Open Mike Night: A&A: The Adventures of Archer and Armstrong (2016) #1 & Captain America Comics (1941) #1

​A&A The Adventures of Archer and Armstrong #1

Written by: Rafer Roberts
Penciled by: David Lafuente
Inked by: Ryan Winn
Colored by:  Brian Reber
Lettered by: David Lanphear

Published by: Valiant
Cover Price: $3.99

Mike Maillaro: Archer and Armstrong has always been one of the most manic comics I’ve ever read.  It’s your basic odd couple story.  Archer was raised by his parents in a sheltered religious theme park run by a powerful group called The Sect.   He is trained to killed their greatest enemy, an immortal named Armstrong.  Armstrong has been alive for thousands of years and spends most of it drunk.  The two end up becoming friends.

This issue starts with Armstrong hearing about the death of an old friend.  He feels he owes this friend a debt, so descends into his “bag of holding” to try and recover an important bottle of wine.  He leaves the bag open, and monsters start slipping out into our world.  Archer manages to chase them back in, and decides to go into the bag after his friend. He leaves the bag in the safe keeping of his sister/archenemy, Mary Maria.

Archer and Armstrong, especially in it’s newest incarnation has always had a lot of satire.  I was actually a little disappointed that was toned down some here. You do get a little bit when Archer is watching TV with the Lizard Men that escaped from the bag.    I still did enjoy this comic, it just felt like a bit of a departure from what I expect from Archer and Armstrong.

Mike Weaver: I, on the other hand, had no expectations, so I enjoyed this as it was presented.  While there was enough information to make the story make sense, I felt like a #1 issue should give a little more detail about the various characters.  The flashback sequence to Armstrong’s friendship with the person who was recently deceased was useful, but was probably the only thing that built character history in it.  I didn’t even get (from the comic) that Mary Maria was a major enemy of Archer and Armstrong, only that she was at least a little sticky fingered.

Maillaro:  Yeah, I agree that this book didn’t do much to help new readers catch up.  Which is strange because Archer and Armstrong isn’t exactly a household name.  A few weeks ago we had talked about Black Widow’s first issue being a little light on background, but Black Widow has starred in several blockbuster movies, so even if you’ve never read a comic before, you might have some awareness of who she is.  Archer and Armstrong have been around for a while, but don’t exactly have much mainstream exposure.  I think for those characters you need to make a lot more allowance for the fact that a reader might have no idea who they are or what they are all about.

Weaver: I’m pretty familiar with comics in general, and my exposure to Archer and Armstrong is “I’ve heard of them before.”  Not even to a point where I could recognize them.  Or really say much about them.

It did give me enough that I wasn’t totally lost throughout, but there’s a big gulf between not being lost and understanding things well.  There also wasn’t much plot to this issue beyond Archer going into the bag to find Armstrong and Mary Maria maybe taking the bag instead of guarding it as she said she would. Everything inside the bag was pretty neat and I liked how that was laid out, but I feel that there should have been either more background or more story here. They dole out just enough of each.

Maillaro: Yeah, I did enjoy what was here, but like you said, it felt like there could have been more here.  New readers don’t have a lot to grab onto here, and old readers have been without A+A for a while now, and I’m not sure this issue really was a satisfying enough “reunion.”  There was a lot of fun quirks to this book, like the bizarre societies that have formed inside the bag of holding.  And I did enjoy that we actually got some sentimentality from Armstrong for a change.  But other than that, there just wasn’t a lot here to grab on to.

Before Archer and Armstrong, Rafer Roberts had worked on an indy book I never heard of called Plastic Farm.  He seems like a bit of a strange choice to bring this book back to life.  The art here was only average too.  I really missed Fred Van Lante and Clayton Henry.  I am usually not one to get too down on creative team changes, but the new creative team needs to be on the same level or an improvement.  And I’m just not sure we got that here.  

Weaver: I felt the art was above average, personally.  The characters were crisp and recognizable, the world inside the bag was done well, the character poses conveyed what the story was trying to do.  I actually thought pretty highly of the art, and would give it a 4.5.  The story, not so much, and that will get a 3.

Maillaro: I try not to get too stuck on art comparisons, but for me, it really suffered in comparison to Clayton Henry’s work on the earlier series.  I will admit I am a fanboy of Henry’s work, so that made me a little biased here.  It just seemed kind of flat and uninteresting.  It’s not bad in any way, I just didn’t get all that excited.  I think I will go 3.5 for the writing, and a 3.5 for the art.  Just a very average comic.  

Captain America Comics (1941) #1

The Captain American stories were all by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
Backups seemed to the uncredited

Published by: Marvel
Cover Price: 10 cents ($1.99 on Comixology)

Weaver: Finally, we end up with the full version of an anthology comic, and it’s pretty full.  We get four comic stories of Captain America and Bucky, a two page text story of Captain America and Bucky, and shorts featuring Hurricane and Tuk the Caveboy.  There’s an awful lot to digest here.

Captain America and Bucky fight the pervasive threat of spies and saboteurs in WWII America.  Which seem to have been much more successful in this world than the were in the real one, since it seems they kill at least one high ranking military officer per story.  We see a prototype Red Skull in here too, but it’s clearly not the character that we’ll come to associate with that name.  Perhaps the strangest story is one about a Nazi focused on playing chess in order to announce his plans to kill people, but he doesn’t seem to play chess by anything approaching the rules of chess and instead just kind of grabs whatever piece he wants gone off the board and narrates it.

