Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): Issue 53

Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): Issue 53

Publication Date: September 28, 2022 

Has anything fucked up suspense in the comic book industry more than solicitations for upcoming releases? Everyone can see the new covers and previews for titles months before they come out, meaning we all have a pretty good idea of where the stories are going before we even crack the books open. I mean, unless you are some sort of comic-reading luddite who doesn't look at the internet ever. But if you're reading comics, you're a nerd. So I feel like it's safe to assume you're probably online. 

Anyway, all of this is a roundabout way of saying we knew issue 53 of IDW "Sonic" was going to feature a fight between Surge and Whisper, thanks to the main cover. We also knew Surge was going to win that fight, thanks to the variety cover where the villain is posing dramatically over Whisper's broken mask. I guess it's up to the writers and artists to make sure the issue is still worth reading even with this knowledge in our heads. (Or maybe the industry should just go back to wildly misleading covers. Preferably ones filled with apes.)

The previous issue made it look like a big confrontation between Surge and Eggman was coming. Instead, the Tenrec uses the Dynamo Cage to drain energy from some Egg-Pawns and then GTFOs from Eggperial City. Her logic is that Sonic is her target, not Eggman. She heads to Central City and starts terrorizing it, which draws the attention of Whisper. The fight turns when Surge realizes she can use the Dynamo Cage to absorb wisp powers. Before Sonic heads over to confront the villain, he has to break the bad news to Kit that his evil dad and evil sister/GF are presumed dead. The hydrokinetic kitsune doesn't take it well.

At first, I was worried about this issue. I've made it known in the past that my least favorite issues of "Sonic," regardless of which series I'm reading, are those that focus on characters trying to one-up each other with different superpowers. It reminds me too much of elementary school playground sessions, where friends would invent new powers to constantly turn the narrative in their favor. That shit is tedious. Surge really didn't need a power-up that allows her to steal energy and abilities from other characters to be a threat. We didn't need several panels to establish what Whisper's wisp can do, as we already know. Any time spent on such developments is just an excuse to escalate the action scenes in a way that feels artificial, instead of born out of the characters' conflicts. 

Action heavy issues also tend to be Evan Stanley's weakest. She's better at the emotional stuff. Luckily, this issue starts to turn in that direction quickly enough. When Surge absorbs the wisps' powers, she seemingly sucks up the weird little alien things into her person. (Which I guess tracks with how the wisps' weird physiology has always worked.) That means Surge isn't just taking Whisper's defensive abilities from her: She's taking her friends. And we all know that Whisper has a bit of a complex about losing the people and weird Pokémon-looking things she loves. You really fucking feel her anguish, as Surge sucks up more of her little buddies. The panel devoted to Whisper clenching her teeth and hissing out "I need them BACK." hits me right in the soft spot, man. 

Though this issue does change one aspect of Whisper's relationship with her glowy, multicolored sidekicks in a way that mildly bugs me. There's a panel that takes us behind Whisper's mask. That's when we learn she can understand what the little critters are saying to her. I think that's always been implied and, if not, I always assumed as much anyway. Yet the decision to show the wisp actually talking – including a gag of the orange one speaking in a verbose, precise manner – feels innately wrong to me. That would be like R2-D2 talking in perfect English. It adds more color to the word if they just remain jabbering little weirdos. Ya know, your dog doesn't speak but you can still communicate with it clearly. I kind of always assumed Whisper had a similar relationship with her buddies. 

Nerdy nitpicking aside, the Whisper part of this issue works really well. That's the most effective emotional gut punch this issues serves up but it's not the only one. Though now aligned with Sonic, Kit is shown falling back into the role of hyper-subservient sidekick. He has just switched his total devotion from Surge to Sonic. This shows that Kit is a long way from breaking the psychological conditioning Starline cooked into him. When Sonic tells the blue fennec that the two people he's always looked up to are probably gone, it shakes Kit to the core. He falls into a total, catatonic depression. Following Starline and Surge is literally the only thing Kit knows how to do. Without that, his entire personality is forfeit. This is why the issue ends with him dramatically heading off to help Sonic. If Kit isn't following a leader with a single-minded, sometimes disturbingly aggressive determination, he might as well not exists. 

