| Title | : | Archer \u0026 Armstrong, Vol. 1: The Michelangelo Code |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0979640989 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780979640988 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 112 |
| Publication | : | First published March 19, 2013 |
After years of meditation and training, 18-year-old Obadiah Archer has been dispatched to New York City to carry out the sacred mission of his family's sect - locate and kill the fun-loving, hard-drinking immortal known as Armstrong! But as this naive teenage assassin stalks his prey, he'll soon find that both hunter and hunted are just pawns in a centuries-old conspiracy that stretches from the catacombs beneath Wall Street to the heights of the Himalayas. And Archer & Armstrong will have to work together if the future is to stand any chance of surviving the past's greatest threat!
From the New York Times best-selling creative team of writer Fred Van Lente (Marvel Zombies) and Clayton Henry (Incredible Herc)!
Collecting: Archer & Armstrong 1-4
Archer \u0026 Armstrong, Vol. 1: The Michelangelo Code Reviews
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Valiant is just blowing me away!
I honestly had no idea that all these quirky little stories were out here, and now that I do, I just want to read everything from this publisher and its universe that I can get my hands on.
Archer & Armstrong is just fun. It's this weird story about an immortal named Armstrong, who's a slacker and a drunk. And his reluctant partner, Archer, a teenager raised by fanatics in a religious theme park to be a Ninja for Christ. <-- also, he was supposed to use his mad skills to kill Armstrong. It didn't go down that way, though, because while attempting to rid the world of the Armstong Antichrist, he discovered his parents were (shockingly) evil.
Hijinks ensue.
Oh, and this also connects to another Valiant title I'm reading right now,
Ivar, Timewalker. I wasn't expecting all the stuff to be flowy and intertwined, but I'm loving it!
No, this wasn't a perfect comic or story, but I had a lot of fun reading it, and the religious upbringing stuff hit a funny bone for me. -
"On November 13, teenage Obadiah Archer was asked to kill a heretic. That request came from his mom and dad. Deep down, he knew they were evil, but he also knew that someday, he would kill them. With nowhere else to go, he appeared at a seedy Manhattan bar, searching for Armstrong. Eons earlier, Armstrong became immortal, and buried pieces to something called the Boon. Can two heroes share an adventure without driving each other crazy?"
Cue Odd Couple music.
Archer’s the product of right wing religious lunatics and Armstrong has been wandering the Earth for ages, drinking and whoring. Archer can master any fighting technique instantly and is faith bound; Armstrong is fat and profane, but has a healing factor. Oil and water. Let the hijinks and hilarity ensue.
This isn’t a bad series. The opposites attract thing played for laughs works, mostly. Throw in ninja nuns, mystical Nazi monks holed up in the Himalayas, satirical jabs that were dated the minute they hit paper and a tissue-thin plot and you get a lukewarm mess, with some laughs. -
Archer is an eighteen-year old white fundamentalist ninja raised in a dinossaut theme park to kill what they think is the anti-Christ, a big drunken immortal guy. I am not a fan of Valiant comics but got nudged to read this because I read Van Lente's Weird Detective mash-up of chthulu mythos and noir crime story. I thought it was pretty good, somewhat amusing, pretty original, and that's kinda how I feel about this series, in the first volume, at least. It's a kind of funny premise. Not a big fan of the glossy digital art style.
Of course the two guys form an odd couple and team up against some world-wide conspiracy, eh, okay, there are some funny, irreverent moments involving killer nuns. I don't think I'll read on, though. -
Neil, Geddy and Alex sit in a café in the ice caves of Xanadu and discuss Valiant Comics Archer and Armstrong series, most specifically the 2012 volume #1 which collects the first four issues of the reboot of the popular series from the early 90s.
Neil: Archer is a naïve assassin and Armstrong is a fun-loving immortal.
Geddy: The idea of immortality is fun, this is a great concept to explore ideas around a story since you literally have thousands of years adventures and anecdotes.
Alex: And like our song, and the backstory, the price of immortality is high, nothing is free, there is no free lunch as Bob Heinlein so aptly instructed.
