Sonic the Hedgehog #131 [Mar 2004] Spaz/Penders/Jensen cover "after Cockrum." Sonic, Sally, Julie-Su, Knuckles and Merlin Prower contemplate the futures of Sonic, Sally, Knuckles, Julie-Su, Lara-Su, with special guest Rotor as Ben Kenobi. Why does this cover remind me of the name of an AC/DC album? J. Axer/M. Higgins cast drawing on the summary page. Nice, even if Sonic is the only one in color. "Home: Part 2: The Gathering" Story: Karl Bollers; Art: Ron Lim; Ink: Jim Amash; Color: Jason Jensen; Lettering: Jeff Powell; Editor: Justin Gabrie; Assistant Editor: Mike Pellerito (debut); Managing Editor: Victor Gorelick; Editor-in-chief: Richard Goldwater Remember power rings? Well, guess what Sonic's latched onto for the first time in a long time? And since it HAS been a long time, some flashback is in order: After Sonic absorbed the complexity of last issue's cliffhanger ending, Sally bestows one of the antique rings on Sonic as well as a good-bye peck, thus giving us a glimpse of what the future holds for them: "I'm off to save the world again, dear; don't wait dinner for me." But Sonic isn't the only hero on the payroll these days. So while Sonic is off to "old Megaolopis," we cut to the Freedom Fighter Special Mark 2, which is now a shuttle streaking skyward. Aboard are Bunnie, Antoine, Espio, Hershey, Geoff, and fresh from her pointless cameo appearance in Sonic #125, Fiona Fox. Geoff reassuringly tells Espio: "This is her maiden voyage ... we're not even sure if she works...," making it sound as if they're members of the Royal Space Force of Honneamise rather than of Mobius. Before Espio can say "Well, this is my stop so I'll just be getting off now," Rotor comes on screen to explain how the new troop deployment system works: the FFS-M2 zooms up into the upper atmosphere and goes into geo-synchronous orbit over Mobius, which means that they'll be moving "in an accelerated hyper-spin around the planet." OK, I'm no Bill Nye The Science Guy, so when I read this, I had to come up to speed on just what a geo-synchronous orbit is. Turns out it's an orbit in which a satellite or other space craft achieves an orbit that EXACTLY MATCHES THE ROTATION OF THE PLANET. That means it reaches a point above Mobius and more or less cruises there at the same speed as the planet itself, like it's just parked up there. This is pretty handy for deploying communication satellites, but seems pretty pointless when shipping a half-dozen furries from one place to another. In short, it's a glorified version of shooting them out of a cannon and into the air inside a well-equipped cannonball and then having the cannonball do a controlled landing wherever they were supposed to be going. What the test pilots in "The Right Stuff" referred to as "Spam in a can." The use of the shuttle paradigm for this sequence led me to do a little more research. Turns out that for the U.S. shuttle to get off the ground, the two exterior engines/fuel tanks burn up over half a million gallons of liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen. I don't know what kind of fuel the Mobian version burns, but this whole scenario seems like a horrible waste of materiel and resources in the name of speed. In the business world, this is called a million dollar solution to a hundred dollar problem. But back to the story. "Sapristi!" Gen. DeCoolette declares (that's French for "Good grief!"). As he addresses the troops, back-up arrives in the form of Knuckles, Julie-Su, Amy Rose, Vector and Mighty. Not much happens, and it takes up two pages. Meanwhile, back at the castle, Max is having women trouble. Specifically, Sally and Alicia insist on standing by his side instead of beating furry feet to the bunker. In Sonic's absence, Jules and Bernie are also present looking for some face time. President Square then calls in and gives Max a sample of his leadership style: he's adopted a Don't Ask-Don't Tell strategy WRT informing the Station Squares about any impending attack. At this point, we finally learn the focus of all the preceding flurry of furry activity: in addition to Sonic and Tails heading for Old Megaopolis, the shuttle is en route to Robotropolis. "Now let me get this straight," Commander Brass says, which is always a sure sign that we're due for some expository dialogue. Brass, who as has been suggested on Ken Penders' message board looks a lot like either Jet Black from "Cowboy Bebop" or Dan Dastun from "Big O," registers his complaint that President Square is resting the success of this operation so heavily on Sonic's blue shoulders. The good news for Brass is, his commandos are in the air. The bad news, or rather the BAT news, is that Rouge is along for the ride. Cut to Old Megaopolis Harbor where Robotnik has just begun the countdown when a single-engine prop-driven plane appears in the sky. It's Sonic, making his Pearl Harbor entrance. And Sonic knew the precise location of Robotnik ... how exactly? HEAD: After a VERY strong start for this arc, with its huge amount of Heart and a convincing cliffhanger ending, the story appears to have sunk back into the kind of mediocrity with which readers