Sonic the Hedgehog #154 (Dec 2005)
     Sanford cover: Sonic in hunker-down mode shielding Mina. 
She's supposed to be wearing a pleated skirt, but it looks
like she's been living in it for the last two weeks.  Two
words, kid: steam iron.

     "Songoose: Part 2"
     Story: Karl Bollers, Art: Ron Lim; Ink: Jim Amash;
Coloring: Jason Jensen; Lettering: John E. Workman; Editor:
Mike Pellerito; Managing Editor: Victor Gorelick; Editor-in-
Chief: Richard Goldwater.

     Just in case anybody missed it, Mina brings the newbies
up to speed WRT Nack's attempt to blow her away in the
previous installment.  Which is why Sonic and the gang are
here: to work Security for her next concert.  During the
exposition Ash has been doing a slow burn (sorry about the
pun) and tries to dust Sonic.  Mina intervenes before the two
buttheads start butting heads in earnest, and gets repaid for
her trouble when Ash accuses her of still having a crush on
Sonic.  He can tell this because that's the way he's been
interpreting her song lyrics.  Because she won't denounce
Sonic and declare she's over him, Ash blows out of the
dressing room.
     Sonic and the rest of the gang take their places for the
concert.  Tails has got aerial recon covered, Bunnie and Fiona
are working the crowd, Amy's helped herself to the best seat
in the house just in case Mina tries to attack herself, and
Sonic is waiting in the wings.   As for Mina, she's ... well,
she's alone back in her dressing room.  Major Oops.  Sonic
goes backstage to discover his worst nightmare: a female on
the verge of tears.  But she gets over it in the space of one
page of advertisement.  On-stage she goes into her opening
number, the lyrics of which seems to me to have been inspired
by Ash, who may be picking up on that fact himself.
     Meanwhile, Eggman is monitoring the progress of Heavy and
Bomb 2.0 as they head for the stage.  Tails notices the
multiple Bombs in the crowd about the same time that someone
else in the crowd does, and everyone conveniently scatters. 
As Sonic whisks Mina off the stage, Ash is right there to keep
the grudge match going.  Meanwhile, Amy is preparing to start
hammering on the bombs (which doesn't strike me as being a
very good idea) while Bunnie punches them out (which suggests
that their force is considerably less than thermonuclear) and
Fiona jumps over them to ... well, to be pointless, I guess. 
But just as the confrontation between Sonic and Ash starts to
get heavy, Heavy 2.0 takes that as his cue to crash the stage. 
Sonic delegates Ash to get Mina outta there.
     Sonic then gets the idea to burrow down and under the
lake bed, then come up under the lake flooding the tunnel and
taking out Heavy.  Sonic admits at the last possible moment
that this might not have been his smartest idea.  Both Sonic
and Heavy are thus doomed to a watery grave.
     After Bunnie saves Sonic ... yeah, that was a pretty
quick save with Sonic blacking out in one panel and coming to
in the next.  Sonic then blows in a call to Sally to declare
"Mission Accomplished" as they start to head home.  But Mina
and Ash return to her dressing room just in time to discover
one of the Bombs sitting on her dresser waiting to go BOOM. 
Before it can detonate itself, though, Ash hustles it outside,
acting like someone from an old Sgt. Rock comic.  Both Ash and
Mina suffer from a bad case of cross-hatching from the
resulting explosion but Ash's glasses aren't even cracked.
     Old Dr. Quack confirms that Ash is OK but he's going to
have to spend a while on the mend.  "He's sleeping, but you
can go see him now, Mina."  Guess the doc doesn't think Ash
needs to sleep all that badly.  Once in his hospital room,
Mina declares that despite the things that she and Sonic have
been through, it's Ash whom she loves.  If history is any
indication, though, that won't be enough to convince the
Sonic/Mina fans.  Sonic takes the hint and leaves, and we're
treated to a page of Eggman ranting and teasing us with the
genesis of yet another fallible scheme.  What will it be?  Who
cares?

     HEAD: This story flowed a lot more cleanly that last
issue's installment, which was slow getting off the starting
block because of all the exposition about Antoine.  Here there
are only two plot points to deal with: the Mina/Ash/Sonic
relationship row, and the attempt by Heavy and Bomb 2.0 on
Mina.
     Mercifully, the two strands come together in the story's
climax where Mina declares herself to be over the Blue Blur. 
I kind of got that impression during Mina's segment of "Love
and Loss" myself.
     Despite the improvement over the previous installment,
this story does have a couple problems.  I can see, for
instance, Sonic's utilizing the lake water to put Heavy out of
commission, but the rescue of Sonic was a little abrupt. 