Geddy: Writer Fred Van Lente provided some good work in this latest reboot, taking the best from original writer Barry Windsor-Smith’s fine work.
Neil: I don’t think Fred is a musician.
Alex: Don’t think so, but he does have some fun with some connections between western and eastern cultures, similar to Hesse.
Geddy: Searching for the lost Xanadu. But Armstrong, originally named Aram is a pre-historic figure, a prince of ancient Ur, who references the Flood, or cataclysm, which separates our known world from an earlier times.
Alex: The Hyperborean age described by Howard?
Neil: Maybe, but just tuning in to the fecund idea of an earlier age. I’ve always thought that the flooding of Atlantis and the Biblical flood were one and the same, and there are historic markers that tie it all in together. Not the single event calamity we’ve been led to believe.
Alex: But Atlantis was supposed to have been lost in one storm, are you suggesting that it was instead a slow flooding like the end of an ice age and the melting of glacial ice?
Geddy: Do you have any special insights now that you’re an immortal?
Neil: I’m not supposed to say.
Alex: I like how Armstrong describes an ancient Sect that has been chasing him for ten thousand years, and then tying that into a secret society like the illuminati.
Neil: I’m not supposed to talk about that either.
Geddy: This A&A relaunch also has some fun scenes in the Himalayas. Lot’s of action. And ninja nuns!
Alex: What about that Neil? Are we digging on some clues?
Neil: You’re too hot to touch! My mind is not for rent!
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Beginning my re-read of the Valiant universe after picking up the flash drive with their first 6 years of comics on it.
Archer & Armstrong is a strong book with an oddball pairing of a religious zealot assassin teaming up with an immortal drunkard. Archer is actually sent to assassinate Armstrong by the cult who raised him who eventually finds out they are evil and turns against them. Archer is nieve, having been sheltered by the world but a complete badass fighter, while Armstrong has lived for 10,000 years living life to its fullest. Together they fight these many cults searching for an ancient weapon that could destroy the earth. Fred Van Lente makes this book a ton of fun. Clayton Henry makes it look fantastic. A great restart for one of the relaunch titles of the Valiant universe. -
Archer is a ninja assassin who knows every fighting style in the world who’s been raised in a Christian Fundamentalist theme park surrounded by numerous adopted brothers and sisters, all of whom are similarly skilled. His parents send him on a mission to kill the Antichrist when he turns 18, exploring the godless outside world for the first time. Said Antichrist turns out to be Armstrong, a 10,000 year old immortal who loves to drink and fool around who’s also tough as coffin nails. Together they discover things aren’t what they seem and that a secret organisation (similar to the Freemasons) called the One Percent (timely!) are dead set on world domination, eternal life, and all the kinds of stuff bad guys are known for.
I actually quite liked this book but felt that it ended up becoming too similar to the kinds of superhero stories Marvel and DC are best known for, making Valiant a kind of dime-store version of those books. It’s fine to have interesting ideas - the One Percent’s plan to blow up Greece in order to raise the value of the Euro or when Armstrong mimicked the Wolverine/Colossus Fastball Special by hurling Archer at the enemy only for it to comically fail - which made reading this enjoyable, but the stories wind up in the same place that the mainstream superhero stories do, namely with the heroes fighting a group of goons.
If this book were to be truly individual in comics, it wouldn’t have to fall back on the kind of narrative tropes that mainstream superhero comics do. Instead of resolving each thread with a fight, why not try something a bit different? That’s what stops me from saying that Fred Van Lente and co. truly did something different with this book because they really didn’t - they came up with some zeitgeisty ideas and then crammed them into the superhero template Marvel and DC have been using for decades. It appears somewhat different but really isn’t.
Like Armstrong, who’s a great character but not exactly original - he’s basically Falstaff and, given his immortality and associations with famous historical figures (eg. Michelangelo - yes, THE Michelangelo), I wouldn’t be surprised to find out in later issues that Shakespeare’s Falstaff was actually inspired by Armstrong. Archer too feels like a character I’ve seen before that Trey Parker and Matt Stone came up with - have you seen the Book of Mormon? Archer is like Elder Price but with martial arts skills. It’s an interesting idea which Van Lente does well but isn’t exactly new.
