‘Archie’ To End With #666, Has The Devil Conquered Riverdale At Last?

When Archie Comics announced a while back that it was relaunching its flagship character with a new series by Mark Waid and Fiona Staples, we all knew that the current series was going to come to an end, and today, Archie let us know exactly when that's happening. This June will mark the final issue for Archie, ending at... #666!

Could this mean that Archie's universe gets rebooted due to some kind of sinister pact with the Devil himself?! Has the Author of All Lies finally wreaked his hellish revenge on Archie and his crew for all those weird religious comics they appeared in back in the '70s?Is Reggie actually Satan, as I have so long suspected?

Well, no. I think it's just a coincidence.

With 664 issues published as of this writing, Archie is, to my knowledge, the longest running American comic book that has never been rebooted or renumbered (although there was a slight title change from "Archie Comics" in 1952), a title that it won when Action Comics was relaunched for the New 52 shortly after hitting its 900th issue.

The title now goes, I believe, to Archie's own Betty & Veronica (currently at 275), followed by Sonic the Hedgehog, which has weathered the comics industry's love of new #1s for 269 issues. Of course, as readers were quick to point out when I asked, Walt Disney's Comics And Stories is returning from a hiatus at #721, but considering it's bounced around from different publishers, I think that takes them out of the running, at least on this side of the Atlantic.

Either way, Archie #666 promises to be a look back at the history of Archie and his pals, and it's worth noting that Dan Parent's roughs for the covers show that each of the main cast (Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead, Kevin Keller and Reggie) are featured on their own, along with supporting characters like Wendy Weatherbee, fashionista Ginger Lopez, Veronica's sci-fi loving cousin Marcy, and my favorite supporting character ever, Cricket O'Dell, who can smell money.