Jack Morelli

With almost 300 issues in the core series, Archie's Sonic The Hedgehog stands as the longest-running uninterrupted American monthly comic book that's currently being published. In Hedging Your Bets, I attempt to get up to speed on Sonic the Hedgehog, challenging the odds to hopefully make it all the way to the finish line. This week, the spotlight falls on Shadow the Hedgehog for the ultimate in alien terror!

You know those superhero stories like "Must There Be a Superman" where the main character is abducted by aliens and put on trial for crimes --- intentional or otherwise --- against humanity? Well, before it hit shelves, I was really hoping that's what the rebooted Reggie And Me was going to be about. I mean, honestly, there is no other character in comics who represents cosmic evil as much as that guy, and if Archie and the Gang won't hold him responsible for his terrible, terrible ways, then perhaps some Elder of the Universe should? Alas, that's not what we got. But we are creeping a little closer in the pages of Reggie and Me #2, which not only features a superheroic fantasy sequence, but delves into the long and hateful history between Reggie Mantle and his eternal rival, Archie Andrews. Check out an exclusive preview below!

This week, I make an attempt to expand my horizons, and ask the eternal question: Hey professor, what's another word for pirate treasure?

Of all the improvements that we've seen from the folks at Archie Comics over the past few years, the most incredible might have been their response time to trends. There was a time, as recently as ten or eleven years ago, when attempts to capitalize on what was hot among the the kids these days could take years, to the point where I once saw a comic where Jughead wore a shirt that said "Don't Taze Me, Bro" about two years after that particular meme was in the consciousness. Which, now that I think about it, was probably the least worrying thing about that choice. But no longer! Witness Archie Comics Double Digest #275, where the teens from Riverdale become obsessed with Cosmo GO!, a very familiar phone game about catching cute characters through the magic of augmented reality. Check out a preview (along with a look at the vintage stories that are published alongside it) below!

This week, we finally hit a newly rebooted Sonic universe, and if you were worried that we wouldn't have any more mind-boggling scenarios or unanswered questions, then friend, I have some good news for you.

I'll admit that when Archie relaunched Josie and the Pussycats, I had my doubts as to whether Alexandra Cabot could really fit into the restructured and slightly more realistic take on the Archie Universe. See, while her primary role as Josie's power-hungry but tone-deaf antagonist was pretty standard teenage rival stuff, her more distinctive trait involved a witchy bloodline that allowed her to cast spells whenever she was holding her cat. It made for some weird stories, but I was worried that Alexandra's over-the-top abilities might not have survived the reboot. Now, though, I can see that I was wrong. When Josie and the Pussycats #3 hits shelves this week, she's back in full force, literally riding around on a giraffe and interrupting Josie's concert with an even more sinister force than dark magic: Capitalism! Check out a preview!

Last summer's Mega Drive one-shot celebrated Sonic's 25th anniversary with a classic style adventure that serves as a showcase for the book and its creative teams. Now Archie is doing another one, in which Sonic and his pals head off on an adventure through a delightfully snowy winter wonderland and a spooky, scary forest. Check out a preview!

When Archie #12 hits shelves today, it looks like everyone's relationship is falling apart just on the eve of the Blossoms sweeping in like a hurricane. In other words, it's a bad day to be a teenager in Riverdale, and you can see just how bad with a preview below!

Reggie Mantle is the worst, but for some reason he has a following, so Archie Comics has added a new title to its beloved reboot line of comics; a new ongoing featuring Riverdale's resident creeper. Written by industry legend Tom DeFalco, with art by Sandy Jarrell, Reggie and Me launches this December and promises to give readers an inside look at the most "loved, revered, admired and adored" teen in Riverdale. Those are their words, not mine.

I may not know much about Sonic The Hedgehog, but there's one interesting little piece of trivia about the comics that I am absolutely fascinated by. Despite the fact that DC has recently returned Action Comics and Detective Comics to their original numbering, placing them somewhere in the mid-900s, the core Sonic the Hedgehog comic stands at 285 issues and counting as the longest-running monthly American comic book that has not been rebooted,renumbered, or otherwise restarted. It's been on the stands every month since 1993! Throw in all the spin-off titles, and that means that there's a lot of Sonic content out there. So much so, in fact, that with Sonic Universe hitting #89 next week, there's enough Sonic content out there that the reprint-focused Sonic Super Digest is on its 17th issue. So why not celebrate the continued reign of a blue hedgehog who runs fast with a preview of both titles?