Sonic the Hedgehog #222 (April 2011)

Ben Bates/Terry Austin/Matt Herms cover: When Sonic tells you he’s going to pick you up for a date, believe him. Classic pose, nicely done.

“The World Can Wait”

Story: Ian Flynn; Art: Steven Butler; Ink: Terry Austin; Color: Matt Herms; Lettering: John E. Workman; Editor: Paul Kaminski; Editor-in-Chief: Victor Gorelick; President: Mike Pellrito; Sega Licensing reps: Cindy Chau and Jerry Chu

First, we set the mood for what’s to come with a very nice frontispiece by Jon Gray: Sonic, Sally, the moonlight, and a flock of Chao. Or a “herd” or whatever. Back in the day throwing in an extra page wasn’t an unusual occurrence, especially as executed by Pat Spaziante.

But on with the story. With no bad guys to bust, Sonic and Tails (with T-Pup trailing along purely for decoration) keep their skills set up with a round of Capture The Flag. I won’t say that Ian got the idea from my Sonic Kids fanfic of the same name, but I can say “Been there, done that, wrote about it back in 1995.” Anyway, during the mercifully brief exposition, Sonic lets it be known that his impending (gasp!) date with Sally is still some time off.

Speaking of Sally, she’s over in the Dragon Kingdom getting an earful of exposition from Khan. We also get an eyeful of Regina in her spartan prison cell. Seems Sal is nervous about her own Archie-imposed track record in the romance department, as she ONCE MORE brings up the break-up from S134’s “Say You Will.” But after assuring her that things will turn out OK, Khan reminds her that she’s courting a serious case of Warp Ring Lag and should think about heading back. She does, and she and Sonic have a warm-up Meet Cute ahead of their date.

Ian now shifts over to a sweet two-page and two-column format as the kids get prepped. Each calls upon the services of a trusted adult: Sally seeks out her mom while Sonic consults Uncle Chuck. In either case, the adults each serve up a helping of that reliable chestnut, “Be yourself.” As if the readers would want it any other way.

The two kids head on out to a fancy eatery, Crème de la Crème, but things get off to a curdling start because also in attendance at a different table are Ash and Mina; she’s wearing the same piece of Dragon Lady chinoiserie she had on display in S120’s ”She’s Gotta Have Him.” Unfortunately, Sonic and Sally don’t get much farther than the bread sticks because the patrons and even the waiter are inspired by something other than the love in the air and continue the political discussion from the previous issue. Mina and Ash check out of there, and Sonic and Sally do the same shortly thereafter. When the discussion threatens to spill outside as well, Amy Rose shows up to state “I have a hammer; this argument is suspended, for tonight, anyway.” Just to reassure the Son/Amy minority, it’s not as if Amy’s thrown in the towel; she’s just going to let Sonic catch a break this issue.

We eavesdrop on the two as they take in the scenery at the Chao Garden. As they settle down to some semi-serious cuddling, they’re being observed from the shadows by Geoff. Either he’s still working on his “shadow melding” or those are some jazzy stink lines he’s throwing off. And further in the shadows is Naugus, ready to make his move.

HEAD: The date between Sonic and Sally is supposed to be the core of this story, but their date also gets off to a rocky start as politics intervenes at the restaurant. And for a class restaurant, I thought it was pretty darn gauche for the waiter to start things off on the wrong foot like that. But it gives the reader some idea of how unsettled the issue is. It can only get worse by S225.

The Capture The Flag interlude worked for me. It’s a reminder that these characters have a skill set that needs tuning up between missions, and they may as well have some fun in the process. In one respect, I was glad to see Ian prove me wrong by bringing T-Pup back into the continuity. That was the good news; the bad news is that he/it never really DID anything other than fly around with his techno-tongue hanging out.

OK, seriously, HOW MUCH LONGER will Ian and/or Editorial have Sally beating herself up over something that happened like seven years ago in this comic?!? Only the hard core fans will even remembered it, and speaking as one of them I’d like to think we’re over it. The whole point of the old adage about “Time heals…” is that simply by the act of being alive stuff in the past gets pushed offstage or otherwise mellowed. Unless it was REALLY traumatic, and I just don’t think that what happened in “Say You Will” qualifies. As far as I’m concerned, it was more a result of bad writing than anything else since the events leading up to it didn’t mean that the slap was inevitable. If it was, it would have been more of a plot point in the comic for all these years. And Sonic and Sally were effectively over it not too long thereafter simply because they had to function together in other stories.

Other than that, and the business with the Warp Ring which feels like a way-too-easy plot device, the DK interlude with Sally and Khan, which offers zero chance of the two of them triangulating any time soon, worked for me as well.

I really liked the idea of the split pages where Sonic and Sally get some input from their respective parental figures, as well as the symmetry of how it worked out. I also liked it when Ken Penders tried it in S137’s “Mobius 25 Years Later: Trouble In Paradise.” I actually think he got the symmetry down better than Ken did.

I really thought about it, and I have to say that Amy Rose’s appearance here is just wrong. Sure, I wanted to see Sonic and Sally catch a break and enjoy a night on the town, but there’s something about Amy Rose bringing the hammer down on the discussion that’s … well, it sends out a not-very-friendly message about freedom of speech.

Finally, there’s something weird about seeing Mina in her Dragon Lady outfit again. Part of the problem is that, while it’s been relatively easy for someone like Khan, the Yagyu chief, and other players in the Journey To The East arc (SU 13-16) to give off an Asian vibe, Mina hasn’t taken the trouble to get in touch with her roots. And since the mongoose is native to southern Eurasia as well as Africa, she could have been a bit more exotic and still been true to type. Unfortunately, the way Mina’s been written in this comic she’s come across as being about as ethnic as cream cheese on white bread, which is why it’s weird seeing her dolled up the way she is.

In the end, this story is about Sonic and Sally’s date in the same way that “Psycho” was about someone embezzling $40,000 from her employer’s client. The date rarely takes center stage here, despite all the talk about it and the split-page prep sequence beforehand. The mood at the restaurant is spoiled completely by a holdover plot point from the previous story, and just as things are settling in at the Chao Garden we’re forced to look at Naugus and Geoff. Even in a date story, Sonic and Sally can’t catch a break. Head Score: 7.

EYE: Since Steven Butler did the artwork in the earlier “She’s Gotta Have Him,” it’s no surprise that he has her pulling that red silk number out of her closet again. Oddly enough, the Amy Rose intervention scene is probably the weakest one here (if because it’s the least justifiable) but otherwise there’s nothing to fault with Butler’s artwork. Eye Score: 9.

HEART: It’s become something of a storytelling convention with this comic that whenever Sonic and Sally do catch a break, it’s as a prelude to the both of them getting seriously crapped on in the next installment. “Mobius 30 Years Later” is a prime example. Ian delivered a charming slice of domestic home life with Sonic, Sally and their kids, as prelude to their almost getting blown up by Lien-Da with Silver making the save. And then things start getting bad.

This story is no exception since the final page manages to undo the mood of the two date-related pages that came before. Once again, the date itself is only prelude to Naugus making his play to take over. I assume that this kind of timing is supposed to make us more sympathetic with the momentarily-happy couple. Me, it just makes me impatient with the writing.

 Actually, comparing this story with the ending sequence of “Mobius 25 Years Later: Part 2: Tempus Aeternus" (S167), or as I like to call it, Mobius 25 Years Later 2.0, is even more instructive as to why this just doesn’t work for me. It featured one of the most absolutely charming sequences ever to appear in this comic. The grown-up Sonic and Sally have been reunited and, more out of intuition than anything else, just know they’re meant to be together. The tentative nature of the dialogue, the hesitancy of action, was far removed from the usually fast-forward pacing of a comic book, and it was a refreshing change of pace.
 Too bad Ian doesn’t rise to the occasion here. There was simply too much repartee cluttering up the scene this time around and not enough honest emotion from either Sonic or Sally. And then the camera pulls back and the focus shifts toward Geoff and (ewww) Naugus. A serious disappointment. Heart Score: 6.
 
