Sonic Universe #68 (November 2014)

Yardley/Hunzeker cover: this is a very impressive cover with a mainly black background and the main characters (Knuckles, Shadow and Eclipse) only partially illuminated. Very well done.

“Total Eclipse Part 2: Tipping Point”

Story: Ian Flynn; Art: Tracy Yardley; Ink: Jim Amash; Color: Matt Herms; Lettering: Jack Morelli; Assistant Editor: Vincent Lovallo; Editor: Paul Kaminski; Editor-in-Chief: Victor Gorelick; Suits: Mike Pellerito and Jon Goldwater; Sega Character reps: Tyler Ham and Anthony Gaccione.

It’s time for Relic, Fixit and Snively to duck as cover as Eclipse and Shadow prepare to mix it up. They don’t get right to it, though, pausing for about a page of exposition for the benefit of the readers. Eclipse gives Shadow a chance to defect but Shadow isn’t about to mess with the game continuity and betray the memory of Gerald Kintobor and Maria. But just as Eclipse warms up to turn out Shadow’s lights …

We cut away as Knuckles, Rouge and Omega encounter what appears to be an automated mining operation. While Rouge basically asks “What’s in it for you?” she’s told by Knuckles that it’s for the benefit of others; specifically, for the benefit of those who have yet to perish from the planet coming apart at the seams (Remember that?). Omega just wants to shoot the mining equipment; he’s the embodiment of the old saying that if all you have is a hammer everything else looks like a nail.

Knux then discovers Eclipse’s ship nearby. Rouge tries to engage him in a discussion of personal liberty versus being a slave to duty but all that does is fill up page space since Knuckles isn’t very engaging. Omega is about to blast his way into the alien nursery when Fixit phones in to let them know about the Shadow-Eclipse brawl which Tracy Yardley manages to keep hidden from the readers. What does Editorial think we are, preadolescents?

We FINALLY get to see the two mix it up for a few pages. We also see Snively contemplating a plot twist while Shadow realizes that the batteries have died in his Chaos Control. Eclipse takes the credit for bulking up and causing interference for Shadow. But the dilemma isn’t much of a dilemma since Shadow simply tags the Master Emerald and powers back up to kick some Eclipse butt. Relic tells him to cool his jets and wait for the Cavalry to arrive before going for the finishing move; in her defense, Shadow does look like he could use a breather. Snively then suggests relocating the Master Emerald as we learn, Spoiler Alert, that if he’s reformed it’s only a ruse.

As Eclipse FWASHes back to the ship to lick his own not-very-substantial wounds (this IS an Archie comic, so what did you expect?), Shadow’s team shows up. Shadow asks Relic if she’s OK; Fixit volunteers that he’s all right as well, and all that’s missing is everybody else answering in unison “WHO CARES?!?” Any kind of team spirit falls apart as Shadow wants to go after Eclipse, now that Omega notices that he’s disappeared, but Rouge nixes the idea since Shadow isn’t back up to speed yet. Shadow then unilaterally decides to move the Master Emerald to a G.U.N. facility, preferably Snively’s office (so Snively hopes). Rouge isn’t crazy about essentially sacrificing the floating island and putting Relic and Fixit out of work, and possibly killing them off. Shadow shows no flexibility on this one; neither does Knuckles, who’s in the mood to remove Shadow from the island instead, head first. Fixit asks if he has a vote, and again I waited in vain for the rest of the cast to chorus in “NO!!” He should change his name to “Wesley Crusher” and get it over with. And so the Knuckles-Shadow brawl, featured on the cover of Sonic Universe 67, is set up only to be put off until the next issue.

HEAD: The dialogue between Knuckles and Rouge early on is kind of symbolic of the post-retcon direction of the comic. Rouge raises what I happen to think are some valid points about Knuckles’s exaggerated lone wolf behavior (as established in the games) and Knuckles essentially treats her as if she were invisible. Thus the mining operation simply becomes a backdrop for a bit of dialogue, and the differences in style between Rouge and Knuckles just falls to the ground.

You’d think all this was done in the service of the fight angle of the story, and you’d be wrong. We don’t even get to see Eclipse and Shadow effectively mix it up until pages [9-12]. At that point, the Eclipse-Shadow fight shuts down and we get the set-up for the Knuckles-Shadow fight, which apparently will be consummated in the next issue.

