Archer & Armstrong 2: Wrath of the Eternal Warrior

Comic Info

Archer & Armstrong (2) #6

Reprints Archer & Armstrong (2) #5-9 (December 2012-April 2013).  Earth’s Geomancer is dead and now armed with the Book of the Geomancer, Archer and Armstrong must find the replacement before Armstrong’s gun-ho brother Gilad finds them first.  With a new Geomancer targeted, Archer, Armstrong, and Gilad find they might be facing a threat to the world and the universe itself in the form of the Null who intend to end reality…plus, Archer in a quest for his true origin learns who might hold the answers.

Written by Fred Van Lente, Archer & Armstrong Volume 2:  Wrath of the Eternal Warrior continues the Valiant Comics relaunch.  A follow-up to Archer & Armstrong Volume 1:  The Michelangelo Code, the comic features art by Emanuela Lupacchino and Alvero Martinez.

I enjoy Archer & Armstrong.  The best thing that Valiant has done in their relaunch has created a wide spectrum of comics that somehow all manage to work together.  Archer & Armstrong is obviously one of the lighter comics but in this volume already introduces ties to the “harder” Harbinger and Bloodshot.

Archer & Armstrong (2) #8 (Variant)

The characterizations are what really drive this comic.  You have the lovable lug of Armstrong who just wants to have fun and deadly serious Archer who cannot connect to the real world.  This collection primarily is pointed to reintroducing the Eternal Warrior.  The idea that the personality of Gilad kind of the fall between Archer and Armstrong is interesting, and I look forward to seeing Gilad in his own spin-off series.  The comic also brings back the Geomancer who was an important character in the original Valiant and the Kay McHenry character is definitely worth fleshing out some more (I’m assuming from the set-up she could be a regular back-up character in Eternal Warrior).

The Null was a bit under developed.  The idea is poked around a bit in the early issues of this collection but really goes full swing starting in the middle of the collection.  With all the members of the Sect, I don’t know that another group should have been added since it kind of muddled the waters of the One Percent group.  It was a minor complaint, but still just a bit of a distraction that I felt could have been explored even more.

Archer & Armstrong 2:  Wrath of the Eternal Warrior is another fun ride in a comic book company who is trying to put the fun back in comics.  With so much death and destruction in the comic book world, it is nice to have lighter and fun fares like Archer & Armstrong.  Archer & Armstrong 2:  Wrath of the Eternal Warrior is followed by Archer & Armstrong 3:  Far, Faraway.

Related Links:

Archer & Armstrong 1:  The Michelangelo Code

Archer & Armstrong 3:  Far Faraway

Archer & Armstrong 4:  Sect Civil War