Sonic #135 [June 2004] Spaz/Ribeiro/Jensen cover: Extreme WEV (worm's eye view) of Sonic tagging after a Mysterious Robed Figure. "I can't believe it's you! But ... you died!" Enjoy the suspense; it won't last long. Frontispiece/Spoiler page: OK, I know that the newbies who weren't around for Sonic #117 need to be brought up to speed, but it seems to me that breaking the news that the Robed Figure is supposed to be the lame and unlamented Tommy Turtle takes one of the few assets this story has and squanders it right out of the box, no assembly required. Well, with THAT out of the way, all we have to hold our interest is J. Axer's artwork. From the look of the clientele, Sonic did not dress for the occasion. The Tommy Trilogy: Part 1: Agent of K.N.O.T.H.O.L.E. Story: Romy Chacon; Art: Ron Lim; Ink: Nelson Ribeiro; Color: Jason Jensen; Lettering: Vickie Williams; Assistant Editor: Mike Pellerito; Editor: Justin F. Gabrie; Managing Editor: Victor Gorelick; Editor-in-Chief: Richard Goldwater. Quite a difference artistically between the Axer frontispiece and the Lim primary art. While the former featured some very disreputable-looking characters (at least a few of whom appear to be holdovers from the Tossed In Space arc), the dive as envisioned by Lim is clean and sparsely occupied by some very pedestrian-looking furries. And now, let's dump out of the non-action in the bar as well as the first-person-singular narrative voice and check in on Robotnik and Robo-Sniv, who hasn't been heard from or missed for over two years now. We get only vague notions of what's going on, and learn that the hundred-and-first time's the charm with whatever subplot they're plotting. But back to the First Person Singular Bar and Grill. Sonic connects with Tommy Turtle and the action (such as it's been up to now) grinds to a halt as the two buds lay down huge amounts of exposition that keep them so riveted they don't notice the other bar patrons reacting with shock and alarm and making themselves scarce. Embedded in the dialogue, along with a totally lame explanation of T-2's reappearance in the story, is the news that Robotnik has discovered how to undo all the deroboticization work that Ceneca-9009 managed to do in Karl Bollers's minimalist epic, "The Last Robian." Only this time he's more choosy about his test subject. And right on cue... ...we're (re)introduced to the bot baddies who were all supposed to have bought the harp farm along with Tommy: Lightning Lynx, Sleuth Doggy Dawg, Flying Frog, Sgt. Simian, Hershey's ex Drago, and Predator Hawk. Which makes "The Tortoise and the Hedgehog" a TOTAL waste because it ended up being a 100% death cheat. Maybe. Sonic does a good, but not perfect, job of dodging the baddies until he notices Drago and Dawg ganging up on Tommy. While we get a nice two-page spread of Sonic getting the monkey and the hawk to total each other, we suddenly see Tommy off by himself and telling Sonic he "hot-wired the two of them and reprogrammed them to go and jump in the nearest lake." Which is a stretch because it's already been established in the opening scene that this is taking place in the middle of some sandy nowhere. It's a measure of how far this comic has fallen that Sonic swallows this cockamamy story whole. As the two of them walk off into the sunrise, our suspicions are confirmed as we glimpse Drago and the Dawg under a barroom table. HEAD: Once more, someone forgot the most elementary rule of writing in the first person: you CAN'T know what's going on somewhere other than where you are. The use of the first-person- singular worked fine for the first two pages, but then we slam into the Dark Interlude with Robotnik and Robo-Sniv, which is bad enough. But then Chacon reverts to the first-person-singular without a blush even though the Dark Interlude effectively broke the mood. Makes me wonder whether it wasn't an example of Editorial padding out a story that was a page short. This impression is heightened by Sonic's failure to maintain the first-person-singular voice once he connects with Tommy. If this were all just a record of thoughts in Sonic's head rather than a narrative use of text boxes, you have to wonder why they didn't use thought balloons instead. I'll cover the actual "reunion" of Sonic and T-2 later in the review. For now let me just say that unless T-2 is exaggerating when he says his shell protected him even though he'd been "blown like a mile away," any blast that powerful would still have turned him into cream of Tommy soup. Equally bogus is the reappearance of the B-Team (B for baddies). These guys were supposed to have been totaled in the same explosion from which Tommy escaped unscathed. I'm