Review – Archie Meets Batman ’66 #5: Riverdale Jokerized?

Archie Meets Batman ‘66 #5 – Jeff Parker, Michael Moreci, Writers; Dan Parent, Penciller; J. Bone, Inker; Kelly Fitzpatrick, Colorist

Ratings: Ray – 8/10

Ray: In the penultimate issue of this Archie/DC crossover, Riverdale falls to the combined forces of the Gotham villains and only a motley crew of heroes and civilians have a chance of stopping them. As the issue opens, Batgirl, Robin, and Jughead are missing and the villains have taken over a society party in Riverdale.

Of course, Reggie is completely unintimidated by his new rivals and even tries to extort more money out of Riddler. Batman, meanwhile, is forced to pretend to be hypnotized like all the other civilians in order to get away and do Batman things. When the makeshift Batman signal from the last issue is activated, Archie and his friends are able to sneak away and get to where Batman is hiding. Amusingly, Veronica seems to be flirting with Batman for half the issue – I knew she liked all the boys in Riverdale, but I didn’t think her tastes extended to masked vigilantes in their thirties.

Eventually, they’re able to find the Joker’s secret headquarters, where Jughead, Robin, and Batgirl are being tortured by Cymbal Monkey. They’ve managed to create a makeshift bat-signal to get attention, but by the time Batman gets there Jughead’s gone catatonic.

Fortunately, Archie knows exactly how to revive him and uses the power of burgers. Clearly, this is a pretty silly comic, but by the end of the issue, the stakes are slightly higher. Joker’s hypnotized the entire adult population of Riverdale into Joker zombies, and they’re trying to capture all the free teens.

This series has done a good job of telling an exciting story while still keeping it in the retro tone of both the properties it works with. It’s a good example of how crossovers work best when they feel like they can equally take place in both comics’ worlds.

To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.

Disclaimer: GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.