War Machine Armor: Mark I

"You've been very busy. You made your girl your CEO, you're giving away all your stuff. You let your friend fly away with your suit. Now, if I know better..." "You don't know better. I didn't give it to him. He took it."

- Nick Fury and Tony Stark

The War Machine Armor: Mark I or JRXL-1000 Variable Threat Response Battle Suit is the heavily weaponized armor used by James Rhodes aka War Machine. It was originally Tony Stark's Mark II armor that was confiscated and heavily modified with a variety of weapons and armor additions.

History
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. He took it? You're Iron Man and he just took it? The little brother walked in there, kicked your ass and took your suit? Is that possible?"

- Nick Fury to Tony Stark

After a series of conflicts with the United States government over the ownership of Tony Stark's Iron Man Armor technology, Tony's friend and Military Liaison to Stark Industries, James Rhodes, took responsibility for minimizing any further conflicts or questionable actions by Stark. Upon arriving at Tony's annual birthday party, Rhodes discovered that Tony had become drunk while wearing the Iron Man Armor and was behaving recklessly, nearly endangering the lives of the party attendants. In order to subdue Stark, Rhodes put on Stark's Mark II armor and ordered Stark to stop, which led to a fight between the two.

Following the fight, Rhodes took the armor to to turn the armor over the U.S. Air Force under his personal supervision. Rhodes' superiors then made the decision to call in Justin Hammer to weaponize the suit with a variety of top of the line firearms provided by Hammer Industries. After the armor had been weaponized and modified, Hammer and the military took the armor to the Stark Expo so that it could be presented alongside Hammer Industries' new Iron Man inspired Hammer Drones.

After being tipped off about a looming attack by his enemy, Ivan Vanko, Stark arrived in his latest armor, the Mark VI, to reclaim the Mark II and confront his foes. Stark attempted to force Hammer to reveal Vanko's location, as well as convince Rhodes to help him in his mission. However, Vanko took control of the War Machine armor and the Hammer Drones, sending them to kill Stark. The War Machine Armor, running on a remote autopilot, chased the Mark VI through the skies around the Expo until it was beaten in combat by the Mark VI. Eventually with the help of Natasha Romanoff, Rhodes was able to regain control of the armor and help Stark defeat the rest of the Hammer Drones and Vanko, who arrived in his Whiplash Mark II armor.

Following the battle, Rhodes took the armor for "security purposes" without complete objection from Stark. Later, the armor was stripped of all Hammer weapons upgrades by Stark, considering it an insult to his own tech, after which Tony created a new War Machine armor for his best friend.

Capabilities
Even before weaponization, the armor (formerly the Mark II) was capable of battling Stark who was in the Mark IV. Upon being weaponized by Hammer, it was updated to the Variable Threat Battlesuit. In addition to the increased physical capabilities the suit brings like superhuman strength, reflexes and durability, it also has repulsors like Stark's suit. In addition, the suit is armed to the teeth with weaponry such as a minigun, rocket launcher and built-in submachineguns in the gauntlets. To counterbalance the extra weight caused by the various added weapons, extra thrusters were added to both calves to allow for flight on a level comparable to the Iron Man Armors from the Mark II onwards.

Built-in Weapons

 * : 7.62mm, six barrel, 6,000 rounds per minute.
 * : 5.56mm NATO ammunition, bullpup assault rifle.
 * : 9mm, Semi-Automatic Pistol.
 * M24 Shotgun (Variant Proprietary to Hammer): 12-gauge, bolt-action shotgun made exclusively by Hammer Industries. It has a barrel length of 180mm, with a five-round magazine and a double action trigger.
 * : 40mm grenade ammunition, 6-round revolving cylinder.
 * Sidewinder "Ex-Wife" Self-Guided Missile: Kinetic-Kill Sidewinder missile made exclusively by Hammer Industries. A laser-guided, miniature missile made to be a bunker buster.