Sonic #78 [Jan 2K] Spaz/Harvo/Ray cover: Told you it was getting crowded in Knothole. This cover reminds me of the superb cover for K16, and this cover also demonstrates how NOT to do it. The disorganized mob scene here feels claustrophobic, especially with no clear scale among the participants: Tails is dwarfed by Bunnie, who's dwarfed by Geoffrey St. John. With no compensatory depth in the picture plane, the effect is muddled. Besides, the poses and expressions look random and disjointed. This is especially true of Sally, who appears to be one movement away from making an obscene gesture -- an impression that the expression on her face does nothing to soften. The Sonic motif is interesting in itself but the rest of the composition leaves something to be desired. "Changes" Story: Karl Bollers; Art: James Fry; Ink: Andrew Pepoy; Lettering: Jeff Powell; Color: Frank Gagliardo; Editorial: G- Force. The Bollers Opening Gambit is reduced somewhat to 2.5 pages from the usual 3. The action: Sonic's being knighted by King Max. Somehow, given what Sonic's been through, this seems a little...off. I'm reminded of something that happen a number of years ago, maybe close to the Bicentennial. Some member of Congress with too much time on his hands proposed creating a special six-star general's rank to be bestowed posthumously on George Washington so that he'd be the highest ranking military figure in United States history in addition to being the country's first President. A critic of the proposal stated, rather sensibly I thought, that "it would be like nominating Jesus Christ to be pope." I mean, it's nice that Max is willing to let bygones be bygones, but it seems kind weird! Helping to officiate are the Royal teens, Elias and Sally. Sally's the one wearing an outfit that looks more Egyptian than Mobian. She bestows upon Sonic a "Metal of Honor." OK, I know grammar and spelling flames are cheap ways to get laughs and just not worth the effort. And I know that nobody at Archie has ever really owned up to WHOSE responsibility it is exactly to fix these errors (the writer? the inker? the letterer? the printer?). But I feel constrained to ask: WHAT THE FREAK IS IT GONNA TAKE FOR YOU PEOPLE TO STOP MAKING THESE BONEHEAD MISTAKES? RANDOM DRUG TESTING? "Metal of Honor." Good grief! BTW, it occurred to me that this just might be Karl's idea of a joke. But I seriously doubt it because it isn't funny. Sorry, I had to get that off my chest as Sonic was getting the "Medal of Honor" on his. Max then announces that Knothole has been upgraded from hideaway to "Kingdom" which probably makes him head of a government-in-exile. He then adds that the Knothole Freedom Fighters, despite his earlier directive in "Saving Nate Morgan" (S70), have been reactivated. At least Rotor will be glad to know he still has a job if and when he ever comes back. Speaking of coming back, Eggbotnik seems to have gotten over his computer virus at the cost of dumping all his old data. Goes to show you, Doc, there are two kinds of computer users: those who back up their files and those who wish that they had. "I lack sufficient evidence, but strongly suspect that Sonic had something to do with the sabotage." With that kind of reasoning skill, he could get himself appointed Special Prosecutor. He then threatens to take action against the Blue Blur, and in case anyone is tempted to ask "You and what army?" we're reminded of the "millions of roboticized Mobians" under his control. We also discovered that Justin the Art Director Gabrie has decided to strip the annoying explanatory boxes from the pages and to lump all the references together in the Sonic-Grams section. Actually, Fred, they're technically known as "Endnotes" and not "Footnotes" when you bunch them up at the end of the book that way, but never mind; it IS an improvement. We then pan from the sight of Uncle Chuck amongst the dormant robotic hoard to Sonic thinking about Uncle Chuck. We learn that Sonic's more than a little reluctant to pack away Uncle Chuck's things to make room for Nate Morgan, having once again lost the one who was most like a father to him. Both Jules and Bernie assure Sonic that they're there for him. We then cut from the Hedgehog family to the Royal Family. Queen Alicia, according to the latest party line, has recovered physically but has yet to regain consciousness. This time it's Sally and Elias's turn to encourage their father not to lose hope. As the Royals take their leave, Karl relies on three text boxes to tell us that they just missed Alicia's moving her hand in the tank. Quick Cross-Cultural Lesson: There's a LOT more to Japanese comics (or manga) than guys with heavy eyebrows, huge-eyed leggy