Sonic the Hedgehog #125 [Sep 2003] Spaz/Ribeiro cover: cast photo ... for the time being, anyway. The "long version" would probably make a great commemorative poster, in case Archie Comics needed any marketing ideas. If your favorite character didn't make the cut, blame Spaz for once more indulging his Astal fetish and sticking the useless little guy between the "2" and the "5." "Sonic Adventure 2.5 Omega" Writer: Karl Bollers; Art (depending what page you're looking at): Dave Manak, Art Mawhinney, Dawn Best, Ron Lim, Steven Butler, J. Axer; Ink (see above): Andrew Pepoy, Pam Eklund, Nelson Ribeiro, Jim Amash, Josh and Aimee Ray, Conor Tomas; Color: Jason Jensen; Lettering: Jeff Powell; Editor: Justin Gabrie; Managing Editor: Victor Gorelick; Editor-in-chief: Richard Goldwater. Oh, great, it starts With a double-take Time track to attack Day of Fury dustoff Sally, Brotherhood agree Something of a rarity Rotor with an X-prop Wants to take it to the top Sal-gal intervenes She puts on the brain machine Virtual interface With the Brains From Outer Space Say you're cute, they they'll shoot Negotiations break-down Communications break-up Locke can't stay, he gives way To ... Doc R It's the end of their world as they know it It's the end of their world as they know it It's the end of their world as they know it And of Part 1 Giant bot, Giga-P Sonic as the battery Buttnik backs down His concession to the Crown Knuckles, who's back to red Hanging out among the dead Senses he'll get company Asks Aurora "What's the deal?" Goddess isn't gonna squeal Are we talking dead echidnas? Hey ... no clue It's the end of their world as they know it It's the end of their world as they know it It's the end of their world as they know it And so's Act 2. Hearing from the King' daughter Mobius prepares for slaughter Angel Island does the same Multi-frame war game Sal and Sonic see the Doc Motivate the big bot Space ship sucker punch Brainaziods beat feet Ecch-ordians call retreat This whole set-up's way too easy Don't ... you think? It's the end of their world as they know it It's the end of their world as they know it It's the end of their world as they know it And Part 3, also. No time to cheer a loss Double double cross cross Sonic trapped in the bot Buttnik gets to gloat a lot Ecch-ordians on a roll Plan to make a black hole Heading for the South Pole Knuckles will reincarnate Though Aurora tells him "Wait" Doesn't care; Athair Tells him how to get there Throws away eternal life To save ... his friends It's the end of their world as they know it It's the end of their world as they know it It's the end of their world as they know it As Part 4 ends. All the missiles, heavy yield Fall before the force field Fools all rush in How can they expect to win? Giga-bot, too, is shot Sal and Sonic end their ride Somewhere on the inside Told they'll be neutralized Knux makes the scene as a Deus ex machina Counteracts the quantum wave But he's too weak to save Sal and Sonic trapped inside the Safety ... zone It's the end of their world as they know it It's the end of their world as they know it It's the end of their world as they know it And Part 5's done. Tear-filled farewell Before the planet blows to hell Sonic on the run again For love and family and friend Brilliant flash, silent crash Ending is ambiguous Sonic's honor postumous Furries mope, Buttnik gloats But a universe away Is where our fallen hero lays Who will run another day Will this retcon yield a comic Sales ... decline? It's the end of their world as they know it It's the end of their world as they know it It's the end of their world as they know it And they're not fine It's the end of their world as we know it It's the end of their world as we know it It's the end of their world as we know it And I feel ... (It's time I had some time alone) HEAD: Word salad is not the easiest dish to prepare. REM's "It's The End Of The World As We Know It" has a faster punk-inspired pace than Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and is certainly faster-paced than John Lennon's "Come Together" or "I Am The Walrus." Still, it doesn't go into overdrive like Reunion's "Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me)." The biggest problem was trying not to be TOO rigid with the meter; otherwise it would end up reading like Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire." I haven't done song parodies on a regular basis, but I figured if Archie Comics was going to do something special for the 125th issue I'd get in the spirit as well. Karl Bollers took me to task when I fretted prematurely about the resemblance of this issue to S50, part of the ill-fated Endgame arc. One lesson that they learned was to keep the story tight by having only one writer; Karl, in this case. And the story IS more coherent this time around. Troubled, but coherent. The stiff pacing papers over some serious plot holes. The "gene-bomb" plot device is frankly implausible on several levels (For the record: A work of fantasy can be unrealistic, and STILL be plausible). How could the Ecch-ordians attempt to destroy human DNA, which is where the difference lies between species, while at the same time mutating the DNA of another species into something humanoid? Karl gives a nod to the Day of Fury plot point, which Ken Penders never attributed to space aliens, and I think Athair and the other members of the Brotherhood would have been in a position to know about the Ecch-ordians. And it begs the question of why Robotnik and the Station Squares continued to find a foot-hold on a supposedly human-free planet. This development also contradicts the comic continuity as already set forth in S71's "In The Beginning" where Kirby's account of Mobian prehistory put the echidnas at the top of the furry heap and describes primitive Overlanders mixing it up with primitive furries. Having Sally too quickly affirm the Ecch- ordian version of things is, simply, a stretch. Karl either didn't remember this part of the continuity or else he simply didn't let it get in the way of his own story, which I suppose is what loose continuity is all about. Bottom line: the Ecch- ordians STILL did a half-assed job of destroying life on Mobius the first time, and they can't even get the job done here. Buncha losers. Not only do I still refuse to believe that Mobius and Earth are the same planet, but this story is a good argument in favor of Mobian creationism. There was a lively discussion on the Ken Penders message board concerning so-called Mobian deities [the Ancient Walkers, the Source of All, Aurora]. One of them, Aurora, doesn't come off very well here. Her hesitancy when Knuckles confronts her about the fate of Angel Island is all wrong. When you're omniscient, you shouldn't have to wonder. For that matter, if Knuckles HAD been plugged into eternity, he wouldn't have to ask any questions! I had a hard time with some of the dialogue as well. OK, Sonic's line about "being into the whole giant robo" thing was kinda cute, but having Sonic speak of "the blessing...