Archie Comics: Difference between revisions

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** More recently, there was a crossover with ''[[Tiny Titans]]''.

* [[Cuteness Proximity]]: Characters are prone to this in general, especially Betty and Veronica. But what might be the most notable example was when Chuck marched around town being a jerk for some reason, and Archie stopped this by putting a kitten in his path. Chuck immediately picked up and played with the kitten.

* [[Depending On the Artist]]: The physical and [[Where the Hell Is Springfield|geographical]] characteristics of Riverdale and its local landmarks change seemingly at will.

* [[Depending On the Artist]]: The physical and [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?|geographical]] characteristics of Riverdale and its local landmarks change seemingly at will.

** These things change within stories drawn by the same artist, too, especially the design of Veronica and Archie's homes. Dan DeCarlo said in an interview that the publishers once tried to make him establish a consistent look for the interior of Archie's house, but he found it was too limiting.

* [[Depending On the Writer]]: Many characteristics of the characters vary over the years and between writers. Variable character traits include: Jughead's hatred of women (misogyny versus avoidance of romance), Betty's obsessiveness regarding Archie (ie. is she crazy, or just a standard young girl in love?), Veronica's bitchiness, Reggie's evil, Mr. Lodge's heartless businessman tendencies, and Archie's womanizing. Various character traits are up for grabs as well -- Archie is either the best or the worst athlete on any given sports team, Jughead is either a poor or very good student, and Betty's siblings tend to disappear depending on what the current writer knows about her past.

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* [[Fan Vid]]: This [[Darker and Edgier]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djRAiiFlCy8 fake trailer].

* [[First Episode Spoiler]]: The third strip of the newspaper comic revealed that actually, Veronica's so rich that she has a private chauffeur take her to school, making Archie look pretty stupid with his bragging about owning his very own car.

* [[Five Man Band]]: They often trade roles depending on the writer, but this is the most common arangement:

* [[Five-Man Band]]: They often trade roles depending on the writer, but this is the most common arangement:

** [[The Hero]]: Archie

** [[The Lancer]]: Jughead

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* [[Follow the Leader]]: The Archie series was meant to capitalize on many of the "[[Andy Hardy]]" features of the era. Its own popularity soared enough that near-countless rip-offs were created, some by Archie Comics itself. "That Wilkin Boy", "Josie" and "Wilbur" were all Archie-made blatant rip-offs (though Josie got re-tooled).

** Lampshaded in the "Archie Marries Veronica" timeline, when Betty's post-Archie boyfriends include [[Andy Hardy]], [[The Aldrich Family|Henry Aldrich]] and [[Happy Days|Richie Cunningham]].

* [[Four Temperament Ensemble]]: Archie is Sanguine, Veronica is Choleric, Betty is Melancholic and Jughead is Phlegmatic.

* [[Four-Temperament Ensemble]]: Archie is Sanguine, Veronica is Choleric, Betty is Melancholic and Jughead is Phlegmatic.

* [[Form Fitting Wardrobe]]: Much of the clothing the girls wear.

* [[Form-Fitting Wardrobe]]: Much of the clothing the girls wear.

* [[French Cuisine Is Haughty]]: The cook at the Lodge house is Gaston, a very temperamental French chef.

* [[Friend Versus Lover]]: Archie at the center, with Jughead as the friend vs. Betty/Veronica.

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* [[Its Fake Fur Its Fine]]: Fur is occasionally stated to be this.

* [[Jail Bait]]: Somewhat has [[Unfortunate Implications]] in the sense that grown men have discussed how hot Betty and Veronica are for years, but in every incarnation, they're never older than 17. At least they're drawn as busty, curvy grown women and not obviously meant as pedo-bait.

* [[Jerkass]]: Archie could be seen as this, due to the countless times he has cheated on basically every girl he's ever dated, and refuses to choose between Betty or Veronica, instead stringing both along. [[~~Its~~ All About Me|And he complains about this]].

