Jughead: The Hunger #2

Writer: Frank Tieri
Artists: Pat and Tim Kennedy and Joe Eisma
Colorists: Matt Herms
Letterist: Jack Morelli
Publisher: Archie Comics

Once again, Archie Horror makes a fantastic series full of gore, drama, horror, and action. Jughead: The Hunger, which follows Jughead who is from a long bloodline of werewolves, fills the Archie Horror hole in me that was left by Archie’s very long spans of time between Afterlife with Archie and Chilling Adventure of Sabrina issues.

Jughead: The Hunger #2 opens with a mourning Mr. Weatherbee crying over a picture of the deceased Ms. Grundy. What follows is one of my favorite scenes in all of Archie Horror comics. A very suave and undead Reggie appears and spews some smooth and evil lines. He then turns into his werewolf self which causes Mr. Weatherbee to run. He runs into a very sexy and undead Veronica, who also delivers some smooth and evil lines herself.

What I love about this scene so much is that it reminds me of 1980’s horror movies, of which I am a very big fan. Specifically, Reggie and Veronica in this scene remind me of the 1987 film Near Dark, which features an evil, yet very cool gang of vampires. Pat and Tim Kennedy’s artwork and Frank Tieri’s dialogue in this opening scene made this story feel classic and assures you that you are in for a treat for the rest of the book.

The rest of the issue continues to have drama and even some gore and it all comes together to be another great issue in this series. Tieri kind of alters these classic characters that I have loved for so long and yet I’m still very emotionally invested in all of them. I love to hate this werewolf hunting Betty; I am rooting for this guilt-ridden werewolf Jughead, even though he’s slaughtered several people; I am interested in how Archie is going to step up and handle this bizarre situation of his best friend being a werewolf who has killed citizens of Riverdale that he loves; and I am so excited to see the mayhem werewolf Reggie and Veronica cause on the world.

This issue is a wonderful addition to what the one shot and the first issue established. It continued the story in an exciting way and added more drama and action to the story. Archie horror has done it once again and every comic fan should be reading this series!