Sonic the Hedgehog #260 (July 2014)

Ben Bates cover: the interesting thing here is the understated reaction by Sonic to the shark fin, with a piercing yet. He’s like “Oh, pothole, better not step in that” while Tails and Amy Rose in the midground are having major freakouts. Then again, Sonic’s emotional life has pretty much been on simmer since the comic premiered so some things never change even if the continuity does.

“Waves of Change Part 1: First Ripples”

Story: Ian Flynn; Art: Jennifer Hernandez; Ink: Terry Austin; Color: Gabriel Cassata; Lettering: John E. Workman; Assistant Editor: Vincent Lovallo; Editor: Paul Kaminski; Editor-in-Chief: Victor Gorelick; Suits: Mike Pellerito and Jon Goldwater; Sega Licensing rep: Anthony Gaccione.

Mouth opening contest, GO! And Big, Cream and Antoine lose, while everyone else opens wide and says nothing. According to pop-up Nicole, they’re watching some nasties wreaking havoc in Westopolis, the victims including a human girl and a furrie who appears to be engaged in Sailor Moon cosplay. Take a deep breath because we’re about to crash into a word wave: we’re told that GUN and the cops broke up that party. Tails goes into exposition mode invoking the Gaia plot point, while Antoine doesn’t think the world is coming to an end and that it just needs some duct tape to hold it together. Then Bunnie hits a nerve with Sonic by bringing up the dark Gaia energy plot point and he spin-dashes in to change the subject. Anyway, Sally decides to start delegating, sending Sonic, Amy Rose and Rotor to an unspecified tropical location.

After drawing a blank on the beach, Amy Rose outperforms Rotor’s … well, it looks like a Model A tablet, and homes in on some music coming from somewhere. She asks if they take requests, but is put on hold. Fifteen minutes later, Razor the sharkazoid walks out of the water accompanied by what looks and acts like a cross between a Chao and a pitbull.

Razor says he’s from the Eusebes Shrine and that he’s looking for a hero, and Sonic is all “That’s what it says on my business card.” Since he calls it the Eusebes Shrine rather than a Gaia Temple this may be the start of a wild seaduck chase, but the Raz figures he’ll bring the landlubbers along anyway. Instead of handing out gillyweed or giving everyone a crash course on the bubblehead charm as used in the Triwizard Tournament, he distributes amulets that allow the wearer to function underwater without getting wet and still be able to breathe. Rotor tries to make sense of it, Amy just digs it, and Sonic tries not to suffer an untimely panic attack from being seriously out of his element.

Once on dry sand, the group learns they’re just in time for the concert. They enter the Temple and watch as a Chao named Aquarius devolves into egg form while Coral the Priestess solos on some kind of a cross between a flute and a glowstick. Coral then proceeds to talk everybody’s ears off. She introduces her cute-as-a-button acolyte Pearly and explains that Aquarius has just been reincarnated. There’s also a bit of cultural dissonance as Amy Rose and Coral try to reach an agreement on what they know about Chao while facing the differences between each other. The scientific-secular Rotor is being no help in this conversation and Amy Rose shuts him down and up at the same time. Razor seconds the motion since Coral looks as if she’s about to go weepy on them, and besides it’s late and there are some seagoing nasties outside who look like the squidbots from “The Matrix.”

After a one-page interlude where Amy Rose Skypes Sally, she drops in on Coral and we learn that Coral is having a major self-esteem crisis. Amy Rose tries cheering her up by a quick recount of some of the game exploits, to which Coral replies “You’re making that up.” Well, somebody had to. Amy also gets a case of déjà vu remembering what she used to be like before her own reset ahead of the first Sonic Adventure game.

The following morning Sonic and Rotor can’t reach any conclusion about the Eusebes Shrine but aren’t about to call it a dead end. Coral then freaks out because Aquarius is late hatching. And on top of that, they’ve got company.

HEAD: “Are ye ready kids?”

“Aye aye, Captain!”

“I can’t heeeeeear you!”

“AYE AYE, CAPTAIN!”

“Oooooooooooooh

“Who normally stays far away from the sea?”

“Sonic Hedgehog!”

“Incredibly speedy and snarky is he!”

“Sonic Hedgehog!”

“If for seagoing silliness ye’ve got a whim…”

“Sonic Hedgehog!”

“Forget all about it ‘cause Sonic can’t swim!”

“Sonic Hedgehog!”

“Here we go: Sonic Hedgehog!

“Sonic Hedgehog!

“Sonic Hedgehog!

“Soniiiiic Hedgehooooooog!”

Let us pause for a moment and pay our respects to the memory of the dearly departed Forty Fathom Freedom Fighters: Ray, Bottlenose, P. B. Jellyfish, Big Fluke and Bivalve. Created by the team of Mike Gallagher and Dave Manak in the comic’s early days, they were talking non-anthro sea creatures who debuted in the Tails miniseries. But in a display of just how extreme the continuity reset has become, the creatures in this story are all full-blown anthropomorphized bipeds. Pearly is a ray just like, well, just like Ray, but is also not just like Ray ray. Whether this reset of aquatic characters was an idea that was in the back of Ian’s mind and which got the green light from Editorial because of the general reset I can’t say and it doesn’t seem to matter. My condolences to those who thought Bivalve would have made a good punch line.

