Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 9/7

A+A: The Adventures of Archer and Armstrong #7
Story: Rafer Roberts
Art: Mike Norton, David Lafuente, Brian Reber, & Allen Passalaqua

I find that there are a lot more comics that are just plane fun now then there were back in the 90s when I started reading comics, and I'm glad for it. But there are few comics that are not only fun, but completely embraces the mad absurdity of comics than A+A, the current series that stars one of Valiant's classic odd couples, Archer and Armstrong. On a quest to find Armstrong's long forgotten wife (he got drunk and forgot he got married), the mismatched pair of Archer, the young man trained to be an assassin and can summon up any physical skill, and Armstrong, the drunken immortal, have instead stumbled across a Russian circus where everyone who performs bears and odd resemblance to Armstrong. That was last issue, but this issue, now that the scientists who created the circus are attacking, we get an entire issue of crazy escapades. Archer and Armstrong fight Soviet scientists, Archer and Armstrong meet the members of the freak show, the failed experiments, learn exactly what the nature of the circus people who resemble Armstrong are (and it is neither his illegitimate descendants or clones, as Archer theorized), perform in the circus in disguise, fight clowns, and meet the scientists behind the project, one of whom is a talking bear. It's a delightfully off kilter story, but while it is utterly bizarre, it is grounded in the reactions and the well established characters of the leads. Archer is curious an wants to get answers, and his recent time with his new girlfriend, Valiant's breakout heroine Faith, has him trying to solve problems by talking rather than punching, which doesn't sit well with the more bull in a china shop style of his partner. The issue is simply a delight to read. And if all that doesn't sound like enough story, well Archer's step-sister, Mary-Maria, is dealing with a coup within the order of assassin nuns she's the head of. And in a back-up, Davey the Mackerel, an anthropomorphic fish man who escaped the confines of Armstrong's bottomless bag (and shout out to all my fellow D&D players who look at it and think of Bags of Holding), is dealing with his time as the assistant and guide to a dark god who escaped the bag without his powers and who used to work making bags, satchels, and purses. The dynamic there is just killer; picture Doctor Doom, down to the ranting, if he made purses. I know that this review contained a little more plot than I usually put in a review, but the issue is so packed with stuff that I felt like calling that out; Valiant does a great job of making their comics dense with story, and A+A is one of the titles that really takes a bit of time to read in the best possible way.

Everafter: From the Pages of Fables #1
Story: Dave Justus & Matthew Sturges
Art: Travis Moore & Michael Wiggam

Vertigo has a long history of spin-offs from its best known titles. Some, like The Dreaming, are mostly forgotten. Some, like Lucifer, have spawned spin-offs of their own. Everafter is the first spin-off from Fables since that series, a personal favorite, wrapped up at issue 150, and is a good start to this series. At the end of Fables, magic came to the Mundane world, meaning Earth as we know it, and now things there are all sorts of screwy, and the Fables are trying to help keep things straight. Two plotlines run through this first issue, introducing, or reintroducing in some cases, the characters I assume will be the principal cast. One plot features Connor Wolf, one of the cubs of Bigby Wolf and Snow White, two of the principles of the original series, being recruited into the covert ops organization of Fables that polices magic in the now not-so-Mundy world. Connor was one of the least developed of the cubs in the original series, so there's a lot of wiggle room the creators have to work with on his personality. He's a great entry character, because he's dashing but headstrong, and looking to find his place in the world. You get an idea of what this operation is, who the key players are, and what they're doing through Conner's eyes. The second, more action oriented plot, features three of the agents on a mission in St. Louis. Bo Peep and Peter Piper, former thieves and assassins who starred in the Fables novel Peter and Max, and Hansel, the former Adversary's chief Witchfinder, are hunting down something that is causing a terrifying outbreak of monsters. The art from Travis Moore is spectacular, showing all sorts of great creatures, and the character action is exciting and clear. It's not unexpected that Hansel, someone who hunts and kills witches for a living, is not exactly the most pleasant of characters, and doesn't get along with the husband and wife team of Bo Peep and Peter, but as they near the goal, Hansel's motives are more clear and not unexpected. Dave Justus and Matthew Sturges have a history with Fables, having co-written the adaptation of the video game Fables: The Wolf Among Us, and Sturges co-wrote the original Fables spin-off, Jack of Fables, and they show a deft hand with both the characters we already know and the new ones. It's really exciting and interesting first issue, and even if you don't have any knowledge of Fables, you should be able to pick it up.

Kill or be Killed #2
Story: Ed Brubaker
Art: Sean Phillips and Elizabeth Breitweiser

I was on vacation when the first issue of Kill or be Killed was released, and so I didn't write it up, which I regret, because it was one of the best debuts in recent memory, but I will try to make up for that with a glowing recommendation of issue two. This isn't surprising, since the team of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips have been pretty much flawless in everything they have ever done together. Kill or be Killed exists in a the gritty world of a Brubaker and Phillips comic, a place that exists almost entirely in shades of moral grey to black, and explores the idea of vigilantism and how it effects people in a real world setting. This issue follows our lead, Dylan, on his first kill. If you didn't read the first issue and don't know the set up, Dylan survived what should have been a lethal fall only to be visited by a demon that says he is living on borrowed time and must commit an evil soul to Hell each month to keep on living. While I think we're supposed to take on faith that the demon is real, there's enough ambiguity to leave us questioning whether this is real or not, especially as the demon doesn't appear in this second issue; it's just Dylan systematically looking for a gun and a person who deserves to die. The issue is narrated by Dylan and is the usual tremendous character work that Brubaker does; it's hard not to sympathize with Dylan as you see that he doesn't want to die himself, and after all, he's only killing bad people. And Brubaker gives us the worst of the worst here, as Dylan tracks down the elder brother of a childhood friend of his that Dylan only realized too late was molesting his friend, who eventually died from drugs and depression. This is a person (and I use that term loosely) that no one would have sympathy for, and you feel yourself cheering for Dylan when he puts him down. But should you really? Is it right? These are the questions I think Brubaker wants us to contemplate. I'm just scratching the surface of the issue, a comic that explores Dylan's childhood and his father's life, and continues to lay out his present. Sean Phllips is at the top of his game, not just in the sequences in the past and present, but in a beautiful slash that shows the art that Dylan's father made for *ahem* gentlemen's pulp magazines. It's the kind of piece, painted by Phillips himself, that might be a little too good for those trashy porno mags, a really beautiful piece of art, which is just right for the art of a man who felt his dreams being crushed by doing art for a place that is beneath him. You don't buy a comic by Brubaker and Phillips for a happy trip; you read it to be entertained, certainly, but it will also make you think, be challenged, and to watch the idea of genres be broken, as nothing is off limits. Kill or be Killed is another gem in Image Comics crown, and in the constantly evolving and breathtaking work of these two amazing creators.


And after that more bleak review, something lighter and more fun from Dan Grote...

Jughead #9

Story by Ryan Q. North

Art by Derek Charm

Let’s be clear: Chip Zdarsky and Erica Henderson’s run on Jughead was a ton of fun and used some of the sillier aspects of Archie history (Jughead’s Time Police, anyone?) to its advantage. They will be missed on this book.

But Forsythe Pendleton Jones III has been passed on to the best possible hands.

Writer Ryan Q. North (Henderson’s partner on Marvel’s Unbeatable Squirrel Girl) and artist Derek Charm roll fast and heavy with the comedy in Jughead’s solo series, right from the opening splash page featuring a sculpture of our hero composed of burgers, hot dogs and pizza, which he made to win an art contest.

Zdarsky’s Jughead was canonically asexual, but North has him questioning that identity after a girl takes the form of his favorite thing: a burger. Pop’s Diner has employed a mascot who stands outside and hands out coupons and menu advice to passing prospective customers, her costume changing based on the day’s special (that’s a hefty budget to be pouring into wardrobe, Pop Tate).

