Call the Office of Homeland Security, it's THE SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2002 BEST-WORST LIST Yes, we're back with the old categories after taking a year off trying (and failing) to forget about 2001. So let's call a Code Blue Blur and review Sonic #106-118: BEST COVER STORY: Romy Chacon, "The Tortoise and the Hedgehog" (S117) This wasn't beginner's luck; it was more like beginner's skill. Romy Chacon managed a small miracle by fitting a great story that could have gone 16 pages into a mere 11. She also brings in a suitable back story that puts a new spin on Sonic's character, and an ending that a shocker but a stunning display that she's clear on the concept of Heart. A solid winner. WORST COVER STORY: , "Cry of the Wolf," adapted by Jay Oliveras(S113) This one really hurt, because not only did Archie Comics do a less-than-mediocre job of adapting one of the more decent SatAM eps, but then turned disingenuous about it. Karl Bollers disavowed his writing credit for the story (which Archie framed in terms of an assist), in much the same way that Ken Penders denied having anything to do with a story that bore his name, the infamous "Naugus Games" (SSS15). Same deal with the artwork, which was blamed on "Many Hands," who appears to be the Allan Smithee of this comic. If it was so clear to the higher- ups at Archie Comics that this was going to be a stinker, WHY forge ahead instead of either pulling the plug or putting in the additional effort to make it worthwhile? This was an insult to the fans, and Gabrie, Gorelick and Goldwater should be ashamed of themselves individually and collectively for letting it happen. BEST BACK STORY: "The Crush" (S109); "A Girl Named Hope" (S108), both by Karl Bollers. A tie for Best Back Story, showcasing Karl Bollers's talent when it comes to writing with a clear-cut objective in mind. "Crush" effectively dealt a death blow to the misbegotten Sonic-Sally- Mina triangle (about which even I've become sick of writing) by actually demonstrating that Sally's put more thought into their relationship than the Archie management has. She certainly put more thought into it than whoever has threatened to revive the plot point some time in 2003. "Hope" took the form of a letter to the monarchy from a young Overlander seeking asylum in Knothole. As such it demonstrated more understanding about the premise of the comic than usually finds its way into the stories. Both stories demonstrate the strength of simplicity in storytelling, and why stories with a heavy dose of Heart belong in this book. WORST BACK STORY: "Operation Off-Switch" by Benny Lee. Yes, I know this was an eleven-pager, longer than the 5 or 6 customary for a back story, but it not only was NOT featured on the cover of Sonic 116, it felt like it went on for 5 or 6 pages too many. President Square makes a fool of himself begging Sonic and Bunnie to locate Robotnik, but The Prez doesn't look anywhere near as foolish as Robotnik in Weeble(tm) mode or the Warner Brothers cartoon way that this story hurried to a conclusion. The story was stupid, the premise wasn't held together very well, and Ron Lim's artwork was the final nail in the coffin. One can see why they chose to play up the Bunnie-Rouge fight story on the cover instead of this piece of drek. BEST STORY ARC: "Crouching Hedgehog, Hidden Dragon" by Karl Bollers (S106-107) There really weren't that many story arcs in 2002, and while this one was far from perfect, it was also the best of a weak field. The redeeming feature here was the reappearance of Dulcy the dragon in the role of battering victim at the talons of Zan. That this story brought up the subject at all, if only as a pretext to kill off a character, reveals a level of thoughtfulness one usually doesn't find in this comic. Everybody else, from President Square to the Sigma Alphas, might as well have been cardboard props. WORST STORY ARC: "Ultimate Power" by Ken Penders (S114-118) You know you're in trouble when you kill off the lead character and most of the fans either don't take it seriously. The cynicism on Ken's message board was as thick as frozen peanut butter. But Ken has cried "Wolf!" once too often to be believed, especially when his editor was considerate enough to let it be known that we'll soon be peeking in on Knuckles as he gets an "Afterlife" some time in 2003. An initially engaging premise (the return of Mammoth Mogul coinciding with the imminent demise of Dimitri) goes downhill fast, helped along by a meaningless "mid-logue" which demonstrates that not only haven't Ron Lim's skills improved when it comes to drawing Knuckles and the gang, but that Ken's idea of profundity involves once more kowtowing before the altar of Stan Lee. A waste of time all around. BEST COVER ART: S113 I had to disqualify the cover of S114 (the Star Wars 2 cover) because for all its technical brilliance it's 100% derivative. So the honors go to the only thing worthwhile about the "Cry of the Wolf" issue. The pose of the group was modeled well enough, but Spaz also sneaks Robotnik and Snively into the composition in front of a lens flare sun, which tipped it in for me. A great looking fig leaf drawn to cover a major embarrassment. WORST COVER ART: S118 I was tempted to nominate the cover of S106 because I got the strong impression that Spaziante's otherwise strong cover design had been polluted by uncredited Ron Lim artwork. But the cover for S118 is both so generic and so unintentionally hilarious, with Robotnik looking as if he's morphing into Angelica from "Rugrats" saying "You dumb baby hedgehog!", that there was no contest. Even for the cover of Sonic #107, with Sonic backed up by what appears to be a boy band in soldier suits, you got the impression that Spaziante put SOME thought into it. For S118, Editorial was apparently satisfied to slap something nondescript onto the cover. And Heaven help us, this cover is supposed to set a trend for the next half-dozen covers! This category will not lack for candidates when it comes time to draw up the 2003 List. BEST STORY ART: J. Axer: "The Crush" (S109) While Dawn Best's debut was the ONLY bright spot in the comic for 2001, the comic in 2002 was blessed not only with the return