PTF Reviews Betty and Veronica: Farewell Riverdale

Started by PTF, January 29, 2017, 11:15:57 AM

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PTF

One issue at a time.



 

Issue 272:

My, what a cheery cover. Betty and Veronica look so happy as they venture out into the world. I don't normally skim pages but I just can't help myself—OH DEAR LORD THEY DIED!?!

The Good:


Betty and Veronica: While a good majority of the characters are hampered by the first act (and the main stars not being in the first ten pages) fake out, Betty and Veronica are in character. Veronica is her usual arrogant self who doesn't think before she speaks. Betty is nervous and already trepidations about leaving home. How they each say goodbye to Archie at the airport is all on point.

There's some good jokes. You have a fun exchange about girls with Archie, Reggie, Jughead and Kevin Keller that I chuckled at. And if not for the art or coloring (I'll go into detail later) there is a really funny joke with Midge and Cheryl that Midge ends up winning 2 to 1.

The second half: It's not perfect, but it's sure as heck better than the first half of the issue (I'll get to that later). You actually do have some nice moments with Betty and Veronica with their family and friends. And actual jokes and funny moments. What Archie Comics are—er, were about. It's nice to see two characters with so many friends and how cherished they are. Overblown...yeah. But it sure as heck beats pretending for ten pages they died!!

Cheryl: She's a...um, witch. Yeah, we'll keep this review PG. She wants to take advantage of Betty and Veronica leaving, gets into a fight with Midge over it, and immediately tries to date Archie and Reggie.

Betty crying: Out of all of Riverdale, you seem to be the only one capable of biologically crying in the appropriate manner, for the most part. I just want you to know I appreciate that.

Good art: I'm not a fan of most of the art in this issue but we do have some good pages. Like Betty's mom or The Lodges. Unfortunately it's kind of pointless and wasted by the stupid first half of the issue. And the very last few pages with the girls and their families and Archie are nice. Also, I know it's not intentional, but after the first ten pages, Mr. Cooper's expression just seems funny. "Wait? They're not dead??"

The Coloring: Glenn Whitmore is at the top of his game. I think my favorite coloring is with Smithers looking to Veronica's empty room and crying. I mean, it's in the first ten pages I hated what they did with, but at hey—at least I know Smithers cares about Veronica...unlike her parents!

Bridgette: I'm not a fan of this Mary Sue, and last I heard, she was in another country world famous. Now she's back in Riverdale, probably a grade behind her friends, and poor. She had her dream and lost it! That's why she looks so unhappy! Ha-Ha!

Ginger Lopez. Whew. I thought we'd have a Dan Parent drawn comic without her for a second.



The Bad:

What a twist—feh. Okay, so we have this fun cheery cover of the girls smiling and waving goodbye to us with nice happy coloring—and then the first half of the story has every character (save for The Lodges) acting like Betty and Veronica died!! I'm not joking, you have every character crying/sweating like the girls' plane went down in a fiery blaze. Okay, let's take out the cover (no, keep it. It's one of the few good things) but it's just stupid, unnecessary. Honestly, a lot of it feels like it's just something to take up page space. I mean, I don't know what you could have done...maybe, just throwing this out there—HAVE THE MAIN CHARACTERS IN THE FIRST TEN PAGES OF THEIR BOOK!!! ...Okay, me Michael Uslan are not going to get along very well with one another. I can tell that right now.

Um, why are they leaving? Yeah, they never really say why they're leaving. That seems important.

The art. I'm going to be honest. I'm not a fan of Dan Parent's art. I just don't like it. I can take it in small doses. But when you had Ruiz, Lindsey, The Kennedys...he's second worst, just ahead of Pat in my pecking order And his art works best in limited pages and limited characters. Just check out ever female character not Bridgette, remember those old comics where you could cut out the hair and clothing and tape over them? That's what you can do with Dan Parent's girls. And besides that a lot of pages seem rushed and sloppy. Like the Little versions of the Archie crew and the first page where we see Mr. Weatherbee and Ms. Grundy After the fight, Midge looked like she did have a black eye, but Cheryl...she looks like she hadn't slept for two days, and it hurts a funny joke. And during the double spread...I'm trying to figure out the proportions of Archie and the stage to everyone else.  And looking back...Raj looks like he's about to fall over. Also, there are a lot of misshapen (but polite sign holding) mutants. No wonder the girls want to leave! Horror was coming to Riverdale sooner than we all thought!

Jughead's mom: This deserves its own little spot because—I HATE WHEN JUGHEAD AND HIS MOM ARE DRAWN TO LOOK ALIKE!!!

Tears? Okay this annoyed the heck out of me throughout the story. You have all these characters crying and, save for Betty, they look like someone turned up the heat. The way they're drawn it looks like the tears start right at the upper cheek. It's really weird and it happens so much it's annoying. I get that the idea is the tears rolling down their face...but it doesn't look that way! It looks like sweat!

Okay, now I know you're wasting my time: There's a small section of a page where Mr. Weatherbee critiques Miss Grundy for watching the Walking Dead and she goes on a mini-rant about classical monsters...WHY WOULD YOU GO THERE? Even crudely drawn Archie, Jughead, and Ginger Lopez is wondering why we're wasting time with this.

...

And for the record, Mr. Weatherbee is right about The Walking Dead being horrible.

Character walking into the panel. How dare you. Deadpool is the only character that is allowed to break the 4th wall!!

Miss Grundy slamming the door behind her: It's just rude.

What I learned from what I read.

Betty won't be missed. She already has a little clone running around.
  • Smithers loves Veronica more than her parents.
  • Don't insult classical literature involving monsters in front of Miss. Grundy.
  • People in Riverdale cry really weird.
  • Midge >>>>Cheryl. SHIROUKEN!!
  • Mr. Weatherbee doesn't like The Walking Dead.
  • Every time Betty and Veronica are out of eyeshot, everyone in Riverdale reaches new lows in depression.
  • Mrs. Cooper gets real emotional folding laundry.
  • A Power point presentation? Riverdale is full of cavepeople.
  • Wait...Veronica left for the plane first, then Betty left after saying goodbye to Archie—and Veronica is behind Archie right after Betty leaves? Veronica's a nightcrawler!!
 

I'm not going to lie, this was a rough one. I hated the first ten pages of trying a stupid stunt no one with a brain or working eyes would fall for and this issue felt like so much filler and buying time. The art is pretty bad. A lot of characters look so sloppy. But there is the occasional good dialogue and jokes and a few pages where I do give Dan Parent credit on the art. I'm going to be super super SUPER nice and go D+

And not onto the next issue where the girls haven't left Riverdale...wait, what? Am I reviewing these in the right order?!


DeCarlo Rules

It's interesting that we can agree so closely on something like "Target: Jughead" yet be poles apart in most other respects.

PTF

That's just how it is. Everyone has different tastes, expectations, and views. Heck, I think I'm the only one one liked both Cars movies and glad there's a third one coming out. I even have a friend who is a big Rob Liefield fan who absolutely hates everything Mark Bagely has done. I don't get it, but I just accept it as different strokes for different folks. :)

All I can do is give my thoughts, examples and maybe make a few jokes for laughs. And if you agree or not, it's still your choice what you purchase.





DeCarlo Rules

#3
I think the thing that struck me most forcefully was that rant about hating Dan Parent's art, but as you said, opinions differ. Judging by how the company has spotlighted Dan's work (on covers and major important stories) in the last couple of decades even over the other artists you mention (only four? - or five, counting the Kennedys as two), you seem to be the odd man out on this opinion.

Personally, Dan Parent was my gateway drug to modern Archie Comics. Prior to that I read THE MARRIED LIFE, but since I began at the ending with "The Death of Archie", that door had actually closed before I opened it, so it had no further influence other than to lead me to check out the other major (then-)recent multipart story arcs, most of which happened to be (not coincidentally) by Dan Parent. Had I not enjoyed those DP stories so much I doubt I would have explored any further with Archie Comics, and would have limited my interest solely to the classic Silver/Bronze age Dan DeCarlo stories, and the ACP superhero stories (including Frank Doyle & Bob White's Silver Age Pureheart & friends), which is as much as interested me prior to reading TML. The science fiction/multiverse angle was the only thing that stimulated my interest in reading THE MARRIED LIFE, and when I first read it I still had no idea who Jellybean was, or that she'd been a character in Archie Comics for 20 years. In retrospect I think there are a lot of story problems with THE MARRIED LIFE as well.

