Review: Josie and the Pussycats Issue 1

Quick Summary

Pros: The series is larger departure from the world of Archie than most other series in the “New Riverdale” universe. This change includes a whole new cast of characters and a more adult oriented approach to the humor and writing.

Cons: This larger departure from Archie might not be a positive for everyone. The introduction of more adult themes, like alcohol and sexual innuendo, makes the story lose its “all-ages” approach.

Overall: The series is pretty different from the rest of “New Riverdale” in terms of characters, plot, and humor. This could be good or bad depending on personal preference. For readers who like how lighthearted the Archie universe  is but did not really like the characters or high school mentality featured in Archie, then this might be the comic for you. However, readers who are adverse to any of these changes may not end up liking it as much.

 

Story

Much like the Jughead series, Josie and the Pussycats has many attributes that can be either positive or negative depending on who is reading it. This mainly comes from how different it is from the main Archie series and different readers’ reactions to that. The series, thus far, seems to be aimed at a college-aged audience with a slight lean towards female readers; however it has the possibility of being enjoyed by almost everyone. Overall, this comic feels quite a bit more polarizing than many due to how it is written and will be good or bad depending on the individual readers.

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It is hard to quantify the humor in terms of how universally good or bad it is, since humor is an incredibly subjective trait. The humor in Josie and the Pussycats is very modern and current in a way that makes it fit in with a lot of series being published right now. For some this will be great as it resembles the comedy that can be found in more mainstream humorous comic books, such as Harley Quinn or Spider-Gwen. However, personally, I am not a big fan. I still found it funny at time, but overall I greatly prefer the humor found in other “New Riverdale” title like Archie or Betty and Veronica.

A large part of the main Archie series is its universal appeal for children and adults alike. This comic breaks from that, as it makes a handful of references and jokes about both alcohol and sex throughout this one issue. These references are relatively tame and sparse but, when coupled with the college aged cast, make the comic seem more adult oriented overall. I understand how this may not appeal to everyone, but I personally liked this change up and think it gives the comic a very distinct and unique tone. Instead of just being  different shade of Archie, this comic is a completely different series that just happens to retain the charming and lighthearted feeling that Riverdale gives it.

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Art

The art here is really good in that it fits the tone of the series perfectly. It has a very bright and cheerful feeling to it that matches the main characters’ personalities throughout. It even seems to have an almost manga-type feel to it that makes the characters seem even more cheerful and bright when they need to be. All of this allows it to nail the fresh, young adult feeling that the comic appears to be going for. On its own, the art ranges from good to pretty good, but when paired with the content it makes the entire issue better.

Continuity

This story is the first issue in the Josie and the Pussycats series of the “New Riverdale” universe. Despite being in this new universe, it, so far, has had no connection to anything going on in the Archie series. The only real continuity connection there is that Jughead can be seen on one of the pages.

This all means that you do not have to have read anything prior to this to understand the story or characters. Reading earlier Archie Comics (particularly the Josie and the Pussycats series) will give you a little better perspective on the characters and how they interact, but will not give you any additional information about their history in this relaunched comic.