Comic Browser:

Iron Man #114

Sep 1978

Bill Mantlo, Keith Giffen

Story Name:

The Menace of...Arsenal!

Synopsis

Iron Man #114 synopsis by T Vernon

Rating:

At Avengers Mansion, Iron Man appeals to Hank Pym to save the life of his enemy the Unicorn, who is dying of an unknown illness. Hank bombards the Unicorn with radiation and the Avengers all leave the room for their own safety. The treatment awakens Unicorn and he bursts his bonds….
Brief interlude 1: Madam Masque stops by Tony Stark’s penthouse after a shopping trip….
The insane Unicorn crashes out of the lab and blindly attacks everyone in sight. Shellhead, Yellowjacket, Wonder Man, Beast, and Vision struggle against the madman as he blasts through the Mansion floors until he hits the sub-basement. His mysterious controller can’t get a signal through and Unicorn accidentally activates a dangerous robot called Arsenal. When the Avengers arrive looking for their quarry they are attacked by the newcomer which has a wide range of weapons to employ against the heroes….
Brief interlude 2: The spy in Stark Industries obtains his desired info and leaves as quietly as he came….
Captain America and Scarlet Witch return from dinner and see Arsenal freeze Iron Man into immobility; the two new heroes join the battle against the monster but are easily defeated. Iron Man returns to the fray and unleashes everything he’s got against Arsenal and takes it down. The monster emits a flash of light that temporarily blinds Shellhead and when he recovers the huge robot is gone without a trace. They find the gravely injured Unicorn and Iron Man rushes him to the Stark plant to put him on life support….

Review / Commentaries

Iron Man #114 Review by T Vernon (November 18, 2014)

Review: A lengthy fight scene with a formidable foe: Arsenal is a fully armed robot (though he looks like a muscleman with an ape mask—or DC’s Bwana Beast). Iron Man gets a lot of “wow” moments and proves he is a hero—too bad his Avenger comrades have to take a beating so he can shine.

Comments: First appearance of Arsenal who is later revealed to be a weapon created by Howard Stark for World War 2; it returns in AVENGERS ANNUAL #9 and is destroyed (by guess who?) in THE INCREDIBLE HULK #282. Count Nefaria and the Eternity Man (Jason Beere) are seen in suspended animation in the lab. Iron Man calls himself the second most powerful Avenger, after Thor.

> Iron Man comic book info and issue index

Excelsioring your collection:

Diamond Select Toys Marvel Gallery: Beast PVC Figure, Multicolor

Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Main/1st Story Full Credits

Bill Mantlo

Keith Giffen

Bruce Patterson

Ben Sean

John Romita Jr. (Cover Penciler)
Dan Green (Cover Inker)

Additional Credits

Letterer: Diana Albers.
Editor: Roger Stern.

All stories. Listed in alphabetical order.

Avengers

Beast
(Henry Phillip McCoy)

Captain America
(Steven Rogers)

Iron Man
(Anthony Stark)

Madame Masque
(Giulietta Nefaria)

Scarlet Witch
(Wanda Maximoff)

Vision

Wonder Man
(Simon Williams)

Yellowjacket
(Hank Pym)

Arsenal

Unicorn

Plus: Spymaster (Spymaster 1), Titanium Man (Boris Bullski).

The Marvel Heroes Library is a fan Marvel Comics site

Version 14.8.29 (Dec 1, 2024. VS22)

Characters are copyright © Marvel or their respective owners. All portions of this Marvel fansite that are subject to copyright are licensed under a creative commons attribution 3.0 unported license All rights reserved