That said, I'd agree that "Farewell Betty & Veronica" as a whole has some story problems. A lot of the ones in the first two (or three, I'm not sure) issues seem to have something to do with the story having been re-purposed for use as a floppy comic from its original magazine format version as a 48- or 50-page story intended for VERONICA & BETTY MAGAZINE #1, and I wonder if that isn't the reason that the first and second parts of the story appear to be in reverse order, where that might have worked and made some sense in a single magazine issue. But of course, I can't tell which of the pages was created years earlier before the magazine was cancelled, and which were created just prior to it appearing in floppy comic format. At any rate, it seems likely to me that parts of the original story were either reordered, expanded or edited from its original format. The story as originally written for V&B #1 would have been intended to run much longer, much like LIFE WITH ARCHIE, so trying to compact the whole arc and wrap up the story in a seven floppy comics (about 3 and a half magazine-size comics) was bound to cause some problems. The other thing that occurs to me knowing what it was before it became a multi-part storyline in the (formerly-)ongoing B&V floppy comic is that it was intended for much the same audience as LWA, and is a bit of an alternate tangent universe (since if the magazine had actually seen print, the ongoing floppy would not have maintained any continuity with it). Apart from that there are some odd character bits that stick out, like the stuff with Midge. The exaggerated emotional response of the entire school to B&V going away as exchange students seems unrealistic and overdramatic (like you point out, it's not as if they died in a plane crash), but Archie Comics have never been heavy on realism, so in this case it's as if the entire school is channeling what Archie is feeling, and the readers are obviously supposed to identify as well. It didn't bug me as much as it did you, but there are a lot of unrealistic things in Archie Comics that I just give a pass just because these are cartoon characters. I suppose I would have given it a C or C+, overall, but I can see where it's a lot harder to excuse any flaws when you hate the artwork to start with.

PTF

Oh trust me, Dan Parent is one of the last people I blame for this storyline after I finished it. And it's not like every issue gets a bad grade. And if it makes you feel better, I'm reading and reviewing the issues of Kevin Keller I got and I really like the art in it so far.


And I have a much bigger problem with this issue after I read issue 273 that I'll go into detail then.

DeCarlo Rules

Yeah, there's a point there (I don't think it's in 273, but actually 274) where it seems like 10 pages into it, there's an entire issue missing. They named all the cities where they were supposed to study, and when they'd just gotten going they just skipped over one city entirely. It's not even mentioned in passing (as if you're just supposed to forget they mentioned that city originally), and a couple of the others were severely compacted.

PTF

Issue 273

When we last left off, Betty and Veronica were on a plane, leaving Riverdale—So we're still in Riverdale? Is time broken?

Anyway, Betty and Veronica are bored of their every day lives in Riverdale, but salvation comes in a student exchange, a year round rotating trip around the world. But only one can go. Who will win? And will the next issue start the day before this issue? I can at least answer one of those questions now.

The Good.

The art: I like the art much better in this one. Betty and Veronica are well designed and have great fashion, which is a strong suit that Dan Parents owns the other old timey Archie artists on. And as much as I harp on his female characters being cut outs, at least the male characters are given distinct looks. I mean we still have panels where Archie looks narfy and some guy awarding the exchange award can't decide on his facial hair. But for the most part I have few complaints this go around. Heck, even got a few funny background stuff that Dan Parent normally doesn't do. (Ruiz and Lindsey have spoiled me.)

The writing: Well, for the most part Veronica, and to a lesser extent, Betty are written well. Veronica is best in character as she isn't evil, just oblivious to what her words make others feel and the ramifications of her actions. And I can at least understand being bored fitting her temperament. Betty for most of the middle of the issues is on point. She's kind, a bit more reserved, and eases up on the whining. And the idea of them on a year long exchange is a good idea. It's the execution that is not going so well.

"I'd like to study abroad too": Hey it made me laugh and if I remember what everyone said, this will be one of the last times Archie or Reggie are clever in anyway.

