Sonic the Hedgehog #200 (July 2009). And they said it couldn't be done! Pat Spaziante cover has everything to do with the numerical milestone for the comic and nothing to do with the story. Considering how thin the script is, I'm not surprised. "Turn About Is Fair Play" Story: Ian Flynn; Art: Tracy Yardley!; Ink: Terry Austin; Color: Matt Herms; Lettering: John E. Workman; Editor: Mike Pellerito; Editor-in-Chief: Victor Gorelick; Sega Licensing Reps: Cindy Chau and Jerry Chu Better keep a game controller handy, even if it's not plugged into anything; for the first 12 pages of this story you'll probably be hit with an overpowering urge to mash the X button. It's Sonic vs. the Egg-Spider in final boss action! Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik (Editorial has apparently decided they want to have it both ways) starts by complaining that Sonic has been giving him grief for over 15 years. That may be true of the run of the comic, but according to the continuity based on the SatAM back story he only came to power when Sonic was 5 years old. Let that pass; since this is one of those landmark issues we're in for not just Action And More Action, but Exposition And More Exposition bringing the readers up to speed. I'm not sure for whose benefit the exposition is included: the newbies who realize that there may be something to any comic that can go the distance for 200 issues, or the former readers who may be thinking "No way! That's still in print?" Anyway, Eggman scrounges up the specter of his past victories while Sonic provides counterpoint/commentary. The reference to Robotnik "[croaking] more or less" is a reference to the infamous "Endgame" arc, for which Editorial wisely refuses to supply a text-box reference. Then again, all of the past developments the two characters mention are uncited. Anyway, Sonic spends the first 4 pages ducking out of the way, and it's only with page [5] that he starts wailing on the Spider-Bot's abdomen. It's also at this point that Eggman's diction begins to suffer. In an impressive move (by Eggman standards, anyway), he suspends the Spider-Bot from a strand of webbing/cable in an attempt to slice Sonic like salami. Sonic avoids the spinning legs and severs the cable, but takes the kind of hit that would make me cough up all my rings if I were playing him. But it gave him the chance to locate "the crucial joint" upon which he can begin to wail. When Robotnik refuses to surrender, Sonic takes that as his cue to cut the Spider-Bot's legs out from under it, literally (see the destruction of what I like to call "Mr. Hand" in "Sonic and Knuckles"). After which, Sonic takes the rest of the spider apart. End of stage, end of battle. Not, however, end of story. Having been bested by Sonic for the umpteenth time, Eggman loses it completely and goes into a frenzied exhibition of comic book psychosis: screaming, babbling incoherently, swinging at nothing, and drooling as much as Editorial will allow. Sonic is more than a little freaked by this display, as are Sally and Snively as they arrive on the scene. Arriving to tell Sonic that the fight is over because the Egg Legion is in retreat, she asked "What did you DO to him?" Snively answers appropriately: "You didn't just beat him this time, Sonic. You broke him." Snively then gets almost an entire page of exposition, but gets off to a bad start with the sentence "Eccentrics aside, he really is a genius." The sentence would have worked better if he'd have said "Eccentricities aside...." but never mind. According to the Sniveler, Eggy has been losing it ever since the Eggman Empire arc (S175-177) when the Mobians managed to survive the attack of the Egg Armada. After that, there's nothing more for Snively to do than pour what's left of Robotnik into a bucket and tell the furries to go home. And in New Mobitropolis there is much rejoicing. As we prepare to say "Sonic has left the building," Sally noticed that he's more subdued than usual. Sonic has used up his clever quip quota and tells Sally: "I ... didn't think it would end like this. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this ... I mean ... Now what do I do?" Sally gives a lame answer about "adventure" and "duty;" if it were up to me, she'd have grabbed him by the shoulders, given him a serious kiss on the lips, and then turned and walked away saying "You'll think of something." And everyone heads out of town while failing to notice the blimp circling over Eggman's headquarters. Having checked Eggman into the Cliche Suite (with padded walls and strait-jacket), Snively heads up to the roof where he, Dimitri and the Legionnaires welcome the blimp-with-pagoda- trappings carrying the new kids in town: the Iron Queen and her court. More on her and them in a minute. HEAD: Roger Ebert concluded his recent review of "Terminator Salvation" with the following sentence: "It gives you all the pleasure of a video game without the bother of having to play it." The same can be said for this story. Really, you have 12 pages of gaming action followed by a 10-page cut scene. I'm sure that there are fans of Sonic who expect little or nothing more from the comic. I should be one of them but I think I'm too old for that now. At first I was a little put off by the number of word balloons and the need for Sonic and Robotnik to exchange dialogue, until I realized that this is becoming par for the course in the Sonicverse. From the first Sonic game up to and including "Sonic Adventure," the only accompaniments to the video game action were music and sound effects. That changed with "Sonic Adventure 2," where dialogue began to creep in as well (initially in the form of advice from that nudge, Omochao). By the time of "Sonic Heroes" the technology had come to the point where everybody was tossing off one-liners and bits of advice ("Let's leave this to Sonic" and "This one is all Knuckles"), ranging from the merely obvious ("Careful not to fall; it's really dangerous here") to the totally annoying (who can forget Big the Cat's immortal line "Hoo-hee!"). And in "Sonic and the Black Knight," Sonic engages in dialogue with the transformed Merlina while also receiving advice from Excalibur during the final battle. So there's nothing all that objectionable about the gab-fest between Sonic and Eggman this time around. The problem with it, though, is that it's primarily exposition for the first 4 pages. Once they get past that, it's more like what the games have become in terms of dialogue. But enough of that. Let's fast-forward to the last page as we rewind to 1998 and Sonic #60's "Arsenal of the Iron King" and get re-introduced to the Iron Queen and King. Back during the Sonic and Tails Round The World Tour, they came upon a mountain that had been burning for one hundred days; this, they learned, was the work of the bull-like Iron King and his humanish wife the Iron Queen. In actuality, these two characters represent the Bull Demon King and Princess Iron Fan from the legend "Journey To The West" which is part of the collection of stories about the Monkey King and which, in its own cockeyed way, served as the inspiration for Akira Toriyama's Dragonball manga and anime franchise (the Chinese characters for the name of the Monkey King, Sun Wukong, is pronounced "Son Goku" when read in Japanese). Turns out the Iron Queen is the one who's been carrying on an online relationship with Snively since S194's "Sleepless in New Megaopolis." She may not have mentioned to Snively that she has a husband; I'm sure it just slipped her mind. Accompanying them is a lop-eared rabbit wearing the kind of conical straw hat that's become synonymous with East Asia. From the character's stance, attitude, and the stray lock of headfur draped across her forehead, she bears a strong resemblance to Toph, the blind earth-bender from Nickelodeon's "Avatar" series, although the perpetually-barefoot Toph wouldn't want anything to do with this character's iron-toed footwear. And as if all this comic book chinoiserie weren't enough, we also get half a dozen Ninja Kitties because ... well, because the Naruto franchise is still hot, I suppose. The purpose of this family-sized helping of Asian Mash-Up is to give Sonic and his crew someone to play with while Eggman recovers from his episode. It also sets up the return of Monkey Khan, who shows up in the next issue. The story sets out what it wants to do: give us a fight between Sonic and Eggman with its inevitable conclusion and unexpected aftermath, then sets the stage for the comic to continue in such a way that the reader will stay interested. Head Score: 10. EYE: Unlike the early games where the point of view rarely if ever varies during the final boss stage, Yardley! relies on an ever-shifting point-of-view to maintain interest in the fight sequence. At times he really pulls off an interesting variation in a situation where repetition is always a danger, such as at the bottom of page [5] where we see a close-up of Sonic's shoes but also Sonic's reflection in the windshield of the Egg Spider. There's nothing to fault here except for his over-the-top depiction of Eggman losing it. I suppose