The story feels like if Dan Brown were smart and into comics, this is what he’d write. Factor in the familiar characters and the story threads that resolve themselves in action sequences every single time, and you’ve got the first volume of Archer & Armstrong. It’s by no means terrible and, being an atheist I found some of the Christian-bashing more than a bit funny, but it’s too much like other comics I’ve read by other, more mainstream publishers. I just couldn’t shake the feeling of deja vu with most of the scenes and characters - even if they’re not wearing costumes and capes, they may as well be.
The over-complicated, chase around the world storyline didn’t help either. At one point Van Lente opens an issue by trying to summarise the plot but gives up because it’s too long and, bearing in mind this volume only collects the first 4 issues, seems like it got complicated way too quickly. I wasn’t 100% sure what all of the mysterious objects everyone was chasing after would do once they were collected or why the evil Christians wanted it or how the destruction of Greece (which is a storyline that was either abandoned or will be explored in later issues) played into it, so I can understand Van Lente’s frustration - but then he’s the author! It should be his job to make it more understandable instead of more convoluted.
In the end, it’s a decent volume with some great scenes despite the complex plot that, minus the details, boils down to good vs. evil in a race against time, with some great art from Clayton Henry. I was entertained but a bit confused about what I’d read by the end and not really that interested in picking up Volume 2 when it gets published. “Archer & Armstrong Volume 1: The Michelangelo Code” is definitely hit and miss throughout but a not unpleasant book at that. -
It's not a gut-busting laugh-a-minute book, but it's both got some pretty funny shit scattered throughout, and it brings some fun, silly satire along for the ride. The premise is gold: a kid raised in a creationist theme park is sent out on a mission from god to kill a blasphemous immortal entity and retrieve a holy relic from him. The entity turns out to be a mostly regular, generally atheist guy with 10000 years of laying low under his belt, and this kid is part of a dubious sect with suspect motives. Pretty much buddy cop movie written all over it, and for the most part it lives up to that holy premise.
The appearance by the Necronomicon was hilarious. The believer vs. atheism jabs are handled really well - far more balanced than I was expecting. (personally I would've settled for some cheap shots at the religious wackos of the US and called it good.) There's a fair amount of character gold to mine here, if they want to slow down and really dig into the subtleties. That said, Van Lente captures my thoughts on faith and atheism pretty brilliantly, and with only a minimum of wedging it into conversation.
Unfortunately there's a little bit of violating the "show me don't tell me" rule here, and it's in the middle of a battle where it cries out in pain at being s obviously stuck out. And there's a few "quick changes of mind" that tossed out some pretty clearly-laid out beliefs I thought would've taken a little more coaxing. The writing feels a bit rushed, focusing on the action and amping up the stakes pretty darned quick. I'll say this for VL, he doesn't waste much time getting to the high points.
The art is really well done too - I'm really impressed by Henry & Milla, teaming to render very clean and well-composed art. It's not overdone, it's not hyper-realistic, but it's never getting in the way of the story - and the captions add just a little more fun to the visuals.
I got pretty excited by Chris Sims' and Matt Wilson's raves when they had FVL on War Rocket Ajax, and I have to admit I felt a little let down when I got past the initial rush of issue one, but by issue four it picked up some unexpected depth that I'd like to explore.
I have no idea if this measures up to the original series, but it's a story with potential depth and promises to take us there pretty quick. I'm on for the ride. -
Immortal drunken layabout (and strip club enthusiast?) Armstrong meets raised-by-a-fundamentalist-Christian-cult Archer and Dan Brown-esque shenanigans ensue. At least the writer was willing to give not-so-tacit credit in the collection's title!
I take a pretty dim view of organized religion generally so I'm always up for a little pointed satire but this team up of an inexplicably thick-witted 10,000 year old man and a priggish teenager with the martial arts skills of a dozen Bruce Lees at his best just didn't click with me overall.