Jughead discovers he has feelings for this walking, talking all-beef Patty, and so he turns to his friends for advice on love, all of which is naturally terrible (Reggie: “Love is possession. It’s seeing something really cool that someone else has, and knowing if you had it, you’d be just as great as they are, and then they’d be worse, because they wouldn’t have it anymore.”).

Except for Betty’s. Betty’s advice about how to approach a woman is mandatory reading for every teen and adult male alive and takes into account things like consent and how to properly compliment someone while acknowledging that romance is complicated. Be like Betty. Don’t be like Reggie.

If we lived in an age where covers and solicitation text didn’t instantly spoil endings, it’d be spoiling things to say Jughead’s burger babe turns out to be none other than Sabrina the Teenage Witch, but c’est la vie. It will be fun to watch them interact more next issue.

And kudos to North for giving us even more comedy between the panels. Additional narration boxes accompany the bottom of half the pages in the book, rightly pointing out that Zdarsky was ripping off the reader by not providing the same, touting the importance of self-care and poking fun at Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours theory.

A new creative team on a book can often be a cause for concern, but at least for me, “Jughead” retains its Most Favored Comic status.

Free Comic Book Day 2016: Where You Should Go and What You Should Read

So, I've done this every year, and I'm going to again this year. Tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day, the annual day when you can go to your local comic book shop and pick up any number of 40 special free comics. This year, as most other years, I will be working up at my old stomping grounds, Dewey's Comic City, where there will be an artists alley, a cosplay contest, drawings, and reps from Valiant Comics. If you're in the South Jersey or Philadelphia area, I also want to recommend heading over to my current store, Stormwatch Comics, for an artist, a sale, and more surprises. No matter where you go, it's gonna be a great time, but I can tell you for a fact these stores do it up right.

Now, as I do every year, here's my little PSA. While these comics are free to you, they aren't free for retailers. They are sold to retailers at a steep discount compared to normal comics, but at the volume they're buying, it's still a lot of money, and that's not counting anything they're paying for advertising and their events. So, it might be nice for you to buy a little something. And while you're at it and getting the free stuff, try something that you normally wouldn't. If you read Marvel and/or DC mostly, try something from Fantagraphics. If Manga is your thing, maybe it's time to sample a superhero comic. The price is right to give something different a shot. I've discovered a couple of my favorite comics, Atomic Robo and The Sixth Gun, thanks to their Free Comic Book Day offerings.

Now, as I also have done each yeah, here are a handful of comics that I think are worth your attention tomorrow.

Legend of Korra/How to Train Your Dragon/Plants Vs. Zombies

One of Dark Horse Comics two offerings this year, this issue features three popular all ages properties, two of which are new to Dark Horse's stable (pun intended). While Avatar: The Last Airbender has been a fixture of Dark Horse's FCBD offerings, this is the first year featuring its spin-off/sequel. The Legend of Korra. The story is set before the time of the series, and is the story of how Korra, the avatar, met her animal guide, Naga, the polar bear dog. It's a short, sweet story, and good for readers not familiar with the world of Korra. While I'm not familiar with the Plants Vs. Zombies games, its story is also accessible. But the highlight of this issue is the How to Train Your Dragon story. The story starts in media res, with the young dragon trainers trapped inside a makeshift shelter with wild dragons attacking them. The story is actually a series of shorts, as each person tells a story of the late chief of the tribe, Stoic the Vast, many of them effecting. What really makes the story is the art by Doug Wheatley, best known for his work on Star Wars comics, whose hyper-detailed characters and especially dragons are a visual treat. This is an all ages book.

Love and Rockets

Love and Rockets is the legendary, long running series from the Hernandez Brothers. Each issue features two unrelated stories, one by each brother. Gilbert Hernandez's stories follow a woman named Luba and her family, from their time in Central America to their time in California. Jaime Hernandez chronicles the lives of Hopey, a former punk rocker, her sometimes girlfriend Maggie, and their extended circle of friends. Love and Rockets is one of those epic pieces of continuing graphic literature that I have always found daunting to dig into, but this issue gives you a good sampling of what the series is like and a good way to judge if it's something you would appreciate and enjoy. This comic is appropriate fro readers seventeen and up.

March

There are few comics being published that I can say are unquestioningly important, but one of them is definitely March, the graphic memoir of Congressman John Lewis and his time with the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. Two of the three volumes have been released, with the third due out this August. The FCBD issue from Top Shelf/IDW features brief excerpts from each of the three, and they are astounding, with beautiful art and important historical context that feels important in the times we live in. This is appropriate for any age, but I would suggest anyone under a teen read it with parents to answer questions.

Serenity/Hellboy/Aliens

Yes, both of Dark Horse's FCBD issues made this list. Of the three stories, the Aliens one is the one I was least invested in, and was fine for what it is, a bunch of people fighting aliens, which is about what I expect. The Hellboy story is a Mike Mignola written, Richard Corben tale of a younger Hellboy investigating a magic mirror that is said to have demons trapped in it. Mignola knows exactly how to write into Corben's wheelhouse, giving some true, cringe inducing horror. But it's the Serenity story that's an A-plus here. There's still little enough in the ways of stories from the Serenity 'verse that each one is something to be treasured, and this one is a real emotional roller coaster. Left to babysit Zoe and Wash's baby, River tells a story of how the crew gathered and their travails as a fairy tale to the baby; picture a Firefly version of the classic "Kitty's Fairy Tale" issue of Uncanny X-Men and you'll get the idea. Told from River's point of view, the story is as telling of what River thinks about the others on the crew and herself as it is of the story itself. If you've heard how great Firefly/Serenity is and you've wanted to dip your toe in, this isn't a bad place to start. This book is good for teens on up.

Valiant: 4001 A.D. Special

Valiant put together a sampler of many of their recent high profile releases for FCBD this year, along with a prequel to their new event series, 4001 A.D., which launched this week. This issue is strong because of the sum of its parts; no one story really carries the books, but if you've been curious about trying Valiant's output, or expanding what you're reading, this is a good place to start. The 4001 A.D. story does a good job of setting up the stakes of the new event, and the four previews include three books that have been well reviewed on this very blog: Archer & Armstrong, Divinity II, Faith, as well as a fourth preivew for an upcoming arc from Bloodshot Reborn. I am constantly impressed at how well Valiant holds together a coherent universe while not making it feel like you have to read any more than the titles you want, and the samples here stand on their own and are all of slightly different flavors, so you should be able to find something for anyone in here. This is a book I'd recommend for teens and up.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 3/16

This week' we'll be starting off with Dan Grote's review of the first issue of the new series starring everyone's favorite drunken immortal and naive assassin, Archer and Armstrong. Welcome to the Valiant fold, my friend...

A&A: The Adventures of Archer and Armstrong #1

Story by Rafer Roberts

Art by David LaFuente, Ryan Winn and Brian Reber

Sometimes you pick up a comic and you wonder why you waited so long to make it a part of your life.

Matt’s written pretty consistently about Archer and Armstrong, always making it a point to note the book’s humor. As somebody whose favorite comics include Deadpool and Chew, it’s always sounded right up my alley yet somehow just out of reach. Fortunately, this relaunch is extremely new-reader friendly.

There’s not much you need to know going in. Armstrong, aka Aram Anni-Padda, is a millennia-old, bear-sized immortal with a hunger for adventure and a thirst for booze. Obadiah Archer is a teenager trained from birth in every form of combat but is so pure of heart that he substitutes swearing for phrases like “mumble-fudgers” and “Son of a lady dog!” And his sister, Mary-Maria, leads a cult of ninja nuns and is mostly evil.

Pretty darned accessible for characters that have been around since 1992.

In this latest iteration of the title, Armstrong has gotten himself stuck in his bottomless satchel (think Mary Poppins’ carpetbag, but cooler) trying to retrieve a bottle of 1907 Lagavulin whiskey he stole from some Mafia guys in 1953. Because the satchel is left open (Armstrong is tethered to the bed in his motel room by a length of rope), the monsters that dwell inside are free to escape. Archer, who was out making a vending machine run, returns to the room to subdue the monsters and make them watch Maury Povich. He then has the plot explained to him by another creature that escaped the bag, a talking mackerel named Davey who dresses like an old gumshoe.

