Jughead #9 Review: Meet Grubhead And Sabrina The Teenage Burger Lady!

In all honesty, the "brand new #1" joke isn’t that off the mark: while the continuity has not been changed again, the story feels like a reintroduction of sorts. Most of the issue has Jughead interacting with the main Riverdale gang and it establishes how they see each other. Archie is Jughead’s best friend, while Betty sometimes acts as his confidante in times of trouble. Jughead will tolerate Veronica for Archie’s sake, despite some uncomfortable feelings. As for Reggie, that’s a mystery, but it most likely revolves around pranks.

I love Ryan North’s interpretation of the characters. It feels just like reading the original series, only with a slightly more contemporary tone. Betty is still a geeky crusader for justice, Archie is a wannabe Casanova, Veronica is haughty, and Reggie acts like someone out of the seedier parts of Reddit.

Inwardly, Jughead's making an eye roll that Liz Lemon would be jealous of.

Still not as creepy as his Afterlife With Archie incarnation.

Derek Charm’s art for the series has gotten even better, adding in subtle touches and gags to already well-written scenes. This turns already delightful concepts like Jughead submitting a statue of himself made out of food to a school event into a comedic tour de force.

Forget Night Vale's glow cloud, forget the Hypnotoad, this is what people should be concerning themselves with! Well, at least until dinner time.

As for the plot, it’s engaging and hilarious. As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, but Sabrina the Teenage Witch is guest-staring for the next few issues. Basically, she has a job at Pop Tate’s, dressing up as a burger and handing out coupons. She and Jughead strike up a friendship, and he accidentally ends up accepting her offer of going out for a date.

Now Jughead has to somehow retain his friendship with her while also apologizing for unintentionally leading her on. Everyone, especially Betty, mistakenly assumes that Jughead has a crush on her, but the truth is much more simple than that. He just took it for granted that someone who would put up with wearing a burger costume had a love of them that rivals his own. He just wants to wax nostalgic about food with her, not go out on dates to watch Sonic the Hedgehog movies.

I am more than satisfied with Jughead #9. I would even go so far as to say that it’s the best issue yet. I do wish that the comic had more scenes of Sabrina out of her burger uniform and doing magic, but I’m sure that we’ll get plenty of that in the next two issues. Five burgers out of five!

Jughead #9 is written by Ryan North and drawn by Derek Charm. You can pick it up at your local comic book store.

Zachary Krishef is an evil genius. Do not question his knowledge of Saturday Night Live trivia or Harry Potter books.