Review: "Archie, Vol. 5" by Mark Waid and Audrey Mok

Archie, Vol. 5 by Mark Waid and Audrey Mok
Published 2018 via Archie Comics
★★★

We pick up right where the series left off: Betty is facing the physical consequences of teenage idiocy (mostly not hers), Archie is facing a whole lot of guilt for those same events, Reggie is trying to get out of the legal consequences, and the whole town has opinions.

I wish this weren't quite so ableist—the initial reaction, across the characters, is that Betty's life will be ruined if she has a permanent physical disability. Betty herself is really determined not to be reliant on anyone else, so there's that, but...gosh. The whole town (including Veronica, who displays an appreciation for Betty that is something of a first for Veronica in this series) has this collective grief at the idea that although their golden girl is mentally fine (albeit with emotional things to work through) she might be visibly physically injured. (Obviously because this is what it is, Betty recovers much of her physical can-do throughout the book; whatever she hasn't regained, I expect she will do in the next volume. And...I have mixed feelings about that too, because while it's great for her and in line with the series, a more realistic outcome would be one that acknowledged that sometimes sheer doggedness isn't enough to overcome serious injury.)

Anyway. The series moves on, and so do I. I really can't fault it for what it is—if this series feel wildly realistic, it's still miles beyond the realism of the originals.