‘Secret Invasion’: Where is the Real Rhodey? Did the Skrulls Kidnap Him?

One of the things that we learned in ‘Secret Invasion’ is that Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes wasn’t who he thought he was. That’s because a Skrull named Raava has been impersonating him the entire time and was actually influencing President Ritson in favor of starting the war that Gravik wanted. In that regard, we know that the real Rhodey is out there. But where could Rhodey be?

It is possible that the Skrulls kidnapped Rhodes before the events of ‘Secret Invasion’ because of how close he was to President Ritson. The Skrulls may have kidnapped him somewhere between the events of ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ and ‘Secret Invasion’ and kept him in their compound.

One of the things that we know about the Skrulls is that they have been keeping the people they’ve kidnapped because they are still important to them, especially when it comes to the things they know. That means that Rhodey could still be in the Skrull compound in Russia because he is still important to the Skrulls due to his knowledge of the Avengers and President Ritson. That said, let’s look at where Rhodey could be.

The Skrulls are most likely keeping him

If there was one thing that surprised many fans in ‘Secret Invasion,’ it’s that people were not exactly who they were. We saw that in episode 1 when Agent Everett Ross was a Skrull in the opening scenes. But we know that the real Ross is somewhere in Wakanda due to the events of ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.’ And we also know that the Skrulls have installed their own in high positions in different governments worldwide.

One of the things that we noticed was that Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes wasn’t himself because he dared to fire Nick Fury, who was always a friend to him and the Avengers.

On top of that, he called Varra and tried to convince her to kill her own husband. And when we saw a Skrull transforming into Rhodey in the bathroom, it was clear that the Rhodes we’ve been seeing in the series was a Skrull the entire time.

Of course, the Skrull that has been impersonating Rhodey is named Raava. We know that she isn’t the real Rhodey because evidence suggests that the Rhodey of the MCU was not a Skrull. That means that Raava had just recently started living Rhodey’s life and was acting as Gravik’s spy while she was working for the president.

So, if that’s the case, where could the real Rhodey be? For starters, we know that the Skrulls have been kidnapping important people from different governments worldwide to replace them with their own people. We saw that in episode 1 when one of the Skrulls impersonated a human being and took his memories from him.

Then, in the next few episodes, we learned that the Skrulls had been keeping the kidnapped people in their compound and were using Fracking Pods on them the entire time. The Fracking Pods kept the kidnapped people in a state of suspended animation while their memories were being played. As such, when the Skrulls needed something from them, they could just look into the memories of the kidnapped people through the Fracking Pods, as that was what G’iah did when she found out the password of Commodore Fairbanks.

That means that there’s a good chance that Rhodey could be in one of the Fracking Pods in the Skrull compound in Russia. That’s because the Skrulls would want to keep him away from the general public if they wanted to ensure that their own version of Rhodey in the White House wouldn’t get caught impersonating the genuine article. In that regard, they had to have kidnapped Rhodey and placed him in one of the Fracking Pods. 

This isn’t the same situation with Everett Ross, who the Skrulls didn’t have to worry about since he could be in Wakanda. In that regard, Rhodey is too dangerous for the Skrulls to allow to walk around in public while they have an imposter by President Ritson’s side.

When did the Skrulls kidnap Rhodey?

Of course, if the Skrulls kidnapped Rhodey and placed him in a Fracking Pod in Russia, that would mean that they kidnapped him before the events of the ‘Secret Invasion’ series. After all, we didn’t see them kidnapping him during the series. As such, it has probably been a while since Raava took over the real Rhodey’s place by the president’s side.

The Rhodey we saw in ‘Avengers: Endgame’ was real because he walked using leg braces and acted like the real War Machine. He wouldn’t have risked his life to save the planet if he had been Raava the entire time. That means that the Skrulls didn’t kidnap him before ‘Endgame.’

The next time we saw Rhodey was during the events of ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ when Sam Wilson gave a speech regarding the importance of Captain America’s shield and the symbol it stood for. He spoke to Sam after that and went off on his own.

We never saw him again after that, but we are positive that this was the real Rhodey because he was speaking from the heart and because that moment he had with Sam Wilson would be degraded if he was Raava the entire time.

That would mean there’s a good chance that the Skrulls kidnapped Rhodey at one point between the events of ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ and ‘Secret Invasion.’ Probably a year has passed since that event, and there’s a possibility that Raava has been acting as Rhodey for a year. Of course, we might get the answers we are looking for in the series finale of ‘Secret Invasion.’

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