#14 [July 1998] Spaz/Penders cover: Once again, the title character will only be putting in a two-page appearance in his own book, so we end up with Knuckles on a circus poster. I wonder if Knuckles enjoyed being a carnival attraction as much as Ken Penders enjoys doing comic cons. Julie-Su is seen loading up some high tech weaponry as she prepares to back up Remington. In the midground are Renfield and someone who looks like a reject from the Rodent Wrestling Federation. I don't know what the deal is with the character in the lead car of the red roller coaster, but I'm sure it's one of Spaz's little in-jokes. A nice cover design overall, and at least they didn't go too far overboard with the jade green highlights. Credits page: Been there, done that. Literally. "Born of the most noble..." page: I actually bothered to read the text this time around, having utterly given up on trying to see the illustration. Frankly, I'm sorry I did. Not that I didn't appreciate a clarifying point (which I will get to in time), but I DIDN'T appreciate the poor quality of the writing. The middle paragraph, which is in reality one REALLY long sentence, needed a rewrite to smoothe out the awkward phrasing at the end ("...and stop the ones responsible" should have read "and to stop the ones responsible" to retain the sense of the verbs that preceeded it). Worse, the last sentence of the last paragraph literally ends in the middle: "The Chaotix...are suffering dearly for their careless..." That should have been either "carelessness" or "careless behavior" or something. This page does serve a useful purpose in the context of this being a serial publication, and it IS a time-honored way of bringing new readers up to speed, but the readers shouldn't have to put up with careless... "The Chaotix Caper: Part Two" "A Tenuous Grip On Reality" Story: Ken Penders; Art: Manny Galan; Ink: Andrew Pepoy; Color: Barry Grossman; Lettering: Vickie Williams; Editorial: G-Force. Last time we were here, Charmy was freaking out big time. I mention this because that introduces a note of ambiguity with regard to the following. Is it memory or hallucination? Is it a little of both? Is it foreshadowing of another development in another story? Guess we'll find out sooner or later. We start with a POV sequence of Charmy's folks and little sister apparently taking a far greater interest in Charmy's impending "acknowledgement ceremony" than he is himself. I guess it's the same thing as an investiture. And I guess Mobian bees differ from their Earth counterparts in that they believe in male succession and not in having a single Queen who calls the shots; compare this with the matriarchal set-up among the Fire Ants ("Sins of the Fathers," Knuckles #2). The Charmer registers his displeasure at the prospect of being acknowledged (or at least at the thought of wearing such tacky jewelry) and runs away during the ensuing family meltdown. After bumbling into one of the family retainers who looks like he's been nipping at the pollen... Charmy's freakout segues back to the Emergency Room of the hospital. The doctor orders "a complete transfusion...immediately, if not sooner." I would have expected the echidna doc to have ordered the procedure "stat" which would have given Freddie a chance to jump in with a box and to translate. The doc then gives a preliminary report to Julie-Su and Remington who then return to the scene of the crime. Back at HappyLand, we learn that Downtown Ebony Hare is the one who's been supplying Renfield with the LSD-laced chili dog sauce for his concession stand and that he thinks Renfield is being too generous with it. Renfield tries to reassert control by ushering in Ripper, the RWF reject we last saw on the cover. He may look impressive but Blackjack is able to deck him with one bare-knuckled punch. Which probably explains why he's a REJECT from the RWF. While Downtown begins exerting a measure of quality control over HappyLand's chili dogs, we return to Charmy's freak-out. He leaves the castle grounds and his girlfriend Safron behind. It's a great picture of her done in the best girl manga style. Charmy, however, simply writes her off as a "nudge." Which is Yiddish for someone who nags. Between his off-hand opinion of Safron and his making eyes at Harry in the previous issue, I'm more confused about Charmy's sexual orientation than ever. Speaking of male bonding, after a mid-air exposition featuring the now recently-departed Mello, Charmy runs/flies away to the Floating Island where he meets up with Mighty... Who's just now coming out of HIS coma. As he does so, the nurse pages the doctor. Someone, however, has performed an emergency asteriskectomy so Dr. Justin's explanatory box is no longer attached to the echidna doc's word balloon. He heads down to the ER and finds Mighty doing a clean-and-jerk with the hospital bed while the nurse is still in it. Sorry, you deves, it's not what you think. Back at HappyLand, Downtown switches Renfield over to Customer Relations when Julie-Su and Remington show up. The rat, whom Remington has never seen but whose mug shot was supposed to have been part of the Forgotten Tribe arc, meets with the two and starts tap-dancing around the truth like Fred Astaire on crack. Meanwhile, Downtown is thinking about downsizing the organization, starting with Renfield. In the last issue, I was genuinely puzzled as to what was catching up to Knuckles out there in the Badlands. The only clues we were given were "lights" and "noise." At first I thought it might be a souped-up sandworm ("Rites of Passage" miniseries #2). Then we were told at the beginning of this issue that it was "a mysterious group." Now, from Haven, we see that it is really a group of...biker