Knuckles #8 [Jan 1998]
     "The Gauntlet"; Dark Vengeance, part 2
     Story: Ken Penders; Art: Manny Galan; Ink: Andrew Pepoy;
Color: Barry Grossman; Lettering: Vickie Williams; Editorial: G-Force
     Once again we get a "head shot" opposite the credits on the
first page; this time it's Julie-Su with violet eyes and bionic
braids.  Very nice.
     And once again we get a splash page of pictures and text
fighting each other for space.  I'm not even going to bother.
     Knuckles' head is spinning (along with the rest of him) as he
assesses his past: "Things didn't matter as much when I thought I
was alone...."  Yeah, all he had to do was show up once in a while
and try to pound the snot out of a certain hedgehog.  His social
circle has now widened to include the Chaotix (well, a couple of
them, anyway), Archimedes, Julie-Su, his mom Lara-Le,
and...presumably the picture of his father, Locke, is there as a
distant memory; as far as I know, Knuckles still has no idea that
Locke is alive and has been keeping an eye on him from Haven;
certainly the OTHER Guardians he's met haven't spilled the beans. 
Anyway, once the exposition is out of the way we discover that
Enerjak is the reason Knuckles is doing the outer space boogie
above the surface of the Mobian moon.  Enerjak assures Knuckles
that he's "going to break you totally--completely--MERCILESSLY!" 
But also cleanly -- remember how Princess Sally "died" in "Endgame"? 
Knuckles takes a moment to remind Enerjak of the final score of
their last encounter; this honks off Enerjak who draws upon the
powers of Stan Lee and with a mighty FAAVHOOM...bombards Knuckles
with advertisements!  Talk about CRUEL!!
     Actually, Knuckles is taken from the Mobian moon to "under de
sea", but Knuckles is too busy holding his breath to burst into
song.  Still, there's a sadistically nice segue from the red-and-
beginning-to-turn-blue echidna's plight to the water cooler in
Kragok's tent.  There we learn that Enerjak may have "limitless
power" (his assessment, not mine) but rather limited knowledge of
the Knuckles continuity.  For he's gone and returned Julie-Su to
the Dark Legion, where Kragok has reinstated her.  Probably because
as near as I can tell she's the only babe the Dark Legion was able
to recruit.  Still, both Kragok and a Sgt. Rykor (who's in no
danger of EVER being mistaken for Jonathan Frakes) make it clear to
Julie-Su that she's on probation.
     Quick cut to Constable Remington's office where Lara-Le has
just made an awkward request of Remington: contact Knuckles' father
and her ex, Locke.  Looks like she either doesn't know about
Locke's retreat into the depths of Haven, or else she DOES know and
is doing to Knuckles what Uncle Chuck did to Sonic: she's
withholding the information from Knuckles that Locke is still among
the living.  To stall for time, Remington refers Lara-Le to the
"Find Your Name..." page ["Kevin & Kyle & Kelly Krumm" -- this
family is brought to you by the letter K] and the Fan Art page. 
Remington continues to avoid dealing with the request by having a
convenient flashback to his "predecessor, Holmes" complete with
violin mounted on the wall.  Yeah, I got the reference; why didn't
they just show on his door that his office was #221B and get it
over with?  Still, Remington successfully kills so much time that
the angle is dropped and we're forced to cut back to...
     Knuckles trying to swim to the surface but being pulled back
down by...a one-eyed kelp green tentacled echidna-eater.  OK, show
of hands, who's familiar with the song "One-Eyed One-Horned Flying
Purple People-Eater"?  GOTTA keep my cultural references more up-
to-date.  But while that's happening...
     Quick cut to Haven where Locke is just getting over his mind
meld with Hawking from the previous installment.  Colonel Klink
[WHEN is he gonna get a name!?] tells him the patient lived but is
prevented from saying much else about Hawking because some alarm or
other goes off and he and Locke have to rush off to address the
next crisis.  If you ask me, this Haven is beginning to look like
Hail.  Anyway, Locke and Klink look in on Julie-Su back amongst the
Legionnaires and guess that the D.L. is preparing to move against
Echidnaopolis.  Once they figure THAT out...
     Quick cut back to Knuckles who gives the O-EKGTE-E a punch in
the eye...not like Knuckles has to choose between more than one. 
He finally reaches the surface where he encounters someone way
uglier than Ariel.  Enerjak observes that Knuckles has yet to reach
his breaking point.  Maybe he WOULD if the Comic Code let him
torture Knuckles more convincingly.
