James Rhodes: Captain Popularity
May 12, 2008In the last two days there have been over 200 hits on Lost Hemisphere’s very first Thursday Thirteen. An entry I made over two months ago. Why? The search queries provide the answer. Everyone’s looking for this fellow…
I can only assume that Jim Rhodes’ appearance in the Iron Man movie, along with the little tip of the hat to the fans (”Next time, baby”) has spurred this surge in popularity for one of my favourite B-listers. Just as Captain America has USAgent, just as Green Goblin has Hobgoblin, so Iron Man has War Machine.
A distinct difference here, however, is that the War Machine armour wasn’t originally mean to be a seperate entity from Iron Man.
While trying to deal with the complete collapse of his central nervous system (as we’ve all had to do from time to time), Tony Stark had to face off against a trio of high-tech ninja assassins known as the Masters of Silence. Bedridden, Tony remotely sent his primary red-and-gold suit after the Masters, who summarilly took it apart in very ninja-esque fashion.
Tony responded my mobilizing the next upgrade, the War Machine armour, and proceeded to kick their butts and then go after their employer, Justin Hammer.
Time went by, Tony went back to red-and-gold (after not too many issues, actually), and Jim Rhodes assumed the War Machine identity that we all know and love. We’ll tactfully ignore the whole Eidolon Warwear bit - which I didn’t mind, but in the end just wasn’t a hit with the general populace.
So… will we see the War Machine in Iron Man 2? Here’s bloody hoping so.
US War Machine was a fantastic series that everybody else, for some reason, really really hated. I didn’t give two craps about War Machine before it, and now I friggin love the shiny dude.
*licks Rhodey*
Though as I mentioned to you today– I ran the search queries listed on the blog stats, and you’re nowhere near the top of the results for any of them. Which makes the surge of traffic more than a little confusing.
War Machine was meh, Spud. Especially when he got that weirdo alien armor to try to seperate him from (then Kang controlled) Tony. Im not saying the Concept of Rhodey in the War Machine Armor is a bad one. Its just that the series itself was built around that premise, and that alone.
Spud’s talking about the US War Machine 6-ish series (6 issues?), not the War Machine ongoing, that had the Eidolon Warwear.
12 issues, and jam-packed with gratuitous violence and racial slurs.
<3
For the second day in a row, LH has broken the 300 hits mark thanks to War Machine related searches. Moo??