(It was about this point I decided I was on board.)

Archer dives into the satchel to find his partner, but not before begging Mary-Maria to watch the bag, and not steal it.

Inside the satchel is a giant library out of an M.C. Escher painting, run by goblins of indeterminate gender. Deeper inside is Bacchus, the half-human, half-goat god of wine and merriment, whom Armstrong apparently stuck in the bag thousands of years ago but doesn’t remember, much to Bacchus’ disappointment.

“Whatever, I don’t care. It’s not like I’ve been planning this moment for 3,000 years or anything,” he says when he confronts a reunited Archer and Armstrong.

Nevertheless, he sets his trash golems upon the pair, who now must rely on Mary-Maria to save them. Except she’s already decided to cut the rope and steal the satchel, so whoopsadoodle on trusting her.

The book opens with a flashback showing Armstrong and an old friend punching Mafioso and stealing the plot-driving booze. Mission accomplished, the two rest a spell on a park bench and toast to a job well done.

“Here’s to the successful end of another stupid and poorly planned adventure,” Armstrong says. May all A&A’s adventures be this stupid and poorly planned.

Clean Room #6
Story: Gail Simone
Art: Jon Davis-Hunt & Quinton Winter

I've enjoyed a lot of the recent Vertigo launches, but of them,Gail Simone and Jon Davis-Hunt's Clean Room has been the strongest. This issue, the final part of the first arc, gives us some answers... and asks a whole bunch of questions based on those answers. The past couple issue's plot of Astrid Mueller, self hope guru and knower of mysteries, trapped in a locked room with one of the demons may have ended last issue, but this issue places out series's main character, journalist in just as tenuous a place. The demon, Spark, who possessed one of her neighbors gives Chloe an insight into the suicide of her fiancee, the thing that set her on the quest to find out about Mueller and her cult, but then it... tries to save her from another demon-possessed man, this one called The Surgeon, and when Mueller finds out, she does everything  she can to save Chloe, including revealing her secret plans. We find out what Mueller was doing with the strange Dr. Hagen from a couple issues back, and while I remembered Hagen the minute he was mentioned, I hadn't thought about him since the one scene that introduced him. Simone is a clever writer who knows how to seed hints and backstory so that when it becomes relevant, the reader slaps their forehead and smiles because it all makes sense now. But even with these answers, there are now more questions: are there factions in these possessing creatures? What exactly is their physical home? How did Astird find out about Chloe's ability to communicate with the dead? And what does The Surgeon's final cryptic line mean? The balance between mystery and reveal is hard to keep in a suspense/horror comic, but Simone has it down pat. But on top of this, the emotional life of Chloe is so rich, and her reactions left me feeling deeply for her. And Astrid Mueller remains a mystery to me; even though we got some insight into what she's doing, and why, she moves from reacting with what seems like passion to cold calculation so quickly I'm still not sure how much Chloe, and the reader, can trust her. And Jon Davis-Hunt's art is some of the top notch creepiest I've seen in a while. His distorted, monstrous faces of the possessed make your skin crawl because they balance what should be with what most assuredly not. Clean Room is a great horror comic, and one I'm glad is published by Vertigo: Vertigo started as a horror imprint, after all, and Clean Room belongs in the long line of skin crawling horror that traces back to Sandman and Hellblazer.

Kanan #12
Story: Greg Weisman
Art: Andrea Broccardo & David Curiel

A year's worth of origins story comes to a conclusion in the final issue of Marvel's Star Wars: Rebels tie-in series, Kanan. The animated series has been a great success, getting better with each episode, and this series has been enjoyable; telling the stories of how Jedi Padawam Caleb Dume became rogue Kanan Jarrus feels like the book that embodies the transition from The Clone Wars to Rebels. This issue, set entirely in the present of the series, meaning during the Rebellion era, wraps up all the threads from the series, bringing in the characters that Caleb met as a Padawan and that he met when he first changed his name to Kanan to hide from the Empire, and now having them meet Kanan as an adult, and a master in his own right. Much of the issue has Kanan and his Padawan, Ezra going to save one of those long ago friends. The issue also has a cameo from one of the animated series big bads and features an appearance from an Imperial character from the first new continuity novel, A New Dawn, which was the story of how Kanan met Hera, another of the leads of Rebels. I've always liked when the comics and the novels tie together nicely, and with the new Lucasfilm Story Group overseeing all other media to make one streamlined continuity, I've been hoping for this kind of tight tie-in before, and it's the first time I've seen that kind of tie-in. But most important the little one off issue gives you everything that is good in a Star Wars story: action, aliens, strange worlds, Stormtroopers, and Jedi. I like that even thought this features characters introduced over eleven issues and a novel, the issue stands alone, making an exciting Star Wars adventure.

Steven Universe and the Crystal Gems #1
Story: Josceline Fenton
Art: Chrystin Garland & Leigh Luna

I came late to the Steven Universe party; I only started watching the series a few months ago, deep into the animated series' second season, but fell quickly in love with the deep characterization and the message at the heart of the series, that love is universal and that it brings us together and makes us better than we are alone. And so a new mini-series featuring Steven and his fellow Crystal Gems seemed like a good issue to pick up. For those who don't know the show, Steven Universe is an eternally optimistic half human/half alien boy who spends his time having adventures with the Crystal Gems, aliens who served with his mother to defend Earth from their homeworld that planned to conquer it: confident Garnet, fussy Pearl, and prankster Amethyst. One word adjective descriptors don't do any of these characters justice, as they are all remarkably deep characters. One of the things that makes the series fun is that the Gems, despite being thousands of years old, don't really get the whole human thing, and Steven often tries to explain these things to them, things like birthdays and slumber parties. This mini-series starts with Steven having another of these adventures, this time taking the Gems on a camping trip. The fish out of water aspect as the Gems try to do normal camping things makes for great comedy: Pearl (my favorite character on the show) putting up a tent to be aesthetically pleasing and using all the parts, not realizing there were instructions to make it functional, is the kind of thing that makes for great comedy. The centerpiece of the issue is the highlight of a camping trip for Steven, the telling of scary stories around the fire. Steven's story, a riff on the classic "The call's coming from inside the house!" urban legend falls flat as the Gems overthink the scare. But then Pearl decides to tell the story she and Garnet used to keep Amethyst, the youngest gem, from wandering off when she was younger, the story of the Glass Ghost. The scary stories are colored differently from the main story, and differently from each other, and the muted color palette helps give them a spooky vibe. The issue is well structured, mixing it's scares with its jokes, and a moment with Steven finding broken glass when he went to look for firewood means the story of the Glass Ghost is obviously going to be tied into the real world; I don't think it's a real spoiler to reveal Steven sees a Glass Ghost at issue's end, and it's design is phenomenal. Chrystin Garland perfectly captures the characters looks and designs, and the art is as vibrant as the animation on the cartoon. Steven Universe and the Crystal Gems #1 is a great issue for fans of the cartoon, but works just as well as an introduction to Steven and his friends.

