Knuckles the Echidna: Issue 15

Knuckles the Echidna: Issue 15
Publication Date: June 1998

After an incredibly awkward middle chapter, “The Chaotix Caper” recenters in its final act. Julie-Su and Remington escape detection by Ebony Hare and his gang. They track the crook to the factory where he’s poisoning the chili dog sauce with the L.S.D. The Chaotix get out of the hospital just in time to assist them, aside from Charmy who is still recovering from surgery. The near death experience has the bee reconsidering his own life decisions. Meanwhile, in the desert, Knuckles’ powers continue to grow in intensity.

The biggest problem with the conclusion to “The Chaotix Caper” is that Ebony Hare’s motivation still isn’t clarified. After the encounter with Julie-Su and Remington, the bad guy feels the heat. He decides to shut down his operation for a while. What the crime boss hoped to accomplished by dosing the chili sauce with L.S.D. isn’t explained. Why he teamed with Renfield T. Rodent, sneaking the drug out through Happyland, also aren’t elaborated on. If the L.S.D. is addictive, we see no signs of this. With the exception of Charmy, the Chaotix are just fine after their dosing. It’s definitely an underdeveloped aspect of the story. Ebony Hare and his gang are undefined bad guys, doing evil stuff for no apparent reason.

Rutterless villains aren’t enough to derail what is otherwise a fun issue. No. 15 is action-packed, moving quickly. Julie-Su escapes her seemingly fatal plunge by grabbing a grappling hook from a hidden department in her boots. (This explains why she wears those ridiculous boots but still doesn’t justify the half-vest/tank top number.) Julie-Su swinging into an apartment building and sneaking around with Remington is good fun.

The sneaking continues to be fun when they head for the factory district. The Chaotix leaving the hospital allows the team to rejoin the action. This builds to a fun climax in the factory. Julie-Su and Espio avoid the big ass revolver Hare brings with him. Remington is about to get murdereized by Blackjack when Mighty saves his ass, a funny moment. Vector proves kind of useful by grabbing Hare’s moll, an otherwise pointless character. Getting to see the Chaotix be crook-smashing bad asses is fun. It’s the reason we read the book.

The team interaction serves another purpose. After two story arcs of Julie-Su’s loyalties being undetermined, “The Chaotix Caper” has her finally being accepted as a member of the team. Vector doesn’t make one despairing remark about her the whole issue! In many ways, Julie-Su is the most competent member of the Chaotix. She certainly gets the best action beats. Espio’s ability to cloak himself comes up a few times, which is nice. While Mighty’s super strength is useful, it’s his sense of humor that truly characterizes him. Another thing I really like is that several other characters repeatedly call out how fucking useless Vector is. It’s kind of odd that the Chaotix finally came together as a team after Knuckles is out of the picture for a while.

The team is important to this story. Charmy isn’t in most of the issue, as he’s in surgery on the first page. How exactly some drugged chili dogs made him sick enough that invasive surgery was required, I don’t know. Apparently, the close calls has the boy change his mind about his destiny. The finale of issue 15 is genuinely touching, as Charmy returns to his hive to bury Mello. Hearing heart-felt goodbyes to a fallen friend, followed by a rose being dropped on the casket, isn’t something you’d expect to see in a “Sonic the Hedgehog” comic. At story’s end, Charmy decides to rejoin the hive and take on his royal title. Just when the character was getting interesting, Ken goes and writes him out of the book. Still, at least Charmy gets a decent farewell.

I like “The Chaotix Caper” story arc for another, possibly entirely puerile reason. This is about as dark as Archie’s “Sonic”-verse has ever gotten. The story begins with a child dying. The villains are poisoning unsuspecting innocents. The main cast unknowingly takes a dose of hallucinogenic drugs. Julie-Su is thrown to her death, nearly hitting the pavement. The villains and heroes alike brandish big ass guns, threatening to shoot people. Considering this is a universe that started with a cartoon hedgehog running fast, collecting rings, and jumping on robot’s heads, that’s a startling change. And one I welcome. A more grounded, dangerous world is a more exciting one.

A story thread burdening the entire arc has been Knuckles wandering around the desert. He’s still there. Locke and Sabre look on grimly, as Knuckles uses his newly-discovered and still not understood powers to magically summon a portal back to Echidnopolis. His father and granddad worry that Knuckles could become another Enerjak. (And he would, in about 145 issues.) Knuckles’ growing mystical power isn’t something that interests me. The grave decisions the Brotherhood has to make really do not interest me. Still, Locke promise to gather the guardians together suggests that this lingering subplot tumor might actually go somewhere in the near future. That would be a nice change.

I like to see Knuckles and his friends working together, kicking ass. This is why “The Dark Legion” mini-series was the previous high water mark for the “Knuckles” solo book. Penders was so invested in Knuckles’ mystical side that he’s actually become a detriment to his own book. Removing him from the equation allowed the Chaotix to go on an action packed adventure. Though “The Chaotix Caper” was still hampered by the writer’s inability to create a smooth plot, at least it had a great start and a fun conclusion. That counts for something. [7/10]