Afterlife with Archie is a lot better than it should be, a lot better. Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa sets up the issue beautifully–or maybe he doesn’t. Maybe in Archie comics these days Sabrina the teenage witch is a lot different than I was expecting… and maybe Betty and Veronica do act like mean girls.
But even if these instances are examples of the norm, Aguirre-Sacasa still comes up with an excellent script. He pays a lot of homage to horror classics and starts out to make one of his own. The way he plots the issue–Sabrina, Jughead, Archie–he’s really thought it through how he wants the issue to read.
And the Francesco Francavilla artwork is outstanding. Afterlife both looks like the traditional Archie but also has a lot of gothic realism to it. It’s creepy; Francavilla really makes sure it’s always creepy.
It’s a very pleasant surprise.
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