"Afterlife With Archie #4": (Live, Archiemaster)

I've got a theory that I want to put out there about after reading AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE #4 -- written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and penciled by Francesco Francavilla. This is the comic book series that tells the story of the end of the world starting in Riverdale USA. Here's the background: Reggie secretly killed Hot Dog with his car. A distraught Jughead sought the misguided help of the teenage witch Sabrina. Hot Dog came back from the dead and bit Jughead. Jughead dies within hours from that bites and is resurrected as a cannibalizing zombie. Jughead attacks a school dance and turns most of the teachers and kids into rampaging zombies, who in turn attack their friends and family. It's not looking good for the nicest town in America!

The surviving members of the Riverdale Gang taking refuge at Lodge Mansion. That didn't protect all of them from the plague, but it did offer them a bit of respite. Meanwhile, Archie snuck out of the building to make sure his parents were safe. That's when he was confronted at the end of last issue by the zombified Hot Dog!

AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE #4 features the return of Archie's new dog Vegas. This character was introduced a few months ago in ARCHIE DOUBLE DIGEST #244 (read about it here). The relationship between Archie and Vegas was retconned quite a bit for the purpose of this story -- but only for the better. That two-page spread featuring Archie, Vegas, and Zombie Hot Dog was one of the more heart-wrenching scenes that I've read in a comic book in a very long time. Very sad...


The rest of the story features Archie's mission to save his parents. Sadly, he was too late to save at least one of them...

There was one interesting interlude within this comic book featuring the Blossom twin. I had noted earlier this there seemed to be a strange twincest vibe going on with these two. Seems like I was right. Who would've thought that Archie Comics would feature one of the only (if not the only) incestuous relationships in modern comics?


Since the beginning of this series, I've been running an ongoing tally of fatalities within this series (here, here, and here). AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE #4 reveals the deaths of Fred Andrews and Vegas.

But back to my theory... The general opinion out there is that Jughead has become a "king of the dead" character. After all, he was the first of the infected. He has spawned the apocalypse. He runs around with a crown and his (sort of) girlfriend was wearing a princess costume when she was killed by him. And everyone seems to circle around him.

Except that I don't think this is true.

Jughead wasn't the first of the infected and he didn't spawn the apocalypse. And I'm not sure that it's Jughead that the zombies are flocking around. Have you noticed that all of the zombies make a strange gurgling noise? Almost like a growl... Plus, check out this scene featuring a very buff Zombie Fred Andrews. He's tracking his prey through his sense of smell:


Not to mention the feral nature of these zombies. Mark my word: Zombie Hot Dog is the King of the Dead!

You heard it here first!