Criminal Vol. 6: The Last of the Innocent with Kirby Evans
We’re back with another episode of Trade School! This time, we’re talking about Criminal Vol. 6: The Last of the Innocent! Our host this week is Kirby Evans!
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Edited by Case Aiken
Scored by Bret Eagleston
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⏱️ YouTube Chapters
00:00 – What is Trade School? + Episode Intro
00:08 – Kirby Evans & Why Criminal Vol. 6
00:57 – Archie Connections Explained (Who’s Who)
01:47 – Art Style Shift: 1968 vs 1982
📘 Story Breakdown
02:37 – Archie in 1982: Broken Life & Setup
03:31 – Return to Riverdale & The Big Decision
04:22 – Motive: Money, Status & Regret
05:07 – The Murder Plan Takes Shape
05:56 – The Killing & Framing Reggie
06:36 – Aftermath: Wealth, Betty & Cracks in the Plan
07:29 – Final Act (Spoiler-Light Wrap-Up)
🧠 Final Thoughts
08:23 – Why This Story Works (Brubaker & Phillips)
🎙️ Outro + Plugs
09:13 – Kirby’s Shows & Where to Find Him
09:33 – Network Promo: The Word From Tomorrow
Transcription
00:00
Welcome to Certain Point of View's Trade School, where each episode a different host talks about a comic book trade paperback that they loved and why they love it.
00:08
Hi, I'm Kirby Evans, the co host of Stop Let's Team up podcast and I'm here to talk about Criminal Volume 6, the last of the Innocent. I am reviewing this collection today because late last year I got into a big Archie reading kick. And why is this important, you might ask? Is because Criminal Volume six, the Last of the Innocent is Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips's deconstruction of our favorite kids from Riverdale through the lens of their Criminal series. And when I first read this trade maybe a decade or so ago, I immediately picked up on whom they were talking about despite not actually having read a proper Archie comic, having only read Afterlife with Archie and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, which I think really speaks to the cultural osmosis Archie and the gang have in American culture.
00:57
The characters in this book are so nakedly transparent, one to one stand ins that I will be referring to them by their names in the book itself, I. E. Riley Richards to Archie Andrews, Freak out to Jughead, the town of brookview to Riverdale, etc. Now reading this book again after my Archie kick, I actually picked up on some more second tier characters that I didn't know the first time, like Moose and Mr. Lodge. The only real tie to the rest of the Criminal series is the appearance of Teague Lawless, whom all you need to know if this is the only Criminal book you ever read, is that he is a crook of the highest order. Throughout this four issue arc, we jump back and forth between the present of 1982 and flashbacks to 1968.
01:47
Phillips shifts his style accordingly, with the present being in his usual style and the flashbacks all being in Dan decarlo riffs. But don't let the decarlo esque art fool you as things are just as dirty and crass as you might expect. A lot of the flashbacks are saying the quiet parts of Archie's stories out loud. You know, sex and drugs. And they start off with Archie having the munchies after smoking a bowl with Jughead, only to find his dad having a midnight snack they shouldn't be eating, you know. Then to Archie and Jughead finding a murder victim's corpse. Are she trying to get to second base with Betty? Mr. Lodge yelling at Veronica to break up with Archie, and once he leaves the room, Archie comes out from under her prom dress and Veronica scolds him with a Did I say Stop.
02:37
Our story Proper opens in 1982 with Archie Living in the big city, having married Veronica and set up as a VP at Mr. Lodge's company. However, he is now just an emotionless husk of a man, deep in gambling debt with the local mob and regularly hiring prostitutes. One night while trying to steal from Mr. Lodge's city apartment, he discovers that Veronica and Reggie are having a torrid affair and can only think to himself, yeah, this tracks. One day, Archie goes back to Riverdale to see his dad before he undergoes surgery. Even though he hasn't visited for a few years, he runs into Betty, who is just the pure girl next door, as she always has been. Even in the cynical world of criminal, she is just. Nope, this is how Betty would be as an adult.
03:31
Archie finds out that Jughead has been in out of rehab and is regularly going to AA meetings. Moose, who used to beat up Archie and Reggie for even glancing at Midge, has now become again for criminal, a seemly good and clean cop. Like there's nothing to say that Moose is corrupted in this series. Unfortunately, Mr. Andrews does not survive the surgery. And after the funeral, where Archie knows he needs to feel something but can't, and a tense dinner with Veronica's family, he has a restless night's sleep on his mom's couch with dreams of nostalgia and rekindled feelings for Betty, Archie wakes up and comes to the only logical conclusion. He has to kill Veronica. As the story continues and Archie begins planning the murder, we get more insight into his now pitiful life.