Ginger Lopez. Obviously, she got wind of Betty and Veronica's poor attiude in this issue and didn't bother showing up. Good for her!  And speaking of--

The bad.

Well, good riddance, you brats: The comic begins with Betty and Veronica bored with Riverdale and going around town showing yelling how bored they are. From the school to their homes they act like selfish brats. And how can you be bored in Riverdale High, in the gymnasium, you have basketball, football, and cheerleading going on at the same time. They even go take the time to insult Archie and Reggie. This entire town threw—er, I mean, will throw you a going away party and you insult them?!

But seriously, you don't get a good idea on how bored their lives are. You get that they're bored with Archie and Reggie well, but the entire town. You're told and not shown.  Also it doesn't help that the few background crazy stuff happens during their little "Riverdale High is boring" ranting

How is Veronica the bad guy?:  Okay in the end, guy with the changing mustache and beard, awards the exchange trip to Veronica and Betty and her parents are sad and cry foul will the Lodges looked disappointed in Veronica. Me...WHY? Betty was underhanded first!

Look, I'm a strong believer in the Bugs Bunny "You start something with me, I'm allowed to retaliate 1,000x worse over and over." Betty went to the boys of Riverdale and got them to vote for her by telling them that Veronica will leave and they won't see her for a year. Sorry but you lose all sympathy from me. Also you want to know what Veronica's other heinous acts were: writing checks to charities and paying for a team to look over her essay. Okay, she doesn't do any of the hard work at the food shelter—but she did put it and the salvation army in a better place. And that's me ignoring that Veronica has done charitable work in other comic stories! (Why research when you can make up stuff? Study at the Michael Bendis School of Storytellling) And she even wrote her essay; she just paid people to look it over and tell her what was wrong with it. And honestly I think she wasted her money because she was up against: "My name is Betty. I am a Betty who enjoys volunteering and giving back to my community." You'd have to be an idiot to lose to that! Speaking of idiots...

Archie and Reggie are stupid. I mean, yeah, they were never scholars but I doubt their cognitive thinking skills with their essays. Archie and Reggie are easily manipulated by Betty. And I've heard they get dumber and dumber each issue. Eep.

Miss. Grundy. What is up with those old woman?! First she is stalking Betty and Veronica and decides to reward them insulting their classmate and school is...let one of them go on a world exchange. What about Dilton? I mean, he only gets the best grades in the school. But he's content in life, so that wouldn't make sense. And she actually marches Betty and Veronica into Mr. Weatherbee's office like they committed a crime. And the repeated door slamming. That's damaging the wood work and warping the hinges. But mostly rude!

"What makes someone a Betty or a Veronica." Google it, you lazy issue! It's even a trope!

What I learned from what I read.

1.   Miss Grundy stalks Betty and Veronica in between watching episodes of "The Walking Dead" on her DVR.
2.   If you whine and act like jerks, not care about what you say offending people, you get the answer to your problem handed to you.
3.   With jokes like "Don't be a chicken, Coop" I now understand why Mr. Cooper never got comic time
4.   An all expense paid trip to five different countries to study abroad (heh)...and only four people try out for it. And two are brain dead morons.
5.   Writing massive checks to charities and having people look over her work—Veronica is the worse!!
6.   The male student population heavily favors Veronica over Betty.
7.   There are two people in Riverdale whose lives do not revolve Betty and Veronica.
8.   A Chinese Restaurant next to an Italian restaurant...with a boutique across the street!? Riverdale is awesome!
9.   Betty does not approve of having to wait fifteen whole minutes for dinner.
10.   An issue cannot end on a cliffhanger when the previous issue fast forward ahead so we already know what happens!!!


Like I said, the idea is good of the girls going to a year long foreign exchange project to five different countries--but we're two issues in...and we went backwards somehow!! I don't get what the heck the logic was in showing them leave last issue and going back. Why do that last issue at all?! And the writing is pretty bad. We got a few moments but for a good portion Betty and Veronica are unlikeable to the point you don't see why they're being rewarded for being snots. And Veronica is being unfair how? Betty isn't? She was underhanded first! Y'know how to fix that problem have Veronica buy out the charity as the first thing. Then have Betty see it and respond with the boys. Just simple sequencing. That would solve a major problem I have with this story.

