Sonic the Hedgehog #198 (May 2009)
     Yardley!/Jensen cover; impressive drawing of a foregone
conclusion.  You don't believe me?  Keep reading.


     "Phoenix-Down!"  Man, even the WRITER can't resist spoiling
this one!
     Story: Ian Flynn; Art Layout: Tracy Yardley!; Pencil Renae
DeLiz (debut); Ink: Jim Amash; Color: Jason Jensen; Lettering:
Teresa Davidson; Editor/Managing Editor: Mike Pellerito; Editor-
In-Chief: Victor Gorelick; Sega Licensing Reps: Kristin Parcell
and Cindy Chau

     After I forget how many issues where it's been one-on-one
mano-a-mano action with one character (Scourge usually) beating
up another (Sonic usually), Ian Flynn cranks it up to war mode. 
Specifically, the Knothole crowd is out in the middle of nowhere
dealing with a Dark Legion infestation.  Sonic, Amy and Antoine
are at the forefront of the first attack, with Bunnie providing
some force field cover.  At first, Lien-Da thinks this may be a
good sign, an indication that they were finally slowed down. 
Sorry; it only meant that Sonic and the crew were stalling while
the Chaotix opened up an attack on Lien-Da's flank.  As Sonic
joins the party, Lien-Da finally comes out of the closet and
wields a bullwhip that's nicely coordinated with her usual
dominatrix body suit.  But Antoine then emasculates her
(symbolically speaking) in a move that I'd like to see played out
on the next swordsmanship episode of "Mythbusters."
     As Lien-Da falls back for some cover, we cut back to Sally
who, thanks to a set of Bratz(r)eyes looks less like she's using
Nicole and more like she's checking her look in her compact. 
She's getting the word from Tails that he's done with whatever he
was doing.
     Meanwhile, the Talking Head Dimitri is telling Eggman that
the Legionnaires could use a little back-up.  For his part,
Eggman dons a scarf that looks like it used to belong to Snoopy
as the World War One Flying Ace.
     As the two armies face each other, Lien-Da gives the order
for the legion to open fire just as Tails activates what would
appear to be a cluster of electro-magnetic pulse mines that
disable the Legion's weaponry.  Which is all well and good, but
how did Tails know that the Legion would retreat to that
particular spot where they'd be susceptible to the EMP effect? 
There's no time to dwell on that embarrassing question, however,
as the Egg Phoenix makes its appearance and attempts to turn the
combatants into furry briquettes.  For the moment, the best they
can do is scatter with cross-hatched smudges on their faces,
which is about as much damage as the Editors will allow them to
take.
     Snively, meanwhile, is as surprised as the rest of us that
one of Eggman's stupid inventions may actually have a chance of
succeeding.  But before he can work up a gloat about it, Dimitri
asks him "How's your love life?  Nudge nudge, wink wink."  I KNEW
switching over to voice communication would compromise his
security, and Dimitri tells the Sniveler to think a little harder
about protecting the Legion or else Snively's online relationship
will be the lead story on the next "Inside Edition."  Snively
counters by offering Dimitri a job in the new administration once
Queenie shows up.
     Our heroes, meanwhile, have limited options.  Tails points
out that they can't use the EMP mines on the Phoenix unless they
were actually attached to it.  That, on cue, gives Sally an idea.
     So, here's the plan: Sonic gets Eggman's attention, gets the
Phoenix to follow him, gets tossed higher and higher into the air
by Vector, Knuckles, Tails and Bunnie until he and the Phoenix
are at that stupid high altitude at the beginning of the Egg
Fleet stage of Sonic Heroes where Rouge says "We might even be on
the edge of space!"  And thanks to the thin atmosphere, which has
no effect whatsoever on Sonic himself, the Phoenix conks.
