Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 170

Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 170
Publication Date: December 2006

By the time 2006 came to a close, Ian Flynn had wrapped up the big two story lines he planned for the year. Instead of spending the last month of his freshman year setting up another big plot line, he decided to take things a little more slowly with issue 170. The new head writer continued his habit of resolving plot points other writers left hanging and simplifying a universe that had, perhaps, gotten a little too unwieldy.

“Comings and Goings” begins with King Acorn still in an unconscious state, have never recovered from the poisoning Anti-Antoine delivered. Uncle Chuck, Tails, and Dr. Quack have cooked up a machine that might wake the King up. The problem is they need a Chaos Emerald to do it. Using a new device Rotor has invented, Sonic and Tails enter the recently transformed Special Zone and grab a Emerald. Afterwards, Merlin uses that Emerald and Knuckles' guiding stone to travel across the galaxy and rescue Tails' parents.

I'm not sure why, post-”Endgame,” Archie decided that everyone of the main characters needed to have living parents. Before being introduced to Tails' parents in “Sonic Kids 2,” I sort of assumed they just perished in the Great War. For whatever reasons, the writers chose to build this bizarre space epic around the elder Prowers. Ever since Sonic got back from “Tossed in Space,” Tails' mom and dad being on the other side of the galaxy has been referenced from time to time. Well, the fox finally gets his family reunion. Ian doesn't overdo the emotion. Tails is shy about approaching his mom and dad, which is a cute moment. Rosemary Prower is overwhelmed with emotion, fighting back tears as she sees how much her boy has grown. It's a pretty good moment.

Ian also uses this opportunity to conveniently do away with the wildly unpopular science-fiction elements that had crept into the series recently. After being zapped away to Argentium, Sonic and the gang notices the planet is in the middle of the war zone. Turns out, the Xorda and the Black Arms are deadlocked in a war above the planet. Amadeus Prower suspects they'll be fighting each other forever. This makes sure the Xorda, already widely disliked by the fanbase, won't be appearing in the book again anytime soon. It also prevents the Black Arms from showing up too. Rumor has it this was actually a Sega mandate but it works out either way, as most fans were eager to disregard the relatively recent but critically reviled “Shadow the Hedgehog” game. For that matter, the outer solar system being fraught with combat meant Sonic didn't have much reason to travel outer space either.

“Comings and Goings” is almost evenly cut in two halves. The important business with Tails and his parents occupies the second half. The first half deals with retrieving the Chaos Emerald. This confirms what was widely foreshadowed last time. The Zone of Silence has been transformed into the Special Zone. It most heavily resembles “Sonic the Hedgehog 2's” special zones. There are long, winding tunnels littered with rings, bombs, and Chaos Emeralds. This is another attempt by Ian to reconfiguration the comic book universe so that it resembles the video games a little more, while simultaneously cutting down on some of the book's repetitive moments. There's no longer the Zone of Silence, the Void, and scattered around Special Zones. There's just one of those.

Yet Flynn doesn't just tossed unneeded comic elements. He also respects this book's history. He takes Feist, that giant panda bear creature that briefly appeared back in issue 66, and brings him back into the story. Now Feist has transformed into a god-like entity, overseeing and controlling the Special Zone. Luckily, the cosmic panda has no ambitions to rule over Mobius. Instead, he simply reshapes the Special Zone, allowing Sonic and friends to race through its traps for prizes, just for his own amusement. This allows Flynn to revisit any of the other Special Zones from the video games but in a way that makes sense for this book. (Compare to the post-reboot attempts to integrate video game canon with comic canon and see how much more elegant this is.)

Last time, Flynn wasn't just determined to kill Tommy Turtle off again. He was determined to make the turtle's second death mean something. This mission continues in “Comings and Goings.” After most of the plot business is over, Sonic and Knuckles meet each other in Knothole's graveyard, whose occupancy has really gotten a boost recently. This re-emphasizes how Tommy really was a childhood friend of Sonic, how he's hurt by his passing. Yet Sonic is too much of a manly man to tearfully express those feelings. Instead, he works through his pain with some good old fashion homoerotic posturing joking around with Knuckles. This provides a candid moment for the two heroes, which is mildly touching.

After two whole pages of Off-Panel stripes for some reason, we are presented with another... Mike Gallagher story? In “The Island of Misfit Badniks,” Sonic is racing through the Great Forest when he literally stumbles upon a hidden alcove Robotnik would use for sneak attacks. Inside, he finds a map to an island where damaged badniks – those easily disposed robots Sonic jumped on in the original video games – automatically returned to when damaged. After tracking the island down, Sonic discovers a bunch of D-list baddies eager for revenge. Among them is Pseudo-Sonic, the very first mechanical copy of Sonic.

According to those hedgehog scholars at the Mobius Encyclopaedia, “Island of Misfit Badniks” was published in order to drum up interest in the Sonic Saga trade paperback that Archie was finally beginning to publish at the time. This suggests to me that this was an old story that was sitting on the shelf for some time. It's not as if Mike Gallagher has contributed a non-”Off-Panel” story to the book in a while. Considering the multiple callbacks to the comic's early history, and its vague placement in continuity, there's no reason not to think this story could've been written years ago.

As far as the actual content goes, “Island of Misfit Badniks” is typical Gallagherian silliness. Sonic easily bests the badniks. Though there might be a certain novelty to seeing Sonic fight Pseudo-Sonic – seeing as how the characters never actually fought back in issue 9 – the scuffle only lasts a page. The fight ends with the two guys running directly at each other, not unlike Gallagher's “Super Sonic vs. Hyper Knuckles” one-shot. The island is also a metal submarine. When it sinks at the end, the Badniks have actually just hidden themselves. The story concludes by promising that these ancient villains will return. (Mike, somehow, resists the temptation to have the characters directly beg the readers to request their return.)

By the way, Tracy Yardley's artwork continues to be high quality on the cover story while Dave Manak's illustrations on the back-up are as loose as you'd expect. Issue 170 takes 2006 out on a fairly strong note. It tells a meaningful, emotional story while also embracing the new writer's stated goals for the book. [8/10]