That's good shit, man. The imposters have been, from the beginning, set up to be tragic villains, molded by circumstances outside of their control to do evil. Kit really seems to be the sadder of the two, as his pathetic desire to please others makes him seem even more like a lost little kid. Yet Surge's role is not done being defined either. After blasting out of Eggman's lab, with the Dynamo Cage charged up 100%, the tenrec sees Starline talking to her. At first, I took this as the book weaseling out of that villain's death already. Instead, it's quickly clarified to be a hallucination. Now, that's interesting. As much as Surge wants to let go of the destiny Starline designed for her, she can't. She still is driven to destroy Sonic. As much as she wants to turn her back on her creator, he's almost literally still inside her head. Not even death can remove the hold he has on her. 

That the Starline hallucination speaks directly to Surge's insecurity shows this even more as a nagging weakness she just can't rid herself of. People who have been abused often internalize that mistreatment as a self-loathing feeling, an inner voice that constantly tears down their achievements. "Negative self-talk" is what they call it now. But that self-talk might as well be in the voice of the people who taught you that maladaptive behavior. Stanley has found an interesting way to visualize that psychology process in what is now officially the comic's most complex villain. (And it's also a way to keep fan-favorite Starline around without immediately undoing his death, so that's clever too.)

Hopefully, this review has made it clear that this issue does a competent job of balancing action and character development. Adam Thomas Bryce does the pencils. We all know he's extremely good at creating stylized action scenes, alongside emotional faces. Whisper getting beaten by Surge is so meaningful because Bryce makes the wolf's pained cries so vivid. This is also clear in the panels devoted to Kit's ego death, which really make an impression.

Yet sometimes Bryce gets carried away. The action panels are so elaborate here that they become hard to follow. I'm still not clear if the Dynamo Cage allows Surge to turn into pure lightning or if she's just moving so fast that it looks that way. Once the wisp superpowers get involved, the fight becomes even harder to track. There's a moment where Whisper grabs up a shattered piece of her mask to stab at Surge – great visual way to convey her growing desperation, by the way – that is far more compelling than any of the panels of characters zapping colorful bolts of whateverium at each other. 

I also feel compelled to point out – and the fact that I've barely mentioned him in this review might already make this obvious – that Sonic is barely in this issue. It really does seem like the IDW comic is at its best when it relegates the blue hedgehog to a supporting role. I guess that's the best way to write around a corporation preventing you from giving the main character an inner life of any sort. You delegate all the heavy lifting in the series to supporting characters, with the title hero being an action guy that merely moves the plot forward. Honestly, I'm not complaining. If it works, it works. And Sonic has never been my favorite "Sonic" character. 

While it gets off to a lumpy start, issue 53 finds its groove quickly enough. Surge and Kit have grown into compelling characters. Their psychological problems are involving. And brutalizing poor Whisper is always a good way to tug my heartstrings. I'm genuinely excited to see what'll happen next, once Kit discovers Surge is still alive. Damn, I hate it when this book is actually good and hooks me for another month. I guess I'm not canceling that Comixology subscription after all! [8/10]

Sonic Boom, Episode 1.19: Sole Power

Sonic Boom, Episode 1.19: Sole Power

Original Air Date: March 28th, 2015

I guess it was only a matter of time before “Sonic Boom” did an episode that featured actual sonic booms. Sonic and Tails are chilling in his hovercraft one afternoon when the hedgehog runs off. A deafening ringing noise follows. Soon, the ear-splitting gonging happens every time Sonic runs. It irritates the hell out of his friends and forces Sonic to walk everywhere, which really bothers him. After Tails can’t find a cause, Sonic turns to an unexpected source for help. Eggman builds the hedgehog a pair of sound-absorbing sneakers that seem to resolve the issue. It’s not long afterwards the Sonic realizes that, duh, this has all been a trap engineered by the villain. 

Sonic's defining superpower, if not his primary characteristic, is his speed. Interpretations of the blue hedgehog have gone in all different directions over the years but he's always gotta be fast. Naturally, when running at supersonic speed is the main supervillain-fighting ability he brings to the table, the creative mind immediately turns to ways to take that away from him. What could challenge a speedster hero more than having to do things without his speed? Accordingly, multiple "Sonic" stories have used that as their set-up. "Sole Power" is among the more farcical takes on the premise – it's not that he can't run fast, just that doing so really bothers everyone – but its potency remains. If Sonic can't go fast, it's going to fundamentally changed the way he handles things. And that's a set-up that makes for good storytelling. 

