James Rupert “Rhodey” Rhodes is moving into the big time. For years, he’s been around as part of Tony Stark’s crew. At times, he would fill in as Iron Man, and at others, he was given his own armor and christened War Machine. Marvel has attempted a few times to give Rhodey his own title, never with much success. With the launch of the All-New Marvel Now, the House of Ideas has put Rhodey into the Iron Patriot armor to see if a story will stick.
Writer Ales Kot grounds Iron Patriot #1 in the concept of family. Rhodey is home, taking care of his technologically gifted niece and his smart but curmudgeonly father. The main tension comes from Rhodey’s activities as a superhero. His father believes he needs a better balance between saving the world and taking care of his family. Rhodey thinks he’s striking that balance by becoming the Iron Patriot and keeping his superhero actions to the homestead. Rhodey doesn’t want to be a military force anymore; he just wants to use the Iron Patriot technology to help people.
Problem is, not everybody is down with that concept. Take a large corporation, one that seems to have some very serious hold over a congressman. They seem to want Iron Patriot on board to do their bidding. During a rescue mission in the Gulf of Mexico, the Patriot learns how deep and dastardly his enemies can be.
Kot’s work here is solid, and it should help to ease new readers into the world of James Rhodes. Kott drums up excitement by playing with the timeline. Iron Patriot #1 opens with Rhodey in a bad way, then goes back two days without ever addressing the opening pages. Readers will have to wait for the next installment. As a set-up issue, Kot does a great job of setting up the players, injecting some tension, and then crashing the entire thing on Rhodey’s head. It’s hard to say if this will stick over the long haul, but as first issues go, Iron Patriot #1 does what it needs to.
Garry Brown’s art seems like an odd choice for this series, but it works. When you crack open a book involving superhero armor, you expect something bombastic. Brown relies more on subtlety. His line work is thin, but exquisitely detailed. Brown also has a great sense of shading and movement. There is a darkness to the work, something that breathes a level of maturity into the story. Brown is one of those rare talents who can draw the quiet conversation between a father and son as well as a smash-mouth superhero fight.
(3.5 Story, 4 Art)
