Archer and Armstrong #22

Archer and Armstrong keeps going strong with another issue in the American Wasteland arc. This book remains my guilty pleasure every month and Fred Van Lente keeps rocking with Archer and Armstrong #22.

The story

If you’ve been keeping up with the latest arc of Archer and Armstrong, you will love this issue. I often wonder what must be going inside Fred Van Lente’s mind because the ingenious plot points, characters, and ideas he comes up with are truly one of a kind. As strong and inventive as every issue has been throughout the series, it’s a wonder that Archer and Armstrong isn’t on top of every comic book fan.

American Wasteland has been a strong arc and brings the book back to the high point readers have been used to from the beginning of the book. Van Lente’s dialogue is fluid and solid, and there are new revelations in this issue which help advance the overall story of the entire series. I am really enjoying the character development with Archer through this book and how he is no longer the shy and confused boy we met at the start of the series. In fact, there’s some things in this issue that make me dislike the character quite a bit.

And if you’re looking for humor, there’s plenty here. The medieval scenes are rather hilarious, and even during the action sequence of Archer and Armstrong dueling it out with each other we get quite a bit of humor, including quite a few penis jokes. Then there is Archer finally encountering the Wheel of Aten – who would have thought it just looked like a giant badminton birdie!

The art

Pere Perez’s pencil work remains top notch as always. Perez has some of the cleanest line work of any artist I’ve ever seen and make this book gorgeous. Not only does it work great for action sequences, but gives characters very emotive facial expressions. Whether it be during the medieval scenes, in the ellusive Grail Castle, or back in present times, Perez has no issues creating beautiful worlds and perfect character designs.

David Baron provides colors for the book. There is little more I can say other than the colors are just as clean and polished as the art. Valiant has some amazing talent in Baron and in my eyes, he and Brian Reber can do no wrong.

Overall

Archer and Armstrong #22 continues an amazingly humorous and inventive series. Among comic shelves filled with superhero titles, this is a standout book. The story is amazing and the art remains top-notch. If you’re not reading Archer and Armstrong, then you hate comic books.

Okay, maybe not, but you should be reading this series!

Rating [author-post-rating]