Sonic The Hedgehog #134 [May 2004] Spaz/Ribeiro/Jensen cover: "after Romita." I assume this refers to John Romita Jr. and not to his father, though both of them have worked at Marvel. A dynamic cover for a possibly bogus development. "Home: Epilogue: Say You Will" Story: Karl Bollers; Art: Jonathan (WB) Gray (debut); Ink: Michael Higgins; Color: Jason Jensen; Lettering: Michael Higgins; Editor: Justin F. Gabrie; Assistant Editor: Mike Pellerito; Managing Editor: Victor Gorelick; Editor-in-Chief: Richard Goldwater. Sonic is seeing Dr. Quack for his post-mission check-up and learns that the babel-fish gizmo that enabled him to talk to the aliens during the "Tossed In Space" arc didn't come with an uninstall program. In fact, it's become hard-wired to his brain. Sonic makes a grab for the duck doc and is reminded the hard way that he sustained a shoulder injury. After getting some herbal paste for the arm, he (and we) learn that the eye patch on the Doc isn't a fashion statement: during the recent hostilities he didn't listen to his mother and put his eye out after stepping on a landmine [ Problem 1]. I'm sorry, but you're far more likely to need an artificial leg after stepping on (and surviving) a land mine than an eyepatch, unless he landed on the thing face- first. Sonic then meets up with his folks, Sally and Uncle Chuck in the waiting room which features a portrait of "King Frederick" [Problem 2]. Queen Alicia then drops in and gives everyone the word about that evening's party. Upon leaving the castle, Sonic and family are ambushed by the paparazzi who were the comic relief in S130. Eventually they escape and make their way home where Sonic is escorted back to his own room where he crashes for an indefinite period of time [Problem 3]. Upon waking, he discovers that Muttski can talk, or rather that the alien bug can apparently translate non-sentient Mobian canine as well as space alien argledy-bargledy. We also learn what we didn't have a chance to learn in S129: that Jules wasn't deroboticized because his wounds were too extensive when Uncle Chuck treated him the first time. Later, skipping over the chilidog pigout, Sonic catches up with Tails at the airport also named for King Fred. Sonic lays the news on Tails about his 'rents and, like Hagrid presenting Harry Potter with a photo album of pictures of his parents in the first book, Sonic gives Tails a holographic greeting from his far-flung folks. That evening, Mina is doing the USO thing at the party. Elias, with Meg and the little ankle-biter, puts in an appearance; he's wearing a plaid work shirt because he's a lumberjack and he's OK. King Max then announces that Sally's going to be holding down the front office for the next few weeks while he and Alicia do some globe-trotting. Mina then introduces Sonic and us to Ash, her manager/boyfriend who gives off vibes of being a total jerk. Guests continue to get face time and welcome Sonic to the par-tay while providing some welcome exposition. The Chaotix and Knuckles, we learn, have been booted off Angel Island by Eggman and are fighting alongside Max. Tails, it turns out, has a crush on the real Fiona; no telling if there's anything mutual going on, probably not. Rotor's been making fireworks, and Hershey and Geoff, who haven't been on a honeymoon themselves yet, leave the party early to generate some fireworks of their own. We then learn from Bunnie, who seems to have gone from Southern to Southwestern [Problem 4] that she broke up with Ant because thanks to the war he's "a different 'Toine from the one I fell for" [Problem 5]. Not too different, though, for Max to have him accompany the royal couple. But if you thought you saw fireworks before, better sit down and strap in. Sally asks Sonic if he can stick around while she looks after Knothole in her parents' absence. After mildly suggesting that he might be needed elsewhere if they're at war with Eggman Sal goes strangely and publicly ballistic [Problem 6, supersized]. Sonic continues to balk and Sally SMAKs him one accusing him of being selfish. This leads to a VERY public blow- up and she storms offstage. HEAD: This story has already generated a considerable amount of heat amongst the fans, more than any other story in recent memory (sorry, but "Endgame" isn't recent anymore). And after reading it myself, I can see why. But having invoked the name of "Endgame," I was reminded of Ken Penders's original intent with that story: to kill off Sally in such a way that the fans wouldn't know about it for like about a year after the original story arc ended, when we'd learn that Sally did die in the fall and was replaced by a Sally bot. The clue, Ken said, would be Sally's increasingly uncharacteristic behavior.... Whoa! I'm having a deja vu