Afterlife with Archie #3

Escape from Riverdale
Chapter Three—"Sleepover"
written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
art by Francesco Francavilla

Much of the emerging horror potential of the zombie premise is the unrelenting possibility that not only might you lose the people closest to you, but that they might turn against you:  your family, your friends, your lover, your family pet.  In the immediate aftermath of Riverdale's zombie outbreak, Hiram Lodge shelters several of his daughter's friends, refugees from the school dance.  Even as he dreams, his dead wife, once a reliable source of common sense and level-headedness, turns into the walking dead, despite there being no indication that further dead can rise.  But this is his nightmare. 

For Moose, it's his lover.  Teased at the conclusion of last month's issue, one of the refugee high-schoolers was infected during their escape:  Midge.  I'd like to take her at her word—i.e., that she honestly didn't know when or by whom she got scratched, that her declaration of love to Moose was motivated by the end-of-the-world circumstances rather than knowledge of her looming zombie transformation, and that her secrecy about her injury was more about repressing the possibility in her own mind than deceiving and endangering her friends—but the potential for willful deceit is never entirely dispelled.  That potential is disquieting.

Archie too finds himself anxious for his loved ones and willing to leave the relative security of Lodge Manor to check on them.  It's a reckless response to his worry, one worthy of Afterlife with Archie's horror predecessors:  young people making stupid decisions.  And while it's unlikely even in a series which has proven itself willing to kill off main characters at a break-neck pace that Archie will die, his return home is ominous as he's greeted by his own dog Vegas now similarly infected.

While Afterlife with Archie continues to sustain a darkly ironic humor—e.g., Smithers with an axe announcing to Mr. Lodge that "'Operation Lockdown' proceeds apace" (Afterlife with Archie #3: 6)—it also continues to be a sobering character-driven portrait of small-town life in a crisis.  Archie, as always foolish, bull-headed, and generously concerned with others, leaves Lodge Manor to help his parents, heedless of their unspoken but no less obvious parental wishes that he keep himself safe even at their own expense.  Betty and Veronica both retreat—Veronica to the pool, Betty to the library—for distractions and a telling sense of safety.  Ultimately, Betty's choice may seem less insensitive to the situation, but Midge and Moose's transformation happened under both their noses.  That un-breathing Midge and Moose will remain (for now) trapped under the aluminum-reinforced cover of the swimming pool, loudly banging away as a constant audible reminder is fitting, if morbid.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

1.  Hiram Lodge, usually the jealous and cantankerous father, emerges in "Sleepover" as the unlikely hero (of sorts).  His hostility for Archie Andrews remains intact, but he gives the issue an adult gravitas as he crumples under the responsibility of losing Moose and Midge, two minors under his roof and in his care.  His old-fashioned, vocal, and (at least to my mind) distasteful eagerness for a son in the issue's opening flashback is tempered somewhat by his later attitude.

2.  Ginger and Nancy may have come across a little shrewish (if still sympathetic) in "Dance of the Dead", but here they show themselves to be feisty, considerate to each other and their former friends, and more than usually competent in a crisis.

3.  I've made no small secret of my appreciation of Francavilla's contributions to Afterlife with Archie in earlier reviews, adding a powerful pulp horror sensibility to the universe and an older, more mature look for most of the series' high-school characters.  And this one is no different, but I'd also like to register some appreciation for the vintage comic shorts Aguirre-Sacasa and Archie editors have been including at the back of the book.  The stories themselves—this week a fable about a narcissistic celebrity horror host who looks more like Lon Chaney's Phantom of the Opera than a vampire and gets his comeuppance courtesy of a disgruntled former writer and a demonomicon—aren't all that exceptional, but they're a delightful nod to Afterlife with Archie's comic predecessors and inspirations.

[February 2014]