Open Mike Night: Jughead #10

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Submitted by Critical Blast Staff on Mon, 11/07/2016 - 10:02

Jughead #10

Written by: Ryan North
Art by: Derek Charm
Lettered by: Jack Morelli

Published by: Archie
Cover Price: $3.99

Mike Maillaro: So last issue, Jughead had a crush on a burger mascot working at Pops. He ends up asking her out on a date. In the end Jughead realizes that dating “the burger” meant he had to date the girl in the burger suit...who is revealed to be Sabrina. This issue starts with their first date...which is completely freaking Jughead out. He ends up dragging Kevin Keller along into joining them on their date.

When Archie arrives, dressed inexplicably as a French waiter, Sabrina decides she needs to take matters into her own hands and tries to cast a spell to create an enchanting evening. Birds fly overhead dropping rose pedals...but Jughead is so engrossed in his phone, he misses all that. Sabrina ups the game trying to cast a love spell, but it just makes Jughead fall in love with the nachos he’s eating. Sabrina calls off the date, and spends the next day trying to curse Jughead, but it keeps backfiring.

I have always been a Jughead fan, so I was kind of bummed out that I didn’t enjoy the early issues of this series more. Ryan North has been a terrific change, making this series feel very much like modernized classic Archie stories. I had a lot of fun reading this issue, especially the really bizarre “Reggie and Jughead friendship montage” and Archie’s group text trying to flirt with Betty and Veronica at the same time.

Mike Weaver: Yeah, this was very much exactly what I want out of a Jughead comic. Plenty of silliness, accidental uncomfortable situations, Jughead somehow muddles through without anything bad ever happening to him. Kind of like Goofy, Jughead is one of those people who constantly gets in bad situations, but comes out the other side exactly the same through dumb luck.

I was a little unsure about them integrating Sabrina into this comic with the date, but it turned into comedy gold, especially with the day of hexes, especially especially the friendship montage. Constant shots at Archie and his beliefs that he’s a deity of love were pretty great too, because to some extent, you have to connect any Archieverse story back to Archie. This did that while still obviously being a Jughead comic.

Maillaro: One thing that I liked about integrating Sabrina into the story is that she felt a little more mischievous than she had been the last few times I had seen Sabrina in recent years. Even in the TV show, she was pretty much always a goody two shoes. Here, she was a scorned woman, and was going to make Jughead pay for it...in a slapstick comical way.

As we pointed out in a review of Squirrel Girl a while back, Ryan North still loves his little editorial commentary at the bottom of each page. I still don’t think they add anything to the comic itself, but at least they were easy to read this time. In the issue of Squirrel Girl we read, they were an odd orange color, so I had to struggle to read something that just never felt worth it. That wasn’t an issue here at least.

Weaver: I thought the notes at the bottom of the page were pretty well executed, honestly. I particularly like the page where Sabrina complains about the town despite it being full of teens exactly her age, with the note at the bottom continuing the fourth wall breaking of Sabrina’s statement.

What works about this use of Sabrina also is that Archie has always been a world where the personas of each character are a little flexible depending on what book they’re in. I would have no problem reconciling a more serious Sabrina book with her depiction here, because it’s Jughead, of course it’s sillier. Plus, let me just say again, Jughead/Reggie Friendship Montage.

Maillaro: Which, by the way, was the only page without the writer’s commentary…

I don’t know if we have talked about this before. Probably not, but I absolutely love Kevin Keller, who had a great scene early on here. It’s always hard to add a new character to something as iconic as Archie, but Kevin Keller has always seemed so well written. He’s just a normal guy who happens to be gay. They don’t worry about him falling into an stereotypes, but also don’t worry too much about overcorrecting.

Weaver: Kevin also clearly stated that he had no experience in the kind of situation Jughead was in, nor did he want to replace him, without having to come right out and say the reason. That’s a frequent trap with a minority character, the idea that they must constantly state exactly what makes them different to the point where it becomes noise. Kevin implies his homosexuality without having to say, “By the way, I’m gay,” which makes the character feel a lot more natural and less forced. I like that a lot.

I also liked that Kevin, who has zero interest in dating girls, gives Jughead much better advice and assistance than Archie, who sees himself as one of the great romantics when it comes to women. It makes a lot of sense. Archie is too close to the situation to see it properly.

Maillaro: Archie is a wrecking ball, destroying himself and everything around him. I feel so sorry for that poor, hopeless bastard. The last issue of Archie before the reboot had the town considering putting Archie into exile, you have to admit they had some legitimate points there...

So scores for this one. Easily 5 for the writing. I had so much fun reading this. The art was solid. I don’t know if it was all that exciting, but I thought it served it’s purpose more than well. I would go a 4.5 for that. Huge improvement for this series over the last two issues. Definitely a great turnaround!

Weaver: Yeah, they definitely turned this thing around. I agree on the scores fully, and I’m actually excited to read more of this title (which was not how I felt last time we reviewed it).

Summary: My favorite comic from last week. Just the perfect "modern" Archie comic. So much fun. This series did get off to a bit of a shaky start, but the last two issues have been perfect. Definitely worth checking out!

Final Scores

	Maillaro – Story (out of 5)	Weaver – Story (out of 5)	Maillaro – Art (out of 5)	Weaver – Art (out of 5)
Jughead #10	5	5	4.5	4.5