Tails (Mini-Series): Issue 2

 
Tails (Mini-Series): Issue 2
Publication Date: November 1995

In my review of the first issue of “Tails,” I said that it was all right that Tails was a little inexperienced. He’s still growing up. However, issue two returns to the same pattern a little too closely. His new aquatic friends carry Tails the rest-of-the-way to Downunda. There, he sets out in stopping Crocbot’s plan. This, however, does not go according to plan. A horde of robotic Wing Dingoes show up and beat the shit out of Tails. The fox’s extraordinary luck continues when the Downunda Freedom Fighters show up to kick ass. Battered, Tails is carried to the mysterious Great Crater to be healed by the terribly mysterious Athair. Meanwhile, Wombat Stu, a member of the Downunda Freedom Fighters, is captured and interrogated by Crocbot.

 

Like I said, Tails slipping up once or twice is fine since he’s still new to this heroing thing. However, to have nearly the exact same circumstances befall him again in the next issue is pushing it a little far. In both issues, Tails tries to take down some bad guys, succeeds in offing a few, before getting his ass whipped, necessitating a new group of heroes to appear and rescue him. Keep in mind, we’re already pass the half-way point here. Combine the first two issues and Tails spends about a third of his solo series unconscious! It definitely doesn’t make him seem like the most proactive protagonist, that’s for sure.

What writer Mike Gallagher seems far more invested in is his own creations. Just as the first issue introduced the Forty Fathom Freedom Fighters, the second issue introduces the Downunda Freedom Fighters. As I’ve mentioned before, I like the idea that there are other Freedom Fighter groups out there on Mobius, looking to stem Robotnik’s empire in every corner of the globe. As a kid, I always liked this team. They are all composed of native Australian animals. On one hand, that makes them one-step shy of being national stereotypes. On the other hand, I like the multicultural element that brings. The designs are straight-forward and appealing. Most importantly, with the exception of anachronistic hippy Guru Emu who does nothing but stand around bitching, they are all very tough characters. They decimate a team of robots with their bare hands. Barby Koala karate chops a robot dingo in half, for example.

(Also, Walt Wallabe has a pouch, despite only female wallabes having those. The obvious answer to this confusion is that Mike Gallagher couldn’t bother to look up wallaby physiology or assumed viewers wouldn’t notice or care. Looking at it now, it’s kind of fun to imagine that Walt is transgendered and the Sonic comic has secretly had an LGBT character right out there in the open all along. The modern internet being what it is, I’m surprised nobody has seized on this.)

Unfortunately, the story moves so quickly that their toughness is the only thing that defines the Downunda Freedom Fighters. We know that Walt is the leader, that Guru Emu is useless, and that Barby Koala is the toughest bitch on the continent. (And she does it all while wearing high-heels, because even cartoon animals were sexualized in the nineties.) But what’s Duck Bill and Wombat Stu’s motivation? They don’t get any development of their own.

 
I do like those winged dingoes though. That’s certainly a memorable element. Just like Crocbot, they are cool looking villains that, otherwise, don’t contribute much. Once again, Crocbot fumes about his plans to overthrow Robotnik. It’s really the only personality the guy has. He’s got such a hate-on for his boss that he nearly blows his own cover every time. He threatens to do something awful to Stu, after he’s captured, but never delivers. The “Tails” mini-series is increasingly looking like a book with interesting characters that have no personality.

Which brings us back to Tails. He spends the last third of the book down in a crater, one of his tails bandaged and his arm in a sling. He wanders around, bumping into statues of the Ancient Walkers and encounters Athair. Long time readers know that Athair is Knuckles’ great-grandfather. What Knuckles’ great-grandfather is doing in Australia isn’t revealed. Even as a kid, I knew that echidnas are native to that continent. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the Great Crater is the place where the Floating Island ascended into the sky. In short, all of this is foreshadowing for Knuckles’ backstory… In Tails’ book. Gee, that’s not fair. It seems like even the writers treat Tails like he’s an unimportant kid.

There are some interesting ideas floating around in here. The “Tails” book drops a ton of new characters on us and they all have potential. However, the story is running forward at such a speed that there’s no time to develop any of them beyond thin sketches. That combined with making Tails a supporting character in his own solo book is making this mini-series a bit of a disappointment. [6/10]