Sonic Super Special: Issue 1 - Battle Royal

Sonic Super Special: Issue 1 – Battle Royal
Publication Date: April 1997

For a while, Archie had been publishing 48-page “specials” that tied into their flagship “Sonic the Hedgehog” series. These books were even published on a roughly quarterly basis. When “Battle Royal” was first published, it was released as just another one of these specials. Later in 1997 though, Archie had a thought. Why release the specials as just stand-alone comics? Why not tie them together as an on-going series of quarterlies? I don’t know why they didn’t come to this conclusion sooner. Eventually, the company would re-release “Battle Royal” as the first issue in the Sonic Super Special series. Sonic Super Specials would run for 15 issues, ending around the same time Archie was cutting down many of their other series. The series’ debut was so haphazardly tossed together that it was published in April of 1997, despite being set between issues 46 and 47 of the main series, published back in February.

None of that really mattered to me as a kid, as I was unaware of the changes that would soon be affecting the series. All I knew is that a new comic devoted to Sonic and Knuckles beating the shit out of each other was coming soon. “Battle Royal” actually doubled up on the gimmick. After all, Sonic and Knuckles had beaten the shit out of each other plenty of times. In “Battle Royal,” we would see their respective teams pound on one another. As a kid, I often wondered who would win in a fight between the Freedom Fighters and the Chaotix, even though the latter was still a relatively recent addition to Sonic lore. Never let it be said that Archie didn’t know their audience. Along came “Battle Royal” to answer that question… Sort of.

The Freedom Fighters receive a message from Knuckles and the Chaotix, letting them know he’s retrieved the legendary Sword of Acorn. Meanwhile, Knuckles and the Chaotix receive a message from the Freedom Fighters, saying he’s had the Sword too long and they intend on taking it. When Sonic and friends arrive, Knuckles and his gang attack them. Later, the Chaotix are surprisingly attacked by Sonic’s team. Soon, both heroes are actively clashing. However, Princess Sally and Archimedes suspect that they are being manipulated by a greater villain.

For a while, Sonic and Knuckles usually ended up fighting whenever they met. By this point in the series’ history, both heroes should probably be over that. Moreover, there’s really no reason for their teams to join the fray. Luckily, “Battle Royal” thinks up a fairly clever way around this issue. Both teams are seemingly attacked by the other, prompting a conflict in the middle of the book. Of course, it turns out neither team was the aggressor. In both cases, the villain Mammoth Mogul magically disguised his minions, the Fearsome Foursome, as the other team. It was all a distraction, so that he could the Sword of Acorn. It’s a mildly clever variation on the classic comic book rule of “First they fight, then they team up.” First, the Freedom Fighters and the Chaotix wail on each other. After realizing they’ve been deceived, they team up to take down Mogul. That way we get our big fight scene but in a way that makes sense.

Or mostly makes sense. “Battle Royal” is slightly bogged down in mythological goofiness. The heroes realize they’ve been duped through an extended sequence of nitpicking. Bunnie lifts a heavy object with her organic hand or the number of Freedom Fighters is off. (Midway through the book, the nugget that Sonic and Mighty already know each other is casually dropped. This is a reference to the obscure “SegaSonic the Hedgehog” arcade game. Penders would eventually get around to clarifying this plot point.) One especially baffling moment has the teams being teleported by Archimedes’ powers, after Dulcy and the ant spray fire at one another. Mogul, of course, has to explain his scheme in detail, because that’s just the kind of villain he is. The script also awkwardly re-contextualizes Mogul’s first appearance in the “Mecha Madness” special. See, he was just pretending to be incompetent. It was all a test to study the Chaotix’ abilities. Uh huh.
 