Still, I suppose that's how it would seem to Sonic. 
     And we continue to be subjected to the dumbing-down of
Robotnik into Eggman.  It's one thing to change the modeling
of a character, but it appears that the older Robotnik who
still carried a hint of menace is no more and has officially
become a buffoon as Eggman.  This will be even more evident in
the Sonic X comic.
     It IS possible to have a villain that equally combines
menace and humor.  The Disney studios have brought a good
number of them to life, though some of the more successful
ones were borrowed from other sources: Cruella DeVil from
Dodie Smith's novel "The 101 Dalmatians" and Captain Hook from
James Barrie's "Peter Pan."  But the consensus seems to be
that Robotnik's metamorphosis into Eggman means losing the
character's sense of menace (which owed more than a little
something to the character of Darth Vader).  I can't help but
feel that the comic will be poorer for the change.  Head
Score: 8.
     EYE: Again there are palm trees when Mina is in concert,
but someone came up with a plausible explanation: I was
informed that her announced venue is the Green Hill Zone and
there were palm trees in that Zone in the game.  So I'll
concede that they belong.  I also apologize for not finding
the name of the person who set me straight.
     Otherwise, it's still hard to deal with some aspects of
Ron Lim's modeling, such as the fact that Amy Rose, Mina and
Ash all seem to have one eyelid that works over both eyes. 
That's just plain creepy.  Eye Score: 5.
     HEART: The diehard Sonic/Mina fans aren't going to buy
it, but for like the third time, Mina is over Sonic.  Let's
count the ways:
     1. "Hearts Held Hostage: Part 2" shows Mina watching the
passionate reunion of Sonic and Sally and realizes that he's
never going to feel that way about her.
     2. "Love and Loss" shows Mina imagining herself with
Sonic and Ash and the picture of her and Ash is way steamier
that the picture of her and Sonic.
     3. "Songoose: Part 2" has Mina declaring to Ash at the
end that "I don't love [Sonic], I love you."  You'd think that
would seal the deal.  But if you think so, you don't know
fans.
     When it comes to fans, we have our definite favorites,
likes, dislikes, and preferences.  This is especially true WRT
couples.  The various combinations proposed for "Digimon
Tamers" alone is staggering, though some of it (like the
Takato/Yamaki pairing) HAS to be a joke.
     But despite the fact that Karl Bollers couldn't make
himself any clearer if he visited the fans in person and
informed them "Mina is so over Sonic!", there will be those
who continue to think that Sonic/Mina is the best thing that
could happen to this comic.
     This is the problem with trying to introduce romantic
elements into a story like this: the fans have already made up
their minds and there's going to be no pleasing the ones who
get shorted.  The writers can't expect the diehards to be
satisfied with their explanations and will continue to be
besieged by requests to recouple the uncoupled.  You can say
it ain't gonna happen until you're as blue in the face as
Sonic but that won't change a thing.  Just as the Sonic/Mina
fans have to learn to live with the reality of Ash/Mina, so
the writers will have to learn to live with dissatisfied
customers.
     And that's not always a bad thing.  If the fans didn't
care with whom Sonic, Sally, Mina and the rest were keeping
time, the odds are they'd drop the comic like one of those
Bomb 2.0 things with the self-pulling pin (I think that's what
that is, anyway).  It's a sign of life, an indication that the
fans are passionate about this comic, even if they express
their passion by screaming at the writers.  Take it as a
compliment, Karl, and move on.
     Having Ash almost blow himself up trying to keep Mina
from getting hurt is sort of what Karl did back in "Hearts
Held Hostage" when Mina took a bullet meant for Sally. 
Nothing like self-sacrifice to clarify emotional issues.  All
things considered, Karl handled the Sonic-Mina split here very
well, with Mina having an awareness of her emotional state
that was very well expressed.  Heart Score: 9.


     "More Than Meets The Eye"
     Story: Ken Penders, Art: Ken Penders; Ink: Ken Penders,
Color: Jason Jensen; Lettering: [presumably] Ken Penders

     With nothing better to do, the so-called Brain Trust has
decided to experiment on some of the leftover nanites from
"Sonic's Angels."  We arrive just in time to learn that high
doses of electricity don't seem to phase them, or do much of
anything else to them.  Tommy, who's turned metrosexual and is
wearing Lee Press-On Nails(tm) for no good reason, complains
that the electricity has killed the nanites.  Uncle Chuck and
the Uber-Twerp try to bring Tommy up to speed on the concept
of whether robots can even be considered to be "alive." 
