Sonic the Hedgehog #197 (Apr 2009)
     Yardley-Amash-Jensen cover: "Chill, Sal, Archie Editorial
won't keep us locked up here.  Besides, this is just a conjugal
visit."  "Don't change the subject, Sonic; I asked you who
Merlina is!"


     "Consequences"
     Story: Ian Flynn; Art Layout: Tracy Yardley; Art: Matt
Herms; Ink: Jim Amash; Color: Jason Jensen; Lettering: Teresa
Davidson; (Managing) Editor: Mike Pellerito; Editor-in-Chief:
Victor Gorelick; Wishing They Were Beta-Testing Video Games
Instead: Kristin Parcell and Cindy Chau

     From the look of the Cosmic Interstate that Sonic used to
speed down to travel between zones, it's got a sizable pothole
problem.  Whoever is in charge might want to think about applying
for federal funds for infrastructure repair.  After a couple
panels of exposition to bring the newbies up to speed, Sonic
makes the rookie mistake of talking out loud, which awakens the
sleeping Scourge who not only makes a break for it, but uses
Sonic spin-dashing into him to break his manacles.  But just as
two Zone Cops show up to deal with these two for violating "the
Multizone Lockdown Act"...
     ...we cut to Sally who is facing a more Mobian form of
arrest and a special form of torture: having to appear before the
Council to explain herself.  Councilor Hamlin does most of the
talking here, accusing Sally of freelancing without the
supervision of the Council, while Councilor Rosemary Prower
points out that Sonic wasn't properly punished 5 issues back as
she dusts off the old anti-Royals rhetoric which led to the
extremely-abortive rebellion back in the House of Cards arc (178-
9).  Since Sally cops to sending Sonic to Moebius in her capacity
as "field leader" and not as Princess, Hamlin uses this to assert
that she acted outside channels.  Sally begins to realize that
she might have talked herself into a corner.
     Meanwhile, Zone Cops Zector and Zespio say they're going to
haul Sonic and Scourge in and they all warp to the main zone,
which isn't looking so spiffy, either.  Scourge then makes
ANOTHER break for it, fixing to trash this place more than it
already is before going back to Mobius to do more damage.  The
Zone Cops prepare to give pursuit but Sonic asks "What does it
take for Sonic Prime to get a little consideration around here?"
     Back at the Council, Sally points out that the Council never
stipulated HOW Sonic was supposed to be punished, so she simply
used her discretion.  Besides, Hamlin can't argue that the
Council wouldn't have approved of her sending Sonic on a field
trip to Moebius since two of its members (Rotor and Uncle Chuck)
helped build the star posts.  After a bit more eyeball-to-eyeball
back-and-forth between Sally and Hamlin, Sally pleads Guilty and
then drops the other boot in a speech that deserves to be quoted
at length:
     "I will not go through this again.  I will not act, I will
not give ANY order, until I've had direct approval from the
Council.  Even if we're in the middle of a fight.  You can
discount any help from the Chaotix.  They're free agents, beyond
my control.  I will refuse to give them any orders.
     "Or ... you can trust me."
     With that, the question is called and Hamlin's motion is
defeated 6-1.
     Giving up the option to gloat, Sally asks Hamlin what his
problem is.  Jealousy, it seems; as a second-string Freedom
Fighter he never got to see much action.  Hence his running for
office.  At least he didn't do it for the money.
     Back in what they're calling The No Zone, Sonic is finally
right-side up and getting the low-down from Zonic his
counterpart: seems a Dr. Nega (you haven't heard of him; he's a
tease for the upcoming roll-out of the Sonic Universe comic) has
been auditioning as the next megavillain and doing major damage
in several other zones so the Zone Cops locked down the Cosmic
Interstate.  With that bit of exposition out of the way, Zonic
fires a warning shot across Scourge's bow to get his attention,
which allows Sonic to dash into him after which Zonic hits him
with a restraining collar.  That's the good news; the bad news,
served up as part of a lump of additional exposition, is that
Zonic can't solve Sonic's Eggman problem quite so easily.  Seems
the fat man is needed to provide a needed dose of villain ... or
something: "Sonic-Prime has to fight a Robotnik," we're told. 
Hey, at least it's steady work.  After that, Scourge gets hauled
off to whatever escapable prison he'll escape from someday as
Sonic heads home to the  rents in a scene that struck me as all
talk and not much Heart.  But we'll get into that later.
     We then switch over to Snively, who's moved up from IMing
"Regina" to voice communication.  Seems like that'd be easier for
Eggman to trace, but never mind.  Anyway, Eggman tells him to get
his hide to the lab, allowing Snively to supply even more
exposition via thought balloon.  Once in the lab, Eggman tells
him to get behind the blast shield while he fires up the Egg
Phoenix to 11.  And I do mean "fires."

