The triumphant return of Valiant’s best besties with Archer & Armstrong Forever #1!

When Armstrong seemingly loses his immortality, Archer refuses to let his best buddy go gentle into that good night. But when you live for millennia, you rack up plenty of enemies who’ll be thrilled to find out you’re no longer indestructible. Archer & Armstrong’s globetrotting quest for (more) immortality begins here!

I have a lot of feelings about Archer and Armstrong in general as characters, and they’re all warm and fuzzy. These books have never not been fun, and while some will lean more into the comedic element than others, you can be sure that with an Archer and Armstrong comic, you’re going to have a good time. And so it was, with this expectation of a fun book, that I first read Archer & Armstrong Forever. The comic – written by Steve Foxe, with art by Marcio Fiorito, colours by Alex Guimaraes and letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou – did not disappoint.

Archer & Armstrong Forever has one of the more unique promotional items attached to it in the form of a severed ear that doubles as a stress ball. It’s both hilarious and oddly disturbing. I love it.

The comic starts out with a fantastic chase sequence showcasing the differences between our two leads, and brings back one of my favourite parts in any Archer and Armstrong story; the little blurbs explaining what Archer is doing, because some of those explanations will elicit a little more than a stifled chortle and a head shake. Fiorito’s panel layouts and choreography is so perfectly fitting what the characters are capable of; I’m hesitant to go to far into hyperbolic territory, but this book is freaking amazing to look at. There’s so many things on the page that will catch your eye, and yet you’re never losing site of the story itself.

Whether that’s because of how Otsmane-Elhaou has laid out the letters to keep you on track, or how Guimaraes’ colours blend perfectly with Fiorito’s artwork…. man this book is just pretty to look at. It’s a lot of fun, and it’s exactly the kind of book I love to read. There’s an emotionality to the pages that hides behind the bombastic artwork, but once you notice it, the book just sings.

It’s spectacular.

One of the more interesting things to me about Armstrong was that due to the nature of how he became immortal, he always knew it would end at some time, and so it’s brilliant seeing his casual nonchalance about the potential imminent end he’s facing whereas Archer is less than thrilled. Given that a lot of the stories around the pair tend to have Armstrong acting as a damage sponge in darkly humorous ways, I’m looking forward to following the series to the conclusion of the arc.

Story: Steve Foxe Artist: Marcio Fiorito
Colourist Alex Guimaraes Letters Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Story: 8.8 Art: 8.9 Overall: 8.8 Recommendation: Buy

Valiant provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

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Purchase: comiXology/Kindle – Zeus Comics