Archie To Die After Taking A Bullet For His Gay Best Friend
This would have never happened back in the Riverdale High days.
After 73 years, beloved comic-book character Archie Andrews will be killed off in this Wednesday’s issue of the now-unfortunately-named Life With Archie series, and the circumstances regarding his death couldn’t be further removed from his 1941 Riverdale High beginnings.
He has no idea…
The good-hearted redhead will die a hero, jumping in front of a bullet that was intended for openly-gay character Kevin Keller, who was introduced to the series in 2010. Keller is a military-man-turned-senator, who is pushing for tighter gun control laws in Riverdale after his husband is involved in a botched robbery shooting. Archie takes his final breath in a shopping mall, like so many Americans before him.
If this latest plot point seems a little bleak for the clumsy, lovelorn teen and his twin crushes, that’s because Life with Archie is intended as an adult-focused spin-off which tackles real-world social issues, having dealt with gay marriage, cancer, affordable health care, and death in the past.
Archie’s demise is undoubtedly the biggest plot point to date – aside from killing the main character off, it acts as a damning indictment of America’s embarrassingly-backward gun laws.
“We wanted to not only grab people’s attention but really show the heroic nature of the character,” said Archie Comics CEO Jon Goldwater in a statement. “He’s willing to literally die to save his friend, Kevin. Archie would have died to save any of his friends. I think Archie would’ve even died to save a stranger.”
A true gentleman ’til the end
“Archie is not a superhero like all the rest of the comic book characters,” Goldwater continues. “He’s human. He’s a person. When you wound him, he bleeds. He knows that. If anything, I think his death is more impactful because of that. We hope by showing how something so violent can happen to Archie, that we can – in some way – learn from him.”
First it was the untimely end of Captain America, then Spider-Man went to the big web in the sky, and now Archie is gunned down in a mall. Better watch your back, Bruce Wayne.