THE 2006 SONIC THE HEDEGHOG COMIC BEST/WORST LIST!

At the beginning of 2006, Archie's “Sonic the Hedgehog” book was on life support. Directionless scripts hampered by out-of-character writing and lame plot developments had just about killed the book. I don't know how well the comic was selling at the time. I don't know if indiscriminate kids and faithful die-hards were keeping the series successful. Yet, if things had continued in this fashion, it's difficult to imagine the book going on much longer.

And then, a miracle happened. A new writer and head artists came onto the book, resurrecting it. Ian Flynn's run would completely revive “Sonic,” injected a much needed sense of direction and energy. For the first time in a long time, “Sonic the Hedgehog” was worth reading. The series made the jump from kind of shitty to kind of great in only a few issues. While Flynn would have his own ups and downs as head writer, there's no doubt that he saved “Sonic” in more ways then one.

(The “Sonic X” spin-off would also find its voice in 2006, if briefly.)

So let's look back on the year that changed Archie “Sonic” forever. The material covered in this retrospective is:

Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 158-Issue 170
Sonic X: Issue 5-Issue 15

BEST COVER STORY:
Ian Flynn, “Order from Chaos: Part 1 – The Gathering” (Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 168)

In a year full of satisfying stories, the first part of “Order from Chaos” easily emerges as my favorite. 2006 was defined by Flynn cutting away at the previous writer's pile-up of useless plot points. In “Order from Chaos,” that vision reaches it crescendo. The true identity of Anonymous is revealed. Tommy the Turtle finally finds a sense of purpose. Shadow's status as Robotnik's henchman and Tails' status as the Chosen One developed a point. The Nanites became actually dangerous. Through this amazingly efficient script, Ian even managed to find some powerful emotional moments involving Bunnie and Sonic's dad. It just kicks so much ass, you guys.

WORST COVER STORY:
Joe Edkin, “Bad Eggnog” (Sonic X: Issue 15)

Archie's “Sonic X” adaptation actually featured some really fun stories in 2006, especially when Joe Edkin embraced his inner horror fan. Issue 15's “Bad Eggnog,” sadly, wasn't one of them. A pretty lame Christmas special, it recycled plot points from the old “Sonic Christmas Blast” TV special. The script has the people of Earth acting rather gullible. Eggman's evil scheme is full of holes. The story's conclusion is its most disappointing element, as the story is resolved without much conflict at all. “Sonic X” was an uneven book, with stories like this representing the lower points.

BEST BACK STORY:
Ian Flynn, “Courage and Honor” (Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 168)

While Ian Flynn's cover stories were usually devoted to big plot upheavals, his back stories usually focused on character moments instead. This led to a surplus of good back stories in 2006. 165's “Call of Duty” was a cathartic confrontation between Knuckles and Locke, father and son severing their relationship for good. Issue 162's “Ties That Bind” re-center Snively's recently abused personality, giving that character a proper purpose again.

Yet issue 168's “Courage and Honor” rises above an already strong pack.. Firstly, Flynn re-establishes the importance of Bunnie and Antoine's romance. He then tosses an emotional gut punch the reader's way. Antoine's ill father – another often ignored plot point – comes back to the forefront as the old man passes away. Before dying, he has a touching final conversation with his son and his fiance. It's a powerfully conveyed story.

WORST BACK STORY:
Mike Gallagher, “Inside Treading” (Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 158)

With Flynn's arrival, Archie also saw fit to utilize what I suspect were a number of long shelved stories. Mike Gallagher's various contributions – 167's “Hedgehog Day,” 170's “Island of Misfit Badniks” - varied between useless and deeply dumb. Yet at least those stories didn't actively annoy me. The same can't be said for issue 158's “Inside Treading,” which also comes from Gallahger's pen. Another five pager set in the farcical Off-Panel world, “Inside Treading” recycles the story construction of previous Worst Back Story winner, “Better Read Than Dead,” while being pumped full of even lamer jokes. Worst yet, this story actively insults the reader's intelligence, by assuming none of us understand how movies and comics are actually made. Thankfully, with the new sheriff in town, further Off-Panel shenanigans would be confined to simple stripes in the back. Where they belong and were they can be easily ignored.

