Iron Man 2: Warmachine

The long-awaited sequel to Iron Man is just a few days away. It will feature a handful of superheroes from the Marvel universe. Other than Iron Man, the Black Widow, Nick Fury, and the villain, Whiplash will be featured. Additionally, Iron Man's friend and head of security, Jim Rhodes will don his War Machine armor.

This time around Don Cheadle will play the role of War Machine instead of Terence Howard who had a contract dispute before the movie began production.

Tony Stark made various models of the Iron Man armors (basic models Mark I, Mark II, Mark III), all of which were customed for his personal use. By that I mean more than just the height and weight, there were also biometrics, like heartbeat, breathing, blood pressure, and brainwaves to calibrate.

For a time, Jim Rhodes wore the armors made for Tony Stark and it had a bad effect on him. Eventually, Tony created the War Machine armor custom-tailored for Rhodes. It's based-off the Mark II model. All in metallic color, that's how most of us tell War Machine apart from Iron Man when the two are fighting bad guys together.

What I like about Warmachine are the shoulder armaments. Comic book covers and drawings often show War Machine with a missile launcher on one shoulder and a cannon on the other. They're huge and ominous. And they swivel and can be controlled independently to attack targets in different directions. In some comic book issues, War Machine uses repulsor rays and laser swords to fight. But what defines him to me are the shoulder-mounted weapons. That's why the War Machine action figure will look great for anyone's collection.

In the comic book, Jim Rhodes was a US Marines fighter pilot who was shot down in the jungle of Vietnam around the time Tony Stark had invented the very first Iron Man suite, the grey and cumbersome, but nevertheless, powerful Mark I from metal scraps and weapon parts. 

As Tony Stark was making his escape, he ran into Jim Rhodes and the two had to steal a helicopter from a Viet Cong garrison in order to make it back to the American lines.  They've been friends ever since then and Tony offered Jim Rhodes a position as Tony's personal pilot within Stark Industry as soon as Jim's stint with the military was over.

In several comic book issues, Jim Rhodes donned the Iron Man armor to protect Stark International.  He had to do so because Tony Stark was unable to continue as Iron Man because of alcoholic abuse.

In the movie, the backstory between Jim Rhodes and Tony Stark has yet to be revealed.