Archie: Vol. 1 (2016)

I don’t know what’s happening with Jughead right now.  It hasn’t had a new issue since July; I’ve been looking around for news that the title has been canceled (nooooooo!) or put on hold, but I can’t find anything on it.  In the meantime, I thought I might as well check out the main branch of the current Archie series.  I think it’s technically in a slightly different canon, so Jughead isn’t explicitly ace, but it’s still enjoyable.

Archie and Betty have been best friends forever, the boy and girl next door.  However, as both developed feelings for each other, their first foray into romance ended in disaster, and now their whole social circle is buzzing with the fallout.  Their friends plot how to reconcile them, but a wrench is thrown into their plans when new girl Veronica breezes into town.

Overall, I think this comic does a nice job updating the classic Archie title.  The main hallmarks – the Archie/Betty/Veronica triangle, Reggie being “evil,” Archie’s clumsiness, Jughead’s love affair with food, etc. – are all there, and all the characters are recognizable, more grounded versions of their classic comic selves.  I like the little details added, like Betty’s mechanic skills or Veronica’s difficulty adjusting to public school, and the more minor characters, while used as flavor more than anything else so far, make the atmosphere seem well filled-in.

It’s a little more dramatic than I was expecting, based on my memories of the old classic Archies I used to read at my grandma’s house and, of course, my experience with Jughead.  It still has definite humor, from Jughead’s wry deadpan to Archie’s walking-disaster tendencies (there’s a great sequence in this volume of Archie’s friends trying to keep him from accidentally killing himself while working at a construction site,) but the general bent of the storylines themselves are more akin to a teen drama.  I wouldn’t say in line with Riverdale, since that show has way more murder and maple-syrup blood feuds and other craziness than Archie does!  Rather, it’s a lot of light drama and light comedy centered around slightly-heightened depictions of typical teen issues.

Naturally, there’s a lot of focus on the relationship drama, which isn’t my favorite.  Just as my favorite part of Riverdale is the teen sleuthing and I love the crazy antics on Jughead, I find the plot of Archie’s triangle stuff to be a bit by-the-numbers.  That said, the comic does good work on the details of this story, in a way that I’d imagine feels pretty true/relatable to plenty of romantics and sexuals.

While it has yet to grab me the way some of the other comics I’ve checked out have (Jughead, Ms. Marvel, The Totally Awesome Hulk,) I did enjoy this volume and will probably check back in with it later.

Warnings

A bit of “don’t try this at home.”