Paul Kupperberg on killing Archie: 'When you mess with icons, you're playing with dynamite'

From the very first time Paul Kupperberg wrote Archie Andrews, his take on the long-time comic-book character was of him as someone who’s always so eager to help that he doesn’t look before he leaps. It’s how he normally gets into trouble in many issues over the years, but it’s also how Archie met his tragic yet heroic demise last Wednesday.

In Life With Archie #36, the penultimate issue of the series imagining Archie and the gang in their adult years, Archie saves his gay friend Kevin Keller, a senator-elect who ran on an anti-gun platform, by getting in the way of an assassin’s bullet during a fundraiser. The poignant scene concludes with Archie’s loving last words and his friends in tears by his side.