Strange New Kindle Worlds – Archer & Armstrong: Greeks Bearing Gifts

Let’s take another look at a Valiant Kindle story. In this installment we have our first repeat author with another story by Leigh Knight. This time it’s his take on Archer & Armstrong.

• Archer & Armstrong: Greeks Bearing Gifts
• Published: June 26, 2013
• Author: Leigh Knight
• Price: $0.99
• Page Count: 31 Pages

Synopsis:

An atheist immortal, a fundamentalist Christian, and a Greek demi-god walk into a bar, end up on a plane, then a tourist bus, and ultimately wind up battling the Sect at sunrise on the summer solstice… at Stonehenge. How did all that happen? Well, Ivar pops into 21^st century New York City to drop Achilles, the legendary ancient Greek warrior, into the laps of Archer & Armstrong the only choice they have to get him back to his proper time and place is to travel to Stonehenge in time for the universal clock to send him where he belongs. Makes perfect sense, right? Once at Stonehenge, the Sect shows up to foil their plans and amidst the chaos comes a host of Greek gods.

Review:

Greeks Bearing Gifts is a fast-paced tale that begins with an odd out of character moment from Ivar that sets the story in motion that ultimately derails completely when both the Sect and Greek Gods show up at the awkward conclusion. The humor in the piece provides some fun filler and it seems like the author enjoyed writing for Achilles.

This is the second Archer & Armstrong story where I feel like the author hasn’t quite captured the voice of the characters. I was surprised by this because I thought Leigh Knight did a decent job with his characterizations in his Shadowman story. Perhaps it’s more of a testament to the writing of Fred Van Lente who did such a great job of giving these characters a real voice in the comic.

Characterization aside, I think the weakest part of this presentation is the story itself. Why would Ivar irresponsibly dump Achilles in modern times? Ivar is in this story but he seems to be communicating with Armstrong telepathically through time. What? How can he do that? Why are there Greek Gods at Stonehenge? Why do Archer & Armstrong travel with a group of Japanese tourists away from Stonehenge?

I feel like I kind of read this story once before. Original Valiant Universe, Archer & Armstrong #10 and #11. The story was way better then.

Cover:

This cover was done by Kalman Andrasofszky. Kalman has done some regular covers for Valiant, and this looks like one that wasn’t quite ready for prime time. It’s busy, and fun, but some of his other pieces have been much better.

Continuity:

Ummmm… this story is hard to place in the timeline, so I’ll just guess. It probably works best after Acher & Armstrong #25, but there are some lines in it that would indicate it took place earlier.

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!

Greeks Bearing Gifts is available here!

Originally from ValiantCentral.com