Sonic the Hedgehog #221 [March 2011] Ben Bates cover: To better appreciate the cover here, you need to dig back into your Sonic comic collection to look at the cover of S152. That's right, it's our old ... ugh! ... friend, "Sonic's Angels," as rendered by Pat Spaziante. The composition is very tightly packed; looks like someone took the original artwork and slipped it into the trash compactor, it's all such a jumble. And "Play on playa" ... what were they THINKING? Ben Bates gives us a much cleaner design, more graphic arts than usual for a comic book cover. Accompanying Sonic this time are characters surrounded by appropriate icons: Nicole, Mina and Sally, rendered in a palette of blues and violets. A welcome departure from the norm. Countdown to Genesis: 5. Is that inclusive of this issue? "Changing Tempo" Story: Ian Flynn; Art: Ben Bates; Ink: Terry Austin; Color: Matt Herms; Lettering: John E. Workman; Editor: Paul Kaminski; Editor-in-Chief: Victor Gorelick; President: Mike Pellerito; Sega Licensing reps: Cindy Chau and Jerry Chu With Geoffrey having bushwhacked Sonic and danger in the air, Sonic suggests that he and Sally take in a rock concert. And since the band, the Forget Me Knots, hasn't taken the stage yet, they pause for some actual character development. In a nutshell, Sally admits to having been jealous of Mina back when she first tried to put the moves on Sonic (see especially S120's "She's Gotta Have Him"). "See, Sal, this is why we should do this talking' thing more," says the male who's usually really sucky at communication. I somehow doubt that Editorial will let too much of that happen, however. And continuing in the stereotype inversion department, it's Sally who says she's keeping her options open and not jumping into commitment WRT Khan. Before this gets much further into chick flick territory, who should they run into but Nicole, wearing shorts and a retro Carnaby Street cap, the better to hide her cyber hair. Since she's pretty much all over New Mobitropolis as its OS, she lets the readers know that Mina isn't the only one who has their suspicions about her since the Iron Dominion arc. Sally turns on the encouragement while up in the rafters a couple of phantoms of the stadium make their appearance. Geoff lets Naugus know that his idea of teaching the G-man how to disapparate (throw him in the deep end after teaching him some basic skills) was not appreciated, and that he's brought his own skill set to this mission. Naugus ignores Geoff and is about to break into a chorus of "Can You Feel The Fear Tonight?" In the Green Room, Mina's warm-up speech to the band ("We're going to turn heads and change minds!") makes it sound like she's getting ready to sing at a campaign rally. After pumping up the band and admitting to the traditional butterflies in the GI tract ("I'm gonna throw up," she tells Ash), she takes the stage and, without so much as asking the courtesy question "ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?!?" delivers some rather lame opening remarks before deciding that she needs to let the music do the talking. She launches into a three-page musical number, presumably titled "We Won't Be Afraid." Despite the fact that her hair is still Pepto pink, she's rocking as hard core as Editorial will let her. Nicole quickly picks up on the lyrics, which are aimed squarely at her. As the Forget Me Knots whip the crowd into a frenzy, Nicole demonstrates that she knows when she's not wanted and rezzes out. Up in the cheap seats, Naugus quotes from Frank Herbert's "Dune." Well, one sentence from the Litany Against Fear, anyway. And Geoff and we realize that Naugus is manipulating the zeitgeist. At this point, the concert comes to a dead stop as Mina starts raving out like a Tea Party animal: "Our government is elected by the people! They have to listen to us!" Sonic and Sally look at each other as if to say: "I wish they'd shut up and play something!" Fast-forward to after the show. As Mina and Ash accept the kudos from the crowd, the band members head inside the trailer and then appear to change their minds in order to allow Mina and Ash in first. There they come upon the Review Committee of Sonic and Sally. Sally and Mina then debate the content of the music. Seems Mina wasn't too keen on the fact that Sonic and his crew were in the Dragon Kingdom while Nicole was under the Iron Queen's control. Sally then gets off her tail and, in one speech balloon, pretty much