Archer and Armstrong -- Valiant Comics' unlikely duo of a marital artist teen prodigy and an immortal warrior -- return this May in a new series with a variety of covers, including a homage to their original 1992 series.
CBR can exclusively reveal the covers of Archer & Armstrong Forever #1. The main cover, drawn by Bernard Chang (Monkey Prince, New Super-Man), shows the odd couple dodging gunfire, with Archer carrying a possibly inebriated Armstrong on his back while preparing to fire his signature crossbow. This artwork references Barry Windsor-Smith's cover for Archer & Armstrong #0, which was released in June, 1992. Other variant covers to accompany the new series were drawn by the likes of David Talaski, Dan Hipp, Ro Stein and Ted Brandt.
Archer & Armstrong Forever #1
- Cover A by BERNARD CHANG
- Cover B by DAVID TALASKI
- Cover C by DAN HIPP
- Preorder Cover (The Search for Immortality) by RO STEIN & TED BRANDT
- 1:250 Burnt Wood Variant TO BE REVEALED
- Blank Variant Also Available
- Written by STEVE FOXE
- Art by MARCIO FIORITO
- Colors by ALEX GUIMARÃES
- Letters by HASSAN OTSMANE-ELHAOU
- On Sale May 4, 2022
- The triumphant return of Valiant's best friends! When the hard-drinking immortal Armstrong seemingly loses his ability to heal, the young and optimistic 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!
Archer & Armstrong Forever #1 is written by Steve Foxe (X-Men '92: House of XCII, Spider-Ham: Great Power, No Responsibility) and penciled by Marcio Fiorito (Marvel Action Adventures, The Wheel of Time). The issue revolves around Armstrong seemingly losing his healing ability, as a whole host of the former immortal's enemies come after him. Archer plans to defend his best friend to the death, and their quest to discern the secrets behind Armstrong's lost immortality promises to span a variety of different locations.
Archer and Armstrong -- also known by their original names, Obadiah Archer and Aram Anni-Padda -- were created by Jim Shooter, Bob Layton and Windsor-Smith, and have been a constant presence in the Valiant Universe since their debut. Their original series meshed superhero heroics with the humor of a buddy comedy, as Archer discovered that he possessed superhuman powers and Armstrong -- originally a warrior born thousands of years before the birth of Jesus Christ -- waxed philosophy on the state of the world while frequently drinking too much.
The duo's first comic ran for 26 issues, from '92 to '94. After the Valiant Universe rebooted itself in 2012, a new Archer & Armstrong series was released, running for 25 issues. The pair's most recent outing was in A&A: The Adventures of Archer and Armstrong, a third series which lasted 12 issues and ended in 2017.
An Archer & Armstrong movie was announced in 2017, with Venom director Ruben Fleischer tapped as director and Pirates of the Carribean's Terry Rossio as writer. Little has been announced about the film since then, but Archer and Armstrong both appeared in the live-action web series Ninjak vs. the Valiant Universe, which was released on Valiant Comics' YouTube account in 2020. They were portrayed by actors Alex Meglei and Kevin Porter.
Archer & Armstrong Forever #1 hits comic book store shelves on May 4.
Source: Valiant Comics