#42 [Jan 1997]
Spaz cover: Since a Chaos emerald features prominently in the
plot, think of this cover as Spaziante's salute to Chaos. 
Sonic's hands, head and feet are way too big in proportion to his
torso; Rotor is in-line skating with no skates; Bunnie's mouth
looks like it belongs to Carol Burnett; the only explanation for
Sally's posture is that she must have left her spine in her other
vest; and Antoine's left elbow is bending in the wrong direction. 
Should've saved this cover for an April Fool's Day issue.
     "In Every Kingdom There Must Exist A Little Chaos."
     Story: Kent Taylor/Art: Art Mawhinney
     Given the changes that will be happening to the story, Kent
goes for stability and opens with a cozily familiar sight: Sonic
and Knuckles trying to pound the snot out of each other.  Freddy
helpfully tags along and supplies information that we would have
gleaned had we read the Death Egg saga--it may not have made a
major impact on the plotline but it does leave a lot of small
potholes in the road.  In between blows, we learn that Robotnik
tried yet again to filch Knuckles' chaos emerald and that Sonic
knows about the spare one Knuckles acquired in "Crash of the
Titans".  He wants Knuckles to cut loose with the spare as a way
of treating King Acorn.  Tails arrives and hastens along the
exposition that King Acorn has been rescued from the Zone of
Silence but is suffering from an advanced case of crystalysis. 
Sonic manages to shut Tails up about some development from
SonicQuest #1 (as a way to boost sales, no doubt).  Knuckles,
however, has a highly-developed sense of sales resistance and
turns Sonic down flat.  Back at Knothole, Sonic delivers some
extra power rings to Sally and again muzzles Tails about
something.  The power rings having failed to revive the king,
Uncle Chuck suggests some alternative medicine.  Sal explains
that she believes her father wasn't wearing the genuine crown of
the Acorn kings when he was nabbed by Robotnik.  An ancient
scroll is trotted out, which indicates that the true crown may be
located in the Hall of Limbo.  Next step: get enough power rings
to fire up Sonic's brain cells so he can get to the Hall.
     Early next morning Sonic, Sally and Tails rendezvous with
the "spy network" from "Rise of Robotropolis".  Sleuth, the
McGruff the Crime Dog clone, arrives on the scene and almost
immediately arouses Sally's suspicions.  Guess what, campers:
he's working the wrong side of the storyline, as he brings in a
welcoming committee of SWATbots, with a roboticized Fly Fly
Freddy providing air cover.  It looks like Sleuth's got the drop
on the Knothole gang, but he gets dropped on by Bunnie instead. 
Unfortunately, everybody's so busy punching each other out that
nobody's got a spare moment for retrieving a fresh power ring. 
Sonic makes time and just before he's zapped by Freddy (the
insect, not the editor), Knuckles drops in and takes out Freddy
before you can say "Help me!" [mandatory movie reference for Ken
Penders' benefit].  Sonic uses a move I've never seen before to
finish mopping up the SWATbots and Knuckles presents Sally with
the spare Chaos Emerald he swore 8 pages ago he'd never part
with.
     One quick exposition from Uncle Chuck later, they try using
the Emerald to restore the King to normal.  No go; it only makes
things worse.  Well, that's one way to kill 14 pages.  Now it's
up to Sonic to use the power ring to boost his brain with regard
to the business about the Hall of Limbo.  After a nice panel that
reminds me of some of the artwork of the old posters for the
Fillmore in San Francisco (if you have to ask, you weren't from
the Sixties), he declares that the King's sword has something to
do with it.  Hey, try muddling the plot with even more of these
mystical doo-dads.  Crowns, swords, what next, the royal Lava
Lite?  Knuckles touchingly volunteers to undertake the quest for
the sword, telling Sally "You shouldn't have to lose your father
twice."  Uh, anyone want to tell Red what the Princess is REALLY
going to lose come issue #47?
