SSS13 [2K]

Spaz solo cover, utilizing the game models of Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, Robotnik, and Amy Rose. And no, I don't know what's supposed to happen at 9:15 on September 7, 2000 (as displayed on Amy Rose's cell phone). All I can say with any certainty is: it's a Thursday. Definitely a Thursday.

"Sonic Adventure". Like we didn't know.

"Co-plotters": Karl Bollers and Ken Penders; Script: Karl Bollers; Art: Ron Lim (debut); Ink: Andrew Pepoy; Coloring: John and Aimee Ray; Lettering: Jeff Powell; Editorial: G-Force.

Two pages of exposition bring the reader up to speed, including those of us who have been following this since S79. One nit to pick: it's "Tikal" with a K; let's get it right. Also, I've been informed that you have to have Tails bump into a particular echidna during his flashback to reveal the name of the echidna chief: Pachamac. Just on a hunch, I tried entering the name into Lycos and discovered that Pachamac was the creator deity in the ancient Incan cosmology. Significance? Probably as much as there is in the use of kabbalistic symbols as window-dressing in the anime series "Neon Genesis: Evangelion." For that matter, according to Antonia Levi, Americans do the same thing:

it's really no different from the image American film makers try to create when they use sets involving multi-armed Hindu statues to indicate something dark and mysterious. They have nothing against Hinduism. They probably know nothing about it and, more importantly, neither does their audience. Those multi-armed statues help create a spooky atmosphere precisely because they do represent the exotic unknown. Anime treats Christianity, and Hinduism for that matter, in much the same way. [Samurai From Outer Space, p63]

So, back at the hotel Tails is hovering like crazy (as opposed to just standing with both feet on the ground and keeping his tails in motion as in the game) as the Mayor congratulates Sonic for failing to subdue Chaos Zero while he just HAPPENS to drop the name "Perfect Chaos" (which, as someone on one of the lists has pointed out, is something of an oxymoron since anything in a state of chaos is far from perfect). At this point Nate, in order to justify his expense account report, contributes to the movement of the narrative and asks whatever happened to Amy Rose.

Sonic, in a burst of deductive reasoning, thinks something's happened to her because "Amy's bed is still made up from yesterday." Then again, this IS a hotel and since Sonic grew up in the communally self-sufficient environment of Knothole, he may not be clear on the concept of "maid service."

Sally then makes sure that the non-game characters get out of the way of the plot. She assigns Bunnie and Antoine to look for Amy Rose throughout the city. Of course, they won't find her, since she was hog-napped by bots back in "A Rose Plucked" (S81). Sally and Nate, meanwhile, drop in at the Public Library and try to render the back story more needlessly confusing than it already is. This is accomplished by stating that: a) Chaos was originally a deity worshiped by the Chao; b) the Chao (apparently there were only seven) absorbed energy from Chaos and transformed into seven "Super Emeralds" which were then dispersed across the globe; and c) Amy Rose is packing energy from one of those emeralds having wished upon the Ring of Acorns back in S79. This is WAY more than you need to tell the story, but it does assign the non-game characters enough basket-weaving to keep them busy for the remainder of the comic.

Maybe I'd better explain "basket-weaving." It wasn't that long ago that the institutionalized mentally handicapped were taught basket-weaving as a form of occupational therapy. The practice has fallen out of favor with mental health professionals, and is used here as a term to describe busy work that gets some characters out of the story loop. But the original usage lives on in the line "basket weavers who sit and smile" in the demented classic by Napoleon XIV, They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha Haaa!

But we're wandering pretty far afield so let's cut to the chase. After all, that pretty much describes a large part of the plot: chasing and fighting.

Sonic and Tails fly out to the "Mystic Ruins" though in the game they're just as accessible by rapid transit. They're greeted on their arrival by Knuckles, and all three of them are greeted by Zero Chaos. In the course of the ensuing fight Chaos absorbs two Chaos Emeralds that Knuckles got from...wait a minute...uh...sorry, there's been NO mention of Knuckles acquiring any Emeralds up until now. Unless you want to count the two fragments of the Master Emerald that Knuckles stuffed inside his mittens for safe keeping in "All You Need Is A Bit Of Chaos" (S81). Which pretty much sums up the Archie approach to story continuity.

Granted it was a tricky bit of business from the start. The game acknowledged one Master Emerald which Robotnik fragmented and which Knuckles then had to retrieve piece by piece in order to see to it that the Floating Island once again lived up to its name.

But the ME, according to the little ditty quoted by Tikal, is the Controller that unifies the Servers: the seven Chaos Emeralds. These have also appeared in other, earlier Sonic games.

You wouldn't know it, though, from reading Archie Comics. Put simply, Archie's creatives have stated that there is a Master Emerald, period. And it contained Mammoth Mogul, whose liberation in "The Chaos Factor" (S79) has yet to BE a factor in this story line. Don't feel you have to bring him back into the loop any time soon, Ken.

I think I can see where this is going: since Ken and Karl came up with the notion that the seven Chaos Emeralds (which I'll refer to as "Servers" in deference to Tikal and the game) are transmogrified Chao, they'll subsequently become the Chao babies that appear at the climax of the game once Super Sonic defeats Perfect Chaos. Well, "defeat" isn't the best term...but I'm getting ahead of myself.

