Sonic #108 [May 2002] Spaz/Ribiero/Ray cover: A very heavily outlined Sonic is aghast at the prospect of both Eggman and the SatAM Robotnik sharing the cover. "Say it isn't so," the cover copy screams. OK, it isn't so. "Robotnik x 2 = Trouble!" Story: Benny Lee (debut); Art: Ron Lim; Ink: Andrew Pepoy and Pam Eklund; Color: Josh and Aimee Ray; Editor: Justin Gabrie; Managing Editor: Victor Gorelick; Editor-in-chief: Richard Goldwater. We open with a dynamite splash page of Robotnik, but those aren't stars in his eyes. Seems that thanks to Knuckles' kanoodling around with time and space, Robotnik has figured out a way to broaden his social network. This is especially important since the Overlander populace appears to have deserted the city; more about them later. So with only a handful of roboticized humans for company he brings into his present just about the only other person who could stand his presence: himself, in the form of the SatAM Robotnik. To avoid confusion from this point on I'll be referring to them as R1 (SatAM) and R2 (Eggman), with apologies to George Lucas. Wherever he's been, R1 hasn't gotten any healthier; that double chin of his should have its own area code. And since he's now the new doc on the block, the SWATbots aren't about to ask "How high?" when he says "Jump!" Not a good way to start a vacation. Over in Knothole, Tails is being tested on his tracking and observation skills. Translation: he's "it" in a game of hide- and-seek. What he finds, however, is R1, looking more beat up than when we last saw him. Something tells me that the "Meanwhile" in the text box at the top of the page should have been changed to "Later," but anyway. R1 then tells Sonic that R2 brought him into the story in order to download his "memories" and that he only just managed to escape. Sonic is doubtful but he has to buck this up the chain of command to King Max. For safety's sake, to make sure we're not dealing with another manifestation of the Robot Double plot point, Dr. Quack gives R1 a once-over and declares that this is the real deal, in the flesh. And we do mean "flesh!" We then get a one-page interlude of R1, who was apparently allowed to stay, making himself at home and otherwise proving the truth of Ben Franklin's old adage: "Fish and visitors stink after three days." After a time, though, R1 states his intention to confront R2. The plan is for R1 to regain control of the main computer and thus get the better of R2. The entire group of core Freedom Fighters, putting in a rare joint appearance, come along as support. After dusting a couple of SWAT-bots, and being treated to Bunnie copping one of Sonic's trademark lines, R1 shows the Freedom Fighters what's so obviously a trap that all the scene needs is an Acme(r) anvil hanging by a rope over their heads. R1 fires it up and we learn (surprise, surprise) that R1 and R2 were in cahoots. But thanks to the magic of wireless communication, Sally accesses the time travel device using a jive-talkin' Nicole and pretty much burns it out or something. R1 and R2 blame each other for the foiling of this dastardly plot and begin wailing on each other as the Freedom Fighters beat feet. Had they stayed, they would've seen R1 become unstable and come apart at the seams. Ken Penders was right: traveling through space-time CAN have dire consequences, though he hasn't shown Knuckles come unglued. Then again, Enerjak did that for him back in K8's "The Gauntlet." HEAD: Jumping forward to the This Just In page, we read a quick-and-dirty interview with newcomer Benny Lee. At least as important as the fact that he's "always been a huge Sonic fan" is the fact that he has a degree in creative writing from U. Cal./Berkeley. That tells me that there's been a major shift in Archie's corporate thinking. Along with recruiting Dawn Best as an artist, they've enlisted the services of another fan, one who's learned how to write as opposed to someone who's first and foremost a comic book writer. Don't get me wrong: some of the established comic book writers who've done work for the comic in the past, especially Dan Slott and Danny Fingeroth, have turned in great stuff. But it's refreshing to find that we're dealing with a writer who may not have picked up on some of the bad habits that comic book writers succumb to such as, oh, I don't know, loose continuity! It definitely shows in this story. It's not only a well- paced story with a VERY strong premise, and at 11 pages it HAS to be well-paced, but it also has a high level of credibility, of consistency within the Sonic continuity. Most important, it doesn't depend on this being an Idiot Plot to keep things going. It all comes together at the end when Sally, showing she's one step ahead of both R1 and R2, shuts down the space-time portal or whatever you want to call it as the gang make themselves scarce before R1 comes apart. An excellent debut story. Head Score: 9. EYE: Is it me, or does the reconstituted R1 on page 2 have the proportions of a baby? I don't know who did the splash page