Sorry lads, nothing personal... -
Great storyline!
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When it comes to superhero comics, most likely you've read something from Marvel or DC and although they've provided some of the best material in the genre, there's always an air of familiarity in the storytelling. Although there are many publishers like Image that have tackled superheroes whilst trying breaking away from the conventions, the results can be refreshing if flat-out weird.
As my introduction to the universe of Valiant Comics, which itself has an interesting history that went through bankruptcy and revival, Archer & Armstrong.did have a different vibe to most superhero comics, if not always successful. Originally conceived by comics creator Barry Windsor-Smith in the early nineties, this dynamic duo returned for a new ongoing series in 2012, written by Fred Van Lente and illustrated by Clayton Henry.
Raised in a fundamentalist compound/amusement park with minimal contact with the outside world, 18-year-old Obadiah Archer trained his whole life to a master assassin and now he's been dispatched to New York City to assassinate the supposed immortal known as Armstrong. However, when Archer discovers that he is a pawn as part of a centuries-old conspiracy, he teams up with Armstrong to stopping this global threat.
From the initial pages featuring an ancient civilization that uses an immortal weapon that destroys the world, it sets up a complex plot about a centuries-old conspiracy of organised religion and power, which is not far off from being a Dan Brown novel. The narrative can be tough to follow as I generally had no idea what the first issue was about and it was only when reading Fred Van Lante's witty captions of the second issue was I told what it was.
However, throughout these four issues, Van Lente presents some great sequences, largely from the chemistry between the eponymous heroes who have nothing in common, from the youthful Archer, who has learned to respect his elders given his murderous occupation, to the drunken poem-quoting Armstrong, who has lived many lifetimes, meeting historical figures whilst poking fun of those people and taking the Lord's name in vain.
Perhaps best known for his work on several X-Men titles during the noughties, artist Clayton Henry makes this a fun action-packed read, showcasing Archer incorporating the various types of martial arts in fighting his enemies, while Armstrong is your classic drunken brawler and if you're not careful, you could get puked on by him.
As my intro to the Valiant universe, I found this first volume of Archer & Armstrong did add something different to what I am used to with superhero stories, despite the complex plot was too much but ultimately saved by the two titular heroes. -
NINJA NUUUNSSS. PIRATE NUUUUUNNNSSS. LOL it strived too hard to be funny but all in all I kinda liked it. Will reflect over getting the second volume or not for two whole days. Plot is okay, something to think about. I guess. Kinda moved really fast tho.
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Meet Archer, a brainwashed 18-year-old that has been sent to kill Armstrong, an immortal drunken being. But thank goodness Archer soon finds out that he nothing but a pawn in... I'm not sure what but something big involving people who want a lot of power, so the usual. There's a lot of whatever-kicking in this volume with bubbles explaining what kind of technique it is, which I guess would be interesting if I stopped to read them. Also, there's more humor than I expected originating from the differences between A & A which is a nice touch. But overall, vast conspiracies are not my cup of tea, so I won't be reading more.
Overall: forgettable. -
ARCHER & ARMSTRONG was the creation of Barry Windsor-Smith, who wrote and drew their adventures in the first Valiant Universe (1989-2004). It was essentially a dark super-hero, buddy team-up humorous adventure book.
When Valiant Entertainment re-booted in 2012, ARCHER & ARMSTRONG was among the first wave of revived titles. In the hands of Fred Van Lente it became much more complex and even more interesting. He altered the origin stories slightly of both characters, and introduced elements of Indiana Jones, the DaVinci Code, influential secret elite organizations (The Sect, The One-Percenters) similar to The Illuminati. The first four-issue story arc was packed with humor, satire, and plenty of action as only Clayton Henry can portray it.
Ten thousand years ago Armstrong and his immortal brothers unintentionally unleashed the destructive power of The Boon (a six-component device made up of simple tools) and destroyed an ancient world. Armstrong broke up the device and scattered the parts around the world. The Sect trained Archer for one mission: track down Armstrong, kill him, and secure his satchel containing the map revealing the Boon locations.