     Sonic Art: Rabbot art from Rabat.  No, it's not a failure of
the spell-checker.  Elysaar Khoury from Rabat, Morocco, supplies a
drawing of Bunnie.
     Well, we've wrapped up the Chaos story and so, in the words
of Bill Cosby, "I told you that story to tell you this one" as we
immediately segue to...
     "Knuckles' Quest"
     Story: Ken Penders & Kent Taylor; Art: Art Mawhinney & Brian
Thomas
     Very nice opening sequence in the first page revealing a
very improbable development: Knuckles perched uneasily on an open
seat attached to the side of the SeaFox, with Tails at the helm. 
What, Rotor couldn't have installed a proper sidecar?  Couldn't
he have at least attached a seat belt?  How about one of those
horse collar arrangements you see on rollercoasters?  Anyway,
Tails supplies over a page of exposition taking in "Tttriple
Tttrouble," "Ring of Truth" and "Southern Crossover".  Nice to see
K&K have done their homework and anchored this story to ones that
have gone before.  Speaking of "Southern Crossover" that's Tails'
destination: Athair's crater in Downunda.  They eventually run
into the old dude and if you thought things were weird up until
now, strap yourself down.
     The Ancient Walkers reappear; this time, just the masks and
no dinosaur suits.  It helps.  Knuckles and Tails get hurled past
some faces that look like they belong on the Mobian equivalent of
a deck of Magic cards: a black cat, a crow/raven and a goat who
are supposed to be (respectively?) a "sorceror" [sic], a wizard
and an alchemist, along with what looks like a disreputable Tails
with a few years on him, a white rabbit and a horse in armor (a
charlatan, an enchantress, and a paladin--THAT one you can look
up yourself).  The ride ends and Knuckles is determined to go it
alone.  Part of the declamation by the Ancient Walkers goes:
"With patience and fortitude a blade of steel thou may embrace." 
Hmmm, "embrace" a blade of steel...OK, folks, place your bets:
who thinks that the King's sword is going to end up somehow being
Sally's ticket to the harp farm?
     I know that just about anything would have been an
improvement over the mediocrity that was "And One Shall Save Him"
-- OK, with the possible exception of "Sonic Shot II".  But WOW! 
The crew at Archie has really kicked out the jams for this one! 
Despite numerous digressions and editorial boxes, Kent keeps the
narrative moving with very few dead spots.  And there's the
saving grace of Mawhinney's artwork for when things threaten to
bog down: nothing happens in the top panel on page 5, but the
expression on Sally's face more than compensates.  It's a crime
that we haven't been getting this level of writing and artwork on
a regular basis up until now, and it's all the worse because this
current milieu only has eight more issues to run before the
readers have a Brave New World thrust upon them.  Just when the
gang at Archie looks like they've finally got a handle on the OLD
world!
     The story line, and the Sonic comics generally for that
matter, have never been known for having a particularly high
mumbo-jumbo quotient.  Now all of a sudden we're up to our necks
in magical objects, rhyming prophecies and archetypal characters. 
Looks like I'd better keep my copy of Joseph Campbell handy
again.  I don't want to say that this was the only way the Archie
gang could figure out to bring the Sonic saga to some kind of
satisfactory conclusion--heck, I'm having to resort to it myself
in my fanfic--but this far along they haven't made any missteps
on a path that could leave the story looking rather ridiculous. 
Kind of like the business with the Chaos emerald -- after chasing
after it for all those pages, it doesn't work anyway.  But that's
an issue for another issue.
     Sonic-Grams: only one page, with very little hype from
Freddy.  He doesn't even mention #43, all the while keeping our
attention on the SonicQuest series and the Sonic LIVE! Special
issue.  B. J. Kvito of Worthington, Ohio, wants to see (among
other things) stories about "Knuckles' and Sally's shared
childhood."  At the rate things are going, however, the only way
that's going to happen will be in flashback, as Knuckles indulges
in misty watercolor memories of the way we were....  Speaking of
which, unless something's come up, #43 is supposed to be the
major flashback/origins issue.  THAT I want to see!