Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 57

Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 57
Publication Date: January 1998

For Archie fans old enough to remember, January of 1998 was an uncertain year for the comic series. Head-writers Ken Penders and Karl Bollers, post-“Endgame,” promised that the series focus would be changing a bit. He wanted to refocus on Sonic and Tails. Fans, such as Dan Drazen, worried this meant Princess Sally and the rest of the SatAM crew would be written out of the book. That didn’t happen, of course. Instead, Sonic and Tails went on an adventure around Mobius, expanding the series’ scope and showing what Sonic the Hedgehog could get up to in a world without Robotnik. This time of upheaval and change began in issue 57. It’s announced right in the cover story’s title, “Back to Basics.”

Over the last few issues, Sonic had been bemoaning his role in Mobotropolis without a mad dictator to fight. He decides to set out on an adventure, following Ixis Naugus’ trail and helping whoever he encounters along the way. Before leaving Knothole, Rotor finds a device among Robotnik’s lab that can reportedly predict the future. When Sonic places it on his head, it instead shows him the past. After a lengthy recap of the comic’s history, Sonic bids farewell to his parents, to Sally, and to the city he now calls home.

If you measure quality by how much a story advances the plot, issue 57 would rate very lowly. If this was a television show, this issue would be referred to as a “clip show.” Usually, when a comic resorts to an antic such as this, it simply reprints those old stories. For whatever reason, Archie didn’t want to just reprint moments from the comic’s first 56 issues. Instead, Art Mawhinney sat down to redraw many of these events. Quickly, “Back to Basics” devolves into Art drawing small version of Patrick Spazinate’s covers while Sonic, in a narration box, provides a capsule summery of the issue’s events. Mawhinney’s work is great, typically. However, Karl Bollers’ decision to have Sonic narrate everything shoves an awful lot of dialogue in the hedgehog’s mouth. It’s very unlike the character to expound at such length about things.

Putting out a glorified clip book had two purposes, I imagine. Considering “Endgame” concluded just seven issues ago and the book was heading in a new direction, Archie was probably expecting new readers to pick up the series. Who knows if it worked that way but, nevertheless, Issue 57 existed to catch everyone up. On the other hand, in this Brave New World, the extensive recap serves to show what still is and isn’t canon. This is likely because, way back in issue 2 of the original “Sonic” mini-series, there was a story about King Acorn’s Crown. Just recently, a totally different version of the Crown appeared. You’d think the writers would use to this oppretunity to declare many of the series’ earliest, goofiest stories as non-canon.

 
Instead, issue 57 maintains almost everything. The UniverSalamander, Verti-Cal and Horizon-Al, Thorny the Needle Bird, Spawnmower, the Nerbs, Sonic’s caveman ancestors, the Termite-Nator, RoboStorm, Car-Heem of Weeet, and plenty of other goofy shit is clarified as still existing. (Even though I only read these stories a few months ago, I’ve already forgotten half of this shit.) For that matter, “Back to Basics” recounts Sonic’s adventures on a nearly issue-by-issue basis. It doesn’t stop when it comes to the present either. It recounts shit that happened just a few issues ago. The book goes right up to Endgame, Monkey Khan, and “Return of the King.” I’m not exactly sure what the point of all that was.

In its last few pages, “Back to Basics” somehow provides a reason for why it exists. After the memory projector explodes, Sonic gets ready to leave. In two pages, he has heart-to-heart conversations with both his parents and Sally. His interaction with his parents is brief but gets to the point. Sonic admits that he’s intentionally been avoiding them, because he still doesn’t know how to react to their existence. However, he clarifies that he still needs them in his life. It’s a little too brief an interaction and undermined by Sonic leaving in just a few pages.

The conversation with Sally is a lot better. Sonic sheepishly admits how he feels about the Princess, in so many words. It’s fun that the book remembers that these are still teenagers, prone to shyness when frankly discussing romance. Mawhinney’s pencils go a long way towards selling that emotion, both of them walking with their hands behind their backs, reserved and uncertain. It’s pretty sweet stuff and continues to show that Bollers’ strength still lie in honest emotion.

Despite being a mostly useless book, as a kid I was still a fan of issue 57. As I previously mentioned, I hadn’t yet read many of those early issues at that time. Getting to see what happened in those stories was a nice treat for me. It reminds me of a time when not everything was available at our fingertips. Those final moments of emotion go a long way towards justifying the issue’s existence. Mawhinney’s artwork helps a lot too. Issue 57 is still mostly useless though. [5/10]