understatement has no real place in a comic book. And his depiction of the Iron Queen is miles ahead of that of Frank Strom, who originated the character and introduced her in S60. Eye Score: 9. HEART: When I created my 3-part rating system, I decided at include the Heart element because it is such a vital part of storytelling, not in the comic book tradition, but in the Disney tradition. To me it's not just an accessory, an add-on to appease a certain demographic. It's rather an integral part of the story and what makes the difference between good and great work. Unfortunately, the Sonic comic hasn't always recognized the value of Heart. Sure, there have been stories that have featured it done well ("Stargazing," "Father and Son"), but they have proved to be the exception rather than the rule. Sadly, the rule applies here as well. Sonic is clearly shaken by what happened to Eggman at the end of the battle this time, but Ian plays it like a bad tennis shot: no follow-through. Sonic's "I didn't think it'd end like this" speech, which just about put him on the verge of showing compassion for his long-time foe, is summarily dealt with on the same page and then shoved aside to make way for the next development. The same thing will happen in the next issue, the first few pages of which have been posted on Matt Herms's deviantArt page. The most charitable explanation is that this is a tease for something building up for later development, as Snively's online romance came to fruition with the arrival of the Iron King and Iron Queen, or (more appropriately) the build-up before the confrontation between Sonic and Tails in S178-179. I wish I could be certain, however. I can't help but remember Rosy, the psycho mirror-Amy from Moebius who disappeared down the memory hole in the course of that story arc. I don't want to see Sonic battling Shadow for the title of Most Angst-Ridden Character in the comic. But when you raise an issue like this it deserves proper attention, and I wish I knew if Ian will deliver. It's not that Sonic couldn't deliver; even Sega is aware of that. In "Sonic and The Black Knight," after Sonic defeats Knuckles dba Sir Gawain, he has to talk Gawain down and dissuade him from killing himself after failing to dispatch Sonic. This is fairly radical coming from a culture where ritual suicide in the name of restoring lost honor has been institutionalized for centuries. I seriously doubt that such a sequence would EVER grace the pages of an Archie comic. Still, the disquiet of Sonic about Eggman's cracking raises the possibility that maybe there's more to Sonic that speed and attitude. It's possible that somewhere behind those green eyes and underneath that blue exterior there may be signs of compassion. The way Ian is handling this so far, though, he no sooner brings up the subject than he slides over it. I sincerely hope this goes somewhere and that it takes the comic to the next level WRT the writing, but I've been burned too many times to hold out much hope. Heart Score: 8. Sonic-Grams: One letter from Timothy R. reveals that he's a 4th grade teacher in an undisclosed location who is successfully subverting his students and bringing them around to an appreciation of his old favorite. I can also appreciate that he's a fellow oldster and long-time fan of the Blue Blur. Abbey L. wonders about the difference in pronunciation between "Mobius" and "Moebius." Mike maintains there is none, but I like to think that "Moebius" is pronounced with 4 syllables by virtue of an umlaut over the e. Krissie G. wants to know what it takes to work on the comic; in the case of Ian Flynn and Matt Herms, it apparently takes a number of years of banging one's head against the door. Fan Art: Metal Sonic by Simon L.; Scourge by Trey W.; a very nice drawing of Nicole by Joshua Y. Fan Funnies: Looks like the availability of "Off-Panel" in "Sonic Universe" isn't enough: Rose Worthington contributes a genuinely funny 4-frame gag sequence that begins with the marvelous line "Silence is golden but duct tape is silver." Editor's Note: Mike Pellerito gives himself a page to reminisce and toot his own horn about the comic's being in the Guinness Book of Records as Longest-Running Comic Book Based On A Video Game Character. And if they can keep it going for another 6 years they'll set the record for Longest-Running Licensed Character Comic Book. In some quarters, that generates a reaction similar to that of the person who upon hearing that a motion picture won an Academy Award for Best Western Picture responded by saying "There's a best?!?"