leading up to this story, but it's great. Too bad I can't say the same for the rest of the artwork. There are some great poses, such as Sonic and Bunnie taking out a couple SWAT-bots, but the overall furry modeling is as indifferent as ever. And on page 9, I thought at first that Robo-Snively was part of R2's uniform. Eye Score: 5. HEART: It's significant that Benny Lee opens the story with the Freedom Fighters actually interacting, even if it's only a game of hide-and-seek. Bunnie and Antoine are shown hiding at significantly close quarters, and in fact the whole group is more or less inseparable. And isn't THAT a refreshing change! Over the past year, it seemed at times that Karl Bollers, whether acting on his own or on orders from someone in Editorial, was doing everything in his power to drive a wedge between the Knothole Freedom Fighters. Of course there was the Huge Misunderstanding Scene in S99's "Blow by Blow," and the subsequent attempts to show Sally going out of her way NOT to interact with Sonic. Well, except for S101's "Altered States," but that was such an alternate reality showcase that all bets are off. Ken Penders made his own contribution in S97's "To The Brink" with the infamous Tails-isn't-Tails plot point. And the burden of S97's "My Secret Identity" was to show Sonic as one more comic book loner hero. You got the feeling that anyone else was just along for the ride. With this story, if anything, Lee has gone out of his way to actually have the Freedom Fighters working TOGETHER. And not just working; the fact that the gang is shown playing hide-and- seek isn't just a nifty plot device. It hints at a level of camaraderie that hasn't been seen in the book in a long time. And I think that's one of the things that the fans have missed. OK, Sonic has his cool moves and dialogue and attitude, but I'll keep saying it until either I or the comic book die: it's the INTERACTION of the characters that helps make the stories compelling. Sonic gets to juice, sure, but it's Sally and Nicole who wipe out the time machine. We're actually seeing the team AS a team once more, and that's the most welcome aspect of all about this story. Heart Score: 10. Data Files: one for R1, one for R2. Just to bring the newbies up to speed. "A Girl Named Hope!" Story: Karl Bollers; Art: J. Axer (debut); Ink: Andrew Pepoy; Lettering: Jeff Powell; Color: Josh and Aimee Ray; Editor: Justin Gabrie. And now it's time for "Sally's Mailbag!" Here's a letter from H. K. who writes.... Long letter short: Hope Kintobor, daughter and granddaughter of the now-roboticized Colin and Agnes Kintobor respectively, petitions the Acorns to be allowed to stay in Knothole. We get a lot of flashback and impressions from Hope before Max grants the request. HEAD: With only 5 pages at his disposal, Karl needed to handle the material just right, and he hit upon the solution of making this an epistolary story. An epistolary story (you can see where it's related to the Greek word for "letter") is one that's told through the device of a series of letters. It's not an easy kind of story to write, since you have to keep with one point of view throughout, and the temptation to get bogged down with exposition is huge. Still, it can work. My favorite epistolary novel is Bel Kaufman's 1964 "Up The Down Staircase." The story of the first few months' experience of a young English teacher starting out in a New York City high school, it's told mainly through a series of letters, inter-office memos, homework assignments, etc. It does an amazing job of covering the narrative territory as well as bringing a host of characters to life. Karl achieves a similar success using it here. While much of Hope's letter deals with her back story, it also provides the briefest of glimpses into her thoughts about life among the furries, a life that apparently no other Overlander wanted to share. There is a LOT of great stuff between the lines here. I haven't felt there was this much story potential since Ken Penders' Forbidden Zone arc (K19-21). The next-to-last panel on page 4, with its amazing bird's-eye-view of Knothole as Hope stands on a balcony apparently looking at a Knothole resident who could be her own age (the furry kid wearing shorts and a t-shirt with a star on it) could be the basis for a story all by itself. But by economizing Karl has left so many great story lines unexpressed and a lot of questions unanswered. For instance, why didn't any other Overlander offer to adopt Hope? Was it simple hatred/resentment against the Kintobors? If so, why take it out on a kid? How tense were things in Knothole between the time the Freedom Fighters took off for Station Square to negotiate the resettlement of the O's (the subtext for "Crouching Hedgehog, Hidden Dragon," S106-107), and their return? What were Hope's living arrangements? If she was freaked by the sight of a roboticized Mobian as documented on page 3, that might rule out her being put up with Sonic robo-rents. And how did she feel about all these people she's come to know