Archie and Betty seemed like the perfect couple...until they broke up over "the lipstick incident." What's the lipstick incident? They refuse to say. Their friends try to get them to make up and get back together, but nothing seems to work. And now Veronica, a beautiful heiress, has moved into town, and Archie seems to be wrapped around her finger.

This was an impulse purchase. I have absolutely no nostalgic feelings for the original Archie comics. Neither their art style nor their humor worked for me. But then I tried and enjoyed the Jughead reboot. When I spotted the first volume of the Archie reboot while book shopping, I figured "hey, why not?"

The first three issues worked best for me. Fiona Staples' artwork was great - there was a nice energy to it, and the characters' facial expressions were fabulous. One of my top favorite panels is the one where Archie got a job at an ice cream shop and somehow managed to set all the ice cream on fire.

I was really curious about the lipstick incident and actually managed to guess what had happened before it was revealed. The full story was...a little disappointing. And didn't quite gel with something that happened earlier in the volume. There was a part where Betty got ready for a party that should have been a painful reminder of the lipstick incident and yet somehow wasn't.

I liked Annie Wu's art well enough, although not as much as Fiona Staples', but Veronica Fish's art didn't appeal to me at all. I also didn't enjoy those portions of the story as much. Whereas the first part of the volume was focused on characters' efforts to get Betty and Archie back together and maybe find out what the lipstick incident was, the second half of the volume was more about getting between Veronica and Archie. And there was an interrupted centipede joke that definitely didn't live up to its build-up.

I liked that Veronica wasn't 100% awful. Okay, so she was horribly spoiled and stuck up, but she wasn't malicious, and there were times when she was genuinely nice. Reggie Mantle was more of a true villain than her. I just wasn't as interested in the efforts to break her and Archie up (although, were they really dating? it was more like he was being blackmailed...) as I was in the efforts to herd Archie and Betty back towards each other and hopefully talk through their problems.

Overall, I enjoyed this, although I'm not sure yet whether I'll be continuing on with it.

Extras:

An introduction by Fiona Staples, a cover art gallery (four pages of teenie tiny covers), a 2-page "how this comic was made" feature, an afterword by Mark Waid, and a 20-page preview of the Jughead reboot.

 

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

If Rocket were swearing, or blowing more, ah, people up, this would be a five star rated book.    But the problem with writing children's books of adult things is that you have to water down some characters, at least when you're dealign with the likes of Rocket and Deadpool.   (Yes, I've seen a Spider-Man and Deadpool comic for kids...)

 

Overall, the author really nailed everything, he was just help back by this being a children's book.   So I highly enjoyed it, but can't say that I felt it was five star due to the warping of the characters due to children. 

 

Children ruin everything.   At least they ruin some media tie-in books for me...

It was actually really cool to read this comic! I had never read any of Archie comics but I’ve watched Riverdale so I was really interested in discovering what the book was all about. I will definitely read the original series one day.

 

It was fun to see those characters in a comic (I know it should be the other way around but I started with watching it instead of reading it…) because it is really different than on screen, they are way less complex.

 

The art is really great, I totally loved it. The storyline was interesting and really funny. I think I will continue on with the series but still, it did not blow my mind

It introduces the new Cheryl Blossom, the queen bee who's taken down by Veronica Lodge - and decides to get back at her by seducing Archie.   It's a tense war, with an unexpected ending, and all very fun.  

 

There's also a fun story about Dilton Doiley, who's protected by Moose in a parasitic type of friendship.   Dilton tutors Moose, so he can keep playing football, and in turn Moose makes sure that Dilton isn't bothered by bullies.   

 

Can't wait to see what happens with this expanded cast of characters. 

Spider-Woman: Shifting Gears Vol. 3: Sca... I read the first two volumes in this run a while back and had been meaning to catch up on her. The others are reviewed here: Volume 1, Volume 2, and Spider-Women.

I finally got a chance to read this one and it was a good send off to the run. I'm not so excited that her run is over, but this is a great set of volumes for this story. Spider-Woman is a well established Marvel character and though I don't expect her to be gracing the big screen any time soon, I also don't expect her to go away either.

As far as this volume goes, it showcases some of my favorite features of Spider-Woman as well as some favorite characters in her world. Roger, or Porcupine, isn't the best guy in the world but he's always been great to both Spider-Woman and Jessica Drew, so any trouble he's in, she's in also. Part of what's been great about this single mom superhero is her support system and that it's multifaceted. When one part of it runs into trouble (which is bound to happen when everyone is a hero, right?), there are more heroes to pitch in and give Spider-Woman the time to take care of business.

I'm not a fan of this cover but Hobgoblin does make for a pretty amazing bad guy. I'm not big into the Spider-Man comics so I never realized how big a bad guy he is. He really pushes Spider-Woman to the breaking point, even making her mad enough to get reckless and not think before jumping into a fight.

The best part is the end, though. They knew it was the end of the run/series for now and included a denouement that was really everything I could have asked for. It's great because I think we've all been there with someone that our friends don't really get until they see the magic in action. It also answered a burning question of mine ever since I saw Spider-Woman's swollen belly grace the cover of the first issue in this run.

It's been fun and I'm sad to see the run over, but I have hope that Spider-Woman will grace the cover of another series one day! If you hadn't checked out her series before, this is a great time to binge through its three volumes and Spider-Women!