Sonic The Hedgehog #178 (Oct 2007)
     Yardley/Amash/Jensen cover: "Sonic vs. Tails: Friends No
More!"  Is this a major realignment of one of the fundamental
relationships in the continuity, or is it merely a cheap way
to plug "Sonic Rivals 2"?


     "House of Cards: Part 1"
     Story: Ian Flynn; Art: Tracy Yardley!; Ink: Jim Amash;
Color: Jason Jensen; Lettering : John E. Workman; Editor: Mike
Pellerito; Managing Editor: Victor Gorelick; Editor-in-Chief:
Richard Goldwater

     We kick off with Amadeus Prower and a bunch of furry
extras doing the "Do You Hear The People Sing?" number from
the first act of "Les Miserables."  It's a nice dynamic
drawing, but since nobody's brought the torches and pitchforks
this must be an amateur production.  Sure enough, on the next
page the reviews come in via Nicole: the revolution was broken
up and Amadeus got busted.  Apparently, Amadeus and Rosemary
didn't know they weren't yet ready for the big time.  For
stating the obvious, Sonic lands on Tails's bad side, which
Nicole has to explain to Sonic, without much success.  Sonic
also appears too confident of his ability to handle Tails, but
cuts things short to barrel past Tails and Rosemary on his way
to catch up with Knuckles.  Sonic may be a hero but he needs
to work on his people skills.
     At Uncle Chuck's caf‚, Julie-Su is strongly objecting to
Knuckles's wanting to return to Angel Island solo.  Vector
tells him "You made no sense just now."  Translation: "A
little exposition for the benefit of the readers would be good
here."  After Knux explains why he's blowing this chili dog
stand, Sonic arrives and we get a bit more exposition. 
Knuckles eventually departs, with Julie-Su promising herself
to beat him to a pulp if he gets in trouble.
     In the "New Mobotropolis" (that's the official name)
slammer, Elias drops by during visiting hours.  Bean greets
him with the line: "Well, snap my fanny and call me mouth!" 
That line is so Zen it automatically vaults into contention
for a spot on my 2007 Best-Worst List, but whether it will be
for Best Dialogue or Worst Dialogue remains to be seen.  Elias
then dialogues with Amadeus, who seem to differ on whether
what we didn't see constituted a "riot" and who holds forth in
one of the most crowded word balloons I've ever seen in this
or any comic book.  He demonstrates a fair grasp of Mobian
history ... for someone who was stuck on a donut-shaped planet
for the past dozen or so years and is still a relative
newcomer.  And he has the chutzpah to call Elias
"inexperienced"!
     The encounter is enough to bring down Elias who's doing
the Achilles Sulk when Sonic shows up (to quote a character
from "The Tick": "Even now he sulks like Achilles in his
tent ... Achilles ... it's the Iliad ... it's Homer ... read a
BOOK!!").  Elias leaves the impression that he'd just as soon
abdicate if it weren't for his old man.  Speaking of whom, he
wheels into the scene expecting his son to throw Amadeus into
Abu Ghraib, which would compromise the comic book's CCA
approval.  Even uncrowned, the old man is still calling the
shots.
     Cut to the jazzy night scene where Tails breaks into
Gitmo-In-The-Woods to spring his old man.  Nicole, unable to
stop Tails, takes a page from the Harry Potter franchise and
apparates in Sonic's bedroom, providing some much-needed comic
relief as she does.  Sonic scoots to the slammer before Nicole
can deliver the punch line about who broke in.  But it's Tails
who delivers the punch line when he sucker punches Sonic from
behind.  The 'rents then take a powder, still expecting to
talk the Royals into getting out of the business.  They don't
seem to have come up with a plan about what happens after
that, though.  Sounds like what happened in Iraq.
     Back at the jail, egged on by the villains in the
audience, Sonic and Tails prepare to beat up on each other. 
Let's see, this comic has put Sonic on the receiving end of a
beating several times already, the last time being three
issues ago, so he's due for another pounding.  


     HEAD: This story suffers from the same problem that
occurred in #172's "Truth of the Heart," specifically in the
final page where Tails, after being definitively dumped by
Fiona as part of her heel turn, tells the others that he needs
to go home to Mom.  I would have liked to see that, and it
would have been a chance for some good, affective writing, but
Ian blew it off.  Which is a shame.
     Comics, like any narrative medium, are about
storytelling, and storytelling works better when you show
what's happening rather than just talk about it.  THAT HAS YET
TO HAPPEN WITH TAILS AND HIS INSTANT FAMILY!  We have NO idea
whatsoever what their family dynamic is like, except for the
odd crumb Ian throws at us now and then such as the husband-
wife repartee in this issue on page [12].  But we're supposed
to know that Tails has a good relationship with a set of
parents he hasn't seen since infancy and who've been living
among bug-eyed aliens with no real knowledge of what's been
happening on Mobius for the last decade because ... well, just
because.
     It feels like an entire story disappeared from this
comic.  After last issue's defeat of Robotnik, it would've
been worth an entire issue for Ian to slow down and set the
table for the revolution scene by writing a simple episodic
story of the Mobians settling into their new digs.  We'd get
to see Tails and his folks up-close and observe the
interactions between them while Amadeus and Rosemary work on
their rabble-rousing skills, such as they are.  We'd get to
see Bunnie and Antoine adjust to married life.  We'd get to
revisit the Royals and get an understanding of how and why
Elias simply collapses like a busted balloon when his old man
is on the scene (Sally, BTW, is conspicuous by her absence
from this issue, and Alicia would be unemployed if someone
gave Max a motorized wheelchair).  And we'd even get a tour of
the city if he worked it right, thus freeing up five more
pages that basically sit at the back of this issue and do
nothing.  World-building is a useless exercise if you don't
care about the beings who populate said world.
     Another problem I have with this story is that, though I
think Elias is painted as too big of a wimp and King Max is
too big of a jerk, Ian still hasn't convinced me that a
revolution among the Mobians is a good thing.  Not that I have
anything against constitutional government, but I see no real
reason to get rid of the monarchy.  Perhaps because I see the
Royals more as psychological archetypes than anything else:

"Every child at some time wishes that he were a prince or
princess - and at times, in his unconscious, the child
believes he is one, only temporarily degraded by
circumstances.  There are so many kings and queens in fairy
tales because their rank signifies absolute power, such as the
parent seems to hold over his child.  So the fairy tale
royalty represent projections of the child's imagination...." 
Bruno Bettelheim, "The Uses of Enchantment," p205.

     This comic book and the TV series that directly spawned
it have already struck a blow against monarchy that Amadeus's
revolution failed to do.  It started with Sally holding the
rank of Princess but really being a princess-in-exile with
Robotnik large and in charge.  And she was available to show
leadership when needed.  But it was the plebeian Sonic who was
the hero of the series and the comic.  By virtue of his being
able to thumb his nose not only at Robotnik but even at the
animal establishment symbolized by the Royals (something I
wish had happened with more regularity), he was in a position
to challenge their pretensions without calling their
legitimacy into question.  If Sally was the Princess, Sonic
was the jester, as quick-witted as he was fleet of foot.
     Unfortunately, the comic has made hash of these ideas and
the result is the Prowers fomenting a half-baked revolution
(and by virtue of their having lived in outer space for a
decade it makes them the least qualified to do so) that wants
to see the Acorn Dynasty end but has presented NO clear
alternative with which the readers can sympathize.  An
intermediate story before this one and on the heels of S177's
"Home, New Home" should have filled in the gaps quite nicely,
allowing for some much-needed character development.  As it
is, Ian's settled for trying to explain his vision for the
comic on the fly with lumps of exposition from Amadeus, from
Knuckles, from Elias.  We're only TOLD that half the
population agrees with them; we don't know WHICH half or
whether some of the characters we know, such as Bunnie and
Antoine, are among them.  I don't know if it was Ian's idea to
show the Prowers blundering their way into a revolution the
way the U.S. blundered its way into Iraq, but so far the
similarities are a little unsettling.
     Because things are so in the middle of this story, I'm
once again holding off on rating it until the next installment
when the direction of things may become clearer.
     EYE: Tracy Yardley!'s artwork is up to its usual level;
the nighttime raid on the prison was especially nice.
     HEART: After I first decided that there needed to be a
separate story between this one and the previous issue, I
began to back away from that position.  It's Ian's show, after
all, and if he answers to anyone it's to Mike Pellerito, his
editor.  This story certainly lives up to Ian's "action and
more action" dictum of writing for Sonic.  I figured I'd
therefore try to suspend my own ideas of how the narrative
should have been constructed.
     And then I saw Naruto episode #80: "The Third Hokage
Forever."
     Quick summary: the Hidden Leaf Village is saved from
invasion, but ninja master Hayate Sarutobi, the Third Hokage,
dies.
     That quick enough for ya?
     Tears are shed, but not that many: according to the title
character, "Under no circumstances is a ninja allowed to cry.
The mission comes first. Remember that and never show any
emotions."  But it's still a supremely moving ep that ties the
characters together at a pivotal moment in the story, as well
as showing the potential of animation in storytelling.  And it
made me realize that my first instincts were right and this
comic STILL has a long way to go.
     The Prower family dynamic is the big problem here because
it's a black hole.  The revolution was hinted at broadly
enough in previous stories, but not in any way that opened up
the possibility of sympathizing with Amadeus.  I also would
have liked to see Rosemary in the dual role of mother and
revolutionary pamphleteer.  It doesn't seem like anything she
hid from Tails; he certainly doesn't seem surprised by what
happened, only dismayed that dear old Dad is in the slammer. 
And again, we don't know how for certain Tails relates to her;
that curtain has never been drawn aside.
     I wouldn't make such a big deal out of it except that the
way the story comes off now, everything is arbitrary.  The
text box references to past stories that demand leaps of
imagination to fill in the blanks don't cut it anymore.  We're
not told WHY Max is a jerk (it's not much of a stretch for
old-timers such as myself), or why Amadeus has such strong
feelings about the monarchy.  Frankly, his exposition from
jail wasn't very convincing, especially for an out-of-towner.
     And THAT'S still bugging me, to be honest.  How did those
two become the ONLY living beings left on an otherwise battle-
scarred wasteland?  Why did Amadeus start talking about
reforming the government practically from the moment he landed
back on Mobian soil?  I keep waiting for Amadeus and Rosemary
to morph into a pair of BEM or Xorda or whatever their true
form is because they've failed to convince me that they're
Tails's parents, and that happened because Ian hasn't done the
work.  I only hope this story ends up making sense because at
the half-way point it's not happening.