I have to say that Ian completely won me over with the single panel of Coral playing the glowstick while Aquarius waits to turn back into an egg. I don’t know if that’s even a thing with the Chao since I never played the first Sonic Adventure and if I had I’d have probably skipped the Chao playroom in the Station Square hotel until I’d played the main game. But speaking as a theology major who was frustrated by Ken Penders’s half-hearted attempts to cobble together a religious system for the echidnas, I honestly hope that Ian is going somewhere with this. It would demonstrate that he’s not just covering over the holes in the Sega continuity with narrative duct tape.

I can understand Bunnie and Antoine being reserved to work together with Sally in the back story, but it’s clear that from now on Rotor and Amy Rose shouldn’t share assignments. Talk about an odd couple! It becomes crashingly obvious when the subject turns to Aquarius and the Chao regeneration. Rotor doesn’t seem to get it, even though he must have had Chao experience at some point. Amy Rose seems more willing to go along despite communication breakdowns.

And speaking of communication, that seems to be what’s happening here. This is one of the talkiest Sonic stories I can remember, a total rebuke to Ian Flynn’s Action And More Action credo. Usually I expect/hope that such a break allows room for character development, but the only character who takes advantage of the space in this story is the Priestess Coral, about whom more in the Heart section. Razor and Pearl show promise but neither act as more than exposition machines in this story. For that matter, Sonic and Rotor, and even Sally by long distance, act the same way. I hate to think that, having reset the continuity and intent on introducing a corner of the Sonicverse we’ve never visited before, Ian is in the grip of his long-standing tendency to explain his story to death for the sake of the presumed newbies who may just have picked up the comic. I appreciate his consideration of the reader, but really that’s what the “Previously…” feature is supposed to do. And this is the 21^st century; even noobs to the comic these days have a certain amount of Net literacy they can fall back on. Between wikis and freelance fan sites, coming up to speed has never been easier.

The biggest dramatic moment in this story, unfortunately, is when nothing happens. Aquarius is late hatching; that’s the high point of the story? It makes the “invasion” at the end seem more than a little anticlimactic. Keep in mind, I like where Ian is going with the underwater Chao and its religious undertones; it’s a far cry from the Sonic-beats-on-a-robot routine in “The Chase” in the past two issues. But this story is nowhere near what anybody would call “fast-paced.” Head Score: 6.

EYE: Jennifer Hernandez is a new artist to me, though I have seen her design for Natasha in “Comics vs. Manga” and think it’s really cute. But I have to say I really love the little tricks she plays with depth of field in her panels. She’s not afraid to liberate a character from a panel, from Bunnie in the very first panel to Amy Rose in the lower left panel of page [3] to Sonic at the top of page [5] to … you get the idea. It’s as close to 3D as you can get without wearing stupid glasses. She’s not the first artist to play around with the panels on a comic page but I don’t think even Tracy Yardley! took these kind of liberties. It’s a welcome sight, really, and I hope to see more of her work in the Sonic comics. Eye Score: 10.

HEART: The good news is that Coral, an anthro version of a Japanese fighting fish aka a betta and Priestess of the Eusebes Shrine, is about as fully-formed a character as has ever appeared in the Sonic comics. It’s even more impressive in that she doesn’t owe her existence to any of the Sega games. She seems open and friendly, and is devoted to the service of Aquarius the resident Chao/deity. As I said earlier, I don’t know if the whole “reincarnation” business is even a thing with Chao.

The bad news is, once Aquarius doesn’t regenerate on schedule Coral goes to pieces. This is understandable but her performance is way over the top here. We’re supposed to believe that as the latest in a long line of Priestesses she’d have either been warned about such an eventuality or else it really is something that hasn’t happened before. We don’t know yet and I hope that it gets cleared up sooner rather than later.

I came on board the Sonic fandom back in the days of SatAM Sonic. Back in the first season, there were a grand total of two full-time female cast members: Bunnie and Sally. Nicole was a handheld computer so her being able to carry on a conversation at all was kind of a fiction.

But come the second season the ranks of the sisterhood grew. Additions to the cast included Rosie, Dulcy the dragon, and Lupe. Though Dulcy served as comic relief more often than not, it was a taste of what was to come in the comic. From Queen Alicia to the ill-fated female echidnas in Knuckles’s life during the Ken Penders years, the ranks of female characters have grown considerably. Sega has added their share as well, from Blaze to Marine.

