Which was stupid, considering that issue #273 was a flashback issue and we'd already seen both girls board their flight in issue #272. Here's what happened. Mr. Lodge bought an extra plane trip for Betty and both girls got to go on the trip. Now couldn't we have had this whole send off resolved in issue #272??
The girls finally met their British exchange parents on page ten, which is where this story finally got interesting! This also continued the earlier theme of what it means to be a "Veronica" versus a "Betty."
Basically, Veronica lost herself in the London party scene -- and suffered academically, which Betty lost herself doing homework and touring tourist sites with her new kid sister -- and suffered socially. Neither girl is happy with how things are working out and wish that something could change. After all, they'd left Riverdale in order to shake things up in their lives.
That's when it occurs to Veronica that she and Betty look pretty much alike. They were on the verge of leaving England for India, which seemed like an opportune time to switch places! A couple hair-dyes later and Veronica becomes Betty and Betty becomes Veronica!
Look at Fake-Betty's evil frowny eyes!!
I really like that the "Farewell Betty & Veronica" storyline has finally moved forward. The transition from Riverdale to England went W-A-Y too long. They seriously should have slashed some of that introductory material. There's no reason that the girls shouldn't have been walking the streets of London by the end of issue #272.
But they're finally traveling and I'm really enjoying the riff on "The Prince and the Pauper." I cannot wait to see what happens in India!
By the way, Dan Parent had been interviewed on the Riverdale Podcast back in August and had said that Amisha Mehtawould be one of the girls stepping forward to fill B&V's shoes. I was pretty excited about this as I became a fan of the character during the Archies' recent World Tour.
Except that Amisha isn't the new Indian girl. The two new girls are Banni from India and Violette from France.
So not only do we get to see Fake-Veronica and Fake-Betty take on India, but we get to see the Riverdale boys fall head-over-heels for the two new girls! (Once again, this portion of the story should've begun an issue ago.)
"Worlds Apart" was written by Michael Uslan, penciled by Dan Parent, inked by Bob Smith, lettered by Jack Morelli, and colored by Glenn Whitmore.