So yeah, Uslan is not impressing me. At all. And I'm so disappointed. The main crafted the wonderful tales of Dinosaucers.

But the art is better than last issue. The only thing that really stood out to me is page five the panel with Archie that...looks like the word balloon should just say: DERRRRRRR. The lettering by Jack Morelli is nice and Glen Whitmore slamming the colors. But the writing is really bad. But at least about ten pages weren't wasted for nothing. I guess going backwards chronology is better than that.

Grade: C-

Another issue reviewed and next issue...um, let me check something...yeah, yeah. We're going places next issue. About time because we got four issues and five places to do everything in!






DeCarlo Rules

#7
Quote from: PTF on February 01, 2017, 12:59:43 AM
Another issue reviewed and next issue...um, let me check something...yeah, yeah. We're going places next issue. About time because we got four issues and five places to do everything in!

Well, like I said. They skipped one country entirely. Thinking about what this might have originally been projected as, I'd say this was probably supposed to run a year's worth of 48-page magazine issues, bi-monthly. That would have given an initial story arc for VERONICA & BETTY magazine of 288 pages total, over six issues, which seems to be about the right page count to fit a TP collection by comparison to the LIFE WITH ARCHIE magazine-derived TP series THE MARRIED LIFE. That would give 5 whole 48-page issues (or maybe 4 and a half, with the last half of the final issue of the arc dealing with "the return") to cover the different countries, and they could definitely cover two countries in a single magazine-size issue if they had to. Instead it got condensed down to half of that length as a muliparter for the B&V floppy comic. A little cramped? You could say.

Not that I believe that all of the magazine scripts had been written out before the plan was cancelled -- Dan Parent had probably already finished all the artwork for V&B #1, and there's a good chance Uslan already had the script finished (or close to finished) for #2. Who knows if Uslan had even had any thoughts about where the magazine might be headed after the student exchange year ended, or if that was just intended to kick it off and get the ball rolling, and afterwards he'd hand off the baton to some other writer. If the magazine had been fortunate enough to last a year and find a viable audience, it seems to me it would have gone even further off on a tangent, with V&B heading into the college experience.

PTF

Issue 274

Okay, we took two steps back last issue, but now we're going to England! Take in the sights and—oh. We're not doing that? ...

Betty and Veronica have landed in England and things are still the same: Betty is studious and refuses to take chances while Veronica is adventurous and failing in her grades. What to do? Why take up the other's identity and impersonate as one another. And what about the foreign exchange students replacing our gal pals are here? How will they change Riverdale? Or will Riverdale change them?

The Good:

The more things change the more they stay the same: Interestingly Betty and Veronica, even after leaving Riverdale, are pretty much stuck in the same routine they were in before: Betty being studious and not taking risks while Veronica is too busy partying and failing the courses. So again, there are good ideas here. The idea being it's not Riverdale, it's them that is the problem.

A little something about England. We do get some accents and words like "Quque" for "line" Y'know for a page or two. Take what you can get, people.



Turning a weakness into a strength?: Well, I've complained about how all the gals in Riverdale High look the same and you could just change the hair and clothes—and we are officially doing that as Betty and Veronica are switching places; impersonating the other so they can be the other. I'm going to be nice and say things won't get too confusing.

More on the art. There are pages that are really good. I really like the art and coloring on page nine with the plane taking off and Riverdale looking on before somberly leaving. Betty and Veronica look nice. And again the fashion is good. Got the steering wheel on the right side of the British car. The Lodges and The Coopers look good.

Violette and Banni: Well, they just got here and haven't done anything stupid. So that deserves some praise. And which princess does Banni look like? Jasmine? I don't know how Miss. Grundy's mind works. Oh and speak of the devil...

Uslan's Grundy: I know I don't approve of most of what Uslan's written, but I have to say I really love his Miss Grundy: A crazy "Walking Dead" obsessed, door slamming, stalker. Sadly, she doesn't slam a door for no real reason, but she does make up for it by convincing everyone to go greet the foreign exchange students at the airport...during school hours. Why? Probably because it's raining and they'll get wet and get pneumonia. Not to mention getting the kids expelled. I mean, just read her talk to the students. She's thinking Betty and Veronica will have students and contradicts herself. Uslan's Grundy is a psychopath and...honestly my favorite interpretation of the character.

(But seriously...didn't any proof read that or just read it aloud?!)

Ginger Lopez: She's the anti Toni Topaz. While Toni Topaz was on all the covers and not even in the stories; Ginger is in the issue and contributes nothing to the story in any way. But knowing she'll always be here for me brings me comfort as I delve into this storyline.

The Bad

So I just wasted my time? Remember issue 272? The very first part? Yeah, apparently I didn't need to because it's not important. At all. You can skip that entire issue and not miss anything. Want further proof? Remember how Cheryl and Midge gave each other black eyes? Nope. They're just fine here. I'd hate for an editor or just anyone producing this comic to give half a flip.

The pacing: It's horrible. Remember that last issue cliffhanger? Well, Mr. Lodge decides to just pay for Betty to go on the fair exchange. First page, two panels. Midge and the girls plan on talking Betty and Veronica out of going. And...they don't. We waste an entire page with that and nothing comes of it. Oh, and if you thought you were going to see or learn about England: WRONG. One of the best examples of the horrible pacing is Betty visiting a museum and well let me sum it up.

Panel one: shot of the only panel showing any of London's landmarks.
Panel two: car ride to museum.
Panel three: going towards the steps of the museum
Panel four: hey beetle music display (don't even see the stupid pages)
Panel five: They leave.

So we hardly get to know the exchange parents, the school, or the new location. Shame there wasn't page space. Maybe we could have if, I dunno—AN ENTIRE ISSUE WAS WASTED!!!

Cramming: Yep. The girls are going 'round the world. You'd think that would be enough but, nope. Betty is Veronica, Veronica is Betty. Seriously, girls, Dan Parent is doing the art. You could have stayed in Riverdale and had more disguise options. Call me crazy, but why not just have Betty act more like Veronica, and Veronica more like Betty without the taking over each others life? I remember the South Park Creators talking about one episode they did wrong because they put a hat on a hat on a hat until you can't even see the head anymore. This what this storyline is doing. There is a good idea about appreciating your home, seeing the world, challenging yourself, but the execution and writing just stinks. I wouldn't mind it as much as they are really going to have to cram stuff in to get to all the countries, return home, and also apparently still cover Archie and gang with the new girls. That's a lot.

The art. Yeah we have a few problems. Like Mr. Marmion (Betty's foreign exchange family's father) He's shown as fat and then there's a panel where Betty is studying where he suddenly lost a good 150 pounds. When Betty and Veronica are in front of their new classmates at Cornwall School, um, Betty is missing a certain body part that there are two of. And also a finger. No wonder Veronica gets all the dates! Also when Jughead's at the airport what I see and what he says doesn't match up. And I don't like where that darn stutter means! A few other panels where the word balloon says one thing while the art looks another direction.


Midge: She's too lazy to try and keep her friends from leaving and a jerk to people she hasn't even met yet! What does Moose see in her?

Archie and Reggie: Yeah. They're idiots. I think I might just rename them Bulk and Skull next review.

Riverdale needs a talk: Look, I get that you love Betty and Veronica. Even to the point that you're top hub names food after them. But Riverdale, they left you. They ended the relationship. They don't feel the same about you that they once did. They changed; people do that. What you're doing—it's not healthy. I'm sorry...but they don't love you anymore and you need to accept it and move on.

What I learned.

1.   Betty really does have dark roots.
2.   Friends are easy to forget when replaced with equally or more attractive people.
3.   Everyone who has a friend can do their own modern day "Prince and the Pauper" story!
4.   Its okay to leave class whenever.
5.   Ms. Grundy is not only a fan of The Walking Dead...but Disney movies.
6.   Ginger's more of a thinker than a talker.
7.   The Marmions are horrible parents. How can young Tessa not have heard a Beatles song!?
8.   Veronica grading in school as this storyline is with me.
9.   People who study don't get dates.
10.   People who enjoy life don't get a proper education.

