Sonic the Hedgehog #227 (September 2011)

Spaz/after Lee cover: Sonic scoots into the picture, accompanied by Miles “How Come I’m Not In This Story?” Prower. Eggman is in back of it all, as always.

“Genesis Part 2: Friends and Fate”

Story: Ian Flynn; Art: Pat Spaziante to Tracy Yardley!; Ink: Terry Austin; Color: Matt Herms; Lettering: John E. Workman; Editor: Paul Kaminski; Editor-in-Chief: Victor Gorelick; Highest Score: Mike Pellerito: Sega Licensing reps: Cindy Chau and Judy Gilbertson

Sonic and the gang from last issue are inside the Temple of Whatever; I never played anything until Sonic 3 and Knuckles and I’m currently stranded in Apatos in “Sonic Unleashed.” This does remind me a little of the architecture of the Hydrocity zone. After the initial two pages, we get a very weird bit of dialogue:

Sonic: “Where did you learn that [robotics] stuff?”

Rotor: “Ah, well, I dunno. It just comes naturally to me.”

So apparently nobody even knows their own back story because they’re acting under the influence of Eggman’s device. Ian won’t let this sink in just yet as Sonic catches Antoine fraternizing with Sally and does some visceral reacting himself. But just as he’s about to get in Sal’s face about it, they arrive at the water hazard. Which is the perfect time for Sonic to remember his non-swimmer status, even though Sonic comic writers have been conveniently forgetting that fact for years and years. Sally tells him to hold two things: his breath and her hand. And everything is fine, up until the next robot attack.

What follows is a jazzy action sequence where Sonic spins into a wall which gives way as our heroes leak into another room, down a flume and up again. I think. But thanks to an inconvenient earthquake, Antoine misses the hand-off. Yet Sonic seems to be the only one thinking about it as Sally and Rotor keep on keeping on.

At the next opportunity/next page, Sonic presses his concern, to which Sal replies “It doesn’t feel right. I saw him fall, too, but … he … he can’t be gone. That’s not right.” To really drive things home, Rotor tells Sonic “It’s okay because we know it’ll be okay.” He then wonders out loud whether this isn’t just denial; I can tell you it isn’t because the emotional temperature of this comic never gets that high, and …

Oh, never mind. Let’s have The Usual: action sequences and robot attacks. And once they get past THOSE, they debate the name of the place. And the nominees are:

Robotropolis

New Megaopolis

Scrap Brain Zone

And before we go even further, Sonic and Rotor succumb to different traps. But just as Sally can’t hang on to Rotor/Boomer any longer, Sonic shows up after having escaped being electrocuted without any explanation whatsoever. Here’s an explanation: they don’t make traps like they used to.

The three of them duck out of sight and avoids a few more avoidables, but then Sonic’s trapped in a force field bubble of some sort and is forced to endure the cruelest of fates: listening to Eggman natter away about how much he hates that name. Sonic tries some pushback on the bubble, but it doesn’t amount to much. But because Ian remembered that this is after all a “comic” book, he does something humorous by having Eggman get drenched by the output of a water line along with a really big drip, Antoine. Could’ve been worse; could’ve been a sewer line.

Sonic then breaks up the tete-a-tete between Ant and Egg, at which point Sal and Boomer join the party and Eggman manages a diversion and makes a break for it but not without some collateral damage in a sequence that is really pretty confusing. But Sonic can’t party hard with the others because of his feeling that Eggy survived whatever fate the others thought he suffered. Just like Sally survived whatever fate Sonic thinks she suffered? Let’s hope so.

HEAD: Not having played Sonic 1 or 2, I have no idea what sequence the stages take and whether the story got them right. To me, however, the stages are sorta kinda recognizable from other games. The cityscape-at-night on one page reminds me of various other cityscapes, including the Casino Night zone from Sonic Heroes, the underside of ARK from Sonic Adventure 2, and to a certain extent the Stardust Speedway from Sonic CD. Apparently when Ian wrote this he not only used a Sega Genesis but also a Cuisinart.

This is another side-scroller story. The characters move from one point to the other because the story needs them to do so. And at several points along the way, we’re reminded that it doesn’t have to make sense. Sonic gets trapped by an electrical field, but is soon free of it. Sonic confronts his non-swimmer status, but holding hands with Sally should be enough. I’ll admit it would probably take his breath away, but it’s hardly a substitute for swimming lessons.

