067: The Archie Multiverse

I’ve said this in many posts before, but some of the best things in life are discovered by chance. I love the fact that you can stumble upon something, look up at just the right moment, or someone will casually mention something and suddenly you’ve found a new discovery that changes things. The changes manifest in a variety of ways… they can be small like providing little bits of entertainment or joy. They can be huge and life-changing, altering your perception of certain things forever. Or they can be in between, giving you a new outlook on a subject you really hadn’t given much thought to before. This is one of those latter cases.

Did you do a double-take when you read the title of this post? I don’t blame you… when I realized there was an actual multiverse of Archie realities, I was skeptical and amused. But in looking into it, I fell into a rabbit hole that I just had to share.

New Archie. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Mark Waid. Art: Fiona Staples.)

I’ve talked about Archie before. First as a Short Hop where I read a Reggie miniseries. Secondly, I read an old Jughead comic and reminisced about childhood. Today I’m going to go much deeper into the Archie lore than I ever expected to.

There’s Archie lore? Oh my, yes. More than you would probably expect. First, let me give you a bit of background.

I’ve read more Archie than I ever planned to and I still can’t name all those characters. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Tom DeFalco. Art: Dan Parent.)

Archie was introduced in Pep Comics #22 in 1941. Response to his debut story was good, so he spun off into his own comic in 1942. This comic ran straight through until June of 2015, ending with issue 666. (There is really no significance to that being the number of the beast. I think they just ended it when development of the new series was done.) It was rebooted with a more modern, realistic aesthetic, which continued until 2020 when the series was quietly placed on a hiatus that still hasn’t ended. Over the years many other comics have spun off from Archie, forming an entire universe of titles. They’ve mainly stuck to comedy and romance, but they’ve also dabbled in horror, science fiction, superheroes, mystery, satire, religious propaganda, drama, and soap opera. They have had crossovers with Batman, Punisher, Predator, KISS, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Sharknado, among others. The characters have been featured in animation, live action television shows, movies, music (you may have heard of a little ditty called “Sugar, Sugar”), and tons of merchandising.

The story of Archie is very straightforward. Archie himself is an “average teen” living in an old-fashioned town called Riverdale. A core concept of the series is the love triangle between Archie, the “girl next door” tomboy Betty Cooper, and the rich and self-absorbed Veronica Lodge. Further complicating things is that the two girls have developed both a friendship and a rivalry over the years. They alternately compete for Archie’s affection and confide in each other. Archie’s best friend is a boy with a serious eating disorder named Jughead Jones. (It’s exaggerated and they play it for laughs but if I had a friend who eats as much as Jughead I would feel obligated to stage an intervention.) Archie’s rival is an arrogant bully named Reggie Mantle who is sometimes his friend.

There are a couple of other characters that will be mentioned in this post. One is Dilton Doiley, the nerdy scientist and inventor. Moose Mason, the dull-witted bully who dates a sweet girl named Midge, who Reggie is obsessed with. The Blossom twins, Cheryl and Jason, who are typically antagonists. Big Ethel is a girl typically shown as being hopelessly in love with Jughead. And Hiram Lodge, Veronica’s ruthless and morally corrupt father. Others I’ll mention as they come up. There are tons of other characters: teachers, other teens, celebrities, pets, family members, and even metaphysical entities. (I’m not joking. Satan is a recurring character.) The stories mainly center around the afore-mentioned love triangle, the teen’s adventures around town and in high school, and occasionally delve into the supernatural, alternate realities, time travel, and the occult.

And so that, in brief is the history and setting of Archie. Now, as for my history, I read a lot of the comics growing up. I was gifted dozens of them when I was very young and my uncle gave me a huge box of comic books. My mom would frequently bring home an issue here and there from the supermarket or garage sales. I enjoyed them as a child, but I moved more towards superheroes and indy comics as I grew up, leaving Archie and the gang as fading memories.

That is, until one of my brothers casually mentioned the reboot series when we were talking comics and said it was pretty good. (As I recall, I was trying to get him into the amazing rebooted Flintstones comic.) After stalling for a bit, I finally checked it out and was hooked right away. I read the entire run by that creative team, but lost interest shortly into the second team. As I went along, I read the side stories (including Reggie and Me, which I did a post about) and I became curious about some of the other storylines, especially the ones where Archie married first Veronica and then Betty in a fantasy world. (More on that later.) And I was intrigued by the notorious Death of Archie story. My obsessive nature kicked in and I was lost. I checked out the horror comics, some of the older issues, and even read some Sabrina stuff. For a time, my Comixology account was cluttered up with Archie titles I wanted to read. (Now it’s mainly full of manga I haven’t gotten around to yet. I’m starting to really get into Junji Ito. And I really need to make some time for Beastars.)

So, one night as I was reading and piecing together in my head the Archie Multiverse Theory (copyright, patent pending) I decided that I was going to have to do something with all this useless Archie knowledge I was accumulating. I knew that I would have no choice but to write a post about it, so I buckled down and started taking notes, letting it germinate for a couple of years as I casually read.

And, yeah, that’s my history and the reasoning for this post. So with all that said, let’s get into what I mean when I talk about the Archie Multiverse. Needless to say, the following will be full of spoilers for various series and story arcs over Archie’s vast history. here we go!

Waiiiit… is this a metaphor? (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Michael Uslan. Art: Stan Goldberg and Bob Smith.)

Although Archie has a ridiculously long history, really where most of this starts was in Archie #600 from 2009. (Although much of the groundwork was laid over the course of the several preceding decades of comic book stories.) See, in Archie lore there is a magical place called Memory Lane. This runs through Riverdale and contains stores and sights that reminds Archie of his childhood. Walking down Memory Lane has been used previously to show past versions of Archie, like one issue where his current self met the 40’s incarnation.

Issue 600 began a highly publicized and somewhat controversial storyline where we jump forward in time. Archie has graduated college and decides to propose to Veronica. I say it’s controversial because fans of the series are often divided on which of the girls is the best one for Archie. (The love triangle is often used as an example of a difficult choice and differing opinions.) (If you’re wondering where I fall in this debate, I’m not sure. I think they both have their pros and cons.) So, of course, the Betty fans would be upset that he’s settling on Veronica and vice versa. The creative team actually had a clever way of dealing with this fallout. They just let him marry both of them.

No, not that way, although I would absolutely read a series about Archie in a polyamorous marriage. But maybe that’s just me. Hey, I think we just answered who I think is best for him. Both of them! I’m sure there’s Rule 34 of this but I’m not going to go looking. I would be honestly shocked if there weren’t multiple porn parodies that end this way. How else would you end an Archie porn parody but with a threesome? I’d better rein this in. Let’s focus.

No, what I mean is issues 600-602 involve Archie’s possible future if he were to marry Veronica. Then in Issues 603-605 he goes down the other path on Memory Lane and sees what it would be like if he had married Betty. Then at the end of the whole thing the status quo is reverted and they go back to being perpetually in High School. (At least until Issue 666….) There is a brief epilogue in Issue 606 where he talks about what he’s learned and explains what he went through to his disbelieving peers. But how much of it he remembers is left unclear.

Very artsy transition. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Michael Uslan. Art: Stan Goldberg and Bob Smith.)