* [[Jerkass]]: Archie could be seen as this, due to the countless times he has cheated on basically every girl he's ever dated, and refuses to choose between Betty or Veronica, instead stringing both along. [[It's All About Me|And he complains about this]].

** In fairness, he has seldom if ever cheated on anyone he was officially "going steady" with at the time - witness stories about "pinning" and so on. It's pretty clear that in the vaguely 1950s-ish culture where the stories are set, everyone agrees that there's no commitment unless there's commitment.

* [[Jerk With a Heart of Gold]]: Reggie Mantle is a mean-spirited prankster much of the time, but he takes steps to prevent anyone actually being seriously hurt either by his pranks or anyone else. Veronica functions as the female equivalent.

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* [[Never Bareheaded]]: Jughead is seldom seen without his signature crown-shaped hat.

* [[Never Trust a Trailer]]: Okay, so how many times has it been claimed that "Archie will finally choose between Betty and Veronica in this comic--no, seriously! Wait...why are you putting the comic back on the shelf? HEY! HEY YOU GET BACK HERE!! [[Blatant Lies|WE'RE SERIOUS, IT'S TRUE]]!!"?

* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]] and [[Lawyer Friendly Cameo]]: Pretty much every real-life celebrity, TV show, company, movie or comic book company has some kind of mock name attached to it -- e.g., Bruce Sprongsteen, Montana Jones and the Final Adventure, etc.

* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]] and [[Lawyer-Friendly Cameo]]: Pretty much every real-life celebrity, TV show, company, movie or comic book company has some kind of mock name attached to it -- e.g., Bruce Sprongsteen, Montana Jones and the Final Adventure, etc.

* [[No Going Steady]]: The teens seem to believe in this. Though the girls get mad when they see Archie date another, it's generally acknowledged that everyone just dates whomever, whenever, and there's no "cheating" going on. Most newly-introduced characters are one-shots.

* [[Old Fashioned Rowboat Date]]: Part of [[The Gay Nineties]] story.

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* [[Panty Shot]]: Li'l Jinx was most prone to this, as were Betty and Veronica in the Little Archie series. As teens, panty shots were limited to cheerleader bloomers and tennis outfits, but on rare occasions, they (and even Sabrina) were seen solely in their skivvies.

* [[Performance Anxiety]]: One story involved Reggie getting stage fright during his first attempt at stand-up comedy, leading to Jughead heckling him, which got Reggie mad enough to reply and then go into the rest of his routine.

* [[Pimped Out Car]]

* [[Pimped-Out Car]]

* [[Portal to The Past]]: Several characters have gone down Memory Lane and met their counterparts from the 1940s or '50s. The street also served as a Portal To The Future, when Archie decided to go ''up'' Memory Lane and see what would happen after he decides who to marry.

* [[Pretty in Mink]]: Veronica has loads of furs, but other characters wear fur occasionally.

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* [[Retool]]: "It's Josie!" was a fairly simple series, featuring Josie as a red-haired everygirl who had a snarky, odd-dressing best friend, a nice blond and a nasty brunette fighting over her, a rich rival, etc. Basically a girl Archie. When the cartoon studios asked the Archie company for another group to mimic the success of "The Archies," Josie suddenly shifted into being ''defined'' by her existence in a band. Best friend Pepper was dropped, [[Black Best Friend]] Valerie was added, and the whole comic was now a "travelling band" one instead of a regular teen book. Opinions varied, but guess which version is the most famous?

* [[Rich Bitch]]: Veronica used to be this, before [[Character Development]] moved her into the [[Jerk With a Heart of Gold]] territory. Early stories portrayed her as almost explicitly evil on occasion.

* [[Rich in Dollars Poor In Sense]], [[Spoiled Brat]] and the [[Alpha Bitch]], sometimes: Veronica ''defines'' all of these, but she's often shown with the "secret heart of gold" routine as well. Cheryl Blossom is a more authentically bad version (though still has her nice moments, because she had her own series for a while). Libby Chessler, seemingly a creation of the ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch (TV)|Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]'' TV series, is both and the [[Trope Namer]] for the latter.

