Sonic the Hedgehog # 162 [July 2006]

Finally, I'm back with another review and a slightly different format.

Cover
by Spaz.

I really enjoy the return of the three-part covers, or as they're calling them now, "triptych covers." This cover features Sonic running in the foreground, with a picture of a shocked Sally and Tails in the bottom-left corner. The background includes a picture of Amy Rose (who doesn't appear in this issue, even in crowd scenes), a picture of the Ancient Walkers (one of whom is holding a Mercedes-Benz logo, of all things), and an intimidating picture of Mammoth Mogul. The cover promises a lot. Let's see if the issue delivers.

The Darkest Storm
Part One: The Gathering Tempest
Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: James Fry
Inks: Jim Amash
Colors: Jason Jensen
Letters: John Workman
Editor: Mike Pellerito
Managing Editor: Victor Gorelick
Editor-In-Chief: Richard Goldwater

Sega Reps: Robert Leffler and Dyna Lopez

Summary
We open with a caption-box monologue, presumably being delivered by the silhouetted figure surrounded by green glow in the page's center. Whoever's speaking, this person gloats about his/her/its knowledge of Sonic and all his greatest foes: Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik, Ixis Naugus, and Mammoth Mogul, each one illustrated by a scene of Sonic and Tails confronting the respective nemesis (with Robotnik Prime or, as Ian likes to call him, "Classic Robotnik" filling the Eggman quota). The speaker claims to be the one who's going to destroy Sonic and his foes. He/she/it identifies himself/herself/itself as... "Anonymous."

Before I continue, a history lesson for those of you who weren't reading the comic last time we saw that name (or rather, non-name) in issue #135 some two years ago. Anonymous was responsible for the imprisonment of Tommy Turtle, the creation of a robot "Infiltrator" designed to imitate Tommy and destroy the Freedom Fighters from within, and finally the Roboticization and apparent replication of the Fearsome Foursome (plus Sleuth Dogg and Drago). After the havoc in issue #135, Anonymous was never mentioned in the book again, although fans have consistently associated him with every mystery in the continuity since (such as Ivan Kintobor, Doctor Finetivus, and the Metal Sonic Troopers).

Back to the story, we see Sonic and Sir Charles standing in King Elias's castle. Elias wants to reinstate Sonic's knighthood. An editorial footnote reminds us of the issue where Sonic was knighted as well as the issue where it was revoked. This is the first of many such footnotes in this story, referencing issues as recent as #152 and as not-so-recent as #78. There are even un-cited references to issues so old they predate my readership. Wow. Anyway, Sonic seems reluctant to have the title cramping his style, although Sir Charles reminds him it's a great honor. Elias tells Sonic that this new interest in Sonic's knighthood is not without reason: Elias is looking to rebuild the royal court and the Knights of Acorn, who haven't really existed since Robotnik's coup some twelve years ago. He's starting with people like Sir Charles, who were originally his father's close advisors.

Speaking of segways, we're about to meet a couple more of the old guard. While Tails tinkers with a Sega Genesis in his lab, he receives a surprise visit from his uncle Merlin Prower, accompanied by some anthropomorphic horse. Tails and Merlin have never met, and Merlin's the first blood relative that Tails has seen since infancy, so it's obviously an emotional moment. But there's no time for reunions because there's a more pressing matter: The Ancient Walkers are dying. Merlin's naturally upset about this, and he's just now doing somethying about it (despite having known about their illness for over a year). Merlin thinks that King Elias can help save them and, in doing so, keep Mammoth Mogul safely trapped in his Chaos Emerald, which he happens to have on hand. And just fifteen issues ago we were told he was trapped forever, no-matter-what. So much for that.

Meanwhile, Dr. Robotnik (or as Ian is getting into the habit of calling him, Dr. Eggman) is tying up some more of the continuity's loose ends. He, Mecha and A.D.A.M. are admiring the "Egg Grapes," introduced in issue #141 with absolutely no explanation and absolutely no follow-up. Now we learn what they're for, at least. Robotnik is basically sticking Mobians into the Egg Grapes and zombifying them, leaving their empty shells as a buffer through which he can mine pure energy out of the Zone of Silence. The Zone of Silence was last seen in... Oh, I give up. If you don't know these things already then you have no hope of understanding this story. Just enjoy the pretty pictures (there's a fight scene in three pages!) Mecha points out that there are probably better ways to mine the Zone of Silence, but Robotnik says this way is simply more fun.

Robotnik asks A.D.A.M. whether he has yet figured out the true identity of Anonymous and A.D.A.M. says that he hasn't. Robotnik complains that Anony has been a thorn in his side, stealing his roboticization and causing his Nanites to spread (actually, it was A.D.A.M. who did the nanite bit, but perhaps Robotnik doesn't know that). The reason this sudden interest in Anonymous strains the story's credibility is that it implies Anonymous has been a consistent bother to Robotnik, which is hard to believe because he hasn't been seen or mentioned in the past two years. Ian gives us the impression that Robotnik (or A.D.A.M.) has been tirelessly working to find out Anony's identity, but that doesn't exactly match what we've been reading. Anyway, as Robotnik says he doesn't need anything getting in his way, we see the children of Uma Arachnis overhead. Hmm. I wonder if they're there to help.

Meanwhile, in... somewhere... some kind of vaguely spiritual but politically correct realm of orangey-yellow... we see the dying Ancient Walkers conversing with Athair and Aurora. Ian's apparently implying that Athair and Aurora are peers, which seems a retcon, but whatever, just roll with it. The Ancient Walkers are near death and the only thing they can do at this point is make out their will. They're giving their job (whatever that is) to Athair, Aurora, and Merlin.

Speaking of Merlin, he, Tails, and the horse, who introduces himself as Sir Connery, are en route to Castle Acorn. Apparently, Connery is a minor character from back in the day who I don't remember at all. Perhaps he was before my time (I started reading during Endgame). After completing some kind of mission for the Ancient Walkers, he was assigned to protect Merlin. As if on cue, the three are suddenly attacked by the "Destructix." The Destructix is a team of minor villains consisting of the Fearsome Foursome (that'd be Sergeant Simian, Flying Frog, Lightning Lynx, and Predator Hawk) plus Drago the Wolf and Sleuth Dogg. Like Anonymous, these six D-list villains haven't been around since issue #135, when they were shown to be in league with old Anony. I'm wondering why Ian had to bring them back. After all, it really doesn't seem like a lot of people actually missed them.

A fight ensues, in which the Destructix are introduced by calling each other by name. It's a well-tried old trick, but Ian flubs a bit, introducing Predator Hawk twice and skipping Lightning Lynx as well as Drago the Wolf. Anyhow, the Destructix is winning the fight until Sonic, Knuckles, Fiona, Bunnie, and Antoine show up. Sonic trades insults with Simian, and then the FFs make quick work of the Destructix. "New team name," Sonic comments, "same old lameness." Sonic and the FFs escort Merlin to the castle while Knuckles volunteers the Chaotix for cleanup duty.

