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U.S. War Machine
Fired by Tony Stark and recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D., James Rhodes must lead a team of rookies against the evil alliance known as A.I.M. and the carnage begins with a team of War Machines!
288 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2001
4 people are currently reading
29 people want to read
About the author
Chuck Austen
437 books16 followersChuck Austen (born Chuck Beckum) is an American humor novelist, comic book writer and artist, TV writer and animator. In comics, he is known for his work on X-Men, War Machine, Elektra, and Action Comics, and in television, he is known for co-creating the animated TV series Tripping the Rift.
In his most recent prose novels, Chuck Austen has been going by the name Charles Austen.
In his most recent prose novels, Chuck Austen has been going by the name Charles Austen.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 26, 2008
One of the best B&W comics ive read. U.S. War Machine makes good usage of being on Marvel Max(unlike most Max titles). A must own for adult Marvel fans.
December 4, 2018
I was the guy who was nervous when Bruce Wang came out. I was nervous for DC's Black Label. Realizing that this was the first Mature Marvel Max book? Anxieties relieved.
This is one of the worst mainstream comic I've ever read. There's literally a joke about Iron Man farting in his suit. The art is borderline computer generated.
This is a terrible story. The character did well in Iron Man in the 80s but has struggled for relevancy in my opinion (he died recently too). Unfortunatley, Kot's run was bunk and so was Gage's.
He's worked best in Iron Man 2.0 by Nick Spencer, Avengers: The Initiative, etc.
This is one of the worst mainstream comic I've ever read. There's literally a joke about Iron Man farting in his suit. The art is borderline computer generated.
This is a terrible story. The character did well in Iron Man in the 80s but has struggled for relevancy in my opinion (he died recently too). Unfortunatley, Kot's run was bunk and so was Gage's.
He's worked best in Iron Man 2.0 by Nick Spencer, Avengers: The Initiative, etc.
June 30, 2024
I was surprised this was released before the first Iron Man movie. An attempt to make a more adult take on a Marvel comic story (the whole point of the Marvel Max series of books), has always appealed to me, and I enjoyed the Punisher max series, which took that idea... to the max. A more action orientated, mature story about James Rhodes ‘Rhodey,’ flying around in the War Machine Iron-Man armour blowing up terrorists looks like a chance of an exciting action filled story. Unfortunately, it doesn't live up to that idea.
After Rhodey decides to steal or ‘borrow’ the War Machine suit and getting involved in a high-speed violent pursuit, he is fired by Tony Stark, partly as a PR move as its raised racial tensions as the kidnappers that Rhodey was chasing and killed were black. Ignored by his old friend Tony Stark, who seems to be developing a drinking problem, Rhodey is approached by the director of SHIELD, Nick Fury, with an opportunity; to lead a team, outfitted in some ‘pirated’ War Machine suits, against the supervillain group A.I.M, that's planning a major attack.
This had the potential for a good, action-packed book. Instead, it feels like a missed opportunity and ends up just being dull, in both art and story. Rhodey, is just a bit bland. He fails to really to lead the book, and even falls into the background of his own book. Rather than coming over as stoic, which I think they were trying to get, bit he just comes across as a bit boring and lacks any edge or interesting take on his character. Nick Fury and Dum Dum are only secondary characters in this book but seem to have a bit more energy to them. His assembled team are even worse; badass, sexy army woman? Check. Dumb, Texan/southern grunt? Check. You never feel a team dynamic between them, and when it tries to build some kind of camaraderie like between Texan guy and Parnell, it just comes across as too forced.
The story picks bits and pieces from other Marvel comics but I don’t think is part of any continuity. There’s Tony Stark’s drinking problem mentioned, which anyone who’s dipped in and out of Marvel kind of knows. Dr Doom and him being scarred is also brought up (no mention of the Fantastic Four but ok). Some characters I have no clue who they are, despite them taking up large parts. Like Parnell, he’s apparently important to the story, yet he’s thrown in like we should know who he is, his history with Rhodey and SHIELD isn’t mentioned in any meaningful way. If he’s a Marvel character he’s an obscure one, yet it’s written like, not only are we supposed to know him and his whole backstory, but also his importance to this plot. The plot itself is just lacklustre without any real edge to it. The terrorist group A.I.M, has a new leader and is on a racist genocidal campaign. It’s a bit odd to use A.I.M as the villains, when it would have been very easy to just use Hydra, which is actually nazi group anyway, but OK. The fact you get no head villain until the very end and a villainous plot that is poorly explained and plotted for the most part and just doesn’t have any energy or excitement to it. Added to the characters or plot points, which aren't explained, or you are supposed to already know the backstories before getting into this book, just makes this a bit of a messy read.