BEST STORY ARC:
Ian Flynn, “Order from Chaos” (Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 168-169)

“The Darkest Storm” was meant to be this year's big event and “I Never Promised You a Chao Garden” from issues five and six of “Sonic X” was a lot of fun. But “Order from Chaos” remains one of my favorite story arcs Ian Flynn would ever contribute to the story. As previously established, Flynn successfully did away with a number of lingering story points, combining a collection of plot tumors that the previous writers' likely intended to stand alone. Which makes the title very literal.

What makes “Order from Chaos” especially great is that Flynn kills off Tommy the Turtle, the widely loathed symbol of everything that was wrong with the book at the time. Even more impressively, he even manages to redeem Tommy a bit in his final moment! Now that's a real achievement!

WORST STORY ARC:
Joe Edkin, “Wicked Sweet Shuttle Shenanigans” (Sonic X: Issue 8-9)

I really wanted to give this dubious honor to the last two parts of the Metal Sonic Trooper saga, as Ken Penders' final work on the book. That's not really fair, since the story began in 2005, but mostly because Ken Penders' last contribution to the book wasn't that terrible. Instead, I once again turn to the “Sonic X” book, a title I really did start to like this year. Having said that, “Wicked Sweet Shuttle Shenanigans” from issues eight and nine were not Joe Edkin's best effort. The story doesn't know what to do with the character of Emerl and throws Big the Cat into things for no reason. The climax comes too early, leading to a lengthy and underwhelming conclusion. Most of the main cast is involved but they aren't given very much to do. It really does feel like a lame filler arc.

BEST COVER ART:
Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 161 – Patrick Spaziante

As always, Patrick Spaziante drew some bad ass looking covers in 2006. The triptych he drew for “The Darkest Storm” arc – the last such three-part image he would contribute to the book – was a beautifully constructed, visually exciting image. His cover for “Sonic X” issue 6 had Sonic looking nicely perturbed as a legion of evil Chao gather around him. Then again, Tracy Yardley create the cover to issue 169, which leaps out at the reader's eye.

Yet issue 161 emerges as my favorite. It shows Scourge the Hedgehog bursting onto the book, literally shoving Sonic and Shadow aside. The looks of annoyance on the other hedgehogs' face establish how they feel about the new baddie. Scourge's cockiness and attitude  is also clearly evident in his body language and facial expression. The other little attributes Spaz adds to this one – the Sega style background and ring – are also a nice touch.

WORST COVER ART:
Sonic X: Issue 12 – Patrick Spaziante

Issue 170's cover was a bit crowded and awkward. Sanford Greene's work on issue 166 was fairly bland, showing the heroes and villains standing around, not doing much. Yet issue 12 of “Sonic X” grabs this award because it's a rather incoherent image. I've looked at this cover a bunch of times and I'm still not entirely sure what's happening in it. I think Sonic and Knuckles are holding up one of the alien tripods as it falls over them. If that is what we're looking at, why is the laser sighted alien eye craning around and looking at the heroes? Why are they posed in front of a series of television? Why is Eggman's little blue henchman floating in the corner? There's nothing wrong with the character modeling, line work, or coloring but the image just doesn't make any sense.

BEST STORY ART:
“Leak” – Tracy Yardley (Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 165)

Tracy Yardley contributed quite a lot of good artwork to the book in 2006. I single out “Leak” because it features some of my favorite bits of action from Yardley. Scourge rushing at Sonic, the two chasing up a tree, and kicking and punching at each other's faces are all memorably entertaining moment. Yardley not only knows how to add some expressive colors to the fight scenes but these moments also show Tracy incorporate a sense of speed to the fast-paced fight scene. The earlier scenes, devoted to Rouge's interrogation, also feature some nicely moody use of shadow as well.