At the castle, we are treated to a lot more exposition. Sir Connery gives us some stuff about his sword, the "Sword of Light," as though we needed another magic sword, and Merlin begins to explain the back story of Mammoth Mogul and the Chaos Emerald. Back when Mogul first discovered the Emerald and used its power, the Ancient Walkers placed a curse on the emerald. Essentially, the curse gave Mogul chronic bad luck, and it would eventually end with Mogul getting trapped in the Emerald. However, Mogul wounded the Ancient Walkers during the Sonic Adventure arc (which ran in 1999) and is responsible for their current condition. If they die, the curse is broken and Mogul will easily break out of the Emerald. The only thing that can save the Walkers and keep Mogul trapped would be the Crown and Sword of Acorns. Elias doesn't understand. Enter Sally with more exposition.

The Sword and Crown were made out of a mystical substance known as the "Source of All." Remember that talking puddle of goo? If not, read on. The Source of All is just what it sounds like: the material out of which all other stuff in the universe is made. The only known sample of the Source in its pure form was a talking jacuzzi in the original Castle Acorn. It was the power of this goo that gave the Acorn Dynasty its divine right to rule. However, the original Castle Acorn and the rest of Mobo/Robotropolis are now nuke fodder, meaning the Source was almost certainly evaporated. That leaves the Crown and Sword as the only remaining samples. Elias has the crown, and the Sword is in the hands of the Children of Uma Arachnis (Sally entrusted it to them after it tried to take over her life). Elias gives the crown to Merlin, and Sonic resolves to help Merlin get back the sword (as though this comic hasn't had enough "Recover the Sword of Acorn" plotlines).

Speaking of the sword and the Arachnis Orphans, They're currently above the Egg Grape chamber, looking in through the skylight. They break in and suddenly, the Egg Grapes power up. Robotnik panics and tries to get to safety. Mecha and Robotnik leave the Egg Grape chamber and put it on lockdown. Inside the chamber, the sword begins to glow, while Anonymous gloats via a caption block that his plan is going perfectly.

Meanwhile, in the spirit world place thing, the dimensional breach caused by the activation of the Egg Grapes has completely destroyed the Ancient Walkers. At that moment in Knothole, an optimistic Merlin is interrupted by the fact that Mogul's Chaos Emerald has now released him. "Phase One-- Complete," Anonymous gloats. To be continued!

Thoughts
This is the first story I've reviewed by Ian "Potto" Flynn, darling of the fans and the writer who has been hailed as the savior of the Archie Comics contiuity. In his previous outing, "Birthday Bash," which I didn't review, Ian has managed to generally please fans by introducing two long-asked-for characters, Bean and Bark, as B-list villains, as well as injecting a bit of personality into Fiona Fox, making Evil Sonic into the way-cooler Scourge, and poking fun at the comic's lame badniks with Croctobot. That was a good story.

Is this? Well, no. It's not. Because it doens't really function as a "story" at all. It's a narrative, but it's so... utilitarian. It isn't enjoyable in and of itself, only in the fact that it promises to remove and reorganize various loose ends that have been left dangling for months or years. The ideas are essentially good, but the execution is a bit messy and it seems like Ian's doing too much to make a good story.

The comic continuity is full of annoying questions that demand answering. Some of these are: Is Mogul really out of the picture? Is Naugus? What's with the Egg Grape chamber? Who is Anonymous? Why are the Ancient Walkers dying? What became of Drago, Sleuth, and the Fearsome Foursome? What happened to the Source of All when Robotropolis was nuked?

All of these questions have to do with entirely seperate elements of the Sonic universe, but they're all being crammed into this one story. Yes, this does allow us to think of the continuity as a more cohesive, whole unit, and yes, it promises to either take these issues off the table or consolidate them so they may be dealt with more easily. But the story is so full of exposition and explanation that it fails to let the reader connect with the characters on an emotional level.

We don't feel Tails's reaction to meeting his uncle. We don't feel Robotnik's frustration with his inability to discover the identity of Anonymous. We don't feel the despair that Aurora and Athair feel when the Walkers are destroyed. We don't feel fear for the aging Merlin when he's attacked, nor do we thrill at Sonic's rescue. This is all because each of these things is weighed down by editorial citations, explanations, retcons, or character reintroductions. And that's not a good thing. If characters are going to die in this arc (and Ian has told us that the Walkers aren't the only ones who'll be biting the big one), then Ian needs to make us connect with the story and he's simply not doing it.

Luckily, he has Fry helping. All of the emotions listed above (and more) are given masterful visual treatments. For instance, while most of the afterlife scenes look bland, the final panel in which Athair and Aurora see the Walkers' demise really does communicate the despair. But even this isn't enough to invoke sympathy in the reader, who probably doesn't care that the Walkers are gone. Most of the book's target audicence probably won't have heard of the Ancient Walkers, because they haven't been mentioned in a long time and seen in even longer. Those who are familiar with them are probably glad to see that they're gone, because they serve no real purpose and their death has been pending for what seems like forever.

Luckily, Ian's doing some things right in this story. He's making it that much easier to root for the good guys by providing them with a king you can actually like. Whereas Max was a stubborn, bullying monarch, partially colored by Ken Penders's bitterness toward conservativism in general, we see the new King Elias as a more fair-minded, gentler type of conservative leader, kind to his people and mindful of tradition. All in all, a moderate leader that the audience can root for. Personally, I'm hoping that Max does not return to the throne for a while if ever.

Likewise, Ian is making Robotnik once again truly evil. The number one thing that made Robotnik Prime so revolting was the absolutely disturbing practice of roboticization: taking a flesh-and-blood Mobian and turning him or her into a mindless robotic drone, violating both the flesh and the mind. The worst of it was that Robotnik didn't actually need the Roboticized Mobians, because he had SWATbots to do the dirty work. It merely pleased him to be so cruel to the Mobians. This Robotnik is no different in that respect, as we see with the Egg Grapes. He's essentially doing the same thing: turning them into his mindless zombies simply because it thrills him. It makes me shudder. This is not the same as the Eggman we see in the Sonic X book.

And then there's Sonic's personal life. Ian inherited a continuity where Sonic and Sally were totally over, and Sonic was with Fiona, driving a rift between him and his best friend Tails. Ian could probably do a quick-and-dirty return to the status quo via another romantically themed two-part arc (see "Hearts Held Hostage" and "Songoose" and "Line of Succession") but Ian's smart enough to see that the fans aren't gonna buy that. So Ian's playing it out subtly in the background. There were a couple moments in "Birthday Bash" and a couple in this story (mainly, Sonic and Fiona holding hands to Tails's chagrin). Plus, by giving Fiona's character a little bit more... well, character, Ian is actually making the pairing start to grow on me (although I still don't think it makes sense for him to have gotten with Fiona so soon after breaking up with Sally, but I digress).

The issue suffers from just one other major problem: lettering. I don't want to have to struggle just to make out what the characters are saying.

Anyway, the final verdict? Ian's story keeps the reader guessing what's going to happen next, but I was perosnally less concerned with what Sonic, Robotnik, and Anonymous are doing and more concerned with with Ian is doing to the continuity. But if things go well, this will be the story that kicks off a renaissance in the book, so... I'll give it an 7.5.
Overall Score: 7.5/10

"Ties That Bind"
Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Tracey Yardley
Inks: Jim Amash
Colors: Jason Jenson
Letters: Teresa Davidson

Summary
The caption box introduces the characters (which is necessary, for neither gets much screen time): Snively and Hope Kintobor. The former is Robotnik's ex-sidekick, and the latter is an overlander refugee. Both are Robotnik's relatives, and both find refuge in Knothole.

