Sonic Universe #58 (January 2014)

Yardley!/Amash/Downer cover: Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s … a kitty cat. NYAN!

“Pirate Plunder Panic: Part 4”

Story and art: Tracy Yardley!, Ink: Jim Amash; Color: Steve Downer; Lettering, Jack Morelli; Assistant Editor: Vincent Lovallo; Editor: Paul Kaminski; Editor-in-Chief: Victor Gorelick; Love Boat Purser: Mike Pellerito; Sega Character Business and Licensing Reps: Anthony Gaccione and Cindy Chau.

So we have two pirate ships facing off against each other, with Blaze and crew aboard the Metal Marauder, Capt. Whiskers aboard the We Didn’t Bother Coming Up With A Name, Capt. Metal aboard an equally nameless sub while the Egg O’ War waits in the wings. Cream sums up the situation: “Oh, Miss Blaze! Be careful!” The kid’s sharp as a tack.

While the two ships fire on each other, Blaze goes after Metal warning yet again that “This world will fall apart if all seven [Emeralds] are not reunited!” Metal retorts that he still intends to use the Sol Emerald to power up the Egg O’ War and, when this world falls apart, he’ll just warp somewhere else. He then slams Blaze to the deck because he also wants the full Sol Emerald set and thus recaptures her. Unfortunately, everybody else is caught up in the pirate-on-pirate fighting and only Marine notices Blaze being taken prisoner. She then dispatches Cream and Amy Rose to rescue Blaze while she deals with Whiskers and his crew with the dubious help of Bean and Bark.

Blaze comes to as the Egg O’ War is powering up and lifts off. The sight is enough to persuade Capt. Whiskers to break off the fight but not before putting a cannonball through the side of the Marauder. Bean, for his part, tries to board the Sub With No Name, but Metal’s henchbots have finally had enough of his shtick and swim for shore rather than put up with him.

Back on the EOW, Metal tries pulling the power of the other 6 emeralds from Blaze herself, to which the newly-arrived Cream says “He’s a big meanie!” Amy Rose proves to be more helpful as she busts Blaze out of her containment rig with her piko hammer, as Cream tugs on Metal’s cape and otherwise diverts him as Amy gets some shots in.

But the battle doesn’t really end until Blaze powers up and goes super, becoming Burning Blaze in a red outfit. She then turns Metal to molten metal but unfortunately he’d downloaded his consciousness into the ship itself. Blaze decides it’s time to end this game so she blasts a hole to the outside and tells Amy Rose and Cream to make themselves scarce while she fries the EOW from the inside with the Burning Fire Boost, a convincing version of the Kamehameha attack from the Dragon Ball franchise.

Blaze returns to the acclaim of her friends, with Marine calling her “one rip-snorter twist and twirl,” which is a bit of rhyming slang (“twist and twirl” rhymes with “girl”). Cream adds, “You look pretty when you’re on fire,” which is probably something she doesn’t get to say very often. But the planet is saved and Blaze is mellowing out to where she’s willing to figure that the Emeralds knew what they were doing when they pulled Bean and Bark into her world. After almost two pages of exposition and an all-girl group hug (No Boys Allowed!), she sends them all back to their own continuity, whatever that is, while we look below the surface of the waves and see that the EOW isn’t exactly lifeless. Sing along with me: Dun-dun-DUUUUUUUUNNN!!

HEAD: Tracy Yardley! managed to pull off a convincing ending, even if this installment began chaotically. The Whiskers vs. Marine fight could have used up a lot more oxygen than it did, especially when the focus shifted away from Blaze and Metal which was the heart of the story.

I’m not sure, at the end of it all, what point was served by bringing Whiskers in except as someone to keep the action going. And for someone with a heavy superficial resemblance to Eggman, he never exactly lived up to the part. That, apparently, would have been the part Nega was meant to play.

Nega, or Eggman Nega, has been a shadowy presence in the comic, usually reserved for flashbacks and alt-realities. As explained in the Sonic News Network Wiki: “the character of Eggman Nega is unavailable to the comics because of issues with Sega. Writer Ian Flynn explained on a forum post that he had to push hard to use the character at all, and had to make clear that they would only be vaguely hinting at him. He hopes that the character will become more available in the future.” Don’t think you have to get him on the page on my account; whatever the territorial issues are with Sega, Archie hasn’t been getting high mileage out of him.

Metal, in this story, doesn’t much live up to the Metal Sonic identity if only because he’s so busy doing the pirate shtick and he doesn’t have a Sonic to play with. So he’s free to do the pirate personality, such as it is.

Of all the characters, Blaze finally gets a chance to take center stage, having spent part 2 in a cage. It seems kind of dicey for a while, but when she turns on the Burning Blaze it’s pretty much settled who’s in charge. That is a legit power-up for her, by the way, as seen in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).

Stories like this make me question the wisdom of having every story arc stretched to 4 issues in order to make reprints easier. This arc could have been tightened a little bit: the extended monologues in parts 2 and 3 could have been lost with nobody the wiser, likewise the Blaze Is Afraid Of Heights business, which seems out of place for a character capable of flight. Head Score: 8.

EYE: Tracy demonstrates the ability to shift moods between the pyrotechnics of Burning Blaze in action to the quieter mood of Blaze victorious. Major props go to Tracy for remembering that Blaze now has all Emeralds in her possession so the sky goes from threatening clouds to clear twilight. Eye Score: 10.

HEART: Even though the final scene with the girls was a bit too talky for me, it was still a good ending for a comic where the endings can go flat after the action (aka ass-kicking) stops. In spirit, this is very close to the ending of the All For One arc (SU46-49) where in the end Mighty is reunited with his sister Matilda. While there’s no physical reunion here, Blaze gets her groove back and spends several pages actually smiling.

It makes me wonder, as was asked in the fan mail column of the previous issue, whether Silver will get his groove back as well and, if so, what the chances are of him getting back together with Blaze. Of course you know I’m a total Blaze/Silver shipper. At present, the whole game of Name The Traitor has been suspended pending Editorial’s getting the continuity back to normal. And it’s beginning to appear as if Countdown to Chaos doesn’t quality. But let that go for now and savor the happiness. Heart Score: 10.

FAN ART: Cara draws Blaze and Jesse draws Silver Sonic, not to be confused with Silver the Hedgehog, who’s confused enough already. And Marshall and McKinley both draw Sonic.

OFF-PANEL: Seems like Marine is also a Blaze/Silver shipper, but that ship she cobbled together is one rickety raft and Blaze makes sure it never sets sail. I don’t see Blaze as the heroine of your average bodice-ripper, anyway.

FAN MAIL: Jasper wants to know what’s up with Bean’s attraction to bling (Bean must be part crow), and wanted to know the ending of the story ahead of time. A.T. gushes for Tracy Yardley’s depiction of the pirates. Aaron wants to know about the next Sonic Universe story, “Shadow Fall,” which sounds like the title of a Daniel Craig-as-James Bond movie. Editorial mentions a comet and space aliens and I pray they’re wrong about the space aliens. He also asks about Snively (still in lock-up last time I checked) and applauds the new character designs. Whether those designs are permanent or only for the length of Countdown to Chaos remains to be seen.