     HEAD: This story is really a 3-parter that manages to raise
the bar WRT storytelling, if only because it's not another crummy
fight story.
     Of the three, the strongest for me was the Sally's Trial
story, and not because I'm a Sally fanboy.  It worked because
there was actually an element of doubt as to the outcome,
something that usually cannot be said of any given story in the
Sonic comic and especially a fight sequence.  It looked like
Hamlin had made an excellent case against Sal, who got out of the
trap by going full-speed ahead, saying "OK, so I'm guilty," then
spelling out what it would mean if she pulled herself out of the
game, and as a final move played the Trust card.
     Let's face it, when it comes to trust her record is second
only to Sonic's.  She's been in the business of protecting Mobius
from one threat or another most of her life, and it's a good bet
that every member of the Council knows it.  Small wonder that she
was able to swing the Council her way ... well, at least Rosemary
Prower, the only other member with an agenda who would have
presented a problem for her.  That pretty much left Hamlin
hanging like a pork butt in a smokehouse.
     As for the Sonic And Scourge In The No Zone story, it was
freighted down with exposition about the Cosmic Interstate, about
the No Zone, about why the Zone Cops haven't showed up on Mobius
to do a deus ex machina on Eggman, and to introduce Dr. Nega and,
by extension, the impending Sonic Universe comic.  With all that
on the agenda, small wonder there's not much room left to tell an
actual story.  And the one that emerges is no biggie: Scourge
tries to escape and is captured, then tries to escape again and
is recaptured.  Like the police at an accident would say,
"Nothing to see here, folks; move along!"
     That just leaves the Snively's Got A Girlfriend story.  I'm
not about to put up a guess as to who "Regina" could be; I've
been burned before by guessing where I'd LIKE the comic to go
only to see it go in another direction entirely.  It's a tease, a
stop on the way to the latest Eggman Weapon: the Egg Phoenix.  It
tests well enough, but any veteran of Sonic Heroes who's
dispatched the Egg Hawk and the Egg Albatross by simply "wailing
on it," as one correspondent put it, shouldn't be too worried
about its long-term prospects.  Head Score: 7.
     EYE: Once again, Matt Herms and Jim Amash follow up on Tracy
Yardley!'s blueprints/layouts.  The Herms touch is most in
evidence in the Sally story; it's understated compared to the
rest of the comic but that's a good thing because the art doesn't
get in the way of the drama.  Even in the Sonic No Zone Story the
Jensen coloring is more dramatic and less muted than in the Sally
story or the Snively story.  There are also some telling small
moments in the Sally story that would have been too subtle for
the Sonic or Snively stories: the expressions on Uncle Chuck and
Rotor during Sally's speech, the fact that Herms doesn't show
Rosemary's face in the downshot of the Council as she votes with
the majority, and Rotor's placing one hand protectively on
Sally's shoulder after Hamlin's spiel.  Eye Score: 9.
     HEART: No question that the emotional heart of the story was
the trial of Sally because, let's face it, the Sonic and Snively
stories have been done before countless times.  Because there was
real doubt and a very serious consequence if there was a misstep,
it was worthy of reader interest.
     I wish I could have said the same for the one page where
Sonic comes home to his parents.  The designs work for me, but
the dialogue is all wrong.  It's too loaded down with exposition
and plot points to be as convincing as the dialogue from the
Sally trial.  These lines come from the plot outline, not from
the heart.  I mean, I started reading Jules's line "That's what
happens when a tyrannical madman...." and I just bailed out in
mid-sentence, it was so lifeless.  It's not bad dialogue but then
again it's not dialogue at all, certainly not like that in
"Father and Son" (S192): this is the equivalent of the characters
hitting their marks and phoning it in.  Heart Score: 8 for the
Sally story, 5 for everything else.


