Sonic Super Special: Issue 11 – Girls Rule!

Sonic Super Special: Issue 11 – Girls Rule!
Publication Date: October 1999

Here in 2016, the big comic companies have gone out of their way to introduce new major female characters or slot other women into more prominent roles. You wouldn’t think anyone would have a problem with simple inclusions like this… Actually, if you do think that, welcome to the internet! I’m very flattered you chose to visit my blog first.

Anyway, by 1999, Archie’s “Sonic the Hedgehog” series had amassed a decent sized female cast. The company had even already attempted a woman-led series, with the ill-fated “Princess Sally” mini-series. For the eleventh Sonic Super Special, Archie decided to try out a similar tactic. All five stories featured in the issue revolved around the women in Sonic and Knuckles’ lives. (No, Amy Rose isn’t featured. The comic wouldn’t give her a bigger role for a few more issues.)

The first story revolves around Sally, still the most important lady in the comic at this point. “Ascension,” set before Robotnik’s reemergence and subsequent take-over of Mobotropolis, has Sally facing her destiny as future monarch of Mobius. She crawls into the Source of All, that weird golden pool in the basement of Castle Acorn. A direct conduit with the forces behind the universe, the Source shows Sally visions of her past and her future. Afterwards, it’s her decision to accept her fate or not.

Every story in Sonic Super Special Issue 11 was written by Ken Penders. By giving Ken so many pages to express himself, we get the full run of his talents and flaws as a writer. In “Ascension,” for example, we see the Penders obsessed with self-involved mythology and cosmic malarkey. The Source of All is an especially dopey plot element I’ve never liked. Literally making the House of Acorn divinely attuned seemed like a heavy-handed attempt to justify why an advanced civilization like Mobius still has a monarchy.

Having Sally directly interact with the Source doesn’t make it seem any less pushy. It shows the Princess her past, appears as her father and brother, before showing her a glimpse of the future. That is, the same future first introduced in “Sonic: In Your Face,” where Sally and Sonic are married with kids. What purpose this has on the wider story – beyond setting up the “Mobius: 20 Years Later” story Ken had been wanting to tell – I don’t know.

Somehow, this all amounts to the Source hoping Sally becomes Queen. She decides to ignore the comics puddle and follow her own path… Which was what she wanted to do all along. So what was the point of this journey again? At least “Ascension” isn’t too visually unpleasant a story. Jim Valentino, after drawing some seriously ugly stories for Archie, finally seems to grasp these characters. Sally, who spends the whole story in the quote-unquote “nude,” is mostly on-model. The use of shadows and lightning are fairly evocative. Some of the effects are cheesy and Valentino’s work is occasionally rather flat. Still, it’s easily his best work for Archie so far.

The second story, “Solo,” revolves around Hershey the Cat. Geoffrey St. John and Hershey sneak into Robotnik’s compound. While St. John is on the look-out, Hershey investigates Eggman’s computer. After discovering that her former teammate Valdez has been robotocized, as revealed in Issue 30 of “Knuckles,” she sneaks out and sets off an explosion.

Ken also draws “Solo.” While I’ve said lots of shit about Penders’ artistic abilities, “Solo” actually doesn’t look too bad. It’s a story devoted to stealth and investigation, which means there’s none of Ken’s static action. Robotnik’s new design looks fairly awkward and Hershey’s proportions are often off-center. Still, it’s definitely one of his better illustrations. As for the story, there’s not much to it. Hershey, hardly the most loved female Freedom Fighter, hasn’t had much development since her introduction in “Endgame.” At least she actually shows some confidence in this one, managing to go the whole story without being betrayed or screwing up. (Though St. John still needs to help her.) It’s a pretty forgettable story but not terrible or anything.

The third story, “Family,” centers around Lupe and the Wolf Pack. The wolves return to their home town, to find it wrecked by the new Robotnik’s forces. Soon, the wolves are taken hostage by a team of Robians led by a still brain-washed Uncle Chuck. After robotocizing Lupe’s children and one of her teammates, Lupe herself is ushered into the robotocizing tube. With her last ounce of free will, she clears the way so the rest of the Wolf Pack can escape.

“Family” should be an upsetting story. Uncle Chuck acts out-right evil in it, making cruel and sadistic statements on the behalf of his new master, Robotnik. Lastly, the story concludes with Lupe effectively being killed off. As a character that dates back to the SatAM series, Lupe’s exit from the series shouldn’t have been made lightly. And “Family” does feature some effective, powerful moments. Lupe’s response to seeing her kids roboticize is anguished rage. Yet Lupe, a born leader, is also pragmatic, always thinking of ways out of this situation. Even after being turned into a robot, her force of will is so strong that she can hold off the process’ mind control for several minutes, allowing the rest of her family to escape.

