Archie, Vol. 2 by Mark Waid
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
“Archie, Vol.2” lost a little of the energy that “Archie, Vol. 1” had developed for the Riverdale crew. In this volume the big problem is that the town is divided by an election. On one side is Hiram Lodge (supported by Veronica and Archie) and on the other Mr. Collier, Betty’s uncle. There’s a controversy that’s made public regarding Mr. Collier and the town splits on sides for those who support Mr. Collier and those who’ve hated him. Mr. Collier is a teacher at Riverdale high and he’s one of those really tough teachers who you either see past the gruff demeanor or you think is just a jerk. The controversy builds all the way until election night. It divides the teens amongst those who support Betty and those who support Veronica.
While I appreciated the political climate of this volume, especially since it came out in 2016. Who know Archie would be so prescient? What I didn’t like was how the teens boiled down the conflict between Betty and Veronica. And at the crux of that argument is Archie. There’s a lot that Veronica and Betty could argue about, but in this volume it came really close to the “we’re fighting over the same boy so we can’t like each other” trope. The writer’s walked this line very closely until the end of the volume in which there’s a ceasefire called between the two young women and Archie is removed from their conflict.
The volume ends on quite the cliffhanger and you’ll want to have “Vol. 3” ready to find out what happens. “Vol. 2” suffers from the sophomore slump that seems to plague many series. Having already read “Vol. 3” by the time I’m writing this review, I can recommend sticking with this series.
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