Sonic/Mega Man Free Comic Book Day 2015

Sonic/Mega Man Free Comic Book Day 2015
Publication Date: May 2015

Archie was frequently not great at scheduling. This was a problem when it came to their big events. Free Comic Book Day comes every May. Yet the April 2015 issues of Archie’s “Sonic” books take place after the events of that year’s FCBD special. Of course, most of these issues were all doing the same thing: Preparing the readers for “Worlds Unite,” the next Sonic/Mega Man crossover event. Yes, kids, the next five weeks or so will be taking us back to Crossover Land. Oh boy, am I excited. As they did in 2013, Archie split that year’s FCBD special between the speedy hedgehog and the Blue Bomber.

The Sonic half is devoted to “Sonic Comic Origins: Into the Unknown,” which seems to take place after the end of “Champions” but before the conclusion of “Spark of Life.” Sonic is going for a leisurely jog through a coastal area when Dr. Eggman attacks. This battle is interrupted when a massive dimensional wedgie opens up. Some sort of lava-y dragon harlequin baby pops out, causing Robotnik to flee. Luckily, Silver arrives on the scene and helps Sonic to put that thing back where it came from. Afterwards, the telekinetic explains that the events of the Super Genesis Wave has caused dimensional portals to open all throughout time. Gee, I wonder if those could allow people to jump between worlds and zones?

Before actually talking about this story, it’s time for one of my favorite activities: Needless nerd pedantry! The Sonic story contained within the 2015 FCBD is identified as a Comic Origins story. These have usually been used to expand on the new, post-reboot backstories of Sonic’s supporting cast. “Into the Unknown” gets this branding despite not being devoted to anyone’s origins. I guess we learn a little about Silver’s home world here but that’s about it. Unless the origin we’re learning here are for the Genesis Portals, which seems like a cheat. I’m just saying, Archie: Don't say this series of stories is for one thing and then use it for another thing.

Instead, “Into the Unknown” is devoted to two things: Action and exposition. Sonic and Silver refer to the monster as an ifrit, even though it doesn’t look like an Islamic fire spirit. Apparently, they fought this thing before during the events of “Sonic Rivals 2,” a video game I don’t think I knew existed an hour ago. Anyway, the action scenes are serviceable. There’s a couple of cool moments of Silver tossing Sonic through the air using his telekinesis. The fight is mildly neat but has a disappointing ending, with Sonic simply luring the monster back to its home dimension.

The second half of the story is devoted to explaining the mechanics behind the Genesis Portals. It seems you can’t just reboot an entire multi-verse without some unforeseen circumstances. It's as if the shards of the shattered universe are flying backwards and forwards through time, tearing holes in the dimensional fabric of reality. The science behind that seems... Questionable. But this is not meant to be actual ramifications of Sonic's actions during “Worlds Collide.” Instead, it's a convenient plot device to set up future crossovers and other inter-dimensional shenanigans. Under more than two minutes of scrutiny, this shaky justification for the incoming crossover is revealed as undeniably shallow.

This issue also happens to introduce one of my least favorite reboot characters. Hanging out with Silver in the future is Professor von Schlemmer. Like Breezie, von Schlemmer has is origins on “Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.” Like that version of the character, he's an eccentric but ultimately morally upright super-genius scientist. The comic ditches the cartoon version's more annoying attributes. However, it keeps his eye-seering visual components. For some reason, von Schlemmer has turquoise colored skin and blazing orange hair with a yellow lightning bolt through it. That kind of color palette was acceptable in a day-glo cartoon show but looks really out-of-place here. He also has oddly mechanical patches on his face and skin. It all makes him look like a half-undead corpse, some sort of weird Frankenstein monster. There's no explanation for why von Schlemmer is so viscerally unpleasant to look at.

Adam Bryce Thomas provides the artwork and, hey, it's pretty damn good. There's a fantastic sense of motion and action to Thomas' work here. Sonic always looks very sleek and fast, Thomas usually portraying the hedgehog in motion. The Ifrit looks fittingly grotesque, a giant and squirming whale baby made of bubbling magma. Yet Thomas' work is strong enough that it's visually compelling even when not focusing on the action scenes. A shot of Silver levitating Sonic, who is rather casually about the situation, gets most of its humor from Thomas' artwork.

So what about that Mega Man story? I had long since stopped reading the “Mega Man” comic by this point but figured, for the sake of professionalism, I should at least give this half of the free comic a look. “World of Payne” mostly revolves around Xander Payne, a reoccurring adversary of Mega Man's, exclusive to the comic book. The story is devoted to explaining his back story and seems to do this largely by recycling panels from previous comic books. Apparently Payne is an anti-robotics extremist, whose terrorist actions threatens both organic and mechanical beings. After an encounter with a time machine threw him into the future and back, Payne has been captured. In his cell, he rambles about future events... including another visit from a blue hedgehog.

I don't have too much to say about this one, other than the very strong pun in the title. Payne does seem to be a more compelling villain than Dr. Wily, who is primarily motivated by his ego and the petty need to humiliate his rivals. Though we don't see much of it here, I bet some of Payne's concerns about the effects robots are having on humanity are valid. So he's already way more complex than most of Mega Man's rogue gallery. I dislike using so many different artists and art-style in this story, which certainly leads to a schizophrenic appearance. And the set-up for “Worlds Unite” is as blatant and distracting here as it is in the “Sonic” half.

So it's a pretty mediocre Free Comic Book Day special. The “Mega Man” story is a glorified clip show, albeit one devoted to a fairly interesting villain. The “Sonic” story is mildly fun as an action story but offers little else, aside from rocketing us towards the next big crossover. I don't have especially strong feelings either way about this one, though they veer slightly towards the negative. [5/10]