Since "Sonic Boom" is a sitcom, the consequences of Sonic having to limit his speed are less life-or-death and more personal. A booming reverberation happening every time Sonic runs inconveniences his friends. It makes them not want to be around him. Sonic does his best to control his naturally speedy instinct but the affliction still ends up driving a wedge between him and his pals. I think Amy and the gang are a bit unkind to Sonic here. It's not like it's his fault that his feet make an overwhelming bong now. Yet putting the hedgehog at odds with his friends creates a compelling, and funny, thrust to this episode. If Sonic can’t run, he can’t be himself. And if he can’t be himself, he starts to act in weird and off-putting ways. This is most evident in a fairly amusing sequence, where the hedgehog has to sit out a battle with some Badniks. 

While a lot of episodes of "Sonic Boom" drops new characters into the stories, I find the strongest episodes build on the dynamic between the central six cast members. (Or eight, I guess, if you include Cubot and Orbot.) Sonic's friends do okay without his super fast ways, which is discouraging. In that depression, Eggman unexpectedly appears to bond with him. In the episode's funniest scene, the mad doctor acts as a therapist of sorts to the down-in-the-dumps hero. This is another amusing subversion to the two characters' expected relationship. And in general, it's just pretty funny seeing Eggman act in such a subdued, sympathetic manner. He even shares his popcorn with Sonic! Considering this version of Eggman legitimately deals with depression, he probably has a good grip on psychology. 

Obviously, Eggman extending this branch of empathy to Sonic is a trap. Anyone could figure that out. Yet the exact machinations of Eggman's evil scheme in this episode are clever, as far as these things go. The specially designed, noise-muting shoes Sonic slips on actually provide the power for Eggman's latest destructive giant robot. This means Sonic can't use his special ability without giving the death machine he's fighting more juice. It's a clever villainous ploy, though one with an obvious solution. Sonic soon figures out that, if he keeps running fast, the robot will be overloaded and exploded with excess energy. Yet, up until that point, turning your enemy's greatest strength against him is a good supervillain idea. Almost had 'em, ya know? 

An episode like this with a smart, funny premise might be enough, considering the short runtime of your typical “Sonic Boom” installment. This one has got some delightfully silly stand-alone gags of its own. Shortly after Sonic's noisy running begins, Tails takes him back to a lab for some test. What follows is a montage that is, for whatever reason, scored to a sound-alike to Paul Engemann's “Push It to the Limit.” Otherwise known as the theme from “Scarface.” The randomness of that made me laugh. Also, a gag that involves Sonic being forced to walk back to his bungalow or the direct way Eggman removes him from a tree got me to chuckle. 

Generally speaking, this is another episode where the voice cast really makes a big difference. Roger Craig Smith's take on Sonic is really starting to grow on me. Since a lot of this episode's humor is based around Sonic feeling frustrated or dejected, that really gives Smith a chance to sharpen his delivery. Travis Willingham also makes some lines from Knuckles, that really are just yet more jokes about how dumb the echidna is, into some absurd silliness. His odd statement about the opera got me. So did the back-and-forth argument he has with Sticks, about whether something is stupid or crazy. At this point, it almost goes without saying that Mike Pollick's Eggman steals the show. He manages to make some clunky lines, about Sonic referring to himself in the third person or the name of this week's giant robot, into delightful bits of silliness. 

While I wouldn't call it “good” exactly, the scene where the heroes fight some CrabBots on the beach without Sonic is a little better than the typical action sequences on this show. Maybe just because it's being played for laughs, instead of action. Overall, this an example of an episode that starts with a clever premise and elaborates upon it in several goofy and funny ways. It did not blow me away or anything but got a few laughs and I enjoyed watching it. As far as eleven minute cartoons go, that counts as a victory. [7/10]

Sonic Boom, Episode 1.18: Dr. Eggman’s Tomato Sauce

Sonic Boom, Episode 1.18: Dr. Eggman’s Tomato Sauce

Original Air Date: March 21st, 2015

As the rather plain title of this episode makes it clear, the eighteenth installment of "Sonic Boom" concerns the blue hedgehog's archenemy branching out in a new direction. Eggman begins selling a canned tomato sauce. Everyone in town is eager to try it but Sonic and the gang assume the villain's newest venture to be some sort of evil scheme. To their shock, the tomato sauce is totally safe to eat and delicious to boot. This seems to redeem Eggman's image in the public's eye, much to Sonic's annoyance. That's when the mad scientist reveals the truth: The sauce is safe but the cans are evil robots. They awaken when no one is looking and reprogram household appliances to be evil Eggman robots. Now Team Sonic has to undo the villain's latest plan before he totally takes over the island. 

