DeFalco revives The Man from R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E.

The Archie folks are bringing back one of their vintage titles, The Man from R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E., as a four-issue miniseries scripted by Tom DeFalco. Harking back to the time when all super-villains and spy organizations identified themselves with preposterous acronyms, the story casts Archie and the Chok’lit Shop gang as super-spies trying to defend the dangerous Formula Z from the evil minions of C.R.U.S.H.

I like DeFalco’s description of his concept:

“In bringing back The Man from R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E., my question was: if spies actually existed in the Archie world, how could they be seamlessly integrated into Archie’s continuity while still being true to his universe?” remarks Archie Comics alum and writer, Tom DeFalco. “That is my creative challenge – to create a realistic and dangerous situation for the characters to act in, kind of like mashing up 24 and The Bourne Identity with Chuck and Get Smart.”

If anyone can pull this off, it’s DeFalco, who started his comics career as an editorial assistant at Archie Comics and wrote for them for quite a while before going off to do Marvel, where he wrote The Amazing Spider-Man and various other titles.