Archie as Mad Max?

Preview art suggests something like that.

“Archie vs. The World” is a one-shot comic scheduled for release in early 2023.

“The blockbuster sci-fi special pits Archie and pals against a post-apocalyptic wasteland where only the strong survive, in a pedal-to-the-metal brawl that could only be told by writer Aubrey Sitterson (‘No One Left to Fight’) and artist Jed Dougherty (‘Savage Hearts’),” according to a statement from Archie Comics.

The creative team is no stranger to placing Archie Andrews and gang in very different situations. They created the short feature, “Jughead the Burgarian” in “The Best Archie Comic Ever” one-shot comic; the story placed Archie pal Jughead in a Conan the Barbarian setting.

Archie Comics has created a tradition in the past couple decades of pulling Archie from his traditional bubble-gum comics of a teen’s life and placing him in new and often dramatic storylines from sending him to fight in World War II to rising to rock & roll stardom as a 1950s superstar to “real-world” aging to meeting the 1960s Adam West Batman, the rock band KISS, dealing with the Punisher and facing the wrath of the Predator.

For an entire generation, the Archie in the TV teen soap opera “Riverside” is the traditional Archie Andrews.

As for the Mad Max comparisons, dig a little deeper into the Archie Comics statement, and the creators admit the similarities.

“After the fantastic reception to ‘Jughead the Burgarian,’ the brilliant Jamie Rotante was eager to get Jed and I doing a full one-shot at Archie,” Sitterson said. “It was actually her suggestion to do something that riffs on ‘Fury Road’ and, as an avowed fan of the Mad Max series, I was stoked for the challenge.”

“’Archie vs. the World’ sees Archie face off against Reggie in a brutal – and hilarious – fight for control of a secret water source, prized for its rarity in the devastated future setting,” according to Archie Comics. “The gang uses souped-up vehicles and weapons to eke out their existence, including a radically customized version of Archie’s classic broken down jalopy which will be familiar to longtime fans of the 80-year-old publisher. Each page-turn heightens the spectacle as more iconic Archie characters and concepts are introduced, including reimagined versions of Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Josie and the Pussycats.”

The one-shot comic is scheduled for release Jan. 18.