#29 [Dec 1995] [Better double-bag this one, gang; it's a keeper for a number of reasons. DJD] Cover by Spaziante -- this stunning work alone deserves recognition! Not as powerful as the roboticization of Sally sequence in "Sonic's Nightmare" but close enough. "Steel-belted Sally" (three parts) Story: Angelo Decesare/Art: Art Mawhinney After a one-page introduction to Dulcy (which was more than she got when she debuted in the second season), we move on to the story. Sonic finds a "portable deroboticizer"(!!!) in a crashed hover unit. So Rotor takes it apart, figures out how it works, begins mass-producing them, the residents of Mobius are deroboticized and they drive Robotnik off the planet. Wrong answer! Instead, Sally allows herself to be captured by Robotnik and roboticized, trusting in a small disc that looks like a battery for a calculator that's supposed to prevent her mind from coming under Robotnik's influence after being roboticized. Unfortunately, the "neuro-overrider" falls off and Sally is totally transformed. As the others are on the verge of being roboticized by Robo-Sally, Dulcy shows up and uses the portable deroboticizer (remember THAT plot device?) to restore Sally and foil Robotnik. Good artwork by Mawhinney, but readers have been quick to point out the flaws in the plot of the story. Why NOT use the portable deroboticizer to restore Bunnie, or even Uncle Chuck (scheduled to appear in issue #30)? After it's used on Sally it's never heard of again; shabby treatment for a pivotal device. And why wasn't the neuro-overrider more securely fastened to Sally? They couldn't find a bobby pin? They never heard of super glue? They couldn't take the time to surgically implant the thing? And finally, whose idea was it at Archie Comics to have Bunnie wearing metallic panties? Her legion of fanboys are glad she's putting in more of an appearance, but how about keeping her on-model? Sonic Art: Reid Price's drawing of the girls elicited some comment because of the tattoos and pierced ears. Still a pale imitation of the erotic "Bambioids" of Jerry Collins. Of his work I am in awe. "Growing Pains, Part 2" Story: Mike Gallagher/Art: Dave Manak When we last left Tails, he had been betrayed by his new girlfriend, Fiona, who turned out to be one of Robotnik's automatons. Tails has just been consigned to the desert island's roboticizer. Fasten your safety belts, return seats and tray tables to their upright position and assume the crash landing position: a promising story is about to go down in flames.... The roboticizer explodes because of "fur from [Tails'] tails." Wonder why this problem never came up when Robotnik was roboticizing other furries; next time, Ivo, don't put your prisoners in the air intake. Fiona attacks Tails, who is then almost crushed boa-style by one of Robotnik's palm trees. Fiona attacks again and attemps to drown Tails in the shallows. However, before she can finish the job she grinds to a halt. Apparently she is able to rust solid in a matter of seconds. Tails should have noticed this little problem when he and Fiona were running along the beach during the romantic interlude on page 5 of Part 1, but maybe Tails and Gallagher both learned story structure and continuity from the same teacher. While Tails mourns his lost (or at least immobilized) love in unbelievably heavy-handed prose, Robotnik escapes. Tails may be blue, but he's also green: he starts picking up the trash along the beach. This is how he discovers "absolute proof" that O.J. Simpson murdered Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman...oops, wrong story. What he discovers is "absolute proof" of a "satellite operation functioning on the other side of Mobius." Same level of credibility, IMHO. Having been handed the premise of his miniseries on a silver plate without any connection whatever to the two-parter he just endured, Tails is off on his solo adventure. This isn't Shakespeare, Heaven only knows...it isn't even Bacon, but Tails' acting in this story is 100% ham! In writing for comics you have to take shortcuts, and sometimes you have to put massive amounts of plot development into a couple of word balloons. "Growing Pains", however, manages to wade through 15 pages before setting up the plot of the miniseries on the very last page. Which wouldn't be so unforgivable if the dialogue that preceeded it weren't so extravagent. "I'll put you here as a monument to my lost youth...but I'll make him repair you and we'll be together again, my love!" Typical 10-year-old, right? OK, when did you totally give up on this story? I managed to hang in until page 7. When I got to the line "Robotnik created the perfect woman, but forgot to waterproof her!", I knew this was the cue for Sonic's line: "I think I shall hurl!" What galls me is the promise with which the story began. It's easy to tell the Trekkers in the audience because after Part 1 they've been rooting for Fiona to switch allegiances and join up with Tails (call it the Mr. Data Effect). The questions raised by Part 1 were full of promise: Will Fiona cross over and join the Freedom Fighters? Did Tails get to second base with Fiona during their romantic interlude? The readers were ready to grant Gallagher and Manak a lot of latitude in the beginning, but the second part was a total bringdown. The traps were unbelievable, Fiona was written out of the story too easily, and Tails was stuck with some of the most melodramatic lines this side of Yiddish theater. And by the last page you had the sense of "Forget it, let's get on to the miniseries." With more thought to the story, "Growing Pains" could have been a decent miniseries in its own right, ending with a Tails whose character has actually grown by the end of the story. It's a bad sign when the readers take the story more seriously than the writer! Sonic Grams: For the last time, guys, LOSE THE OFFICE HUMOR! We buy the product so we can read about Sonic and Tails, not Scott and Paul. Buried in Scott's prose is the news that despite the Spaziante covers, the team who perpetrated "Growing Pains", Gallagher and Manak, will be doing the Tails miniseries! So much for anticipation. Can you say "coherency?" More important, can you DO coherency? November promises Sonic #30 and the return of Uncle Chuck, Tails miniseries #2, and the Knuckles Chaotix special, just in time for your holiday shopping. On to the letters themselves, and these stuck in my craw even more than the flaws in "Growing Pains." First they punt a question on whether Tails is 5 or 10 years old, then they run a letter to Dylan, then they casually mention that Antoine is 18 (without offering any proof that he's older than the rest), and even though they go some ways in explaining the Boomer/Rotor name game they have to deal with a question about Sonic and Robotnik being half-sibs. Two words: PUH-LEEEZE!