The Four Color Media Monitor

But it's not, and besides, the sacrifice they speak of is only taking place in an alternate reality title they're canning:

"Life With Archie" #36 hits stores on July 16, and CNN can reveal exclusively that it tells the story of how Archie sacrifices himself to save a friend.

Few details are known, but it seems fitting that Archie would go out a hero. The 37th issue one week later will end the series.

The "Life With Archie" series has been telling the stories of possible future Archie scenarios for the past few years, and so Archie will continue to be alive in the comics set in the present day.

So what's so special about it? I don't think this kind of fuss was ever made about the DC anthology special from 1980 that told how Jonah Hex was gunned down in 1904, yet his body was never buried properly for a long time.

They may depict Archie going out heroically, which is far better than what Marvel and DC have done for a long time, but after all the cliches, it's still a lot of overkill. If they had to "kill off" Archie, why couldn't it have been through an auto accident or natural causes?

A Washington Post writer made an interesting point:

We all know that Archie Andrews’s preternaturally extended teenage years are a fantasy. But making the comics, however temporarily, about death rather than life, turns away from the franchise’s core purpose. Superhero and crime comics teach us about all the ways we can die. Archie Andrews, in all his bumbling, indecisive, lovelorn foolishness, has always been a character who taught us how we want to live.

True. I'm afraid there is meat to this view, that despite the good intentions and portraying Archie altruistically here (which is surely more than can be said for the publishers), by making this an "event" and seeking publicity only sensationalizes the whole issue. If Archie died from natural causes like leukemia, that would be less exploitative, ditto if the story were covered as an afterthought, rather than before it debuted.

Besides, the people involved have already proven they're not up to task, so I see little reason to congratulate them over this move.

Update: and here's proof they're not acting in good faith: they've published a busload of variant covers. How can this be considered a sincere venture if they're going to cater to speculators? Clearly, it's not their intention to offer a serious focus on character drama.

Labels: Archie, golden calf of death, msm propaganda