Yo ho ho and a chocolate soda.
Creative Staff:
Story: Chip Zdarsky
Art: Erica Henderson
Letters: Jack Morelli
What They Say:
Riverdale High has been taken over by a nefarious outside force! Or has it? It’s up to Jughead and Dilton to get proof, but can the mysterious Captain Slackbeard show the way? It’s adventure on the high seas and in the classroom for the gang! Yar!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After having his suspension overturned, Jughead’s back in school and raring to find proof that Principal Stanger is actually changing the school into a training ground for secret agents. He’s going to need help, but his so-called “friends” refuse to listen to his crazy story. The only hope Jughead has for discovering Stanger’s true motives lies in hands of resident computer whiz, Dilton. Meanwhile, Jughead fantasizes about being a pirate during dodgeball.
This entire issue was fun from front-to-back. The pirate dream was engaging and goofy in just the right ways, and the convoluted plot Jughead and Dilton dream up is convoluted and delightfully comic book-y. The comic also features great little one-off jokes, such as the title of Jughead’s history book: World History: Why America is Always Right, and the nature of the pirate treasure he discovers.
The big moment of the issue, though, is the revelation that Jughead is asexual. Archie comics have made a name for itself both for featuring one of the most diverse cast of characters in comics, and for the way that the comics introduce and treat those characters. Kevin Keller’s homosexuality is just a facet of his personality, not the end-all, be-all of his existence, just as Jughead’s asexuality is treated as just one more piece in the puzzle that is Jughead. It’s only mentioned once in the comic, and Jughead seems neither proud nor ashamed of it.
This is a big deal because modern society is rewriting the norms of sexuality. We’re moving past the standard binary cisgender permutations of man-woman, homosexual-heterosexual, and so forth. Sexuality is now being presented as a broad spectrum, and this is good news because people who don’t fall under those nice, easy binary categories have historically felt out of place and out of sync with society. Rewriting what is normal and acceptable in terms of sexuality has helped these people find themselves and not feel like outcasts or misfits simply because of how they emotionally approach sexual relations.
It’s important to see characters in popular media represent people from all walks of life, and it’s even more important that those characters are clearly-defined, rounded, three-dimensional people. If they aren’t, they become caricatures based on what the mainstream believes a homosexual or asexual or demisexual person should say and act. By keeping it to one line, as part of a larger conversation, Zdarsky does just that: he presents us with a person. He presents us with the same old Jughead that we’ve known and loved for dang near sixty years.
It might seem like I’m making too big a deal over this (after all, it’s just one line), but representation is important. As a white, cisgender, fill-in-the-blank guy, I have been told all my life that I can be anything and do anything. If I were a person of color, or non-cisgender, or homosexual, then the stories I consumed would tell me something much different: you can only be the sidekick, you can never be an object of love, your goal in life is to assist white men achieve their goals, or to be method by which they slake their sexual desires. Stories are always more than stories—whether we like them to be or not. They form the guiding narratives that shape our lives. They provide examples of how to act in certain situations. They teach us to have faith in ourselves and in others. And they teach us our place in the world. If the guiding narratives tell you that you can’t be something, that you are deformed or freakish or somehow unworthy in society’s eye, then that causes untold damage to a person. It’s not insurmountable, but that’s not the point. Everyone should have the opportunity to see themselves in the best possible light. Everyone needs an exemplar to aspire to. So if I make a big deal about Jughead being asexual, that’s because it could very well be a big deal to a reader out there.
In Summary:
Jughead #4 is a tricksy issue that sneaks in a major character revelation. Hidden among the jokes and the dream sequences is a revelation about Jughead’s sexual identity that could be positively impactful on readers. It’s another in a long line of bold moves on the part of Archie Comics, and I, for one, think it’s great. Dr. Josh gives this an….
Grade: A-
Age Rating: N/A
Released By: Archie Comics
Release Date: February 10th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
The biggest problem, and it’s a BIG problem for me is that this story is so not grounded it’s floating in space. Having dream segments is fine, it’s not my favourite narrative tool but that’s not my problem. My problem is not only do they serve little purpose other than parody, it’s hard to distinguish them from the actual reality because the reality is so ludicrous.