Sonic Super Special: Issue 7 - Image Crossover

Sonic Super Special: Issue 7 – Image Crossover
Publication Date: October 1998

In the annals of Sonic comic fandom, a number of issues have risen to the top as particularly notorious. People discuss the events of “Endgame” to this day, especially Sally’s temporary death. “Sonic Live!” remains mocked on a regular basis, frequently held up as one of the worst issues from the comic’s entire life span. The third pillar of Ken Pender’s museum of mistakes is “Sonic Super Special: Issue 7.” A crossover with a number of obscure superheroes published by Image Comics at the time, the issue is incoherent even by the standards of a “Sonic” comic and misconceived as an event. Buckle up and pack in as we’ve got a lot of stuff to cover.

In a world more closely resembling our own, two FBI agents who are similar to but legally distinct from Mulder and Scully interview a mysterious woman. She calls herself Particle. After she zaps both of the agents with her powers and disappears, they track down the son of a hardware store owner. The boy is actually the superhero ShadowHawk. He relates to the agents a bizarre story of encountering Sonic and the team, who rode the Cosmic Interstate to this world, in pursuit of Particle. The woman stole the Master Emerald and gave it to a villain named Dr. Ian Droid. As Sonic and the Freedom Fighters close in on the emerald, they encounter a number of other heroes. Together, they seek to reclaim the relic and return to their own worlds.

As a kid, I’ll admit, I bought into the hype for this one. Seeing Sonic crossover with other comic book superheroes, including the extremely popular Spawn, seemed to validate this silly funny animal book I had become so invested in. Upon reading the book, I was disappointed to be completely unfamiliar with most of the Image characters. Spawn I knew, of course. The Savage Dragon I was somewhat aware of, from the cartoon series that used to air on the USA Network. Otherwise? I had no idea who ShadowHawk, the Maxx, Velocity, or Union where. I’m still not that familiar with any of them. (Though the Maxx starred in a critically acclaimed animated series I keep meaning to watch.)

Moreover, who thought this was a good idea? Archie’s “Sonic” series and Image Comics cater to extremely different demographics. Even at its grimmest, “Sonic” is still a kid’s book. Spawn is a repentant solider of Hell and a former assassin who has no problem dismembering his opponents. ShadowHawk is famous for being an HIV-positive superhero. (Though apparently that was a different ShadowHawk than the one appearing in this book.) The Maxx’s arch enemy is a serial rapist. Union and Velocity are part of hyper-violent superhero teams, StormWatch and Cyber Force respectively. Even Savage Dragon, with his cartoon series tie-in, had some flesh and blood filled adventures. There’s a reason I didn’t know most of these guys as a kid. Even as a ten year old, my mom probably would have bulk at most of the above.

Of course, with indie imprints like Archie and Image, it only takes a few people to think something is a good idea. According to the introduction, the children of ShadowHawk creator Jim Valentino were big “Sonic” fans, which put the two companies in contact. That’s where the official story ends.

However, I suspect Ken Penders had another reason for writing this thing. “Parallel Paradigm” is the first appearance of Particle and Dr. Ian Droid, a hero and villain from Penders’ envisioned series, “The Lost Ones.” “The Lost Ones” wouldn’t be published until March of 2000, where it ran for a single issue. In other words, this was a way for Ken to introduce a pet project of his (that nobody gave a shit about) among more popular characters.

If Ken’s plan was to endear readers to Particle, he doesn’t do the best job. In her first appearance, Particle knocks all of the Freedom Fighters unconscious with her magical juju powers. She proceeds to knock out Knuckles and steal the Master Emerald. Immediately afterwards, she does the same to Mulder and Scully. Particle is at the whims of other characters throughout the book, proving the same thing happening to Knuckles wasn’t a fluke on Ken’s behalf. As for Ian Droid, he’s a generic supervillain, right down to his Ming the Merciless eyebrows.

The Sonic characters are not well integrated with the Image characters. The only one that gets any proper page time is ShadowHawk. In that time, all he does is find the Freedom Fighters in an alley way and put on his armor. Nobody else gets any character development. Union and the Maxx appear suddenly, float around a bit – literary in Union’s case – and then disappear. Velocity gets some speed-related banter with Sonic but it doesn’t amount to much. The Savage Dragon fires machine guns at the Freedom Fighters. Spawn appears on one page and utters the immortal line, “No.” Sonic and friends are tossed around by the plot. Tails, Rotor, Antoine and Bunnie accomplish nothing in this story. Further marking this as a Penders production, Knuckles is who ends up saving the day. The action scenes are so brief and unimportant here that none register.

The plot is a generic fetch quest. The bad guy grabs the Master Emerald. Sonic and the other heroes go searching for it. They find it, beat up some people, and everyone heads back home. What is interesting is how “Parallel Paradigm” gives us a peak into Ken’s future plans for “Sonic.” It’s hinted here, and I always assumed as much, that Dr. Ian Droid is either a future or alternate universe version of Robotnik. Droid is just another word for “Robot,” after all. Both have an army of SWATBots. Droid expresses familiarity with future versions of Sonic and Knuckles. Befitting Ken’s echidna-centric view of the universe, Knuckles is presented as Droid’s arch-enemy. Then again, Dr. Droid looks nothing like Robotnik so maybe Penders is just a shitty writer.

Since “The Lost Ones” would flop horribly and Ken’s original version of “Mobius: 20 Years Later” never surfaced, none of these vague hints are followed up on. By the way, the comic also casually drops the reveal that Mobius is a post-apocalyptic Earth in the far distant future, after some sort of cataclysm. This info wouldn’t be officially acknowledged until issue 124.

So the plot is nonsense, the crossover is pointless, and the script builds up shit that was never paid off on. What about the art? It also sucks. Jim Valentino provides the pencils. Valentino’s artwork for Marvel and his own property is apparently well-regarded in certain circles. He shows no confidence with the Sonic characters. Sally always looks half-asleep. Sonic, Knuckles, and Rotor are frequently off-model in a bad way.

Not being familiar with funny animal characters when you’re used to drawing people is one thing. Valentino’s humans look lousy too. The facial expressions are flat and comically broad. The proportions are cartoony and overdone. The other heroes look lousy, with giant chins and goofy eyeballs. Even Valentino’s own hero, ShadowHawk, looks like a broken action figure. The action is stiff and lifeless. “The book looks like shit” is the short version.

“Parallel Paradigm” is both bizarre and boring. The script is lame as hell. The artwork is terrible. Seeing Sonic and friends cross over with Spawn (however briefly) has a certain novelty factor, I'll admit. I mean, the book also includes thinly disguised version of Mulder and Scully. Batman, Spider-Man, and Popeye all have cameos. That oddness makes it an easier read than “Sonic Live!,” for all that’s worth. Look, I’m not saying it’s good. I’m actually saying it’s rather bad. Yet I’m kind of glad it exists, if only so I can prove to people it’s real. [3/10]