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A review by mcacev
Archie, Vol. 3 by Mark Waid
4.0
Archie Vol. 3 collects issues 13-17 of the series, written by Mark Waid and illustrated by Joe Esima. After losing the mayoral election, Mr. Lodge sends Veronica to a private, all-girls boarding school in Switzerland, where Veronica thinks she’s made a friend, only to be engaged in open conflict with Cheryl Blossom, the school’s de-facto Queen. Back in Riverdale, Archie is having an existential crisis that seems to overlap with his parents’ 20 year anniversary; and Jughead may have contributed to it.
First things first: we finally have a good permanent artist! While not my favorite, Esima’s style works well for this series; it’s blocky and cartoony, and he has a pretty good grasp on all the characters, and the slapstick humor of the show. I really like the way he draws Cheryl and Veronica specifically, and my only complaint is that Jughead sometimes goes off model, especially his nose. However, I cannot overstate how much the series is improved by having a consistent art-style, and I hope he stays on for the rest of the run.
On the writing side, this was by far the best of the volumes. I felt like the issues built up to a specific point, none of them felt like filler, and for the most part I really enjoyed the story-line we got. I also really liked Veronica in this, which was a miracle, if I’ve ever seen any. So let’s go over the issues.
Issue 13 mostly focuses on Veronica adjusting to her time in the new school. I liked that she was struggling to stay her usual snotty self, while also still being a spoiled girl. I think her transformation would have worked significantly better, had we seen her grow out of being a snob in a better way throughout the rest of the series, rather than just 1 issue. I also really like Cheryl as an antagonist; she’s the typical mean girl, but she’s so over the top and entertaining that I really, really enjoyed her. There’s something that works for Cheryl so much more than it did when Veronica was filling this role, and I think it’s that their rivalry doesn’t revolve around a romance. What Cheryl does to Julia is still awful, and she’s absolutely a bully and a terrible person, but for whatever reason that I can’t explain, I found that much more entertaining than Archie mooning over Veronica.
The Archie story-line was fine; I liked the parallel between him mourning Veronica and Betty mourning Archie. I didn’t however find the moping that entertaining and I was glad we focused mostly on Cheryl.
Issue 14 is Veronica’s payback, which was absolutely bonkers and hilarious. I could watch a whole movie of just Cheryl and Veronica coming up with excessively ridiculous ways to get at each other, and I would not be bored. Again neither is a nice person for doing this, and I liked that Veronica felt some guilt over what she does to Cheryl, but it was just entertaining to see her win.
The Archie story-line was meh. Archie goes on a forced date with a girl named Madison he doesn’t like, and as a result he decides to become exactly like Jughead, because Jughead is absolutely 100% himself and confident in who he is. I liked the banter between Jughead and Archie, and their friendship is very heartwarming and fun, so that made the issue for me. I’m glad we are at least back to Archie/Jughead shenanigans.
Issue 15 focuses mostly on Jughead planning the anniversary party for Archie’s parents, while Archie moaps. There’s a lot of slapstick, but the parts I really liked were Jughead’s talk with Betty about why Archie wants to be like Jughead in the first place, and Jughead telling Archie that he feels insecure and thinks bad thoughts too, but he just has trained himself to not feel as much for what other people do, like Archie does. The bit with the coin and Archie’s parents was also really sweet.
With Veronica, I liked that we get some development on Mr. Lodge. He does love his daughter a lot, and wants the best for her, even though he doesn’t always know what and how to achieve the best for her. I liked that Veronica got what she wanted in the worst possible way, though the contrived reason for why now Jason and Cheryl have to move to Riverdale was a bit much.
Issue 16 is the only one of the issues I could call filler. It has to do with Veronica making a deal with the headmaster to finish the semester early with passable grades so she can go back to Riverdale, while also designing a suit for him. Back in Riverdale, we are introduced to a new character, Dilton, who invents an app where people can rate anything and anyone, and they start rating each other (or rather Reggie starts it, because of course he does). There’s a funny scene where Marmaduke goes after Reggie, but mostly Dilton is introduced as another love interest for Betty, which… I could’ve gone without.
Issue 17 was hilarious. It follows Cheryl as she tries to woo Archie, by completely over the top actions, because she thinks that he really is all the things Veronica made him out to be. It’s pretty funny to watch her completely misinterpret Archie as a person, and Jason’s increasingly resigned efforts to get her to chill. The ending was fun too.
