Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 30

 
Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 30
Publication Date: November 1995

In the Saturday morning cartoon show that primarily inspired Archie’s “Sonic the Hedgehog” comic, Sonic’s Uncle Chuck was a very important character. A spy for the rebellion inside Robotnik’s home turf, Chuck also represented everything that was at stakes for the Freedom Fighters. He was their friend and loved one, his very free will was at stake, and getting him back wasn’t going to be an easy task. Despite being so important to the series’ mythos, Uncle Chuck didn’t appear much in the comic up to this point. He played a role in the early issues of the original “Sonic” mini-series and showed up in Issue 16. Besides that, he’s been surprisingly absent. Well, issue 30 announced its intentions to bring Chuck back, by placing him right there on the cover. If they couldn’t make it any clearer, the cover story is entitled “The Return of Uncle Chuck.”

In Robotropis, Robotnik and Snively are working on a new portal generator, to suck even more of their enemies into the Void, the alternate universe where Robotnik stuck King Acorn. However, there’s a malfunction and the fat man is sucked inside as well. Snively uses this opportunity to seize control of Robotnik’s empire. The experiment has an unforeseen side effect though: Uncle Chuck regains his free will.

In his many reviews of the comics, the Original Grumpy Old Man of the Sonic Fandom Dan Drazen would rate the stories on their “Heart.” Usually, he found the comic felt short of whatever heartiness he desired it to have. For once though, I think a little more heart would’ve helped this story. Getting back his Uncle Chuck has been Sonic’s main motivation for most of the series. However, when Uncle Chuck reappears with his free will intact, Sonic seems much more excited about getting to eat his uncle’s chili-dogs again. The story ends with Chuck hanging out in Knothole with the Freedom Fighers, which seems like way too easy a victory for them.

Truthfully, Issue 30 is more focused on moving the plot forward then on emotional manners. Snively’s resentment of his own uncle has been hinted at plenty of times. “The Return of Uncle Chuck” is the first story that actively shows Snively attempting to dethrone Robotnik and take his place. However, as this and future stories would show, Snively is kind of incompetent. It takes all of one issue for the Freedom Fighters to defeat his plan. Though his main idea – attaching the Void portal to the front of a plane and zapping all the other Freedom Fighters into an alternate universe – wasn’t an awful idea.

Angelo DeCesare wrote this one and it’s the writer in a goofy mood. The script lays on the puns and the resolution seems way too easy, especially since it involves Robotnik and the Freedom Fighters coming to a temporary truce. Art Mawhinney did the artwork for this one and, while his work is overall very good, he seems a little off in a few panels. He never seems to quite nail Uncle Chuck’s design and even Snively and Bunnie seem slightly off-model a few times. Not Art’s best work.

Issue 30 has a weird back-up story. It’s called “Who Keeps Stealing My Chaos Emeralds?” It’s a totally goofy piece of slapstick, wherein Coconuts keeps setting traps for a thief, only to have them back-fire on him. It’s written by Paul Casitglia, a writer who never did much work for the series. Castiglia out-right references the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote shorts, which were obviously an inspiration for this story. The only reason it warrants mention at all is because Pat Spazante, the most respected of Sonic artist, drew it. Naturally, Spaz’ pencils are extremely good and he provides a fantastic scene of cartoony chaos while maintaining the usual amount of detail and animated energy he’s known for. Why Spaz would choose to draw such a pointless little story, I don’t know.

Anyway, Issue 30 gets a [6/10.]