Archie Comics 2018
Written by Ian Flynn, David Williams & Gary Martin
Illustrated by Kelsey Shannon, David Williams & Gary Martin
Lettered by Jack Morelli
Riverdale High’s new substitute teacher is very odd. Snubbed by the scientific community, he plans his revenge—on the students of Riverdale High! It’s going to take a team of people with some mighty powers to stop him. Archie Comics’ two most renowned superhero teams are going to meet up for the first time ever in this special mini-series!
Before I go any further isn’t Reggie one of the Superteens? I thought he was and could swear I saw him in a costume at least once in memory. So I will go on record saying that I hope we see him next issue because he needs to be there and if he isn’t booo shame on y’all.
I like the way that these Archie books are written. I mean it is incredibly current for someone, in this case Jughead, to say something like he did about their route to school. That and paying an homage the way it does that’s for us old timers since I doubt kids today would even know what that’s referring to. It is one of those clearly Archie things that the creators do to tie in the past and present in ways that continue to impress and keep them relevant and I for one greatly appreciate it.
I like the way that this is structured it has a very easy flow to the story that unfolds at what is seemingly a fast pace but in reality is pretty much the way we live life. “Real Time” or whatever equivalent is supposed to be called has our quartet heading to class where Miss Grundy is absent and in her place what we would call your classic mad scientist stands in her steed. This feels equal parts Archie and equal parts Jimmy Neutron and while the combination should work it is hysterically funny and screams to reader your in for a good time now!
Okay so Zar-Bot is a hoot, part of me instantly went to Zing-Bot and the overall ridiculousness of the robot just adds fuel to the fire and believe it or not this is completely and utterly done on purpose. There’s a moment when we see the sinister Eliminators who laugh because he tried to join their ranks and was turned away. The way we see all of this unfold is ridiculously fun and there is not one moment during all this that I was not fully entertained.
The interiors here are pretty amazing and it has the look and feel to it that I would associate with the image Archie Comics is going for. It has a very classic comic book style feel to what we see here and that lends itself beautifully to the meeting of these two teams. The utilisation of page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows off a very good eye for storytelling. The way that three of four them change into the Superteens was another nice homage which made giggle too.
There is so much to love about what Archie Comics does for the industry aside from having the most iconic character still printed today in Archie Andrews and that is the fact that they have with more consistency than anyone realises to take us away from our lives. Everything we see on the news and all the bickering about politics around the world are enough to have people swear off social media and rightly so since no one seems to have anything positive to add to the discussion. No Archie Comics does what they do best, they entertain us with some of the best storytelling around and get us to laugh, live and love even if it’s only for a moment.