The Veronica branch consisted of Archie’s proposal, wedding, and flashes of their life for the next several years. After an over-the-top wedding, Archie gets a stressful job with Veronica’s dad and the couple eventually has twins, a boy and a girl. (Little Veronica and Little Archie. Yup, creative.) On Christmas Eve, Archie heads out for a walk and goes up Memory Lane again, this time ending up in a reality where he married Betty instead.

That is an awesome headline. JJJ would’ve blamed it on Spider-Man. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Michael Uslan. Art: Stan Goldberg and Bob Smith.)

The Betty branch played out a bit differently. (The sad thing on this one is that the story makes it seem like he only asks her because Veronica is leaving town for three months. Poor Betty, she’s the second choice.) Instead of a big lavish wedding, they have a smaller one at the diner they always hang out at, Pop Tate’s Chocklit Shop. After getting married the two of them move away to New York where Betty get a corporate job and Archie plays guitar at a club. Betty soon quits, though, and they move back to Riverdale. They both get teaching jobs at their old High School and see how much has changed. Veronica is engaged to Reggie, Jughead has married Midge, and Moose is the school custodian. (He’s also in anger management and does yoga.) Principal Weatherbee is dating Miss Grundy, the kid’s stern teacher. So this branch does a lot more on the world-building of their friends. Betty and Archie also have twins, Little Betty and Little Archie.

Abrupt ending for a six part story,. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Michael Uslan. Art: Stan Goldberg and Bob Smith.)

Archie goes for a walk and decides this time to go down Memory Lane. This has the effect of bringing him right back to being a (perpetual) teenager, seemingly with a hazy memory of what he’d seen for the past six issues.

Side note, as seen above, the whole yellow woods with diverging paths is from the Robert Frost poem “The Road Not Taken”. I was pretty surprised by the literary reference and how well they tied it to the story.

He’s on the dope! (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Michael Uslan. Art: Stan Goldberg and Bob Smith.)

Archie finds himself very confused about what he’d seen and reality in general. Then he double-books dates with both Betty and Veronica on the same night and gets himself into trouble, as usual. Things are back to normal. They do revisit these alternate timelines ten years later in a new miniseries, but I’ll touch on that later on.

I thought this was a pretty interesting way to tackle the story… regardless of which girl Archie chose, fans of the other would be upset. So they split the difference (and the timeline) to give both Betty and Veronica a chance. Sure, everything went back to status quo afterwards, but the story did fuel other storylines and comics for years to come. I thought it was creative and it was refreshing to see them break the status quo even if it was just for a few issues. I didn’t laugh at any point, but I did smile… the whole thing was just so wholesome and positive.

Here we go again. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer and Art: Dan Parent.)

In Issues 631-634, Memory Lane makes a reappearance, this time with a different traveler. See, in Issue 608 Archie had a brief love affair with Valerie, long-time member of Josie and the Pussycats. (Yup, Archie finally featured an interracial relationship and it only took them 68 years. Hey, they introduced their first openly gay character one year later in 2010. Baby steps.) In these issues, Valerie’s family moves to Riverdale, Archie’s girls develop crushes on her brother Trev, and Archie and Valerie try to pick up where they left off. (The whole Trev thing feels like filler as it ultimately goes nowhere.)

It’s the dope I tells ya. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer and Art: Dan Parent.)

Valerie’s story goes somewhat like the others. The two of them get married and struggle to balance their lives. They eventually quit their respective bands, teach music to children on a reality show, and have a baby named Star. Star is a musical prodigy and the fame is too much for the little one, causing stress for the family. Valerie hits abort on the vision, but looks at different paths, seeing other possible futures for Archie. (I suspect this was the creator’s way of saying they weren’t going to keep doing these Memory Lane stories.)

Doooooope! (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer and Art: Dan Parent.)

In one future, Archie marries Cheryl Blossom, which turns out to be a PR stunt by the woman to make money. (Money and fame are the main driving points of her personality.) In another future, Archie marries Sabrina, which I guess breaks some sort of witch rule and so she’s stripped of her magic. One path showed Archie marrying Josie, which puts Valerie in a love triangle. She panics and runs, getting lost in the different paths and seeing other girls in Archie’s possible futures. (I recognized Midge and Ethel, but I’m not sure sure who the third one is.)

After all this, Valerie is overwhelmed by all the possibilities and flees, coming back out in her regular timeline. She decides it’s better to not know what’s coming and instead to just live in the now. Dilton appears and gives the readers a lecture about seizing the day as though he knows what Valerie saw. (And he might… more on that later.)

The last panel of the “last” issue. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Tom DeFalco. Art: Dan Parent.)

As mentioned earlier, after issue 666 the long-running series officially ended and rebooted into New Riverdale, which you can consider another alternate reality in the Multiverse. They eventually return to their original numbering with Issue 700, a common money-making scheme in comics, but the new status quo continued on.

But that’s not really the focus here… while different enough, New Archie is just original recipe Archie with more modern sensibilities. (And a little less cheesiness.) While it is also a part of the Multiverse, I’m not going to spend a time going into it. No, we have several other stops to make on our journey.

Dilton is shady. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Michael Uslan. Art: Dan Parent)

Now to make things even more confusing, we’ll jump into a brief return to Archie’s alternate futures. With Archie The Married Life 10th anniversary, we revisit the original marriage timelines ten years down the road. This was a six-issue limited series that dealt with adult problems… work and family balance, political issues, aging parents, career choices, and marital issues. In both futures Jughead married Midge, which was disorienting. (More on this later, but Jughead was usually anti-relationship. And Midge was always paired with Moose.) And for some reason on the Betty side an Amish-bearded Dilton orchestrates events from the shadows.

Seriously Ambrose? (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Michael Uslan. Art: Dan Parent)

Perhaps strangest of all was the appearance of “Little Ambrose”, a character who previously was only featured in the spin-off Little Archie. (And his own brief solo series.) Ambrose shows up on the Veronica timeline and generally fucks everything up. (He’s absent on the Betty side.) A different version of Ambrose shows up again later in this post, but his appearance here is a little strange. Does this mean on these alternate timelines Little Archie happened? Or is he a traveler from a whole other universe?

I don’t think I was supposed to laugh at that. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Michael Uslan. Art: Dan Parent)

Aside from those ponderings, we have the mystery of Dilton, also a traveler of sorts. In this story Dilton programmed Andrew’s phone to be able to play the Riverdale citizens as though they were Sims. Side note here: Andrew is Archie and Veronica’s son— not sure why they renamed him. His sister was also renamed to Jade. On the Betty side, their kids have been renamed to Freddy and Lizzie. Was this a retcon or does this mean these are different universes altogether? I prefer to think it’s a retcon, like the fact that Betty and Archie were back to living in New York. Anyway, I’m overthinking this, as usual. Bottom line, their names are different and naming them after their parents in the original story was dumb. I don’t want to confuse things more by calling these two new universes.

