Live From Wasilla, Alaska, It's The 2008 SONIC THE HEDGEHOG COMIC BEST-WORST LIST We're back again to take a backward glance at how the comic fared from issue #183 to #195. Knuckles came to the end of his Enerjak phase, Mammoth Mogul marginalized himself by opening a casino, and everybody got the chance to fight everybody else. So as Sonic tightens the buckles on his shoes and the rest of us tighten our belts, let's take a look in the rearview mirror: BEST COVER STORY: "Devil'S Due" (S186) Anyone who's followed this list knows I'm not a huge fan of Mammoth Mogul, but I applaud Ian Flynn for making two twists in this story work completely. The practically ritual beating-up on Sonic at the beginning is followed by a neat variation on the You Can Only Save One Of Your Friends In Peril plot where Sonic faces having to rescue Tails, Mina and/or Mighty, all of whom are being mind-controlled by Mogul. But the surprise ending where Mogul pretty much calls off his anti-Sonic campaign for the time being could have felt like a cop-out but it actually worked for me. As he explained it, Mogul knew that going up against Sonic would be an all-or-nothing proposition so he just lets it go for now. Somehow this was more satisfying than past experiences with Mogul where he seemed unclear on the concept of having "limitless power." It wasn't perfect but it worked without descending into cliche. WORST COVER STORY: "Beating The House" (S188) Never has a story that featured a couple of fight sequences seem like one where ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAPPENS. Sonic is caught, rescued, and a bunch of old villains are brought in as a fig leaf to cover the embarrassing thinness of the story. The climax appears to be Mogul's public humiliation of Sonic and his crew for trashing part of his casino, though if I were Mogul I'd be more embarrassed at using the word "heresy" instead of "hearsay." Really, this feels like it was slapped together as a way of ushering in Scourge and the SS, which occupies the last three pages of the story and sets the tone for the rest of the comic to date. Ian loses the distinction here between action and pointless action, and the story and readers suffer as a result. BEST BACK STORY: "Father and Son" (S192) Just when I felt that the comic was sliding into incurable mediocrity, this gem makes me rethink my position. Essentially a one-act play for two characters, Scourge confronts Jules and gets more than he bargained for. We get the usual amount of exposition from Scourge, but this time in the form of a dialogue rather than a monologue. And Jules emerges as a real character intent on not letting himself be intimidated by Scourge. The self-proclaimed King of Moebius may be able to put the smack down on the SS members, but he locked up when Jules got in his face and stood up to him. Scourge then retreated in a development that I never would have suspected. A minor miracle of a story, and a reminder of what this comic is capable of when given half a chance. WORST BACK STORY: "Invaders From Beyond" (S191) At the opposite extreme from "Father and Son" is THIS waste of paper. Knuckles is taken prisoner by the Marauders and their leader Shade, herself an echidna whose head-to-toe body armor don't do as much justice to her feminine charms as, say, one of Rouge's outfits. There's no plot here, of course, for this 5- pager only exists to flog the game "Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood." It's a 5-page ad, nothing more, and it wouldn't be the only one to appear in 2008, but it edges out the "Sonic Unleashed" 5-pager in this category by not even being interesting. It's just another fight story; at least the "Unleashed" tie-in teased up with a werehog transformation sequence. There's really no reason "Invaders" should have appeared at all. BEST STORY ARC: "Mogul Rising" (S185-186) I've already explained myself WRT the second part of this arc, but within the confines of the story the set-up works well, too. I had trouble buying into the exposition-fest in the beginning where M.M. explains how and why he "marked" Tails, Mighty, and Mina, but at least he didn't go the easy route of turning them into zombie recruiters trying to get Sonic to come over to the dark side, which is where I thought this story was going. That got me interested in how the rest of the story progressed, and Part 2's wordless sequence where Sonic heists a Chaos Emerald for Mogul was a welcome departure from the often cheesy dialogue of the comic. I only wish the comic would do this sort of thing more often. WORST STORY ARC: [Unnamed], S187-188 Having finally earned some cred, Mammoth Mogul proceeds to squander it in this thin-as-a-promise 2-parter. It starts out as yet another action story with Sonic brought down by ... well, Ian never DOES explain the nature of Nack's non-lethal weapon, and just about every half-baked villain who ever appeared in the comic shows up for no hard reason. The second half, "Beating The House" (see above, Worst Cover Story) is even more of the same. I definitely came away with the impression that the entire arc was just marking time until Scourge and the SS were ready to make their appearance and take over the continuity for the remainder of the year. BEST COVER ART: S189-190 Back in the day when Knuckles had his own comic, a common feature of the line was the Spaziante/Penders comic covers that could be