Archie Comics Celebrates America's 250th #1
Cover Artist: Dan Parent
Wow, it’s weird to read a “regular” Archie comic after five issues of Archie x The Army of Darkness...
So you may have heard that the United States of America is celebrating a big birthday this year. Given the current state of, well, everything, I myself am not feeling very festive. Fortunately, Archie Andrews and his friends live in a much nicer place than we do, and they’ve got plenty of celebration in them…
"Yankee Doodle Darling"
Writer: George Gladir
Artist: Stan Goldberg
This is a fun little five-pager in which the students and faculty are celebrating "Dress-Up Day" by dressing up as famous historical figures. Archie is George Washington, Betty is "Aunt Samantha" (gender-swapped Uncle Sam), Jughead is a Minuteman, etc. The story is really just an excuse for one pun after another, so you'll either chuckle or groan a lot, depending on your sense of humor.
"Patriotic Spirit, Parts 1 and 2"
Writer: Mike Pellowski
Artist: Tim Kennedy
A solo Veronica tale, this shows her family spending a weekend at a Colonial-style bed and breakfast in New England. After she wows her dad with a display of knowledge, Ronnie ends up taking a helicopter to Connecticut for the rest of the weekend. There she hopes to learn about Ethan Allen for a paper she's writing. She meets Tom "Not Related" Allen, whose inn she'll be staying at, and before long she also encounters a man named Joshua Jamison Thornberry, who bears a striking resemblance to Tom. Let's just say Veronica might have found her Patriotic Spirit...
"What if Jughead Was President?"
Writer: Rich Maropoulos
Artist: Doug Crane
Jughead would bring about world peace by bringing all of its leaders together for a meal and then starting a food fight. Yep, that sounds like Jughead...
"What if Reggie Were President?"
Writer: George Gladir
Artist: Henry Scarpelli
If Reggie were President, he'd be all about the ladies. All-female Secret Service, a pool at the White House, raffling off a date with him to take care of the national debt... you know, regular stuff. Oh, and Betty would be in love with him, naturally.
Fireworks Display
This was fun, but ultimately inconsequential. Each story only had a handful of pages—with the exception of Veronica's tale, since it was in two parts—so nothing had a lot of room to breathe. And frankly, most of the stories here were just rapid-fire gags leading to a final punchline. Some of them landed, some did not.
Archie Comics has been putting out a lot of themed one-shots like this lately, and they all have one thing in common: they're cute, but they don't have a lot of story. Now, don't think that I expect the regular Archie series to be an ongoing story with drama and pathos, because I know it's not. But I also know that the regular series has a bit more of a storyline progression in its issues than this did.
One thing this one-shot did really well was stick to its theme. There's no doubt it was ultimately all about America, from the bad jokes and history lessons in the first few stories, and then the dual gags of Jughead and Reggie being President. Kids who picked this up (do kids even read comics like Archie anymore?) would certainly learn something.
History Lessons
These stories featured multiple different creative teams, but as befits the Archie Comics "house style," they all look and sound pretty much the same. The writing is all pretty simple, but it is pretty impressive how many history lessons they sneak into the first two stories. The other two, the Jughead and Reggie ones, are pretty much extended gags where they remain very much in-character.
Art-wise, in the first story, everyone's costumes look good and it's pretty easy to tell who they're supposed to be. The whole story pretty much exists to get to a gag about Veronica "holding a torch for Archie" while dressed as the Statue of Liberty, and it delivers on that particular visual. In the other stories, everything looks about the same, with small changes in details here and there. In Jughead's story, everyone has a bit of a more exaggerated look that goes with the goofier tone. In Reggie's story, he's extra handsome and dashing, with tons of lovely ladies throwing themselves at him, and the art style is altered just enough to demonstrate that.
Archie Comics doesn’t credit a colorist anywhere throughout the book, but the work is completely solid. The colors are bright but not too fancy, keeping a very classic look throughout. Again, very consistent from story to story.
Celebratory Tone
Archie Comics Celebrates America's 250th #1 is a fun, simple read that does what it says on the tin: uses Archie Andrews and his pals as the vehicle to tell stories celebrating America and our history, with some laughs (and some groans) along the way. It's not going to set your world on fire or change your life, but if you've ever picked up an Archie comic, you knew that going in. I'm willing to bet that in another fifty years, when we're celebrating America's tricentennial, Archie and his friends will be there, same as ever, to help us mark that occasion as well.