Archie's Superteens

by Archie Superstars

It's the return of Riverdale's legendary teenage superheroes, as Pureheart the Powerful and the Superteens battle against all odds in this collection of action-packed tales.

Riverdale High's new substitute teacher is very odd. Snubbed by the scientific community, he plans his revenge on the students of Riverdale High! It's going to take a team of people with some mighty powers to stop him. Archie Comics' two most renowned superhero teams are going to meet up for the first time ever!

Plus, it's the best of the Superteens in an extended bonus collection you can't miss!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

128 pages, Paperback

First published June 11, 2019

About the author

THE ARCHIE SUPERSTARS are the impressive line-up of talented writers and artists who have brought Archie, his friends and his world to life for more than 70 years, from legends such as Dan DeCarlo, Frank Doyle, Harry Lucey, and Bob Montana to recent greats like Dan Parent and Fernando Ruiz, and many more!

Reviews

[Fuchsia · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I could be catfished by a book, then that's exactly how I feel with this.
The cover alone teases you with thinking it's going to be this epic crossover comprised of the Archie gang in their superhero personas alongside the other superhero properties within the Archie franchise. I'm not much of a superhero buff, but even I find myself a little letdown with this premise.

For starters the main story being advertised on the cover (which is only barely 40% of the book) doesn't even do much with the crossover aspect. Heck, they don't even do much with the Archie gang's superhero sonas either, and the only one among them I can daresay got any action or a chance to show his abilities was Jughead (aka Captain Hero)!
The other superheroes don't even get much of a spotlight, either. They just feel more like eye candy than anything else, just something for the more diehard fans to notice and raise some eyebrows their way.
The main villain they have to take down is more of a joke villain, which at least I can excuse given the Archie comics in general operates on a more lighter tone, and while it does grant a few chuckles with these superheroes from otherwise more "serious" stories being easily overpowered by a comic relief bad guy (seriously, even the "actual" villains are just sitting back watching treating him as a joke), I would've loved to see at least more interactions between the Archie gang and these superheroes. Instead a good majority of them are either easily overpowered, and the others are just watching from the sidelines and are given introductions with a few lines of dialogue.

And speaking of the story...the fact it only takes up barely 40% of the book is another issue I have. As someone who collects graphic novels or paperback/hardbound collections of comic issues, I was disappointed to learn that this "huge, epic crossover" only spanned a two-parter at most, with the rest being a collection of superhero-themed stories (mostly from the 60's) centering the Archie gang. I'm no stranger to this kind of "main story front and center, the rest being standalone side stories" setup, as I grew up collecting Archie digests and double digests. But that's the thing—I expect it from their digest collection. So doing that same tactic on a graphic novel format felt cheap.
Archie's Cyber Adventures (another Archie graphic I read in the past) at least was as advertised—it was a graphic novel that collected the entire story arc, start to finish. And that was all the way back on 2011, so this book had less of an excuse.

Overall, good concept but terrible execution, wasted potential on both sides of the crossover. The only saving graces were the neat art style, some of the meta humor present and the initial kick you get out of seeing these heroes team up. But that's as far as it goes for me.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main two issue story is a crossover between the Superteens and the Crusaders. It's played for laughs and the art is good (Betty and Veronica look exceptionally fetching) so it was enjoyable.

The backups are stories from the 60s featuring the Archie group as the Superteens and they range from okay to bizarre.

I'm just not a fan of the Archie characters as superheroes, although the older stories were so weird it was hard to get a handle on whether I liked them or not.

[Soph Garcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the two main issue series with the crusaders to be quite disappointing. The artwork was great. I did not like how Betty and Veronica were portrayed in that story, But I love the stories from the '60s so much more. That was really fun. I do recommend this book if you're looking for something quick to read

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the concept of Archie and the gang as superheroes, but the stories never quite live up to the potential. I'll stick with the "regular" antics of Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead, and Reggie instead.

[Bill Coffin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s not terrible, but it is stupid. But if you dig the Superteens, you’ll have fun with this collection. But honestly, the more you read this, the more you understand why the Superteens never lasted that long in the first place.