Sonic Free Comic Book Day 2011

Sonic Free Comic Book Day 2011
Publication Date: May 2011

It's hard to believe that 2011 would be the fifth year where Archie's “Sonic the Hedgehog” series would participate in Free Comic Book Day. Seems like just yesterday, I was writing about the very first FCBD edition. I guess what I'm saying is, the tradition became such a standard part of the “Sonic” series, that I hardly recall a time when it wasn't. Luckily, Archie wouldn't just throw some reprints together for the fifth year. Instead, they allowed Ian Flynn to retell – and improve – one of the most notoriously awful stories in Archie “Sonic” history.

Though I've criticized it in the past, you can't fault Archie's scheduling with this one. 2011's Free Comic Book Day story, “Rematch,” is set precisely between issue 224 of “Sonic” and issue 225, which would come later in the same month. As the new Death Egg rises over Mobotropolis, Sonic looks over at Naugus and thinks about their last encounter. He recalls visiting the Frozen Tundra to place a rose on Eddy the Yeti's grave. There, he discovered that Naugus temporarily escaped from the Zone of Silence and has another fight with him.

If that plot description doesn't sound familiar, you must not be as big of a “Sonic” nerd as me. I distinctly recall opening this comic book for the first time, getting a few pages in, and immediately realizing that this was a retelling of “Naugus Games.” Yes, “Naugus Games,” the notorious final story from the Sonic Super Special quarterly series. Even in 2011, fans still remember that odious issue, still considered one of the worst in the comic's long history. Slipping a retelling of the story in 2011's FCBD edition was Flynn retconning a universally loathed story out of existence.

Sort of. In fact, Ian Flynn still follows the basic outline of “Naugus Games.” Sonic still returns to the former sight of Nate Morgan's laboratory. He still finds a massive, underground reserve of power rings. He discovers Naugus has returned, fights with him briefly, just to toss him back into the Zone of Silence. However, “Rematch” makes some pretty big improvements on the source material. First off, Sonic doesn't accidentally wish Naugus back into the Prime Zone, making our hero seem like less of an idiot. Flynn makes Naugus' return his own doing. Secondly, the awful original story receives an actual point. Sonic's second fight with Naugus ends up wiping Nate Morgan's left-over power rings away. So that's a plot device we won't have to deal with again.

Lastly, Flynn manages to add some more grandeur and pathos to a story that is still fairly circular and unnecessary. He pays more attention to Eddy the Yeti's sacrifice, gifting the story a little more heart and feeling. Before defeating Naugus, Sonic becomes Ultra Sonic again, making this second fight at least as big as their previous one. These are small improvements but they manage to salvage the thin gruel that was “Naugus Games.”

A clear way “Rematch” is a big improvement over “Naugus Games” is the artwork. That might have been the primary reason Flynn decided to retell this one. Many Hands' hideous scribblings are replaced with some sharp Steven Butler artwork. No, half the book isn't total darkness nor a generic snowflake pattern. Instead, we actually see Sonic's fight with Naugus in detail. The sorcerer looks especially beefy and intimidating here. The early shots of Sonic running through the frozen waste is beautifully rendered, Butler employing his typical abundance of detail. The fight has a lot of cool moments, Sonic speeding around ice blast and walls of flame. Butler even gets to thrown in some swirling space scapes at the end, when Naugus gets tossed away again.

(In fact, getting Butler to draw this issue was an especially neat idea. Butler drew many of the original issues that surrounded that one, including the Nate Morgan trilogy that set this one up. So, in other words, you could easily slot this story into “Naugus Games'” original place in continuity and hardly notice that it wasn't there originally. At the very least, this tactic removes half of Many Hands' hideous work from the book's history.)

Though deeply entrenched in “Sonic” lore, this is still a Free Comic Book Day special. The book makes sure to summarize recent events in Sonic history at the beginning, for some newcomers who may be getting their introduction to this universe. There's not much to this one. It's more-or-less an extended in-joke for “Sonic” fans who have been around a while. In other words, I am one-hundred percent the target audience for this comic book. [7/10]