With Coral, however, it feels like the comic is taking a step backward. Even though Marine has fallen into comic relief mode and even Sega couldn’t let her be a playable when she debuted, nobody I know has ever questioned her ability as a captain. But Coral’s breakdown is too much. You’d think that she’s reach out to her predecessor or superior or whatever they’re called in case something like this ever came up. But no, Coral just falls apart. I mean, sure, I feel sorry for her but something about this feels so overblown, as if feeling sorry for her was all we were supposed to do and Ian’s primary objective in writing her into this story. I’m reading this and I’m like: “Is this all she does?” I was ready to learn more about the Aquarius cult or whatever but I found myself wondering if taking care of Aquarius is such a no-brainer that the least little deviation from the routine can send a priest/priestess over the edge.

It still counts as character development, but it feels like Ian has decided to play it on one note. Despite Coral’s ease of conversation with Amy Rose, she’s also hinted that she feels in over her head as the sole priestess at the shrine. I like her, she’s well-designed and friendly, but her role here makes me wonder how she’s doing her job without some kind of supervision. Heart Score: 6.

“The Light in the Dark: Part 1”

Story: Aleah Baker; Art: Evan Stanley; Ink: Terry Austin; Color: Matt Herms; Lettering: John E. Workman

On board the Sky Patrol, the remaining cast assembles for a breakfast briefing; Cream and Cheese make themselves useful by serving the others. But Sal’s Priority One is looking for a Chaos Emerald. She takes Tails and Antoine on this field trip and they arrive at a door in a mountainside. Instead of speaking “Friend” and entering, they have to rely on Nicole to hack the Egg system. That’s no problem; the problem is they’ve only got about an hour before it starts raining bots.

They make their way past dozing bots and in the course of Antoine fretting about poison gas Tails drags the Dark Gaia Gas plot point into the story. Before that becomes a preoccupation, they reach door number 2 which Nicole opens to reveal … a cliffhanger ending.

HEAD: Now THIS is a throwback! Back in the day the comic ran a 17-page cover story and a 5-page back story. Then the back story more or less disappeared for a while. Now the old layout has returned, only now the page count is 15 and 5. They gotta pay the bills, right?

Despite the fact they only have 5 pages to play with, they get the back story in motion. After leaving Cream, Cheese, Bunnie and Big aboard the SP, the landing party arrives at the dig site and makes contact with … something.

It works well enough until Tails brings up “the stuff seeping out of the ground,” which really feels forced. It’s like Aleah Baker felt she had to bring it up since Sonic, even underwater, didn’t stress out and start to go wolfhog in the cover story.

Truth In Comic Booking: Aleah Baker is also Mrs. Ian Flynn. Since she’s worked on the comic already I can only presume Archie’s Legal Dept. has cleared them of any possible breaches of nepotism.

Like Sonic in the cover story, Sally is all talk and no action heroine in this story. Nicole’s opening a couple of doors is about it in the Action department. Head Score: 5.

EYE: Evan Stanley brings her talent to the art and it works well. That hairpin turn at the bottom of page [4], though, looks way too tight. Eye Score: 9.

HEART: Since I’ve been with the story since before this issue, I can sort of read the complexity of Sally’s expression as Tails tries to bring up the dark Gaia plot point. The Sonic continuity may have changed but one thing that hasn’t changed is Archie’s abysmally low EQ (emotional quotient).

Looking at Sally’s expression, I’m reminded of Elsa at the beginning of her big number in “Frozen,” especially the line “Conceal, don’t feel.” That’s always been Archie Comic’s operating principle when handling the Sonic-Sally relationship in this comic, aside from a few notable exceptions (the climax of Endgame, Mobius 25 Years Later).

If Sally is still the quick study she’s always been, she’s aware of what the implications of Sonic’s condition might be and is seriously worried about it, or at least as worried as Editorial will allow Evan Stanley to depict. What concerns me about it is something like this: a lame one-panel tease that really has no place in the story. Its removal would have had no effect on the story; the trio would still have opened the door to the cliffhanger. The comic, in other words, is crying “Wolfhog!” and threatening to do it so often that when Sonic finally transforms it will have been telegraphed to death. Not that anybody who has played or is even aware of “Sonic Unleashed” isn’t primed and ready for it. At least in the game Sega got it out of the way in the opening cut scene. Heart Score: 5.

FAN ART: Stephanie draws Tails and Sonic, Jacquelyn draws Amy Rose, Caoimhin (pronounced “Kevin” if you’re not up on your Gaelic) draws Sonic, and Charlotte serves up the Sally du jour.

OFF-PANEL: kudos to Jon Gray for tipping his hat to the SyFy Channel’s demonstration that the B-grade monster movie is alive and well and showing on cable.

SONIC-GRAMS: Joey gushes over the robot Sonic dealt with in “The Chase” and casts another vote for adding Honey the Cat to the cast. He also suggests a story based on the “Sonic 2006” game. The kid must have an unwarranted crush on Elise. Jackie wants to see Sonic go wolfhog; like I said, I don’t want it to be so teased out that the big reveal is accompanied by a big yawn from the readers.