AIN’T IT COOL NEWS reviews NEW CRUSADERS #2: “A genuine sense of excitement”

Review excerpt from Ain’t It Cool News –
The “Mighty Crusaders”—those superheroes whose exploits were chronicled alongside the teenage antics of Veronica, Jughead and the rest of the gang in ARCHIE comics, and later under the publisher’s Red Circle line—have not fared well in recent attempts to revitalize the characters for more modern audiences. First there was the !mpact imprint that DC put out in the early 1990s. This update of the Shield, the Fly and their fellow costumed cohorts actually was begun with some decent (if fairly standard) storytelling and artwork, and was initially aimed at younger comic book fans. But internal disagreements and the explosion of the grim ‘n’ gritty fare popularized by Image Comics led to an unfortunate change in direction for the line, and the imprint folded soon after. More recently DC attempted to resuscitate the Archie superheroes while at the same time integrating them into the post-FINAL CRISIS DC Universe with their own line of Red Circle comics, helmed by J. Michael Straczynski—the less said about this run, the better. But it looks as if the third time may be the charm with this new Red Circle line published (once again) by Archie, because the NEW CRUSADERS brings something to these properties that has been sorely lacking in these other attempted updates: a genuine sense of excitement.