of Art Mawhinney, but with the debut of J. Axer. With a killingly- detailed style under his control and some professional experience under his belt, Axer was a total gift to Sonic fans. Of all of the excellent Axer artwork that graced the pages of the comic this past year, it was difficult to select a best, but "The Crush" wins out. While there has been a good deal of talk about the pros and cons of doing art in a manga style, Axer went ahead and actually demonstrated that there's more to it than drawing heroines with big eyes and long legs. In the modeling of characters, in the use of gesture, even in the page layout, Axer demonstrated the true role of Japanese comic art: to enhance the storytelling rather than just to serve as something that breaks up word balloons. Wonderful! WORST STORY ART: "Many Hands," "Cry of the Wolf" (S113) The anonymous Many Hands managed to do the impossible: produce artwork that made Ron Lim's art look good. The modeling was never better than so-so and the perspective was, at times, pathetic. Those of us who retain fond memories of the TV series will not be fooled by this sub-par performance. BEST NEW CHARACTER: Lara-Su. If anyone ever doubted that there was more to the Sonic audience than pre-ado boys, they only had to look at the reception accorded Lara-Su, future daughter of Knuckles and Julie-Su. The teen segment of the audience, especially the female teen segment, was primed and eager to embrace her appearance in the book. And unlike the Worst New Character (below), she was given a chance to really BE in the story and not just smack people around or take up space as stage dressing. Major kudos to Dawn Best for visualizing her in so appealing a fashion. WORST NEW CHARACTER: Rouge. She wasn't the "worst" in terms of character or personality since she wasn't allowed to have either one. She was the worst-served new character in that her debut (not counting her one-panel appearance in the Sonic Adventure 2 adaptation) proved to be a no-brainer fight story. And according to Justin Gabrie, there are no plans for her or Shadow to become regulars any time soon, which does nothing to rehabilitate her reputation. I hate to see wasted potential, and Rouge has potential to burn; too bad she got burned herself. BEST DIALOGUE: "Watch it, General D'Coolette! I've seen this special effect before!" "Mistaken Identity Crisis," S112. WORST DIALOGUE: "You're a hero, hotstuff...." "Heart to Heart," S118. BEST NEW IDEA: Housecleaning. Some of the worst plot points to infect the comic were unceremoniously dumped overboard this past year, with nobody the sadder. Chief among these was the TAILS-ISN'T-TAILS PLOT POINT foisted on us in S97's "To The Brink." This was so bad that I almost swore off the comic forever. Mercifully, Benny Lee managed to extract the faux Tails from the continuity in "Twice Told Tails" (S114). S118's "Robotnik's Return" featured the demise of another plot point that reeked of lameness: Robotnik's ability to ROBOTICIZE AS A TOUCH, which also showed up last year. On a more poignant note, Karl Bollers wrote LUPE out of the loop (for the time being, anyway) in S112's "Forgiven," yet another strong contender for Best Back Story in a crowded field. Karl managed to do so with grace and psychological insight, qualities rarely on display in this book in past years. Speaking of which, the misbegotten SONIC-SALLY-MINA TRIANGLE, which too was a product of the comic in 2001 (a year which gave us more bad story points than Florida has oranges) was dealt with so effectively by Best Back Story co-winner "The Crush" that even the lame "Trouble With Grrrls" (S111) couldn't erase its effects. Finally, a long- standing and extremely dubious pair of plot points, the SWORD OF ACORNS and its link to THE SOURCE OF ALL, was neatly neutralized by the one-two punch of Karl Bollers's "One For All" (S110) and "Kids of the Spider Woman" (S111). Now if only Archie would do something about Many Hands.... WORST NEW IDEA: "When In Doubt, Fight It Out." This is hardly a new idea, of course, and "Robotnik's Return" spun out an interesting variation on the theme. But if any story ever illustrated how stale and tired the Meaningless Fight Story has become, it was Karl Bollers's "Bat Fight" in S116. A character with LOTS of potential (see above) meets a woefully underutilized character (as far as I'm concerned, Bunnie hasn't had any worthwhile face time since SSS11's "Upgrade") and all that they do is wail on each other. I'll admit that this is a highly personal choice because I've always enjoyed writing for Bunnie. Her character is one of the strongest in terms of development and complexity and I've used that to the fullest in my fanfics, from "Bloodlines" to "Capture The Flag" to "When A Bunnie Meet A Bunnie" to "Runaway." And I consider Rouge to have the same potential. Here's a character who would have been right at home in an Ian Fleming novel: intelligent, aloof, skilled in operating in the legal twilight, possibly fatally flawed because of her love of jewelry, ready to play all sides off against each other to save her own hide, and a visual knockout on top of everything else. Yet her appearance in the comic was all punch and kick and kick and punch, even when she should have plainly seen that Bunnie was no cyborg and Bunnie could have confirmed that observation. Like I said, I hate to see wasted potential, and I get the impression that this is the same message being sent by fans who want to see more of this character or that character. This is why I believe that if the comic is going to continue to build on the progress it made in 2002, the writers will have to stop thinking in terms of writing for a comic book and start thinking like television writers. Comic books, after all, have been eclipsed as a medium of influence by motion pictures, television and video games (from whence Sonic was spawned) and fans come to the comic having had their expectations shaped by these media rather than by what Marvel was publishing during its glory days 30 some odd years ago. Sonic the comic is as much an ensemble show as "E.R." or "Digimon." The casts have become huge and the storyline boundless. My advice: Accept it and use it to your advantage.