Welcome to another installment of Strange New Kindle Worlds, where we explore the Valiant Kindle stories. At the end of the article you can find where to purchase these stories or submit your own.
- Archer & Armstrong: Fortune Favors the Bold
- Published: June 26, 2013
- Author: Scott Nicholson
- Price: $0.99
- Page Count: 16 Pages
Synopsis:
Armstrong brings Archer to a bar in New York City, but the two quickly realize that the patrons are all members of the 1%. After a battle, they are captured and they unmask the mysterious head of the 1%.
Review:
This story was way too short. There’s a scene where the 1% were going to force Archer and Armstrong to fight to the death, and instead of seeing that awesome idea come to fruition we instead got a lot of talking about how they would fight to the death. Another moment in the story we’re introduced (maybe?) to a female member of the 1%, but she disappears and we’re left wondering why those paragraphs are even written.
I thought there were a few humorous moments in the story, but in the end the characterization didn’t feel quite right. For example, at one point in Archer’s internal monologue Archer wishes he had killed Armstrong. What? Archer would never feel that way, not even in a passing moment of humor.
In the end, there just wasn’t much here for me to be interested in. If this story was made into a comic it feels like there might be enough material here for a 3 or 4 page story. Stylistically, the story consisted of a series of “name drop” style references to actions and events from the comic (which isn’t a bad thing in and of itself) with an attempt to incorporate the text-box style references to martial arts moves that the comic can do because it works in a visual medium, but that doesn’t translate well to straight writing.
Cover:
The cover is great, although it has nothing to do with the story. I’m not sure who the artist is, but if you know please post in the comments and I’ll update this post. The artist deserves credit for both a humorous cover and a good job at capturing the likenesses of both Archer and Armstrong.
Continuity:
This story has Elliot Zorn in it, and Archer and Armstrong know who he is. The story has to take place during the Wrath of the Eternal Warrior arc, because Zorn does not survive that story. More specifically, I pinpoint it taking place between page 22 and 23 of Archer & Armstrong #7 given that they meet him in this issue, and presumably he leaves this conflict to head to Greenland.
Submit Your Own:
The Kindle Worlds program is really neat and you can even submit your own stories. For Valiant you can submit stories for Archer & Armstrong, Bloodshot, Eternal Warrior, Harbinger, Quantum and Woody, Shadowman, Unity and X-O Manowar. Click here to see how you can submit your own short stories. Be sure to follow the guidelines and have fun creating!
Fortune Favors the bold is available here!
In two weeks – Shadowman!
Originally from ValiantCentral.com
Too bad about this one…I bought about 5 books this week I’m looking forward to checking out.