GET SMASHED...OR BE SMASHED! Meet Armstrong: Since the ancient city of Ur, this immortal adventurer has spent the last 7,000 years drinking and carousing his way through history alongside some of the greatest merrymakers the world has ever known. Meet Archer: A sheltered teenage martial arts master and expert marksman that was raised for a single purpose - to kill the devil incarnate. Little did he know that this undying evil was actually Armstrong (he's actually a pretty good guy...once you get to know him) and, since hitting the road together, the two have become great friends and even better partners. Now: Archer is about to set off on his most dangerous mission yet - a quest into the mystic reaches of Armstrong's bottomless satchel to liberate his friend and comrade from the clutches of the mad god Bacchus! (Okay, so, Armstrong went into the satchel himself to get a bottle of whiskey that he kinda misplaced and got stuck. It's like the Amazon warehouse of arcane treasures in there...and he doesn't exactly have a maid service.) Imprisoned in Armstrong's satchel for centuries, Bacchus now commands a legion of monsters, goblins and golems bent on escaping back into the world of man and enacting revenge on their captor... Can Archer single-handedly combat the godly embodiment of intoxication himself - and rescue his best buddy - without becoming lost amongst Armstrong's endless repository of bizarre artifacts and historical oddities in the process? From red-hot rising star Rafer Roberts (Plastic Farm) and superstar artist David Lafuente (Ultimate Spider-Man), Valiant's next blockbuster series starts here! Collecting A&A: THE ADVENTURES OF ARCHER & ARMSTRONG #1Ð4.

GET SMASHED...OR BE SMASHED!? Meet Armstrong: Since the ancient city of Ur, this immortal adventurer has spent the last 7,000 years drinking and carousing his way through history alongside some of the greatest merrymakers the world has ever known. Meet Archer: A sheltered teenage martial arts master and expert marksman that was raised for a single purpose - to kill the devil incarnate. Little did he know that this undying evil was actually Armstrong (he's actually a pretty good guy...once you get to know him) and, since hitting the road together, the two have become great friends and even better partners. Now: Archer is about to set off on his most dangerous mission yet - a quest into the mystic reaches of Armstrong's bottomless satchel to liberate his friend and comrade from the clutches of the mad god Bacchus! (Okay, so, Armstrong went into the satchel himself to get a bottle of whiskey that he kinda misplaced and got stuck. It's like the Amazon warehouse of arcane treasures in there...and he doesn't exactly have a maid service.) Imprisoned in Armstrong's satchel for centuries, Bacchus now commands a legion of monsters, goblins and golems bent on escaping back into the world of man and enacting revenge on their captor... Can Archer single-handedly combat the godly embodiment of intoxication himself - and rescue his best buddy - without becoming lost amongst Armstrong's endless repository of bizarre artifacts and historical oddities in the process? From red-hot rising star Rafer Roberts (Plastic Farm) and superstar artist David Lafuente (Ultimate Spider-Man), Valiant's next blockbuster series starts here!

China's continuing rapid economic growth and expanding involvement in global affairs pose major implications for the power structure of the international system. To more accurately and fully assess the significance of China's emergence for the United States and the global community, it is necessary to gain a more complete understanding of Chinese security thought and behavior. This study addresses such questions as: What are China's most fundamental national security objectives? How has the Chinese state employed force and diplomacy in the pursuit of these objectives over the centuries? What security strategy does China pursue today and how will it evolve in the future? The study asserts that Chinese history, the behavior of earlier rising powers, and the basic structure and logic of international power relations all suggest that, although a strong China will likely become more assertive globally, this possibility is unlikely to emerge before 2015-2020 at the earliest. To handle this situation, the study argues that the United States should adopt a policy of realistic engagement with China that combines efforts to pursue cooperation whenever possible; to prevent, if necessary, the acquisition by China of capabilities that would threaten America's core national security interests; and to remain prepared to cope with the consequences of a more assertive China.

Beatdown in the bayou! At long last, Valiant?s gallant adventurers have finally located Armstrong?s long-missing wife?in that dreaded land that dare not speak its name: Florida! But after centuries of thinking that his near-immortal bride, Andromeda, was just a booze-induced hallucination, how will Armstrong make up for years of lies, losses, and infidelities? And, as if that wasn?t enough, a nefarious new force is about to release an army of bathsalt-using ?Florida Men? to finish off Archer & Armstrong once and for all! It?s a true story (not really) ripped from today?s headlines (pretty much)! Pack your Crocs and don?t skimp on the lotion because the Sunshine State is about to hit Archer & Armstrong like a bad seafood buffet?and we only have Harvey Award-nominated writer Rafer Roberts (Harbinger Renegade) and acclaimed artist Mike Norton (Revival) to blame! Collecting A&A: THE ADVENTURES OF ARCHER & ARMSTRONG #9-12.

Preface -- Abbreviations -- Key figures in the Mayaguez Crisis -- Introduction -- Day one: Monday, May 12 -- Day two: Tuesday, May 13 -- Day three: Wednesday, May 14 -- Day four: Thursday, May 15 -- Critical crisis decisions -- Explaining decisions, behaviors and outcomes -- Refining the explanation: rationality, bureaucracy and beliefs -- Findings, issues, prescriptions -- Conclusion.

Chester Carter has issues. He was abandoned as a baby, raised in a haunted psychiatric hospital, has a magical dinosaur-riding cowboy living inside of his head, and just might be the most important person who has ever lived. Now, he sits in a nameless airport bar telling his life story to a bunch of people who really couldn't care less. These are the stories about Chester Carter's reality and the people (including a washed-up celebrity, a foul-mouthed four-eyed demon monkey, a pair of zombie cops, cannibal farmers, religious zealots, an assassin with a heart of gold and an airline baggage handler) who have to live in it.

After years of training, Obadiah Archer has been dispatched to New York City to root out and kill the infamous Great Satan of his parents' sect. Unfortunately, dying has never been easy for Archer?s target ? the hard-drinking year-old immortal known as Armstrong. Together, this unlikely pair of heroes is about to stumble headfirst into a centuries-old conspiracy that will bring the whole of ancient history crashing down on the modern day Valiant Universe. And that?s going to mean one Hell of a hangover

Harbinger Wars, Valiant's first crossover event, begins here! Two dozen undisciplined, untested and untrained superhuman children have just escaped from a top-secret research facility and into the world. When Bloodshot, Toyo Harada and Peter Stanchek join the chase, will the Valiant Universe be ready for its first all-out superhuman showdown? Collecting HARBINGER WARS #1-4 by acclaimed writers Joshua Dysart (Harbinger) & Duane Swierczynski (Bloodshot) and artist Clayton Henry (Archer & Armstrong), start reading here for a high-stakes tale that will put Valiant's greatest heroes to the ultimate test!

The legendary story of Batman and Robin has reached nearly mythic proportions: the crime-fighting Dynamic Duo, always one step ahead of the criminals they pursue and never meeting a case too big. This isn’t that story. This is the story of a young Dick Grayson, newly orphaned, struggling to find his way in a strange, difficult, dark new world…This is the story of Robin and Batman. The bestselling creative team behind the Eisner-winning Descender, Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen, reunite in Gotham City to tell the story of a remarkable young man learning to navigate an incredible new world!