Jughead #10 is out now, and the second
installment of the Sabrina arc – I think it’ll be wrapped up in the next issue –
leaves me mixed on Ryan North’s writing re:
Jughead’s asexuality. This doesn’t
give me the same kind-of-sick feeling that #9 did, but North has yet to
convince me that he’s equipped to write Jughead’s aceness in a respectful way
(a few spoilers for issues #9-10.)
We pick
up shortly after #9’s conclusion, with Jughead on his dreaded date with Sabrina
and freaking out about it. It goes
terribly, as expected, and when Jughead’s avoidance/obliviousness to all things
romantic feels to Sabrina like Jughead is just leading her on, she takes
revenge of the magical variety. Very
little of the issue is devoted to the date or Jughead’s reaction to the fallout
thereof. After the date implodes, the rest
of the pages are devoted to Sabrina’s revenge attempts (and her aggravation at
Jughead’s seeming imperviousness to whatever she throws at him.)
It’s
not cool that, after all of Jughead’s (very) valid worrying about the date –
not knowing how to keep things platonic with Sabrina without hurting her
feelings – we don’t check in with how Jughead feels about Sabrina being mad at
him. Going in, he was scared of a)
getting into a situation more romantic than he was comfortable with and b)
damaging his burgeoning friendship with Sabrina. Well, on the latter front, his fears came
true, but he doesn’t seem to care about that anymore. I won’t deny that it’s funny to watch him
blithely sidestep all of Sabrina’s spells, but it doesn’t feel fair to lose his
perspective on this for the rest of the issue.
That
said, it seems Jughead does try to
come clean to Sabrina about what’s really going on on their date. He manages a, “Sabrina… there’s something you
should know. I—” before a crazy
interruption (named Archie) pops up.
This gives me hope that we’re ultimately heading for a resolution in
which Jughead comes out to Sabrina and is able to explain (in his funny Jughead
way) that he’s not into her the way that she wants but still wants her as a
friend. Since Sabrina knows a bit about
being different – and, like Jughead, she likes being who she is but also knows
it can cause problems for her – I have my fingers crossed that she’ll be cool
about it.
But let
me tell you: there had better be a reckoning coming for Jughead’s
friends, because every one of them is being a terribly ally. I mean, after last time, I’m not surprised that Archie’s idea of “helping”
Jughead with Sabrina is to pose as a hacky French waiter proffering a milk
shake with two straws, but it’s still disappointing. What I really hate, though, is Kevin’s
involvement in all this. He wasn’t in
issue #9, so he didn’t make my list last time.
But here, when Jughead calls him to the restaurant in a panic, Kevin
takes one look at the scene and shrugs off Jughead’s concerns. “Dude, please,” he tells Jughead. “This is just ‘go to a bland restaurant that’s
too expensive and therefore fancy’:
a.ka., boring heterosexual activity #202. You got
this.”
No, he doesn’t, because he’s not heterosexual, Kevin, and you know that! What gives?
If you were in this situation and someone dismissively said, “You got
this,” you’d read them the riot act.
Jughead isn’t straight any more than you are – just because he doesn’t
like guys doesn’t mean he likes girls.
Don’t brush aside his orientation, dude.
Boo.
Seriously
– these guys are checking all the boxes of Ace Erasure 101. If I don’t see Jughead taking them to task
for it in issue #11 and some major contrition on their part, I might have to
hit something. They’re being awful, and it makes me feel terrible for
Jughead.
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