Sonic Universe: Issue 82

Sonic Universe: Issue 82
Publication Date: January 2016

Talking about issue 82 of Archie’s “Sonic Universe,” I could open with a few different thoughts. About how this was the only issue of “Sonic Universe” we got in a five month period. Or how this was the first issue of 2016, the last year the Archie “Sonic” title would exist. Instead, I want to talk about that variant cover. It is, for no particular reason, patterned after the poster for the 1960 film version of “The Time Machine.” I guess both stories are set in the future? Whatever the reason, it’s a baller cover and I fully support it. If Archie wanted to pay homage to more classic sci-fi/monster movies, I obviously would have loved that.

Here we are at part four of Evan Stanley’s “The Silver Age.” With the Second Devourer unleashed on the future metropolis, things look grim for Silver and Gold. That’s when Prof. Von Schlemmer remembers a random device he introduced earlier in the story arc. Chekov’s Bigger-Maker Machine is deployed to grow Silver to giant size. His power grows proportionally to his size, giving him the boost necessary to drive the Second Devourer back through the dimensional glory hole it tore through.

My general indifference to “The Silver Age” hasn’t really changed in any positive way as the story has continued. This issue is technically better than most of the proceeding ones. There’s not much in the way of plot contrivances or annoying supporting characters. Von Schlemmer, and his absolutely agonizing accent, is still around but not as front-and-center. Stanley reintroducing the Bigger-Maker Machine is rather clumsy, as is Silver getting the inspiration necessary to push the monster back. But it’s all rather painless to read. It’s also not especially involving. The good guys best the bad guys pretty much how you’d expect. Give us your four dollars and fuck off.

Having Silver pull an Ultraman and grow to enormous size to fight a giant monster is, if nothing else, sort of fun. It’s not the first time an Archie “Sonic” title has tried a Power Rangers but the story decision is used rarely enough to make an impression. Stanley briefly considers the impractical aspects of suddenly growing to massive size. Silver is understandably disoriented by the change at first, allowing the Second Devourer to get the jump on him. Later, he has to work hard not to accidentally crush random citizens, something I wish the story focused on a little more. It would be a good visual metaphor for the weight and responsibility of being a hero if Silver had to struggle not to hurt people around him. But, nah, we get one panel devoted to this challenge and then its back to giant sized fisticuffs.

The lesson Stanley wishes to impose is much hoarier. This is, you see, a story about the power of friendship. When the Devourer has seemingly got Giant-Size Silver down for the count, he remembers that Von Schlemmer and Gold are counting on him. This gives him the anime power-up needed to save the day. To further nail this message, Stanley has the three heroes - plus a couple of those Bits - hold hands and form a psychic link earlier. Never mind that Silver has only known these two characters for about a day. Or that Von Schlemmer doesn’t even know his name, a factoid revealed near the story’s end. Moments like this is when wiping out a comic’s entire history, and quickly introducing a bunch of new people, really hurts things.

The issue then ends on a note that’s so abrupt, it becomes sort of hilarious. The Second Devourer is vanquished and Silver reverts back to his normal size. Everyone hugs it out and then... A Genesis Portal opens under their feet and sucks everyone down to God knows where. Since this arc is set before “Worlds Unite,” we know Silver is okay. He’s tossed back to Sonic’s time, fights that pizza sauce demon, and then ends up in Mega Man X’s world. But what about Von Schlemmer and Gold? Due to the comic’s fast encroaching cancellation, we never found out what became of those two. So these two were tossed into a hole, rather literally, and never seen again. Once again, Stanley shows a weakness for random bullshit happening suddenly to people.

Yardley is still doing the pencils for this. As always, his artwork is of a baseline level of competency. At the same time, he does seem a little bored with the proceedings. You can imagine Stanley herself or Adam Bryce Thomas making the Second Devourer look really bad-ass, while Yardley's looks more like a Pokemon than a dimension eating eldritch abomination. And it might just be me but Yardley's backgrounds look weirdly flat and uninteresting on this go-around. You never really feel any weight from the destruction the two giant characters reek on the city around them. 

I know, of the post-reboot story arcs, this one seems to be pretty well regarded. Once again, I find myself diverting from wider opinion. I can't help but feel Stanley makes a lot of rookie mistakes with this one. Gold is an alright character but I fucking hate Von Schlemmer, while this new version of Silver isn't as lovable as the old one. There were one or two moments I dug but, over all, I'd say “The Silver Age” definitely gets the bronze from me. [5/10]