Sonic the Hedgehog #257 (April 2014)

Rafa Knight cover: And here are the winners of Archie Comics’ version of “Survivor”: the original Freedom Fighters franchise plus Nicole. I don’t know; technically there’s not much to fault in the cover art except for a lack of personality on the part of the subjects.

“Damage Control”

Story: Ian Flynn; Art: Evan Stanley; Ink: Terry Austin; Color: Steve Downer; Lettering: John E. Workman; Assistant Editor: Vincent Lovallo; Editor: Paul Kaminski; Editor in Chief: Victor Gorelick; Big Cheese: Mike Pellerito; Guy Who Signs The Paychecks and Wants To Diss The Silberkleits: John Goldwater; Sega Licensing Reps: Antony Gaccione and Cindy Chau.

It’s not a good day in Station Square, even from above. Going down from Sky Patrol to get a closer look are Sonic, Tails, Bunnie, Antoine and Rotor from the charter Freedom Fighters, plus T-Pup, Big, Amy Rose, and Omochao who’s described as “helpful” which I guess is an euphemism for extremely annoying. Sally, Cream-Cheese (they really function like a pair after all) and Nicole are standing by at Sky Patrol, apparently to comment like crazy on the proceedings, which they’re seeing through feeds from T-Pup and Omochao. Cream-Cheese say they want to be with the others but Evan Stanley’s art leaves a different impression; Sally picks up on the dissonance.

It’s just as well because things are getting physical down on the ground; they’re also getting verbal as the crew insists on carrying on conversations about how they may or may not remember doing this rescue bit before. Sonic actually says something helpful: “Less talking, more rescuing people.” Sally then routes everyone to the Casinopolis where more folks need rescuing. Tails, T-Pup and Rotor are working at the unfortunately-named Twinkle Park. I get the impression that the license plate number “162 GFA” is an in-joke of some kind, but I don’t get it. But moving cars around is no big for Big.

Meanwhile, the stress of directing rescue efforts and coping with her memory add-ons is taking a toll on Sally, until Nicole reels off the short version of Sally’s resume in order to remind her of her leadership qualifications. She also reminds Sally that everybody else is coping with the memory upgrade. That being said, Sally gets back to business and Cream asserts that Eggman is the villain here.

Speaking of whom, he’s getting an earful of world conditions from the comedy team of Orbot and Cubot. He figures his world conquest shtick wouldn’t work if the world up and destroyed itself so he hits the Internet and uncovers information on Prof. Dillon Pickle (ha-ha) and his work deciphering “the Gaia manuscripts” with their “cyclical world destruction-and-rebirth cosmology.” OK, I know what that means; I assume the readers will too when this is all over. Anyway, he dispatches the E-107 to follow up on what’s pretty much the only premise … er … lead in the story.

Meanwhile, Sonic is carrying two children, one human and one hedgehog, to the roof of a building. The stress of the experience, however, begins to show on Sonic as he begins to go wolf-hog, another holdover from Sonic Unleashed along with Dill Pickle and the Spagonia location. It only lasts one panel, though, as Amy Rose shows up on a skyboard. But it’s insufficient to handle all the Station Squares who need to get out of Dodge. Fortunately the cavalry arrives in the form of a humongoid GUN transport vehicle captained by “Captain Amanda Tower.” I wonder if she’s any relation to Abe or if they just have that much trouble coming up with names. Anyway, Tower gives Sally an attagirl for saving as many people as they did; Sal appreciates the strokes after the day she’s had.

Later, some of Sky Patrol’s crew check in with their higher-ups: Cream talks to her mom and Sally talks to her dad. It the case of the latter, Sally can’t even figure out why the air is still breathable and “the oceans still function.” But the men folk tell her it’s a comic book and she really should relax.

Anyway, all this family communication has got Sonic wanting to blow in a call to Uncle Chuck in Spagonia. Unfortunately, Muttski answers the phone to report that Uncle Chuck and Prof. Pickle had been snatched.

And that’s how Archie sets up a story arc.

HEAD: It makes sense for Archie and Sonic to tee up a well-known house property now that they’ve just finished the retcon. In a way, this is actually the back half of the retcon since a new story arc will only begin with the next issue: “The Chase.” The well-known property, of course, is the 2008 video game: Sonic Unleashed.

