| Archer and Armstrong | |
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Archer and Armstrong. Cover to issue #0, art by Barry Windsor-Smith. |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Valiant Comics |
| First appearance | Archer and Armstrong #0 (July, 1992) |
| Created by | Jim Shooter, Bob Layton and Barry Windsor-Smith |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Archer and Armstrong |
| Abilities | Archer is the worlds greatest martial artist. Armstrong is immortal. |
Archer & Armstrong are the title characters of the popular comic book series published by Valiant Comics. Among the most commercially and critically acclaimed buddy comedies in comics, Archer & Armstrong features writing and art by comic legend Barry Windsor-Smith. After Acclaim Entertainment purchased the rights to the Valiant catalog for $65 million in 1994, the characters continued to appear in many Valiant titles - most prominently the Eternal Warriors series. Acclaim rebooted the Archer & Armstrong characters to make them was more easily adaptable to video games as they are a video game developer and distributor. Valiant Entertainment is the current owner of the Valiant catalog (including Archer & Armstrong). Archer & Armstrong is one of the best selling Valiant titles with total sales in all languages of over 4 million comics and counting.
Archer & Armstrong has been called "The best buddy team book of all time." by Ain't It Cool News[1], and "Superhero buddy book of the decade" by Wizard Magazine. Ain't It Cool News also said that "Not since Batman & Robin has a more important duo hit the comic world."
In 2008, Valiant released a deluxe hardcover of the Archer & Armstrong origin story, entitled Archer & Armstrong: First Impressions. The hardcover was later named one of the top ten graphic novels of 2008 by Diamond Comic Distributors[2] and one of the best of 2008 by Ain't It Cool News[3]
Contents |
Archer is the world’s greatest hand-to-hand fighter, an expert marksman and a seeker of righteousness. At age eleven, his corrupt parents attempted to murder him, and succeeded momentarily. But somehow, Archer came back to life, filled with a burning purpose—to bring his parents to justice and fight evil such as theirs wherever it flourished. Though he later learns of his parents finally brought to justice while he was preparing himself by learning the martial arts in a Himalayan monastery, Archer decided to continue with his vow. Armstrong is a ten-thousand-year old libertine as strong as a battalion, who abandoned naïveté and idealism millennia ago. Now, he spends his days drinking, carousing and telling tales of his unbelievable adventures throughout history to anyone who will listen—that is, when he’s not on the run from an ancient cult whose bumbling agents have been hunting him for two thousand years. Armstrong escapes when he can and fights when he has to. The two men eventually meet and become partners—a team chosen by fate to face a truly terrible evil that threatens to destroy the world!
Archer
Name: Obadiah Archer, generally known simply as “Archer”
Base of Operations/Hometown: Los Angeles, California.
Personality: Archer was psychologically scarred by the shock of discovering his corrupt evangelist parents molesting children from their congregation, and his parents’ subsequent attempt to murder him. Raised from age eleven in a Buddhist monastery, his spirituality was awakened, sort of, despite the hatred he held for his parents. He’s naïve, as only one who spent ten years cut off from the outside world in a small, remote compound on top of a Himalayan mountain can be. He’s kind, gentle, idealistic, humble, respectful, and even a bit bashful. A seeker of truth and righteousness.
Powers: His near-death experience opened new paths of mind-body awareness. His phenomenal muscle memory allows him to perfectly mimic any move he sees no matter how complex. Trained by warrior monks at a monastery at Ladakh, India, his gifts enabled him to become the world’s greatest martial artist and a marksman of deadly accuracy.
Armstrong
Name: Born Aram the Strong, of the Anni-Padda clan, he now calls himself Armstrong. No “mister.” Just Armstrong.
Base of Operations/Hometown: Usually in a gutter somewhere, currently in East Los Angeles, California.
Personality: Jaded by millennia of experiences ranging from wonderful to tragic—too often tragic—Armstrong has sunk into comfortable irresponsibility. He’s a hedonist, a reprobate and a drunk. He’s also an aficionado of the finer things in life—but not enough to exert himself to attain them. He has partied with the greatest merrymakers in history. Well-connected and extremely well traveled, he can give you directions from anywhere to anywhere. His freespirited, easygoing, charmingly decadent demeanor masks a deep, abiding sadness over many lost loves and many lost friends.
