Archer & Armstrong #5 – Review

By: Fred Van Lente (story), Emanuela Lupacchino (art), Guillermo Ortego (inks), Matt Milla (colors)

The Story: It’s like Armstrong and Gilad are living the bridge to “A Change Is Gonna Come”.

The Review: Reading back what I wrote for last month’s issue of this series, I’m struck by how cross I sound.  Maybe the looming specter of finals sucked away some of my good humor that week, but I really gave #4 a hard time.  While I stand by my criticism of the title’s rushed pacing and thin development, perhaps I was a bit hasty myself in writing off the promise this title offers.  Despite my frustrations with it, I have to admit it still holds my interest.

What remains irritating about reading this series is the nagging feeling that I’m missing some crucial details about the A&A mythos, probably from the first couple issues I skipped over when I jumped onboard at #3.  It’s still a tad ridiculous that you’d miss out on that much substance by being slightly late to the game—and that the sizable recap page does nothing to reintroduce some of it to you—but at least this issue sort of brings you up to speed.