This is an odd week for my Pick of the Week, because I have to give the weekly mention to Afterlife with Archie #1. There was one title which I read this week which I had to disqualify, some titles which I was disappointed with, and another which appears to be ramping up, but it was not strong enough this week to give the win to. When all was said and done, Afterlife with Archie #1 was the qualified title I enjoyed reading the most this week.
Afterlife with Archie #1 is my Pick of the Week!
The Oddities of the Week
I would have loved to give my Pick of the Week to Trinity of Sin: The Phantom Stranger #12, but many stores received the title last week. It was part of the shipping issue which also impacted the second printing of Catwoman #23 and the new issue of Stormwatch. Since the issue was a week old for many stores, I had to disqualify it from this week even though it has a solid story and was enjoyable to read.
Constantine appears to be on the verge of a great arc. He has lost all of the trinkets he has collected and is about to go toe-to-toe with an group of magi which would be deadly on their own, but are even more powerful with the items they stole from him. The first issue of the arc, though, appeared to be lacking. Of course, the character is crushed, but his redemption is sure to bring him back into the Pick of the Week contention – as long as the creators get it right.
Afterlife with Archie #1
I will be honest with you. It has been decades since I have read Archie on a regular basis. I have been awaiting this title, though, for months. I was able to make connections with the characters, since I remember them pretty well, and was able to be taken back to a simpler time through reminiscence.
Afterlife with Archie #1 allowed me to think back to how my Dad would always buy me a stack of comics before we went on a road trip. The stack would have copies of The X-Men, Batman, The New Mutants, and Archie. Of course, there was an occasional time when another title was tossed in, but these were the comics I read as a child on a regular basis. While reading Afterlife with Archie #1, I thought back to some of those trips and reading and rereading these comics in the back seat.
The first issue of the tale had a slow build, which is good for a horror story. The storytelling used much of the campy humor you remember from Archie as a kid, but the horror aspects were present and pushed through the camp into a surprisingly entertaining story. I am looking forward to checking out the next issue of Afterlife with Archie to see if the momentum can be kept.
