Knuckles the Echidna: Issue 5

 
Knuckles the Echidna: Issue 5
Publication Date: July 1997

If the first part of the “Lost Paradise” story arc was devoted to setting up Knuckles’ new universe, the second part is devoted to explaining why that universe is there. That’s right, guys, it’s only the second real issue of “Knuckles the Echidna” and Ken Penders is already falling back on heavy exposition.

Though some questions require answers. Still confused as to why Echidnaopolis popped out of nowhere, Knuckles and Julie-Su are escorted into a building by Constable Remington, leader of the Echidna Security Team. Knuckles immediately drops into a secret room below where he meets Hawking, his two-hundred year old great⁷-grandfather. Hawking proceeds to answer the first question most readers were probably having at this point: Where the hell did Echidnaopolis come from and where has it been all these years? Truthfully, it’s a question that probably should’ve been resolved sooner. In the flashbacks in the previous “Knuckles” mini-series, we always saw an advanced city of echidnas living on the Floating Island. In the current time line, Knuckles was alone. So where did the city go?

As Ken too often did, he fell back on his answer of “Another dimension!” In the middle of the book, Hawking shows Knuckles a video recording from his tenure as Guardian. At the time, the echidnas were in a violent conflict with the dingoes, the other major residents of the Island. After the dingoes attempted to drop a nuclear bomb on Echidnaopolis, Hawking detonated them in mid-air. This saved the city but hopelessly polluted the island. In order to save his home town from radiation, Hawking tossed the metropolis into a pocket dimension, created by the Hyper Zone Projector. Penders at least doesn’t resort to text-walling us with this info. Again, it's answers we wanted. Yet even extended flashbacks are not the most elegant of methods to tell us this.

Then there’s the issue of the dingoes. The last time we saw the dingoes in the “Sonic & Knuckles” one-shot, Knuckles didn’t seemed concerned about them at all. Now, the dingoes have been retconed as the echidnas’ arch-enemies. With the re-appearance of Echidnaopolis, the dingoes reappear as well. They are led by a muscle-bound freak named General von Stryker. They dress in militaristic grey and olive uniforms. They also seem to hate the echidnas indiscriminately. Their first course of action in this story is to take several echidna citizens hostage, among them Knuckles’ mother. For all the answers this book provides, we still don’t know what the origin of the antipathy between the two species is. Between their quasi-Nazi uniforms and a leader that looks like Ivan Drago as a funny animal, the dingoes appear as generic bad guys.

Issue 5 is also sadly bereft of emotional context. Minutes after falling into Hawkings’ lair, Knuckles notes that Julie-Su better not be harmed. Keep in mind, this is a woman he just met a few hours ago who introduced herself by trying to kill him. Likewise, we’re supposed to be shocked when we see Lara-Le has been taken hostage. Yet Knuckles has also only just met his mother. There’s really no reason for him to be emotionally involved with either character, just yet. Hawkings doesn’t make much of an impression as a character, becoming yet another wise mentor intoning towards Knuckles about his great destiny. It would be sort of nice if someone could just level with the kid for once. Knuckles even begs Hawkings to do just that, before the conversation is shut down by another tremor. (Locke, meanwhile, sits in the background, not interacting with his son at all.)

At least Manny Galan’s artwork is pretty good. He’s developing a slight Spaz-like quality to his character artwork, which is appreciated. This story also features some brief action, during Hawkings’ flashback. It’s mostly raw info though. Once the universe is established, hopefully the book will focus more on its characters and a forward-moving plot. [5/10]