Sonic Universe #33 (December 2011)

Tracy Yardley!/Hunzeker cover: I’m trying hard not to think of the “Family Guy” ep where Peter obsesses over the song “Surfin’ Bird” by The Trashmen. But it’s kind of hard when you’re old enough to remember when that song first came around and implanted itself in your brain. Anyway, the Babylon Rogues demonstrate that, for the next four issues, “bird” is indeed the word.

“Babylon Rising Part 1: Remembrance”

Story: Tracy Yardley!; Art: Tracy Yardley!; Ink: Jim Amash; Color: Steve Downer; Lettering: Phil Felix; Editor: Paul Kaminski; Editor-in-Chief: Victor Gorelick; Tomb Raider: Mike Pellerito; Sega Licensing rep: Cindy Chau.

The Babylon Rogues make their entrance like the starting line-up of an N.B.A. team. The venue: the repository of the key to Babylon Garden, which I still think makes a good name for a Persian restaurant. Fortunately for this expedition, Wave can read “ancient Babylonian” as well as function as the team fix-it. But enough chatter: time for a flashback.

It seems that back before they went indie, Jet had a mostly one-sided conversation with the 15^th Grand Battle Kukku who’s anticipating finding the Babylon Garden as a prelude to conquering the world. Back then, Jet used it as an excuse to drop out of the Armada. Kukku the 15^th then mentions something about the brig, but Jet cuts the flashback short at that point.

It also appears that, in addition to her mechanical and linguistic skills, Wave also serves up a mean bowl of exposition. In this case, she admits that the Garden was lost way back when and “no one knows for sure” what it even was. The available choices are a) treasure trove, b) fortress and c) wonder weapon. Anyone who’s played Sonic Riders will tell you that it’s d) none of the above, but they’ve got 4 issues to fill so let’s just play along.

Jet makes a grab at the glowing cube which happens to turn on the “Babylonian Energy Signature” transmitter. That gets noticed by both the 15^th Battle Kukku and his comic relief science officer, Dr. Fukurakov. It also gets noticed in New Mobotropolis by Rotor, who’s looking aged, tired and/or bored out of his mind. Or maybe it’s just because he appears in a one-page interlude which brings nothing to the story except a reminder that this ISN’T the headline comic.

Back at the treasure chamber, we don’t get any Indiana Jones traps or giant boulders. We DO get the arrival of Angelus, a giant, purple, Greek-named, scimitar-wielding guardian genie. Wave then plays spoilsport by noticing that Angelus is a hologram since he’s being projected into the room. The fact that the scimitar can actually do some damage Wave attributes to “force field enhancement” which sounds like the content of an Internet pop-up ad. This causes her to do some low-level geeking out until she’s asked to do something constructive, such as figuring out a way to shut him down. Her idea is very low-tech: smash the projectors. This is easier said than done, actually. It takes a while, but they finally manage it. And what do they do for an encore? They provide us with another flashback and a wall of words from the birds. “Or have you forgotten the path we started on together?” Jet asks, which is a cue for some exposition if I ever saw one.

Back in “The Past,” the Rogues demonstrate their roguishness by ripping off the Armada’s airship. It must’ve seemed like a good idea at the time, since they’d just busted out of the brig. Jet’s crime, as we’ve already seen, was insubordination. Wave’s crime was taking it upon herself to modify the engines. Storm was doing time for punching out an officer; big surprise. Still in mid-flashback, Jet launches into a huge lump of wordage, only to be interrupted by “the winged wunderkind, the heir to the air,” Speedy the 16^th Battle Kukku. After Speedy and Jet butt heads and word balloons for a page, the Rogues’ exit is spoiled as Speedy makes a pathetically lame plea to come along.

Back in the present, the Rogues finally get around to noticing that they’ve been locked in. Since this is a comic book, they use brute force to break out. Wave, however, notices that “the structural integrity of the tunnel is rapidly deteriorating.” Translation: run away faster. They avoid being turned into birdseed in the best Indiana Jones fashion. However, once outside they find themselves facing Speedy, his posse, and a text box over nine lines long. Out of the frying pan and into the birdbath.

