Radiant Comics

I’m back from the comic shop this week and I got six new comics:

And now for a review of something I’ve read recently.

”Archer and Armstrong” Issues 1-4 by Fred Van Lente and Clayton Henry

Another of the relaunched Valiant Comics books this is my first time reading ”Archer and Armstrong”. I never read any of them back in their 90s incarnation so this is all new to me. Archer is a highly trained assassin for a religious cult and the mission he has been trained for is to kill Armstrong; an immortal beer guzzling large personality who has seen it all and has lots of secrets. Of course the assassination goes bad, Archer finds out he’s been duped, and they team up to take down some big old conspiracy to conquer the world.

There is not much new plot-wise in ”Archer and Armstrong” but it’s still a pretty well put together comic with a bit of style and pinnace. Armstrong is a fun character and there is a lot of humor in the book. Despite the rather high stakes of the plot Armstrong still wants to have a good time. After all he is an immortal who carries a rather heavy secret (revealed kind of matter-of-factly at the end of issue four). I enjoyed Van Lente’s writing on Marvel’s “Hercules” series and he brings that humorous action movie style here.

Clayton Henry’s is also pretty good. It’s that solid, illustrative, super hero style that you see a lot of these days. It doesn’t stand apart from the pack for me but Henry tells the story well and keeps up the break-neck pace. The color by Matt Milla is also solid. It too falls into the illustrative category but keeps things bright and the rendering restrained. I appreciate that in a colorist these days.

Overall I’d say that ”Archer and Armstrong” is a solid adventure comic. It’s fun and fast moving. If that’s what you’re looking for than give it a read.