A.R.M.S.A.R.M.S.
Membership: "Bossman," numerous unidentified board members
Purpose: To supply weapons to the underground market
Aliases: Alternative Resources Munitions
Supply (full name)
Affiliations: Richard Fisk, Gauntlet (Alfredo Morelli), Hydra, Sat-Yr-9, Shinobi Shaw, Slug (Ulysses X. Lugman); Formerly Platoon (David Chodosh)
Enemies: A.I.M. (their chief competition), Kate Cushing, Iron Fist (Danny Rand), Platoon (David Chodosh), Spider-Man (Peter
Parker)
Base of Operations: New York City, New York, USA
First Appearance: (mentioned): Spider-Man I#41 (December,
1993); (fully seen): Spider-Man I#42 (January, 1994)
History: (Spider-Man I#41 (fb) - BTS) - Reporter Kate Cushing of the Daily Bugle gathered information on A.R.M.S. for a possible story, leading to her uncovering a rogue connection within Rand Research and Development. Rumors on the street soon began to suggest that A.R.M.S. was planning an aggressive public strike to launch their newest weapons into the underground market that had been previously monopolized by A.I.M.
(Spider-Man I#41 - BTS) - Investigating the rumors,
Peter
Parker dug into the Daily Bugle's computer files and noticed
information about Rand Research and Development's recent titanium
purchase but was drawn away from the data when "Joe Robertson"
seemingly called him down to his office. Returning moments later,
Parker realized someone had impersonated the vacationing Robertson to
lure him away from the data and found the wall of the building knocked
out, surrounded by enough money to cover the damage. Realizing someone
was trying to stop him from digging too much into A.R.M.S.' activities,
Parker phoned Kate Cushing to ask about her research but Cushing
insisted the story was hers and told Parker to stay out of it. Upon
hearing that Kate had not yet had time to backup her data, Parker
donned his Spider-Man costume to investigate the data theft. Following
Cushing's lead to Rand Research and Development, Spider-Man found Danny
Rand meditating in the building while performing a security search on
Rand R&D's computer systems. Crashing through the skylight,
Spider-Man attacked despite Danny's insistence that the A.R.M.S. data
was his responsibility. Thinking Iron Fist had gone rogue, Spider-Man
attacked, prompting Iron Fist to disable his belt-signal to give
himself a darkness advantage. Eventually knocking Iron Fist back,
Spider-Man escaped to the rooftop and Iron Fist, reluctant to leave his
computer search behind, followed and explained that he was merely
protecting private property. When Spider-Man announced that he was
pursuing stolen property, Iron Fist asked that Spider-Man trust his
former ally and promised to explain everything in due time. Admitting
he couldn't condone Iron Fist's actions without a direct explanation,
Spider-Man was given a nerve-pinch from a disappointed Iron Fist and
kicked off the rooftop but Spider-Man quickly recovered and renewed the
fight until part of the Rand's neon sign began to fall towards the
street below. Both heroes refused to allow innocents to be endangered
and worked together to redirect the falling sign. After the sign
destroyed Danny Rand's office, Spider-Man asked for an explanation of
the events and Iron Fist, realizing his computer search had been
forcibly terminated by the crashing sign, agreed to explain the
situation. Upon hearing that Iron Fist was investigating Rand's rogue
connection to A.R.M.S. and admitted he had tried to hide the connection
from Spider-Man in an effort to keep a scandal from ruining Rand
R&D. Working together to reactivate the wrecked computer,
Spider-Man and Iron Fist learned from the recovered data that study
analyst Dr. David Chodosh had made suspicious purchases, which Kate
Cushing's data had spotlighted. Realizing Dr. Chodosh was working with
A.R.M.S., Iron Fist revealed that Dr. Chodosh was working in a
sub-basement in that same building but their attempt to use the
elevator was halted when sabotage caused the elevator cable to snap
before the two heroes could enter it. Instead using an air duct to make
their way to Chodosh's workspace, Iron Fist and Spider-Man were
confronted by Chodosh himself, wearing a suit of armor and calling
himself Platoon.
(Spider-Man I#42) - Ambushing the two heroes, Platoon
knocked them out and reported back to A.R.M.S., explaining how Iron
Fist and Spider-Man had stumbled onto their operations but that the
A.R.M.S. Warsuit had neutralized them. The A.R.M.S. bossman warned that
Platoon was only ordered to risk capture, rather than engage the
heroes, until A.R.M.S. was ready to maximize the media potential of
their newest engagement. When they ordered him to return to base,
Platoon angrily announced that he was quitting work for the munitions
group. As Platoon erupted from the Rand sub-basements onto the street
above, the A.R.M.S. board of directors met to discuss Platoon's rogue
status, admitting that while Chodosh was a loose cannon, his access to
Rand Research and Development made him an invaluable ally to A.R.M.S.
