I don’t think I can ever blame Indian stories (in movies, TV serials etc) of being overly dramatic and emotion-laden, any longer.
This reaction, or rather revelation, comes after I have read the latest of the Archie Marries Veronica series (Archie #601), which is part 2 of 6. And things are surely getting messy.
In ways this episode is taking Archie and his friends on an interesting adventure, something of an experiment where the Archie universe is being governed by rules of the real world. Time, as we know it, is actually progressing for them as it does for us.
So what we have is a group of batchmates graduating school, suitably anxious about life at work or in college, and again about life after graduating college. Jobs, career, responsibilities, shifting cities, shifting friends and the biggest whopper of all – marriage.
But with this paradigm shift is a shift towards real life dejection, pressure and bitter letdowns. So while marriage is everybody’s reason to celebrate we have obvious concern for Betty, and the whole marriage has a doomed to fail sense about it, which is not what the Archie universe usually deals with. Point to note is that Archie proposes to Veronica, not for a lifetime’s love or passion, but out of a sense of requited responsibility that he feels he must prove to himself as he gets older. And as days lead up to the big day, he is markedly blasé and almost funereal about the impending occasion.
Once the marriage is concluded he settles into life as the Lodge scion, working hard as VP of Lodge Enterprises and coming home to his palatial house and glamourous wife. Of course, before all this there is a single panel honeymoon scene, where we are outside closed doors with lots of pink hearts exploding. The most eerie Archie panel yet. After a year they are also pregnant.
Maybe everything else is just life and both the readers and characters are trying to get used to it. But where this comic has unnecessarily hit below the belt is with Betty. Betty is in New York City now, working, independent, everybody’s best friend. Yet she is demolished to a weak, withering lady in mourning who has been rejected by her white knight and is just trying her best to live up to her goody image. Please, Lord, give her some teeth and let her not pull her punches. I mean enough is enough with the receiving end of the most famous, exploitative love triangle in 20th century history. The icing on the cake is Archie’s sensitive walk with Betty where he is trying to explain her importance to him (emphasis all from the comic book):
“Betty…you were my first friend when I moved to Riverdale. We were kids.”
“I’ll never forget that day. I thought you were funny. And very cute.”
“And whenever we dated, I had the greatest time. But…but…”
“Veronica came along. I know, Archie…”
“No, Betty. When I finally grew up, I realized I loved you unlike any other girl! You were…are…to me, the sister I never had!”
““Sister”?”
And so on.
I haven’t seen a more poorly imaginative, unsatisfying, egocentric, androcentric line in a long, long time.
I hope that the rest of the 4 issues remaining in this sextet story will redeem the direction it is taking. The reason behind creating it eludes me. Is it a move to wrapping up the series, or is it a move to making it more mature for today’s more mature readers? Or is it just to boost sales? For the most contrived part of this whole exercise is that none of this is presented as actual events. The writers have worked all of this into the premise of a reading-the-future plot. These events are occurring as Archie takes a walk up (not down) memory lane. So maybe it will all end as one big joke.
Wink. Wink. Nudge. Nudge.
This reaction, or rather revelation, comes after I have read the latest of the Archie Marries Veronica series (Archie #601), which is part 2 of 6. And things are surely getting messy.
In ways this episode is taking Archie and his friends on an interesting adventure, something of an experiment where the Archie universe is being governed by rules of the real world. Time, as we know it, is actually progressing for them as it does for us.
So what we have is a group of batchmates graduating school, suitably anxious about life at work or in college, and again about life after graduating college. Jobs, career, responsibilities, shifting cities, shifting friends and the biggest whopper of all – marriage.
But with this paradigm shift is a shift towards real life dejection, pressure and bitter letdowns. So while marriage is everybody’s reason to celebrate we have obvious concern for Betty, and the whole marriage has a doomed to fail sense about it, which is not what the Archie universe usually deals with. Point to note is that Archie proposes to Veronica, not for a lifetime’s love or passion, but out of a sense of requited responsibility that he feels he must prove to himself as he gets older. And as days lead up to the big day, he is markedly blasé and almost funereal about the impending occasion.
