SPOILER ALERT/TRIGGER WARNING: 'Archie' Will Die Saving Gay Friend

[benjipwns]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/archie-comic-character-to-die-saving-gay-friend

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Archie Andrews will die taking a bullet for his gay best friend.

The famous freckle-faced comic book icon is meeting his demise in Wednesday's installment of "Life with Archie" when he intervenes in an assassination attempt on Kevin Keller, Archie Comics' first openly gay character. Andrews' death, which was first announced in April, will mark the conclusion of the series that focuses on grown-up renditions of Andrews and his Riverdale pals.

"The way in which Archie dies is everything that you would expect of Archie," said Jon Goldwater, Archie Comics publisher and co-CEO. "He dies heroically. He dies selflessly. He dies in the manner that epitomizes not only the best of Riverdale but the best of all of us. It's what Archie has come to represent over the past almost 75 years."

Keller's character first joined Veronica Lodge, Betty Cooper, Jughead Jones and Reggie Mantle in the Archie Comics spin-off "Veronica" in 2010. He later appeared in his own solo title. In "Life with Archie," Keller is a married military veteran and newly elected senator who's pushing for more gun control in Riverdale after his husband was involved in a shooting.

"We wanted to do something that was impactful that would really resonate with the world and bring home just how important Archie is to everyone," said Goldwater. "That's how we came up with the storyline of saving Kevin. He could have saved Betty. He could have saved Veronica. We get that, but metaphorically, by saving Kevin, a new Riverdale is born."

  More Homosexualist War on America Agenda 

[benjipwns]

Goldwater notes that Andrews' passing isn't just a publicity stunt but also a lesson about gun violence and a declaration of diversity in the new age of Archie Comics.

"Archie is not a superhero like all the rest of the comic book characters," said Goldwater. "He's human. He's a person. When you wound him, he bleeds. He knows that. If anything, I think his death is more impactful because of that. We hope by showing how something so violent can happen to Archie, that we can — in some way — learn from him."

[thisismyusername]

Goldwater notes that Andrews' passing isn't just a publicity stunt but also a lesson about gun violence and a declaration of diversity in the new age of Archie Comics.

"Archie is not a superhero like all the rest of the comic book characters," said Goldwater. "He's human. He's a person. When you wound him, he bleeds. He knows that. If anything, I think his death is more impactful because of that. We hope by showing how something so violent can happen to Archie, that we can — in some way — learn from him."

Can't wait until 20 issues later, Archie is back with a "I got better via Anal Sex" or something reasoning.

[Mandark]

Crisis on Infinite Riverdales

[Himu]

Thanks for spoiling it. The homosexual media has no standards at all.

[benjipwns]

The irony of a man named Goldwater explaining a homosexual man's role in a story.

"You don't need to be 'straight' to fight and die for your country. You just need to shoot straight."

[Momo]

fuck you benji, I was going to read this

[benjipwns]

From GAF thread:

I'll try to explain.

Around 8+ years or so, a timetravel forest appeared in Riverdale (named Memory Lane, of course) that was mostly used for milestone issues where Archie met his past self and the like. During another milestone issue, he spends his grad going down the opposite direction and winds up in a future after college. There are two of these futures, one where he marries Betty, one where he marries Veronica. (And some others that don't play into the series, like marrying one of the pussycats and having a mixed race baby) Eventually, according to the original issues, he was supposed to live happily ever after with kids in both timelines. But the event arc was so popular that it spawned a separate series that, as we see now, ignores the events present in the origin story.

Said futures have similar running themes between them: Both feature Jughead running the local malt shop, Both featured an EVIL (Like cartoony evil) businessman named Fred Myrth that hates Riverdale, Archie and his ilk. Both feature marriage drama, with multiple couples. But then you have differences that separate the two. For example, in one universe, Veronica is presumed to be dead for a while, due to a plane crash. In the other, she's been arrested for fraud (Planted in by that EVILL *thunderclaps* businessman) and had just recently had her court case dissolved. In one timeline, Betty is part of a reality show about Reggie's car shop, while in another, she becomes a slave to her job as a temp teacher at Riverdale high. This isn't even getting into the downright bonkers shit that keeps happening. Like did you know that Dilton (Archie's nerdy friend) tried to blow up the world, while the other universe Dilton brought Archie to the multiverse where he and the multitude of other versions of him stopped the other universe's Dilton from blowing it up?

[benjipwns]

It's like somebody got inspired by Alan Moore's Supreme and yet only had the Archie comics to work with.

[Great Rumbler]

It's too bad that they're not going to kill off Archie that way in the 3-panel newspaper version.

[Yeti]

Can't wait for Reign of the SuperArchies!

[Kara]

Will Earth-262 Archie be coming back as a Black Lantern?

[Joe Molotov]

Will Earth-262 Archie be coming back as a Black Lantern?

They already have an Archie zombie comic.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[Kara]

The cheap titillation of that Veronica cover.

[Joe Molotov]

The setup is that Jughead's dog gets run over, so he gets Sabrina to use her devil magic to bring it back to life, and things get a bit Pet Semetary from there.

[Yeti]

[Yeti]

Bonus because Archie with a Supermullet makes me laugh

[Himu]

Is that semen

[Yeti]

It's actually robot afterbirth. The 90s were a weird time for comics.

[bork]

Is that semen

[Joe Molotov]

The mullet-era Superman was hilarious. Then they had to go and ruin it by changing him to Electric Blue Superman.

[bork]

"The way in which Archie dies is everything that you would expect of Archie," said Jon Goldwater, Archie Comics publisher and co-CEO. "He dies heroically. He dies selflessly. He dies in the manner that epitomizes not only the best of Riverdale but the best of all of us. It's what Archie has come to represent over the past almost 75 years."

[Joe Molotov]

What a scamp!

[Kara]

I still don't understand how what I thought of as one of the most vanilla comics in comicdom is somehow DC level (possibly worse) in its multiverse complexity. Did some people take over creative while no one was looking or something?

[Yeti]

This is the same company that makes Sonic the Hedgehog comics. So.

[Joe Molotov]

I still don't understand how what I thought of as one of the most vanilla comics in comicdom is somehow DC level (possibly worse) in its multiverse complexity. Did some people take over creative while no one was looking or something?

[etiolate]

is jughead the shooter?

[Eel O'Brian]

Not really, though, they don't have a parent company with billions of dollars in character licensing on the line.

[Eel O'Brian]

I read Marvel Comics: The Untold Story recently, and it really clarified why a lot of the crazier shit when I ran the comic shop during the early 90s was happening.