There may be no shortage of past-their-prime bands reforming to play the nostalgia circuit, but the new Josie And The Pussycats comic – with issue two published next week – is more of a clean slate, in keeping with the rest of Archie’s recent revamp of its classic titles.
Instead of getting the band back together, writers Marguerite Bennett and Cameron DeOrdio have come up with a brand-new origin story for Josie, Melody and Valerie. While not quite a complete reinvention, it does drag the bubblegum band into a more recognisably modern world, with shoutouts for Pitchfork and craft microbrews among the well-constructed, well-delivered jokes.
Overall, it’s been a good month for Bennett, as she was also announced as the writer of a new Batwoman series scheduled to launch in January 2017. Appointing a queer writer to one of their most prominent queer characters is a canny move from DC, not least because the last time Batwoman was in the headlines it was because of a garbled editorial diktat apparently forbidding her to marry her girlfriend.
