Although I started reading comics in the 90’s I really had no idea what to buy and mainly stuck to Spiderman and X-Men comics as that so I missed a lot good stuff back then including the original Valiant titles but with their “Summer of Valiant” I have made sure that I have been there every step of the way.
Fred Van Lente and Clayton Henry are the team behind the newly relaunched Archer and Armstrong and you can tell from the first issue how comfortable they are together from their “The Incredible Hercules” days. The first issue was a nice setup, introducing us to main characters, the world they live in and the world ending weapon called the “Boon” which is the catalyst for the current story line.
As with every hero meeting Archer and Armstrong’s initial meeting in issue one had our two heroes come to blows but issue two shows our two characters starting to form a rocky and comical bond. Archer is the younger and more naive of the two and has recently found out his whole life has been a lie very early on realises that he is going to need to change alliances from the Sect to Armstrong, after they escape from the Sect they travel through Rome on a motorbike and Armstrong lists of some of his past stories to Archer (due to him being immortal these are over his 10,000 year life span) which is extremely comical and put a smile on my face.
They have now begun their search for the rest of the Boon and what is very reminiscent of films like National Treasure it begins with working out puzzles by Michelangelo which doesn’t workout to well for our duo.
Fred Van Lente has some of his best writing on this title with some great one liners to a very well thought out overall story. I enjoyed how natural team came across and I could see how this is going to be partnership where they will both need each other. Clayton Henry’s art is utterly amazing and it will be good see him and is able to show various facial and real emotions with his art work.
As previously mentioned both Lente and Henry; they both make a really good team and bring the right amount of Awesome Sauce delivering another stunning issue which provides great humour with action packed scenes and great sense of mystery. It’s not to late to pick up Valiant’s Archer and Armstrong if you haven’t already, this is a great place to get started with the new Valiant Comics.
ARCHER & ARMSTRONG #2 – ON SALE SEPTEMBER 5th!
Geeks Unleashed.Me has a preview of the first four pages of Archer and Armstrong #2 and recently got chance to speak to Fred Van Lente on Archer and Armstrong.
Mark Brassington 