Powers: Immensely strong, not quite invulnerable, though very hard to hurt, and quick to heal. Never gets sick. Apparently immortal—born ten thousand years ago, once he grew up, he stopped aging. How come? Why him? He has no clue.
The Sect is a clandestine organization of religious fanatics of every stripe that spans the globe and exists for the sole purpose of destroying Armstrong, whom they refer to only as “the One Whose Name Is Never Spoken.” They believe he is the devil incarnate. Created centuries ago by a mixed bag of religious and political muckamucks, all with real or imagined grudges against Armstrong, the Sect now numbers in the tens of thousands, with members highly placed in every significant governing body and religious institution in the world. According to the Sect, Armstrong’s merely being will eventually create an imbalance in the great wheel of Karma that will topple the whole of existence.
Archer’s primary weapon is a unique mini-crossbow, fashioned with his own hands. His incredible perception and coordination make his aim deadly accurate; but his philosophy of life deems that he only use his weapon—or any weapon, for that matter—as a last resort.
Armstrong’s Satchel contains a variety of mysterious and interesting artifacts that Armstrong has accumulated throughout history, including the putative Eye of Medusa and what is alleged to be the Wand of Circe. The Satchel is said to hold in its seemingly endless depths “the mysteries of the ancient worlds, the trinkets of the gods, universes within universes, and the very secrets of life itself.” And if you believe that, Armstrong says, he has a bridge you might want to buy.
Armstrong doesn’t know what all is in the Satchel. He remembers putting in certain things, souvenirs and such. But, some items were deposited there in the midst of his frequent drunken stupors and are therefore forgotten. Others seem to have found their way into the bag through mysterious means—maybe even, as crazy as it sounds, on their own. He seldom looks inside. Are there things among the trove, literally, to conjure with, or tokens of great power? Probably, but Armstrong mostly has no idea what they are or what they do.
Armstrong won’t reveal how he came to possess the Satchel. It seems to be magical—or at least, inexplicable, semi-miraculous, weird and uncanny—all by itself. Besides having seemingly unlimited capacity, it never seems to get heavier, no matter how much is put in it. It never wears out or sustains any damage. Even more disturbing, it seems to have the same sort of covetous siren’s call as Frodo’s Ring for those who behold it, or especially, those who touch it. Except Armstrong, curiously. One suspects that if there were a Mount Doom to pitch the thing into, he do it in a heartbeat.
In hands other than Armstrong’s the Satchel seems to manifest a mild will-sapping effect, sort of like the Jedi mind-trick. Many people seem to find everything the Satchel bearer says reasonable and agreeable. For some reason, it doesn’t work for Armstrong—though, the night he ran into the Dallas Cowgirl Cheerleaders at a party at Spago, he really, really wished it did. There must be a rational explanation for all that. Must be….Whatever. Armstrong thinks it important that he keep the Satchel and keep it safe—and, with a few brief exceptions, he has for millennia. It’s the one thing about which he seems to show some responsibility. Even passed out, blind drunk, his grip on the strap never seems to loosen—and you couldn’t break that grip with a tool chest full of crowbars.
The neglected son of Kansan evangelist preachers, young Obadiah Archer believes that when he truly focuses his faith in God he can channel the “power of the Lord” and become endowed with incredible physical gifts. Especially when playing “h-o-r-s-e” on the playground basketball court.
Late one night, Obadiah inadvertently stumbles upon his parents, Joe Earl and Thelma, sadistically molesting a child from their congregation. Wanting desperately to flee, but frozen with horror, Obadiah cannot evade his father’s heavy fist. Obadiah awakens to find himself tied up on the kitchen floor. The house is ablaze. The fire is Joe Earl and Thelma’s attempt to dispose of their son, and destroy evidence of their heinous crimes.