WORST STORY ART:
“System Reconfiguration” – Ron Lim (Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 158)

Thankfully, there wasn't too much subpar artwork in 2006. But there were still a few moments. Gary Bedell's off-model artwork in “Courage and Honor” was the sole negative aspect of that story. Tim Smith 3's artwork in “Sonic X: Issue 8” featured some seriously sketchy, flat artwork from Smith, an inconsistent talent.

But I couldn't resist using this spot as one last chance to jab at one of my least favorite artists on the book. Ron Lim's artwork on issue 158's “System Reconfiguration” was his penultimate credit on the book. As always, Lim draws the character with huge heads, skinny limbs, and blank facial expressions. Everyone is off-model and unimpressive. Issue 158 is especially notable for how loose the artwork is, even by the standards of Ron Lim. Too often, he reduces the characters blue blurs or undefined shapes. I will not miss you, Ron Lim.

BEST NEW CHARACTER:
Scourge the Hedgehog

With Ian Flynn's arrival on the book also came a number of fan favorite characters. Bean and Bark got a long overdue proper introduction as a comedic duo, one goofy and the other silent. Those guys are cool but another fan favorite emerges as the best new character of the year.

For a long time, Evil Sonic – or Anti-Sonic or whatever the hell you want to call him – was a lame nuisance, never distinguishing himself as a proper threat and usually being easily thwarted by Sonic and pals. Flynn would transform this clown into a proper enemy by giving him a dye job, a new jacket, and some scars. Oh yeah, and a total personality overhaul that made him a physical equal to Sonic and an amoral inverse to everything the hedgehog hero believes in. Flynn would make a number of additions to Sonic's rogue gallery over his long run on the book but Scourge the Hedgehog is my favorite, a perfectly hatable shithead with his own sense of style and personality.

WORST NEW CHARACTERS:
The Babylon Rogues

In addition to Bark and Bean, Flynn would introduce a few other Sega exclusive characters into the comic in 2006. Blaze the Cat and the Babylon Rogues would get their introductions in quicky two-parters in the back pages, that quickly dusted off the plot of their respective video games.

While Blaze showed some potential, the Babylon Rogues strike me as a totally generic set of undefined stereotypes. Jet the Hawk is yet another speedy rival to Sonic, joining Shadow, Scourge, and Metal Sonic. Storm the Albatross is an undefined big, tough guy, another character type the book hardly lacks. While Wave the Swallow is referred to as the brains of the operations, she seems more defined by her status as the token female. And despite being birds, all three of them float around on hover boards for some reason. Some Sega people really like these guys but I consider them utterly disposable.


BEST IDEA:
The New Guy Takes Out the Trash

Getting some new talent was clearly the best idea the Archie “Sonic” editorial had in 2006. With his arrival, Ian Flynn injected some much needed cohesion into the faltering book. For his first trick, Flynn would toss, dispose, write out, and do away with a number of unpopular, unneeded, unnecessary, or ungainly story elements. Flynn would clean up and streamline Sonic's world, making the book more accessible and more logical without loosing any of its history or legacy. There's a number of reasons as to why Flynn could pull this off – he's better at the brass-tacks narrative mechanics of writing then any of the previous writers Archie employed – but there's one real reason for his strengths. Flynn was a fan of the book. He loved it too. He knew what to do to fix it. He succeeded.


WORST IDEA:
Indecisiveness

For his obvious strengths, a number of flaws on Flynn's behalf would soon become apparent. He sometimes seemed a little uncertain on what to focus on. In 2006, he actually sped through a few story lines too quickly. His contribution to the “Mobius: 25 Years Later” setting easily could have breathed some more. His attempts to develop all of Sonic's supporting cast, while introducing a few new cast members, sometimes spread the script a little too thin.

This indecisiveness was more apparent in the “Sonic X” spin-off. Joe Edkin would regularly interrupt his own stories to make room for events that had or would happen on the cartoon show. Instead of letting “Sonic X” be its own weird thing the way Archie's main “Sonic” book had become, Edkin was pulled between telling original stories and writing around things that would happen in another medium. The results often gave me whiplash, especially since I've never seen much of the “Sonic X” cartoon anyway.