Knuckles #17 [Oct 1998] Spaz/Galan/Penders/Ray/Heroic Age cover: A transparent Knuckles witnessing what turns out to be a flashback details to follow. "Deep Cover: Part 1 "The Guardian Who Failed" Story: Ken Penders; Art: Manny Galan; Ink: Andrew Pepoy; Color: Barry Grossman; Lettering: Vickie Williams: Editorial: G-Force Credits page: Interesting close-up of the (possibly) title character. Because of the artwork, and because his name otherwise is the same as that of one of the members of the Brotherhood, I'm going to be referring to him as "Golden Eye" in order to avoid confusion. "Born to the most noble" page: Recap of "Reunions," and Ken bludgeons us to death about Knuckles' family secrets. "There are many other secrets about his family he does not yet know," which sounds sort of like a "Duh!" to me. If he knew them, they wouldn't BE secrets any more, right? Well, they would be secrets from the rest of us... We start out getting a look not only at Golden Eye (who does a simple hop up from the surface of Mobius to the Floating Island so you know there's more to him than meets the eye) but also at a Streaking Pasha. About time, too. Ken's been chomping at the bit himself trying to work another one into the comic ever since the beast made its first (and only) appearance on page 6 of Knuckles #2, and Manny Galan has finally stopped drawing Star Trek/Star Wars vehicles long enough to oblige him. Of course, he's done some customizing of his own. The original SP had a definitely equine silhouette. Thunder, Julie-Su's mount, has cloven hooves, slit pupils, a beaked snout (which gives the head a gryphon-esque appearance) and the kind of tail usually associated with Barney the Dinosaur. I like it; it's a nice blend. And it's nice to see a supposedly low-tech post_Dimitri echidna getting around using something other than high-tech motorized and anti-grav vehicles (which frankly I think we saw too many of during "The Chaotix Caper". But I digress.) Golden Eye realizes that Julie-Su's "braid" marks her as a Dark Legionnaire. Thinking only how this dovetails with whatever agenda he's got going, he tackles her off her steed but because he stops to declaim "Why don't you do us all a favor and be gone from our sight, you bionic piece of slime!!!", Julie-Su has more than enough time to defend herself. If he'd have shortened his speech to a simple "Die, scum!" (with only one exclamation point) the outcome might have been different. Golden Eye, however, wraps his (literal) mitts around Julie-Su's windpipe, and as she calls his bluff, we move past the Sonic-Image crossover ad... To where Knuckles is getting an earful from Archimedes for conducting his meditation exercises on the top of a skyscraper. Knuckles implies that after all that's happened to him lately, getting lectured to by a bug has gotten old. Then, in a beautiful 4- panel sequence he takes a header off the building, glides perilously close to a decorative spike protruding from Mr. "Happy's" bar (I can only assume that it's a bar because NOBODY would walk into a building with a humongous smiley face on it if they were sober), and finishes up with a perfect "en pointe" landing. All this with his eyes closed and the kibitzing fire ant hanging on to one of his dreads. Giving credit where it's due, he reveals that he used the Guiding Star Gem plot device given him by Yanar at the close of the "Forgotten Tribe" arc to "see" where he was going; he also credits it with creating the wormhole during his cameo appearance in "The Chaotix Caper" arc. All this does not go unseen by the Brotherhood of Busybodies. Tobor, however, breaks into an understated sweat when he sees Julie-Su approaching on pashaback with someone along for the ride. I say "understated" because it's not like in "Sailor Moon" where you see one huge bead of sweat off to the side of the character's face. But before anyone can identify who's riding with her, Haven suffers a convenient power failure. Sojourner and Tobor are sent to the "med-labs" to make sure that "the emergency power has kicked in"...or "kicked on," depending on who's doing the talking. Not only is Hawking still vegetating nicely, but they also check on someone in cryonic suspension. I should mention that within several days of the comic coming out, I received an e-mail from a fan named Katie making a very convincing argument as to who the mysterious