Iron Patriot #1

This is a rather bland issue is the weakest opening for any Jim Rhodes series. It mainly sets up the status quo of the series and some plotlines, but nothing really excites the reader. James Rhodes has of course a long history of being various versions of Iron Man or War Machine. But Iron Patriot was the name of the armoured version of Norman Osborn during Dark Reign. Rhodes helped stop AIM using IP drones in Secret Avengers (2013) and then rehabilitated the name by wearing the armour himself. We've not met Jim's niece Lila before, but his sister Jeanette died in The Crew series. Previously we've seen his mother Roberta, 1st in Iron Man (1968) #173 then with his father in War Machine (1994) #12. They were living in Philadelphia, and his father was named David then. After that Roberts featured heavily in WM (2009) and popped up in IM (2008) #525. In these appearances she was living alone in the Navajo Nation with no sign of his father. Now that father is here renamed Terrence, and 1 line of dialogue suggests that the wife is around, just not shown in this issue. Mr Fujikawa is presumably connected to the Fujikawa Corporation that took over Stark Enterprises when Tony Stark was missing presumed dead in the Heroes Reborn universe. (When he returned from there Tony became romantically involved with Rumiko, daughter of the Fujikawa boss, in the 1998 Iron Man series.) Fujikawa Corp was later seen in the Loners series. I believe Congressman Meyer is a new character (and of course unrelated to any real Congressman by that name).