tschmitty's review
3.0
So Archie is still married to both Betty and Veronica. He has a "School of Rock" scenerio going on in one, and he is jobless and alone in the other. Tough being married to two chicks. Reggie gets Archie's leftovers. Jughead eats the leftovers.
bashbashbashbash's review
4.0
I feel like in this second book, my expectations have settled. In the first book, it felt like anything could happen – like the Archie comics could have gone totally off the rails and plunged into some kind of nightmarish/hyperrealistic Dennis Cooper universe. But while the content of the comics has gotten serious – death comes to Riverdale, et cetera – we're still in the old Archie universe, where certain types of evil and harm are simply absent, and everyone is well-provided for at the end of the day.
So now that I know where I am, I just settle in to enjoy a little achingly cheerful wholesome good fun when the right mood strikes. Trying to read the volume through in one or two sittings is a bad idea – better to parcel it out. The issues (and digests) are never that long, after all.
I'm desperate to find out what that mad Dilton Doiley's up to. It has to be for good (right?), but how? Because right now Dilton's working for all the wrong people.
There are certain story lines in both universes that I don't care about, and others I wish would return (come back, Amos!). Moose-as-mayor seems silly. I still don't understand how Jughead has gotten so terrible (Jughead is basically dead to me at this point). I love Hiram Lodge, nefarious with a heart of gold. I love Ronnie but she seems to be getting a little flat (after initial gains in depth), so I hope there'll be more for her to do soon.
Note to the Archie publishers: if you get Dennis Cooper to write an "unauthorized" Archie spin-off, I will totally read it.
I will also read Book 3 of "Archie: The Married Life" when it's released.
So now that I know where I am, I just settle in to enjoy a little achingly cheerful wholesome good fun when the right mood strikes. Trying to read the volume through in one or two sittings is a bad idea – better to parcel it out. The issues (and digests) are never that long, after all.
I'm desperate to find out what that mad Dilton Doiley's up to. It has to be for good (right?), but how? Because right now Dilton's working for all the wrong people.
There are certain story lines in both universes that I don't care about, and others I wish would return (come back, Amos!). Moose-as-mayor seems silly. I still don't understand how Jughead has gotten so terrible (Jughead is basically dead to me at this point). I love Hiram Lodge, nefarious with a heart of gold. I love Ronnie but she seems to be getting a little flat (after initial gains in depth), so I hope there'll be more for her to do soon.
Note to the Archie publishers: if you get Dennis Cooper to write an "unauthorized" Archie spin-off, I will totally read it.
I will also read Book 3 of "Archie: The Married Life" when it's released.
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