Sonic X: Issue 38

Sonic X: Issue 38
Publication Date: October 2008

With only three issues of Archie's “Sonic X” comic to go, Ian Flynn returned to cover a plot point he introduced a while ago. The evil S.O.N.I.C.X. organization of professional Sonic haters were introduced with quite a lot of aplomb. Almost immediately afterwards, the comic book seemingly forgot about them. But, with the book's end imminent, Flynn decided to finally wrap up that dangling plot point.

Issue 38's story is entitled “Big Trouble in Little Station Square” but does not feature exploding Chinese gods or Kurt Russell in a wife beater. (In fact, to mix the reference even more, the story's title is written in the “Indiana Jones” font.) With their resources running short, the wicked members of S.O.N.I.C.X. decide to try another crazy plan. Dr. Narasu intends to inject Sonic with a special mutagen. This will cause the hedgehog to change into a hideous monster, turning public opinion against him. The bad guys attempt to inject Sonic with the drug while he's out and about, running fast and fucking up Eggman, but the plan predictably goes awry.

Since their first appearance, I've bemoaned S.O.N.I.C.X.'s general incompetence. You'd think a collection of experts in their respective fields would suck at lot less at their jobs. Dr. Narasu's plan is sound on the surface, I guess. Making Sonic a hyper-destructive kaiju probably would make people hate him. How do they intend to inject this mutagen? You'd think they would dope Sonic's chili dogs when he wasn't looking. Or maybe discreetly inject him while he's relaxing on Chris Thorndyke's couch. Instead, Narasu's plan is fire the mutagen in a dart at Sonic... From the back of a high speed motorcycle? And he only has enough mutagen for six darts, most of which he foolishly wastes on bad shots. Jeez, it's like he wants to loose or something.

In fact, after missing a few times, S.O.N.I.C.X outright reveals that they are tailing Sonic. Hector, the cocky race car driver, decides to compromise the mission. He uses this as another chance to prove he's faster than Sonic, chasing after the hedgehog on his motorcycle. After making a huge spectacle of himself – crashing through a fruit stand, leaping his bike off a bridge overpass – he actually looks Sonic in the eye. Yes, the chase scene is kind of cool to look at. All it mostly does is draw attention to how fucking incompetent these villains are.

Despite being total fucking dumb asses, Flynn does manage to add the slightest bit of depth to Dr. Narasu and Hector. Hector fowls the mission up because he doesn't actually care about convincing the world Sonic is a threat. He just wants to prove he's the fastest thing alive. Which does explain his awful actions but doesn't explain why he hasn't been kicked out of S.O.N.I.C.X. Narasu, meanwhile, reveals himself as a nutty conspiracy theorist who thinks Sonic is a robot for some reason. It's the thinnest wisp of character development but at least it's something.

Sadly, the script doesn't run with its villains being an arrogant showboat and mentally unstable mad scientist, respectively. Instead, Sonic decides to asks the Chaotix for help, hoping they'll be able to locate and defeat S.O.N.I.C.X. Sadly, once Sonic knocks on their detective-ing shanty's door, “Big Trouble in Little Station Square” collapses totally into sitcom hackery. Sonic walks in on the trio of detective while they are napping. The three are overjoyed to have a case, suggesting business has been fairly slow lately. Which, in turn, suggests they are shitty private investigators. Which also begs the question of why Sonic would seek out their help in the first place!

The script is not very good but at least the artwork is pretty great. Steven Butler returns to “Sonic X” after a lengthy absence. In his previous pencils for this series, you could tell Butler was having trouble fitting his usual style into the “Sonic X” template. He mostly avoids that problem with this issue, save for one odd panel where Sonic makes a weird kissy face at his opponent. Butler's sense of movement and mood is well utilized in several scenes. The members of S.O.N.I.C.X. being interrogated by their mysterious boss makes good use of shadow. Sonic's fight with Eggman's latest device – some sort of robotic giant squid – features some fantastically detailed action. The chase scene, senseless as it is, at least creates a notable feeling of motion.

Issue 38 concludes by promising some giant monster action next time. Considering oddball homages to genre cinema has led to some of this comic's best stories, maybe that'll be fun. Yet, at this point, it's hard for me to summon much enthusiasm for “Sonic X.” The comic's scripts have been utterly pedestrian for quite some time now. By now, it's clear that the writers – even the good ones, like Ian Flynn – weren't willing to expend much effort on the series' scripts. The result is forgettable, half-assed stuff like this. Luckily, the end is in sight as there's only two more of these damn things left. [5/10]