Sonic Universe: Issue 89

Sonic Universe: Issue 89
Publication Date: August 2016

I guess it’s a matter of how invested you are in these things. At this point, in the main Archie series, the Freedom Fighters are in a desperate race against the clock to stop Eggman from taking over the world, the fate of the Shattered World hanging in the balance. And I’m pretty into in. At the same time in “Sonic Universe,” Knuckles is close to reassembling the Master Emerald.

While both quests have been going on for the same amount of time, Knuckles’ side of things feels a lot less urgent. It’s probably because we haven’t spent much time in the post-rebooted Angel Island. It seems largely empty, which is very different from the bustling continent that existed before the reboot. While we’ve seen firsthand the effect the Shattered World Crisis has had on the people below, Angel Island has been largely safe throughout the ordeal, thanks to the magical juju at play in this situation. So it’s hard to get too excited about Knux completed his goal, when we’ve never really gotten an idea of what was at stake.

Anyway! “Shattered: Part Three — Lost & Found” begins with Knuckles eager to get into Naugus’ final chamber, where the troll wizard is reassembling the Master Emerald, planning to use it to re-power himself. The heroes get distracted when Omega, under the sway of Naugus’ crystal magic, attacks them. After hammering the robot for a while, the crystals finally break and Omega is returned to his trigger happy old self again. But it might be too late. Naugus has successfully put the Emerald back together, his evil magic renewed.

Most of “Shattered” is devoted to a long fight scene with the reprogrammed Omega. And it’s okay, I guess. Yes, there are some clever moments, like when the robot totally catches Shadow off-guard. Mostly though, it’s a very repetitive fight. The gang just keep hitting Omega until the crystal breaks and he’s free. And there’s not much tension anyway, since we know any brainwashed good guys will return to normal soon enough. (And that all Sega-created characters are safe anyway.) Once again, it feels like Flynn pandering to the young boy readers that demand constant action or just padding out a simple story with gratuitous punching.

And it didn’t have to be that way either. I am fine with extra fight scenes as long as we get some peeks at our heroes’ personalities while we are at it. Sadly, there’s not much of that here either. Rouge always finds time for banter, flirting with Knuckles about chivalry in a way that largely goes over his head. When Amy gets a phone call from Sally, a tie-in with what’s going on in the main book, her confused and panicked reaction is kind of funny. However, most of the dialogue here is concerned with the status of the Master Emerald or the fight against Omega. As too often happens, the action and plot squeezes out the heart.

What makes this frustrating is that Flynn is good at sneaking personality into an action-heavy book when he actually tries. He does it well in this very issue! After Omega is finally freed, the homicidal robot immediately begins to liven things up. In his typically deadpan way, the robot explains how he wants revenge on Naugus. When Knuckles and Amy asks the robot if he would’ve done the same for them, he responds bluntly in the negative. Later, he bemoans Knuckles’ fleshy, mammalian weakness. See, isn’t the giant robot that sees everything in terms of combat much more interesting when he’s being forced to interact with other people, as opposed to when he’s just being used as a physical obstacle for the heroes?

Naugus, or at least the information he holds, continues to be the most interesting part of this story. While restoring the Emerald, the wizard thinks back upon his past. We see how he was initially cast out, repeatedly fought Sonic, lost his powers after the events of “Genesis” (which is apparently still canon), and ended up begrudgingly working for Eggman. In a better story, an extensive flashback like this would’ve killed the pacing. If the Digests were still being published at this point, I have no doubt this would’ve been a Sonic Comic Origins story. Yet I still really appreciate learning about rebooted Naugus’ history.

Flynn goes right up to the start of the reboot, showing what exactly the wizard’s plot was that got rudely interrupted by Sonic and Tails’ re-arrival. Apparently, after learning about technology from Eggman and Wendy to boost his weak magic, Naugus shape-shifted into King Acorn and locked the real deal up. Gee, I wish we could’ve seen this story actually play out! It sounds pretty interesting, a variation on the old “Return of the King” one-shot but with less bullshit. What exactly was going on in Castle Acorn, back st the start of the reboot, is something Flynn probably should’ve expounded on way sooner. I get the impression this was the first time he even really thought about it.

Once again, I wish Flynn had actually taken the time to establish this new world’s history before racing ahead with the “Sonic Unleashed” adaptation. But you are probably sick of hearing me bang that note. As for this issue, it’s loaded down with pretty dull action, the few interesting moments existing totally apart from the fighting. Adam Bryce Thomas’ artwork is good but I’m looking forward to this arc being wrapped up. [5/10]