After meeting Armstrong, Archer realizes he was played by The Sect and teams up to stop them from acquiring The Boon. Another student of The Sect, Mary-Maria manages to snatch the map and the pieces and is headed for the last remaining part. To stop them Archer & Armstrong have to battle the Sect, Mary-Maria, Archer’s fake parents and the mustachioed Nazi lamas of the La-Chen Monastery. (That was not easy to summarize!)
Nothing beats a Fred Van Lente story when he’s all-in on the concepts. If he could ever be persuaded to return for more of any of his past works, my wish would be for WEIRD DETECTIVE first with ARCHER & ARMSTRONG a close second. -
When reading Valiant series, I've tried to draw the comparisons with other Big Two books, to make them easier to sell to other people. With Archer & Armstrong, I've come up short. It's almost like Cable & Deadpool, or Wolverine & his many teenage girl sidekicks, but neither of those is accurate enough. Which probably makes this a first for me when reading through the Valiant Universe.
Obadiah Archer is a teenager trained from birth to kill one man, known as Armstrong. But when they finally meet, the true origins of Archer's parents and their motivations come to light, and the two are thrown into a buddy cop comedy as they try to take down The Sect before they can reactivate the doomsday device that made Armstrong immortal.
Archer is stuffy and sheltered, whereas Armstrong is world-worn and a drunkard, so the pair together are great. Even in these four issues, Archer makes leaps and bounds in character as he acclimates to a world he's never been to before. Armstrong is a bit more one note, but when the subject of the Boon and his family comes up, we can see that there's more to him than meets the eye.
The artwork is handled by Clayton Henry and Pere Perez, who double team quite well, another good choice by the Valiant editorial who seem to like assigning two artists to books to keep them all on track.
The book ends on a very intriguing note, with the mystery of the Eternal Warrior hanging over the duo as they head into the second volume. -
it's more of a 3.5, but fuck it. This was a fun little story, with good humor spread throughout and a overall fun plot, even if it's been done a million times. it's really the characters friendship that lets this one shine.
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Man, what a treat.
Literally nothing else is like this.
Basically... it’s a comedy. Sort of. Also an adventure. Also maybe commentary on religion? Sort of? I dunno. All I know is that I enjoyed the hell out of it and the art is awesome.
There were a lot of laughs, the characters are great, and it’s also seriously badass. I can’t wait to read more of this. -
It's not stellar as writing, but it is unquestionably fun: Fred Van Lente's recipe for Archer and Armstrong and "the Sect" touches on really diverse ingredient inspirations: evil sects that worship Mammon like in the Black Monday Murders, madcap free mason conspiracies involving the Founding Fathers a la the National Treasure films, overlapping religious conspiracies that feel like the Dark Horse comic Axis Mundi or the DaVinci code, and, of course, and the escaped child and the nearly immortal enemy of the sect from a religious sect from the original Valiant Archer & Armstrong line of 1992. Lente's plotting is satirical and madcap, but Armstrong's immortal status brings both levity and ties for far more self-serious Valiant comics like Ivar, Time Walker, and The Eternal Warrior. The art by Clayton Henry is largely in the Valiant house style--it's strong but not particularly stylistic or unique.
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Volume 1 of A&A was pretty decent. Some of the humor fell really flat, but there was an occasional decent joke. The 1% sect jokes are usually the worst, just awful. Especially the cultish gibberish mixed in with things like "profit margin" and other idiotic "bank talk."
I, generally speaking, like the two main characters. Some of the extra characters are not much more than fluff. Some of the motivations and decisions of the main characters, Archer in particular, don't fit his character at all. He makes split second changes in life, despite having been born and raised a very strict particular way. So they weren't believable whatsoever.