undercuts everything Mina has just said to her. Then they leave. They make their way through the crowd, which is now in major political debate mode. Sonic is cheesed at the ingratitude in the air; Sally is more concerned that Nicole isn't online. And Naugus is digging it. HEAD: In 1952, Eddie Donnelly directed a theatrical cartoon for Fox's Terry-Toons line, named "Happy Valley." The narrator of the short is a farmer and resident of the Valley, about which the following is sung several times: "Happy Happy Valley, What a wonderful place to be, Where friendly people work and play, In peace and harmony." This state of affairs is disrupted by a villain, of course. This villain, however, is a basso profundo-singing specter named Greed. By salting some of the land with gold nuggets, just about everybody in the valley gets the fever and make the valley look like the set for "Invasion Of The Giant Gophers" or something. The people see the error of their ways when the ruined ground can't support crops in the Spring, as the moral is brought home: "Happiness and contentment are your riches." "Changing Tempo" takes a direction that I don't believe the Sonic comics have taken before, especially with its regular every-25-issues megathreat. Back in S75 Robo-Robotnik invaded, in S125 Mobius was being attacked by (ugh!) space aliens, S175 saw the destruction of old Knothole by the Egg Armada, S200 featured the invasion of the Iron Dominion after Sonic humbled Eggman for the umpteenth time. The less said about the incoherent S100, the thoroughly misbegotten S150, and the notorious "Big Goodbye" of S50 the better. Here, however, Naugus is revealed to be playing the psychological card. No hardware or armies or space aliens required; just an appeal to one of the great irrational forces aside from greed: fear. This is truly a story for our times. America is frankly in no position to be invaded or attacked by intercontinental weaponry or the movement of millions of troops. That was the fear that got us to invade Iraq, the results of which are best summed up by the title of Thomas Ricks's military history of the war, "Fiasco." It was also a staple of the Cold War when there was the fear of the Soviets invading the US, a threat that was merely implied in the flying saucer invasion movies of the period but nowhere given such a heavy-handed treatment as in the 1984 motion picture "Red Dawn." As it turned out, the Soviet war machine couldn't even subdue Afghanistan without the military and the Soviet empire in general falling into a black hole. But fear ... there's still a lot of that currency floating around. The word "terrorist" is being tossed around like a hand grenade these days, and various spokesweasels seem intent on warning of the threat from "radical Muslims" while apparently hoping most people disregard the adjective. So whether he planned it that way or not, Ian's story here has a currency unusual for a medium where a six month time lag between first draft and execution isn't unusual. As I've said before, it was a tricky choice to make the centerpiece of the story a rock concert where the reader pretty much has to bring their imagination to the party in terms of how the band is supposed to sound in their heads. Personally, I found that thinking of Green Day's "Know Your Enemy" helped establish the mood even if Mina's words didn't match the tune. The scene with Geoff and Naugus on the catwalk both does and doesn't help explain what's going on with Geoff. OK, so he's had some very elementary coaching from Naugus at some point, but that still doesn't explain the back story of how Geoff hooked up with Naugus or how Naugahide became a doddering simpleton in Mammoth Mogul's office. And [I could use a dramatic soap opera musical sting here] what about Hershey? The pacing stumbled slightly with Mina's opening words to the crowd before "We Won't Be Afraid" and stumbled REALLY badly with her attempt at a political harangue afterward. Yes, she's reinforcing the lyrics of the song, but it's done in such a heavy-handed fashion that you almost expected her to start handing torches and pitchforks down into the crowd from the stage. While "House of Cards, Part 1" (S178) gave us a revolution with no set-up at all and which fizzled just as quickly, Mina swings the other way: she's practically on the verge of leading a popular uprising (there are certainly enough clenched fists in the audience) then slips right into "For our next