Sonic Adventures #19 (Oct 2010)
     Yardley!/Hunzeker cover: Antoine hijacks the cover of this
installment of the Tails miniseries.  Flotation device courtesy
of Wade the Duck from the Jim Davis comic strip "U. S. Acres."


     "Trouble in Paradise: Part 3 [They couldn't come up with a
subtitle]"
     Story: Ian Flynn; Art: Tracy Yardley!; Ink: Jim Amash;
Color: Jason Jensen; Lettering: Phil Felix; Editor: Paul
Kaminski; Managing Editor: Mike Pellerito; Editor-in-Chief:
Victor Gorelisk; Sega Licensing reps: Cindy Chau and Jerry Chu

     Anybody who ever wished that Antoine would go take a flying
leap gets their wish in the opening splash page.  Bunnie,
standing in the doorway, notes Antoine's fate (though it's a
secret to us despite the spoiler cover) and then gets back into
character as she chews out the tail feathers of the Kukkus while
Speedy looks on.  Bunnie then exits while Speedy remains
unimpressed.
     Meanwhile, Antoine has indeed made a landing on the Sea Fox
as the fox at the controls complains of the effects of a 32 feet
per second per second landing, even if modified by the laws of
Cartoon Physics.  Ant brings Tails up to speed on the plot, and
Tails brings Antoine up to speed on T-Pup.  Parking the Sea Fox
under a cliff, they head for the island's interior to look for
the tunnel into the base.  We then get a page worth of Antoine
ragging on Tails and making with the exposition like crazy until
T-Pup locates the cave entrance.
     And now, here's the mad scientist who was alluded to in the
previous issue: Dr. Fukurokov.  Turns out what made him mad is
that everybody has trouble remembering his name, let alone
pronouncing it correctly.  While the Doc rants on about this
state of affairs, Speedy uses the Doc's computer and finds
Bunnie's Facebook page, where her Status is listed as "Freedom
Fighter."  Busted!
     Back below ground, Tails and Antoine come upon a couple
Kukkus who helpfully burst into conversation about dynamiting the
floor and leading into the under-tunnel that heads back to the
base.  Without even a "Thanks for the directions!" our heroes
land on the Kukkus and do the demolition themselves, only to run
into a dozen Kukkus in the aforementioned under-tunnel.  The
underground clash is no surprise to Speedy or his old man, but
the former tells Dr. Funnyname to keep working on his own pet
project.  The fight of 12 Kukkus against two Mobians and a bot
ends when Bunnie joins the party and ....
     Where am I?  Oh yeah, I was reading this comic and passed
out temporarily after running into a Wall of Words.  Honestly,
did page [15] HAVE to have so much dialogue?  Boiling it down to
the syrup of the story, Bunnie brings Ant a cutlass so he can be
more in his idiom, and she also brings out a flash drive with a
technical readout of the Death Star ... I mean, of the Kukku base
which resembles one of the tubs of the Eggman Armada from "Sonic
Heroes" only a little more bloated.
     The group fights and flights its way through to the room
where Dr. Fukurokov confronts them and gives them a chance to
screw up his name.  In retaliation he sics his battle mech on
them and they have to avoid a half-page flog of the comic by
freshly-minted Editor Paul Kaminski.  Bunnie goes after the mech
as the two of them engage in the fist bump to end all fist bumps. 
Bunnie loses that confrontation and only when the Doc gets the
final splash page with his invention that we find out it has a
name, too: the Mole Mech.  Guess what it can do with a name like
that?

     HEAD: This story still has a James Bond structure to it, but
seasoned with more comic book flavoring.  The Kukkus, for
example, are played for laughs rather than portrayed as anonymous
dress-alike soldiers who could actually do some damage.  How
Speedy and his old man could have accomplished ANYTHING with this
army of stooges is an open question.
     Bunnie still gets face time, but her character doesn't get
any further development.  She does get to talk.  A LOT!  She
chews out the Kukkus and Speedy while keeping up her Legion
facade, she echoes Antoine's earlier fawning over T-Pup, and
supplies exposition while acting like Princess Leia programming
R2-D2.  That's about as far as she gets aside from getting
clocked by the Mole Mech, which reminds me way too much of the
final scene from "The Incredibles."
     Antoine has his share of dialogue as well, with his accent
getting rubber most of the time.  He doesn't go the craven coward
route once he and Tails are underground, which would have been
his default characterization back in the SatAM Sonic day.  But he
does feel the need to let Tails know who the grown-up is in their
scene together.
     Despite the fact that this is allegedly Tails's story, the
kid doesn't come off like a Wesley Crusher (i.e., a male Mary
Sue).  He was in serious danger of becoming so in the first
installment before the action kicked in.  His aura of leadership
is, for the moment, believable.  However, Bunnie and Antoine have
brought a lot to this party themselves.  Ian manages to keep all
these plates spinning.
     And then there's T-Pup.  This robo-dog hasn't shown us any
new tricks in this issue, and I found myself wondering whether
he'll make it to the end of the arc in one piece.  Since he put
on the R2-D2 projection act, I found myself wondering whether Ian
would have him blasted to scrap metal ... but I'll save any
further musings for the Heart section.
     In the villain department, Kukku the 15th is offstage for
this issue and Speedy (aka Kukku the 16th) does a lot of
exposition and he shoots menacing looks in Bunnie's direction on
a number of occasions.  The stand-out villain here, Dr.
Fukurokov, is a joke.   And an old joke at that.  Back in the
1960s, one of the enemies of secret agent Maxwell Smart in the
old Bond spoof TV series "Get Smart" was The Claw.  Played by
Leonard Strong as an Asian villain with a prosthetic left hand
(hence the name), he also spoke with a politically incorrect
Central Casting Oriental dialect.  Smart, who took out a patent
on clueless long before Michael Scott from "The Office" (and who
was in fact played by Steve Carell in the 2008 "Get Smart" movie)
had a running gag of calling The Claw according to his own
pronunciation, as in:

