¡A las armas!
¡A las armas! is a 1974 comic written and drawn by Francisco Ibañez for the Mortadelo y Filemón comic series.
Publication history
The comic strip was first published in the Mortadelo magazine, issues #189 to #199.Plot
Mortadelo and Filemon's everyday duty of arresting criminals is rendered virtually impossible because the T.I.A.'s arsenal is archaic. Therefore, El Super decides to buy the latest weapon designs for his organisation and tasks Mortadelo and Filemon with field-testing them. These implements include:- A sleeping gas-spray pistol, with which Mortadelo and Filemon suffer a horrifying accident after inadvertently sending their cab driver to sleep;
- Magnetic hand grenades, which automatically attract themselves to the nearest concentration of ferrous metals ;
- A miniaturized self-propelling cannon, which Mortadelo and Filemon accidentally wreck thanks to a selfdestruct device labelled in Japanese;
- A man-portable programmable missile, which has the tendency to start its rocket thruster at the slightest vibration it suffers;
- A cigarette lighter, which is actually a miniaturized high-powered flamethrower and smoke launcher;
- A flashlight whose lightbeams induce a laughing fit;
- Hollow eggs which paralyze a person in whose immediate proximity the shell is broken ;
- An "atomic bazooka" which automatically fires whenever held horizontally, leading to extremely hazardous transportation problems;
- An excavation beam pistol, which Filemon tries out in the garden and ends exposing him to several accidental impacts when he gets into the way of Mortadelo's recreational activities;
- A hat cannon which fires whenever its wearer raises an arm ;
- and a pocket-sized nuclear device which goes off at the slightest concussion and levels the T.I.A. headquarters after Mortadelo causes Filemon to accidentally drop it.