All of these events should impact readers greatly. There’s a few problems though. First off, “Family” takes up only six pages, which is hardly enough space to properly explore the emotions at play here. The perhaps bigger problem is that Lupe and the Wolf Pack, as they exist in the comic, haven’t gotten much character development. Though Lupe is a character we’re attached to, because of the cartoon, her comic counterpart has never been well utilized. Ultimately, “Family” is well intentioned but underdeveloped. Colleen Doreen is officially credited with the pencils but I suspect Art Mawhinney performed some uncredited clean up. Several panels closely resemble his work, which is quite different from Doreen’s other art we’ve seen.

Fourth in the book is “Upgrade,” revolving around Bunnie Rabbot. While working outside in Knothole Village, Bunnie collapses. Dr. Quack quickly checks on her. He deduces that her biological body parts and mechanical robot parts are in conflict with each other. The two components are rejecting one another. Her options are limited. Her choice is a risky de-robotocization process or upgrading her parts, preventing her from ever being wholly organic again. During this difficult time, Bunnie and Antoine comfort each other.

“Upgrade” reaches the emotion that “Family” couldn’t quite grasp. Unlike Lupe, Bunnie has been thoroughly developed as a character. This is a story totally focused on characters. Bunnie is frightened by the possibility that she might loose her abilities and usefulness to the team. Or she most face the fact that she’ll never be wholly organic again. Ultimately, the heart-to-heart with Antoine is the climax of the story. He lets her known that he’ll always love her, no matter what. It’s a really sweet moment.

And one slightly undermined by the story’s conclusion, where Bunnie happily accepts her sleek, new robotic parts. For such an emotional tale, a conclusion this gung-ho strikes the reader as slightly insincere. Still, “Upgrade” is definitely the stand-out story in this collection. (James Fry’s artwork, by the way, is serviceable, if a little too loose.)

The last tale here focuses on Julie-Su, Knuckles’ much beloved but often sidelined girlfriend. “Shadows” has Julie-Su exploring her past. After riding her bitchin’ hover bike back to the Dark Legion base, destroyed all the way back in issue 3 of “Knuckles the Echidna,” she encounters a man who claims to have raised her. What follows is an extended flashback, detailing Julie-Su’s origins and her time in the Dark Legion.

“Shadows” is, if nothing else, gorgeous to look at. It’s one of the all too few times Patrick Spaziante actually drew a whole story. In his style, Julie-Su’s grace and badassery is fully illustrated. Such as the scenes devoted to her exploring the broken down base, weapon drawn. Spaz’ work is, of course, insanely detailed. Every nook and cranny of the destroyed base is shown in vivid, rich detail. The few action beats in the story are brought to life brilliantly, leaping off the page. Framing the flashbacks in pink neon lines makes the story easier to follow too.

“Shadows” looks great but I wish its script was better. The story is designed to fill in Julie-Su’s back story. The best sequence is devoted to her own recollections as a Legionnaire, as she reflects on the militaristic routine she lived through and the cruel treatment from her superiors. Once Julie-Su encounters the elderly echidna Simon, he totally takes over the story. Penders enters full-on exposition mode. We learn that Julie-Su is the half-sister of Kragok and Lien-Da, the off-spring of former Dark Legion leader Luger. Following both of her parents’ deaths, Julie-Su had her memory wiped by her half-brother. (This event perhaps explains Julie-Su’s sometimes inconsistent motivations. It’s also lazy, another example of a Penders’ protagonist being manipulated by other, grander forces.)

In other words, Ken falls back on his awful habit of telling, instead of showing. He shovels a crap ton of character information on us, loosing the emotional bead of Julie-Su learning about her past and being reunited with her foster parents. Her reunion with her foster mom, by the way, happens entirely off-panel. The story ends before she can meet her again. I really wish Ken could’ve expanded “Shadows” into a story arc in “Knuckles,” allowing more room for the emotional aspects and letting the flashbacks play out in a more natural fashion. But, no, we had to get that storyline about Knuckles fighting a gorilla instead.

By packing five stories into 48 pages, the “Girls Rule!” special becomes especially uneven. “Upgrade” is very nearly a classic while “Family” and “Shadows” both have good moments, even if they overall fall short. “Solo” and “Ascension” mostly exist to tell us things we already knew. Still, a female focused quarterly is an idea I really like conceptually. If Archie was still doing mini-series in 1999, it could’ve easily broken these five stories up into individual books, which would’ve solved some of their problems. As it is, Sonic Super Special Issue 11 is still a solid read. All the stories are compromised but the parts are greater then the whole. [7/10]