First Appearance of War Machine: Iron Man #118 or #282

There are two answers. James Rhodes, the man, first appeared in Iron Man #118 (January 1979), created by David Michelinie, John Byrne and Bob Layton, as Tony Stark's friend and helicopter pilot (Wikipedia). The War Machine armor first appeared as a last-page cameo in Iron Man #281 and in full in Iron Man #282 (July 1992) (GoCollect; PriceCharting).

The steps in between, as GoCollect lays them out:

• Iron Man #118: Rhodey's debut is only two panels, in civilian clothes, and he is not on the cover.
• Iron Man #169 (April 1983): Rhodes first wears the Iron Man armor, standing in for a drunk and beaten Tony Stark (Wikipedia).
• Iron Man #282: the War Machine armor's first full appearance, and on the cover, but Tony Stark is wearing it.
• Iron Man #284: Rhodey wears the War Machine armor for the first time.
• Avengers West Coast #94 (1993): he takes War Machine as his hero name.

His own War Machine series began in 1994 (Wikipedia).

PriceCharting values, retrieved September 25, 2026:

Iron Man #118 (1979), first James Rhodes

• Ungraded: $25.13
• 8.0: $45.00
• 9.2: $69.00
• 9.8: $430.46 (about two sales a year)

Iron Man #282 (1992), first full War Machine armor

• Ungraded: $42.86
• 8.0: $70.00
• 9.2: $79.68
• 9.8: $206.62 (about one sale a week)

As raw copies the 1992 armor debut sells for more than Rhodey's 1979 debut, but at 9.8 the order flips: #118 is worth about twice as much, because far fewer 1979 copies survive in that grade. GoCollect reported in February 2021 that a 9.8 of #282 had sold for just under $300, which shows the figure has since fallen.

Iron Man 2 (wide release May 7, 2010). Don Cheadle replaced Terrence Howard, who had played Rhodes in Iron Man (2008). In the film Rhodes takes Stark's prototype armor, the Air Force confiscates it, and it is weaponized and renamed War Machine (Wikipedia, Iron Man 2). Cheadle has continued the role across later Marvel films (Wikipedia, War Machine).

No, and it is not the Marvel character either. War Machine (2026) is a military science fiction film directed and co-written by Patrick Hughes, starring Alan Ritchson as a soldier whose training exercise runs into an otherworldly killing machine. Hughes came up with the idea in 2017; the film opened in Australian cinemas on February 12, 2026 and on Netflix on March 6, 2026 (Wikipedia, War Machine (2026 film)).

Northstar is the answer usually given. He first appeared in The Uncanny X-Men #120 (April 1979), but an editorial policy against openly gay characters kept his orientation implied for years; in Alpha Flight #106 (1992) he said on the page that he is gay, making him the first openly gay character to come out in a Marvel comic. He married Kyle Jinadu in Astonishing X-Men #51 (June 2012), the first same-sex wedding in mainstream comics (Wikipedia, Northstar).

• Indicia: the small print on the first page or inside cover gives the title, issue number, date and publisher; reprints and facsimiles say so there.
• Cover price and barcode: a price or barcode that did not exist in the cover year means a later edition.
• Paper: decades-old newsprint tans at the edges; bright white pages on an old date are a warning sign.
• Restoration: color touch, trimmed edges and replaced covers are common on expensive keys; a grading service such as CGC can detect them. See spot a fake or restored comic.

Shoot the front cover flat and straight on in even light, then the indicia and the back cover. For Iron Man #282, the cover shows the War Machine armor; for #118, Rhodey is not on the cover, so the indicia (Iron Man, issue 118) is what confirms it. ComicLens reads the title, issue number and cover art from the photo and shows a reference price range that moves with the grade you pick; there are free scans every day.

Research and drafting were assisted by AI and checked line by line against the sources listed on this page. Prices are the figures shown by the named source on the date given; they change with the market.