Race & Comics Roundup: Archie’s Romance, Milestone’s Return & The Great Ten
By Special Correspondent Arturo R. García
Chris Sims at The Comic Alliance highlighted the cover to Archie #608, which points in the direction of a decidedly different type of crossover between Archie and his gang and Josie & The Pussycats – specifically, the eponymous Mr. Andrews and Valerie, so uh, memorably played by Rosario Dawson in the 2001 Josie live-action film.
As Sims points out via a column by former Milestone Comics editor-in-chief Dwayne McDuffie, this isn’t the first time a member of the Archie creative team has tried to introduce an inter-racial romance to the staid Riverdale scene, only the first successful attempt. In 1992, McDuffie says, Betty & Me writer Matt Wayne wanted to give Betty Cooper a beau of her own to give Archie some competition for her affection (a twist on Betty and Veronica’s never-ending battle for Archie’s heart).
Wayne’s candidate was to be college freshman Dexter Howard, a young black co-worker of Betty’s. As another twist, Dexter wasn’t going to be a “bad guy,” but would instead befriend Archie despite their competing interest in Betty. Unfortunately, McDuffie says, the idea never got off the ground, as Wayne’s editor, Daryl Edelman, had the story soundly rejected by one of Edelman’s superiors:
[Edelman's superior] hated the stuff, wanting to know why Dexter was so much more accomplished than Archie, “What is he, super-Negro?” (at least, “Negro” is what everyone who told me this story reported him as saying. I have a sneaking suspicion that they were trying to save my feelings). Darryl was very upset and told off his boss, but to no avail. He was ordered to change the story in the cheapest way possible: Dexter was to be re-colored white. Unfortunately, this fooled approximately no one. Archie’s offices were flooded with four or five letters congratulating them on their progressive move of adding that “cool, black guy” to Betty’s cast. Uh oh.
Wayne was subsequently fired after only two issues.
But as Sims points out, the Archie world has slowly moved in a more progressive direction, through more attention to longtime characters like Ginger Lopez and Chuck Clayton and the introduction of new characters like Raj Patel, Kim Wong and Tomoko Yoshida:
Are these characters one-dimensional? Well, yes, but they’re one-dimensional in the way that all Archie characters are, like Raj, who is frequently described as — wait for it — “out-Raj-eous.” He’s defined by one thing — in this case, his aspirations as an amateur filmmaker — but no more than Archie, who’s defined by being a girl-crazy klutz. It’s a reduction of a character to one note, but it’s a rare case of that one note being completely unrelated to their race.
The pairing of the series’ franchise player with Valerie, who has been part of Archie canon for just over four decades, might well be received positively by fans – Sims notes that fans responded positively to a BM/WF potential pairing just two years ago before editors scuttled it – but it’ll be interesting to note how long this romance is allowed to bloom after the book’s release in April.
Speaking of McDuffie, some of his own characters are getting some much-delayed love this month, as Milestone and DC collaborated on the release of Milestone Forever #1, the first half of a story which will reportedly spell out the final fate of its’ primary characters and storyline hub, Dakota. This particular issue, though, didn’t spend much time on that issue, aside from some musings by the usually omniscient Dharma, who, for once, is stumped as to how to save his universe.
Instead, nearly the whole issue focuses on the Blood Syndicate settling its leadership issues after a run-in with Icon, Rocket, Static and Hardware. The original Milestone artists are on-board for Forever, and John Paul Leon and Mark D. Bright effectively highlight the split in the action between the fisticuffs in Dakota and Dharma’s lair. Meanwhile, McDuffie’s story hums along at an enjoyable pace, given the sheer volume of characters he has to deal with.
Fittingly, given his status as Milestone’s biggest success story, Static gets the best lines; it’s a relief to see him away from the emotional minefields in Teen Titans, and his Electric Company callback is sincerely funny. Forever might have come out too late to build on any momentum from the Milestone mini-crossover with DC’s Justice League (also written by McDuffie), but this issue should encourage fans of this universe to stick around and see what happens.
Elsewhere in the DCU, this month’s issue of The Great Ten mini-series is writer Tony Bedard’s best case yet for why this team – if not the series – should be kept in the company’s spotlight for the forseeable future.
Originally created by Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones for the company’s maxi-series 52, the Ten are China’s first super-team, a delayed response by the People’s Republic to the rise of the JLA and other such teams. This sets up a crucial distinction between them and their American colleagues, in that the Ten regularly report to party leaders, as opposed to running amok.
