Knuckles the Echidna: Issue 4

Knuckles the Echidna: Issue 4
Publication Date: June 1997

A “Knuckles” on-going comic book had been coming for a long time. I remember the buzz from back in the day. While I definitely enjoyed the “Princess Sally” and “Tails” minis as a kid, “Knuckles” always seemed most likely to spin off an on-going series. Unlike Sally or Tails, Knuckles has always existed in a world outside of Sonic. He’s got the Floating Island to himself, a land with its own bizarre rules and territories. Knuckles also spends a lot of time alone. He even had his own supporting cast, in the form of the Chaotix. In the back stories, Penders had been building an elaborate mythology around Knuckles, his species’ history, and his family. When the “Knuckles the Echidna” on-going started, continuing the issue count from the “Dark Legion” mini-series, it was a natural decision. And well received. For a brief period, the “Knuckles” book was more critically acclaimed then the “Sonic” book.

 
Following the events of “The Dark Legion,” Knuckles and the Chaotix are mostly chilling. Archimedes is attempting to teach the Guardian the mystic ways but he’s not buying it. While swimming and singing some show tunes, Vector gets the jump on a Dark Legionnaire. When the same person attacks Knuckles, he quickly pulls the hood back to see the assassin is… a female! Despite just trying to kill him, Julie-Su admits she’s not a huge fan of the Legion.

Meanwhile, the Floating Island is shaken by earthquakes. Knuckles, Julie-Su, and Archimedes go out to explore. After another quake, a city appears, vanishes, and appears again. The trio steps inside the phantom city and discover Echidnopolis, a legendary city full of advanced technology and other echidnas.

That Ken Penders and other writers would see such fertile ground in Knuckles isn’t surprising. In the video games, basically all we knew about Knuckles is that he was a temperamental loner, destined to guard the Floating Island and the Master Emerald. The Floating Island is a great location and, despite knowing nothing about his history, fans became fascinated with Knuckles. Something I truthfully loved about Knuckles’ book when it was new is that it divorced itself so willingly from that source material. There wasn’t a cartoon show to pull from. Aside from the Chaotix and the setting, the book didn’t even pull much from the video games. “Knuckles the Echidna” was mostly just a weird, sci-fi/fantasy book. That was kind of exciting.

In its first proper issue, “Knuckles” shook things up wildly. When first introduced, we thought Knuckles was the last echidna alive. Then we discover he had a dad and a crazy, great¹⁴-grand-uncle. With “The Dark Legion” series, Knuckles was introduced to an army of evil echidnas. And now, Knuckles discovers an entire city of echidnas. He went from being totally alone, to having a family, to having an enemy, to having a society. That’s a pretty major shake-up.

Another major shake-up is that issue 4 gives Knuckles a love interest. It was past time. (I mean, Tails had at least two love interests by this point and he’s canonically eight.) From the moment we meet Julie-Su, we know her and Knuckles will develop feelings for each other. The book even goes so far as to color her pink, the standard color for funny animal love interest. It’s built right into the script. Julie-Su is sent to kill Knuckles but she just can’t, for ill defined reasons.

Despite that being relatively lazy writing, Julie-Su is still one of my favorite Sonic characters. She’s a tough, resourceful, capable badass in a way that’s totally different from the book’s other tough guys. She’s not a smart-ass, like Sonic. She’s not a hothead, like Knuckles. She’s not a braggart, like half of the characters in the book. She’s totally self-assured in her own abilities, the ultimate type of cool.

Story wise, the first part of “Lost Paradise” is mostly just set-up. Most of the book is devoted to Knuckles meeting Julie-Su and the Chaotix. The appearance of Echidnaopolis is handled nicely enough, making a dramatic effect on the characters and the readers. Locke and the Brotherhood are up to something vague, so nothing new there. The story tries to have an emotional heart, when Knuckles is suddenly reintroduced to his mother. This scene gets swept aside in order to bring us to our cliffhanger, of Knuckles and Julie-Su being faced by some cop-looking echidnas. Manny Galan’s artwork is solid though slightly jumbled at times. As far as premiere issue go, it’s not bad at all. [7/10]