He’s met The Predator, The Punisher, and the kids from Glee, but now Archie Andrews meets his strangest guest-star of all: Archie Andrews!? Your Major Spoilers review of Archie Meets Riverdale #1 from Archie Comics awaits!

ARCHIE MEETS RIVERDALE #1

Writer: Daniel Kibblesmith
Penciler: Pat and Tim Kennedy
Inker: Bob Smith
Colorist: Matt Herms
Letterer: Jack Morelli
Editor: Jamie Lee Rotante/Stephen Oswald/Vincent Lovallo
Publisher: Archie Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: May 11, 2022

Previously in Archie Meets Riverdale:

Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Riverdale, where we lay our scene.
From ancient newsprint break to new HD,
Where CW primetime makes civil hands unclean.

Archie Andrews meets Archie Andrews, what here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

OF COURSE IT’S DILTON’S FAULT

We open with the classic conundrum: Archie Andrews wants to take his best girl to the Retro Sock Hop, but… Which girl IS the best? Comic-Archie is perplexed, but Betty and Veronica are too distracted by Dilton’s new face-tune app that turns him into KJ Apa. That’s when he gets the hare-brained idea to digitally print a 3-D clone, which Dilton pulls off by borrowing energy from a neighboring reality, leading to Riverdale-Archie crashing into their midst. Archie and Archie try to unravel the way home, but the bridging of the two realities brings over Riverdale’s versions of Reggie, Veronica, and more. Worse still, Dilton realizes that he only has a few days to figure it out before both universes will lock in the changes, PERMANENTLY. Riverdale-Juggy has gone missing somewhere in the multiverse, but comic-Jug finds himself in Riverdale, where he post-ironically borrows Cole Sprouse’s laptop and explains to Riverdale-Betty that they’re just friends.

Then, Dilton’s machine fails completely.

“I DO RECALL A BRIEF RELIGIOUS PHASE.”

As a long-time reader of Archie Comics, my enjoyment of this issue was entirely in the meta-moments. Reggie torments Dilton until Archie wishes he meets an even bigger bully, leading to Riverdale-Reggie punching his lights out. After half an issue of trying to resolve their problems with science, the real resolution comes when Jughead realizes something important: If all realities have an Archie and a Jughead and a Veronica and a Betty, then odds are good that there’s also a Sabrina Spellman. (He never panics, either, since he’s traveled in time and space before, and knows how this all works.) Best of all, Riverdale-Betty remarks about the strange cults that keep popping up in her world, leading Jug to remember the Archie gang’s Spire Comics phase. I will say that the art never quite seems to capture the likenesses of Camila Mendes or Lili Reinhart, or indeed any of the actors save Cole Sprouse, which heightens the feeling that the comic book cast has the upper hand. It’s all very well-drawn, but it feels less like a crossover than a special guest-star situation, like when The Punisher met Eminem.

BOTTOM LINE: FAST, FUN AND GENRE-SAVVY

This story doesn’t concern itself with angst or gravitas, which actually suits me just fine, but it does mean that Archie Meets Riverdale #1 feels a little bit slight beneath the jokes and clever moments, but it gets the job done and the art is charmingly retro, earning 3 out of 5 stars overall. There are more mocking jabs aimed at Riverdale than at Archie, but at least the giant burgers of the CW are so big and so good that Jughead can only eat three of them.

(And the explanation of Sabrina’s multiversal existence is itself worth the price of admission.)

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