Here it is! The fourth title in the Summer Of Valiant relaunch will be Archer & Armstrong, coming in August, 2012! The tagline is B.C. Meets A.D.D.

B.C. Meets A.D.D. in August 2012

Yesterday we posted 5 thoughts on the Bloodshot teaser, and today we’ve got five more thoughts on the Archer & Armstrong image today.

But first, wow. Archer and Armstrong. Awesome. This image looks like it was drawn by David Aja, who has done some other work for Valiant, including some cool Bloodshot images, and the 20 copy incentive variant to X-O Manowar #1.

Onward to the five thoughts:

First, who is Archer? This is not your papa’s Archer. Or the Archer you remember from the 90s incarnation of Archer & Armstrong. He’s got hair, looks like some scruff of a goatie, wearing a t-shirt (no monk robes), and high tops. This new Archer doesn’t look like he will be the naïve, former monk that we saw previously. The thing with this image though, there’s not much else to know about Archer. Did his parents try to kill him? Did he ever study eastern thought? Will he eventually hook up with Flamingo from Harbinger?!? We’ve got a whole iceburg of stuff to learn about Archer, we’re just seeing the tip.

Second, and speaking of tips, how about the crossbow? He’s got it there, swung across his back. Apparently, Archer doesn’t use the incredibly unintimidating and inefficient tiny crossbow he used back in the 90s. In fact, we talk about Archer, and the crossbow in Only The Valiant Episode 67, which will be released this Sunday, March 11. Hint: One of us thought Archer needed to be reimagined. Looked like that may come true. Anyway, Archer’s got a real crossbow, I wonder what for? Why does he hang out in the city with that swung across his back? Also, am I the only one who was reminded of Daryl from The Walking Dead? I don’t think that A&A will be a zombie book (certainly hope not), but there is definitely some resemblance.

Third, Armstrong! He looks quite the same as the original version. Baggy pants, big overcoat, floppy hat… what is the name for that kind of hat anyway? He looks like a wino, with the wine in hand. With what we know about Armstrong, however, that is probably a bottle of ’59 Château Lafite Rothschild or something equally monumental. He looks just like I would expect, the question is, has he changed since 1993?

Fourth, the satchel! It’s right there, around Armstrong’s shoulder. The mystery of the satchel was one of the few let downs of Barry Windsor-Smith’s run on A&A. There was a ton of build-up of the mystery of what was in the satchel, and why it gave power to whoever held it. This thread was not fulfilled, and never really went anywhere. Could we finally get a story with Armstrong’s satchel, explaining the mysteries contained inside?

Fifth, B.C. Meets A.D.D. This was the tagline released with the image, and tells us that Armstrong will indeed be ancient. I wonder how ancient? Will he still have two ancient (and stubborn) brothers? And Archer, does he have A.D.D., or is this just a catch phrase to describe a disillusioned youth? One of the really enjoyable qualities of the original Archer & Armstrong series was the “odd couple” made up of the ancient bum and the naïve monk. It looks like we will have an odd couple again, but not quite in the same way. For some reason, I get a real Breaking Bad vibe from this image. Maybe A&A will take a few queues from that show.

To recap, we’ve got X-O Manowar in May, Harbinger in June, Bloodshot in July, and Archer & Armstrong in August. Seems like a great lineup to me!