Archie Comics 2019
Written by Alex de Campi
Illustrated by Robert Hack
Coloured by Kelly Fitzpatrick
Lettered by Jack Morelli
Betty, Veronica, and Predator-Archie have been left in the wreckage of their town, all their friends dead. Normally, they’d just go down Memory Lane and get home again where everything’s okay, but that’s no longer an option. It isn’t until they find an undamaged car and drive it down a different road where they can finally return to Riverdale—but their home-town feels different. And it’s made even more bizarre when they come face-to-face with a few people they’d never expect: themselves. Only different, newer versions. Little do they know, Predators on Mars are watching them—planning their next attack.
I enjoyed this a little more than I probably should have. There is more than a little tongue in cheek moments going on here and that the characters kept breaking the fourth wall while a little trite was humorous. Though I would suggest a little less fourth wall breaking because it did lose its effectiveness by the time they found themselves. This could either have been serious or spectacularly silly and Alex definitely went with the latter on this one.
The way the book is structured is okay. I like the fact that the girls are trapped in this reality and have no way of getting home. The city is in ruins and it looks like it was the centre of a war zone and that's alright. This definitely feels like it picks right up where the last one left off in terms that the girls look stranded and Predator-Archie is with them. There is a nice flow to the story as we see the story and plot development through the pacing. I am not really sure about the character development because of all the tongue in cheek going on here but the girls feel right as if this the current version of them that we know all too well.
I do like some of the more traditional horror elements that we see here, like the not being able to get out of this Riverdale no matter what they try. We see in quite a few supernatural inspired stories and to see it here is a nice change of pace. It is as if the story is saying that since the girls didn't die it has to correct itself, kind of like in Final Destination.
Robert really kills it with his work on the interiors here. His linework throughout is exceptional to see, the utilisation of the varying weights to bring out the attention to detail is well done. Also this version of Dilton is amazing to see, as a matter of fact the way all the characters have been rendered is sensational. While I think there may be too many open backgrounds what we do see of them are utterly amazing in enhancing the moments and fleshing out the world. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show off this incredible eye for storytelling. I love the colour work here as well. The colour blocking with the various hues that we see thanks to the light sources that create the shading and shadows is extremely nice.
This really does feel kind of kitsch and while I don't know if that's on purpose or not but if you approach it from that viewpoint then it's rip roaring good time. The ending here took the cake for me however. Now this is a promising development and one that I cannot wait to see how this plays out along with the other fact that we see. I also have to admit that seeing that particular grouping include Dilton makes me extremely happy as he's one of the most underutilised character in Riverdale. With some seriously stellar interior artwork and some solid tongue in cheek writing this is fun.