Archie's 80th anniversary: The Man from R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E. vs. the Toymaker

[alicemacher]

Throughout much of the sixties, glitzy spy films and T.V. series (such as The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) were all the rage. Thus was born, in 1966, yet another alternate version of the core Archie characters: The Man from R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E. These stories, which ran through 1967, saw the teen agents of P.O.P. (Protect Our Planet) use their wits and high-tech gadgets to keep the world safe from their rival agency, C.R.U.S.H. (acronym never explained, but it's a play on The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'s THRUSH (no periods, and also never explained)).


From "Play Deadly," Life with Archie #55 (Nov. 1966). Story by Frank "Did this guy ever sleep?" Doyle. Art by Bill Vigoda and Mario Acquaviva. 4 1/2 of 14 pages.

As our story opens, the Toymaker, a C.R.U.S.H. operative, has just sicced his tiny toy robot soldiers, armed with poison-tipped bayonets, on agents A.R.C.H.I.E. and V.E.R.O.N.I.C.A. (no, the teen agents' acronymic names never get explained either) so he can steal their briefcase. As he sinks to his knees, A.R.C.H.I.E. calls J.U.G.H.E.A.D., who's just minutes away. J.U.G.H.E.A.D. uses the "sonic shock horn" on his bicycle to clear his colleagues' bodies of the Toymaker's toxin.

V.E.R.O.N.I.C.A. deduces the Toymaker must've found out about the briefcase, which contains a microfilm for Mr. Lodge, from her robot toy poodle which she'd won in a raffle, unaware it was rigged to relay P.O.P. intel to the villains. Fortunately, our heroes had attached a bug to their own briefcase, allowing them to track its signal to the Toymaker's hideout.









Moments later, the P.O.P. agents look on in horror as toy planes fly through their window and, with a barrage of tiny bullets, execute the toy poodle for its failure. ("They don't allow mistakes in that organization," V.E.R.O.N.I.C.A. says.) Then they return to the apartment building to stop the Toymaker.







Nevertheless, A.R.C.H.I.E. and V.E.R.O.N.I.C.A. take the risk, and the former, after feigning surrender and allowing the Toymaker to approach him for frisking, zaps him with a hand buzzer. This buys V.E.R.O.N.I.C.A. a few seconds to peek downstairs and take note of the Toymaker's factory there. Recovering, the villain tells them there's no point in going down there, as his toys will overpower and destroy them. So A.R.C.H.I.E. calls agent R.E.G.G.I.E.





Ronnie's bratty cousin Leroy had made occasional appearances in mainstream Archie stories since the forties. Our heroes tell the Toymaker no toy lasts long around "the most destructive kid in the world."

Comments

[ozaline]

Wow the periods in people's names gets old fast but now I'm imaginigng them being read out

"How long has it been V E R I O N I C A?"

"Less time than it took you to spell that A R C H I E... K I N S

[cricharddavies]

the teen agents of P.O.P. (Protect Our Planet) use their wits and high-tech gadgets to keep the world safe from their rival agency, C.R.U.S.H. (acronym never explained, but it's a play on The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'s THRUSH (no periods, and also never explained)).

Not canonically, but I believe one of the novels stated that it stood for "Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity." CRUSH might therefore logically stand for "Conspiracy for &c".

[agent8]

wikipidea backs that up , and the Man From UNCLE fandom page does too. It identifies the book as the 4th novel, "The Dagger Affair"

[lilacsigil]

I was always kind of amused that the military junta in Myanmar chose to name itself "S.L.O.R.C." You can't call yourself that and think that people are going to like you and want to work with you!

[thanekos]

The Toymaker looks like he's counting on the Living Laser not being litigious.

(Or maybe it's the other way around.)

[icon_uk]

That's why neither was ever a major threat back then, if they couldn't be bothered to go bespoke and just stole costumes off the rack, no one would ever take them seriously.

[icon_uk]

The THRUSH acronym was explained once, in one of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. paperbacks; "The Dagger Affair" as standing for "Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity".

The book goes on to explain it was founded in the late 1800's after the death of a criminal mastermind who had started out as a Professor of Mathematics (koff-koff-Moriarty-koff-koff), after his death at Reichenbach, by his lieutenant (koff-koff-Sebastian-Moran-koff-koff) and had existed since then.

Season 2 of the show though, introduces Madame Olga Nemirovitch, who claims SHE founded THRUSH. But deception would be par for the course.

The original plan was to name the opponent organisation WASP, but as Gerry Anderson's Stingray was being made at the same time, which featured the adventures of Troy Tempest of the World Aquanaut Security Patrol, it was changed to THRUSH. The change came AFTER the pilot had been shot, so if you watch it, you can see and hear Robert Vaughn overdub EVERYONE who uses the word WASP.

[icon_uk]

Ah, and I see someone beat me to it on the one Man from UNCLE odd fact I knew! :)

[lbd_nytetrayn]

I remember seeing these in digests growing up, and with little in the way of context or fame of reference, kinda thought they were dumb, honestly. In a really "WTF id this?" kind of way.