Iron Husbands

Iron Husbands is the slash ship between James Rhodey and Tony Stark from the Marvel Cinematic Universe fandom.

Iron Man
Rhodey and Tony met at M.I.T. and became lifelong best friends. Rhodey joined the U.S. Air Force, eventually achieving the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, while Tony took his place as CEO of Stark Industries. Due to his close friendship with Tony, Rhodey became the liaison between Stark Industries and the U.S. Armed Forces.

Before Tony's presentation of the Jericho missile, he and Rhodey went to a nightclub together. Rhodey tried to convince Tony not to go to Afghanistan, but Tony wouldn't listen. Tony was then attacked by a man whose girlfriend he'd previously seduced, but Rhodey defeated the attacker. Rhodey, Tony, and two women they'd met at the club later returned to Tony's mansion together.

At Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Rhodey attended a ceremony to present Tony with an award for his work, telling the audience that it was an honor to work with him. Tony, however, had skipped the ceremony to go gambling.

The next day, Rhodey accompanied Tony on his private jet to Afghanistan. Rhodey initially wanted to talk business, but Tony encouraged him to relax, and they both got drunk.

After the presentation, Tony insisted on riding in a different Humvee than Rhodey. The convoy was attacked by the Ten Rings, and Tony was kidnapped, disappearing for three months. Rhodey headed the rescue mission, but they were unable to find him until Tony used his Mark 1 armor to blow up the facility where he was being held. Seeing the explosion, Rhodey sent out helicopters in its direction, and they were able to find Tony wandering through the desert. He pulled Tony into a hug upon reuniting with him.

After Tony's announcement that he was ceasing weapons production, Tony visited Rhodey, intending to inform him of his plans to build more armor. Rhodey believed that this meant that he was willing to reopen his work with the military. Seeing that Rhodey disagreed with his new approach, Tony decided against telling him the specifics of the project.

After seeing an unidentified aircraft flying through a no-fly zone, Rhodey contacted Tony to ask if he had any technology in the area. Tony initially denied this, but admitted that he was, in fact, the aircraft in question after two F-22 Raptors began pursuing him. Worried for his friend's life, Rhodey tried to call off the Raptors, but they kept going after him until one was damaged. Tony convinced Rhodey to pass the incident off as a training exercise to the press.

Later, Pepper Potts called Rhodey in a panic after she learned that Obadiah Stane was responsible for Tony's kidnapping. Rhodey drove to Tony's mansion to check on him, and found on the ground of his workshop, having just installed an older Arc Reactor after Obadiah stole his currently model. Rhodey marveled at Tony as he suited up. Tony asked Rhodey to keep the skies clear for him, and left to deal with Obadiah. Rhodey returned to base and prevented the Air Force from getting involved, passing off the fight as a training exercise.

Iron Man 2
Rhodey was called upon to write a report on the Iron Man armor for a senate committee meeting. Though Senator Stern tried to twist his report in order to get the armor handed over to the U.S. government, Rhodey spoke in favor of Tony. He grinned to himself as Tony hacked into Stern's presentation and embarrassed him and competitor Justin Hammer

After the fight between Tony and Ivan Vanko in Monaco, Rhodey tried to talk Tony into taking responsibility, but instead found him barely able to stand due to palladium poisoning. Rhodey offered his help, but Tony turned him down.

Later, Rhodey arrived at Tony's birthday party to find him drunk, acting dangerously and irresponsibly in his armor. Rhodey, who had spent the last few hours defending Tony, was angered by his behavior. He donned the Mark II armor and confronted Tony. The confrontation resulted in a physical fight that drove away the party guests and destroyed much of the mansion. Eventually, they fired their repulsers at each other, creating a shockwave which knocked both of them back. With Tony unable to stand, Rhodey flew away with the armor.

Rhodey took the armor back to his superiors at the Air Force, and using Hammer's tech, they turned the Mark II into the War Machine.

At the Stark Expo, Tony told Rhodey that Hammer was working with Vanko. Before they could do anything about it, Vanko activated his Hammer Drones and Rhodey's suit to fire on Tony. Tony flew away, and the Drones and Rhodey, against his will, pursued him. Natasha Romanoff was eventually able to fight her way into Hammer Industries and rebooted Rhodey's suit to release him from Vanko's control. Rhodey and Tony fought side-by-side against the Hammer Drones and Vanko, defeating him by once again firing their repulsers at each other.