Once the marriage is concluded he settles into life as the Lodge scion, working hard as VP of Lodge Enterprises and coming home to his palatial house and glamourous wife. Of course, before all this there is a single panel honeymoon scene, where we are outside closed doors with lots of pink hearts exploding. The most eerie Archie panel yet. After a year they are also pregnant.
Maybe everything else is just life and both the readers and characters are trying to get used to it. But where this comic has unnecessarily hit below the belt is with Betty. Betty is in New York City now, working, independent, everybody’s best friend. Yet she is demolished to a weak, withering lady in mourning who has been rejected by her white knight and is just trying her best to live up to her goody image. Please, Lord, give her some teeth and let her not pull her punches. I mean enough is enough with the receiving end of the most famous, exploitative love triangle in 20th century history. The icing on the cake is Archie’s sensitive walk with Betty where he is trying to explain her importance to him (emphasis all from the comic book):
“Betty…you were my first friend when I moved to Riverdale. We were kids.”
“I’ll never forget that day. I thought you were funny. And very cute.”
“And whenever we dated, I had the greatest time. But…but…”
“Veronica came along. I know, Archie…”
“No, Betty. When I finally grew up, I realized I loved you unlike any other girl! You were…are…to me, the sister I never had!”
““Sister”?”
And so on.
I haven’t seen a more poorly imaginative, unsatisfying, egocentric, androcentric line in a long, long time.
I hope that the rest of the 4 issues remaining in this sextet story will redeem the direction it is taking. The reason behind creating it eludes me. Is it a move to wrapping up the series, or is it a move to making it more mature for today’s more mature readers? Or is it just to boost sales? For the most contrived part of this whole exercise is that none of this is presented as actual events. The writers have worked all of this into the premise of a reading-the-future plot. These events are occurring as Archie takes a walk up (not down) memory lane. So maybe it will all end as one big joke.
Wink. Wink. Nudge. Nudge.
Didn't know about this development in Archies and must say I don't like it much!
ReplyDeleteNever really thought much about comics & comic characters. Your blog is offering new meaning & opening a new world to me
ReplyDeleteJust finished reading #602, the ending is "Alternate Reality! Next issue...Archie marries BETTY!" =P
ReplyDeleteIf there is an alternate, what is real ? Doesn't it dilute realty ? waiting to see your views.
ReplyDelete@ Amit
ReplyDeleteIt is all just a great experiment unfolding before my eyes. I am sure I can learn from it if I observe it closely. But it is a betrayal as well. But somewhere this goes to show how we become caught up in the characters' stories - a bond that shouldn't be betrayed...
@ Devesh
I read the issue after you mentioned it's out. And I had expected just this, I'd even mentioned it in my 'Will he? Won't He?" post. It is too bold a step for the creators to take without a safety. Time for another post.
@ Swapna R
Fiction is always trying to dilute reality, for nothing that happens in any fiction can ever happen in the same way in real life. But the Archie comics creators are just trying to find direction I suppose and offering us options, nothing irreversible. The whole premise for this wedding angle was/is based in some kind of fantasy. In the first part of this 6 part series it showed Archie graduating School and taking a walk into some forest where he walks up a road called Memory Lane, and that very thing is repeated at the end of this 3rd part where he is again walking up this road. So nothing has been conclusively drawn, it is all some kind of dream-like situation. Quite unfair, the manner in which it has been executed, that's all.
Haha! nice post! I'd heard about this volume of archies but I haven't read it.
ReplyDeleteI think the reason archies comics have been tolerated and even loved despite how unfair it seems to be, is because of how situational each episode is. Like you said, this breaks into the real world and so one is forced to judge it alongside other melodramas....