Avengers Annual 9

Avengers Annual 9
1979

The Power of Arsenal!
by Bill Mantlo, Don Newton, Jack Abel, Joe Rubinstein, John Costanza

Part 1: Today the Avengers Die!

The Avengers (Iron Man, Captain America, Yellow Jacket, Thor, Beast, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, Vision) talk about their first fight with Arsenal in Iron Man (1968) 114. One of them, probably Iron Man but maybe it was Yellow Jacket, has built a miniature replica or the killer robot.

Beneath Avengers Mansion, Arsenal and Mistress, his computer companion, plot his return. She is a computer built by their creator. She has a human face but her only physical manifestation is on a screen.

Hawkeye and Beast find a hole in a wall in Avengers Mansion and decide to investigate. Yellow Jacket follows them as a distance. They are the first to encounter Arsenal in this issue. He is more than a match for them and they are soon captured. Yellow Jacket just barely escapes his teammates fate. He makes it back to the surface, warns the others, and then collapses.

The other Avengers get a call from Peter Gyrich who introduces them to Dr. Singer, a scientist from the Department of Defense. Dr. Singer also has a model of Arsenal. He tells them about Project Tomorrow which was started during a World War 2 by Howard Stark, Tony’s father. It was supposed to be a weapon of last resort to be used against the Nazis in case Germany won the war.

Avengers Mansion was built on the foundation of a brownstone that was owned by Howard Stark. I guess that explains how and why Arsenal emerged out of Avengers Mansion, in his first appearance and also this one.

Part 2: Something Deadly Lurks Below

The second part is mostly a big fight between the Avengers and Arsenal. Beast and Hawkeye are still the captives of Mistress and about to get lobotomized until Iron Man bursts in and rescues them.

The big reveal at the end (which wasn’t too hard to guess in advance) is that Mistress, the "female" computer that has been guiding Arsenal, is modeled after Tony’s mother. He has a moment where he confronts “her”. He removes his helmet and she recognizes him. Maybe if I hadn’t seen it coming it would have hit me with some impact.

On the whole a good story but probably not good enough for some people. It was nice to get some closure on Arsenal. Arsenal and Project Tomorrow don't have much history beyond this story but there is a version of it in the Ultimate Marvel Universe.