So Knuckles serves up two Servers, which Chaos assimilates to become Chaos II thanks to a couple ME shards that Tails made a dive for but which were snatched back by Robotnik. This differs again from the game in that Chaos never needed ME shards to morph, only Servers.

To their credit, the gang tries a collaborative move to slow down Chaos II the Land Shark by encasing him in a glass bubble. I don't think this could happen in the game, even in multiple-player mode, but it's nice to see the gang working together, even if the results are futile and both Chaos II and Robotnik escape.

Then, instead of cutting to the chase, we cut the chase from Big The Cat's part of the game. Like just about anyone else in the game, he takes the train to the Ancient Ruins and eventually winds up on Robotnik's latest flying fortress, the Egg Carrier. This time around, Ken and/or Karl have the inspiration of locating the Egg Carrier underwater (instead of deep in the jungle, as in the game) and having Big's rowboat right on top of the thing as it lifts off. As shortcuts go, this one works for me!

Sonic and Tails, meanwhile, are back in the plane and we get a 3-page recap of the get-Tails's-plane-to-the-Egg-Carrier part of the game. We then see Knuckles heading off in pursuit, and in one panel on page 24 we see one of the sub-games hidden within the game proper as Sonic has to toggle certain panels on the bridge of the Egg Carrier on and off to make things happen. Other sub-games include a raceway game in Twinkle Park, some pinball action in the Station Square casino, a Chao diaper derby, and Amy Rose using her mallet to play a variant of Bop The Gopher or whatever it's called.

Sonic and Tails climb down a ladder and end up looking at the business end of Gamma. As they're dodging bullets or whatever it is Gamma's firing at them, Knuckles has a premonition of Sonic and Tails aboard the Egg Carrier, and no sooner does he have the premonition than...he's there! In the game, BTW, once he has his Tikal flashback, he finds himself back at the altar which held the ME. He then spies Gamma and follows it to the Egg Carrier where it's still on the forest floor. The comic version is a bit more confusing, but the writers closed off the game route for Knuckles to take so they had to do SOMETHING!

Back on deck, Sonic gets the better of Gamma and is about to administer the coup de grace when Amy prevents him from doing so and FINALLY gets some dialogue! I still think it would have helped if her game scene with Gamma had been more fully played out, but Ken has stated that he and Karl didn't have much to go on besides Pat Spaziante's playing of the game. In addition, their work faced some serious rewriting once it left their hands. If a camel is indeed a horse designed by committee, I'm beginning to think that "Chaos" is really a story done by committee.

Big, meanwhile, has reconnected with Froggy which shows its gratitude by hurling up a Chaos Emerald which "looks like this other one that I found on the way here!" Except that they're different colors. But that's academic as Robotnik feeds THOSE to Chaos and it morphs into Chaos VI. Or is that Chaos IV? They've either missed an incarnation somewhere along the way, or they're saving it for later.

Tails and Amy Rose evacuate the sinking ship, as does Gamma. Big manages to extricate Froggy (whose weakness for sparklies appears to rival that of Jeremy the Crow from The Secret of NIMH) from Chaos's gullet or whatever, leaving Sonic and Knuckles to tackle Chaos. Ken and/or Karl throw in some "ice bots" to make the job harder, but Sonic ends up using one of them to freeze Chaos solid thus making him easier to hit. Not that that accomplishes much. With the ship going down, Robotnik, Chaos, Sonic and Knuckles all escape and await the next installment.

HEAD: Necessity created some complications that the writers managed to escape. Once again, the bit with Big in the rowboat was a good touch. In other respects, though, they had to cheap it out (getting Knuckles on board the Egg Carrier) or else simply fake it (where DID those first two Server Emeralds come from?). And with that it's back to the back stories, while the main story has two more issues to run. Head Score: 6.

EYE: Ron Lim makes his debut to mixed results. He's got Sonic, Knuckles and Robotnik right, which is what you need to pass the audition, I suppose. His ancillary characters, though, need a lot of work. Sally and Bunnie especially look rough around the edges. And Tails! Ron depicts him as an adolescent undergoing a growth spurt: all arms and legs and way too much headfur. He looks like he and Sonic go to the same hair stylist. Eye Score: 5.

HEART: Amy Rose stands up for Gamma and Big is reunited with Froggy, but that's about as emotionally involved as this story is going to get. Heart Score: 5.

Off-Panel: Fortunately, I was able to watch the game on tape. If I had to PLAY that sucker, I'd have to stop having a life. I'm just not that good at video games, I'll be the first to admit it. This way, thanks to Andrew Sautter, I get all the graphics and none of the grief. Ken and Karl should have been so lucky.

Sonic-Grams: Justin [or somebody] gives us a tour of the cutting-room floor. Of all the sequences described, the "death" of Gamma is the most impressive in the game. It's also something you've seen a hundred times if you're a devotee of samurai movies. Letters: It's no surprise that they have to repeat Sally's species for the benefit of Nightwolf; the Sonic part of the Archie Comics Web site (which STILL lists Sally's middle name as "Elisha") is pretty stale. Memo to Tamara Lucas: you state that it's "kinda cheesy...and kinda silly" for the comic to rely on so many zone plots. Go with the feeling, kid.