What do you think?
Archer & Armstrong (2012) #4-7
Archer & Armstrong Deluxe Edition, Book 2
The New York Times best-selling writer Fred Van Lente (Ivar. Timewalker) and all-star artists Pere Pérez (Unity), Khari Evans (Harbinger) and Clayton Henry (Harbinger Wars) join a jam-packed roster of special guests for the second oversized hardcover collection of the Harvey Award nominated series
io9
calls "the best damn comic".
For centuries, the cloak-and-dagger coalition of conspiracies collectively known as The Sect has worked together to bring silent oppression and undercover tyranny to a world that thought it was free. But, now after centuries of profit sharing and uneasy alliances, the factions of The Sect are about to erupt into open conflict... and the only men that can end the insanity are Archer & Armstrong! Too bad they're fighting for different sides! Why? How? And will either survive? The secrets of Valiant's seminal series are about to come to light - and you won't believe the top-secret, classified, totally hush-hush conclusion their latest history mystery has in store! Featuring backup stories from red-hot creators Ray Fawkes (Batman: Eternal), John Layman (Chew), Karl Bollers (Watson and Holmes), Rafer Roberts (Car Pool Buddies of Doom) and more, the madcap finale of Archer & Armstrong's conspiracy-busting series is re-presented in its entirety in a prestige-sized hardcover packed with 20+ pages of rarely seen bonus materials and special features!
Collecting: Archer & Armstrong 14-25, Archer 0; & Bloodshot and H.A.R.D. Corps 20-2.
For centuries, the cloak-and-dagger coalition of conspiracies collectively known as The Sect has worked together to bring silent oppression and undercover tyranny to a world that thought it was free. But, now after centuries of profit sharing and uneasy alliances, the factions of The Sect are about to erupt into open conflict... and the only men that can end the insanity are Archer & Armstrong! Too bad they're fighting for different sides! Why? How? And will either survive? The secrets of Valiant's seminal series are about to come to light - and you won't believe the top-secret, classified, totally hush-hush conclusion their latest history mystery has in store! Featuring backup stories from red-hot creators Ray Fawkes (Batman: Eternal), John Layman (Chew), Karl Bollers (Watson and Holmes), Rafer Roberts (Car Pool Buddies of Doom) and more, the madcap finale of Archer & Armstrong's conspiracy-busting series is re-presented in its entirety in a prestige-sized hardcover packed with 20+ pages of rarely seen bonus materials and special features!
Collecting: Archer & Armstrong 14-25, Archer 0; & Bloodshot and H.A.R.D. Corps 20-2.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published December 24, 2015
About the author
Fred Van Lente
1,401 books328 followersFred Van Lente is the New York Times-bestselling author of comics as varied as Archer & Armstrong (Harvey Award nominee, Best Series), Taskmaster, MODOK's 11, Amazing Spider-Man, Conan the Avenger, Weird Detective, and Cowboys & Aliens (upon which the 2011 movie was based), as well as the novels Ten Dead Comedians and The Con Artist.
Van Lente also specializes in entertaining readers with offbeat histories with the help of his incredibly talented artists. He has written the multiple-award winning Action Philosophers!, The Comic Book History of Comics, Action Presidents! (all drawn by Ryan Dunlavey), and The Comic Book Story of Basketball with Joe Cooper (Ten Speed September 2020).
He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Crystal Skillman, and some mostly ungrateful cats.
Van Lente also specializes in entertaining readers with offbeat histories with the help of his incredibly talented artists. He has written the multiple-award winning Action Philosophers!, The Comic Book History of Comics, Action Presidents! (all drawn by Ryan Dunlavey), and The Comic Book Story of Basketball with Joe Cooper (Ten Speed September 2020).
He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Crystal Skillman, and some mostly ungrateful cats.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 9, 2018
Archer and Armstrong are back at it again in this final collection of this series run. They're separated after their eventful stint in the Faraway, and now Archer is pissed at Armstrong, on the hunt to track down Project Rising Spirit and find out his true origin, while Armstrong is on the most epic drunken bar crawl through history with his brother Ivar, claiming he doesn't miss Archer. But the odd couple discover they can't quit each other just yet, when they both find themselves in the middle of a civil war of the Sect secret societies, and Rising Spirit puts a hit out on Archer, sending none other than the unstoppable Bloodshot and the H.A.R.D. Corps team to capture him!
This second book doesn't lose the charm and wit from the first book at all and still has the wacky conspiracy theories and story developments that I've come to love. I love how it further developed Archer as well, making him more three-dimensional and really showing us how far his enigmatic power can go. It also strengthens his relationship with Armstrong as well. I love these guys together. The book really drops the ball in the structuring though. For some reason it collects the mini-Bloodshot crossover grouped by title rather than in chronological issue order. So the whole crossover story is out of order. I'm glad I caught this pretty early on. A bad taste in what's otherwise another cool and hilarious Archer and Armstrong adventure.
February 8, 2019
Μόνο καρδούλες. Μόνο.
