Sonic Free Comic Book Day 2010

Sonic Free Comic Book Day 2010
Publication Date: May 2010

Time flies when you get old. I'm not just regurgitating a pithy metaphor there. It's scientifically true. As you age, your perception of time speeds up. 2010 was eight years ago, nearly a decade. It feels like yesterday to me. The joys and pains and memories of that year still linger in my brain as if they were fresh. It's hard for me to realize that 2010 saw Archie publish the fourth Free Comic Book day edition of “Sonic.” Seems to me that they only recently started participating in that comic shop tradition. Presumably, by the time I finish this project, I won't believe I've wasted three years on this.

Now that my rambling introduction is out of the way, let's get on with the review. Sonic's 2010 FCBD issue is entitled “Hide & Seek & Destroy.”  Sonic is still searching the Egg Dome for Robotnik, running around the radioactive city without even a hazmat suit. The doctor continues to observe him secretly from afar. Sonic's search is interrupted when the Hybrid Krudzu Hydra, a super-badnik created by the original Robotnik, emerges from the ground and attacks him.

You've got to remember that these Free Comic Book Day issues aren't really intended for the series' faithful readers. Because everyone in the comic shop gets one of these, they are primarily intended to interest non-readers of the series. So, naturally, “Hide & Seek & Destroy” spends a decent number of pages recapping recent events in the “Sonic” book. As Sonic races through the city's ruins, he thinks about his long history with the Doctor and Robotropolis. As he approaches the Egg Dome, he thinks about defeating Eggman in issue 200. After that is a one page visual summary of the Iron Dominion story arc. It's fine, for what it is, but I don't think dumping a boatload of info on new readers will hook them.

And that's not really what “Hide & Seek & Destroy” primarily does. Most of the free issue is devoted to the fight between Sonic and Krudzu. It's odd to bring the mechanical plant back for a free edition. The pest hasn't appeared since the very first issue of the series. (Then again, considering 2009's FCBD issue reprinted that story, maybe this strategy does make sense.) The lengths Flynn goes to get the creature in the story are a bit much. The original Robotnik was working on resurrecting the plant years ago, leaving him buried deep within the Robotropolis soil. After the city was nuke, it's taken all this time for the organic machine to rebuilt himself. Which he's done by grafting the parts of shattered Badniks to his body. It's not the smoothest idea but at least it's something different.

Robotnik may be technically sane but he still seems a little goofy. The scenes between the Eggman and Snively are mostly comedic in nature. The gags vary. Robotnik chastising his nephew for daring to take a lunch break got a chuckle out of me. So did the Doctor shouting “Great Googly-moogly!,” suggesting Eggman is a Frank Zappa fan. Other jokes are less amusing. Robotnik taking notes on the fight, like he's never seen his hedgehog adversary battle a robot before, is odd. Snively getting super into the fight also strikes me as slightly out of character. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that, in a FCBD issue, Robotnik's personality veers more towards the goofy character he is in the Sega games than the more sinister villain he usually is in the Archie-verse.

The issue is worth reading for the fight between Sonic and the Krudzu. As you'd expect, there's lot of leaping and dodging around the plant's tentacles. Sonic swings the plant's own tendrils back at it, in an elastic manner. There's a cool panel of Sonic ricocheting off the various robot heads the creature is equipped with. However, it all leads up to a real flop of an ending. Robotnik decides that a neigh-unkillable plant monster will be too powerful to control. He also dictates that, if anyone is going to kill Sonic, it should be him. So he cooks up a golden hummerbird that bites the Krudzu, causing it to explode. That's an underwhelming conclusion and so is Sonic just leaving afterwards, tuckered out from the fight.

2010's FCBD issue is penciled by James Fry. Fry is usually a reliable artist but he's been away from “Sonic” for a while. His work here suggests the lack of regular practice has caused his abilities to slip a little. “Hide & Seek & Destroy” looks a little rough. The opening pages, of Sonic running through the dead city, look cool. After that, things start to fall apart. Fry's rendition of Robotnik and Snively look seriously weird, both growing massive mouths full of ugly teeth. The Krudzu looks cool, with its grasping claws and snapping mouth. Yet, once the fight starts, Fry starts drawing Sonic with increasingly odd looking facial expressions. The hedgehog performing an uppercut while in a spin dash just looks strange. It's far from the worst art to ever be published in a “Sonic” comic. It's actually kind of cool looking occasionally. But it's also not Fry's best work.

It's a middle-of-the-road comic. I guess we should be happy we got a new story at all. Archie has been more than happy, before and after this, to just fill the Free Comic Book Day issue with reprints and cheaply thrown together walls of text. Actually going to the effort to pay writers and artists to pump out something new, and charge nothing for it, was a nice treat. I guess. [6/10]