Sonic Boom: Issue 7

Sonic Boom: Issue 7
Publication Date: April 2015

By April of 2015, Archie’s Sonic titles were pretty much ready to head into “Worlds Unite.” The previous issues of “Sonic” and “Universe” were heavily foreshadowing the next Mega Man crossover by this point. Only one more regular issue remained before the crossover officially began. Everything was streamlined towards getting the Blue Blur and the Blue Bomber back together again... Except for goofy “Sonic Boom,” which was still wrapping up a two-parter about go-kart racing. Even then, an end-of-issue teaser sets up Sticks’ participation in the crossover.

The second part of “Everybody’s Super Sonic Racing”  – everybody wants a second chance, oh –   begins where the first left off: With Sonic plummeting to his doom. Luckily, Tails and the rest of his pals swoop in to save him. Back on track, Sonic decides he’s going to finish the race and beat Eggman on his own terms. The mad scientist, naturally, doesn’t take this very well. As a last ditch effort to smash the hedgehog, he transforms his kart into a killer spider robot.

The second part of “Everybody’s Super Sonic Racing” is as farcical as the first, obviously. However, I like the way “Sonic Boom” continues to sneak little character moments in alongside all the jokes. Sonic’s insistence on beating Robotnik under the rules they all agreed to, despite the villain’s own unwillingness to follow them, is a good display of his moral character. Yeah, he’s mostly doing it because he wants to humiliate the bad guy. But it says something about our spiny hero that playing by the rules is important to him. Sonic may be a snarky bastard but he still believes in upholding an ethical code.

Honestly, the same kinda applies to the book as well. By this point, many of the jokes in “Boom” are character based. Knuckles is always going to act before he thinks, leading to him tossing Sonic’s go-kart back onto the track. (And, in one of the issue’s funniest gags, leading to Sonic incoherently screaming his name.) Sonic will always think about going fast, which means he’ll sometimes smash his head on the stirring wheel. Sticks will always be delightfully screwy, such as the panel where she goes pure-badger on Eggman, flashing her fangs and attacking him face-to-face. This leads to another hilarious panel, where the sound effects simply say “badger noises.”

Most of all, the characters are going to stand by each other. At the end, Sonic gathers up his gang and tells them how their friendship is more important than winning any race. The book immediately lampshades this moment as corny, thanks to some off-panel commentary from Fastidious Beaver. And, yeah, it is. But sometimes you need to be corny. Comedy is funnier when you care about the characters. And you care about the characters when the characters care about each other.

Having said that, this issue still contains some strong meta gags. As he’s falling through the canyon in the beginning, Sonic attempts to grab an editor’s box. Yeah, this is essentially a repeat of a gag from last issue, where Sonic tripped over a caption box. But the joke is still fresh enough that it made me laugh. Afterwards, Sonic asks his friends how they had time to plan his rescue. Knuckles responds that they had a whole month between issues. At that point, Amy asks everyone to spot breaking the fourth wall, which they promptly do. It’s good that Flynn knows when to cut it out.

The artwork is still a very mixed affair. Once again, Jennifer Hernandez and Ryan Jampole are trading back and forth. Once again, it’s really easy to tell which pages Jen drew and which ones Ryan drew. Jampole still doesn’t have a clear grasp on the “Sonic” cast, a solid his renditions of them are still weirdly neckless and awkwardly posed. Then again, a two page spread halfway through the book, showing Sonic and Eggman navigating through some traps in big-headed chibi style, is obviously Hernandez’ work and looks pretty weird. Granted, even Jampole shows a base level competence. He’s not Ron Lim. But he’s definitely the weakest of the current slate of Archie artists.

So “Everybody’s Super Sonic Racing” is a funny little two-parter. Some of the other issue of “Boom” have been funnier but these two still got me to laugh, chuckle, or smile several times. It’s a bummer the next three issues get eaten by the “Worlds Unite” crossover and the series was canceled one issue after that. This book has really become a reliably fun read. [7/10]