 
 “Second Impressions: Part 2”
 Story: Ian Flynn; Art: James Fry; Ink: Terry Austin; Color: Matt Herms; Lettering: John E. Workman
 
 Not only does Nicole get shouldered out of the spotlight in this arc by Dimitri, but now she and Espio have to break the news to Knuckles. They come upon him at the “Lake of Rings” and escort him to “the Science Center” where Knux and Dimitri formally go F2F. To his (and Ian’s) credit, Knuckles doesn’t try to clean Dimitri’s clock upon seeing him again. This gives Dimitri a chance to launch into “Mea maxima culpa” mode, seasoned with exposition and one really great line of dialogue: “Please do not punch me in the face. It’s all I have left.” Knuckles then agrees to ship Dimitri back to Angel Island to perform community service. Which effectively writes him out of the story and terminates his usefulness to the plot just before Lien-Da makes her move. Timing is everything.
 
 HEAD: We can retroactively state that Nicole is not after all the main character of this story arc. Which is too bad because I WANTED this to be a Nicole story arc and it was SET UP as a Nicole story arc. But Dimitri effectively hijacked the entire thing.
 So where does this leave Nicole? I’ll save that for the Heart section. But it leaves Espio acting as messenger boy before he, too, is summarily dismissed. For his part, Knuckles may have the most face time in this story, but his part consists of discovering Dimitri, asking for exposition, then after sentencing Dimitri to Angel Island and a quick thanks to Nicole and Espio, exiting stage left. “That went better than expected,” Espio says. Maybe my expectations were higher but this story could have been phoned in. There are a couple action panels, which in some circles is regarded as the life’s blood of comic books, but they’re flashback panels, anyway. As welcome as Dimitri’s contrition might be, that’s still a pretty small platform on which to build a story, even a five-pager. Head Score: 6.
 EYE: Fry really delivers the goods on the first page with the night scene at the lake … before reconvening the story in the dumpster behind the Best Buy, aka the generically-named Science Center. By the top of page [3], the backgrounds are summarily dismissed. Eye Score: 8.
 HEART: This whole business started with last issue’s cover story, “Changing Tempo,” wherein the Forget Me Knots basically call on the citizens of New Mobitropolis to reject Nicole after all she’s done for them. Her tearful exit from the concert was pretty remarkable, actually, since she’s never put on a display of emotion quite like it before. Yet her follow-up scene with Dimitri in “Second Impressions: Part 1” has the head echidna, or rather the echidna head, sounding like the contents of a paperback self-help book, telling her and Espio that they’re not alone and that they have friends, whom they then don’t go out and consult. After all, they have to stick around and help shine the spotlight on Knuckles.
 I expressed my disappointment with “Second Impressions: Part 1” for being bland and not making the most of exploring Nicole’s emotional state, or such an emotional state as an A.I. such as her can have. And Part 2 only compounds the mistake by abandoning the Nicole story concept by the side of the road and focusing on the Knuckles-Dimitri development. It represents the waste of a perfectly good Heart set-up. Heart Score: 4.
 
 
 Fan Art: Ana gives us an Abbey Road drawing with Charmy, Nicole, Amy Rose and Shadow as the Fab Four; Jaimi provides a cute cast drawing, Dante draws Sonic while Vincent submits a drawing of a Wisp from Sonic Colors.
 
 Fan Funnies: Brittany is obviously a Tails/Cream shipper, especially given the competition. And here’s a shout-out to Brit for agreeing that pairing Tails with Barby the Alleged Koala is creepy because of the age difference. I’ve only been saying that for I don’t know how many years now.
 
 Off-Panel: This highlights a problem I’ve seen in other Sonic stories: take a bad idea and emphasize it so that it comes off as a REALLY bad idea. At least the comic itself admits that it’s ridiculous. It reminds me of what intimate moments on reality shows such as “The Bachelor” must be like: a man, a woman, and a dozen Teamsters just out of camera range.
 
 Sonic-Grams: Aspen from Washington, as opposed to Washington from Aspen, gets the skinny on the not-skinny Mammoth Mogul, the relationship of Sonic and his sibs in “Sonic Underground,” and the identity of Councilor Dylan. Jacob wants to see more of Horizolt-Al and Vertic-Al; apparently they may have succeeded in destroying each other in the course of their last appearance in the comic (S59’s “Opposites Detract”) because Paul Kaminski would rather talk about Sonic and Knuckles kicking each other’s tails. Blake gushes about Sonic and Will is told when Shadow first appeared in the comic and that Scourge was a way to “re-purpose” the Evil Sonic.  What is ISN’T told is that once Shadow appeared in Sonic Adventure 2 he became so huge with the fans that the whole Evil Sonic thing NEEDED a rethink.