The universal response to Archie comics tends to be annoyance since they were rather formulaic and as one comic-book store employee states it best, they’re stories of what younger kids think teenagers are like. Well, maybe if we were living in the Sixties.
So a few years back, the publishing company behind America’s other eternal teenager, was acquired by new interests wanting to bring the characters into this century. Their initial offerings were putting Riverdale at ground zero of a zombie apocalypse and making Sabrina the new Rosemary’s baby. I thought I wrote about these but as I delved into the site’s archives, I haven’t. I’ll get to them. I want to focus on what has been done with the core title. For now I will say this, despite zombies being done to death, Afterlife with Archie has been more interesting than either version of The Walking Dead.
As for Archie it’s written by Mark Waid, the co-brains behind fan favorite Saga with Image and DC’s Kingdom Come. He has modernized Riverdale with the expected accoutrements: cell phones, their clothes and video games. Waid also restarts the Archie universe by having the title character’s story begin with him and Betty breaking up after being an item since kindergarten. The other segment to their famous love triangle, Veronica, hasn’t moved to Riverdale. Why Archie and Betty called it quits is kept a secret until issue four. The debut focuses on them trying to go their own separate ways despite their classmates speculating and trying reunite them.
After Veronica enters the picture, Archie is enamored of her. It’s not her money, it’s a je ne sais quoi quality because everybody else sees Veronica as a spoiled brat. Veronica’s attraction to Archie is mostly genuine but she also enjoys how he drives her father crazy. It’s her little revenge for moving to back-water Riverdale. Mr. Lodge’s motivation was to find an easy place to run for the US Senate (it worked for Hilary, RFK, the Bushes and the Rockefellers) and the last thing he needs is an accident-prone, red-headed teen ruining his campaign.
Waid didn’t ditch the other tropes the comic is famous for: Archie has bad luck with jobs, Jughead loves to eat, Betty is a tomboy, Veronica is vain and Reggie is a jackass. They wouldn’t be the same if they weren’t. I think there are two things Waid has done to make the New Riverdale enjoyable to old and new audiences. There’s a bigger, more diverse supporting cast. From personal experience, it’s possible to have such diversity in a small town if it was fueled by a Federal project. The other is getting permission to start over, re-introduce these characters so we can forget all the past assumptions. Are they accurate depictions of today’s teens? Hell no. It remains a fictional, practically fantasy, setting but I’m glad to have these American icons remade to suit the 21st century and before the upcoming Riverdale show starts. That looks like Archie meets Twin Peaks.