Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 21

Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 21
Publication Date: January 1995

I’ve been quick to praise Art Mawhinney as the artist who defined what Archie’s “Sonic the Hedgehog” comic looks like to me. And that’s true. Art took the design style from the SatAM series and made it work in a comic book. However, another artist would bring his own attitude and style to the series. Mostly through a long-running series of cover illustration, Patrick “Spaz” Spaziante would come the closest to making Sonic the Hedgehog and his gang look cool.

“The 3 Phases of E.V.E.” is also a pretty good story for Spaz to start on, contributing both the cover and the interior artwork. Sick of having his schemes wrecked, Robotnik cooks up what is maybe his most powerful robot yet. Combining his and Sonic’s DNAs with powerful nano-machines and a learning intelligence, he creates E.V.E. The shape-shifting machine can assume any form. When destroyed, it simply reshapes itself into something new. Every loss is a learning experience and E.V.E. becomes more dangerous in each new transformation. It’s a hard lesson Sonic and Tails learn for themselves. By the end of this story, an important member of the Sonic universe will die! Probably…. Not.

Really, you have to talk about Spaz’ pencil work before anything else. Spaziante was the first artist to work on “Sonic” that was heavily influenced by Japanese manga and video games. (Since Sonic himself is a Japanese video game, I’m surprise it took them this long.) Spaz’ work is far more dynamic then what usually appears in these pages. There’s a sense of movement and action to everything he draws, even when it’s just Robotnik and Snivley standing at a desk. He doesn’t always obey the typical comic book rules, stretching and sticking panels in all sorts of interesting, fresh directions. Spaz’ work is also extremely detailed, bringing a focus and attention to the characters and their environment not previously seen. It would take a while before Spaz truly got the hang of these characters, as Sonic and Tails go off model a few times. But it’s the most cinematic Sonic has ever looked to this point and it helps makes issue 21 feel like a special story.

E.V.E. is, honestly, one of Robotnik’s most clever creations. It’s a machine that basically can’t be destroyed by any traditional means. Sonic crushes it, smashes it, and slices it up, but she always reforms herself as something more dangerous. Those forms maybe aren’t the most inspired. E.V.E. starts off as a robot that looks like the combination of a SWATBot and Samus from “Metroid.” Its second form is the meanest looking Buzzbumper ever created. For the third try, E.V.E. becomes a giant cobra. The forms may not be the most inspired but E.V.E.’s sheer tenacity and refusal to die makes her a viable threat. Sonic is extra clever and fast in this issue, using the environment against the robot. Yet it’s still not enough. No matter what he dishes out, E.V.E. will always come back for more.

Naturally, the comic would never be able to function with a villain that powerful being a continuous presence. So Issue 21 kind of has to cop out at the end. In her finale form, which looks like a crystalline brain with a face and tentacles, E.V.E. turns against her master. Realizing Robotnik’s programming is holding her back, E.V.E. zaps Robotnik, seemingly killing him. Sonic then talks the super-machine out of killing him, telling her that she can live her own life. So that’s kind of a disappointing end to the story. Robotnik’s “death” is a pretty big deal but Sonic using his words to dissuade the machine from mass murder is a bit of an anti-climax. Despite her potential, E.V.E. wouldn’t appear again until Issue 128, where she was killed off.

However, the artwork is really good and the story is very exciting for most of its run. The last panel more-or-less admits that Robotnik’s seeming demise would be very short-lived. Still, Issue 21 is definitely a land-mark issue for Archie’s “Sonic.” [8/10]