of this comic are all too familiar. Sonic and Tails appear to make better air time than the FFS-M2. Fiona Fox has been dropped into the story for no particular reason and with no particular personality. We don't know how Sonic and Tails knew where to find Robotnik unless Old Megaopolis has a VERY small harbor. We don't know where Brass's commandoes are headed, but Rouge is in on the fun. Everybody seems to spend this story getting in place for the next story. This isn't storytelling, it's choreography. Head Score: 5. EYE: Ron Lim's art has improved somewhat over time, but I still get the feeling he's more at home drawing Homo sapiens than Mobo sapiens. [I hate that designation, BTW, since it implies that all furries are alike.] In terms of facial expressions, Ron tries to be more varied than he's been in the past, with mixed results. Knuckles gets precious little face time and mostly he can't seem to get his teeth unclenched. Ron's favorite expression, though, is a look of stolid determination, and that gets old in a hurry. Brass's face in close-up is the only one that shows anything like real expressiveness; in contrast, Robotnik's exaggerated take at the end of the story is just plain over the top. Eye Score: 5. HEART: This element, which was so key in last issue's story, has all but disappeared. Sure, Sally gives Sonic a farewell peck and places her hand on his cheek, but that's about the only heartfelt gesture in this story. You'd never know, for instance, that Geoff and Hershey are newlyweds; not that I'd expect them to be all over each other, but just having them sit together doesn't count. And I'm afraid it's going to get a lot harder to distinguish the characters from each other, let along care about them. As mentioned on both the Ken Penders message board and Karl Bollers', The Freedom Fighters aren't any more. That is, they're not Freedom Fighters. It was probably inevitable after 9/11. After all, one person's freedom fighter is another person's terrorist, and the acts that Sonic, Sally et al. engaged in against Robotnik in the old Freedom Fighter days could very well be described as terrorism: sabotage, disruption, the odd taunt now and then, after which they return to the shadows. It was a benign sort of terrorism since they were going up against machines and not hyoomons or other sentient beings, but you get the idea. Still, that kind of on-the-edge warfare had to have a cohesive effect on the participants. That's what helped impart a certain camaraderie to the group. It also helped unite a diverse group of furries into a single unit, along with growing up together in Knothole. Now, however, the model is that they're all soldiers of sorts in the army of Mobius, one of three empires in combat (a continuity which sounds to me as if it was boosted from Tolkien). Hey, it could work as the comic's new paradigm, but once more we run up against the Achilles' heel of this comic: less-than-compelling characterizations. In an industry that's always been more about steroid cases doing tricks than about credible characterization, Sonic the Comic has always had to work extremely hard to keep the characters distinct and believable. But I can sense the homogenization beginning even in "The Gathering": Bunnie, Antoine, Espio, Geoff, even Fiona put in appearances here but their distinctiveness is so blurred that anyone else could have said their lines, and relying on accents is a lazy writer's shortcut. Just as with the late unlamented Sigma Alphas from the Crouching Hedgehog, Hidden Dragon story arc, a uniform sameness is settling on the characters, and I can't think of anything more boring. The characters here show virtually no personality as they say their lines and stand on their marks. As I made clear in the 2003 Best-Worst list, a sign of bad writing is that the reader isn't made to care about what's happening on the page. And one sure way to MAKE people stop caring is to render all characters with a blandness, a uniformity, that characterizes pretty much anything military, from food to clothing to outlook on life. If Karl is intent on turning the Knothole crowd into soldiers, they'd better desert and fast before the writing renders them more robotic than Eggman ever could. Heart Score: 3. "Mobius: 25 Years Later: Prologue" Story: Ken Penders; Art: Steve Butler and Ken Penders (first page); Ink: Ken Penders; Color: Jason Jensen; Lettering: Vickie Williams; Editor: Justin Gabrie "We are all interested in the future, because that's where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives." No, those aren't the opening words of this story; they're the words of Criswell the psychic as he opens that all-time Worst Of All Possible Films, "Plan 9 From Outer Space" (1959). Instead of a psychic, though, we get a mystic: Merlin Prower, who badly needs to repair his reputation after the disastrous Chosen One arc (S95-97) wherein we learned that Tails wasn't Tails. To atone for that, Ken's got him introducing Mobius: 25 Years Later, which is a back-to-the-future back story. Yikes! Right off the bat, we confront Mr. Perriwinkle (with two Rs). Unlike