Title: Sabrina the Teenage Witch: Annual Spectacular
Issue: 1
Date: 2023
Publisher: Archie Comics
Writer: James L. Rotante, George Gladir, Al Hartley, Dick Malmgren, Ian Flynn
Penciler: Holly G, Dan Decarlo, Al Hartley, Harry Lucey, Chad Thomas
Inker: Jim Amash, Rudy Lapick, Joe Sinnott, Marty Epp
Letterer: Jack Morelli, Bill Yoshida, Vincent Decarlo
Colorist: Glenn Whitmore
Cover: Jay Kennedy
Editor: Jamie Lee Rotante, Vincent Lovallo, Stephen Oswald
Two new stories and three classic reprints.
The main feature has Sabrina battling the Wicked Trinity of Amber Nightstone and her two new henchgirls Jade and Sapphire. They've kidnapped Sabrina's aunts as well as Salem and Enchantra. Sabrina is determined to rescue the captives (using the term "captives" a little loosely here as the Unholy Trinity have done a pretty inept job of securing their supposed prisoners). Sabrina ends up in Riverdale and gets a bit of reluctant help from Josie of the Pussycats.
From there we get a Sabrina origin story from 1962 that does into fairly interesting detail about Sabrinas powers and weaknesses. A story from the 1970s brings some definite Saturday morning cartoon vibes as Sabrina explores a haunted house with Archie and Jughead. The last reprint, also from the early 70s, involves Sabrina trying to teach Reggie a lesson in humility by enhancing rival Archie's basketball skill. Unfortunately, Archie as the star player proves to have an ego just as insufferable as Reggie's.
The book ends with a solo story featuring Salem when he was a human boy, and it's another haunted house adventure that brings the same Saturday-morning-cartoon-spooky vibe as the haunted house reprint.
I enjoyed the look at Sabrina's origins here, and the character profiles at the end of the book provide some interesting depth to Jade and Sapphire, who seem poised to be important recurring characters. The rest of this was the usual harmless fun that we expect from the Archie titles.
Rating: 6.5/10
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