"Dr. Eggman's Tomato Sauce," at least at first, seems to return to one of "Sonic Boom's" funniest subversions of the superhero/supervillain relationship. Eggman's goals are far pettier than world domination. In the first half of this episode, it seems Eggman simply wants to hurt Sonic's ego. By reinventing himself as a celebrity chef, Eggman quickly becomes a beloved public figure. Soon, the rotund doctor has seemingly eclipsed Sonic's own level of celebrity. He mocks the hedgehog's appearance on television. While signing an autograph for a child that Sonic at first assumed was one of his fans, Eggman asks "whatever happened to that guy." None of this stuff is evil. It just wounds Sonic's sense of pride, greatly annoying him. A villain devising a scheme with no other motive than to simply irritate his archenemy is a pretty funny idea. 

Of course, that turns out to not be Eggman's goal. Or, at least, not his only goal. Once the reveal comes that the cans are actually the devious part of Eggman's latest plan, the episode shifts focus. Now, we get several sequences of common, household appliances coming to life and attacking people. A lamp entangled the person sitting next to it. A toaster sprouts spider legs and shoots toast at people. A vacuum chases off the woman using it. This is a much more standard supervillain scheme. In fact, it's so standard that Eggman has tried something similar before... On "Sonic X." The season two episode, "Huge Home Electronic Panic!," doesn't feature tomato sauce but it does have Eggman reprogramming everyday electric devices to be his evil minions and reek havoc on the public. 

I don't know how aware the "Sonic Boom" team, much less writers Alan Denton and Greg Hahn, were of "Sonic X." I imagine the similarities are probably coincidences. Yet this still results in an episode that starts out feeling like a subversion of traditional action/adventure cartoon premises and then becomes a fairly standard example of just that. There's definitely some absurd comedic value in watching people be terrorized by mundane household appliances. Yet the scenes of Sonic and the gang smashing machines, stopping the bad guy, and saving the day are played fairly straight. And once you factor in "Boom's" rural setting and the limitations of its CGI animation, it can't even feel as wide in scope as "Sonic X's" take on the same idea. 

Aside from the obviously goofy idea of Eggman using pasta sauce as a major element of his latest evil scheme, the other main joke of this episode concerns Tails. The engineering fox is introduced installing powerful speakers in his airplane. From there, it's made increasingly clear that Tails is infatuated with his airplane. When Knuckles teasingly asks if Tails loves his plane, he flatly responds that he does. Obviously, this is meant to poke fun at guys who baby their automobiles as if they were their girlfriends. When Tails starts talking about giving his plane "her propeller-to-tail fuselage massage," I was remind of the objectophilia episode of "Taboo" — the best ever episode of "Taboo" — and the guy who actually fucks his car. Who believed this inanimate object to have thoughts and feelings and that his car literally loved him the way a romantic partner would. Ya know, I don't assume the "Sonic Boom" team watch the same obscure cable documentary shows as me. Nor do I presume that they meant to imply Tails does anything non-PG rated with his plane. But I imagine the implications of their joke were similar. Some folks are really into their vehicles, in the ways the cross the traditional boundaries of human/inanimate object relationships. It's weird and that's funny. 

This set-up pays off at the end, when Eggman's evil cans have turned Tails' beloved plane against him. The fox has to confront his mechanical love, stop it from trying to kill him, and remove Eggman's evil programming. At that point, I began wondering why the writers led with the whole tomato sauce business. Shouldn't Tails' unnatural bond with his airplane have been the main focus of the episode? Wouldn't the expected arc of this story have Tails coming to understand that his plane is just an object and that his flesh-and-blood friends matter much more to him? Or, since this show is a comedy, a humorous subversion of that expected moral at the very least? Once again, I have to look at the short runtimes of the "Boom" episodes and wonder if it really gave the writers enough time to fully explore the stories they wanted to tell.

In fact, a lot of elements of "Dr. Eggman's Tomato Sauce" feel kind of incomplete. Some of the jokes trail off without a punchline. Knuckles makes a comment to Tails about something called "brainitis," Tails says that's not a real thing, and Knuckles responds by saying "Then how do you explain?" I get that the joke here is that Knuckles is stupid and doesn't understand what a brain is but it feels like the gag just kind of awkwardly stops. I feel similarly about a moment where Sticks' use of the phrase "who's laughing now?" leads to a brief, tense exchange with Sonic that doesn't really feel like a joke. The same is true of Tails' nostalgic montage of memories of his airplane, which moves Sonic to tears which has to quickly cover up. The timing is off. 

