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War Machine #24

Mar 1996

Dan Abnett, Yancey Labat

Story Name:

Time will tell

Synopsis

War Machine #24 synopsis by Rob Johnson

Rating:

James Rhodes has rushed to the SHIELD hospital bedside of Sheva Joseph as soon as he heard she was dying. She's under the care of SHIELD Agent Kirby Martell. She started experiencing timeslips in #19 and these left her dying of old age in #21. Kirby tells Jim that it's time fatigue, a result of the time quake Jim and Sheva experienced during their WWII adventure (#15-17). Meanwhile Sheva has another timeslip/hallucination of the day she met War Machine in Imaya (#2) where she went with a SHIELD squad to arrest him.

Martell has Rhodes scanned by Agent Clayden to see if he is suffering from the same problem. The scans detect the alien Warwear that is now integrated into his body (since #18). And it's the Warwear that is keeping him healthy.

When they've finished Jim is confronted by his angry girlfriend Rae LaCoste who came here to see Sheva but now wants to know why he hasn't contacted her since #12 where they were going to meet his parents. But 1st Rhodey explains what's happening to Sheva. Then he says that he's been very busy, and doesn't manage to tell her that their friend Tony Stark just died (in the Crossing event he's just got out of).

They finally get to compare notes on #12. War Machine got dragged off into something after Jim discovered that his parents weren't happy with his girlfriend. Rae turned up later and was sent off crying. Rhodey believed the were biased against her being white. But Rae says they told her he had a son. Which is news to Jim!

Their confrontation is interrupted by Kirby with news that Sheva has made a miraculous recovery. They go to see her and find her back to her correct age. But Kirby tells Rhodey and Rae she isn't sure it will last.

Next day Jim is wheeling recuperating Sheva around the grounds in a wheelchair. They discuss his relationship with Rae and his parents and this surprise son. And he tells her about the Warwear armour he's now got.

But Clayden has reported Rhodes' alien infection to a superior Agent Groom, much to Martell's disgust.

As Jim and Sheva chat she is suddenly old again. Rhodey calls for help and they rush her inside. Kirby says Sheva's dying and asks Jim if there's anything he knows about the Warwear that could help her. Rhodey says he knows very little, but alien woman Skye who claimed (in #19) to be responsible for him getting the suit told him (last issue) he'd die if he ever removed it. Ranald Jeffries drops in from Worldwatch where Sheva and Jim work just as Rhodey agrees to let Kirby investigate the Warwear.

But then Groom and a bunch of Agents turn up to take Rhodes into custody to determine the threat posed by his alien infection. War Machine shows them that threat by manifesting his new super-suit. He bulls his way in to Sheva's room to tell her their may be a way to save her. But she dies.

Review / Commentaries

War Machine #24 Review by Rob Johnson (June 4, 2019)

Bob Harras takes over as Editor-in-chief from Mark Gruenwald (who was only really a group editor). Fred Haynes helps Yancy Labat with the penicls again, as does Johnny Greene help Rey Garcia with the inks.

War Machine has come to this issue straight from #23 at the end of the Crossing event where, as he says in this issue, he saved the world (by destroying the chronographic weapon that was going to shift the Earth out of its timeline).

That's all part of the busy life that's stopped him from contacting Rae LaCoste since #12. At the end of the conflict in #12-13 he was shanghaied to Slorenia in #14 for an indeterminate amount of time. When he got back home he got sent to San Revilla in a backup tale across Force Works #12, WM#15 and Iron Man #317. Then he went back in time in #15-17 to rescue Sheva Joseph from WWII, where he lost the War Machine armour. Then he admittedly took a few days off but was infected by the Warwear in #18-19 which was a preamble to the Crossing mega-crossover with FW, IM and Avengers. From which he's just got back.

This really is the end of Sheva Joseph.

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Main/1st Story Full Credits

Dan Abnett

Yancey Labat

Rey Garcia

Ian Laughlin

Sergio Cariello (Cover Penciler)
Sergio Cariello (Cover Inker)

Additional Credits

Letterer: John Costanza.
Editor: Nel Yomtov. Editor-in-chief: Bob Harras.

All stories. Listed in alphabetical order.

War Machine
(James Rhodes)

Plus: Kirby Martell, Rae LaCoste, Ranald Jeffries, Sheva Joseph.

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