2016 is Sonic the Hedgehog’s 25th Anniversary and I’ve been around since (almost) the start, in celebration of Sonic lasting so long I’m going to be posting a Long Look At Sonic the Comic issues 1 to 100, my favourite time period on one of my favourite comics and one of my favourite things about one of my favourite things – that’d be the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise- and this is that Long Look At.
< Part 9
Do you like plot twists?
You don’t? Tough shit, you have no taste, here’s Total Chaotix.
Total Chaotix
(Knuckles strip, issues 53-58)
Quick-ish Summary: Picking straight up where ‘Disaster!’
left off, Knuckles sets the Mater Emerald and the Chaos Emeralds up, checks on
the Emerald Hill Zone and then one of the craters made during his shoot out
with the Death Egg, there he finds a strange stone and is teleported straight
to the Special Zone. Once inside he’s met by Omni-Viewer, who’s files are out
of date and still thinks Knuckles is Eggman’s partner-in-crime, so he teleports
in the guardians of the Special Zone – The Chaotix – Vector, Mighty, Espio,
Charmy and…Nack the Weasel? As they flat out try to murder him Metallixes, yes,
two, are on the way, they turn up IN the Omni-Viewer (him having stopped the
Chaotix from killing a major character by checking his records while they were
about it) and steal him. Deducing the badniks must have come from Eggman’s old
Special Zone Base (remember that?) they head there, Mighty ruins the element of
surprise by smashing their way in and a Metallix is dispatched by its new boss
– Emperor Metallix, a giant red Metallix who is ‘converting’ Omni-Viewer.
Nack’s clumsiness ruins their attempt at hiding, Nack scarpers and the Metallix
appears to kill the Chaotix, pissing off Knuckles who spends an entire strip in
one long awesome barely successful attempt at beating the metal Sonic,
eventually shoving an iron girder through the bastard. Once the danger is over
Nack returns and it turns out the Chaotix aren’t dead, Mighty’s vast strength
saved htem (making up for it nearly getting them killed earlier I guess), Nack
appears to have scouted out where Omni-Viewer’s being held by Knuckles was in
battle, he takes them, avoiding the Metallix who still isn’t dead, just has an
iron girder shaped hole where his stomach blaster used to be. Swerve! Nack
betrays the team for money, Emperor Metallix is very pleased with Nack (who
also allowed them to access Omni) but doesn’t need him anymore so he’s going to
kill him. Nack de-shrinks a disruptor from his had but gets blasted before he
can use it, Knuckles takes it up and appears to beat the brotherhood with one
shot, that was easy. Omni returns Knuckles to the Floating Island and appears
undamaged but we cut back to the Special Zone and see that the Brotherhood
weren’t defeated at all, and they now have a copy of Omni-Viewer, who just to
remind everyone, can go anywhere and knows just about everything.
I’m going to assume that
Nigel Kitching didn’t play Knuckles’ Chaotix, or if he did he missed the whole
part about Eggman, and an island, and the Combi-Catcher and Dark Rings and the fact
that Fang isn’t in the game and the fact that Heavy and Bomb are. Total Chaotix
is a bloody good story but as an adaptation it’s pants – actually as an
adaptation it’s weird, it ignores (then) well known elements of the game (like
the combi-ring and the island) but includes elements only found in the Japanese
story of the game (an ancient ring with inscriptions) and things that were
barely mentioned at all (Metal Sonic’s stomach lasers – the Plasma Pulse
Attack); It could just be Kitching picking the bits he liked out but what the
hell was he working from? This was published the month after the game came out
in Europe and two months after its US release but it would have almost
certainly have been written more than a month before – I’m guessing he got some
kind of information in advance, but if Sega sent that to Fleetway why did
Archie have to do their Sonic Adventure adaptation from a summary from Pat Spaz
as he played a Japanese version of the game? Different management by then? Sega
of Europe being more courteous? I like to know stuff like this. The Special
Zone connection I get though, the Knuckles Chaotix Special Zones were really
hyped up, including in StC itself, so putting them so prominently in the story
makes sense (and I suppose so few people would play Chaotix that few people
were going to notice how different this story was). So as an adaptation Archie
wins this time; theirs was more accurate and Penders and Mawhinney did a pretty
good job of actually telling a story this time rather than showing us some
random bits from the game, but as a
story? Nah, Total Chaotix beats it by a mile.
