In the all-encompassing world of The Avengers, little felt forgotten in the intricate weavings of Joss Whedon. That’s little, not all. I can’t be the only one to have wondered where Tony’s long-time comrade was during the god of mischief’s Chitauri invasion. Considering the dire global implications this event would have had the newly founded super-team failed to thwart Loki, you’d think S.H.I.E.L.D. wouldn’t argue with gaining as much manpower as possible – particularly super-manpower. Of course Sony has its leash around the friendly neighborhood wall-crawler and the children of the atom are still kept at bay by the villainous foe that is Fox, but James Rhodes was etched into this worlds iron foundations via the (admittedly) somewhat underwhelming Iron Man 2. You’d think a man of such military stripes wouldn’t just…ah…sleep in. So oh War Machine…where art thou?

Courtesy of the Iron Man 3 prelude Part 1 comic just released, the answer to where our Houdini superhero was comes to a fitting solution. Tying into the Easter egg mentions of the original Iron Man’s mentions of the Ten Rings terrorist group, War Machine was foiling a plot of the (soon to be revealed) Mandarin and co. in Hong Kong. Behold your answer, inquisitive ones: