Review of Archie Comics' New Crusaders

I'm late to the game. I first heard about Archie Comics plans to revive its super hero line sometime last year, but somehow lost track of it. Then I read somewhere that the comics were going to be digital first, then printed later. Well, I don't read digital comics simply because it means I need to wear my glasses and I hate wearing my glasses any more than I already have to. Also, I prefer to read my comics while reclined on the sofa or bed, and I don't want the burden of holding my laptop computer or staring at teeny-tiny images on my telephone. Anyway, Archie put out six issues of "New Crusaders," which they recently collected in a paperback. 

I had some trepidation about purchasing the paperback collection of "New Crusaders." I'm a longtime fan of the Archie super heroes. I have a lot of the '40s comics on some presumably bootleg discs. I've got a couple dozen of the '50s and '60s comics featuring the Fly, the Jaguar, Black Hood, The Comet, and the rest of the gang. Some deride the mid-'60s Mighty Crusaders as campy and claim it was an attempt to cash in on the 1966 Batman television series. Well, I just found the comics to be a fun exaggeration of what Stan Lee was doing over at Marvel. Are you telling me Spider-Man, Thor, and Captain America aren't campy? Read those comics again and face front, true believer. Marvel's mid-'60s comics were extremely campy. The Mighty Crusaders just made it over the top for the sake of humor. These comics were written on two levels: the kids could dig the colorful super heroes having their exciting adventures, while the adults could laugh at the goofy situations. As for the Batman connection, that's utter nonsense as the television show came out after the Mighty Crusaders.

I have maybe a third of the '80s revival issues, most of which were pretty good, as well as an issue or two of the '90s version printed under the name Impact Comics. Those that I've read were good enough that I'd like to read more of them. I don't have any of D.C.'s recent grim-and-gritty licensed versions. They just looked awful and seemed the antithesis of everything the name Archie brings to mind. But you can't judge a book by its cover: I flipped through some of them in the bargain bins and saw that they were, if anything, even worse than they looked. 

So I feared that perhaps Archie Comics was jumping on the disgusting hyper-violent, ultra-sexualized bandwagon in an attempt to move in on Marvel and D.C.'s market share. I thought maybe Archie Comics, a class act as far as wholesomeness goes, would transform my beloved heroes into "grim and gritty" vigilantes in the vein of the modern take on Batman as a perpetual a-hole, Daredevil as the man without anything worth living for (although I hear good things about Mark Waid's new series discarding 30 years of "Miller lite," and the artwork looks very nice from what I have seen), Wonder Woman as a murderess, Wolverine as the model on which all characters' heroism should be based, and so on. I was afraid because I love those Archie heroes. As much as I would love to see the return of my beloved Jaguar, Fly, Fly-Girl, Web, Black Hood, Comet, and the others, I'd rather have them in mothballs than see another bastardized version. After all, I can always read my old comics and keep on the lookout for affordable back issues (side note: Archie Comics, please please PLEASE put out some kind of Archives- or Masterworks-style volumes of your super hero comics!).

Anyway, I bit the bullet and I bought, via Amazon (love those discounts), the first collection covering issues 1 through 6, and just finished reading it yesterday. On the whole, it's pretty good and I've already pre-ordered (again, via Amazon) the next collection. There may be some spoilers ahead, so if you think you may be reading these stories, you might want to skip the rest of this, but even with what I reveal I don't think it will detract from your enjoyment if your tastes are anything like mine.

What I liked: the heroes are heroic and just generally good people. Marvel and D.C., take note. Super heroes don't have to scowl and grimace and act like a-holes to each other 24/7 to show how "cool" and "edgy" they are. I liked that Archie's colorist is using some bright colors. Most other comics I have seen of late seem to think the world is shades of brown and grey and just generally look dingy and greasy. Again, Marvel and D.C., please look out your apparently filthy windows and you'll see the world is not as dark and dreary as you like to depict it. Step outside. The sky is blue. Grass is green. Some people even dress in primary colors!

I liked that so far the fate of the Mighty Crusaders is a question mark and I hope Archie Comics will refrain from graphically destroying beloved characters. Better to leave them presumed dead than to show them with holes in their heads. That way you can bring them back anytime you like without a convoluted or insulting explanation.

I liked that the New Crusaders' reactions to events around them were a lot more rational and believable than you usually see in comic books. They actually seemed like teenagers. I'm enjoying the way the series is going light on the angst so far. I also like the artwork for the most part. I appreciate that not everyone has the same body type, the males aren't all musclebound, and the females aren't all "enhanced" and dressed like strippers. 

The new costumes are pretty good, much better than most of the ones used by Impact in the '90s. The exception is the Jaguar and her hideous helmet and exposed abdomen.It's not clear why she isn't using the original Jaguar's belt since it was shown to be readily available. The art veers a little into the animated D.C. style, and sometimes into the Japanese cartoon style, but not too much or it would've killed it for me. I can't stand the D.C. animation style where all the men have steroid-induced upper bodies and little chicken legs, and all the women are built like teenage girls. Japanese cartoons leave me cold with the stick-up hair of strange colors and the big eyes and tiny mouths. (Yes, I know that's not true of all Japanese cartoons. Some are quite good.) The artist uses nice, crisp, clean lines and draws faces well enough that I can tell who is who, which is more than I can say for a lot of comic book artists employed by Marvel and D.C.

Finally, I enjoyed the tips of the hat to MLJ, Zip, Impact, and other names from Archie Comics' long history. My understanding is that the Fly, my favorite Archie super hero, can't be used as the estate of the great Joe Simon somehow has the rights. I may be wrong on that, but that would explain why the Fly is only mentioned in vague terms and never by name.

Things I didn't like: I didn't care for all the unnecessary blood and graphically present killing by Brain Emperor and his minions in issues 5 and 6. Some of the violence was implied rather than shown, but enough was depicted that I can't share your comics with my young son who is just starting to develop interest in comic books. I was really hoping for a series I could let him look at (he can't read yet). All I have right now (as far as new comics go) is some collections of Incredibles comic books that he can peruse without me having to worry. I didn't like Brain Emperor's new look. It just seems so '90s "grim and gritty" that it looks cheesy to me, like something I would draw if I were mocking those times. Since that's clearly not the intention, Brain Emperor's new look doesn't work for me.

Additionally, I found the Fireball/Fly-Girl relationship far too obvious. It was telegraphed from the very start and it was just too cliched for my taste. Speaking of cliched, the flame-powered hero being an impulsive hothead has been done, what, a hundred times already? Makes me want to write a story with a flame-powered hero who thinks before he acts and is calm and collected under most circumstances.

I wasn't crazy about the cliched super-team start-up idea of the older hero training the greenhorns or their cliched super-base of operations. Seen both too many times before, but it's at least those are relatively inoffensive cliches. The writing is good enough that a character who dies at the end comes as a surprise and I actually cared despite having only known the new Fireball for 6 issues and there really wasn't much revealed about the character. The kids' reactions to his death seemed very real and not over the top. It was effective and affecting.

The story so far has me wondering where it's all going, what happened to Mr. Justice, how Brain Emperor came back, and more. In many ways, this new series feels a lot like how comics felt back in the "good old days." I've enjoyed what I've seen so far and hope it lasts for a long time to come.