Sonic Universe #9 (Dec 2009) Yardley!/Hunzeker cover: Angry Knuckles. That's all; just Angry Knuckles. "Echoes of the Past: Part 1" Story: Ian Flynn; Art: Tracy Yardley!; Ink: Jim Amash; Color: Jason Jensen; Lettering: Teresa Davidson; Assistant Editor: Paul Kaminski; Editor: Mike Pellerito; Editor-in-Chief: Victor Gorelick Thanks to the magic of a warp ring, Knuckles, Julie-Su and Mighty take a meeting with Gen. Helmut von Stryker of the dingoes. The General shows the gang some convenient hard copy of Dr. Fin's Enerjak notes. Mainly, Stryker trots this out to tell Knuckles "We're cool, and no hard feelings about your atomizing my boy in S181." He then gives Knuckles the "honor" of going up against Fin, something he's not about to do himself. Stryker may be crazy but he ain't stupid! Meanwhile, the task of supplying further exposition falls to Ray and Vector as they shoot the breeze by the Master Emerald (for the newcomers, yes, Ray does have a stutter). The gab session turns into a lemon session as Ray presses Vector for more info on his Downunda back story, something Vector is apparently loathe to discuss. His mention of the gyrocopter is a reference to S120's "Those Were The Days," a thoroughly mishandled Ken Penders story where Julie-Su is supposed to be coping with Knuckles's death but instead is treated to a flashback involving Vector's gyro crashing. The same Penders virus that kept Ken from writing a moving and emotionally accurate story about Julie-Su grieving the loss of Knuckles kicks in here as Ray is squirrel-napped by a Wing- Dingo from the Tails miniseries from back at the turn of the century. Vector puts the bite on the robo-dingoes. He and Ray then return to the Master Emerald for a quick chorus of "Who Let The Dogs Out?" Yeah, I know, old joke; deal with it. Meanwhile, Knuckles and the gang hop a sandworm to Fin's old digs. Julie-Su wonders why Knux didn't know about the place, and he tells her "I had problems facing the desert when I was little." For the benefit of the noobies, that's a reference to Knux's abandonment issues. Seems that Locke dumped him in the desert one day when Knux was just a kid and disappeared in a wall of flame. He actually moved to Haven to take up semi-retirement in the company of other ex-Guardians as a full-time voyeur and ex-parent. In any event, they arrive at their destination and Knux goes all archaeology geeky about various inconsistencies. This can be explained in two ways: 1. Dr. Fin is, after all, something of a basket case so why shouldn't his consistency be inconsistent. 2. Knux is not clear on the concept of "trap." Mighty, meanwhile, hangs back to chat up the sandworm wrangler, who is none other than Harry the dingo cab driver from years gone by. True to his pulp lit roots, Harry brings out the exposition and fills Mighty in on his own back story. Seems when he crossed Kage von Stryker, whom Enerjak subsequently zapped into nonexistence (see above), he paid for it on a physical level that Ian and Tracy can only hint at thanks to the CCA. Then he takes off. After two more pages of geekery from Knuckles, Mighty rejoins the twosome and takes the direct approach to entering the local ziggurat. Mighty then gets on Knux's bad side by hinting that he never got the whole story about his family from his family; Julie-Su is willing to cut Mighty some slack for pushing one of Knuckles's buttons, and to forgive Knuckles for being a jerk. We then cut to two pages of Vector and Ray being overrun with Wing-Dingoes while the pack appears to be going after the Master Emerald. OK, enough of that. Back to Knux's crew, who find themselves in your basic Small Room O' Death: spiked walls moving toward them, some sort of laser grid above them, the usual. Tune in again, same echidna time, same echidna channel. HEAD: I find that I have mixed emotions about the Knuckles back story as laid out in the 32 issues of the Knuckles comic that ran from roughly 1996 to the beginning of 2000. On the one hand, I was willing to go along with writer Ken Penders's attempt to flesh out the Knuckles continuity. I at least wanted to see what it would do for Knuckles's love life. Keep in mind that until Tikal showed up with her own back story about what happened to the ancient echidna civilization in the course of the first Sonic Adventure game, Knuckles was it as far as the echidna population was concerned. Even with the appearance of Tikal he was still it, because he couldn't very well have a stable relationship with a ghost. Ken certainly changed all that, bringing in not only a hot girlfriend for Knuckles named Julie-Su, but also Knuckles's parents and a dysfunctional echidna civilization from a parallel universe, along with a back story about the fraternal difference of opinion that set up the feud that defined the civilization. By the time the Knuckles comic ended its run, there was almost