The only thing cumbersome about Life with Archie: The Married Life #2 is the title. Otherwise, the book is terrific.

The spinning of two alternate destinies for everybody’s favorite freckled-face redhead — one where he marries Veronica, one where he marries Betty — continues in this issue, and while he starts both stories fairly miserable, he ends both with determination to seize his own destiny.

In the Veronica reality, Mr. Lodge has put Archie in the unenviable position of closing down Pop Tate’s malt shop, but it’s all just a ruse for the entrepreneurial Lodge to buy up property elsewhere without anybody noticing. Archie and Veronica’s wedding is at the breaking point, and along comes Reggie to console Veronica …

In Betty marital land, meanwhile (I guess “meanwhile” fits here), Archie is trying to make it big musically in NYC, but the Big Apple is taking a bite out of him, instead. By the story’s end, he and childhood friend, Ambrose, are set to … well, to do something to Ambrose’s Chowhouse. And back in Riverdale, wedding plans for Mr. Weatherbee and Miss Grundy become a double nuptial.

The one answer this second issue offers is a resolution to who will be writing the two series. Gone is first-issue writer Michael Uslan, replaced with veteran scripter Paul Kupperberg, who keeps the plots bubbling nicely. Norm Breyfogle’s art continues to be perfectly suited to both tales.

I’m enjoying this title. When I bought the latest issue at Walgreens, the cashier was very curious about it. I told her that it was about Archie’s marriage, and she wanted to know which girl he chose. When I said both, she looked puzzled and said, “He can’t do that, can he?”

Yes, he can.

Trackback This Post | Subscribe to the comments through RSS Feed