War Machine Armor

Gallery

Official Name

War Machine Armor

Aliases

War Machine, Iron Man MK II, Variable Threat Response Battlesuit

Model

1

Version

2

Origin

Universe

Earth-199999

Lead Designer

Tony Stark

Additional Designers

Justin Hammer

Place of Creation

Stark Industries

Origin

An upgraded version of the Iron Man MK II armor with Hammer-Tech weaponry

Owners

Current Owner

James Rhodes

Previous Owners

Tony Stark

First appearance

Last appearance

Iron Man 2
(May 7, 2010)

Marvel's Iron Man 3 Prelude #1
(March, 2013)

History

The first appearance of this armor was in the form of Tony Stark's Iron Man MK II armor, where it proved to be successful as a prototype design for the later, more public, series of Iron Man armors. In its initial form it was capable of high velocity flight, and protected its wearer from the stresses of such high speeds. Limitations of the MK II armor included a freezing problem at high altitudes and power supply issues, which soon resulted in the MK II armor being mothballed in favor of more advanced designs.

Some time later, James Rhodes arrived to witness Stark's drunken antics at a party at Stark's residence. Reacting to the danger posed by his drunken friend, who was wearing the newer MK IV at the time, Rhodes retreated to Stark's private workshop and donned the MK II armor. Returning to the upper level, Rhodes then challenged Stark to refrain from further abuse of the armor's power. Stark rejected this, prompting the pair to engage in a lengthy duel that tore apart significant portions of Tony Stark's mansion. In the wake of the conflict, and with the two combatants separated, Rhodes then departed, still in possession of the MK II Iron Man armor.

Bringing the armor to an Edwards Air Force Base, Rhodes promptly turned it over to the U.S. Military for further investigation. While it granted greatly enhanced physical capabilities to its wearer it also lacked the weapons capabilities of Stark's more recent Iron Man armors. In a bid to turn the armor over to combat applications, the military called on the talents of arms manufacturer, Justin Hammer, a long-time rival of Tony Stark's. Hammer was granted access to the MK II in order to upgrade it with various weapon systems, although Rhodes also had the foresight to remove the valuable arc reactor power source before Hammer touched the suit, thus denying the entrepreneur any access to the secret of Iron Man's power.

With the upgrades in place, the confiscated MK II armor made its next appearance in a public unveiling at an expo along with Justin Hammer's new force of "Hammer Drones". In this form the armor had been rechristened "War Machine" and now sported a comprehensive array of Hammertech weaponry grafted onto the Stark-designed frame, a new black and silver paint job, and U.S. Air Force markings. In addition to the base systems, the armor's new weapons compliment included various external pods containing various projectile and missile weapons.

Unbeknownst to all parties, Hammer's new designer Ivan Vanko, had compromised the War Machine armor's computer systems and with Rhodes helpless to intervene, was able to commandeer the suit to launch an attack on Tony Stark. The ensuing battle tested the War Machine armor to the limits of its flight capability, even to the point where it proved capable of almost matching pace with Stark's Iron Man MK VI armor.

The battle between the two Stark armors ended once control was externally restored to James Rhodes and then the two men joined forces to destroy the remaining active drones. They then faced Ivan Vanko, now encased in his own battle suit. The War Machine's externally mounted weapons were quickly destroyed under Vanko's onslaught and a shoulder mounted Hammertech "bunker buster" rocket failed completely. Stark and Rhodes were only able to defeat their adversary by firing their gauntlet repulsors at each other, causing a highly volatile explosion to engulf Vanko's armor.

After the battle, Rhodes asked his best friend if he could keep the armor since his car had been destroyed, which Stark jokingly refused. Then Rhodes departed with the armor into the skies.

Rhodes later returned the armor to Stark, who got rid of any trace of Hammer tech and reverted this armor back to its MK II form, giving Rhodey a new and better version of the War Machine Armor.

Abilities, Weapons, and Equipment

• Ballistic: A 7.62-mm minigun is attached to the back of the suit on a swivel mount and typically fires over the right shoulder. It is governed by an automated targeting system and can track targets independently of the suit's wearer, including those targets to the rear. The ammunition feed for this weapon is a belt feed from the rear torso. The armor's vambraces each mount an underslung submachinegun.
• Repulsors: Conceptualized to provide flight stabilization to control the thruster boots, the strength of the War Machine gauntlet repulsors are not weapons-grade.
• Rocket: A box rocket launcher mounted over the left shoulder holds a Hammer-tech bunker busting rocket that Rhodes referred to as the "Ex-Wife".
• Thrust: The armor's enhanced jet boots can propel War Machine through the air at high speed.
  

Notes

• If Justin Hammer really did include all of the firearms he proposed for the suit, armaments would be: A 9-mm high tech pistol, a sub-machine gun, an M24 shotgun, an FN2000 assault rifle, a 40-mm Melkor grenade launcher, and the 7.62-mm Minigun.
  

Trivia

• No trivia.

See Also

• 3 Appearances of War Machine Armor MK I (Earth-199999)
• Images featuring War Machine Armor MK I (Earth-199999)
• Item Gallery: War Machine Armor MK I (Earth-199999)
• Fan-Art Gallery: War Machine Armor MK I (Earth-199999)

Links and References

• http://ironmanmovie.marvel.com/#/videos