HEAD: Over at the prime Sonic comic, they’ve been recycling material from some of the old Sonic games with predictable results: the stories tended to be on the dull side until more attention was paid to the actors (Sonic and Sally). This story is heading into the same territory, though Heaven knows Tracy Yardley!, in what I believe to be his writing debut, is trying to make the Rogues and the rest of the flock into distinct and interesting individuals. The distinct part is easy.

It’s not the easiest job trying to make the Rogues into compelling characters; never mind the Battle Kukkus, whose potential was pretty much milked during the Trouble In Paradise arc. I admit that I’ve not played Sonic Riders so I don’t know how closely the Rogue personalities here track with their game counterparts. And their personality traits here are painfully obvious: Jet as the Leader; Hawk as Muscle, and Wave as Whatever Else The Script Needs Her To Be. Why else make her, not only the Rogue tech wizard, but also the resident expert on Babylonian language and keeper of the Babylon Garden legend?

While this does allow for a certain economy of storytelling, it undercuts it for the same reason: by pre-assigning character traits this broadly you know who’s supposed to do what. That means no guesswork, and not much spontaneity, either. I get the feeling that a lot of this story arc will be on autopilot.

There was one interesting development. Over in the main Sonic comic, there’s been two-track plotting when it comes to tech versus magic. We have both Robotnik representing science, and Naugus providing the mumbo-jumbo. In this story, however, the mumbo-jumbo factor was teased by Angelus the genie before it’s revealed that he’s a hopped-up hologram that’s semi-easily dispelled.

The Rogues also do a lot more running off of their mouths than they do riding of their boards. They do that as well, but if letterer Phil Felix got paid by the word, this comic represents a pretty good payday. There are some pages that are heavy on the action with few or no speech balloons, but the very verbose flashbacks more than make up for it.

So how much story is there here? At this point, there’s not much story but tons of flashback. The boosting of the key cube to Babylon Garden is merely the McGuffin, the plot device that keeps things moving and sets up developments which, in turn, set up further patrols into flashback country.

As of the end of this installment, The Rogues have the key and Speedy has shown up to complicate matters. As was the case with Scourge in the Inside Job story arc, the reader ends up backing the Rogues by default. They’re not the heroes in the classic definition of plot. Head Score: 7.

EYE: Kudos to Tracy for covering both the artistic chores and slinging the ink (writing). I haven’t seen that kind of a double threat since the days of Ken Penders. Artistically, he’s at the top of his game, though I can see how it was easy for him to accommodate some of the larger word balloons: as the writer, he knew what was coming. Eye Score: 9.

HEART: Again, the reader is left with few characters with which to sympathize, except for the Rogues and then by default. This is where veterans of Sonic Riders have the upper hand if Tracy sticks to the outline of the script. In the game (Avast: here be spoilers!) they discover that the cube is nothing more than the ignition key for a flying carpet. That’s all; no treasure, no wonder weapon. That would cheese off everybody, Battle Kukkus and Rogues alike. It would also level the emotional playing field for everybody to get shafted. That, in turn, would justify what is shaping up to be a story arc with a really low Heart factor. Most of THAT action is happening over in the main Sonic comic. Heart Score: 4.

Fan Art: It’s a Scourge-fest, courtesy of Sydney, Meagan and Matthew.

Fan Funnies: And the Scourge-fest continues as Samantha lets everyone know that the gravity business in Inside Job was a royal pain.

Off-Panel: Ian finally gets a word in in this issue, with an assist by Jonathan Gray. Angelus gets shunted into the Retired Genie Character green room. Occupants: Shahra and Erazor Djinn from “Sonic and the Secret Rings,” and the nameless no-goodnik from S115’s “Meanie In A Bottle.”

Fan Mail: only two letters, because Paul Kaminski’s “Sonic Spin” takes up almost half the page. Robert gushes about the Inside Job arc. Emily asks about the Moebian King Acorn, and Smalls. She also asks about Sonic the Werehog getting a story arc (I wouldn’t complain if it were as funny as the video short featuring the shutterbug ghosts and the cute ghost babe), and shows some love to Sonic.

Sonic Spin: Paul Kaminski flogs the incoming… excuse me, upcoming “Sonic Super Special” 2.0. I saw the full-page ad, which appears to be an order form for the first issue rather than a subscription form. Apparently they don’t know when issue #2 will be out, or maybe even if. That’s the comic book biz.