We kid, but it would actually suck if James Rhodes got shunted to the sidelines in Iron Man 4. It's the sort of thing that a Hollywood studio would do, but Marvel still have a chance to prove our instincts wrong. Over the course of the first three films Rhodey went from...well, he went from Terrence Howard to Don Cheadle for a start - not a believable evolution, but a welcome one - and his character developed from stuffy Army veteran and Stark's BFF to a guy borrowing one of his suits to War Machine (latterly Iron Patriot), the official superhero of the US military. He's a fun counterpoint to the wild, abrasive Stark and, considering he was hijacked by the bad guys in Iron Man 3, we'd like Rhodey to transcend his status as a plot-point and become a major player himself. Of course, Iron Man 4 might not happen if Robert Downey Jr is to be believed. At least, not an Iron Man 4 starring him. There have been times that Tony Stark has ducked out of the Iron Man role himself in the past, but the comic books didn't stop he just subbed in James Rhodes to take his place in the meantime. Which means that, if RDJ really does turn down another Iron Man film proper, there's always the option of upgrading Don Cheadle to leading man status and having the former War Machine headline a movie. Which isn't unprecedented in cinema history (see: the Bourne film starring someone other than Jason Bourne, every Bond movie), and we love Rhodey, and we love Cheadle, and seriously, how good would a War Machine film be?
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