The jacked phone causing strife is tantalizingly mysterious, but the ultimate revelation is that Dilton believed he had to test the gang’s friendships to prove that friendship can win out against anything. He claims the universes are in danger of strife and disagreements, so that’s why he’s messing with everyone. If they can overcome his manipulations, darkness can never win. Or something. It all rings a little hollow. The different stories end identically. At the end Dilton shows up in a hybrid between a DeLorean and Archie’s classic jalopy. He flies both sets of Archie and spouse off together to “where they belong”. (I guess the kids don’t belong there… they got left behind.)

Ooookay… (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Michael Uslan. Art: Dan Parent)

What a weird, inscrutable ending.

Originally I read these issues before I delved into Life With Archie, so that probably made our next subject a little harder for me to follow. While I enjoyed this limited series, it was especially confusing as they jumped back and forth between timelines, especially since there were so many similar things in both. Moose being mayor (and Congressman on Veronica’s side), Jughead owning Pop’s Chock’lit Shop… but the differences were there too. In Veronica’s timeline, her father died. In Betty’s, Archie’s father was suffering from early-onset senility. Plus on the Betty side they were back in New York, even though they returned to live in Riverdale in the original story. Another retcon, I suppose.

I reached peak confusion when reading Issue 5 late at night. I got to a point in the story where Veronica kissed Moose and thought “Shit, she’s cheating on Archie now?“ I had completely forgotten which universe we were in… in this one Archie was married to Betty and Veronica was divorced from Reggie. Dividing each issue equally between universes was the whole storytelling mechanic, but it made for a disorienting and baffling read. Ugh, what a headache. They should have given Archie an eyepatch in one universe, or an Evil Spock Beard. Well, I guess Reggie has the Spock Beard, but he has it in both. What a missed opportunity. If I wrote it: Archie would have an eyepatch in Betty’s timeline, Spock Beard in Veronica’s. Problem solved.

While I say I enjoyed it, the thing that I really don’t get is Dilton’s weak motivations. He puts his friends through hell to prove they can get through anything? Because… science? (Step Three: Profit.)

So, yeah, that was confusing. But now we get even more confusing. Strap yourselves in…

Yes, I really read this entire series. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Paul Kupperberg. Art: Norm Breyfogle.)

The popularity of the Archie Marries Veronica/Betty story arc caused the publisher to revisit the concept again in a much broader sense. A new series began in magazine format called Life With Archie. This ran from 2010 to 2014 for 37 issues, with the first half of each issue featuring Veronica and the second half featuring Betty. Yes, it will get more than a little confusing jumping back and forth between two new timelines distinct from the previous two I already talked about. To make it a bit easier, just think of Archie Marries Betty/Veronica as Timelines A and the Married Life are Timelines B. In the A timelines he travelled up Memory Lane and they end up with kids. In Timelines B they presumably aged naturally (no Memory Lane) and there are no kids. (Although the first issue mentions them in the preliminary essays, they never end up putting the kids into this series. The story did not develop to organically include children.) Most significantly, Timelines B culminate in what I can safely say is the most shocking moment in the franchise’s long history.

Is that the Cigarette Smoking Man? (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Paul Kupperberg. Art: Norm Breyfogle.)

But we’ll get there. I’m not going to go super detailed on this series, because it’s a lot. I’ll start by saying that it’s a lot like the original story arc. One half of each issue is Veronica, the other half is Betty. Some similar things happen between them, but they have their own distinct story threads. A lot takes place and it’s too much to go blow by blow. I will, however, be spending a bit of time on this series, mainly because there’s a lot of pertinent multiverse stuff that happens here, but also because it was a surprisingly entertaining read.

The series is still very wholesome, but here it steers more adult… the problems the characters face involve marital issues, corporate greed, political corruption, work/life balance, the feasibility of attaining your dreams, mortality, overcoming trauma and shortcomings, gun control, pregnancy, Cancer, mental health, and more. The various story threads move along slowly with the focus on multiple Riverdale characters instead of just being centered on Archie and Betty/Veronica. The whole thing reads like a comic book soap opera, and it’s weirdly engaging. As it goes on there’s even a mysterious sci fi element that creeps in and takes over for a bit around the mid-point of the series.

Dilton founds the Multiverse. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Paul Kupperberg. Art: Norm Breyfogle.)

On the Veronica side, her father Hiram Lodge is working with shadowy figures in a plan to bulldoze the Yellow Woods and Memory Lane in order to build a shopping mall. (But is that the only reason? We know this area of Riverdale is magical… ) Archie and Veronica are both working for Lodge Industries. Midge dumps Moose and gets into a relationship with Jughead, who buys Pop’s Chocklit Shop when he retires. Moose undergoes anger management and becomes the custodian of the school and eventually becomes the Mayor of Riverdale. Betty tries to make things work in Hollywood but fails and returns to become a caterer and reality TV star with her new boyfriend Reggie.

On the Betty side, the two are having trouble fitting into their new lives in New York. (Weirdly enough they introduce an entire cast of quirky characters in Issue 1 and then never show them again.) Archie wants to get serious about his music career, but it’s going nowhere. He runs into a very different Ambrose from the one we saw before. This one is friendly and likeable. (Rather than being a creepy jerk like he was in the 10th Anniversary.) Ambrose runs a small diner called the Chowhouse and Archie helps him to expand it to include live music. Eventually Betty and Archie move back to Riverdale and become teachers, Archie mentoring a new generation of teenagers who want to be musicians. Ambrose follows and they open a new Chowhouse in Riverdale, which takes Archie’s focus off teaching.

See, Good Ambrose has hair and Evil Ambrose is bald. It’s not hard. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Paul Kupperberg. Art: Norm Breyfogle.)

Things started getting weird on Halloween when the Veronica Archie crosses to the Betty Archie’s dimension. Ambrose showed up, presumably from the Betty side, talking in riddles and hinting that he knows more than we would have expected he knew. He says that if you can remember something, then it happened somewhere. (I liked this thought.) Archie shows up to the Lodge home where he thought a Halloween party would be happening, trying to reconcile with his wife. (This was during a time where Veronica and Archie were separated in their timeline and Veronica was missing in a supposed airplane crash in the Betty timeline. Told you it was a soap opera. No, she didn’t come back with amnesia, but I wouldn’t have been surprised.) What ensues are sitcom-esque misunderstandings from him being in the wrong reality, and he very nearly runs into himself.

What is this, a crossover episode? (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Paul Kupperberg. Art: Norm Breyfogle.)

As the stories continue, it’s revealed that Archie’s initial trip down Memory Lane was relayed to Dilton by Jughead years before, while they were still in High School. Dilton ran with it, pursuing his investigations of the Multiverse and ways to traverse it into college. His roommate Fred Mirth found out about it and in one reality he stole his research. Yes, Dilton isn’t the only Multiversal traveler. Hiram Lodge and Fred Mirth are in on the timeline fun, as well as Ambrose.

The mystery slowly unfolds over the course of the first half of the series. It’s indicated that Dilton is travelling between the two realities and that Memory Lane and the Yellow Woods are of vital importance to both him and Lodge. Fred Mirth appears to be trying to buy up the land to wreck Lodge’s plans. We continually see Dilton meeting with both Lodge and Mirth, bringing his own intentions into question. Also Lodge meets with a mysterious shadowy figure who turns out to be the Lodge from the other timeline. (As shown in the screenshot earlier.) They all seem to be up to something, and much of it involves real estate.

