Retro Daddy

The Past Isn't Over - It Isn't Even Past
Editor’s Pick
MAY 29, 2009 6:47PM

Betty or Veronica? Archie Finally Decides

Rate: 11 Flag

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The Toronto Globe and Mail reports that Archie Andrews is getting married!


The self-absorbed red-headed teenager, until now unable to decide between smart blond Betty Cooper and intellectually lazy brunette Veronica Lodge, will propose to . . .


. . . VERONICA!!!

 

archie veronica

 

The pop culture mavens are already debating what it means for society that freckle-faced Archie has grown up enough to get married, let alone what it tells us that he picked rich and flighty Veronica over middle-class and practical Betty.


Archie always opts for Veronica, except when Betty manipulates him into choosing her. And Betty often acts as Veronica's friend, even if Ronnie doesn't appreciate it.

 

archie betty

 

The eternal triangle of Betty-Archie-Veronica cannot be resolved. This is a gimmick to sell comic books, like the recent assassination of Captain America, or the death of Superman a few years ago.


These cosmic catastrophes are always undone.

 

archie betty and veronica

 

Archie's pals 'n' gals are fifteen or sixteen, and the comic books are meant for grade-schoolers. Are the publishers making a mistake, or have they correctly understood that kids in elementary school these days are more advanced than they used to be? Or will it all turn out to be a dream of Archie's? Or Betty's? Or Veronica's?


What do you say? Who's right for Archie? Betty or Veronica?


Bonus survey question: Cathy Gale or Emma Peel? Answer carefully.

 

archie cathy gale

Cathy Gale: Intellectual, leather, tells Steed off

 

archie emma peel

Emma Peel: Heiress, Op Art fashions, flirts with Steed

 

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Well, I can't speak to the male perspective, but the ones I wanted to BE were Veronica, Emma Peel and Ginger. As for romantic fantasies, it was never Archie. I made-do with bad boy Reggie (he of the heavily Bryl-Creemed hair) and the Professor. Until I found Steed, my dream spy. So gentlemanly, yet so ruthless and studly! Oh, the things Steed could do with that umbrella.
"Hello," she lied
May 29, 2009 07:46 PM
You marry Betty. You have an affair with Veronica. Because if you marry Veronica, she will get bored and eventually have affair with Chuck, the pool boy, or Diego, the gardener. And then, it will be Chance, her father's assistant at the office, and she'll divorce you and end up with Chance, and you'll be left high and dry.

But if you are Mr. Steed, you end up with Miss Peel. I think Cathy would be a lot of trouble over the long haul!
Procopius
May 29, 2009 10:16 PM
I always prefer practical women. Especially if they know how to make sandwiches... :)
mr e
May 30, 2009 01:37 AM
Will the next comic be about the divorce or what?

Archie never marries! He dithers forever between the practical, kind pretty one and the rich beautiful selfish one.
odetteroulette
May 30, 2009 10:04 AM
It's all a dream that will disappear once Betty come out of the shower. There's no way this triangle can be resolved.

That said. Of course he should marry Veronica. Betty needs to move on. She deserves better.
Juliet Waters
May 30, 2009 10:15 AM
Thanks, everyone, for reading and commenting.

odetteroulette -

I agree with you. This tension should not be resolved. Otherwise hey might as well stop publishing the comic books.
RetroDaddy
May 30, 2009 01:14 PM
When I was a kid, I always like Betty but I always wanted to "do" Veronica. Same thing with Cathy Gale and Emma Peel.
Walter Blevins
May 30, 2009 05:17 PM
But you also have to remember that I always had the hots for Sky King's neice Penny too!
Walter Blevins
May 30, 2009 05:18 PM
Well--as a teenager growing up I was GLUED TO The Archie comics--I had NO IDEA they were still going on! Is this for real or are you, (LOL) putting us on? Anyway, real or not, I was a blond but not a dumb one, so I had some identification w/ Betty in terms of how she looked, but I had a really strong bad-girl streak like Veronica so I sort of combined them together in my head and decided I was like both of them. One thing for sure, I thought Archie was a chump and an idiot and had nothing for him, Jughead was sort of interesting even if he was kind of a dorky class-clown type and how about Miss Feebee? I think I have more in common with her now.
Poet of Logan Square
June 02, 2009 12:00 PM
PS

'm more like Gale--intellectual, steely and tells guys off. Doesn't bode well for relationships but then I am a monastic nun for art anyway.
Poet of Logan Square
June 02, 2009 12:01 PM
PPS
Procopious for crying out loud! You disappoint me! Shag the bad girls and marry the good girls? Yikes! Us bad girls eventually settle down if you give us half the Chance! (pun intended)
Poet of Logan Square
June 02, 2009 12:06 PM
I always saw Veronica as an easily seduced and used back seat playmate whereas, I saw Betty as someone who would, gasp(catching my breath), be totally seductive in the bedroom.

Apparently this has to do with my instant sniffing out of phoniness in people.
Betty's legitimacy always turned me on.
This is reminiscent of the women on Gilligan's little isle as it related to Mary Ann over Ginger.
Actually, I used to imagine Mary Ann over me.lol
Oh, OK. Under also.;)

I'd have preferred Emma Peeling rather than Gale as, Gale seems too much like some reallife bitches I've known.
I think women & guns are SEXXXXXXXYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!

As for Dan Quayle, er, Archie marrying the spoiled brat, I can't see this happening in the "real life' of comicbookland as, like others have said, he can't make a decision.

I think Jughead is actually to coolest of the guys and hides a comprehensive intelligence which neither Archie or the asshole Reggie have.
Archie will be forever in lalaland while Reggie finds his way to "bug house square'"on Diversey & Clark to struggle his way out of the closet.

To: Poet,
Do you remember what "bug house square" was all about?
XJS AND ME
June 02, 2009 12:29 PM
Poet -

I was always more intrigued by Cathy Gale than Emma Peel. Gale didn't want to work for Steed's masters and she was just confounded by Steed's opinion of himself. Those episodes were in black and white, more noirish. The bowler hat, the umbrella, the kicky Carnaby Street fashion came later, when they sold the series to the States. Those Steed and Peel episodes were good in their own way--sci-fi social satire--but I just prefer the Steed and Gale years.

Juliet -

You're right. Betty deserves better than Archie. She should get out of Riverdale after graduation.
RetroDaddy
June 02, 2009 12:36 PM
Betty should go after Jughead. That'll show red-checkerboard-headed fool.
Ignatz Mouse
June 02, 2009 01:49 PM
Poet is right. Bad girls do eventually settle down. My first wife did, after two more marriages, one more child, a gain of 30lbs and a fourth marriage.

Her emails are always fun to read.
brownswan
June 02, 2009 04:00 PM
I'd choose Betty, Veronica would make Archie sign a prenup. As for Emma Peel, Diana Rigg could walk in right now and I'd...well never mind.

Riverdale will never be the same again.
OEsheepdog
June 02, 2009 08:42 PM
Cathy Gale and Emma Peele were before my time ('though I'm a fan of Open Salon's own "Emma.") As far as Betty and Veronica are concerned, though, I am totally in Betty's amen corner. My mother used to quote me the saying, "It's just as easy to fall in love with a rich man as a poor man." (The implication being that, since everyone was equally lovable, a girl should fall in love with a rich man and secure her financial future by marrying him.) By the time I got my first day job in my late teens, though, I realized the saying was false. All my bosses were rich, and they were nasty, selfish, ruthless creeps. The only nice people I met were poor or, at very most, comfortably middle class.
Betty and Veronica are both gorgeous but Betty is nice and Veronica is as nasty as most other rich people. If Archie goes through with the marriage, he'll be quite miserable, very soon. And what do you want to bet she asks for a pre-nup?
Eva T. Made Vaudeville
June 02, 2009 09:07 PM
"But if you are Mr. Steed, you end up with Miss Peel," says Procopius. Please! He always addressed her as _Mrs_ Peel, though we never learned about Mr Peel: her untouchability was in her strength, not her maidenhood. She was in nobody's male shadow, and ten years later Steed might have called her Ms Peel, but that wasn't pushed by feminists until 1971.
Tim Poston
June 02, 2009 09:14 PM
I also don't think it's real because I don't think they're that stupid. Thes creator's of Archie, Bob Montana and Vic Bloom, hit on a formula that has been going strong since 1941 with almost NO change. Heck, Jughead's even still wearing the same weird hat. It would be enormously foolish to change something this iconic.
Ignatz Mouse
June 02, 2009 09:15 PM
I think Archie and Reggie should swagger off to Vermont and Jughead (who is obviously hung like a horse) takes the two cuties away... I drew a thirty panel strip about this when I was still in High School, no shit! The poses are really easy to copy and all you need are a couple of digests to get going. It's a shame my Mom found my comic and in a fit of pique, destroyed it. My Magnum Opus was called "Starchie and Pudhead". By the by, I wouldn't know which of the girls I would choose... Probably Betty because she would be more apt to get a joke.
Darryl Ross
June 02, 2009 11:08 PM
Oh, as an aside, Emma - always Emma!
Darryl Ross
June 02, 2009 11:11 PM
What a riot! It sure brought back memories! I won't sully those memories by delving into the psychology behind the Archie-Betty-Veronica-dynamic in today's world!
Kellylark
June 02, 2009 11:21 PM
With this type of 'stunt storyline', you can always expect them to revive the status quo somehow. My pick is that now that Archie has made his choice, Reggie and Jughead declare their forbidden love for one another. Out of a sense of justice and compassion, Archie calls off the wedding until his best buddies are also able to legally marry.
Dr. Gin
June 02, 2009 11:28 PM
Archie always marries Veronica in real life. About 5 years later he realizes his mistake. Such is life.
717judie
June 03, 2009 12:47 AM
No problem for me. i always dug Veronica's looks the best.
Even if it goes nowhere Archie will have had some great sex.
timsored
June 07, 2009 06:44 PM