Please note that this article was originally published on July 24th 2014
Written by: James Asmus & Fred Van Lente
Art by: Kano
Publisher: Valiant
Quantum and Woody. Archer and Armstrong. Two of the most hilarious, interesting pairings from Valiant, paired together for a massive treasure hunt. Sound absurd yet? Good, because that’s most definitely the point. Quantum & Woody scribe James Asmus heads up this particular crossover (for lack of a better word), and, as with the main Quantum & Woody book, he doesn’t take himself, or the book, too seriously. This is definitely a good thing for this book, considering that the plot elements are not all that substantial, and the book survives pretty much solely on its humor and character work. That is, of course, fine, if the writing is good enough to make the characters interesting. Luckily, in the launch of this series, the writing of the characters is definitely strong enough to carry the book.
Essentially, the plot of The Delinquents is a glorified treasure hunt. In one of his past adventures, while living as a hobo (their terminology, not mine), Armstrong was given a treasure map by one of his compatriots. He somehow manages to lose half of it, and it then proceeds to travel all across the country, until it ends up in the hands of a small town farmer, whose farm is taken over by a GMO corporation, which is obviously a foil for Monsanto. The scene in which the corporation takes the farmer’s possessions not only serves to set up the plot, but it also allows Asmus to explore some interesting social commentary, which is something we don’t often see in Valiant comics. Of course, they often deal with real life issues but as far as I can remember, this is the first time they’ve actually dealt with an issue of political import other than all the governmental corruption and such in Harbinger.
Anyways, this is where Quantum and Woody come in. They get hired by the corporation to find the missing half of the map (which is in Armstrong’s possession), and track down the treasure. While the two duos don’t actually meet in this issue, both have a role to play. Quantum and Woody begin their search, which inadvertently leads an old friend of Armstrong’s to tipping him off about the two. So we don’t really get to see what the dynamic between all four of these characters is, at least not yet. This really just feels a lot like an issue of Quantum and Woody combined with an issue of Archer and Armstrong, rather than an actual crossover between the two, which is kind of unfortunate. However, the quality of those two series definitely translates to this comic as well, and so critiquing it for that reason is slightly counterintuitive.
The Delinquents #1 is not a great comic because it has a deep, intricate, complex plot, or because it deals with characters who have a lot of issues. Yes, the characters have nuance to them, and that’s definitely a good thing. It’s easy to become engaged with these characters. But this comic succeeds mostly because it’s just a joy to read. Sure, the humor can go to places where ti arguably shouldn’t. But other than one or two of those brief moments, The Delinquents #1 offers a lot of smart humor, and brings some pretty great levity to comic book reading. The first issue of this book is flat out fun, and it’s definitely a strong way to launch the newest comic from Valiant.
