Sonic and Knuckles Special [Aug 1995] [Review date: Jan 2001] Yes, return with us now to those bygone days when the Sonic Specials were still in production and they only cost $2.00. This issue was a follow-up to Knuckles's introduction in S13's "This Island Hedgehog," and would herald the eventual arrival of the Knuckles comic (also demised). We've come so far and have so little to show for it.... Spaz/Harvo/Heroic Age cover: In a burst of wishful thinking, Knuckles is about to deliver a knock-out punch to Sonic while Robotnik looks on. As it is now Robotnik has been altered, Knuckles has been knocked out of his own comic and back onto his tail, and Sonic has been made over. At least he's still up and running. For now. "Panic In The Sky!" Story: Mike Kanterovich and Ken Penders; Art: Art Mawhinney (first half) and Dave Manak (second half); Ink: Rich Koslowski; Lettering: Mindy Eisman; Color: Barry Grossman; Editorial: Fulop, Gorelick and Goldwater. Skipping over the prologue page we find the Princess Sally Miniseries B-Team engaged in a beach volleyball tourney until the Floating Island passes overhead and generally causes everyone to act as if it were the mothership in "Independence Day." While Sally prepares to put Knothole on high alert, Sonic and Tails enter late and wonder aloud if they haven't seen that floating island somewhere before. Oh, yeah, in S13's "This Island Hedgehog," which they proceed to summarize in 4 panels. Sally decides to favor caution in dealing with Knuckles, since Ken Penders hasn't gotten around to writing his back story yet. She orders Antoine to fly Sonic and Tails up to the island to scope things out, and 'Twan's been logging flight time ever since (e.g., "Whatever Happened To Queen Alicia?", K19). VERY nice panel at the bottom of page 6 of the artillery being deployed. Ant flies up and out of range, as Sonic hits the silk and Tails revs up and they land in...Act 1 of the Mushroom Hill Zone, more or less. Mostly less. Since reading this story the first time, I've actually managed to play Sonic and Knuckles and Sonic 3 on my home PC. From a writer's point of view there's not a lot to work with, although I do like the following bits and could see them as plot devices in a story: The sub-boss at the end of Act 1 in the Flying Battery Zone. It reminds me of that standard routine in the bully's repertoire: "Why're You Hitting Yourself?" The xenon lamp room in the Flying Battery Zone. Like the aforementioned sub-boss, this one carries within it the seeds of its own destruction. I call it the "xenon lamp room" after the xenon lamp room in the motion picture "The Andromeda Strain," the purpose of which is to burn the epithelial layer of your skin to ash. I imagine Eggman cranking that sucker up to 11. The rock monster sub-boss at the end of Act 1 in the Sandopolis Zone. The bit here is that the players can't destroy it just by hitting it; they can only maneuver it toward the sand-falls and let Nature take its course. Nice touch. I haven't got farther than the Sandopolis Temple of Doom when playing as Knuckles; I always get stuck in this one room and I can't find the way out. As for Sonic, I got him as far as the Death Egg once, and that because I stored up a lot of continuances. The Hidden Palace looked good, and the mural on the wall sort of forecast the Sonic Adventure story line. Sky Sanctuary also had a good look, and portions of the Lave Reef Zone looked suitably hellish, but there was little that I could see being incorporated into a story. As for Sonic 3, the Marble Hill Zone has a few plot devices that could be useful, such as the spinning "top" you can run on, and the stone heads that spit darts at you. Once I get to the Carnival Night zone, I'm hopelessly lost. Aside from narrative elements, the zones contribute some occasionally compelling graphics that a writer can exploit, and this is what Mike, Ken and Art do with the Mushroom Hill mushrooms, even though they're only useful as trampolines and the occasional parachute in the game proper. By utilizing what Kanterovich and Penders refer to as a "pendulum" (but which seems to me more like a jack), Sonic and Tails take a short-cut to the end of Act 1 and the confrontation with the lumberjack bot. Having gotten past that, Sonic falls through a hole in the ground and is reunited with Knuckles. Knuckles makes his displeasure known to Sonic, but Tails's effort to conk the echidna with a rock misfires as both Sonic and Knuckles fall onto a slab of rock in the Lava Reef Zone...though the coloring job makes it look like it should be named the Peach Yogurt Reef Zone. Frank Gagliardo's coloring job on the lava in the "Heart of the Hedgehog" arc was way more convincing. Before the central characters can get par boiled, though, Tails airlifts both of them to safety. Only now does Knuckles seem to realize that the island's been "hijacked." In a truly bad pun, Knuckles leads the others to the Chaos Chamber via the "zoot chute." Robotnik's gotten there first, though, and installed an "energy syphon" to drain the Emerald. Then we get The Big Giant Floating Head of Robotnik and two pages of exposition with one serious flaw: Robotnik's plan is dependent upon his knowing where Knothole is, something he's not supposed to know at this point in the continuity. But he'd probably be satisfied torching whatever's down there. One of the enduring (though possibly apocryphal -- I'm still trying to hunt it down) quotes to come out of the Vietnam War was the statement: "It became necessary to destroy the village in order to save it" or words to that effect. Anyway, that's what Knuckles does, smashing the Chaos Emerald. That turns the Floating Island into the Falling Island and Robotnik decides to bail at that point. Only when Fat Boy is out of the way does Knuckles produce the REAL