But we see through a thought bubble that Snively, unlike Hope, doesn't feel at home. As he, like Tails, tinkers with a Sega Genesis, he muses that in the past he had always been opposed to the Freedom Fighters (whcih is technically not true, but true enough for the purposes of this story). As he thinks about how out of place he is, and how well Hope has adjusted to Knothole, we sudenly see all the monitors in Snively's lab turn off.

This signals Robotnik's teleportation into Snively's lab, complete with a job offer. He essentially tells Snively that Knothole's going down, so it's best for everyone if Snively comes back to his uncle's side. Snively asks for a moment to set his affairs in order. Robotnik agrees.

Snively rushes off to the Knothole hangar-type-place where Hope is tinkering with an airplane as a school project. Snively trys to think of an indirect way to tell her that Knothole's gonna be history, leave while you still can. The plane lets him segway into the idea of travel. Snively tries to convince her that she should consider moving to Overlander territory, or at least visiting. Hope seems to like the idea, and asks Snively to come with. Snively makes a non-comittal "maybe" and runs off to join Robotnik after a hug with Hope.

"And so," we see Snivelly standing on a an airship in the Egg Fleet, complete with a new costume and a name change: "Snively Robotnik." He's thankful for the help the Freedom Fighters gave him, but he says that it'll be their downfall. Finally, he privately hopes that Hope will escape.

It must be noted for continuity purpose that this story actually takes place after "The Darkest Storm," and therefore it will not occur for another two issues. So we're getting a vision of the future. It's like Mobius: 25 Years Later! Only not.

Thoughts
The first thing that simply must be said is that I love the character of Snively, but that it must be very difficult for the writers to handle him in a convincing way. Here in this story, Ian does just that.

The main story is so concerned with affecting the continuity that the reader can't connect with the characters. This story only does one thing to the continuity: it restores Snively to his status-quo position as Robotnik's lackey, somehting that isn't too hard to do. Because of this, the story is allowed to focus on the relationship between Snively and Hope, somehting that seems obvious but has never even been mentioned in the book.

Ian tries to convince us that Snively and Hope have been chatting off-panel since Ian arrived in Knothole. This isn't exactly a surprise, but what surprises us is that Snively seems to actually care about his half-sister. That's tough for Ian to do, but he makes it believable by showing us that Snively is relationally awkward and doesn't know how to protect Hope.

Slightly less creidble is that Hope accepts his offer, if that's what actually happened. Perhaps she was merely telling Snively what she knew he wanted to hear, because she didn't want to disappoint him. Or perhaps she only intends to visit the Overlanders. But seeing Hope accept the idea of returning to the Overlanders so easily isn't exactly right.

The other issue is Snively's relationships with Robotnik, but that's mostly old news and Ian is merely following up on the well-established principle that Robotnik and Snively still don't trust each other but work together anyway. Now all he needs to do is explain the fact that Robotnik is able to teleport to Knothole at will, which leads us to wonder why he's never done it before. But despite all of that, the relationships with Robotnik and to a greater extent Hope allow us to connect with Snively in a way that we couldn't connect with any of the heroes in the main story.

The final issue in this story is the art. Since the shift away from the SatAM art style, the comic has always had difficulty depicting Snively in a convincing way. However, Yardley manages to give us a Snively that looks just as Snively should, and he looks great in his new Eggman-like costume. Hope is cute, Eggman is menacing, and Yardley has proven his mastery over our primary human characters. The only problem with the art is the final panel. Snively is thinking two things: "Such Weakness will not be tolerated in Dr. Eggman's empire," followed by "Run, Hope... run." These are two completely different emotions, and Yardley chooses the first one, conveyed with an evil grin. Not only is this a mismatch with the final sentence, but as Dan Drazen says in his own review, it "subverts the emotional subtext of the story." This is a serious blow on the story as a whole.

This story seems to apologize for the issue's main story, and it does this quite well despite some flaws. Yardley's art is very pretty but the final panel is a big let-down. If the final panel were fixed, this story would be a 9. I'm giving it an 8.
Overall Score: 8/10

Sonic X #3 [Jan 2006]

Cover
By Spaz.

Probably the best cover yet, becuase of its exciting design. I love the shadowy, red-eyed Eggman in the Background. Sonic looks determined, Rouge looks smug, and Cream has a look of surprised astonishment that she only appears in one panel this issue.

"Field Trip of Doom!"
Written by: Joe Edkin
Pencilled by: Tim Smith 3
Inked by: Jim Amash, Bob Smith 1, and Aimee Ray
Lettered by: Tom Orzechowski
Colored by: Ben Hunzeker and Josh Ray
Editor: Mike Pellerito
Managing Editor: Victor Gorelick
Editor-In-Chief: Richard Goldwater
Sega Reps: Robert Leffler and Dyna Lopez.

Summary
Sonic, running from a couple of killer whales, tells us that he hates the beach, despite the smile on his face. Apparently, he's on some kind of mission to rescue Cream's pet Chao, Cheese, who has been kidnapped by Eggman. Along the way, he trashes badniks, even commenting that the whole thing is reminiscent of the "Green Hill days." The entire scene is alos reminiscent of the first level of Sonic Adventure, but as Eggman tells Decoe and Bocoe in private, it's a mere distraction from his real plan.

At that moment, in Sam Speed's garage, he recieves a parcel from Eggman's messenger, Bokkun. Obviously, he does not know who Bokkun is, so he accepts it. It's a new fuel injector to speed up his car and help him beat Sonic. Bokkun delivers more such gifts: a new chair for the president, a new computer for Topaz, and a humongous fruit basket for Mr. Stewart, whose name is mispelled as "Stuart." Oh well.

As Sonic rescues Cheese, Eggman's text boxes reveal to the reader that his newest robots will be powered not by Komodo Dragons, like the bots of the previous issue, but by human beings--Sonic's own friends. Humans are more vicious in battle than any other animal, Eggman insists. And all the pieces of his plan are ready: the gifts, some new robots, and a certian field trip, details on that in a moment.

When Chris arrives home from school, Sonic is pondering that his rescue of Cheese was far too easy. However, Chris interrupts with news: his class is going on a field trip to the Space Museum on Monday. Tails wants to go, despite the fact that he's not in Chris's class (or any kind of schooling for that matter), but that isn't going to stop him from happening to bump into the class there.

Monday arrives and it's time for the field trip. Stewart grabs his lunch, a fruit from the basket he received. While he contemplates the identity of the man who invited them to the field trip, a "Dr. Oeuf-Homme," we zoom in on the fruit bowl and see ie bears a familiar Eggman logo. By the way, "Oeuf-Homme" is French, and it means "Egg-Man." Isn't the Internet great?

In any case, Sonic, Tails and Amy are waiting on the steps of the Space Museum waiting for Chris, while Amy thinks to herself about her unrequited love for Sonic (this will be dealt with below). Chris's class arrives and everyone heads inside. It's a pity nobody looked over their shoulder to see that Eggman was right behind them.