I love Zonerunner and the
Flock, but I also admit that it’s not objectively a great story, this is a
story I love that is objectively a great
story and StC fans seem to know this too, considering it not only one of Kitching’s
best but possibly his best overall (I’m not sure I agree on that) – I figure
the three reasons it’s held so highly are first the plot twists, plot twists
that feel natural and come without ass-pulls are surprisingly hard to pull off,
especially in all-ages stories, but TC does it without any problems at all.
Secondly it pulls no punches, characters seem to be flat out murdered, the word
murderer is used in another example of subverting the ‘never say die’ trope and
the villains are merciless with everyone taking a brutal and visually obvious
beating. Lastly it’s a really good introduction to the characters and the
villains. On that if you’re only familiar with the Archie and/or Sega versions
of the Chaotix I should point out The Chaotix Crew (as they’ll become known in
this universe) are a little different, obviously they’re not detectives, nor
are they Knuckles’ personal superteam, they’re closer to straight up
superheroes and all but Charmy are much more serious (though not necessarily
more competent), Vector’s the straight man rather than Espio and a lot more
technically proficient having neither his ‘hip hop croc’ nor his buffoonish
qualities; Mighty is a lot angrier and Epsio a lot more impatient, they bicker
constantly, Charmy is Charmy, exactly the same as Post-Sonic Heroes except he
has this strange vocal tick, adding things like ‘diddly-doo’ to words. Nack
is…not to different, he’s less of a joke, and doesn’t have the tantrums that he
has in Archie, he’s more sinister and will develop a gimmick for shrinking things
rather than shooting them (Sonic the Fighters having not been localised to the
UK, and not being out for a while yet anyway). Back to it being a good
introduction – the characters come across well, their personalities and powers
get across and the villains come across as a big threat - ruthless, powerful
and imposing – and all of this is achieved without anyone feeling anything
close to anything Mary-Sue-ish.
Anyway Total Chaotix feels
like the focus of these issues, which had the number of Sonic’s world strips
reduced back to two so we could adapt Sparkster and sequel Kid Chameleons (with
a bloody cliffhanger that I still want resolved but will never see because unfunny
Tails strips are somehow a better use of time and space), the Sonic strips all
feel like filler episodes, they are however all good filler episodes: Beware Predicto (Sonic strip, issue 54) has a
silly name but it’s the best one-and-done Stringer’s turned in so far, Grimer
makes a new Supers Trooper and programs it all the data on the Freedom
Fighters, so it can predict their actions in battle, it does well until Sonic
blows it’s mind by doing something out of character (surrendering, in this
case). Pretty standard Saturday-morning-cartoon fair, but it’s well written,
well-paced and has good dialogue pretty much throughout, Casanovas is on art
and does a very good job, even if he does draw the Mushrom Hill Zone off-model
(I reckon he just did what the script asked and drew ‘large mushrooms’ or
something) that said this panel is exactly how a mushroom breaks, especially if
an echidna falls on it:
The only gripes are that inaccuracy and that there’s another continuity hiccup in having Eggman based in the Special Zone (which Eggman abandoned before Knuckles turned up) but the lab could be anywhere (Robotnik’s now based in the Metropolis Zone), I think it was just a mistake (or it could have been an inventory story written between Power of the Chaos Emeralds and Day of the Death Egg I guess).
The Great Escape! (Sonic strips, issues 55-56)
Quick Summary: Robotnik is now based in Citadel
Robotnik in the Metropolis Zone but is having no luck with the Emerald Hill
Folk, the Zone is now deserted. Sonic fails at stealth twice in one strip as he
and the Freedom Fighters sneak into a Badnik Processing Plant, but we get a
cool fight scene out of it and while Sonic takes out the guard, a huge unnamed
lizard with a whip, the Freedom Fighters heard the captive Emerald Hill Folk
into…a broom cupboard? Turns out the box they carried in there included a Star
Post, and it turns out that box has rocket thrusters, allowing Sonic (who had
to stay behind to get the Star Post out again) to fly out of there after
humiliating the guard a second time.
