I think at the time I was reading this, I was vaguely aware of the switch, probably from Secret Wars. I do remember thinking; y'know, I bet Tony could fake that if he wanted...
If he was a total dick, that is. So, there's at least one thing he wouldn't do to protect his identity...
By the time West Coast Avengers started as a regular series, Tony was back in the red-and-silver armor, and Jim was off the team (without any acknowledgement I ever saw) for about 70+ issues. His sidelining continues to astound me, although I suppose if he was returned to his Iron Man/War Machine role, he would either have to toe Stark's Civil War line, or defect to Cap's side. And even for Marvel, it wouldn't make a helluva lot of sense for Tony to give Jim a new armor, since there's a very real chance Jim would use it against him.
I thought one of the (admittedly few) highpoints in the Force Works/Crossing era was that Jim Rhodes rebuilt his friendship with Tony, but was very much his own man and made his own decisions. He may have been Tony's employee for a long time, but Stark wasn't the boss of him. This pretty much fell by the wayside after he lost the armor, and Rhodey was one of the few Avengers that wasn't crammed into the Busiek/Perez relaunch. (He was mentioned as 'out of the business.' I'm trying to remember if he was brought up again when the team was under pressure to enroll more minorities and less mutants; which then brings up the question, did anyone else outside the team know he was black?)
Tigra also comes across better than, well, she ever would again. I thought she was cool in the four issue limited, but since then she's been written as a flighty airhead. Too bad.
From West Coast Avengers #2, "Blanking Out!" Written by Roger Stern, penciled by Bob Hall, inked by Brett Breeding.
You know he returned in Christopher Priest's The Crew, right?
ReplyDeleteYeah, but that was kind of a weird book. Lot of buildup, then I think the sales tanked and it was cancelled.
ReplyDeleteThe scene where he tries to pawn a suit of Iron Man armor was messed up, though. It was there to get across how far down he was; but that's almost criminal negligence. And Jim appears to be one of the few Marvel characters that ages, which is odd.
I like Priest's work, but I swear sometimes he should put away the triple-reverses and narrative tricks, and simply tell the story from point a to point b.
Whackos volume 1 outshined volume 2 as far as characterization, artwork, and superhero barbeques goes.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've ever been all that big on Priest's work. I remember liking his Black Panther a lot...at first, but I had to give it up after it got to be...I don't know, the 6th issue or so and still nothing at _all_ had happened.
ReplyDeleteThe Crew, however, was one book of his that I did enjoy, and it's strange, because I think I'm pretty much the only person I've ever heard of who actually thought it was great work. At least, I thought it was great until that last issue where the book was cancelled and Priest pretty much had to wrap up the entire series in one disjointed take.
Though I did think it was, weird, as you mentioned, that Rhodey would fall quite so far.