Posted in: Comics, san diego comic con | Tagged:

When Riverdale Didn't Come To The Riverdale Panel At San Diego Comic-Con

Dane Styler wrote from San Diego Comi-Con for Bleeding Cool,

Moderated by classic Archie writer Alex Simmons, with panel guests Dan Parent (artist), Mark Waid (writer, editor), and Michael Rosenberg (writer), the Archie Comics Forever: Riverdale and Beyond panel at SDCC 2017 was absent of any representation of the Riverdale television show behind the table. Most notably, and contrary to the programming's description, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa was not in attendance.

After requisite introductions, the first half of the panel's time was consumed by announcements from the moderator regarding the upcoming season of Riverdale as well as forthcoming issues from Archie's line of books, while slides of future cover art appeared on the screen – it was like listening to someone read copy straight out of the pages of Previews for thirty minutes.

Regardless, there were a few morsels of information worth noting:

RIVERDALE

Season Two of Riverdale was described by the moderator, who read straight from a page, as "Archie's origin story" as he deals with the concluding events of Season One.

THE FATE OF BETTY COOPER

Then writer Mark Waid delved into the ending of the current "To the Edge" story and how it leads into the following story arc in the main Archie book, which will revolve around the fate of Betty Cooper.

Only read further if you cannot resist even the slightest of spoilers…

"So… Betty lives."

"The only problem is," Waid adds, "She can't feel her legs." He also revealed that the next arc is called "The Heart of Riverdale, because to me, that's who Betty is […] the kids don't realize, until she's taken out of action for awhile, how much she contributes to the town."

So the other kids step up and help out, trying to fill the void left by Betty's absence. Even Archie in his good nature attempts to pitch in and help, which Waid points out is always a very bad idea. "My guiding principle has always been, if Archie doesn't end up with a bucket on his head at some point in the story, then I'm doing it wrong."

This upcoming storyline is Waid showing Betty's strength and determination: "The point of this is not to make Betty a victim – the point in fact is to do the exact opposite. If anybody thinks Betty would simply resign herself into moping that she's in a wheelchair for awhile, you would not know Betty. Betty sees this as a challenge, and Betty is more than ready to step up to the challenge. You get to see her be fierce, you get to see her be a fighter, and you get to see her at her absolute best."

DIVERSITY

Diversity was brought up during the Q&A, as an attendee described the original cast of Archie as a sea of straight, white characters. He asked Waid how he addresses the subject in the book.

Waid replied that diversity is of course really important to him. He goes on to say:

"In fact, that's why I didn't bring in Veronica in the first few issues. […] I didn't feel like just capriciously saying, oh Jughead is Asian, or whatever, just to do it – that wouldn't be in service to anybody. That's just tokenism."

"So leaving Veronica out and pulling back on some of the other characters got us a chance early on to put some of the other characters of color and nationality into the front. I'm leaning really hard on Toni Topaz, leaning really hard on Raj, and others. These are some of my favorite characters."

BETTY'S & VERONICA'S FRIENDSHIP: SIMPLE, YET COMPLICATED

At the end of the panel, Waid turned to Parent, who he said has dealt with the characters far longer creatively speaking, with a question of his own. Waid finds himself challenged with the fact that Betty and Veronica are best friends, but at the same time both of them are romantically interested in Archie. He asked Parent how he dealt with this paradox.

Parent described these characters, thought they appear simple, as actually quite complicated. As for how he handles Betty and Veronica: "They'll fight over Archie, but they'll defend each other no matter what."

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!