Essentially, this is what I figured Archie would be as a series: fun, heartwarming and carried entirely by the characters. It’s a shame we had to wait until vol. 3 for it to get this good, but better late than never. I’m curious to see what the future will bring.
First things first: we finally have a good permanent artist! While not my favorite, Esima’s style works well for this series; it’s blocky and cartoony, and he has a pretty good grasp on all the characters, and the slapstick humor of the show. I really like the way he draws Cheryl and Veronica specifically, and my only complaint is that Jughead sometimes goes off model, especially his nose. However, I cannot overstate how much the series is improved by having a consistent art-style, and I hope he stays on for the rest of the run.
On the writing side, this was by far the best of the volumes. I felt like the issues built up to a specific point, none of them felt like filler, and for the most part I really enjoyed the story-line we got. I also really liked Veronica in this, which was a miracle, if I’ve ever seen any. So let’s go over the issues.
Issue 13 mostly focuses on Veronica adjusting to her time in the new school. I liked that she was struggling to stay her usual snotty self, while also still being a spoiled girl. I think her transformation would have worked significantly better, had we seen her grow out of being a snob in a better way throughout the rest of the series, rather than just 1 issue. I also really like Cheryl as an antagonist; she’s the typical mean girl, but she’s so over the top and entertaining that I really, really enjoyed her. There’s something that works for Cheryl so much more than it did when Veronica was filling this role, and I think it’s that their rivalry doesn’t revolve around a romance. What Cheryl does to Julia is still awful, and she’s absolutely a bully and a terrible person, but for whatever reason that I can’t explain, I found that much more entertaining than Archie mooning over Veronica.
The Archie story-line was fine; I liked the parallel between him mourning Veronica and Betty mourning Archie. I didn’t however find the moping that entertaining and I was glad we focused mostly on Cheryl.
Issue 14 is Veronica’s payback, which was absolutely bonkers and hilarious. I could watch a whole movie of just Cheryl and Veronica coming up with excessively ridiculous ways to get at each other, and I would not be bored. Again neither is a nice person for doing this, and I liked that Veronica felt some guilt over what she does to Cheryl, but it was just entertaining to see her win.
The Archie story-line was meh. Archie goes on a forced date with a girl named Madison he doesn’t like, and as a result he decides to become exactly like Jughead, because Jughead is absolutely 100% himself and confident in who he is. I liked the banter between Jughead and Archie, and their friendship is very heartwarming and fun, so that made the issue for me. I’m glad we are at least back to Archie/Jughead shenanigans.
Issue 15 focuses mostly on Jughead planning the anniversary party for Archie’s parents, while Archie moaps. There’s a lot of slapstick, but the parts I really liked were Jughead’s talk with Betty about why Archie wants to be like Jughead in the first place, and Jughead telling Archie that he feels insecure and thinks bad thoughts too, but he just has trained himself to not feel as much for what other people do, like Archie does. The bit with the coin and Archie’s parents was also really sweet.
With Veronica, I liked that we get some development on Mr. Lodge. He does love his daughter a lot, and wants the best for her, even though he doesn’t always know what and how to achieve the best for her. I liked that Veronica got what she wanted in the worst possible way, though the contrived reason for why now Jason and Cheryl have to move to Riverdale was a bit much.
Issue 16 is the only one of the issues I could call filler. It has to do with Veronica making a deal with the headmaster to finish the semester early with passable grades so she can go back to Riverdale, while also designing a suit for him. Back in Riverdale, we are introduced to a new character, Dilton, who invents an app where people can rate anything and anyone, and they start rating each other (or rather Reggie starts it, because of course he does). There’s a funny scene where Marmaduke goes after Reggie, but mostly Dilton is introduced as another love interest for Betty, which… I could’ve gone without.
Issue 17 was hilarious. It follows Cheryl as she tries to woo Archie, by completely over the top actions, because she thinks that he really is all the things Veronica made him out to be. It’s pretty funny to watch her completely misinterpret Archie as a person, and Jason’s increasingly resigned efforts to get her to chill. The ending was fun too.
Essentially, this is what I figured Archie would be as a series: fun, heartwarming and carried entirely by the characters. It’s a shame we had to wait until vol. 3 for it to get this good, but better late than never. I’m curious to see what the future will bring.