Archer & Armstrong - comic book where the 1% are costumed supervillians

Todd Allen of Comics Beat reviews Archer & Armstrong, a brain-rotting propaganda comic book produced by the liberal media elite (and funded by George Soros, no doubt).

When the teasers for Archer and Armstrong #1 came out, there was a little bit of noise from the political parts of the web about what an awful liberal smear job the book was because of some villains billing themselves as the 1%. I’d gotten a good laugh out of villains calling themselves the 1% and wearing golden masks of bulls and bears (an obvious stock market joke) and I figured the usual noisy political types might be over-reacting. Come to find out, Archer and Armstrong is a much more political book than I was expecting. It’s also utterly hilarious. Unless you’re a dogmatic Republican with limited-to-no sense of humor. If you’re one of those, stay FAR away from this comic. It will set you off.

This gem is written by Fred Van Lente and drawn by Clayton Henry. It opens with a straight forward scene of ancient Ur (as in Mesopotamia and The Epic of Gilgamesh) where a mysterious device is set off which destroys civilization. And if you’re a fan of the old Eternal Warrior comic, there’s an Easter egg in there for you. Flash ahead to modern times and a Christian fundamentalist theme park which teaches you how dinosaurs and cavemen lived together.

Review: Archer And Armstrong #1: Arch-Conservatives Will Hate This Comic

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Brainspore

I think most supervillains (and more than a few superheroes) have historically been 1%-ers. All those henchmen don’t work for free, you know.
- Sagodjur
  
  The only 99 percenter supervillains are failed supervillains. Unless they’re Robin Hood-types (who aren’t usually supervillains) or alien beings that have no need or concept for money, they’re going to accumulate money either as a means to their ends or as their ends. Those that want power know that money can be power and money can buy power. Those that want revenge know that money can be used to buy the power to exact revenge. Those that want chaos know that the need and/or desire for money can cause chaos.
  - Brainspore
    
    The only 99 percenter supervillains are failed supervillains.
    
    Poor Calendar Man.
  - http://profiles.google.com/marc.k.mielke Marc Mielke
    
    Killer Croc is generally a down-and-out type who works as a thug for smarter villains, and he’s not a complete loser.
    
    I think, though, that a lot of supervillains have more likable traits than actual bankster-types. Doctor Doom, for instance, has a sense of honor no Wall Street type could possibly have.
    - Sagodjur
      
      Doom is definitely a one percenter, even if he has a code of honor. He ruled Latveria and had to have considerable wealth to build all his high tech devices and those really annoying doombots.
- nosehat
  
  Not according to The Dark Knight Rises.
OldBrownSquirrel

Dammit! This is the third time in as many days I’ve felt obliged to argue this!

- Birds are dinosaurs. This is a fairly mainstream scientific opinion by now.
- Humans and birds have coexisted for as long as there have been humans, since birds evolved first.
- Ergo, humans and dinosaurs coexisted, Q.E.D.

This really makes a lousy litmus test for young Earth beliefs.
- Brainspore
  
  [Society heaves a sigh of exasperation, says "You know damn well what we mean by 'dinosaurs'…"]
- wysinwyg
  
  I’ll acknowledge that humans and dinosaurs coexisted when you acknowledge that all human beings are fish.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Dammit! This is the third time in as many days I’ve felt obliged to argue this!
  
  They have a pill for that now.
  - Gilbert Wham
    
    Wait, what? Arguing pills? For arguing better? Why wasn’t I told?
    
    Oh, right. Speed. Yeah…
thecardcheat

Isn’t Batman (aka Bruce Wayne) part of the 1%…
- mccrum
  
  And Iron Man as well. Probably the Fantastic 4 too (custom jets to haul around Thing are not cheap). Professor X. I suppose any of the marine-based guys are typically princes or kings, so that’s going to be the 1%. Wonder Woman is also royalty, as is Thor.
  
  However, a lot of the time these guys appear to hold down pretty schmoe-kind of jobs. Superman appears to not care about most of the world during his 8 hour shift at the paper. Spiderman spends a few hours a day in class. And Banner would get a lot more work done in the lab and get that bonus to buy himself a pool if he could just calm down for a minute.
  - Felton / Moderator
    
    The hero that got me into comics was a homeless, penniless outcast who once turned Gotham City into a jungle as a form of protest. Now there’s a hero for the 99%.
  - http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns
    
    The Flash and his rogues are very working class. Also I’m not quite sure Auqaman’s kingdom is that wealthy since he appears to go trough ‘crazed martime hobo’ every few years.
- Chentzilla
  
  Related: this review.
juan

I used to love Archer & Armstrong, probably my favorite comic back in the early 90′s. Is this some kind of reboot?
- http://twitter.com/GetExiled Exiled In Geeksville
  
  wow, catch up, Valiant just relaunched this year, XO Manowar, Harbinger, Bloodshot, and now Archer & Armstrong all out so far, Shadowman this October, and Eternal Warrior comes next year!
wysinwyg

Good. Considering how many conservatives don’t seem to actually believe any of their bullshit and just say it to piss liberals off I’m glad people like this guy and Bobcat Goldthwait are giving a little back.
http://twitter.com/GetExiled Exiled In Geeksville

I made the same connection in my review http://www.comicbooked.com/review-archer-armstrong-1/

I like how they demonstrate how the erstwhile, but dense Mid-American social conservatives (the ones who run the Dinosaur/caveman theme park) are manipulated by the 1%’ers
bkad

The idea of the 1% as supervillains just reminded me of the old “Captain Planet” TV show. For those who are not familiar, the cartoon featured a carefully ethnically balanced team of kids using life skills & and their magic captain-planet-summoning powers to battle polluters (portrayed as greedy 1%-ers).
What is funny, in retrospect, is that the polluters had such simple motivations the plots almost tilted to the point where pollution was itself the goal of these evil men and women. I suppose it would make more compelling drama if those issues were portrayed realistically. but it would make make for a bad Saturday morning cartoon.
- Brainspore
  
  My favorite episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwJaELXadKo