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War Machine #9: Review

Dec 1994
Scott Benson, Geoff Senior

Story Name:

Once Upon a Time in China

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

War Machine #9 Review by (February 26, 2019)
Comments: “Hands of the Mandarin Part 2 of 6.”--Cover. Scripted by the team of Scott Benson and Len Kaminski. Su Yin treated Tony Stark in the Dragon Seed Saga in IRON MAN #270-276. MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS #171 follows Rhodey and Century in more detail as they wander around China.

Review: Disappointing art drags down this installment of the story arc which is the first to explain the Mandarin's anti-technology spell presumably to see how it will complicate the plot in upcoming installments. So the good guys are still in trouble and the bad guys seem ascendant. So far so good for a comic book epic.





 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

War Machine #9 Synopsis by T Vernon
Story continues from FORCE WORKS #6.

War Machine and Century, apparently disintegrated by the Mandarin (at the end of FORCE WORKS #6) instead find themselves in a rural area of China. Century speculates that the villain's blast interacted with his staff Parallax and teleported them instead of killing them. Mandarin has magically created a zone around his castle wherein technology does not work so they hide Rhodey's useless armor and try to find help for the wounded hero....

Back at the castle, Mandarin is torturing the captive Iron Man, who quietly vows to avenge the apparent murders of War Machine and Century....

Rhodey and Century come upon a woman being attacked by a pair of soldiers with rape on their minds; the alien hero swiftly takes care of them and Rhodey recognizes the woman as neurosurgeon Su Yin, who had earlier treated Tony Stark. At her hut, she tries to whip up some ancient herbal remedies to treat Rhodey's injuries while explaining that the sudden disappearance of all technology led to her invalid husband's death. As Century has a moment of disorientation, she also tells of the politician who has taken advantage of the crisis to set himself up as a warlord with an army and how they will attack this village any day now. Rhodey wishes he could help and Century has an idea....

In Hong Kong, the Avatars have retreated and Force Works (Scarlet Witch, Spider-Woman, U.S. Agent) have captured Lich who tells them Iron Man is a prisoner of the Mandarin and gives them directions to his castle....

In the village, Century has the local blacksmith enhance the War Machine armor with bamboo and other coverings so that when the ravagers arrives, the two heroes are ready for them. Century has another psychotic episode leaving Rhodey to face a small army on his own....

Force Works flies their plane Pegasus to the Mandarin's castle lair but when they enter the anti-technology zone, all power cuts out, sending them plummeting....

Story continues in IRON MAN #311.



Geoff Senior
Pam Eklund
Ariane Lenshoek
Kev Hopgood (Cover Penciler)
Bob Wiacek (Cover Inker)
Letterer: John Costanza.
Editor: Nel Yomtov. Editor-in-chief: Tom DeFalco.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Iron Man
Iron Man

(Tony Stark)
Scarlet Witch
Scarlet Witch

(Wanda Maximoff)
Spider-Woman
Spider-Woman

(Jessica Drew)
U.S. Agent
U.S. Agent

(John Walker)
War Machine
War Machine

(James Rhodes)

Plus: Avatars, Century, Recorder RE-404, Su Yin.

> War Machine: Book info and issue index

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