Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 43

 
Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 43
Publication Date: November 1996

The King Acorn saga rolls on with issue 43’s only story, “The Dream Zone.” In Knothole’s medical center – a thing that apparently exist – the quickly crystallizing King Max is in Dr. Quack’s feathers. When an attempt to reconcile his cellular changes fail, Quack cooks up a crazy plan to contact the King mentally. Using a device he’s created, Sonic enters King Max’s dreams and memories. There, he finds a strange world, an amalgamation of the Zone of Silence and the King’s last memories of Mobotropolis. (That’s right, kids. It’s Soniception.)

“The Dream Zone” is not a big action-packed story, though there’s some obligatory combat. Instead, it’s a story focused on characters and relationships. As much as a kid’s book from the mid-nineties could, it also explores memories and regrets. While Sonic, Sally, and Dr. Quack debate about what to do with the King, he’s haunted by his memories. In sepia-toned flash backs, we see the last days of Mobotropis, before the rise of Robotnik. The comic thankfully devotes a page to King Max playing briefly with Sally and Sonic when they were little kids. It’s a small moment, made more important by the inevitable events that are coming next. This is the last time King Max is going to see his daughter. The flashback still moves too quickly, cutting directly to Robotnik’s take-over. Yet even during that sequence, there’s a small emotional moment. Julayla and Rosie gather the children, trying to get them out of the city before it’s too late. For all we’ve heard about Robotnik’s take over of Mobius, actually seeing it play out is surprisingly touching.

 
Truthfully, emotions is what “The Dream Zone” is focused on. Sally’s anxiety over her father’s fate is played up throughout the story. Every line of dialogue she has in this story skitters with concern and fear over her beloved dad’s fate. Moreover, while King Acorn is unable to express his feelings, the comic frequently focuses on his eyes, silent tears welling up inside as he reflects on his failure and exile. Finally, “The Dream Zone” reminds us why Sonic is a hero. When a dangerous situation is at hand – mentally linking with King Max in hopes of waking him back to reality – Sonic is the first one that signs up. Doing dangerous things in order to protect the people he loves: That’s what a hero does.

For all the honest emotion “The Dream Zone” is invested with, it’s still not a flawless story. The book introduces Dr. Quack. While I don’t have any ill-will against the guy, the doctoral duck is unlikely to be anyone’s favorite obscure Sonic character. Weirdly, in his first appearance, Dr. Quack is introduced as a variation on Telly Salavas’ Kojak. He sucks a lollipop throughout the story and says “Who loves ya, baby?” Later, he cracks a really badly timed joke to the Princess about her father.

The comic relief in “The Dream Zone” truly doesn’t work. Sonic’s distrust of the doctor could’ve built into something deeper but, instead, the script just makes the hedgehog look pointlessly skeptical. Truthfully, Sonic’s snark and sass in this situation seems uncalled for. Maybe it’s a defense mechanism. Mostly, it seems like the writer was afraid to let things get too serious and injected some uneven comic relief. (Geoffrey St. John is also in the story, mostly to further bump up his rivalry with Sonic. Still, it leads to one funny scene, when Sally leaps into the skunk’s arms, much to Sonic’s incredulity.)

The best thing about “The Dream Zone” is that it maintains that emotional investment even as the story heads off for far-off places. In the last act, Sonic enters Max’s mind. Among the surreal landscape, we get introduced to Kodos – the savage warlord that will be more important later – and Feist – a giant panda that controls the Zone of Silence and wouldn’t be mentioned much afterwards. This adds some bizarre action beats to the story but it’s ultimately not important. Sonic uses his words, not his fists or speed, to connect to the King. The dialogue can get a little overdone but it’s impressive that the story ending this way doesn’t feel like a cheat.

Art wise, Issue 43 is interesting. Manny Galan draws the events in the present. It’s been fun to watch Galan grow as an artist. His first appearance back in issue 38 was awful. He got slightly better over the “Sonic Quest” mini-series. Here, Galan’s artwork graduates to competent. His strength for creating expressive faces makes him a good pick for a story like this. Sonic appears on-model throughout the whole story. Disappointingly, Sally and King Acorn still look slightly off-model. Galan’s work is decent but Patrick Spazinate, who draws the flash-back scenes, totally outclasses him. Considering Spaz’ specialty is hyper-kinetic action scenes, getting him to draw a mostly character-based story is an interesting move. His talent for extreme detail and anime-esque character design works for this kind of tale as well. One panel shows the King’s fearful face reflect in Robotnik’s cybernetic eyes, which is really interesting. I especially like his design for a prototype SWATBot that we see in one panel. Spaz also contributes a really gorgeous opening splash page, showing Sonic, Sally, and St. John standing in the remains of her father’s palace.

 
Though far from perfect, issue 43 is a touching and interesting story. When the book has been so preoccupied with mystic fetch quests and out-there mythology, I’m glad the story paused to focused on its characters and their feelings about what’s been happening. [8/10]