Archie vs. Predator II: Plot, Characters & Lore
Archie vs. Predator II is a five-issue crossover written by Alex de Campi and drawn by Robert Hack, the sequel to Archie vs. Predator. Archie Comics and Dark Horse Comics published it from July 2019 to January 2020. The surviving Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge, together with the Predator they had rebuilt as Archie, left their ruined Riverdale and crossed into a brighter one, just before a Halloween dance turned into a Predator invasion. Along the way the classic girls summoned Mr. Inferno once more, and the series closed the story of the classic Riverdale gang.
Plot Summary
The End Of Classic Riverdale
The story picked up after Archie vs. Predator, with the classic Riverdale in flames and every friend of Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge dead. The only one left with them was the Predator they had rebuilt in the Lodge panic room with Archie's red hair and freckles, now called Archie, who could only talk in emoji on a phone screen. Veronica's plan was simple: walk up Memory Lane, the little street between the library and the post office that had always taken them back to good old Riverdale, and set everything right again.
Memory Lane only worked for Archie, though, and when the three of them reached it they found it fenced off as a construction site for a Waid Enterprises luxury retail development, permanently closed. The girls realized what that meant: they had been cancelled, there would be no more new stories about them, and they were stuck in the ruins forever. Even Sabrina was dead, and when Veronica pointed out that they had once summoned the devil, the reminder of Mr. Inferno was set aside for later. Archie smashed the window of Reggie's Porsche and hot-wired it, and the three of them drove out past the "Now Leaving Riverdale" sign while Betty slept and Veronica talked quietly about everything they had lost.
A Brighter Riverdale
The road led them straight back to a sign reading "Welcome to Riverdale," but this was not their town. It was a newer, brighter Riverdale whose teenagers were getting ready for the Halloween dance. In Dilton Doiley's garage a different Betty, a mechanic in overalls, helped Dilton build his costume around a Predator helmet he had ordered off eBay, meaning to rig it like a Daft Punk helmet with LEDs. When Dilton put the helmet on, it hummed to life with a red light, and the joke that eBay purchases were full of surprises was the last calm moment of the night.
Outside Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe, the classic Betty woke up from what she thought was the weirdest dream and saw new versions of herself, Veronica, Jughead, Dilton, and Archie in their Halloween costumes. The classic Veronica demanded to know who they were and why they had replaced them, and Dilton decided that multiverse theory was real. He admitted that he might have caused it all by finding a way to open gates to other realities, then pulled on the helmet again, and it sent out a signal. The new Archie, in a torn pirate shirt, hugged his classic double, while the newcomers, with their flip phone and their kukri, called themselves the survivors from the darkest timeline.
The Helmet Phones Home
The signal from Dilton's helmet reached a Predator mothership orbiting Earth, where a Predator lord sat on a throne between two Predator hounds and pointed at a map of North America. Another group of Predators had already landed on Mars beside a NASA rover, hounds at their side. In Riverdale, the two gangs got acquainted: the new Betty and Veronica were not dating Archie at all, the new Veronica threatened her double until both Veronicas realized they knew about the same checks made out to cash from their mother's account, and Archie lifted a car to fetch a dropped lipstick.
Then Archie's disguise crumbled and showed his Predator face, which an old lady on the street mistook for an amazing zombie costume. The classic Betty explained that their Archie was really an intergalactic hunter who had destroyed their Riverdale and killed their friends, and when Dilton reached for the helmet, Archie slashed his hand, because it was Predator tech. To read Archie's emoji, Jughead used Kevin Keller's phone to bring in Toni Topaz, who met them at Riverdale High. Toni translated that the helmet had phoned home, that Archie did not want to go back, and that if he did not go home, home was going to come get him.
Murder On The Dance Floor
The dance in the Riverdale High gym started with a DJ in a robot helmet calling for lights, doors, and music while the students danced in their costumes. Outside, Predator ships came down from space and landed around the school, one of them crushing a parked car. In the office, the new Archie realized the gym was full of kids lined up for slaughter, and he told the newcomers that just because they had let their Riverdale be destroyed did not mean he would let it happen here. It was already too late: the screams had started.
The DJ was blasted apart with a plasma caster, a boy in a barbarian costume who charged a hunter for killing his friend had his back broken, and a boy in glasses had his head and spine torn out as a trophy. The Predators were bigger than the hunter from the first book, and Toni called them "improved." The classic Archie cocked an assault rifle and planned to show himself to the other Predators and lead them outside, a plan the new Archie wanted on record as terrible, while the classic Betty and Veronica sent the new pair to get the kids out and stayed behind to distract the hunters and their hounds.
Freeze Tag
Kids hid around the gym while Archie fired the assault rifle at a Predator from the rafters, its targeting reticle locking on as the hunter shot plasma back at him. Toni hid with the classic Betty and Veronica, who tried to text for help: there was no assassin on call, the old heroes and the Mighty Crusaders were gone, and none of their old friends had made it into the new world alive. Betty bet that Mr. Inferno had, and Veronica decided that Betty was going to summon the devil again, which made Toni say she now understood why they had been improved.
