Here's the nutshell version: Little Mermaids Betty and Veronica go up to the surface of the ocean and witness the ship-side birthday celebration of Prince Archie. Both girls are immediately smitten by the red-headed prince. Fortunately for him, a sudden storm destroy the ship and everyone on it. Archie is dragged back up to the surface and the two mermaid sing him back to consciousness.
King Triton immediately bans the girls from interacting with people once he learns from that stool pigeon Forsythe what the girls have been up to! But Cheryl the Sea Witch offers the Little Mermaids a deal. They can sprout legs for three days and seduce Prince Archie, but they can only go on-land without their voices. One of them has to get Prince Archie to kiss them within that time span. The Little Mermaid who fails to get a kiss will become Cheryl's slave. Worse yet, if neither Little Mermaid manages to snag a kiss, then Cheryl gets to choose to enslave whichever girl she wants! So it's really a win/win situation for Cheryl.
Of course, Cheryl sabotages both of the Little Mermaids so that it becomes increasingly unlikely that either will succeed in getting kissed. And then she uses the girls' combined voices to entrap Prince Archie. And then King Triton gets into the mix and there's this huge three-pronged battle between the Little Mermaids, the Sea Witch, and the King. (Well, it's not huge; but it's definitely different enough from the Disney version that I won't spoil it here!!) The Little Mermaids receive King Triton's blessing to keep their legs and stay among the people.
I actually really enjoyed this story. BETTY & VERONICA's "Little Mermaids" did a good job of plucking the right elements from the familiar "Little Mermaid" animated movie, while diverging from the more traditional story at just the right moments. One example? Jughead as Forsythe the Flounder! Classic portrayal!:
And then there's a sidebar issue that I thought I would address. Over in the Archie Comics Fan Forum, there was a recent thread complaining about the ongoing addition of Toni Topaz on the covers of multiple Archie Comics double-digests. The gist of the complaint is that she's not in any of the stories. She's been in a handful of stories during the past couple years. In fact, you could probably count those stories on one hand. The general complaint (which I get) is that she shouldn't be on the covers. My general opinion is that she should appear in more stories. She's a fun character and foil for Jughead. We need more of her!
Anyway, we got more of her in this issue. It was out of character and she was a mermaid, but we finally got another story featuring an original portrayal of Toni Topaz in this issue! Check it out:
Next issue with feature a Rumpelstiltskin story featuring Reggie as the title character. It should be a lot of fun! I'm looking forward to it!