While Stewart gapes at the out-of-control elementary schoolers, Eggman begins his "Machiavellian Machinations." With a crash, three mean-looking, blandly-colored robots break through a wall. The heroes spring into action: Amy with her Piko-Piko hammer, Tails with a cordless drill, and Sonic with a Star-Trek reference (it seems Edkin's taking a leaf out of Ken Penders's book). Amy smashes the robot with a hammer and Tails goes to work on another one with his drill, two acts that are imitatible acts for any kid whose dad has a tool set, but nontheless quite ineffective. Unsurprisingly, Sonic's punch to the third robot's metal casing is similarly useless.

Just to take a brief break form the summary, I'm going to relate something my sister once told me. She claimed that any trio of friends on a children's program will almost always include a main character, a best friend who is the same gender but a different race, and another firend who is the opposite gender but the same race. This is true of Danny Phantom, Lizzie McGuire, Kim Possible, Doug, Hey Arnold (kind of), and even Pokémon (although Brock's ethnicity is debatable). Well, the same is true of Sonic, Tails and Amy.

What's the point of this little discourse, you ask? How is it relevant? Actually it's really not, except to provide a segway, because Sam Speed and his cronies, Dawn and Paul fit the same formula. I know, kind of pointless, but it's what popped into my mind, and if I want to interrupt the summary with it, then I shall. In any case, Sam receives news of the situation at the museum. Against Dawn and Paul's urging, Sam rushes away in his car, equipped with the new and untested fuel injector. After all, his nephew's life is at stake.

At that moment, Chris is cowering under some kind of space pod while Amy confronts a robot who is buzz-sawing the floor. "Bad robot," she says, "I do not yield the floor to you." As far as puns go, that's not bad, but it doens't help much because the cracking floor opens. Amy, Chris, the robot and the space pod fall through to the floor below. Tails, who is losing the fight against one of the robots, tosses a ring to Sonic, who then blows a doughnut hole in the robot that Tails was fighting. That's one down.

While Tails goes down the hole in the floor to assist Chris and Amty, Sonic sees that one of the robots has accosted Danny and Francine. Apparently, this robot can transform, because it becomes a vehicle of some type, with the poorly-drawn children trapped inside. The vechicle leaves the museum, creating another hole in the wall (that's two in the wall and one in the floor, for those keeping count). Sonic rushes after them, but at that moment Sam Speed arrives and also gives chase.

Oh, by the way, Cris's friends Danny and Francis also fit that formula mentioned four paragraphs ago.

Well, the chase apparently goes on unitl they reach the outskirts of Station Square, where our heroes find themselves in a cliche setting: a curving road on a cliff. Sam's fuel injector does indeed make him slightly faster than Sonic, but it also speeds him up so mcuh that he can't take the curve of the road and he goes off the cliff into the ocean. Luckily, he hads a parachute, so Sonic doens't worry too much about him and goes after the two kids instead.

Then Eggman pushes another button. Sam (who landed safely in the water) is suddenly wrapped in a metallic cable coming form his car (the result of the fuel injector, obviously). The president finds himself in a similar situation, subbing his new chair for the car. Stewart's cables are apparently coming from the fruit he took from the basket (good thing for Eggman he chose that particular fruit out of the dozens in the basket) and Topaz is attacked similarly by her new computer. Lastly, Chris captured by the space pod (remember that thing?) as Amy and Tails battle the robot, oblivious to the problem.

Meanwhile, Sonic uses the ring Tails threw him earlier (which apparently has some "juice" left in it, to use a SatAM-ish term) and he catches up with the car-ish robot, attacking it and dragging the kids to safety.

As Chris is dragged into the space pod, Tails and Amy finish off the final robot. Or so they thought. They turn around, and a very big, well-armed robot is targeting them. Perfect time to cut away to Sonic, outside the museum trying to see if everyone's okay. But Chris and Stewart (spelled right this time) are still inside. As Sonic goes in, Tails and Amy are running out-- away from the big robot. the robot targets Sonic, who gets ready to trash the bot. Little does he know that Chris is inside the "Lunarbot," apaprently powering it. As Eggman says, this plan can't fail. To be continued.

Mac Who?
This issue marks the second time in that many months that Joe Edkin has used the adjective "Machiavellian" to describe Eggman. I seriously doubt that most of the kids in the target audience know much about Niccolò Machiavelli. And no, I'm not going to explain either. Who do you think this is, Dan Drazen or something?

The Rose Knows
I think there's a slight error in Amy's characterization with regards to her love for Sonic. In this story, she seems to think that Sonic doesn't share her romantic feelings. Now, whether or not he does is a topic of debate among fans, but I won't get into that. But what's clear in both the Sega games and the Sonic X anime is that Amy honestly believes that Sonic loves her back. She even refers to herself as his official girlfriend.

Those Green Hill Days
Like issue 1, this issue features references to the video games. In fact, it makes an effort to point out that not only did the Sonic Adventure games occur in this continuity, but there's the earlier games that happened too, something that was merely hinted at in the anime. It's good to see that happening, and apparently it's going to pop up more in the future, if Joe's posts at the Mobius Forum are any indication.

Seriously, Where's my Bagel?
On the Cream/Cheese front, we still get very little of the duo in this series. Now, recall that even when this was only to be a four-issue series, Mike indicated that we'd be getitng our Cream fix in Sonic X. But the third issue has come and gone and despite being featured on the cover, Cream is practically non-present in the series. Granted, Cheese did perfom a role in the opening of this story, and the story in issues 5-6 will feature Chao heavily, so we can expect to see Cream there, but you have to wonder why we were promised Cream back when the miniseries was announced even though she really hasn't been featured a lot.

Smith, Smith, Smith
As I said in the last review, Smith has declined significantly. Over a period of three months, his art quality has gone form a tentative thumbs up to a definite thumbs down. Quite simply, a lot of the stuff is lazily drawn. I still think there's talent, but no effort.

Unfinished Business
All in all, this issue was just a little bit boring. Maybe that's because it's just the setup for a conclusion that will occur next issue, so it deserves a little slack for that reason. It seems like the entire purpose was to set up the pieces to be played with next isue.

Overall score: 7.5/10
A fairly good first act, but it's getitng to the point where the art quality is crippling my ability to take it seriosuly. Some pretty original concepts are introduced, but it's somewhat reminiscent of "roboticization" form SatAM and Archie-StH.

Sonic X #2 [Dec 2005]

I know. I'm several issues behind on the Sonic X comic. So, let's get this show on the road.

Cover
By Spaz.

Like the previous cover, this looks like it might be a piece of promo art for the Sonic X anime. In other words, everything's pretty much exactly on-model, even more so than the show itself often accomplishes. If only the interior was this good... Anyway, it shows Sonic, Tails and Amy in midair, with some buildings and a lovely sunset in the background.

"See Sonic! Sea Battle! See Sonic Sea Battle!"
Writer: Joe Edkin
Pencils: Tim Smith III
Inks: Rich Koslowski
Colors: Ben Hunzeker
Letters: Jeff Powell
Editor: Mike Pellerito
Managing Editor: Victor Gorelick
Editor-In-Chief: Richard Goldwater
Sega Reps: Robert Leffler and Dyna Lopez.

Summary
In the background: a large ship. In the midground: Chuck, Chris, Tails, and two extras in a dinghy. And in the foreground Sonic diving into the sea. No, this isn't the end of the world. The opening narration promises that all will be explained.

