Sonic Universe: Issue 46

Sonic Universe: Issue 46
Publication Date: November 2012

The Chaotix have been a part of Sonic’s world since 1995. The original team, with its five or seven members depending on if you count Heavy and Bomb, seemed more-or-less forgotten by Sega for a very long time. Archie, however, had been utilizing the Chaotix as Knuckles’ primary supporting cast for years. I personally think the comics played a much bigger part in making these characters fan favorites than the video games ever did. So, when Sega brought the Chaotix back for 2003’s “Sonic Heroes,” it should’ve been a cause for celebration.

And maybe it was for some people. For me, I was aghast to see that Mighty and Knuckles had been cut from the team. Sega made a number of other baffling decisions with the characters. They made them professional detectives, even working out of an old-timely P.I.’s office, despite this being an occupation that had seemingly never existed in Sonic’s world before. They also made Espio a ninja for no particular reason. Vector was robbed of his hip-hop attitude, a gold chain around his neck being the only reminder of his original gimmick. He was also given a completely new, disturbingly top-heavy design and gifted with probably the worst English dub voice this side of “Sonic Schoolhouse.”

When playing “Sonic Heroes,” I became more and more angry because of how badly the Chaotix had been mangled. (Well, also because it wasn’t a very good game.) It was like a child, completely ignorant of the characters’ history, re-conceived them with nonsensical new attributes, the way they would when smashing their action figures together. These were not the Chaotix I knew. They had been redesigned and mismanaged by a corporation that doesn’t actually care about the quality of their product, only that their IPs be represented in as non-offensive a manner as possible. Even, apparently, the ones they had long since forgotten about. Even the ones that belonged more to the fans now, then to the mindless stooges at Sega.

But, because of their appearance in the “Sonic X” cartoon and the Sonic fandom’s goldfish-like attention span, this version of the Chaotix became the new standard. Archie tried to hold the original, superior version of the team together, while still acknowledging their new unfortunate Sega approved gimmicks. Eventually, however, they had to relent. The Chaotix were now a trio. You can see Ian Flynn fighting these demands. Mighty and Ray had been written off the team but the Chaotix-centered “Sonic Universe” arc beginning in this issue, that I swear I’m going to start talking about here in a minute, would be about the Sega-approved trio finding them. It was the last time the team would be depicted in this manner, as the comic’s original era was about to come to an end.

The story begins with “All for One Part One: Picking Up the Trail.” Vector, Espio, and Charmy have tracked their friends to the vaguely medieval Mercia, the land of Rob O’ the Hedge. (Otherwise known as Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Issue, for reasons we’ll get to in a minute.) While smashing robots, they quickly get an assist from the previously unseen Mercian Freedom Fighters. After the battle, the new guys inform the trio of how Mighty passed through their neighborhood, looking for information about his long-lost sister. They fear he may have been captured by Lord Hood, the local Egg Boss. So the gang sets off to raid the castle and hopefully rescue Mighty. Oh yeah, and Ray too.

Despite ostensibly starring the newly minted detectives, the first part of “All for One” does not feature as much of the Chaotix as you’d expect. They smash some robots, including those Sentinel-looking guys that Ken Penders introduced way back in issue 11 of Knuckles’ solo book. They also get to do some sneaking and thrashing at the end of the issue. For the most part though, they sit around and have other characters explain events to them. There’s some cute bantering, Espio acting as the straight man to the increasingly childish Vector and Charmy. But that’s about it.

Instead, most of the issue is focused on introducing the Mercian Freedom Fighters. These guys are more or less expies of Robin Hood and his Merry Men. Of course, the comic already had expies of Robin Hood and Maid Marian, in the form of Rob 'o the Hedge and his wife, the echidna Mari-An. The Mercian Freedom Fighters explain that Rob and Mari took their child and fled for safety recently. In truth, the two were another casualty of Ken Penders' lawsuit against Archie to regain the rights to the characters he created. In fact, it's pretty obvious that the new Mercian Freedom Fighters were hastily created as last minute replacement for Rob and his family, as they have many of the same attributes. (Rob is also never mentioned by name, another poor omen.) Only one character is technically a reappearing one. Friar Buck – Friar Tuck if he was a deer – previously showed up in that Sonic/Knuckles crossover as a Robian.

How do the Merican Freedom Fighters fair as replacements for Rob? Pretty poorly. Bow Sparrow really is a one-to-one rip-off of Rob, except he's a bird instead of another blue hedgehog. Thorn the Lop, our stand-in for Mari-An (herself a stand-in for Maid Marian), has no distinguishable personality. Munch the Rat, inspired by Much the Miller's Son, is just another big, tough, somewhat dumb guy. That's a character type the book certainly doesn't lack. Alan Quail, inspired as much by the rooster from Disney's “Robin Hood” as the Alan-a-Dale of legend, sings almost every line of his dialogue while hitting enemies with his impossibly sturdy lute. Yes, that behavior is incredibly annoying. There's pretty much no reason to like or be invested in any of these guys.

Lord Hood sucks too. First off, he’s just a bad design. We’ve seen very few Mobian snakes before. The only previous one I can think of is the pink snake from the Original Freedom Fighters. Flynn can’t even maintain continuity with that obscure bit of lore. That snake had no legs, slithering on his tail the way a snake should. Lord Hood does have legs and, boy, does it look awkward as hell. Beyond that, he really has no defining characteristics. He can apparently hypnotize people with his cobra gaze. Which is a pretty lame and desperate attempt to make this guy interesting.

The only aspect of “All for One Part One” that really interested me at all is the peeks we get at Mighty's origin. Bow explains, partially in song, that Mighty has his roots in Mercia. His parents were apparently imprisoned by Rob's asshole dad, the former king. When Mighty's super strength became apparent, he was exiled. However, because Mighty is such a cool guy, he didn't care about that. It's mildly interesting stuff, learning about the history of a beloved and key member of the book. Kind of makes me wish he was actually in this comic book, you know?

So the Chaotix' “Sonic Universe” arc is off to a somewhat strangled start. The issue itself is hampered by having to introduce a bunch of new characters we do not care about. It doesn't help that they are obvious stand-ins for characters we mildly care about and that one of them never fucking stops singing. About the only thing going for it is some okay action, the tidbits we get about Mighty, and the rare banter between the Chaotix. That's it. I hope it gets better. [5/10]