War machine, Final Arc

This was initially going to be a post about the second arc of War Machine, but this arc has also been the final. Its been fun, and lasted just a little less than half the number of issues of the first ongoing, still, 12 issues is better than none, and at least calling it an ongoing showed confidence from Marvel.

First, the story itself, this concerned War Machine and his crew travelling to the US following the trail of the Ultimo Virus seen in the previous arc. This pits Jim directly against the US army, HAMMER and even Tony Stark's brother Morgan. During this he sets up Bethany Cabe and Jake Oh as armoured support and encounters his old buddies from the West Coast Avengers. The final two issues have Jim on trial for war crimes, mainly set up by Norman Osbourne as a distraction after Jim revealed inpropriatories by various Politicians.

Not to spoil for anyone trade waiting, but basically by the end Rhodey has beaten Osbourne (in a subtle way) is cleared of all charges and placed in his cloned body. In short he has been set to a basic point where he won't seem completely unfamiliar to movie audiences should he appear in Iron man after the release of Iron Man 2. But to the comic.

I've loved Greg Pak's writing, for starters it is very obvious that he has read a lot of War Machine, perhaps more than me. Yes he may have got hold of that "tales of the Marvel universe" where Rhodey looses the Eidolon warwear. It's not referenced but I believe he has read it. The art was a little inconsistent but again used various flashes which referred back through War Machine's history. The story itself really brought out Jim's humanity, despite his cyborg nature in this series, whether it was his past love and old friend in Glenda and Parnell respective, or his relationship with his mother as seen in the first issue of this arc.

Overall it was a worthy run, and I look forward to seeing much more of War Machine after his upcoming big screen appearance.

Finally, this is covered very well on my good mate Reilly 2040s Blog Here.