10 Comic Book News Stories That Shocked The World‏

6. The Death Of Archie

Readers of superhero comics have come to greet the demise of any character with the same jaded roll-of-eyes that accompanies the deceased's inevitable return some months later. You know, once the publisher has ensured the issue where the resurrection occurs will sell like hot cakes and make sure they hit their profit projections for that quarter. Such cynicism has yet to filter through into the fandoms of other, less predictable genres of comic books, which is perhaps why the news that perpetual fifties schoolboy Archie Andrews was to bite the dust was met with such a huge reaction. Archie Comics became a punchline in Friends because it had its own kind of predictability, no less reassuring than the sort that superhero fans cling to. The town of Riverdale is the sort of All-American, white picket fence tract of suburbia that never actually existed in real life, instead living in the minds and pop culture of baby boomers and their kids. Archie has the most chaste and staid love triangle in the history of romance with Betty and Veronica, comic relief Jughead never faces any true consequences for his wacky schemes, and nothing of any real consequence ever happens in Riverdale. Until recently, that is. There was the introduction of gay character Kevin Keller, the surprisingly horrific and gruesome Afterlife With Archie where the idyllic town was overrun by zombies, but the most shocking announcement of all was that Archie himself would be "killed off" in Life With Archie (we kinda hope they'd planned this all along, and named the title specifically for the delicious irony). The series, which has posited what would happen when the Riverdale crew grew up - with alternate timelines where the main character married either Betty or Veronica - will, from July, see how the group deal with the untimely passing of their leader. Which sounds decidedly less than idyllic, nostalgic, or even fun.