* [[Rich in Dollars, Poor In Sense]], [[Spoiled Brat]] and the [[Alpha Bitch]], sometimes: Veronica ''defines'' all of these, but she's often shown with the "secret heart of gold" routine as well. Cheryl Blossom is a more authentically bad version (though still has her nice moments, because she had her own series for a while). Libby Chessler, seemingly a creation of the ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch (TV)|Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]'' TV series, is both and the [[Trope Namer]] for the latter.

* [[Rule ~~Thirty Four~~]]: The company is known for coming down hard on [[Slash Fic|Slash Fics]] featuring its characters, to the point where Fanfiction.net will no longer accept any kind of Archie-related fanfiction.

* [[Rule 34]]: The company is known for coming down hard on [[Slash Fic|Slash Fics]] featuring its characters, to the point where Fanfiction.net will no longer accept any kind of Archie-related fanfiction.

** Adultfanfiction.net still accepts them though.

** They don't look too kindly on parodies either; Robot Chicken's got pulled.

* [[Rule Sixty Three]]: January Andrews, time traveler from the future is said to be a distant descendant of Archie Andrews. She is simply a gender flip of Archie being identical to him in all ways save slightly different hairstyle and breasts. She is a reoccurring character usually appearing to Jughead. The disturbing part is that Jughead is always shown to be romantically involved with her in each of her appearances.

* [[Scenery Porn]]: Depending on the artist, although Bob Bolling in particular seemed to love nature scenes.

* [[Screw the Rules I Have Money]]: Played straight with Veronica and inverted with her father, as she will often attempt to utilize her clout to get what she wants, while Mr. Lodge will chide her for doing so.

* [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money]]: Played straight with Veronica and inverted with her father, as she will often attempt to utilize her clout to get what she wants, while Mr. Lodge will chide her for doing so.

* [[Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness]]: Frank Doyle, Archie's most prolific writer from the '50s to the '90s, loved having the teenaged characters burst into inappropriately sophisticated verbiage for no reason (except [[Rule of Funny]]).

{{quote| '''Veronica''': Wouldst thou mind removing yon nose from mine business, friend?<br />

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* [[Status Quo Is God]]: ''Is it EVER.'' No matter how big a story, or how glorious a cover, things will revert back to normal by the end of the storyline. Ethel still chases Jughead, Archie still can't decide between Betty & Ronnie, Reggie still plays pranks, Jughead goes back to avoiding girls and being single, all the relationships are the same, etc. When there's 60 years of stories, and Digests re-using old stories, that tends to happen. Even newly introduced characters are 99% likely to be doomed to the C-List and Trivia questions within a few years (Cricket O'Dell, Ginger Lopez, Marie & Frankie, etc.).

** The only exceptions seem to be Cheryl Blossom's re-introduction in the 1990s, and successful newcomers Chuck & Nancy in the 1970s, alongside a few gradual shifts in characterization between the 1950s and now.

* [[Story Breaker Team Up]] ''Archie Meets The [[Punisher]].''

* [[Story-Breaker Team-Up]] ''Archie Meets The [[Punisher]].''

* [[Straight Gay]]: Kevin Keller, introduced in the comic as a normal, positive gay character for kids to read.

* [[Stripperific]]: ''Everyone'' in the Archie I series. Betty and Veronica tote [[Fur Bikini]] outfits, and Archie and Jughead both wear an incredibly small [[Loin Cloth]]. [[Fan Service]] for all.

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* [[Teen Superspy]]: At the height of the spy craze during the 1960s, Archie Comics did a series called "The Man From R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E." that featured the Archie gang as secret agents.

** More recently, Betty and Veronica have appeared as 'Agents B & V'.

* [[They Changed It Now It Sucks]]: One comic created an in-universe example, after Archie and Veronica watched a movie adapted from one of Veronica's favorite romance stories. When Archie asked her afterward if she liked it, she exclaimed that she ''loathed'' it, and spent the rest of the night nitpicking every way the movie deviated from the original events. However, she also developed a crush on the male lead actor, which swiftly eclipsed her hatred of the changes.

