Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 252

Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue 252
Publication Date: September 2013

After bitching for weeks – maybe years? – about the reboot, we have finally arrived at that point. And I’m so overwhelmed with thoughts that I’m not even sure where to start. When I picked up this comic book in 2013, I wasn’t aware that it was the start of an entirely different continuity. I found Flynn wiping away all the conflicts from before “Worlds Collide” to be an incredibly lazy solution and an especially unsatisfactory conclusion to the year long Mecha Sally arc. I actively wondered if this stop-off in an alternate universe was temporary. Upon investigating online, I learned of the terrible Pendering. The old world was gone, probably forever. This is the new status quo. Get use to it. Adapt or die.

So let me just air some general grievances. Yes, a reboot was probably the only reasonable solution to Penders’ lawsuit. Ken would only lend Archie his concepts if he was given complete control of their use, a ridiculous offer Sega would obviously never agree to. And what writer would want to give Ken Penders veto power over their work? Rebuilding the comic’s universe to remove all of Penders’ ideas, which made up the bulk of the world’s history, was the best and maybe only option.

(It’s never been confirmed if Penders’ contemporaries signed proper work-for-hire agreements or if they were similarly accidentally granted ownership of their creations. Considering Archie’s obviously lackadaisical approach to the matter back in the day – and that Scott Fulop would eventually sue for the rights to his characters – we can assume the latter. Either way, Flynn’s stuff was the only pre-Genesis Wave material Archie would be willing to touch from now on.)

It’s Ian Flynn’s handling of this matter that irritates me. As far as I’m concerned, there would’ve been two ways to reboot the book. The first of which would’ve been a blank slate solution. Tear away everything and completely start over at zero. Something like this: Sonic is a loner living in the Green Hill Zone, or part of a small family unit with Tails and Uncle Chuck I mean, Sir Charles. Eggman, having performed his coup of the local monarchy, begins his takeover of the scenic countryside. Chuck is captured and Roboticized. Sonic and Tails are determined to rescue their mentor. They soon meet up with the burgeoning Freedom Fighters, led by the disposed Princess Sally. They join their ranks and the fight against the growing Eggman Empire begins again. Basically a fusion of the original game plot and SatAM. That would’ve made sense, right?

But I can understand not wanting to completely start over. After all, the comic could still use the characters and ideas created by Ian Flynn. So why not basically pick up where you left off but replace Penders’ material with similar substitutes? Julie-Su becomes Perci the Bandicoot or whatever. Knuckles must now rescue the imprisoned natives of Angel Island, who are not echidnas but do include a mother figure of his, as well as the half-mechanized Egg Troopers. Geoffrey St. John (the skunk) is replaced with the treacherous Hamish Le Carre. (A badger.) Fiona Fox becomes Valerie Vulpine or what have you. You get the idea. It would’ve been convoluted as fuck but at least it would’ve allowed Flynn to basically finish what he started.

Instead of completely starting over or filling the book up with ten thousand ersatz replacements, Ian went with some half-assed in-between measure. The general set-up – Sonic and the Freedom Fighters defend the free world against Eggman’s robotic tyranny – is basically the same. But most of the characters are gone. The comic’s long history has been replaced with a messed-up fusion of Sega’s rather vague continuity, assorted DiC elements, and Flynn’s stuff. Instead of starting at a neutral beginning point, Flynn drops Sonic into the middle of an adventure he can’t really recall, surrounded by new versions of his friends with fractured memories. He doesn’t finish the Mecha Sally story or any of the prior continuities’ other lingering plot points. He gives the illusion of a history but marches forward with only occasional half-nods at some nonexistent past.