not a huge fan of death cheats, and this one really reeks. All it does, actually, is set up the jazzy fight sequence, and looking at it you get the sense that this is where the team of Chacon/Lim feels more at home. Probably because a Sonic fight sequence at this point is, in the words of Tom Wolfe, as cozy and familiar as a lullaby. Which may not be the best analogy because as fight sequences go this one wasn't a snore. The story is a good, intriguing set-up and the sharp-of-eye will detect that there's something bogus about Tommy ... assuming that this IS Tommy and not another guest mecha. Probably not, because unlike M he's capable of more than one facial expression. But once again we have a story that succeeds despite its numerous flaws; I can only hope the same can be said for the arc as a whole. Head Score: 7. EYE: I've long considered Ron Lim to be a second-tier Sonic artist because his modeling of the main furries in the cast has been so-so at best, but he actually does some good work here. The ochre-yellow opening sequence in the bar was really rather convincing, though I wish Ron or Nelson or Jason hadn't resorted to the use of parallel lines to put a character in shadows. The lines are so orderly I feel like I want to smack a TV set on the side to get better reception. And whether Ron is finally getting the hang of working for this book or because he's better with mechas than with furries, the bots look fairly decent as well. Unfortunately, Tommy in panel 4 of the last page is either wearing his shell backwards or else has gotten pregnant. Not a good look for him. Eye Score: 7. HEART: Sonic doesn't have an emotionally honest moment in this entire story. As I write this Easter is not even a week past, and Sonic's mental play-acting (falling back on the worn- out spy cliche, no less) couldn't be more inappropriate for someone who's learned that an old friend who he thought was dead may still, in fact, be alive. It'd be like Peter saying to John "Last one to the tomb's a rotten egg!" It just doesn't belong. At all. In fact, absolutely every text box on pages [1, 2, and 4] could have been dropped all together and the story wouldn't have suffered. Then again, Sonic's actual reunion with T-2 is about as neutered as possible, a lot of exposition and no emotion. This adds insult to the injury of the death cheat. Speaking of adding insult to injury, what could have been a good story in any other context is hobbled because of its predecessor. You know what I'm talking about: the SMAK heard 'round the Sonicverse. When Sally exited the scene in tears last issue, she owed Sonic (and Editorial owed the readers) more of an explanation for her behavior than "Blame it on the war plus a year of Sonic not returning her phone calls." Instead, we get an exercise in Changing The Subject more appropriate for a political press conference than narrative fiction. We get a lame-o spy set-up for a fight story, and we get Sonic's line "When Sally and I first got your message...." Did I miss something? I'm sorry, but that's when I hit the brakes on this story. Since when did the two of them get back on speaking terms after her very public blow-up at Sonic? Or are we just suppose to believe all's forgiven, no harm done, back to business as usual? No. Business-as-usual is what's dragging this comic down. And this story handles the emotional context of the plot so ineptly that it's a struggle to believe it. Heart Score: 2. Dr. Robotnik in "Anonymous" Story: Romy Chacon; Art: Art Mawhinney; Ink: Jim Amash; Color: Jason Jensen; Lettering: Jeff Powell. In this quickie 5-pager, Robotnik (who's looking more like Eggman these days) finds that Santa Claus came early this year and left him the 6 roboticized ruffians we thought we just saw Sonic and "Tommy" wipe the floor with in the previous story. A.D.A.M. scans the bots and finds that their memories have been messed with by whoever roboticized them, leaving no image of himself (though he takes up as much space as Buttnik), no name other than the title in the story, and no answer to the all- important question, "Hey, where's the cream filling?" HEAD: Several of the fans have wondered whether for consistency's sake this story shouldn't have run BEFORE "Agent of K.N.O.T.H.O.L.E." Bob Repas, however, has offered a dissenting viewpoint: that the stories are in the correct order, that the one-page tease of Robotnik in the first story is a look at another Robotnik entirely and that therefore there are TWO Robotniks for Sonic to worry about. Clues include: ROBOSNIV. He's present with one Robotnik, and conspicuous by his absence with the other, who prefers the company of A.D.A.M. for comic relief. LANGUAGE. The