and whom, for all we know, she'll never see again? See what I mean? There's a freakin' NOVEL hidden in this story, and I'm going to have to pry it loose one of these years. Until then, we have a great story by Karl to fill the void. Head Score: 10. EYE: I was so totally blown away by J. Axer's debut story! The detail in each of his panels is amazing. Not just in the BEV shot on page 4 I already mentioned, but throughout the story as well. He's obviously been drinking from the manga/anime well. It shows not only in the Tenchi Masaki hair-do on the Overlander on page [2] panel 5, but also in the leaves blowing past Hope's face on page 4 panel 3. Speaking of expressions, go back and look at the way Princess Sally was drawn by Ron Lim in the preceding story. Then look at Sally's expression on page 4 panel 2. There is more expression, more emotion, in that one drawing of Sally by J. Axer than in all of Ron's drawings of Sally in the cover story put together. For that matter, look at the 4th panel on the last page, where Axer has Sonic and Sally in silhouette. Even there he manages to sell the reader on the respective personalities of the characters. Wonderful stuff, and a welcome addition to the crew. Eye Score: 10. HEART: Everything in this story leads up the ending and its Awwww Moment. I trust I don't have to explain that. I may be prejudiced by the fact that Family and Belonging are two themes that recur in my own fanfic so I'm more aware when they appear in the works of others, but after the emotional aridity of the comic for the last who knows how long, we actually get a story where the plot can be described simply (that had to be one of the shortest plot summaries I've ever written) but the feeling conveyed by the story is far more complex. Like I said, Karl left a lot unspoken, but what he did say all led up to one thing: Hope's joining the cast. As a human who's pretty much the same age as the presumed preadolescent core audience and who thus becomes a figure with whom they can identify, her presence in the book even in a minor capacity can go a long way toward strengthening the readership of the book. On the other hand, if she's not handled well she could become the next Nate Morgan. Between S64 and S100, Nathaniel Beauregard Morgan added virtually nothing to the comic whatsoever. He functioned mainly as a walking plot device who'd supply a bit of dialogue or two in the interest of moving the story along, then move on. The potential of the character, an Overlander among furries, was never ever exploited to any degree. And if mishandled, Hope could suffer the same fate. So, as painful as it may be, let's learn from past mistakes and see if we can figure out how NOT to write for Hope Kintobor: 1. GIVE HER A PERSONALITY. Nate Morgan was entirely personality-deficient during his tenure in the comic. His self-sacrifice in S100's "Reunion" was too little too late for someone who became more of an exposition machine than anything else. Whoever is going to end up doing the writing for Hope, whether Benny or Karl, will have to decide what kind of personality she has, whether she's going to remain a Pretty Victim or whether she's going to show a certain amount of spunk. 2. KNOW HER RELATIONSHIPS. Nate really didn't have much of a relationship with any of the Knothole furries. You got the impression that King Max treated him more like a pet than a mentor. Not that Karl ever went out of his way to show him interacting with anybody. Now we have Hope, with no real indication of how the others will interact with her. She seems to be close to Sally for the moment, but what about everyone else? Her relationship to Tails is especially critical, as they're theoretically peers. This isn't idle speculation. It's by understanding how the characters interact that the best stories develop and maintain an emotional core. Before any further work is done with her the writers and editors had better figure out just what her relationship with everyone else is. 3. USE ONLY AS DIRECTED. One of the things that made Nate so annoying during his tenure was the apparent belief that he had to be utilized in just about every issue, even if his appearance was a useless walk-on that could have been handled some other way. As a result, the character was effectively cheapened. Archie shouldn't feel they have to work her into every story from now on, and with any luck they won't. That way, they just might get the best use out of her when she DOES appear. Observing these guidelines, Archie will go a long way toward creating a character with long-range potential. Don't let history repeat itself. Heart Score: 10. Sonic Art: Not a bad batch of submissions: Melody St. John's drawing of Hawking, Randal Drew's before-and-after of Amy Rose, Genevieve Desormiers' head shot of Dulcy, and a double shot of Marsha Dort: a rather frenzied depiction of the attack of the Bombs from S102's "Family Dysfunction" and the accompanying envelope art. "Reunification: Part 3" Story: Ken Penders; Art: Dawn Best; Ink: Ken