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 17
Welcome to a period of Sonic
the Comic I’m not that fond of but was actually a big part of my childhood, the
‘Trapped in the Special Zone’ era (which technically began last part with Mister
Shifter). I should love this era – The Chaotix, some of my favourite characters
in the franchise, are in it the whole time (and to the writer’s credit, the
Chaotix are always great in these stories), as much as I like StC Amy, Johnny
and Tails they’re not The Chaotix.
The truth is though, Kitching and Stringer will totally squander the potential
of the location to satiate their desire to take the piss – but not right away –
the first few arcs ‘The Tomb’ and ‘The Hive’ use the potential of the Special
Zone fully and are great AND while their work on the Sonic strip (and Tails,
but that’s beyond hope for a while) will be a complete let down their work on
Knuckles and Sonic’s World will be some of the best they’ll ever do. Oh and
issue 89 has the best cover the series had pre-reprints, nothing else Sonic is
as Halloweeny or phallic as this:
The Tomb (Sonic strip, issues 89-90)
Quick Summary: Sonic gets in touch with the Freedom
Fighters to bring them up to speed as he and the Chaotix take Super Sonic (in
Omni-Viewer) to the Black Asteroid, a an abandoned gemstone mine where they’re
going to leave Super Sonic and blow the only entrance. But Nack the Weasel is
back, using his shrinking capsules, he shrinks the entire set of heroes down,
crashing the Chaotix’ ship in the process because a tiny Vector cannot steer a
Charmy-shaped ship, Nack has come to steal Super Sonic for Lord Sidewinder and
traps the tiny Chaotix. Sonic, despite being his size, still manages to
spin-attack with enough force and then uses Nack’s shrinking capsules against
him, only for the sniper to shrink and shrink, appearing to shrink into
nothing. Vector, who can work the capsules, restores them and they complete
their mission, leaving Super Sonic behind and thus grinding the story to a
complete fucking halt until issue 96.
Oh, hey another Shrinking
Episode, though this one is… well it isn’t creative because shrinking episodes
never are, but it’s a shite sight better than Small Change, mostly because the
shrinking isn’t really the focus of the story, it’s just the weapon Nack uses,
in fact it’s really not used as anything different to how Kitching uses any
other weapon so it feels a lot less like a shrinking episode. it’s also
atmospheric (I love that word) and featuring some fantastic art by Nigel
Kitchen and some fantastic colours by Steve White, even if he can’t get anyone
the right colour he makes everything look so 3D and pleasing to the eye. And he
helps with making the Black Asteroid feel enclosed and the group really feel
like they’re trapped somewhere deep and alone, in fact it’s that whole feeling
– that this happening inside this empty rock where no one can help and they are
utterly alone – that makes the story stand out I find.
The Good, The Bad and the
Echidna (Knuckles strip, issues 87-90)
From ripping off The Wicker
Man to ripping off every western ever recorded, the excellent Kitching/Dobbin
Knuckles run continues. Quick Summary:
While crossing the Mobian Prairie on his way to the Metropolis Zone Knuckles is
caught in a stampeding heard of Apterik, a stampede that nearly kills the
animals’ owner Rooster. Rooster’s ally Chito the Rabbit is convinced Knuckles
is the one responsible for several sabotage attempts during their Apterik drive
and though Rooster is unsure, they take him to nearby Backwater Town where he’s
put in an all steel cage by the deputy, filling in until the Sherriff comes
back. The captive gets a visit from the deputy’s pa and mayor of Backwater –
Boss Krouch, another Apterik owner and Rooster’s chief rival, Knuckles figures
out he’s probably behind the sabotages and Rooster agrees. Chito, the real saboteur,
is worried that when the Sherriff gets back Knuckles will be found innocent and
he found guilty, so Krouch organises a lynching whereupon Knuckles is saved by
the Sherriff. That Sherriff chucks out Krouch Jr and makes Knuckles temporary
deputy while they clear his name, Rooster carries onto Metropolis Zone and
Knuckles starts a bar fight apprehending Chito (it’s a western, you gotta have
a bar fight) who, being a sneaky Mexican stereotype, tells Knuckles al he wants
to know – Krouch has already left town, intending to finish of Rooster himself.
Knuckles cons a confession out of Boss
Krouch by dressing as Chito (he has apparently seen Adventures of Sonic the
Hedgehog) and as the Sherrif deals with the Krouch mob, Knuckles deals with
their boss, but he falls forma cliff with a vial of Apterik…pheromone I
think…that drives them crazy, they stampede and kill him (my god).