[and] ... the curse" of the mega-bot falling apart was simply out of character for Sonic. "Cool" and "not cool," I could understand. "Good news" and "bad news" I could have lived with. This was a serious breaking of character. Even worse is the Parade of Cliches. You have the Babbling Villains Who Insists on Telling the Heroes What's Going On; this is the opposite of the conclusion of "Predator" where it only gradually dawns on Ah-nold and the audience that the beastie has activated a Self-Destruct Mechanism, itself now a cherished cliche. You have the Double Cross by Robotnik; was King Max really so dim that he didn't see it coming? You have the World Population United Against Attack By Space Aliens, which qualifies as a mega-cliche. You have Sonic Powering the Giant Robot, which appeared in a slightly different form, utilizing a treadmill instead of a Stairmaster(tr), in Dan Slott's legendary "Zone Wars: Giant Robotno" (SSS12). And the Been There, Done That, Bought The Comic The First Time Around Award goes to the Sonic's Absence and Presumption of Death Plot Point, last seen in Sonic #20's "That's The Spirit!" Karl DOES manage to wring more pathos out of the situation than Angelo DeCesare did the first time, and the Manak/Grossman artwork back then was no help at all. This, in fact, is the real point of this whole story: it provides the necessary excuse to cut Sonic from the herd for at least four issues of being lost in space. You may remember the Sonic and Tails Around The World Tour which took place between issues #57 and #68 inclusive. Sonic and Tails demonstrated, if only inadvertently, that the two of them simply couldn't carry the comic book by themselves and needed to interact with ... SOMEBODY: Sally, Bunnie, Robotnik, even Antoine! In fact, the only thing us oldsters remember about the Around The World Tour is the souvenir that Sonic and Tails picked up along the way: a useless garden gnome named Nate Morgan. Let's see if Sonic fares any better during what I hereby declare to be The Sonic The Hedgehog Across The Universe Tour. Head Score: 5. EYE: What spoiled S50 visually was the presence of artwork by people who had no business contributing page art to the comic but who were included anyway in the name of completeness. Sam Maxwell's characters looked like Macey's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon characters with no sense of weight. Pat Spaziante, for all his virtues as a cover artist, submitted some very eccentric page art to the effort which, when colored, left me with the impression of a kung fu movie directed by Lisa Frank. Since then a new generation of artists has appeared and a couple of veterans have rejoined the ranks, so the end-result here is much better. The biggest surprise is Dave Manak, whose art leads off the book. At first glance I honestly thought that this was Steve Butler artwork, it was that good. He hasn't lost any steps since the surprisingly strong work he did for "Myth- taken Identity," the Downunda digression in S103-104 (with Nelson Ribeiro batting clean-up in 105). Note to Dawn Best: if at all possible, let someone OTHER THAN Ken Penders ink your drawings. Her modeling of Sonic and Sally is really sweet and makes me wish she'd done more work on the cover stories. She drew Sally with crossed eyes in one panel. She made it look just perfect and it gives Sal a hint of intensity and not, as it would in the wrong hands, goofiness. Consciously or not, Ken's inking smothers Dawn's designs which really deserve to be showcased more. Otherwise, the artwork is on-model and of uniformly high quality. Even Ron Lim's art isn't as heinous as it was in S116's "Operation Off-Switch." Eye Score: 8. HEART: You may have noticed that the third-to-last and second-to-last pages of this comic were switched in the printing, in what amounts to a replay of the infamous Oversaturation Affair involving Death Egg Saga #2 (sometimes I think Archie Comics is just plain cursed). Maybe someone thought that a gloating Robotnik was a more killer image than a falling-apart Mobian moon to lead into the final page and its alleged surprise ending. I have to confess, I didn't even notice the gaff until Ron Bauerle pointed it out to me in an e-mail. I sort of blurred over the ending by the time I got there, this comic left me that depressed. I hold no high expectations for the comic while Sonic is on the Across The Universe Tour. Sure, the stories had been improving, and the two-issue "Hearts Held Hostage" arc has been universally acclaimed as the kind of story that the comic should have been publishing all along. But with Sonic separated from characters he and the readers care about, you have to wonder what will fill the gap. With all this running around in my mind, I found it really hard to CARE about what was going on in the comic. It was the same mistake Ken made when he wrote Endgame: the "Death" of Sally Plot Point overshadowed the Sonic as Fugitive Plot Point so completely that the middle of the story, which should have been exciting edge-of-your-seat reading, ended up being as taut as a busted water balloon. The payoff of this story, the possibly happy ending, has been deferred for at least four more issues. Can the comic sustain fan interest for that long, or is it simply trusting that fan love will conquer all? As I've said before, with this comic's track record I'm not very optimistic. There'd BETTER be a happy ending, that's all I can say. Heart Score: 5. This Justin: It's ironic that Sonic, described by Yuji Naka as representing "righteousness and freedom ... [and] a sense of cool ... [given to] challenging the accepted norm" ended up being turned into a comic book by what is probably the most conservative and tradition-bound comic book publisher still in business. But let's end this on an up note: "Sonic will continue running, with us at his side, for many years to come."