MAX: "So, we meet again, Craw."
CLAW: "No, no, it's not  Craw.'  It's CRAW!"

Here, Ian works hard to mind the same kind of comedic gold from
Fukurokov and comes up empty.  That's because he can't indulge in
the most obvious goof on the Doc's name, which would involve a
creative mispronunciation of the first four letters of his name. 
I'll let you figure that one out.
     There's a lot to like in this story if all you want is a
goofy spy spoof and general comic book action.  Ian does pay a
price for that, though; even for diehard Sonic and Tails fans,
it's hard to take the Mole Mech seriously no matter what kind of
first impression it makes.  The funny business has a way of
undercutting any sense of menace that might have found its way
into the story.  But I get the sense that the comic is turning
its back on the readers who might be into that sort of thing.  Oh
well, there's always fanfic.  Head Score: 8.
     EYE: Best image: Tails on the brink of going ballistic as
Antoine rides him.  Too bad Yardley! couldn't bring some of the
same intent to Fukurokov who's an off-the-rack Mad Scientist. 
The layouts help in those cases, but still, page [15] is a mess;
Ian tried to do too much on this page and Yardley! has to fight
for every square centimeter of space.  Eye Score: 9.
     HEART: This story was far more character-driven in the first
installment as Ian introduced the players as a prelude to the
action.  Given the change that's come over the arc as character
fades into the background and action takes over, the Heart factor
has faded as well.  About the only potential for any kind of
Heart moment would be if the Mole Mech did some serious damage to
T-Pup.
     "Sir, if any of my circuits or gears will help, I'll gladly
donate them."  C-3PO, from Star Wars
     Most of you should remember that sound bite: as the Rebel
Alliance celebrates blowing up the Death Star, Luke suddenly
remembers R2-D2 and sees what's left of him being lifted out of
his fighter.  That's when 3PO makes his offer.  Even for old
hands at that kind of space opera, there's a flickering moment of
doubt as to whether R2 will make it to the next shot.
     It's become clear that the franchise characters lead charmed
lives in this comic.  Take Bunnie herself.  She took a major
beating at the hands of the Iron Queen in S203's "Surprise
Visit."  But by S207's "Blackout" and her shmoozefest with Sally,
she doesn't look it, despite Antoine's reminding her that she's
supposed to be recuperating.  So really, if anything serious
happens to anyone before the end of this arc it's probably going
to happen to T-Pup.  Or it won't happen at all.  And if I were a
betting man, that's where I'd put my chips down.  Heart Score: 4.

     Sonic Spin: Paul Kaminski uses half a page to flog the
comics and, aside from stating the obvious (more Silver on the
way) says nothing in particular.  I trust he's a better editor
than he is a marketer.

     Off-Panel: FINALLY, a comic strip with a noticeable amount
of comic in it as Bunnie acts too much in character and ruins the
moment.  Except that we get a good laugh out of it.

     Fan Art: Tails drawings by Anton and Kerry, King Sonic by
Hudson, a cute group shot of Sonic, Sally and Tails by Kalaizah,
and ... OK, I give up, the "Sonic after hours" cover and the
"Italian friend" line make this a CIDU for me: a Comic I Don't
Understand.  If you know what's going on, I'm at
drazen@andrews.edu.

     Letters: Jared gets the short version about Maria, and is
told that the book is working up a Chao story.  Trevor is told
the embarrassing truth about The Sneak from S97's "My Secret
Identity," from the ill-starred year 2001, and Deenah wants to
see more Chris Thorndyke; I'm not touching that one.

     Thumbnails: Sonic auditions at Sea World, and Tails gets
framed by villains.