Get Out of Town

I've had some problems dealing with these new versions of Sabrina and Archie and his group. The original Sabrina and Archie, etc, were basically average teenagers (although Sabrina had magic) who went about their time in school and hanging out.

Their world was just sort of a near-idealized world where the harshness of our current reality was absent.

Then came The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, an extremely dark take on the original story. Virtually all the nice things about the original series was turned on its head and made dark.

The same has happened with the Riverdale series and related comics.

So it was hard to handle until I found a way to deal with that.

In both cases the original series were turned into Mirror Universe series as in Star Trek. So, the Sabrina and Archie characters were essentially duplicates of the originals but in a mirror universe where things went very, very different from what had been read and shown in the past.

That way the differences can be noted and explained and the stories can be judged on a different basis.

In this book what you have is Archie about to go on trial on the charge of murder (which he didn't commit), Veronica's father being pretty much pure evil, Veronica being Archie's only romantic interest, Betty and Jughead together and other characters acting in a different manner.

Reggie hates Archie and he wants Josie, leader of the Pussycats. Betty is misusing medicine and you have an entire motorcycle gang that, as far as I know, is not in the original material or at least not in the negative fashion they are in this one.

Reggie has an out-of-control party and Betty, Veronica, Archie and Jughead head out to a lodge owned by Veronica's father to see if they can find evidence that will help Archie.

There's also a trip the group takes to New York City which was covered in one of Riverdale comic books. There's also an instance where there's a play being put on in the school and a problem with mono, another plot seen in another issue of the Riverdale comic.

The book also does not have a happy ending where everything works out for everyone. If you go with the Mirror Universe theory, though, everything makes sense and none of it is shocking. This means the story can be appreciated for what it is in itself and not judged by the stories from earlier, lighter years.

In that case I can say I liked the book and have ordered the set of all four books plus the other separate book.