Sonic Universe: Issue 87

Sonic Universe: Issue 87
Publication Date: July 2016

I’m pretty sure that I’ve said before that “Sonic Universe” recovered from the reboot a little better than the main book. Most of my favorite post-Genesis Wave stories appeared in the companion book. I recall the last year of “Sonic Universe,” in particular, being pretty good. “Eggman’s Dozen” and the Chaotix’s pirate adventure, that proved to be the book’s unintended finale, were both stories I enjoyed. However, the Knuckles and Shadow-centric stories from “Universe’s” last few years of life proved to be a real drain on the series. Sandwiched between those two enjoyable arcs was yet another Knuckles/Shadow team-up. I remember this one being pretty bad so let’s see if my opinion has evolved.

“Shattered, Part One: Closing In” sees Knuckles and Amy continuing their quest to gathered the missing Master Emerald shards. After grabbing another shard from inside a volcanic fissure, Knux senses the remaining pieces on Westside Island, where the Kingdom Of Acorn resides. Amy insists they ask for King Acorn’s approval. As they arrive at the castle, they discover Team Dark are also in the Kingdom, trying to seek out Eclipse. Knuckles is reluctant to work with Shadow again, following the events of “Shadow Fall,” but the two are talked into forming a truce. They head into a mysterious underground cavern full of fabulous jewels but trouble is afoot.

The last time Knuckles and Shadow met, they spend the majority of their time together homoerotically beating on one another. It got boring to read pretty quickly. Here, Flynn finds a slightly more interesting dynamic. Let's force these two guys that hate each other to work together. It's a set-up that has launched a thousand buddy cops movies and a fairly rewarding formula. This is an issue all about set-up and watching these two be hostile towards each other, forced into a relationship that challenges both of their comfort zones, is a relatively rewarding read.

Another thing that elevates this issue slightly is that, for one of the first times during the Shattered World Crisis, the characters actually feel some pressure. The Freedom Fighters are close to restoring the world. The only thing keeping the Master Emerald-free Angel Island afloat has been the planet's weird gravitational state. If that is fixed, the Island will fall – possibly on a populated area, Knuckles grimly notes. So while the Freedom Fighters have seemingly been fucking around for the last two and a half years, competing in fighting contest and crossing over with Mega Man,  Knuckles' quest actually has a time limit. And that window is getting smaller. Granted, we don't feel a lot of this tension – most of this issue is spent forcing Knuckles into rooms with Team Dark – but at least there's something here to make it feel more like an actual story.

Teaming up Knuckles and Amy was always kind of a weird choice. While the two have very different personalities that could've led to an interesting dynamic, we haven't seen much of it up to this point. However, “Shattered, Part One” does give us something to chew on. Amy's sincerity and sweetness gives her the unique ability to see right through Knuckles and Shadows' macho bullshit. When Knuckles is being stubborn about asking King Acorn for permission, Amy immediately picks up that he's just anxious. When Shadow is being gruff about the Freedom Fighters' adventure, Amy points out that he's just jealous. Both time, both men are stunned into silence. It's a good use of Amy's womanly intuition.

It's also, I must stress, a small character moment that helps flesh out an issue otherwise preoccupied with just putting pieces into place so the plot can function. (In other words, it's the exact kind of thing Flynn should have utilized more of during issue 283's “The Mission.”) Another example of this is seen in Rouge. Naturally, she has to flirt with Knuckles, the echidna still clearly uncertain how to react to that. (But also clearly aroused by it.) What I like even more are the scenes that follow once Rouge is in the cavern. Her reaction to seeing a giant Master Emerald-looking jewel is pure ecstasy. It adds nothing to the plot but it makes the characters seem more alive, more relatable, and that's why I read this stupid comic book.

And there's an interesting bit of world-building in here too. While aboard the GUN transport ship, on their way to the mysterious cavern, Amy and Shadow get to talking about what his employers have been up to during the Shattered World Crisis. Apparently G.U.N. Has been patrolling the world, providing care and relief when it's needed, and stepping in when the Dark Gaia monsters threaten citizens. They are, I suppose, acting as guardian units of the nation. Yet this is pretty at odds with everything we've seen of G.U.N. up to this point, which has operated more like a shady and excessively violent military organization, committed to espionage, power seeking, and giant robots. Maybe (probably) it's just my innate distrust of authority but there is something kind of funny-weird not funny-haha about this reveal. I'm sure Flynn didn't mean anything deeper by it.

Right out of the gate, I will say “Shattered” is better than I remembered right now. The issue ends on a big cliffhanger, the reveal to which has already been prematurely foreshadowed, but I think I better save my thoughts on that until next time. I seem to recall this collapsing into disappointing fight scenes and tedious narrative wheel-spinning soon afterwards but we'll see. Sometimes my memory is wrong. Anyway, I'm going to tentatively give this a [7/10] largely because Rogue's jewel-induced joy-gasm is too fucking cute for me not to love it. Brace yourself because I won't be this nice next time.