Archer & Armstrong: Mission: Improbable (TPB)

Solicitation[]

Archer & Armstrong are going to war with Bloodshot and H.A.R.D Corps! (GULP!)

That’s right, Valiant’s globetrotting adventure duo have been targeted for elimination by Project Rising Spirit’s most elite kill crew. Their mission? Assassinate the the newly appointed leader of a homegrown fundamentalist terror sect named…Obadiah Archer?! And if they could take out his mentally ill, alcoholic bodyguard who just happens to think he’s a 10,000-year-old immortal, that’d be swell, too!

It’s an improbable mission with impossible odds. Do Bloodshot and the steely killers of the H.A.R.D. Corps stand a chance against two conspiracy-smashing heroes that never go down without a fight? Find out right here with the complete collection of the mayhem-soaked “Mission: Improbable” crossover, collecting ARCHER & ARMSTRONG: ARCHER #0, ARCHER & ARMSTRONG #18-19 and BLOODSHOT AND H.A.R.D. CORPS #20-21 by acclaimed writers Fred Van Lente, Christos Gage and Joshua Dysart, and all-star artists Pere Pérez and Tom Raney!

Issues[]

Synopsis[]

Archer #0[]

The story is a series of flashback sequences focusing on young Obadiah and his life before the events in Archer & Armstrong (Volume 2) #1.

Back in early high school Obadiah has to do a weird "T.A.G." test that shows if a kid is "talented and gifted." After school he is then picked up by a police patrol that takes him to the nursery, a secret facility of Project Rising Spirit. He is told his parents had been in an accident but he's really been kidnapped by P.R.S. to which Obadiah is the Nursery Subject #M-40 [CODENAME: PRODIGAL].

At the nursery, Obadiah makes first contact with Gamma, who is in charge of keeping all the young psiots in check, and later receives Activation Surgery after which he makes full physical and mental recovery. Obadiah is then taken into the Rumpus Room with a young girl called Melissa, aka Subject #w-62 [CODENAME: PULSE], to test their abilities. Melissa's ability is classified as Electrokinesis and Obadiah's ability as Morphogenesis. Both have been previously unknown, however, it's Obadiah's ability to simply adapt to all kinds of situations and quickly reproduce other psiots' abilities that impresses P.R.S. the most and raises the interest of The Sect that also controls P.R.S.

Obadiah is adopted by Reverend Archer and his wife, Congresswoman Thelma Archer, both leaders of the Dominion, a secret religious society and important faction of the Sect. They take Obadiah to the Promised Land where he meets his foster-sister, Mary-Maria, among many other young brothers and sisters. During their upbringing that includes strict obedience and tough physical training they are also taught of the Sect's greatest enemy, "he-who-is-not-to-be-named."

One day, the oldest brother, Lee Archer, is send after "he-who-is-not-to-be-named," who was see in Paris, France. Lee promises Mary-Maria to bring her a souvenir but another elder sister says nobody ever comes back when their parents send them after "he-who-is-not-to-be-named." This is when Obadiah somehow realizes their not his parents and brothers and sisters. In the following he tries to find ways to escape the Promised Land but is usually caught and thrown into the dark basement for extended solitary confinement as punishment.

Back in the present day, the Director of P.R.S., Morris Kozol, reflects on Obadiah Archer aka the Prodigal and tells a group of employees who remain in the dark that the Prodigal has exceeded their expectations. He didn't kill the Sect's greatest enemy but recruited him to his (their) side. However, in the meantime Prodigal also wiped out his family and has taken over the Dominion himself and has got plenty of followers, his Archies. Kozol is afraid their plotting something big and that has to be stopped.

On the last page it is revealed that the employees are Bloodshot and the H.A.R.D. Corps with Major Palmer.

Mission: Improbable[]

For a detailed summary of the "Mission: Improbable" crossover, see the storyline page of the same name.

Notes[]

As for trade paperbacks and the Bloodshot series, Bloodshot: Get Some! is both the previous and next trade, collecting the three previous (#18-19 and #0) as well as the next two issues (#22-23) of the series.