The series is a nearly-extreme example of decompression, as the story takes place during the course of a single battle against a group calling itself the reincarnation of Chinese gods. In between scenes of the team and its’ handler, Vice-Premier Jiang, trying to handle the situation, each issue focuses on the origin story of a member of the Ten. This month, Great Ten #4 featured the Immortal Man In Darkness, and Bedard effectively balanced the character’s sense of duty with the decidedly morbid nature of his job, even as it turns out to hold a clue to his team’s dilemma.
The only issue with the Ten has less to do with the characters than how DC and Bedard present them to us. The would-be gods (”Yu Huang,” “Kuan Ti,” etc.) get phonetically Chinese names, the Ten themselves are constantly referred to by translated versions of their names. Morrison had reportedly said that names like Thundermind and Accomplished Perfect Physician are close to their actual Chinese names, but not having that acknowledged in the series diminishes the experience just a bit. But give Bedard credit for at least presenting each member of the team thus far as more than a party apparatchik, even if they’re not fighting for the American dream.
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Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist wrote:
lol, OUT-RAJ-EOUS.
I used to read Archie comic books all the time as a kid before moving onto Marvel. Archie Andrews is actually quite popular in India.
I do remember as a child, I often wondered why all the main characters were white and how come they’d never dated outside their race, while they’d pair up Chuck Clayton with a black GF (I think her name was Nancy?).
I used to think Veronica was Indian (with veryyyy light skin) or at least Arab because of her black hair. Later, I then realized she was white.
Posted 05 Feb 2010 at 11:16 am ¶
Jess wrote:
@DIMA –
Archie is one of those examples of inertia, I think, and the story Arturo relates above explains a bit of why and what you were seeing when you read it.
I don’t know how old the editor who rejected the original script was, but I suspect he was 30-40 or so, since that is usually when you get that kind of job. (Not to many wunderkinds are given that right out of school – yes I know there are, but the whole point is that they are big exceptions).
So, in 1992, that meant he would, at a minimum, have been reading Archie since 1970 or so I would guess. Likely earlier. And the people that wrote and edited back then were a generation behind him — they would have been products of the 50s.
Archie comics date from the 40s (it debuted in 1939). I was a child in the 70s and I thought Jughead’s hat was weird, until I saw some Norman Rockwells from the period — meaning pre-1940 — which explained that crown-hat thing. But it shows just how far behind the artists — or at least the conventions in drawing the characters — were.
Generally speaking, editors are a generation or so behind the readers and often the writers. And then there’s the marketing factor — nobody wants to mess with what they see as selling. It takes a while for large organizations to change direction.
So the inertia reinforces the white characters’ privileged positions. It isn’t that the publishers didn’t want PoC to buy their stuff — it’s that they felt they could be safely ignored. And the people in charge are not going to be leaders — they will, almost by definition, be followers. That’s why it’s so hard to find publishers who take risks.
Obviously that has changed, and that’s no bad thing. I’d say that a new generation of writers and editors has taken over, which helps a lot. It’s also, importantly, a more diverse generation of writers and editors.
So, all in all, this looks like a pretty welcome development there. Entertainment directed at kids — at least the stuff produced by the big houses — always has a conservative streak (not in the political sense necessarily, just in that it tends to be pretty change-resistant over time – the conventions at Disney, for instance, are really dated).
Posted 05 Feb 2010 at 12:05 pm ¶
pinksghetti wrote:
Oh wow! I’ve been reading Archie comics since I was introduced to them by my mom (who also read them) since I was 7 years old in the late 80’s. I’ve been thinking how they should have an IR story and now they have actually done it. I usually don’t buy the comic just the digests because of the high price but I will have to not be so cheap this time!
Posted 05 Feb 2010 at 1:15 pm ¶
Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist wrote:
LOL @ Jughead’s hat. I also thought his hat was f–king weird until I understood that the comics first originated in the late 1930s, as you said.
Riverdale (a fictional town where Archie & Gang live in) is actually based on a small/college town in Missouri where I used to live (and where the creator of the Archie comics came from). The town is Columbia, Missouri, which was the inspiration for Main Street, U.S.A and all that “Americana” bullshit with white people.
Posted 05 Feb 2010 at 1:19 pm ¶
Phil Deeze wrote:
@ Arturo,
I used to read the Archie comics when I was a kid. I don’t remember the Chuck or Dexter characters, but my Mom threw all my comic books away when I went to college. LOL. In all seriousness, GREAT info. What WAS the reaction to Archie #608 with my man bustin’ a slob with the sistah from The Pussycats.? (I think her form might’ve grown me a few chest-hairs.)
And was the main problem with the editors on the Betty/Dex love scenario an issue of which one of them was the person color i.e. a black man and a white woman in a relationship, given the time.
