Sonic #88 [Nov 2K] Spaz/Harvo/Ray & Ray cover: Sonic about to be roboticized (assuming the image on the monitor is the AFTER shot) by the Evil Uncle Chuck. Interesting double standard: Sonic can sweat but he can't cry. And not only do we have a full uvula shot of Uncle Chuck but he also displays a rather phallic-looking tongue. "Family Matters" Story: Karl Bollers; Art: Fry; Ink: Andrew Pepoy; Lettering: "Jeff Powell/LIP"; Color: Frank Gagliardo; Editorial: G-Force. The Freedom Fighter Special returns to Knothole. About freakin' time, too. Their arrival, however, coincides with what appears to be a torchlight parade of peasants from an old Frankenstein movie. Leading the pack is King Max, dressed in the gaudiest suit of armor I've seen this side of John Boorman's "Excaliber" (1981). He wasn't even that spiffily dressed for his mano-a-mano with the Overlander in "What Really Happened" (S78) which was supposed to have settled the Great War. The Freedom Fighters, and the readers, need some exposition badly and Max gives them a page and a half of it: Seems that Elias, upon overhearing the Queen's prognosis, got it into his fuzzy head to sneak into Robotnik's headquarters to...well, what he intended to accomplish is even fuzzier than the prince. What he DID manage to do, however, was locate "a single vial containing a metallic liquid." Immediately I thought of the Goo, the Source Juice that Sally took a bath in during "Ascension" (SSS11) and which formed the King's crown and sword (see "The Living Crown", S58 for the back story). Pursued by Shadow-bots, Elias managed to get the Tube-O-Goo to Mina before being captured. Mina, in turn, took the tube to the King who decided upon being presented with an unknown liquid substance (it's only a guess on my part that it's the Goo) that the best thing to do with it was to inject Queen Alicia with it. Yeah, I know, it makes no sense to me, either. Or to Sally, who storms off panel at this point. Before Sonic can join her, however, he's more or less drafted to help Geoffrey and his crackhead commandoes. We're treated to a one-page with Elias in the slammer and with Uncle Chuck at the controls. Don't ask me how he got re- activated after being taken off-line by Lupe in "Family" (SSS11). Around here, that sort of thing just gets in the way of the plot. Back in Knothole, Antoine has been placed on the injured reserve list, which leads to a difference of medical opinion as to the seriousness of his condition. Dr. Bollers considers Antoine unfit to appear in this story and join the expedition to Robotropolis, but Dr. Penders considers his injury to be no impediment to his appearing in the back story which takes place halfway across the planet in Mercia. Which is it, guys? I'm glad their names don't appear on my HMO's list of preferred providers. While Antoine and Bunnie fool around off-panel (we like to think), Sonic is re-re-reunited with his folks. For the record, we went through this in "Brave New World" and "Changes" (S78). I'll give the Phantom Letterer, aka "LIP," the credit/blame for the dialogue on page [6] panel 3: credit for the dig at the Sonic Adventure arc (where, I'm sure, the creatives felt like it was six months that felt more like six years) and blame for quoting Vanilla Ice. On the following page, everyone troops into the recovery room of the hospital. I can only assume that it's the recovery room; either that, or else Mobian physicians are unclear on the concept of keeping an operating room sterile. Sonic says he "feels bad" about what's happening to Sally's mom. We have to take his word for it because Fry conveniently masks any facial expression of said concern on Sonic's part with Sally's head. She tells Geoffrey to rescue Elias and Sonic to keep an eye on her father. This is followed by an impressive one-page splash of Sonic, Max, and the rest of the troops. As I say, it's impressive, but if Elias could barely stalk around Robotnik's HQ before being detected, what makes Max thing that a mob this size isn't going to be heard coming from a mile away? This scene only reinforces in my mind the genius of the SatAM premise: that the effectiveness of the Freedom Fighters lay in the fact that they were small hit-and-run units rather than great hulking armies. Still makes a nice poster, though. The battle commences as Tails introduced Bomb to the doorway to Robotnik's headquarters. Never mind that there wasn't a doorway there a minute ago. Uncle Chuck orders Elias into the roboticizer, then advertises this state of affairs...somehow or other...to Sonic and the gang. Antoine, meanwhile, excuses himself to go to Mercia (citing Dr. Penders' professional opinion), accompanied by Bunnie, Amy Rose and Birdie. So basically, all of Sally's friends are off elsewhere as the fates of her father and brother hang in the editorial balance. Small wonder she turns to a mother-figure, Rosie, for comfort at the bottom of page 12. Back at HQ, the group breaks in on Uncle Chuck before he throws the switch. Sonic has to fight off both his Uncle Chuck and his ex-dog Muttski until the King shows up. Seems Max has been doing all right for himself using the Royal Toad Sticker. And since it's a mystical piece of hardware, its influence momentarily restores Uncle Chuck's consciousness before a Shadowbot