Sonic Boom: Issue 5

Sonic Boom: Issue 5
Publication Date: March 2015

By 2015, Ian Flynn was the head writer for four separate comic books. He was scripting all three of Archie’s “Sonic” books as well as their “Megaman” comic. (This is aside from his occasional contributions to IDW’s “Ninja Turtles” titles.) While Flynn is clearly a hard-working guy who can handle a full dance-card, it’s no wonder that other writers began to work on some of these comics. Aleah Baker, Flynn’s more talented wife, handled some stories in the main “Sonic” series. Meanwhile, issue five of “Sonic Boom” would come from Bill Freiberger. A veteran TV/comedy writer - whose other credits include “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” “The Simpsons,” “Greg the Bunny,” “The Howard Stern Show,” and lots of other stuff - Bill co-produced the “Boom” TV show and wrote several episodes. So it made sense for him to jump over to the comic for an occasional issue.

Entitled “Eggtober Fest,” the comic begins with Eggman having an overwhelming desire to blow up a bridge. He already has a bridge but figures blowing up his own will be no fun. His attempt to sell the residents of Seaside Village the bridge is unsuccessful because they do not trust him. The villain attempts to gain their trust by performing good deeds. This is also unsuccessful. Finally, the doctor opens up a carnival amusement park in the hopes this will win people over. Typically, this also fails. So Sonic and friends have to come in and save the day.

Flynn and Freiberger obviously have very different approaches to writing comedy. While Flynn’s comedy is primarily character based, Freiberger’s humor focuses a lot more on shtick. There’s a lot more goofy one-liners and sight gags here than usual. Such as Eggman having to literally jump through hoops as he signs the paperwork to open his carnival. Or getting repeatedly thrashed by old people with canes. Freiberger’s use of fourth wall breaking humor is not as successful as Flynn, as a gag of Cubot and Orbot showing the doctor a helpful book is too on the nose. The robots provide a lot of sass, not much of it landing. (Though I did like the bit with the torches and pitchforks store, hacky as it is.) A reoccurring gag about the villain’s poor hygiene seems kind of mean.

The comic still made me laugh several times though. The reasoning behind Eggman’s schemes - selling his bridge before exploding it, earning the people’s trust so he can betray them - is nicely circular. In general, I continue to like this take on Eggman, who is desperate for villainous success but gets depressed when his plans fail. Bits involving Sticks scaring people away from the carnival funhouse with her conspiratorial ranting or Knuckles’ inability to understand up-selling also made me laugh. One of the comic’s best, absurd gags is in the very first page. Knuckles provides the opening narration, which presents as a speech to the community council.

Oddly, the issue written by a professional comedy writer features more action than Flynn’s previous four issues. After Eggman’s attempt to win the town’s trust fails, he calls in a horde of Badniks. Sonic and friends, naturally, smash them all up quickly. After the carnival scheme fails, he summons more killer robots. So we get some decent panels of Sonic and the gang using carnival rides as weapons against the machines. Like Sonic running inside a Ferris wheel, Amy smashing a mallet game, and Sticks surfing on a boat ride. It’s neat to see a wider variety of killer robots here than we did in the last few issues.

Aside from Eggman, we don’t spend much time with the rest of the main cast here. Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, and Sticks are stripped down to their barest attributes. However, Freiberger does open the book’s world up some. We actually meet some of the people who live in this village Sonic always has to save. Among them are nondescript members of the town, such as an old lady walrus with several kids and the town’s mayor. We also meet some of the fan favorites from the show: Hacky stand-up comic Comedy Chimp, stuffy intellectual Fastidious Beaver, and awkward teenager Dave the Intern. (Who is apparently a cabybara.) You’ll notice most of the humor with these guys simply come from their names. But, hey, making up a seemingly unimportant side character with a stupid name is one of my favorite gags too.

Steven Butler returns to “Sonic” here after a long absence and makes his “Sonic Boom” debut specifically. Butler clearly is somewhat restrained by the “Boom” house style. We don’t get too much of his gritty detail here. He even sometimes slips up, such as the weird way he draws Boom Sonic’s messier quills. However, Butler always delivers a quality product. I like the way he draws Eggman when he mopes or plots villainously. Naturally, the action scenes are also well done.

Issue five of “Boom” represents a slight dip in quality. Freiberger’s humor is a bit cornier than what we saw in the first four issues. However, I still got several reasonable chuckles out of this, so it earns a positive rating. If nothing else, I continue to like the absurd humor and low key setting of the “Boom”series. [6/10]