War Machine
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Template:Superherobox War Machine is a superhero in the Marvel Universe. War Machine's abilities came from an advanced suit of armor, designed using technology from Stark Industries, and later from an alien-built suit.
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History
Origins
James Rupert Rhodes first met billionaire industrialist Tony Stark while flying combat missions in Vietnam. Rhodes' helicopter had been shot down by Viet Cong rocket fire, and while trying to get the aircraft airborne again, he encountered Stark, who had just escaped from the prison camp of the Vietnamese warlord Wong Chu in a bulky prototype suit of powered armor. At that moment the Viet Cong attacked, and Stark, in his suit, helped to drive them off. Together, Rhodes and Stark made their way to a nearby enemy base where they stole another helicopter, flying it back to the American lines.
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After the end of the Vietnam War, Stark, who had secretly become the superhero Iron Man, offered Rhodes a job as his personal pilot, and Rhodes soon became one of Stark's closest associates and confidants as well as Stark Industries' chief aviation officer. When Stark lost his company to Obadiah Stane and relapsed into alcoholism, Rhodes took over the armor and role of Iron Man in Stark's stead. However, he began to experience headaches while using the armor, and over time, his behavior began to grow more erratic and aggressive, prone to violent solutions to given problems. Rhodes's manic mental state was later revealed to be the result of his using armors whose cerebral interfaces were calibrated for Stark's brain, leaving any other long-term user disoriented and confused. When Stark was on the road to recovery, he helped Rhodes maintain the armor, but Rhodes became increasingly paranoid, believing that Stark meant to retake the armor.
Birth of the War Machine
Rhodes went on a rampage, and Stark was forced to don a crude, prototype suit of armor he was designing as the next generation Iron Man armor to stop his friend. Rhodes gave up the Iron Man identity, and Stark went on to complete the next generation armor, defeat Stane and regain his company. Stark also subsequently designed a heavier-armed version of the Iron Man suit, the "Variable Threat Reponse Battle Suit" to battle the Masters of Silence, and it became known as the War Machine armor. Rhodes used the War Machine armor as Iron Man when Stark faked his own death while recovering from a life-threatening illness. When Stark revealed his ruse, it damaged the friendship between the two men, and they went their separate ways.
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Rhodes, however, continued to use the War Machine armor in a solo superhero career, and it eventually was replaced by a symbiotic alien suit, known as the Eidolon Warwear. When Stark died during a battle with Kang the Conqueror, Rhodes rejoined Stark Enterprises (which was bought by Fujikawa Industries) to protect his old friend's legacy. To prevent Stark's armor technology from being misused, he used the abilities of his alien armor to erase all trace of Stark's designs from the Fujikawa systems, but the armor was destroyed in the process. Rhodes gave up his superhero career and started his own salvage company.
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Later, perhaps unsurprisingly, Stark once more returned from the dead, forming a new company, Stark Solutions and taking up the Iron Man identity once more. The two men were reconciled and Rhodes and Stark teamed up again to stop a new villain (also calling himself War Machine) who was wearing what looked like a more upgunned version of the old armor, but was in fact not based on Stark technology.
Most recently, Rhodes has appeared as a supporting character in the comic series The Crew.
Powers and abilities
Among the armor's abilities, many of which were shared by that of the various Iron Man armors, were flight, the ability to project solar energy and repulsor beams, enhanced strength and endurance. Along with his assistance to Iron Man, War Machine also helped the United States government and fought against such Marvel hero teams as X-Force.