Betty and Veronica #276, or “Shame is the Name of the Game!” is the penultimate chapter of Michael Uslan and Dan Parent’s Betty and Veronica fable, Farewell, Betty and Veronica. Not that this fable is borrowing from ancient fables, but from more modern ones, such as The Prince and the Pauper, Trading Places, Tootsie, or cross-dressing Jimmy Olsen, in which the myths of personhood, identity, and self are subverted by their heroes. Earlier in “Farewell,” we learned that the goodbye was only partially the goodbye to Riverdale as the girls left to become exchange students, and the deeper meaning was that Betty was saying goodbye to Betty, and Veronica to Veronica, as they take the opportunity to live a life that was never theirs. Veronica confers her soul to Betty and vice versa as easy as she might write over some money and each becomes a doppelgänger of the other through the facile mutability of hair style and color. And yet change isn’t perfect freedom, as the girls discover that their new names can be shamed just as easily, and being hurt is universal to all.
This lesson is taught simultaneously in Korea and in Riverdale: in Korea, Betty calls Veronica superficial for wanting to sign a K-pop contract, and after the hurtful words have left the barrel, Betty learns that Veronica declined; in Riverdale, French exchange student Violette acts like Veronica in order to fit in at Riverdale High, and upon discovering this, Midge bullies her for being a phony. Midge, talking to Cheryl Blossom, and Banni, who is also trying to navigate the social conventions of Riverdale, realize that to restore the social contract, they must ask themselves, “what would Betty or Veronica do?” Midge decides she must befriend the phony in order to heal the breach, and Banni’s answer is to perplex the hotties of Riverdale by kissing first Jughead, then Dilton at Pop Tate’s.
Asking the “WWB&VD” question is a bit harder for Betty and Veronica to answer, despite that they are Betty and Veronica, because the girls are—ironically—trying to do as the other would do. When they receive the K-pop proposition, however, their real personalities assert, and even in this shell game we’re playing with the girls’ identities, you know exactly who leaps at an opportunity for stardom in another country, and who wants to get home to Riverdale and Archie. At first, Veronica told herself she never wanted to be Betty again as she grabbed for the K-pop opportunity, only to opt out by deciding to stay in character as Betty. At first, Betty said that it was her job “to prove there’s no one that’s shallower than Veronica Lodge,” and cause Veronica to run away crying, but ultimately it is Betty that offers to Veronica and the reader the dualistic solution that “the most successful person would be a combination of the two of us, and not just one or the other.”
Michael Uslan and series artist Dan Parent are another great combination. It is an absolute pleasure whenever Dan Parent draws an issue from cover to cover, and his event stories that turn into graphic novels, such as Rock and Roll Romance, are well-made reads with exceptional visual storytelling, and Farewell, Betty and Veronica is another striking example. That Dan Parent draws in the Archie house style and still has one of the more instantly recognizable personal styles among comic artists bears testimony to how much he’s made Archie and the gang his own. There are only seven words on the two pages that depict Banni’s kiss of Jughead, and we see Parent’s storytelling skills come to the fore in this scene, as Banni declares her love for Jughead and seizes his shirt in one panel, and then Parent stacks the kiss on top of that, in a taller panel that closes in on the pair. Beneath that is the widescreen lens that shows the shock on the gang’s face, and the opposite page is a full-page splash that no doubt has become a screensaver or wallpaper image on many phones.
Betty and Veronica #276, and Farewell, Betty and Veronica, overall, is a highly recommended read. It’s an extremely brainy all-ages tale that adults will enjoy, and then appreciate on another level when they’re reading it to their children. The intricacies of its characters’ relationships mirrors our world in their complexities, and the multi-layered tale will sustain multiple readings.
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Betty and Veronica #276 Review (Spoilers)
Perfect storytelling.
Betty and Veronica #276, and Farewell, Betty and Veronica, overall, is a highly recommended read. It’s an extremely brainy all-ages tale that adults will enjoy, and then appreciate on another level when they’re reading it to their children. The intricacies of its characters’ relationships mirrors our world in their complexities, and the multi-layered tale will sustain multiple readings.
July 3, 2015
“I think this is the most meaningful Review I have ever received of my writing of Archie, Betty & Veronica. Thank you, nerdspan.com!” – Michael Uslan on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/michaeluslan/posts/10153431036084324?pnref=story