James Rhodes (Earth-91126)

James Rhodes was Tony Stark's security officer for Stark International when it was facing financial ruin. Rhodes faces a zombie outbreak within the building when the zombie Giant Man of Earth-2149 teleported there to in find the Watcher's component that would allow him access to the Multiverse. Rhodes fought and flee from the hordes of zombies before barricading himself inside one of the building's men bathrooms. By shear luck, he stumbled to find Tony Stark's missing suitcase that contains his Iron Man suit. Rhodes wore the suit and fought his way to Tony where his friend used a special bottle of prototype nanobots that can kill the zombies by stripping their entire flesh away. As the suit is running out of power, Tony directed Rhodes to the nearest speed charger and telling him to be his next successor before allowing himself to be fed by the zombies as Rhodes watched in horror. Rhodes immediately sped away and contact more law enforcement to eradicate the infestation.^[1]

Some few years later, Rhodes, as Iron Man, became a member of the Illuminati and was responsible for banishing the Hulk form Earth. After the Hulk returned as a zombie in New York City, Rhodes, due to his experiences, contacted the Sentry to fight Hulk. However, the Sentry was bitten and turned by the Hulk.^[2]

Some years later after all living life on Earth was devoured by the zombie "Avengers", Rhodes remained one of the last living life forms- albeit because he had cut off any parts of his body that were bitten by the zombies before the virus could infect the rest of him- and had allied with the zombie Spider-Man and his New Avengers in combating the zombies. Rhodes contributed Stark's nanites to Spider-Man in which he used them to inoculate Sandman with it to eradicate all the zombies for good, with the exception of the Sentry, who was sent to the past of Earth-2149 by Uatu.^[3]

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Rhodes has no powers of his own but they are derived from his Iron Man Armor.

Abilities

Seemingly those of James Rhodes of Earth-616.

Notes

Unlike most Iron Men, Rhodes eventually became a cyborg after the events of Marvel Zombies Return #4, having escaped infection by the zombie virus by cutting off bitten body-parts and replacing them with components of the Iron Man armor.
When Earth-616's Rhodes first became Iron Man, he had an initial struggle with using the armor and needed to rely on Morley Erwin for help with its technology.^[4] Earth-91126's Rhodes, on the other hand, appears more adept at using the armor, indicating that either he had prior knowledge of it in an unseen adventure, and/or may be more knowledgeable about tech than his Earth-616 counterpart (which could also explain his upgraded armors shown in subsequent issues without Tony Stark's involvement).
James Rhodes has prior knowledge of Tony being Iron Man before the zombie attack, while his Earth-616 counterpart only learned of Tony's secret during the time Obadiah Stane was trying to takeover Stark International and Magma attacked.^[5]. Since Marvel Zombies Return #2 establishes that Stane has nothing to do with the problems (Aside from Stane not being mentioned, Happy Hogan tells Tony "The Chinese get a controlling interest in Stark International and all your patents", something that would have hindered Stane's attempt to control Stark International), it's assumed Earth-91126's events went drastically different for its Tony Stark and everyone he associated or fought with before the zombies arrived.

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Footnotes

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[Marvel_Zombies_Return_Vol_1_2-0] Marvel Zombies Return #2

[Marvel_Zombies_Return_Vol_1_4-1] Marvel Zombies Return #4

[Marvel_Zombies_Return_Vol_1_5-2] Marvel Zombies Return #5

[Iron_Man_Vol_1_170-3] Iron Man #170

[170-170-4] Iron Man #169-170

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