The two elements of the story that worked for me are the tease about breaking into Eclipse’s ship/alien nursery, and the revelation that Snively is, surprise surprise, still a bad guy at heart. I’ll hold off on dealing with the alien angle until the Heart section. As for Snively 2.0, he was slightly more interesting when he was an unknown entity. How he got into G.U.N., even with the help of a retcon, would have made an interesting story. The fact that he appears to be plotting to reactivate the Space Colony Ark from Sonic Adventure 2, which also conveniently survived the retcon, makes it seem like the comic wasn’t about to invest any energy into making Snively into something more than just a one-dimensional villain. The Walter White chin whiskers were a tease but we now know how superficial it had been the whole time.

The main characters aren’t much better. Only Rouge shows anything like complexity; Knuckles is so shallow himself that even though she throws him a conversational bone on two occasions he doesn’t really pick up on it except for invoking helping others and even then it amounts to a cheap shot at Rouge. Shadow is no better; he’s all about the fighting until the fight is over and then he turns into a control freak overruling Knuckles about the fate of the Master Emerald. As for Fixit, he’s been demoted to not-very-funny comic relief. I wanted to see the others at least verbally abuse him; otherwise, Fixit looked like the school nerd everybody ignores.

Relic, for her part, needs a better script. She acts like the voice of reason in a script that at least gave her some prominence and some juicy dialogue. She may have been wrong when, speaking of Eclipse, she tells Shadow “I don’t think he’s moved from where you punted him, dear,” but it’s probably the best line in the issue. It’s unfortunate that she’s doomed to remain in someone else’s shadow in this story, whether that someone is Shadow or Knuckles. Head Score: 6.

EYE: Yardley’s artwork is up to his usually high standard; I especially like the diagonal overlapping frames on page [8]. When it comes to physical damage, whether to Shadow or Eclipse, he and Matt Herms pull their punches, no doubt on orders from Archie Editorial, with the result that Shadow and Eclipse come off looking more like Pigpen from the “Peanuts” comic strip than someone who’s actually been in a fight. Eye Score: 9.

HEART: I was actually hoping that Knuckles and Rouge would bust into the nursery. Not this time.

Since long before the retcon, I formed the impression that the Sonicverse was so diverse and fascinating that it didn’t need phony enhancements like crossovers with humans (such as the infamous “Parallel Paradigm” from Sonic Special #7, or “The Last Game Cartridge Hero” from the Sonic Live! Special, both written by Ken Penders) or encounters with space aliens (going back to the Tossed in Space story arc by Karl Bollers dba “Benny Lee”). The problem with stunt storytelling like this is that no matter how powerful and impressive developments get, if they can’t be allowed to impact on the main continuity they might as well not have even happened.

So I looked beyond the comics, which is getting way too easy to do, and wondered about boarding the ship from another angle. I didn’t think of turning it into an “Alien” clone where space nasties lie in wait in the shadows for characters to cross their path only to end up sliced and diced and bathed in acid. The comic may suffer from an advanced state of lame but that wouldn’t have helped.

Instead, I thought about the climax of “The Incredibles,” where Syndrome kidnaps Jack Jack and gets more than he bargained for. That’s what I wanted to see happen here: have Knuckles, Rouge and Omega barge in on the space babies and come off the worse for the encounter. They’re still an unknown in the comic, after all, so the possibilities are there. Since this is only issue 2 of a 4-parter (I presume), Ian still has a chance to get the narrative out of the rut it already finds itself in with a twist like this. Heart Score: 4.

FAN ART: Rebecca draws Knuckles and the Master Emerald, Cassidy draws Blaze in her element, Avi draws Knuckles, and Kristin shows Shadow and Knuckles who appear to have gone over to Team Edward.

OFF PANEL: Fixit, you’re no Fixit (Felix, that is).

FAN MAIL: Braedon, a Shadow fanboy, asks if Shadow is really part alien himself (according to the Shadow the Hedgehog game, that unfortunately is canon), when Shadow first showed up in the comic (Sonic Universe #1), and has he ever crossed paths with Espio (in both Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog). Chris asks an intelligent question: “How do the humans and animals interact on the Sonic world?” The Editorial answer, “For the most part … fine” with the exception of Eggman wanting to be an equal opportunity roboticizer, totally shines off the Great War back story which apparently didn’t survive the retcon. Editorial also gives no specifics on whether Silver will show up again, point to this story for an examples of Chaos Control, and reference the OFF PANEL in SU66 which Chris liked. I liked it, too. Sometimes you need to do more than write letters to get through to Archie management.