Sonic The Hedgehog #213 (Aug 2010) Tracy Yardley! cover: The Fastest Thing Alive meets the Fattest Thing Alive as Big hustles Sonic and Sally away from the Wolf Pack [Insert "Who Let The Dogs Out" joke here]. A good cover with a degree of silliness we haven't seen in the comic for quite a while. Unfortunately, the story only occasionally rises to the humor level of this cover. "Reigning Cats and Dogs: Part 1" Story: Ian Flynn; Art: Stephen Butler; Ink: Terry Austin; Color: Matt Herms; Lettering: John E. Workman; Editorial Assistant: Paul Kaminski; Managing Editor: Mike Pellerito; Editor-in-Chief: Victor Gorelick; SEGA Licensing reps: Cindy Chau and Jerry Chu We join Sonic and Big as they try to crash a Thundercats Con and are stopped by security. Actually, they've arrived at the "Pais Misterioso" or "Mysterious Country" and this is pretty typical of the reception they dish out to strangers. Sonic says he's with Big, about whom the Queen is not too thrilled as she demonstrates by calling Big a "heathen." Big responds by allowing the Queen to give a brief exposition on this story's McGuffin, the Ancient Onyx. Big is then dressed up in a headdress and poncho as the designated "Recounter of the Truth." The look, however, does nothing to improve Big's vocabulary so Sonic offers to fill in the exposition which goes something like this: Sonic and Sally had been invited to the village where the Wolf Pack dwells. They'd planned to meet up with old friends, become honorary members of the Pack, and spend the weekend watching anime: "Wolf and Spice," "Wolf's Rain," and "Princess Mononoke." They hook up with the obviously-names Canus, Lobo, Leeta the twin sister of Lyco, and ultimately their old friend Lupe from the SatAM franchise. If you can't figure out what the names Canus, Lobo, Lyco, and Lupe have in common, maybe you should be reading "New Moon" by Stephanie Meyer instead. Anyway, Lupe is now the alpha wolf of the consolidated packs, which apparently is a breeze compared to riding heard on the resident rugrats. They come and go in the space of one page, however, so let's not worry about them for the moment. At a meal where they share food and exposition, we learn that everybody else in New Mobitropolis sent their regrets at not taking part in this story arc, and that the wolves blame the Felidae for the disappearance of the Ancient Onyx. Just then there's a report of a "Felidae Warrior" approaching the city. It turns out to be Big. This sets up the best two-line exchange of dialogue this comic's seen in a long time: SONIC: "Hey! It's Big!" LUPE: "Big? It's enormous!" Sonic has to keep Big from being cut down to size by canine security, drops an exposition bomb of his own recalling the plot of the first Sonic Adventure game, and gets held at spearpoint when Big says that the Felidae think the Canidae copped the Onyx. Sonic and Sally, being paid up members of the Heroes Union, offer to act as go-betweens between the cats and dogs. Sal then sends Sonic and Big to the Felidae while she does her own thing. End of exposition. That only took up a little less than 9 pages of the comic. Sally, meanwhile, has come down with a case of Picard's Disease where you can't resist acting like a freelance archaeologist. She scouts around the ruins of the ancient echidna colony that was trashed by Chaos as part of the Sonic Adventure back story and comes across an infestation of Dark Legionnaires. Sally figures that the Onyx was stolen as an act of provocation to get the two groups fighting again. Unfortunately, who should pop out of the shadows but ... no, it's not Sam Uley, it's our old friend Drago, who's undergone some cybernetic enhancement. Sally jumps out of that particular frying pan and into the fire that is Razorklaw, last seen in S84's "Perfect Chaos." D and R revert to type and, despite being co-Grand Masters of the local Legion, mix it up with each other, forgetting Sally for a moment. It's long enough, however, for the troops to gather. Knowing lousy odds when she sees them, Sal surrenders. Back at the M. C. Sonic offers to help find the Onyx, leaving it up to Sally to draft any treaties that may result. He also offers to take Big off the Queen's hands, since his lifestyle is obviously too alternate for her. Unfortunately, at that moment, Lupe decides to lead the Wolf Pack on an mission to bark at the cat people. Talk about rotten timing. HEAD: In case you didn't get enough of it during the Journey To The East story arc (SU13-16), Ian dusts off the conventions of world building here as well. It seems to be mandatory that when entering a new territory (new to most of the readership, anyway), there are certain conventions that have to be met: elaborate costumes, florid introductions, rigid social structure. Whatever happened to Casual Friday, or is that something they just don't do on Mobius? I was hoping for something a little more laid back, at least when Sonic and Sally reunited with Lupe, one of the better minor characters from the SatAM continuity. No such luck. It's been too long since she's played a role in the comic, so she not only has to get reintroduced, she has to get