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Story by: Mark Waid
Art by: Fiona Staples
Just as people may have wondered what kind of note Archie #666 would leave us all on, what kind of note was best to wrap up one chapter of Archie Comics history to ready us for a new one, similarly, opening Archie #1 we’re left with a similar question: How do you open a new book on Archie? How do you strip these characters back down to their basics enough to find, once again, where their stories begin?
In the abstract that sounds like it could mean many things, but Archie #1 accomplishes its goals simply, effectively, and beautifully on behalf of both the script and the artwork. Archie serves as our narrator, good-natured and casual, showing us around his life and introducing us to his friends, his school, and his current crisis. Through his eyes we met Betty, we meet Jughead, and a rich supporting cast of both newer characters and old favorites,
Fiona Staples’s artwork paired with Jen Vaughn and Andre Szymanowicz’s energetic colors bring with them a spectacular charm and life that perfectly fits the tone of the script and the tone of the characters as we know them. Archie is still Archie, Betty is still Betty, Jughead is still Jughead, but under Staples’s pen, we both recognize them as our old, familiar friends, yet see them at the same time with fresh eyes. What blew me away the most about this issue is how perfectly her style meshes with the specific dynamism I associate with Archie — the expressions, the layouts, the unfolding antics — without sacrificing an ounce of her own style to do so. It’s hard to even describe it as a “compromise,” so much as a natural fit; these characters were simply meant to be redeveloped by her.
And Archie #1 is solid, beautiful both to read and to look at, not only on a technical level but because even one issue in it’s already, clearly, an Archie relaunch developed by Archie fans. Yes, it’s diverse, and it’s also fun, thoughtful, heartfelt, dramatic… it’s exactly everything an Archie ongoing should be.