females, and mecha battle droids. The one man responsible for the development of comics as an art form in Japan was Osamu Tezuka (1926-1988). While still a med student in postwar Japan he produced his first major work, "Shintakarajima" ("New Treasure Island"). One of the most striking things about it was its length: it was 200 pages long (nowadays, many Japanese comic weeklies are as thick as phone books). The layout looked more like scenes from a storyboard [Tezuka admitted to being a frustrated animator]. I thought of all this as I read Bollers's text, and imagined Tezuka's relying on a wordless three-panel close-up of the Queen's hand moving to convey the action without having to rely on all that prose about drums. For more information about manga, check out Fred Schodt's definitive treatment of the subject. Interlude Two; yeah, like I've got anything to say about THAT. While the refugee Mobians set up a tent city in Knothole, Mina (whom Sonic rescued two issues back) meets up with Rosie. Apparently Rosie recognizes that Mina is without a family of her own and so introduces her to some kindred spirits: three children who lost their parents in the takeover. Rosie then makes herself scarce, and Mina's depression is lifted by having acquired an adopted family. It's a different story with Antoine who commiserates with Bunnie over the fact that his father is now a robotic renegade. As what's left of the Freedom Fighters get together, they're joined by what's left of Geoffrey St. John's commandoes (having lost Valdez three issues back, a fact that doesn't come up in conversation, though Espio puts in a continuity-shattering appearance). The mephitic martinet, rather improbably dressed in a tuxedo, makes peace with Sonic in a scene that's a bit more plausible than the one in "Brave New World." Overseeing all this from a distance is Elias. He's still not interested in the throne, but what DOES grab his attention is an overheard conversation between King Max and Dr. Quack. Seems that the Queen has "developed a dependency on the freezing temperatures within the cryotube." Wrong comic book, Doc, you're thinking of Mr. Freeze. If she were to be removed from the tube, he goes on to say, "she would awaken but would perish soon thereafter." Gee, you think they figured that out BEFORE they managed to get her out of the skin-tight thermal suit on display in "A Day In The Life" (S69) and into the ballroom gown on Page 8? And consider that before THAT, she was buck nekkid in the tube while she was in Haven (viz. "The Many Facets Of The Truth," K21). There were a lot of chances to drop the ball artistically when the story shifted from Galan to Butler to Fry, and Archie seems to have let things slide at every opportunity. But hey, continuity, loose or otherwise, never has been one of the comic's strong points. Anyway, to top it all off, Elias learns to his horror that the equipment will give out in a week...and it's a month between issues! Cut back to Eggbotnik's where he's up to his eyes in code. And on a nearby video wall there's an image of South America with the word "CHAOS" splashed across it. Be afraid: the Sonic Adventure Adaptation is around the corner. HEAD: Karl Bollers has proved that he can do a story that's not a succession of action sequences one after the other. And considering how unsuccessful the action story "A Friend In Deed" (S66) was, maybe that's just as well. But "Changes" is a good interlude piece; too bad it has to be a lead-in for a commercial. Head Score: 7. EYE: I can only assume that this is Bunnie 2.0 on display; Special #11 is still in the mail, though I DID find a store in town that had a couple issues of Knuckles #29 still in the rack! And I have no quibble with the look of the story, except to wonder why Sally's outfit in the beginning looks like something that was pulled out of King Tut's tomb. Eye Score: 8. HEART: OK, we know that Karl Bollers can do both an action story and a character-driven story. Now, is it really so hard for the creatives to come up with a story that manages to incorporate BOTH elements instead of treating them as mutually exclusive? The Mina sequence is a reminder of what brought the Freedom Fighters together as a unit in the first place: deprived of their real families, Mina and the kids had to forge a new family relationship, however temporary. And it had the immediate effect of pulling Mina out of her own funk by being of service to others in the same boat. Not a bad piece of psychology there. The scene with Sonic and his folks talking about Uncle Chuck on page 7, however, was undercut by Fry's restrained treatment of Sonic. Note that Sonic maintains the EXACT SAME POSTURE throughout the whole