The most interesting thing about the story are the toss-offs where a character has a déjà vu moment (the “limestone quarry” scene on page [2] “it’ll be okay” scene on page [11]). It doesn’t exactly count as subverting the story, but it’s not a very satisfying way to call this reality into question. At least in “Cause and Effect,” the classic “Star Trek: The Next Generation” ep where the Enterprise is caught in a temporal causality loop, the Enterprise crew members honestly and gradually came to the realization that they were déjà vu-ing their lives away. Here, we get heavy-handed dialog droppings in place of actual insight. And speaking of things Trekkish, J. J. Abrams used the Guy Trapped In A Water Main Bit in the 2009 Star Trek movie, inflicting the humiliation on Mr. Scott. But Sonic and this story are ready to press onward, even if there’s no compelling reason to do so other than the relentless pursuit of Eggman. Just as in any other side-scroller. Head Score: 6.

EYE: Once again, we get the wind-up by Pat Spaziante and the pitch by Tracy Yardley!, pencil-wise. But is it just me, or does Spaziante’s influence start wearing off before this story is even over? I sensed it right about the time Antoine rained on Eggman’s parade, particularly in the Sally modeling. I happen to know that in the next installment, Yardley! is back to flying solo. It’s as if the influence of the Robotnik wonder weapon from two issues ago is starting to wear off. That’s the best spin I can put on it, anyway. Eye Score: 9.

HEART: Back in the “Mobius 25 Years Later 2.0” arc (S166-167), I had my doubts about the ending where Sonic and Sally attempt to reweave a past that was denied them and which they manage to remember if only to a limited degree. To be perfectly honest, I WANTED to see these two get back together and was just plain glad for the excuse. Here, Ian is laying it on particularly thick and it doesn’t work as well.

There’s something heavy-handed about how everyone’s memory seems to be coming back to them, if only in bits and fragments. Part of the problem is the fact that in a side-scroller story there’s no stopping allowed for introspection; that will come later when Sonic gets into more RPG-type games and the budget can afford some cut scenes. For now, they say things that would demand that the action come to a dead stop and someone (I nominate Sally) start asking the tough questions about what’s going on or simply say “NO! This is WRONG!” instead of giving us a limp “It doesn’t feel right.” But aside from dropping bread crumbs for the readers’ benefit, nobody seems curious enough to follow any course other than that dictated by the game. Or story. Or whatever.

There are still two more installments to go before this story arc wears off and we resume what was started in S225. At least, that’s what it feels like from here. Heart Score: 5.

Sonic Spin: This time around, the buzz is about Pat Spaziante. No mention of whether his effects wore off before the comic ended, and no mention that his services were not required for S228.

Fan Art: Janie gives us old school Sonic and Robotnik, Brittany is quick on the draw with Sonic vs. Super-Sized Silver Sonic, and “awesome envelope art” is right; thanks Kade and Evangeline.

Fan Funnies: the joke here by Sami, aka Ann-Chovi at deviantArt, is that the first time this comic featured a Sally death cheat in the Endgame arc, the “cause of death” was falling from a great height. It’s the same fate that befell Gaston in Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” and the Queen/Witch in “Snow White.” I say this because the newbs who haven’t read Endgame won’t get it otherwise. If you want a better look at Sal, and other art by Ann-Chovi, go to http://ann-chovi.deviantart.com/.

Off Panel: Change “I’m dead!” to “I’ll sue!” and you’ve got a better joke.

Sonic-Grams: Devin’s question as to what happened in S225 gets answered with other questions, which is seriously impolite. Tobias affirms his fan love for the comic and takes the roundabout way to tell Editorial “Don’t screw around with the continuity, please.” “Resolution is coming,” we are told. Why does that not make me feel better? Brianne asks how the four Brides in the Journey To The East arc earned the title (Editorial isn’t saying), asks if Conquering Storm will be back (yes, in a flashback in Sonic Universe 31, but you didn’t hear it from Editorial), and whether Megan Acorn (aka Mrs. Elias Acorn) will be back (apparently, she will). And Patrick writes to ask what Genesis is all about, anyway. Guess they needed some filler for the Sonic-Grams; he asks about Sonic: Genesis and we’re halfway through the freakin’ arc already!