Flashing back to where issue 1 left off, the President inform Sonic about this special mission. An old pirate ship, the MacGuffin, once piloted by the famous captain "Red Eyes" MacGuffin has been found, and readings indicate a Chaos Emerald may be on board. Sonic needs to go down there and check it out, accompanied by Rouge, Topaz and Chuck. Obviously, Rouge wants the emerald for herself.

Chris then points out that this sounds very similar to the day trip to the Sapphire Sea in episode 16 of the anime. Like, exactly the same. Mr. President says that that's the mysterious thing, and they need to get to the bottom of it. Well, the fans have gotten to the bottom of it, and more on that later.

Cut back to the present, while Sonic, Rouge and Topaz dive beneath the waves as Chuck handles things topside. Knuckles observes from afar on Angel Island. He realizes that the only thing that would get Sonic underwater is a Chaos Emerald.

Meanwhile, at Eggman's "rebuilt" beach base (again, see below), Eggman reveals to Decoe and Bocoe that there's no Chaos Emerald, it's just the rings he stole. And he's using them as bait for his trap: robots powered not by small animals but by big, scary Komodo Dragons. Because the rings don't work on organic beings except Sonic, Eggman has taken some big animals and a big battery (the rings) to create two huge Dragonbots.

While in the wreckage of the MacGuffin, Sonic and company are attacked by a shark, but the unwanted company is repelled with the unnoticed help of some ghostly red-eyed figure. As they continue searching, however, Eggman sends in his Dragonbots which cause a huge splash on the surface, endangering Chuck, Chris and Tails. However, Knuckles saw Eggman on his way and rescues the tech support guys without much trouble.

Sonic, Topaz, and Rouge meet the Dragonbots. They fight back with all their might, but nothing is effective against them. Even when Knuckles shows up, his punches are relatively ineffective. However, the ghost stealthily removes the rings from one Dragonbot. This incapacitates bot number one. Then, Sonic spots the rings and uses them to help take care of number two.

Later, on the surface, everyone realizes that they were duped. Sonic thinks he may have had help, which the ghost of Red-Eye MacGuffin confirms. Then, we cut to Eggman, who is already planning his next attack. Although the Komodo Dragons failed, the next animals he has in mind are far more vicious. To be continued.

Deja Vu
If this issue seemd familiar to you, it's probably for the same reason it seemed that way to Chris. It is very similar to episode 16. But check out this quote, from a topic at the Mobius Forum:

"Issue 2 underwent many revamps because the original plot I'd submitted was almost a complete retread of Episode 16--except I had never seen episode 16! Since the plot had been approved and it was too late to go back and get a new plot approved, I had to do a lot of fast changes when writing the script in order to make it sufficiently different from the TV show (hence acknowledging the original adventure and the addition of the ghost, etc.)." - Joe Edkin

The fact that this story suffers from such a deja vu certainly damages it, but Joe's frank explanation about the whole matter almost makes up for this.

Beach Base Bonanza!
As mentioned in the review of issue 1, Eggman's island base should no longer exist. In this issue, Joe manages to slip in the mention of it having been "rebuilt," and it's apparently been made a gag for the sixth issue. Just worth menitoning.

Tim Smith
I don't know what happened here. I liked Tim Smith's work in issue 1 mainly because I thought that the few awkward moments were the exception rather than the rule. However, the opposite now seems true. Everyone's off-model much of the time, and there's almost no detail. The "splash" page is laughable in its laziness. I bet Smith could do better if he put a little more effort into it.

Overall Score: 7/10
It's not that it's a worse story than issue 1, but the fact that it treads too mcuh familiar ground hurts it. The deterioration in art certainly doesn't help either.

Sonic the Hedgehoog #156 [Jan 2006]

Cover
by Sanford Greene.

I know what I said last month, but I seriously don't like this cover. Everything looks all... I can't even describe it. Drugged up. Sally looks ridiculous and the rest of the people don't look much better.

"Line of Succession (Part Two)"
Writer: Ken Penders
Artist: James Fry
Inker: Jim Amash
Letterer: John Workman
Colorist: Jason Jensenr
Editor: Mike Pellerito
Managing Editor: Victor Gorelick
Editor-In-Chief: Richard Goldwater

Sega Reps: Robert Leffler and Dyna Lopez

Summary
You may recall that last issue concluded with the wedding of Princess Sally and Antoine D'Coolette. This picks up at the very end of the wedding, and the two have been married. Recall also that this isn't really Antoine, but Anti-Antoine, also known as "Patch." The couple fakes a smile as they walk away from the altar, although Sally is depressed and Patch is looking forward to becoming king.

Sonic, at that moment, stands in a house that appears to have been decorated by the Mobian equivalent of a Navajo Indian, talking to a figure in shadows, asking for help. Shadowy guy won't help, however, so Sonic leaves, breifly meeting an old couple who inform him that the wedding is over.

Sonic goes to crash the afterparty, but Patch has him thrown in the dungeon. To Sonic's dismay, Sally supports him in this. Patch then goes to quietly off King Max. Meanwhile, a cloakied figure is riding a horse with considerable urgency, and he's wearing a fancy ring. The figure arrives at the palace and reveals himself to be none other than Prince Elias, Sally's brother.

Sonic is as surprised as anyone, because he had asked the shadowy Elias to help before, but at the urging of his wife, Meg, he decided to come forward. Elias and Meg seem to suspect Antoine of disloyalty (no, really?). Elias and Sonic walk in on Patch who is about to deliver a needle of poison to the king. He quickly hides it and makes up a story about how he's there to attend to the sick king's needs. Elias reveals that he intends to take the throne, causing Patch to make him the primary target. Patch leads Sonic and Elias to the banquet hall.

Sally and her mother, Alicia, discuss the upcoming coronation, but that's when Elias walks in and asserts his right to the throne. Alicia informs him that his step-child isn't elligible in the line of succession (as Dan Drazen puts it, "typical mother-and-child reunion stuff"). Regardless, Elias is instantly elevated to king. Antoine goes to shake his hand.

However, Sonic spots what's going on-- Antoine has the needle in his hand, and he's ready to kill Elias. Sonic tackles him to the ground and they fight, leading to Sonic's final realization that Patch is Patch and not Antoine (about time). Sonic knocks him out and reveals that he just happens to have the Zone-Link Generator last seen in issue 150, I believe. Never mind how or why. Sonic pulls the switcheroo, returning the real Antoine to the continuity once and for all.

All's well that ends well: Sally gets an annulment, Sonic reunites Bunnie and Antoine, and Sonic and Fiona walk off holding hands as Sally and Tails wach watch, each less than pleased.

Fry Guy
Once again, James Fry more than gets the job done with his excellent pencil work. Particularly impressive are the depictions of Elias on hoseback as well as the fight scene between Sonic and Antoine. Check out page eleven, panel five.... that's gotta hurt.

Let there be Elias
ELias's return to the comic is welcome, particularly if it's going to be taking some of the stress off of Sally, leading to a possible reconciliation of Sonic and Sally. However, all this aside, it was slightly abrupt. I think it would have been a little bit better if his return had been set up in the last issue. From Sonic's passing mention last issue of the possibility of asking for help, some fans guessed Elias might be the guy to go to, but a little more buildup would have been nice.

