King Jerk comes to town.
Creative Staff:
Story: Mark Waid
Art: Veronica Fish
Colors: Andre Szymanowicz
Letters: Jack Morelli
What They Say:
The biggest comic series of the year presses on! Betty and Jughead have declared war on Veronica over the heart and soul of Archie Andrews! Who should you be rooting for? You might just be surprised by the answer! Rising star comics artist Veronica Fish (Pirates of Mars, the RIVERDALE CW promo image) joins the legendary Mark Waid on creative duties for this brand new issue!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Sometimes you just don’t know what you’ve been missing until it enters your life. Up to this point, the main characters of Archie have been Archie, Betty, Jughead, and Veronica. Waid has been slowly reintroducing classic characters into this revamped comic, devoting the last two-three issues to Veronica. For a time, it looked like Veronica would be the antagonist of the series, but now Reggie Mantle—King Jerk of Riverdale High—hits this issue like a grenade, turning out to be exactly what this comic needed. As Waid writes in his postscript, some people are just jerks, and Reggie is exhibit “A” in his argument.
Betty and Jughead scheme to break up Archie and Veronica. They don’t like how Veronica treats him. They think it’s demeaning and unwarranted and they want to save their friend. The only problem is that neither of them is particularly good at creating schemes. They’re far too nice to really know how to dismantle a person. That’s where Reggie comes in. For a price, he will break up Riverdale’s new power couple, and you can bet that he’s going to leave scorched earth in his wake.
Betty, Jughead, and Reggie’s plan backfire, though, and they and we see a side of Veronica thus far hidden. Seeing this new facet makes Betty rethink her goal. Unfortunately, the damage has been done, but not to Archie’s relationship with Veronica. Instead, he tells Jughead and Betty that they need some time apart.
I wasn’t kidding when I compared Reggie to a grenade. He opens up the comic in new and interesting ways, and he serves as a perfect foil for Archie. While this comic isn’t really about conflict (at least not the man vs. man kind) it does benefit from having this x-factor thrown into the mix. Reggie adds a sense of unpredictability to the story, and a hint of danger.
And boy does Waid write him well. To be fair, he writes all the characters well, but Reggie has some of the best lines in the issue. When he asks Jughead what’s in it for him if he helps break up Archie and Veronica, Jughead says that Reggie will have “a clear shot at the queen bee.” To which Reggie replies, “Please. That’s mine to take. Not yours to give.” It’s a great series of sentences. The rhythm and the structure are excellent, and it tells us all we need to know about Reggie.
Moving on to the art, Veronica Fish takes over penciling and inking duties, and while her style is her own, differing from Fiona Staples and Annie Wu, it fits with the general aesthetic of the series. The switch between artists has been incredibly smooth, partially because the colorist has stayed the same, but mostly because the artists share the same artistic strengths and sensibilities: an uncluttered style that focuses on deceptively simple lines, a real knack for body language and facial expressions, and the ability to know when to exaggerate and when to keep it grounded.
The writing and the art work wonderfully well together. This entire comic is structured around a joke Reggie once told Archie. The punchline is deferred until the very end, but if you pay attention to the structure of the joke, it does mirror the structure of this story. It’s great meta-storytelling and it’s the kind of stuff that Waid excels at.
In Summary:
I never thought I’d say it, but I’m glad to see Reggie Mantle. He hits this issue like a grenade and adds a sense of unpredictability and danger (within the confines of the Archie style, of course). We also learn more about Veronica in this issue, and overall it’s tightly written and drawn. Once again, Archie kills it. Dr. Josh gives this an….
Grade: A
Age Rating: N/A
Released By: Archie Comics
Release Date: January 6th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
