by Thoul » Wed Apr 28, '10, 8:38 pm
I'm a big comics fan, but I never cared for the Archie books. They just never attracted my interest as a kid, where the big name super heroes did.
As for this new character, my first reaction is that this must have been announced on a slow news day. The reason this made the news at all is that Archie comics have an old reputation for being wholesome and this seems out of place for that reputation. From what little I have seen of the Archie books, I don't see how that rep was earned in the first place. But, historically, it takes decades for comics' reputations to be changed in the view of the general public.
Most of the people talking about it probably haven't even seen an Archie comic in twenty years, much less really care about what's in them. They're talking more about the reputation than the actual comic. That's the main reason this has any importance. Homosexual characters in American comics are nothing new - there's easily over 100 of them already.