joined together to form a triptych: one large illustration in three parts. Tracy Yardley! revives that with a two-part diptych cover featuring Sonic and the gang vs. Scourge and the SS. The facial expressions I thought were a little over the top, but the storm cloud as part of the cover for #190 really worked for me. A nice break from the ordinary. WORST COVER ART: S187 This cover is as claustrophobic as it is pointless. Yardley! was so intent on crowding EVERYBODY into the shot that the whole composition is lop-sided and muddled. He does better work when he exercises a little population control and keeps the cover characters few and focused. BEST STORY ART: Jon Gray, "Father and Son" (S192) This was a VERY close competition. Newcomer Matt Herms deserves a More Than Honorable Mention for the work he did bringing Tracy Yardley!'s layouts to completion in the "Mogul Rising" arc, and Yardley! himself did exceptional work with "Honor Bound" (S186). But the nod goes to the return of Jon Gray and the work he did in "Father and Son." For he not only gets the story across, but he's in tune with the emotional stakes of the plot. We get not only the manic bragging of Scourge but the iron calm of Jules (no pun intended); if any of you kids ever wondered what made Gary Cooper a movie star back in the day, now you know. And what he brings to the panel where Scourge says "You're no different from my old man after all" is stunning (well, stunning for THIS comic, anyway). A welcome return, indeed! WORST STORY ART: Dave Manak, "Misfit Bandits: The Soggy, Salty Sequel" (S185) Speaking of former illustrators returning for a shot, Dave Manak brings an old school touch to this useless exercise as the Forty Fathom Freedom Fighters take down a old and best-forgotten menace. Sorry, Dave; the comic has moved on. BEST NEW CHARACTER: Jules Hedgehog, "Father and Son" (S192) Ever since Ken Penders introduced Sonic's rents to the comic, I've watched as time and again he passed up any and every chance to really develop them as characters. The same fate has befallen Tails's parents and even Bunnie and Antoine since they've gotten hitched. It made me wonder whether anyone would EVER do anything with any of them. The wait is over: Ian Flynn has finally stepped up and connected. In a medium that is in love with villains (the more extravagant the better) and where heroes are in perpetual danger of coming off as dull and one-dimensional, Ian brings in just enough backbone for Jules to make him Scourge's equal while keeping him from leaning toward the dark side. He's actually Heroic in the best sense of the word, and not in the comic book sense, either. This kind of development should be celebrated because, unfortunately, it tends to be the exception rather than the rule. WORST NEW CHARACTER: Rosy This listing may be premature as Rosy, the Moebian alternative to Amy Rose, is still in play. I do not, however, like where this character is going. She started off decently enough as someone driven more or less insane by her adoration for Scourge accompanied by a mishap with a Power Ring. As a result, she became at least as dangerous as Scourge himself. Unfortunately, someone then decided that her character should be played for laughs. As a result, the menace has disappeared and she can only think of making goo-goo eyes at Scourge instead of turning the menace switch back on and threatening HIM for not returning her affections. That would make her character more than the one- dimensional cardboard cutout it is as of this writing, but apparently either Ian or his one of his Archie handlers thought that might be a bad idea. Such a waste! BEST DIALOGUE: "I'll pay handsomely for the shoes of Sonic the Hedgehog. It is up to you if his feet are still in them." Mammoth Mogul, "Mister Popular," S187 WORST DIALOGUE: "I have to go to the rust room." Morobug, "Misfit Badniks: The Salty, Soggy Sequel," S185 BEST NEW IDEA: The Return Of Fan Art When the comic banished the Sonic Grams and Fan Art features to make room for an ultimately ineffectual advertising deal with DC, it tuned out the fans and presented the comic as a take-what-we- give-you proposition. That changes as of S186 when the Fan Art feature was reintroduced. It hasn't been perfect: the fan art is smaller than the average postage stamp (Remember postage stamps?) and given the median age of comic book readers some of the art is pretty ... well, juvenile. But there have been some rare gems on display from fans who have kept the fandom going by posting their Sonic fan art on the Internet. It's only appropriate that since the comic itself has employed fans to handle the writing and illustrating chores (Ian Flynn, Tracy Yardley!, Matt Herms), that it should go back to showcasing the work of other fans as well, if only in a very limited way. WORST NEW IDEA: That's right, the space is blank. Not because anything definitively bad failed to happen during the past year. But there wasn't a lot of spectacularly good in the comic, either. Even the Best New Idea (bringing back the Sonic-Grams and Fan Art features) was merely the resurrection of an old idea. To me, this can mean only one of two things: either the comic is settling into a mediocre groove, or else the book is saving its strength for special occasions, such as the 200th issue or when the Sonic X title ends its run and it segues into the Sonic Universe title. I suppose we'll see.