Knuckles #26 [Jul 1999] Galan/Penders/tinytype/Heroic Age cover: A transparent Knuckles strikes a pose, so does a solid Julie-Su, while Sabre wonders what this younger generation is coming to. Below, the remaining members of the Chaotix cruise the mall and try to look like they're not gay. "She Loves You (And You Know That Can't Be Bad)" Story: Ken Penders; Art: Chris Allen; Ink: Andrew Pepoy; Color: Frank Gagliardo; Lettering: Vickie Williams; Editorial: G- Force. Nice credits page illustration, meant to evoke the last panel of "Reunions" [K16]. Springtime, according to Ken Penders, is when you find "only two types...those in love and those who wish to [sic] they were in love." But hey, it's spring as I write this, I'm only on the first page, and grammar flames are too easy. Besides, we'll soon be introduced to a THIRD type that Ken didn't mention: those who wouldn't know what love was if it came up to them and kicked them in the crotch. At the local mall's food court (I don't think I want to know what the logo for "Eat THIS!" looks like), Espio informs Vector and Mighty that their old companion, Charmy, has become officially engaged to Safron. For some reason, this really freaks Vector, who then starts talking like he's some kind of babe magnet. I think the fat content in the mall food has gone to Vector's head. We then turn to the title page spread, where we see Julie-Su, still smarting from Knuckles's disappearing act in the last issue, apparently auditioning to join the Trenchcoat Mafia... True Confession: Last September, Ken sent the first few pages of this story to me, to see how it would work. I knew that what I had to say didn't have all that much pull...I mean, it's not like I'm a full-blown collaborator or anything...but I think there was a part of me that sort of hoped that Ken would take it to heart when I suggested that maybe, just maybe, there was a way to show Julie-Su's state of mind without having to resort to firearms. I've NEVER been comfortable with that angle in the Sonic and Knuckles books. I didn't like it when Rotor hauled out the BFG at the beginning of "Black and Blue and Red All Over" (S44), I didn't like it when Downtown Ebony Hare started shooting up the warehouse at the end of "Picking Up The Pieces" (K15), and I didn't care for this scene, either. Though I probably could have taken it in stride except for what happened at Columbine High last April 20, when a couple brain-deadniks decided to waste some of their classmates before sending themselves off to meet up with their role model, Adolf Hitler, whose birthday they were "celebrating." OK, Ken didn't see the Columbine High Massacre coming. NOBODY did, apparently! And the last time I set foot inside a comic store, the role of weaponry in the world of comic books appears to be inescapable. But the ease with which Julie-Su uses a blaster as a vehicle of self-expression was suddenly too much for me. Hello! Guns are WEAPONS, not simply plot devices and convenient props! Forget it; I'm probably just talking to myself again. So where were we? Julie-Su, right. Let's move on. I've made a big deal since K11 about Knuckles's socialization skills (or lack of same) during his boyhood, intimating that the Guardian System has become a pretty dysfunctional one. So here's Knuckles, something like 15 years old (the equivalent of a high school freshman, if I may edit), and what does he asks his father, without a hint of irony or jesting? "I was wondering about why boys and girls get together." I rest my case. Locke makes reference to the Soultouch, and Knuckles then asks Locke, in effect, "Do I do as you do, or do I do as you say?" before reverting to thinking like a 9-year-old again: "Wouldn't it be easier if guys hung around with guys and girls stuck to themselves?" I can sort of sympathize with Knuckles on this point, though: I grew up in a home where the marriage between my mother and father made celibacy look like a good time. But it does indicate the extent to which Knuckles's head isn't screwed on all the way WRT relationships. As Locke begins to talk to Knuckles about his son's relationship with Julie-Su (Talk about the blind leading the blind!), the Chaotix are on the street and on the make. Vector's pick-up lines need work, but hey, this IS a CCA-approved comic! Julie-Su, meanwhile, has apparently run out of ammunition and is doing a little window-shopping when she encounters an echidna named Raynor, who encourages her to lighten up a little. Like she couldn't use it. Knuckles then gets talked to by yet another grownup: Archimedes. What he says not only makes a certain amount of sense, but he also manages to do something Locke failed to do on pages 6- 8: actually use the L-word. Vector, meanwhile, is apparently having better luck by not trying so hard. Knuckles, with Archimedes in tow, BAMFS into a bistro just as Julie-Su and Raynor are striking up a conversation. Talk about your awkward moments! HEAD: Not much in the way of action, if you don't count Julie- Su's display of firepower. The introduction of Raynor was handled well, and it'll be interesting to see where it goes in the next two installments. Head Score: 7. EYE: Chris Allan, who made his story debut in the controversial "Statue of Limitations" (S70), gets to do some serious furry art. I'm not familiar with his work with the teenaged terrapins, but I liked what I saw here for the most part. The incidental characters were well done and some (such as the figures in the lower left corner of the top panel on page 9) are rendered in a style reminiscent of Reed Waller. If he's weak, it's WRT the principal characters, ironically enough: Espio looks like he's morphing into a frog sometimes (esp. page 9, panel 3), and Knuckles's expression looks weird. Maybe I've gotten too used to Manny Galan's style, though. His drawing of Archimedes, I must say, is light years ahead of Jim Valentino. Eye Score: 8. HEART: "What's love got to do with it?" Not much, if you listen to Locke. He never mentions it in his discourse to Knuckles, and CERTAINLY