Archie Comics

Archie Comics is a US comic book company that has published numerous comic books since they were founded in 1939. Initially they were known as MLJ Comics, after the founders **M**aurice Coyne, **L**ouis Silberkleit and **J**ohn L. Goldwater, and publishing mostly superhero tales, the company introduced the character of teenager Archie Andrews in 1941. He soon became their most popular character, prompting the company's name change a few years later. Archie and his supporting cast (notably Sabrina Spellman and Josie and the Pussycats) have been adapted to cartoons, film and television on several occasions.

## Canon Material

Archie Comics maintains multiple timelines with differing versions of Archie and his cast. The most common one is the reality where Archie and his friends remain normal high school teenagers, though it contains some supernatural elements such as their friend Sabrina the Teenage Witch. However, there are also versions of Archie's universe, including one where he and his friends are superheroes (Archie's Super Teens), another where they are secret agents (The Man from R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E.), yet another where Archie's friend Jughead becomes patient zero in the zombie apocalypse (Afterlife With Archie), and yet another where Sabrina's witch heritage is much darker and more malevolent (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina). In Archie 1: Dawn of Time, Archie and his friends live alongside dinosaurs; in Archie 3000 they live in the far future; in Explorers of the Unknown Archie's gang are world-trotting adventurers; in Jughead's Time Police, Archie's best friend is a time travelling cop. These are separate realities from the one inhabited by Archie/MLJ's superheroes (variously published under the brand MLJ or Red Circle), though there have been crossovers between the characters.

## Two-Way Connections

* **DC Universe** Young versions of Archie met similarly young versions of the Teen Titans in 2010 miniseries *Tiny Titans/Little Archie and His Pals*. Batman foes Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy visited Riverdale in the crossover comic *Harley and Ivy Meet Betty and Veronica*.
* **Glee** The singing schoolkids of the TV show Glee met Archie and friends in *Archie Meets Glee*.
* **Marvel Universe** *The Punisher Meets Archie* #1 (Aug 1994), which was jointly published with Archie, involves the Punisher meeting various characters from their various series, and is confirmed as canon in the Marvel handbooks.
* **MLJ Universe** Though owned by the same company, the MLJ superheroes usually exist in a universe different from Archie's Riverdale. However, they have frequently crossed over with both the regular Archie universe, such as in *Archie's Weird Mysteries* #3, and the Super Teens version, such as in the crossover miniseries *Archie's Super Teens versus Crusaders*.
* **Predator** The miniseries Archie vs. Predator details the events when a Predator begins hunting Archie and his friends.
* **Sharknado** The miniseries *Archie vs. Sharknado* tells of Archie's hometown Riverdale being hit by a Sharknado.
* **Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles** Sent to an alternate reality by the cosmic entity Cudlick the Cow, the TMNT found themselves in Archie's Riverdale in 1991's *The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Meet Archie*.

## Connections FROM Archie

* **Cthulhu Mythos** In *Afterlife with Archie*, Sabrina's aunts and fellow witches punish her for using the Necronomicon to unwittingly off the zombie apocalypse by marrying her to Cthulhu, banishing her to another dimension to meet her horrific "husband."
* **KISS** The super hero versions of the band Kiss visited Riverdale to defend its citizens from demons accidentally summoned by Sabrina the Teenage Witch in *Archie #627-630.*
* **Sonic the Hedgehog** In *Sabrina the Teenage Witch* #28, a spell brings Sonic the Hedgehog to Riverdale.

## Connections TO Archie

* **Wildstorm** Teen superhero Grunge did some dimension hopping in Gen13 #13, and as a result met Archie and friends, amongst others.