Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 141

Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 141
Publication Date: October 2004

These days, Archie tends to really stretch out its story lines. Ian Flynn has become notorious for penning arcs that stretch on for a year or more. Say what you will about 2004 – I certainly have – but at least Archie wrapped stuff up in a timely fashion then. “Return to Angel Island” concluded in October of 2004, with its fourth issue. That might have been one issue more then was needed but at least the thing is finally over.

Sonic and Knuckles' celebration over rescuing Locke is short-lived. Robotnik has beamed Hunter onto Angel Island, with the express purpose of capturing the Master Emerald. Since the heroes are away at the moment, the villain easily penetrates the Dark Legion's defenses, heading straight into the Hidden Palace Zone. Luckily, Knuckles arrives in time but the young echidna is still torn up inside over the loss of his magical powers.

I know I've done pretty much nothing but shit on Jon Gray's artwork for the last week but, with issue 141, Gray's work degrades to a previously unseen level of incoherence. Gray portrays Hunter tossing star-marked bumpers around, zapping echidnas with green electricity. This is meant to teleport them away but Gray doesn't clearly draw that. The action scenes remain that chaotic. I honestly have no idea what's happening in a panel devoted to the Chaotix fighting some dingoes. Through it all, Gray sneaks in some of his trademark ugly facial expressions. What is his obsession with giant mouths, agape in horror or agony or excitement?

Story wise, part four of “Return to Angel Island” packs in the dramatic reveals. After focusing most of the arc on rescuing Locke, it gives the reader a bit of whiplash to return to capturing the Master Emerald as a major plot point. Both Remmington and Finitevus are seemingly captured by Hunter. This is kind of a major event but the script doesn't treat it importantly, shoved in-between other business. It's also revealed why Archimedes was hanging around the Master Emerald. Apparently, Locke gave him the mission of observing the Emerald while it was in Lien-Da's hands. This makes sense, I suppose, but Archimedes' reappearance into the story is still overly sudden.

Squeezed between helter-skelter action sequences is one genuinely interesting character moment. After Robotnik's forces siege the Hidden Palace Zone, Lien-Da snipes at Julie-Su and Locke. Julie-Su, never one to hide her opinion, snipes back, leading to a full-blown argument. She lets her step-sister know what a bitch she's been. The argument is only cut short because Vector – you know shit is bad when Vector is the voice of reason – points out that a battle is currently happening. After so much heavy plotting, it's nice to see a purely emotional response like this. Then Karl Bollers' pushes it too far, by devoting a whole panel to Lien-Da saying Dad liked Julie-Su more. It's a melodramatic, overly on the nose conclusion to an otherwise decent scene.

More so then Robotnik's occupation of Angel Island, the driving point of this arc has been Knuckles' depression over loosing his powers and his discomfort with being hailed as a messiah. Part four tosses that shit right in the blender. It turns out Knuckles never lost his Chaos Powers. They were merely in remission until he made contact with the Master Emerald again. After doing so, Knux transforms into Super Knuckles – a super form seemingly identical to the previously seen, equally pink Hyper Knuckles – and immediately murders the fuck out of Hunter by tossing him into the ocean below. (Knuckles casually killing an enemy might be a bigger deal if anyone gave a shit about Hunter.) I, personally, would have rather seen the further consequences of Knuckles struggling with his lack of powers, realizing he doesn't need them to be a hero. Instead, he gets them back through no action on his part and everything is hunky-dory. What a let down.

Even when not written by Ken Penders, Locke can't help but be a dick. After freeing the Island, Knuckles informs his dad that he doesn't intend to stay. Knuckles believes he should use his powers to protect the whole world from Robotnik, not just the Floating Island. This is a direct jab at the Brotherhood's isolationist politics. In a better story, Locke would gain some character development and admit his son is right. In “Return to Angel Island,” Locke rips Knuckles a new one for daring to care about places other then his home land. True to form but still pretty shitty.

Meanwhile, “Mobius: 20 Years Later” continues in the back pages. In “Scenario” - that had to have been a temp title that Ken forgot to update, right? - Sonic and Knuckles are informed of the gravity of the forthcoming catastrophe. Apparently, Sonic is to blame. All that zone hopping he's done, in addition to his fight with Robotnik in “Endgame” and destroying the Xorda's Quantum Dial, apparently weakened the dimensional barriers around Mobius or something. Cobar and Rotor are working on cooking up a solution but outlooks' not so good. Meanwhile, Lien-Da continues to sneak around like a sneak. I don't know what she's up to.

One could read into Sonic being so flatly blamed for kick starting the latest armageddon. Ken really seems to have it out for Sonic in “Mobius: 20 Years Later.” The King has been acting slightly childish throughout. We learned that Sonic blew out Knuckles' eye. The hedgehog didn't even get a chance to finish off his own arch-enemy. Now, Sonic is directly responsible for the ominous event the entire story line has been foreshadowing. I don't think Ken was intentionally putting down the comic's titular hero in order to further boost Knuckles but... It can't help but come off that way, a little bit.

There's not much else to “Scenario” besides explaining the mechanics of the upcoming cataclysm. The final scene with Lien-Da isn't as ominous as it should be because her future version has been portrayed, not as a devious villain, but as a totally domesticated citizen. Only one scene in the story is focused on something else. Neither Julie-Su nor Sally can sleep, as both are too worried about their husbands. This characterization of both women – as doddering wives who seemingly only care about their men – is starting to grate on me. Perhaps a better solution would have them trailing Sonic and Knuckles, if they're so worried about them? At least that would've given the Queen and Ms. Guardian some level of agency, some role in the plot.

As a whole, I didn't care for “Return to Angel Island.” It had a handful of decent moments outdone by an uninteresting plot, terrible artwork, and a number of awkward story reveals. “20 Years Later” continues to loose me, with Penders once again revealing some of his worst habits as an author. 2004 remains an experiment in mediocrity. [5/10]