Crisis on Infinite Archie-Earths: Life with Archie # 18

Well, here we are again with another post of the Archie: The Married Life series. I grew up reading Archie and Donald Duck comics when I was a kid instead of the Superman or Spider-Man comics. But then their stories became redundant. Plus, growing up made you crave for stories with some action, violence and mature themes. So I set aside my childhood fascination with Donald, Scrooge McDuck and Archie and replaced them with Combatron, Batman and Wolverine. 

Time passed by and I have learned that Archie and the gang moved "forward" with a storyline that involves Archie marrying Betty and Veronica while struggling with real-life problems. Having a soft spot for Archie and wanting to find out how the writer dealt with it, I bought the 2 trade paperbacks with 6 issues each. 

( you could check the review on the 2 volumes here and here ). The writer made 2 universes where Archie married Betty and another one where he married Veronica. Believe me, it can get confusing. 

Out of sheer luck I was able to buy a single issue of Life with Archie # 18 at a discount bookstore instead of waiting for the third volume due next year. I advanced on 5 issues and a lot has happened: someone got married, someone got divorced, someone is pregnant and so forth. From here we are treated to Betty-Archie and Veronica-Archie meeting face-to-face with each other. And Archie's childhood friend Ambrose Pipps reappearing and able to travel in between dimensions. 

So when you think that the previous volumes were confusing... hell, you ain't seen nothing yet. Click on image for a larger view. ( and all images copyright Archie comics 2012 ) 

Wait, wait, multiverses? Dimensions? Reggie from where Archie got marriedto Betty? And to think this was at just the 8th and 9th page of the comic that I wanted to just stop reading and save myself from a migraine. But I just went with it and even entertained myself with possible story elements. 

Like this homage that I did to Crisis on Infinite Earths # 7 cover. 

Or anyone remember Little Archie's bully Fangs Fogarty???

...And Crisis on Infinite Earth's ultimate villain the Anti-Monitor???

Hmmm.. what if?? 

Man, there are a lot of ideas here. But alas, there wasn't much dimension-hopping that occurred or an omnipresent being killing the other universes. We only get this bit on Ambrose explaining his "powers"

And again we are presented with another brain-busting moment. Even Archie from whatever Universe he came from commented on all the multiverse hoopla.

This was a great moment in the series. Seeing all those multiverse characters in one huge panel. Makes you think twice about those other fantasy Archie stories being actually "true".

Then we are shown the Archie-Marries-Betty story side of things (with a different artist doing the art chores) Believe me when it still gets confusing even when we are near the end.

This is one of great moments of the issue. Every single multiverse character that you could think of at that moment appearing in front of the "bad" Dilton.

This panel isn't much, but I just like seeing the 2 Archie Earths being sorta together. The art can be pretty awkward at times, where the anatomy is dis-proportioned.

In one issue, we are finally relieved of all the Multiverse hoopla and gone forward with a more suitable "soap-opera" story ( hopefully ). I had to read the issue twice to finally understand what's going on. All of the multiverse story bits is kind of unnecessary, but I'm guessing the writer just wants to spice things up. 

Although I would have welcomed this possible story element. Heck, who knows???

- "the king"

Greatest Hits

It's just been 4 years and I'm already thinking of my accomplishments??? How premature can I get???

Nothing. I just felt like it doing it. And besides, I've already written 61 posts and in the wide world of "easy access information" and "short attention span" of today's generation and their influence to the previous generation, that's a lot of posts.

I mean, look at the music industry. For all I know, you need to be in the business for a couple of years to get a "Greatest Hits" treatment.

Now you just need a good 10 years to get one. Like these people.

Now whether or not they have made a HUGE impact or not, these posts are the ones that were most-viewed or the ones that made me smile after I finished writing it on my dated (but trusty) laptop.

My "Torpe Road" Journey is one of my personal posts so far and in it I tell about my story of the numerous women I've courted and got busted. They made me a better man (if I could use that word). I was inspired by a local author named Jay Panti publishing books about his flirting on women and life and a lot of my officemates loving his books. I thought I could use the fame, so I made the "Torpe Road" series. Here are the links:

Part 1

http://beefsteaklover.blogspot.com/2011/03/torpe-road-part-1.html

Part 2

http://beefsteaklover.blogspot.com/2011/03/torpe-road-part-2_07.html

Part 3

http://beefsteaklover.blogspot.com/2011/03/torpe-road-part-3_21.html

Part 4

http://beefsteaklover.blogspot.com/2011/04/torpe-road-part-4.html

Part 5

http://beefsteaklover.blogspot.com/2011/08/torpe-road-part-5.html

Part 6

http://beefsteaklover.blogspot.com/2011/11/torpe-road-part-6.html

Part 7

http://beefsteaklover.blogspot.com/2011/12/torpe-road-part-7_11.html

Part 8

http://beefsteaklover.blogspot.com/2012/01/torpe-road-part-8.html

Conclusion

http://beefsteaklover.blogspot.com/2012/02/torpe-road-conclusion.html

The Aftemath

http://beefsteaklover.blogspot.com/2012/02/torpe-road-aftermath_19.html

I even wrote about my humiliating experience with a famous car show babe

http://beefsteaklover.blogspot.com/2012/07/my-spat-with-manabat-or-how-not-to-piss.html

Then I strayed from being personal and tried to be an investigative writer and wrote the Bold Star Files. They are the most-viewed on my posts (go figure). I wrote on some has-been bold actresses and pondered on where they are now. I'm most proud of my Lolita De Leon post because I really did some research on her. And my blog is the first result when you type her name on Google.

Lolita De Leon

http://beefsteaklover.blogspot.com/2012/04/bold-star-files-lolita-de-leon.html

Ilonah Marquez

http://beefsteaklover.blogspot.com/2012/05/rise-and-fall-of-pakwan-queen-ilonah.html

Belinda Bright

http://beefsteaklover.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-bold-star-files-bright-and-gone.html


Then my Life with Archie and Iron Man comic book reviews. I once again strayed far from making my blog a public diary and reviewed some comics. Looking back, it was a lot of work scanning the selected pages. I almost ate up a whole day just by scanning them on my scanner. And they were the most detailed scans that you could ever find on the net. It was a labor of love and it resulted in an actual artist who worked on one of the series replying on my post.

The Archie Wedding

http://beefsteaklover.blogspot.com/2012/03/archie-wedding-review-with-photos_24.html

Life with Archie

http://beefsteaklover.blogspot.com/2012/05/archie-married-life-review-with-photos.html

http://beefsteaklover.blogspot.com/2012/09/archie-married-life-review-part-2-with.html

Iron Man "Extremis"

http://beefsteaklover.blogspot.com/2012/06/what-could-be-iron-man-3-plot-details.html

And up to now I just can't believe this posts is garnering a lot of page views. Maybe because this is the first time I used search words. So blogger tip: use search words.

http://beefsteaklover.blogspot.com/2009/04/incredible-heat-killing-boredom-and.html

So that's all for now. Thanks for looking, and watch your step when you exit the LRT or MRT train.

 - "the king"