Tag: Archie

Super Recaps: Riverdale Chapter 1 (The River’s Edge)

~ Matt Vetrano ~ 4 Comments

Riverdale and all the images you see in this recap are owned Warner Bros Television Distribution and The CW

Episode directed by Lee Toland Krieger

The day has finally arrived for Archie and the gang to get their grim and gritty reboot that I’m SURE at least one person out there was asking for!  Alright, the trailers didn’t give me a whole lot of hope for this series considering it looked more like The Vampire Diaries than its source material, but adapting ANYTHING from one medium to another does require there to be some changes, so I’m more than willing to give this a shot even if my expectations have been lowered based on what I’ve seen so far.  Does the pilot manage to assuage my fears and deliver on the legacy that these characters have, or is this a subpar teen drama with Archie branding splattered all over it?  Let’s find out!!

The episode begins with narration by Jughead (Cole Sprouse) that reminds me more of an embittered noir detective rather than the easy going burger chomping bro who inexplicably wears a crown, but at least it’s better than whatever the hell they were doing with him in the LAST live action adaptation.  At the very least, he does provide us a bit of backstory as the all the interesting stuff seemed to have already happened before we go here.  So what DID happen?  Back on The Fourth of July, the Blossom twins, Cheryl and Jason (Madelain Petsch and Trevor Stines) pulled a James Franco and went off to do something dangerous without letting anyone know and apparently without any cellphones.  The dangerous act in question turns out to be an early morning boat ride on the Riverdale River (I assume that’s what it’s called) where they don’t even bother to bring safety equipment or even life jackets.  Then again, I assume those would be ripped off right away ALONG WITH ALL THEIR CLOTHES.

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“Did we really need to get a boat to do this?  We could have just driven to a motel or something.”

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Super Recaps: Archie: Return to Riverdale

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

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Archie: Return to Riverdale and all the images you see in this recap are owned by NBC

Directed by Dick Lowry

I was given my first Archie Double Digest by my grandma as reading material for a field trip I was taking in Middle School.  Seems apropos considering I had discovered Calvin and Hobbes on her book shelf, and sure enough I was hooked right away.  Now this was ALSO a time in my life where I didn’t have disposable income, so I couldn’t get as many books as I had hoped, but those characters are still endearing to me to this day and I’ll try to catch up on them every once in a while.  A somewhat foolish endeavor considering how dense the continuity is and the breadth of the content there is out there, but it’s certainly better than trying to figure out what the hell is going on with Marvel or DC at any given time.  Now were on the cusp of the CW series Riverdale which I will absolutely be recapping even if the trailers haven’t inspired a whole lot of hope for me.  Seriously, WHY DOES IT LOOK LIKE IT’S GONNA BE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, AND WHY IS MISS GRUNDY A HOT TWENTY FIVE YEAR OLD MUSIC TEACHER!?  That’s all for another day however, as I have something else to show you right now!  Did you know that the CW series isn’t the first time that Archie has been in Live Action!?  In 1990, NBC premiered a Made for TV movie called Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again which was shortened to Archie: Return to Riverdale when it was released on VHS.  I just so happened to find this thing in a Goodwill about a month ago, as if by fate.  Like this was in my destiny or something!  Is it any good?  Well let’s find out!!

The movie takes place fifteen years after the events of… let’s say MOST of the books.  For the most part, Archie is a high school student , and while there are plenty of books out there about him AFTER high school such as the reboot of Life with Archie also known as Archie: The Married Life, if you go to the grocery store and pick up a Double Digest, the dude is gonna be racing to his math class and drinking milkshakes at Pop’s Diner.   We basically get a montage of the three main characters in this, Veronica Lodge (Karen Kopis), Betty Cooper (Lauren Holly), and of course Archie Andrews (Christopher Rich), who are all preparing for their fifteen year high school reunion; the former two by the way are PARTICULARLY excited to see the latter despite Betty already having a boyfriend and Veronica having been recently divorced.  Could you blame them?  I mean, look at the guy!

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How long did it take you to get that dye job?  Ah hell, I can’t really blame him for wanting to look his best when he’s got two sweethearts waiting for him, now can I?

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Super Comics: Sonic the Hedgehog 6-7

~ Matt Vetrano ~ 1 Comment

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Sonic the Hedgehog and all the images you see in this recap are owned by Archie Comics and Sega of America

We’re back with more comics about our favorite Mickey Mouse knockoff!!  We’re still very much in the early days before this comic really got a sense of what it was going to be other than a funny book companion to the video games, but even if it’s just a fluff series, it can still be enjoyable if they know how to tell good jokes and come up with interesting one shot ideas.  Do they manage to pull that off in these two issues?  Let’s find out!!

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Issue 6 (January 1994)

This issue, at least for the first half, a tie in to Sonic Spinball which I’m pretty sure is the only Sonic game that takes place in the Sat AM universe.  Well, I DO have my suspicions about that Sonic Generations 2 game or whatever it is coming out in 2017 (the tagline is Join the Resistance) but until that’s confirmed, this is the only Sat AM tie in game.  Unfortunately, that ALSO means that nothing of particular consequence is going to happen here as trying to tie any great continuity (that’s only barely getting established in the first place) to a pinball game is probably not the best idea long term.  But since we might as well get into it, the issue begins with the Freedom Fighters storming one of Robotnik’s factories to take him out once and for all (you KNOW they’re serious because Boomer brought a hammer), but the find it completely deserted and with a letter pinned to the front door informing them that Robotnik’s base of operations is now inside of volcano.  Probably not the WORST idea as far supervillain lairs go, but the addition of rails to get people easily through the facility may have been something he should have decided against.

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“Blasts!  Why did I bother installing those in the first place!?”     “We asked you about them SEVEN times before going into construction, but you were REALLY adamant about it.”     “Are you talking back to me, smart guy!?”

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Super Comics: Sonic the Hedgehog 1

~ Matt Vetrano ~ 2 Comments

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Sonic the Hedgehog and all the images you see in this recap are owned by Archie Comics and Sega of America

(August 1993)

Well THIS is certainly something new!  Normally I stick to movies and TV shows, but I’ve been on a bit of a Sonic the Hedgehog kick recently and I figured there’s SOME way to share this recent interest with all of you.  I don’t have the courage to do a recap series for Sonic X (yet) so for now, we’ll take a look at the comic book series which has been running for over twenty years!  SERIOUSLY!!  This particular book (Sonic the Hedgehog) has been running since 1993!!  Well we clearly have plenty of material to work with, so we might as well just jump right in with the first issue!!

So how did they decide to begin their comic about a child friendly mascot fighting a robot master?  With our hero getting lynched of course!!

“Let’s see how fast your neck can snap!!”     “URG GURG BLERG!!!”
“Let’s see how fast your neck can snap!!”     “URG GURG BLERG!!!”

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