Jughead #11: Here's How It All Shakes Out

Ryan North just wrapped up his first mini-arc on Jughead, and it’s no secret that I have a lot of feelings about it – in particular, the not-especially-reassuring way North has been handling Jughead’s asexuality.  The third and final issue of the “Sabrina” arc just ended, and unsurprisingly, I have more feelings (spoilers for Jughead issues #9-11.)

Let’s get this out of the way first.  A big part of my aggravation with this storyline is that all of Jughead’s friends, whether they mean to be or not, have been acting like heteronormative dicks to Jughead throughout this whole Sabrina thing.  Not one of them – including Kevin – has made any attempt to listen when Jughead explains what his actual concerns are or understand that Jughead’s aromantic ace lens is different than their perspective as sexuals/romantics.  I’ve said more than once that I really need to see Jughead taking them to task for being so dismissive of his identity, along with them realizing how badly they screwed this up.

…Aaaannnddd?  Nothing.  Not a word.  In fact, apart from Reggie getting caught up in a few magical hijinks and toolishly hitting on Sabrina at the start of the issue, none of Jughead’s friends even make an appeaerance.  Which, if they would’ve just kept being lame and dismissive, they’re better off not being around, but I can’t believe there wasn’t a single “not cool, guys” moment in any of these three issues.  Most people know very little about aceness, and if attitudes like that are gonna be thrown at one of my (few) beloved ace characters, I need it to be made clear that stuff like that isn’t okay.

But how about the Jughead-and-Sabrina stuff itself?  How did that go?  Well… on the plus side, Jughead does come clean with Sabrina about what’s going on with him, and she appears to be basically okay with it (she agrees that they’re still friends, and even though it’s kind of gross, their burger high-five is pretty awesome.)  However, my main issue here is that we get so little resolution on Jughead’s worries.

The whole conversation they have about this covers about half of one page.  Jughead apologizes for acting twitchy on their date, explains why, and admits that it wasn’t fair to Sabrina and he should’ve been upfront with her from the start.  I don’t know if I’d quite say he comes out to her, if only because I’m still not convinced Sabrina knows that’s what he was doing.  Jughead never uses the word “asexual.”  What he says is, “I don’t go on dates, Sabrina.  I don’t like people that way, you know?  And when you asked me out, I didn’t realize it was a date until it was too late.”  Now, in my experience, that’s not really enough for a sexual to go on.  I’ve made peace with the fact that, whenever I come out to someone, I’m most likely going to have to define the word “asexuality” and what it is an an orientation (along with aromanticism.)  If all I said was, “I don’t like people that way, you know?” I’m pretty sure most people wouldn’t know.  Odds are that, after a major “huh?!”, they’d be trying to figure out what makes me “choose” not to go on dates.

And like I said, I can’t say for sure what Sabrina thinks Jughead is telling her, because her only reply is, “…Oh.”  That’s it.  Two-and-a-half issues of buildup, and this whole thing gets a few panels of dialogue of Jughead and an “…Oh,” from Sabrina.  After everything that preceded it, this didn’t feel like nearly enough.

What’s worse, this conversation leads directly to Sabrina (in a roundabout, semi-obscured way) admitting to Jughead that she’s a witch.  After the half-page devoted to Jughead’s sort-of coming-out, Sabrina’s confession gets a few pages with lots of artwork and a sincere, albeit confused, reaction from Jughead (she’s put a slight magic whammy on him so his doesn’t fully understand what she’s telling him – witch laws about not sharing magic secrets with Muggles and whatnot.)  He’s reassuring and nonjudgmental, and he in fact spends the rest of the issue helping Sabrina get her house in order after she confesses what a mess she feels she’s made of things in her personal life.

Which, yeah, it’s cool.  Even without having all the pertinent info, Jughead is a good listener and a great friend, going to bat for Sabrina and using his unexpected connections to pull assorted strings to help her out.  But see, this makes the entire rest of the issue about Sabrina, with Jughead’s admission about his aceness only serving as a springboard for her own confession.  And I get that Sabrina’s a shiny guest star and everything, so of course North is going to use her while she’s around, but she should still be there as a part of Jughead’s story rather than pushing his out of the way to make room for hers.

What kills me is that I think this could’ve been a lot better.  There could’ve been more balance between the Jughead and Sabrina side of things – she could’ve asked him what he meant, and I’m sure he could’ve given the ole Asexuality 101 shpiel in his goofy Jughead way.  Once they were both on the same page on that front, it could’ve still sparked Sabrina’s desire to tell him about being a witch, and they could’ve really connected as teens who are “different” such that it’s hard for others to really get them.  Hey, they could’ve agreed that they both mostly like being different, and that being ace and being a witch are usually pretty great – but in the moments when they’re not, it can be hard to deal with alone.  I feel like it would’ve been so easy to make this storyline about both of them instead of mostly about Sabrina, and I honestly think that incorporating Jughead’s experiences more would’ve elevated Sabrina’s part. 

Oh, and I still would’ve taken Jughead’s friends to task.  Because they were being dicks.

So… not a glowing conclusion to Ryan North’s first arc.  I’m going to keep reading the comic because a) I need my ace Jughead a lot and b) I’m holding out hope that it’ll get better.  Having a big guest star is always going to affect the writing to a degree, so we haven’t quite seen what North’s version of Jughead and the Riverdale gang look like yet without Sabrina there.  And while I think it was probably a mistake to have North’s first major arc be so girl- and dating-focused, especially when he doesn’t seem to have Chip Zdarsky’s clear vision of Jughead’s aceness, I’m willing give him another chance when it comes to representation.  Whether that means Jughead being ace will be handled more thoughtfully in the future, or it just becomes a “background” part of his characterization that doesn’t get a lot of attention but at least isn’t contradicted, I’ll wait to see what happens.