Archie Issue #1 - A new beginning

Archie Issue #1

Archie Issue #1 is written by Mark Waid, art by Fiona Staples, colours by Andre Szymanowicz, letters by Jack Morelli and published by Archie Comics. Archie first began appearing in comics in 1941 (Pep Comics #22) and has been around since, making him a pretty big deal and spawning some of the most bizarre team ups of all time including The Punisher, Predator, Sharknado, Kiss and zombies (really, I'm not making this up) to name a few. You could arguably say that Archie is on par with other characters such as Batman or Captain America but in more of the teenage high school drama kind of way rather than a super hero way. This year Archie comics decided to reboot the entire series and begin again at issue #1 which was a big surprise to old readers and a great jumping on point for new readers.

Dear Fiona Staples, I love this cover, I love you and everything you do

Archie begins with our main character Archie (duh!) introducing the reader to the town of Riverdale and a quick overview of some of the characters. Archie mentions that the entire school is talking about his recent breakup with long time girlfriend Betty after the "lipstick incident" to which they have both sworn to never speak of again. Archie and Betty's friends are devastated at the news and think that the former couple belong together and begin to hatch a plan at the upcoming school dance to bring them together again.

The reboot of Archie actually had a whooping 21 variant covers in total which is just a staggering amount from some of the greatest artists in comics at the moment. The main art and cover is done by the fantastic and wonderful Fiona Staples of Saga fame who draws the comic world's most magnificent hair. For characters originally designed in the 40's Staples manages to bring them into the modern era while still keeping the characters most identifying features e.g. Archie's red hair, Jughead's crown, Betty's blond hair, etc.The art is bright, colourful, beautiful and realistic, The face's are so expressive my favourite being Betty's sad face while drinking a milkshake alone.

How can someone be sad with a milkshake?

The characters seem really well rounded and given the chance I'm sure we will learn more about them as the series continues but so far we have had a good look only into Archie and Betty and they seem like really sweet people. The nicest thing about the two is that they don't want to make anyone the bad guy in the break up and they just want to deal with it in their own way despite everyone elses desire for gossip. One of the things that I really enjoy is the way Archie talks directly to the reader as its very different way to catch the reader up on events before the beginning of the comic and Archie's feelings and inner thoughts.

I'm not normally one for romance stories and the few Archie comics I have read are usually the goofy crossovers like Archie Vs Predator and Archie Vs Sharknado but I really enjoyed Archie #1. It is just beautiful and sometimes its nice to read something that there is no imminent death or end of the world situation.

I give Archie #1 3.5 out of 5 Jugheads

Find out more about Archie #1 here.