When the various objects from around the island assemble themselves into a robot, via the evil cans, Sonic says "Now I get it." But I genuinely don't get it. How does this clarify Eggman's scheme? Denton and Hahn's episodes are usually funnier than this. The episode changing premise midway through and the comedic pace being out-of-sync reminds me of “Aim Low.” We know that episode was among the first “Boom” scripts written and I theorized that maybe it was quickly cut down to eleven minutes, resulting in its awkward feel. (Or maybe the writers just hasn’t found their groove yet.) I wonder if “Dr. Eggman’s Tomato Sauce” wasn’t a result of the same situation. “Eggman becomes a celebrity chef” or “Tails is in love with his plane” are both premises that easily could’ve occupied episodes of their own. Seeing them jammed together like this does not do either idea justice. When combined with a lack of really strong joke — a pun on Meh Burger and mayonnaise got the biggest laugh from me here — you get an episode that isn’t very satisfying. [5/10]

Sonic Boom, Episode 1.17: Don't Judge Me

Sonic Boom, Episode 1.17: Don't Judge Me

Original Air Date: March 15th, 2015

The seventeenth episode of "Sonic Boom" follows the pattern of a few other recent installments of this show. It begins where your typical action/adventure show would be ending. The first scene has Sonic and the gang fighting Eggman in his latest machine. After easily defeating him, the villain feigns a neck injury. The next day, Sonic is served a legal notice. Eggman is suing him for assault and battery. What follows is an absurd lawsuit, Eggman attempting to sway public opinion against the heroic hedgehog. 

Before we dig any further into "Don't Judge Me," I really have to praise the sublime silliness of that opening sequence. It takes one central premise – Eggman creating a moth-themed robotic vehicle – and exploits that joke for all it can. Sonic attacks the Moth Bot with an oversized flyswatter. Knuckles leads the machine into a trap with a giant lightbulb. Tails then defeats the vehicle with oversized mothballs, deployed like bombs. I respect a series that follows through on a gag so rigorously. The only thing I would've done differently is included some sort of reference to Mothman but I can't expect everyone to be as well-versed in cryptozoology/West Virginia folklore as I am. 

That so much effort was put into that opening joke is especially impressive, considering the rest of the episode has nothing to do with it. The majority of "Don't Judge Me" instead follows another reoccurring instinct of this series: Taking these outrageous action/adventure characters and placing them inside a mundane setting. In this case, Sonic and Eggman don't resolve their differences with punching and fighting but in the courtroom, like real people who can afford to hire lawyers can. The contrast is so clearly ridiculous that it makes the multiple times superhero comics have seriously done storylines like this seem goofy in retrospect. 

Just sticking Eggman and Sonic into a civil suit probably could've spun enough jokes for an eleven minute cartoon. Yet "Don't Judge Me" actually uses its characters within this context very smartly. As I've pointed out countless times, the "Sonic Boom" cast members all fit archetypal roles, that have predictable personalities. Fitting those silly personalities into a courtroom allows for some inevitably amusing scenarios. If Sticks is a witness, of course she's going to discredit herself with a paranoid rant. The same way Tails being an irrepressible Sonic fanboy would work against him. Or how Sonic's pride in his speed would incriminate himself. This escalates to one of the episode's most well paced gags: Knuckles, who is acting as Sonic's lawyer, puts himself on the witness stand. It's only natural that the echidna's lunkheaded egotism would lead to such a goofy scenario. Once Amy, the straight woman, shows up, the silliness ends and the episode concludes. It's a well calibrated set-up, designed to deliver maximum yuks. 

"Don't Judge Me" is riffing on something else too: The celebrity trial and the public's morbid fascination with it. The case itself is totally ridiculous. Eggman's crimes are self-evident and his attempts to paint himself as an innocent victim are unconvincing. Meanwhile, the judge is a robot Eggman built himself and is obviously partial towards him. Sonic thinks the entire thing is so ridiculous that he hires imbecilic Knuckles as his lawyer, an idea that backfires horribly on him. Yet the facts don't seem to matter so much in the courtroom, where clever lawyers can twist the laws to favor their client. Sonic is instantly convicted in the court of public opinions even though everyone should know better. (This is depicted during Comedy Chimp's talk show, which features a Yakety Sax homage. And I always enjoy a good Yakety Sax homage!) As I write this, an especially tawdry celebrity trial has just wrapped up, showing us how truly ugly these things can get. "Sonic Boom" doesn't go that deep into social commentary but it is a decent depiction of how our ostensibly fair legal system can descend into hideous theater. 