Dark Interlude Robotnik is much more terse and clipped in his speech than the Robotnik of "Anonymous," who appears to be suffering from an advanced case of Nate Morgan Syndrome where the sufferer delivers much expository dialogue at a moment's notice. WORD. The word in this case is "Designate," which was used both by A.D.A.M. in this story as well as by the robotic Stg. Simian in the previous effort. Putting them all together, Bob makes a very strong case for the possibility that we're being taken for some kind of ride. This is one of those theories that'll have to be kept in the back of one's mind as the arc plays out. Bob does have a certain amount of cachet seeing as how he's the tech guy who maintains Ken Penders's Web site, but I don't think he'd jeopardize Ken or himself by committing a major act of Spoilage. Then again, Bob has also hinted broadly that there is no "Romy Chacon" and that the name is a pseudonym, which is the sort of thing that requires independent verification. Still, it's a good theory which helps keep this story from becoming, in the words of Robotnik, "a huge waste of time." But that's only part of the problem. Lately I've sensed a disturbance in the Force, or more accurately, an up-tick in suggestions by the fans as to how things could be made better for the comic. Bob's counter theory, in response to the theories of others, is just one example. This fan activity tells me one thing: that the writing is going downhill. If the writing were as good as it could be, the fans wouldn't need to embellish it and they CERTAINLY wouldn't be offering theories as to why things are happening in the comic when the writers themselves haven't given the reader anything to work with. I've seen it in myself where recent works of Sonic fanfic have grown from disaffection with the writing in the comic coupled with that blink of writer's ego which makes one think "OK, here's how it's supposed to be done...." On one level, this is to be expected. Sonic started as a game character, and we the fans want to do more in the name of "playing with him" than putting him through his platform paces or reading about him on the pages of the comic. That's where fanfic comes in. Fanfic writers "play" with Sonic by putting him in situations and combinations the comic hasn't come up with, and that's not a problem. The problem arises when fanfic in essence apologizes for the way the story is going or else offers an explanation that the writer(s) failed to provide for whatever reason. If the writer fails to do his/her job, why should the fans feel they have to step in and do it for them? Editorial has some sort of vision at work here, and we're just going to have to be patient to see whether in the end our patience is rewarded with a satisfying ending to the story arc. And we can only hope that the fans are more patient than Sonic would be in a similar situation. Head Score: 4. EYE: Art Mawhinney has the unenviable task of doing a Robotnik story. He does well with the material, and manages a convincing morph between Robotnik and Eggman. And I may be giving Mawhinney credit where it isn't due, but look at the final panel where there are two monitors displaying the "censored" Anonymous. Anybody else get the impression that those are A.D.A.M.'s eyes looking at Robotnik? Eye Score: 9. HEART: Since Robotnik would probably resent even the concept of "Heart," that slack is picked up by A.D.A.M., who appears to have been sired by Data out of Hymie. Hymie was a character from the TV series "Get Smart," which ran from 1965-70 and which spoofed the James Bond/Man From U.N.C.L.E. spy franchises of the period. Between 1966 and 1969, actor Dick Gautier played the android Hymie with the straightest of possible faces as well as a tendency to take speech idioms literally. Sample: when Max Smart and Hymie hide in a closet and Max tells Hymie to "Kill the light," it's no surprise that Hymie pulls out a gun and shoots the bulb. This trait survives in A.D.A.M. In any event, A.D.A.M. runs through his emotional range fairly quickly: aside from his comic relief literalism, he offers to self-destruct when unable to harvest further information on "Anonmyous" for "Father." That doesn't work quite as well. Once again we find that Robotnik alone, like Sonic alone, can't carry a story. They each need to play off somebody. Thus this story works about as well as the "Tossed In Space" arc. Heart Score: 4. "Mobius 25 Years Later: Dealing With The Devil" Story: Ken Penders; Art: Steven Butler; Ink: Jim Amash; Color: Jason Jensen; Lettering: Vickie Williams. Lien-Da decides it's time to get in Rutan's face about what happened the night before. She's momentarily