If they did the comic now, Valerie from the Pussycats would date Archie and then Samuel L. Jackson would stalk them and then someone could say, “SEE!!!??? They don’t like it when we take their women, either. And he’s got a badge and a gun!!! Run for your life!”
Posted 05 Feb 2010 at 1:22 pm ¶
ourname wrote:
@DIMA
I love that you read Veronica as Indian or Arab. I always related to Veronica because as a little girl I always read her as a Latina! And to me, Reggie was a Latino. I think children pick people to relate to in the absence of any real representation of themselves.
Posted 05 Feb 2010 at 1:48 pm ¶
Ike wrote:
I still read dark-haired, light-to-medium-skinned characters as Latin@ or Asian. Example: Boo in Monsters, Inc
Aside: I’ve never liked the weird eyes that artists use to represent Asian characters. In a world where everyone else’s eyes are circles or ovals, it’s actually kind of racist to accentuate East Asian eyes as being “different”. Just draw a freakin’ circle for cryin’ out loud!
Posted 05 Feb 2010 at 2:39 pm ¶
wanderinglady wrote:
My first thought was: Valerie is waaay out of Archie’s league!
Posted 05 Feb 2010 at 3:26 pm ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:
@wanderinglady –
Ummhmm! There’s needs to be a Don’t Date Him Girl website for the comic characters.
Posted 05 Feb 2010 at 4:19 pm ¶
usha wrote:
@ DIMA:
That explains it all. I’m half indian and in college, a group of indian students called me ‘Veronica’. That had always seemed so random to me.
Posted 05 Feb 2010 at 4:57 pm ¶
Ladymorgue wrote:
@ ourname
OMg! Me too! I’m was that only one who does this!
I knew in the back of my head, Veronica was not Latina yet I would still try to relate to her. Growing up, when I would watch old movies and TV shows( most with a all white cast) I would always root for the dark haired woman. I like the idea of Betty with Wayne and Archie with Valerie . To be honest I thought of him as a little spineless because he couldn’t choose between Betty or Veronica.
Posted 05 Feb 2010 at 5:31 pm ¶
ourname wrote:
Proving that I have way too much time on my hands, I actually just read the official bios on the Archie characters and Reggie Mantle is supposed to be part Native American (and from Texas!).
Posted 05 Feb 2010 at 6:09 pm ¶
kendra wrote:
Growing up I identified with Betty more because she was more tomboyish. I didn’t like Veronica as much because I didn’t see myself as being as girlish as her. But I can releate to the experience of substituting a darker haired white character for empathy/representation when there are no WOC/POC in the universe or notable cast.
Posted 05 Feb 2010 at 6:20 pm ¶
Jess wrote:
Also, another fun fact is that the name Riverdale (not the town itself, as DIMA notes) came from the one in the Bronx, and the high school was modeled after the one in Haverhill, MA (I don’t think the building used as an inspiration exists anymore though).
Both of those were pretty white at the time. I think we all tend to forget that the ethnic map of New York City especially has changed a whole lot in the last 50 years or so.
But more important: one other reason the stories we read are behind the times is that they tend to come from our childhoods. It’s pretty common, and I remember reading somewhere that it is an essential part of the writing process for a lot of people.
So Archie seems a bit old-fashioned because the writers are probably, like a lot of other writers, engaged in the same unconscious process.
When we read Archie, we are going to impose on it our own backgrounds, childhoods, et cetera.
I used to know largely white people in my neighborhood, with a chunk of black and “Spanish” families (that meant mostly Puerto Rican). So some kids I knew thought Veronica was boricua as well. (Though I didn’t know that term until much later). Of course, a few kids probably had the Spanish-language editions as well, which would affect how they read it.
Anyhow, the point is, as IR relationships become more common, you’ll see more of them in stuff like Archie because the writers will be remembering them from their own pasts, and using that.
Posted 05 Feb 2010 at 9:27 pm ¶
Ladymorgue wrote:
Oops corrections I meant “I thought I was the only one who did that?”
I embarrass myself!
Posted 05 Feb 2010 at 9:54 pm ¶
Natasha wrote:
Ha! Yes, I always thought Veronica was Indian too! I think one of the reasons was that my Mama looked like her long jet-black hair, very fair-skinned and dark brown almost black eyes. (I never thought she was white because most “white” characters had blonde, red or light brown hair) And Ronnie was always the most popular character in India.
Posted 06 Feb 2010 at 5:42 am ¶
Renn wrote:
It’s funny – back when I was a kid, I made my mom buy me all the “ethnic” Barbie dolls since all the white ones were blondes and I didn’t want them because I had brown hair. As a little kid, the hair color seemed to be a more important factor than the skin tone.
Posted 06 Feb 2010 at 8:13 am ¶
Sean wrote:
Go Archie!!! LOL!!
