By Tim Stevens
It has been said that sometimes we can only do one of two things: fight or die. For James Rhodes, that time arrives on October 21 when WAR MACHINE #10, from writer Greg Pak and artist Allan Jefferson, lands on shelves.
Norman Osborn, director of H.A.M.M.E.R. and the most powerful man in the United States, stands opposite War Machine as the issue begins-or rather towers above him. As seen in WAR MACHINE #9, Osborn has finally caught up with the wayward Rhodes and wasted no time in gaining the upper hand on him. However, Pak quickly points out that looks can be deceiving.
"Rhodey's cyborg implants allow him to process data at an insanely high speed, and his brilliant support team has been giving him the means to execute his wildest schemes," the writer asserts. "So everything that's happening might just be exactly what Rhodey planned from the beginning."
The future of the Marvel Universe might just depend on that very processing speed.
"With Tony Stark dealing with certain issues over in INVINCIBLE IRON MAN, War Machine may be the only armored hero on the planet at this instant in time with enough firepower and smarts to have a real shot at taking Norman out," Pak points out. "Rhodey can absorb and assimilate any technology he comes into contact with. Norman's Iron Patriot armor is pretty much all technology. Norman's facing an opponent with the potential to undermine and even co-opt his greatest strengths."
The writer does admit however that even if Rhodes has planned this from the start, Osborn represents a formidable enough opponent to derail it all.
"On the other hand, Norman's a pretty sharp and ruthless cookie himself," he concedes. "So maybe Rhodey's already beat and is just fighting to the bitter end because that's all he knows and he might as well go down swinging."
War Machine's state of mind could provide a further complication to this battle. Since the start of the series, Rhodey has witnessed many an atrocity and been labeled as a traitor for trying to do something about it.
"Rhodey tapped into all the data banks and servers he could access and witnessed every available recording of every atrocity committed on the planet in the past seventy years and with his cyborg brain implants, he literally can't forget anything he's seen," Pak reminds. "It's all playing and replaying in his head every instant of the day. Most of us can read about some fresh horror in the paper, turn the page, and take another bite of our bagel. Rhodey's incapable of that kind of utterly human emotional self-defense; [he's] going through mental and emotional strains that no human being was ever designed to endure. Just how long he can endure knowing and seeing all he has remains to be seen.
"[However], Rhodey's always struck me as a pretty old-school, no-crying-in-baseball type of guy. So I don't see him getting hugely broken up if some people start calling him traitor. He knows why he's done what he's done and he's willing to handle the consequences."
Additionally, War Machine need not fight the battle on his own. He can call upon a support staff that has also seen the world-and Rhodes himself-at their worst and still choose to fight for what's right.
"Rhodey's team saw-or directly experienced-the horrors that [he] was fighting in Occupied Aqiria," recaps Pak. "And they saw the ultimate sacrifice Rhodey was willing to make to protect the innocent there. They stood with him because they know in their bones that it's the right thing to do."
Whether or not even that will be enough to overcome Osborn remains in doubt and Pak promises the answers will be brutal and unpredictable:
"We're in for a few big twists and turns with Rhodey's crew as they take on the ripply-haired dude at the center of the rotten core of Dark Reign. In issue #10, we're about to see the biggest fight of War Machine's career with an outcome that will change everything."
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