Sonic Archives: Volume 5

Sonic Archives: Volume 5
Publication Date: September 2007

In the four years it took me to read and review all of Archie’s “Sonic the Hedgehog” comics, I didn’t talk about the Sonic Archive series much. The digest-sized reprint collections were kind of a big deal for Archie fans in 2006, because it was the first time many of those early stories were being republished. However, nowadays, this means a lot less, as the individual issues were available as digital purchases for many years. (And now available forever as illegally pirated scans.) Since I reviewed the issues on a one-by-one basis, I figured there was no need for me to ever talk about the Archives. Even a “Sonic” reviewer as obsessively comprehensive as I figured that unnecessary.

But, it turns out, I should’ve been paying a little more attention to the Archives. Long after I was knee-deep into this project, I discovered the fifth Archives volume featured an exclusive “lost” story. Yes, a story that was written and illustrated circa 1995, but never published, was dug back up and shoved into this collection. Due to the aforementioned obsessive comprehensiveness, I knew I was going to have to look this story up and tag it onto the end of the entire retrospective.

And how did I discover the existence of this missing story? It was because, naturally, I was looking up UniverSalamander on one of the “Sonic” wiki. Yes, “Everything Old is Newt Again” features the second (and last) appearance of the giant, invulnerable, amphibious android. It seems the story was originally planned for inclusion in issue 20, as it begins with Robotnik bemoaning how Sonic’s apparent death was less permanent than initially assumed. While yelling at his army of Badniks, the not-so-universal salamander demands to be put back into the fray. Robotnik pumps the little lizard back up, this time giving him a new ability to reverse any shrink ray’s effect on him. He immediately tracks down the Freedom Fighters, kicks Sonic into the middle distance, and starts to wreck havoc.

UniverSalamander is a very silly character I have a bit of affection for, if only because he’s basically a giant robot dinosaur that Sonic could fight. I always thought he had a little more potential, outside of what we saw in his first appearance. Sadly, “Everything Old is Newt Again” doesn’t exactly deliver on that promise. His threat level seems to have been downgraded. Last time, only Super Sonic was enough to stop him. This time, the combined efforts of regular Sonic, Bunnie, and the other Freedom Fighters is enough to hold him off for a while. The shrink ray having the opposite effect this time is an easily reversed plot dilemma, as Rotor quickly deduces an embiggening ray will have the intended effect and proceeds to build one. Apparently even Mike Gallagher thought the character was played out after its second appearance, as the end has UniverSalamander being shrunk down to microscopic size. A fate he could potentially return from, I suppose, but one that seems pretty final nevertheless.

Mostly, reading “Everything Old is Newt Again” made me appreciate how much the comic evolved during its twenty-four years in print. As you’d expect from an early Mike Gallagher story, this comic is goofy as hell. Over the course of twelve pages, there's a lot of silly gags. Robotnik's Badniks treat their job like it's some sort of menial office work, softballing compliments at their boss and planning an office party. Later, Robotnik breaks the fourth wall to describe his new plot device as if it was a televised medication advertisement, with a list of side-effects at the bottom of the panel. During an inexplicable game of flag football between the Freedom Fighters, Sonic snatches Antoine's boxers. After being kicked into the desert by the salamander, Sonic lands face-first in an anthill, disrupting the place's very annoyed insectoid resident. The characters largely talk in puns and one-liners. All of this was standard practice for the book's early days but revisiting it after finishing up the book's entire run does leave the reader with some whiplash.

The artwork belongs to another era as much as the writer does. We are looking at some Dave Manak pencils, the first we've seen in quite a while. I highly suspect Manak only had loose sketches of this story laying around, forcing him to actually finish the illustrations in 2005. And you can tell he was rusty. His Freedom Fighters have overly long limbs, the angles of their faces looking incredibly jagged even by Manak's standards. Even UniverSalamander is off-model, appearing lankier than before. The panel of Sonic landing nose-first in the anthill is among the ugliest Manak would ever draw. You can definitely tell the story was hastily colored years after the fact, as the bright and flat digital colors contrast badly against the artwork.

So why did Archie decide to rescue “Everything Old is Newt Again” a whole decade after it was first conceived, other than being a cool extra for long time “Sonic” nerds? I think I answered my own question there but the story is significant for one reason. This story was the originally planned first appearance of Nicole. But don't get too excited there. The computer does not get some sort of epic introduction. While Sonic and the salamander fight overhead, Sally shows Rotor the new handheld computer she recently ordered from some business. Yep, as originally conceived, Sally just bought Nicole from a by-mail store, as if she was an collection of encyclopedias or a Clapper. It's a hilariously anticlimatic introduction for a character that would eventually prove important to the comic's lore.

I initially assumed this story had been shelved for eleven years because nobody was especially eager to revisit UniverSalamander. But that first appearance of Nicole was probably the real reason. It stands to reason Ken Penders already had his origin for the handheld computer in mind for the 'In Your Face” one-shot while this story was in the planning stages. I'm guessing the Archie top-brass decided that was a more dignified introduction for another SatAM element than this story would've been. Interestingly, one of the first things Nicole – who looks more like a ham radio than her usual form - does here is warn the characters that their world is about to get darker and more dangerous. As if the comic was announcing to readers that more serious stories would be coming soon enough. Just going ahead and actually doing that was probably a smoother way to prepare readers for the tonal change though...

So what value does “Everything Old is Newt Again” have? Not a whole lot. It does provide an mildly interesting “What if?” scenario as an alternate origin for Nicole, even if that ends up not being the main point of the story. Beyond that, there wasn't much reason for Archie to dig this up and polish it slightly, even if seeing UniverSalamander again after all these years was sort of neat. Nevertheless, the “Sonic” historian in me is glad this rarity was made available to the public. [5/10]