Sonic the Hedgehog #205 (Dec 2009) Pat Spaziante cover: Sonic, Tails and Robotnik. "The team- up no-one guessed." Uh, hate to break it to you, but this is literally old news. Go back to the covers of Sonic #23, #27 and #28 if you don't believe me. "On The Run: Part 1: All The Eggs In One Basket" Story: Ian Flynn; Art: Steven Butler; Ink: Terry Austin; Color: Matt Herms; Lettering: John E. Workman; Assistant Editor: Paul Kaminski; Editor: Mike Pellerito; Editor-in-Chief: Victor Gorelick; Sega Licensing reps: Cindy Chau and Jerry Chu To recap: after blowing a fuse, Eggman got put away in the rubber room. But it appears his neural connections are starting to reconnect, because he remembers the Get Out Of Jail Free code. He's also lucid enough to recognize Snively and give him a major bawling-out before he wanders off to pursue his idee fixe of stopping Sonic. Snively tries to mobilize the troops, but happens to run into the Bull King, literally. The two of them hear and feel Eggman makes his break by commandeering an Egg Tortoise. It's really not as stupid-looking as the Egg Lobster in S171's "I Am" but it's enough to scare the Dark Legionnaires and the Ninja Bats. Either that or it's a comment on Eggman's driving skills. Sonic, at the moment, is dropping in on Bunnie as she recuperates in hospital from getting whipped around by the Iron Queen two issues back. Dr. Quack has her on intravenous Gatorade(tm), which he calls "an emergency influx of electrolytes," and supervised bed-rest with hubby Antoine doing the supervising. Khan drops by with a peace offering for not warning her about the Queen being a technomage even though he's supposed to be on bed rest himself. Bunnie tells Khan to stop beating himself up, in a continuation of the monkey lovefest from last issue. Just then Nicole rezzes in with news that something major is headed their way. Khan, however, is steered back to his own room. Sonic finds Eggman piloting the Egg Tortoise, engaged in a hit-or-miss attempt to locate Knothole and apparently forgetting that he destroyed it 30 issues ago and that Nicole has got the new model secure. It takes him a bit, but the Doc recognizes Sonic and starts throwing missiles around. Back at the castle, the Queen strikes her Dramatic Pose and starts ordering the troops about. Conquering Storm (Remember her?) reports in that Espio not only failed to do away with Knuckles but decamped back to the Shinobi Clan. As a result, Connie is sent back to the Dragon Kingdom to get an idea of what's happening at the home office, a prospect that seems to agree with her even though it means her disappearing from the story line. Queenie then dusts Snively and orders Dimitri to man the defenses and muster the Dark Legion. Apparently still smarting from the rebuff in S201 where the Queen wouldn't disable the explosives in the Legionnaire's dreads, he passes the buck to Lien-Da and then in effect says "I'll be in my room." Lien-Da considers her options then in effect says "I'll be in my room." Guess they weren't paying attention during the management retreat. Or maybe all they remember is the "retreat" part, I don't know. Tails catches up with Sonic, who's been keeping Robotnik busy by being a moving target. He has Tails disable the Egg Tortoise. The Tortoise and the action then both come to a halt as Tails and Sonic discuss the situation. Ever since S200 when he drove Robotnik over the edge, Sonic's lost the heart for total confrontation. Tails comes around to his point of view, and they conclude that putting the big guy in protective custody would be better than lateraling him back to the Irons with a note saying "Does This Belong To You?". OK, so how mad of a mad scientist is Robotnik now? Well, when Sonic tries to get him to come along quietly all he gets for his trouble is a punch in the nose. This, however, is a bucketful of LOLz for Eggman who passes out from the overdose of physical humor. But just as Sonic and Tails start trying to get the Doc upright, the baddies (The Irons, Snively, the Legionnaires and the Ninja Bats) show up. Overwhelming odds; just the way Sonic likes em. HEAD: There is literally nothing new about Sonic and Eggman being on the same side. In Sonic Adventure 2 they have to work together to keep from burning up in Earth's(?) atmosphere as the ARK's orbit decays. In Sonic Heroes they face a common foe in a Megalomaniac Metal Sonic. Back in S27's "Scrambled Hedgehog," Sonic suffers from the Old Amnesia Bit and throws in with Robotnik because he's been convinced that he already works for the Doc. And in the "No Brainer" episode from the second season of SatAM Sonic, it's the exact same story. So what's different here? This time it's the Doc who's on the receiving end of the trauma in question, but so far he hasn't come over to the side of the Mobians. All he's managed to do is to reboot enough to spring himself, chew out Snively, hijack the Egg Tortoise, punch Sonic in the nose, and then pretty much pass out. Not exactly the "team-up" that the cover shouted about. But since when has a comic book cover been an accurate reflection of the contents? It's really no big news that Robotnik is only hitting on one cylinder at the moment. Some other developments, however, are more worthy of note. The most noteworthy development is the breakdown in the villains' organization. The Queen may have been able to have things her own way when she was whipping Bunnie around like a marionette, but she's apparently unaware that her middle management structure is coming apart like a band on VH1's "Behind The Music." I'm not sure if Dimitri has taken advantage of the disruptors that were supposed to disable the dreadlock detonators (which is what got him cheesed off at the Queen back