     "Knight Time"
     Story: from "Sonic and the Black Knight," Adapted by: Ian
Flynn; Art: Tracy Yardley!; Ink: Jim Amash; Color: Michael
Watkins; Lettering: Teresa Davidson

     In "Another time, another place," or on YouTube at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3yTgYSYTTI we find a maiden being
pursued through a deserted countryside by an ominous black-clad
night on an airborne steed.  As he uses his sword to tear a hole
in the sky from which supernatural warriors emerge ... believe
me, they look way more intimidating in the video ... the maiden
utters an incantation, a shaft of light emerges from her staff
parting the heavens, and Sonic the Hedgehog face-plants himself
onto the road.  Scarfing one of the two chili dogs he's packing,
he sizes up the situation and tells the damsel in distress "I'm
used to stuff like this."  He then uses his speed to demolish the
horde of sky-born villains; I know it doesn't look like much on
the page of the comic, but the video gets the point across, trust
me.  But before he can do the same to the Black Knight, the elf-
eared maiden stops him, then summons a whirlwind to transport
them away from the scene.  The Knight then tells three of his
familiar-looking companions to pursue and exterminate the pair. 
It turns out that the maiden is in fact "the Royal Wizard" and
that the Black Knight appears to be the King.  But one knight
hints that it is a time of disruption, for "the King has changed,
and this Kingdom."