When Elias does return, however, nobody seems all too pleased to see him, notably Sally and Alicia. Apparently, he hadn't been living nearby for a while, so shouldn't there be something of a reunion rather than Instant King, Just Add Water?

More on the Ultimatum
As mentioned in the review of #156, this story finally closes the door on the Ultimatum plot point and the likelihood of a Sally/Antoine relationship. One of the most common arguments against the "SonSal" pairing and the validity of "Mobius: 25 Years Later" is that in #60's "The Ultimatum," the king reported a Source-given vision of Sally marrying Antoine. Ken has essentially confirmed that that plot is now resolved.

Is this good? Well, yes, I think. Becuase it does other things. It opens up Sally to be with whoever she wants (read: Sonic) and opens up Antoine to be with whover he chooses (read: Bunnie). In this way, it also effectively kills the ill-conceived SonBunnie pairing by giving her her guy back, and everything's okay.

Well, not really. I mean, Sonic walks off with Fiona, leaving Tails miserable, and Sally probably less than pleased as well. But you win some, you lose some.

Overall Score: 8.5/10
A pretty good story with some issues such as Elias's reunion with his family and the depressing final scene. However, the story is tense and exciting.

"The Price of Flame (Part One)"
Writes: Mike Gallagher
Draws: Art Mawhinney
Inks/Letters: Mike Higgins
Colors: Jason Jenson

Summary
A small drawing of Sonic brings us up to speed with the events of last issue and informs us that it is magic that has allowed the dragons to stay roboticized. Yeah, that's some nifty magic. Why couldn't that magic have... you know, stopped them from being roboticized in the first place, or at least allowed them to pull a "Mecha Madness" style deroboticization?

Anyway, the mecha-dragons are wrecking havoc on the dragons of Vesuvio, thanks to Dulcy's carelessness. Ducly regians conciousness just in time to rescue a young dragon named Sparky. However, Glint (the head dragon elder) spies her and has her imprisoned for returning, despite Sparky's protests.

Dulcy is chaned to a pillar by her nose ring, but a defeated mecha-dragon slams into her, crushing the pillar and destroying her ring. This returns her ability of fire breath, and she uses it to great effect, drawing praise even from Glint.

The battle is won, and Glint explains that the defeated mecha-dragons, who were once regular dragons, will be reborn as new dragons, so Dulcy is not saddened by the defeat of the dragons, including her own mother. Later, Dulcy's citizenship and black nose ring are restored, and she is made ambassador to the surface. The end.

Timeline Woes
Personally, I'm going to consider this story as having happened prior to issue 123's "The Last Robian," becuase that would simply make more sense. I'm sure that was the way it was originally intended, to. The only references to the Post-"Tossed in Space" continuity seem thrown in at the last minute.

Dulcy
It's cool that they're finally giving Dulcy some screen time, but we have to wonder how long it'll be until she next appears. She hasn't appeared since issue 107 (or did she have a cameo in 125? I dont' recall). Anyway, I hope we see a little more of her in the future.

The Art of Mawhinney
As last month, the art looks more like something out of the show Dragon Tales as opposed to the works of Tolkien. That may be what they were aiming for, but it could have benefited from a little bit more darkness in the coloring.

Overall Score: 8/10
Unlike last month's installment, this one doesn't suffer from flashback syndrome. If only Archie could admit the truth about its timeline placement rather than offering weak explanations.

Sonic the Hedgehoog #155 [Jan 2006]

Cover
by Sanford Greene.

So far, Sanford has been doing fairly good work on these covers. This one depicts Sonic curled up in a ball and crying, in the corner of some dungeon-looking room, clutching a scroll bearing the words "Marriage of Princess Sally." Obviously, we get some idea of what this story involves.

"Line of Succession (Part One)"
Writer: Ken Penders
Artist: James Fry
Inker: Jim Amash
Letterer: John Workman
Colorist: Jason Jensenr
Editor: Mike Pellerito
Managing Editor: Victor Gorelick
Editor-In-Chief: Richard Goldwater
Sega Reps: Robert Leffler and Dyna Lopez.

Summary
We open in a castle somewhere, presumably that of King Leonus, who King Max met with today. King Max discusses with "Antione" the difficulties he is having convincing Leonus to join his coalition. Regular readers will, of course, recall that Antoine has not been himself lately, which we recently found out was literally true: Antoine has been replaced with the Anti-Antoine from Anti-Mobius, a character that fans often call Patch. In any case, Patch gives Max something to drink which makes him fall asleep, while his speech bubbles reveal that he will soon rule the Kingdom of Acorn.

Meanwhile, in Knothole, Tails searches for Sonic and finds to his surprise that Sonic is making out with Fiona Fox, his crush, in the woods. Sonic looks slightly guilty, but Fiona wants to know what the big deal is. Tails finally reveals that he has a crush on Fiona, who shoots him down because of the five-year age difference. Tails becomes angry and shouts that he hates Sonic and runs off. Sonic says, "Tails," the only thing he's said so far in this issue, and then FIona tells him to let Tails go because there's nothing he could do.

Returning to the plot, we find Patch flying King Max and Queen Alicia home due to Max's illness. Max is examined by Dr. Quack, who tells him all he needs is sleep and to take his medicine with each meal. Quack puts "Antoine" in charge of the medicine. Oops.

In any case, Patch stands guard outside Max's door, which upsets Sally because she thinks it's unneccesary. After Sally is reunited with her parents after their twenty-issue world tour, Max drops the bomb: he's stepping down as king and Sally must Marry Antoine and take the throne. Sally's not too pleased with this, but her parents insist that it's tradition. Besides, Max reminds her, last time Sally tried to choose her own mate, she chose a "commoner" (ie, Sonic). Sally runs from the room crying as Patch looks on smugly.

Cut to Sonic's house, where he's playing guitar and trading Beatles references with his mother. Apparently, he's completely over the fact that he crushed his best friend's heart. Then, Bunnie shows up at the house in tears. She tells Sonic that Sally is marrying Patch (who she believes to be Antoine, her ex).

Naturally, Sonic is pissed at the fact that he wasnt' even told, so in true Sonic fashion he runs to Castle Acorn. He's met at the bridge by Patch, who tells him to get lost. Sonic insists on entering, so Patch comes at him with a sword. Naturally, Sonic is shocked by this, because it's completely out of character for Antoine. But, unbeknownst to Sonic, this is Patch rather than Ant, so there's a brief fight and Sonic lands in the water. Sonic simply gives up now.

Patch goes in to talk to Sally, who is still displeased with ther father's request. Patch puts on a fake air of sympathy and claims that he doesn't want to do it either, but he will anyway because it is his duty.

The next morning, King Max's condition has worsened: he's in a coma. With this in mind, Sally resolves to go through with the wedding and calls for the preparation to begin. Meanwhile, Sonic leaves his own parents without telling him where he's going and they barely worry about what he's up to. Apparently, Sonic has finally realized that something's seriously wrong here, but he's unsure of whether to crash the wedding or ask an as-yet-unnamed third party for help.

The issue ends with the wedding. Sally considers her future with Antoine, believing it might not be so bad, and that someday she'll get over Sonic. Sally says her "I do," and the story ends with a cliffhanger.

