Sonic #87 (Oct2K)

Spaz/Harvo/Ray cover: Sonic, Tails, your standard fiery fate. Very good cover, really. Spaziante replaces the uvula shot for Sonic with a wall of teeth.

"Heart of the Hedgehog: Part 2: Lava Story"

Story: Danny Fingeroth; Art: Sam Maxwell; Ink: Jim Amash; Color: Frank Gagliardo; Lettering: Jeff Powell; Editorial: G-Force.

Nice one-page pan in to remind us of Tails's fate. Sonic does a quick two-page spread exposition before resuming his search-and-rescue mission, but is almost immediately netted while MetalSonic gets his jollies as a result. That, plus the knowledge that Sonic is burdened with the knowledge that his little bro is in peril. One quick spin later, Sonic has shredded the netting and Metal has to remind out hero of just who's the slo-mo around here as we the readers speed past three pages of ads. BTW, the full page ad for N*Sync In Concert At Your Crummy School Where the Band Members Will Probably Pull Down for One Gig More Than One of Your Teachers Will Make in a Year Contest reminds me that someone (I think Marvel) has actually turned the boy band into superheroes with a comic of their own. Don't you just love this business? And they wonder why sales are off.

Sonic then falls for one of the oldest gags in the world before being shot at by Metal. Sonic responds by trying to smash Metal's...whatever that is on his bod, then ties him up with some leftover netting. Everybody, including Sonic and Metal, knows this isn't going to last, but Sonic races ahead and finds Tails without further incident. So, of course, who should show up just when Tails is loose and the two realize that they're just about trapped by the lava?

At this point, Fingeroth takes the story in a direction it hasn't been in a long time. Sonic as much as admits Metal's superiority, and he should know, citing his stint as a bot in the Mecha Madness arc. But he also states that there's more to being an organic life form than speed and strength, including the "feelings" that he hasn't exactly been allowed to display in the book over the years and which are, even here, in short supply as far as Sonic is concerned. As for Tails, he demonstrates his loyalty to Sonic by not scooting when he has the chance; apparently, grim determination is the only sentiment that the management will allow. This somehow registers in Metal's circuitry as he rescues the duo from the lava using...well, I'm not really sure WHAT he did, actually; it's kind of confusing. Metal then goes into earthmover mode to allow Sonic and Tails to escape while admitting that the Blue Blur was right. Sonic gets Tails out of there...wait a minute, wouldn't it have made more sense to have TAILS fly SONIC out of there? Sorry, I'm trying to be logical about this again, and IOACB.

HEAD: Some readers have compared the climax of this story to the ending of the Sonic anime where the Japanese MetalSonic also meets a self-sacrificial end by being melted down inside a volcano. There are some differences, though. In the anime, we learn (if we have access to a translation of the script such as is available on Tyro's most excellent Sonic site at http://www.franken.de/users/deco/ or if we know Japanese) that Metal had been programmed to be like Sonic, which meant that even though he was programmed to fight against the Blue Blur his programming carried some emotional baggage as well. Which was why Metal didn't kill Ojisan the Owl which would have been the properly villainous thing to do. Here the "power gem" that gave Metal a personality (and there's been precious little of THAT in the book lately) basically made him into a formidable enemy but also a smart-aleck enemy. Whatever altruism Metal acquires at the end of the story came from observing Tails's dedication to Sonic to the exclusion of concerns about self-preservation. The end result was the same, but the route to get there was a little different.

Danny Fingeroth has crafted a very fine story here, with the requisite amount of action to appease the alleged core audience as well as more emotional content than the guardians at Archie usually permit, even though most of it is just talk on Sonic's part. He never strains credibility, even having Sonic realize that Metal let him get to Tails unopposed. This is still an "action" story but it doesn't feel like the usual kind. Head Score: 9.

EYE: Boy, has the quality of Maxwell's artwork improved! Don't know if it's the material or what, but there were some very good moments here. I'm thinking especially of the shadowing just behind Tails in the last panel on page [1], the gorgeous two-page spread following that, and some of the arcs of lava. Aside from Tails's chronic frizziness, there's nothing to fault here. Eye Score: 9.

HEART: Compare this story with Karl Bollers' "The Big Payback" (S85). In that story, Sonic also did battle with a smart-talking metallic counterpart of himself which didn't have anywhere near half the personality that MetalSonic does here. And what motivated Sonic to wrap up the fight and give Silver Sonic the Marie Antoinette treatment? Tails getting conked. Here again Tails is the catalyst for the climax; small and cute characters seem to have a way of doing that. This time, though, it's MetalSonic who sees the error of his ways and takes himself out of the picture, having acquired to some extent "some kind of robotic soul." Theologically I've got no qualms with Fingeroth's terminology, as it reminds me of a line from one of James Herriot's books in response to the question of whether or not animals have souls: "If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, than animals are better off than some humans."

This manages (for me, at any rate) to remove this story from the whole dreary Fight Story category and demonstrate what this comic should have been aiming for all along: characters with some dimensionality who aren't just going through the motions. While it may have taken an outsider (Fingeroth) to demonstrate this to the Sonic veterans, it'll be some time before we learn whether the lesson was lost on them, or if they learned anything at all. Heart Score: 10.