sequence; he just stands there with his arms hanging down. He never even sits down, much less buries his head in his hands. Sega must still be keeping a pretty tight hold on the reins, and this serves to blunt the full impact of the sequence. Heart Score: 7, and it could so easily have been higher. "Tales Of The Great War: Part 6" "What Really Happened" Story: Ken Penders; Art: Christ Allan; Ink: Jim Amash; Lettering: Jeff Powell; Color: Frank Gagliardo; Editorial: G- Force Bernie's account of the Great War has proved to be so scary that Jeremiah is seriously off-model, but she continues: Chuck suggests using the Roboticizer to save what's left of Jules's life, not knowing that Julian had sabotaged it. I'm sure it must have been established SOMEWHERE that this had happened, since nobody present couldn't have known about the sabotage at the time. Otherwise we're talking yet one more continuity glitch. Like I said, nobody in editorial has exactly been riding shotgun on these developments. In any case, Jules was eventually roboticized. Julian, meanwhile, ignores the figure in the foreground of the second panel on page [4] and watches the outcome of a single combat duel between King Max and an Overlander Overlord. This, apparently, was how the Great War was eventually decided, with Amadeus making a save to prevent outside interference. Of all the scenarios to end the Great War, King Max in single combat with an Overlander never occurred to me. Personally I'd have gone with a different model: continued expenditure by the Overlanders of personnel and capital in a no-gain situation against an enemy who could always melt back into the forest and regroup no matter what you threw at them, coupled with eroding support on the home front for the original objectives of this military adventure (whatever THEY were) led the Overlanders to look for an "honorable" endgame. Yeah, right, like THAT would ever happen! Ken neatly spells out Julian's options before Ken serves up the eventual outcome: "None of the above." Just then, Chuck turns in his now-obsolete Sega Saturn unit (or whatever it looks like) and resigns. Roboticizing his brother Jules was too much for him. HEAD: Like I said, my own ideas for ending the Great War are just that, my own. The story itself moves well and makes sense. At this point, that will do. Head Score: 8. EYE: Aside from the horrid modeling of Jeremiah and the fact that Chris Allan is still drawing Overlanders with 5 digits on each hand (as opposed to Ken specifying they're supposed to have only 4), the artwork is good. Funny, I always thought that the Overlanders had a height advantage over the Mobians. Eye Score: 7. HEART: In the story's original incarnation, the focus was on Jules's being roboticized. Here, that plot exists side-by-side with Julian's developing plot to take over the kingdom. It works, but could just as easily have been replaced by a couple pages of Bernie and Charles trying to deal with Jules in his new condition. Still, I guess this story DOES manage to combine action and character elements without either getting too much in the way. See, it IS possible! Heart Score: 9. Off-Panel: A rerun? This was in S76, already! Either someone in management nixed the original strip, or else Gallagher, Manak and Amash didn't make deadline. Sonic-Grams: The Sonic Adventure adaptation starts next week, and through the good graces of Andrew Sautter of California I'll be ready. He sent me over six hours of SA game play on videotape, to bring me up to speed on the plot. And I need all the help I can get on the game front: if I tried playing it myself I'd still be trying to master it while everyone around me was worrying about the Y3K bug! So far I think SA has a VERY impressive creature in Chaos (I will say no more for the benefit of those just as clueless as myself), and I also think Big the Cat has some serious breakout potential if the writers know enough to focus on the character's simplicity and not mistake it for stupidity. Letters: I think Brandy Kat VanAusdeln, age 16, wants to audition for consort to Prince Elias, while over on the Fan Art page Jamie Dowdle demonstrates why there'll probably never be an Archie-Sonic crossover: Archie's been chasing skirts for so long that the sight of Sally not wearing a skirt (or anything else below the waist) will push the clean-cut kid from Riverdale over the brink into full-blown furry fandom. Someone who signs themselves "Fennec" gives us a post-puberty Tails while giving away an upcoming plot point in the SA adaptation, and Harvo the Atomic Monkey renders Sonic complete with his name in phonetic _katakana_ script (it's pronounced "so-ni-kku" in case you were wondering). "Atomic Monkey"?