Chaos Emerald (instead of the phoney one he smashed)to stop the Island's downward progress. "I didn't see you make the switch!" Sonic tells him, echoing the sentiments of the fans. But just as Mike and Ken are in no mood to spell anything out for the readers, Knuckles is in no mood to leave the Floating Island. HEAD: This is still early on in the Knuckles saga. Eventually, the comic would posit a past between Sally and Knuckles that isn't even hinted at here. The first clue would be in the course of Mike Gallagher's "Crash of the Titans" (Super Sonic v. Hyper Knuckles Special), culminating in some fairly decent stories: "Black and Blue and Red All Over" (S44), "My Secret Guardian" (SSS9), and "My Special Friend" (K29). Unfortunately, in the last-mentioned story the angle turned sour and the prospects of reconciliation between Sally and Knuckles are expected to get even worse by S100. For the moment, though, Sally has to play dumb (not a good look for her) and let Sonic take the initiative. The first half of the story is more heavily dependent on actual game play to keep the plot moving than the second part, where the story focuses on Robotnik rather than on the Floating Island itself. I'm still trying to make up my mind whether or not that's a good thing. As I said earlier, there have been only a handful of game-related incidents worthy of a second look by the writers, so the narrative element of the story is stronger in the second half. Aside from the sleight-of-mitten with the "fake" emerald, Kanterovich and Penders do a good job of covering the bases. Head Score: 8. EYE: Dave Manak's art in the second half is serviceable, but it still feels a notch or two below that of Art Mawhinney's work in the first half. The two-page splash at the opening of the story is especially impressive. And I finally broke down and darkened in Sally's pupils on the last page: that white on white look was just creeping me out. Eye Score: 7. HEART: Once again, it really wasn't a factor here. Only later would the writers kick it up more than a couple notches. Now I find myself wishing it was back where it was before it broke bad. Heart Score: 4. "Fire Drill" Story: Ken Penders: Art: Ken Penders; Ink: Jon D'Agostino; Lettering: Bill Yoshida; Coloring: Freddy Mendez. Alerted by an explosion, Knuckles pursues someone who appears to be one step ahead of him. The chase leads through Sandopolis where, after an abbreviated tour of the Temple of Doom (no ghosts, no counterweighted secret doors, no indestructible rock monster) he pursues whoever it is to the edge of the island. HEAD: Ken was sneaky enough to foreshadow the objects of Knuckles's pursuit in the story's title. Archimedes (with whom Knuckles would eventually catch up in Knuckles #1 (Rites of Passage miniseries) is, after all, a fire ant. Unfortunately, this is a mood piece which brings Knuckles pretty much right back where he started. He makes fists, grits his teeth and talks a whole lot and that's about it. Head Score: 4. EYE: I can only assume that Ken was still learning the ropes of drawing Knuckles at this point in time. Half the time Knuckles looks on-model; the other half, he looks kinda funky. And the Temple of Doom looks too much like a backdrop for a community theater production of "Antony and Cleopatra," it's so flat and lifeless. Fortunately Art Mawhinney kicked off the Knuckles series artistically, to be followed by Manny Galan's blossoming as an artist. Eye Score: 5. HEART: Once again we have Knuckles as a kick-butt kind of guy throughout. This solo shot gets very old very fast, especially given the lack of a convincing (or even a visible) adversary. Fortunately, Ken tries making up for it in the next story. Heart Score: 4. "Lord of the Floating Island" Story: Ken Penders; Art: Harvey Mercadoocasio; Ink: Harvey Mercadoocasio; Coloring: Freddy Mendez; Lettering: Bill Yoshida. Without Sonic to kick around and with no invisible adversary to chase, Knuckles has to do SOMETHING to make the readers care. So he finds himself reuniting a lost joey (baby kangaroo) and its mom during a combination wind storm/solar eclipse. HEAD: Three things that this inquiring mind wants to know. Knuckles makes an off-hand reference to his then-unnamed father, Locke. How far along was the back story in Ken's mind at this point? And why are the dingoes tearing around carrying shoulder bags made from flour sacks? I kind of liked the alternate dingo continuity Ken eventually unveiled in the Lost Paradise arc (K4- 6) with its police state overtones. This is just weird. Finally, the wind storm reminded me: whatever happened/will happen to the Day of Fury plot point? It was introduced way back in the Forgotten Tribe arc, revived weakly in the Forbidden Zone arc, then promptly forgotten. This is why I think loose continuity totally bites. You don't go hinting at global catastrophe and then never deliver! But admittedly, we're talking about something that may not have even occurred to Ken at this point. Head Score: 6. EYE: Harvo takes a turn drawing as well as inking. For the most point it's on-model but nothing special. Even the last page where Benjy the joey and his mom are reunited looks, I don't know, kinda just there. The look is present but the personality is absent somehow. Eye Score: 6. HEART: George Lucas is supposed to have said that a motion picture is binary: either it works or it doesn't. This doesn't. Sure, Knuckles gets to talk to someone other than himself this time, but aside from some minor exposition and a science lesson, does he have anything worth saying? I suppose part of the problem is that this story is still early in the saga. It's hard to communicate when you don't have anything to say and you haven't found your voice yet, and Knuckles wouldn't find his until his own title got launched. Heart Score: 4.