Sonic the Hedgehog #145 [Mar 2005] Pat Spaziante cover: Sonic and Tails standing (well, running and flying, respectively) in Shadow's shadow. But perhaps they're seeing beyond Shadow to a thumb moving to press the Cosmic Reset Button. And that thumb belongs to Mike Pellerito. Though it's been a number of months since Justin Gabrie departed and Mike took over as editor, J. Fred's influence was still felt in the shape of the stories that he green-lighted and which Mike had to forge ahead and whip into shape. Mike inherited both Mobius 25 Years Later and the Return to Angel Island arcs from Justin, and somehow I don't think J. Fred would have welcomed Jon Gray's rewrite of "Love and Loss" that appeared in the previous issue. But M25YL is now on hiatus, the Angel Island sojourn is over, and "Love and Loss" took shape despite a really bad original ending and Hurricane Frances. Now we're going to start seeing some changes, perhaps not as drastic as depicted in the Home story arc, but ones which definitely have Mike's character stamped on them. Ken Penders/Amber Greenlee frontispiece: Shadow is supposed to be in cold sleep in that pickle jar. Maybe he has cold insomnia. As tired as I am of this cliche, Amber Greenlee's coloring (at least I assume that's what she brought to the table) made this extremely compelling. Here's hoping we haven't seen the last of her work. "Shadows of Hope" Story: Ken Penders; Art: Ron Lim; Ink: Al Milgrom; Color: Jason Jensen; Letterer: John E. Workman; Editor: Mike Pellerito; Managing Editor: Victor Gorelick; Editor:-in-Chief: Richard Goldwater: I Have No Idea What These Sega Employees Do With The Comic: Robert Leffler and Dyna Lopez. Picking up on a dangling plot thread from "Love and Loss," we see Uncle Chuck and Rosie keeping company while Hope reads a book and Shadow snoops on all three of them. While Shadow is trying to process the family resemblance between Hope and Maria, he's confronted by a cloaked figure. The CF tells Shadow he'd like to hire him to do something. Shadow tells him "No Sale" but the figure then tries to lasso Shadow, which only makes him angry. What appears to happen (and it's a little confusing) is that just as Shadow lunges at the stranger a hole in the Space- Time Continuum opens up and swallows not only Shadow but also Hope who'd been watching from the sidelines. When's the last time I saw this? Oh, yeah, the answer's staring at me from the ad across the page: the same thing happened to Starfire in the Teen Titans ep "How Long Is Forever?" Great ep, BTW. And on the opposite side of the page an ad for the TV series based on the W.I.T.C.H. books. "Teamwork is the ultimate power," a lesson lost on a lone wolf like Shadow. Speaking of Shadow, he ... OK, up until this point I thought that it was Shadow whose words we were reading in the text boxes, but from the look of things on page [4] it's the Cloaked Figure who's been doing all the thinking. I mean, c'mon, Shadow so dominated the foreground in that very first panel it was an honest mistake, right? Anyway, it seems Mr. "Chaos Control" can't even handle a simple judo flip combined with "the power of the Chaos Emerald, channeled any way you want to slice it." Ken, I'm sorry, but any way you want to slice it, that dialogue needs work. And now, a quick flashback by Shadow to his creator and the murder of the Doc's granddaughter Maria by GUN operatives. Since he's momentarily run out of options he tells the hooded dude "OK, let's talk." Before the subject can turn to the weather or their respective health, Mr. Hoodie reveals himself to be ... Locke, who was stuck with taking care of the Master Emerald at the conclusion of the Return To Angel Island arc. Right now, he wants to use Shadow to locate the missing Angel Islanders who got spirited away to Robotnik's Matrix Winery. At this point, however, Hope intervenes. Another "Oops!" moment to rank with Stripe and Peckers so intent on sharing information the young Sally shouldn't know that they don't realize she's standing in the same room with them. While she converses with Locke ... OK, Hope is talking to Locke, and we get another dose of flashback, and everything about the scene logically says it should be Shadow having the flashback. So How come it's Locke's thought we eavesdrop upon again? Is Hope that boring of a conversationalist that he lets his mind wander? Bad move since yet another Shadow flashback motivates him to bust loose. Locke and Shadow mix it up for about two pages until Hope tries breaking up the fight. This is Shadow's cue to leave and Locke earns the year's first Golden "Duh!" Award by saying "Things didn't go so well today...." HEAD: After reading this story I'm more convinced than ever that writing in the first person singular is like driving a car with a stick shift: either you can do it or you can't and if you can't then you shouldn't even try unless you want to mess up your trannie. Aside from the temptation to simply walk away from the style when the writer get bored (something that's happened more than once in this comic), there's also the likelihood that the system will simply break down completely, which is what happened here. Ken starts out with having Locke address us in