James Rhodes as Iron Patriot

I don't know how I feel about including this one. It's common for comics to make changes around the time of a movie or tv show to make themselves more recognizable to people who decide to buy the comics because they like the movie/show. Sometimes this produces canon immigrants, such as new characters or costumes. Sometimes it doesn't, such as Spider-Man getting his black suit back in time for Spider-Man 3. But sometimes it produces a weird middle ground where none of the specific elements are new but the combination is. This one is an example of that. And generally I try to avoid these, but to be honest, I have a streak going and I want it to continue. So here we go.

Col. James "Rhodey" Rhodes took over as Iron Man following the death of Tony Stark, using a militarized version of the Iron Man armor, in Iron Man #284 (July 1992). The armor debuted three issues before. When Tony came back and took over as Iron Man again, Rhodey kept the suit and started going by War Machine in Avengers West Coast #94 (March 1993).

The Iron Patriot armor debuted in Dark Avengers #1 (January 2009), worn by Norman Osborn. It was purposefully designed by him to evoke both Iron Man and Captain America, I guess to give his team some legitimacy.

A few years later, Iron Patriot debuted in Iron Man 3 (2013) as Rhodey's new code name. The official reason was that the name "War Machine" didn't test well and they wanted something more positive in the wake of the Chitauri invasion.

So in Secret Avengers #6 (July 2013), only a couple months after Iron Man 3,  Rhodey takes over as the new Iron Patriot and also controls some Iron Patriot drones.

Rhodey is no longer Iron Patriot, but he kept the role for about a year and a half. That longevity, definitely more than one story arc, is pretty much the only reason I'm comfortable at all posting this.