March 20, 2016
Sect Civil War (14-17). This is Archer & Armstrong at its best. The two leads each get great independent storylines, but still manage to come together for their buddy spotlight. This Archer continues to be just a little bit mysterious, this Armstrong continues to be the drunken buffoon that we've known through multiple universes , and there continues to be a lot of great humor throughout. I even liked the forces of the Sect in this comic; they almost convince me that they could be the rulers of the world, thanks to great backstory on them (and Armstrong) before they descended into more foolish buffoonery. [8/10]
Archer 0. A great origin for Archer, tying him into the larger VH-E universe, and revealing lots of secrets that I hadn't really expected. I look forward to seeing how this influences his future [7+/10]
Mission: Improbable (A&A 18-19, BS 20-21). It's a lot of fun to see Bloodshot and the Hard CORPS in the context of Archer & Armstrong because they're funny. Surprisingly, that funny carries across the whole crossover, in both the books. Though the funny comes straight out of Archer & Armstrong, it's Bloodshot and the Hard CORPS that seem to have the major repercussions: we're being set up for a major final battle between Bloodshot and PRS. Overall, a nice combo of the two books [7/10] (And this storyline had of course already appeared in Bloodshot Deluxe v2; so it goes.)
American Wasteland (20-23). The VH-E Archer & Armstrong has always straddled the line between urban folklore and satire and it's often wobbled over a bit too far into the ridiculous side of things with its various Sects. "American Wasteland" revisits that balance in a Hotel (in) California and it's wildly wonderful. There's a great balance between a history of Americana, the story of the Sect, and the latest threat to Archer, Armstrong, and the universe and it's enlightening, hilarious, and serious all at the same time. There's also a wonderful ending. The story goes a bit wrong at its mid-point where a major and shocking reveal gets pulled back, knocking you out of the story, but that can be forgiven in what might be Archer & Armstrong's best VH-E arc [8+/10].
Mary-Maria (24). A focus on Mary-Maria and her backstory ... and it's entirely boring. And not funny either. What a let-down going into the series finale! (But that's what happens when you give the penultimate issue over to a fill-in author, I guess.) [4/10]
Anniversary (25). Van Lente offers some nice closure to his story, going to the heart of the characters as always, while a bunch of other authors write some OK tales [7/10].
Where's the 1% Special?! These Deluxe volumes should have everything.
Overall, this is a fine volume, with the two major arcs both being among Van Lente's best Archer & Armstrong. I'm sorry that he won't be the author when A+A returns!
Archer 0. A great origin for Archer, tying him into the larger VH-E universe, and revealing lots of secrets that I hadn't really expected. I look forward to seeing how this influences his future [7+/10]
Mission: Improbable (A&A 18-19, BS 20-21). It's a lot of fun to see Bloodshot and the Hard CORPS in the context of Archer & Armstrong because they're funny. Surprisingly, that funny carries across the whole crossover, in both the books. Though the funny comes straight out of Archer & Armstrong, it's Bloodshot and the Hard CORPS that seem to have the major repercussions: we're being set up for a major final battle between Bloodshot and PRS. Overall, a nice combo of the two books [7/10] (And this storyline had of course already appeared in Bloodshot Deluxe v2; so it goes.)
American Wasteland (20-23). The VH-E Archer & Armstrong has always straddled the line between urban folklore and satire and it's often wobbled over a bit too far into the ridiculous side of things with its various Sects. "American Wasteland" revisits that balance in a Hotel (in) California and it's wildly wonderful. There's a great balance between a history of Americana, the story of the Sect, and the latest threat to Archer, Armstrong, and the universe and it's enlightening, hilarious, and serious all at the same time. There's also a wonderful ending. The story goes a bit wrong at its mid-point where a major and shocking reveal gets pulled back, knocking you out of the story, but that can be forgiven in what might be Archer & Armstrong's best VH-E arc [8+/10].
Mary-Maria (24). A focus on Mary-Maria and her backstory ... and it's entirely boring. And not funny either. What a let-down going into the series finale! (But that's what happens when you give the penultimate issue over to a fill-in author, I guess.) [4/10]
Anniversary (25). Van Lente offers some nice closure to his story, going to the heart of the characters as always, while a bunch of other authors write some OK tales [7/10].
Where's the 1% Special?! These Deluxe volumes should have everything.
Overall, this is a fine volume, with the two major arcs both being among Van Lente's best Archer & Armstrong. I'm sorry that he won't be the author when A+A returns!
April 9, 2017
Continuing right where volume 1 left off, we find Archer and Armstrong in the middle of a secret civil war between various branches of the mysterious Sect. Both goofy/hilarious and thought-provoking/poignant, Van Lente has found the perfect mouthpieces in Archer and Armstrong. Wish there was more to this run!
March 24, 2018
Good read
In vol.2, the story is still nonstop action full of unexpected craziness for an unpredictable storyline. The art gets a little wonky and is not as clean as vol. 1. Archer and Armstrong comics are still hard to beat.
In vol.2, the story is still nonstop action full of unexpected craziness for an unpredictable storyline. The art gets a little wonky and is not as clean as vol. 1. Archer and Armstrong comics are still hard to beat.
April 2, 2018
The art is a little off in this volume but I still enjoyed the fast paced humor and action. Genuinely the first time I’ve enjoyed an Archer and Armstrong comic.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews