Sonic Universe: Issue 36

Sonic Universe: Issue 36
Publication Date: January 2012

Some people thought the world was going to end in 2012. Looking back on it now, it seems even sillier than most bits of mass hysteria, as the concerns were based entirely on pseudo-scientific nonsense. What does this have to do with Archie's “Sonic” comic book series? Not too much, other than we're about a year and a few months away from the comic being rebooted. As for “Sonic Universe,” the year started up with the conclusion to the Babylon Rogues' underwhelming story arc.

Part four of “Babylon Rogue” is subtitled “Resurrection” but don't get too excited. Busta Rhymes does not kung-fu fight Michael Myers in this comic book. Instead, it begins the Battle Bird Armada blowing up Castle Acorn. The Babylon Rogues leap down into the crater, looking for the Babylon Gardens. Sonic quickly takes chase. Soon, Speedy gets in there too. All five soon uncover some intergalactic bullshit and then some more stuff happens.

The mystery of the Babylon Gardens is resolved in a fairly un-spectactular way. In fact, Jet and the Rogues do not seem all that impressed by the generic sci-fi fortress they walk into at the end. When they enter, the Tesseract-looking cube flies out of Jet's hand and activates the artificial intelligence aboard the ship. A robot wakes up, dumps a boatload of exposition on a reader, and then threatens to suck the entire world into a black hole.

And it's super fucking boring. The robot that pilots the Babylon Gardens, which is naturally a space ship buried deep in the ground, is not even that interestingly designed. It's a generic looking robot. Moreover, it's revealed that the Babylon Rogues are descended from aliens. Because, the last time this comic book brought aliens into the story, fans fucking loved it. Yardley attempts to tie this into the book's lore. Apparently A.D.A.M., while teleporting Chaos Emeralds from all over the universe, drew from the power of the Babylon Gardens. It does not make the reader anymore interested in this super lame plot twist.

A little more compelling is the rivalry between Sonic and Jet. You see, Sonic just watched his village get a big chunk of it blown up. So he's pretty pissed off at Jet. Seeing Sonic totally loose his cool, drop the quips and the jokes aside, and just focusing on being super angry has a certain novelty. His dismissal at the end of the story, smashing the control key and dropping directly out of the ship's airlock, is easily the best moment in this comic book. Of course, the rivalry is pretty one-sided. Sonic is way more angry at Jet, while Jet has pretty much no reason to have any problems with Sonic.

That's not the only rivalry thrust into the story here. The Battle Bird Armada has uncovered the secret of their subspecies, that they've been trying to find for centuries. Somehow, they do not send a thousand soldiers and ships down into the crater. Instead, Speedy is sent down alone. There's more of a reason for the two green birds to hate each other. Both are eager to claim the Gardens first, eager to impress or shame each other. Speedy needles Jet at one point and he nearly grabs him back. However, this fight fizzles out, as Sonic resolves the plot and the two make a temporary truce in order to safely escape the crumbling ship.

Last time, the drama in Mobotropolis was more compelling than any of the bullshit to do with the Rogues. The birds and their self-contained drama takes center stage again in this issue but there's still a few peaks at Knothole politics. Naugus slinks away from the battle, sinking into a shadow. This suggests that his humiliating loss last issue actually does have to with his mental turmoil right now. The Freedom Fighters remain concerned about Nicole, who remains a no-show following her trauma from Sally's disappearance. Other than that, there's not too many interesting stuff happening here.

Sorry, guys, I really wasn't feeling this one. Yardley brings back more of that awkward comic relief, by giving Storm – by far the least well defined of the Rogues – some really dumb dialogue. The plot reveals, involving aliens and robots, is super lame. (Apparently the alien bullshit came from Sega, which is another reason to fuck those guys.) It's a disappointing pay-off to a story that was not especially compelling to begin. I can't recall the Babylon Rogues doing much in the book after this and I can't say I will miss them. [4/10]