Knuckles the Echidna: Issue 21

Knuckles the Echidna: Issue 21
Publication Date: December 1998

Many times again, I’ve mention how Ken Penders had a bad habit of juggling too many story lines. At his worst, this means many story lines that never go anywhere are all sharing the limited page space inside a single comic book. However, when Ken was on his game, this means multiple stories build to something meaningful and satisfying. Issue 21 is not the writer’s best work yet it does finally provide a decent ending to a story line that feels like it’s been going on for a while.

As Elias and Gefforey St. John’s Secret Service are tossed by the freak weather occurrence, Locke and Lara-Le wander by in an aircraft, rescuing everyone. The Guardians provide some long overdue answers about how the Prince and the Queen ended up on the Floating Island. Meanwhile, Knuckles is introduced to his extended family inside Haven where the young Guardian immediately gets in troubles and resorts to fisticuffs.

Straight answers are not something this book hands out too frequently. There are still plenty of mysteries floating around inside the series but issue 21 does settle some things. We all ready knew that Queen Alicia, Prince Elias, and Gefforey’s dad got shot down by Overlanders on the island. Why the Queen and Prince have been kept their so long is finally resolved. Queen Alicia suffered some sort of brain damage in the crash. Unable to restore her to normal, the Brotherhood kept her on ice in some sort of stasis tube. As for Elias? Sabre basically didn’t want to go through the paperwork involved with telling King Acorn his son is still alive. Yep, even while doing good, the Brotherhood of Guardians are a bunch of assholes.

Knuckles, more importantly, discovers some information. After literally stumbling into Haven last time, Knuckles is introduced to his extended collection of various grandfathers. He isn’t informed why his many granddads have been jerking him around his entire life. However, Knuckles is smart enough to see that Tobor is not who he appears to be. That’s right, the teenager immediately realizes something his elders have been ignorant of for hundreds of years. This, of course, leads to Knuckles and Tobor/Moritori Rex fighting it out. Yes, Tobor shoots laser beams out of his visor. I know that’s kind of stupid but how could the writer resist doing that? I mean, the thing even looks like Cyclop’s own headgear.

The least interesting aspect of this story line has been St. John and his team’s involvement. Since coming to the Floating Island, the skunk and his sidekicks have dealt with lousy weather, got some exposition dropped on them, and asked obvious and ineffectual questions. This issue begins with the team nearly being drowned by a sudden tidal wave. This leads to a protracted, embarrassing scene of Heavy and Bomb nearly being swept away by the river. Penders seems to have forgotten that Bomb can only communicate with a weird dinging noise, the R2-D2 to Heavy’s C-3PO. The smaller robot freely talks in this issue. Even dumber, Locke ends up saving everybody using his ridiculous magical powers. Geoffrey succeeds in getting the Queen and the Prince back to Mobotropolis… But that wasn’t really a challenge, was it?

The incompetence of St. John’s Secret Service is only the least boring of the many subplots. Watching Locke and Lara-Le argue has quickly lost its novelty. This isn’t due to a lack of rich drama. Lara-Le has many genuine grievance with her ex-husband. Her plea that, perhaps, Locke should man up and actually father his son is reasonable. What’s boring about this is we know Locke is never going to stop being a cock. Once again, his wife will present an understandable, normal situation and Locke will shoot her down, harping continuously on Knuckles’ great destiny or some bullshit. Knuckles’ dad being an irrepressible asshole would be one thing if it wasn’t obvious how much Ken agrees with him. Locke is never judged for being a chode. Moreover, the writer seemingly doesn't think he's a chode at all.

Because this is “Knuckles the Echidna,” there’s still plenty of loose ends left dangling. Moritori Rex is still out there, promising death to the Brotherhood. Hawking remains in a coma, as he has forever. The exact nature of Knuckles’ destiny is still left unexplained. Julie-Su is totally left out of this story which seems like a shame. Still, some subplots are developed on. At the very least, Knuckles has finally confronted his granddads. In a book as evasive and frustrating as this, that counts for something. [7/10]