cuts them off and sucker-punches the King. And talk about a cliff-hanger: just as Sally is about to find out about her mom, Sonic shows up and asks if there are any King-sized beds in this hospital. HEAD: Karl Bollers' main objective is to jump-start the plot after the story had become bogged down in the Sonic Adventure arc and its sequella. As a result, we land in the middle of things with barely enough exposition to put it all together. I suppose that this is a good thing given the 16-pages at Karl's disposal. There were, however, a couple of structural flaws in the story. The business with Antoine, for example. Never mind that, once more, his accent flattens right out halfway through his dialogue on page 12. And then there's his medical condition: not in good enough shape to join the mob on its way to Robotropolis yet able to travel to Mercia? What is that? At least he's not being treated like some kind of walking joke, so that's a point in Karl's favor. Then there's the business with the Goo/Metallic Liquid. By what leap of logic did the Medical Powers That Be decide that this would be a good time to decant the Queen and to shoot her up with the stuff? This off-hand attitude toward story structure is why "loose continuity" are fightin' words with this reader. These kinds of flaws, unfortunately, have just about become a hallmark of the Sonic comic writing style. Perhaps I'm being too tough on the writing for this comic in particular, and for comics in general. Perhaps I shouldn't expect the kind of exciting, lucid, and intricate plotting available in, say, any given Harry Potter novel. Or perhaps the industry as a whole should ask themselves whether this kind of "black box" writing where the reader is left to wonder "How'd that happen?" (the business of Uncle Chuck communicating with Sonic and the crew, for instance) isn't part of the problems that the industry is now facing. Then again, Karl Bollers' level of writing would seem hopelessly complex to fans of "Sabrina The Teenage Witch" so I guess I shouldn't complain that much. Head Score: 7. EYE: Some have compared Fry's style with that of the anime series "Tenchi Muyo," now showing on Cartoon Network. Personally, I've been watching it for the plot rather than the visuals. And while Fry certainly has been influenced by Japanese popcult, I'd have to question the "Tenchi Muyo" influence theory. But there's NO question that Fry gives a fine performance here. With a few notable exceptions (see below) he delivers fitting artwork. I found myself genuinely fascinated by the layout on page 5, where one's eye scans down from Robotnik's HQ to the Shadowbots in the foreground. The layout of the King's army is equally impressive, though I suspect that the Mr. T-like Mobian just above Sonic's right ear is some kind of in-joke. Eye Score: 7. HEART: The creatives at Archie scramble to keep Sonic's emotional fig leaf in place again. Sonic's head is camouflaged by Sally's on page 7, as already mentioned. As Sonic enters in the final panel with King Max in his arms, he once more is given an expression of tiredness rather than sorrow. Fry resorted to the same bit in "Changes;" I didn't think much of it then and I still don't. And then there's the page just before that. When Uncle Chuck and Muttski are snatched away just as they seem to have regained their senses under the influence of the Sword of Acorns, Sonic goes ballistic on anything nearby, repeating the phrase "They were back!" And of course, in the final panel on that page when anger would ordinarily give way to sorrow, Fry has retreated (in both senses of the word) and Sonic is reduced to a mere silhouette in the distance. About all the reader is left with is the irony that, in their quest to prevent Sonic from looking like a wuss (i.e., that he's even capable of complex emotions) both the creatives and editorial end up acting like wusses themselves, leaving Sally as the only character with any signs of life behind the eyes. Heart score: 5. "Picking up the Pieces" Somebody forgot the Credits Box again, peeps, so let's go with what we know: Story: Ken Penders; Art: Steven Butler; Coloring: Frank Gagliardo; Editorial: G-Force. If you have any information about the Inker and Letterer, please contact your local Missing Persons Bureau. The blast that kicked Knuckles in the butt toward the end of "Best of Times, Worst of Times" (SSS14) was so powerful that it takes him two pages to wake up and realize what's happened. Well, MOST of what happened. We know that Dimitri has sent the Floating Islanders to another Zone, so let's see how many installments it takes for Knuckles to get a clue. The first hint is provided by Athair, making a guest appearance in a semi-physical form. He states that his great- grandson has to journey to Albion (the mystico kingdom, not the honeymoon resort, unless Ken Penders is playing fast and loose with the similarity of the names already). Along the way, Knuckles has to enlist the aid of Rob O' The Hedge, who hasn't been seen since the Forgotten Tribe arc (K10-12). Using the "guiding star gem" tucked inside his glove (makes you wonder what else he's got tucked in there), he trips off to Mercia. Rob's spider sense, meanwhile, starts tingling, and he says as much to "my fair leman." I thought her name