They further discussed that Danny Rand's then-recent "resurrection" had
made Dr. Chodosh a liability and that Spider-Man's involvement as well
as Iron Fist's expected involvement had created a situation that
A.R.M.S. would have to try to find the best of. After Platoon took a
hostage on the Brooklyn Bridge, A.R.M.S.' bossman explained to the
board of directors that Platoon had forced their hand but many of the
board members argued about how to handle the situation with the rogue
Platoon. One board member in particular announced that since A.R.M.S.
had went public, they would have to use Platoon's actions as a public
trial by fire to prove the combat commodity of their weapons against
well-established weapons suppliers like A.I.M. The same member also
suggested another option for when Platoon was finished with his
rampage. Once Platoon had been defeated by Spider-Man and Iron Fist,
A.R.M.S. released an army of their Warsuits on the public.
(Spider-Man I#43) - Upon seeing the Warsuits, numerous high-ranking officials worldwide began phoning in orders with A.R.M.S. Meeting to discuss the surge in orders, the A.R.M.S. board members discussed how Platoon's public defeat had actually done them a favor. They also discussed how they could use the media attention garnered by their other prototype Platoon Warsuits to sell more of the Warsuits. When Spider-Man and Iron Fist jumped into the river in an attempt to lure the Platoon Warsuits away from the Bridge, the Warsuits instead departed towards the city of Brooklyn itself. Giving chase, Iron Fist leapt headlong into battle and Spider-Man joined him, webbing up six of the Warsuits in such a way that they would have to blast each other to get free. Still swamped by orders for the Warsuits, A.R.M.S. continued speaking with buyers despite some of them beginning to question the power of the Warsuits when the determined Spider-Man and Iron Fist drove the Platoon Warsuits back to the edge of the Brooklyn Bridge. Despite the previously webbed six freeing themselves and returning to battle, Spider-Man and Iron Fist to drop a building-in-progress atop the Warsuits, effectively defeating them. With the Warsuits' defeat, A.R.M.S. clients Shinobi Shaw, Hydra, Sat-Yr-9 and Richard Fisk canceled their orders. Gauntlet, Slug and a high-ranking government military officer followed suit and A.R.M.S. was left wondering what the price of scrap metal was going for. Spider-Man and Iron Fist then disabled the remaining Warsuits by damaging their circuitry then setting up a feedback loop that incapacitated the armors. Before Spider-Man and Iron Fist could trace the Warsuits back to A.R.M.S, the A.R.M.S. board members attempted to flee their headquarters via helicopters but before they could do so, A.I.M. appeared and proclaimed A.R.M.S. absorbed into A.I.M. A.I.M. then pulled guns on the board members, announcing that they only had interest in A.R.M.S.' technology and had no room for new blood.
(Annex I#3 (fb) - BTS) - A.I.M. acquired Platoon Warsuit (dubbed A-1) from A.R.M.S.
(Annex I#3 - BTS) - When A.I.M. was alerted to the
Adarco Building's secondary alarms and viewed the culprit, Alex Ellis,
from the video feed, they dispatched Platoon Warsuit A-1 to the Adarco
Building to stop the intruder. Following his battle with the Warsuit
A-1, Annex donned the Warsuit himself to infiltrate its apparent
source, the Adarco Arsenal Development Station. Noticing what appeared
to be a Platoon Warsuit leaving the Adarco Building, Spider-Man was
stunned to see the Warsuit, which he recognized as being from A.R.M.S.
due to his previous encounter with the Warsuits alongside Iron Fist.
Comments: Created by Terry Kavanagh and Jae Lee.
The head of A.R.M.S. was only ever referred to as "Bossman" and only in a comment from Platoon (David Chodosh).
Profile by Proto-Man.
CLARIFICATIONS:
A.R.M.S. has no known connections to
According to various sources, Platoon (David Chodosh)
appeared in Marvel Knights Spider-Man I#6 & #12, likely as part of
the villainous crowd that had gathered for the auction of the Venom
symbiote and later the Scorpion battlesuit. I was unable to locate him
precisely in the crowd (especially in #12, which only shows shadowed,
unidentified characters) but given that various sources place him there
and Platoon could easily have been in that crowd, I chose to list those
appearances in this profile. If something comes along to contradict
these appearances, I will update the profile accordingly.
