Sonic Universe: Issue 41

Sonic Universe: Issue 41
Publication Date: June 2012

After what feels like six months of set-up, Ian Flynn has finally gotten to the Secret Freedom Fighters arc of “Sonic Universe.” It seems, as the original Archie universe neared its end, Flynn became a little preoccupied with organizing the comic's vast cast into various new teams. In the main book, the remaining members of the Knothole gang has split up into Team Fighters and Team Freedom. And here comes the Secret Freedom Fighters, composed of one fairly popular Sega hedgehog and five C-list-and-lower comic characters. Why Flynn was suddenly fascinated with this concept, I don't know. Unlike when Marvel or DC pulls this stunt, there were no new action figures or tie-in books to sell. Let's see if we can figure out why.

Part one of “Unsung Heroes,” which is referred to as “Secret Freedom” on the cover, shows the newly formed team on their first mission. Harvey Who sends Silver, Larry and Shard on a mission to track Geoffrey St. John to the Windy Valley region of Soumerica. It seems St. John is trying to recover some Ixis magic lore or something for Naugus. The three would-be spies argue among themselves, reveal their location, and manage to alert St. John to their presence without capturing him. Back near Mobotropolis, it seems Elias, Leeto, and Lyco are doing an equally on their half of the mission.

At its core, “Unsung Heroes” has an appealing premise. Taking a bunch of ragtag misfits and putting them on a team together can produce fruitful results. This format allows Flynn a chance to further establish the personalities of his cast of old, new, and basically new characters. The issue also has a fairly direct, easy-to-grasp objective. Our heroes are tracking Geoffrey St. John, trying to figure out what he's up to. Should be easy, right?

But there's a problem. These guys kind of suck at their job. Harvey Who is a spymaster after all and the Secret Freedom Fighers are ostensibly spying on St. John. So what do they do? They stumble into two separate traps, nearly getting themselves killed twice. They loudly bicker, repeatedly forgetting to use their code names. If the bickering didn't reveal their location to their target, Shard starts blowing shit up. They don't even manage to capture St. John after blowing their cover. About the only thing the so-called Secret Freedom Fighters pull off is putting a tracker on St. John's hoverboards. Seems to me if they had stopped at that, this mission would've been more successful.

But I suspect authoring a crackling espionage thriller was not really on Flynn's agenda. Tom Clancy, the man is not. Instead, this issue is really about the interplay between the team. On that regard, it's fairly successful. Shard continues to establish himself as the MVP of the group. It seems this iteration of Metal Sonic has only grown to resemble his fleshy counterpart more as he's lived longer. Shard is a snark extraordinaire. He's a real smart-ass around his teammates. However, Flynn keeps the constant backbiting from being annoying. In fact, it's charming as hell. Shard is incredibly entertaining.

Shard may not be the most calculated robot around but at least he contributes some firepower and high-tech gadgets. What does Larry the Lynx bring to this team? Flynn throws in a series of panels explaining who this obscure character is, what his deal is, and why he's on the Secret Freedom Fighters for the single person who reads “Sonic Universe” but not the main “Sonic” book too. After that, Larry nearly falls to his death. He then trips and activates a trap, alerting St. John to the team. I get what Flynn is trying to do. In a round about way, Larry's bad luck is revealing secrets. However, he mostly just draws attention to why someone with serially bad luck shouldn't be sent on sensitive missions like this.

Silver and Shard's bickering reveals a good point. This half of the team is composed of a former villain, someone who has previously attacked Sonic at least once (in addition to repeatedly showing himself to be a poor detective), and someone who constantly has bad things happen around him. The other half of the team is made of a former monarch with little field experience and two randos nobody has heard of before. And they seem to be doing as badly as Silver's team. How is this anyone's idea of a team of spies? If Flynn meant this as some sort of stealth parody/critique of Penders' old “On His Majesty's Secret Service” arc, which had a similarly questionable line-up, I'd get this. But the plotting is pretty serious, even if the character interaction is typically snarky.

I really don't dislike this comic book at all. It's quickly paced. The action sequences are fun. The characters are entertaining together. There's even some potential future conflict set up, as Silver seems to be discovering that his mentor, Mammoth Mogul, wasn't such a nice guy originally. However, there's just enough gaps in the plot's logic that I can't quite get on this one's side. Sorry, that just sticks in my teeth. I'm seem to recall this arc getting better as it went on so here's hopin'. [6.5/10]