Archie’s Double Digest #203

November 7, 2009

Archie’s Double Digest #203 (Archie Comics)
By Melanie J. Morgan, Norm Breyfogle, and others

Archie Comics is reportedly going to retire the “new look” experiment after the next story runs in Pals ‘n Gals Double Digest, which I personally think is a shame. There have been some interesting stories told in this format, and this one isn’t too bad. As the Andrews search for a new house in Martinsville, Archie accidentally lets it slip to his father that he doesn’t want to move away from Riverdale. As the Andrews sit down for an important family meeting at a hauntingly familiar diner, the rest of the gang back in Riverdale decide to throw the Andrews the greatest going-away party of all time. The end of this story is somewhat predictable — not only do we get the expected result, but it comes about pretty much exactly as we would have expected. The scene in the “Bizarro Pop Tate’s” diner is funny, though, and helps elevate the story a bit. The rest of the digest, as usual, is full of short stories from Archie’s 60-plus year deep catalogue, and as always, they’re of varying quality. We do get a nice little block of Little Archie stories, which speaks to the child in me quite strongly. Overall, it’s a fun little book and a solid, if not shocking, way to end the “Goodbye Forever” story.
Rating: 8/10