Half way there. Sure I reviewed an issue that wasn't needed and went backwards chronology and didn't get enjoy England but...okay, I'm going to be honest. The writing isn't good, the art wasn't up to par for this issue to make up the difference. D-



Tuxedo Mark

One major thing about the identity-switch subplot that doesn't make sense is the fact that the host families should have received pictures of Betty and Veronica.
BV-kiss-small
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DeCarlo Rules

#10
Quote from: Tuxedo Mark on February 05, 2017, 05:39:42 PM
One major thing about the identity-switch subplot that doesn't make sense is the fact that the host families should have received pictures of Betty and Veronica.

Maybe they just sent them some earlier issues of B&V, and the foreign families couldn't tell one from the other apart from their clothing and hairstyles/colors. All pretty girls from Riverdale do tend to look very much alike.  :)  Wasn't there a story where B&V swapped clothes and wore wigs, and even Mr. Lodge couldn't tell that Betty wasn't his real daughter?

PTF

Yeah, if Veronica and Betty wanted to play dress up, they could have stayed in Riverdale...and had more people involved. :)


Issue 275



Well "Betty" and "Veronica" are in India and trying to live as the other, will they succeed and what will they gain. Meanwhile, Banni and Violette are in Riverdale to mixed results. Where will this lead.

The Good.

The writing. Wow. This is easily the best issue. The pacing is good, the focus is much better. Yeah, there's some bad, but this best Michael Uslan had done. He's pretty much understood who Betty and Veronica is and now we have a story that executes that well. They both actually do open up their horizons and successfully battle temptation and are rewarded with new experiences. And as the girls learn, so do the readers. This was missing when they were in Britain. Also you have actually moments of friendship with Kevin, Jughead, and Ethel. I mean, there's stuff that makes me go" Wuh" But hey, I enjoyed most of the issue.

Archie being Archie. I like the two pages of him walking ...puppy versions of his friends dogs? Anyway, I liked seeing him clumsy and just hyper active. Way better than him being a total nimrod every page. I mean, he goes back to being a total nimrod right away, but it's nice to have something like this.

Violette and Banni. I like them. Violette was actually pretty funny and I do feel sorry for her that the other girls don't like her because of how they perceive her. Banni's smart and sensible. I really like these characters and actually want to read more about them.

The art. And this is probably Dan Parent's best art of the storyline. I like the design of Banni and Violette. We get to see him drawn some of India and it looks pretty good. Even the times when you have small figures aren't drawn as bad. I guess months and months of delayed were beneficially, huh? I mean, there are parts that I don't like, like how Hot Dog and the other dogs Archie was walking looked like pups. But I'm so happy I'm willing to let it slide except for this...

This line by Ethel: "They ignored me too, at first, 'cause I didn't look like them. C'mon, that's funny

B&V meet B&V: Normally I ignore going into detail or just not mention reprints because..eh, reprints, y'know, but this time I'll make an exception. A story written by Fernando Ruiz with art by Jeff Shultz. Well, this puts the main story to shame. Betty and Veronica meet their 40s counterparts in what has to be the best scripted Ruiz story I've read. I mean, I've always been happy with his scripts, but this is great. And the art by Shultz making Betty and Veronica look different (unlike someone) and adapting his style to the super old timey Archie was really well done. Funny moments with Old school Veronica commenting on...well, I guess Middle School Veronica's clothing and the reason the girls decide to head home is funny. My only complaint is that I wish it had been in any of the previous issues. Y'know when I needed hope to continue. :)

The Bad:

Archie and Reggie. It's sad that the best issue of this storyline I've read has Wingus and Dingus at their supreme idiocy. Let me demonstrate.

Reggie/Wingus: Do teens even date in India?

No. That's why India has the smallest population in the world.

Archie/Dingus: Does she understand English?

Well, when Violette and Banni got off the plane, Banni was the only one speaking English to you...

The jokes: Yeah, they're just not funny. I mean, Mr. Weatherbee actually made me cringe. I mean, I liked the issue, but I didn't get a single laugh out of this issue. And we the usual portion that probably needed to be proof read. And Dilton really deserved an entire splash page?


