Archie vs. Predator HC – Alex de Campi & Fernando Ruiz (Dark Horse)

Yes, I know this sounds like a joke. The never-aging teenagers of Riverdale High School meeting an alien killing machine that’s forever on the next big game hunt. When you think about these two, they just do not seem to be able to match up in any way, shape, or form. So how is it that that these two completely opposite entities can be together? And that’s before you get the inevitable headache that kicks in when you start thinking about the difficulties of about crossing over characters from three different companies. But somehow it works.

I cannot believe I just wrote that.

So how does this all come about you ask? Well it turns out the Riverdale gang, thanks to Jughead, wins a vacation to Los Perdidos which also happens to coincide with the alien hunter\’s next hunt. I won\’t spoil the story for you but I will say you are in for a treat.

Writer Alex de Campi, who also writes ‘Grindhouse: Doors Open at Midnight’, somehow combines the gruesomeness of the Predator series, which includes many, many deaths, and the pettiness of Betty and Veronica that’s tied intotheir affection for Archie and makes it enjoyable. This isn’t your standard Archie comic in anyway, shaoe or form. From the situation the gang is in, of course, to the more adult humor, mostly dealing with Dalton and his telescope, to the open nods to the Predator movie series, Campi has done wonders. The art of longtime Archie artist Fernando Ruiz might make you think that the art style of Archie Comics wouldn’t fit with the gritty and very bloody world of Predator, but somehow because of this, it makes what we’re reading and looking at more and more outrageous. And the more outrageous it becomes, the funnier it becomes and it makes you want to keep on reading. Especially the scene with the cat. That’s the only spoiler I\’m going to give you about what happens inside this fun, and amazingly entertaining, read. Jason Bonton