Illustrating “Battle Royal” is Sam Maxwell, yet another new artist brought into the Archie fold. Maxwell’s artwork won’t be for everybody. It’s incredibly abstract at times. The bodies of the heroes bend in all sorts of odd directions. He’s also quite fond of drawing panels from unexpected angles. Such as when Mighty dives through Bunnie’s legs or Dulcy breathes fire directly at the reader. Despite its apparent looseness, there’s an internal logic to Maxwell’s artwork. The characters look extremely different but stay on-model. Truthfully, only Archimedes looks weird in his style. There’s an incredible expressiveness to their faces, Maxwell gifting the characters with a vibrant anime-like style. Most importantly, his incredibly energetic style and sense of motion is extremely well suited to an action-based story like this one. Every panel Maxwell draws leaps off the page. I can see readers being put off by this off-beat or abstract artwork but I’ve always loved it.

The fight scenes are the main attraction here and they’re lots of fun. “Battle Royal” does a good job of showing off the unique abilities of each teams' members. Mighty tosses around trees. Charmy flies circles around Tails. Sally performs a number of powerful flips and kicks. Bunnie tosses huge boulders. Rotor – feels like its been a while since Rotor has been in a fight scene – produces a number of trap capsules from his utility belt. The only team that truly gets the short end of the stick is the Fearsome Foursome, who have yet to be clearly defined as characters.

When the book shifts away from the action, it’s less successful. The ending is a real head-scratcher. King Max is suddenly de-crystalized. Meanwhile, Mogul reappears on the Floating Island, holding the real Sword of Acorn over his head, claiming the good guys went home with a fake. That kind of devalues the entire adventure, doesn’t it?

Also included in “Battle Royal” is “The Map,” one of the odder Sonic stories Archie would ever published. “The Map” revolves around Antoine discovering part of a map left to him by his father. He’s determined to track down the other half of the map. This takes him directly into Robotropolis. There, Snively is devising a new plan to undermine Robotnik’s authority. Using his new wave of machines, called Eggrobos, he plans on digging up the Krudzu (the cybernetic plant species last seen in Sonic #1) and unleashing it on Robotnik. The two characters cross paths and Antoine is soon fighting for his life.

Recently, in issue 46 of the main “Sonic” book, Antoine received some much needed character development. We learned he wasn’t always a putz. In fact, he was secretly a badass solider this entire time. It was a somewhat sudden reveal but one the book would run with. “The Map,” meanwhile, takes Antoine’s new status and pushes it way too far. Here, the French coyote is coldly focused on his mission, even bluntly dismissing Bunnie when she enters his hut. He loads himself up with a sword, a backpack, camo-print pants, a beret, combat boots, and a bunch of pouches. He sneaks into Robotropolis, determined and serious. Later, he’s dodging gun fire and slicing robots in half. Antoine was still a total clown just a few issues ago so it’s a jarring transformation.

The weirdest part about “The Map” is that it still occasionally goes for humor. Tom Rolston, an author who has never worked on “Sonic” before, wrote this one. While most writers only half-way use Antoine’s accent, in order make his dialogue readable, Rolston goes full force with the weird French thing. Every one of Antoine’s sentences is peppered with “zat,” “za,” “dere” and “non.” It’s incredibly distracting. Moreover, the coyote still fouls up. He alerts Snively’s Eggrobos after stumbling on some piping. Later, he survives being shot by the robots through pure, dumb luck. The story ends without him grabbing the other half of the map, making this entire mission pointless. Dave Manak does the artwork. He doesn’t ditch his inherently comedic style but instead tries to make it work for this grim story. The result is Antoine and Snively, looking jagged and cartoony in the typical Manak way, grimacing and gritting their teeth. It’s surreal.

Through it all, “The Map” is still a pretty decent action story, nicely paced and featuring plenty of exciting moments. Antoine hiding in the sewers from the Eggrobos generates some decent suspense. The new robots actually prove to be competent threats. It would’ve been easy to fix too. Just recast the main role with Geoffrey St. John, a more serious character with a para-military background, and “The Map” makes way more sense.

Though flawed, I still get a kick out of “Battle Royal.” The main story thinks up a novel solution to getting the heroes to fight and features some extremely interesting artwork. “The Map,” meanwhile, is pitched at a totally different level then most Archie stories, making it a bizarre curiosity for fans. To an old time fanboy like me, that equates to a good time! Now if only they had stuck an “e” on the end of that title… [7/10]