figure is in the freezer. I checked her reasoning and am convinced she nailed it. I won't go public with the speculation. E-mail me directly if you're curious. Find Your Name In Print Half-Page: Green Gibbon (again!?), Noele "T2" Carballo (again, I think), and a lot of contest rules in equally tiny type. Meanwhile, Knuckles and Julie-Su hear from Golden Eye (who either WAS bluffing or else had second thoughts about moving "Murder a Dark Legionnaire" to the top spot of his To Do List) that his real name is Tobor (and like I said, we already have one of those). Turns out he's also a former Guardian and he's got the neck band to prove it. Fasten your seat belts, we're entering Flashback Country: Turns out he's the son of Hawking and that he was 20 years old when his dad turned the job over to him while the Hawkster returned to the Floating Island's zone in order to work on restoring it after it had gone through the dimensional split. He bestows the cheesy anime hat on Tobor/Golden Eye and then exits in a manner that suggests he's read more than a few D.C. comics. And wouldn't you know it, just when Hawking is out of town company shows up in the form of The Dark Legion. This time around, their leader is one King Nanny Street! Wait a minute...that's assuming "Moritori" is a compound Japanese word. In Latin the entire phrase is probably something like "Kill the King." My Latin dictionary isn't much help this time. Anyway, he's just got a couple understated diodes holding his eyes open while he starts in on the usual mad rant... And we bump into the Fan Art Half-Page. Once again, someone (Ricky Winsor) sends in a drawing of Hyper Knuckles and the color is jazzed. "Danny S." sends in a drawing of the Chaotix battling some giant mecha or other. And the rules for ANOTHER contest are printed in even tinier type than the "Find Your Name..." page. Back to the flashback: Golden Eye and Moritori thrash it out for over a page until M.R. activated a device that transported the two to the Floating Island just in time for a building to collapse on top of them. Golden Eye comes to, only to realize that his father has mistaken Moritori's body for that of his son. Too bad when the echidnas renounced technology they didn't retain the equipment needed to run DNA testing. After extricating himself from the rubble a day later, Golden Eye spent the rest of the time wandering around Mobius too ashamed to face the folks back home. Knuckles, for one, is glad to meet an ancestor who isn't playing "I've Got A Secret" with him, and after a digression establishing that the power is going to be off in Haven until the next issue at least, Knuckles heads for Central Booking to converse with another member of the family: Kragok. OK, there are some things nagging me about this story, and I assume Ken will clear up most (if not all) of them in the next installment: Why would Hawking mistake Moritori's body for that of his own son? Wouldn't the Legionnaire implants have given it away? What's the deal with the fact that Golden Eye/Tobor has the same name as one of the Brotherhood? Come to think of it, what's behind that visor Tobor's wearing? And the heavy-handed name "Tobor," coupled with the credits page art, makes me think that one of the two is some kind of droid. It also makes me think that Ken may be working on a double-reverse plot twist and that maybe Golden Eye's story won't check out when Knuckles hears Kragok's version. I have to admit, though, Ken's sucked me in with a VERY compelling story line here. The younger Hawking still looks a little too pleased with himself IMHO, but the domestic flashback was a nice touch. Moritori Rex, unfortunately, was your basic grandiose ranter something of a Kragok clone who only lasted four pages anyway. What I'm waiting to see is whether Tobor or Golden Eye is the ringer. Empty Fistful of Letters: "Due to the overwhelming amount of e- mail, we're not printing any of it this month. Or any snail mail, either. So there! Nyah, nyah, nyah!" Just some underlit thumbnails to go along with the overwritten hypes for Sonic #64, Knuckles #18, and NiGHTS #6. And Fox heralds its acquisition of Pat Robertson's Family Channel by rechristening it the Fox Family Channel and throwing a bunch of toons together in blocs with names like "The Basement" and "Morning Scramble." One of the toons, I note happily, is Eek! The Cat. Kumbaya!