The ARCHIE vs PREDATOR Ashcan was a little nugget that was sent out to our comic shop here and somehow it ended up in my hands. Call it morbid curiosity. Call it boredom. Call it "I didn't really have anything to read." Whatever the case, I ended up reading it.
Basically, the Riverdale teenagers we know and love are all here (Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead and more) visiting an island in search of...who knows what? Treasure? Vacation? A break from the Riverdale routine? Whatever the case, normal ARCHIE hijinks take place. Cheryl and her twin brother Jason want to go deeper in the island and look for treasure. Veronica trips into Archie and Betty, breaking her nose. Betty runs off into the island wilderness and comes across a temple. Inside are strange markings and a warrior's knife with a black blade. Thinking she might have found something of significance before her rivals the Blossom Twins do, (and hearing the temple rumble) she runs out, with barely any clothes on. Betty meets back up with her friends, who can't seem to find Cheryl and Jason. The last panel we see...is a Predator with 2 skinned bodies hanging from a tree looking down at the Riverdale gang while blood drips down upon the kids. We can only assume the fate of Cheryl and Jason was a gruesome one at the hands of this alien hunter.
I think there's a shock factor to this title that readers won't be expecting. Obviously the idea is that ARCHIE and the gang aren't suited for the world of PREDATOR and that's the gag. The beauty of a book like this is just the weirdness of the crossover. It's a little different from the subtle dark undertones of AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE, which is a beautifully-crafted homage to the zombie genre AND the Archie mythology. It's more like watching a Charlie Brown cartoon and Freddy Krueger shows up. And that strangeness brings out a guilty pleasure that myself (the reader) has to see more of. Seeing those 2 mangled bodies stripped of flesh and missing heads are gruesome. NOT something you would expect to see in the wonderful 4-color world of ARCHIE's gang.
All in all, this looks like it's going to be a brilliantly fun mash-up of a crossover. And with hauntingly terrific covers for the regular series by folks like ERIC POWELL (THE GOON), you can bet ARCHIE vs PREDATOR needs to be your guilty pleasure of a read, too.
And I just love these little ashcan size previews. Keep them coming, DARK HORSE!
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