Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 113

Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 113
Publication Date: August 2002

When Archie published the final Sonic Super Special, “Naugus Games,” it sent a ripple of revulsion through the fandom. Fans were disgusted that Archie would dare present such a shoddy product and ask us to fork over our valuable money for it. The artwork, the story, all of it smacked of laziness. “Naugus Games,” sadly, is not the sole credit of “Many Hands,” the amateurish artist of that book. Issue 113 of “Sonic the Hedgehog” is Hands’ second, and thankfully last, contribution to the series. Continuing the theme of laziness, Archie’s staff couldn’t even be bothered to write an original script to accompany the shitty art. Instead, this comic is an adaptation of an old SatAM episode.

Which episode? Season two’s “Cry of the Wild,” otherwise known as the first appearance of Lupe and the Wolf Pack. As in that episode, Sonic, Sally and Antoine enter a cave system while on a recon mission. After the entrance is sealed, they encounter the canines. Soon, the two Freedom Fighter groups form an alliance. Afterwards, Snively arrives in a hovercraft, forcing the two groups to work together in order to defeat the enemy.

My primary question after reading “Cry of the Wild” is “why?” Why would Archie publish an adaptation of an eight year old cartoon episode? Moreover, why would they publish such a crappy adaptation? Once again, I have to assume that a deadline had to be met and quickly. This is presumably why they dusted off an old script, which needed little rewriting. This is presumably why they summoned Many Hands from whatever circle of hell it resides in, in order to quickly scribble the pictures. If Archie really needed a comic book on the shelves in August 2002, Jesus Christ, a set of reprints would’ve been preferable to this.

The artwork, of course, is absolutely fucking hideous. The comic lures you in with that spiffy cover and Jay Axer’s nice frontispiece. It then hits you in the face with the horror of Many Hands. The colors are hideously flat and sloppy, often blurring outside the damn lines. Characters frequently bend off-model. In the world of Many Hands, there’s no such thing as “on model.” The characters are shapeless blobs, that can stretch and squish in any direction. Faces morph, arms and legs change in length, and backgrounds are hastily sketched. Sonic and Snively probably get it the worst, twisting in grotesque ways. But at least Many actually draws the entire book. There are no panels composed totally of snowflakes or darkness. That elevates issue 113 slightly above “Naugus Game.” The artwork shits on you but it's not shitting directly in your mouth, is what I'm saying.

Archie doing a direct adaptation of a SatAM episode also strikes me as strange. While the comic has always drawn from the cartoon show, for its world and its characters, the book has never been directly connected to it. The comic is its own thing, sharing attributes but ultimately disconnected. The book would go on to do things the cartoon show never could. It’s tone ultimately became darker, its world bigger, then the Saturday morning cartoon that inspired it. So just sticking an old TV script into the comic universe is a really weird decision.

“Cry of the Wild” ostentatiously serves a purpose though. Lupe and the Wolf Pack never got a proper introduction in the comics. When they first wandered on-panel in issue 46, it was with the presumption that Sonic and the gang had met them before. So issue 114 shows us that first encounter. However, “Cry of the Wild” doesn’t really succeed in that goal. Sonic and the gang fall into the wolves’ powwow room but, instead of getting a proper meeting, they run right off to discuss the plot. There’s no character development for Lupe, as she spends the entire issue detailing Robotnik’s influence on their area. The rest of the Wolf Pack remains as thinly sketched as ever. Honestly, we were just as well off with their prior introduction, wandering out of the woods into a secret meeting.

I haven’t seen the original “Cry of the Wild” episode in a long time. I don’t remember very much about it. However, I’m sure it handles the action elements of the story much better than this. Part of this can be blamed on the shitty artwork. The scenes of Sonic running from Snively’s hovercraft are so badly sketched that you can barely tell what’s going on. Hard to get excited by that. The entire last act is a repeated series of encounters between Sonic and Snively, each one more roughly illustrated then the last.

There is one thing interesting about issue 113, other then the question of why it exists in the first place. It marks the sole official appearances of Ari the Ram and Dirk the Rhino, two minor but important SatAM characters, in the comic book. Many Hands draws Ari like he’s a bird. Anyway, this is obviously a terrible comic book and I’m ashamed to own it. Archie would retire Many Hands after this, preventing the book from reaching a level this low ever again. [2/10]