It's really a bubble-gum book, but it was fun. I'll give the second book a chance. The artwork was pretty nice. Very colorful with tight illustration. Some of the posing was odd, like the flying kick on the cover. Nothing too bad to complain about. -
I've wanted to read Archer & Armstrong for some time now. I'm not sure what I was expecting but certainly not this! Eccentric, satirical, funny, odd and quirky yet lovable main characters. The book pretty much makes fun of every comic book trope ever invented plus takes swipes at pop culture, politics, religion and everything else, in a light-hearted but bitingly funny way. Meanwhile, there is an excellent plot playing out while our heroes join up for the first time. These are guys designed not to be liked: a naive, cult-raised assassin and a muscular laissez-faire immortal, but somehow they pulled my strings and I like them both. I'd definitely pick up the next volume.
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Pretty decent buddy story(although they don't start out as buddies) and I enjoyed the way Van Lente developed their relationship gradually through the stry arc. Art was fairly standard fare although I thought henry did a really good job with facial expressions which can be the downfall of mant artists.
3.5 stars -
Matt..I told you to read X-O...I'm even bigger on this.
I need a 6 stars here.
Matt...you'll ask why...crossbows, immortals, fundamental religion, conspiracy theories...need I say more.
Dialogue is so rich! -
The origin story for wacky supernatural Odd Couple adventures. As one can tell from the book’s title, it’s a riff on
The Da Vinci Code, but with “nunjas” (nun ninjas). Archer is an 18-year-old assassin raised in an Ohio religious theme park while Armstrong is a 10,000-year-old reprobate who personifies everything Archer was raised to hate and, incidentally, Archer’s assigned target.
D’ya think there will be doublecrosses and they’ll have to work together? I won’t spoil it for you!
It slots neatly into the types of religious-themed adventures like Indiana Jones, the above-mentioned Dan Brown novels, and the Peter Crossman tales from James D. Macdonald. (I highly recommend
The Apocalypse Door.)
It’s solid and the art is very well done. -
Highly entertaining title...would love to see a TV series based off of this at some point.
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Ive said this a few too many times about Valiant to be overly confident, but...Volume 1 of this one was alot of fun. Here's hoping.
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Cuarta y ultima de esta remesa de Valiant que va a sacar Panini por el momento. Y tras haber leído las 4, puede decirse que se han dejado el plato fuerte para el final. Y tan para el final porque hasta enero no estará disponible, pero ya lo podéis ir marcando en el calendario como compra obligada. Y es que si bien las 4 colecciones son mas o menos atípicas y particulares cada una en un estilo bien diferenciado, esta es sin duda la mas loca, divertida y entretenida.
Aquí nos encontramos hace 10,000 Años en la ciudad de Ur donde unos hermanos la lían parda con un artefacto de poder inimaginable. Uno de los tres hermanos muere y en su intento de traerle a la vida, uno de sus hermanos activa el “archifacto“ resultando en la muerte de todo ser vivo en el planeta, todos menos el que hoy conocemos como Armstrong o según a quien preguntes, “el que no debe ser nombrado”. 10,000 años lleva vivo este mozo de buen comer y buen beber y hoy en día es portero de un bar de mala muerte.
La otra parte de la ecuación en Archer, un voluntarios joven con una capacidad increíble para las artes marciales, criado por una familia de tarados que rigen una secta. Esta secta no permite el contacto con el mundo exterior de sus “hijos” a los cuales entrena con el único propósito de que puedan acabar a con Armstrong, al que consideran poco menos que el anticristo.
Al menos este es el punto de partida, en el que Archer es mandado a Nueva York a cumplir su destino. Enseguida veremos que la vida no es como se la han contado a Archer y nos encontraremos con un dúo de compañeros inesperado que habrán de enfrentarse a secta milenarias divididas en facciones, entre las que se encuentran los masones, los tarados de la familia de Archer, los “uno por ciento” que rinden culto a Mammon para que beneficie las leyes de mercado y capitalismo salvaje, incluso con sacrificios de vírgenes.