I used to read the occasional Archie wayyyyy back, and I actually liked Betty Cooper over Veronica. Betty was sweet, down-to-earth, and can bake a mean peach cobbler. Ronnie was cold, snooty, and would date Reggie just as fast, if not, faster than Archie. Too bad about Dexter not getting off the ground, but I can’t say I’m surprised.
BTW what happened, I thought Archie popped Veronica the question recently?
Posted 06 Feb 2010 at 5:31 pm ¶
miga wrote:
@Arturo: Hey- I actually LIKED the Josie and the Pussycats movie, thank you very much! It’s cult status among my friends and I. I would have been Val for Halloween one year, but my parents would have killed me had I left the house in a leopard suit. Plus, Rosario Dawson is kinda my idol, so them’s fightin’ words! :p
Posted 07 Feb 2010 at 7:58 am ¶
Sonnyboy wrote:
Re: reading dark haired characters as people of color, specifically your own ethnicity
I am a black female and I also thought I was the only one who did this.
Like most black families there’s a wide range of skin tones and my family was not particularly “color struck” . I tended to re-imagine all dark haired and especially dark haired and tan people as black…and in my head just deemed them light skinned…since some did in fact resemble some of my familiy members in coloring and hair texture.
Now as an adult I always hear black people, especially dark skinned black women, having this discussion about watching t.v. and feeling left out as a child because there was no one on screen who resembled them.
I always wondered what made me just re-imagine people as being black rather than fixate on the fact that they were not, unlike so many black people I know. I’m several shades darker than many of the people I imagined to be black, yet I never felt any less connected to them when I re-imagined them this way.
As a child, I recall being devestated to learn that Wonder Woman, Ernie (yes the puppet character) and Maria from Sesame Street were not in fact black, LOL! I even argued with a teacher about it!
Posted 07 Feb 2010 at 10:39 pm ¶
marianna wrote:
my heart just about stopped when i saw this.
i LOVE Archie comics. and in a strange coincidence, i was just looking for comic lots on ebay. wow.
this is awesome! i’ll probably buy four copies, like i did with the spiderman/barack obama comic.
Posted 07 Feb 2010 at 10:43 pm ¶
Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist wrote:
I’ve always preferred Ronnie over Archie. I LOVE MEAN BOYS!!!! ;-]
Posted 08 Feb 2010 at 12:26 pm ¶
Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist wrote:
oops, I mean REGGIE, not Ronnie…
i’ve always resented the notion that women (and guys) with dark or black hair were malicious while the blondes (Betty) were sweet and innocent.
but I guess they made it up with Jughead Jones, since he also had black hair, but he wasn’t malicious in any way. Just a goofball who was always hungry for hamburgers and milkshakes. and there’s that Ethel, the tall raven-haired girl who had a huge crush on Jughead, too…
Posted 08 Feb 2010 at 12:30 pm ¶
Dwayne McDuffie wrote:
Jess, the old High School building in Haverhill, MA is still there, but now it’s the city government building. I got my marriage license there last fall. If you go anywhere near it, someone will stop you and tell you its Riverdale High. The building Pop’s Choklit Shoppe was based on, an ancient, semi-deco Woolworth’s, is also still standing. It’s for lease.
Posted 08 Feb 2010 at 4:04 pm ¶
Dwayne McDuffie wrote:
Oh, long as I’m here, that should be spelled Daryl Edelman. I worked with him for years at Marvel, and misspelled his name in my old article. He asked me to fix it ten years ago and I never did. Sorry, Daryl.
Writer’s Note: Noted and fixed. Thanks for the heads-up! – AG
Posted 08 Feb 2010 at 4:07 pm ¶
Jess wrote:
Thanks Dwayne. I wasn’t sure — maybe because it wasn’t a high school anymore, and it has been a long time since i was stomping around that part of MA.
Glad to hear they didn’t tear the thing down!
Posted 09 Feb 2010 at 8:10 am ¶
Dwayne McDuffie wrote:
Jess, I just found out my Mother-In-Law went to high school there.
Posted 10 Feb 2010 at 2:33 pm ¶
Daryl Edelman wrote:
It was my idea to have Betty date a black guy, not Matt’s. To accomodate my editorial direction, Matt’s contribution was to have Betty working at a TV news office. Dwayne wasn’t there. I have more to say about other inaccuracies in his article, but will save it for later. My story to tell, keep an eye out of my first novel, Comic Book Marginal. Here’s an excerpt: http://reginaedelman.blogspot.com/2009/05/comic-book-marginal-excerpt.html
-Daryl Edelman
Posted 12 Feb 2010 at 11:31 am ¶