Back in 1967 a surprising team-up took place. On two separate occasions (in January and then again in March), The Green Hornet & Kato appeared on the Batman TV show. Even though the two sets of comicbook characters were licensed from different owners, they did have a couple of things in common, (the same production company and the same network), In 1976 an even bigger team-up occurred when something that no one ever thought would happed occurred, Superman met Spider-Man for the first time. Then in 1978 The Man of Steel faced off against Muhammad Ali. Another unbelievable team-up occurred when Archie Andrews met the hard boiled Punisher. Still, none of those team-up could have prepared comicbook fandom for what happened in Archie #616 & 617 when Archie and his pals meet up with both President Obama and Sarah Palin.
The improbable series of events are set in motion in issue #616 when both Archie and Reggie are running for class president. As can be expected, Reggie has greater crowd appeal and gets a big lead over the ever hapless Archie. That’s when Veronica Lodge uses her upper-class status to arrange for Archie to meet President Obama at a political fundraiser, snaps a picture of the two of them, and then uses it to imply that the President has endorsed Archie. As a way to level the playing field, Reggie meets up with Palin at a book signing and sets up the same kind of photo-op and also uses the picture to bump up his candidacy. Both photos then run in a story in the School newspaper garnering the attention of the national press as well of the President and Palin, both of whom travel to Riverdale to find out what is happening.
The following issue (#617) has both Archie and Reggie running from the President, Palin, the press, and the townsfolk of Riverdale (who have just discovered that they’ve been had). As the story of Archie and Reggie’s high-profile “endorsements” begins to unravel the pair begins to realize how much trouble they could possibly be in and each sets out to hide from the world. Only they are each discovered by their alleged endorser and (since this is still and Archie comicbook) manage to work everything out amicably.
The stories are told with wit and charm, and in no way are slanted towards either public figure. There are jokes aplenty (from the Archie cast as well as the President and Palin), as the story winds its way to its inevitable conclusion with both Archie and Reggie learning their respective lessons in how not to run a political campaign. The story (written by Alex Simmons and illustrated by Dan Parent, Jack Morelli, and Digikore Studios) is light, breezy and accessible to both kids and adults.
With stories like this, the Archie/Veronica/Betty wedding, The Married Life (which continues the “married” storylines of Archie, Veronica & Betty), and the company’s upcoming Earth Day comic, it’s fun to see that something as dependable and traditional as Archie Comics can still find a way to be new and innovative, and manage to attract both national attention and (presumably) new readership to its brand. President Obama and the first lady also appear in Life with Archie #7. Included in that issue are supplemental features that pertain to not only the President, but a breakdown of his platforms from the point of view of the Archie characters as well as afashion sectionfeaturing the First Lady, (courtesy of Betty and Veronica), natch’).
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