Sonic #63 [Oct 1998] Spaz/HaRiOh/Ray/Heroic Age cover: Sonic poses with plot point. "Icon, [Part 2]: Cult of Personality" Writer: Karl Bollers; Art: Steven Butler; Ink: Pam Eklund; Lettering: Jeff Powell; Color: Ken Penders; Editorial: G-Force I'm going to ignore the Devil's Island Gulag subplot for the time being (I WILL be getting back to it, though), and concentrate instead on the main story beginning on page 4. We cut to Sandblast City where Sonic continues to live it up as a guest of the locals. This includes getting waited on by a couple of furry babes, including one who looks like Binkie Muddlefoot taking a walk on the wild side. Tails, however, is still apprehensive and lapsing into a one-page flashback doesn't help. As he and Sonic debate the situation behind closed (but not soundproof) doors, Jack Rabbitt states that Sonic's here to stay. Skipping over a page of Gulag subplot along with the Find Your Name... page (BTW, I remember getting e-mail from Jennifer in Beijing), we find that it's the middle of the night and Sonic has done a quick 180-degree attitude adjustment. He says he was only acting contented to throw the locals off-guard. The escape of the two, however, is thwarted by Jack et al., so Sonic leads them a merry chase while looking for the controls of the force field and ordering Tails to start up the plane. It takes Sonic until page 12 to realize that the controls are located inside the statue of himself set up by the locals. He splashes... er... smashes the statue as Tails warms up the "Winged Victory." Apparently, the Sandblasters' idea of "mothballing" the aircraft didn't include draining the gas tank. While Jack and company are preoccupied with the incoming roboticized Mobians who have been kept out until now by the force field, Sonic and Tails make their getaway. And now here's the Devil's Gulag subplot in its entirety: 1. A look at the island on the title page. 2. A two-page splash of the prison riot that started in the last issue. 3. A page where Snively is more or less recruited into Drago's gang. 4. Snively and the others leave the Island in various vehicles. I never thought I'd hear myself saying this again after "Sonic Shot" (#33), but what the hell is THIS crap? The entire Devil's Gulag subplot consists of some of the most careless writing I've ever seen in my life! Snively and the others go from the riot to leaving the Island with nothing to stop them. Literally! If the Island was such a hot-shot maximum security installation, wouldn't they have encountered SOME difficulty in getting a ride? We're left to guess that the Island was somehow totally shut down, either by Snively's dropping the nail file (as if!) or by that button that was pushed in the previous issue. We HAVE to guess because Karl Bollers doesn't lift a finger to help the reader. It's literally a case of: "Once we broke out of jail...." This is nothing but hack writing! And the rest of the story isn't much better. Too many plot points simply go unexplained and we're left to guess about them as well. We're told nothing about what happened to the local roboticized Mobians that made them turn on the Sandblast citizenry, we're told nothing about when Sonic began to suspect something was amiss, we're not even told WHY the Sandblasters feel that they have to keep Sonic as a prisoner when the force field is working quite nicely, thank you. Sonic and Tails run through a LOT of action sequences in the hope that the reader won't notice that there's something missing from this story. Like, say, a credible plot! Steven Butler's artwork, I'm afraid, counts for little more than a colorful distraction from the poverty of the narrative. Either this story was subjected to the same kind of chainsaw editing that ruined "The Big Goodbye" (Sonic #50), or else Karl Bollers has gotten incredibly sloppy and threw together a quick-and-dirty two-parter in order to get Sonic to his appointment with Naugus on time. Either way, this is a disgrace. In the latest editorial by Ken Penders and J. Fred Gabrie on the Archie Comics Website, they maintain that "The books would never get done if we tried to put together something that would please everyone...[some] fans...want more action, while others prefer the more subtle character development material." This is a fair and valid observation. At this point, though, I no longer have a major preference for either the Action or Character Development genres. Of course, it would be nice if the action in a story LED TO some character development in the process. The two kinds of stories are not mutually exclusive. But after reading this story, I realize what my biggest problem with the book is: I object to poor writing. When I first got into Sonic comics with #18's "In The Still Of The Night" I felt then, as I've felt since, that Sonic carried the potential to be more than just another comic book, more than part of the funny animal genre. Some stories have indeed set their sights high in that regard: "Endgame" (its execution notwithstanding), "Running To Stand Still," and practically the entire Knuckles run. But some stories have gone out of their way to try to prove me wrong. When a story like "Icon" comes along, I have to wonder whether the writer just wasn't up to the challenge, or whether he simply didn't care. Let's try to put that unpleasantness behind us and look back at the Fan Art. Michelle Matafleu does a nice drawing of Lupe (though the reference to Bigfoot puzzles me),and Charles Gaines's drawing takes a turn of showing Sonic as something less than heroic. And then there's Rich Jones's drawing of Sonic and Robotnik, which is an excellent counterpoint for this month's "Pro Art" coloring page by Nelson Ribiero and Jim Amash. I think Robotnik's eventual return to the pages of the comic has been sufficiently teased at this point, thank you. And if the Fat Boy is indeed back in town, then the reunion of the Knothole Freedom Fighters can't (or shouldn't) be far behind. In which case, I'd like to suggest the following "pro art" for the occasion: a drawing of Sonic and Tails decked out in dark glasses and hats in the style of "The Blues Brothers" with a line from the film as the perfect caption: "We're putting the band back together." "Tales of the Freedom Fighters presents "Geoffrey St. John "On His Majesty's Secret Service part 3" Story: Ken Penders; Art: Art Mawhinney; Ink: Ken Penders; Color: Ken Penders; Lettering: Jeff Powell; Editorial: G- Force. Sally had a great line in the "Sonic and Sally" ep from the first season of the TV series; I can't remember it verbatim but she basically said that titles such as "Princess" don't mean much out in the Great Forest. Looks like they don't mean very much to Geoff's underlings in postwar Mobitropolis, either, as Lt. Smiley (who looks like he should have been named "Squinty") tells her she's not on Geoff's A- list. Meanwhile, Geoff's putting the team he's assembled through their paces, as the hapless furries discover that this "walk in the park" is no walk in the park. It appears that their final exam consists of bringing down and capturing a SWATbot (whom we have to assume has been rendered relatively harmless). It takes the group a lot more time to do the job than Sonic would have needed, and it's done with far less style. Sally catches up to Geoff but before she can give him a piece of her mind he blows her off and tells her to take it up with her father. I hate to admit it, but reading this issue left me feeling tired and discouraged, so let's just cut to... Sonic-Grams: Plugs for Sonic #64, Knuckles #17 and NiGHTS #6. Also a plug for Ken's appearance at the San Diego Comic Con, and it actually appears in a timely manner. Letters: two letters in a row state that King Max has his crown on too tight; Tim Dutcher approved of Antoine's "play[ing] a more prominent role" in "Monkey Madness." Now if the writers would only start giving Bunnie HER propers!