Rachel Reads & Reviews

This fun series brings girl empowerment and kicking ass to the tiny town of Riverdale. When the boys create their own gang, it’s clear, they’re only in it for the cool gear and hair combs. They quickly back away from the fun when they accidentally tangle with the Southside Serpents. However, what the boys can’t handle, the girls get things done.

While it doesn’t seem plausible that good-girl Betty would be the one to come up with the idea of a girl gang, Rotante makes it completely believable. Betty has always been a auto girl, and someone who cares about community. That combined with a need to break out of the good girl box society has put her in and just the thrill of getting her hands dirty by cleaning up the big jerks of the town, it makes perfect sense. And we all know Veronica is all up for excitment with the cash to back them up. Rounding out their group with Midge, Toni, Evelyn and Ethel, they get the Serpents off their turf.

Ethel, Toni and Midge have their usual personalities here though I appreciate Midge has more bite (and spotlight in general) to her here as she is so often overshadowed by her intimidating boyfriend. Evelyn Evernever is a complete departure from her Little Archie incarnation as she has returned a wild, brash teenager with a rebellious past, tattoos and scars. She’s the wild card of the group who often forgoes the mission of saving the town for the thrill of beating up bikers.

Other Little Archie characters that make their return are Fangs Fogerty, Penny Peabody, Ambrose Pipps and Bubbles McBounce who become brasher versions of their childhood selves facing off or teaming up with the Vixens.

The second volume, Hunted gets heavier as the girls face a new antagonist, “Mad Doc” Doom. He isn’t a green-skinned freak in Vixens but he is still bad news as he is the head of drug dealing, arms dealing and wants to use the girls as his first foray to sex trafficking. Not only does he target girls alone at night but he goes after Vixen members as well as girls from their new rival/allies, the Thrashers before the girls manage to stop him.

Another antagonist comes in the form of Lodge’s Neighborhood Watch group that tries to curtail gang activity, targeting certain kinds of suspects (ie. poor, low income or girls with bad reputation) while also trying to find the abducted girls. Of course, Betty and Veronica sail past notice because of their good reputations but Ron’s talks with her father bring up a topical point that when trying to rescue the abductees, the media/authorities focus their efforts on saving rich ones like Cheryl Blossom when it shouldn’t matter if they’re rich or white or whatever, they all matter.

Speaking of Cheryl Blossom, she becomes a prominant figure in vol. 2 as she bursts her way into the gang in typical Blossom fashion and tries to grab leadership from Betty and Veronica. She also reveals herself to be part of the roller derby scene as Scarlett O’Horror. Just awesome. Other figures that come to focus is Toni’s small storyline in saving her ex, Ang from an abusive relationship, and her subsequent trauma from that. There’s also the Thrasher gang I mentioned earlier made of Susie Stringly, Sassy Thrasher and Cricket O’Dell which Susie seems to share a past with Evelyn that I wish got explored more as so much of Evelyn’s backstory was shrouded in mystery.

I really enjoyed Cabrera’s art here, combining the modern as well as the 50s biker gang aesthetic. I also loved the breakdown of traditional biker gang gender norms of men bossing around their “old women” and using the gang as a front for criminal activity. Here, the girls reclaim it as a new way to help their community. This is shown alongside the resurface of roller derby culture which has been similarly reclaimed by youth and females to subvert norms and empower each other. Cabrera and Rotante pay homage to that by including cameos of real lives teams in the panals too.

But my one quibble with the series is that it falls under the weight of what it is trying to accomplish as it tries to tackle stalking, domestic abuse, sexual abuse and trafficking but unable to actually discuss these topics because of censors and page time leaving readers to look between the lines. This is fine as I admired the effort of including such important topics to teens but I felt unsatisfied with its limits.

Nonetheless, it’s an exciting avenue by placing the girls in a new adventure while also tackling real life issues. 4 stars

However, I wish I had as much good thoughts about Betty and Veronica by Adam Hughes as I did for Rotante’s Vixens. If I had to choose a Riverdale reboot, I’d rather read Betty and Veronica: Vixens as it tries to tackle new ground even if its too weighty for the medium.

This one has a classic Betty and Veronica clash. Not over Archie but of a new coffee chain trying to push Pop’s out of business. Betty wants to save Pop’s while Veronica is all for progress and money-making (plus her Dad is the one making the deal) so now they’re going to war over their differing values as well as Veronica’s constant taunting that the others will lose.

The problem is that Hughes is trying too hard to be quirky. The dialogue is a weird combination of theaserus (meta explained that Hot Dog, the narrator has swallowed a theasarus), meta fourth wall breaks, inane asides, a clown gag that went on far too long and metaphors that make the characters seem pompous and kind of insane. No one talks like this and it’s so prevalent that it’s hard to shake how weird it is. It’s worth only one read because I’m just not explaining how strange the dialogue is. You have to read it yourself.

The only worthwhile gag is Veronica teaching Betty to curse. Otherwise, no stars here.