3 out of 5

Most comic writers have a few style formats they write in.  Sometimes the publisher is what causes the switch, sometimes it’s the genre – but this means you get gross out Ennis, or big budget Morrison, or… well, Bendis is pretty much always Bendis.  Mark Waid definitely has some styles that don’t appeal to me, or sometimes his ‘classic comic’ style (which is like a mash-up of golden age with modern era awareness) just leans too much into fan service for me, but moreso than the majority of his peers, Waid is reliable.  He is inventive, he knows when to push himself – but he has a “style” for that too.  This means it never really feels like he’s phoning it in, he’s just really, really comfortable with his characters.

And these Archie issues, which I feel blessed to own, are little gems of Waid on a straight comedy book.  Often his humorous style is mixed with tights – and I don’t feel like we get to see big names float through the Archie halls very often.  I owned a bunch of Archie issues, but the two P n’ G that Waid worked on stuck out even before I knew what I was reading – the humor was just a tad more modern (less cheeky) and the drawing style had a cartoonish edge to it that’s normally filtered out by the Archie standards.

It’s nothing massively mind-shattering, ’cause it’s Archie (though see this interesting blog), but kid-friendly adult humor is of massive appeal to me, and Waid’s sense of humor seems like a good fit for that.  It’d be nice to see him on more juvie books, if the appeal is there.

Bleep.