never brings it up when Knuckles alludes to the fact that Locke's marriage with Lara-Le crashed and burned. And Archimedes's explanation of why Locke wasn't too ready to discourse on the subject was only part-right: I think a lot of parents had a tough time of it themselves and simply don't want to have to revisit that particular neighborhood. As I said, the encounter between Julie-Su and Raynor was handled well, and seemed like a decent counterpoint to the Chaotix trolling the street. By the time Knuckles runs into the couple, our superhero appears to be more out of the loop than ever...and it doesn't surprise me a bit. Heart Score: 8. "Mighty the Armadillo in:" "Friend In Need" Story: Ken Penders; Art: Manny Galan; Ink: Andrew Pepoy; Color: Barry Grossman; Lettering: Vickie Williams; Editorial: G- Force. A stranger confronts Mighty in his den/gym, located at Rocky Hill ("Yo, Adrian!!"). Her calling cards consist of what appears to be a metallic egg and a studded collar of some sort, belonging to a squirrel named Ray. The visitor, it turns out, is Nack the Weasel's sister, "Nic" (short for "Nicolette"). The family resemblance ends below the neck. In the course of a shuttlecraft flight, Mighty lapses into flashback mode to the time when "six or seven years ago" he met Ray (a polite young dude with a jackhammer stutter) and...a Sonic the Hedgehog looking like he does now rather than like the gap-toothed kid he would have been six or seven years previous and whose more youthful visage we've become accustomed to seeing in the Sonic Kids specials. The craft lands and we meet...Fiona, who's at least as malicious-looking as her robotic counterpart in the celebrated stinker, "Growing Pains" (S28-29). HEAD: BIG problems from the get-go. Never mind the Fiona subplot: how come Sonic isn't a kid if all this happened "six or seven years ago"? There are only three explanations I can think of: 1. Manny Galan didn't pick up on the fact that Sonic would have been a kid at the time and drew him as being older. Then again, considering what's been on his mind lately (see Fistful of Letters) I wouldn't be surprised if the angle slid on by him. 2. The story takes place six or seven years in the future and Ken forgot to mention it in the opening narration. 3. The time discrepancy didn't occur to Ken until it was too late to do anything about it, so he left it in the story and hoped to Will Eisner that nobody would notice. And then there's the temporal trickiness of Fiona, assuming that she somehow was the model for the foxdroid for whom Tails developed a crush as a prelude to his own miniseries. Back then she appeared to be about the same age as Tails, though within the context of the comic timeline not that much time has elapsed. That would have placed her at 10 years of age herself, give or take. She's looking older now, though. I hope Ken clears this up in the upcoming installments. Finally there's Ray's stutter. Like Athena's muteness in the Lupe story arc [S67-69], I fear that Ray's stuttering will end up not really playing a part in the story, but instead will serve as a quick-and-dirty way to keep a character from being generic by giving him something to enhance his personality. I hope I'm wrong, but the aforementioned Lupe story arc set a bad precedent. All in all, a lot of bad signs right out of the box. Head Score: 3. EYE: Manny's style is still with us, but what was the deal with Sonic, and why is he wearing the stupid fedora from his turn as a private eye in "The Discovery Zone" [S52]? It certainly looks more like THAT hat than the one Sonic wore in "Tomb Raider of the Lost Plot" [S67]. And there's the age thing again. Eye Score: 6. HEART: Gene Siskel took Walt Disney Studios to task in his review of "The Great Mouse Detective" for giving the villainous henchbat, Fidget, a wooden leg. The impression, he said, was that someone with a physical deformity is synonymous with "villain." Ken seems to be falling into the flip side of that trap by bestowing abnormalities on characters to make them sympathetic instead of putting them in situations where they have to EARN our sympathies. I know there's only so much you can accomplish in an 18 page story arc spread over three issues, but based on Ken's handling of Ray and Athena I am suddenly far from hopeful as to the treatment Bunnie will receive if ever her partially-roboticized bod becomes the central issue of a story. And keep in mind that ever since "Bunnie's Worst Nightmare" by Rich Koslowski [S37], NONE of the other writers have had the wherewithal to deal with that particular live grenade. Heart Score: 4. Off-Panel: The joke is routine, and the premise is a step backwards, returning the Ancient Walkers to being mask-wearing dinosaurs. Fistful of Letters: Mazel tov (belated) to the Galan household. As for the advertised personal appearance in Naperville on June 5, don't look for me there. Not only are my Saturdays booked up for the rest of my life, but I've come to the conclusion that going to cons and even getting sneak peeks at stories before they run isn't doing me any favors. The issue has been percolating for some time, and the business in this issue with Julie-Su shooting off something beside her mouth more or less sealed the deal. So Ken, please don't send me any more sneak previews. And while you're at it, don't bother contacting me by e-mail, either. You've got enough fans wanting to touch base with you already via your Web site. I've come to realize that the ONLY way I can fairly evaluate the product is to read it without any baggage going in. I want to be shocked, pleased, disgusted, or depressed about the work on its own merits. If the story doesn't work on the pages of the comic, no amount of explaining via e-mail or on a Web site is going to help matters. In fact, I've avoided the explanations Ron Bauerle posted on his list about Fiona's age in "Friend in Need" for that very reason. Nothing personal, you understand. Letters and blurbs for S73 and K27, along with the Find Your Name, Fan Art and Pro Art pages.