Nothing much to say here, a
good little two-parter from Kitching and Corona setting up the Freedom Fighters’
mission to free all the Emerald Hill Folk to protect them from a vengeful
Robotnik – there’s a better breakout storyline coming but this was fine, I wish
Kitching had given the guard a name though. And it features the debut of Eggman’s
base from now until issue 100 ruins his life for him: Citadel Robtonik, it’s
very similar to the one he had in SatAM & Archie, only this one is shaped
like his head, I like it the best of all his bases in StC, it feels very
dictator-ish while the others were more the bases of a typical super-villain I
thought, the type used by your average take-over-the-world sort, not one who
has already taken over that world.
The Rampage of Mekanik (Sonic strips, issues 57-58)
Well it’s been a whole
strip since Stringer used Shortfuse, better bring him back, luckily he’s
fighting Kaiju. Quick Summary: the
Emerald Hill Zone is empty, so acting on Grimer’s advice Robtonik releases
Mekanik into the Stone Tower Zone, a Zone he rarely bothers with. Mekanik is
giant robot tyrannosaurs that breathes fire – fuck yeah. Sonic, Amy and Johnny
are on-hand though, they got rumours something big was going down, excuse my
terrible pun, but Sonic can’t do any damage, Shortfuse is also investigating
Badnik activity in the area, his lasers are about as useful. With Tails not
around (I’ll get to that) Sonic uses Shorty in the same manner in attempt to
attack the head, it doesn’t go well, Shorty gets fire-breathed out of the sky
and Sonic is about to be eaten for the cliffhanger. Amy and Johnny dig the
Cybernik up and he saves Sonic from being a Mekanik meal, uneaten the blue one
has an idea, he has Shorty focus his lasers on one small part of Mekanek to
weaken it enough for his spin attack to break it, he then gets inside Mekanik
and smashes the fuck out of his workings, the giant badnik falls.
Sonic the Hedgehog versus
Mecha-Godzilla! That is what I just read, and it was fucking fantastic. Not to
sound shallow or anything but sometimes all I want from a story is a kaiju, a
believable ending and some funny puns, that’s what I got, I’m satisfied. Sonic
and Shortfuse play off each other brilliantly, it boils down to: Sonic: “yeah,
yeah, you did stuff, whatever I did cooler stuff” Shortfuse: “WHAT!?!” – fun
stuff, well written. And he’s not fucking shilling him, that’s cos Sonic
doesn’t shill anyone; no one is as good as Sonic in Sonic’s mind so it would
have been REALLY jarring if he had (Johnny and Amy still kinda talk him up, but
it’s one panel and it’s not too bad). Bonus points go to not having Shorty come
up with the plan, he’s essential to the success but it’s Sonic’s idea and
Sonic’s victory in Sonic’s strip, anything else would have been…annoying. So it
may have taken three stories but I finally have one to prove to all you
non-existent readers that Shorty is as cool (and well handled) as I remember,
thank fuck, I was starting to get worried and slightly depressed.
And as a rare treat both
Kitching and Stringer worked on this, with Kitching providing the art and
proving how ill-suited he is to Sonic’s world strips, his random Mobians are so
far from the Sega style they look like Mr Men, no I know what they look like - they
look like Rhubarb & Custard, no one on Mobius looks like Rhubarb and
Custard Nige. He does redeem himself by drawing Mekanik great (he seems to have
more of an affinity for big engines of destruction) and by being very well
suited to the barren feel of the Stone Tower Zone. Actually that’s a point,
this story really begins the nasty trendy of ‘insert applicable tenuous theme’
Zones, there will be more, especially after issue 100 (Eldorado Zone!?!? bloody
Eldorado Zone!?!?).
Oh yes, the ‘Tails is not
in this story’ thing. An editor’s note caption box (well a Megadroid’s note
caption box) says that Tails is busy on his own adventure in the Special Zone –
except he’s not, Knuckles is, so either someone fucked up and either thought
Tails was starring in Total Choatix or put Special Zone instead of Nameless
Zone (where his next story-arc would be set) or we never saw this story for
some reason or another.
Next time Lew
Stringer turns in the best story he’ll write for a long time and a truly
terrifying villain enters the Sonic the Hedgehog Rouge’s gallery – that’s
right: Mr Blobnik. Finally this is legitimately my favourite thing that Richard
Elson has ever drawn:
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