Part One of "The Many Loves of Archie Andrews" begins in BETTY AND VERONICA HALLOWEEN ANNUAL #237. It features scripts & pencils by Dan Parent, inks by Bob Smith, letters by Jack Morelli, and colors by Digikore Studios.
Here is the gist: Archie wins Teen Vague's annual "Best Boyfriend of the Year" contest and is scheduled to be awarded his prize on Buzz-TV!
Here are four reasons to enjoy BETTY AND VERONICA HALLOWEEN ANNUAL #237:
1. Which Girlfriend Nominated Him?: Leave it to Archie Andrews to get nominated into a "Best Boyfriend of the Year" contest by eight separate girls! Not only we eight different girls nominate him, but they are all aware of the others girls in his life! How typically Archie!
2. What Do They See In Him? Seriously.: I've asked this myself a while back. What is it about Archie Andrews that enables him to collect girl after girl after girl? I still haven't figure out the answer. The girls say that he's honest and not underhanded. That still doesn't excuse his doggy-dog ways! Then again, the competition is guys like Reggie, Jughead, Moose, and Prankenstein -- so maybe that answers that question right there!
3. Seriously. Which Girlfriend Nominated Him?: You absolutely knew that Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge would be part of this crowd. That's a no-brainer. It's their book, after all!
4. That's Only Two. Who Are The Other Six?: Here is the rest of the "Best Boyfriend" bunch. Some of these are obvious. Some of these are sad. Two of them are questionable...
*Cheryl Blossom! Anything that Veronica and Betty want, Cheryl wants more. It's no surprise that she made it onto this cast of characters. Her bad attitude and curvy appeal has been turning Archie's head for decades!
*Valerie Smith! Ditto with Valerie. She and Archie have been a pretty hot couple over the past 3-4 years. Sometimes I think he prefers Val over B&V! I'm not shocked to see this Pussycat in this storyline.
*Ginger Lopez! I know that Archie and Ginger have dated a few times in the past, but how sad is it that Ginger still considers Archie to be "Best Boyfriend" material? Have they even spoken recently?? No wonder she finally gave up on guys over in AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE!
*Sabrina Spellman! Have they ever dated? I'm seriously confused by this addition!!
*Amisha Mehta! She was introduced a couple years ago in the "Archie's World Tour" storyline. I'm really glad to see Amisha again! She moved to Riverdale in ARCHIE #653 and hasn't been seen since. I've long held hopes of an Archie-->Valerie-->Amisha love triangle that would eventually supplant the Archie-->Betty-->Veronica love triangle. Sadly, that's not happened. Yet!
And finally...
*Noelle Claus??!? Who the heck is Noelle Claus?? I've been told that she's appeared before, but she's new to me! I'm assuming that her story will take place sometime during the Christmas months!
As noted above, subsequent stories will feature romantic misadventures starring Archie and each of the above girls, which should be lots of fun!