Sonic the Hedgehog (Original Mini-Series): Issue 1

Sonic the Hedgehog (Original Mini-Series): Issue 1
Publication Date: December 1992

In the second issue of the Sonic mini-series, which is bafflingly issue one, things are already looking more normal. Sally’s hair is the black curl she wore in the original SatAM pilot, though her figure is still less then svelte. Robotnik receives his black eyes and red pupils, showing that he’s part-machine and all-evil. He is shown transforming fleshy humanoids into mechanical robots, though the machine is called a “Robo-Machine,” instead of a Roboticizer.

There’s still plenty of early installment weirdness here. Robotnik has plenty of opportunities to just kill the heroes at this point but doesn’t, because this is a kid’s comic. Antoine wields a gun in one panel. Rotor’s nature as the team mechanic is more prominently featured. However, he’s still called “Boomer” throughout the comic. He also provides yet more goofy one-liners. Apparently, Sonic is the whipper-snapper while Rotor is more sarcastic and low-key. Sally, meanwhile, is super bitchy, yelling at her comrades like a spoiled brat. The comic still freely mixes cartoon and video game elements, as the second story has Sonic rumbling with Jaws, a badnik from the original “Sonic” Sega game, in what appears to be the Labyrinth Zone. (Distressingly, it would appear that hedgehogs can still swim. You’re messing with me, Archie.) Somehow, the characters can still talk underwater because comics.

Once again, the comic is broken up into two stories with several silly one-pagers padding the page number out. The first story is superior to anything from Issue 0, though just barely. As the kidnapping of Uncle Chuck was established as Sonic’s motivation last time, here we get more information on Sally’s father being captured. In the first story, Sally goes off to meet and negotiate with Robotnik. Sonic, Tails, and Antoine obviously realize this is a trap, especially when iron bars burst through the ground to capture them. The trio race into Robotropis to rescue the princess from the obvious trap. In what is a hilarious misunderstanding, it turns out Sally realized this was a trap. She planned to sabotage Robotnik’s roboticizer the entire time. The second story is far sillier, with Jaws interrupting Sonic’s fishing(?) trip, leading to a brief underwater scuffle.

The tone remains comedic, goofy, and meta. All the characters are comedic goofballs. When Sonic smashes Robotnik’s Robo-Machine, the evil dictator quips about how it’ll take two issues to repair it. Puns fly a-plenty, such as quips about “submarine sandwiches.” Tails references Otis Redding’s “Sitting On the Dock of the Bay,” a song I doubt anyone would be familiar with 11,940 years into the future. On the first page, Sonic throws dust into Tails’ eyes, which causes the young fox to run into a tree. Because Sonic should always be slightly characterized as an asshole. The book is filled out with goofy one-page gag strips, like Sonic playing baseball or tennis – that’s two separate comics, by the way – or Rotor joking about the postal service. As expected, Michael Gallagher’s script is very silly.

Well, I still like Scott Shaw’s artwork. Isn’t it weird how he draws Sonic’s back spines as one paper-thin stripe that blows in the wind? The characters’ faces are cartoonish and expressive. The artwork is silly but there’s certainly nothing flat or boring about it. Weirdly, a mid-book poster features a slightly off-model Robotnik and a seriously off-model Bunnie Rabbot, who hasn’t even appeared in this comic yet. As harmless entertainment for kids, this is fine. As entertainment for twenty-something internet hipsters, I can’t give this anything more then a [6/10].