     With the Phoenix in a dive and Sonic keeping Eggman's
attention elsewhere, Charmy, Saffron and Ray plant the EMP mines
on the Phoenix while it's falling at the rate of 32 feet per
second per second.  Once Eggman is able to restart the engines in
the denser atmosphere closer to the ground, Tails activates the
mines at the last possible moment.  If you're wondering how
they'd work, imagine you're driving down a dark highway at night
when your engine dies; not only do your headlights cut off as
well but so does every light on the dashboard.  The Egg Phoenix
digs a predictably big hole in a nearby hillside, Eggman (who is
as impervious to damage as every other member of the cast in this
story), roars in frustration and then punches out before the ship
blows up.
     With the routine business of decommissioning Eggman's latest
wonder weapon out of the way, the Mobians set up camp under the
open force field generator.  Tails is more apprehensive about
what's coming than Sonic; maybe he knows this is issue #198 and
that editors and writers like to rock their world every 25 issues
or so.  But Eggman, slightly poached and always cracked, is not
about to call it quits.  Neither is the crypto-alliance of
Snively and Dimitri.

     HEAD: You'd think a war would be a bit more serious than a
two-man slugfest, but such is the logic of this comic book that
the fighting between the Knothole gang and the Chaotix against
Lien-Da and the Dark Legionnaires takes up a grand total of SEVEN
PAGES in this comic not counting the Snively-Dimitri side story
or the Egg Phoenix sidebar.  But compared to the eight ISSUES
(S189-196) that were largely taken up with the Sonic v. Scourge
contest, the war story shrivels up into an afterthought, a mere
set-up for the entrance of the Egg Phoenix, which takes up nine
pages of this comic.
     Of course, this is one of those aimed-at-the-kids Y7-FV
(fantasy violence) war stories, so it's not like anybody dies or
even gets something resembling a paper cut.  I'm not expecting
the Normandy landing scene from "Saving Private Ryan" but the
whole thing came off as a little too neat and tidy to be called a
war.
     Perhaps it's just as well because for the first time in a
long time everything seems to break the Knothole crowd's way:
Lien-Da is properly diverted so the Chaotix can open their flank
attack, and then she and the Legionnaires happen to fall back to
the EXACT SPOT where Tails has the EMP mines planted and where
they can do the most damage to the Legion's high-tech weaponry
(what are the odds?).  The only hitch was the appearance of the
Egg Phoenix which gave the Legion an opportunity to run away.
     Despite its literal fire-power, the Egg Phoenix is as
incapable of inflicting any real damage as the Legion's weapons. 
Sally and Bunnie show up with smudged faces and Bunnie's Air Cav
hat is on fire but no harm done otherwise.  Even Sonic is
unscathed as well as unfazed when the Egg Phoenix meets its end,
despite his dialogue to the contrary.
     Like I said, I don't want to see blood and gore and guts in
the comic.  And Heaven knows the good guys need to catch a break
more often, as they did in the Eggman Empire arc (S175-177).  But
I'd like to see them come by it more honestly when the situation
is supposed to be this intense; it felt like a really cheap win.
     And again, it's no big surprise that the Egg Phoenix ends up
laying an egg.  The theory was correct, but nobody took any
damage (and both sides can thank Editorial for that).  The way
the Phoenix was diverted to allow the gang to plant the EMP mines
was pretty clever, though I'm pretty sure Charmy and Saffron
would've gotten their wings sheared off if they were really
falling from a serious height.  And even Eggman didn't take on
much damage from the crash.
     That pretty much leaves the post-battle exposition and the
Snively-Dimitri sidebar.  The former doesn't say much but Sonic's
optimism is a little worrying since we're within spitting
distance of S200.  As for the latter, we still have no clue as to
who Regina is, but we now know that Dimitri is throwing in with
him until the inevitable double-cross by someone or other.
     I liked this story on the first reading; I really did!  The
more I thought about it, though, the more it seemed just too
improbable in the way it moved from one development to another
with no harm done and no RISK of harm, either.  That's what made
the Eggman Empire arc stand out: we'd already seen Knothole be
destroyed by Eggman once, and the plot twist that saved Sonic and
his friends was a genuine surprise.  In this story, that feeling
was absent.  The EMP mine trick on the Legion's hardware was neat
enough but also too dependent on what Roger Ebert called the 
"Fallacy of the Predictable Tree":
     "The logical error committed every time the good guy is able
to predict exactly what the bad guy is going to do. For example,
in FIRST BLOOD, law enforcement officials are searching the woods
for John Rambo. A cop pauses under a tree. Rambo drops on him.