Wrath of the Eternal Warrior #5
Story: Robert Venditti
Art: Juan Jose Ryp & Jordie Bellaire

The first arc of Wrath of the Eternal Warrior took place in the afterlife, and followed Gilad Anni-Padda (younger brother of Armstrong from Archer and Armstrong. Of course, younger is a relative term when they're both over six thousand years old) as he left the paradise where the family he has built over his long life dwells on his quest back to life. This issue is actually a flashback to a time millenia ago, in ancient Mesopotamia. One of the great things about having a long lived protagonist is that you can do this kind of story, a tale of their past that illuminates something about what they are currently going through or will go through soon. Gilad is out hunting when a raiding party finds the village that he is living in and massacres everyone and takes his son. Upon returning home, he finds the wreck of the village and goes to hunt down those who perpetrated the atrocity. During the hunt, the panels have three color schemes: full color for the present of Gilad's hunt, yellow for what he's able to determine of those who killed Janna, his wife, and took Kalam, his son, and red for flashbacks to Gilad and Janna during the time that led up to this. It makes what happened all the more tragic as you understand the choices that Gilad made to lead to having a child with a woman he knew he would outlive, a child he knew he would also outlive. Gilad is the fist and steel of Earth, the guardian of the planet and the Geomancers, the world's guardians, and so it's not often that he is presented as emotional. This series has been building a fuller, more three dimensional Gilad, a tragic hero; here we see Gilad make a decision that there might be more than just that life for him, and we see what comes of it. It's cool to watch him use his skills as a tracker and hunter to find his way to the city of the men who took Kalam, a character we saw in the afterlife, and I think we'll learn more of why Kalam resented Gilad in that world. The art on this issue is decidedly different from the previous arc; Juan Jose Ryp made his bones working with Warren Ellis over at Avatar Press, and his style is informed by those origins: his art is hyper detailed and he draws carnage like few others. His Gilad is a muscled barbarian, befitting the time and setting, and the look on his face as he sees what has been done to those he loves and the cold determination to save his son and revenge himself are chilling. I'm looking forward to see what Gilad does next issue, and I hope that these flashback stories with different artists become a staple of this title. Gilad was my favorite character from the classic Valiant universe, and every issue of this series makes me glad to see him get the series he has deserved since his reintroduction.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 10/29

Archer & Armstrong #25
Story: Fred Van Lente & others
Art: Clayton Henry & others

Credit where credit is due, Valiant does up a heck of an anniversary issue. The (for now, anyway) final issue of Archer & Armstrong is chock full of different stories that sum up the relationship between our two leads perfectly. The lead story, "Back to the Beginning," reunites the series original creative team of Fred Van Lente and Clayton Henry, to tell a story that ties up many of the series loose ends, including the identity of Archer's parents, Archer's relationship to The Sect, and the origin of the Archer cult from earlier in the series. More important is the scene where Archer asks Armstrong to show him more of the world, and Armstrong sets him straight about exactly what that will mean. It's a thesis on judgement and what it means to really live, from someone who has lived longer than pretty much anybody, and if we never hear another word from these character by Van Lente, it is a perfect send off. The second long form story in the issue, "Immortal Combat,"by John Layman and Ramon Villalobos, is much lighter. An immortal returns to fight Armstrong, and thanks to Armstrong's... pickled brain, he has little recollection of someone who has spent hundreds of years planning his demise. This story is just pure fun, which has been something that this book does and gets right every time. Also included is a short that leads into the upcoming one shot that features A&A enemies the 1%, and three time hopping stories that show Armstrong at different points in his immortal life. This is exactly what I feel an anniversary issue should be, one that celebrates all the aspects of a title, and gives long time readers a reward for picking it up. Van Lente and Henry will soon be starting a new Valiant series about Armstrong's time travelling brother, Ivar, Timewalker, so they'll be hanging around the Valiant Universe some more, but I'm glad they got the band back together to tell one more story from what has been my favorite Valiant series from the new line.

Marvel Comics 75th Anniversary Special
Story: Various
Art: Various

And here's another anniversary issue. I have to give Marvel credit, while I'm a DC guy, Marvel has done more with this 75th Anniversary one shot than DC has done with most of its big 75th anniversaries. A series of short stories, taking place throughout Marvel history, all the pieces have some feeling of history. The Spider-Man and Wolverine stories are fine and interesting, but it's the other three that really grabbed me. The opening story is a meditation on when the world changed, when the Fantastic Four got their powers and created the new heroic age. Narrated by Ben Urich, this story, written by James Robinson and drawn by Chris Samnee, is just so beautifully drawn, showing where many of the great heroes were when the FF took their space ride. Bruce Timm then adapts the Captain America prose story from Captain America Comics #3 that was the first Marvel work by The Man himself, Stan Lee. Any new work from Bruce Timm is worth celebrating, and this classic Stan Lee story is a fun throwback that's 40s setting works really well with Timm's style. Finally, Alias creative team Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos tell a story of Jessica Jones helping a little old lady find the fireman who saved her the day the original Human Torch debuted. It's a sweet little story, and feels like it's setting up a new Jessica Jones series, which makes sense with her Netflix TV series on the horizon. Along with all of this, we have a series of pin-ups with concepts by Bendis and art by various A-List artists, my favorites being a 90s X-Men one, featuring such luminaries as Marrow, Stacy X, and Adam X the X-Treme, with art by Joe Quinones, and a Groot Attorney-At-Law with art by Francesco Francavilla. The whole issue is a fun tribute to Marvel's past, with some great creators doing some top notch work. I know issues like this often seem a shameless cash grab, but this one is well worth your time.

Rasputin #1
Story: Alex Grecian
Art: Riley Rossmo

One of my favorite Image series of all time is Proof, the story of a Sasquatch who knew Thomas Jefferson and now works with a government organization investigating cryptids, things like Sasquatch and chupacabras. The creative team of Proof is back at Image this month, with the debut issue of Rasputin, a historical fiction based around Russia's mad monk, Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin. This opening issue is a solid done in one of sorts, starting as Rasputin sits down to dine at the dinner that, for anyone who knows his story. will end in his seeming murder, and flashes back to his youngest days. Rasputin is already being fleshed out as a full character, not the mad, licentious figure he is often portrayed as in fiction, but someone with a backstory. The issue specifically show the conditions Rasputin grew up in, with a father who had little trouble savagely beating his wife and son. By issue's end, we have seen that this is a world where the supernatural will play heavily, and one where violence is going to be as central, and not in a graphic way, but in the sense that life started with pain, and will probably not get any easier. As good as Alex Grecian's story is, and it is very good, Riley Rossmo's art adds something to it that makes is all the better. In pure text, a first person narrator is only as trustworthy as your impression of him or her, and if you know anything about Rasputin, he isn't someone you should trust. However, the graphic element of art in flashback adds a dimension. You see Rasputin use his power to heal (or resurrect?) his mother after a beating, and you see the expression on his face. You see him make the cold hard choice after his father is attacked by a bear. Rossmo is one of my favorite artists in comics, his work on series life Proof, Cowboy/Ninja/Viking, and Bedlam showing the breadth of his talent, drawing character moments with the same strength he draws monsters. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Image is producing the widest variety of interesting new comics on the racks right now, and a supernatural historical fiction is a great addition to that. If you like history, magic, and bears, you should check out Rasputin. Oh, and Riley Rossmo, in case you read this, I read you bit in the backmatter, and yes, there is still an audience waiting for more Proof. Give it to us and I'll preach it to the mountains.

Saga #24
Story: Brian K. Vaughan
Art: Fiona Staples

Ah, the pre-hiatus issue of Saga. The last issue of an arc on Saga usually steps away from the family who are our main protagonists and instead spends some time with one of the other characters, be it The Will, Prince Robot IV, or Gwendolyn. This time, the issue's driving force is The Brand, freelancer (bounty hunter) and the sister of bounty hunter The Will, who is looking for the person responsible for her brother being in a coma, and her partner, Pretty Boy, who's a big dog. The Brand crosses paths quickly with Gwendolyn and Sophie, as well as series favorite Lying Cat, who are seeking a cure for The Will. The first scene, where they retrieve the scroll with the cure's ingredients on it, has the best Lying Cat moment since the heartwarming scene between the cat and Sophie. Vaughan develops these characters further, giving us a bit more of The Brand, exploring Gwendolyn's roll, showing more than a force hunting Marko, but as the honorable warrior she is, and starting to see Sophie come more out of the shell she was forced into by her horrible past. Aside from the A-story, we also get a great flashback to The Will's time with his ex-lover, The Stalk, and see more of the complexity of their relationship, as we learn we will soon be visiting The Stalk's home planet. And that final page cliffhanger, the thing that Vaughan does better than anyone in comics, has me ready to tear my hair out in the best kind of frustration from the wait until early 2015 to see where it goes.