At about the midpoint of the series the more fantastic elements— multiple dimensions, mad scientist schemes, corporate conspiracies— took over, relegating the more soap opera-ey character-driven elements to the background for a bit. I was fine with that— I found the Dilton and Ambrose aspects the most interesting part of the series.

Ambrose is cool. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Paul Kupperberg. Art: Norm Breyfogle.)

We learn that Ambrose is special… he has the rare ability to transport himself and others between dimensions. He has this power because he is actually the only Ambrose in the Multiverse. (A fact that is later disputed by the 10th Anniversary story where the fully-bald Ambrose there attempts to break up Jughead and Midge’s marriage. Of course it could be the same Ambrose, ten years older… but that would be sad to have him turn out that way.) He states that when he was a kid he wasn’t aware he was travelling dimensions, so he popped in and out of several Archie’s lives.

Fred Mirth has the same sort of deal, but instead of seeing it as being a gift, he believes the universe hates him and that’s why he’s alone in it. He’s bitter and has a lot of Daddy issues. So this means that the Fred shown throughout the series in both timelines are actually the same guy, jumping back and forth. (They don’t make it clear if he also has powers or if he uses technology like Dilton.) Fred originally hails from Veronica’s world and his Dilton is evil. Ambrose comes from the Betty world, and his Dilton is the one who’s been helping from the shadows. (And his secret lab underneath the High School) When Veronica’s plane disappeared, it actually somehow travelled to the opposite dimension, and the two Hiram’s had to work together to get her back to the Betty Reality.

Possibly the coolest page in the series. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Paul Kupperberg. Art: Norm Breyfogle.)

So during this convergence of storylines, Ambrose summons both Archies (and one Reggie) to the fork at the woods on Memory Lane. This allows them all to meet for a secret mission. Ambrose explains his power, the two Diltons, and the threat of Fred Mirth. Mirth’s plans had originally been to mow down the Yellow Woods and build a Super Conductor on the site since that’s where the barrier between realities is thinnest. Since Veronica and Archie ruined those plans, he went with his backup, building the device in an old abandoned mine. Much of what Good Dilton and the Lodges were doing were attempts to stop Mirth and Evil Dilton. Fred Mirth wanted to harness the power of the two dimensions using satellites (one in each dimension) and have free, unlimited energy which would make him rich and powerful. (And prove to his successful and neglectful father that he’s worthy of love.) Evil Dilton really just wanted to prove it could be done and that he was right about the Multiverse. Well, Good Dilton figured out this would destroy both worlds, thus the mission to stop it.

Inside the mine, Bad Dilton had set up a bomb and to prevent them from all dying, Ambrose transports them temporarily between dimensions, allowing them all to witness a flood of alternate Archies and Reggies. (I want a story about the gender-swapped Archie. What would a male Betty be like? A male Veronica would basically be Reggie. It would be like Fiona and Cake meet Archie. The mind boggles at the possibilities…) In an amusing showdown, the Archies make pests of themselves to stop Bad Dilton. He presses the button on the Super Collider and too late starts seeing the fabric of the universes break down, with alternate versions of Jughead, Ethel, and more showing up. This is beyond Ambrose’s power, so he realizes that he must have made a miscalculation. Just in time, Good Dilton destroys the receiving satellite, which blows up the other one, creating feedback that closes the dimensional portal. Bad Dilton runs away in shame, never to be seen again. Ambrose sends his friends back to where they belong with no memory of what they saw.

After this, Good Dilton settles in Riverdale and opens a repair shop, working towards decentralized technology readily available to the public. He also hooks up with Ethel. Fred Mirth continues to scheme, but loses the love and trust of Ethel, who was warned by her alternate self during the incursion in the mine.

Fred Mirth isn’t evil… what makes you think he’s evil? (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Paul Kupperberg. Art: Norm Breyfogle.)

So aside from the Multiversal aspect of the story, many other things unfold. Two minor characters Nancy and Chuck pursue their dreams in different ways. On the Veronica side they have a successful comic strip. On the Betty side they do comic books. On both sides they run an unsuccessful comic book store and Nancy gets more attention for her writing, causing artist Chuck some serious professional jealousy. As mentioned before, Moose becomes Mayor and has to deal with special interest groups trying to get him in their pocket, and overcome the stigma of being a big, dumb school bully. (It turns out Miss Grundy discovered he was actually dyslexic, which caused him to act out. After Midge dumped him for his anger issues he turned his life around and dated a blind girl who got him into yoga and encouraged him.) One interesting aspect is that whichever girl Archie didn’t choose eventually ends up with Reggie. It’s good to have a backup around.

In both timelines Principal Weatherbee finally starts dating his longtime friend and associate Miss Grundy, who sadly dies of Cancer early on in their courtship. Cheryl Blossom, notoriously vain and materialistic in the original comic, comes back as a Breast Cancer survivor, spurring Veronica to start a charity to raise awareness and money for Cancer research. Cheryl’s brother Jason works at Lodge industries and helps to frame Reggie for the bribes Lodge was conducting with the previous Mayor. Yes, that was a major story: Reggie on trial for fraud, extortion, and bribery. After he’s cleared of all charges he opens a car restoration business. Another major story near the end of the series saw Veronica running Lodge Industries and framed for corruption by Fred Mirth.

On the Betty side, a bigger focus is on the school, with Betty filling in as pro tem Principal, Archie trying to balance his dreams, Ambrose’s Chowhouse, and teaching his students. Mr. Weatherbee struggles to move on after losing his wife and finds new love. Oh, and the school blows up due to a saboteur who was posing as Moose’s assistant. (Mr. Lodge had his hands in all sorts of things.) The school is rebuilt and upgraded. On both sides Jughead and Midge struggle to run the Chocklit shop and attempt to franchise it. It breaks up their marriage on the Betty side and he gets together with Ethel. On the Veronica side they have a kid together.

There’s really a lot going on in this series, so I’ll just leave it there. Just know that there’s way more than I’ve touched on with everyone getting varying degrees of focus, including a bunch of characters I haven’t even mentioned. (Some of which are Betty and Archie’s students, representing a new generation in Riverdale.) But there are two more characters to touch on.

Kevin Keller and his husband Clay are featured prominently as the series goes on. They are not only a gay couple in a legally-recognized marriage, but also interracial. And what I like most about this is that it’s not their entire characters. This is solid representation. Kevin could easily have been the token gay character, and some media is content with “gay” being the extent of someone’s character. Here, Kevin is shown to be a courageous war hero, a devoted husband, a caring friend, and a moral and fair-minded politician. They crafted him very well. Clay, while not getting as much focus, does have a recurring story thread where he becomes a town doctor and has to overcome some older citizen’s biases. Everyone, for the most part, accepts them as they are and that’s great. Representation without the gloating.

Of course, it’s not all love and sunshine. Homophobia and gun control are key to the ending of the series, as Clay is shot during a robbery attempt and Senator Keller presses for firmer gun control legislation.

Yikes. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Paul Kupperberg. Art: Norm Breyfogle.)

And this is it, this is what the series has been building towards. The merging of the stories and the reasonable conclusion. Because how should a comic called Life With Archie end? Well, with his death of course.

