Favorite Characters: Col. James Rhodes a.ka. War Machine (The Avengers)

I debated over whether to do a Favorite Characters or a Character Highlight here.  In the end, a) with Marvel, there’s always room in my heart for more, and b) I really do love Rhodey.  Took the MCU a while to get him there for me, but now, I always enjoy him (Rhodey-related spoilers.)

I feel a little bad, because I seem to bag on Terrence Howard every time I bring up Rhodey, but it’s true:  Rhodey 2.0 works for me so much more than Rhodey 1.0.  I like Howard fine as an actor (although I definitely prefer Don Cheadle overall,) but he just didn’t click for me in the role the way Cheadle does.  And to be fair, sometimes that just happens – while I’d generally pick Edward Norton over Mark Ruffalo, Ruffalo is easily the better Bruce for me.  And to be even fairer, some of it is the acting, but some of it is the writing, too.  In the first Iron Man, the phrase that continually comes to mind re:  Rhodey is “butt monkey.”  He’s Tony’s uptight friend who’s always on the receiving end of Tony’s ribbing, who’s forever thwarted in his attempts to keep Tony in some sort of line.  I can practically hear the sad trombone music following him around.

And in Iron Man 2 and beyond, that’s not who Rhodey is.  I’m not even quite sure how to describe it, because superficially, the two versions of the character aren’t hugely different.  There’s still a lot of comic relief at Rhodey’s expense – like his Hammer weaponry fizzling out during the final fight in Iron Man 2, the insurgents he’s holding at gunfight snickering at him when he admits his password (“warmachinerox”) to Tony in Iron Man 3, the Avengers not being impressed with his tank story in Age of Ultron – but it feels different.  For whatever reason, Cheadle’s Rhodey has more of a backbone than Howard’s, and he’s more likely to roll his eyes and go, “Are you kidding me?” than anything else when this stuff happens.  The humor around Cheadle’s Rhodey usually makes me laugh, while Howard’s often makes me cringe on his behalf, and a lot of that is down to how the two version of Rhodey react to what’s going on.

But enough of all that.  What else do I want to say about Rhodey?  I like that he’s a purely non-super hero, and not even a nonpowered person with incredible genius like Tony or an insane, dark, spy-training backstory like Natasha.  I mean, he’s an army colonel, and he got where he is for a reason, but he’s still an ordinary, if very competent, person stepping into this comic-book world.  As a result, he’s not at the same level as Tony or Cap or Thor.  He’s very much a man in a suit, but he’s a brave one, and he often holds his own even when the odds are a lot bigger than he is.  I like that, despite the War Machine suit getting hijacked in Iron Man 2, he still does everything he possibly can to help Tony, keeping radio contact and warning him of impending attack.  I love his save of President Ellis in Iron Man 3, jumping into all that chaos without a suit and just doing what needs to be done.  In the midst of all that’s going on with Tony, Pepper, Killian, and the zillion Iron Man suits in that fight, it’s a terrific moment that’s all about Rhodey.

Interested to see what’s going to happen with Rhodey moving forward, how successful Tony’s robotics will be in helping him combat his paralysis and what place he’ll have in fighting the good fight.  I don’t know that he has enough tech savvy to take on an eye-in-the-sky sort of role (not a knock, just that whatever tech the Avengers would use for monitoring missions from the outside is likely to be crazy advanced,) but maybe some sort of liaison?  Given the Accords, they’re going to need someone like that, and Rhodey’s close relationship with the U.S. government (not to mention diplomatic skills that greatly outweight Tony’s) could be useful.

Relationship Spotlight: Tony Stark & Col. James Rhodes (The Avengers)

Woe to anyone who has the misfortune of caring for Tony Stark; as much as he needs it, goodness knows he won’t make it easy.  Pepper is in a similar boat to Rhodey, but with her, Tony at least has a little incentive to try not to piss her off too much.  Rhodey, on the other hand, is Tony’s best friend, and that’s a pretty thankless job (Tony-Rhodey-related spoilers.)

In Iron Man, I couldn’t see it, not really.  I mean, I see Rhodey’s genuine concern whenever Tony’s in real trouble – like when Tony is brought back home after his capture and Rhodey gets emotional as he admonishes Tony to let Rhodey keep an eye on him – but I don’t ultimately see why Tony is worth it to him.  I don’t get those flashes like we see with Tony and Pepper in the first film, those little moments that cut through Tony’s self-absorption and show you why Pepper puts up with him.  Honestly, Tony hooks the military up with sweet weapons, which obviously benefits Rhodey, but there’s not much to suggest that either man actually likes the other.

Through what seems to be a combination of better writing and the different dynamic Don Cheadle has with Robert Downey Jr. (compared to Terrence Howard in the first movie,) things get a lot better from there.  Don’t get me wrong – it’s far from a warm, fuzzy friendship, and these guys get on each other’s nerves a lot, but it feels so different, enough to make me understand why they’re friends.  While originally, their dynamic mainly seems to consist of Tony dumping on and undermining Rhodey every chance he gets, their vibe moving forward is much more mutual.  They both like to rib each other, and yes, Tony has a larger, more aggravating talent for it, but Rhodey gets his licks in, too, and for the most part, Tony’s antics roll off his back.  They have great banter together; I especially love them interrogating the Mandarin together in Iron Man 3 and bickering as they try to lift Mjolnir in Age of Ultron.  To an extent, they just get each other, and that lets them have fun even when they annoy one another.

But of course, everyone has their limits, and like so many people in Tony’s life, Rhodey gets to the point where he’s had enough and gets serious.  Usually, it’s borne out of concern for Tony, who can get reckless and overly-obsessive when stuff bothers him, and he’s really bad about asking for help when he needs it.  Rhodey delivers tough love on more than one occasion, and even though Tony generally takes it about as well as he does when anyone is worried about him, I like that Rhodey keeps trying but knows that, in the end, Tony’s the one who has to decide to accept help.

That’s a lot about what kind of friend Rhodey is and very little about what Tony brings to the table.  It’s understandable, since Tony’s a main character and Rhodey isn’t, so Rhodey’s character is designed more to revolve around Tony’s narrative (not to mention, he’s Tony – “doesn’t play well with others” is in the job description.)  Still, it’s not entirely one-sided.  Tony works pretty well with Rhodey in the field, respecting his friend’s handling of the War Machine suit with only minimal macho posturing, and whenever Tony is ready to ask for help, Rhodey is one of his go-to guys.  It’s mostly little things, but it adds up enough that, when Rhodey takes a serious hit in Civil War, you can see why it devastates Tony so much.