Still, Tommy hangs back, feeling sorry for the nanites.
     A tear shed by Tommy lands in the petri dish and makes
the nanites come alive.  "Turtle tears!" Uncle Chuck was later
heard to exclaim, "Why didn't I think of that before?" 
Because you're not a writer for a comic book, Unc, but never
mind.  Tommy wants to tell the rest of the science geeks what
just happened, but then the nanites jump him when his back is
turned.
     So what happens?  Do they turn him into a robo-turtle? 
No.  Do they infest his consciousness and make him part of The
Contiguity?  Nope.  Do they kill him by eating his brain?  You
wish!  No, seems they enter into a symbiotic relationship with
Tommy's shell with the result that Tommy can now sprout wings,
jet rockets, or anything else that's metal, sort of like
Inspector Gadget.  Maybe he'll acquire a robotic niece named
Nickel (because that's what her shell is made of) and a robo-
dog named Brain Trust; that way he could get his own comic
book and leave the rest of us alone.

     HEAD: Say hello to Tommy Turtle 3.0.  The first encounter
with Tommy still remains the best, and his act of self-
sacrifice was both affecting and plausible.  Once someone had
the bright ideas of resurrecting him, however, nobody seemed
to come up with any idea as to just what to do with him.  The
last attempt, in "Out Of Your Shell" (S146), had him joining
the Brain Trust because he's a neat freak, playing Felix Unger
to Rotor's Oscar Madison.  Now he's become, I don't know, some
sort of Swiss Army Turtle or something, able to generate
cockamamie accessories just by thinking about it.
     Ken Penders has taken upon himself the hopeless task of
taking a character who's almost universally hated (if fan buzz
is to be believed) and making him both interesting and
indispensable to the cast.  How does Ken do this?  Stan Lee to
the rescue!  Ken has thrown himself on old school Marvel comic
book writing the way a desperate sinner might throw himself on
the mercy of God.
     Despite the bow to the Transformers franchise in the
title, it's pretty clear that Ken is quoting from the Gospel
According to Marvel, the Book of Spiderman, Chapter 1.  Just
substitute "nanites" for "radioactive spider" and you pretty
much know what's going on here.  Ken does bring one non-Marvel
element to the party, which will be discussed in the Heart
section, but the end result is the same.
     This story actually would have worked better had it been
TWO five-pagers instead of one.  The first part would have
been used to establish Tommy's sense of simpatico for the
nanites utilizing more than the two panels it receives here. 
That way, the story could build to the "Uh-oh, they're alive!"
scene in the last panel without Tommy knowing it, and ending
on a true cliffhanger moment.  Then Ken could have spent the
next five-pager developing the gimmick.  Ken has always been
better at writing action stories, and here his impatience to
get on with the action is evident in the truncated scene of
Tommy feeling sorry for the nanites.  In countless anime
series an entire episode might be devoted to establishing a
character's yasashii credentials or telling their back story
to flesh out their motivation; here, Ken tries but it still
comes off as hurried, stiff and unnatural. Head Score: 4.
     EYE: Ken's art is unspectacular, falling somewhere
between the A-list artists and Ron Lim.  The only standout (in
every sense) feature in this story are Tommy's fingernails
which look like they were borrowed from Elvira, Mistress Of
The Dark.  WHAT was Ken thinking?  Eye Score: 6.
     HEART: The one interesting thing that Ken brings to the
story is the notion that Tommy could feel compassion for the
nanites.  That's a pretty bold step for Ken, who in the past
has demonstrated he's way more comfortable working in an
action genre.  After all, he was the writer of "Those Were The
Days" (S120) which started out being a story about Julie-Su
coming to terms with the "death" of Knuckles and turned into a
story about Vector and his crash-landing gyrocopter.  This
story started out with Tommy feeling sorry for nanites and
turned into a story about a winged turtle and jet packs and
VRRROOAAARRRRUUMMM!
     Ken's heart was in the right place, I'll give him that,
and Aurora knows this comic has been pretty weak lately when
it comes to Heart.  It's a classic fairy tale set-up, really:
the runt of the litter coming out on top due to some act of
kindness.  But just because Ken wanted to infuse a little
Heart into the story it doesn't mean that his touch is sure
about it.  He demonstrates knowledge of the code by the device
of the teardrop, and knowing how to handle tears is at least
as important as knowing how to handle a sword when it comes to
writing manga/anime, or just about any other form of Japanese
popular culture.  Joy, sorrow, anger, frustration, all can be
expressed by the shedding of tears.  Mina, in the previous
story, certainly gets a chance to turn on the waterworks when
she thinks Ash has bitten the big one.
