Some Thoughts on Jughead #7-8

After wrapping up its first major arc, Jughead ran a quick two-part story for the final issues written by Chip Zdarsky, who conceived this incarnation of Jughead.  The next issue will kick off a new arc with new writer Ryan North.  Anyway, I liked these issues a lot, a good breather of a story after the wildness of the first arc.  In particular, though, I really liked them from an aromantic asexual perspective, and that’s what I want to talk about today (a few spoilers.)

Trying to shake up a boring summer vacation, Jughead suggests that he and Archie get out of town and hang out at a cabin.  Jughead doesn’t pick up on the fact that Archie’s lukewarm on the idea until he hears that the cabin is near Camp Lucey.  It’s at the end of issue #7, after they’ve gotten lost in the woods looking for the trail to the camp, that it hits Jughead:  Camp Lucey is an all-girls camp, which is the real reason Archie wanted to go.

This realization really makes Jughead mad.  “You didn’t want to come here to hang with me!” he shouts at Archie.  “You wanted to… to creep on a camp filled with girls!”  Archie, sheepish at this accusation, offers only, “Why can’t it be both?” as a defense.  This is what drives their conflict going forward in issue #8, Jughead’s frustration that he always seems to come in second to Archie’s hormones.

I love this as an aro-ace issue.  In general, I like that Jughead’s asexuality is so lowkey and non-angsty.  He doesn’t go around agonizing over being “different” or regretting that he’ll “never have” what Archie and the others have.  But if being ace ever makes his life harder on occasion, I like that we see it here with his most important friendship.  I completely know how it feels when it seems like your friends can’t prioritize you the way you prioritize them.  Not that they don’t care about you – not at all – but you know that boyfriends/girlfriends (or even the possibility of a new romance, or just sex) take precedence because society establishes this relationship pecking order whereby romance > friendship.  And since my friends are all adults, while Jughead’s best friend is a straight teenage boy (girls on the brain 24/7,) I really feel for him.  When he remembers how much simpler their friendship was before puberty, I get exactly where he’s coming from.

And I know – feeling like your friends don’t make time for you isn’t an exclusively asexual (especially aromantic) problem, but I feel like it’s definitely heightened for aro aces, because for us, there’s not really anything “better” or “more” than friendship.  It hurts to think that the sexuals we love rate our relationship a little lower than they would a romantic one, even though they’re not doing it consciously.

Still, though, while the storyline definitely pinged my asexual radar in issue #7, I wouldn’t have sworn that Jughead’s anger was definitely coming from an aro-ace focus.  It can just be one friend mad that the other cares more about girls than hanging out with him – any friend, regardless of sexuality.  In issue #8, however, even though no one physically comes out and says it, it’s clear that Jughead’s aceness is involved.  As they fight, Archie protests, “Look, I’m not going to apologize for being a normal guy, I--”  And he stops, because he sees how Jughead whips around and glares at him, and he knows he messed up.  He immediately takes it back and wants to apologize.  I like, though, that while Jughead is (rightfully) hurt at that comment, he recognize that Archie honestly didn’t mean to say it like that – because Archie is so used to the prevailing attitude that sex and romance is for everybody and that that’s the only way to be normal – and so Jughead keeps conflict focused on the real issue at hand, talking to Archie about what it’s like for him when Archie throws him over for the sake of some random girls.

All in all?  Loved this story.  Seeing this fight play out between Jughead and Archie might be the most represented I’ve ever felt as an aro-ace.  It’s so real, so well done, so subtle.  Thank you so much for that, Chip Zdarsky.  I really hope Ryan North (and any other future writers) understands Jughead’s aceness as well as you do.