Midge: Okay, how would she know Violette's dark secret? That's out of left field. And she's been coming across as a real jerk for a good portion of the storyline. And what was up with her hair this issue?


Although I do have to admire Archie's dedication to stupidity. I mean, even he knows he's an idiot for trying to fly to visit Betty and Veronica, but he's going to do it anyway. I can respect it. Dislike it heavily, but respect it.


Ginger's missing!: What could have happened to—wait, Violette. You didn't have that mole last issue. Midge was right all along about you!

Miss Grundy: She was normal. I guess if boring old Miss Grundy is the price we pay for a good issue.

What I learned from reading:

1.   Banni only dates boys with functioning brain cells.
2.   Veronica knows how to avoid being in a Liam Neeson action thriller.
3.   Violette is rich and snobby because she likes clothes and dancing—unlike American girls.
4.   Midge knows all the dark secrets.
5.   Kevin Keller takes French 101
6.   Poor people don't get to eat curry.
7.   Ethel was not part of The Clonus Project on The Island.
8.   Mr. Weatherbee's bad jokes is what really drove Miss Grundy insane.
9.   Midge is having a bad hair day.
10.   Never cross Memory Lane unless you have a rope to teeter you to your own reality/dimension/timeline.

Wow. A good issue! A perfect issue? No, but a good one! And we got a great back up story! I don't care if it was reprinted elsewhere! It was amazing. Anyway, we had a big step up from last issue in writing and art, Whitmore probably had his best colors because he had more to work with. I'm going to give this issue a B.

DeCarlo Rules

#12
I question it when a story portrays Archie as NOT being stupid, idiotic, oblivious, and clueless. The minute he sounds like he's making some kind of sense, or makes an intelligent comment based on observation or awareness of some obvious fact, I wonder what's going on with the story. Like this recent 5-pager, "Dear FAKE Diary" where Archie makes up a fake diary, filled with the most ridiculous self-aggrandizing fantasy scenarios, and leaves it for Veronica to find (to see if he can trust her not to read it, but of course she does). It's clear from a comment he makes about having a hard time coming up with material to fill the fake diary that he's not intentionally filling the diary with notes that he's aware are obvious lies, but when Veronica reads what he wrote it's obvious to the readers of this story that everything Archie wrote presents himself in the most flattering light possible (which is to say, impossible... for the real Archie). Veronica reads it but doesn't get mad, doesn't react to anything he's written as being less than the unvarnished truth as Archie views it, and not only does she get no karmic backlash from her breach of Archie's trust, he doesn't get any karmic payback for having baited and deceived her, either.  :crazy2: The two walk off in each other's arms, both happy as clams. What the what? ??? Yes, Jughead was the one who egged Archie on to plant the fake diary for Veronica to find, and he even though he technically won his bet with Archie that Veronica couldn't resist the temptation to read the fake diary, he appears as puzzled in the final panel at Veronica's reaction after doing so as I was. I'm not sure what the moral of the story was... that Archie's stupidity is so powerful that it temporarily affects the girls around him and makes them just as stupid, or simply that his stupidity is so powerful it has a Teflon coating that deflects any negative consequences to himself? Maybe that's a bad example, because it's not Archie that's not being stupid, it's Veronica being stupid (which she generally isn't, except when it comes to being oblivious to her own faults -- but she's usually not oblivious to Archie's faults). It does tend to make Archie seem smart somehow, though, that even though he filled his fake diary with obviously stupid stuff, he was able to fool Veronica. Or somehow he gets good karma for having faith in Veronica's good character, even though she failed the test... but then he really didn't have faith in her either, because he succumbed to Jughead's challenge and set out to trick her. By the way, it's not clear at the end of the story (because of V's uncharacteristic reaction) that Archie & Jughead are even aware that Jughead won the bet because Veronica failed to resist temptation - and is therefore a bad girlfriend. But Archie's still a bad boyfriend, because he tricked Veronica to test her, instead of just having faith in her and resisting Jughead's taunting.

DeCarlo Rules

I like Banni and Violette too, but I doubt we'll ever see them again in a story. Or at least, used in any way that acknowledges that the whole "Farewell, B&V" arc actually happened. AFIC, it's a parallel earth in the Archie multiverse.