf of the USA in the Middle East. Tony Stark found a way to save his life, but he had to augment Rhodey with cybernetics to do so.

After kicking some serious Skrull ass, Rhodey assumed the reigns of War Machine v2 by Greg Pak and Leonardo Manco. But by this time, he was a true War Machine. Killing was no longer a problem as long as it was a means to an end.

I must admit to having only read issues here and there of WM v2, which just recently ended with #12. I know it had something to do with Rhodey's cloned body being captured by Norman Osborne, as well as WM's international vendetta against criminals that prey on the innocent, but that's about all I can say.

WAIT! That's not totally true -- I know that there were multiple War Machine armors being worn by Rhodey's different associates. That's a throwback to the concepts behind U.S. War Machine MAX and Iron Man #300, which both showed Rhodey with crew of friends sporting a fleet of customized armors. To what extent this concept of Team War Machine still exists in the current Marvel Universe, I'm not sure. But keep an eye out for it to pop up again in the future.

Now that we're all caught up to the present in the Marvel 616, I would be remiss if I didn't elaborate on Rhodey's love life. When it comes to the ladies, it seems like he's always the "second choice" to his best buds. Rhodey's first serious love interest that I can remember was the power-hungry heir to Stark Enterprises and former Stark flame, Marcy Pearson. She left Rhodey after Stark promoted him above her at the time of his "death."

Then came Rae LaCoste, a woman who was also originally courted by Tony and acted as Rhodey's love interest in War Machine v1. Rae and Rhodey seemed to have a healthy thing going on, but he abandoned her during the holidays after she received a very cold reception from his potentially racist parents.

Then, for a while, lovers came and went, never really sticking around for long. Finally, a new longterm player entered in Busiek's Iron Man run. Later picked up in Austen's U.S. War Machine and Pak's War Machine v2, Glenda Sandoval was shown to be THE woman of Rhodey's desires. Thing is, she ended up with Rhodey's other BFF, Parnell Jacobs, instead. Ooops!

Anyway, there are a lot of War Machine appearances going on lately that don't play into the character's larger Marvel 616 continuity. The Ultimate comics line by Marvel has seen Rhodey AND the War Machine armor explored at length, first in the Ultimate Iron Man minis by Orson Scott Card and now in Ultimate Comics Avengers by Mark Millar. In the Marvel Zombies continuity, Rhodey made a recent foray into the action, fighting on the human side as successor to the Iron Man mantle.

As for animation, Rhodey was featured in the incredibly uneven 90s Iron Man show. During that era, he also made small appearances on other Marvel animated programs. More recently, the Ultimate Avengers 2 movie utilized the War Machine armor (albeit worn by Tony). And the new Iron Man: Armored Adventures co-stars a young Rhodey Rhodes as Tony's classmate and moral compass.

Not to be forgotten, there's the impending Iron Man 2. I can't say much for War Machine's unseen film origin yet, except that 2009 Comicon Int'l footage appears to show Rhodey getting his War Machine weapons from Justin Hammer (a baddie!). Well, that, and film goers are certain to be perplexed by Rhodey's sudden transformation from Terrence Howard into Don Cheadle.

As for the future of War Machine, Marvel's Editor in Chief Joe Quesada claims that we'll be seeing a lot more of James Rupert Rhodes in the comics spotlight soon, possibly even in another ongoing series. With Iron Man 2 ready to hit in a few months, that seems pretty damn likely.

But regardless of what happens, I think it's safe to say that War Machine will be highly visible in 2010, emblazoned on all manners of Iron Man 2 merchandise. For fans like myself, that'll be a welcome opportunity to publicly display my love for this complex and experienced character who's gone from sidekick to breakout to cop out to cyborg and beyond.

UPDATE w/ SPOILERS: From what I understand, Rhodey is no longer a cyborg -- he's safely inside a body cloned for him by Tony. Also, WM is going to be on the newly announced Secret Avengers team (I assume it's Rhodey in the armor).