Although the series went on for 35 issues split down the middle with the two timelines, the two stories were getting more and more similar, closer together. In Issue 36 and 37 they converge into the same story, carefully not revealing the identity of his wife, so as not to invalidate either storyline. Every time his wife was mentioned, either both girls were there, or she was shown from the neck down. Think of it as two paths that fork at one point and then join back further along. They’re both valid, both starting and ending at the same point. This shows an inevitability, as Archie was meant to end up the same way no matter what else he went through beforehand. It was actually a pretty clever way of handling it and I can imagine it had to have been hell to write.

This went way more dark than I expected. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Paul Kupperberg. Art: Norm Breyfogle.)

In Issue 36, a fundraiser is being held at Jughead’s Chocklit Shop for Senator Kevin Keller. Over the course of several issues a new mystery had been set up with one of Keller’s constituents being upset, both about Kevin being gay, and about his firm stance on gun control. The identity of the man is in question until they very end, with multiple suspects being presented. There is a lot of foreshadowing and tension building that Kevin’s in danger and it all boils over the night of the fundraiser. Archie sees the man pull a gun and immediately jumps in front of Kevin, taking the bullet and saving his life. As he bleeds out on the floor, his last words are to make sure everyone is okay, and to tell his wife he’s always loved her. (Both Betty and Veronica are with him, so he could be talking to either of them, or both.)

With Issue 37 we jump to one year later, as all of his friends get together on the anniversary of his death to reminisce on his life and the effect he had on them. There’s also a ceremony hosted by Kevin where they rename Riverdale High to Archie Andrews High School. At the end, Jughead serves a milkshake (with three straws) to kids that look eerily like Archie, Betty, and Veronica. The circle of life turns on.

It was a very touching, grim, well-plotted, and reasonable ending. It makes sense that Archie would die as a hero, since he’s always depicted as caring about everyone around him. As much as I liked where they ended it, it did give little in the way of closure for the ongoing characters and plotlines of the series. (By necessity… they would have had to choose a dimension if they revealed more than they did.) It felt like a missed opportunity and was a bit of a let-down after following the stories and characters for 37 double-length issues, but in another way it makes sense. Life goes on, even if the comic ends. No real life person’s plotlines will all be resolved neatly in time for one person to die, so they really couldn’t have organically concluded everything and kept the realism intact. Although the focus was on all the characters, when Archie died, the lynchpin of the series was gone and the story had to end where it was.

This is how comic book recaps should be done. Bravo. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Paul Kupperberg. Art: Norm Breyfogle.)

So that was Life With Archie in as abbreviated a fashion as I could put it. It took me a while to get through it all, but overall I liked it. Some of the storylines were more interesting than others. I especially liked the mystery behind Dilton Doiley, Ambrose, and Fred Mirth. I was a little disappointed that once that all came to a head it wasn’t mentioned again and seemed to have no further impact on the story. I especially liked the characters of Ambrose and Kevin Keller. The Chuck and Nancy thread was frustrating and just vanished after a certain point. The final mystery of the shooter was engaging. I’m still impressed with the ending and how well-plotted and jarring the death scene was.

One of the downsides of the series was the slow pacing, as it was all serialized, some stories were put on the backburner as the other ones developed. My biggest complaint was how difficult it was to keep track of what was happening in each timeline. I almost felt like I needed to write out a chart to keep track of it. (Moose is janitor here, and Mayor here. Ethel is with Fred Mirth here, then Jughead… or was it Dilton? On this one Betty is with Reggie, but Veronica over here.) I can only imagine it would have been harder to keep track of it all reading it at a pace of one issue a month instead of, say, one or two a night. A lot of the storylines sort of fizzled out near the end, and the series did feel like it lost some of its momentum after the big confrontation in the mine. It was still entertaining, but without the mystery driving it, it kind of got bogged down in soap opera drama. (That could just be my taste, though, since I liked the multiversal aspect of the series.)

All in all, confusion and slow pacing aside, I really enjoyed this series. Especially the artfulness and poignancy of the ending. The art on the series was great, even though it’s in the “classic” style. It’s sharp, solid, looks fantastic. Rather than being two dimensional and flat, there was as much realism as the style could allow. Great use of angles and shadows. A lot of care went into the art. As for the writing, I enjoyed the more modern, mature take on the franchise. It wasn’t corny or eye-rolling. It wasn’t over-the-top edgy like Riverdale and some of the horror stuff. It was still wholesome, but a bit more digestible than the ultra-sugary, stuck in the past original recipe.

Not that I’m saying that the old way was wrong and that wholesome is bad. Quite the opposite, in fact. I feel more and more that we need wholesome art to counterbalance the darkness of life. And this was, for all its adult sensibilities and bloody ending, wholesome and pure at its core.

But oh my god, the sheer amount of burgers and malts these people consume. If Riverdale was a real place, they’d all be overweight and diabetic!

Yeah… Little Archie was a bit of a dick. (Credit: Archie Comics)

So now we have the “prime” universe where the classic Archie characters live, teenagers forever. We also have New Riverdale where the rebooted, more modern characters reside. And then there are four alternate futures— two for Betty and two for Veronica. Very similar but easily discernable by the existence of children in Timelines A and no children in Timelines B. But is that all? Not even close.

For one thing there were several variations that Valerie was able to glimpse on her trip up Memory Lane. In between dimensions with Ambrose we caught sight of many variations of Archie and Reggie, along with several Jugheads and other characters when the realities were colliding.

Then there’s also those mentions by Ambrose in Timeline B where they were all children together. This is a clear reference to a long-running spin-off started in 1956 called Little Archie. I would consider this its own universe. While that reality does intersect with Archie Marries and the Married Life timelines, it cannot link up to Classic or New Riverdale. In both those main universes, canonically Veronica didn’t meet the others until they were all teenagers, whereas Little Archie had them all as kids together.

An internet comedian I enjoy, Seanbaby, has often written about the insanity of Little Archie, so I won’t get into it much here. He did a far better (and more amusing) job than I ever could summing up the completely bonkers, unrealistic, and questionable adventures of the de-aged gang. All I will say is that in these comics, Archie was a little asshole, constantly beating on the girls and starting fights. He also got kidnapped a lot by armed assailants. Like, an unreasonable number of times. It got pretty dark as it went on, and seriously, just read Seanbaby’s stuff. It’s great.

Hey look, zombie Jughead! (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. Art: Francesco Francavilla)

If you thought all that was weird, you haven’t seen anything yet. Now we come to Archie Horror and the flagship title, Afterlife With Archie. (An obvious pun on Life With Archie.) This is where all the wholesome fare we’ve grown used to goes out the window. It also inspired a whole line of Archie horror comics, all of which take place in their own corners of the Multiverse. This is where reality gets a bit thin and crossovers happen more frequently.

See, as the main series went on, they slowly grew out of their 40s and 50s white traditional America values. They introduced other races and nationalities. Kevin Keller was the first openly gay character in the series. A minor character named Eliza Han is biracial and pansexual. In a series of shorts they introduced bi and trans characters. Jughead (at least in the 2015 reboot) is canonically asexual and aromantic. Besides Kevin, not many of the LGBTQ+ characters get focus, but they’re there.

