Comics Review: "ARCHIE COMICS: JUDGMENT DAY #1" Makes Hell Fun

ARCHIE COMICS: JUDGMENT DAY #1 (OF 3)

ARCHIE COMIC PUBLICATIONS, INC.

STORY: Aubrey Sitterson

ART: Megan Hutchinson

COLORS: Matt Herms

LETTERS: Jack Morelli

EDITORS: Jamie Lee Rotante; Vincent Lovallo; Stephen Oswald

EiC: Mike Pellerito

COVER: Megan Hutchinson

VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Francesco Francavilla; Jae Lee; Reiko Murakami

32pp, Color, $4.99 U.S. (July 2024); on sale in comic book shops May 22, 2024

Rating: Teen+

Eternal high school student and teenage boy, Archie Andrews, and his friends made their debut in M.L.J. Magazines' Pep Comics #22 (cover dated: December 1941), and before long, Archie was the publisher's headliner character.  In 1946, the company changed its named to Archie Comic Publications, also known as “Archie Comics.”

Archie Comics also has a dark side, as seen via a number of horror and dark fantasy titles sometimes published under the “Archie Horror” imprint.  Archie's latest horror offering is Archie Comics: Judgment Day.  It is the first in Archie Comics' new line, “Archie Premium Event.”  It is written by Aubrey Sitterson; drawn by Megan Hutchinson; colored by Matt Herms; and lettered by the great Jack Morelli.  The series finds Archie on a mission to rid his hometown of Riverdale of all “wicked-kind.”

Archie Comics: Judgment Day #1 opens in a Riverdale beset by all manner of shape-shifting demons.  Archie is on a quest to cleanse his hometown, but first he needs the power to do so.  Enter Madam Satan.  She possesses the power to summon, imprison, and enslave demons for her own purposes.  She can give Archie the “infernal power” he needs to fight the demons, but first, he has to meet the right demon... so to speak.  And would Archie kill a friend to get that power?  Jughead Jones will be the first to learn the answer.

THE LOWDOWN:   For a long time, Archie's marketing department has been sending PDF copies of some of their titles for review.  Archie Comics: Judgment Day #1 is one of them.

Since her modern revival in Archie Horror's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #1 (cover dated: October 2014), vintage Archie character, Madam Satan, has been on quite a tear.  She brings quite a bit of dark magic and unexpected edge to this first issue of Archie Comics: Judgment Day.  Writer Aubrey Sitterson concocts a delicious dark brew that should quench the dark thirsts of his readers' imaginations, and Madam Satan is the straw that stirs this drink.  This first issue is fun and crazy, and whatever your expectations, dear readers, Sitterson beats them to a pulp.

Megan Hutchinson's art is a flow of magical weaving and page after page of tapestries that recalls the art of Heironymus Bosch.  Hutchinson's storytelling is dazzling and under the colors by Matt Herms, it is eye-popping and gorgeous.  The great Jack Morelli tops it off with his classic comics lettering.

If Archie plans on doing more horror and dark fantasy comic books like Archie Comics: Judgment Day, then, they must do them.  Perhaps, Archie Comics can become the new Vertigo Comics, which would be more real than whatever tragedy DC Comics is trying to resurrect.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of Archie Comics' “Archie Horror” imprint will want Archie Comics: Judgment Day.

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Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

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