On the rafters, the new Archie watched a Predator grab the new Betty and read Archie's emoji plan to bring more Predators down from space. He decided that the one constant in every Riverdale was that they did not abandon their friends, told the classic Archie that if he wanted to be Archie Andrews he should start acting like it, and threw his phone at the hunter's head. Shouting "Freeze tag! You're it!", he lured the Predator up into the rafters after him, crashing through the beams, and admitted that it might not have been the best plan.
The Axis Of Evil
The new Betty and Jughead decided they needed air support and went to break into one of the landed ships, while Veronica called in what she named the Axis of Evil: Cheryl Blossom and her twin Jason. When a Predator shot at the new Archie hanging from a beam, the new Veronica stepped out in her white dress and shouted that it had the wrong target, because everyone knew she was the most dangerous person in Riverdale. The hunter's hounds went after the new Betty and Jughead, and the students turned on the Predator in the gym and swarmed it.
Outside, two Predator hounds killed Jughead's sheepdog Hot Dog. Inside, the fighting went badly: Moose's death drew a scream across the gym, and the new Archie fell from the rafters into a crowd of Predators, thinking it was not supposed to end like this. Down in the boiler room, the classic Betty was spotted by a hunter's thermal vision until Veronica pulled her behind a jet of steam that hid them. Betty told Veronica she had saved her life, and after admitting that it had not been about Archie for a long time, the two girls kissed.
Escape Velocity
Cheryl arrived in a pink costume with Jason and Reggie, announcing that there was a new redhead in charge, while Kevin Keller in a Captain America costume clubbed a hound with a bat. Archie, now in a Riverdale R sweater, fought two Predators with his wristblades and threw his assault rifle to Toni, who gunned a hunter down. Midge, swinging an axe, celebrated a victory and mourned Moose before a Predator killed her, and Kevin and Toni kept fighting the hounds, with Toni telling Kevin that at least there would be no student debt.
Outside, the new Betty and Jughead passed Hot Dog's body and slipped into a Predator ship. Betty worked out the controls, saying Dilton would have loved it, and when two hounds came aboard, Jughead tamed them by throwing them burgers and cookies until they licked him. Betty launched the ship with one hound inside, then was knocked out when it lurched, and woke up in zero gravity high above Earth. Floating together, Jughead told her he liked her as she was, and they agreed the other Veronica could go back where she came from.
Stand Tall, Die Young
In the boiler room, Jason broke a gas pipe with a wrench, and Cheryl asked Reggie for his lighter. When Reggie hesitated because Toni, Kevin, and Midge were still upstairs, Cheryl told him to choose between living with them or dying with the others, and he chose to try to get a couple of people out. Reggie barred the boiler-room door with his bat and locked the twins in with the gas, then ran upstairs and smashed a hound's skull just as it mauled Kevin, shouting at everyone to get out because of Cheryl's big idea.
The new Archie had survived his fall and lay on the gym floor with a hurt back, begging them not to leave him. Toni told him the Predators would not attack him because he was not a threat, but Reggie sighed that it would ruin his reputation and helped carry him anyway. A Predator struck at them before they reached the door, and as Reggie, Toni, and Kevin carried him out on a table, a hunter killed Reggie with a plasma blast that tore through his back. Toni, kneeling among the bodies, realized it was on her and that she was next.
Boiling Point
Locked in the boiler room, Cheryl pounded on the door while the gas hissed and Jason told her nobody could hear her. Someone unbolted the door, and the twins thought they were saved until a Predator stepped inside, and Cheryl asked whether it was the friendly one. It was the classic Archie, and when Cheryl screamed and fought instead of calming down, Jason begged him not to shoot her because she was harmless and only ugly, while Cheryl answered that she should have killed her brother in the womb. Archie fired his plasma caster into her chest, and Cheryl looked down at the burning wound and said only "Oopsie" as the gas caught.
The plasma lit the gas, and the explosion tore through Riverdale High in a single enormous blast that took the school, the gym, the Halloween dance, and the hunters inside it. On the football field, the classic Betty and Veronica had finally summoned Mr. Inferno, who had appeared in a dark suit to tell them how delightful it was to see them again. He watched the school burn, said he admired their capacity for destruction, and wondered whether s'mores would be in poor taste. Veronica said the new versions had been better than them and that they had brought this down on them.
Mister Inferno's Offer
The classic Archie came out of the burning ruins alive, and the girls ran to him calling him "Archiekins." In the bleachers, Mr. Inferno asked what they actually wanted, and Veronica said she wanted to be wanted, because generations of kids had grown up on them and now they were no longer good enough. He said it happened all the time with mortals, who were the next big thing until fashions changed, and he refused to give them advice, reminding them that "Stop all the clocks" was the first line of a funeral poem.
