Back in the day, I was a big Archie comics fan. I still have a lot of my old issues sitting in plastic sleeves in cardboard comic boxes, including some old issues that I acquired during my comic-collecting heyday that date back to the 50's and 60's.
Since it dates back to my childhood, there are certain elements of the Archie mythology/lexicon that never change: Archie drives a crappy car, Jughead eats a lot while wearing a strange hat, Reggie is a jerk, and Archie is always torn between Betty and Veronica.
Today, while getting ready for work, I heard a segment on the news that shocked me: Archie comics has announced that Archie is getting married. I thought it was a funny little segment, but I've already heard more about it than any other news item today. People are paying attention – not just in comic discussion groups like this one, but check out this on line poll. Wow. A lot of discussion going on just because of a comic book character. I'm also surprised that Betty is winning by such an overwhelming majority. Perhaps we should take this as an example of our "anti-greed" and "back to simplicity" national temperament? Or maybe people just think that Veronica is hot, but a bitch…
My thought is that it won't be Betty OR Veronica. Since the story is going to be set in the future, it is probably a means by which to introduce a new character and tell her entire back story. Maybe they will do a "Archie goes to college" type of series. Or maybe we'll see Archie doing keg stands and hooking up with a strange girl in the alleyway behind a club?