Archie Andrews Takes The Stage In Waid And Staples’ Rebooted ‘Archie’ #1

Now that the first volume of Archie has ended after 666 issues, in accordance with prophecy, the blood moon has risen high to herald the arrival of a new series of adventures for the man-child who bears hair the color of flame. Or... or maybe I'm just reading way too much into a coincidental issue number of the last issue? Either way, the Archie reboot from Mark Waid and Fiona Staples is now upon us, and I'm pretty excited.

To celebrate our impending Archiegeddon, we've got a preview of the events of the first issue, in which Riverdale's favorite son finally takes the stage to play a little music. Check it out below!

It's worth noting that while the story structure and art are certainly a departure from the Dan DeCarlo-esque "house style" that Archie has used for its main line of titles over the past few decades --- including a downright Zack Morris style approach that sees Archie breaking the fourth wall to talk to the reader --- Waid and Staples still keep the book pretty packed with gags. The rapid-fire jokes about Archie's klutziness are still there, and so's Jughead's antipathy towards what I'm assuming is a brown-haired Veronica.

And of course, so is the emphasis on Archie as a musician, an element that goes back to one of Archie-the-Company's most prominent moments of crossover success, the release of "Sugar, Sugar," a song credited to an imaginary band made up of fictional teenagers. It's one of the things that made Archie's aspirations as a guitarist a core part of his character, something that was explored pretty prominently in the alternate futures of Life With Archie.

Archie #1 is set for release next week, on July 8.