Obadiah does his best to call upon his faith to give him the power to save himself. With hands that are tied behind his back, he flips the dog’s dish at a rack of knives that’s out of reach and—rather miraculously—knocks a knife to the floor. He frees himself from the ropes and crawls toward the door…too late? The smoke is overwhelming. He blacks out.
Obadiah finds himself floating in a blue tunnel, being drawn toward a brilliant, beautiful, comforting light. He feels growing joy, serenity and peace. But…no! He needs to go back. Back there in the kitchen, he made a promise to himself and God to see to it that his evil parents get what’s coming to them. He means to keep his promise. He turns his back on the Light…
…and wakes up in a hospital bed. They almost lost him, says the doctor, to Joe Earl and Thelma, who are worried for their own sinister reasons. Turns out a heroic fireman found Obadiah near the door just in time. It looks like he’ll recover nicely.
Knowing that his parents will kill him at first opportunity, and fearing that no one will believe him, Obadiah sneaks out of the hospital and eventually stows away on a freighter bound for Hong Kong.
After several months and many hardships, Obadiah makes his way to a Buddhist monastery in Ladakh, high in the Himalayas. He has been to many other such monasteries, hoping to find warrior monks willing to train him as a martial artist—just like those Shaolin guys in the Kung Fu teevee show—but no dice so far. Reluctantly, the Venerable Master agrees to take Obadiah in, seeing how young, troubled and, frankly, exhausted he is.
Obadiah’s near-death experience apparently opened up some latent talents and connected his mind and body in a new and wonderful way. He finds that he now has amazing muscular control and body awareness—and not just in rare moments. Everybody gets those moments, occasionally, when, whatever you’re doing, suddenly everything just clicks, but Obadiah is feelin’ it full time, now. He needs to see something done but once, and then he can copy it perfectly.
The monks are impressed. Obadiah excels in martial arts training, immediately executing the most complex techniques like a seasoned master. He comes to realize that it isn’t “the power of the Lord.” The Deity, if any, doesn’t work that way. The power comes from within.
Because of his uncanny skill with a mini-crossbow, the monks take to calling him “Archer,” which, conveniently, is his surname. He goes with it.
Rage over his parents’ evildoings fuels Archer in training and in combat. Unable to abandon his anger, he gets himself tossed out of the monastery—monks don’t cotton to vengeful fury.
It’s okay. There was nothing left for them to teach him anyway. Now 21, he heads back to the States. The time for Poppa and Momma to reap what they sow is nigh. Same for any other evildoers he comes across.
Shortly after arriving in California, Archer learns that his parents were arrested and imprisoned only a few weeks after he left. His purpose lost, he wanders the streets, uncertain of what to do. Eventually, he encounters a particularly scruffy looking vagrant sitting on the sidewalk who calls him “Gandhi” and asks for change. No one raised in a Buddhist monastery can refuse to give alms. Archer hands over his last five bucks.
Archer’s generosity intrigues the vagrant, who introduces himself as Armstrong. No second name, no mister, just Armstrong.
The kid seems depressed. Armstrong suggests they go buy some beer and talk. He’s very pleased to learn that Archer never drinks. Perfect. More for him.
Sitting under a bridge over one of L.A.’s many concrete channels, they talk. Actually, mostly Armstrong talks, telling fantastic tales of his adventures throughout history, including many bawdy misadventures that make Archer squirm and blush. Archer cuts him off before he can tell about the weekend he spent with Mae West and the three contortionist milkmaids.
Archer is skeptical and largely dismissive of Armstrong’s wild tales and claims. Eventually, he manages to squeeze in his own story. He still wants to fight injustice and evil but doesn’t know where to start now that his parents have already been punished.
Armstrong advises him to first find a means to support himself. Fighting injustice on your own usually doesn’t pay well. He suggests that if Archer can really fight, he knows a bar called the End of the World that needs a bouncer. It keeps getting busted up… mostly, Armstrong says, by him. Hey, a lot of brawls break out there. If you’re drunk and in the middle when a brawl breaks out, what can you do except join in?