TV Tropes like to say
‘tropes are not bad’ and this story proves it, everything from every western
Kitching and Dobbyn grew up with must be in here and it’s pretty damn glorious
because of it (well except Chito’s a bit racist really), I bet the pair of them
had a bloody marvellous time doing this arc. Maybe it’s not so enjoyable if you
haven’t been exposed to as many westerns as I have, my paternal grandfather is
a Western obsessive and watches two or three a day (at least) and I usually
spent two days a week in his house during my entire childhood – that’s a lot of
cowboys – so I’m very familiar with the genre and it’s trapping but surely
everyone can recognise things like deputizing the hero, bar fights, driving
cattle, dodgy rich bastards, slimy Mexicans and such right? Even if it’s only on
a subconscious level. I will again point out the bizarre choice of references
re: the intended audience though, I doubt many 7 year olds have seen True Grit
(except me, obviously, but most grandparents presumably aren’t massive cowboy
nerds).
I do remember this being a
lot slower paced though, hmm, maybe because it’s quite decompressed? It’s five
parts, so two and a half months, which is an eternity to a nipper - but in
reality it’s really busy, in fact I’d call it fast paced as fuck - with one
western cliché after another gleefully thrown at the reader, I can’t decide if
this is a negative or not, it feels fast paced but is it really too fast paced, or are we just all so
accustomed to decompressed Brian Michael Bendis writing for the trade that it
feels like it? I think another part wouldn’t have hurt things, so I’m leaning
towards it actually being a little too fast paced but I’m still not sure.
With issue 89 Sonic’s World
begins to have a regular focus - from now until issue 100 it will be focussing
on what the Freedom Fighters are up to while Sonic’s in the Special Zone,
pretty damn sensible really, and will be written by Lew Stringer almost
exclusively. The first in this ‘new era’ for the strip is A New Hope (Sonic’s World Strip, issue 89),
whereupon the Freedom Fighters are outnumbered and saved by Shortfuse the
Cybernik, who agrees to join them, again pretty sensible – this time in and out
of cannon: it gets both sets of characters in the strip and Shorty makes up for
their loss of Sonic by being the team’s new powerhouse, but just because it
seems sensible on paper Freedom Fighters, doesn’t mean it is in practice. The
script’s kind of average but not really offensive, the art however is Carl
Flint as his worst, everything I’ve already complained about is out in full and
I want to punch puppies.
The Hive (Sonic strip, issues 91-92)
Quick Summary: Unable to sleep for worrying about how
to return home, Sonic sees Charmy being ‘kidnapped’ by bees from The Hive, who
have been ordered to bring him home to the Queen, a home that manufactures
gold. Sonic agrees to speak on his behalf (against his better judgement) and
finds out the problem is… Charmy hasn’t phoned home for months, yes the Queen
is his mum and she’s not happy with her boy and she wants him back home to
stay, thankfully Vesper and his wasps attack. The Wasp Marauders make the
throne room, though Sonic beats up and thoroughly humiliates Vesper they’re
outnumbered so Sonic convinces the queen to surrender, Charmy assures his mum
they have a plan, they don’t – yet. But by the time they’ve got all the wasps
in one place Sonic’s thought of one – he Megatoxes them – creating a vortex
with his speed and blowing them out The Hive. Sonic uses the gratitude (and a
law about the rewards for someone who saves The Hive) to allow Charmy to come
home with him (against his better judgement)
.
I’ve read literally
thousands of comics, I have no idea how many but 22,000 is a conservative
estimate (no that isn’t a joke) and none of them remind me more of Christmas
that this strip. I can read this in a heatwave in the middle of July and still
feel like it’s dark by five pm, its cold and raining out, it’s only a few weeks
to Christmas, I’m counting down the days until school ends and there’s the
after taste of advent calendar chocolate still in my mouth. Some of this is
Steve White and his cold colours but mostly it’s just because this was
published in November/December but I really felt the need to share that. On
another note, isn’t it odd how two different writers in two different countries
both decided to make Charmy royalty? As far as I know this wasn’t a Sega thing,
it was something that Kitching and Penders came up with independently of each
other – maybe the fun in having annoying little Charmy Bee turn out to be
important was just too good to ignore?
The story itself is very
enjoyable; Rob Corona is the perfect choice to draw the bees and wasps, he
already draws everything shorter, squatter and rounder and that’s bees all over
really isn’t it? I really like the Wasps too, Vesper is quite clearly based on
Genghis Khan but that’s nothing to hold against him, I’d’ve liked to have seen
his revenge on Sonic and Charmy, pity we won’t – the rest of the Special Zone
issues before the Countdown to Doomsday arc are just going to be parody filler.
Secret Weapon (Sonic’s World strip, issues 90-91)
Shortfuse’s fist mission
with the team is a go! Quick Summary:
Johnny buys some information from a rat informant about a secret weapon being
transported in the Gum Tree Zone, it’s a set up. They dispatch the Troopers but
the secret weapon turns out to be another Cybernik, Vermin, whose Johnny’s
snout and wants to be a super badnik, and he’s more than a match for
Shorty AND the Freedom Fighters and he has a tail that inject computer viruses,
taking Shorty out of the fight. Luckily Amy remembers the titular Gum Trees are
corrosive to metal and shoots some, the battle is thus won but all they
achieved was making Vermin temporarily flee for basic repairs. Tekno is able to
flush the virus from her Cybernik buddy.
 |
| "Why are you here master, when you should be running a global empire?" "Rule of cool my ratty subordinate, rule of cool" |
FORESHADOWING STRINGER, DO
YOU SPEAK IT!?!
