Sonic Free Comic Book Day 2009

Sonic Free Comic Book Day 2009
Publication Date: May 2009

In 2009, Archie's “Sonic the Hedgehog” series participated in Free Comic Book Day for the third time. The first year, the company published a brand new “Sonic” story for the annual give away event. For the second year, Archie got lazy and just republished the very first issue of the series. For the third Free Comic Book Day edition, the company would put in slightly more effort than that. In fact, a book like this might've been vital for newcomers to the series at the time. The book is subtitled “Evolution of a Hero” on the cover, which should give you a good idea of what to expect.

“Sonic of the Ages” is what the “story” contained in this book is called. Instead of being a narrative, it's a collection of Date Files. You know, those biography the comic would publish from time to time, explaining the back story of characters and places. In many ways, it's like a shorter and less detailed version of the encyclopedia Archie would publish in 2012. The issue gives a brief history of Sonic and the Freedom Fighters, their trials and tribulations, Knuckles, Shadow, Dr. Robotnik and other enemies.

2009's Free Comic Book Day issue doesn't tell long time Sonic fans too many things they don't already know. Ian mostly recounts an extremely truncated version of the book's convoluted history. However, he does sneak in a few tidbits that we've never heard before. Such as the original Freedom HQ being build in a natural limestone cave. Or Bunnie powering her projectiles and force fields with her own life force. Some bits of info are rather crucial, things we probably should've learned by now. Such as Charmy's change in personality – becoming closer to the more child-like characterization Sega used, instead of the more knowledgeable kid that appeared in the “Knuckles” series – because Robotnik tampered with his brain at some point. Other details are more esoteric. Such as Robotnik hating Sonic partially due to his perceived “coolness.”

Stuff like this is kind of neat but, other times, “Sonic of the Ages” fills less like a character explanation and more like a list of attributes. An entire page, for some reason, is devoted to Shadow the Hedgehog's various superpowers. You know, maybe it's because I've seen too many fan characters defined solely by their countless special attacks. But this kind of thing rubs me the wrong way, however slightly. Shadow can project his Chaos energy into a number of attacks. I don't really need to know the difference between the Chaos Spear and Chaos Blast or what have you.

Honestly, my favorite thing about this little book might just be an extra included in the back. After the handful of biographies are concluded, we are presented with a gallery of the comic covers. This gallery includes every issue of “Sonic,” all the spin-offs, one-shots, and mini-series. It even includes some of Spaz' covers from the various collections released up to that point, such as “Sonic Archives.” Considering this comic book's covers were sometimes superior to the stories contained within, it's nice to peruses them all. Even if they're shrunk down to a small size.

Free Comic Book Day is ostensibly about encouraging people to seek out their local comic shops. In practice, though, the tradition is often a way for comic companies to promote whatever they have going on at the time. It's not like Marvel or DC is going to give a real story away for free or anything. Archie indulged in this too. Twice, this comic tells readers to go out and buy the issues of the still new “Sonic Universe.” It also implores readers to subscribe to the main “Sonic” book if they want to know what happens next.

In what is surely not a coincidence, this book is also packed full of advertisement for Archie's other books. There's full page ads for “Archie: Freshman Year: Book 1,” a collected trade paperback of Archie's then-latest attempt to reinvent their mascot character. (This was before Archie was allowed to fuck, you see.) There's also a page for something called “The Cartoon Life of Chuck Clayton,” a story line apparently about Riverdale's only black person. An ad trumpets a new story line in the soon-to-be-canceled “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” comic, about the “Magical Tales of Young Salem.” That story was written by Ian Flynn and seems like an especially desperate attempt to retrofit the comedy series as a fantasy adventure book. Considering the actual Archie characters have never been very interesting to “Sonic” readers, the only ad here that peaks my interested at all is for a collection of the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” comics the company published back in the early nineties.

There's not too much to say about “Sonic's” 2009 Free Comic Book Day edition. In a lot of ways, this is exactly the kind of inoffensive, inessential, fluffy extra the company should give away on that day. It's an easy way for newbies to catch up. It's totally unnecessary for long time readers but is still enjoyable to read. Considering it was literally a free book, I guess that's all we can ask for. [6/10]