Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 82

Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 82
Publication Date: February 2000

For quite some time now, I’ve been talking about Archie and their “Sonic Adventure” adaptation. The truth is, the last several issues haven’t truly been a part of that adaptation. Instead, the comic book has been setting up the various narrative changes necessary to fit the new video game components into the comic’s world. With issue 82, the “Sonic Adventure” adaptation begins in earnest.

“Night of Chaos” starts with Sonic enjoying his stay in Station Square. He goes for a late night run across the rooftops of the city, pretending to be his favorite superheroes. Instead, he comes upon a collection of cop cars heading in one direction. He follows them, discovering a strange creature fighting the police. A being made of liquid, Sonic has a brief battle with the creature. From a distance, Dr. Eggman observes.

“Night of Chaos” is a direct adaptation of the opening boss battle of “Sonic Adventure.” The cover story even features some direct quotes from the video game. When the Station Square police officers attempt to shoot Chaos, their bullets harmlessly lodge in the creature’s watery body, falling to the ground. The fight, we discover, has been a way for Robotnik to test his newest weapon against Sonic. What Karl Bollers adds to this pre-existing plot line is some goofy opening narration, where Sonic talks about superheroes with names like the Rush, the Dark Bat, and the Super Surfer.

In other words, “Night of Chaos” is basically an action story. It’s a short one too, only running seven whole pages out of the book. An interesting hodgepodge of artist worked on the story. James Fry and Patrick Spazinate did the outlines. Nelson Ribeiro finished the pencils. This means there are individual panels that are clearly Fry or Spaz’s work. Such as anime-esque eyes and mouths on Sonic and the Station Squarers. Or nicely detailed panels of Sonic fighting off Chaos. The most distinctly Ribeiro touch is Chaos himself, who looks somewhat odd. His surface isn’t smooth but choppy, looking like a raging oatmeal monster instead of a being of animated water. Still, “Night of Chaos” is mildly entertaining for what it is.

The second story, “Door to the Past,” is this month’s Knuckles adventure. The writer and artist go uncredited but it’s clearly the work of Ken Penders and Steven Butler. Anyway, the plot: Knuckles’ exploration of the Ancient Ruins comes to a pause when he’s possessed by an ancient spirit. Calling herself Tikal, the entity explains the history of the area, its connection with the echidna race, and what happened to destroy that civilization. Meanwhile, the Chaotix continue to negotiate with the cat people on the near-by mainland.

If “Night of Chaos” was mostly a single action set-piece, “Door to the Past” is basically an exposition-fest. Once Tikal gets in contact with Knuckles, the story becomes devoted to parsing out the Ruins’ history. It turns out the area was colonized by some echidnas. The scientists left after fighting the felines while the warrior class stayed. In hopes of defeating this enemy, the warriors attempted to steal some Chaos Emeralds from a local shrine. This enraged Chaos, the protective spirit of the shrine and the peaceful Chao that lived there, who destroyed the echidnas. If you played “Sonic Adventure” back in 1999, you knew this already. Once again, the video game mythology fits roughly with Penders’ established Knuckles mythology. It would be years before Ian Flynn tied these two sources together in a more logical manner.

Knuckles is given nothing to do but respond to this information, making “Door to the Past” a fairly passive story. What about the Chaotix? It seems like Knuckles’ buddies have been in the same situation for months now. They remain captured by the residents of the Mysterious Cat Country. There’s some loose attempts at negotiation but it doesn’t amount to much. Just when things are threatening to get interesting, Penders has Locke wonder in. Because that always works out so well. In other words, “Door to the Past” feels mostly like narrative wheel spinning then actual story telling.

Issue 82 continues Archie’s recent habit of stuffing three stories into one comic book. “Double-Crossed Circuits” follows E-102 Gamma. We see his “Sonic Adventure” back story play out. Robotnik sends Gamma and his brothers to collect Froggy. Only Gamma succeeds, causing Robotnik to scrap the other robots. Afterwards, Gamma is sent to interrogate Amy Rose. Instead, the frightened girl moves something in the machine. He rescues her and now must face the consequences of his sudden sentience.

I have a soft spot for E-102 Gamma. Out of all the additions that “Sonic Adventure” made to the hedgehog’s universe, he’s my favorite. A robot learning to love is a standard tale but the game imbued it with a surprisingly amount of grace. Archie more-or-less follows the same outline as the game. What it adds is an interior monologue for Gamma, which is the primary dialogue in the story. The narration boxes are overdone but it still provides some insight into Gamma’s sudden change. Unlike the other two stories in the issue, at least this adds something to the video game’s story. “Double-Crossed Circuits” isn’t a lot but it’s still probably my favorite story in this issue. (By the way, this one is also uncredited. Since Bollers and Chris Allan handled the last Amy Rose-centric back story, I’m assuming they did this one as well.)

You can’t fight progress. Sega would not be denied their “Sonic Adventure” tie in, no matter how poorly it fit Archie’s already established world. With Issue 82, the comic hews more closely to the game, making this probably the most direct adaptation in the series’ history. It’s hard to judge, since it’s more-or-less just a transfer from one media to the other. I suppose this is an okay issue, as the first story is a swift action piece and the last is a mildly interesting character study. Only that exposition-laden middle story is a problem. [6/10]