Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 44

 
Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 44
Publication Date: December 1996

When Ken Penders first introduced the Mirror Universe idea back in issue 11, Knuckles wasn’t a part of the book yet. Occasionally, the series would bring back Anti-Sonic and his team of Anti-Freedom Fighters, just to remind us that they still existed. The gears were surely turning in fans’ brains: Where’s the Anti-Mobius version of Knuckles? As the cover for issue 44 announces, it was time to introduce Knuckles’ dimensional doppelganger. Anti-Sonic would continue to float around the book for years, eventually developing into a major villain. Knuckles’ alternate self, on the other hand, would only appear one more time, in a single panel, twelve years later. This is likely because issue 44 is kind of a crappy story.

While Rotor is showing Sonic the BFG he invented, an alarm rings throughout Freedom HQ. Turns out there’s some commotion on the Floating Island. Sonic and friends leap in a plane and fly off to the island. There, they discovers Knuckles brawling with Anti-Sonic and Knuckles’ equivalent from the alternate zone, O’Nux. After scaring the villains off, the Freedom Fighters take chase after the villains. On Anti-Mobius, they discover that O’Nux is not as bad as he appears and that Robotnik has devious plans for the other world.

“Black and Blue and Red All Over” squanders two interesting ideas. First off, it introduces O’Nux. Once you look pass the character having an embarrassing Irish accent for no particular reason, the book proceeds to subvert audience expectations. See, O’Nux is not simply a thuggish, evil version of an established hero. Instead, he’s a pacifist who hates fighting. (Despite him and Knuckles smacking each other around after meeting one another.) Furthermore, he doesn’t guard a Floating Island but a sunken city, surrounded by a Chaos Emerald-powered energy dome that keeps the water out. O’Nux never really gets a chance to grow as a character but he’s got an interesting idea behind him.

The second cool idea the comic doesn’t utilize is what Robotnik’s up to. By this point, Robotnik has made a hobby of crossing dimensions. The second half of “Black and Blue and Red All Over” reveals that Robotnik has traveled to the other world to experiment with his evil schemes. In a world where Ivo Robotnik is a peaceful veterinarian and the Freedom Fighters are a band of buffoonish thugs, the prime Robotnik can freely test out his latest weapons unopposed. It’s a clever idea and one that the book would never revisit. (Probably because it makes too much sense. If Robotnik can easily conquer some other world, it cheapens the on-going conflict he’s had with Sonic and the Freedom Fighters.)

Unfortunately, the actual story structure of issue 44 is a mess. The Freedom Fighters head off to the Floating Island, despite knowing what kind of conflict they’re running into. While knowing that some other worldly villains have already tried to steal the Island’s Emerald, Knuckles follows the Freedom Fighters to the other dimension. O’Nux later reveals he’s a pacifist yet he still fights with Knuckles. Sonic and Anti-Sonic fight while the other Freedom Fighters stand back, bored and disinterested. The story totally falls apart when the team reaches the sunken city of Atlantinopolis. Robotnik betrays Anti-Sonic and O’Nux, which you think they would’ve seen coming. His attempts to kill the Freedom Fighters, by shooting them out into the ocean, is immediately forgotten. Robotnik somehow opens a portal back to the Prime Zone. He’s then defeated when he shoots his laser cannon at Knuckles’ Chaos Emerald. Instead of exploding the emerald, Robotnik explodes. Yet he’s not dead. Instead, he leaves behind a pile of Chaos Emeralds.

Wait, what? See, the script is just a mess full of half-formed ideas, sloppy writing, and things happening for no sensible reason. The story ends without Sonic or Knuckles really gaining anything. I half-way suspect this was an old story, that had been left over for a while. It doesn’t really fit in with the book’s current story arc. There’s one tossed off reference to Knuckles’ quest for King Acorn’s sword, which I suspect could’ve been quickly added in. About the only thing this issue really contributes is finally explaining the connection Knuckles and Sally have. Turns out, King Acorn used to vacation on the Floating Island. Sally and Knuckles met when they were little kids, neither of their parents aware of their secret friendship. Other then that, Issue 44 adds nothing to the overarching mythology.

Last time, I was talking about how Manny Galan’s artwork had gotten a lot better. The artist has another backslide with issue 44. The artwork in the first half of the book is really not good. Everyone is off-model. Sonic is too lanky, Knuckles’ head is misshapen, Sally’s face is too boxy, Tails has a weird pencil neck. Things get a little better in the second half, with Galan’s ability for expressive faces showing up. It’s still doesn’t look very good, I’m afraid. I recently found an old interview with Galan, where he admits that he didn’t know how to draw the characters when he first got hired at Archie. It’s good that he’s honest about this. An uncredited Spaz pencils the flash-back scene which is immediately apparent.

It’s not an all-time worst story. Archie would publish some plots that had no interesting ideas in them. This is a story with an interesting idea but an awful construction. No wonder O’Nux would be a no-show for years afterwards. [4/10]