Sonic the Hedgehog #225 (July 2011)

Pat Spaziante cover: the gang’s all here … but for how long? Everybody’s got their game face on (no smiles) except Sonic, but Spaz used like a #5 pencil or something because you really have to look to see it. And whose idea was it to do an American flag motive on the left border? Because nothing is as American as a comic book death cheat.

Previously in…: OK, I know that the book has a serious bent toward recapping what’s been going on for the benefit of any noobs who happen to be browsing any given issue for the first time. That’s the nature of serialized storytelling; I understand that. But here they’ve essentially hit some of the high points from the past 25 issues. I say “some” because the year-long Iron Dominion arc merits only three lousy paragraphs. And that’s not even taking into consideration what happened during the 4-issue Journey to the East supplemental arc in Sonic Universe. But that doesn’t matter because the events in THIS issue take center stage. And to REALLY rub it in, we get a page of hints and clues Ian dropped into the comic over the past year or so. But let’s get to the title:

“One Step Forward”

Story: Ian Flynn; Art: Tracy Yardley!; Ink: Terry Austin; Color: Matt Herms; Lettering: John E. Workman; Editor: Paul Kaminski; Editor-in-Chief: Victor Gorelick; El Presidente: Mike Pellerito; Sega Licensing reps: Cindy Chau and Jerry Chu

Now that Eggman has everyone’s attention, our heroes respond to this situation with … a page full of talk. Except in Amy Rose’s case, where she resorts to screaming at Geoff, who in typical fashion doesn’t give a straight explanation to anyone about anything. Level-headed as always, Sal proposes that Naugus stop trying to take over the kingdom while the current wonder weapon is up and running. Naugus agrees and takes the opportunity to leave in a whirlwind while Sally decides who’s riding in which plane; nobody calls shotgun. She also demonstrates that she believes in the old line about keeping one’s friends close and one’s enemies closer; i.e., Geoff is coming along. So, while Tails pilots the Tornado with Sonic and Sally in the cheap seats, everyone else is aboard the Freedom Fighter Special. Amy Rose, who’s left to guard Geoff, shows no initiative and passes up a chance to loosen some of his teeth on general principle.

We then get a peeky-boo inside the Death Egg. Apparently they’re doing this on the cheap because the only minions on display are Snively and Lien-Da, and they’re not observing the Minion Identical Wardrobe Dress Code. Although Eggman is a bit surprised that Naugus is putting in an appearance, he issues a standing order to shoot at anything that does NOT look like a blue hedgehog.

Outside the egg, Naugus hits it with a dose of “crystalline magic” and…

Nothing happens.

Believe it or not THAT is the extent of Naugus’s role in this story, except for one lousy reaction shot at the end. Instead of asking “What sorcery is this?!” he may as well have just said “Meh, that’s all I got.” Talk about useless!

Sally, meanwhile, is proving that there’s something under all that auburn head fur by telling Tails to look for anything unusual on the other side and near the top of the dome. What he finds is a really cheap patch job where the crew broke in 26 issues ago. So Tails uses his air-to-air pass key to make a way in for Sonic and Sally. And having been through the infamous Endgame arc (S47-50), Sonic and Sally know enough to get the kissing done up-front.

Once inside, Eggman begins rubbing it in by sending a service bot to repair the hull breach from the inside, thus demonstrating that the really, really obvious outside patch was an Eggman welcome mat. Sally checks in with Nicole who’s gone back to the home office, i.e., Sally’s hand-held, but she’s keeping her focus on the job, which Eggman doesn’t make any easier by opening the door to a chamber they’d missed the last time through.

After the requisite bit of repartee, Eggie brings out the sub-boss for this installment: a Super-Sized Silver Sonic. Sonic is clearly looking forward to tangling with this bot; Sally clearly isn’t. She also gets the feeling that Eggman is using this to run out the clock. Eggman obligingly checks in with a page full of exposition. Then Snively phones it in to tell us and Unc that “Stage One” of the retcon is ready to go.

And now, the death cheat:

Sally heads for an exit corridor but is stopped short by some old-school ordnance. You know that it’s old school because it goes BLAM BLAM BLAM instead of SKZORCH or whatever sound effect Archie Comics is using for non-projectile weaponry these days. That gets Sonic’s attention, which earns him a love tap from SSSS. Sonic goes to investigate the shooting, Eggman pushes the Giant Ominous Red Button, and…

We’ve lost the cable again.

HEAD: Remember back in issue S210? Editorial more or less asked the fans to submit Sonic/Sally art. Sure, they posted some examples of what they received, and they could have come across many more examples at deviantArt or FurAffinity or any Sonic fan site. They never talked about how much they got; I’m guessing lots. Of course we only saw what Editorial wanted us to see in the Fan Art section, and it doesn’t get there by accident.

What I’m trying to say is, even if you never experienced

The Endgame Debacle, we’re looking at another Sally death cheat here.

Two major clues. One, Sally’s goggles, which she never wore up until now. Why now, all of a sudden? Because the comic needed a red herring to set up the death cheat, along with a pencil drawing that teased the fate of some victim or other. The shattered goggles here take the place of an actual body.

We went through this in Endgame’s shadow as well. Archie Comics had to release a dummy cover for Sonic #51, the first post-Endgame issue, for the distribution media. And they did. But it was a faked cover, with the figure of Sally obscured in order to keep from giving the game away.

