Archie is dying. It was reported in The Kansas City Star recently that Archie Andrews, better known as the singularly monickered “Archie,” will be killed off in a July issue of the “Life With Archie” series, which follows the 71-year-old American comic book icon in his early adulthood. He’ll still live on in other similar books — much like (but not entirely similar to) times when fellow comic book mainstays such as Batman or Superman have died and continued on — but it does mark the end of the character’s life in canon.
Archie is a great dude
“Born” in December 1941, Archie always super engrained into the baby-boomer idealogy that being a teenager is just dandy and that everyone sure loves America. It rarely strayed into dark waters; in early 1962, his parent company sued fellow comic book “Goodman Beaver” after they featured Archie (simply retitled “Archer”) as a Hugh Hefner-style playboy, freely referencing both Miles Davis and Lenny Bruce. It’s actually pretty rad and well worth checking out.
While Archie the character may best be remembered as the most milquetoast version of post-war white America (which is saying something both about white America and him, the website still receives a staggering 40 million hits a month. “Life With Archie” will stick around for one more issue after the death of Archie. No word on exactly how Archie dies, although it is hinted at that he dies trying to save “a friend.” Be it Jughead? Be it Betty? Be it Veronica? Man, that guy got a lot of tail in his day. Jesus. I guess that’s what happens when you’re famous, milquetoast or not.
We like it or not, this character will stay with us in history for a very long time. Old memories of grandparents taking care of us, playing with us still live with us in memory. He will be with us forever.
