Archangel #1

by William Gibson

Science Fiction Superstar William Gibson comes to comics!

The U.S. political leaders of 2016 abandon the radioactive planet they've destroyed and harness the power of humanity's last hope: The Splitter, a colossal machine designed to manufacture a bright new reality for them to infiltrate and corrupt.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Historical Fiction, Historical

48 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 18, 2016

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

William Ford Gibson is an American-Canadian writer who has been called the father of the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction, having coined the term cyberspace in 1982 and popularized it in his first novel, Neuromancer (1984), which has sold more than 6.5 million copies worldwide.

While his early writing took the form of short stories, Gibson has since written nine critically acclaimed novels (one in collaboration), contributed articles to several major publications, and has collaborated extensively with performance artists, filmmakers and musicians. His thought has been cited as an influence on science fiction authors, academia, cyberculture, and technology.


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William Gibson. (2007, October 17). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 20:30, October 19, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?t...

Reviews

[Celtic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only a single issue, but a potentially promising set-up... who can stop the bad guys who've time traveled back to immediately post-war Berlin to infiltrate the OSS to prevent the post-apocalyptic present? (Humble Comics Bundle: Eisner Nominees 2017 Showcase).

[Kylie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Usually I try and give comics two issues before I make a decision whether or not to continue, but for some reason I hated this from something like the fourth page. I suspect this might be the sort of story I prefer to read as a fully detailed novel - that or not at all. Shame, as I do like Gibson's work.

[Mallory Kellogg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly up my alley War stories and thrillers aren't usually my dig, but I was into this. I will definitely seek out the rest of this to see how it ends. Time-traveling soldiers, mystery, the end of the world. Yeah, it got me thinking. Worth the read. 

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cool look to it.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this first issue. Also can't go wrong with a WWII setting.

[Anna Hepworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting enough start to a conspiracy theory, time travel, WWII, post-apocalyptic narrative. Be interesting to see where the story goes.

[Engel Dreizehn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Promising start so far the end of the second war/sci-fi intrigue...

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm still trying to put the pieces together on this story, but being issue #1 I'm sure that there is so much more to come and this will all make sense. Still, never fear because at the end of the comic is a section that breaks down the characters introduced and their roles in the story with more details on who they are. Phew.

I'm a huge World War II buff, and the plot of this comic is (so far) set in 1945 Europe. There's already a time travel element, it appears based on illustrations that Earth went through an apocalypse, so I'm excited to see how this is going to shape up.

This is William Gibson's first ever comic book. At the end of this issue he talks about the concept of the "Third Man" in writing. This was a term coined by William S. Burroughs. The literary concept of third man is the nameless, faceless 'story teller' that gets formed when 2 authors collaborate on a story. In this case Archangel was created by William Gibson and Michael St John Smith (illustrations by Butch Guice). Neither Michael nor William originally intended for this story to become a comic, but it just happened to get shaped that way, a fact that Gibson discusses in an essay at the end of this issue. I'm glad it did as the supernatural element with a historical fiction twist comes out beautifully in this setting. I've already called Tribe Comics in Austin to put me on the list for more of these issues.

[Vincent Stoessel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting first issue, which usually means we got shown a few things that we don't understand yet. What's funny about this to me is that it feels very much like I'm reading one of Warren Ellis's SF comic stories like Global Frequency and Orbital. On those titles I would think that is how how someone like Gibson would write a story. Now that is actually is Gibson, it feels like his writing has been with us all along. It promises to be a time-travel/cross dimensional epic that will be sure to engross lovers of SF comics like myself. Hope it lives up to that.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

William Gibson's novels always cause some kind of neural short circuit for me (in a good way). This is his first foray into the comic book realm, and so far, I'm digging it.

Archangel's 2016 looks a helluva lot different than ours, necessitating a trip into the past -- to 1945 -- by two rival factions. But things don't go smooth, drawing the attention of Naomi Givens, a British intelligence agent in charge of chasing "foo fighters" (think a 40s-era British Agent Scully). Right from the start, Givens proves herself a woman to be reckoned with.

I'm looking forward to the next issue.

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I discovered this week that William Gibson had started writing comics! So I had to go to forbidden planet yesterday and grab this the day it came out. It was excellent! It started in a post-apocalyptic world with time travel back to the 40s. It had fantastic women characters taking charge, hideous politicians, an intriguing storyline, and GORGEOUS realistic 40s art work. Half the comic was extras of sketches and background on the book. I'd definitely recommend this one and really looking forward to the rest of the series.

[Martin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very average.
I have read all of William Gibson's fiction since Burning Chrome in Omni magazine, so I was really looking forward to this.
What a let down.
Nothing here that hasn't been done better elsewhere ( even by himself in "The Peripheral").
Cliched ideas, poor dialogue.
Butch Guice's art is also unimpressive - sketchy and poor inking rendering characters difficult to distinguish.
So many better comics - past and present - than this.
Try "Planetary" by Warren Ellis for a much better exploration of alternate possibilities.

[Stacy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art suits the mood of the story, though there were a few panels at the beginning that failed to convey the importance of what was happening. Partly the angles of what action is shown, and partly the way the characters in the scene were rendered vague, it reduced my rating because I shouldn't have to read a bunch of panels multiple times when I know something essential is happening just to keep up. I am nonetheless intrigued by the premise and the characters to continue.

[Fantasy Literature · Rating 4 out of 5]

I kept my head down as I moved through the crowd. This mission was a total Hail Mary, two agents-in-place improvising because we had to work fast. Fankind risked his cover even talking to HQ, but if the intel was right, if he had what we thought he had… “Archangel, Issue One, by William Gibson,” he had said. “This could change everything.”

4 stars from Marion, read more at FANTASY LITERATURE

[Logan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is going to be so good.

[Mentatreader · Rating 4 out of 5]

A start. Nice Heinlein reference.

[Samuel Peterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh, but I'll hang in there.

[Kristýna Obrdlíková]

Na mě nefunguje.