The Tragedy of Marvel Overlooking Its Best Avenger

When Robert Downey Jr. shocked San Diego Comic-Con this summer, he said, “New mask, same task.” This obvious stunt-casting of Downey Jr. in the role of Dr. Doom has yet to be explained in-universe, though multiverse shenanigans are sure to be the true cause. That said, Marvel has very recently, and much more quietly, vilified another hero who often wore a mask: James Rhodes, aka Rhodey, aka War Machine. In 2023’s Secret Invasion, it was revealed Don Cheadle’s beloved Marvel hero had been replaced by a shapeshifting Skrull since the 2016 events of Civil War. But, by the end of that series, the real Rhodey was back.

So where’s Rhodey’s stand-alone movie, Armor Wars? Don’t ask Don Cheadle. In a recent interview with TVLine, Cheadle said, “You can find out and let me know.” Essentially, Cheadle has no idea when and if Marvel plans to make this long-anticipated Rhodey film, which has been — checks notes — greenlit since 2011. There might be good reasons for Marvel not delivering on Armor Wars yet. However, as several MCU projects flounder to find the mainstream audiences this franchise once had, an Armor Wars project would be an instant crowd-pleaser.

Rhodey basically created the MCU

Tony Stark’s best pal, Rhodey, has been a staple of the MCU, and next to Stark himself, is arguably one of the most important characters in those early years. When Don Cheadle took over the role of Rhodey from Terrence Howard in 2010, the interconnectedness of Marvel’s bigger movie plan really started to seem like a legitimate possibility. Iron Man 2 rarely ranks as anyone’s favorite all-time Marvel movie, and yet because this movie featured Rhodey in his own silver armor alongside Tony Stark — and sported the first MCU appearance of Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow — the true MCU arguably began with this film. Seeing a winning pattern, Marvel started developing a Rhodey-centric film tentatively titled Armor Wars; a title taken for a series of Iron Man comics that ran from 1987 to 1988.

To put it another way, the brilliance of the Iron Man films is that each film told the story of different evolutions of Tony Stark’s different kinds of armor, which all culminated in Iron Man 3, and then, Avengers: Age of Ultron. The super-sweet suit of armor is a visual trope that worked so well, that Iron Man director Jon Favreau basically transferred that exact same trope to Star Wars, which, in part, is what made The Mandalorian so successful. TLDR: Everyone loves power suits and the world-building of Tony’s suits gave those specific MCU movies a perfect blend of superheroics, combined with grounded humanity. Tony and Rhodey aren’t superhuman; their suits give them power.

This formula worked fantastically across all three Iron Man movies and the various related MCU properties. Without people in cool super-suits, the MCU never would have happened. So why isn’t Marvel returning to this winning formula?

The Secret Invasion twist

When Secret Invasion revealed that Rhodey had been replaced by an alien Skrull since 2016, most fans could barely accept it. That said, Ali Selim told The Radio Times and other outlets, that yes, the fan math of Rhodey having been a Skrull since before the events of Endgame is accurate. When asked if that meant that the real Rhodey wasn’t aware of Tony Stark’s demise, Selim answered, “Presumably.”

While future Avengers movies are currently in development, the specifics of this storyline seem almost too tangled for Marvel to want to deal with. In the new TVLine interview, Cheadle revealed that if Armor Wars happens, then some of the confusion over the Rhodey-Skrull switcharoo could be handled. “So, if the following thing happens [Armor Wars], and all those things were set up, then that’s one thing,” he said. “If, as you said, it doesn’t [happen], then we can talk about how I feel about it after!”

There are, of course, several ways various Marvel projects could resolve the Rhodey question. Perhaps Selim’s statement about Civil War could simply be retconned and Rhodey was replaced by a Skrull sometime after Endgame and before Secret Invasion. It’s also possible that the next few Marvel movies will create a new, strange intertwined multiverse, leading to a new version of Rhodey that wasn’t a Skrul at all. None of this should be particularly difficult for the MCU. After all, Rhodey was recast in between movies, and we all just accepted that. A little bit of timeline tap-dancing shouldn’t be too tricky.

Armor Wars began development as a film, then was announced as a TV series, and is now back to being a film again... hypothetically. In some version of the multiverse, this TV show or movie has already been released and spawned several sequels starring Don Cheadle. But in this universe, we’re all just sitting around waiting for Marvel to wise up and do the right thing. It doesn’t matter which universe it takes place in, or whether or not the Skrull switch is fully explained. The people would love to see War Machine in his own adventure. No matter the context, Cheadle’s Rhodey deserves justice.