Question: Out of all the trees in the forest, how did Rambo know
which one the guy would pause under?"
     And how did Tails and/or Sally know that Lien-Da would pull
her troops back to the EXACT SPOT where the EMP mines would do
the most damage?
     OK, maybe I need to stop overthinking comic book writing,
but it seems to me that it's just as easy to come up with a good
plot twist as it is to come up with a quick-and-dirty one. 
Unless you're on deadline, which may be the case here.  Head
Score: 6.
     EYE: I first became aware of Renae DeLiz's work over at
DevantArt when she drew an amazing piece of Sonic art for use as
wallpaper: it can be seen at
http://renaedeliz.deviantart.com/art/Sonic-The-Hedgehog-Wallpaper
-92154016 .  It was only when her work appeared in this issue
that I thought to scope out her gallery.  I was surprised because
she posted not only pages of Sonic comic art but what she called
pages from "people character comic stories."  She added: "I'm not
sure people realize how very challenging Sonic can be to draw!"
     Tell me about it.  The challenge, of course, is switching
back and forth from "people characters" to furries.  In all the
years I've tracked this comic I've seen too many comic artists,
from Jim Valentino to Gary Bedell, who have done excellent work
on humans only to trip and fall when drawing furries.  Invariably
they end up thinking that furries can follow the same rules as
humans (figures being seven heads high and so forth) with
predictably bad results.
     Renae, on the other hand, has a way firmer grip on furry
anatomy and physical proportions.  She also has a taste for WEV
shots, which are effectively used here: the opening drawing of
Sonic and the Freedom Fighter troop carrier, Sonic getting
whipped by Lien-Da, Sally's "Here's the plan" drawing are all
imagined from low to the ground and are well-staged.  
     Then there are the two panels where Lien-Da gives the order
to fire while Sally has Tails activate the EMP mines.  The two
panels are situated one above the other with Lien-Da at the far
right and Sally et al. at the far left.  Both panels make use of
that unheard-of commodity of comic book illustration: empty
space.  By placing the characters near the edges of the panels,
there's an impression of distance given that's a real eye-opener.
     Speaking of eyes, if there's one thing about Renae's art
that strikes me as dissonant, it's the eyes.  Sal's eyes have
never been bigger with relation to the rest of her head, nor have
her lashes been as stylized.  Bunnie gets the same treatment. 
Sonic and Tails, being boys, are more traditionally modeled.  But
overall, in terms of page layout and individual panel design,
there's nothing to quibble about here and I hope to see more of
Renae's work in the book.  Eye Score: 9.
     HEART: The very small Heart moment with Tails all fetal
positioned on the eve of battle was something we haven't seen a
lot of in the comic.  Typically, though, it's over too soon.  It
made me wonder how others in the group were feeling about the
impending battle, but there simply wasn't time to go there in
this issue.  And I have no hope that Ian will go there in the
next issue.  Too bad.  Heart Score: 5.


     Sonic-Grams: Seth C. asks about Shadow appearing in the
Sonic X title, which he did just in time for it to wrap up. 
Jeremy K. obsesses with the identity of the new Eggman after
Endgame.  He also speculates on Mobian currency (an essential
factoid for anyone engaged in world building), and asks whether
the weapon being tested in S44's "Black And Blue And Red All
Over" isn't the Ultimate Annihilator mentioned in the ill-fated
Endgame arc; Editorial says "Could very well be," which isn't
very helpful.  Chira O. Asks about Sonic's family, including his
parents and future offspring from the Mobius 25 Years Later
continuity.  Or maybe, as the editors point out, they're talking
about the Sonic Underground family.  Small wonder they decided to
open things up with the Sonic Universe comic!