FRIDAY NEWSPOST - When Comics Jump the Shark

Earlier this week, one of my sisters sent me some upsetting news: Archie Andrews is going to be killed off in an upcoming issue of Life With Archie.

I was an avid Archie fan when I was young. My sisters and I had a truly massive collection which we kept in a big box, and they were littered throughout every room of the house. Nowadays I only ever read the odd issue and most of our old ones have been sold or given away. All the same, this made me pretty unhappy; part of the great thing about Archie comics was the happy, clean world the characters lived in. While serious comics definitely have their place, for a real kid dealing with real problems it can be a relief to dive into a world where the main character’s biggest issue is having two dates at the same time.

This news got me thinking about all the crazy things Archie comics have done in the last decade or so in an effort to boost sales and 'reboot' the Archie franchise: a series of "new look" stories, zombie-themed issues, and of course his marriages to Betty and Veronica.

Archie comics isn't the only comic franchise that’s guilty of this sort of thing, though. It seems that in the comics universe there's a lot of pressure to keep characters going for years and years on end. Along the way it's necessary to have a few twists and turns to keep things interesting, and of course in comics – unlike in long-running tv shows – there are no physical limits to keep things from getting too crazy. Spiderman in particular got ridiculously complicated at some points with multiple clones and so on. And a Thor reboot which began a couple years before the recent films had all the characters reborn…Loki as a woman!

Have any of your favourite webcomics or print comics become just too crazy for you to follow? Does it ruin all the good bits from beforehand when this happens? Let me know what you think in the comics!

MILESTONE


Hyperactive Comics is about to hit its 450th page!

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Have a comic milestone, a community project or some comic-related news that you'd like to see in a newspost? Send it to me via PQ or at hippievannews(at)gmail.com!