Wednesday, July 5, 2023

Comic Review: Archie as The Man from RIVERDALE trade paperback

 

Once again, I missed reviewing an Archie book.  The last time I discovered I did this, I was baffled, as I’d really liked the digest.  I went back and noticed that I’d reviewed a bunch of comics around when I would have gotten this trade, but somehow missed it.  This time, it might have been because I didn’t think much of it.

 


I was excited to get it.  I’d heard of this Archie spy spoof, but never read any of it.  The book is a handsome volume at over 200 thick white pages for $11.  It is a slightly larger digest that is formatted to better display a standard comic.  Most of the stories are from the Life with Archie title and are done by Frank Doyle writing and Bob White on the art.

     

The material is firmly of its era from the mid 60’s.  The concept alone of super spies depends on the Zeitgeist of the time.  The more I look at it, the more I see the incredible influence of James Bond on pop culture in the 60’s.  TV shows and movies of the time were all over the craze, such as The Man from U.N.C.L.E. from which these stories derive their name.  It was natural that Archie comics would want to get in on it. 


 

Unfortunately, they didn’t do a good job of it.  The original idea had Archie, Jughead, and Betty recast as spies fighting Reggie and Veronica as the bad guys.  Soon enough, they were all on the same side as part of POP (Protect Our Planet) fighting the evil organization, CRUSH.  This then turned into the spy teens fighting costumed supervillains.  Huh?


 

It seemed like they never quite had a good grasp on what they wanted to do with the concept.  The first couple of stories had the boys using guns and some super silly spy equipment.  The guns then disappeared, but the gadgets got more ridiculous.  The villains were sort of normal at first, but then became silly supervillains.  Most of the plots involve the villain trying to steal some new invention from wealthy industrialist, Mr. Lodge.


 

I’ll tie this back to my review of the Jughead Superhero Special.  What didn’t work with the spies, worked well with the Archie superheroes.  The “Whistler” character appears in the both and I wouldn’t be surprised by more crossovers.  I can’t really figure out why they took a good-sounding concept and sort of ruined it by confusing the premise.  I’m probably looking at the editors here.  The other problem is the use of   acronyms for everyone’s names.  That gag should have been retired after the first story, but they used it all the way through.


 

All this said, the book is kind of irresistible.  I bought it right after flipping through it without hesitation.  Mostly, it’s the art, particularly the fashion.  The girls are, of course, as beautiful and glamorous as ever, but the guys in sharp suits are a revelation.  Even Jughead looked cool.  Also, just a personal preference, I really like Veronica with the short haircut.  It was originally based on Jackie O’s hairstyle, but eventually Veronica made it her own.  It’s decidedly retro now, but was stylish at the time and provided a differentiation between her and Betty.

 

I don’t recommend this if you can find it.  Aside from its actual execution, it’s frustrating to read, because you can see how much fun this could have been.  I don’t know the timeline or relationship between the spy stories and the superhero stories, but it seems like they really just wanted to do the superhero stories and the spy stories were a backdoor for it.  Regardless, the Man from RIVERDALE (I’m not putting in all of the periods) or the Girl from RIVERDALE (there’s a story featuring Betty in the back of the back) needs to be revisited.  Put the guys in suits, make them spies, and have fun.

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