* [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks]]: One comic created an in-universe example, after Archie and Veronica watched a movie adapted from one of Veronica's favorite romance stories. When Archie asked her afterward if she liked it, she exclaimed that she ''loathed'' it, and spent the rest of the night nitpicking every way the movie deviated from the original events. However, she also developed a crush on the male lead actor, which swiftly eclipsed her hatred of the changes.

* [[They Fight Crime]]: "The Man From R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E." in the 1960s (and just recently restarted), the 1965 "[http://www.toonopedia.com/purheart.htm Pureheart the Powerful]" (or "Captain Pureheart") stories, which engendered their own comic books, and "Archie's Explorers of the Unknown" in the 1980s.

* [[Third Option Love Interest]]: Cheryl Blossom

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* [[Totally Radical]]: A notorious case. For example, one late-'80s story had a lifeguard tell a surfing Veronica, "I really dig the way you attacked those waves with your rad moves". Around the same time, an in-house ad for an ''Archie'' calendar featured a cartoon teenager, sporting a ridiculous multi-coloured mohawk, oversized shades that [[Elton John]] would reject, and mismatched-colour clothes, telling the reader, "I ordered mine!" Like gnarly, daddy-o, if a rad hepcat teen like him bought one, I better slap down the bread too, yo yo yo.

** Played with in a story titled "Lingo Lesson". In it, Archie talks like this, as does a brownie troop that his mom leads. It drives Archie's dad nuts.

* [[Two Teacher School]]: Heavily averted. Sure, Miss Grundy and Mr. Weatherbee are usually the only teachers to take a major role in a story, but the school's custodian (Mr. Svenson), cafeteria worker (Miss Beazly), science teacher (Prof. Flutesnoot), another elderly teacher (Miss Haggly), two coaches (Kleats and Clayton) and even the Bee's secretary (Miss Philips) have shown up repeatedly over the years, and many have even recieved major roles in stories.

* [[Two-Teacher School]]: Heavily averted. Sure, Miss Grundy and Mr. Weatherbee are usually the only teachers to take a major role in a story, but the school's custodian (Mr. Svenson), cafeteria worker (Miss Beazly), science teacher (Prof. Flutesnoot), another elderly teacher (Miss Haggly), two coaches (Kleats and Clayton) and even the Bee's secretary (Miss Philips) have shown up repeatedly over the years, and many have even recieved major roles in stories.

* [[Two Timer Date]] -- Archie often dates both Betty and Veronica at the same time.

* [[Two-Timer Date]] -- Archie often dates both Betty and Veronica at the same time.

* [[Unlucky Childhood Friend]]: Betty, when Archie Marries Veronica, complete with unemployment. Naturally, Veronica gets by pretty well when Archie Marries Betty instead.

* [[Uncle Pennybags]]: Mr. Lodge is actually a really nice guy-it's just that being one of the main victims of Archie's clumsiness has a tendency to drive him crazy.

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* [[Wacky Racing]]: ''Archie's RC Racers''

* [[Wedding Day]]: It was perhaps the most long-awaited invocation of this trope ever when Archie married Veronica. Needless to say, it also led to quite a bit of [[Broken Base|fan arguing]]. But then it turned out to be [[All Just a Dream]]. And then they did it again when Archie married Betty (also just a dream.)

* [[Where the Hell Is Springfield]]: Either that or "Riverdale" would have been perfectly accurate; they're the two most famous examples of this trope ever.

* [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?]]: Either that or "Riverdale" would have been perfectly accurate; they're the two most famous examples of this trope ever.

* [[Wolverine Publicity]]: Cheryl Blossom ''exploded'' onto the Archie scene on her 1990s return, quickly getting one limited series after another. Finally, she got her own series and was a constant feature. Eventually, backlash set in, and she was actually written out of the books again before the decade was over, and is now a mere extra.

* [[Women Drivers]]: Played straight before the 60s, usually subverted any time after that