     HEAD: Ordinarily I'd have been at a loss to evaluate this
adaptation of the latest Sonic game, "Sonic and The Black
Knight."  I don't have a Wii and probably never will.  But I DO
have access to YouTube, where Cyberman65 has posted his gameplay
for our enjoyment and edification.  I can't tell you how much it
helped.
     In the past, especially with the first Sonic Adventure game,
the game developers were loathe to pass on anything worthwhile
about the plot of a new Sonic game to the Archie comic writers. 
Despite the first SA adaptation stretching out over several
issues of the comic, there seemed to be no real grasp of what was
going on; important plot points went MIA and the adaptation
itself was a narrative mess.  But having seen the game opener for
SatBK, I can report that this adaptation is almost completely
faithful to it.  The opening shot of the story, a crow standing
on the skull of a cow, was left out, though it's one heck of a
way of establishing that this is not a happy place.  But I
suppose Archie has its standards.
     It's only too bad that Archie couldn't have adapted the
ENTIRE GAME rather than just tease us with the opening.  The
story of SatBK is miles ahead of what the comic usually offers,
and I would put it on a par with the story of Sonic Adventure 1. 
Cutting past the various chases and swordplay and Sonic's hooking
up with Shadow, Knuckles, Blaze, Tails and Amy Rose (as,
respectively, Lancelot, Gawain, Percival, a blacksmith, and Nimue
aka The Lady Of The Lake), we find that the true villain of the
piece is not the Black Knight, who turns out to be a mere
illusion produced by Merlin.  The villain is ... Merlina,
Merlin's granddaughter and the damsel in distress from the
opening cutscene.
     It was she who enlisted Sonic to fight the Black Knight and
retrieve from its possession the scabbard of Excalibur, which
bestows immortality.  Her motive is revealed is what would seem
to be a throwaway scene between Sonic and Merlina where she
plucks a flower and says to nobody in particular: "Why do flowers
bloom, knowing they are destined to wither?  Their life of beauty
is so short-lived...."
     If you think that Merlina is bent on taking over the kingdom
of Camelot the way Eggman keeps trying to take over the world,
think again.  Unlike most Americans who probably know next to
nothing about the Arthurian legend, Merlina knows how the story
will end, and it's not a good ending: Arthur dies at the hands of
Mordred, the Knights of the Round Table fall out among
themselves, Camelot comes to an end.  Unable to bear the thought
of Camelot only lasting "for one brief, shining moment" (to quote
the song from the Broadway musical "Camelot"), she would become
the Dark Queen and cause Camelot to exist forever.  Not if a
certain hedgehog has anything to say about it.  Sonic appears to
be hopelessly outmatched against her but fights on even after his
sword Caliburn (which bears a strong resemblance to Lula the
sword from "Dave the Barbarian") is broken in the attempt.  But a
deus ex machina outfits him in a suit of armor of a color that
can only be described as Super Sonic Gold as his sword is not
only mended but transformed into Excalibur itself.  With it he
defeats the Dark Queen.  Sonic then delivers a line that is so
perfect I have no doubt that Mike Pellerito and Victor Gorelick
would fight like rabid wolverines to keep it from ever appearing
in the comic:
     "Merlina, every world has its end.  I know that's kinda sad,
but that's why we gotta live life to the fullest in the time we
have.  At least, that's what I figure."
     To underscore the point, Sonic plucks a flower and gives it
to her, though they might as well be standing in a shower of
cherry blossoms.  It's one of the most Japanese of attitudes:
"mono no aware," the realization that nothing lasts forever.
     But that's not all!  Even though the closing credits are
approaching, they're followed by a one-minute epilogue to the
whole story that is both so outrageous and so true to the
Sonicverse that no way am I going to spoil it for you.  You can,
however, read about it in the Wikipedia article on the game or
watch it yourself at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrCMl82a50c&feature=related ; just
make sure you don't bail out when the credits start.
     Ordinarily these stories are no-brainers, a cheap way to
plug the newest game release.  Ian Flynn has done us a HUGE favor
by quoting from the opening scene pretty much verbatim, except
for that crow and skull scene.  Some things just can't be
improved.  Head Score: 10.
     EYE: Unfortunately, Tracy Yardley!'s visual interpretation
of the scene is flawed.  It follows the script and is faithful to
most of the details in terms of modeling; I especially liked
Merlina's staff and the Celtic flourishes on the suits of armor. 
And Michael Watkins's coloring does a very good job of
approximating the understated feel of the 2D cutscenes (this
game, where the 3D gameplay is visually gorgeous, has a maddening
habit of shifting back and forth between 2D and 3D cutscenes).
     That said, there are serious problems.  Yardley! can't get
the creatures summoned by the Black Knight to look better than
funky helmets with broken-down wings that fall out of the sky;
even the dramatic opening sequence where the Black Knight
produces these warriors isn't very convincing.  Worse yet, the
SFX word "ZOOM" effectively obliterates Sonic's destruction of
said warriors.
     Worst of all, though, is the third panel on the third page
where Merlina nabs Sonic before he can take a run at the Black
Knight himself.  I have no problem with Yardley! choosing to go
with a WEV (worm's eye view) perspective, but the foreshortening
involved in showing both Sonic and Merlina in full defeats the
whole design.  Merlina's arm looks huge as the rest of her trails
off into the midground.  Yardley! recovers when the story shifts
to the other knights, but the damage has been done by that point. 
I can only attribute the quality of the artwork, and it's
complete failure in mid-story, to deadline pressures.  Eye Score:
a reluctant 5.
     HEART: Since Ian is adapting the story pretty much as is
from the game's opening, he has his assignment handed to him: to
elicit sympathy for Merlina as the assumed Damsel In Distress
without tipping Sega's hand that she and not the formidable-
looking Black Night is the antagonist here.  In that he succeeds. 
It's also interesting that in the scene involving Knuckles,
Shadow and Blaze at the end, they keep their visors down and
never make eye contact with the reader/player, at least not until
later in the game.  This way, even though we KNOW who these
characters are, a certain emotional distance is created and we're
unsure whose side they're on despite their dialogue.  I'm glad
Flynn and Yardley! didn't tamper with that detail and the feeling
of unease it brings to the story.  Heart Score: 10.


     Sonic-Grams: Andrew wants more Shadow; Camille, who's just
turned 18, reminisces about growing up with the Blue Blur while
affirming the quality of the writing in the book and the way the
art has managed to incorporate various manga influences; Joey
asks a lot of questions that were answered starting in S193.
     I'm more concerned about what's NOT on the page.  Now that
Archie once again has two titles to plug and two thumbnails to
display, they've once again jettisoned the Fan Art.  I do not
consider this a step forward.