Archie vs. Minor Threats is one of those crossovers that not only works far better than you’d expect it to, but also features the best of both worlds – quite literally at specific points. From Archie and friends being roped into serving as Playtime’s henchmen to Playtime and her fellow villains getting sucked into a world that resembles Archie’s, there’s been plenty of unexpected moments. Now Archie vs. Minor Threats #4 brings it all home, as Playtime and Archie find themselves being forced to work together.
Things are different, though: thanks to the reality-warping elements of the Five Fingers of Merlin and the mystical menace known as Top Hat, Playtime, and the rest of the Minor Threats, villains are now your standard Archie characters, while Archie has become the fire-slinging felon Gingersnap. Things get even worse when Mary the Multi-Monster, last seen in From the World of Minor Threats: The Alternates, got her hands on the Five Fingers and transformed the world into one filled with monsters! Playtime and Archie chase after Top Hat, intending to undo his mystical mayhem.
The result is somewhat of a mixed bag. On the one hand, Patton Oswalt, Jordan Blum, and Timmy Heague once again pull off Minor Threats‘ signature mix of emotional catharsis and twists on superhero tropes by using the fantasy the characters are trapped in to comment on their inner nature. For Archie, it’s his inner goodness; for Playtime, it’s how her past as a supervillain shaped her current life (and also explains why she hates Top Hat, and magic in a particularly gripping panel.) On the other hand, the changes that Mary made to the world feel tacked on; the idea of Minor Threats characters being transported to Archie’s world is enough without throwing a bunch of monsters into the mix.
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Credit where credit’s due, this setup lets Scott Koblish mash together the two worlds in a way that no one would expect. One page gets pretty gnarly by having Shiteater and Crab Louie fighting off zombies, only for their human skin to shed and reveal the fly and lobster-man underneath. The shifts in art don’t stop there; a battle between Archie as Gingersnap and a werewolf version of Jughead feels like it was ripped from a Marvel or DC comic, while Veronica gets a monstrous makeover as a vampire yet still retains her spoiled rich girl personality (and still takes offense whenever Archie shows interest in other girls.)
It’s the end of the book that sticks with me, especially the last conversation between Playtime and Archie. She tells him to hang onto his better nature, which is something you wouldn’t expect a supervillain to say. In turn, he urges her to work through all the pain and rage she’s carrying, which is a rather foregone conclusion if you’ve read Minor Threats: The Fastest Way Down. Those small moments, more than any zombie or magic fights, is what makes Archie vs Minor Threats a good crossover.
Archie vs. Minor Threats #4 brings an unexpected crossover to a chaotic, yet cathartic end. I never expected this series to be as good as it is, but it shows that you can make any crossover work if you stick to what makes both worlds special.
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