Would you trust Archie Andrews to be your guide to the world of dating? Let's face it, he's not exactly Jiminy Cricket.

Spoiler Alert: I already know The Secret of Betty's Ponytail.
(It's that little black ribbon she uses to tie around her hair.)

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on November 26, 2020, 03:28:43 PMSpoiler Alert: I already know The Secret of Betty's Ponytail.
(It's that little black ribbon she uses to tie around her hair.)

Doesn't her ponytail play some role into her transformation into Superteen in those AU superhero stories? Or am I misremembering?

Quote from: Tuxedo Mark on November 27, 2020, 08:17:10 AM

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on November 26, 2020, 03:28:43 PMSpoiler Alert: I already know The Secret of Betty's Ponytail.
(It's that little black ribbon she uses to tie around her hair.)

Doesn't her ponytail play some role into her transformation into Superteen in those AU superhero stories? Or am I misremembering?

Yep. She twisted her ponytail.

It's inconsistent, just like Pureheart the Powerful. As far as I know, the magic ponytail-twisting thing is only mentioned once, in the story "Superteen Strikes Again" from BETTY AND ME #3.

In the origin story "It All Began..." in that same issue, she doesn't need to twist her ponytail to first turn into Superteen. She's already trying to save Archie (and has her hands full trying to hold on to him) when her ponytail gets caught in a small bush, and it's the only thing keeping both her and Archie from plunging to their deaths on a teetering rock ledge sticking out from the face of a cliff. A caption in a panel where she strains to hold on to Archie suggests "Maybe it was the superhuman desire and determination to save the one she loved, ...but suddenly..." In fact, a close reading of that story seems to suggest that it's really Betty's purity of heart and unselfish desire to protect Archie that calls up superpower somewhere from deep within her. On page 2 it was mentioned in a caption that "The yearning to hold and protect kept building and building...'

In stories from before BETTY AND ME #3 like "Just Imagine" (B&V 118) and "The Consumer" (B&V 119) she just changes into Superteen without doing anything special, and the suggestion seems to be she just changes from her street clothes into her superhero costume, but "It All Began..." seems to be presented as a flashback story.