After buying and reading B&V Friends Forever: Rock ‘n’ Roll #1, I was thinking of the last time that I bought any Archie comic books. So I went through my collection and came across this. Remember back during Barack Obama’s first term as President when he was still extremely popular and so many of us still believe in hope and change? It was during this time that several comic book publishers, big and small, were putting him in their comics, even if it was just on the cover, to sell copies. And, well, it worked for me, as I bought many of them, including this one.

Veronica #1999 was released in March 2010, with a full-length 2-part story called “Ms. Lodge Goes To Washington,” in which the Riverdale kids take a school field trip to Washington D.C., led by Miss Grundy and chaperoned by Veronica’s mother. Veronica arrives in an outfit of red and white-striped pants, a white shirt, and a blue vest, reminiscent of Uncle Sam’s clothes.  We see the kids taking a tour of several national landmarks, including the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. Eventually, the kids make it to the White House, where there President Obama happens to be holding a live press conference in the Rose Garden. Despite being told to just stand in the back and watch, Veronica can’t help herself from shouting out to Obama, who decides to answer her question. Expecting her to say something superficial, the other kids are surprised when Veronica asked him about the path to economic recovery for the nation. Obama responds with the importance of job creation, getting people back to work, in order to stimulate the economy.

In part 2 of the story, we return to Riverdale, where Veronica has taken it upon herself to personally do her part to help the President in creating jobs, specifically by hiring several of her friends to work at her family’s mansion, much to her father’s dismay. Hilarity ensues as Archie attempts to mow the Lodge’s massive lawn, Jughead caters Mrs. Lodge’s charity lunch with burgers and friends from Pop Tate’s diner, and other various mishaps.

This issue is written and drawn by Dan Parent, who does an excellent job of crafting a tale that doesn’t feel like just a cheap marketing gimmick. They could’ve used a fictional person as President in this story and it still would have felt like a normal story that you’d find in an Archie comic book. Even though she’s attempting to be socially responsible, Veronica is still her usual self, on the trip to D.C. she complains about them having to rid in a school bus instead of a luxury bus, and we see she uses her position as “manager” of her friends to keep Betty away from Archie. Many of the usual Archie gang make appearances, including Chuck Clayton, Dilton Doiley, and Big Ethel, and a couple of newer characters that I’m not familiar with, Ginger Lopez and Nancy Woods (although it’s good to see they’ve added more POC to the cast). Strangely, I noticed that Reggie isn’t in this issue. Although I guess it could be inferred that he got in some kind of trouble at school and thus wasn’t allowed on the field trip. And it’s all drawn in the classic “Archie style,” which I always loved and still preferred.

A great issue all around. Chacebook rating: FIVE STARS

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