The dark side of fame.
Creative Staff:
Story: Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn
Art: Derek Charm
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letterer: Jack Morelli
What They Say:
Archie reaches the pinnacle of rock and roll heaven; hit records, TV, movies and thousands of adoring fans, but cracks are beginning to show–it’s terrifying at the top but the possibility of falling from it is far worse
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As we hit the penultimate installment of the Archie 1955 series, things are getting darker. Mark Waid and Bryan Augustyn are hitting plenty of familiar plot points to be sure for someone of my generation so I know the broad strokes easily enough having lived through dramatizations of this period for years. This issue and the next unfortunately introduce a change in artists as Derek Charm has taken over the duties on the book. I’ve liked Charm’s work on the main book in the past that I saw for it but his attempt at the ‘55 style here that we had in the first three issues doesn’t connect well. There’s a kind of just slight enough exaggeration that takes me out of what we had before so that it feels just a bit more cartoonish, unfortunately. It works well enough in capturing the places and the time with the outfits but something just isn’t clicking right.
As the tale continues, the main threat to what Archie and the Rivermen has accomplished isn’t Archie himself but rather Hiram Lodge. Lodge is running him hard as a manager but he’s doing the things that are purely profitable without any artistic merit to it and Archie is going along with it. We do see some of the others with some concern, such as Moose and Chuck as well as Reggie and Jughead, but Archie shows the first pair how he’s taking care of Dex back home while his bandmates are just enjoying a good thing while it lasts. Archie, however, is getting worn down by these terrible films that have him acting with relative nobodies since Lodge wants to keep all the focus on him. Regardless of talent or not, Archie wants to work with real actors and make real films. Lodge wants movies and commodities.
We see some of these stresses with Veronica as well as she’s starting to wonder about the path she’s chosen but she also wants Archie happy and is enjoying having him to herself as much as she does and living the California lifestyle. She’s starting to see the cracks as well, however, and it’s uncertain as to how she’ll act. There’s a good sequence at a Hollywood party where Archie basically gets left to himself and he connects with a little kid that’s there and realizes in that naive way that he can make the choices he wants in life. It’s good to see him starting to take control of his own path but it’s one that you know will be mired in problems across the board, particularly since he is for all intents and purposes owned by Lodge.
In Summary:
I continue to enjoy the Archie 1955 series even if it is way too familiar to me and hasn’t found any particular beats that lets it stand out as an Archie story itself. The beats it is hitting are fun and nicely done and it shows Waid and Augustyn likely grew up with the same kinds of things I did and a regular familiarity with it all. Derek Charm stepping in for the art duties on this one isn’t a bad thing per se but it isn’t a smooth transition from before and I don’t think he quite nails the design for the characters in a way that works as well as what we had. I like Charm’s work in general but it feels like a last minute placement to finish out the run.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: Archie Comics
Release Date: January 8th, 2020
MSRP: $3.99
