Dark Horse/Archie Comics 2015
Written by Alex De Campi
Penciled by Fernando Ruiz
Inked by Rich Koslowski
Coloured by Jason Millet
Last issue ended with Jughead dressed as Veronica trying to lure the Predator out so the kids could take it out. This issue opens with the results of that battle, the narration is simply wonderful as we see Jughead walking through it all and the words many would use to describe Riverdale yeah Alex knows her stuff here.
At the High School Jughead meets up with the remaining seven kids. Archie and Dilton stayed with the girls. Jughead wants to leave and honestly I don’t blame him this is the time when Alex kind of diverges from the normal Archie style of writing and gets a little more serious and real. It still rings true to the Archie books but it goes a tad past that to me and it’s quite impressive when Jughead makes his most powerful statement.
We know that Sabrina already met her fate at the hands of the Predator and now the cops and her house are gone, vanished from this plane of existence. This leaves the kids all alone in the school in the midst of real life horror movie. The three girls, Ginger and her friends, say they are leaving town and take off, after all teenagers of colour never make it to the end after all. Dilton’s plan is to head to A.V. Club Room so the gang goes there.
I’m really impressed because no one even notices that the wounded teenage Predator is already in the school. Alex has a flair for this she really is doing some remarkable writing here and the way we see it all unfold is mighty spectacular! Of course along the way Jughead stops at the vending machine, after all the boy eats like there is no tomorrow but unfortunately the only thing he can use to get food out of it is that knife Betty brought back.
Well when Archie notices Jughead is missing he goes off in search of him. The boys do some absolutely gross and incredible work on the visuals here when Archie finds him. This sparks a fire in Archie and he’s done being afraid and he’s going after this monster now. So back on their way to the A.V. Club Room we see Dilton talking but no one listening after all he isn’t Archie and his jealousy of him and his life in High School would almost make for that plot twist that he’s the killer if it weren’t already established he wasn’t.
Okay so what happens from here to the end of the issue is pretty freakin awesome. I mean seriously Alex deserves some kind of award for this people I mean the characterization the twist in Dilton’s actions and who’s left standing at the end of the issue yeah this bloodbath has two and half kids still standing and one very determined Predator.
I’ve never seen the Archie Universe this bloody before while still maintaining that classic art style and i’ve got to admit it’s partly disturbing and all around awesome. This isn’t like anything you’d expect and that’s what’s so much darn entertaining.