You don't often get to read stories these days featuring Dilton. It seems that Riverdale High School's wrestling team sucks. So Coach Clayton is recruiting new wrestlers. Resident science and math nerd Dilton Doiley has come up with the perfect mathematical equation for overcoming any wrestling opponent.
He uses his math skills to defeat Moose Mason of all people and is quickly convinced to sign up for the wrestling team. Using his knowledge, Dilton soon become the team's MVP!
He tries passing on his winning wrestling equation, but no other student can understand his computations. No other students, that is, except other math geeks like Raj Patel and Simon "Prankenstein" Silverstein. Soon enough, these mathletes are on the team and Riverdale's traditional jocks on sitting on the sidelines.
Talk about role reversals!
Archie Comics published a digital comic featuring Dilton (here, here, here, and here) in late 2013/early 2014 -- which was fun --, but this 6-page short story was an excellent story. I really liked how they exploited Dilton's genius in a way that didn't include the construction of super-science gadgets. That's just an easy trope that gets used much too often. It was good to see Dilton use his superior abilities to come out on top without being over the top. This seemed much more grounded and hypothetically realistic for a change. And it was great to see all of the nerds transforming into wrestling gods through the use of applied mathematics!
"Counted Out" was written by Paul Kupperberg, penciled by Dan Parent, inked by Bob Smith, lettered by Jack Morelli, and colored by Digikore Studios.