diverted by Dimitri, who invokes the Guy Code and offers Ken a chance to do a flash-back to imply that it was Robotnik who turned Dimitri into a Luna-P wanna-be. But she eventually gets back on message and Rutan comes clean with what happened and who happened to be in the neighborhood at the time. This news mellows out Lien-Da who lets Rutan off with a warning. However, she then gets on the Mom network and blows a call in to Julie-Su. HEAD: Basically a two-point story: Rutan faces the music with the Dimitri back story as a digression. Not much else happening otherwise, and what we get works as well as can be expected. Ken doesn't tell the WHOLE Dimitri back story because he needs to keep something in reserve. And it's pretty obvious that Lien-Da has her own agenda about which we also don't know. Head Score: 9. EYE: The good news is, Lien-Da looks just as hot as Julie- Su. The bad news is, having found a good pose for Lien-Da to strike, Steve Butler doesn't wander far from it. She has some movement in her arms, but mostly she keeps at least one hand firmly planted on one cocked hip or the other. "Don't just stand there, let's get to it/Strike a pose, there's nothing to it," as Madonna sang in "Vogue." Too bad Lien-Da couldn't think of more poses. Maybe Butler was up against deadline. That's actually the only visual weakness in the story. Aside from Lien-Da's monotonous body language, everyone else is very expressive, especially Rutan whose got the most to lose. Eye Score: 9. HEART: The focus this time is back on Rutan, except when the grown-ups hijack it for themselves in the middle of the story. He knows what's in store and he's braced for it, which tells me this isn't the first time he's been on the receiving end of words from his mom. And we're with him on this because we've been there and done that. If you're going to make the audience care about your characters, their situations and reactions have to be recognizable. That's what makes the scenes between Lien-Da and Rutan work here. Because honestly, who hasn't been caught in a compromising situation or telling a little white one? The sequence at the top of page [4] really worked for me, as Rutan is given one silent panel before the bomb goes off. I don't want to know what kind of research on Ken's part went into writing about a parent-teen confrontation, but it doesn't strike a false note. Heart Score: 10. Off-Panel: Gallagher-Manak remind us that King Max is no longer confined to a wheelchair; the details of this transformation have yet to be revealed. Still, though I have the deepest respect for the Americans With Disabilities Act, and have seen what kind of architectural hoops had to be jumped through when buildings on campus have been renovated, it reminds me a little too much of the scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail: "She turned me into a newt!" "A newt?" "...well, I got better." This Justin: OK, I'll grant that 8-1/2 years working on Sonic is no small achievement, and I guess Justin has the right to say so in this issue's Freditorial. But am I the only one who thinks that the tone is a little ... off? And while making deadline is important, he acknowledges this with only a passing reference to the "best work" of the freelancers ... and no mention at all of the drivel that's passed under his hands such as "Naugus Games." Sonic-Grams: Mike Pellerito, whose credit in the first story appears ahead of Justin's for what it's worth, belongs to the interlinear school of e-mail responding. Which works better if the ink is a REALLY different color (that blue didn't show up too well the first time I read it, but then the bulb in the lamp was kind of on the yellow side) or the type is in a different font or the old text is preceded by colons or some other punctuation mark. The letters themselves: Robert Evans in the UK want to see Shadow and Metal Sonic return, though probably not at the same time; RicharCo/Goombasa can't figure out how to incorporate the Sonic X continuity into the comic; Micah Ishihara also want to see more Shadow; and David Benedict praises the "awesome drawings and cool stories" without explaining what gives them their awesome coolness (or their cool awesomeness), but then even critics have to start somewhere. Fan Art: Jordan Kirkley has Sonic running; Jakob Woody gives us Sonic, Knuckles, their metallic counterparts (took me a while to figure it out), and Eggman; Miguel Angel Ufano Sasdinero from Spain draws Sonic in the same disco pose as Jughead on the cover of the Best of the 70s issue across the page; and Samantha Moro has Sonic and Knuckles wondering how come Amy Rose, Rouge, Tails, and Cream have gotten so darn kawaii.