     Anyway, quick cut to the Chaotix being held as Legion
prisoners.  Vector decides that his first impression about Julie-Su
was right and she's no good: "A fox is a fox, and my Daddy said
never to trust one."  Good thing for Tails' sake that Vector found
work in THIS comic.  Vector slips his bonds but he and the others
are sleep-gassed by Julie-Su.  Meanwhile, "at least 30,000 meters
above the surface of the Floating Island," the atmosphere is as
thin as Enerjak's patience with Knuckles.  When Knuckles continues
to hold out, Enerjak decided to demonstrate that Princess Sally
isn't the ONLY character who can fall from a great height.
     The next page, page 18 if you're following along, is quite
simply one of the most impressive single pages I've seen since the
Spaziante splash page of Sonic #43.  The composition, the diagonal
flow of Knuckles as he falls to his certain doom, is flawless. 
Only ONE little detail mars what is otherwise a true poster-quality
page: the use of the word "THEYRE" when the word "THERE" should
have been used instead.  I mean, c'mon!  "Theyre" (without an
apostrophe) isn't even an English WORD, fur cryin' out loud!  Ken
Penders wrote the script, Manny Galan did the pencil work, Andrew
Pepoy inked the page, Vickie Williams did the lettering, Justin
Gabrie is the editor...WHERE in the chain of command did someone
let THIS get by?
     Anyway, quick cut to Archimedes and Deo Volente who are
trapped inside some kind of sphere which in turn is sealed inside
some kind of high-tech ice chest or something which is then buried. 
Kragok exits and makes plans for the invasion.
     Meanwhile, Knuckles learns the truth of the old saying that
when you're falling 30,000 meters to your death the first 29,999
meters are easy -- it's that LAST one you gotta watch out for. 
Just as he's about to hit, though, Kragok realizes that if Knuckles
lands he still has a chance of recovering so long as Dr. Quack gets
him to a stasis unit in time.
     [Note: I've heard from at least one fan who thinks I should
finally lay off criticizing a certain recent 4-issue story arc. My
philosophy, however, to paraphrase Santayana, is that "Those who
forget  Endgame' are condemned to repeat it."  I therefore have NO
intention of ever letting Archie forget that they thrust that
misbegotten travesty upon us.]
     Since his boxing glove-like mittens prevent him from giving
Enerjak the finger (hey, Sonic got away with it in the anime!),
Knuckles responds to a last offer of clemency with a Bronx cheer. 
Enerjak then hits upon a clean death method that wasn't tried in
"Endgame" and basically takes Knuckles apart molecule by molecule. 
If Knuckles didn't have a case of transporter psychosis before....
     This is another high-class installment in the Knuckles series,
if a little too reliant on quick cuts to keep up the pacing, which
appears to be an old habit of Ken's.  This story also indulges
several other old habits of his: tendencies toward some bad
behavior and I'm not just talking about Enerjak.
     In a recent e-mail to Ken, I wondered out loud if he would
ever make greater use of the character of Rosie the way Karl
Bollers had done in "Running To Stand Still" (Sonic #54).  One of
the off-hand observations I made was that Rosie's openness and
simple wisdom were a welcome change from the secrecy, manipulation
and mistrust on display in the Knuckles comics.
     The more I've thought about it, though, the more I've come to
the conclusion that the themes of secrecy, manipulation and
mistrust are becoming regular motifs in Ken's work generally.  This
story features at least one of these undesirable characteristics on
almost every page: Enerjak seriously manipulating Knuckles, Locke
continuing his secret existence with the rest of the
deadbeats...er...Guardians, Remington aiding and abetting that
secrecy despite Lara-Le's pleadings, Kragok and Rykor's mistrust of
Julie-Su who herself isn't being honest with Kragok as to where her
allegiance truly lies, Vector's open mistrust of Julie-Su...you get
my drift.  Enerjak is working himself into a lather when there's a
much easier way to destroy Knuckles, Echidnaopolis and the whole
comic continuity: have everyone in the comic be absolutely honest
with everyone else for five minutes -- it'd bring echidna society
to its knees!  Knuckles may be the hero of this series but if he
picks up any of his associates' bad habits I'd think twice about
calling him a role model.  Ease up on the spy novels, Ken; that
whole mind set is starting to show up in your Sonic work.
     The usual: ads, letters, promos.  Green Gibbon appears yet
again in the letters page...c'mon, quit hoggin' it, willya?  And
the last line of the reply to Trevor Elvay's letter seems to have
dematerialized along with Knuckles himself.  Transporter Room: On
my mark, energize.