04:22
He thinks to himself that he dumped Betty to date Veronica because she was different and exotic. While trying to downplay that he really kind of did it for the money and the social climbing and that if they just divorced because of the prenup he signed, he'd be penniless, unable to pay back the mob and return to Riverdale a loser. His whole job is just a farce dealing with Richie Rich as a competitor and he thinks of how he should have dated Valerie from Josie and the Pussycats, but didn't because it was 1968, Riverdale and all of the racism therein, even went back in Riverdale, ostensibly to help his now widowed mother move. He's just plotting his alibi and working to rekindle things with Betty.
05:07
He lightly poisons poor Moose to get the runs so that he can sneak into the police files and get some inspiration from the probable serial killer in Riverdale in 1968. He and Jughead seemingly have a great heart to heart, but he hands Jughead a joint and peer pressures him to just take a hit. Jughead does and he falls off the wagon hard, and while establishing that he was still in Riverdale taking care of his sick friend, Archie steals Jughead's car and drives back to the city to wait out for Veronica and Reggie to arrive at their usual spot, making sure that Reggie is seen as the last person with Veronica so he can frame his former childhood rival.
05:56
Post coitus, Reggie leaves and Archie breaks into Mr. Lodge's apartment, killing Veronica with a spike to the eye, referencing not only the Riverdale murders but also an old EC comic as well as before driving back in the dead of night to Riverdale. All this so the next day Archie can play the shocked, grieving widower. Reggie is quickly arrested with a seemingly airtight case against him. Not only do the cops try to put the old Riverdale murders on him, but murders from other cities Reggie visits on business trips. However, Mr. Lodge does not really believe the story and hires Encyclopedia Brown as a private eye to trail Archie.
06:36
Following the reading of the will, Archie becomes stupidly wealthy not only to pay off the mob and get the Lodge's old beach house, but also sell his shares to Richie rich and watch Mr. Lodge squirm at the fact just because he could. Archie is seemingly happy again for the first time in over a decade as he and Betty are dating again with her none the wiser, and we get some fairly gratuitous shots of them banging in the Lodge's former shower and skinny dipping on their private beach. Jughead, despite all the drugs, isn't as oblivious and dumb as people think and puts the mystery together quite handedly while also answering the question of who the 1968 Riverdale killer really was. And murder always has its loose ends and Archie must commit more crimes to cover up his murder of Veronica.
07:29
None of which I want to spoil because there are some absolute gut punches in the last issue. This is still a criminal book after all, and all I will say is that the story ends with Archie and Betty walking down the city street in homage to Daredevil's Born Again storyline as Phillips places the DeCarlo kids in the world of criminal and all it cost was people's lives and Archie's soul. This is an incredibly taught crime thriller. Brubaker and Phillips are absolute master craftsmen in their works, and anytime the two of them put something out, I buy it the day of There are even more Archie Easter eggs than the ones I've already mentioned, and if this is the only criminal book you read, you will not be lost. If you are coming at this volume as a criminal fan, you will be satisfied.
08:23
If you are coming at this volume as an Archie fan ready for some deconstruction, you will be satisfied. If anything I have said sounds like this is some edgelord crap, please trust me that Brubaker and Phillips know exactly what they are doing and make the Last of the Innocent an absolute must read. Now, if you would like to hear more of me, you can check me out on the Stop Let's Team up podcast where Ross AKA and I talk about all things superhero team ups in teams. Our recurring shows include 4 for 4, where every episode the two of us cover from the beginning four issues of the Fantastic Four, Opal City Confidential, Ross's journey with the occasional guest host as he goes through James Robinson's Starman series and all series and characters of the Starman legacy.
09:13
And finally, there is my solo show Zoo Crew Review, where I go issue by issue of Roy Thomas and Scott Shaw's Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew and pair each episode with a classic Looney Tunes short Happy reading.
09:33
The world is getting stranger every day, and somehow Trans Metropolitan saw nearly all of it coming. From weaponized misinformation to political theater to tech that reshapes our lives faster than we can process, the series future feels uncomfortably familiar. The Word From Tomorrow is a new read along podcast digging into that uncanny prescience. Hosted by Case Aiken and Keith Lettinen, each episode welcomes a guest to explore how Warren Ellis and Derek Robertson's dystopian satire mirrors the world we're living in now. Across 10 episodes, we walk through the entire series, its politics, its media chaos, its dark humor, and the way it continues to hit with Starling clarity. Listen@ certainpov.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Certainpov.com.