Periwinkle, his almost-namesake kitten on "Blue's Clues," he's anything but cute. But I guess teaching high school does that to you. Seems like there's been some urban sprawl happening on the Floating Island ... excuse me, Angel Island. Echidnaopolis is no longer the only urban area; there's also Portal, which the Chamber of Commerce has apparently dubbed "Gateway to Mobius." The class then devolves into a discussion of the difference between "democracy" and "republic" which leads Rutan son of Lien- Da to make a smart-mouth comment about Lara-Su daughter of Knuckles. Bad move, as she makes sure Rutan hits the books. "That's not how young ladies conduct themselves," Mr. Perriwinkle admonishes. Why do I get the idea that what Lara-Su's thinking at the moment would be unprintable in an Archie comic? Meanwhile, a shuttle from Mobotropolis lands with a cloaked walrus on board. He rudely does a Jedi trick and vanishes in mind-conversation with another traveler. An EST guard, whose cap now sports the initials CSZ (Corporate Security Zone?), shows the "Emissary" to a waiting set of wheels. Like something out of "Blade Runner," where the argot of the near-future is a blend of English, Japanese, and home-grown neologisms, he thanks the English-speaking officer in Japanese. The driver, of course, is Harry the Dingo, a quarter-century older but still hackin' his life away and I'm not talking computers or smoking. He drops Emissary Rotor off at Espio's office. It appears Espio is the social secretary for the Guardian; after arranging a dinner date between the family of the Guardian and the Mobian Royal Family (like we don't know who THAT is!), he reports to Knuckles. Knux has been through more than a few changes over the past quarter-century. He now sports Hawking's old hat, though I doubt it's to hide any bald spots. He's also turned hunter green from the neck down unless that's some kind of body suit he's wearing. It'll be another three pages before Steve Butler shows us his Borg-esque right eyepiece. After some banter with Espio concerning Rotor and someone named Cobar, Knuckles signs off from the Chaos Chamber which now looks more like the Bat Cave and heads for home early. I guess Guardians work on flextime. Lien-Da, meanwhile, is talking with Dimitri, who now looks like Luna-P, the cat-faced ball that followed Chibi-Usa around in "Sailor Moon." Either that, or this is Ken's homage to Matt Groening's "Futurama" with its cavalcade of disembodied celebrity heads. And just to show Lien-Da's been rehabilitated, she's also wearing a Mickey Mouse pendant. Rutan comes home from school and does NOT want to talk about the impression Lara-Su made on him earlier in the day. Knuckles, meanwhile, comes home to a family in crisis: Lara- Su's locked herself in the bathroom (though Ken never uses the b- word and we have to see a panel of Lara-Su hunkered down on the commode to get the message) and doesn't want to go through the "Unveiling." The main point of contention, though, is her desire to follow in her dad's footsteps and become Guardian. Apparently, it's not as simple as it used to be, because while Knuckles assures her that she'd make a great Guardian he admits to feeling pretty useless as the current Guardian. Besides, the "Unveiling" is a once-in-a-lifetime deal. That seems to have punched her Eject button. HEAD: This story is only one page longer than "The Gathering," and yet it feels twice as long. And I mean that in a GOOD way. While "The Gathering" was mainly about deploying Mobians all over the planet and getting them ready for whatever the action next month is going to be, there are a number of very clear storylines proceeding and intersecting here: the recent history of Angel Island, issues with Lara-Su being Guardian, Lara-Su making her feelings known to Rutan (Man, I hope that wasn't a Meet-Cute; that would mean the two of them are going to get romantically involved at some point), Rotor's mission to Angel Island and his meeting with the mysterious Cobar, and Knuckles' less-than-serene home life. One thing I have to say about Ken's storytelling technique: he isn't afraid to stretch and take the story into some territory not always explored in Archie Comics. Which brings us to The Unveiling. Like Ken's invention of the Soultouch to explain how the mating urge functions in such a supremely dysfunctional social system as that of the Guardians, Ken gives us the Unveiling. This is not strictly a biological rite of passage, since it's obvious Lara-Su passed puberty a couple miles back; rather, it appears to be a social ritual announcing a young female's eligibility to be romantically pursued, something like a cotillion. But this is admittedly my best guess about the subject, using Lara-Su's line about the "first dance" as a clue. I'll reserve further comment until the Unveiling actually arrives, but again the fact that Ken engages in world-building to this extent is to be admired. There is a down-side, however, and it's a typical one. Once more, Ken Penders can't seem to get over a certain kleptomania. Rotor is the prime example here. His attire and title seem to be a