here! And the more I thought about this story, and I mean actually THOUGHT about it instead of reacting with my gut, the more things seemed out of kilter. I've helpfully noted the problems I had with this story in the synopsis so let's take them in order: Problem 1. Dr. Quack's "war wound." OK, it looks cool to have him wear an eye patch, but I'm still not buying it. As I said above, your chances of losing a leg are far greater than losing an eye from tripping a land mine; the affected part of the body is too far away from the site of the explosion and too well- shielded by ... well, by other parts of the body. Problem 2: "King Frederick"? Who the heck is he and since when did he become so prominent? I was reminded of the answer to this question by a fan: King Frederick was Maximilian's father. Nothing much has been said about him for years, but his hiring policies play a definite part in where I'm going with this. Problem 3: Bedtime for Sonic. Tails said that he tried to wake Sonic and that Sonic didn't respond, and that's why Tails was at the airbase, also named for King Fred (see previous Problem). Don't you think Tails would have waited it out in Sonic's front room until Sonic woke up? I do. We're also not told how long Sonic was out, which isn't a good sign. Problem 4: Bunnie. I went off on this one already in last issue's review. This is the one character who's got no business packing heat, and even though her holsters aren't on display this time the shift from Southern to Southwestern is still jarring. Karl, at his MB, said he was going for "Southern rebel," which doesn't quite come off. Problem 5: Antoine. This is Antoine at his worst, which means he's a direct quotation of Mike Gallagher's Action Figure Antoine from the otherwise forgettable "The Map" (Royal Rumble Special), a story I absolutely HATED! That got my back up right there. Problem 6: Sally's uncharacteristic behavior. Even if her heart has been whip-sawed by what's happened to Sonic in the course of the past year, NOTHING about her warrants such an extreme explosion. Taken by itself, the Sonic-Sally parting is a shock to the continuity; taken in context with the other quirks noted above, I have to wonder. Even allowing for how much people and a society could change as a result of war, I don't think that the total changes would be this drastic. But something is definitely ... off ... here. It's as if somebody picked Sonic's brain and tried to recreate a version of Mobius but didn't get it exactly right. So the floor's open for nominations. I reluctantly put forward the name ... Ixis Naugus. If Karl Bollers is getting ready to recycle Naugus, he's sort of replaying some of the worst moments in the history in the comic: "Return of the King" (Special #4), as well as what must be the overall WORST Sonic story of all time, "Naugus Games" (Special #15). Nobody else, not even Mammoth Mogul, could mess with Sonic's head as it appears (to me, anyway) that someone is doing here, and Naugus (who was on record as possessing King Max for a time and who was brought into the Acorn family orbit by King Frederick) fits the bill nicely. But we'll have to wait until next issue, where the cover art features Sonic confronting a Mysterious Cloaked Figure, to sort this out for sure. For now, I count only three possibilities: either this is all some kind of head trip Sonic is going through after the style of S101's "Altered States," Naugus is taking the indirect route and possessing Sally (which wouldn't account for all the other oddities that have made their way into the continuity), or else Karl is intentionally doing all this to the continuity. And while I may be wrong, for now I can only advise you to lock up your Limburger, guard your Gouda and hide your Havarti: I smell a rat. Head Score: 7. EYE: Jonathan Gray, known as the WB to Sonic fandom, makes his Archie comic debut. He represents what appears to be a dying breed in the realm of comic book artists: he's a cartoonist. And I mean that in a GOOD way. It seems that most of the artists doing comic book art these days are at pains to demonstrate their knowledge of anatomy and physiology, something that's easy when your characters are all wearing Spandex or very minimal body armor. Not that fans were ever attracted to bad comic art (see the reception of the work of "Many Hands" in this book), but strips such as George Herriman's "Krazy Kat" and E. C. Segar's "Thimble Theater" (which was where he created Popeye) played loosely and successfully with the anatomy of their characters. Gray's art actually harkens back to those good old days of cartooning art. There's a kind of bounce to his work that distinguishes it from other artists working on the book. Of course, each artist brings a different style to the table: Art Mawhinney's style is clean and classical, Dawn Best's is more open and conscious of gesture, Steven Butler's is solid and character-oriented; J. Axer's is killingly detailed yet also sensitive to expression with an awareness of shojo manga styling. Gray is probably the most exuberant of the artists working for the book at this point, and he's not afraid to play that card. Right from the beginning, with Sonic grabbing hold of Dr. Quack and then reacting to the shoulder pain, you can see him use exaggeration to great effect. It's even more on display as Sonic realizes he's having a conversation with Muttski (who's never looked cuter). This is something that was a classic animation tool back in the Disney glory days, and lives on in manga and anime when characters slip into super-deformed mode. He's also not afraid to play around with crowd scenes and give expressiveness even to incidental characters. Yet Gray is also up to the challenge of being serious. The two page interlude between Sonic and Tails that ends with Tails viewing the hologram of his folks is a prime example. Another example is the panel where Sonic asks Bunnie why she and Antoine broke up; there's simply no improving upon his use of the black background. Since the story culminates in Sally's public shouting match with Sonic, Gray's style threatens to undercut the seriousness of the moment. He compensates for this by putting the kind of dynamism into Sally's SMAK that's too seldom seen in comic art these days. He'd stated on the Web that he WANTED the audience to feel the impact, and it's a sure bet that we did. It's hard to picture Gray doing cover story art for Sonic in every issue; the material has to be just right. But I'm always heartened to see one of the fans demonstrate to the "pros" how the job should be done. Well done, WB. Eye Score: 10. HEART: The key exchange in this story comes before the Sonic-Sally confrontation: SONIC: What about old times? BUNNIE: Ah guess they're gone. Not if the fan base has anything to say about it! If there's one thing that must gall the creatives, I'm willing to bet that it's the adherence of a good number of Sonic fans to the SatAM continuity after all these years. Bunnie, Sally, Rotor and the rest were part of a show that only ran for 26 eps between 1993 and 1995, yet it seems to have defined the Sonic continuity for the fans beyond the power of subsequent games or TV series or even the Archie comic book to alter in any substantial way. If anything, the burden is on the new characters such as Shadow or Rouge or Cream (if she ever makes it into the book) to adapt themselves to the SatAM continuity, not the other way round. This has got to irk anyone with a substantially different vision for the characters. Sega may resent the enduring SatAM Sonicverse, and while they've taken the Sonicverse of the games in different directions they have yet to order the wholesale massacre of the SatAM characters. This could easily have happened during Sonic's "Tossed In Space" interregnum, but it didn't. And the reason why is painfully simple: the comic makes money for Sega. I'd be surprised if anything else still does. Yet Karl is doing a major retcon of the SatAM continuity by making the subsidiary characters most closely identified with that continuity as unpleasant as possible. And don't think the fans aren't noticing. But the creatives also shouldn't underestimate just how far the SatAM continuity and characters have put down roots. OK, Bunnie and Antoine have split up, with Bunnie having swapped ethnic stereotypes and gone from cracker to cowgirl while Antoine has become a flaming hemorrhoid. And it's thrown some fans for a loop. But at least one fan I know of is ready to start work on a fanfic that will bring the two of them BACK TOGETHER AGAIN. One of the lessons Archie should have learned from "Endgame" was just how deeply the fans CARE about the SatAM characters, and just how little they care for a lot of the characters that the creatives thrust upon the stage of the comic book. Jack Rabbit, Nate Morgan, Downtown Ebony Hare, Uma Arachnis, Kodos and Monkey Khan have all managed to appear and disappear in this comic and leave barely one footprint each. Bunnie, Sally, Rotor, Antoine, Lupe and others endure. It's going to be a bumpy ride for the short term, but after thinking about what's going on I'm a bit more confident for the long haul. If this really is Naugus playing head games with Sonic, I figure (from the comic blurbs in the preview media) that this should play out by S136, after which things should get back to what passes for normal in these parts. The denouement of this story can't come too soon for me. Heart Score: 8, for pretty much the same reasons I felt the way I