Maillaro: I was really interested in the timing of this book.  I came out March 1941, months before Pearl Harbor and the US really being involved in World War 2.  Pretty much all the Captain America stories in this one were alone the lines of “there are German infiltrators hiding in the United States looking to destroy our country.”  At the time, these had to be very strong propaganda pieces.  

I like that the core of Captain America really hasn’t changed much in the last 80 or so years.  In these comics, he’s a heroic character who loves his country and is willing to sacrifice a lot of his own personal comfort in order to protect us all.  His origin is simple and really hasn’t changed much.  I see him very much like Batman or Superman that way.  Over the years, people may have added details to those classic origin stories, but at their core, they are still the same stories they have always been.  Steve Rogers was a puny kid who wanted to serve his country...so he volunteered for an experiment which turned him into a super soldier dedicated to being the hero that his frail body wouldn’t allow him to.

Weaver: I didn’t realize that this book was before America entered World War II.  You would think, from reading it, that we were already at war with Germany. However, during this time, the United States was already tiptoeing into World War II with their Lend Lease program and other initiatives, so I guess punching Hitler was already on our minds.

I’m kind of confused about how Bucky is in the Army camp, being distinctly underage.  They explain it as mascot, but I don’t think that’s actually a thing.  And him bunking with Steve was a little weird too.  I liked Bucky as a character when he was doing stuff, but he feels really forced into the story.

Maillaro: It’s interesting because in recent years, it's been retconned that Bucky was a lot older.  In Brubaker’s terrific Captain America run, they are portrayed as basically being brothers (the movies have continued that idea...actually in the movies, I think Bucky is older than Cap).  The shot of Bucky in Cap’s bed was definitely weird and taken out of context, it could have been real creepy.  Actually, in context it was kind of creepy too…  I have never really gotten the whole “child sidekick” thing.  Bucky and Robin have always seemed real odd to me.  But, hey I love Nightwing and Winter Soldier, so I guess they had to start someplace.

I am real curious what people thought of this comic in the context of the times.  Like you said, America was already sort of heading towards war, but it was still close to a year before we officially declared we were in.  A lot of people were still a little reluctant on how involved we should be in problems that far from our shores.  Showing a guy dressed as the American flag slugging Hitler in the face seems like it would be a pretty bold statement.

Weaver: Child sidekicks were always inserted in order to have a reader relatable character.  It’s hard to imagine being the adult guy who’s slugging his way through Nazis, and a little easier to imagine being the kid cheering him on.  I don’t really like them either, and they tend towards fridging quit a bit.  In fact, that was one of my big problems with the whole “Women in Refrigerators” deal...it seems like even more than women, kid sidekicks get really screwed with.  Exhibit A will be “Is that your baby, or is that a dead cat?”

Again about the timing, the story of an industrialist being a secret Nazi was especially ballsy, since basically big business was the most pro-Nazi part of American society.  Yet, you always want to be careful about how you protray businessmen, because ultimately they decide if your comic gets printed.  I think we forget how edgy this comic was at the time.

Hey, did you notice in the back-up stories how many things came close to future Marvel Comics stories?  We have a son of Thor, and also a character searching for “Attilan”.

Maillaro: Yeah, the stories themselves weren’t all that memorable, but I did think that there was some interesting concepts here.  This was just a real packed comic.  I am not saying all the stories were award-winners..even the Captain America ones were very formulaic, but it was still a hell of a value.  By the way, there was an ad in this book for another “America based hero” that was launching from Timely at the same time.  In some alternate dimension Mr Liberty (The USA Marine Undersea Guardian of America) was frozen in the ice and ended up starring in massively successful movies.

Another cool thing about this comic to me was that we first meet X-13, AKA Peggy Carter (though she’s not named that).  Nice to see a kick ass female spy was around even back in 1941.  

The scores are tricky on this one.  I think the writing and art were real bold for the time, though I am not sure how well they hold up.  And one artist was doing all this work, usually in a real short time line, so there are panels that look really odd.  I would say a 4 for the writing, and a 3.5 for the art.  But I am not at all sure if those are even close to fair scores…

Weaver: It felt to me like it stood up just fine, but the formulaic stories were a little old by the end.  At least it got mixed up a bit by introducing a costumed villain, even if he only exists for Cap and Bucky to Scooby Doo him.  Being fair, it was decades before Scooby Doo cemented the mask off reveal of the haunted amusement park owner as being their “thing.”

I think those scores are fair.  There’s a lot to like here...but...it’s not all sunshine and roses.

Maillaro: I have spring break next week...and I am assuming you guys are off the week after (like most sane districts)?

Weaver: Yeah...who knew, Jersey isn’t sane.  I guess we’ll skip out on March Madness and I’ll catch you on the other side.

Maillaro: Pretty much EVERY other district in New Jersey it’s the week after Easter too. In Newark, they seem determined to save ONE day.  So instead of Good Friday and the whole next week, they do it this week instead.  It’s really dumb.  Especially since my kids are off the same week that you (AND EVERYONE ELSE) are.  

Weaver: I’m just going to write it off as Jersey.

Maillaro:  Fair nuff!  

Final Scores