Anyone that knows me knows that I have a strange obsession with Archie Comics crossovers. Every time the kids from Riverdale meet a celebrity (i.e. Michael Strahan, Barack Obama, etc.), I’m going to be there to read it. These comics tend to be very unusual and generally play out unlike how you would think they would (Don’t believe me? Check out Archie Meets KISS and tell that that comic played out in a fashion you would have guessed). That being said, I went into this comic expecting big things. Betty and Veronica were going to meet two of the crazy characters in the DC Universe and it was all going to be written by the legendary Paul Dini.
However, having read it, I can’t help but feel that it didn’t live up to the hype. This was a pretty straightforward story about a kidnapping gone wacky.
The issue for me is that this comic is written at a very unusual point in these characters history. Archie Comics has made an effort to bring respectability to their characters and have, in turn, made their characters less saccharine sweet. I feel that this is a mistake for this story because it would be more interesting to see these Gotham criminals interact with the more wholesome version of Archie’s best girls. At the same time, Harley has been treated as a wacky Deadpool style character that I doesn’t quite feel like a threat to Betty and Veronica’s safety. I can’t help but feel like we would have gotten a more satisfying story if they used older versions of these characters or if this comic had been written 10 years ago.
***Spoiler Section***
The whole comic builds up to Harley and Ivy encountering Betty and Veronica at a dance where The Riverdale girls are wearing old versions of Harley and Ivy’s costumes. Seeing this drawing, I can’t help but feel that this was one of the few reasons this comic was actually published. It’s like someone in the ad department thought they could sell images of Betty and Veronica dress as Harley and Ivy and got the company to make a story around it.
The whole comic just feels very vapid and more of a commercial product that a story that needs to be told.
Rating: 4 out of 10