FORMALLY reintroduced. And not just her: EVERYBODY worthwhile has to be formally named and their major traits recapped. Ian does a pretty good job of it when bringing in the minor characters, especially the kids. As handled here, the story almost avoids grinding to a halt. Almost. The problem here is, Sonic is recounting all this for the Alpha Cat (remember, this is all Sonic's "translating" for Big that fills in pages [4-12]). This must strike the kitty queen as irrelevant and tedious. Then again, most cats find things not having to do with themselves to be irrelevant and tedious. The introductions could have been pared back, the shtick with the kids and the ball, though cute, doesn't add anything to the story, and neither does Sonic's sidebar concerning Chaos. I know some padding out of the story is likely to happen up-front, but this is way too much. What could have been written about in its place? Oh, I don't know, how about some back story from someone concerning the Ancient Onyx, what its properties and powers are, and why each of the two factions thinks they have a proprietary claim on it? All we know at this point is that each side wants it for various unclear reasons and that the Legionnaires swiped it to instigate a fight between the two groups. That's how we know it to be a McGuffin instead of something about which we should actually care. And while Big might end up being a running (or waddling) joke in this story, I really want to see Rouge involved in this somehow or other. C'mon; Rouge, an onyx, she could probably find the thing with her eyes closed. BTW, the head of the Cat Country, as I've learned from searching the Net, was never named by Ken Penders when he first created her. She is now being referred to in the Mobius Encyclopedia as "Queen Hathor" for no reason whatsoever. Seriously, look it up in M. E. and there's nothing there, not one crummy citation. "Hathor," however, is also the name of an ancient Egyptian deity of joy, love and motherhood. None of these terms, it should be noted, are in any danger of coming to mind when thinking about the Cat Queen in this story. If they were, then she's be in danger of actually having ... dare I say it ... a personality. That's the weakest part of the story arc as it begins. The characters have roles but no personality. Nobody stood off the page and actually had a character that had more than two dimensions. Lupe, sadly, is a prime example. Aside from one humorous bit of dialogue, she mostly fills the role of exposition carrier and clothes horse. Whatever personality she once had is off somewhere taking a siesta. I know this is only the first installment of a who-knows- how-long story arc, but right off the blocks this feels really pedestrian and just not all that special. I hope Ian dials up his game in the installments to come. Head Score: 5. EYE: Butler clearly had fun with the world-building and outfitting the wolves and the Felidae with Meso-American trappings, as well as bristly fur and snarly expressions, as if they were auditioning for "New Moon: The Animated Series." After Tracy Yardley!'s work in the "Journey To The East" arc, this barely looks like a Sonic comic. The design for Big, unfortunately, is as monotone as the character himself. Eye Score: 8. HEART: Surprisingly, there's not a whole lot here despite the fact that Sonic and Sally are reuniting with an old friend. And even THAT bogs down in the interminable re-introductions of the Wolf Pack members. There's no sense of friendship; that gets swamped by the formalities. There's menace, of course. It wouldn't be a proper story without menace, but it leaves room for only a handful of things to care about: will Sonic rescue Sally and will they find the Onyx? These two plot points suck all the emotional oxygen out of the story. Heart Score: 3. Fan Art: A couple of leftover SonicxSally shipper artworks by Matteo and Julie, a sketch dump by Andrew, and an amazing Fan Funnie by Melody that features not only a spit-take from Rouge but a YouTube joke. Off-Panel: for the original inspiration, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfmvkO5x6Ng&feature=related ; for my favorite variation, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlXjIg4fH74&playnext_from=TL&video s=gQQZ2A-IOdQ . Sonic-Grams: Ally is told how to order Sonic Super Specials, that Sonic and Sally broke up in the infamous S134, and that fans who insist on someone making a Sonic movie will have to settle for the 1996 Sonic anime. Given the fate of motion pictures based on video games, it's just as well. Nintendo's famous response to the 1993 "Super Mario Brothers" movie was "Yes, it happened. Let us speak no more of it." Lisa's letter about the Archives gives Editorial an excuse to pimp the Endgame volume. Patrick asks about continuity and Editorial gets it wrong by saying that Sonic started freedom fighting at age 8; according to the SatAM 2-parter "Blast To The Past," Sonic and Sally were 10 when they started busting Robotnik's chops. Kyle wants more Knuckles. And according to a random quote "The monkey is smooth." Yeah, well, if he's so smooth how come he didn't get the girl?