number...." It's unforgivably bad timing for a rock show and pretty fatal to a revolution as well, not to mention to the pacing of a story. Ian really should have saved the "It's this kind of passion..." speech for outside the trailer before Mina comes face to face with Sonic and Sally. It would have made much more sense. The political discussion continues in the trailer after the show, and Ian gives Sally a really great role here. She doesn't have much to say to Mina during her harangue recap, but the way she calmly undercuts Mina's arguments and then leaves her was like ... WHOA! On balance, this story has more strengths than weaknesses, though the pacing of the concert was bad. Understandable, but still bad. Head Score: 8. EYE: This is Ben Bates's encore for his work on "Thicker Than Water" and he doesn't disappoint. While some of Nicole's reaction shots seemed a little over the top it's within the emotional scope of his work in "Thicker," and the layout on page [12] where Naugus appears to be puppet-mastering the concert is flawless. Eye Ecore: 10. HEART: Nicole is the Heart focal point for this story. It seemed to feint toward Sonic and Sally in their scene in the beginning, but then the hammer falls on Nicole. Unfairly, I might add. The reader, of course, has the advantage over Mina here. Sure, she and a lot of other Mobians were terrified when Nicole did an apparent heel turn after being co-opted by the Iron Queen. But we know what Mina doesn't: that Sonic and Sally went down the electronic rabbit hole to get in touch with and ultimately to rescue her in "Iron Dominion: Part 2" (S209). After that, she was just biding her time until she could assert her independence from the Dominion two issues later in "Home Invasion: Part 2." The key is that Mina's bad-mouthing of Nicole isn't just false; it's also patently unjust. Emotionally, this comes perilously close to Idiot Plot territory. Had Mina been put in a position where she could confront Nicole with her fears, she's have gotten Nicole's side of the story. Of course, then you'd have no plot. So however unfair it is, the fact that Mina didn't face up to her fear enough to confront Nicole makes the situation emotionally believable and heightens our sympathy for Nicole. The situation from Nicole's point of view can only be hinted at here; here's hoping it will get a fuller treatment in the following story. Heart Score: 8. "Second Impressions: Part 1" Story: Ian Flynn; Art: James Fry; Ink: Terry Austin; Color: Matt Herms; Lettering: John E. Workman In the heart of what looks like the dumpster out behind the local Best Buy, Nicole indulges in one of those human luxuries which computers don't get to experience: a good cry. She's interrupted, however, by Dimitri. Seems he's aware of the undercurrent of dissatisfaction abroad in New Mobitropolis; he's also aware that Espio has joined this party. Espio is initially cheesed that Dimitri is even there, but Dee-dawg seems to know which of Espio's buttons to push to calm him down; in this case, bringing up S169's "For A Friend." And it turns out Nicole didn't disappear into the core memory of New Mobitropolis because she's "no longer a mere program." This leaves open the question of just WHERE this scene is taking place, but Ian can't be bothered with explaining that. For his part, Dimitri is slowly psyching himself up for an awkward reunion with Knuckles, and he changes the subject rather quickly. He stresses that his current out-of-body existence is pretty much karma for his dictatorial ways; Nicole, OTOH, was being manipulated by the Iron Queen. Dimitri then gets all gooey telling Nicole and Espio that they have friends who will help them and they have to be brave yada yada yada. And could Espio set up the meeting with Knuckles? HEAD: One of the best parts of the entire Iron Dominion arc was "Iron Dominion: Part 2" where Ian does the same thing he did in the celebrated "I Am" (S171) when Nicole helped Shadow hack into Gerald Robotnik's diary to reunite with his beloved Maria. In "Iron Dominion" Sonic and Sally slipped into the New Mobitropolis machine memory to pry Nicole loose from the Iron Queen's grip. Like the computer world of the "Tron" movies, it's a fantasy world even beyond that of Mobius, which still retains enough features of our own everyday existence to feel, well, ordinary despite the presence of talking animals. That's why it's so disappointing to find Nicole seeking shelter in what looks