Southern Bastards #5
Story: Jason Aaron
Art: Jason Latour

No one is the villain of their own story. And even the villain usually has his reasons and his backstory. Sometimes, I feel this is unnecessary, like with The Joker or Hannibal Lecter, but in most cases, that backstory makes for a much better character. Jason Aaron proved to be a master of the well rounded villain with Lincoln Red Crow, Agent Nitz, and so many others in Scalped, and this issue of Southern Bastards begins an arc focusing on the background of series villain, Coach Boss. The story flashes back and forth, from the present, where Coach Boss is heading to the funeral of Earl Tubbs, the protagonist of the first arc and the man Coach Boss killed at the end of the previous issue, and a young Boss working to make the football team. The Boss of now is a cold, calculating bastard, the kind of guy who goes to that funeral knowing full well everyone knows he killed the man, and who by issue's end shows that he wants the town to remember that. The young Boss, while not a tough guy physically, still shows the will that will make him Coach Boss one day, although here he comes to a bad end by not knowing when it's best to let a bully mouth off. We get to see Craw County from Boss's point of view, an insider's view, versus the outsider that Tubbs was. I'm a northerner, and can count the number of football games I've watched on one hand, but it's a credit to Aaron's writing that I can see where the mania for the game in these southern town comes from. This arc will continue to fill out Boss's history, and while I don't think he's ever going to be a character we like, it's going to be an interesting journey to see if he's a character that I can understand.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 9/17

All-New X-Factor #14
Story: Peter David
Art: Pop Mahn

All-New X-Factor, like it's predecessor X-Factor, is at its best when it's about the characters. Peter David writes great superheroic action, and crazy mystic plots, but what he really does best is dig down into these people and let us get insight into them. Stories like the legendary "X-Aminations" issues and the issues with John Maddox, the dupe of Jamie who became a man of God are some of his best. This issue isn't quite as heavy and internal as those; it's a simple tale of team members Danger and Polaris, along with Polaris's sister, the Avenger Scarlet Witch, going to a Renaissance Faire for a girl's day out. Lorna (Polaris) is doing her best to not be alone with Wanda (Scarlet Witch), who Lorna still is holding against Wanda that whole depowering well over 99% of the mutant population thing that most humans and mutants have forgotten. Danger, who is an artificial intelligence, is beginning to experiment more with feelings and her "humanity" for want of a better word, mostly by asking Lorna if she wants to have sex and Lorna completely freaking out in an amusing way (meanwhile, when she asks Wanda, Wanda just says no thanks, which makes sense since Wanda was married to The Vision, who was also an A.I., for some years, so robot sex isn't something unheard of for her). David does wind up cramming in some action, as one of the women who works at the Renn Faire is being stalked, and her crazy stalker does attempt to kill her, and the women of X-Factor and the Avengers step in. We get the Peter David beat where he makes us a little worried about Lorna's sanity and/or morals, but it all works out. That particular touch, the stalking, is apt for this issue, as Lorna finds out her ex, Alex Summers, aka Havok, has been spying on her, and I feel like things are about to go very bad for Alex, but we'll probably have to wait until the crossover issues with Marvel's next mega-event, Axis, before we see what happens there. But before this big action piece, I was pleased to get this one issue of peace, quiet, and a drunk Scarlet Witch.

The Delinquents #2
Story: James Asmus & Fred Van Lente
Art: Kano

There are times where too much funny can make the end product seem overstuffed and not as funny as the component parts. That is NOT the case for The Delinquents, this fall's best comic book crossover, between Valiant's two mismatched duos, immortal drunkard Armstrong & naive assassin Archer and uptight hero Quantum & his con artist brother Woody. The first issue set up where the series would go, with the two duos on a collision course to find the treasure of the Hobos (a concept which I laughed at while typing), Armstrong to honor an old debt and Q&W because they were hired by the Monodsanto Corporation, known for their genetically modified foods, which is possibly the least subtle political joke ever, making it all the funnier. This issue plays with the classic superhero trope of the two heroes (or two twosomes in this case) coming together and fighting because of a misunderstanding, at a house that is a combination of Falling Waters and the House on the Rock. The initial combat is funny, with the unkillable Archer throwing down with the force field wielding Quantum, while Woody does his best to fight Archer, who can channel any physical skill, and winds up talking his way out of the problem, even directly addressing the trope in a very meta way. Woody then gets Archer drunk on absinthe before Quantum and a disappointed Armstrong (he wanted to get Archer drunk the first time) arrive from a fall out of the house. They find out more about the Hobo Code and the Hobo Treasure. We get reference to Big Rock Candy Mountain and the funniest Old MacDonald joke I've ever read. which I admit are more than you'd think. And then the issue ends with them being menaced by tigers. James Asmus and Fred Van Lente, writer of Quantum & Woody and Archer & Armstrong respectively, know their characters, and blend them seamlessly into one big crazy tapestry of anarchy. Kano's art is perfect, realistic but with this touch of kookiness that suits the subject matter. I especially like a panel where Armstrong sticks his head out of a moving boxcar, forgetting trains move a lot faster than they did when he was a hobo in the Depression, and his face goes all flat; it's got a Looney Tunes vibe while still fitting into the non-cartoon world. Oh, and it looks like Mondosanto has cow/human hybrid monsters. As The Simpsons pointed out, "If a cow ever had the chance, he'd eat you and everyone you care about!" So it looks like our heroes are in for some big trouble next issue.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 6/11

Archer & Armstrong #21
Story: Fred Van Lente
Art: Pere Perez

Every time I think Archer & Armstrong can't get any more clever and weird, Fred Van Lente finds a new way to make it even weirder, and that's what makes the book an absolute joy. After last issue's story, where it tuns our Jim Morrison is still alive, has a cult, and is keeping Archer's mother prisoner, I thought we had reached the apotheosis of bizarre. But this issue spends some time with our heroes, drunken immortal Armstrong and young naive-assassin-turned-naiver-cult-leader Archer in a room with every dead celebrity ever. We get a a better idea of what the Wheel of Aten does, as well as a flashback of sorts to Archer's foster-sister Mary Maria traveling in time to find the Wheel and see exactly what it has wrought. There's a wonderful scene where Armstrong nearly collapses in gales of laughter after figuring out exactly what is happening and how he is inadvertently responsible for it. Armstrong has been alive since the dawn of civilization, a devout atheist, and the revelation about faith and celebrity is clever on the writer's part, and a perfect fit to the world. There are also fights with the Lees (Bruce and Brandon), and meeting with a certain first lady in a pink suit, and the potential for a meeting with the King. It's the final page, though, that left me with my jaw on the floor, as Archer meets his biological mother. If you do the math, you also can figure out who his father would be too, and... well, I definitely didn't see that coming. I expect a completely new dynamic starting next issue, and boy howdy is it going to be awkward in the best possible way.

