Archie: The Married Life Book 6 (The Married Life Series)

ARCHIE:THE MARRIED LIFE SERIES is not what I had firstexpected from a character originally billed as "The Mirth Of A Nation!",but it does show Arch and his pals as real, vulnerable characters,even moreso than the Riverdale TV series. Everything's Archie, and this Archie is possibly the best in the character's illustrious history.

I give writer Paul Kupperberg and the editors and/or executives who guided this series credit for being ambitious. But on the evidence of this book, I'd say that "Archie" turns out not to be a great vehicle for "high concept" fantasy, social commentary, or drama on a level that would appeal to adults. Taking those topics in order:I had read the original mini-series that created two alternate worlds, one in which Archie marries Veronica and the other in which he marries Betty, and bought this book mostly to see how the creators would handle the re-blending of those two realities into one. I'll call this aSPOILER ALERT (though there really isn't anything to spoil):It turned out that they didn't handle it, they just carefully sidestepped any of the differences. So in the final "One Year Later" chapter, we don't know, for example, whether Jughead and Ethel just had their one-year anniversary or Jughead and Midge just celebrated the first birthday of their son. And of course, Betty and Veronica have to talk and behave interchangeably, although one of them is a widow and the other is (or was?) with Reggie. Basically, Kupperberg et al. painted themselves into a corner, and then just kicked out a hole in the wall and left.END OF SPOILER ALERTAs for the social commentary, I'm glad that the Archie publisher introduced a gay character some years ago and that Kevin Keller became a prominent member of the Archie universe. And I don't have any problem with a comic book presenting arguments in favor of some forms of gun control. But the issues are presented in a blunt, ham-fisted way that may be suitable for "Archie's" traditional younger readers but was too, well, cartoon-y for me.Likewise, the plotting was also heavy-handed. Like on a bad soap opera, the plot seemed driven by an outline that planned for X to happen in issue Y rather than by an internal logic that propelled events forward on its own. Particularly glaring were the use of two characters who functioned only as red herrings to keep us guessing about who Archie's killer would turn out to be, and the blatant foreshadowing in Archie's narration on the day he would be shot.And oh yeah---there's very little humor in the book. Of course, humor wasn't the goal in this series.To sum up, I won't say this is a _bad_ book; in fact, I'm guessing that it might work pretty well for some middle-schoolers (although presumably they'd want to have read the earlier volumes first). But I think the creators' reach exceeded their grasp.

A great gift for my teenager.

The artwork and the story is amazing, and I loved the whole Life with Archie series, except maybe the Midge/Jughead storyline, I'm sorry but that came completely out of left field. While, I'm not crazy about the death of Archie, I think the writers and artists, depicted how Archie would react in that situation quite well, besides its only arc in the Archie comics universe, I can deal. I'm not sure if I'll read the Afterlife with Archie because anything horror related/zombie like scares me…

I consider the finish to this series to be a slap in the face. Nobody who's been following this story wanted to see Archie die; we all wanted to see him have a happy ending. To do this for the sake of a publicity stunt is deplorable. The abrupt ending even cheapens the storylines that were going on, such as Veronica's trial. And then there's the not so subtle politics the comic is pushing: Archie is killed by a "crazy right-winger." Just a disappointing ending to what had been a very good series.

This book was sad and funny. When I read it it was nice when they had to go to trail or find a job.

Great stuff. A review can't do it justice - by far the most ppwerful and emotional Archie comic book ever.

Very well written. As a long time Archie fan, was very sad but nice tribute to a wonderful character.

Was a little disappointed - story left us wanting mire because it felt rushed. Some things weren't even addressed from previous books. Still had many enjoyable parts.

just as I expected