like a storeroom full of old computer hardware. There's no sense that ANY of the machines present are up and running, except for Dimitri, and what's running about him is his mouth. You'd think that Nicole, fresh from the emotional trauma of the concert, would have run home to Motherboard; in fact, in the last panel of page [1] she seems ready to do just that but changes her mind. Probably a concession to being able to meet with Dimitri and Espio but still kind of a letdown. Even moreso is the way the story was thrown to the boys: Dimitri and Espio effectively shoulder Nicole out of the way and are like "What about us?" As a result, Nicole's emotional state isn't explored beyond the superficial treatment it's received in both stories (more below in the Heart section). Dimitri acts like he's the star of this story. Granted, Ian has to cement his relationship to upcoming events and set up his reunion with Knuckles. Still, I can't shake ths feeling that this is supposed to be Nicole's party and he's crashing it. Head Score: 7. EYE: James Fry does a good job with the three-member cast of characters, although Espio's mouth in the 4th panel on page [3] is just way too funky. Also, by the second panel of page [2] he pretty much abandons any attempt at drawing backgrounds except for the odd bit of cross-hatching here and there, which deepens the sense that this story is taking place in some warehouse. Eye Score: 8. HEART: OK, anyone who has paid attention to this story arc since the Iron Dominion blew into town 20-some issues ago knows that Nicole was hijacked by the Iron Queen's techno-magic and forced to keep the populace in check. We also know that for part of the story Nicole had to work undercover after Sally managed some amateur techno-magic of her own and convinced Nicole to break free of the Iron Queen. Which makes it totally unfair of Mina to distrust her. I'd fully expected Nicole to voice such sentiments in this story; Heaven knows that Ian bends over backwards to bring any possible noobs up to speed on practically every development in every story arc. But here it's so toned down as to be ... well, "bland" is the best word that I can come up with. Sure, Ian has written a story where the necessary facts are presented, but everything is in the service of the plot lines, not only Nicole's but Dimitri's as well. It never really breaks through and feels like it comes from the heart. This story should have built upon Ben Bates's artwork in the previous story where Nicole reacts to "We Won't be Afraid." It's in that artwork that we can see Nicole realizing that despite her best efforts people are turning their backs on her. It's not so much about her being criticized; she's being ostracized. Ian and Ben handled that extremely well in "Changing Tempo," but the issue was dropped here in favor of bringing in Dimitri to be the new focal point of the story. It works, but it's still a letdown. Heart Score: 4. Fan Art: I am totally in awe of Philip's idea of representing the Sonic characters using multi-colored pipe cleaners. Given the nature of the medium, the resulting figures can only suggest the characters rather than depict them. But still, the results are amazing. Fan Funnies: Amber demonstrates how out of control the comic's depiction of Silver has become. Maybe his Sonic Universe 4-parter will help correct that. Off-Panel: Dimitri's head attached to a soft drink machine. This demonstrates what happens when you put the punch line in the second panel of a 3-panel gag strip. Sonic-Grams: Shane is told that there are no plans to bring Tails's crush Cosmo into the comic (which is a pity; I thought that the whole plant-based beings idea was a neat one); that the Iron Queen will continue to cool her heels in stir for the moment; that someone is going to go super (eye roll); that they already adapted the opening of Sonic Colors and won't say any more about game adaptations; that the Battle Bird Armada will be back; and so will Mighty and Ray in their quest for Mighty's sister. Tracy asks whether Storm made a silhouetted cameo appearance in S217's "Thicker Than Water" and is told that it was originally supposed to be Cream, and he also wants to see Mighty and Matilda reunite. Instead, we're told that Fiona and the Destructix will be reappearing. Gregoire wants Sonic comics made digitally available the way select issues of the flagship Archie comics are. I think Sega would like to take part in THOSE negotiations.