Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 160

 

Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 160
Publication Date: March 2006

I remember the first time I read issue 160 of Archie's “Sonic the Hedgehog.” A friend and I had zipped by our local comic shop on the way to a social function. As I opened the cover on the latest edition of “Sonic,” seated on the passenger side, I expected another disappointing issue like so many I had read recently. Instead, the script was funny, rewarding, and treated the characters I care about with respect. Instead of the ugly, tired, harsh pencils of Ron Lim, the artwork was colorful, lively, and expressive. In the decade since, my thoughts on Ian Flynn and Tracy Yardley's long run on the title are less unanimous but, at the time, there's no doubting their work was a revelation. Life had been breathed back into the series I used to love so much.

Flynn would begin his long run with a simple two-parter. “Birthday Bash” begins with King Elias leading Sonic back to Freedom HQ, which has long fallen into disuse. Inside, the core Freedom Fighter team – oh yeah, plus Fiona Fox – have thrown the hedgehog a surprise party. The festivities are short-lived as Robotnik sends two new agents, Bean the Duck and Bark the Bear, to attack the heroes. When they fail, he drops a new creation outside Sonic's doorstep. It's CrotoBot, a combination of two relics from the “Tails” mini-series: Crocbot and Octobot. Meanwhile, Rouge and Anti-Sonic are up to no good on Angel Island, until Locke interrupts and forces a change in the morally bankrupt hedgehog.

Refreshingly, Ian didn't perform a blank slate reboot. Instead, he directly plays off the events that just happened. This is because, as I would soon discover, Flynn is a life-long fan. (He even used to write a popular fan comic - “Other M” - which I had heard of but never read.) He would devote most of his first year on the book to fixing the mess the previous writers left. This work began immediately in “Birthday Bash.” The first page resolves Sonic's lingering frustration with King Elias over the Metal Sonic Trooper incident, ending with the King promising it'll never happen again. Flynn even brings back Freedom HQ, a location that has been out of the books for a long-ass time. He refocuses on the central team of Sonic and his friends, providing a much needed center. From the beginning, the new writer showed he was familiar with the comic's long history and was determined to respect it.

Flynn's knowledge of Sonic canon extends beyond the comic. In “Birthday Bash,” he introduces two obscure bits of Sega lore into the comic. Bean the Duck and Bark the Bear first appeared in “Sonic the Fighter.” That was an obscure, 3D-style arcade game that attempted to give the “Sonic” brand the “Virtua Fighter” treatment but received little attention in the states. Since then, Bean and Bark have never appeared in another Sega game and only made scattered cameos throughout the comic. Flynn turns Bean and Bark into full-fledged characters. Despite being a mercenary, Bean has a child-like mind prone to making ridiculous statements and an obsession with shiny things. Bark is more of a physical threat and never speaks. The characters bring a fresh energy to the issue. Flynn would manage to take Bean and Bark from obscure footnotes to fan favorites. It's easy to see why.

Yet the new creative team also sought to build up some established characters that were poorly used by the previous staff. Ian immediately works on giving Fiona Fox an actual personality. She expresses misgivings about her past. Her attraction to Sonic is based on his willingness to forgive her. In a handful of panels, Ian did more to establish Sonic and Fiona's romance then Ken and Karl did over half a dozen issues. Later, Shadow appears to personally thank Sonic for saving Hope's life last time while establishing that the two aren't exactly friends either. This show of humanity also fleshes out Shadow's personality, making him more then a grim, ultra-powerful rival to the hero.

Out of all the mismanaged plot points that came and went from the book in 2005, Anti-Sonic visiting Mobius again was one of the more grabastic. Even during his better moments – pretending to be Sonic so he could get laid easily wasn't one of them – Anti-Sonic was always more nuisance than threat. Flynn decided to turn the doppelganger into a real supervillain. While aboard Angel Island, he immediately betrays Rouge. This breaks up the union he formed with the bat, which is fine. Rouge is mischievous, not amoral, and her team-up with Evil Sonic never made much sense. After Locke interrupts what we can assume was Anti-Sonic's super transformation, the hedgehog's fur is dyed green. The Guardians' spiked knuckles leaves a nasty scar across his chest. On the issue's final page, Anti-Sonic is changed into Scourge the Hedgehog, a more devious, actually dangerous character. Like many of Flynn's other additions, Scourge would also become a fan favorite.

It all works so well. The story has an even pacing and flow. Character moments are balanced with action beats, giving us a reason to actually care about these people and who they are fighting. It's steeped in the history of the series but seems to determined to move forward. Instead of just bumbling through what was available, Ian was actually attempting to put together satisfying stories with the available elements. The comic's quality was always uneven but, since the “Sonic Adventure” adaptation – six years before this issue came out – the series had been on an especially bumpy path. Now Ian was leading us with a steamroller, smoothing everything out, providing a satisfying, enjoyable read for what felt like the first time in forever.

With that gangbuster of a cover story, you'd be forgiven for forgetting about the back-up. “Sonic Rush” is another story from Tania del Rio, which adapts the Sega game of the same name. It concerns Blaze the Cat, a pink cat from another dimension who has come to Mobius seeking the Sol Gems. Blaze is quickly cornered by some SWATBots. She takes down a few but still gets captured. Sonic is informed that some action happened outside Knothole and decides to track down the culprit. Just as he finds Blaze, captured for studying by Robotnik's forces, the feline displays her furious pyrokinetic abilities.

I have never played “Sonic Rush” because I never had a Nintendo DS. I'm not much of a handheld guy and the duel-screen gimmick didn't impress me. However, I wasn't shocked to hear that the game was pretty good. While Sega's console games were starting to fall apart, the “Sonic Advance” series maintained a surprisingly consistent level of quality. The point is I don't have the affection for Blaze the Cat that many Sonic fans do. Having said that, the character makes a decent premiere here. She's got a mission, involving more mystic MacGuffins that I can't be bothered to care about. However, I like her toughness. She takes out a couple SWATBots with ease and later unleashes a fire storm, an impressive visual. Del Rio's script moves at a decent pace, making the first part of “Sonic Rush” a decent read.

Another reason issue 160 seemed like such a breath of fresh air at the time is the artwork. Holy cow, here's a Sonic comic that doesn't look like shit! That's what it felt like at the time. In retrospect, even during the worst years, artists like Steven Butler and James Fry were contributing solid work to the series. It wasn't all Ron Lim bullshit. Yet Tracy Yardley's entrance on the series provided Archie's “Sonic”-verse with a clear, refreshing aesthetics. Yardley's work is cartoony but not loose. The lines are crisp and clean. The action has an energy to it. Best of all, Yardley has a gift for expressions. The characters' faces really come alive. Even the back-up story looks pretty good. Tania del Rio's previous pencils were slightly off but you can tell she's been practicing. “Sonic Rush” looks solid. 

I remember loving these comics when they were new but wondered if Flynn's initial run on the book would hold up. Well, it sure looks that way. For the first time in a long time, after years of atrophy, the comic would be worth reading again. At the time, it felt fucking magical, as if an eighty year old man on the verge of death suddenly started breakdancing. Now, it's still a quality comic book. I'm actually excited by this project again. [8/10]