Archie's Valentine's Spectacular 2024 #1

The 2024 Archie Valentine's Day special has arrived. Once again, Archie is introducing us to some all-new characters. But the players are not human but manifestations of the spirit of the holiday. Not only has that idea been used in previous Halloween specials but several Archie Christmas Spectaculars as well. 

At first I was having fatigue in what I thought was the overuse of the plot trope. Yet the characters of Flowers, Hearts and Candies were really well written by Ian Flynn and they were so funny. It also helped that Archie editor Mike Pellerito admits that the idea of the trio of characters was based on those previous holiday annuals. If the Archie talents understand that they might be dipping a little too frequently into the same idea well, I guess I can let things slide for another year. But I expect the next couple of years to give these characters a rest. I like tradition. But there's such a thing as taking a break from time to time to keep things fresh as well.

One tradition that I hope never stops is the new larger amount of material. My biggest gripe with all of the Archie spectaculars are that they are too darn short. It feels like the editing staff listened to me as there was 2 all-new stories (though a repeat of you bought this year's Valentine's Day themed Archie Jumbo Comics Digest #347) along with 3 classic tales and a Bite-Sized Archie short.

The second new feature has Sabrina the Teenage Witch trying to summon Cupid in hopes of persuading Jughead to finally ask Big Ethel out. Instead, she conjures a demon that ends up being the antithesis of everything Cupid stands for. It was a good story. Though that evil creature wasn't my type of thing. Plus, I never knew that Jughead knew that Sabrina is a witch!

I liked 2 of the 3 classic stories. Sadly, the Dan Parent yarn about love triangles in the Archie Universe was the weakest of the three. I say unfortunately because I feel that Dan Parent is the best modern Archie creator out there but this experimental piece was in need of more data gathering before going to press. Plus I didn't understand that Bite-Sized Archie web comic preview. 

I enjoyed this Valentine's special. It's just in danger of getting stale if the creators keep relying on magical representations of the embodiment of the holiday of the month in future editions. In terms of the reprints, it's not feasible to expect every selection to be something everyone likes. So I'm not taking away points for that Dan Parent piece. But there was a real chance that I could of deducted more points if Hearts, Flowers and Candies hadn't been as funny as they were. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.