Penders; Color: Josh and Aimee Ray; Lettering: Vickie Williams; Editor: Justin Gabrie. Knuckles' sudden support of Dimitri is being reviewed by Lara-Le. Knuckles is apparently unmoved by her protests; what DOES get under his green skin is the news from Lara-Le that she's pregnant. All things considered, he takes this better than when she told him in K16 she was getting remarried. Back at the council, a squinty-eyed member of the clergy questions whether echidna society could absorb the social disruption represented by the Dark Legion. Dimitri tries to argue this rationally. As for Lara-Su, she tails Knuckles as he leaves Lara-Le's apartment and hooks up with Lien-Da. Back in chambers, the discussion turns to just what kind of unity government Dimitri has in mind. Knuckles then takes the floor. Basically he argues for normalization of relations, speaking as someone who's butted heads with the Dark Legion more than once in the past. While the title of this story is taken from a celebrated two-part ep of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the situation with Knuckles and Dimitri demonstrated the Vulcan proverb cited in Star Trek 6: "Only Nixon could go to China." Lara-Su tries to get into the chambers herself, but has to force her way past the guard to do so. As she arrives, an Unattributed Voice says "You've betrayed us for the last time!!!" to someone-or-other as Remington draws and fires at someone-or- other. HEAD: I have a sign taped to my computer hutch at the office. Its message: "Assume Nothing." Which is a pretty good way to approach a Ken Penders story. Let's check this out. We know Lara-Su identified Remington as "the one who killed Knuckles." We also see Remington draw and fire. From these facts we're led to believe that it was he who spoke the unattributed dialogue in the next-to-last panel, and that Lara-Su is witnessing the shooting she spoke of two issues before. Yeah, right! It was the 18th century philosopher David Hume who pointed out, much to the consternation of the Enlightened West, that sequence does not necessarily imply causality. The fact "that one thing follows another accounts for nothing. Nothing follows from following, except change," as Marshall McLuhan put it in his book "Understanding Media." This was such an uncomfortable notion to the rational West, challenging the Newtonian idea of cause and effect, that it spurred Emmanuel Kant to write the "Critique of Pure Reason," which I'd better not get into here. What I will point out is that Ken Penders has managed a very nice bit of trickery here. And I mean that in a GOOD way! Something's happening, but the limitations of the comic medium prevent us from knowing what exactly happened. We have dialog, but no clear idea who spoke it. We have Remington firing, but no clue as to who his target it. We'll have to wait until next time to learn whether the final installment will meet, or defy, our expectations. That's as good a reason as any to keep reading. I'm not surprised that Lara-Le and Wynmacher have gotten busy and that she's back on the nest. The timing, though, is a little off. Once again, it points up the fact that we don't know how much time elapsed between Wyn and Lara-Le being transported off the island and their being brought back and whether they were even conscious during that time, never mind how they occupied themselves. It usually takes a while for a pregnancy to kick in and when we last saw the twosome in SSS14's "Best of Times..." they'd only just checked into the honeymoon suite. So either there was a LOT of time to kill in whatever zone they were in before Knuckles brought them back, or else they'd been busy before the wedding in which case they can expect to get an angry letter from Michael Silberkleit. Head Score: 8. EYE: More excellent work by Dawn Best. I don't know whether it's a function of the story or of Ken's layouts or what, but the least expressive character in the bunch of regulars is Knuckles. Lara-Le and Lara-Su are definitely more expressive, and they have their reasons. Knuckles, however, wanders through this story with a perpetually furrowed brow and the rather dour expression I've come to expect from the Brotherhood in general. Which I'll have more to say about later. Eye Score: 9. HEART: I get the feeling that Knuckles is finally getting tired from being green, or at least he's emotionally exhausted. He takes the news of his mom's pregnancy with the same emotional intensity as when he's discussing politics before the Council: not a lot. Granted that at 6 pages pacing is a major consideration and Ken may not have felt he had the leisure to slow down the action and let Knuckles react, as he did in K16's "Reunions" when Lara-Le broke the news of her engagement to Wynmacher. Still, Knuckles' stoicism in the face of everything that's happening is starting to get old. That, it seems to me, was one of the hallmarks of old school superhero comic book writing. There was a certain stoicism, almost an indifference, about superheroes. As if they didn't