This Week's Sign Of The Apocalypse: Archie Comics Introduces First Openly Gay Character

NYTimes.com:

A new man is moving into Riverdale, the home of comics’ perennial teenager Archie Andrews and his gang. His name is Kevin Keller, and he’s blond-haired, blue-eyed and gay. Kevin will be introduced in Veronica No. 202, right, in a story titled, “Isn’t it Bromantic?” The inclusion of the character meets twin goals, one real world and one in-story. “Riverdale has to reflect the diversity of the world today,” said Jon Goldwater, co-chief executive of Archie Comic Publications. “We want to be all inclusive.” Mr. Goldwater also said he’s not afraid of any repercussions. “We think everyone is going to enjoy the story,” he said. “It’s completely in the tradition of your typical Archie comic.”

Dan Parent will be writing and illustrating the story of Kevin’s introduction. He said his goal was simple: “Veronica is always chasing guys and getting what she wants. Who could we introduce that she could not get?” Mr. Parent said Kevin would be more than a one-off character with future stories already mapped out. The issue will hit newsstands on Sept. 1.

First of all, this is about indoctrination. Comic book readers are mostly young kids and what better time for liberals to introduce folks to "gay is ok" then when they're young. Secondly, I confess to being a huge Archie comics fan growing up and I never felt the need for Riverdale to be more "diverse". Archie comics was about the funny adventures of a white, red-headed kid and his pals and even though I'm black, I was fine with that. I never cared about whether or not Archie had any black friends and I imagine that most kids who read Archie today weren't saying themselves: "Gee, where are Archie's gay pals at?" (in fact, the "inside" joke growing up was that Archie's best pal Jughead was probably a "closet" case). Lastly, while I have no idea how the comic book industry is doing sales-wise, I can imagine that the indoctrination of liberal agendas will have the same effect on the comic-book industry as it has on soap opera's--and that's not a good sign at all.