Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 83

Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 83
Publication Date: April 2000

As previously established, Archie handled the “Sonic Adventure” adaptation in a very strange manner. When adapting the long-ish story of a video game, it would make sense to cover “Sonic Adventure” over six or seven issues. Instead, Archie spent three or four issues setting up the adaptation and shoved the actual game plot into a single double-issue. Afterwards, it spent two issues on the story line’s bonus conclusion. This makes no sense to me. Yet here we are, reading about Sonic’s battle royal with Perfect Chaos after barely getting to know regular Chaos.

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckes believe themselves to be successful. They’ve vanquished Chaos and sunk Robotnik’s Egg Carrier warship. Station Square is, seemingly, safe. When exploring the Ancient Ruins, Knuckles stumbles upon a barely conscious Eggman. Sonic and Tails, meanwhile, search for the downed tornado. Chaos, who survived the previous battle, finds it first. Feeding on the Super Emerald power source, Chaos storms towards Station Square. After gulping down the Super Emeralds that power the city’s grid, Perfect Chaos is born. Everyone seems screwed until the ancient spirit of Tikal appears and zaps Sonic into Super Sonic.

One of the biggest plot holes with issue 83 was, admittedly, inherited from the source material. Super Sonic’s battle with Perfect Chaos was essentially a bonus round, an extra mode of the game unlocked after completing the others. This meant, after the fight on the Egg Carrier, the story ends… And then picks up again. Which requires a super sloppy retcon of the previous issue’s event. Eggman appears randomly to Knuckles. Next, he pulls a second Egg Carrier out of his ass. Chaos, meanwhile, zips into the story and quickly acquires the MacGuffins necessary to reach his final form. Karl Bollers does what he can to fix this, such as making the Tornado’s power source a major plot point, but it’s still shoddily executed.

Once you get through the awkward set-up, issue 83 does feature an impressive sequence. Chaos seeps into Station Square’s power grid, getting an upgrade. We’re treated to several memorable panels devoted to the water beast taking over the city. He explodes through Station Square’s  sewer system, flooding the city in the course of minutes. This is, admittedly, an awesome way to up the stakes for the big show down. Bollers also sneaks in a nice sequence of the Freedom Fighters rescuing people during the disaster. (The writer kind of skips over how many people would die during such a sudden flooding.)

Disappointingly, just when issue 83 looks like it might be going somewhere, it hits another road block. Tikal, misspelled in the original printing as Tical, pops out of thin air. She stops the story dead in its track to drop a heaping load of exposition on us. We get the basic summary, about Chaos being peaceful before the ancient echidnas pissed him off. There’s also some hippy-dippy bullshit about how Chaos can’t be defeated with anger. Tikal then yanks some Chaos Emerald out of Chaos’ ass and hands them to Sonic. Tikal displays no personality on these pages, making her a thin sketch of a character. She exists entirely to awkwardly force the story towards its final act.

So is there any reason to read issue 83? Well, Steven Butler’s artwork is pretty nice, as usual. His pages devoted to Chaos attacking Sonic, Tails and Knuckles in the form of a water spout are dramatically illustrated. The Egg Carrier’s reappearance or Super Sonic charging at Perfect Chaos may be senseless moments but Butler makes them look good. Beyond the pretty pictures, I do like the pages devoted to Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles having adventures together. Seeing the central trio play off each other and face down an enemy is a fun sight. I wish the book had a little more of that stuff.

As a kid, after being so disappointed in the proper “Sonic Adventure” adaptation, I found the Perfect Chaos two-parter to be a little more enjoyable. I wish I still held that opinion as an adult. Whenever this issue starts to work, something comes along to derail it. As would often be the case, Sega was more a hindrance then a help to Archie. When are we finally getting back to Knothole? [5/10]