“I know kids are growing up fast nowadays, but isn’t this stuff a little heavy for eight and nine year olds? Archie Bunker pushed the envelope 40 years ago, but that Archie was designed for an adult audience. Until recently, the biggest controversy Archie Andrews ever found himself in was making dates with two girls on the same night. When did kid’s comic books get so preachy and controversial?”

My childhood was full of comic books — Spiderman, Superman, Richie Rich, Casper… and Archie. When you’re a kid, you really look up to teenagers, and I related to Archie in the same way I related to Peter Parker. Archie was the good guy. His rival Reggie was the bad guy. Reggie was richer than Archie, a better athlete than Archie, and he drove a nice sports car while Archie got from point A to point B in a jalopy… if he got there at all. But Archie was more likable than Reggie, and Betty and Veronica were always fighting over him. (Years before the famous question “Ginger or Mary Ann?” was asked of guys, there was the question “Betty or Veronica?”)

Given the choice between Archie and Reggie, most kids probably wanted to be more like Archie.

Those were simpler times, when there was really only one universe to keep track of in a comic franchise. It was also before political and social agendas made their way so prominently into children’s comic books.

In case you haven’t heard, Archie, the flagship character in the comic book franchise of the same name, died this week. Not the teenage Archie of the main Archie universe, mind you, but the adult Archie of the “Life with Archie” comic series. (In a 21st century comic book multiverse, apparently Archies are expendable.) Archie is gunned downed by an assassin’s bullet that is intended for his friend, Kevin Keller, the first openly gay character in the Archie franchise. Keller is also a senator who happens to be a vocal proponent of gun control.

I know kids are growing up fast nowadays, but isn’t this stuff a little heavy for eight and nine year olds? Archie Bunker pushed the envelope 40 years ago, but that Archie was designed for an adult audience. Until recently, the biggest controversy Archie Andrews ever found himself in was making dates with two girls on the same night. When did kid’s comic books get so preachy and controversial?

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