Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 163

Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 163
Publication Date: June 2006

“The Darkest Storm” trilogy, otherwise known as Ian Flynn's house-cleaning effort, continues to roll on in issue 163. And, man, look at that title. Ian pulled out the thesaurus for this one. Part two is subtitled “The Onset of the Squall.” Which does that sound more like? A prog-rock concept album? Or the third or fourth book in an epic fantasy novel cycle? Either way, it would probably have a dragon on the cover. This has nothing to do with “Sonic the Hedgehog.” Sorry. Let's get on with the review shall we?

The pawns in Anonymous' plan are falling into place. After being released, Mammoth Mogul grabs the Crown of Acorn and frees the Destructix. The same dimension rift that freed Mogul also freed Ixis Naugus. Arachnus' children bring him the sword. Soon, the two magical immortals are fighting each other for control of Knothole. Sonic and the Freedom Fighters have something to say about that. Meanwhile, A.D.A.M informs Robotnik that M's is in cahoots with Anonymous. Though she denies this, he still orders her to destroy herself.

It's a bit of a cliché now, especially in tent pole action movies. The mastermind villain who has a convoluted plan, involving a lot of people acting just as he predicted, that works to his favor. Yet this comic book came out two years before “The Dark Knight” did, so we can't blame this one on Heath Ledger's Joker. Truthfully, Anonymous' master plan is pretty brilliant. Usually, villains in this comic book are just trying to steal shit or smash shit. To see one put forth an actual strategy is a surprise, showing Ian Flynn had some bigger plans for this comic. Yes, Anonymous' plan does depend on some characters acting in a way that he couldn't have predicted. I'm willing to go with it.

Probably the biggest leap in logic in Anonymous' plan is that Ixis Naugus and Mammoth Mogul will react to each other in the way they do. After seeing each other on the battlefield, Mogul reveals that he was the first Ixis Wizard. Naugus declares him his boss and teacher, bowing down and handing over the Sword of Acorn. While not the cleanest narrative conclusion, this fits in with Flynn's plan to simplify or cut down the book's mythology. The two magical characters are part of the same order, which I'm willing to accept. I'm also glad to see the evil wizard back in the book, as he was always an underutilized villain. It explains what Uma Arachnus' kids were up to.

I mentioned a while ago that Karl originally planned for Anonymous to be the original. Dr. Ivo Robotnik, somehow returned to life. Amusingly, Ian is still hinting at this. When A.D.A.M reveals the footage of M talking with the enemy, Anonymous' silhouette obviously resembles the first Robotnik. We now know that this was a clever redirect. Maybe that's what Karl had planned too but it would surprise me, considering he masterminded the rather obvious reveal that another Robotnik was floating around inside those satellites. Either way, it tricked me when I first read this comic book as a teenager.

Here's something I just realized. Each issue of “The Darkest Storm” story arc features a character being killed off. Last time, the Mystic Walkers got the ax. This time, M leaves the book. Eggman orders his robotic daughter to self-destruct. While M wasn't a character I had any attachment too, her death scene is far more effective then it should be. The terminatrix displays emotion for the first time, genuinely hurt that Robotnik would accuse her of treachery. She dutifully follows his orders anyway. To show how little Robotnik actually cared about his robotic daughter, he has A.D.A.M casually swept away the ashes of her mechanical skeleton. It's a really excellent series of panels.

“Onset of the Squall” is mostly focused on action and plot mechanism. One of my favorite bits of the latter involves Nack the Weasel. After Mogul frees the Destructix, the weasel slips through the bars and casually mentions his intentions to poison his former partners. This also cleans up another dangling plot point but, more importantly, shows how ruthless a character Nack can be. Another nice, small moment has Sonic mentioning to Merlin Prower that he should stick around, because Tails likes having a family again. These little, character driven scenes keep this from just being a well organized story but a meaningful one too.

The first two issues of Flynn's run featured a back-up story adapting “Sonic Rush,” one of the spin-off games Sega released. In this issue, he begins another two-parter game adaptation. In “Sonic Riders,” a trio of thieves have stolen some shit from Robotnik's lab. These are the Babylon Rogues, a trio of birds that fly around on hover boards. Next, they cross paths with Sonic and introduce themselves, claiming that are stronger, faster, and smarter then the hedgehog.

“Sonic Rush” was not quite a year old when Archie's adaptation ran. This “Sonic Riders” adaptation comes out about five months after the game hit store shelves. I don't know if Sega ordered Ian to adapt the games. If they didn't, I suspect he wrote these stories so he could use newer game elements a little later down the line. “Sonic Riders” really has no purpose but to introduce the Babylon Rogues. While some fans love these guys, I've never thought much of them. What little page space they get here isn't revealing. Storm is the big strong guy. Wave is a skillful female. Jet is yet another rival for Sonic, who claims to be faster them him. This franchise really didn't need any more of those archetypes.

The artwork is pretty good though. Tracy Yardley is still working at the top of his game and he makes the Rogues' Sega sanctioned designs really pop. James Fry continues to draw the main book. He does solid work, even if his expressions remain a little on the cartoony side. A one-page spread devoted to the battle royale between the Freedom Fighters and Naugs/Mogul's forces is very eye-catching. His version of Naugus looks really awesome and intimidating. M's death wouldn't be twice as meaningful as it was without Fry's expert pencils. Fry would be working a lot less on the book following this arc but at least he went out on a high note.

Despite the title, “The Darkest Storm” isn't moving like an ominous black cloud through the sky. It's zipping along like the wind. This is very well structured, concise writing that is reorganizing a messy universe into something orderly. While the first part had a little more emotion, I still really admire the way Ian whipped the book into ship. There's a reason his first year on “Sonic” was so well regarded. He took a comic that had been moving at a snails' pace for far too long and got it moving again. [7/10]