And with Afterlife With Archie, this progressiveness gets dialed way up. The series has a heavy focus on horror and gore by its very nature, but it also features death, murder, trauma, and (believe it or not) incest. This world, by necessity, is not the colorful, cheerful Riverdale we’re used to. This is the darkest timeline.

An interesting fact that turned up in my research: John L. Goldwater, co-creator of Archie, was on the Comics Code Committee, which targeted questionable material in the medium of comic books. (I talk about this quite a bit in my EC Comics post.) Fast forward a few decades and we have blood, gore, and sex in Archie comics.

Poor Ethel. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. Art: Francesco Francavilla)

This comic was weird, and very dark, but I found it enjoyable. The idea of putting these wholesome, positive characters into the setting of a zombie apocalypse was clever and disorienting.

The story goes that Jughead’s dog Hotdog is hit by a car driven by Reggie. (Hit and run, and he keeps it secret, but the guilt eats him up throughout the series.) The devastated Jughead makes a beeline to resident witch Sabrina Spellman and begs her to save his beloved dog. After some hesitation, she casts a spell from the Necronomicon that (unbeknownst to them) brings the dog back as a zombie. As you would expect, he bites Jughead and the zombie outbreak starts on Halloween, during a school dance. Sabrina is banished by her aunts for being reckless, so she can’t help in what follows. She then goes on to become the bride of Satan and held prisoner by the Elder Gods. We see Josie and the Pussycats as vampires, Mr. Lodge sacrifices himself and the survivors go on the road, trying to escape Riverdale and find a safe place to survive while Jughead and his zombie horde follow them.

Jughead was the first to die, but certainly not the last. The stories deal with death, secrets, betrayal, murder, suicide, and hopelessness. One particularly disturbing scene heavily implies a nonconsensual incestuous relationship between Cheryl and Jason Blossom, culminating on her losing it and offing her brother. Some discussion follows on what to do with her, if she’s safe to be around now that her trauma was worked out on the cause, or if she will continue to be a danger.

Blood-spattered Archie. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. Art: Francesco Francavilla)

I’m not going to spend much more time on this one, but I do love how it takes the familiar saccharine-sweet characters and shoves them brutally into a horrible life-or-death fight for survival. It’s done very well, but if I was unfamiliar with the characters I’d probably see it as a passable but uninspired zombie story. By making it an Archie Zombie Story, it pushes it far above what it otherwise would have been. The visuals of the usually cheerful Rated G characters covered in blood and fighting for their lives is stark and unsettling. It’s an energy they couldn’t quite recapture in the later horror titles. This series featured stylized art, a great use of color and shadow, and lots of reference to classic horror movies and literature. They even do the old “somebody gets bitten and keeps it a secret from the others until it’s too late” trope. (It’s Midge.)

Sadly, at the time of this writing, the story is unfinished, having gone on hiatus with Issue 10 back in 2016. It’s unlikely they’ll ever revive (haha) the comic and finish it out, but if the unthinkable happens, I’ll definitely get it.

Ewww. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Frank Tieri. Art: Pat and Tim Kennedy.)

In my preparation for this post— and because I enjoyed Afterlife With Archie— I read all the other Archie Horror titles. (They made their own sub-imprint for horror comics after the success of their zombie outing.) All of these comics take place in their own corners of the Multiverse. These titles include Jughead: The Hunger, Vampironica, a crossover between the two, Blossoms 666, Lady Satan, and the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. There were also a few one-shots that told anthology-style stories set in the Sabrina/Lady Satan continuity, and told the backstory of Sabrina’s talking cat Salem.

Yup, we’re doin’ werewolves now. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Frank Tieri. Art: Pat and Tim Kennedy.)

I won’t go into detail on these, but I will mention that Jughead: The Hunger handles the character’s gluttony in a creative way… he was unknowingly born into a line of werewolves and eventually finds himself transforming into a monster and stalking the streets of Riverdale. Betty is from a line of werewolf slayers, working undercover to keep an eye on Jughead and look for any signs of him turning. The Vampironica stories take place in a universe where the vampires killed all the werewolves. (The opposite was true in Jughead’s dimension.)

Aaaand vampires. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Frank Tieri. Art: Pat and Tim Kennedy.)

I bring all this up because Vampironica vs the Hunger ties directly into our topic. In Veronica’s reality, a teen girl named Jynx (who happens to be the daughter of Satan and the Antichrist) read from the Book of Lucifer and inadvertently caused a melding of realities. This pulls the vampires (including Vampironica) into Jughead’s reality. This is all relayed to them through Sabrina, speaking from what’s implied to be the Afterlife With Archie reality. (Or at least a similar one were zombies have infested.) (If so, as a side note, this means that at some point Sabrina escapes from her imprisonment by the Elder Gods, so… cool?)

How come this kind of stuff didn’t happen in the original sitcom? (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. Art: Robert Hack.)

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina took place in a separate reality from Afterlife With Archie, but in Issue 8 she does have a vision involving events from the other series.

Multiverse! (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. Art: Robert Hack.)

This, and her appearance in Vampironica vs the Hunger indicate that Sabrina’s magic allows her to see and communicate with other realities. Although she has yet to cross over, it’s possible she has the same sort of ability as Ambrose. This one went on hiatus too, but seeing as how Issue 9 was released in 2021, long after the other comics disappeared, it does bode well for the continuation of her story. (A bit of a warning, though, this one may not be for everyone. It does reference cannibalism, demonic possession, mind control, and SA.)

Oh no, Pop! Who’s gonna serve them frosty milkshakes now? (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Alex de Campi. Art: Fernando Ruiz.)

The other horror stuff was alright, but not really that worth going into. In Blossoms 666, Cheryl and Jason are recast as twin Antichrist, each competing to end the world before the other. They then learn they’re actually triplets, with their long-lost brother Julian being worse than either of them. Madam Satan and the anthology comics don’t really fit into continuity, but are more closely related to the Sabrina series than anything else.

This is so weird. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Batton Lash. Art: John Buscema.)

And then Archie met Punisher. No, really. This was a joint effort by Marvel and Archie comics to bring two very unlikely characters together. It sounds like a joke— I know I laughed when I first heard about it. (Not as hard as I laughed about the next comic I’ll be covering, though.)

So many odd choices led to this comic. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Batton Lash. Art: John Buscema and Stan Goldberg.)

As is sometimes done in crossovers, Punisher and the criminals were drawn by one artist, while Archie and the gang were drawn by series staple Stan Goldberg. The choice of including two drastically different artists made the whole thing seem even more surreal as the art styles clashed in just the right way.

Although it sounds like this sort of crossover would be ridiculous, somehow it worked, and it was a fun, quick read. The gun violence at the school dance was pretty cringe, though. (It was done in 1994, so creators were a little less careful about that sort of content.) Other than that I found it amusing. And at the end it hints that Jughead is a Mutant… which would explain his bottomless stomach. (I would have loved to have seen a Jughead Meets Wolverine comic, but we’ll never see that happen.)

Yup, alien hunters now. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Alex de Campi. Art: Fernando Ruiz.)