Pero por si esto fuera poco, al viajar con Archer y Armstrong por el mundo mientras tratan de impedir la verdadera misión de los cultistas, veremos monjas ninja en el vaticano, monjes lama nazis en el Tibet y sobretodo a Archer y sus formas de integrarse en el mundo y a un Armstrong inmortal, pendenciero, borracho, follarin, amigo de sus amigos, entre los que cuenta a Miguel Angel y que es el complemento perfecto para Archer tanto como Archer lo es para el.
Muy divertida serie, con 4 números que nos dan para bizarradas sin control y que hay que tener cuidado de donde se lee, porque como andes en el metro a tu bola, te puedo garantizar que se te va a escapar alguna risa de vez en cuando involuntariamente con las cosas que se le ocurren a Fred Van Lente, incluidas referencias mil. Compra obligada y serie a la que me apunto sin dudarlo. -
Read and reviewed as part of
Archer and Armstrong: Deluxe Edition 1 -
I'll admit that when it was announced that Valiant was being resurrected after all these years, I rolled my eyes and groaned audibly. Really? These are properties someone decided to invest time and money on instead of some new creator-owned series? But here I am a year later eating my words with every new title I pick up under the Valiant banner.
Like XO, AA is an extremely entertaining, hugely fun book packed with straightforward action and pages full of fantastic banter. It's engaging and brings us right into the mix without missing a beat.
The greatest strength of all the Valiant books so far, and especially here in AA, is the sense that we already know these characters. The sense that we've been reading these books for decades. These don't feel like issues 1-4, they feel like issues 101-104. We are immediately familiar with them and drawn into a story that never slows down- involving religious zealotry, immortal drunkards, teenage assassins and conspiracy theories that make Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum" look downright sane.
Whatever you have to do, get your hands on this book. Van Lente may not have been the strongest writer in my opinion before taking on this book, but it looks like he's found a renewed sense of purpose here. The greatest drawback, taking it down to 3 stars instead of a solid 4, is the art. It's just not as strong as I'd like it to be. It relies too heavily on the colors and the inks aren't bold enough for me.
Damn good though.
Writing: A
Art: C -
Reaches to much but still a solid read.
World: The art is good, it serves the book well and the action is fluent, I would have liked more expressive faces but that's just me. The world building is solid for the story and the premise set up wonderfully in the first issue. The pieces here are however a bit over complicated for the story, I question needing 6 pieces for a 4 issue story and well you see what happens in the story. It's solid but not the highlight.
Story: Fast paced and action packed is the order of the day here. There was a bit of info dumping here and there and the pacing was a bit choppy and relied on the "The Story so far..." for context in some cases. The story is too complex for it's own good and you can tell that in the end having the other kids find the other pieces was just getting the story to reach what it needed to be in issue 4. It was fun, but felt choppy and rushed because of the expectations set by the story premise.
Characters: The first issue was very good in introducing Archer and the difference between him and Armstrong and then all hell broke loose and we don't get much development and quiet banter after that. I would love if they can sit down and just talk or do the fish out of water thing with the two different personalities.
Solid and full of potential but pacing and over reaching plot diverted the great potential in character drama.
Onward to the next book! -
One's a fun-loving immortal with a drinking problem. The other's a deadly assassin trained in a theme park by Christian fundamentalists. Together they fight crime! "Crime", in this case, being a cadre of nuns who are also ninjas, the greatest of all secret societies (called "The One Percent"), and Nazi Kung-Fu masters.
This was an incredibly fun goofball comedy/action series. Tongues were fully in cheek for the entire story, it had a great, roller-coaster sort of pacing, and the characters were oddly believable and relatable given their bizarre origins. A welcome break from the usual superhero sort of adventure. -
Never read the original version of this (or indeed any other Valiant comic ever), but this is top fun. A boozy, horny immortal (Mesopotamian, but otherwise very similar to van Lente's take on Marvel's Hercules) teams up with the fundamentalist-raised super-assassin sent to end him by evangelists who live in a creationist theme park and are in league with The One Percent, an ancient sect who worship the demon Mammon and are planning to stabilise the Euro by blowing up Greece. In other words, it is at once very smart, and incredibly stupid, in the best possible way.
