A reprise . . . "Nothing much."

Pieced together from the spare parts and scraps Tony scrounged from his "Mr. Fix-it" gig at Bistro Electronics, The Rehab Gray Armor, Model XI, Mark I, was first seen in pieces in IRON MAN #188. Tony swore that he would never put it on, blaming the armor—it’s protective shell—for his alcohol problems, but Stark soon needed to put it on—in more ways than one. And although the Rehab Gray Armor was inferior to all but his first armors, it represented Tony's genius and his destiny, marking his return to armor after many months.

Tony tinkered with the Rehab Gray as a kind of therapeutic exercise while on his road back to sobriety. It was good for him to work with his mind and hands again, and the armor provided a practical way to apply and test out some of his new ideas. (Stark has always liked to work things out with physical hardware he can touch, rather than simple paper theories.) But Stark had another motive in the back of his mind. Rhodes was cracking under the strain of being Iron Man. Tony thought that he might need an insurance policy. And as Rhodey's behavior became more erratic, this armor proved good enough to reign him in.

In terms of design, this was a very basic suit—and when compared to Rhodes’ armor, this one was downright primitive (e.g. it was half the power of Rhodes’ suit; its top speed was only 200 m.p.h.). But when Tony was forced to stand against Jim (IRON MAN #191, when Tony had to calm down Rhodey, who had a mad-on for Vibro and refused to take their battle to a less crowded, less public place), the Rehab Gray Model—although greatly inferior to the model Jim was wearing—proved once again that it was the man in the armor, not the armor itself that was the true hero.

In appearance, Model ** was almost identical to the first Iron Man armor Tony made in Southeast Asia. Tony even had to put it on manually, using old-fashioned manual catches and latches, not his modern magnetic couplers. Still, the Rehab Gray was slimmer and more modern than its inspiration. Stark dropped the kilt-like groin segment, opting for a more streamlined, aerodynamic look. He also added flexible ducting in the knees and elbows, improving overall armor comfort and movement. Despite these improvements the armor itself was of low-grade metal, and easily dented by Iron Man Rhodey.

While carrying Dr. Demonicus’ reptilian beast out to sea in #196, Tony ran out of power. As his boot jets cut out, he fell into the sea. Trapped in the inert armor—weighing over 200 pounds—he sank quickly to the bottom of the ocean. With no oxygen in this “scrap heap of an armor,” Stark was forced to ditch it, letting it fall to the bottom of the Pacific while he swarm for shore. (The armor was later used by Demonicus himself to attack Stark and co; Tony ultimately retook it.)

In the end, Model XI was just too much of an antiquated relic, a patchwork of leftover parts and great ideas. It's low-powered cooling unit was little better than an old-fashioned ice box, and no match for Obidiah Stane’s Circuit Breaker (a fancy flying aresenal seen in #197). The Rehab Gray was reduced to slag by the Circuit Breaker’s weapons.

Other know features: armor had a broadcast unit; new gyros stabilized flight.

The Special Feature On This Suit: The Rehab Gray Armor had very limited offensive capabilities (or defensive measures for that matter), but when taking on Iron Man, Stark had to find a way to stop Rhodes from breaking him in half. By manipulating his magnetic array, Tony was able to turn the entire suit into a giant electromagnet—he used it to repel Rhodes, keeping him away from him, out of striking range.

Armaments: improved repulsors (a cutting-edge holistic repulsor matrix); plasma projectors (in gauntlets).