Archie Marries The Sistah

Knowing Archie's history of not committing to either Betty or Veronica, the one with Valerie probably won't last either.
-TransGriot, April 23, 2010  'Archie Dates A Sistah'

Still tripping about how I missed this Archie related news four years ago, but then again, it WAS a presidential election year and I like everyone else in Black America was worried about the reelection of President Obama.

One of the things my close friends and longtime readers know about me is that I am a huge Archie comics fan.  I have followed the exploits of Archie, his Riverdale High friends and pondered the Betty and Veronica love triangle since my preteens.

I was pleased to see as a longtime Archie comics fan besides the gender swap one that happened in issue 636 that puts a new gender swapped spin on the Archie, Betty and Veronica love triangle, the interracial relationship curveball they introduced into this longtime iconic comic that is now 75 years old.


;It started with the release of Issues 608-609 featuring the budding relationship of Archie and Josie and the Pussycats bassist Valerie Smith, and received rave reviews from Archie fans.

The storyline picks up from where it left off in issues 631-634 that were published by Archie Comics starting in June 2012.

In issue 631 Valerie returns to Riverdale for a Josie and the Pussycats concert with news for Archie that she and her family are moving there, which as you guessed is not received well by Betty and Veronica.

But Betty gets the bonus with the move to Riverdale of her latest romantic rival for Archie's affections an interracial relationship of her own.  Valerie's little brother Trevor quickly takes Betty's mind off of Archie's rekindled romance with his big sister, and Trev turns out to be a talented vocalist on top of it..

Valerie after moving to Riverdale with her family, takes a walk after settling into her Riverdale life down Memory Lane and starts imagining what her life would be like married to Archie.  

Valerie ends up seeing it five years into the future with her and Archie getting engaged and married. They leave their respective bands to make music together as the duo Him and Her, and Trevor Smith ends up as the new lead singer of Sugar Sugar, the renamed Archie's, and Veronica joins the Pussycats to fill the vacancy left by Valerie's departure.  

The happy couple ends up teaching at a music school, on a reality TV show, and eventually have a child together in their daughter Star.  She turns out to have inherited her parents musical talents and ends up being a serious attention getting child musical prodigy.

The four part 'Archie Marries Valerie' story arc concludes in Issue 634 with Valerie still wandering Memory Lane pondering their futures together.  She realizes that Archie has shown the ability to attract many of the girls in the Riverdale area prior to her arrival there, and ponders how that affects her by contemplating all the possible wedding scenarios  in the pages of that issue that involve Cheryl Blossom, her bandmate Josie McCoy, Sabrina Spellman, Betty and Veronica of course, Ginger Lopez, Midge Potts and even Big Ethel.

That TMI overload sends Valerie scurrying away from Memory Lane and leads to Valerie and Archie setting up a meeting to discuss their relationship. .

How that conversation between Valerie and Archie ended up, I'll have to get the graphic novel to tell you definitively what went down.

The series of comics covering the Archie and Valerie relationship story arc was published in the graphic novel entitled Archie- A Rock 'n' Roll Romance.
Looks like I'll have to see if I can find it either at my fave comic stores or try to find it online to see how the story ended.