Sonic the Hedgehog #175 (July 2007) Pat Spaziante cover: Shades of Frank Miller! Eggman has Sonic trussed up in chains. And the use of downlighting is never a good sign. "Eggman Empire" Story: Ian Flynn; Art: Tracy Yardley!; Ink: Jim Amash; Color: Jason Jensen; Leyttering: John E. Workman; Editor: Mike Pellerito; Managing Editor: Victor Gorelick; Editor-in-Chief: Richard Goldwater. "It's time to end this silly little war." No, it's not the sound of George W. Bush finally coming to his senses, it's Robotnik (not Eggman this time; WILL YOU PEOPLE MAKE UP YOUR MINDS ALREADY?!?). His Egg Fleet/Robo Fleet/WHATever is drifting over Knothole where everybody is more or less horsing around. Sonic and Sally are declaiming that things are going so well you KNOW something is on the verge of hitting the fan. And then there's Tails. Over the course of half a page, we're reminded of the emotional one-two of his thinking Sonic was two-timing him with Fiona followed by Fiona's bringing the kid back down to reality in no uncertain terms, and also of the alleged tragedy of Tommy Turtle being written out of the comic. Did Ian really need to use that much space to bring the readers up to speed on Tails, never mind the year-old plot point about Snively leaving? Speaking of things being up to speed, Nicole's been running a self-diagnostic that so preoccupies her memory that she's only aware of the fleet when it's right on top of Mobius. What, she's never heard of multitasking? Long story short, Snively crashes the party in an armor suit and starts zapping characters all over the place. Mighty tries to go medieval on Snively's head and gets zapped for his trouble. With Sega franchise characters Tails, Knuckles and Amy Rose safe in a convenient air pocket (what are the odds?), Sonic takes off after the fleeing Snively and gets a gander of the Fleet going Shock and Awe on Knothole. Which is where he confronts Robotnik in battle armor. And the end-of-level fight is on. Robotnik hurls missiles and way too much talk at Sonic, taunting him about Jules still being roboticized as well as the state of Sonic's love life. He even whips out the old checkered ball after Sonic manages to pound on his shield, which looks like something Robotnik picked up at the Captain America estate sale. But props to the Doc: even with a heck of a running start, Sonic barely manages to make a dent in the outfit. Robotnik clearly has the advantage, but decides that a humiliated Sonic is good enough for the present. So, after babbling about his plans to give everyone who got zapped the Egg Grape treatment, he releases the worse-for-wear Sonic and takes off. So it's back to basics: another fight story next month. HEAD: This being issue #175, Ian or someone felt that this was a special occasion. And nothing says "special occasion" in a comic book like wholesale destruction. Despite the massive trashing of Knothole and the subjecting of just about all the characters to the Egg Grape treatment, this doesn't yet feel like a reset of the continuity. For one thing, by simply zapping everyone away, it lacks the finality of ... well, I was going to say "having a dead body in front of your eyes" but this comic can't even bring itself to do THAT. Sir Connery got zapped and left his suit of clothes behind, Ben Kenobi-style. And when Tommy Turtle was blasted by the Egg Fleet there wasn't much left of him to drive the point home. I don't know whether this is a Comic Code Authority thing or an Archie Comics policy or both, but it's a bit of a cheat. Speaking of the Egg Grapes, I have to wonder just how much of an impact Robotnik's talking about them made on Sonic. The Egg Grapes first showed up at the tail end of S141's "Ultimate Hero," Part 4 of the Return To Angel Island arc. That's two and a half years ago in real time, back when the comic still ran fan art and fan mail on the back pages, before the book sold two pages and its soul to DC Comics. And in all that time, I can't for the life of me remember an instance where anyone from Knothole was made aware of the Egg Grapes' existence. So Robotnik's yakking away was more for the benefit of the reader than anything else. The pacing in this issue is OK, but it still feels like too much is happening too fast in terms of destruction. There's no focus to the tragedy despite the Tails page and Mighty's histrionics, and in the end no time to absorb the shock of what just happened before Sonic starts on about taking it to Robotnik. Frankly, Disney handled the moment way better in "Mulan" where Mulan and the rest of the troops she's with discover not only a village sacked by the Huns but the ambush of other Chinese soldiers including the father of the head of Mulan's unit. It's done not through the sprinkling of bodies on the landscape but with the discovery of the General's helmet (representing the army casualties) and a homemade doll (representing the civilians). It spoke poignantly of the loss of both the village and Shang's father. And unfortunately Ian bombards us with WAY more talk than necessary. Perhaps it's a function of action films where the two sides improbably spout smart-ass insults and taunts in situations that really don't require them. And while I usually don't take note of the reviews of others when writing my own reactions, from what I've seen of other fans they happen to LIKE the smart-ass insults and taunts (Archie-style) in this story. I've seen it done better, so forgive me for keeping my enthusiasm in check. Case in point: Robotnik's monologue to the vanquished Sonic toward the end of the story where Sonic receives his by- now ritual beating (Sonic ends up looking ragged but Robotnik manages not to draw blood or even crack any major bones). I can see Robotnik wanting to humiliate Sonic rather than kill him outright, CCA or no CCA. But there's still something ... off about it, like he's leaving the job half-finished and/or doesn't care. I know, this is about as dark as Archie and Sega would ever let the comic get, but still. This story is all about Ian's credo of "Action and More Action." It also helps explain why the two previous stories, "Round-up" and "Union" felt like they were going through the motions emotionally. They were both set-up to the action in "Empire," and that's OK if you like action and nothing but action. Here, however, the story demands something else, something beyond, but Ian doesn't quite pull it off. I KNOW he can do better, in stories such as "I Am" where he was able to handle comic relief and poignancy of Shadow and "Maria" as well as the action sequences. This story is overloaded with action to the extent that anything else about it doesn't quite work. It's so lop-sided, in fact, that I can't bring myself to score this one. I have to reserve judgment and hold off giving out Head/Eye/Heart scores until the story wraps up in S176. Or 177. Or....