bears? I was actually kind of disappointed that the threat should turn out to be something so prosaic. The solution to the problem, however, is anything but: Knuckles pirhouettes like crazy and does to the bikers what Sonic did to Mount Burning-Top in "Arsenal of the Iron King" (Sonic #60). Sabre frets about Knuckles' new-found abilities, while Locke expects Archimedes to add "Show Knuckles how to harness his developing powers" to his To-Do List. But in a significant off-hand remark, Sabre suggests that it's time Locke stopped enjoying the benefits of the Deadbeat Dads Club (i.e., Haven) and take some responsibility for the son he more or less abandoned like about six years before. It won't happen in the next issue, though the blurb is (of course) deliberately vague on that point. It'll be interesting to see the reunion when it does happen since Knuckles still thinks his Dad became toast the last time he saw him ("Fathers and Sons," Super Sonic v. Hyper Knuckles special). Back in the ER, it's Vector's turn to come to. The good news is, he has an appetite. The bad news is, the nurse takes one look at his bridgework and starts thinking about a career change. Charmy, meanwhile, is still out of it. Speaking of career changes, Harry's old boss, General Buzzcut, stops by for a chat. The Old Man doesn't like to see the troops "getting fat, stupid, and happy." I guess he prefers lean, cunning, and miserable. That means he graduated from the same management school as the pointy-haired boss in "Dilbert." Harry manages to get off a GREAT parting shot about Buzzcut without lapsing into Army Creole. Ken DOES have to keep the script up to Code. Once Buzzcut splits, Julie-Su and Remington show up. It's apparently well-known that cab drivers know all about who deals with illegal substances and where they hang out. So now we get The Sting (and I don't mean Charmy): Julie-Su is sent into Downtown's HQ, apparently to see if she can open up an LSD franchise. Remington is supposed to be keeping surveillance, and presumably she's wearing a wire that conveniently malfunctions. Downtown (who may or may not have recognized her from the monitor in Renfield's office) decides to do a replay of Sonic #47 with Julie-Su in the Princess Sally role. This installment was a little muddled. As I said, there was a certain ambiguity about Charmy and whether he was flashing back or merely hallucinating--I didn't know how seriously to take all that "acknowledgement" stuff. The action flowed along well enough until Buzzcut got out of the cab; after that, the pacing accelerated quite a bit giving the story a forced feel. It was as if they wanted to get Julie-Su up to and off the roof as soon as possible. It might have worked better (had a better sense of timing) if the action had been carried on over a few more pages, but this wouldn't be the first time that Ken Penders, as he likes to put it, had more story to tell than pages on which to tell it. Still, it'll be interesting to see how Julie-Su DOES get out of this one. Manny's artwork hasn't lost a step, though I have to wonder if he MEANT for the bee-butler in the beginning flashback to look like he was drunk and/or goofy. And if Charmy's little freakout is a true flashback and the facts haven't been distorted by his having ingested whatever was in the special sauce, we can see another Ken Penders Theme beginning to coalesce. In addition to Secrecy and Deception (Max and Geoff are the prime examples of this trait, but there are other instances, such as Uncle Chuck's failure to tell Sonic about his parents), we can see that Ken has a fondness for the theme of Duty and Responsibility. It formed a large part of the Forgotten Tribe arc, with Athair having to choose between guiding the tribe and being at his mother's bedside, and Knuckles taking up the task of leading the Tribe after Athair departs. Now we find Charmy wanting to abdicate the responsibility of being Crown Prince of the Bees (or whatever his title is). Couple of interesting ads: another NiGHTS miniseries appears to be in the works but the covers are also in the works so they had nothing definitive for the ad. Reminds me of the old saying: "Never sell the bearskin until you've caught the bear." And the cover for the Sonic Kids back issue does NOT show the transparent Sonic, Sally and Tails heads. I don't know why I even bother trying to read these tea leaves. Fistful of Letters: promos for Kunckles #15 and Sonic #61. Knuckles looks like he arrives back in town in order to remind everyone whose comic this is. As for Sonic, don't know who the Bunnie-like babe is on the cover art--it doesn't look like Barby Koala (who herself didn't look like a koala anyway). And there's no mention of the two backstories that are supposed to be in that issue as well (Naugus returns, Max and Geoffrey plot something or other). And the new NiGHTS series with Karl Bollers writing and Spaz and Sam Maxwell doing the artwork (my local newsstand, for the record, still features issue #3 of the previous NiGHTS miniseries). And a more timely note about the Big Apple Comic Con on June 6th (since when has "June 6th" been trademarked?). So Ken's appearance at Motor City May 15-17 will have gone unadvertised. Fan Art: Noelle "T2" Carballo does a nice combo of Tails and Vector, showing heavy Spaziante influence. The actual letters: Knuckles is supposed to be 15 years old, and Charmy gets something nice said about him just before he's written out of the series. Maybe. And if Fox Kids programming is going to advertise in this comic, it's just as well that they advertise a show with SOME connection to Sonic, however tenuous (the connection: Art Mawhinney is one of the storyboard artists for "Life With Louie").