in S201), but he's definitely chosen the path of passive-aggressive insubordination, with Lien-Da following his lead. My guess is, this is going to cause Queenie trouble. It's kind of sad that, in a veritable admission of defeat, Ian has pretty much written Conquering Storm out of the story at this point by having Queenie send her back to the Dragon Kingdom and out of harm's way. That means that Connie has brought ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to this story in the five issues that the arc has run to date. See, this is what I mean by "wasted potential" being a trademark of the writing for this comic. Not that anyone else is sitting on their hands. RedDragonZero, for one, has already introduced Connie into a fanfic, I'm sure others out there can see the potential, and one fanart depiction of Connie has already appeared in this comic. Having introduced her without fleshing her out, it's nobody's fault but Archie's what happens to her when the fans start playing with her, or any other character for that matter. Don't ask me what Queen Queenie (a literal paraphrase of "Queen Regina") thinks she can accomplish by using her technomagic against a flesh-and-blood hedgehog. She may have had the advantage exploiting Bunnie, but this changes the dynamic. I'll discuss the interlude in Bunnie's hospital room a little later; for the moment, it's worth noting that after the previous issue's scene of the Mobians turning into a simian support group, here it's simply Second Verse, Same As The First. The only attraction to this story is watching the plans of the villains come apart. And after the past 4 issues, that's good enough for me. Head Score: 8. EYE: It may just be me, but Bunnie looks entirely too good to be in hospital. I wouldn't be surprised if she checks herself out Against Medical Advice and joins Sonic at a butt-kicking party in the next issue. Otherwise, Butler's artwork is impeccable, unless you get the impression, as I did, that the Queen's Dramatic Pose got overworked. Eye Score: 10. HEART: Oddly enough, the character on the receiving end of the most Heart in this story is Robotnik himself. Sonic and Tails supply the sympathy by debating how far to go in battling the Doc. After all, Sonic is still smarting under the sense that he's responsible for sending Robotnik over the edge, though Eggman probably didn't need that much of a nudge. It's a serious consideration for the two, even if it does have the effect of bringing the story to a dead halt until Robotnik tries to flatten Sonic's nose. Comic book villains being comic book villains, it's rare for this book's heroes to cut any of them some slack. But even as Robotnik is starting to look like old news even to Sega (he was pretty much limited to his usual shtick in "Sonic Unleashed" and was completely AWOL from "Sonic And The Black Knight"), Sonic still thinks it's worth a shot to reach out to the Doc. The results were predictable and any detente is likely to be short- lived, but you gotta love the Blue Blur for trying. My guess is that it won't last very long, especially when Eggman finishes rebooting and goes back to declaring total war on Sonic and his friends. Still, it's an interesting development while it lasts. Heart Score: 9. "Birthright: Part 1" Story: Ian Flynn; Art: Jamal Peppers; Ink: Terry Austin; Color: Matt Herms; Lettering: John E. Workman "I'm long overdue," Lien-Da says to nobody in particular, thus triggering a major flashback/exposition in this 5-pager. A little back story from bygone days: Lien-Da and her twin brother Kragok were the offspring of Luger during his tenure as commander of the Dark Legion. Their mother, Merin-Da, had died and they took an intense dislike to their subsequent stepmother, Mari-Su, and to their eventual half-sib, Julie-Su. But so much for the background, now back to the flashback. Under the influence of Moritori Rex, the sinister siblings decide to send Dad a message by killing him and taking over the Dark Legion as a Grand Master tag team. And you think you've got issues with YOUR family! Kragok supplied the weaponry and Lien-Da did the dirty work. Unfortunately for Lien-Da, the blaster she used on Luger blasted her, too, when it blew up in her face. Kragok sort of kind of thought that this sort of thing just might happen, nudge nudge wink wink. While visiting her in whatever passed for a Dark Legion hospital, Kragok tells her that the mission was a success. The bad news is, Kragok took over as sole Grand Master because she's been incapacitated; having a high-tech weapon blow up in your face will do that. Rather than tell herself "Better a glass ceiling than a glass coffin," Lien-Da nurses this personal grudge against all those who've kept her down at Kommissar rank all these years, including Dimitri. But you know what they say about nursing a grudge: it doesn't make it get better. And unfortunately for the Iron Queen and her followers, Lien-Da has decided that while they're having to contend with their deteriorating Eggman situation, it's also payback time. HEAD: I had to do a little research to remember who did what to whom and when in the Lien-Da family history, but it was worth it. There was no way Ian could have shoe-horned anything like an extensive family history into a five-pager without slowing the story to a crawl. It was enough that he had to balance the flashback action with a Kommissar commentary from Lien-Da. She reels off the names of those who've kept her down. She reduced her father Luger to cigarette ash, which was the point of this flashback. Kragok bought the farm in S100's "Welcome To The Dark Side" when, slipping out of the Twilight Cage in pursuit of Tobor, they both got killed, though we only saw Tobor being escorted