The Avengers try to solve the mystery of Arsenal, a robot who once attacked them and disappeared. In the secret Project Tomorrow complex beneath Avengers Mansion, the project’s computer intelligence, Mistress, reactivates Arsenal, believing it’s still World War II and that the Avengers work for the Axis Powers. When Beast, Hawkeye and Yellowjacket discover the complex, Arsenal defeats them, but Yellowjacket escapes. A government scientist tells the other Avengers about Arsenal’s origin and Iron Man learns that his father created the robot as Project Tomorrow’s director. Yellowjacket alerts his teammates about Arsenal’s location and the Avengers raid the underground complex. Arsenal injures Vision and punches Wonder Man into a chasm. Thor retrieves Wonder Man and the two revive Vision. As Captain America holds off Arsenal, Iron Man confronts Mistress, which he learns is programmed with his mother’s brainwaves. Iron Man reveals his identity to Mistress and tells the computer that the war is over and his father is dead. Mistress self-destructs, and Arsenal destructs moments later, overwhelmed by a combined assault from Thor and Scarlet Witch. Iron Man is shaken by the loss of his “mother” a second time.
The Avengers fight Arsenal (IM #114, ’78). Arsenal is created as part of a secret World War II doomsday project called Project Tomorrow, and its creator, Howard Stark, advises against its peacetime use after the Allied victory.
Iron Man calls in stand-bys Hawkeye, Thor, Wonder Man and Yellowjacket to temporarily cover for absent Avengers Falcon, Ms. Marvel and Wasp. Hawkeye notes that Falcon is busy solving an embassy murder, a reference to MPr #49, ’79. Yellowjacket mentions that Wasp is out of town; indeed, she is with the Defenders in Las Vegas at this time (Def #76-77, ’79). This issue establishes Tony Stark’s father’s full name as Howard Anthony Stark; his headstone in IM #322, ’95 incorrectly reads “Howard Walter Stark.” IM #84, ’04 reveals this Arsenal is the Beta unit and introduces the Alpha unit.
