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Reginald "Reggie" Mantle III (1941- ) is a fictional character in the Archie Comics book. His full name is given as Reginald Mantle, but he is usually called by his nickname Reggie, and sometimes referred to himself as "Mantle, The Magnificent."
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History and character
Reggie is a very talented athlete who excels at American football, baseball and basketball.
Reggie is vain and thinks of himself as God's greatest gift to women (this may be the reason why Veronica likes Archie more than him), but behind all that vanity lies a warm-hearted teenager. This is shown by his constant friendship with Betty who always seems bring out the best in him. Reggie is also a bassist for The Archies and occassionaly lead guitarist after Archie, and naturally thinks of himself as the most important and talented member of the group -- and has gone to great lengths to prove it, such as hiring groupies to scream his name during concerts.
In spite of his evident upper-middle class status, he's remarkably cheap, and the first time his schoolmates remember him inviting them to a party, he had filled the room with vending machines from which to obtain the party food. One time, his father tried to teach him a lesson about money because he kept asking for allowance. His father told him an ultimatum to his son, that he needs to get a job. Embarrassed to get a job and to preserve his self-image as the richest and coolest guy in Riverdale, Reggie decided to get a job in next town far away from Riverdale as a camera store clerk. Alas, his friends found out anyway. A rare opportunity to see him working made half of Riverdale High students showed up in the small store and buying things from the store, with Reggie had no choice but to be polite and serviced the customers. His friends were taking pictures of him selling and servicing the customers.
Relationships
Reggie is Archie Andrews's rival, and he has a perennial crush on Veronica. The fact that Veronica loves only Archie makes Reggie jealous, so he enjoys making Archie's life miserable by playing practical jokes on him. Yet many of his schemes against Archie tend to backfire and allow Archie to be the victor. Veronica also tends to use him primarily to make Archie jealous. Despite the rivalry, he and Archie generally respect each other and remain good friends. Like the rest of the characters, he is eternally in Riverdale High School.
He is also interested in another girl, Midge Klump, who is the girlfriend of another member of Archie's gang, Moose Mason. This infuriates Moose and Reggie has received some unkind, almost brutal to say the least, treatment from Moose at times. But Reggie never gives up on his attempts to date Midge, often thinking of ways to get past Moose by taking advantage of the latter's low intelligence or any other weaknesses. Sometimes, Reggie targets Jughead Jones instead, thinking that he is too lazy or stupid to do anything about it, and receives some payback when Jughead proves that he is smarter than he looks.
Though he is mainly attracted to Veronica and Midge, he occasionally seeks to date other women, including Betty Cooper. Their relationship usually consist a playful banter between them. Whenever Betty is down because Archie forgets that he had a date with her, Reggie always steps up the plate and offers her to be her date, not because he pitied her, but because he genuinely likes her.
Trivia
- In the Spanish versions of the comic book, Reggie's name is Carlos.
- The most common accessory associated with him is the mirror. A lot of jokes in the comics are on how he loves himself more than any other girl.
- Reggie is the only male in the Archie Comics history to have distinctly different hairstyles, including hippie sideburns, slicked back '50s do, even a ponytail in the early '90s
External link
"Reggie Mantle"