I’m sorry for using a meme,
I feel bad, I really do, but seriously the Gum Tree resolution comes out of
nowhere, it’s like watching someone play with their action features “Vermin has
a computer virus tail! And then, and then Amy shoots the trees which are made
of acid and Vermin didn’t even know they were acid and he has to run away” and
it ruins what was otherwise a really cool debut for the evil Cybernik. Vermin
is fucking cool, he’s so cool he makes being shiny pink look threatening, he
feels like such a big threat in this story – the Freedom Fighters don’t even
really win so much as just put off the rest of the fight until later. I think
what works about it, and doesn’t make Vermin look over-powered, is that his power-level feels correct – we know the
Cyberniks are physically more powerful than the other Freedom Fighters (hell
that’s why they wanted Shorty to join last issue) and Vermin is only able to
defeat Shorty via having something specifically made by Robotnik to do so,
without his virus tail the two were shown to be equal in power. Vermin should
have become Cybernik’s long-term nemesis but sadly he’ll only be used once or twice more
and that’ll be before issue 100 – I think StC-O brought him back, did they?
Anyway Corona’s on art and Andy Prichett’s on colours and that’s a combination
alone that makes this strip worth reading, but the gum tree thing bothers me
and hopefully it’ll bother you.
Shanghaied (Captain Plunder strip, issues 91-93)
Replacing Knuckles being
fantastic for a few issues is Captain Plunder being fantastic, and it’s a
Kitching/Elson strip - yay! Quick
Summary: Having attached a Star Post to
his ship (Filch’s idea) Captain Plunder is in New Tek City but waiting for his
press gang to rustle up some new crew members, unforutantely al the get is one
bloke and even more so it’s Proctor Speckle – alias Lord Sidewind’s own
personal Mr Hyde – Mr Fry. After eating Plunder’s chocolate he walks the plank,
but as sharks circle him in the water he works the stopper free from his potion
and transforms, but not before a lot more potion than he intended goes into the
water. Fry wrecks Plunder’s pirates but it turns out he’s happy to join Plunder
and even cooks him some shark stakes, unfortunately the sharks who got some of
the potion have transformed into awesome monster sharks. Fry takes on the
Sharks but transforms back to Speckle mid-way through, leaving Plunder to
finish them off (and fish Simpson the Cat out of their stomachs), Speckle is
last seen leaving in Plunder’s last chest of rum truffles.
I really enjoy this arc, it’s
pretty quick, pretty simple and really I think is just around to remind us that
the Sidewinder gang still exist so the Sonic strip can dick about until
Countdown to Doomsday but its so much fun! Captain Plunder, Simpson and Filch
make such a great comedy threesome and Kitching has got ‘em playing off each
other wonderfully by now. Elson makes those transformed sharks look so good;
they are fucking toyetic as all get out – it’s a problem with StC, a good one I
suppose but still a problem - so many characters only appeared once or twice
(The Flock, Dr Zachary, Vermin, The Leaf) but they’re so cool looking and so
memorable my mind builds them up to be bigger than they are – Metamorphia had
more story arcs than Dr Zachary but Zachary is undoubtedly Knuckles’ StC
nemesis in my eyes (and I think in many others too, yes?), when I think of how
many times Stringer used Fabian fucking Vane rather when he could have used
Vermin or that panther with the boxing gloves or any number of characters left
around. I understand the ‘professional courtesy’ of not using other writer’s
characters (meaning Stringer wouldn’t really have used Zachary or The Flock)
but they still could have reused their own damn creations!
Anyway back to this strip,
which is great and features one of the best gags in the series – Captain
Plunder smashing a ‘Shark Repellent’ emergency window and it containing a giant
mallet that he then uses to beat the bejeezus out of three giant mansharks.
Gags are always better when they end up making the title character look fucking
badass. So yes, this is another ‘buried gem’ for the series, file it next to
Future Shock, Double Trouble and Zonerunner & The Big Freeze please.
 |
This really fucks with my layout but
I wanted to show you all the sharks
Reading all these together
it’s surprising how strong the first half of the Trapped in the Special Zone
era was, it was very bitty – my format for these Look Ats might not make it
seem that way but it is, lots of two parters, but by and large it was really
quite good. That’s all over now! I was going to do the rest of the
one-and-dones but I see there’s a bunch of story-arcs I may or may not have
forgotten about as well, so I’m gonna end this part here and do them next time
so…
Next Time:
Dicking about before Doomsday!
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