Editing War Machine (section)

=== Themes and motifs ===
War Machine is an African American superhero in a genre that historically presented white characters as the default without meaningfully portraying the lives or worldviews of racial minorities.{{Sfn|Chambliss|2015|pp=148–149}} Rhodes's origin, a black boy who left the ghetto to enlist in the military, reflected conservative sentiments in the late 1970s that African Americans should seek betterment through individual agency and that the military was a place where success was based on merit rather than race.{{Sfn|Chambliss|2015|p=151}} His unsuccessful tenure as Iron Man similarly reflected the conservative belief that racial minorities were harmed by sudden increases in power.{{Sfn|Chambliss|2015|p=153}} Conversely, his tenure as CEO of Stark Industries and his second tenure as Iron Man in 1992 reflected the increased acceptance of African Americans being depicted in popular culture. This depiction put him on a more equal ground to Stark, portraying Rhodes as a capable CEO and hero in his own right.{{Sfn|Chambliss|2015|pp=153–154}} When Rhodes became the main character of ''Iron Man'', he faced many of the same obstacles as Stark, and many of the same themes were explored. Rhodes allowed these issues to be explored from a different perspective, of a character who diverged from the [[Realism (international relations)|realism]] associated with Stark's Iron Man and whose views were influenced by his African American identity.{{Sfn|Chambliss|2015|pp=154–155}} In the 1990s, Rhodes was one of several African American characters whose comics incorporated imagery associated with [[African American culture]].{{Sfn|Chambliss|2015|p=154}} Unlike other black Marvel heroes such as [[Falcon (comics)|Falcon]] and [[Cloak and Dagger (characters)|Cloak]], Rhodes's race is not explicitly invoked as a defining aspect of his character or a common source of conflict.{{Sfn|Nama|2011|p=81}}

Rhodes's relationship with Stark evokes ideas of control and agency. Stark has control over the armor that Rhodes wears, and this becomes even more apparent when Stark installs the armor through cybernetics as part of Rhodes's body.{{Sfn|Chambliss|2015|p=158}} During Rhodes's earliest outings in the Iron Man armor, he was pretending to be Stark's Iron Man rather than acting independently with his own identity. This was somewhat addressed when Rhodes received his own standalone series,{{Sfn|Nama|2011|p=79}} but the nature of the character inherently ties his identity to that of Iron Man.{{Sfn|Nama|2011|p=81}} Their relationship also has a racial component, as Stark, the man in control of Rhodes's destiny, is white.{{Sfn|Chambliss|2015|pp=156–158}} Despite this, any possible racial conflict between the two is not addressed explicitly.{{Sfn|Nama|2011|p=81}}

''War Machine'' writer Len Kaminski intentionally challenged the violent imagery of a heavily-armed character named War Machine by focusing on themes related to global [[human rights]] and [[liberal internationalism]]. He described the decision saying that "it could subvert some of the people who might be attracted to it for all the wrong reasons, and maybe [the writers will] get them thinking".{{Sfn|O'Neill|1994|p=56}} Rhodes is contrasted with Stark in his sense of responsibility.{{Sfn|Chambliss|2015|p=160}} His backstory as a soldier became relevant in the 2000s when the United States engaged in the controversial Iraq War, and the character was used to explore ideas relating to such wars.{{Sfn|Chambliss|2015|p=159}}