And now we come to Archie vs Predator. Yeah… really. In this story, Jughead wins a beach vacation for him and his friends over Spring break. They’re warned against going into the jungle, so of course they end up there on day two. It isn’t long before a Predator ship touches down and the killer alien spoils everyone’s fun. When they leave the beach early, the Predator follows them back to Riverdale and proceeds to tear a bloody slash through the town. There’s also some stuff about a Jungle curse.

As weird as it feels to say, this is awesome. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Alex de Campi. Art: Fernando Ruiz.)

The Predator turned out to be a teenager of their species, and developed a crush on Betty and Veronica. The story ended on some nonsense about a high-tech machine in Lodge’s mansion that was able to make Archie buff. After he died, the distraught girls used the machine to make the Predator into Archie. And to tie it all in to the Multiverse, there was another Sabrina variant here, but she was hinted to be a bit more evil than the other Sabrinas we’ve seen.

Lookit that cute blood-thirsty monster. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Alex de Campi. Art: Fernando Ruiz.)

In contrast to the Punisher story, the Predator was purposefully made cute and “Archie-fied” to up the creepy factor. I think it was done well. This was a pretty straight-forward gimmick miniseries, but it was entertaining. There was lots of death, blood, bones, and gore. But it somehow kept the Archie spirit throughout.

And the winner of the best chapter title goes to… (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Alex de Campi. Art: Robert Hack.)

And there was a sequel. In Archie vs Predator II, the girls and their pet alien (who still looks like Archie and speaks in emoticons for some reason) are in their decimated Riverdale. In a cool twist that I appreciated, Veronica suggested they walk down Memory Lane to reset things, showing some really nice continuity and instantly setting this book apart from its predecessor. Betty points out that Memory Lane only works for Archie, and their Archie is fake. (Never mind the fact that Valerie was able to use it… but she did walk UP it, not down, so I’ll allow it.)

The trio somehow find their way into an alternate reality where everyone is still alive. Their Dilton bought a Predator helmet on eBay and it ends up signaling the other Predators, who race to the planet and start killing everyone in sight.

They seem to be taking all this in stride. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Alex de Campi. Art: Robert Hack.)

This version of Riverdale is a lot like the reboot, complete with Archie monologuing to the audience. There is a lot of death as most of the cast of this new universe dies, including that version of Veronica. That Archie ends up paralyzed, and Betty and Jughead are launched into space with an alien pet to replace poor dead Hotdog. As the carnage ensues, Betty and Veronica summon a being called Mr. Inferno who ensures that Dilton’s helmet is lost in the mail, thereby circumventing their dark fate. Betty and Veronica head off with alien Archie and live their lives.

Continuity! (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Alex de Campi. Art: Robert Hack.)

This one was pretty fun, although they went a bit heavy on the meta jokes. Still, the continuity with Part 1 and the multiple references to obscure Archie lore was fun. There’s even a nod to Punisher when Veronica tries to text “Frank” but accidentally texts Bucky instead. There is a reference to Veronica and Betty summoning the devil, which I learned was an actual comic book plot way back in 1962. (He’s Mr. Inferno.) There’s even a nod to the Riverdale show where Betty and Veronica notoriously share a kiss.

This one was chaotic and messy, but it was clever. My favorite part was when Veronica questioned how the carnage had been allowed to happen and wondered if they had been cancelled. This is a running thing in this series, references to being cancelled and everyone forgetting about them. This was interesting since this comic came out in 2019 and in 2020 the main series went on a hiatus that still hasn’t ended. Prophetic? Or was the writing already on the wall?

Yup. It plays out as you would expect. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Anthony C. Ferrante. Art: Dan Parent.)

As a side note, there’s also a one-shot Archie vs Sharknado that I read just because I was already reading all the weird crossovers. I’m not going to talk much about it because honestly it was kinda forgettable. Interestingly enough, it was written by the Sharknado director. The camp factor is ratcheted up to 11 and it tries its hardest to capture the junk food silliness of the shark movies but the whole thing just felt flat to me. I’m only noting it because it’s also a part of the Multiverse. I’m just glad it was a one-shot and they didn’t do as many of them as they did the movies.

Hehe. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Chip Zdarsky. Art: Erica Henderson.)

Let’s get things a little more light again. So, going back to New Riverdale for a bit, we reach the topic of Jughead. Jughead is an interesting character. He changes fundamentally depending on who’s writing him and what the plot dictates. Sometimes he’s heterosexual. Sometimes he’s a loser slacker. Sometimes he’s a zen guru. My understanding of Riverdale (which I haven’t watched) is that he’s a creepy, moody conspiracy theorist/writer who’s also a teenage mob boss? (Riverdale is weird, y’all.) No matter who he is in each story, he’s always obsessed with food. My favorite version of the character mixed most of his personality traits and explored his character as an asexual, aromatic person. He was a laid back, lazy, perpetually hungry, wise, thoughtful, and imaginative teen who just happened to not be interested in romance. (That’s how it should be done… race and sexual orientation are not a character, just aspects of a character.)

Jughead as an asexual person is incredible. It matches up with much of canon… excluding Life With Archie where he was paired up with Midge and Ethel. Typically, unless there was a plot-centric reason for Jughead to be portrayed as heterosexual, he was depicted as being uninterested or repulsed by girls, dating, and love in general. (Except, of course, the love of a man for a good greasy burger.) So yeah, ace Jughead makes sense canonically, and it’s great to have that representation. There still isn’t much of it out there. (Shout out to the trailblazer from Bojack Horseman, Todd Chavez!)

So many Jugheads. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Sina Grace. Art: Derek Charm.)

That was all an aside. The main reason we’re talking about Jughead is because of Jughead Time Cop, which ties into our thesis. This was an entertaining miniseries that involved time travel and alternate realities. In this one, Jughead is contacted by a woman from the future and goes on a time-skipping adventure. An evil Jughead took control of multiple Jugheads, including the Zombie Jughead and the Hunger werewolf. (And if you examine the screenshot above I’m pretty sure the one in the leather jacket is from Riverdale. And yes, there is a gender-swapped Jughead too. From the same universe as the female-presenting Archie? Yeah probably.)

Haha Jughead helped inspire the Multiverse Theory. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Paul Kupperberg. Art: Norm Breyfogle.)

And so those are the stories I read in my jaunt across the Archie Multiverse. There is likely more than I came across in my reading and research, but this is where my explorations end. I did just kind of stumble upon this whole Multiverse thing and read what caught my eye, but I’m sure there’s more out there that relates to this. For instance, as I was researching this post, I did find references to the Multiverse existing in the live-action Riverdale show, along with a crossover between the Riverdale and comic book characters. There’s a lot more here to discover… heck, I haven’t even mentioned the times Archie became a superhero. Or the reality where they’re all obsessed with Jesus. So it’s possible I may revisit this at some point in the future. We’ll see if there’s interest there. (Let me know!)

References to the Archie Multiverse so far has been scattered throughout story arcs, spin-offs, and limited series… but with the more recent developments such as Jughead Time Police and the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, it does feel as though there is a plan somewhere here. I would love to see more exploration of this concept, perhaps an anthology series exploring the various realities. Maybe a return of Ambrose and Fred Mirth, or a look back at Timelines B, post Archie.

