Issue(s): Iron Man #114
Cover Date: Sep 78
Title: "The menace of... Arsenal!"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
Keith Giffen - Penciler
Bruce D. Patterson - Inker

Review/plot:
Thanks to Bill Mantlo's prolific writing and the fact that he's written for numerous titles, he was able to personally increase the visibility of various characters - especially ones he created - even if those characters were rarely or never used by other writers. This isn't at all a bad thing; i made similar comments about Steve Gerber when he was writing the early issues of Marvel Two-In-One and using it to highlight characters from all the other books he was writing. And this kind of self-promotion is actually an important part of the cross-pollination of the Marvel Universe. It's just that when i get to an issue like this and i say, "Hey, it's the first appearance of Arsenal!" i have to stop and remind myself that the character really isn't that important; he just happened to appear in three separate titles all written by Mantlo.

The revelations about Arsenal's origin are arguably more significant, especially in light of later revelations about Tony Stark's father, but that isn't yet touched on in this issue.

Iron Man has brought the Unicorn to Avengers Mansion so that they can help with the Unicorn, who is dying.

The Unicorn wakes up, gets free, and goes on a rampage...

...still directed by who we know to be the Titanium Man.

During the fight, the Unicorn winds up in a basement underneath the Mansion, and activates Arsenal.

Arsenal knocks out the Unicorn and then attacks the Avengers itself.

Eventually Arsenal disappears, and none of the Avengers are aware of where it came from. Stark says that the Unicorn will be taken back to Stark International and put on life support.

The Spymaster continues to creep around at Stark.

A friend of mine, a big fan of Keith Giffen's later DC work, was looking over my shoulder while i was reading this, and pointed out this sequence as being representative of Giffen's layouting style (this is just Madame Masque arriving at one of Stark's penthouse apartments).

I liked these panels.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 7. No wait, i mean 2 - first Arsenal

Chronological Placement Considerations: This is a context-free appearance for the Avengers.

References:

• Iron Man called upon Henry Pym in Iron Man #108 to help his friends that had been turned to gold. Pym is less pleased to help with the Unicorn, and the Beast is similarly uncharitable about it.
  
• In addition to the Unicorn, the Avengers also have the Eternity Man, from Avengers #169, and Count Nefaria, held here after Avengers #164-166, in storage.
  
• An end blurb says that Arsenal will return in an upcoming issue of Avengers. That will be Avengers annual #9.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A