Customer Reviews

Archer & Armstrong: First Impressions

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- A hotel attendant, greeting Armstrong: "Baggage, sir?"
- Armstrong (referring to Archer): "Yeah, but I think he means well..."

There was a time in the early 1990s when the upstart house of Valiant was the third most successful comic book company going. It produced very cool titles such as ETERNAL WARRIOR, X-O MANOWAR, RAI and BLOODSHOT, with these last two being two of the three series I dug best. The third was ARCHER & ARMSTRONG. I'm crossing my fingers for future RAI and BLOODSHOT trades, but for now I'm down with ARCHER & ARMSTRONG: FIRST IMPRESSIONS.

This series features one of the strangest, neatest partnerings ever published in comics. Obadiah Archer was murdered by his seriously disturbed parents, but it didn't take. So he's back, alive and well and, after years of training, has developed into a martial arts master. Not to mention that he boasts full control of his body and near infallible aim (he's got this tiny handheld crossbow, you see). It's nifty to be able to put a beatdown on whoever. Except that Archer has this naive outlook on life and these idealistic principles so, for a bad muthafofo, he's extremely polite. He bumps into Armstrong, a superstrong reveler who's lived for thousands of years. Armstrong (whose more ancient name is Aram the Other) is one of three immortal brothers wandering the earth and, having been around for so long, dude has amassed some serious enemies, the most relentless of which is the ancient cult, the Sect.

Although ostensibly a "superhero" title, ARCHER & ARMSTRONG is more of a buddy comedy, with a martial arts fantasy twist (and how's that for a hook?). A good portion of the humor relies on the polar opposite personas of the pair, with Archer's uptight righteousness terrifically clashing with Armstrong's relaxed hedonistic philosophy. There's a lightheartedness to the series, underscored by silly episode titles like "If Killer Ninja Nuns Be My Destiny" and "Turok and Roll All Night." After a while, I got used to the fact that Archer will always be eagerly looking to do the right thing, while Armstrong will always first crave for some booze to "steady his nerves." Although, don't twist it, when push comes to shove, Armstrong will do the hero thing.

The first seven issues also has this travelogue feel to it, as the pair do end up adventuring in several unlikely places. Not only does Archer's origin involve his journeying to Ladakh to learn the ways of laying the smackdown and then meeting a panhandling Armstrong in East L. A. but, in the second issue, Armstrong is summoned by his older brother "Gilly" (but Gilad the Eternal Warrior, to you and me) to take part in Unity, the voliminous Valiant-wide crossover event (where - and try not to yawn - REALITY AS WE KNOW IS ONCE AGAIN THREATENED). Our heroes are whisked away to the timeless Lost Land, where roam nasty dinosaurs and the minions of the MotherGod (the main villainess of Unity). During this Unity tie-in, we're treated to occasional panels of other Valiant heroes fighting the good fight. Armstrong, naturally, peels off from Gilad, wanting none of the fighty fight until he knows the lowdown. Archer follows him, and, in spite of Armstrong's nonparticipation, stuff happens, not the least of which is that Armstrong allows a stinking, gynormous glob of pterosaur doodoo to fall on him just so he can make a getaway. That's a really gross moment.

Archer and Armstrong eventually get the eff out of the Lost Land and back into Earth proper, where they tangle some more with agents of the Sect. The story arc after that deals with Armstrong hankering to visit his wife, Andy, and so he and Archer take off for France and on to a private Mediterranean island, where dwells the dazzling Andromeda ("Andy"). Armstrong is rendered instantly stammering. Part of the plot has to do with a bunch of nogoodniks scheming to steal away with Andy's pet dinosaur. And, again, agents of the Sect bust in on the act.

Meanwhile, an ongoing subplot centers on Armstrong having mislaid his satchel, which contains potent stuff like "the mysteries of the ancient worlds" and "the very secrets of life itself!" A teenager finds his satchel and immediately gains the ability to control people. And, in a later issue (not in this trade), the satchel would fall into the hands of - who else? - an agent of the Sect. Hopefully, we'll see that story arc in print someday.

The Valiant bigwigs had their fingerprints all over this title. Valiant founder and editor Jim Shooter contributed to the storytelling, although Barry Windsor-Smith not only offered up his exquisite, distinctive artwork but also wrote the bulk of the stories in these collected issues. And, maybe I'm wrong, but I could've sworn that Valiant Comics is the company that first started churning out issues numbered #0. Anyway, ARCHER & ARMSTRONG: FIRST IMPRESSIONS is a hardcover trade which collects issues #0-6 and features a new 10-paged story, "Formation of the Sect," written by Jim Shooter and illustrated by Sal Velutto, in which we see how the Sect was formed with the singular purpose of hunting down Armstrong, whom the cult believes to be a demon. And since this story is set in the past, obviously there's no Archer in it. Also included is Shooter's full script for "Formation of the Sect" which features a final scene that was left out of the story, as well as a behind-the-scenes gander at the creation of Michael Golden's new cover, from preliminary sketches to the finished product. There's also a revealing interview with Jim Shooter on Archer & Armstrong and an insight into the workings of the Valiant bullpen. It's fascinating reading, in which Shooter pets his ego a bit and takes the lid off the bitter jar, although, come to think of it, there's no denying that the man's talented and toiled endlessly to preserve his vision. And, hubris or not, and despite having been fired from Marvel and then eventually from Valiant, Shooter would then go to found Defiant Comics and launch the short-lived but most awesome WARRIORS OF PLASM.

For a while back there, Valiant Comics gave Marvel and DC a run for their money, and if Jim Shooter had been allowed to stick around, who knows, irregardless of the comic book industry implosion later in the '90s, how much longer Valiant's run might've been? Myself, I didn't realize how much I missed Archer & Armstrong until this trade came out. ARCHER & ARMSTRONG: FIRST IMPRESSIONS is the third hardcover release reprinting Valiant's influential works, following Harbinger: The Beginning and X-O Manowar: Birth (Spanish, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Russian, Ukrainian, Chinese, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Bengali and Korean Edition). Here's hoping that further Valiant reprints are in the works. Hell, here's hoping that more new stories about these Valiant characters are in the offing. I like to dream big.

The latest of the Valiant Comics being digitally re-colored and put into beautiful hardcover trades is Valiant's critically acclaimed "buddy-comic" Archer and Armstrong. Armstrong is an immortal alcoholic womanizer who comes across Archer, a Buddhist-trained conservative and strongly moral person. As you can image, hilarity ensues from there. A group called The Sect has been chasing Armstrong for centuries believing him to be the devil-incarnate. Much to Archer's dismay, fate brings these two together and an uneasy friendship is formed. The title is drawn by Barry-Windsor Smith (Weapon X) and while I normally don't care for his art, he was perfect for this comic. One side note, it's worth mentioning that we get two parts of the massive Valiant Comics crossover from the early 90's, Unity collected in this trade. If I want to see any series re-colored and put into a beautiful hardcover trade, it's that crossover. I had never read any of this title other than these two parts which previously only existed in a Unity trade (which I think I still have). Archer and Armstrong is certainly one of Valiant's best publications and I look forward to more in the future.