The game received mixed reviews when it debuted. The anchoring gimmick was that Sonic, under the effect of an Eggman device, turns into a wilder animal than he already is when the moon is full. Sonic diehards disliked the game for that very reason: they were used to Sonic’s old spin-and-win dash-and-smash gameplay, and having to slow down to get into fights meant learning a whole new skill set. Also, let’s face it, having Sonic the Hedgehog go all Jacob Black from the “Twilight” franchise is patently ridiculous.

I liked three things about the game myself, none of which have much to do with Sonic per se. Most of the locations I thought were great; I especially liked the Apotos locale with its white Mediterranean architecture. Of course, since Sonic’s primary function is to dash through the setting as fast as possible without coughing up his rings, scenery isn’t a major factor in a Sonic game.

Then there’s Chip. He hasn’t shown up in the Sonic comic yet, and when he does show it’ll be in the companion book, Sonic Universe, first. I’m pretty sure one of the geniuses in Marketing came up with that idea. Chip entered the game as an amnesiac companion of Sonic’s whose defining characteristic is that he’s a chocoholic; a critter after my own (sweet) tooth.

But the major thing I liked about the story line is its resolution. There’s a major spoiler here, but since the game is six years old I’m pretty sure the statute of limitations has run out on having to give spoiler alerts. Chip turns out to be Light Gaia, and his job is not so much to defeat the Dark Gaia awakened by Eggman and the entity ultimately responsible for the chaotic state of the planet (Earth or Mobius or whatever) but to keep it in balance. Myself, I like the idea, which is reinforced at the end of the game in a cut scene where Prof. Pickle explains the whole yin-yang dynamic of it until Amy Rose tells him to put a sock in it.

That’s where I fear Archie is going to fall flat in its adaptation of this story line for the new reality of the comic. Because no matter what they try to do in adapting the game to the comic, it’s still an American comic book. As such, there may be little patience by American comic writers and editors and even readers for entertaining the philosophy behind the game story. American comics are adversarial: good guys versus bad guys, which also says something about gender roles in the comics but that’s a matter for another day. But the dynamic is the same: good versus evil. That the two could coexist would blow too many American minds.

It’s not that simple in Sega’s back yard: Japan and Asia in general. Take the story of Kishimojin. According to the legend she was a fearsome demon, but she was also the mother of a hundred children whom she loved very much. I’ll spare you the story of how she became a member of the Buddhist pantheon of deities as the goddess of easy childbirth, parenting, domestic love and family well-being. But if you’re having a hard time wrapping your mind around the concept of a demon as a loving mother who becomes a goddess, that just means you’re looking at things like an American.

That’s what I fear will happen with this adaptation of Sonic Unleashed: that the comic will find a way for Chip to defeat Dark Gaia instead of just balancing him out. After all, the story doesn’t exactly follow the hero-and-villain template that’s the cornerstone of American comic books. And Archie Comics, which also publishes the New Crusaders, is an American comic book publisher.

The last time Archie published anything other than a one-off game tie-in (such as their adaptation of the opening cut scene from Sonic and the Black Knight), it was their horrible adaptation of the first Sonic Adventure game in 1998. Sega was partly responsible for what happened: Team Sonic wouldn’t cut loose with information as to what the game was actually about, probably for fear of leaks and impacted sales. The story making the rounds at the time was that if it hadn’t been for Pat Spaziante playing the Japanese version of the game and taking notes, writers Karl Bollers and Ken Penders would have had nothing to go on.

But as I said at the outset, with the continuity up for grabs after the reset and Sega anxious to mark their territory, Sega needed something familiar and even a video game which garnered mixed reviews was considered to be a good enough basis for an adaptation. My concern is whether Archie Comics will make hash out of the story as a whole. The story arc itself is still in dry dock and Archie is trying to graft the characters who survived onto the story line. So far, it’s restricted to having them rescue civilians but it could get even crazier if Archie involves the Sonic Universe title in the process. It’s not like they have no precedent, having published the “When Worlds Collide” crossover in both Sonic comic titles and the Mega Man comic. I can only attribute so much to starting over.