conscious evocation of both Ben Kenobi from Star Wars and Ambassador Spock in the "Reunification" two-parter from Star Trek: The Next Generation. He also does that Jedi disappearing act, which makes me wonder why he couldn't just will himself into Espio's office directly and save the air fare. And why's someone as sci-tech as Rotor fiddling with mumbo-jumbo like the Force in his old age, anyway? Then there's Dimitri's appearance as a resident Talking Head. Like I said, I don't know whether this is a tribute to Futurama or Sailor Moon, but I'm still working on taking it seriously. I know Dimitri has something of a fan base, but this is just weird. I don't mind that Ken uses pop cult references in his stories, but I do wish they were better integrated and less recognizable as having come from other sources. Perhaps it's a function of short deadlines, but Ken really needs to work more of the lumps out of his gravy. Head Score: 7. EYE: Steve Butler does good work here, especially with Lara- Su. From her first appearance in class where she's either pretty obviously bored with the proceedings to the interior shot of her curled up on the can to the very charming figure she cuts on the final page, Butler helps Ken build Lara-Su into a recognizable and sympathetic personality. And as I've told those aspiring fanfic writers who've asked me for tips, once you get inside a character and understand how their mind and heart work that's half the battle. And that's a goal that both the writer and artist of a comic book have to work toward in tandem. There are a couple details that I had to get used to. For one thing, Julie-Su gives new meaning to the phrase "big hair." Also, the years have been far kinder to Lien-Da than to Dimitri. And because of the mobility of Espio's mouth, his chin keeps moving so that micro-beard of his looked to me at first like a necklace of some sort. But these are minor points. Eye Score: 8. HEART: M:25YL is a story arc with a huge sprawl potential. Already the plot is threatening to break off and travel in several different directions, and Ken will have to show the discipline to reel in his plot lines when necessary. And the best way to do that IMHO is to find the emotional center of the story, the core character with whom the readers can identify and about whom they can care. In this installment, what really stands up off the page is Lara-Su and her wanting to be a Guardian. Unfortunately, the spotlight is more on Knuckles than on his headstrong hatchling. OK, we KNOW she wants to be a Guardian; she says it often enough and Knuckles affirms that desire. I just wish we knew WHY. Maybe Ken's saving that for later on; I certainly hope so and I hope he gets to it sooner rather than later. Lara-Su is a great character and she and the readers shouldn't be left dangling as to her motivation. That, after all, is one of the things that will keep her from being just another bit player in the comic. We need to get past her actions and inside her mind and heart. I can only hope Ken follows through. Otherwise, he's got a good set-up here. One gets a strong sense of Knux's exasperation with being the parent of a teenager when he's trying to converse with Lara-Su. The Rotor/Cobar subplot is intriguing but in a distanced, abstract sort of way. The situation with Lara-Su is more immediate and strikes closer to home. It also FEELS far more like a real parent-teenager situation (as real as you can get in an Archie comic, anyway) than anything happening in Riverdale or at the Spellman residence. And at least Ken HAS an emotional core to work with, which is more than I can say for "The Gathering." It's still too early to tell where some of the characters are headed here, but in their interactions (even if it's just Lara-Su braining Rutan with a textbook) you get a glimpse of distinct, unique personalities, while the characters at the front end of the comic appear to be losing their identities in the name of keeping the plot going. This story is a beginning, and a strong one. Heart Score: 9. This Justin: J.G. keeps it short and sweet this time to make way for the... Sonic-Grams: Courtney (Kami), a college-age bio major, discourses on the change that's happened in Sonic game back stories between the old days and the Sonic Adventure generation of games, with an eye toward integrating the game continuities into the story line; Ken pledges to stay true to the basic premise of the Sonicverse. SuperShadowGal suggests a way to incorporate the SonicX continuity into the comic. Hmmmm; with ten years worth of development in the comic alone and all these other continuities abounding, maybe we should refer not to the Sonic continuity but to the Sonic Empire! Fan Art: Jordan Wheeler from the U.K. gives us a happy orange Tails; Diego Estrada of Oklahoma City shows Sonic truckin' his blues away, and Jesse Barret gives us his rendition of the Sonic and Knuckles front screen. But the most impressive of all is Quinton Favors' pencil rendering of a Draculaesque Sonic After Midnight. I've seen Sonic turned into a raincoat-and-sunglasses- wearing Goth, but this is more Gothic than Goth.