Clue 2, which appeared a few issues ago, was Sally’s adroit use of a warp ring to commute to the other side of the planet so she could log some exposition time with Khan. Frankly, it would be just like this comic to have that be the deus ex machine that saves her this time. That’s how I’d bet, anyway.

There is a third possibility, but it’s so clichéd and illogical that Archie should be ashamed of themselves if in fact they resorted to it. Let the record show that Sally has Nicole the hand-held open and running when she stares down the barrel of the weaponry. So there would seem to be a possibility that Nicole would assume her bodily form and jump into the line of fire, taking one (at least) for the team.

But that wouldn’t even be a death cheat because it wouldn’t be a death. Nicole could always reboot herself in Sally’s handheld if something happened to her temporal manifestation. After all, in the story that started it all, “Stargazing,” that proto-Nicole hadn’t yet figured out how to maintain herself and knew that she was going to die, so Sally kept company with her until the end. So the variant cover could just as well show Nicole, or at least a physical manifestation of her, rezzing out instead of bleeding out. Which would be a REALLY cheap way out of this.

Remember when stories were about something? The Thicker Than Water arc is a good example. Primarily it was about Sonic and Bunnie charting a course between the demands of the Legionnaires, whose commander turns out to be one of Bunnie’s long-lost relatives, and those of the disreputable Sandblast Freedom Fighters. It also set up the plot where Mighty and his long-lost sister, Matilda, will wander Mobius forever just missing each other. I say that because with Ian springing a retcon on us, you can kiss any chance of their finding each other good-bye.

This story has an air of impatience about it, as if Ian just can’t wait to rev up the retcon. You can sense it in Naugus’s attempt to impact the Death Egg, and the business with the patch that’s Sonic and Sally’s way in. But when the retcon itself kicks in, that’s rather lovingly spread over 2 pages as every plot development up to this point (you know, all the ones listed on the inside of the gatefold cover) get put into cardboard boxes and buried beneath Styrofoam peanuts.

OK, so we’ve got the stage set for the Sonic: Genesis arc, which consists of 4 issues of Let’s Change The Subject just when something really interesting happens. So now it’s a matter of waiting for S230. Unless the Sonic: Genesis arc is really really good. We’ll see. Head Score: 5.

EYE: Although the big attraction is the final two-page bit of business with Operation: Clean Sweep kicking in, there are some other impressive bits as well: Sonic and Sally’s mid-air liplock and Sonic’s glee at tangling with SSSS. Everything else is there because, well, it HAS to be there in service of the set-up to the retcon. Eye Score: 7.

HEART: Despite the fact that we never saw Dead Sally after her “death” in S47 (the viewing was postponed until the infamous “Big Goodbye” in S50), Ken didn’t cut away from the story. That meant that Sally’s death cheat still carried an emotional punch. It also became the basis of Endgame’s Did Sonic Kill Her subplot, which nobody reading the comic bought for an instant.

Not so this time around. By immediately kicking in the Genesis arc while leaving Sally’s fate hidden by clouds of ambiguity for 4 issues, Ian Flynn essentially guts the psychology of the story. In short, he goes into denial.

Denial, of course, is the primary response to loss. You don’t want to believe it despite the evidence. Here, of course, Ian and Tracy and Editorial see to it that there’s no real evidence of Sally’s fate to speak of; there are only cynical crumbs dropped from the table to keep up our interest in buying the comic – the shattered goggles and the non-canon “variant cover.” This will be aided and abetted by the impending Sonic Genesis arc as a way of deflecting attention from Sally’s fate for 4 issues, something Ken Penders couldn’t avoid in the old Endgame arc. Ken at least didn’t ignore the elephant in the room. Even though he played fast and loose with it at the end, the death of Sally was a continuing supposition throughout Endgame. This time around, however, the comic refuses to commit. That may be good marketing but it’s lousy storytelling.

If there was ONE lesson that should have been taken away from Endgame, it’s that a character death effectively trumps whatever the McGuffin you started out with. And it’s just happened again; whether Sally has been killed or not, and I’m voting “Not,” that ambiguity will haunt the next four issues of the comic, no matter how colorful or clever they manage to be. Heart Score: 4.

Sonic Spin: This column just can’t stop playing the readers; Paul HAS to drag out the variant cover one more time.

Fan Art: Some Sonic-Sally art by Taylor, very much in the style of Jonathan Gray, to yank our chains again; a character medley by Tyler (the Shadow vignette is my favorite); and it’s Sonic vs. Eggman vs. Sonic vs. Eggman by Billy.

Fan Funnies: Jon submits a Chaotix scenario from what appears to be SonicX. You’d think Charmy wound understand the concept of No-Fly Zones.

Off-Panel: This reminds me way too much of the screen saver that came with my Sonic CD game.

Sonic-grams: Since this column was reduced to accommodate repeated appearances of the variant cover, they’ve developed a backlog which they take care of in pretty short order. Of most interest: the comic won’t do a Sonic Babies story, they try to joke about Sally’s possible fate and fail, Mephiles will be putting in an appearance at some point or other. And to a letter about the variant cover victim being Sally, Editorial says “Believe me the story doesn’t end here!” Hey, I’m still waiting for the story to get started!