     No, Ken knows the words, it's the tune that goes wrong. 
So why does it feel like the whole thing doesn't work?
     In part, it's because of the character on whom the
gimmick is bestowed.  Tommy, for all the time he's logged in
this book, still feels like the new kid who's in this book on
some kind of Eastman-Laird scholarship.  He's done nothing to
really merit fan attention, but the writers keep trying to
push him to take center stage without earning it.  The fans
can sense this, which frankly makes Tommy so easy to hate.
     This is bad enough, but Ken compounds the problem by
overselling the fact that Tommy isn't being harmed by the
nanites when they jump him.  He has Tommy pretty much resort
to slapstick instead: withdrawing into his shell and flipping
over on his back, which no sane turtle would ever do, followed
by the "That tickles" line and the stupid BWAHAHAHAHA laugh. 
This passage could better have been used to engage the fans by
building suspense right up to the unveiling of the gimmick. 
Instead, Ken dismissed the possibility of suspense and ends up
being about as subtle as Meg Ryan in the deli scene of "When
Harry Met Sally."
     Since this review was begun, Ken has hinted on his
message board that like the action figures that inspired the
title, there's more to Tommy's possession by the nanites than
meets the eye.  Yet I fear the readers will follow
developments more out of a dull curiosity than any kind of fan
love for Tommy.  While trying to present Tommy with a measure
of character development, Ken saddles Tommy with the kind of
gimmick that overrides character, that frankly gets in the
way.  And since Tommy didn't have that much character going
in, his gimmick threatens to BECOME his character.
     An ironic symbol of this is the latest Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtle action figure line, the "M.E.C.H. Rekkers," which
are basically mech suits, one for each turtle.  Now you KNOW
that Eastman and Laird worked hard all those years ago when
they launched the TMNT to give the boys individual
personalities and identities despite their lack of physical
differences.  And aren't mech suits for the TMNT just a little
superfluous, if not insulting?  OK, I can see it as a use-
once-and-throw-away bit where it might enhance their ninjutsu
the way Sigourney Weaver got into the cargo hauler to do a
little one-on-one alien-fu with Big Mama A in "Aliens."  But
putting wings on Tommy at this point is not an enhancement
because there's nothing to enhance.
     But Ken implied on his MB and declared using a heavy-
handed text box, this is "definitely not the end" of Archie's
attempts to milk this gimmick until the gimmick is dead on
metallic feet.  Ken is guarding his cards closely, but
basically this could go one of two directions: either Tommy
will end up a hero through the timely use of the gimmick even
if it takes the place of his developing a personality (which
is pretty much what happened to Bunnie after SSS11's
"Upgrade"), or else the gimmick will go wrong and he'll crash
and burn literally and/or figuratively.  I'm betting that it's
the latter, and that maybe Tommy will get to die all over
again and succeed this time.
     I say that not because I want to see Tommy get clobbered
for no good reason.  It's just that I'm sick and tired of
gimmicks.  Tommy has had wings and jet thrusters thrust upon
him, and while it's still early it doesn't seem to have
translated into an uptick of his personality quotient among
the fans on the boards.  They didn't like him before he was
given the gimmick, and having the gimmick isn't helping; not
yet, anyway.
     Compare this to the reception of another character in the
comic: Nicole's furry physical form in Tania del Rio's
"Stargazing."  This character wasn't just accepted by the fan
base, it was more like a mad rush to embrace her.  I haven't
stayed on top of the fanfic scene to the extent that I used
to, but I wouldn't be surprised if more than one writer has a
story in the works about her becoming a permanent resident of
Knothole.
     So what's the difference?  Why has Tommy been seriously
dissed by most fans while Neo-Nicole (as I call her) gained
immediate acceptance?
     I don't believe, for starters, that it is a gender and/or
species thing.  I think it has to do with the writing.  Tania
del Rio not only presented us with a personality in the form
of Neo-Nicole, but enhanced Sally's personality as well by the
interaction of the two characters.  The gimmickry of that
story was, in fact, nominal and secondary in importance to the
personalities inhabiting it.  Tommy's personality to date
hasn't gone much beyond being a neatnik and taking part in
that lame rubber glove scene in Good/Bad/Unknown.  Ken tried
to infuse some personality into Tommy with his bout of
compassion, but you got the impression that Ken's heart was
really in writing for Tommy Turtle as if he were Peter Parker. 
Maybe Editorial should let del Rio do character development
stories enhancing poor schlubs like Tommy, and then Karl and
Ken can just follow her lead.  They can't do worse than what
they're doing now.  Heart: 3.