Heh… I believe that the last time Archie did a crossover with any superheroes from the Big Two, it was in that delightfully-messed ARCHIE MEETS THE PUNISHER one-shot from the early 90s. More on that in a second, but I bring it up because it shows that this TINY TITANS/ LITTLE ARCHIE comic coming out in October isn’t entirely without precedent. The Source made the announcement and the title’s pretty self-explanatory - - this is a meeting of the lil’ versions of Riverdale Teens and DC Sidekicks and it’s going to be handled by those Eisner winners Art Baltazar and Franco.
I’ve, of course, heard of the Tiny Titans before this, but is this first time I’ve been made aware of Little Archie. I probably shouldn’t find the concept of the later that hard to grasp - - the versions been around for decades, apparently - - yet I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. See, TEEN TITANS is something that’s had a real range of intensity across all its incarnations. On the one pole, you’ve got a really dark story like the JUDAS CONTRACT. Somewhere further down the slide, you’ve got the fun and sun of the TEEN TITANS toon, which I heard did a heavily toned-down version of the JUDAS CONTRACT in one of its episode arcs. As I was told, Deathstroke was even just referred to as “Slade” because his name was a little too menacing for the kiddies. == TEASER ==
But Archie already is all-ages. How much more acceptable can you make it? And I have to wonder how much of the high school romance carries on into this elementary school tykes. I’d imagine Little Archie wouldn’t be chasing after Little Betty or Little Veronica at that age… he’d be yanking their pig tails and then running away for fear of catching cooties.
Anyway, look out for this in the 10 month of this year. I’m sure there’ll be more discussion of it at the AH YEAH! DC Kids panel at SDCC next week. In the meantime, look up THE PUNISHER MEETS ARCHIE. It needs more addition. No joke, it was about Frank Castle trying to blow Archie away because he mistook him for a red-headed gangster he was stalking.
-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Studios and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia. Pre-order the HYBRID BASTARDS! hardcover now on Amazon.com.