This is one of those stories where I came away wondering whether Ian Flynn gets paid by the word. That’s part of the starting-over process as well, I know, but did we really need so much dialogue from the likes of Capt. Tower and Nicole and even Eggman? Heck, even Sonic’s “astute” word balloon on the next-to-last page of the story felt like it was too much. Some of this was in the name of character development, but that will be covered in the Heart section. Ian Flynn managed to cram 20 pounds of story in a 10 pound bag; I have to wonder whether less could not have been more. Head Score: 7.

EYE: Evan Stanley’s artwork has two purposes, one unintended. She not only has to tell the story, she also has to sell the new character designs. Sure, they bowed during the Countdown to Chaos arc, but I’m still not convinced. Sally is an especially hard sell. I’ve looked at old Sally art and in this case the stylizing of her muzzle is way too severe, especially since Tails and Antoine don’t get similar treatment. I also hate to say this, but the amount of action in this story works against Evan’s page layouts. The page where Sonic carries the two kids up the stairwell and onto the roof of the building I found particularly confusing. There are good individual drawings, such as the silhouette of the characters at the bottom of the following page, but overall it still feels like everybody is getting their sea legs and Evan Stanley is no exception. Eye Score: 8.

HEART: Of all the elements of the Sonic Unleashed game that were imported into this story, why did they have to include the wolf-hog thing at all?

At least we now know how Sonic was affected by Uncle Chuck’s lame-o science experiment. You remember, the one that looked like a shoebox with three lightbulbs stuck on top. Sonic sucked up something when one of the bulbs broke. And judging from the onset of the effects when Sonic stressed himself out, I have to guess they were gamma rays. After all, Ian and Archie took a perfectly respectable plot point from the game and turned it into something ripped off from an American comic book. The Incredible Hulk, to be exact.

In the game, Sonic goes nutso when he’s under the full moon; classic werewolf stuff. Here, it appears that stress motivates Sonic to change, though he hasn’t fully cycled through a change yet, just teased everyone with a partial transformation that only lasts one panel. If this sounds familiar it’s because Archie lifted it whole from Marvel’s Hulk. They should just change Sonic’s name to Bruce Banner and get it over with.

That’s when I began to fear that Archie was going to make hash of the new continuity. It wasn’t going to simply retell the story, it was going to dress it up and bulk it out and shove it into as many issues as possible (divisible by 4, of course, because the guys in Marketing wouldn’t have it any other way).

It used to be that “character development” actually referred to the character developing, going through some changes that impacted the character and added to them. I seriously question whether making Sonic into a wolf-hog/Incredible Hulk combo platter qualifies as character development. All Archie has done is load him up with a gimmick, and someone else’s gimmick at that.

What happened to Sally in this issue qualifies more as character development. Her crisis management was interrupted by a legitimate bout of self-doubt as she tries coping not only with the present emergency but with the overabundance of memories. Thanks to the encouragement of Nicole and the affirmation of Captain Tower, she’s able to get back on track. That’s character development, not gimmickry.

The same can be said for the interlude between Sonic and Tails where Sonic tries to lift Tails’s spirits when it’s clear from the artwork that he’s carrying around some self-doubts of his own. It’s not as flashy as going wolf-hog but it’s way more important. Heart Score: 6.

FAN ART: A cast picture by Brittany, a portrait of Bunnie and Antoine by Mary which I saw first at her deviantArt site because I hadn’t received this issue yet, Sonic versus Metal by Nikola where Sonic’s head appears to be 90 percent eyeball, and Sonic on the run by Dominic – don’t ask me what he’s saying, my eyes aren’t as young as they used to be.

OFF-PANEL: Now that is old school Sonic, with baby Tails for the win.

SONIC-GRAMS: One letter, from Josh, gushes a lot, but he’d also like to see an all-hog story: Sonic, Shadow and Silver. That would leave out Amy Rose and the metallic Sonics, plus I understand Scourge didn’t survive the retcon; no big loss. He also wants to see a comic series based exclusively on the games. Yeah, that’ll probably last until Sonic lip-locks with Princess Elise.