Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 42

Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 42
Publication Date: October 1996

By this point, it’s clear that Archie’s “Sonic the Hedgehog” comic is focused on the King Acorn plot point. For a while, Sally searching for her missing father was a plot point that took a back seat. Now, the series is bringing that to the forefront. Reading these books as a kid, I remember King Acorn being half-crystalized for a long ass time. While the storyline would arguably take up way too much time, issue 42 also continues to forge a weird, large mythology for the comic book.

Issue 42’s cover story, with the overly verbose title of “In Every Kingdom There Must Exist a Little Chaos!,” begins with Sonic and Knuckles beating the shit out of each other, as usual. Sonic wants to borrow Knuckles’ spare Chaos Emerald and the guardian is reluctant to hand it out. Rotor and Sally hope a Chaos Emerald will help reverse the King’s condition. When Knuckles won’t hand it over, the Freedom Fighters seek out the Ring Grotto to grab more Power Rings. This turns out to be an ambush, one of Knothole’s Spy Network being a double agent.

Issue 42 features another script from former editor Scott Fulop, going under his pen name Kent Taylor. As his last writing credit showed, Fulop didn’t have the best grip on the Freedom Fighters’ personality. In this story, Sonic is a prickly dickhole. Instead of peacefully approaching Knuckles – which he should really be doing by now, as the echidna has long since been proven a hero – he goes looking for a fight. Twice in this story, Sonic belittles Tails. He forces his hand over the kid’s mouth in one panel. In another, he condescendingly pats Tails’ head. At one point, Sonic calls his closest friend a “dumb-o.” Maybe his treatment of Tails is understandable, since Fulop writes the young fox as a blabbering, juvenile fool. Under Fulop’s pen, Sonic seems especially obnoxious.

Fulop’s script is inelegant in other ways. He begins the issue with some heavy-handed narration about tyranny, war, neutrality, guardians, and invasion. These passages are so overdone and circular that I can’t help but read them as Charles Gray from “Rocky Horror Picture Show.” The first half of “In Every Kingdim There Must Exist a Little Chaos” is strictly devoted to action. Fulop cleans up some cast members he created. Sleuth Dawg is revealed to be a traitor and Fly Fly Freddie is revealed to have been robotocized. Considering nobody has ever cared about these characters, it’s not exactly a huge lose.

As an action story, this story mostly benefits from Art Mawhinney’s typically fantastic artwork. It’s nice to see Sally and Tails getting into the action, kicking and smashing SWATBots. It always pleases me when a writer acknowledges that Sally is a total bad ass able to tear robots apart with her bare hands. When Bunnie shows up, she gets to use her telescoping legs in effective ways. I’m not a super huge fan of Sonic spinning his arms to create many cyclones, like the Flash. Mawhinney isn’t just great at action. He also sneaks in some emotion. In the last act, Mawhinney doodles in tears dripping from Sally’s eyes. This situation with her dad is stressing her out, you guys.

 
For all his flaws, Fulop at least knows how to give his characters stable goals. Issue 42 introduces the quest to retrieve King Acorn’s magical sword and crown, which will restore him for good. Yeah, some of the script’s exposition is a little flimsy. Uncle Chuck just yanking out a scroll that informs the characters is inelegant, to be sure. All the talk about the Halls of Limbo seems like it belongs to another book. Still, it’s an interesting idea. Once again, I’m happy to see a writer expanding on the comic’s mythology. This book, for its many problems, would set up the magic foundation of this universe.

The back-up story shifts its focus to Knuckles and Tails, the echidna setting out on a quest to retrieve the King’s sword, out of loyalty to Sally. (Presumably the Chaotix are doing Knuckles’ actual job of watching the Floating Island.) In this story, the book heads out into further cosmic territory. Knuckles encounters his great-grandfather Athair before he’s launched on a nutty journey through the cosmos, meeting the Ancient Walkers. They present six individuals that Knuckles must encounter if he hopes to recover the sword.

 
The back-up, entitled “Knuckles Quest,” was co-written by Fulop and Ken Penders. Say what you will about Penders but he’s way better at this shit then Scott. With Ken’s help, even the mystic mumbo-jumbo of the Ancient Walkers becomes somewhat poetic. Mostly, Penders tosses some character development in this story. When Knuckles encounters Athair, it becomes clear that he doesn’t think much of his great-grandfather. He’s annoyed by the old man abandoning his post as Guardian of the Floating Island. He also doesn’t have much patience for Athair’s mystical rantings. Tails and Knuckles also make an interesting team. Unlike Sonic, Knuckles doesn’t use kid’s glove around the boy. All the set-up is deployed all right. Art Mawheeny’s pencils are still top-notch, especially since this story allows him to draw some wild things.

So there you go. Issue 42 has its flaws and its pros. [6/10]