Comic-book icon Archie Andrews will die saving gay friend

From ew, In April, Archie Comics publisher and co-CEO Jon Goldwater told CNN that Archie Andrews would die in issue #36 of “Life with Archie,” a comic-book series set in an alternate universe that presented possible futures for the characters of the classic Archie Comics series. Issue #36 will arrive on stands on Wednesday—and while we don’t know yet who kills Archie, we do now know how he dies.

Today, Goldwater revealed to the Associated Press that Archie would die trying to stop an assassination attempt on Archie Comics’ first openly gay character, Kevin Keller, a military veteran and newly elected senator who’s in favor of increased gun control.

“We wanted to do something that was impactful that would really resonate with the world and bring home just how important Archie is to everyone,” Goldwater told the AP. “That’s how we came up with the storyline of saving Kevin. He could have saved Betty. He could have saved Veronica. We get that, but metaphorically, by saving Kevin, a new Riverdale is born.”

Issue #36 is the penultimate issue of “Life with Archie.” The following issue, #37, will jump ahead one year to depict how Betty, Veronica and the rest of the Riverdale gang is handling Archie’s death and honoring his legacy. Goldwater said that the way in which Archie dies is meant to “epitomize not only the best of Riverdale but the best of all of us,” and that he hopes that it works as “a lesson about gun violence and a declaration of diversity in the new age of Archie Comics.”