It is, to say the least, a deeply unsatisfying decision. Worst yet, Flynn gave readers false hope that the original continuity may return. When Sonic, Tails, and Naugus (who gains the humiliating nickname of Wally for some stupid reason) touch Nicole’s restored handheld form, they are overwhelmed by memories of their past life. That suggests the old continuity still exists in some form, right? Nope! It’s gone forever. Sonic hasn’t even been dropped into some alternate version of Mobius either, because Penders took the multiverse with him too. The “old memories” angle was a smokescreen, a way for the comic to trick old readers into thinking everything they cared about still mattered, so they wouldn’t immediately drop the book.

Oh, by the way, the planet’s not called Mobius anymore. Because Sega says so. Another side effect of the Pendering is Sega actually paying attention to the comic now. Thus the era of the corporate mandates really kicks in. The video game characters can no longer have blood relatives or romances. This would force extensive reworkings of the relatives that stuck around. Sir Charles is now strictly a figurative uncle to all the Freedom Fighters and Snively, who got one of the worst redesigns, is just some asshole G.U.N. scientist. Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails’ parents were tossed into oblivion. Mighty’s little sister too, I guess. The capital city is still called Mobotropolis though, because Sega doesn’t pay that much attention.

I guess we should be grateful the comics were allowed to keep the Freedom Fighters and some of their relationships. They were given redesigns that fit in more with the games, a highly controversial change that was decided upon even before the reboot was announced. I’ll bitch more about the redesigned Freedom Fighters as we come to them. King Acorn and Sally are the only ones we see in this issue. Sally’s redesign is fine, I guess, but it’s a little too streamlined for my taste. She keeps the blue vest and boots but looses the cheek ruffles. Despite now wearing bicycle shorts and a tank top, she’s also been stripped completely of her sex appeal. Her curves are gone, replaced with gentle and cute roundness. That feels like some deeply late attempt to curtail furry perversion. Sally still looks like Sally but it’s a pretty boring version of Sally.

I’m ten paragraphs into his rant so I guess I should actually talk about issue 251’s plot. Despite the title, “At All Costs, Part 2” is not really a continuation of 247’s cover story. Sonic is dropped into New Mobotropolis. Which is now just Mobotropolis and is no longer made of nanites because, yep, Ken owns those too. Though baffled by his confused memories, Sonic fights the giant monster version of Tails Doll attacking the city. After defeating the monster, he rescues a healthy, less dickish King Acorn. (Who can no longer be called Max because, yeah, that was also Ken.) Naugus, powerless somehow and now fled, had imprisoned the king and taken over the city. The Freedom Fighters have been scattered across the globe, with Sally creeping through Eggman’s Arctic base. Sonic and Tails go on a trip to find them.

Any benefits of the issue’s individual plot is completely crushed by the ramifications of the reboot. I’m sorry, I can’t care about Tails Doll attacking the city when it’s not even the city I know. I’m much more preoccupied with the fate of the world and cast I love. I guess the action is decent. Evan Stanley’s artwork is strong. I actually really like King Acorn’s redesign. One of the pluses of the reboot is the chance to remake previously annoying characters. So now King Acorn is a benevolent ruler, instead of a crotchety old douchebag. Elias and his wife are cast into the void though, being another Penders’ creation, which I wish felt like more of a loss.

Like every facet of the Sonic fandom, there’s a division here. Some love the reboot. This crowd also frequently declares that the pre-boot stories were never good, because Sonic fans are too often an all-or-nothing crowd. For long time readers deeply attached to the old verse, a reboot was never going to be satisfying. But dropping us into a more-or-less totally new world and just expecting us to roll with it? And then launching into a nearly three year long adaptation of “Sonic Unleashed,” a not especially well regarded game? Nah. Sorry, Ian. I like you but that’s some major bullshit.

Here’s the hard truth: Flynn bungled the reboot right out of the gate and would continue to bungle it on-and-off throughout the next three years. Mistakes were made. So what rating can I even give this story? As an action piece, it’s competent and presents some new opportunities. But as the beginning of a new world, it’s undeniably fucked-up. My gut says I should just forego a rating all together. My heart is saying something like a 4. And I’m an overly emotional man-baby, so my heart wins. [4/10]