was Mari-An. Actually, there IS such a word as "leman." It's Middle English and means either "mistress" or "lover." If this is Ken Penders' way of hinting that the two are living without benefit of clergy in Deerwood Forest, he'd better watch out or else Michael Silberkleit (Archie Comics chairman and the bluenose who gave Melissa Joan Hart grief over her photo shoot) will personally demonstrate the phrase "to go medieval." And it doesn't involve sprinkling one's dialogue with "thee"s and "thou"s and using such archaic-sounding and basically incoherent phrases as "I'll return [here] in the day's eye sleeps," whatever the heck THAT meaneth. Rob O' The Itchy Trigger Finger gets off a shot that just narrowly avoids shattering Antoine's elbow. To compound confusion, nobody sent him copies of the issues of the comic containing the Sonic Adventure arc so he has a hard time believing that he's just met Amy Rose 2.0. He gets ready to take another shot at 'Toine O' The Disappearing Silly Accent for the crime of looking like his father but then Knux finally arrives as a character witness. He's backed up by Bunnie O' The Even Sillier Accent: "Shoah glad yoah heah," she says, as my spellchecker gives me dirty looks for typing that phrase. So Knuckles and the group, looking for all the world like a bunch of characters in a round of Dungeons and Dragons, prepare to storm the beaches of Albion. HEAD: I'm STILL not convinced that the double use of the name "Albion" isn't being done intentionally to mislead the readers and/or Knuckles. As for Rob O' the Convoluted Syntax, it's clear that Ken Penders belongs to the Classic School of Historical Writing. According to Ross and Kathryn Petras in their compilation, "Stupid Movie Lines," this style is characterized by dialogue loaded with archaic words and phraseology, dependent clauses piled one on top of another, and self-conscious declamation even in thought balloons. Still, it's better than the Modern School, wherein we're treated to historical characters such as Abraham Lincoln saying things like "Cool threads, dude!" Tom Stoppard was able to get away with a melding of the two styles in his script for "Shakespeare In Love" wherein Queen Elizabeth cautions one of her nobles: "Have a care with my name; you'll wear it out." And once more, Antoine's accent is MIA while Bunnie's is thick as kudzu. That said, this installment is a pretty good set-up for the continuing adventure to which Ken Penders will subject Knuckles (who probably wishes he'd gotten the gig to be one of the Sydney Olympics mascots). Head Score: 7. EYE: In case you haven't heard, Steven Butler will be leaving Archie Comics after issue 90 or 91. My guess is that Steve reached this decision after having done several comics for Disney Adventure magazine ("Buzz Lightyear," "Woody's Round-Up" and "Duck Avenger") and after having gotten his first paycheck from Disney. Steve's work is good here (I particularly liked the scenes between Rob O' The Common Law Marriage and Mari-An), but there are some problems (see below). Anyway, look fast because he'll be out of here by year's end. Eye Score: 8. HEART: Once more, a character in an Archie Comic demonstrates what Dorothy Parker once called an emotional range that runs the gamut from A to B. I had a hard time believing that Knuckles' "Aaarghhh!!!" at the bottom of page 2 was anything close to being an anguished cry. At the top of the page, he just looks steamed, which is pretty much all he's allowed in this story. That's the one thing I miss most about Manny Galan's artwork: he at least was able to work in some emotional range. There is not a lot of that on display here, unfortunately. Heart Score: 4. Off-Panel: Archimedes tries pitching a story during a picnic and Fred threatens to lose his lunch. I know I would. Sonic-Grams: An extended welcome back to Fry just as Steve Butler starts cleaning out his desk. He also mentions S100. While I had nothing to go on save my own fears about the business acumen of the Archie management when I came up with the Sonic Death Watch, I still have a sneaky suspicion that Archie management has reserved the right to pull the plug on the series because they just feel like it. Also mention of a couple Sonic game launches, including Sonic Adventure 2 some time next year. That's probably another reason for Steve Butler's imminent departure: having managed to live through the FIRST Sonic Adventure adaptation, he figured he'd better bail while the bailing was good. Blurb for S89: the writing is a little confused on the point of WHO is plotting revenge on WHOM. Letters: Hark, as Rob O' The Archaic Vocabulary would say, 'tis the sound of the editorial varlets backpedaling like crazy concerning the fate of Lupe. They tell Lily Bonillas that maybe Lupe will return one day, and they tell Elizabeth Ingianni that "the Lupe we knew and loved is gone." Methinks I smelleth a character makeover; either that, or editorial doth keep their heads safely tuck't where naught the sun shineth. Fan Art has Sally-as-Xena which looks OK but she's GOT to do something about that flyaway hair; it makes her look more like Racquel Welch in "One Million Years B.C." Not that there's anything wrong with that. SONIC DEATH WATCH: Countdown to S100: 12 Odds of S100 appearing: 50-to-1 against.