into Guardian/Echidna Heaven by Hawking. And since Remington is unavailable, that narrows down the number of targets to Dimitri. Of course, she's picked a fine time to settle a grudge, but nobody ever said that comic book villains are known for their impeccable timing. Head Score: 10. EYE: Great work by Jamal Peppers here, though the minimalist backgrounds could be interpreted in one of two ways: either he wanted to depict the Dark Legion in a rather spartan setting, or else he didn't have the time to do major background art. The former explanation is more charitable, and it works for me, so there. Eye Score: 10. HEART: In a simply 5-pager, I usually don't have very high Heart expectations, so when there is a Heart factor I take notice. And that's what we get here. It may or may not have been deliberate on the part of Mike Pellerito, but there's a telling symmetry in comparing Bunnie's hospital room scene in "All The Eggs In One Basket" with Lien- Da's recuperation here. Not to beg the question of differences in talent between Steve Butler and Jamal Peppers, but Butler gives Bunnie a well-lit hospital room that's also fairly crowded: Sonic, Khan, Antoine, Dr. Quack and Nicole all share the space with Bunnie at some point. Now look at Lien-Da's accommodations. I haven't seen anything this bare and depressing since Rei Ayanami's apartment in "Neon Genesis Evangelion." And the desolation is only deepened as Kragok drops in to tell her that he's screwed her over and taken the Grand Master office for himself. Bunnie's scene ends with her as friendly and jovial as she ever was; that makes the panel showing the wounded Lien-Da being left alone to cry even more powerful by comparison. Ian has taken pains to show that, rightly or wrongly, Lien- Da has a major grievance which she's let warp her so that now she's close to the edge and on the verge of doing something really stupid at a really bad time, almost as stupid as her allowing Shadow to loose Tikhaos on the world in Sonic Universe #7. But it does allow us a rare moment of character development and, with it, an understanding of how and why she's about to do what she's about to do. The major tragedy, of course, is that in this comic such character development IS so rare. Heart Score: 10. Fan Funnies: When I saw Amy Rose mistake Shadow for Sonic in Sonic Adventure 2 I had to ask myself "Is she seriously color- blind or just stupid?" Paul Devos appears to have wondered the same thing. Terrific Fan Funny there. We also get Sonic and Scourge fan art from Arion and Matthew, respectively. Off Panel: Probably the only reason I'd want to look at any back issues of the Sonic X comic would be to check out the stories in SX26, 27, 31, and 32 featuring Eggman as El Gran Gordo (roughly translated, "The Big Fat Guy" and yeah, the initials spell out "EGG"; what did you expect, subtlety?). It wasn't enough that Eggman became a professional wrestler in order to finance his schemes; they turned him into a luchador. I won't bore you with what I've learned about luchadores and lucha libre, the Mexican variant on pro-wrestling. If you've seen any of the real deal or even the cartoons based on it ("Mucha Lucha" and "El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera"), you know about the conventions, the mystique of masks, etc. But I still have a lot of trouble picturing Eggman having technical wrestling skills; I always pictured him more as a grappler, or one of the WWE types whose finishing move involves sitting on his opponent. Sonic-Grams: Nathan's question about Espio is printed several issues too late. Damian gives a shout-out for the comic. Ben wonders whether the return of Steven Butler means that Tracy Yardley! isn't working on the comic any more (he is, it's just that he's busy with Sonic Universe) and wants Enerjak to come back; let's let the bit cool down before dragging it out again, kay? Arion asks a lot of questions about back issues, Sonic the Werehog, Fiona (here it comes: "...you never know..."), Sonic and Sally, and the global reach of the comic. Let me zero in on Mike's reply concerning Sonic and Sally: Q: "Will Sonic and Sally be together again?" A: "It looks like Sally might be falling for someone else. Write in and give us your thoughts!" OK, since you asked nice: A quick look at the Sonic fandom, including fanart, AMVs at YouTube, and fanfics (and there are over 16,000 Sonic fanfics at fanfiction.net alone, with only "Kingdom Hearts," "Final Fantasy VII" and "Pokemon" generating more game-based stories as of this writing) will reveal that there are only two major options available for the Blue Blur relationship-wise: Sonic/Sally or Sonic/Amy. I'll be honest and say I'm a Sonic/Sally fan, though I don't want to make a federal case out of it. It just seems right to me: they're different enough in temperament and yet they bring out the best in each other, as Ian Flynn so ably demonstrated in the "Mobius: 30 Years Later" arc (SU5-8). And Mike counters this with Sally "falling for someone else." What, not even a hint? Not even a crummy name? At this point we only have Mike's word for it; there's certainly been no actual development along those lines in the comic. And as they say about elections in Chicago, "You can't beat somebody with nobody." So far, Mike's got nobody. I have to wonder whether Mike hasn't gotten caught up in the Archie Marries Veronica PR blitz Archie's been cranking out. Me, I have to wonder whether the Archie hype isn't somehow going to end up being part of some double-reverse fake-out where Archie and the Riverdale crowd end up right back where they started and where they've been stuck since the 1940s. And if THAT happens, it tells me all I need to know about Sally's alleged Someone Else.