"Against The Haunted Past: Part 2"

Story: Frank Strom; Art: Frank Strom; Ink: Harvo; Lettering: Vickie Williams: Color: Frank Gagliardo; Editorial: G-Force.

The story resumes in "Kar Leung," but not before I revise my theory from last time. In the last review I stated that the village name was taken from the name of Chinese actor Tony Leung Kar Fai. However, since Frank Strom admitted to me in an exchange of e-mails that he was heavily influenced by Hong Kong kung fu films, I have to go on record now with the belief that the name, in fact, is an homage not to an actor but to a director: Lau Kar Leung , one of the stalwarts in the Shaw Brothers stable and director of such kung fu klassics as "The 36^th Chamber of Shaolin" (U.S. title: "The Master Killer"), "Dirty Ho" (which sounds like a movie about...forget it; too easy), and "Legendary Weapons of China." Just wanted to clear that up.

So, back to the story, which opens with a Khan/Robotnik reunion of sorts. The Doc, who's remodeled the Kar Leung Temple to serve as a roboticizer facility, orders General Hunn, a roboticized...well, I'm not sure WHAT the dude's species is supposed to be (something canid, I think) but in that horned helmet he looks appropriately demonic...to implant three microchips into the chimp's brain, thereby rendering him more controllable. Khan manages to break free with only one of the transmitters in place. Escaping from some SWATbots he finds the "core generator" and ponders how to destroy it. Some of Robotnik's troops, who burst in on Khan while shooting away, take care of that little problem themselves. Khan manages to get out before the Temple blows up, and finds himself contemplating the same state of affairs that greeted Sonic, Sally and the gang at the opening of "Brave New World."

HEAD: The only real problem I had with this story was its being paired with the Monkey Khan origin story in the last issue. These are two separate stories, the only link between them being the Khan/Robotnik rivalry. And that exists in name only: both Robotnik and Khan were different then. Otherwise, it's pretty basic stuff, well done. Head Score: 8.

EYE: Somehow, the more recent Khan looks good by comparison with the younger model of himself on display last month. Don't know why, but he does. The "face" on Robotnik's blimp is a nice touch as well. Eye Score: 7.

HEART: The story was pretty routine stuff (Khan escapes from Robotnik's clutches) right up until the last panel, when Strom demonstrates a firm grasp on the concept of "surprise ending." This had none of the sour taste that the ending of "Battle Royal" left in my mouth. That was an exercise in cynicism and a waste of time. Here, we suddenly realize that while Khan was preoccupied, the rest of Kar Leung had been trashed by Robotnik and the residents roboticized. In its own way it was as sobering as the scene from "Mulan" where the soldiers discover what was left of the village (and later, the General's army) after the Huns had gotten through with them. In a genre where heroics are routine, it's a change of pace to see the heroes come up empty every once in a while. It also reminds us how diabolical Robotnik can be. A surprisingly effective ending. Heart Score: 9.

In looking back over the scores for these two stories, I realize that I had misjudged the post-"Sonic Adventure" issues. I went into these issues thinking that they were essentially summer replacements, something to mark time until the beginning of a promised renaissance with S88. And while S85 was, indeed, on the weak side [a far more routine Sonic fight story followed by a token appearance by a weird-looking Rotor], the two two-parters by Fingeroth and Strom were very strong entries. In some ways, they even outclassed the "Sonic Adventure" arc that had preceded them. Not that hard of a task, actually, considering how little of the original storyline Ken and Karl had to work with. But having shaken the dust of THAT story line off their sandals, Ken and Karl are gearing up to introduced a new and improved couple of plots once Sonic and the gang get back to Knothole and once Knuckles comes to. We'll see.

Off-Panel/Sonic-Grams: In my own review of K32, I envisioned a scenario where Knuckles did not go gently into the good night of cancellation, so I thought going for a cheap laugh here was more like a cheap shot. Still, Justin gets his karmic comeuppance by announcing that the Pro Art will from now on appear in the Sonic Specials...which THEMSELVES got the axe last month. So the announcement accomplishes nothing since events have conspired to make Freddie look foolish. The "unending wave" of fan mail that came in about the "Sonic Adventure" adaptation must have slowed to a trickle; only one of the 4 letters on display (the one penned by David Yuan) deals with the SA arc at length, and even then he mainly points out discrepancies with the game and suggests "a pretty good back-up" story which sounds a lot like the narrative fig leaf that the creatives ended up hiding behind anyway. A thumbnail of S88 shows Sonic about to be roboticized by Uncle Chuck. There are also the Find Your Name page, the Fan Art page (with only Sonic and Tails on display in the header art this time; wondering if this bodes ill for the supporting cast?), and the Checklist. One sharp-eyed reader noted that Sonic subscriptions were listed for only 4 or 8 issues; actually, Archie stopped offering 1-year subscriptions to Sonic with the checksheet in S86. Knuckles, of course, never had more than a 6 issue subscription commitment from the management. Which brings us to:

SONIC DEATH WATCH:

Countdown to S100: 13

Odds of S100 appearing: 64-to-1 against.

And to put things in perspective, Ken recently informed people via his message board that he's presently inking his contribution to S91, so it's not as if he's got a lot of lead time.