the first person singular even though the initial frame screams that it should be Shadow speaking in that voice. Then we get an interlude where Shadow DOES speak in the first person singular; this is a multiplication of narrators which is patently inconsistent in a first person singular narrative. Then we get another helping of Locke precisely at the moment we're seeing SHADOW'S memories and where every rule of narrative screams that this should still be Shadow's segment. At the end of the story Ken has given up all together. One of the fans suggested to me that this story would benefit from simply skipping over the text boxes. I tried it, and it actually helped! That's not a good sign. Sure, that leaves some pages with no text and all pictures. What's wrong with that? I understand that Marvel is doing an experiment where for one month, in all their comics, the stories will be told using ONLY pictures. That's where manga has it all over American comics. Since their beginnings, American comics have tended to look like scenes from a stage play or stills from a motion picture. You could have said the same thing about Japanese comics ... until after the Second World War when Osamu Tezuka literally rewrote the rules for the medium and pretty much laid the groundwork for the manga we know today. The primary influences on him weren't the comics that had gone before, after the manner of comic artists who continue to identify with the Gold and/or Silver Ages of the medium. Rather, he was inspired by American and French motion pictures, and his comic panels looked like small storyboard drawings. Manga became highly visual and the drawings carried their share of the narrative weight. Only now, it seems, has Marvel gotten around to comprehending that fact. Of course if this story even HAD a story, as it were, things might have gone easier. In a nutshell, Locke tries kidnaping Shadow in order to exploit his abilities to locate the inhabitants of Angel Island who were zapped by the Nameless Hunter Dude toward the end of the RtAI story arc. Seems simple enough. The complicating factor is that since Shadow is an Ultimate Life Form, if only in his own mind, he's not into being manipulated. This is a common enough theme in Japanese popular culture: the ultimate futility of trying to control an ultimate weapon. It should have been simple enough to construct a story with this backbone. But whether it was the demands of first person singular storytelling or some editorial fiat, the narrative line got so knotted up that telling the story in this case worked against the story itself. The parts are all there but the whole never materializes. I can put flour, butter and sugar in a bowl but it takes something more than that to make shortbread cookies. Head Score: 4. EYE: Ron Lim's artwork is actually pretty good here, though the hatch marks on Locke's and Shadow's muzzles (or whatever they're called) look too much like whiskers. And does Shadow's torso really taper down as severely as Captain America's? This is one of those details that make me regret it when an Old School artist tries giving furries human proportions. Speaking of humans, the appearance of Hope in this story points up one of the problems with having a rotating stable of artists: loss of control over style. When Spaz drew Hope for the cover of S143, she was all compact and chibi-cute. Art Mawhinney's Hope wasn't as chibi but was still sort of appealing in a cherubic sort of way. Here, Ron is not kind to her; she looks like she spent the last two days living on crack. I suppose that her dimensions are correct for her age (10 or 11, if you factor in Sonic's year of absence). But the difference between the Lim and Mawhinney Hopes is so severe that there's no way that they could be harmonized even with a model sheet. They ARE using a model sheet for Hope, right? Eye Score: 5. HEART: This story, as part of the Under New Management phase of the comic, exists to reintroduce Shadow and Hope, and possibly Locke. Though he's had more recent exposure than the other two, Locke seems to get the lion's share of the attention here. Ken is pretty clear about Locke's motivation ... once the story gets to where it's going. Unfortunately, Ken's penchant for action comics reasserts itself in the fight scenes between Locke and Shadow, which puts a hitch in the narrative stride. Hope comes off as an irenic influence in this story once she's finished being a bystander to the plot, which doesn't happen until page [6] of this 9-pager. By asking Locke to let Shadow go and Shadow not to kill Locke, she demonstrates the kind of compassion that's common to manga heroines (and the occasional hero). This is a good start, but when I finished the story I realized that it just felt wrong. It wasn't wrong in a way that could have been tweaked structurally. I think it had to do with the fact that Hope's compassion was just something she did, something that was expected of her when the story was written. It wasn't something she earned. Perhaps a longer story would have afforded the chance to flesh our her character and make this development feel more natural. Shadow is about as straightforward as you can get and the flashback sequences (first person singular text boxes notwithstanding) give us some idea of what he's about. We end up knowing somewhat more about his background than that of the other two characters because after all this is his re-introduction. Again, though, we're only given 9 pages to take it all in. If there's one factor that ultimately brings down this story, this is probably it. Heart Score: 5. "Training Day" Story: Karl Bollers; Art: Al Bigley; Ink : Michael Higgins; Color: Jason Jensen; Lettering: Michael Higgins. Instead of simply downloading information about Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy Rose into the data banks of a group of SWATbots, Robotnik (who still looks like Eggman to me) blathers on about each of them. That's it. HEAD: To Karl Bollers falls the thankless task of reintroducing the five main franchise Sega characters in as many pages (well, it's five if you count Eggman). Whereas his story "The Last Robian" simply cast aside any narrative aspirations and became what I called "an outline with pictures" in order to set up the Sonic Adventure 2.5 story arc, there's even less of an attempt to tell a story here. It's just Eggman talking as if he were reading copy handed to him by the two Sega reps whose names appear in every issue of this comic. There are a few points, however, when WHAT Eggman says deserves a second look. There's what Eggman calls Tails's "nausea-inducing friendship" with Sonic. In fact, that element has been MIA from the book for quite some time. Danny Fingeroth was able to play it to its full advantage in the "Heart of the Hedgehog" two-parter, and you got a small sense of it when the two were reunited in the Home arc. Other than that, the comic hasn't been too eager to put their friendship on display. The bigger surprise, however, is Eggman's mentioning of Amy Rose's reading of tarot cards. This is a Sega-certified plot point that as far as I know has never appeared in the games and CERTAINLY not in the comic. I suppose that if Archie ever did slip up and show Amy Rose reading a spread they'd be bracing themselves to hear from the kind of moral guardians who think that J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter books are co-written by Satan. Then again, how much flak have they caught for running the Sabrina comic? I shouldn't be surprised that this story ended up the way it did. Given the goal of the story and the space requirements, it couldn't have been handled any other way. OK, maybe it could have been Muttski giving the introductions. After all, "Say You Will" established that he could talk even though Sonic couldn't understand him before. Then again it'd probably be too cloying to have him break the fourth wall and address the readers the way Sally was supposed to as part of the original ending of "Love and Loss," and it'd be uber-cloying to have him converse with some pre-vocal little nipper like Elias's kid or Mace; besides, that device is already getting a workout in the "Arthur" series on PBS in the Kate-Pal dialogues. No, there was simply no elegant way to do what Karl needed to do here, so it's enough that he got the job done. Head Score: 9. EYE: After making hash out of Bunnie and Antoine in "One Part Ooh-La-La...," Al Bigley has a fairly good grip on the characters here. And I have to admit that despite reaction in some fan quarters, I thought the drawing of Sonic and Tails together to be kind of charming. Eye Score: 9. HEART: Sorry, this is another laundry list of character attributes. No story, no emotional engagement. Heart Score: n/a. "Harbinger" Story: Ken Penders; Art: Dawn Best; Ink: Jim Amash; Color: Jason Jensen; Lettering: Jeff Powell. It's Springtime in Mobius, and while that doesn't mean anything to a pre-ado like Tails who's got his nose buried in a book, for males just a few years older the sap is rising and they get that competitive urge, especially when the ladies are present. This being an Archie Comic instead of an Animal Planet documentary, however, Sonic and Ash are sublimating the ol' primal bloodlust in a game of darts. Sonic's shot ricochets off the board and Ash misses the target all together. Let's call it a draw. Tails, meanwhile, comes to the following profound thought (see if you can determine its significance): "I always used to think the Kingdom relied less on technology simply because otherwise we'd be more like Robotnik!" You wanna be more like Robotnik, spend the next month living on Big Macs, kiddo. Anyway, Tails shows up just as Tommy Turtle makes another bid for major player status and Rotor considers the "seismic event" that Ken mentioned 4 pages ago for no real reason except for purposes of foreshadowing. And despite the fact that the event took place "several hundred miles away" Rotor declares that it released "enough energy at one point to do serious damage to Knothole!" The reader will be forgiven for asking "WHAT damage?!?" We then get a page laying out the Freedom Fighter pecking order: Tails and Rotor are the tech guys, Sonic and Bunnie are the muscle, and Sally is the leader. I don't know what that makes Antoine, but he might want to take an opportunity during this hiatus to read the fine print in his contact. Tails sees Mina and Ash