Sonic Universe: Issue 13

Sonic Universe: Issue 13
Publication Date: February 2010

The “Iron Dominion” two-parter in the main Archie “Sonic” book ended on kind of a weird note. Instead of the central quartet of heroes – Sonic, Tails, Sally, Monkey Khan – heading into Mobotropolis to save the day, the four decided to head back to Khan's Dragon Kingdom. For some reason. Flynn would devote the fourth “Sonic Universe” arc to this adventure, cheekily entitling the story “Journey to the East.” Back in 2010, this bugged me. “Sonic Universe” was supposed to be about Sonic's supporting characters. Featuring a plot in this book that starred Sonic seemed to defeat the purpose. It was another example of the growing pains “Sonic Universe,” still a fairly new book, was struggling with at this time.

“Journey to the East” has the lofty subtitle of “Endless Reach of Fate.” In the installment, Sonic and Tails are exploring a golden temple devoted to Monkey Khan. This visit is interrupted by a group of spider ninjas. They inform the hedgehog that the bride of their clan wants to speak with Sonic. And, in order to make sure Sonic shows up, they've kidnapped Sally, Tails, and Monkey Khan. Sonic quickly convinces the ninjas to let his friends go, leading into a talk with the Bride of the Endless Reach. Khan manages to resolve any conflict with the spider bride with his words, not his fists.

When “Journey to the East” was new, I remember finding the arc to be a huge drag. This was a story line devoted entirely to expanding on the mythology surrounding Monkey Khan and his home land. At the time, I could resoundingly say I did not care about this stuff. In 2018, my opinion has not changed very much. No, I still don't care about Monkey Khan very much, despite Ian's mostly successful attempts to humanize him. Somehow, I care even less about the ninjas surrounding him. I really could care less about Ian pointing out that Li Moon and Li Yuen, two minor characters Frank Strom introduced years ago, survived Khan's Iron Queen motivated rampage.

Still, there's one or two interesting tidbit exposed here. First off, we learn that the Dragon Kingdom was literally occupied by dragons at one point. In fact, the valley is apparently the birth place of Mobius' dragon populace, who abandoned the area after a devastating war millennia ago. (How dragons fit into Mobius' status as a post-apocalyptic Earth mutated by the Xorda's gene bomb still hasn't been explained.) The spider ninjas aren't horribly interesting except for one aspects. Apparently, the ninja's leader take advice from a giant silk web. Yes, a giant web spun thousands of years ago by the clan's founder is said to foretell the future. The ninjas take this entirely seriously. Aside from reminding me of that goofy Loom of Fate from “Wanted,” I'm also reminded of the Source of All the Kings of Acorn used to take advice from. Flynn acknowledges how silly this is slightly but mostly takes this at face value. Interesting but weird!

Penders and Scott Fulop never apologized for how fucking stupid the Source of All was. Flynn is a little different. After being rescued from her kidnappers, Sally breaks down in tears. Sally feels like she's screwed up too often here of late, in between not arresting Robotnik immediately, loosing New Mobotropolis to the Iron Queen, and now getting captured here. Sally, in tears, reflects on how she used to take down SWATBots with her bare hands. Ian Flynn spent so much time fixing Sally's personality after how badly Karl Bollers fucked it up. After a few minor mistakes with the character, Flynn devotes a whole page to how he feels Sally's characterization has slipped a little. Of course, that's because Flynn is a fan that really cares about these characters.

It's a decent moment. Any time Sally gets emotional in a way that doesn't screwed up her core components as a person gets to me. During that initial monologue from Sally, about how she feels she's screwed up, there's a panel of the Princess crying and Monkey Khan stepping back, helpless to do anything. This would be another good chance to display how badly a match these two are. Instead, Flynn tries to spin it into a moment for Khan/Sally shippers. Khan tells Sally that, nah, you are strong, gurl. Sally even admits this is a shitty pep talk but the book goes on from there. Far more entertaining are the two panels devoted to Sonic reacting in disgust to the obvious romantic overtures between Sally and Khan. (Such as the two feeding each other, Jesus Christ.) The fans know how you feel, Sonic.

One of the reasons why I found “Journey to the East” to be such a snore in 2010 was, perhaps, the lack of actual action in the story. Issue 13 of “Sonic Universe” opens with a fight scene, Sonic trading karate blows with a ninja spider. Later, after another ninja breaks into the temple, Sonic briefly pins the guy. That's about it. Otherwise, “Endless Reach of Fate” is devoted to conversation. Lots of talking. We get recaps about Uma Arachnis, dead since “Sonic's” 100th issue, and find out where her and her off-springs fit into the spider ninja clans. We get terse dialogue exchanges about how Monkey Khan's status as the King of the Free People will affect the spider clan doing their spider ninja thing. It's... Fine. But feels a bit like watching C-SPAN. Not exactly what you expect to see in a “Sonic the Hedgehog” comic book.

On the plus side, Tracy Yardley's artwork is pretty good, making good use of silhouette and shadows. The story concludes by setting up a meeting between the heroes and the Yagyu Ninja clan, which is obviously what the next issue will deal with. Thus far, my memories of this arc being slow going have not being challenged. Are we destined to see three more issues devoted to Monkey Khan having polite conversations with ninjas? What does the magical spider web of fate say? “Outlook not so good,” it tells me. [5/10]