did about Dan Slott's "Zone Wars: Giant Robotno." Sabrina goes manga: somebody tell Tania del Rio to lose the Mick Jagger lips. It's the eyes that are the window to the soul, not the mouth! "Mobius 25 Years Later : In Transit" Story: Ken Penders; Art: Stephen Butler; Ink: Ken Penders; Color: Jason Jensen; Lettering: Vickie Williams. Rotor is dictating his notes on the meeting with Cobar and Knuckles into his cell phone, possibly leaving himself an extended message on his answering machine. That he's doing this on board what appears to be a commercial transport of some kind again makes me wonder if he's supposed to be some Jedi-type why he bothers traveling this way and doesn't just zap himself from place to place. Maybe he's just getting old. Anyway, I'll skip over the narrative bits and get to the action: Knuckles demonstrates his high-tech eyepiece as he catches "sight" of Rutan and Salma who are on the run instead of on the make. He then visits Sabre in Haven II, the fate of the first Haven being unknown to me. Along with Sojourner and Spectre, Knuckles engages in that hallowed Haven tradition: video voyeurism! Just as his relatives spied on him all through his childhood and youth, so he gets to sneak a peek at Rutan and Salma getting cross-examined by Lien-Da. To her credit, Salma admits to hoodwinking her parents. Before Knuckles can confirm whether Rutan overheard the conversation between him and Rotor, Cobar warns Rote about Lien-Da and Rotor hints that Sonic's attitude toward echidnas has sort of hardened over the years along with his arteries. HEAD: It was a little more difficult this time jogging back and forth between Rotor in dictation mode and the action he's describing. In the various Star Trek series, ship and personal log entries are typically used far more sparingly, as set-ups for the scene to follow. They're also mercifully short. Here they kind of slopped over onto the action. This may have been the effect Ken was striving for, I don't know. The most interesting moment in the story was Knuckles's return to Haven and his getting back into the family business of spying on people. In a way, this wasn't surprising; this was practically a Ken Penders trademark back in the day when Knux had his own book. I was more interested in Salma, who appeared to be playing straight with Lien-Da even if Rutan wasn't. Ken doesn't elaborate in this installment, but somehow I don't think Lien-Da just fell off the echidna equivalent of the turnip truck and that she has a pretty good idea what went on. But we're still knee- deep in development and so we press on.... Head Score:8. Eye: Favorite Butler moments: Knuckles greets Sabre in Haven II, and the look on Salma's face when confronted by Lien-Da. Eye Score: 9. HEART: Unfortunately, Ken is focusing on the wrong characters in this installment. Based on the set-up from last time, I'd have thought the focus would be on Rutan and Salma, not to mention Lara-Su. This is a pretty typical Ken Penders problem. Just as the focus in Endgame kept threatening to shift from Sonic to Sally, so Knuckles is having a hard time keeping the spotlight on himself. Part of that is Knuckles's fault: since he's got to be the exposition machine, he gets kind of boring kind of fast. Mercifully, we only get small bites of him here. And, let's face it, the situation that the teenagers in this story find themselves in is far more compelling then Knuckles worrying about the weather, especially to the teens in the audience. But I'm sure the CCA and Archie Management would have something to say about a story focused on teens breaking curfew. Heart Score: 7. Off-Panel: I wonder if Sonic bought that on ebay. This Justin: After a delay, Mike Pellerito introduces himself as the new Letters to the Editor guy. I'm beginning to think that answering the Sonic-Grams is something that's either a hazing ritual for new guys or else is reserved for writers temporarily in disgrace with Editorial. Anyway, Mike shows himself to be a good egg by naming behind-the-scene people we didn't know existed in the Archie organization. Cover for S135: who's behind the cloak? Sonic-Grams: Steven Morgan admits to being a first-time letter writer (my advice: practice). Deramoz wonders about the present Tails's parents sent him and which was delivered in this issue. Jessica Sims doesn't care much for Sally; wonder what she thinks of THIS issue. Lisa Lilypad appreciated the level of characterization in this comic. Marshal Trigg asks about Off- Panel, notes the difference between preview covers and the real deal, and notes the change of addy. Fan Art: Nola Lacey's Lara-Su puts Knuckles in the background, George O'Connell draws Sonic, Patrick Borger draws Shadow, and Steffanie Dao brings the two of them together.