Researching and putting together this post was a long, harrowing journey that took me several years. Some of it was amusing, some of it wholesome. Some dark and gritty, some just plain silly. There were ups and downs, good and subpar… a veritable rollercoaster of a journey. We learned a lot, we had some chuckles, and we saw way more blood and guts than we expected.

Ease up on the meta there. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Alex de Campi. Art: Robert Hack.)

One of the most interesting aspects to the Archie Multiverse is the fact that Archie directly caused some of the main branching realities. Just because he went down that magical path and wondered what would happen if he married Veronica and then Betty, he caused these things to happen. Dilton makes it clear that it’s not a matter of him “finding” or looking into the realities… Archie made them happen with a thought. Imagine the possibilities there! Was Ambrose really travelling to those realities of his imagination, or was he creating them in the same way?

There was a lot to enjoy in these stories. For one thing, I love continuity. That’s one of the things that draws me to a franchise: strong, solid continuity. If you have a wealth of content to draw from, do it! Be faithful to it, celebrate it! It can make things less accessible to those not totally devoted to it, but it adds layers upon layers of value to those willing to explore the content to its fullest. (Adventure Time is one of the best examples of this.) Introducing a Multiverse into a work of fiction helps in this, as you can always explore different worlds, alternate timelines, and “what if” scenarios. It gives you so much flexibility and variety. Sure, they could have done more with it, and maybe they still will… which brings me to my next point.

See a button, push it. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Paul Kupperberg. Art: Norm Breyfogle.)

Where does the Archie Multiverse stand now, as of the writing of this post? As of 2023, not much is going on. Publication by Archie Comics has been on a steady decline in recent years. When Covid shut down the comic industry for several long months in 2020, the mainline New Riverdale series silently ended and no new one has taken its place. Lately they’ve been releasing digests and reprints, a few one-shots, and some of their horror comics, but as it stands right now, the main series that started way back in the 40s could be over for good. Free Comic Book Day last year advertised some of their upcoming comics, but those proved to just be one-shots. (One of which vaguely touched on the Multiverse, but it was a let-down, so I didn’t bother including it.)

So, as of now, Issue 713 seems to be the final issue of the series that started in 1942, which is pretty sad. It’s possible it may return, either as a continuation of where they left off, or a complete relaunch. They are keeping the property alive with their reprints and one-shots, so it doesn’t seem to be fully dead. Maybe some day we’ll return to the Multiverse for more explorations.

Cancelled. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Alex de Campi. Art: Robert Hack.)

If you had asked me three years ago if I was an Archie fan, I would have said “no” without hesitation. But somehow over time these stories have worked their way in, and now my answer would be a resounding “sort of!” I have no intention of reading the 700+ issues of the core comic book series. (I have my hands full right now with both the X-Men and Avengers back catalogues.) After Mark Waid’s initial run on the reboot series, I fell off on reading. I’m sure what came after was fine in its own way, but I couldn’t get into the new art style and the new story threads didn’t catch my interest. (Plus Jughead was doing a journalistic investigation, which made me think they were doing a Riverdale thing.) Although I was happy to see they continued in the new rebooted universe rather than reverting to the dated, classic look. (Of course the latest one shots are back to the old continuity and style, so who knows what the long-term plan is. If there even is a long-term plan.)

If Afterlife with Archie comes back (which isn’t likely at this point) I will pick up the new issues. If there’s another Archie vs Predator or anything that seems to remotely tie into the Marriage universes or the Multiverse in general, I will be there for it. Aside from those, the majority of Archie comics isn’t going to draw my attention. The selected stories and series that I read for this post were fun and memorable, so no regrets on those. There may be more for me to dip into in the future… if nothing else this has reinforced the notion that my mind needs to stay open to possibilities… but I wouldn’t consider myself a hardcore fan by any means. (Hey, prove me wrong and ask for a follow up to this post. Then I’ll have to read more.)

As I mentioned in the beginning, I mainly wrote this post so that I could do something with all this mostly useless Archie knowledge I’ve somehow managed to amass over the past few years. The revelation that there is a fully-formed and active Archie Multiverse just clinched it for me and made me want to explore it. It’s a level of thought and creativity that caught me off-guard. It’s frankly impressive and showed me there’s more to this silly old comic than I could’ve expected.

RIP. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Paul Kupperberg. Art: Norm Breyfogle.)

The whole concept of an Archie Multiverse really is interesting to me. Underneath this straight-laced cheesy kid-friendly comic, darker concepts started surfacing. Artful experimentation played with the expectations of the brand, resulting in fresh new takes on it. Each different version of the property exists in an ever-growing Multiverse, reachable by the various characters. Sabrina accessing different realities, Dilton (who was always the token nerd/mad scientist character) travelling the different universes for his own agendas, Ambrose accidentally taking his friends to worlds with the power of a kid’s overactive imagination… it’s all unexpectedly creative and well-done. It’s the last thing I would have expected from Archie. But it just goes to show that they have creative, talented people working on the comics.

It also goes to show that you can’t trust your preconceptions. I remembered Archie as corny, vanilla, a touch on the lame side. But it turned out to be far deeper than I could have anticipated. If I hadn’t taken the time to explore what it had become, I would have missed out on a lot of entertainment and food for thought. I find again and again that it’s worth giving something a fair chance. That’s my main takeaway from all of this. First impressions don’t give you the whole story.

More than I expected, I have enjoyed my extended foray into this charming (and sometimes odd) Multiverse, and I hope you did too. If you found any of my run-downs and commentary interesting, I would recommend checking out the full stories. You may be as surprised as I was to find them entertaining.

Buh bye. (Credit: Archie Comics. Writer: Alex de Campi. Art: Robert Hack.)

When I was a kid the Archie comics caught my attention. They were bright and colorful. They used easy words and easier plots. It was a great starter comic for me to read when I was five and six. But the closer I got to the age of Archie and the gang, the more the comics lost their appeal for me. I started to realize how silly and corny they were. How lazy the plots could be, how repetitive the jokes. I had, for better or worse, outgrown them. But little did I know, the comics slowly grew up just outside my notice.

Although the comics meant so much to me as a child just learning to read, as I grew up, I started regarding Archie comics as corny, lame… old-fashioned and painfully outdated. Rooted, as it seemed, deeply within the sensibilities and culture of days long gone, unable to find interest or relevancy in the modern age.

However, stumbling upon it again as an adult, at the point the world is in… I can see it with fresh eyes. Yes, it’s still outdated, traditional, and very white, but they’re trying. Some of my change in perception is how the property has attempted to grow with the times. Much of it is my own state of mind. There is so much darkness in the world, so much negativity. At a time when it truly feels like things can’t get any more negative, there’s something refreshing about the inherent positivity of Archie. The sweet glow, the baked-in wholesomeness that is at the center of everything Archie. This is art that is unashamedly light-hearted and positive. Cheery and pleasant. It’s comforting… and can’t we all use a little bit of comfort nowadays?

Thank you for following me on this journey through the strange and convoluted Archie Multiverse. It was quite the ride and I hope you had as much fun reading it as I had putting it together for you. I appreciate you all more than I can say. Until next time, remember not to dismiss anything as valueless without taking a second look at it. You could be surprised to find much more just under the surface.