Favorite Characters: Archie (Our Flag Means Death)

*A few spoilers.*

Of the new major characters added in season 2, Archie is probably the one we get to know the least. Even though she’s in more episodes than Zheng and Auntie, she gets less focus, taking on more of a side-character role. Still, she’s plenty entertaining and adds a lot to the flavor of the season 2 crew.

At the start of season 2, she’s a new member of Ed’s crew. It’s the height of the Kraken era, and she’s in a different position than most of the people aboard. Frenchie and Jim have gotten used to sailing under Stede, and Izzy and Fang are used to the pre-Kraken Ed—all of them witnessed the severe shift in Ed at the end of season 1. For all of them, the state of affairs aboard the Revenge is very much not business as usual, and they’re troubled by the hopeless atmosphere around the ship.

But Archie didn’t know Ed before. She doesn’t see how he’s changed, so for her, Ed is just a bad boss, an unstable dick. This means she takes things a little more in stride than the others. She doesn’t despair because she doesn’t really know anything different. At the same time, though, that means she’s struck by the inner light of some of these characters, which persists beyond their current circumstances. She starts developing feelings for Jim when they tell (their version of) one of Stede’s old stories to cheer up Fang, because she’s not used to pirates caring about each other.

One of the most interesting glimpses into Archie’s past comes when Ed goads the crew into mutiny. When he orders Jim and Archie to fight to the death, Jim tries to argue, but Archie immediately punches them. “It’s my experience, it’s kind of how stuff goes, you know?” she tells Jim, beckoning them to join in and fight. And later, when Jim has Archie dead to rights, they urges them to finish it, saying, “It’s okay. It’s just life.” This scene offers up such tantalizing insight into what her life was like up until that point, and reason #783 why we need season 3 is because I’d love to learn a little more about it.

Once Stede and the rest of the Revenge crew come back and the day-to-day situation is less grim, Archie unwinds into what I assume is her natural state, a wild little chaos gremlin. We learn that she used to be in a snake cult, she’s nonchalant in violent situations, and she enjoys stirring shit up just for the fun of it. She’s not a crew member who gets much focus, but as the show has demonstrated time and again, everyone on the crew contributes to the comedy and the overall feel of the ship, regardless of how much screentime they get.

An area where we could’ve gotten more focus for Archie, and hopefully would’ve in season 3, was in the very subtly implied polycule. Season 2 makes it clear that Jim and Archie have gotten together, and there are little hints that Oluwande is still in the mix as well: he calls Jim “babe” at one point, all three of them share a room on the ship, and they all dance together at the Calypso’s Birthday celebration. And when Jim and Archie play rather obvious wingmen between Olu and Zheng towards the end of the season, they both consider leaving the Revenge and joining the Red Flag along with Olu. From the sounds of it, a combination of the reduced episode order and some studio interference cut this storyline down to what we see in season 2, and I wish we could’ve seen it as the show intended.

Archie, Vol. 6 (2018)

Okay, this volume made me smile, if only because it’s the one that reminds me the most of Riverdale thus far (it’s those Blossoms, they’re super-extra in every iteration of these characters.) After the High Drama of the last couple of volumes, we’re getting back to business more.

Riverdale is still recovering after the big events of the last two volumes, both in terms of dramatic occurrences and romantic goings-on. The spring dance seems like a way to reset and either get everyone back in their old groove or help them come to terms with their new normal… “seems” being the operant word. Of course, it can’t be that easy. There’s the ever-present matter of who’s going with who, a social pariah is back in town with something to prove, and the dance is hit by one hell of an unexpected twist (for the characters – what’s about to happen is fairly signposted for the readers, but the characters don’t know what hit them.) In order to deal with it, everyone’s going to have to come together.

Like I’ve said before, the angstiness of the previous arc didn’t quite gel for me. Even though Archie does lean on the teen angst semi-regularly, that storyline just took it into melodrama/After School Special territory, and I wasn’t a fan. As such, it’s a relief for me to see the story returning more to its usual thing here, with the added bonus of some quality Blossom family soap opera. Let’s be real – Riverdale would’ve gone even more outrageous with it, but seeing the over-the-top wildness of it all tickled me.

Other than that, it’s a pretty decent volume for our heroes. The gang attempts to use Archie’s chronic clumsiness as a force for good, we get some delightful Betty-Veronica friendship scenes (love those two,) and even though this version of Jughead isn’t canonically asexual/aromantic like his Jughead counterpart, the story remains very true to that side of him in how he’s depicted at a school dance. (Plus, side note? He utters the sentence, “I refuse to be forage-shamed,” which is just so wonderfully Jughead.) We also get some fun scenes from other characters, including Reggie leaning into his comic-book villainy and cute bits for Moose and Midge.

While I still wouldn’t put Archie in the same ranks as other comics I read, this is an enjoyable yarn. It features amusing sight gags, jokes that are the right amount of silly, and wild plotting that stays fun. I’m also all for a good “let’s all work together, team!” moment, and this story offers a nice helping of that.

Archie, Vol. 5 (2018)

I do like vol. 5 of Archie better than the one before it, although there’s still a good deal of melodrama.  I feel like I can safely say that Jughead issues #1-8 are easily my favorite Archieverse content.  But there’s some good stuff here (note:  in order to say much of anything here, I need to spoil the big twist from vol. 4.)

The characters are still reeling from the effects of the car crash in the last volume, although the one who was most affected by it, Betty, is the least demonstrative about it.  While Betty gets to work on physical therapy and uses a wheelchair as she hurries to get caught up in school, she keeps on a brave, self-sufficient face.  Meanwhile, her parents blame Archie for the accident and have banned him from having any contact with Betty.  As all his friends pitch in to offer support to Betty and her family, Archie is at a loss for what he can do to 1) show his friend he cares about her and 2) get out from under his own overwhelming sense of guilt.

Okay, so at least the start of the volume makes it clear that Betty isn’t most-definitely-physically-paralyzed-forever, and it’s instead more of a wait-and-see game to find out how she responds to physical therapy.  When you know that the character’s almost certainly going to walk again eventually, it’s better to just skip the “she’ll never walk again!!!” declarations right away.  But there’s still so much drama, up to and including a person in a wheelchair falling alone in their room when they try to stand up.  And this is on top of the usual Archie drama of the never-ending triangle.

To be fair, though, some of the drama is interesting.  I like the conflict between Betty’s parents and Archie, which leaves Betty caught in the middle, and Archie’s feelings of helplessness feel true to life.

However, my favorite parts are less about angst and more about characters being proactive in helping Betty.  I really like the detail of her friends divvying up her (many) volunteer commitments amongst themselves – it gets a little Mother Teresa-y at times, but it shows what a hole Betty’s absence leaves in the community, along with her friends’ realization that, more than anything, she’d want to know this work was still being done.  There’s also a strong Jughead subplot in which he pitches in in his unique way.  Even though I like Jughead best in his own comic, I’ve already made it clear that I still enjoy him in any form, so I’m always happy to see him featured in a good friendship plot!

I can’t say for sure how long I’ll keep reading Archie.  It’s enjoyable and the artwork is always nice, but it doesn’t grab me in the same way that other comics I read do, and one of these days, I may decide to cut it loose.  While I don’t think I’m at that point yet, I may reach it sooner or later.