Play on, Playa, Indeed!
The big buzz generated by this issue is not Sally's marriage to the Anti-Antoine, because any reader can guess that this will be undone within a couple of issues if not sooner. No, the issue here is the Sonic/Fiona/Tails love triangle that has suddenly popped up.

From a fairly objective standpoint, this is a valid criticism. After all, this story isn't about Fiona or Tails, and neither character even appears in the story outside of the three pages on which that one scene occurs (okay, Tails's head appears on the final page, partially obscured by the flowers in the foreground). I think Ken knew when he wrote this scene that it woud shock some fans, and some of them would be displeased. Its a pity he went ahead and included it anyway, because this shock distracts the fans from the rest of the story, which is about the Sonic/Sally/Antoine love triangle (more on that later).

From a more subjective standpoint, I just dont' find the scene believable at all. The result of such a fragmented fandom is that every fan has an idea of who Sonic is and who he is not. It is Ken Penders's opinion that Sonic is the popular jock, the kind of guy who will make out with his best friend's crush on page two and then flirt with a teammate on page eight. My opinion is that Sonic is not that kind of guy at all. His utter lack of concern for Tails is believable, considering he has his own romantic issues to deal with, but even before that, he seems pretty unconcerned with it, jsut happily strumming a guitar.

Then there's Fiona's attitude. It was only two issues ago that Fiona established that she and Sonic were even on okay terms, but here she is making out with him and referring to him as her "boyfriend." She's downright cruel to Tails and seems to do nothing but antagonize him because of his age.

Which brings us to Tails, of course. Tails is fairly in-character until he exdplodes at Sonic. Okay, yeah, he's an eleven-year-old fox and he has horomones and emotions and whatnot, but he's still Tails and it surprises me that he would behave in such a way.

Sally isn't Sally!
Okay, I know that "Tails isn't Tails" and "Antoine isn't Antoine" were enough for you, but Sally is simply behaving ridiculous in this issue. Of course, it's hard to say what would be in character for Sally, because Sally has been consistently out of character for the past twenty issues or so, but this is a little too much.

Sally's portrayal is pretty good until she learns that she's to marry Antoine. Then, she cycles through moral outrage, adolescent belligerence, and sobbing hysterics. And that's only on one page. Next appearance, she's a damsel in distress, before a return to dutiful determination that is more like the Sally we know.

Fry's Return
No buts about it.. seeing the return of Fry as a major penciller on the book does a lot of good. Just opening the book and seeing the first page, Fry's drawings are on-model and often plain old cute. The scenes of Tails' explosion on page four are... well, scary. But it's an odd thing to have to draw. Sally is rendered particularly well, particularly her "moral outrage" pose on page seven, panel two. I look forward to seeing more of Fry's work in the future, particularly as I'm still sore at the book losing Jon Gray.

The Ultimatum
This story doesn't even refer to the events of #60's "The Ultimatum," by the same author, but we can clearly tell that Kenders had that story in mind while writing this story. In that story, King Max told Sally that the Source of All had showed him a vision of a future in which she was mayying Antoine, and King Max seems to fall back on that vision in his desperation.

Of course, it isn't Antoine at all, but Patch. Kenders is using this Antoine-isn't-Antoine plot to resolve the Ultimatum plot point. He made it clear in a recent post on his message board that the Sally/Patch wedding was what he saw and he misinterpreted it as a wedding between Sally and Antoine. More on this in the review of #156, I htink.

Overall Score: 8/10
A decent story that seriously suffers from the inclusion of an unnecesary scene.

"The Price of Flame (Part One)"
Writes: Mike Gallagher
Draws: Art Mawhinney
Inks/Letters: Mike Higgins
Colors: Jason Jenson

Summary
Apparently, this story takes place prior to "Tossed in Space," owing to Antoine's cheerful demeanor and Sally's short hair. In any case, the freedom fighters are throwing Dulcy the Dragon a pep rally to thank her for all she's helped them in the past. Dulcy appreciates the gesture, but she's distressed that she can't light the bonfire with her breath, so she leaves. Sonic then realizes that her flame breath hasn't been seen in quite a while. Dulcy confirms this, and cue flashback.

When Dulcy was a youngling, with a black nose ring instead of a gold one, her dragon colony was attacked by SWATbots and mostly roboticized, including her mother. The few survivors, led by the dragon elder Glint, escaped to find Vesuvio, the ancient dragon city beneath a mountain, because we don't have enough ancient cities beneath mountains in this continuity. According to legend, the original magic golden rings were created in Vesuvio by the Ancient Walkers. never mind that we positively established some ninety issues ago that Nate Morgan invented the rings.

Glint forbade anyone to leave Vesuvio, but Dulcy snuck out once in a while. On one such visit, she happeend upon a group of SWATbots attacking Sonic and Sally, so she saved them with her fire breath and then joined the Freedom Figters, sneaking out of Vesuvio whenever possible to help out.

Of course, she was eventually caught by Glint, who replaced her nose ring with a power ring that deprived her of her fire breath and marked her as exiled from Vesuvio. She continued to aid the Freedom Fighters, but was unable to breathe fire.

After the flashback is over, Duly decides that she ought to go back to Vesuvio and request a pardon. However, when she reaches the mountain, she is knocked unconcious by a group of Robotnik's mecha-dragons, who had been tailing her in hopes that she would give them just such an opportunity to find Vesuvio. Cliffhanger!

Potto Ponderings
Those of you who keep up with the news regarding this book are probably aware that this issue was to include "See Ya Later, Chao," the debut of new writer Ian Flynn. Or Ian Potto, if you know him online. It's a major disappointment that instead of seeing a story by a writer who many fans are familiar with and have been wanting to see on the book, we get an inventory story that was apparently written for the pre-TiS continuity.

Silly Knuckles. I fell in a vat. That's why I'm colored strangely. (Again)
It's funny that, in my recent review of Archie-SX #1, I mentioned that rather than admit a goof, the folks at Archie made a Knuckles #29 plot point about a coloration mistake in early Archie-StH issues. Well, here they go again. They tried to make up an explanation for why Dulcy's nose ring was miscolored on the cover of SSS #2. Honestly, do we care?

Art's Art
I'm a fan of Art Mawhinney, usually. And in this story, he does his job quite well. The dragons look like something out of a kiddie movie, but that's probably appropriate. However, the coloring leaves a lot to be desired. Everything looks far too shiny and happy for a story dealing with dragons.

Overall Score: 6/10
It's a story worth telling: Dulcy's background. But the plot inconsitencies and rushed storytelling make it less than satisfying.

Not dead... more reviews forthcoming.

Just wanted to let any hypothetical readers know that I am not in fact dead, but that I am working on NaNoWriMo and I'm a little behind.

Reviews for Archie-StH #155 and Archie-SX #2 coming soon. Additionally, a review of Sonic Rush for the Nintendo DS is in the works.

Sonic X #1 [Nov 2005]

Cover
By Spaz.

A very good, on-model cover of Sonic-X style Sonic running down a highway looking very much like the one where he raced Sam Speed in episode one of the Anime. A decent cover, all in all. Eye-catching and simple but pretty.