Soon, at the End of the World, Archer applies for the bouncer job. The bartender/owner is unimpressed by Archer’s claims of fighting prowess. He’s looking for a big guy, not a scrawny Hare Krishna. He pulls the old “hey, look over there!” trick to get Archer to turn his head, then clocks him with a bottle, proving that the runt is a sucker, too. Then, he throws Archer un-gently out onto the sidewalk.
So much for that idea. Back to wandering the city without much of a plan, Archer is approached outside the bar by Mahmud, a stranger who claims to be a friend of the Venerable Master of the monastery where Archer was trained. The Venerable Master has often spoken of Archer, and he, Mahmud, recognized Archer immediately. Mahmud wants to hire Archer.
Mahmud explains that his Sect has been hunting a demon for thousands of years. This great satan is immortal, corrupt, vile, and really disgusting; perversion incarnate—the One Whose Name Is Never Spoken—who, by merely being so unbalances the Wheel of Karma that all existence will topple. Soon, he thinks. Maybe today. He wants Archer to help him and his Assassins put an end to the demon forever.
Recently, Mahmud says, they trailed the demon to this city…and learned that the End of the World bar is one of his haunts. They have the place staked out, hoping to trap him there. Mahmud was there, in fact, when Archer came in, seeking employment, and followed him when he left.
It seems like a good opportunity to Archer, a job that also begins his quest to fight against evil. As Mahmud and Archer arrive at the End of the World, a big fight is already raging. The “demon” is holding his own against a platoon of Sect Assassins. Mahmud says, “Behold the One Whose Name Is Never Spoken.”
“We’ve met,” says Archer. “Hello, Armstrong.”
Archer is confused. Armstrong, a demon? Doesn’t seem likely, but….
Armstrong manages to make a break for it.
Mahmud’s exhortations spur Archer to pursue: “Are you going to stand there and let destiny slip through your grasp? Fate has brought you to this moment! The world is yours to save! I’ll pay you!”
Archer easily catches up with the lumbering Armstrong and argues that if Mahmud is friends with the Venerable Master, he must be a good guy. Surely whatever the misunderstanding about Armstrong is, it can be worked out. Armstrong just wants out of there before the Sect guys can cut off his head and burn his body with the flame thrower they’re packing, which would hurt a lot and bring a messy end to his long, lovely exploration of depravity—guaranteed. Nobody survives that.
Archer tries to stop Armstrong, but Kung Fu, Kung Schmu, he can’t hurt him. Armstrong tries to fight his way past cat-quick Archer, but he can’t lay a hand on him—and the little twerp keeps tripping, flipping and poking him! And those Sect Assassins are no doubt regrouping and on their way!
As a last resort, Armstrong tries reasoning with Archer. Mahmud says he’s the devil. He says he’s old and strong. Mahmud and company are trying to kill him. But he doesn’t want to hurt anybody—he’s just trying to get away! Does that sound like evil incarnate?
Armstrong’s words and his own instincts convince Archer. As Mahmud and the Sect Assassins round a corner, they find themselves facing off against, in alphabetical order, Archer and Armstrong!
“Pacifying” the Assassins turns out to be more difficult than anticipated, however. Reinforcements have arrived. Assassins from all over, including Muslim Mawlawīyah, Christian deacons, Koori clever men, Hindu yogis, Nigerian ifá Babalawos, Jewish rabbinim, even a samanera from Archer’s old monastery in Ladakh, plus a horde of miscellaneous fanatics, civil servants and other dangerous types, attack them!
That’s just the beginning.
After that, things get worse. Not only is the Sect on their tail, but there’s real trouble brewing! Archer thinks it’s destiny that he and Armstrong were cast together. He decides that they’re “partners.” “What did you call me?” Armstrong roars…but before he can really express his displeasure at that notion, say, by squashing Archer with a Buick, they’re swept away into a life-or-death, no-way out quest to save the world from the ultimate evil! Actually, Archer sort of volunteered them….
Can Archer and Armstrong survive impossible odds and each other? Will Archer fulfill his goal of heroically triumphing over evil? Will Armstrong turn his attention away from boozing and carousing long enough to lend a hand? Well…no to the turning away from boozing and carousing, but, hey, he’d miss his favorite watering holes and dens of iniquity if the world ended. Not to mention the world.