heading out of the game room, which is where he finds Sonic who told Tails that the kid was so absorbed in what he was reading that Sonic couldn't connect with him. We then get a half page of world-building as Sonic insists on enumerating the contents of his overnight bag. Sally shows up as the send-off committee. At least she's over screaming at Sonic; in fact, her thought balloons let us know that the fireworks from "Say You Will" are pretty much over. About the only business left is to fast-forward to their destination, where Shadow comes across "the prototype from Professor Gerald's encrypted data-files!" This SOUNDS impressive but is about as useful in this installment as a rubber crutch. Maybe it'll be explained next issue. HEAD: If "Shadows of Hope" served to reintroduce Shadow and Hope, and "Training Day" reintroduced the game franchise characters, this story reintroduces Sally, Bunnie, Rotor and a few others. The important thing to note is the [here comes the R-word] relationships between the players. But I'll say more about that in the Heart section. Unlike the Home and Return To Angel Island arcs, where everybody was in motion and/or in peril, we actually get to see the cast in a laid-back setting. This gives us a better idea of who these characters are than seeing them mix it up with Robotnik or his techno-progeny. Ash is something of a revelation here, moreso than in the Home arc. The attitude is more front-and- center, and it's clear that Sonic's heroics aren't going to count for much with him. Whether this is big-time struttin' or not, it fills in the blanks. Ken tells a fairly tight story here, though the explosion on the first page was totally optional. Also the inventory scene with Sonic gave me a flashback to "Slumber Party," the most expendable of the M25YL stories. Those problem areas aside, the story does what it's supposed to. Head Score: 7. EYE: Dawn Best takes a break from the real world to return to Mobius. Seems she works in an advertising agency where meetings "end with someone being lied to." Oh, yeah, that's the ad game all right. Her trademark artwork (broad character design, dynamic gestures) hasn't suffered during her absence. And while her hind view of Sally at the top of Page [7] makes me think Sal's come down with a case of thunder thighs, the center panel of Sal and her thoughts emerging from the cloud bank is pure shojo manga and a satisfying break from how the Old School would have handled it. Eye Score: 9. HEART: Anyone who read "Say You Will" KNOWS that the tectonic plates have shifted. Instead of raising her voice to Sonic, she raises a prayer for his well-being. Whether on his own or by editorial fiat on Fred's part, Karl Bollers worked to break up the set. But Ken Penders was busy portraying Sonic and Sally as married in the back half of the book. That apparently set up the fan wars of the previous year, which is no way to run a comic. Mike must have realized this and called for a truce if not a full-blown surrender to the forces of peace and love. In a way, this story handles the Sonic-Sally relationship exactly right. In the farewell scene, Sally and Sonic aren't all over each other, nor is she screeching like a banshee at him. Instead, there's a lot that goes unsaid between them, a lot of thought balloons left unshared. Which strikes me as just the right tone for a teenage romance. I've never really trusted this comic to deal in a straight way with the relationship between the two of them, in part because the flagship Archie comics are just as unrealistic if not moreso when it comes to hyoomon teenagers. And the pre-Xorda relationship between the two struck me as being just as phony. Sure, we got Sonic and Sally lip-pocked on a couple occasions. That was the problem. It had that certain whiff of death; Karl was setting these kids up to fall into a barge-load of misery. He should have told the pencil artists to draw bull's-eyes on their foreheads. Whatever Ken's story concerning Dr. Gerald's data-files, the Sonic-Sally fans can rest easy knowing that, if only tentatively, the two are edging back together. And the anti-Sally faction should take it at face value and let it go. Heart Score: 10. Sonic-Grams: Areo the Hedgehog's ceiling fan joke was more entertaining than Mike's discourse on letter selection criteria. Gunner Sledgeski suggests a fan plebiscite as to which character to resurrect; you REALLY want fan response, Mike, open the contest to suggestions on whom to kill off forever. Nina Cafaro casts her vote in favor of Shadow. Rico Fernandez declares that the fate of the Original Freedom Fighters was "kind of cheap" and "cheesy." Can't improve on that. The Numbers Game: Ron Bauerle's annual crunching of the circulation numbers showed that the comic did pretty good in 2004 compared to the previous year. Editorial: Mike plugs the impending Sonic-Shadow rematch and a Sonic X mini-series to be released during the summer and which I'll probably review as a unit. On the downside, we're also looking at an impending Tommy Turtle story. Off-Panel: seems to me I spend part of the last review noting that the letterer appears to be at the bottom of the comic book food chain. This month they get their props.