Last month, Archie Comics reintroduced firecracker Cheryl Blossom back into their new timeline. The Lodges moved away from Riverdale, with Veronica being shipped off to an all-girls school in Switzerland. A school where Cheryl has been running things as Queen Bee and will broke no upheaval to the Plastics hierarchy. In a scheme that was cruel even by Blossom standards, Veronica was a patsy in making the scholarship student Julia”s birthday miserable. All so Cheryl could put both girls” in their place and isolate them from a potential friendship.
That”s pretty Machiavellian for sixteen.
But she”s not done yet. According to ARCHIE writer Mark Waid, “What a great character–Veronica's personal Reggie. In our incarnation, Cheryl is even more scheming and conniving than ever before, and she's a blast to write.” Artist Joe Eisma is also enjoying the change of pace, “Cheryl has been so much fun to draw in this book–I'm grateful to have helped to bring her into the New Riverdale lore, and to depict her upcoming nefarious plans!” This will be on display in ARCHIE #14, but I highly doubt Ronnie is just going to take this passive-aggressive bullying lying down.
HitFix Harpy got an exclusive peek inside Archie #14, including a panel of a very annoyed looking Cheryl. As cruel as she”s been shown thus far, Cheryl remains one of my favorite characters from the franchise. Archie did a fantastic job of updating Veronica to be both materialistic AND empathic. So I have no doubt they can make Cheryl both a Queen Bee and…if not sympathetic…at least understandable.