PlatoonPlatoon was the name of a series of armored Warsuits
designed by A.R.M.S. Built from titanium, the prototype Warsuit was
given to Dr. David Chodosh, a study analyst for Rand Research and
Development who was secretly employed by A.R.M.S. When Iron Fist began
investigating Dr. Chodosh's illegal purchases made on behalf of Rand
R&D and the Daily Bugle began their
own investigation into A.R.M.S. itself, alerting Spider-Man when Iron
Fist stole the Bugle's data for his own investigation, the two heroes
learned of Dr. Chodosh's involvement with the purchases via Iron Fist's
computer search.
Tracking Dr. Chodosh to his sub-basement workspace in Rand R&D, the
heroes were confronted by an armored Dr. Chodosh, who called himself
Platoon. Ambushing the heroes, Platoon knocked the duo out then
reported their neutralization to his A.R.M.S. allies, who had provided
him with his Warsuit. When they ordered him to return to base, Platoon
refused and erupted onto the streets above, soon flying to the Brooklyn
Bridge, where he took a family hostage. Spider-Man and Iron Fist soon
recovered and confronted Platoon at the Bridge, fighting a fierce
battle against him while also getting his hostages to safety in the
distraction. Eventually, Iron Fist exposed some of the Warsuit's wiring
and Spider-Man created a makeshift electromagnetic pulse generator from
Platoon's tech that froze the Warsuit up. The two heroes then punched
the frozen Platoon into the river below, only to find that an army of
Warsuits had been unleashed on the public. The Warsuits eventually
forced Spider-Man and Iron Fist to flee into the river in an effort to
lure the Warsuits away from the Brooklyn Bridge but the Warsuits
instead attacked Brooklyn itself. Forcing the Platoon Warsuits back to
the edge of the Brooklyn Bridge, Spider-Man and Iron Fist ultimately
disabled them by damaging the armors then using their circuitry to
setup a feedback loop that incapacitated them. Later, when Alex Ellis
infiltrated the Adarco Building, Platoon Warsuit A-1 was dispatched to
take care of the intruder and a fight quickly ensued between Platoon
A-1 and Ellis, who was actually the heroic Annex. Their fight
ultimately led to an evacuation of the Building and Annex defeated A-1,
forcing the armor from its wearer, who admitted he had only been tasked
with stopping Annex and had no idea about Annex's questions involving a
Dr. Barto. When the wearer continued to prove unable to answer Annex's
questions, an angry Annex threw him against a wall, knocking him out.
Determining that he would have to get his information from the Adarco
Arsenal Development Station, Annex donned the discarded Platoon Warsuit
A-1 as a disguise and departed the Building, unintentionally tricking
the arriving Spider-Man into thinking he was another of the Platoon
Warsuits that he and Iron Fist had earlier fought. Years later, a
recovered Dr. Chodosh attended the Tinkerer's auctions of the Venom
symbiote and later the Scorpion battlesuit alongside numerous other
criminals.
The superhumanly durable, titanium Platoon Warsuits
were equipped with rocket-powered flight capabilities, hands that could
transform into energy blasters,
weapons systems such as sonic pulse emitters, heat-seeking missiles,
buzzsaw blade projectiles, compressed air blasters and acid projectors.
--Spider-Man I#41 (#42-43, Annex I#3, Marvel Knights Spider-Man I#6, #12 - BTS,
Appearances:
Spider-Man I#41 (December, 1993) - Terry Kavanagh (writer), Jae Lee
(art), Danny Fingeroth (editor)
Spider-Man I#42 (January, 1994) - Terry Kavanagh (writer), Jae Lee (art), Danny Fingeroth (editor)
Spider-Man I#43 (February, 1994) - Terry Kavanagh (writer), Jae Lee (art), Danny Fingeroth (editor)
Annex I#3 (October, 1994) - Jack C. Harris (writer), Dave Chlystek
(pencils), Vince Evans, Thomas Florimonte (inks), Mark Powers (editor)
Marvel Knights Spider-Man I#6 (November, 2004) - Mark Millar (writer),
Terry Dodson (pencils), Rachel Dodson (inks), Axel Alonso (editor)
Marvel Knights Spider-Man I#12 (May, 2005) - Mark Millar (writer), Terry Dodson, Rachel Dodson (art), Axel Alonso (editor)
First Posted: 10/14/2016
Last updated: 10/14/2016
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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