Lumberjanes #3
Story: Noelle Stevenson & Grace Ellis
Art: Brooke Allen

Lumberjanes is quickly becoming the best all ages comic on the rack. It has everything that a comic should have: engaging characters, fun plots, action, friendship, and the occasional monster or animated statue. This issue finds out heroes, the Lumberjanes, a groupe of girls away for the summer at Lumberjane camp, having fallen down a hole and having to wander their way out of a series of crazy traps and pitfalls. If you have ever played Dungeons and Dragons or any other similar roleplaying game, you've probably been through a dungeon crawl like this, but instead of attempting to outdo everyone else there (and let's be fair, that's pretty much what happens in these situations 99% of the time) the Lumberjanes work together. And what the creators do is use each trap to show a strength of one of the characters. Between Mal throwing Ripley in a Fastball Special at a moving statue with a magic gem on its chest, April arm wrestling another walking statue, Jo using her smarts and the Fibonacci sequence to beat an Indiana Jones-esque step trap, or Molly using wordplay to beat the final trap, each character gets a spotlight. But it's the camaraderie that gives this wonderful book its charm. It also fills my heart with joy to read a comic that isn't part of some all encompassing universe or based on a movie or tv show; I know Image does a ton of that, but you're not getting all ages work out of Image. An all ages comic that can encourage kids to create their own characters and stories is something that just makes me happy. Oh, and there's the Holy Kitten. Anything with the Holy Kitten gets a thumbs up for me. I'm reading this book in singles, and I can't wait to get my soon-to-be ten year old niece the first trade (her six year old sister has a bad habit of wrecking anything and everything, so floppies are asking for a torn up comic and tears. Otherwise I'd be buying multiple copies and mailing them away. it's THAT good, people). It's recently been announced that Lumberjanes has transformer form and eight issue mini into an ongoing series, and that fills me with glee.

Wraith: Welcome to Christmasland #7
Story: Joe Hill
Art: Charles Paul Wilson III

The final issue of Wraith: Welcome to Christmasland is a very different comic; it might not even qualify as a comic in the classic sense. It's actually a short story, with multiple illustrations each page. Hill is an accomplished short story writer, with a collection of great stories called 20th Century Ghosts, and this issue is an excellent short story with all the hallmarks of the best kind: in twenty pages you meet a character, get to know him and his world, and everything is wrapped up perfectly. The issue calls back to the first issue of the series, the issue that told the origin of the series main character and villain, Charles Talent Manx, but you don't find out the exact connection until about half way through the story. What you get is a story told in the the second person, which is uncommon, about a young man who grows up with his grifter uncle, becoming a con man himself, meeting a girl, and the two of them starting a life. But his life as a grifter leads to tragedies of different kinds. The story starts at the turn of the 20th century, and we see our protagonist working all sorts of classic cons. It seems that Manx, and the con that connects the two, might be a footnote until the life of our grifter begins to unravel, and in the end, he is another victim of Manx and his Wraith. It's a sad story, and you see and can sympathize with someone raised hard on the road, and what he might do to make a life for himself and his family. And despite being the lesser evil in the story, there is a visceral, EC Comics-esque reaction to seeing him get his comeuppance in the end. It's an excellent issue, and the perfect coda to Joe Hill's most recent comic book series.

Weekly Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 2/5

Archer & Armstrong: Archer #0
Story: Fred Van Lenter
Art: Pere Perez

After doing a whole recommended readings on Archer & Armstrong on Friday, I had to review this book today. This issue fills in the background of one of the title's leads, Obadiah Archer. It's a pretty harrowing story, with not a lot of humor, but every now and then, even a comedy needs that bit of gravity to stand counterpoint to the comedy. We see Archer's abduction, brainwashing by Project: Rising Spirit, time with the Archers, his evil foster parents, and him coming into his power. This ties this book a little more firmly into the Valiant universe; Project: Rising Spirit, a major mover in other aspects of the universe, has been dancing around the edges of the title, and now we see exactly how they tie into Archer's background. I'm curious to see if at some point soon the creators address the fact that Archer was stolen from his real parents, and if we see him go on a hunt for his roots. Archer has always been a sympathetic character, someone who clearly has this kind of tragedy in his back story, but really seeing it doesn't lessen that, as it sometimes does, but heightens it, especially at the end when he finally is pushed over the edge and savagely beats one of his fellow children of the Archers. The rewarding of this act shows exactly how poisoned his past is, and it makes the reader really feel bad for the kid. The end of the issue does indeed set up the crossover with Bloodshot and the H.A.R.D. Corps, so it's not just a book about the past, and it's curious to see how Archer is indeed the villain from, to quote one of my favorite movies of all time, a certain point of view. It has made me even more excited for that crossover, so bring it on.

Bad Blood #2
Story: Jonathan Maberry
Art: Tyler Crook

While Image has been getting a lot of credit for the launching of new series (and rightly so. Many of them are incredible), Dark Horse hasn't been noticed for a lot of its new works, which is a shame, because there's a lot of great work, especially in the horror genre. One of these books in Bad Blood, a vampire comic. And it's a great vampire comic. I'm not a big fan of vampires; give me a werewolf comic any day. But this book does some really interesting things with vampires. The book isn't about vampires, really, but about the life of one guy whose life has been affected by them. Trick is dying of cancer, and after a vampire attacks and bites him and is poisoned by the chemo drugs in his bloodstream, the vampire begins to exact revenge by killing his friends. This issue sees Trick going out to try to find the vampire and stop it from harming anyone else. This issue we get to know Lolly, a goth girl and stripper who wants to meet a vampire and be given its "dark gift." Lolly has a hard past, one that she doesn't really let Trick or the reader into until the end, and she is far more than that past. We spend the issue with these two characters, one who is sure that vampires are evil, the other who doesn't want to believe it. They're both very well rounded characters, especially after only a couple issues of exposure. Lolly takes Trick down into the depth of vampire culture, something that Trick finds frustrating, because he knows exactly what these creatures really are. For a book about vampires, it's a very realistic book, about people who are trying to escape: Lolly her past, and Trick his oncoming death. The supernatural does rear its head in the issue, but it's really a book about two people trying to connect and not really succeeding, like young people so often do. The thing that convinced me to pick up this book is the art by B.P.R.D. alum Tyler Crook, whose work is even better here, softer and dreamlike. I think next issue we'll see more vampires, and I have faith that we won't lose that strong character work as the book moves deeper into that realm.

Batman: Black and White #6
Art & Story: Various

The new volume of Batman: Black and White wraps up with this issue, and as with all the other issues, it's a gorgeous thing, full of great short stories by a murderer's row of creators. Under a great cover by Doug Mahnke, we get the following stories:

"Clay" by Cliff Chiang- This is a Dick Grayson as Robin story more than a Batman story. It's set in Dick's early days with Bruce, when the GCPD isn't taking Robin seriously and Dick isn't fitting in at school. It's narrated by Dick, and Chinag does a great job of making you understand Dick's feelings. The villain of the piece is Clayface, and Chiang does a great job of drawing the villain, which is not unexpected, since Chiang does a great job on everything he does.

"Bruce" by Olly Moss and Becky Cloonan- Becky Cloonan is an incredible artist. I've loved her work from the time she did Demo with Brian Wood, and was hugely impressed with the Batman issue she did with Scott Snyder. She draws great action, but even better people interacting, with wonderful faces, and so this story by Olly Moss seems tailor made for her. It's the story of a woman making her way out of Wayne Manor after a night with Bruce Wayne and meeting her friends. It's rare we see the point of view of people about Bruce Wayne without him being there, and I like the particular point of view given.

"The Batman: Hiding in Plain Sight" by Dave Taylor- The most traditional story in this issue, it's a story about Batman investigating the statue of a giant robot that has appeared on land that might have been crookedly purchased outside Gotham. Dave Taylor has a lot of history with Batman, between a run on Shadow of the Bat and the Batman: Death by Design graphic novel with Chip Kidd. His art works really well on this story, and it mixes aspects of Batman, with him both being the detective and being the hero who fights a mad scientist's bat-themed robots.

"She Lies at Midnite" by Adam Hughes- If Adam Hughes was going to write and draw a Batman story, it only makes sense it would feature Catwoman, a character Hughes has a history with. I've never read anything Hughes has written before, but I feel like he has the voices of Batman, Catwoman, and Slam Bradley down pretty well. The story seems to take place in a continuity adjacent to Ed Brubaker's run on Catwoman, a favorite run of mine, so a little revisiting of the Batman/Catwoman/Bradley love triangle is fun to see. Hughes gets in a great line in Batman's narration, about his view of Catwoman as, "someone I could love, if one of us was able to change just a little bit," that I really loved and really speaks to the relationship between the two.

"To Beat the Bat" by Dave Johnson- Dave Johnson's story is a noir, told from the point of view of a three time loser waiting for Batman to come and hunt him down. The gritty nature of the story works perfectly with Johnson's style, best known for his covers on 100 Bullets. You see this guy go down a path to hell because of a femme fatale, like many great noir protagonists. I don't want to talk about the ending, since like many good short stories the end has a twist to it, but I think the end of the story shows the darker side of the fear Batman inspires; fear doesn't always scare a guy straight. I would be curious to see exactly how Batman would react to the events of the story after the last page, and that's also something a good short story does: it leaves you wanting more.

Bloodhound: Crowbar Medicine #4
Story: Dan Jolley
Art: Leonard Kirk

After the tragedy at the end of the last issue, Travis "Clev" Clevenger is even more driven to hunt down Dr. Morgenstern, the man who is giving out the chip that gives people super powers. Each issue of the new Bloodhound series has been building and building, and the explosions are just starting to happen. One of the great things about this book is that Clev looks like a big bruiser, even moreso now that he's shaved his head, but he's quick witted and smart. He deduces Morgenstern's location, and goes out on the hunt. The truth behind Morgenstern's history now bears a frightening parallel to Clev's own after last issue (something I really don't want to give away if you haven't read the series), but I don't think that is going to stop Clev from dealing out some justice. There's some great action as Clev and his partner, Saffrom Bell, find some of Morgenstern's custom superhumans guarding his compound, and not only does Leonard Kirk do a great job of illustrating it, but there are moments I assume writer Dan Jolley scripted in that show just the kind of guy Clev is; he fights dirty if he has to, and I like him all the more for it. With a little help from the mysterious superhuman Terminus, Clev and Saffron are on their way to confront Morgenstern. Seriously, folks, I can't recommend this book enough. If you like Gotham Central, Powers, Chase, Alias, or any super-hero/procedural, you're doing yourself a disservice not reading Bloodhound. You have time to catch up before next issue's finale, so what are you waiting for?

Juice Squeezers #2
Story & Art: David Lapham

David Lapham is best known for his noir masterpiece, Stray Bullets (something I'll be writing about in the not too distant future), so the fact that he's doing an all ages book about kids fighting the giant bug infestation beneath their town seems a bit out of character. But that book, Juice Squeezers, is turning out to be great fun. In the initial story in Dark Horse Presents, we met the Juice Squeezers, the kids who defend Weeville from the giant bugs, and got to see the giant bugs, although we also got hints that there's more to the bugs than the Squeezers believe. Issue one of this series introduced Billy Farnsburger, the new kid in town who has moved onto seriously bug populated land with his dad. This issue, Billy traps a giant bug, and makes it his pet. He spends much of the issue with Lizzy Beedle, the only female Squeezer, who is disobeying orders from her teacher/leader of the Squeezers, Mr. Kettleborne, by befriending him. Billy is the reader proxy, the outsider who is going to be learning about the secrets of Weeville with them. It's a fun comic, with lots of action and great character work. The Squeezers interact like kids would, not like little adults and not like adults imagine kids would; their dialogue is realistic without lots of slang that would date the book. I have to reiterate what I said when I was talking about Bad Blood, and say that I'm impressed with the breadth of books Dark Horse is publishing right now, and between that title, this one, and Bloodhound, we've got three comics with very distinct voices and string characters.

Recommended Reading for 2/7: Archer & Armstrong

When I started reading comics, I wasn't reading Valiant Comics. I was a DC guy, with a little Marvel, and my only experience with Valiant was reading about the company in Wizard (remember Wizard?). The comics were supposed to be great, but the early issues were supposed to be really expensive, and I didn't have that kind of money. Over the intervening years, I picked up some of the back issues after the bottom dropped out of the speculator market, and found that they were really good comics. When Valiant relaunched a couple years ago, I figured I'd give one of the titles a shot, and I decided on Archer & Armstrong, and I was glad I did, as it has been consistently one of the best books on the market. So this recommendation is for the current series, but have no fear old school Valiant fans, I think a discussion of the classic series isn't too far off.

Archer & Armstrong is a book in the classic Odd Couple mold; two characters who have no logical reason to work well together prove to be better as a team than they are on their own. Obadiah Archer is the son of right wing Christian Evangelists, who has been trained as an assassin to do, what he believes anyway, God's work. He is naive, seemingly even tempered, and always willing to help; he also has the ability to channel any form of combat or physical skill, a power we're still learning about. Aram Anni-Pada, also called Armstrong, is one of the oldest beings on Earth, one of three immortal brothers, who is nigh-indestructible and super strong, and who has spent thousands of years enjoying wine, women, and song. Archer sees the world as debauched and horrible; Aram sees it as a wonderful place to write poetry about. They're a mismatched pair, no doubt, but that's the fun of it.

When our two title characters meet, it's when Archer is sent to kill The Great Satan, who turns out to be Armstrong. Archer's parents turn out to be leaders of a branch of The Sect, a secret organization that's branches have their hands in finance, religion, the military, and anything else that allows them to control the world, and The Sect has a long standing grudge against Aram. But Archer's parents indoctrination about good and evil has worked too well, and when he realizes that they're the ones who are actually evil, Archer sides with Aram against The Sect. This sets up a buddy comedy that travels around most of the world and onto others, not to mention across time.

One of the things that makes these kind of stories work is the way the characters differences compliment each other. You can put two mismatched characters together, and a story can just fall flat if they don't click right. Archer is learning things about the world from Armstrong, being shown that things aren't quite as black and white as he has been led to believe his entire life. Archer is growing throughout the series, although he still has quite a ways to go. Aram had no purpose for millennia, and is finding that Archer, his "little buddy," is getting him to do things other than drink, even if it's grudgingly at times.

Frankly, writer Fred Van Lente does more in the first four issue arc, The Michelangelo Code,  than a lot of writers do in the first year of their titles. He crams every page with snappy dialogue, character development, action, and plenty of humor. That humor is one of the things that helps this book really stand out; in a world where most of the comics out there are grim, Archer & Armstrong face threats with a wonderful tongue in cheek.

In that first arc, we not only establish Archer and Armstrong's relationship to each other and The Sect, we start to meet the rest of the cast of the book. With Archer having fallen away from his parents, they start using his siblings, the other children they've raised, as their army, and we meet Mary-Maria, Archer's foster sister and seeming love interest. She remains initially loyal to his parents, and winds up in conflict with Archer and Aram. Mary-Maria is a great character because you're never exactly sure whose side she's going to fall on. She clearly cares for Archer, but maybe not the same way he does for her, and as the first arc wraps, things don't work out for our young hero. While he believes Mary-Maria is dead, something more sinister has occurred.

Things gets much worse for our heroes with the second arc, Wrath of The Eternal Warrior, as they remain on the run from The Sect, plus encounter an immortal hunter who is chasing them because of the fallout from the confrontation at the end of volume one. Worse yet, that immortal hunter is Gilad, Aram's baby brother, the Eternal Warrior. While Aram is a party animal and usually does his best to try to talk his way out of a situation, Gilad lets his fist and steel do the talking. The parallels between Aram's relationship with Gilad and his relationship with Archer are pretty clear, but it's interesting to see the differences between Gild and Archer, and how things turn out for Aram with this particular family reunion. We also meet Kay McHenry, the most recent in a long line of Geomancers, the beings who speak with the voice of the Earth. Kay is another strong female character, one who is coming into her power as Geomancer, and it's interesting to see all the madness of the world of immortals and assassins through the eye of someone who is thrust right into the middle of it. I'm hoping we see Kay again in the future.

Far Faraway, the next arc, takes Archer and Armstrong into a whole new world literally; the time lost Faraway. It's a land with grey aliens, dinosaurs, timelost grizzled generals preparing to fight commies, and a sect of monks from the future. It's a wild story, with all sorts of crazy angles. I love this arc because of just how many elements pop up and how they fit together. General Redacted, whose speech features those black bars that the government uses to redact documents, Mary-Maria, and Ivar, the final of the Anni-Pada brothers are all in Faraway with Archer and Aram, all appear. There's battles between tribesmen and aliens in spaceships. The monks from the future have a very interesting messiah, one that leaves Archer in a bit of a snit, which is hilarious in its own right. Oh, and Ambrose Bierce is lost in the Faraway too; if you don't know who that is, look him up, trust me. The story ends with a falling out between the title characters, which I think is a good piece of character work; two such different people aren't going to work seamlessly together, and Aram is actually a pretty thoughtless hedonist who isn't used to having people around him he needs to think about, so it makes sense he's going to screw up.

The most recent arc, The Sect Civil War, is exactly what it sounds like. All the different cults that make up The Sect start going at each other. We had already met The One Percent, the gold bull wearing Wall Street moguls, and the Sisters of Perpetual Darkness, an order of ninja murder nuns, and had hints that Project Rising Spirit, the group that fellow Valiant hero Bloodshot works for, are part of The Sect, but we also get to meet more branches, and they're all wonderfully crazy. There are the Master Builders, evil masons out of Alan Moore's wildest From Hell dreams; The Hashish Eaters, who are pretty much what they sound like; and the Black Block, anarchists who wear black blocks on their heads. Again, there's so many ideas crammed into an issue that you pity other comics trying to keep up, and it never feels rushed. Of course, Archer and Armstrong and trapped in the middle of this mess, and they have to work through their issues while everyone is trying to kill them. The second issue also features some time travel, as Aram and Ivar go on a pub crawl through time, and the sight gag for the meter of Aram getting drunker is one of those things that you read in a comic and just makes you laugh out loud. The issue ends with a major shift in the status quo, with Archer and Armstrong seemingly safe from much of The Sect. Yeah, I don't think that's going to last either...

Archer & Armstrong is a great comic. It's clever, quick, funny, and packed with action and is a story that is character driven. Both of the protagonists are characters that you come to care about quickly. Fred Van Lente is one of the best writers in comics, and this is him working at the top of his game. Each arc further builds the world that Van Lente has been crafting since issue one, and it fits seamlessly into the overall Valiant Universe without feeling like you need to read any of those other books. If you're sick of comics where your heroes are full of angst and don't seem to know how to crack a smile, then pick up Archer & Armstrong.

The first three trades of Archer & Armstrong are currently available, with the fourth on the way next month.  If you want to try out a single, this month's #0 issue, which was released on Wednesday, gives you more details about Archer's past, is a good start, and helps set up next month's crossover with Bloodshot and H.A.R.D. Corps, Mission: Improbable.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 5/8

Archer & Armstrong #0
Story: Fred Van Lente
Art: Clayton Henry

Archer & Armstrong has been one of the most consistently enjoyable titles out there since its debut, and after two very solid arcs, including the return of my favorite Valiant character, the Eternal Warrior, we take a step back and get to see a story of the Anni-Padda brothers in ancient Ur. Armstrong is telling Archer the epic of Gilgamesh, only this is the real version, where Gilgamesh and Enkidu are the Anni-Paddas. We get a really good feeling about who each of these men were, and how they interacted as brothers. It's especially important to really spend time with Ivar, the eldest brother, and the one who we've seen the least of. It's a fun, action story, with hints of the Valiant universe, including a cameo from Spider Aliens, and more about the origin of The Boo, the mystical artifact that was the maguffin on the first arc, but nothing that detracts from this as a perfect one off. Van Lente has done an excellent job of making the first issue of each arc a perfect jumping on point, and this issue works just as well, with a framing sequence featuring our title characters, as well as the main story. Clayton Henry returns to the series with this issue, and while I enjoyed Emanuela Lupacchino's work, it's great to see him back. His Armstrong especially has such vitality, radiates such joy (and melancholy), that it seems to jump right off the page. If you've never tried a Valiant Comic before, this is a great place for you to start.

Batman #20
Story: Scott Snyder/ James Tynion IV
Art: Greg Capullo/ Alex Maleev

The two part reinvention of Clayface for the New 52 wraps up in this second part of this Batman story, and it's as exciting as the first. It feels perfectly like an episode of Batman: The Animated Series, with a great action piece to it, as well as a simple, smart solution to the problem at hand. The new version of Clayface is interesting, with his slightly modified powers, and adds a little pathos to the character without taking away anything from him (a problem I've had with a few of the new 52 reinventions). There's a wonderful nod to the  DC Animated Universe, with the appearance of prototype armor that won't be financially feasible for twenty years, a time when a young man named Terry McGinnis might become a Batman beyond what Bruce has been able to do. It was interesting to see Bruce and Lucius Fox tossed into a deadly situation together, and see Lucius look like he has no idea of Bruce's other identity. I believe Lucius (like Jim Gordon) knows Batman's identity, and just keeps it to himself on principle that if Bruce wants to tell him, he will. It seems Lucius here really doesn't know; whether that is a New 52 continuity tweak or just Lucius being very coy it up to the reader. The final scene, of Bruce and Alfred viewing recordings of Damian together, is touching and heartbreaking; there is no way this Batman is the cold and unfeeling man that so many writers portray him as. In the back up, Batman and Superman fight a magic creature, and Bruce talks to a spirit about how he fells about Superman, and I really like the fact that the current writers do view the two as real friends, not Miller-esque adversaries with a common cause. The final panels are especially fun, as Superman gets a little taste of what Jim Gordon is used to getting.

Batman and Red Hood #20
Story: Peter J. Tomasi
Art: Patrick Gleason & Cliff Richards

Batman continues his quest through the five stage of grief, and who better to accompany him through rage than the Batman family with the most anger issues of his own, Red Hood. What starts out as Bruce inviting Jason along on a raid of a camp of assassins turns into a much darker fight as Bruce bring Jason back to the site of his death to try to determine the secrets of his resurrection to use it to revive Damian. What begins as the two of them bonding and talking about trust turns into a fist fight, as they both let vent the anger they hold inside on each other. In Gotham, we also get to see a little bit more of Carrie Kelly, who again shows her pluck by standing up to the taciturn Bruce. Both Alfred and Titus, Damian's dog, take a liking to her, and it looks like Carrie is here to stay, which is a good thing, as she is one of the best additions to the Batman cast in many years (or re-addition, I suppose, if you count her appearances in Dark Knight Returns). Patrick Gleason does his usual excellent job on art, with a little pinch hit from Cliff Richards. I've been a fan of Richards since his long run on Dark Horse's original Buffy: The Vampire Slayer title, and I like seeing his work on more high profile titles. I want to team of Tomasi and Gleason on this book as long as possible, but if they need any more fill in work, I hope Richards is at the top of the speed dial.

Suicide Squad #20
Story: Ales Kot
Art: Patrick Zircher

Wow. The Suicide Squad series from the 80s is one of my favorite series ever, with the brilliant John Ostrander, Kim Yale, and a series of amazing artists crafting some of the best, most human stories I've ever read. Since it's return in the New 52, it has been a series I have wanted to like far more than one I actually have. But the difference one issue can make! New writer Ales Kot comes in and spends the issue reintroducing readers to the cast, getting into their heads. Amanda Waller sits with a mysterious figure who is analyzing each of the current members of the Squad, giving her the keys to their psychologies. Some of the things hinted at in the early parts of the run are finally paid off. While I'm not in love with the idea that Waller can resurrect members of the Squad at will (I feel it takes away the feeling of danger and the unexpected that was central to the original run), I like how Kot handles it here. And the big reveal of who Waller's new Squad member is? Well, I was worried this character was going to be overused, especially after how heavily he was used in another title for some time, but this new life he's been given is perfect. I don't want to spoil the end, but needless to say, I'm intrigued. Patrick Zircher's art is the best on this title so far, and I hope he sticks around for a while; inconsistent art has been another thing that has seriously hurt Suicide Squad since its return. This is a great jumping on point for new readers, and I would suggest everyone who's been tempted before to give it a shot.