Constantino is one of “Rome’s Big Six” high-ranking Sect members and of the Sect’s deadliest Assassins. Constantino is an expert with a flame thrower, hence, his epithet, “the Roman Candle.” He lives for the day he can confront the One Whose Name Is Never Spoken and “sizzle his butt crisp like toast.” Constantino is, perhaps, more than a bit overfond of burning people and things.
Joe Earl Archer and his wife Thelma, parents of Obadiah Archer, are faith-healing, tent show-revival evangelists who operate throughout the Midwest, mostly in Kansas. They maintain a home-base meeting hall near their handsome house in Topeka. Behind their pious façade, they are sadistic, serial child molesters and murderers. One night, while Joe Earl and Thelma are cruelly abusing two young runaways who had come to them seeking help and guidance, Obadiah accidentally walks in on them. They attempt to kill their own son to silence him, however he miraculously survives the attempt and flees. Joe Earl and Thelma’s crimes are discovered weeks later by the police. They are found guilty of murder and child-molestation and sentenced to life in prison.
A Muslim, high-ranking leader of the Sect, Mahmud pursues the One Whose Name Is Never Spoken with a single-minded ferocity. He attempts to enlist Archer to the cause of destroying the demon, but Armstrong convinces Archer that Mahmud and the Sect Assassins are loony psychopaths. Archer helps Armstrong instead, and thus, to Armstrong’s regret, begins what Archer considers their fate-wrought “partnership.” Mahmud is burned severely by Constantino due to a dispute between them over the proper method of demon-killing. Later, Mahmud manages to acquire Armstrong’s Satchel and uses the artifacts within against him, but ultimately succeeds only in transforming himself into a pig. [4]
The Sisters of Doom are male transvestite Sect Assassins cunningly disguised as nuns and armed with automatic weapons. Highly trained fighters and expert marksmen… markswomen…? marksnuns…? they’re in the habit of killing. So to speak. [5]
In 2008, Valiant Entertainment released a deluxe hardcover of the Archer & Armstrong origin story, digitally recolored and "remastered" from the original material. The hardcover, entitled Archer & Armstrong: First Impressions collects the first seven issues of Archer & Armstrong and include a new Formation of the Sect story by Jim Shooter, one of the title's original creators.
The press release from Valiantfans.com states:
The most unlikely traveling companions are back! This digitally recolored Valiant special edition collects the full Archer & Armstrong origin story from issues #0-6 for the first time ever, and includes an all-new "Formation of the Sect" story by series co-creator Jim Shooter and illustrator Sal Velluto, and an all-new cover by legendary artist Michael Golden! When Archer’s preacher parents betray and try to murder him, he goes in search of enlightenment returning as the world’s greatest hand-to-hand fighter seeking revenge. Instead of revenge he finds Armstrong, the centuries old immortal wanderer who spends his time drinking, fighting and spinning tales of his hedonistic adventures throughout history. When a ruthless cult and its bumbling agents try to enlist Archer to kill Armstrong, the one they believe to be the devil, the two most unlikely traveling companions turn the tables and team up to face down the threat that could destroy the world! Features groundbreaking art by series co-creator Barry Windsor-Smith!
Archer & Armstrong: First Impressions was later named one of the top ten graphic novels of 2008 by Diamond Comic Distributors (Valiant Entertainment's second showing on the coveted top ten, along with Harbinger: The Beginning)[6] and one of the best of 2008 by Ain't It Cool News[7]
To promote the book, Valiant Comics released a special Christmas promotional items to comic stores - Armstrong Ale, which was a bottle of beer featuring Armstrong on the label together with a Christmas card.
In 2008, Barry Windsor-Smith, who wrote and drew several issues of Archer & Armstrong and who has become an industry legend thanks to his acclaimed work on Conan the Barbarian and The X-Men, said, 'In the 1970s I was constantly asked when I would “do Conan again.” In these latter years I receive e-mails imploring me to return to Archer and Armstrong.'