Instead, he suggested that they enjoy being free: develop opinions on martinis, get tattoos, move to New York City, and grow up into whoever Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, and Predator A6718 wanted to be, without worrying about being good enough. Veronica said she did not want to be forgotten, and he told her to do unforgettable things. When the girls offered their souls to put the new Riverdale back, he said it was not necessary, because he had already planned to restore it as it was before, and he whisked them away on the Infernal Express.
A Small Story
In the new Riverdale, the clock ran back to the afternoon before the dance. Betty found her soldering iron in Dilton's garage, but Dilton said he did not need it anymore, because the most important part of his costume, the helmet he had ordered on eBay, had been lost in the mail. With four hours left before the dance, Betty promised to find him an old motorcycle helmet, because this was Riverdale and that was what they did. Nobody there remembered the massacre, the Predators, or the visitors from the other timeline.
The classic Betty, Veronica, and Archie ended up at a sidewalk café in New York City, where they checked the new Veronica's Instagram and agreed that the other gang looked happy. Betty asked Veronica whether she missed being an eternal teenager, and Veronica said she really did not, while Archie sat beside them in a denim jacket with a plate of food. The series ended there, with the three of them growing up together and the new Riverdale left to its own stories.
Key Characters
- Betty Cooper survived the first comic, summoned Mr. Inferno a second time, fell for Veronica, and moved to New York City with her and Archie.
- Veronica Lodge led the trip up Memory Lane, called in Cheryl and Jason, saved Betty in the boiler room, and asked Mr. Inferno to be wanted again.
- Archie, the Predator rebuilt with Archie's face and later named Predator A6718, spoke in emoji, fought the invading hunters, and shot Cheryl in the boiler room.
- The new Archie, Betty, and Veronica were the brighter Riverdale's versions of the gang, and their Betty escaped into space with Jughead before the town was restored.
- Dilton Doiley ordered the Predator helmet that sent the signal, and was killed at the dance before the reset left his helmet lost in the mail.
- Toni Topaz translated Archie's emoji and fought the Predators with his assault rifle alongside Kevin Keller and Reggie Mantle.
- Cheryl and Jason Blossom tried to blow up the school with a gas leak, and Cheryl's death set it off.
- Mr. Inferno answered Betty and Veronica's summoning, restored the new Riverdale, and sent the classic trio off to grow up.
Editions
Archie Comics and Dark Horse released the five issues from July 24, 2019 to January 22, 2020, with indicia dates running from September 2019 for the first issue to March 2020 for the fifth. Each issue was split into named chapters, such as "Murder On The Dance Floor," "Boiling Point," and "Around And Around," and ended with a variant cover gallery. Robert Hack drew every main cover, colored by Kelly Fitzpatrick, and each issue carried a gallery of variants, including covers by Francesco Francavilla, Dan Parent, Derek Charm, Billy Tucci, Howard Chaykin, Rebekah Isaacs, Greg Smallwood, and Michael Walsh.
Later variants came from Laura Braga, Phil Hester, Jamal Igle, Sandy Jarrell, Pat and Tim Kennedy, Matthew Dow Smith, Bill Golliher, David Mack, Andrew Pepoy, Tim Seeley, Tom Mandrake, Les McClaine, Jerry Ordway, Jeff Shultz, and Wilfredo Torres. The last issue advertised the collection, with Hack's first cover on the front, for April 15, 2020, and its back-cover blurb promised that the classic Betty and Veronica had found an unexpected friend while the new Betty and Jughead fought the war at its source.
Behind The Scenes
The credits list Alex de Campi on story, Robert Hack on line art, Kelly Fitzpatrick on colors, and Jack Morelli on letters, with Alex Segura and Stephen Oswald editing and Jon Goldwater as publisher. The back covers sold the team as de Campi from the first Archie vs. Predator and Hack from Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and the indicia credit Archie's emoji to the OpenMoji project. Wikipedia describes the series as a finale for both the classic 1942 to 2015 Archie continuity and the 2015 reboot, ahead of the relaunch of the original line.
Much of the comedy is meta. Memory Lane was closed for a Waid Enterprises development, a nod to Mark Waid's 2015 Archie reboot, the girls complained that they had been cancelled, and the chapter "Don't Worry; None Of This Is In Continuity" made the joke explicit. The fourth issue ended with a mock Son of Ultron page, "This Fan... This Monster!", and the story's invading hunters and their hounds put it among the Predators who hunted kids and the Predator crossovers.
Conclusion
Archie vs. Predator II is Alex de Campi and Robert Hack's 2019 sequel to Archie vs. Predator. It brought the surviving Betty, Veronica, and their Predator Archie into a brighter Riverdale, where Dilton's helmet called down a Predator invasion on the Halloween dance and a gas explosion destroyed Riverdale High. Mr. Inferno restored the new town, and the classic trio left to grow up together in New York City. Its emoji-speaking Predator Archie, its meta jokes about cancellation, and its bloody Halloween dance made it a darker and stranger sequel than the first book.
External Sources
Tag Categories: Predator Comics | Alien And Predator Crossovers
