Jughead’s Double Digest #140

May 28, 2008

Jughead’s Double Digest #140 (Archie Comics)
By Melaine J. Morgan, Joe Staton, Al Milgrom and generations of Archie writers and artists

Although the majority of this book is made up of the usual back-up features reprinted from decades of Archie comics, I’m going to focus just on the new material, which is really all that’s worth talking about. Last year, Archie tried a new, more “realistic” look in Betty and Veronica Double Digest. This year, the same creative team is telling a Jughead tale as well. Worried that Jughead is missing out because of his single nature, Archie, Reggie, Betty and Veronica begin scheming to fix him up with Sandy Sanchez. Although Jughead and Sandy are friends, they hadn’t considered sparks flying. When the gang puts their plan into motion, however, it may work all too well. “Bad Boy Trouble,” the Betty and Veronica story, was fairly serious, about Veronica falling for a troublemaker and getting into a bad predicament. This follow-up, by contrast, is much more lighthearted. While that story drifted into soap opera territory, this feels much more like a romantic comedy, and surprisingly, it works extremely well. Jughead is well-suited to this role and the new character, Sandy, seems to be a decent fit here. Ironically, I don’t think there’s anything other than length that would prevent this story from being drawn in the traditional style without changing a word of dialogue, but I enjoy it as is. As many of the fans agreed, the “New Look” is fine as long as it doesn’t take over the line. As there appears to be no danger of that happening, Jughead’s fans can enjoy this new kind of story for what it is.
Rating: 8/10