Riverdale #7

Writers: Aaron Allen & Will Ewing
Artist: Thomas Pitilli
Colors: Andre Szymanowicz
Published by: Archie Comics

One of my favourite parts of this new Riverdale companion series to the show is how it explores characters that have been seen on the show, but have not yet been given time to develop fully. In this issue, we get to learn a lot about Dilton Doiley, the perennial genius in the Archie universe who was briefly introduced on Riverdale in season 1 as a survivalist who was a little too fond of guns.

The issue begins with a young Dilton as he is presented with a Swiss Army knife by his father with zero context. Fast-forward a few years, and we learn that Dilton is now preparing for an upcoming apocalypse on Earth that he believes will be caused by the impact of a comet with North America - this gives us an idea that Dilton still retains his smarts from the comics in the Riverdale universe.

However, his warning falls on deaf ears but at the insistence of Betty, Jughead is tasked with shadowing Dilton to make sure that he is in a right mental state. This leads Dilton to invite Jughead to ride out the apocalypse within in a bunker built by Dilton and his father.

As they settle in for the oncoming apocalypse, Jughead tries to understand how Dilton has become the way he is and Dilton obliges by giving him his quote unquote origin story. We learn that Dilton, as a young adventure scout, was caught unprepared during one of his trips, and that led to his father going to extremes to teach his son how to survive. In the world of Riverdale, extremes have become commonplace, so this is not surprising that it has also affected Dilton’s life.

As I said, I’ve really been enjoying Riverdale the comic series as we get to know more about the secondary characters that have not yet gotten their moment in the spotlight on the TV show. The fact that it is written by writers on the show helps make it feel more like a part of the TV series than most tie-ins tend to be.