Beach games, party games and the most dangerous game. Archie’s here, Betty’s here, Veronica too! Reggie’s here, hey Predator where are you? 2015 strangest crossover comic is out today. This review contains spoilers
Writer: Alex de Campi
Penciller: Fernando Ruiz
Inker: Rich Koslowski
Colorist: Jason Millet
Release: April 14th
I have to admit when I heard about this comic coming out I requested to be the one reviewing it for Three If By Space. Archie was one of the first comics Iever read and I used to even watch the old cartoon as a child. In fact I loved the Archie comic as a preteen, not completely sure why, perhaps it was the love triangle between Betty, Veronica and Archie or maybe just the fact that I harboured a crush on a redhead boy too. Who knows…It is safe to say that in my interactions with Archie as an adult, it can be a bit hard to see through the extremely sexist barrier. The whole premise are two gorgeous girls fighting over Archie, with a bit of scheming and shenanigans going on behind the scenes. Archie vs Predator is exactly the same. The gang wins a summer holiday to a exotic resort where Veronica enters a popularity contest, which mostly features her dressed in a skimpy outfit (“Varsayce” daaahlings). This outfit renders all the menfolk into drooling idiots. This of course pisses Betty off to no end and she ends up getting some help from bad girl Cheryl and enters the competition in an borrowed “Chanil” outfit. This turns the boys into even more testerone drooling buffoons. Cue a big catfight where Versayce and Chanil gets torn into even skimpier bits of clothing. Veronica manages to bop Betty on the nose so badly she breaks it and with Betty skulking off into the jungle Veronica is frolicking with Archie on the beach. All through this someone seems to be watching them using thermal vision specs, uh oh who could it be??!.
Betty is understandably very angry, and in her upset state manages to wander into a temple where she accidently pockets a knife relic thing. When she emerges out of the jungle Archie ditches Veronica and cuddles Betty. He really is a little slag that Archie! From the treetops we can now see a predator watching the whole scene…
The gang has had enough after all this action and heads back home to Riverdale. When they sit having a catch up in a cafe we once again can see that someone mysterious (or rather not so mysterious) is watching them through heat vision….
So what did I think of this comic? I actually liked it quite a lot. Sure like I said at the start it is utterly sexist, but it is pretty funny too. I guess there isn’t much predator action as of yet, but we have a few more parts to go and I am guessing it might get a bit more bloody than the girls catfight.
I find it quite funny that Archie has had a bit of a revival, I have to confess I haven’t read some of the other Archie crossovers, but after reading this one, they are next on my list.
