4 out of 5

God damn this series for actually being good.  I’m not a Francavilla fan (his art achieves the same value  for me as a lot of other stylized notable artist: beyond his notable style, I don’t find much value); I found the Archie horror idea cute but expected novelty; and I extend 1,000 curses for actually getting me hooked and then plaguing us with interminable delays.

I don’t even think this arc ever completed… but regardless, I called it quits at issue #10, as writer Aguirre-Sacasa over-booked himself with double delays on Sabrina, then started working on the Riverdale TV show, and I was tired of holding out hope.  Grumble grumble, how I want this series to suck.

Alas…

So one star knocked off for my frustrations, but also for Francavilla’s stagnant art style, splashing clashing color choices around without much, I feel, reason – orange and blue dominate, but the variations have no sense of theme – as well as Aguirre-Sacasa’s clunky writing style of jumping narratives and odd page transitions.  (Who says a single arc can’t have two subplot fill-in issues?)

But whatever.  It’s still a good effing read, and a lot more developed than I would have ever predicted.  Mr. Lodge’s racist rich-guy act is a bit on the nose, but Aguirre-Sacasa otherwise balances the teen drama with the forced-maturity-of-the-situation ridiculously well, moving past the glory kills of preceding issues and into icky psychological horror.  And not so much of the lame ‘humans are horrible’ Walking Dead variety, so much as thoughtfully exploring the mish-mash of Archie stereotype shallowness with the required Big Decisions.  Cute horror nods pop up, and the series starts to interestingly wind in Lovecraftian mythos, which really wasn’t expected in a zombie jam.

Betty R.I.P. is loosley a catch-up batch of issues, both externally – dumping some info to refresh us post delays – and internally, using different characters’ ruminations to fill-in-the-blanks of what’s happened post-Riverdale.  Meanwhile, seeds are sewn for that subtitle…

The stakes are legit, and the subject matter is handled seriously.  If I had faith in the series’ consistency, I’d still be reading.  But no shame if you are… it’s a quality book that properly uses its title”history to deepen its emotional connections when it twists them knives.