"Savings and Groan"
Writer: Joe Edkin
Pencils: Tim Smith III
Inks: Rich Koslowski
Colors: Ben Hunzeker
Letters: Jeff Powell
Editor: Mike Pellerito
Managing Editor: Victor Gorelick
Editor-In-Chief: Richard Goldwater
Sega Reps: Robert Leffler and Dyna Lopez.

Summary
The story begins with a "VROOOM" as Sonic races (on foot) against Sam Speed (in a car), who seems close to victory due to some kind of spiffy new engine. Cheering on Sonic, we see Tails, Amy, Cream, Cheese, and (can you feel the family love?) Chris and Chuck. Cheering Sam is "Paul," a random member of Sam's team. Amy suggests that Tails should throw Sonic a ring, to give him a boost, but Cream gently reminds her that Sonic would never cheat. (Ironically, Sonic wishes at the same moment that Tails would throw him a ring, but believes that Amy would be angry if he cheated).

Anyway, with a little extra effort, Sonic wins by a bit and is rewarded by the praise of his friends, not to mention a kiss from Amy. Sam is quite angry about losing, although Paul and... some girl... console him. Sam vows to redouble his efforts to defeat Sonic.

Then, we look in on Eggman's base (see "Continuity errors," below). Eggman is ranting about how he simply can't get components to build his robots, because he lacks money, which he doesn't quite understand. He orders Decoe and Bocoe to go get some money from an ATM outside a bank in Station Square. That afternoon, they ask the machine for money but don't get much luck. After they're arrested by good old Officer Albright, we cut to a brief scene in which we learn that Mr. and Mrs. Thorndyke have returned home. We quickly return to Decoe and Bocoe returning to Eggman empty-handed. Eggman resolves to rob a bank instead, enlisting a "Packratbot" called BEN-728.

At dinner, the Thorndykes plan to spend some time with their son. They decide to go to their villa on the beach, but they will first need to go to the bank. Everyone's invited, but Sonic doesn't like water... or.. finances... I guess... so he sits this one out. Tanaka (the butler, if you didn't know) waits outside the bank while the Thorndykes plus Tails, Amy, Cream and Cheese wait in line. Tanaka spots Eggman and BEN-728, who invade the bank with a crash. Suddenly... an eight page "The Batman"/Campbell's soup advertising section!

"Unaware of Dr. Eggman's attack," not to mention the Wayne Industries / Campbell merger, Sonic pays Knuckles a visit. Sonic asks Knux if he'd like to go for a run, but Knuckles points out that, unlike Sonic, he has a day job--guarding the Master Emerald. Knuckles then jumps very high for no reason and continues talking.

So, instead, we get to watch BEN-728 laying waste to a bank. After Tanaka vainly tries to judo-chop the cheese out of the ratbot, BEN trains his missiles on the bank vault. A well-placed mallet form Amy redirects the missiles toward Eggman, who is then divided between whether to go for the vault or get revenge on Amy. Amy it is. However, Sonic hears that something's going down and comes to the rescue.

However, Sonic's having a little trouble so Tails tries to throw him a ring. But alas, Tails is hit by BEN, causing his rings to scatter (SEGA games, anyone?). Sonic catches a dropped ring and trashes BEN, who is powered by a small mouse. In all the excitement, Sonic completely fails to notice that Eggman has gathered the scattered rings, and he escapes with them. Then, Sam shows up, late for the action, and resenting the heroics on Sonic's part.

A few days later, the President himself shows up to thank Sonic and to ask him about a very important mission. At the same time, we see Eggman admiring his rings and gloating that they will be Sonic's downfall. To be continued, duh.

Agent Smith
Tim Smith's art is fairly on-model, colorful, and usually pretty cool to look at; however, the quality proves inconsistent. While some panels look almost like screenshots of the Sonic X anime, others look simply ridiculous, notably the pictures of Chuck on pages two and three. With more practice on Sonic and friends, Tim Smith could be an excellent penciller, and he manages to portray the action of the story quite well.

Silly Knuckles. I fell in a vat. That's why I was colored strangely.
The major continuity error has been addressed constantly by fans. Eggman's base seen in this issue was actually destroyed in episode 13, but this issue is supposed to take place between episodes 32 and 33, or between the events of Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 (This in itself is kind of a continuity error because episodes 32 and 33 seem to take place one after the other, so I don't know how this could be worked out. But I'm willing to let it slide, I guess). Joe Edkin has admitted that the base appearing in this issue was entirely his bad, which is really cool. Even cooler, he's apparently worked it into a gag which will appear in a later issue. This is hopefully going to be better than Archie's terrible explanation in Knuckles #29 of Sally's odd coloring during the early days of Archie-StH.

Bagels, Anyone?
I know it's silly of me, but I expected a bit more Cream and Cheese in this issue. Mostly, this is because the dynamic duo have been left out of the Archie-StH comic on the basis that we'd be seeing them in this book. I know it's only the first issue, but Cream seemed like she was present for no reason, to an even greater extent than the show.

Cream is usually a passive character inthe show, but many of the best episodes and scenes seem to feature her prominently and she's a character with a lot of potential. Hopefully, Edkin plans to give her a bigger role. I'd like to see more of Cream and Cheese!

A Knuckles Sandwich
I call it a Knuckles Sandwich because Knuckles appears for only one page, in the very center of the book (Not counting the insert). And, like the meat in the sandwich, he is quite seperated from the rest of the story, ie the roll. Which is to say he does NOTHING. The story could easily function without that entiere page. In fact, it functions better! His inclusion in this story only proves to the fans that Edkin hasn't forgotten about him. All right, that's fairly important, but Knuckles isn't in every episode of Sonic X and I don't see why he must necessarily be in every issue of the comic, especially when he's not needed.

The Lord of the Rings
I think the inclusion of rings as a major part of this story was quite interesting, especially since rings are unexplained in the Sonic X cartoon and are almost entirely abesnt from the Archie-StH book. In fact, in Archie-StH, Robotnik once coveted the rings, a plot point which has been completely ignored since (I believe) issue 52's "Reality Bytes." With that fact in mind, I thought it's pretty cool that this story is going in such a direction. And speaking of rings...

All the Small Things
Edkin has given us a couple little SEGA-related gifts, such as the rings flying from Tails when he was hit and the inclusion of a small mouse that was powering the ratbot. This type of little SEGA touch is something that Archie-StH is starting to get a lot of, and that's cool because it's pretty far from the SEGA continuity, but it's pretty nice when it's used here as well.

Since when is he "The" Batman, anyway?
Am I the only one who's getting really annoyed by the huge amount of ads, particulary the large Batman insert? Apparently, this ad section is killing Sonic-Grams, Off Panel, Fan Art, and Find Your Name in Print in the Archie-StH book. This is pretty obnoxious.

Overall Score: 8.5
It was a very good start, full of fun and some nice touches which laregly make up for its flaws.

Welcome to the Sonic Soapbox!

Welcome to the Sonic Soapbox. The purpose of this blog is simply to review the Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic X comics published by Archie, although you may see some reviews for other Snic stuff or occasionally even stuff that isn't Sonic-y at all.

I guess you could say that my purpose with this blog is to give Dan Drazen a little competition. But mostly it's just to voice my opinions on what's going on in the comic book.

Coming soon will be reviews of Sonic X #1 and Sonic the Hedgehog #153 and #154.