have any kind of interior life. The books were all about action, all about super powers and super villains and battles and more battles. Which to me got really old really fast, and which may explain in part why I've never been a huge fan of the genre. But times have changed, and superheroes are starting to have a bit of an interior life. This is especially true when your superhero isn't exactly super, when he or she is just an ordinary average person with a magical friend and/or device. This is the hallmark not of American comics but of anime. In a lot of anime series, the hero and/or heroine may have no special powers at all. Characters like Genki in "Monster Rancher" or the ensemble of Earth kids in "Digimon" are emphatically NOT superheroes; they're kids with powerful companions who have to rely on their own inner resources and their friends, whether humans or monsters or whatever, rather than on fancy super powers. In the absence of super powers, this leaves the kids room to have an interior life. As I write this, I've just seen the "Digimon" ep where Ty finds himself momentarily back home before having to leave it and his little sister to return to the digiworld. The American dub of the series played down the emotionality of the story, but anyone who's an anime veteran could pick up the visual cues easy enough. No matter how brave the dialogue might have seemed, seeing a character with their back to the viewer, head bowed and shoulders slumped and quivering, is a blatant visual cue that the character is on the verge of a good cry. This is where the emotional rhythms of manga and anime part company with the American comic book. American comics may be emulating the Japanese media in terms of visual style, but they still have a lot to learn about the emotional rhythms of manga and anime. There's more of a sense of both action and stillness in Japanese popular culture, of emotion interlacing whatever action is driving the plot. And there's something that's more emotionally satisfying about that than a straight-ahead action script. For me, anyway. Again, I don't know whether Ken had to bypass any kind of reaction from Knuckles concerning Lara-Le's big news because of space limitations, but his reaction is so low keyed it's virtually non-existent. It reinforces the belief I've always had about Ken Penders: that he does a great job telling action stories, but his emotional pacing is way off, as if he's too eager to get back to having his characters throwing punches and shooting things. This story still works, don't get me wrong, but there's still the sense that SOMETHING is missing. I've been calling that something "heart." Heart Score: 6. OVERALL: As pessimistic as I was about the comic after S97, I'm as hopeful about it now. It may be too soon to tell whether their mid-course correction will take hold or not, but I'm feeling way better about the book's chances with J. Axer and Dawn Best handling the art and with Benny Lee showing a better understanding of what made the Knothole gang special to the fans. Is it a fluke? We'll have to wait and see. This Just In!: Karl interviews the new kid, Benny Lee. As a way of finessing the question of having a "favorite" Sonic, Lee mentions the Sonic balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. What he doesn't mention is the balloon's troubled past. I believe it had a serious run-in with a lamp post one year, tearing a hole in the balloon and damaging the lamp post. He also hedges his bets in the non-issue of Sally vs. Mina. Just so long as he takes a stand in his writing, which means that Editorial has to get off the dime and give the book some direction themselves. Sonic-Grams: Ken makes mention of the fact that Sonic has managed to outlast the Star Wars comics. Which is an interesting factoid in itself but begs the question of the quality of writing and art in the Star Wars book. The longest letter this time around is by major cyberfan WB, who offers an explanation as to how anyone willing to get roboticized won't lose their will. Way to go, dude; have a chocolate chicken on us. ~S-Jay writes in to represent those of us who, having been with the book for a while, are not about to put it away and consider ourselves grown up. Blurb for Sonic #109: The title of the cover story, "I Herd It Through The Pipeline," prompts whoever wrote the copy to do their Marvin Gaye impersonation. Actually, "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" is NOT about romance; it's about being the last to find out your girl's been two-timing you. As for me, I've come to think of the song as "dead yuppie music," since that's what's playing on the soundtrack of "The Big Chill" as Kevin Costner's corpse is being prepped by the undertaker and his friends gather for his funeral. We also get the resolution of the Sally-Mina situation; the bad news is, Sally's supposed to be conversing with the Sword of Acorns, so it looks like Karl's going to forget about emotional honesty and instead kick the mumbo jumbo quotient up a couple notches.