Iron Man # 33 - War Machine: Weapon of S.H.I.E.L.D. Part 1

I used to really like Iron Man.  Civil War made it hard to like Iron Man.  Tony being in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D. seemed to take him out of the action.  Too many times he'd be standing around in his armor (looking silly with the helmet off). 

Because of the Skrull attack, Tony needs to reinvent his armor.  The call is put out to War Machine to take his place to fight the Skrulls.  I'm not a huge War Machine fan but I do like him.  His armor's color scheme and heavy weapons makes him seem tougher.  I have always wondered why his armor and Tony's were different.  If War Machine has more fire-power, you'd think Tony would want more too.  If Tony's has more hidden or streamlined fire-power, you'd think he'd add the upgrades to Rhodey's armor too.

Tony, being the smart guy he is, did have a contingency plan in place.  He leaves a little something for Rhodey, which is pretty cool.

I've missed out on a little of Rhodey's past events.  I know he was with O.N.E. and then with the Initiative.  I have no idea what happened to his face.  We don't get an explanation here but it seems like it will be coming. 

Overall a pretty good issue.  I'm borderline between a 3.5 and a 4.  I'll give it a 4 out of 5 just because Rhodey's so cool.  I'm glad this title will be morphing into War Machine: Weapon of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Some of the best comics out there have what I like to call "cool character moments" This is where there is something that happens where it is so in character and bad ass, you wonder why someone has not already thought of it.
  This book has a half cool character moment. On the surface it is cool that Tony Stark made Rhodeys armor on a seperate grid as all other Stark tech.  Yet it raises the question : Why did he not protect himself the same way?  Oh well, it is a good strong issue, that has one helluva to be continued.

This is the first time I've picked up an Iron Man book since Civil War, I started hating the character and wanted nothing to do with him. Well, enough time has passed where I feel comfortable enough with the character to pick the book up again, especially when James Rhodes is the star of the book. This literally was mindless fun, no thought needed for this book. I actually passed off my issue to a buddy because I enjoyed it that much. Stuff blows up, people accuse each other of being skrulls, James becomes super-war machine. simple as that, now this won't get the pick of the week because in no way did it move me, it was just a throw-away issue that was fun.