Sonic Boom: Issue 6

Sonic Boom: Issue 6
Publication Date: April 2015

It’s so surprising to me that the old first issue gamble still works. You know what I mean: Relaunching a comic book series with a new number one issue. The prospector market for comics is dead and those DC New 52 number ones aren’t worth shit. Yet the big two still pull this crap all the time. I guess new readers are willing to jump on a new number one, in the hopes that’ll be a new beginning. Notably, Archie never performed this re-numbering scheme nearly as much, never re-launching the “Sonic” books even when they probably should’ve. I guess that’s why they devoted the cover of “Sonic Boom: Issue 6” to mocking the number one spiel. It’s kind of a messy, lame cover though, isn’t it?

Issue 6 begins a two-parter entitled “Everybody’s Super Sonic Racing.” Am I the only one who sings that to the tune of Loverboy? Anyway, Eggman sends a high-speed courier robot to deliver a message to Sonic. All the heroes are invited to participate in a friendly go-karting with the Doctor. Sticks is immediately suspicious and opts out. The others decide to see where this is going. Naturally, it’s a trap. Eggman has outfitted the go-carts with mysterious devices and littered the race track with traps.

When talking about “Sonic and Sega All-Star Racing” a while ago, I mentioned Nintendo’s “Mario Kart” series and the burning jealousy I imagine Sega felt towards it. Sega is still chasing that kart spin-off dream, since they are about to release another sure-to-be-mediocre racing game. There’s a big silly element that these (usually out-of-continuity) spin-offs ignore: Why is the hero and his most hated enemy going on a civil go-cart race together? It’s a logic gap this issue of “Sonic Boom” is designed to mock. Multiple times, the comic points out how ridiculous its entire premise is, even including a direct jab at the “Mario Kart” franchise.

So it’s a fruitful set-up for a comedy story. There’s a lot of amusing moments here, usually involving the various ways the racers crash. My favorite is Comedy Chimp. While racing, the devil on his shoulder encourages him to crash his kart, saying the tabloid attention it’ll get him will be worth any injuries. The angel on his other shoulder eagerly agrees with him, an amusing touch. Also funny is how Knuckles is taken out. Eggman has included a bomb-shaped robot among the racers. Knuckles later passes the machine and is so incensed by the other driver’s refusal to say hi that he ends up activating the bomb. This is the good kind of absurdity that “Sonic Boom” has become especially adapt at.

Not all the gags are as strong. Amy stopping her Kart because a line of (robotic) ducks is walking in front of her is amusing. If that gag had just gone on, if the parade of marching water fowl never ended, that would’ve been a good gag. Instead, the robo-geese turn hostile and attack Amy. Eehh, not as funny. I’m also not super fond of Orbot and Cubot taking each other out via bickering, though it is mildly amusing that Cubot’s airbag deploys after the crash.

I would’ve liked to have seen Sticks get involved in this craziness. However, her paranoia being correct for once – one hundred percent correct, it turns out – is both in-character and a solid joke. The meta gags of that nature are fairly strong in this issue. After Tails aimlessly slides off a cliff side, he breaks the fourth wall to explain different kinds of stupidity. A cute gag has Sonic tripping over his own introductory tag near the story’s beginning. That’s a clever way to break the traditional rules of comics. The “Ker-“ sound effect running gag continues and would be annoying if it wasn’t easy to ignore.

Once again, the art duties are being traded between Ryan Jampole and Jennifer Hernandez. As it was last time, there’s an easy way to figure out who drew which panels. If the characters look comfortable and expressive, if the action is funny and spiffy, that’s Hernandez. If the characters look stiff and awkward, if the action is flat and lifeless, that’s Jampole. This is most obvious in the panel where the cheetah-shaped courier-bot suddenly turns and runs away from Team Sonic. The way Jampole draws it makes it look like the cheetah-bot just randomly veers off to the left side of the panel.

While not as funny as the last few issues, “Sonic Boom” remains reliably entertaining with its sixth installment. It’s good to know when can always count on the silly versions of Sonic and the gang for some goofy, good-natured laughs. It’s a bummer there’s only five issues left and three of them are part of the “Worlds Unite” crossover. [7/10]