Not really a review, because seriously, it's Archie Comics, and I'll leave talking about those to the pros. I do have some musings loosely based on buying this stupid thing, though!

First; this is the only comic K-Mart carries, and they carry a ton of them. That combined with the cover, which mislead me in to think the Archies were going to Japan (turns out they were just visiting the only Japanese family in their whitebread town), got my $2.69.

Which leads me to get my bitch on about why Marvel and DC (and hell, Dark Horse, IDW, and Boom!, given their licensed comics stable) don't produce these things. Of course, I've never understood why no one ripped off the Shonen Jump format with fat black and white reprints of American comics, either. I must be really missing something here. I mean, I know DC did digests back in the day, so calm down Scott. I just don't get why they don't jump on that train now. Is Archie really protective of that turf, to the point where they'll hire goons to break anyone's legs who tries to muscle in on it? Did they just give up? What's the deal there?

I'm not talking about the issue because, aside from a rare evil Justin Timberlake appearance in the Josie and the Pussycats strip and the fact that one of Etrigan's cousins lives in a cookie jar at Sabrina the Teenage Witch's house, nothing remotely of interest to me happened. That's because these comics are for pre-teen girls and all, so I didn't expect anything other than offensively inoffensive all ages work, and that's what I got. That said, I think Warren Ellis might be right about them anyway. Something to consider, at least, after the mob gets done with Didio and Quesada. If nothing else, the new look stories should be a nice rallying point. Those things are a hideous affront to the characters and the fans! Well, they're ugly, at least.