Even I have to admit....

"Archie" is knocking it out of the park lately.

The CW show is great. The teen comedy/drama that is Riverdale is exactly in their wheelhouse.  It strikes a smart balance between pinging the iconic elements of the characters (e.g., Archie's romantic conflicts, appearance, and strange social positioning at both the center and outside of his high school society) and putting new spins on them (e.g. Betty as a proto-psycho, impoverished Veronica, Jughead from the wrong side of the tracks, bi-curious Moose, survivalist Dilton).  Despite its slightly out-of-time feeling, it's doing a good of tackling contemporary issues like slut-shaming and the vanishing of middle America.

Which is similar to Archie comics.  Even before their recent reboot in which they abandoned their long-standing house art style, Archie comics were already pushing boundaries with the likes of "Afterlife with Archie" and the introduction of gay headliner Kevin Keller.

Reboot Archie is taking full advantage of the fact that it's not a superhero title (whose readers require a certain level of gravity) and that its characters are unshakable icons, which lets writers be just as weird with them as they want to be.

Transquartomuralism, thy name is Archie.

So... I'm reading Archie and watching Riverdale. What IS the world coming to...?!

Going WILD

Commercial capitalism, you have FAILED THIS CITY!

Or at least failed ME.

You have created a multiverse of weird, useless, obscure stuff to buy.

But I just want one thing:

a Wild Dog jersey.

Sexiest psycho ever.

Ideally with Rick Gonzales still in it.

"I need to wash your shirt again, sweetie. And, yes, it DOES take a week, that's how much I care."

But even without him, I still want one.

And yet. 

You cannot buy a Wild Dog jersey.  You can't even buy a Wild Dog tee shirt.  Or Underoos; I demand Wild Dog on my junk! Even the LOGO isn't on the internet, which might conceivably enable one to make such merch for oneself. 

Nothing.  Where's the love for Wild Dog he so richly deserves?

If anyone can prove me wrong PLEASE PLEASE do.

Warhead = Torpedo

This figure

Rather trajectorial chest logo, don't you think?

was revealed as the new Big Bad in this week's issue of Aquaman.

He seems like he might be a robot (or maybe just a guy in very robotic suit), who has some sort of telepathic power of influence, like Aquaman's.

Apparently his name is "Warhead".  

Painfully obvious, apparently.

But I know who/what he 'really' is....

It's the Torpedo.

No, no.  Not the 'Red Torpedo' from, um, Earth-2 (or at least the New52 equivalent of Earth-2. Earth-2.52?)  

If the President signs an executive order forbidding further comic book homages to the Pieta, he's got my vote.

THIS guy:

I bet that needs BIG batteries.

Occasionally called Torpedo Man.  Even though he's a robot.

Like Homer, even Haney nods.

How do I know he's a robot? Well, that's what he was when he appeared in the comics.

"Customers who bought 'the Torpedo' in Amazon Personal Aids also were interested in 'the Magneto' and 'the Claw.' "

A rather talky and snarky robot, mind you.

STILL one of the greatest comics quotes of all time.

But still a robot.

I've already seen a host of amazingly unexpected and welcome callbacks to Aquahistory since Aquaman was rebooted (including the return of the goshdarned CREATURE KING, of all villains).  But bringing back the Torpedo in this new form?!?!

That's got me walking on air, in a weightless state I look forward to continuing to enjoy in upcoming issues.