Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 36

 
Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 36
Publication Date: May 1996

SatAM gave Sonic and Sally both personal goals, beyond defeating Robotnik’s regime. Both heroes endeavored to rescue family members that had been taken from them. Sonic hoped to retrieved his robotocized Uncle Chuck while Sally sought to find her exiled father, King Acorn. Both missions were referenced in the comic’s early issues but both tended to take a backseat. Over the last few issues, Archie’s “Sonic the Hedgehog” comic brought Uncle Chuck into the story, filling his role as a double-agent for the resistance. In Issue 36, the book finally revealed where King Acorn has been all this time, the foundation for another pillar of the series’ mythology set.

Rotor receives some startling images from the camera he dropped in the Zone of Silence back in Issue 30. (This is after he clears up a continuity error, explaining that the Void and the Zone of Silence are two separate places with different properties.) The image is of a fearsome dark knight on a black horse, riding through the emptiness of the dimension. Sonic zips into Robotnik’s base, certain he has something to do with this. What he discovers is that the Zone of Silence is actually expanding, consuming other dimensions, and Robotnik has been working to contain its growth. The two form a shaky truce before the Freedom Fighters head into the Zone of Silence themselves. The Black Rider confronts the heroes and Sally soon discovers that this malevolent man is… Her father.

The best stories, in this comic or otherwise, have an emotional core. Too often, the comic would sacrifice that emotion for action or a forward moving plot. “Heart of Darkness” actually presents its characters making some hard decisions, accepting some difficult truths. Sonic has to put aside his hatred of Robotnik, in order to receive the villain’s uncertain help. When Sally knocks the Black Rider’s helmet off, she discovers that its her dad. It immediately disturbs her that the King doesn’t recognize her and is acting like a violent madman. As the heroes flee the Zone of Silence, she looks back, uncertain of what to think. Sally ends the story in tears. Sonic, meanwhile, has to make the tough decision to set off Robotnik’s Energy Inhibitor bomb, stopping the dimension’s growth. This, however, pushes the King even further out of their reaches. After activating the bomb, Sonic thinks to himself: “What have I done?” An earlier panel shows Sonic’s face contorting in rage as the King prepares to strike his own daughter. Perhaps he acted too rashly? It’s pretty serious stuff for a comic book about a blue hedgehog that runs fast.

After filling out Knuckles’ backstory in the back pages, Ken Penders returns to the cover story. Where he also starts to fill in some backstory. We flashback to the day of Robotnik’s coup, when he tossed the King into the Zone of Silence. We discover that Robotnik had a mentor named Kodos, that he previously disposed off. We see that Robotnik is actually working to prevent the destruction of the world this time. (After all, if there’s no world, what will he conquered?) This information is shown in about as eloquent a way as Penders knew how. There’s some narration and science-y sounding exposition but it’s never distracting. As for the Zone of Silence itself, it’s a very odd place, a gravity-free void inhabited by strange grey creatures. And horses, apparently.

Issue 36 has another striking cover image from Spaz, who makes King Acorn’s armor look truly threatening. Disappointingly, that dramatic image – of a flaming lance, a smoke-spewing horse, an opening gate – never quite appears in the story. Art Mawhinney provides the pencils. While I obviously love Mawhinney’s work, I wonder if he was the best artist for this job. King Acorn and his grey underlings both look a little too cute for such a serious situation. However, Mawhinney’s gift for facial expressions gets shown off here. Sally’s shock, Sonic’s anger, Antoine’s fear, and King Max’s psychotic determination are all beautifully represented. Even if someone maybe should have handled the horrific elements, Art’s pen definitely helped this story find its emotional soul.

The back story seemingly concludes the extensive flash-back Knuckles’ has been undergoing for the last two issues. Inside his newly made tower, the now empowered Dimitri threatens his brother and the Echidna Magistrate. He explains his plan to conquer the Floating Island, enslaving its populace, and then taking over the world. Luckily, a legion of fire ants show up in time, destroying the tower from the base down, burying Dimitri inside. Afterwards, Edmund and the rest of the echidna society decide to abandoned technology. Edmund, meanwhile, decides he will watch over the Island and the Chaos Emerald for the rest of his life, passing that responsibility down to his son. Thus, Edmund becomes the first Guardian of the Floating Island, a tradition that continues with Knuckles.

I sort of wish there was a more elegant way to get this information out there. Knuckles has been wandering around, searching for his kidnapped friends for months now. The last three stories have featured him flashing back to his father’s teachings, recalling the history of the Floating Island. It makes the hero look slightly ineffectual and drops some forward-momentum from the plot. However, it’s still a pretty interesting story. The sudden appearance of the fire ants is a bit of a cheat, naturally. There is something poetic in a hugely powerful entity being taken down by the smallest of creatures. Ken’s dialogue is no less heavy-handed. At times though, he finds a nice line or two. After the tower’s collapse, the Magistrate actually quotes Proverbs 6:6 and refers to the ants as God’s humblest creatures. (Which suggests Christianity apparently survived into the Mobian era but it’s also not something you expect to read in a kid’s book.) I also like the reveal that Edmund was the first Guardian. The story is all slightly ham-fisted set-up for Knuckles’ up-coming mini-series. Yet it’s still pretty interesting, an appropriately mythic background for perhaps the most mystic Sonic character.

The combination of two pretty great stories makes Issue 36 a stand-out example of Archie’s “Sonic the Hedgehog” series. Considering how much it would set up, it’s probably one of the most important issues in the series’ history. The directions this foundation would lead to wasn’t always smooth yet it’s a great set-up never the less. [9/10]