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Updated on February 26, 2023
Life With Archie #7
Written by: Paul Kupperberg (Archie), J. Torres (Jinx)
Art by: Norm Breyfogle (Archie), Rick Burchett (Jinx)
This month’s “Veronica” story sees Reggie deal with the aftermath of Mr. Lodge’s underhanded, petty attempt to ruin his life. (To think in the normal Archie universe, these words would normally fit Cheryl Blossom, or occasionally even Veronica, not Mr. Lodge!) Meanwhile, Moose moves into the mayor’s office, and meets his new assistant. Chuck and Nancy also get a page in the story, as Mr. Mantle (Reggie’s Dad) makes the two a job offer. Speaking of whom, since Mr. Lodge is trying to ruin the son of the owner of Riverdale’s sole daily newspaper, I assume he has plans on dealing with the negative publicity ramifications from all of this?
In the “Betty” future, Betty and Archie are shown moving back to Riverdale to begin their new jobs at Riverdale High, while we’re also introduced to several members of the freshman class at Riverdale High (a kid with long hair, a drummer wannabe, and a klutzy girl). Meanwhile, Mr. Lodge makes new plans to try to extend control over Riverdale, by giving the unnamed state Riverdale is in (though I assume it’s New York state) a gift of land several miles (five kilometers) outside of town as a gift to build a new high school on. Since he also owns the land between Riverdale and the new school’s site, he’d thus gain more control over the expanded town (via new development built between the school and the old city limits). While I wasn’t immediately taken with the new students, I assume we’ll get to see more about them (and the other students) in future issues.
As promised, starting this month is the new Jinx backup series, about a teenage version of the “L’il Jinx” characters. In this installment, we see Jinx adjust to her first day of high school, reunite with her old friends (from the old series), and learn her father’s apparently divorced. An uneventful start, but I assume future installments will see more of Jinx and company.
There’s also the usual filler material to make it seem like a “teen magazine.” In this case, in honor of Presidents’ Day in the US this month, it’s a pile of stuff about the Obamas and their daily lives/interests—Michelle’s fashion choices, how Barack and Michelle met, and a pull-out poster tying it into the recent “Archie meets President Obama and Sarah Palin” storyline. Speaking of which, I can’t imagine the Tea Party crowd being too impressed with this “Life With Archie” issue as a result (no more than I would if it were an all-Sarah Palin issue). Then again, that assumes a bunch of them haven’t ditched Archie over Kevin Keller (and the old lie about “gays promoting their sexuality to our children!”)…