too much to go around. I appreciated Ken's efforts at world- building, but by the time the comic ended its run there wasn't a whole lot of resolution. There was more than a hint of this same kind of development in the "Sonic Chronicles: the Dark Brotherhood" game, with Shade the warrior echidna babe and an echidna civilization locked away in the "Twilight Cage" which nowadays sounds like a place where vampires keep their werewolves ... or vice versa. Ultimately, though, you don't have to be an expert on the old Knuckles back story to navigate this one. Basically, Knuckles, Julie-Su and Mighty are poking around looking for Dr. Fin and stumble into a trap. Vector and Ray, meanwhile, are beset by Wing-Dingoes sent by we-don't-know-who yet. The exposition, from Harry, Von Stryker and even Vector, feels like filler only loosely connected to the plot. But maybe it isn't. Who knows? One thing is certain: the story slows to a crawl when the exposition takes center stage so that the pacing has a stop- and-go feel to it. The pacing of the Mobius 30 Years Later arc was far tighter and the expositions less obvious. Here's hoping things pick up with the next installment. Head Score: 7. EYE: Tracy Yardley!'s artwork is up to his usual level, even if most of the characters (with the exception of Ray) look like they'd be having just as much fun undergoing root canal work. Eye Score: 10. HEART: One of the great things about the M30YL arc was that even in the midst of Tikhaos attacking, almost getting wiped out by a rocket-propelled grenade, and having to put up with a fairly useless cameo appearance by Silver, Sonic still looked like he was having a good time. Knuckles and the rest of his crew could take some lessons. Granted that the name "Knuckles" and the term "laid-back" don't appear in the same sentence very often, but after the Enerjak 2.0 arc he seemed to be a bit more accessible, especially in S186's back story, "Honor Bound." There, he once again linked up with Von Stryker but without the attitude (though Julie-Su provides enough of that to go around). I appreciated the lecture he got from Rouge in that story as well, though the dialogue needed some body work. But still, the Knuckles on display here is just plain disagreeable. For one thing, he turns into an exposition machine when they land at Fin's home base and Knux gets in touch with his inner nerd and starts doing his Jean-Luc Picard imitation (Picard, you'll recall, was also an archaeology geek). The only thing that seems to break the spell is an offhand remark by Mighty which gives Tracy Yardley! an excuse to work on his If Looks Could Kill expression. But by that point I almost didn't CARE if Knux ever got all his questions answered; I just wanted him to lighten up, already! As much as the reader might want to sympathize with Knuckles in his quest to dredge up more information about his past, that objective simply isn't all that compelling compared to fighting off robo-dingoes and managing an escape from a trap that was old when it was recycled by George Lucas in the first "Star Wars" movie. Let's face it, there's been no real set-up as to WHY Knuckles wants answers all of a sudden. I was perfectly content with the At Peace With Himself Knuckles from "Honor Bound" and didn't need to see Knux trying to horn in on Shadow's emotional territory. This is, if anything, a case of character regression rather than character development, and it isn't helping the story. In fact, it feels like it's been tacked on to a perfectly straightforward adventure yarn in the Ian Flynn Action And More Action tradition. I wouldn't mind the fact that Knuckles still has issues, but it all feels out of place here. I hope I'll be proven wrong three issues from now when it's all supposed to come together but right now I have a sinking feeling about all this. Heart Score: 5. Fan Art: Silver by Maddie and Enerjak by Cameran, but for my money Paul's picture of Tails using his tails for something other than flying has something the others don't: personality. Instead of just drawing a character striking a pose, this one has an idea behind it. And let's face it, it's way cute. Fan Funnies: Andrew gives us a variation on every Hang In There poster you've ever seen, with Sonic trying not to sleep with the fishes. Letters: Melvin gets encouragement to add to his comic collection; Tanner is told that the name of Blaze's home world has not been revealed yet, gets a noncommittal answer as to whether she'll put in an appearance in a M30YL-type story, and is encouraged to send in Fan Funnies. Me, I sent in a number of Off Panel ideas weeks ago and haven't heard word one about it. Austin is told that Silver will be putting in another appearance some time in 2010, and gets the slightest possible information about Ray. And Shayla gets the abridged version of how Knuckles put his eye out and who Lara-Su is.