By Zack Quaintance — As many reasons as there were to get excited about Archie #710 — and there were a lot, including a team-up between a pair of writers in Mariko Tamaki and Kevin Panetta who wrote the best teen romance stories of last year, and the uber stylish artwork of Laura Braga — I came to this book a bit leery. This issue marks the start of a brand-new story arc in which Katy Keene comes to Riverdale...right before her new TV show debuts on The CW in the real world.

This kind of corporate synergy at its worst can derail creatives, forcing them into choices they might not otherwise make and ultimately generating a story that feels more like an advertisement for another medium than a comic with any independent value. After reading Archie #710, however, any related fears have now been put to rest. The storytelling in this issue is way too expert for any of it to feel forced about the creators, to the point I’m sure they were given freedom (past hey you all have to introduce Katy Keene), and that they are both excited to be on this project.

What we bet in Archie #710 is an introduction to Katy Keene, the coolest of cool girls, that conveys exactly how cool she is in little ways (her flare for both style and mystery, her covering Le Tigre to much acclaim while also showing genuine interest in other musicians, her Braga-look, etc.), without ever coming close to flattening her out or taking away her agency/interiority, as less aware stories about super cool teens coming to town tend to do. Making Katy Keene so mysterious-yet-authentic is just of what these collaborators accomplish in the start of this arc, though.

They also plant the seeds for the subtle teen dramedy conflict that the best modern Archie stories have done since the 2015 reboot (can you all believe Fiona Staples drew that? I had to double-check to make sure I didn’t dream it). The root of that conflict seems to be earnest and aw shucks old Archie having a moment of concerned jealousy that Katy Keene would be dethroning him as Riverdale’s focal point. New kids coming to town and upsetting the dynamic is basically this new Archie book’s go-to device, be it Veronica when it started, Cheryl Blossom later on, or Sabrina the Teenage Witch in recent issues, but none of them have seemed to captivate the entire town the way Katy does in this issue, even attracting musical accolades that make Archie self-conscious about his own performance.

It’s all very good, giving Archie a conflict we don’t often see him facing. Usually he’s facing off against Reggie or Veronica’s dad or picking between his two beautiful lady friends, but having to co-exist with someone who is just so cool and in many of the same ways Archie himself prides himself on being? That seems like the type of deep internal struggle we haven’t seen someone like Archie ever face. And well, this all feels a bit like new territory for a very old character, and I for one love it. I’m excited to see where this goes from here. 

Overall: Archie #710 is in intriguing start to a new story arc in this book, one that introduces readers to the coolest of cool girls without flattening said cool girl out or taking away any of her agency/interiority. This is a stylish and entertaining teen dramedy book that I 100 percent recommend if you’re into that sort of thing. 9.0/10

Archie #710
Writer: Mariko Tamaki & Kevin Panetta
Artist: Laura Braga
Colorist: Matt Herms
Letterer: Jack Morelli
Publisher: Archie Comics
Price: $3.99

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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.