Valiant’s Archer And Armstrong is one of the funniest books on the stands right now. An entertainingly ridiculous jumble of spirituality, populist politics, pop culture, and buddy cop movie, it’s a clever, smart-assed book. And it might finally be coming to the big screen.
For those unfamiliar, here’s the basic plot of the book: Archer is raised by a cult with two goals, to create a superninja who can kill the Great Satan and to create the most naive human being to ever walk the Earth. They succeed spectacularly at both, and send him off to kill Armstrong. One problem: Armstrong, it turns out, is an immortal superstrong hedonist who mostly just wants beer and the company of beautiful women. He’s the kind of guy who, when Archer stares him down with a crossbow, thinks he’s a jealous boyfriend.
They’re promptly forced to team up, and, well, you’ve seen a buddy cop movie, we’re sure. The book is hilarious, not least for the interplay between the clueless white knight Archer and Armstrong, who’s usually drunk. Think Lethal Weapon with more cults, basically.
Valiant is heavily involved in the production: According to the Hollywood Reporter, they actually paid for the script. Valiant also has Bloodshot and Shadowman in development, but this seems the most likely to hit screens first, mostly because both characters wear pants instead of jumpsuits, and it’s a relatively easy sell, at least until you get to some of the wackiness Fred Van Lente injected into the proceedings.
We’ll keep an eye out as this movie advances, but if they really want to cement this one, we hear Edgar Wright is free.