Just wondering if they ever explained it. The world is under attack and there is another iron-man like hero out there and no one called him up?

I think it was mentioned he went back to the military or something when Tony was talking to Pepper, but I haven't gotten the DVD to re-watch it yet.

Apparently, even in 2012, they only want to portray white Avengers on-screen. On a side note the way they portrayed Nick fury and the way everyone talked to him with zero respect was a travesty. And on a side-side-note the way they portray Black Panther in the series is more BS social engineering: notice how BP seldom takes down anyone on his own and misses a lot with his energy daggers (when they even have him using them and not (ugh) trying to wrestle doom) and what happened to his vibranium suit that allowed him to shrug off wasps blast,s and his powers, skill, and tactics that allowed him to take on the entire avengers team? (guess the higher-ups didn't like that and decided he should be down-played as much and as often as possible).

Well, Rhodey is stationed in California and it's about a 5-6 hour flight to New York. The actual invasion couldn't have lasted more than an hour. Also, anyone in the military has to be signed-off to join the Avengers. Which is why SHIELD (under the shadow council orders) had to ask Thunderbolt Ross for Abomination (who they didn't want, which is why the sent Stark ask Ross for him).

Pfft. Nick could have gotten Rhodey/War machine at any point in the movie long before the invasion. The 5-6 hour delay/sing off BS is simply malarky and abject rationalizing.

What would they really need him for? What could he possibly do in this movie that Tony couldn't?

@Avenging-X-Bolt : if one Iron Man is good then two would be twice as good. Actually 1000 Iron Men would have been appropriate for the threat they were facing.

It's not about doing what Tony couldn't it's about doing much more than a guy with a bow and a lady with a couple of pistols did vs an invading army. The thing is that he could do things that Tony could which would make him a much better choice when fighting an army than 2 glorified shield agents.

Because it was a movie about those six characters and not the entire Marvel U. They only had 2 and a half hours to fit in those characters and didn't need to try to overload it with extra people to take up time and space.

If you noticed, so far Marvel Studios has made all of their Black characters side characters in the films - Captain America: The Winter Soldier - Falcon, Thor - Heimdall, Iron Man - War Machine/Rhodey, and obviously Nick Fury :/

@Galactic_Man: I have a feeling that may change after the next few movies. It just takes time, like everything else. I'm hoping for a decent Powerman movie.

@sesquipedalophobe: Powerman, hell yes. It's too bad they cancelled that Jessica Jones TV series... Oh well, if Anthony Mackie was right about appearing in Avengers 2 as the Falcon, at least Marvel will have the advantage of having the first real black superhero on the big screen (Not including Blade).

@Galactic_Man: Falcon could be pretty interesting on film. I'm optimistic.

Yep it's clearly racism and you should sue!

*facepalm*

Doing a huge team movie like this is hard enough, without adding more people to it. And War Machine isn't an iconic avenger either.

People like you are going to rationalize bigotry wherever you see it and always claim that it doesn't exist. I guarantee you that if the avengers had been made to be an all black team you would have complained.

There are Black characters that are a lot more iconic avengers than black widow and more powerful ones that would have made much more sense in fighting a war than hawkeye.

They did not have to add people they simply could have changed their roster

Also there is only one human race. There is no such thing as racism unless you are referring to an alien species.

@TheSwordsman: Why did you bring in RACE when it doesn't have to be? None of the founding members were black. In fact Fury shouldn't have been black in the movie because it isn't entirely Ultimate Universe.

@TheSwordsman: So you're saying a person with a suit that is practically the same as Iron Man's makes a more DIVERSE team than two people with a particular set of skills. Skin colour is meaningless.

@Oscars94 said:

@TheSwordsman: Why did you bring in RACE when it doesn't have to be? None of the founding members were black. In fact Fury shouldn't have been black in the movie because it isn't entirely Ultimate Universe.

I didn't bring in race, as there is only one human race. Another poster mentioned that. I am talking about pigment. Of course none of the founding members were black. It was 1963 and bigotry was rampant. None of the founding members were russian either so does that mean there shouldn't have been a russian on the team? No. It is 2012 and there should have been more diversity on the team. If your color was not represented on the team you would feel differently.

@Oscars94 said:

@TheSwordsman: So you're saying a person with a suit that is practically the same as Iron Man's makes a more DIVERSE team than two people with a particular set of skills. Skin colour is meaningless.

It makes the team more diverse as far as color is concerned yes. Hawkeye and black widow are no more different than IM and WM. Both sets simply uses different weapons. If they had made the Avengers an all black team then skin color would mean a great deal to you and you would be quite upset, but since it is the other way around you defend it.

Anyway there is no point in any further discourse as you will continue to pretend that there isn't a problem instead of just admitting that you want all white casts in the movies you watch.

/Exits discourse

@TheSwordsman: I just can't believe you corrected me on the word race... Black Widow and Hawkeye are different because Hawkeye is an expert marksman and Black Widow is an expert martial artist FROM RUSSIA, Nick Fury is a black man IN CHARGE OF EVERYTHING. War Machine is in the military DOING HIS DUTY as he's not "bigotted" like Stark. An all black Avengers team would be just fine but it's not about their skin colour. I wouldn't put Blade, Storm, Bishop and Luke Cage on a team simply because of their colour and call them the "Black Avengers". The movie Avengers aren't called the "White Avengers". You brought colour into this when it need not have been mentioned.

In conclusion to this highly petty topic that you've surfaced on this site of nerd glory and awesomeness I'd like to respectfully ask you to..

STAND DOWN!

Lets be honest, change the robots to aliens, and this scene would have been SPECTACULAR in Avengers.

If we don't see Rhodey in Avengers 2, there will be a problem.

@EnlloLeal: @EdBlank: Or, ya know, the guys that made the film thought it would be totally redundant spending a few more millions special affects for a character that would do the exact same thing as one of the main characters, not to mention having War Machine as an Avenger before several more thousand other characters that deserve it more would be a travesty

i don't see nothing wrong with the line-up. i just hope they include black panther somewhere down the line hopefully, in Avengers 3. its about the story and the characters that are important to the team, not race it wouldn't have any other way if they include luke cage or spider-man or wolverine.

@ Galactic_man its true all the black characters in the marvel movies are supporting character cause they are in the comics. hopefully when black panther & heroes for hire movies come out may things will change.

well its a movie. redundant characters could pull the sales down. Why do we even have to bring race into this? They made an originally white character black and treated him as the white version was treated in the comics. It had nothing to do with color.

@TheGodofThunder said:

well its a movie. redundant characters could pull the sales down. Why do we even have to bring race into this? They made an originally white character black and treated him as the white version was treated in the comics. It had nothing to do with color.

This.

Plus from a visual standpoint Iron Man wouldn't stand out as much if you have another Iron Man type character flying around too. In the Iron Man movies War Machine looks like Tony's partner in a team setting he'd look like a generic Iron Man ripoff to casual fans.

I guess the whites win.