Archie and the gang are back in Riverdale, but so is the bloodthirsty Predator, what will happen to the gang when they go head to head with our intergalactical hunter? This review contains spoilers
Writer: Alex de Campi
Penciller: Fernando Ruiz
Inker: Rich Koslowski
Colorist: Jason Millet
Release: May 20th
Our happy gang are all gathered in a cafe about to indulge in a tasty piece of welcome home cake, when they find out that bitchy Cheryll and her annoying brother have been killed. The gang are upset but that isn’t going to stop them stuffing their faces with cake, but the cake is suddenly served with a huge side order of bloody mess, as something shoots the head of the chef! Covered in blood they all run around like headless chickens, well with their heads on unlike the maker of the cake..Betty suddenly remembers muttering nasty things about Veronica in the jungle cave and figures she must have put a curse of some sort on dear Roni. She suggests that they go visit Sabrina (not THE teenage witch , but more or less a teenage witch) to help them lift the curse. Veronica thinks it is a lot of hoo-hah, but the girls stand watching as Sabrina starts chanting over the knife Betty found in the cave (the real reason why the predator is following them). The chanting doesn’t go on for long as Mr Predator shows up and in a rather showy off way, chops into Sabrina’s chest and then proceeds to pull her head with attached spine out of her body. Nice…or rather not. Whilst Veronica is changing her outfit (very important thing to do amongst the chaos) Betty notices that she has managed to film the killer, and they now she the mask wearing Predator on her phone. Veronica is convinced it is most likely a Ninja. The knife meanwhile which had split in to pieces during the kafuffle now mysteriously comes back together.
Whilst the girls were off watching Sabrina’s spine on display the boys have hooked up with some local army folk, who actually seem to know some classified stuff about Predators. There is a looooot of text in these speech bubbles, you almost get a bit tired. Anyway, it doesn’t last for long and we are back to seeing more blood and half naked Betty and Veronica, don’t worry…The army folk tell the kids that the predator (“lamest name EVAAAAH” says Veronica) is attracted to violence and they figure out that he must have gotten his kicks from watching Veronica smash Betty’s face in. So they decide hat the best thing to do is to get someone dress up as our raven haired beauty and lure the predator into the hands of the army. Poor Jughead gets picked to be the bait and gets dressed up in Veronica’s bloodsoaked clothes. As he parades around the predator watches and just as the army closes in, the angry hunter spots them and manages to blow them all up more or less. Jughead however seems ok, and stands up and starts fiddling with Veronica’s handbag where he finds the knife from the cave. As he studies it the predator sneaks up behind him….
This comic is still a hoot, sure it is sexist and silly, but it is actually really funny, and this issue is really bloody compared to the first which mostly consisted of nosebleedy catfights. I am hoping that the gang ( I mostly want to see the girls really) give the predator what for in the next issue, as so far the people are mostly dying like flies!
Helena is a Swede living in the UK, a Whedonverse obsessed nerd who spends most of her time online as a web editor. Married to someone she met in 1998 known as Deckard in an #industrial IRC channel, they now have two sons, Tycho and Huxley. Loves cleaver TV-series, blippy music, Sushi, A.M Homes books, Heidy Kenney Urban Vinyl figures and comic book heroines..oh and Spike, She does love Spike a lot.
