As much as I’ve talked about Kevin Keller and Veronica #202, it would be remiss of me to wait a long time before I, at least, gave my first reactions to the issue.
Firstly, let me state that I haven’t gotten a physical copy of the book yet; I’ve had to read most of it on the internet until my comic book order comes in next week, so really, all I’m qualified to do is give my first reaction to the story. But, I think I’ve read enough to give a thoughtful, (hopefully) intelligent first reaction. Generally, I haven’t made it a practice to post a lot of the inside pages with my first reactions, but since I haven’t read it the whole way through once, I figure I should back up my points with visual evidence.
First, let’s just say kudos to Dan Parent, co-chief executive Jon Goldwater, editor-in-chief Victor Gorelick, and Archie Comics, Inc. for even coming up with the idea to do a story about an “openly” gay character (the quotations are around there for a reason, more on that later). I’ve read a couple of reviews and news articles on Kevin, and while most of the criticism revolves around Kevin being a bit on the bland side, I think he’s one of the more interesting new kid characters, and that’s not just because he’s gay. They wrote a well-written story about him that is solid and makes him seem like a real person (at least, “Archie Comics” real) with an actual life, unlike the first issue of Pals and Gals featuring Raj, which was, stereotypes aside, had a story that basically went through the motions of introducing a character (I’ll talk about Raj’s introduction sometime later on, so stay tuned).
Also, before I get into the crux of this post, I say congrats again to the team for putting as many ethnic minor characters as they could remember in this story. It’s great to see Nancy say something other than “Wow!” or “Look!” or “Of course!” What with Chuck having his own series, as well as seeing the minor characters get some play, things are looking up for the wide world of Riverdale.
The plot, revolving around Jughead keeping Kevin’s sexuality a secret from Veronica in order to gain pleasure from watching her act like a complete idiot trying to seduce Kevin, is actually deftly written, at least from the pages that I’ve seen, which are these (thanks to Archie Comics, Newsarama, and scans-daily):
I would say that from what I’ve seen thus far, this might be Parent’s best issue yet.
Now to the “openly” gay part I mentioned above: I’m not going to say too much on this since I have yet to read the full book, but it would seem that Archie Comics’ mission to show readers that it’s perfectly normal to be gay in society is not only proven by the inclusion of Kevin. Parent impressed me even further by addressing and playing with the fanon rumors of Jughead being the original (and not so openly) gay character in the Archieverse. (Or, instead of not being open about it, Jughead just doesn’t care/call attention to it). This is the reason why I say this might be Parent’s best written issue. It’s very rare when Archie Comics decides to actually include fanon opinion in their comic books, and to include this opinion is pretty legendary and exciting. Two reasons why:
Through misunderstandings, Veronica is led to believe that Jughead and Kevin are developing something more than a friendship, something that is threatening to her. Specifically, she thinks that Jughead is wooing Kevin.
By weaving the story in such a fashion, Parent is doing much of the opposite as he led his public to believe. While he said that he writes Jughead as straight (or, at least, only interested in food) in numerous interviews, what he has done in the storyline is basically “out” Jughead, as it were. I know this is getting a bit too fangirly, but keep going with me! In the last page posted above, Veronica (who knows Kevin is gay now from Betty) is upset that it seems like Jughead is stealing Kevin from her. Jughead, eager to push the egg further in her face, says, “One word for you–FAIL!” Veronica is surprised when she thinks she sees Jughead and Kevin together, sure. But never does she say something like, “But Jughead’s not gay! Isn’t he?!” She seems to except the fact that Jughead’s sexuality is ambiguous at best. In fact, no one except Ethel is questioning the fact that it seems like Jughead and Kevin are together.
Secondly, Jughead’s line to Veronica isn’t something like, “Why would I steal Kevin from you? I just like to see you lose!” or something that would explicitly state that Veronica got the wrong idea. Nine times out of ten, someone straight would do that. Jughead doesn’t.
In these two examples, the book is not only introducing us to Kevin as well as the normalcy of his sexuality, they’re also saying that it’s okay for him to have a relationship with another guy. They’re also easing readers into the idea that Jughead could be that guy; that it’s also okay if he’s gay, or for continuity-nerds who remember Joani, Debbie, and January, bisexual. (Remember that those relationships never work out; January is probably his most stable relationship by far, and that was only partly due to the fact that she was his boss in the Time Police and had to be there for every issue.)
Of course, I’m saying all this only after seeing half of the book. I’ll have a better perception (and probably more on the entire Kevin/Jughead relationship evolution) after I receive the book in my hands.
[...] to Archie Comics, tackling how to write Jughead in this post-openly-gay Archie world, even a preview of my review! And now it’s finally [...]