Sonic the Hedgehog (Original Mini-Series): Issue 3

Sonic the Hedgehog (Original Mini-Series): Issue 3
Publication Date: February 1993


As the original “Sonic the Hedgehog” started to wind down, the series was already getting better. The third issue of the series, which was numbered 2, had a single story line which slowly started to build up the Archie’s series long history of convoluted mythology. As the final issue of the mini-series rolled out, an on-going continuation was already in development. The last part of the mini-series, which was bafflingly numbered three, sees the quality of the series back-slide. It’s a goofy story with little affect on the on-going plot line of the series.

Issue 3 features two stories. The first of which begins with Sonic being chased over a cliff by Robotnik in an Egg-Mobile. He has an annoying dream about being a boy and growing up with Robotnik as a child, revealing their rivalry beginning in boyhood. The second story of the issue shows Boomer devising a disguise so that Sonic can personally infiltrate Robotnik’s base. While there, he plans to rescue his Uncle Chuck and his dog Muttski.

The first half of issue three, entitled “Sonic Flashback!,” is, thus far, the worst “Sonic the Hedgehog” story I have read for this retrospective. It begins with a generic action beat, with Sonic stomping on Crabmeats amid a barren green field. When he falls from the cliff and becomes unconscious, Robotnik doesn’t murder our hero in his sleep. What follows is a bizarre combination of flashback and dream sequence. We see Uncle Chuck forging Power Rings which is an acceptable if incongruous image. Afterwards, we see Sonic and Robotnik as kids, squabbling and arguing. The villain makes robots out of Chuck’s tracker, which results in a crash, causing him to receive a fierce tongue-lashing. As revenge, he cooks up a killer robot out of random crap lying around.

It’s bad. Thankfully, the comic doesn’t even pretend that such a ridiculous origin story is cannon. It is immediately dismissed as a dream sequence and an “imaginary story,” by the end. Imaging the hero and villain growing up together as kids is a lame, hackneyed idea. Basically, this story makes your average episode of “Muppet Babies” seem like a masterpiece in comparison. Sonic directly addresses the audience, asking us if we want to see more imaginary story. Considering how bad this one was, and that we never got any more, the general audience’s response was as negative as mine.

The second story is slightly better but still hugely inconsequential. Rotor’s robot disguise is literally just a pair of robotic jaws and swirly red contact lens. Sonic’s flawless infiltration of Robotnik’s lair involves him telling the evil tyrant that he’s totally a robot now, guys, I swear. His subterfuge climaxes with him blowing up a robot factory, which I suppose it’s fairly substantial. I know this is a goofy comedy comic at this point. Yet it really discredits Robotnik as a threat that he would buy this trick at all.

What bit of art this stupid story has comes when Sonic finds his uncle and dog. This meeting occupies a page plus one panel. Afterwards, Sonic gets super-pissed and goes on a warpath. This certainly makes his following actions understandable. (Though if he had his arch-enemy right there and was especially angry at him, you’d think his actions would be a little more extreme.) If you’re wondering, Sally and Antoine put in a brief appearance in this story. Antoine gets humiliated and Sally shares some more belligerent sexual tension with Sonic.

As the end to the original mini-series, issue three is certainly an underwhelming piece of work. Dave Manak would provide the art for this issue, quickly becoming the main artist during the book's early years. His work is similar to Scott Shaw's, with a comparable cartoon edge. However, his work can also be quite sloppy which makes it less visually appealing. Sonic goes horribly off-panel on the second panel of page five, for example.

Archie’s Sonic series is still in its infancy at this point and would remain so for about another year. As the dawn of the regular series arrives, all I can say is: It gets better. I swear! [4/10]