Archie's Explorers of the Unknown

Archie's Explorers of the Unknown by Archie Superstars
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Archie's Explorers of the Unknown collects Archie Giant Comics #587 and #599 and Archie's Explorers of the Unknown #1-6.

Thanks to the pandemic and the crazy deals at the Archie webstore, I've read more Archie comics in 2020 than the previous 20 years combined.

Archie's Explorers of the Unknown is an adventure comic starring the Archie characters. It's Challengers of the Unknown at first glance but there's a fair amount of Fantastic Four in its lineage as well. The Archie gang play the parts of adventures. Archie is Red Andrews, Betty is Wheels Cooper, you get the idea. The gang take on such menaces as mad scientist Myron Perrydinkle, mad scientist Dr. Crustacean, Doctor Gloom, King Toot, and various monsters.

The stories are adventure stories woven through the Archie framework. Red still can't pick between Angel Lodge and Wheels Cooper, for example. The stories are geared toward younger readers since these are classic Archie comics.

The star of the show is Rex Lindsey for me. His art is in the classic Dan DeCarlo style but he incorporates some Kirby flourishes, like Kirby machines and crazy angles. Rex Lindsey deserves to be in the pantheon of top Archie artists.

As unlikely as it sounds, Archie's Explorers of the Unknown is the closest we'll likely get to a Jack Kirby Archie adventure book. Three out of five giant robots.

View all my reviews