Will Archie Andrews ultimately choose Betty Cooper or Veronica Lodge? That's been one of the world's greatest mysteries for the better part of a century now. Now, at long last, Archie Comics is finally forcing Archie to make a choice in the upcoming one-shot special Archie: The Decision.
Archie: The Decision is also notable for featuring a unique combination of newcomer and veteran Archie Comics creators. The book is written by Batman and Wonder Woman scribe Tom King, while longtime Archie artist Dan Parent is providing the art.
This issue will feature the full Riverdale crew, as everyone from Sabrina the Teenage Witch to Josie and the Pussycats react to Archie's fateful decision. But who is the lucky lady? If the cover art is to be believed, it may come down to a simple coin toss.
“As a massive Archie fan, this is just a pure joy project for me,” King told Polygon. “I wanted to do something zany and cool and screwball and hysterical and gorgeous and harebrained and maybe a little tiny itty-bitty bit profound as a tribute to my Golden and Silver Age Archie heroes — people like Dan DeCarlo, Harry Lucey, Bob Bolling, Bob Montana, and Samm Schwartz. And who better to do that with than the modern Archie maestro, Dan Parent, who inherited and brilliantly carried on the legacy of those giants. [The Decision] is an epic, riotous story featuring scores of Archie characters where Dan and I wrestle with the greatest dilemma in the near 85-year history of comics: Betty or Veronica!? I’m not sure we can solve it, but, like all of Riverdale, we’re going to have a ton of fun trying.”
Archie Comics previously flirted with the idea of having Archie choose between Betty and Veronica when he married the latter in the pages of Archie #600. However, that storyline was quickly followed up by a second, alternate universe account where Archie married Betty instead. Both flash-forward timelines continued to be explored in the spinoff series Life With Archie, finally culminating in Archie's tragic death in 2014's Life With Archie #36. But as for the core Archie universe, no true decision has ever been made. Will that finally change in 2024?
Archie: The Decision will be released on August 28, 2024.
Also debuting in August are Wolverine: Revenge, a blood-soaked new series from Jonathan Hickman and Greg Capullo, and the crossover series Ultraman x Avengers.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
