Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 243

Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 243
Publication Date: December 2012

“Endangered Species” would be the final story arc of the original Archie Sonic comic universe before the entire world would be rebooted. And you can’t really talk about it without talking about Ken Penders. If you’re reading this blog, you probably already know all the gory details. I’ll reiterate them anyway.

In 2009, the prolific former “Sonic” writer realized that Archie had seemingly never made him sign a work-for-hire agreement. Which meant Penders owned all the characters and concepts he created for the book. In other words, Ken owned the majority of the comic’s cast and lore, which Archie had continued to utilize since he left the company. Penders sued Archie for copyright infringement. The suit would go to trial in 2010 and drag into 2012. At first everyone assumed Ken was talking out his ass, as he’s been known to do. As the lawsuit went on, and especially after Archie fired its entire legal team in autumn of 2012, it became increasingly apparent that the publisher really didn’t sign Ken to a work-for-hire deal. Archie had fucked up. Probably, I’ve widely suspected, because they never assumed, back in 1992, that this series would ever be worth anything. (For a while, they were insisting that the original contract was lost in a fire, which strikes me as a fishy story.)

Through it all, the comics were published normally. Maybe Archie assumed that Ken would never be able to copyright a bunch of characters and concepts derivative of things Sega owned whole-sale. A lot of fans made the same assumption. The courts, however, backed Ken up. However you feel about Penders -his writing was inconsistent, to say the least, and he acts like a total tool on Twitter- never forget that this whole mess was Archie’s fault. If they had paid proper attention and hadn’t made sketchy deals, none of this would’ve happened. This was the start of a series of legal and financial problems that probably led to, or at least contributed to, Sega’s decision to end their licensing agreement with Archie. In other words, the end of Archie’s “Sonic” comic series begins here.

By the time issue 243 was being prepped for publication, it must have been apparent that Archie wasn’t going to win the suit. (You can tell it was, because a few word balloons were sloppily rewritten so as to not use certain phrases Sega and Ken were contesting.) The “Endangered Species” arc, one assumes, was originally meant to wrap up the long simmering plot points about Knuckles’ post-Enerjak guilt and the fate of his people. Instead, it would hastily write out all of the echidna characters Ken created. I imagine Ian Flynn hoped this would be a temporary fix, until the lawsuit was resolved and things could return to normal. But things never returned to normal. Instead, the arc prefaced the book’s entire continuity being rebooted and totally purged of all of Penders’ creations and ideas.

The issue begins in an Albion classroom, taught by an unnamed Komi-ko, three days in the past. (This helpfully reminds newer readers of the echidna race’s convoluted history.) This was before the Death Egg arrived. Team Fighters only shows up afterwards. The Tornado is immediately grounded by Metal Knuckles. Sonic and friends find a ruined, largely unoccupied city. The remaining echidnas, led by Remington, are fighting against the occupying Dark Egg Legion, led by Lien-Da. The heroes join the fight.

Knuckles is, weirdly, nearly entirely absent from this issue. He doesn’t show up until the very last scene, in a moment largely copied from last issue’s back story. Luckily, we’re invested enough in the echidnas without him. And things are looking grim for our monotreme friends. Albion has been reduced to blasted out buildings. Remington and his friends fight in ruined streets against an oppressive Dark Egg Legion army, outgunned and out-numbered. It can be assumed that large portions of the city’s population, including Remington's girlfriend, Komi-ko, are dead.  Remington is pretty broken up about it, visibly crying in one panel. Seeing how much this loss has effected Remington make its impact feel more real. This is a surprisingly grim place to begin your funny animal adventure comic.

Luckily, I do not dislike this kind of grimness. In fact, I might embrace it too much. There's definitely a thrill in seeing Sonic and friends thrust into such a dark situation. Watching the scrappy rebels fight against a better armed and prepared, tyrannical army takes me back to "SatAM" and the comic's earlier day. Since Team Fighter has had Robotnik on the run for a few issues, it's nice to return to a time when our heroes were underdogs, fighting against a more-powerful enemy. Yes, Sonic and the others are still hyper-confident. After showing up, he immediately takes out a tank while Amy is smashing Legionaries left and right. They turn the tide of the fight in a few minutes. But it's still nice to root for the downtrodden, especially when the balance of power has been more equal recently.

In fact, the action is this issue is very strong over all. The entire last third is devoted to Team Fighter and the echidnas raiding the Dark Egg Legion base. Sonic thrashes yet another tank. Remington dives and shoots. There's plenty of explosions. This leads to a pretty tense confrontation between Sonic and Lien-Da. The Kommisar has been outfitted with new superpowers, electric energy whips that discharge from her hands. (This is suspiciously similar to the weapons of Whiplash, the villain from "Iron Man 2," but that's surely a coincidence as Ian has never ripped off the MCU before.) This makes the already extremely fierce Lien-Da even more intimidating. In fact, Sonic even seems a little overwhelmed. The fight is exhausting enough that a sucker-punch from Metal Knuckles immediately afterward is enough to put Sonic down for the count.

Lien-Da, as always, is a high-light. In addition to her fabulous new superpowers, which she clearly enjoys having, Lien-Da is in full-on Bad Bitch mode here. Razing Albion to the ground, taking control of the echidna homeland, is clearly an opportunity she relishes. She vamps, building herself up, as she goes to confront Lara-Le, who isn't exactly having it. Lien-Da's response is to cup Lara's face like she's a disobedient child. As if the dominatrix subtext wasn't obvious enough already. When she gets to deploy her new superpowers near the end, she's clearly having fun with that too. Of course, Lien-Da's ruthlessness comes with some hidden insecurities. We see this when Robotnik calls her up, threatening her life and ordering her to pick up the pace. She remains one of the book's most multifaceted, but still entertainingly evil, villains. I'm really gonna miss her.

I really would've liked it if Archie could've gotten Manny Galan back to draw this. I'm sure they didn't know this would be the last story to feature these characters but it would've been nice to bring things full circle by having the regular "Knuckles" artist back. However, they at least did get an artist who has worked with these characters before. Steven Butler does not meet the heights here he previously touched during his "Mobius: 25 Years Later" strips. But it's still pretty damn good. Butler's action scenes have the same gritty immediacy that they've always has. His character work and expressions are top-notch, helping to sell the emotion of this tale. And, always, nobody draws Lien-Da looking more dangerous and powerful than Butler. His Metal Knuckles looks a little weird and wobbly-kneed but otherwise I have no complaints about the books art.

"Endangered Species" may signal a very dark time in the book's history but the first part is pretty damn good. Action, fun character beats, events that actually make me feel things. That's all I ask of my comic books about blue hedgehogs that run fast. [8/10]