Archie becomes a superhero and Buffy celebrates 25 years for Free Comic Book Day 2022

The Best Archie Comic Ever #0 cover
The Best Archie Comic Ever #0 cover (Image credit: Archie Comics)

Following Marvel's reveal of its Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) 2022 offerings, Boom! Studios and Archie Comics have revealed theirs. 

25 Years of Buffy the Vampire Slayer FCBD Special (Image credit: BOOM! Studios)

Boom! will offer a 25 Years of Buffy the Vampire Slayer FCBD Special. Published in a high school yearbook format, writers Jordie Bellaire, Jeremy Lambert, and more along with artists Dan Mora, Marianna Ignazzi, and more celebrate 25 years of Buffy with a retrospective of what the publisher calls fan-favorite character moments from the past two decades.

The special also includes a special look at the future of Buffy the Vampire Slayer at Boom!

The venerable Archie Comics will offer The Best Archie Comic Ever #0! The brand-new five-page lead story by creators Fred Van Lente and Tim Seeley features everyman Archie Andrews transforming into a "high-flying superhero."

Jamal Igle illustrates the cover.

The Best Archie Comic Ever #0 (Image credit: Archie Comics)

Archie Comics hopes the special shows FCBD readers that Archie Andrews isn't just a boy next door and doesn't follow an average life and will lead into The Best Archie Comic Ever! #1 later in 2022. 

Archie did specify is that will be a one-shot or the start of a series.

Archie of course has been a superhero - Pureheart the Powerful - before. In a recurring feature in the Life with Archie between 1965 and 1967 and in a four-issue '90s series Archie's Super Teens Archie and his Riverdale friends become superheroes.

The FCBD special will also offer an advanced look at other one-shots coming from Archie later in 2022 as well as catch readers up with some of Archie's more recent stories in the genres of horror, romance, and more. 

Free Comic Book Day returns to the first Saturday of May, in this case, May 7, 2022. 

Diamond Comic Distributors is the coordinator of the annual event in which participating comic book specialty shops in North America and around the world give away free comic books to attract new customers to their store and new readers to the art form. 

Look for more information on Free Comic Book Day 2022 soon.

Archie's Red Circle universe is already one of Newsarama's best non-DC/Marvel superhero universes of all time but they might qualify for another consideration with Archie becoming a superhero.

I'm not just the Newsarama founder and editor-in-chief, I'm also a reader. And that reference is just a little bit older than the beginning of my Newsarama journey. I founded what would become the comic book news site in 1996, and except for a brief sojourn at Marvel Comics as its marketing and communications manager in 2003, I've been writing about new comic book titles, creative changes, and occasionally offering my perspective on important industry events and developments for the 25 years since. Despite many changes to Newsarama, my passion for the medium of comic books and the characters makes the last quarter-century (it's crazy to see that in writing) time spent doing what I love most.