The art doesn't do the book any favours either. While not terrible, it's action scenes especially are missing that exciting punch to drag you in. Also, the fact that this is a Max book, and you can get away with extra violence, it never really takes that opportunity to be that bit more gratuitous with the action. The art doesn't improve the story and the story isn't good enough to cover for mediocre art.
There's an undercurrent story centred on racism, yet of seems to have no point, direction, or conclusion. Having Parnell bring up racism here and there, with no real reason to, at times, makes it seem like the author wanted to jump on some current event, and use the Max label to do it. The racism stuff in the story doesn’t seem forced maybe, but more contrived than anything else.
The book ends with a lot of open plot lines, which were carried on, but this have never been collected into a second trade paperback, and as this volume was released in 2001, I don’t think a second volume is coming.
This is hard to recommend; without art to grab you, no interesting characters and a meandering dull story, there’s little to get excited about. There's worse books, but there’s nothing here that is enough here really other than the name of a Marvel Max book. I think only dedicated fans would get anything out of it, and even then, it might not be worth it.
After Rhodey decides to steal or ‘borrow’ the War Machine suit and getting involved in a high-speed violent pursuit, he is fired by Tony Stark, partly as a PR move as its raised racial tensions as the kidnappers that Rhodey was chasing and killed were black. Ignored by his old friend Tony Stark, who seems to be developing a drinking problem, Rhodey is approached by the director of SHIELD, Nick Fury, with an opportunity; to lead a team, outfitted in some ‘pirated’ War Machine suits, against the supervillain group A.I.M, that's planning a major attack.
This had the potential for a good, action-packed book. Instead, it feels like a missed opportunity and ends up just being dull, in both art and story. Rhodey, is just a bit bland. He fails to really to lead the book, and even falls into the background of his own book. Rather than coming over as stoic, which I think they were trying to get, bit he just comes across as a bit boring and lacks any edge or interesting take on his character. Nick Fury and Dum Dum are only secondary characters in this book but seem to have a bit more energy to them. His assembled team are even worse; badass, sexy army woman? Check. Dumb, Texan/southern grunt? Check. You never feel a team dynamic between them, and when it tries to build some kind of camaraderie like between Texan guy and Parnell, it just comes across as too forced.
The story picks bits and pieces from other Marvel comics but I don’t think is part of any continuity. There’s Tony Stark’s drinking problem mentioned, which anyone who’s dipped in and out of Marvel kind of knows. Dr Doom and him being scarred is also brought up (no mention of the Fantastic Four but ok). Some characters I have no clue who they are, despite them taking up large parts. Like Parnell, he’s apparently important to the story, yet he’s thrown in like we should know who he is, his history with Rhodey and SHIELD isn’t mentioned in any meaningful way. If he’s a Marvel character he’s an obscure one, yet it’s written like, not only are we supposed to know him and his whole backstory, but also his importance to this plot. The plot itself is just lacklustre without any real edge to it. The terrorist group A.I.M, has a new leader and is on a racist genocidal campaign. It’s a bit odd to use A.I.M as the villains, when it would have been very easy to just use Hydra, which is actually nazi group anyway, but OK. The fact you get no head villain until the very end and a villainous plot that is poorly explained and plotted for the most part and just doesn’t have any energy or excitement to it. Added to the characters or plot points, which aren't explained, or you are supposed to already know the backstories before getting into this book, just makes this a bit of a messy read.
The art doesn't do the book any favours either. While not terrible, it's action scenes especially are missing that exciting punch to drag you in. Also, the fact that this is a Max book, and you can get away with extra violence, it never really takes that opportunity to be that bit more gratuitous with the action. The art doesn't improve the story and the story isn't good enough to cover for mediocre art.
There's an undercurrent story centred on racism, yet of seems to have no point, direction, or conclusion. Having Parnell bring up racism here and there, with no real reason to, at times, makes it seem like the author wanted to jump on some current event, and use the Max label to do it. The racism stuff in the story doesn’t seem forced maybe, but more contrived than anything else.
The book ends with a lot of open plot lines, which were carried on, but this have never been collected into a second trade paperback, and as this volume was released in 2001, I don’t think a second volume is coming.
This is hard to recommend; without art to grab you, no interesting characters and a meandering dull story, there’s little to get excited about. There's worse books, but there’s nothing here that is enough here really other than the name of a Marvel Max book. I think only dedicated fans would get anything out of it, and even then, it might not be worth it.
June 30, 2019
The art is terrible. The story dabbles in some interesting topics, namely race relations, but does nothing with it. The "max" part feels like they force some "scandalous" scenes in (OMG, boobs!) just to get the "R" rating in order to do better at the box office. Worst of all, none of the characters are likeable, and some of the plot is unexplainable nonsense.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews