Uh oh, Pepper looks pissed. And Tony looks alone. What happened to all his friends?

Garry Shandling makes his big debut as Senator Stern, so Tony mocks him, naturally.

See Tony is alone. Empty chairs. Empty soul. It's lonely at the top.

But wait, it's Rhodey, he's back...and he looks pissed. And who's that to Rhodey's left? It's Sam Rockwell, as Justin Hammer. Did they walk in together? And where did Pepper go? Where's Happy?

Same sexual chemistry between Pepper and Tony, check. But then again I think RDJ is so charming he could have chemistry with a lamp post... lucky lamp post.

Iron Man is America, and a rock star. And look in the background — it's the Iron Man dancers, thus proving the slutty Halloween rule to be true: any outfit can be made whorish.

These gloves could very well be the best little party favors ever. Please hand these out at Comic Con!

Whiplash is obsessed. See? See? He has newspaper clippings. And newspaper clipping are to stalkers what glasses are to shy mousy girls with a hot girl dying to get out inside: stereotypical. But let's assume that since he's spent so much time cataloguing the family story, that this grudge may go way, way back. Since he's had time to make a scrap book.

Who hit Tony?

The garage is all cleaned up and stocked with new rich guy toys. Bruce Wayne who?

What is happening to Tony's neck?

Yikes it's spreading. Tony is literally turning into an Iron Man. Also, he could be turning into a human computer, which has happened in the Iron Man comics before.

More Justin Hammer, and in perfect timing with Whiplash's "shark" comment.

Nick Fury just wants to get motherfucking Tony onto the motherfucking team.

More Iron Man-ettes. I suspect this may be a banner year for the cosplay fans.

Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff in her Black Widow "business casual" attire.

War Machine prototype!

Is the Black Widow working for Rhodey? Is that her in the background?

Black Widow in her ass kicking attire, is she beating up Happy? I bet Jon Favreau just loved that.

Whiplash finally shows us what his lightsaber whips can do — which is break Tony's car.

Which he does.

I'm still not sold on the Whiplash outfit, but it does look pretty bad ass from behind.

Uh oh — will Tony be Whiplashed in half, or will the bad guy just show off some more? Answer: Show off.

Whiplash has nasty metal mouth.

What is this flying contraption? It looks like it's shooting at Iron Man? Multiple Mecha suits?

A first look at War Machine, and Tony's new suit, with a triangle chest plate. Is this due to the metal veins? Also the background is filled with power suits, almost like an Armor War...

War Machine and Tony fight other mechas and you get a faceful of War Machines shoulder gun, and Tony's fully reconstructed suit, Mark VI. Very nice. So who thinks they are filming the Armor Wars story?

[via Apple]

Bleeding Cool's Rich Johnston notices that the latest issue of Diamond Distributors' monthly catalog Previews includes an ad for a War Machine action figure "based on the stunning Iron Man 2 designs!" But while the main image, showing the full armor, has been blacked out, a close up of James Rhodes inside the suit hasn't. As Rich says,

This is not design art, this is not a leaked plan, this is not some fan made project, not a brief blur on a leaked trailer, this is a full-on glimpse at what War Machine will actually look like.

Well, kind of. We cant really see that much; only part of the helmet and the silhouette, both of which suggests that the armor may look not unlike the original War Machine armor from the 1990s. But if this is meant to be some kind of tease to get fans excited about the movie, we're of the opinion that it falls short of working: Beyond confirming that James Rhodes will get to be War Machine in the second movie, this doesn't really tell us anything - and given that we've already seen photos of the Black Widow and Whiplash already, this feels more like leftovers than an exciting appetizer. But what do you think?

By accident more than design, Rhodes has ended up possessing multiple characteristics that sum up the black superhero experience. Sure, he may not have the word "Black" in his superhero name (See: Black Panther, Black Lightning, Black Goliath, the Black Racer or even the Black Musketeers. Yes, that's right; I said The Black Musketeers), and he may not ride a skateboard - Or not that we've seen, at least, who knows what he does in his spare time? - but look how many other checkboxes he's managed to tick:

He's A Sidekick At Heart
If there's one rule for black superheroes, it's that they're never the stars of the show (Or, at least, not for very long; attempts like Black Lightning or the Milestone books are always, sadly, done in by falling sales). Yes, you could make an argument that Black Panther contradicts that, but I'd just invoke the "He's the exception that proves the" clause and move on quickly*. Despite headlining his own books twice in his career - something that doesn't really mean anything, no matter how good those books were; remember, Marvel once published Street Poet Ray and Power Pachyderms, so anything goes there - Jim Rhodes is, and always will be, a sidekick to Tony Stark's Iron Man. His armor was created by Tony. His training and experience all came from Tony. Hell, even his reason for becoming a superhero in the first place is Tony and that whole alcoholic breakdown thing. Sure, he never had to deal with the embarrassment of having his name second in the title to a non-existent superhero (Poor Sam Wilson, having to shoulder Captain America And The Falcon during the post-Watergate period when Cap had quit. They couldn't have renamed it The Falcon for those months just to be polite?), but let's not kid ourselves: James Rhodes is defined by Tony Stark.

He's A Replacement
And how did Rhodey get his start as a superhero again? Oh, that's right; he replaced Tony as Iron Man. Just like John Stewart got his start replacing Hal Jordan as Green Lantern. And John Henry Irons, replacing Superman back when he died. Oh, and don't forget Monica Rambeau, Marvel's second Captain Marvel. Or, hell, the Justice Society of America's Mr. Terrific or Johnny/JJ Thunder, the Legion of Superheroes' Computo and Invisible Kid, DC's Mister Miracle (and, for that matter, Manhattan Guardian) or even The Spectre (And, again, who can forget Black Goliath, who replaced Hank Pym's original White Goliath - except, of course, the "White" was silent in his name). Even the characters that aren't actively replacing existing characters somehow manage to be replacing people we haven't seen - DC's Vixen and Marvel's Black Panther are both continuing long lines of heroes. When do we get to see white superheroes picking up the mantle of black characters? Only once - and even that was the result of a retcon to offer political commentary (Captain America, who it turned out was following in the footsteps of an earlier black Cap - who not only never called himself Captain America, but also was unknown to Cap when he took up the shield. So maybe that doesn't count after all).

He's "Edgy"
Let's ignore, for a second, the James Rhodes of the Iron Man movies, and instead look at the comic book version... A hero so edgy that he doesn't uphold the status quo, he takes on corporate interests that are raping and pillaging our planet (as per the current War Machine series). Because, that's what black superheroes do, apparently: they don't join in with everyone else to get the job done like we expect, they see the bigger picture and deal with social injustice (The Falcon, Black Lightning), play the outsider card (Bishop, Black Panther) and/or are willing to step outside the law for the greater good (Hardware, Luke Cage). It's incredibly rare to see a black superhero without some form of characteristic that puts them at odds with the status quo, and even when that does happen - John Stewart, Captain Marvel - they'll find themselves rewritten with completely new personalities at some point to make them stand out and get edgy again (Not that I'm still bitter than the jazz-listening, pacifist architect became an former army sharpshooter with a "get the mission done no matter what" mentality or anything. Oh, okay, I am; I loved Green Lantern: Mosaic).

He's A Cyborg
Yes, James Rhodes is a cyborg these days. Just like DC's Cyborg, from Teen Titans. Or Marvel's Deathlok. Or DC's John Henry Irons**. Or Marvel's Bishop, from the X-Men. Or even Iron Fist's girlfriend, Misty Knight (one of the Heroes For Hire/Daughters of The Dragon). What is it about high-profile black characters finding themselves turned into part-robot? Some kind of clever commentary on black culture being assimiliated into the white corporate machine, or white creators having a fear of a black robotic planet? I have no idea, but it's kind of odd, isn't it?

We're sure that, when James Rhodes was first created, his real-life parents had no idea he'd one day step into this proud and illustrious role. But he's here now, and there's only one way to celebrate the fact - Marvel has to cancel his series, just to underline that whole "sidekick" thing once again. Luckily, they've already taken care of that.

* - Yes, Todd McFarlane's Spawn would, in theory, refute this idea, being just about to make it to its 200th issue. But two things are worth remembering: #1: Yes, its titular hero may be black, but he wears a full-face mask to hide that fact from unsuspecting readers, and #2: Given the writing in Spawn, that whole mask thing and that fact that, even unmasked, his scarred face hides his ethnicity, anyone could make the argument that Spawn is an entirely race-neutral character.

** - At least, in John Henry Irons' case, he actually created the technology used to make himself into a cyborg. In fact, Irons is one of the few completely proactive black heroes in comics who doesn't rely on other characters for his powers/technology/operations. He's like Black Panther, but without the mysticism and ruling a country.

When asked what the most surprising aspect of making Iron Man 2 was, Cheadle gave a surprising answer:

I didn't expect the "Rhodey CGI" character to work more days than me. I didn't think my stuntman would work as many days as I did. But you know, really it's a combination of your work. You're in this motion capture suit, then stuntmen do some stuff, you get to do some stuff, then they don't need any of you and they draw it themselves.

That doesn't mean that Cheadle wasn't able to bring some actorly questions to the role, however:

I just really had more questions than answers about the relationship. When I looked back over the comic books, all of the different iterations of Iron Man and Rhodey that there have been, the one thing that seemed like it was always there was this friendship. There was a real friendship and underlying kinship. I was always asking, "Where did it come from? What's it based on? How tenuous is it, now that Tony is kind of a free agent and Rhodey is a military man? How does that work?" That's what drove my questions about our relationship for the whole movie... "Why are these guys friends? On what level do they connect and on what level do they miss each other?" So it was constantly tweaking stuff, improv-ing a lot and grinding over scenes to figure out how that worked.

More importantly, perhaps, on what level is Cheadle's James Rhodes able to carry a spin-off movie by himself...? Not that he's offering any hints about that right now:

We haven't discussed that. I have no idea. Maybe. Potentially.

Why do we feel as if, if he'd been given enough time, he would've just come out and said yes eventually?

Don Cheadle Talks "Iron Man 2" [Comic Book Resources]

We're referring, of course, to the giant guns that War Machine sports in Iron Man 2 — Rhodey's suit is sort of the opposite of Tony's sleek streamlined look, mostly thanks to the huge amount of firepower he totes around. So we had to ask Favreau if this gun-happy look was going to lead to conflict between Tony and Jim. "He's got big guns, yeah," said Favreau, adding that there was a lot of conflict between Iron Man and War Machine in the comics, so you shouldn't be surprised if the two of them butt heads in the movie as well.

Oh, and there are spoilers below...

Here's the footage we saw:

Tony Stark in his Iron Man suit, his helmet off, sits against an early morning sky eating a donut. As we pull back, we realize he is sitting in the hole of a giant promotional donut for Randy's Donuts. He calls down to a man standing on the ground, "Sir, I have to ask you to exit the donut." And we see the man is Nick Fury.

Inside the donut shop, Fury and Stark sit across from each other. Stark, still in the suit and possibly hungover, is wearing sunglasses. "Look," says Stark, "I told you I don't want to join your super-powered boy band."

"Oh no," Fury replies, with a knowing smile, "because see I remember you like doing things on your own. I'm here to see how that's going."

"I'm sorry," Tony interrupts. " I don't want to get off on the wrong foot. Do I look in the patch or the eye? I just want to know if you're real or if you're a figment of your imagination."

Fury leans in. "Oh, I'm very real. I'm the realest person you'll ever know."

Stark sighs, "Just my luck"

We switch over to a congressional hearing. Stark is at the hearing table, but he's distracted, talking flirtatiously to Pepper behind him while she looks slightly exasperated, much to the Defense Chair's chagrin. "Mr. Stark," he calls out sternly.

Stark's head whirls around. "Yes, dear?"

The Chair asks Stark whether or not he has possession of a special weapon. "No," says Stark. "Well, that depends on how you define the word weapon."

"Do you or do you not possess the Iron Man Weapon?"

"I don't define it as a weapon. I define it as a hi-tech prosthesis." The audience behind him laughs. "No, really, that's the most accurate description I could think of for it." He turns back to the Chair. "Look, if your priority is the safety of the American people..."

"My priority is to see the Iron Man Weapon turned over to the United States of America."

"I won't turn over Iron Man. I am Iron Man, and if I turned over myself, that would be indentured servitude — or prostitution, depending on what state you're in."

The Chair is confused. "Well, I'm not an expert —"

Stark interrupts him, "On prostitution? A United States Senator? Of course not!"

As the crowd erupts in more laughter, the Chair, angrily flustered, calls Lt. Colonial James Rhodes to the stand. This is the first time Stark seems phased. "Are you shitting me?"

Rhodes walks down the hall while the audience murmurs and cameras flash. Stark meets him halfway and gives him a hug. "I didn't expect you to be here," he whispers in his ear.

Rhodes is all business. "Look, it is what it is. Let's just do this."

The both sit down at the table, and the chair once again demands that Stark turn over the suit. Stark is furious, but still very much collected and in control. "You should be thanking me," he tells the Committee. "Look, I'm your nuclear deterrent and it's working. You want my property; you can't have my property. But hey, I did you a big favor, I privatized national security!" Stark stands up and starts addressing the crowd, who are obviously enjoying his performance. He starts verbally abusing the Committee, pointing at them and referring to them as assclowns.

This is the breaking point for the chair, who says, into the microphone and on the record, "Fuck you, Mr. Stark."

We now cut to a series of short clips, alternating between Whiplash, who has newspaper clippings of Tony Stark adorning his wall, and Stark himself, playing under Whiplash's voiceover: "You come from a family of thieves and butchers. You try to rebuild your history...They are the blood in the water and the sharks will come." We see a glowing chestplate on Whiplash's work table like the one in Stark's chest.

We see a series of action clips, including the images of the Black Widow we've seen before, and the image of Whiplash attacking a fallen Tony Stark at a racetrack. The moving clip offers a bit of insight into the weird He-Man quality of the image. It appears that Whiplash strapped his supersuit power supply to his naked chest because he was hiding it beneath an orange jumpsuit. The clip shows that he has ripped off the top half of his jumpsuit to use the deadly electrical cords he twirls from his hands. The streaked hair, however, still looks a bit off on the big screen.

We cut to another scene, this one inside a hangar, where a suit-wearing, lollipop-sucking arms dealer approaches a group of MPs, including Rhodes, who are standing behind a table. On the table is what looks like part of the War Machine suit. "What have you done here?" The dealer asks jovially, with a mock tsk-tsk. "Is that what I think it is?"

The MPs don't answer him, and Rhodes notes that they came to him because they need firepower.

"You've come to the right person," he says, and proceeds to take out a small arsenal of oversized guns, laying them out one by one."

Rhodes tells him he'll take it. "Which one?" the dealer asks.

"All of them."

Cut to a two-second clip of the gray, steely War Machine firing weapons in all directions.

That said, this week's comics aren't exactly the most overwhelming bunch. But I think we can chalk that up to the holidays.

DC Comics have their Final Crisis Secret Files, acting as a stop-gap for fans of the much-delayed mini-series, but the rest of their week is relatively lowkey unless you're wrapped up in a number of ongoing storylines.

Similarly, Dark Horse and Image both have weeks to keep longterm fans happy, but offer little to newcomers.

Only Marvel steps up to the four-color plate with a raft of big name specials, and new series to tempt those few with some holiday money left over — including Ultimate Hulk Annual (in which the cannibal version of the big green giant goes on a road trip across America), Fantastic Four Cosmic Special (in which the FF have to go under quarantine and don't deal with it well) and Cable, Volume 1: Messiah War (which mashes up Terminator and Lone Wolf And Cub to come up with... well, Lone Cyborg and Cub, really).

The Iron Man fans amongst you may want to check out the first issue of War Machine, which sees James Rhodes cut loose in his own set of armor, kicking ass and taking names.

Everyone else, the one comic that you need to pick up this week is Incognito, the new supervillain series from the creators of Sleeper and Criminal. If you need convincing, here's the set up:

What if you were an ex-super villain hiding out in Witness Protection… but all you could think about were the days when the rules didn’t apply to you? Could you stand the toil of an average life after years of leaving destruction in your wake? And what if you couldn’t stand it? What would you do then?

If you need more convincing, you can find a preview of the first issue here, but trust me: This will be the kind of bad-mood treat that you'll find yourself addicted to throughout 2009.

In 2009, you'll still be able to find this week's shipping list here and also use the Comic Shop Locator to find your local comic store. But that's not to say everything will be the same in the future. For one thing, this week's comics arrive in stores on Friday, due to the holiday. But don't take that as a bad omen or anything.

Marvel's Tuesday announcement confirmed not only that Downey Jr. and Cheadle would be two of the stars for the Avengers, which tells how Marvel's biggest heroes formed a team, but that Iron Man director Favreau will act as executive producer for the 2011 movie.

No plot details for Avengers or Iron Man 2 have been announced, although we can now add the creation of Rhodey's War Machine armor to the existing "Hulk goes bad" rumors.

As for those rumors about the Hulk going bad, some sites are concluding the Hulk won't actually be the villain in Avengers, because one Marvel press release refers to Hulk as a member of the team. The release also says the heroes, including the Hulk, face the biggest threat they've ever encountered. So does that mean the Hulk isn't the villain of that movie? Or he joins the team but later goes rogue? (Just as long as he pretends to be a robot clown, like in the comics.)

Iron Man 2 is due to be released May 7, 2010, with Avengers following on July 15, 2011.

Downey Jr. extends Marvel deal [Variety]

Talking to Scott Simon on Weekend Edition, Howard said,

It was the surprise of a lifetime [finding out that Cheadle has taken over the role]. There was no explanation. I read something in the trades that implicated it was about money or something but apparently the contracts that we write and sign aren't worth the paper that they're printed on. And promises aren't kept.

Our guess is that certain "promises" were made about money regarding sequels that, when the movie became as big a hit as it did, certain parties (*coughMarvelcough*) starting having second thoughts about - especially if the conversation about whether Howard could carry a potential War Machine spin-off ever came up. Nonetheless, it's sad to see Howard's relatively restrained quality being replaced by a potential scenechewer like Cheadle, and sadder still that Howard doesn't seem to know why.

Terrence Howard Talks Tunes, Family, Science [NPR] (Via)

The new series announced at the panel were an ongoing series for Jeff Parker's retro Agents of ATLAS, Planet Hulk's Greg Pak replacing Iron Man: Director of SHIELD with a new book starring Jim Rhodes' armored alter-ego War Machine, and Underworld's Kevin Grevioux creating Marvel's latest forgotten hero, Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel.

Talking about the latest book, Grevioux explained that it's a book that he's always wanted to do. In the late 1950s and early '60s, the most famous and well-loved hero in the Marvel Universe was the Blue Marvel... until it was revealed that he was, under the cowl, black. "In the '60s, a black man with that much power wouldn't have been perceived as very friendly, no matter the [intent]," explained Grevioux, which leads to President Kennedy asking the hero to go into hiding to help the burgeoning civil rights movement. His hiding works too well, and when the hero's nemesis returns 40 years after his presumed death, it's up to the Avengers to find the forgotten hero.

The announcement that led to confused silence was Electric Ant, a new five-issue adaptation of the Philip K. Dick story of the same name by Kabuki's David Mack and Pascal Alixe that launches in November. After a quick explanation of who Philip K. Dick was to a subdued audience, Marvel's Jim McCann added that Paul Pope would be providing covers... to a surprising lack of reaction from the audience. When your audience has to be told to applaud, I'm sure that that's not a good sign.

(Personally, I'm excited; the art looks good, if nothing else. And Paul Pope covers? Come on.)

The audience was much less quiet when it came to asking questions. Greg Pak teased what will happen when - not if - the Hulk will meet Skaar, his son from the World War Hulk storyline:

Maybe they'll sit down, see a ballgame, have some fun. Or maybe some smashing will ensue. Who can say?

Asked if Marvel will pull back from the continuity-heavy "event" stories that have dominated the company's line for the last few years, McCann gave a practical answer:

I don't think we've been swamped with major events as much as it's been serialized storytelling, and stories have led to each other [Laughter from audience]. Hey, don't laugh. Whatever happens in Civil War is going to spill out of Civil War, it's not Vegas... Things just naturally lead. Will we stop having massive events? I don't know, you keep buying 'em.

And if you're wondering who would win in a battle between Marvel's Dazzler and DC's Green Lantern, McCann had no doubt:

Oh, come on. All [Dazzler] has to do is go "Ooh! Yellow!" and [he's] dead.

Who said that Comic-Con isn't educational?

Hulk Vs comes out on DVD in January 2009. Comic-Con goers will be treated to the first half of the Wolverine/Hulk fight at the Marvel panel. But more importantly, will this be the moment we get to see The Hulk rip smart-mouthed Wolverine in half comic book style? It's a cartoon, so maybe not. But we can dream can't we?

Iron Man Armored Adventures features teen Tony Stark in his Richie Rich years learning to appreciate humanity and working for a living fighting crime. How will he balance puberty and battling the evil Mandarin? Together with teen War Machine and little Pepper he fights evil across the globe. Here's hoping they address teen drinking super early in this series, so Tony can get an early start on his future demons.
The 26-episode series will premiere on Nicktoons in 2009.

[Marvel]

Favreau had been making noises about basing Iron Man 2 on the famous "Demon in a Bottle" storyline, in which Tony Stark's alcoholism sidelines him and Rhodes has to take over. (And then the armor starts to do weird things to Rhodes and he goes a bit psycho, forcing Tony to reclaim the Iron Man identity. Eventually Rhodes gets non-crazy-making armor, and becomes War Machine.)

But now Favreau is saying the upcoming boozy-superhero movie Hancock, starring Will Smith, may sideline those plans. Favreau told Collider that, "Comic book fans might see "Demon in a Bottle" as a fresh story line, but I haven’t seen Hancock yet. From what I’ve seen it seems there is a lot of imagery that seems to be shared. Him flying through billboards and things. The idea of the hero whose biggest enemy is himself, and him fighting through his demons [may be played out, so] you want to come at the audience with something fresh." Will Smith is great at scifi fun, but I think we'd all rather the expert, Tony Stark played by Robert Downey Jr. show us true self destruction. [Military and Collider]

Outlining the various ways in which both Iron Man's past as a comic and real world facts have been twisted around for political as much as plot purposes, journalist Nick Turse looks at the history of Marvel's most recent box office smash as recruitment film:

The film Iron Man is replete with such reversals, starting with the obvious fact that, in Afghanistan, it is Americans who have imprisoned captured members of al-Qaeda and the Taliban (as well as untold innocents) in exceedingly grim conditions, not vice-versa. It is they who, like Tony Stark, have been subjected to the Bush administration's signature "harsh interrogation technique." While a few reviewers have offhandedly alluded to the eeriness of this screen choice, Iron Man has suffered no serious criticism for taking the imprisonment practices, and most infamous torture, of the Bush years and superimposing it onto America's favorite evil-doers. Nor have critics generally thought to point out that, while, in the film, the nefarious Obadiah Stane, Stark's right hand man, is a double-dealing arms dealer who is selling high-tech weapons systems to the terrorists in Afghanistan (and trying to kill Stark as well), two decades ago the U.S. government played just that role.

With the box office numbers still pouring in and the announcement of sequels to come, the arrangement has obviously worked out well for Favreau, Marvel, Paramount — and the U.S. Air Force. Before the movie was released, Master Sergeant Larry Belen, the superintendent of technical support for the Air Force Test Pilot School and one of many airmen who auditioned for a spot in the movie, outlined his motivation to aid the film: "I want people to walk away from this movie with a really good impression of the Air Force, like they got about the Navy seeing Top Gun."

Air Force captain Christian Hodge, the Defense Department's project officer for Iron Man, may have put it best, however, when he predicted that, once the film appeared, the "Air Force is going to come off looking like rock stars." Maybe the Air Force hasn't hit the Top Gun-style jackpot with Iron Man, but there can be no question that, in an American world in which war-fighting doesn't exactly have the glitz of yesteryear, Iron Man is certainly a military triumph. As Chuck Vinch noted in a review published in the Air Force Times, "The script... will surely have the flyboy brass back at the Pentagon trading high fives — especially the scene in which Iron Man dogfights in the high clouds with two F-22 Raptors."

Torturing Iron Man [Tomdispatch.com] (Thanks, Tom)