Archer & Armstrong #1 Review

Written by: Fred Van Lente
Artist: Clayton Henry, Matt Mila
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: August 8, 2012
Publisher Valiant Entertainment

*Spoilers Ahead. Score at The Bottom*

Big City of Dreams

I recently started getting into the Valiant universe and I believe Archer & Armstrong is a series that ties in some of the universes characters. We have Armstrong who is the brother of the eternal warrior. This ties in a lot since a lot of the lore centers around Giled.

So we start with Giled and Armstrong destroying the entire civilization on Earth with the boon they found, they then become eternal from it. So it appears we started pretty big, then we jump 10,000 years into the future at an amusement park. The park has been ran by these old rich people who take in orphans and have been training them to become assassins. It is not sounding right when I am writing down, but I am sure that is it. All these orphans have a home, but all have to fight each other for the opportunity to go on the sacred mission for their parents. Our hero Obadiah Archer beat up all the orphans so now he is allowed to leave the park and fulfill his parents mission.



He travels to New York where he has learned it is filled with, and I quote, "Manhattan is a rat's nest of Liberal Marxist Atheist Nazis who want to rob us of our freedom by making us dependent on government handouts" After hearing that I don't think this kid's parents have the best morals or are selectively narrow-minded. On arrival to New York his tracker (which looks a lot like Aquaman's belt buckle) leads to a bar where he fights his target only soon to be intervened by Armstrong. Archer then realizes his mistake and tries to kill him now. The bar gets invaded by masked soldiers and they are both captured somewhere. Archer escapes to realizes that his parents set him up to find Armstrong and that he was only a pawn for something bigger and badder.

This book was fun, my favorite part was of Archer saying goodbye to all his siblings. The writing seems to know what it is doing. They definitely went ahead with the story instead of establishing what is going on first. Which I enjoy, it keeps the first issue from being a bore. Right now it seems like there is not much to like about our characters. Armstrong just seems like a drunk, which is most of his characterization, and Archer just seems like a mindless following filled with campy one liners.

The art is great, a lot of the Valiant books have a similar style to them. To me it feels like there is not an individual style, but personifying the characters and their actions.

Bits and Pieces:

Archer & Armstrong's debut issue in the new Valiant universe is a fun one. We see our characters jump straight into the story and will let them develop as the future issues go by. The story picks up from the beginning that does not have any set-up sicknesses that most number one's have.

7/10