Iron Man 3
Rhodey and Tony met at a bar to discuss the Mandarin, the latest threat. Their meeting abruptly ended when Tony suffered a panic attack and quickly left the bar.

Rhodey was captured by Aldrich Killian, and Tony was caught and imprisoned while sneaking into Killian's facility. Both managed to escape and went together to interrogate Trevor Slattery, the actor hired by Killian to play the Mandarin. The two escaped on Slattery's speed boat, where Tony used his remote-controlled Mark XLII armor to foil Killian's attack on Air Force One. Though he was able to rescue the plane's other passengers from falling to their deaths, President Matthew Ellis was captured and taken to Killian inside Rhodey's armor, which had since been rebranded as the Iron Patriot.

Rhodey and Tony infiltrated Killian's ship to rescue Ellis. Tony called in the Iron Legion to assist. When Rhodey asked for a suit of armor, Tony told him that they were only programmed for his own body. While Tony went to save Pepper, who had been kidnapped by Killian, Rhodey rescued Ellis and took back his armor. He flew himself and Ellis out of danger while Tony continued to fight Killian.

Avengers: Age of Ultron
Rhodey attended the party at Avengers Tower to celebrate their acquisition of Loki's scepter. He told Tony and Thor a story about one of his adventures, but they were unimpressed.

After most of the guests had left, Rhodey joined the Avengers as they sat and joked together. He and Tony attempted to lift Thor's hammer, but they were unable to, even with the combined strength of their suits' gauntlets. The celebration was interrupted by Ultron. The two helped fight off Ultron's bots. Afterwards, Rhodey made it clear that he disapproved of Tony's actions.

Later, Rhodey and Tony fought alongside each other in the air, destroying Ultron's bots.

Captain America: Civil War
Rhodey and Tony sided with each other on the Sokovia Accords. They fought at each other's side in the battle at the Leipzig-Halle Airport. After Natasha let Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes escape in a Quinjet, Rhodey and Tony chased after them, with Sam Wilson behind them. Vision, who had become distracted by Wanda Maximoff, fired a beam from the Mind Stone at Sam. Sam easily dodged, and the beam instead struck the Arc Reactor on Rhodey's suit, taking out its power. Tony chased after him as he fell. He was unable to save him, though, and Rhodey hit the ground hard, knocking him out and paralyzing him from the waist down. Tony's anger and guilt over the incident caused him to lash out at Natasha, damaging their friendship.

After the fight, Tony built Rhodey a set of prosthetics to help him walk again, and assisted him at physical therapy. Though he had trouble adapting to the prosthetics, Rhodey refused to give up, telling Tony that he still believed in the Accords.

Avengers: Endgame
After Thanos' snap, Tony and Rhodey were reunited at the Avengers Compound. Rhodey tried to stop tony when Tony was about to lash out on Steve. He convinced Tony to calm down, pointing out that Tony was sick.

Five years later they went on a mission together to retrieve back the half of population eliminated by Thanos. In the end of the fight, Tony lost his life. Rhodey watched Tony's holographic message being projected from his Iron Man helmet and attended his funeral.

Quotes
"Well, I'm concerned about you, Tony. I'm concerned about you."

- Rhodey, Iron Man 3.

"Give me back my Rhodey."

- Tony to Scott Lang, Captain America: Civil War.

Fanon
Fans have shipped Iron Husband since the first Iron Man movie, emphasizing the strong bond of their friendship. They have taken a notice of so many times Rhodey support Tony despite their up and downs, claiming the characters as having the best bromance in MCU. The fans have also taken a pity on how underrated the ship is-despite having a lot of screen time together.

On AO3, Iron Husbands as gen ship is the tenth most written for Tony and the most written for Rhodey.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Rhodey/Tony (Avengers film) tag on FanFiction.net
 * Rhodey/Tony (Avengers comic) tag on FanFiction.net
 * Rhodey/Tony (Avengers comic) tag on FanFiction.net

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