For decades, featuring a cast of ordinary teenagers in a range of Archie titles – mildly comedic situations, was seen as a family-friendly, offensive, somewhat conservative tale fortresses. Debuting in 1941, Riverdale teenagers – Archie and his peers changed little in terms of style, tone and content. An example was the style of something like a car that demonstrates the passage of time. It is one of the few comic publishers that are reliable and “safe” for readers of all ages, but I have to say that Riverdale-based titles often felt rather dull.
The 21st century finally brought about a change in Riverdale, but Roberto Aguirre Sacasa (the play about Archie growing up and coming out of the closet was hit with a stop and imagination order by Archie Comics) writes the title of a horror-based Archie, like Life After the Death. Today, Archie Comics has a reputation for much more diverse and inclusion than before, despite its cozy, nostalgic style that is still familiar to the mainline title (one of the titles, Kevin Keller, openly features gay characters as an example of this).
So it’s probably not unexpected, even if it’s so unpleasant to see Archie intersecting with the most unlikely characters: Predator (especially because it’s not the first time a character has intersected with a more violent character – Archie returned to Punisher in 1994). The horror-based Archie title takes the character and places it in a much darker setting with more realistic art, but Archie vs Predator maintains the classic cartoonish style with Jaunty, which has been Archie’s trademark since the character’s debut.
And somehow, it works. Written by Alex de Campi, there are cheeky little references to the dialogues and scenes featured in the Predator films, as well as some cheeky little mentions that Archie knows nods to the crossover that was part of the previous one. It doesn’t skip violence either. He is also not afraid to kill familiar characters in horrifying ways. And it’s an amazing pleasure to see the Predator itself rendered in Archie House style. Other unlikely crossovers have also been featured as short backup strips for each issue (Sabrina meets Hellboy and Little Mask & his peers – for example Archie/Mask crossover)
No one was expecting it, and no one really worked, but that’s thanks to the really great writing and dark comic tone. In fact, it worked so well that the sequel continued in 2019 – Archie vs Predator II – which had a much more modern and mature feel from the familiar Archie style. Without a doubt, the sequel is a manga, and will make time to review at some point in the future.
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