What easily makes this the funniest episode of "Sonic Boom" thus far is how jam-packed full of jokes it is. The central premise is funny enough but writer Reid Harrison sneaks in as many delightfully absurd gags as possible. Knuckles attempts to eat a sandwich, only for all the contents to slide out, to the point where he ends up munching on his own hand... Which he seems genuinely confused by. Probably the best goofy aside here has the judge and lawyers deciding to have a "groovy hippy-themed dance party" while the jury deliberates, which the show then depicts. That's an example of completely unexpected silliness that made me laugh way too hard. "Don't Judge Me" is so dense with jokes – Judge Bot hammers his gavel wildly and blames cockroaches, Sonic and Tails eat a six foot long party sub, Comedy Chimp hosts a bizarre New Years Special – that it's one of the few episodes of "Sonic Boom" that doesn't feel constrained by its short runtime. If anything, the episode feels longer than eleven minutes, because it machine guns so many gags at us. 

"Don't Judge Me" is so successfully funny and silly that I don't even mind the obligatory action sequence at the end. Since this show is based on a video game, you'd think it would follow game logic and make Judge Bot the boss of this courtroom scenario. Instead, Amy manages to derail the entire trial with a single action, causing Badniks to swarm into the courtroom. Sonic and the gang smash the machines with ease, as they have done in nearly every single episode before this one. Maybe that was cheaper to animate. There is at least one clever moment in the fight though: Tails somersaults over a MotoBug, using its antenna as parallel bars before yanking them off on the drop down. I don't know why that causes the robot to fall to pieces afterwards but it's still a cute moment. 

This episode is also notable for having some familiar faces reappear, though not in the roles you might expect. Fastidious Beaver being an overly precise jury member, which leads to a pretty funny bit, makes sense. Sticking T.W. Barker into the role of Eggman's lawyer or suddenly having Soar the Eagle act as a tabloid reporter is kind of odd though. As I've said in the past, this might just be an example of the show cutting cost by reusing character models. Or maybe "Boom" is trying to build up its own supporting cast? Either way, it's a weird quirk that doesn't distract from a highly amusing episode. If more installments of "Boom" can master this rapid-fire style of absurd humor, I will come away from the show with a higher opinion than I previously expected. [8/10]

Sonic Boom, Episode 1.16: How to Succeed in Evil Without Really Trying

Sonic Boom, Episode 1.16: How to Succeed in Evil Without Really Trying

Original Air Date: March 7th, 2015

The sixteenth episode of "Sonic Boom" begins with humble goals. Sticks is preparing a pie for a baking contest, with something called beige berries being her secret ingredient. When Tails sees her slowly picking the berries by hands, he invents a machine that quickly deforests the entire area. This act horrifies Sticks... And impresses the Lightning Bolt Society, a local secret club of would-be supervillains. They invite Tails to their next potluck, the little fox missing that this is an evil gathering. Sonic and Amy head off to rescue their pal, while Eggman arrives to settle some personal business with the Lightning Bolts. 

I've written a lot about the ecological subtext of the "Sonic" franchise's early years. How this series definitely started out as the adventures of a forest dwelling hero fighting the mechanization of the natural world. By 2015, that subtext had mostly been forgotten. Yet, unexpectedly, here's the most flippant chapter of the franchise touching upon it again. In "How to Succeed in Evil...," Tails learns the cost of industrialized agriculture. His invention mows down an entire forest and produces way more berries than anyone could ever use at once. All he's done is created an excess of food and destroyed an ecosystem. By the end, he's kind of learned his lesson, setting about replanting the trees. It's a nice message to send to the kids, that the natural world needs to be maintained. (Even if Tails' childish, misguided attempt to help his friend doesn't align with the endless growth and greed of capitalistic constructs here in the real world but, whatever. This is a children's cartoon.)

The pro-forest message is really just set-up for the episode's real plot anyway. "Sonic Boom," once again, shows its desire to subvert traditional action/adventure storylines. Normally, a secret society like the Lightning Bolts would be sinister, with convoluted schemes that effect everyone around them. Instead, the joke is the Lightning Bolts are ineffectual wannabes. They have all the trappings of an Illuminati-like operation, with spooky robes and lots of pomp and circumstance. But all they really accomplish is stealing out of Eggman's dumpster. The most sinister plot they can concoct is taking over the local fruit distribution business. They are intimidated by and in awe of Eggman, who is also a supervillain that is bad at his job. 

It's a funny idea and one that is closer to the actual truth about secret societies than the show writers probably intended. (In the sense that these clubs are less about ruling the world and more about dudes wearing goofy hats.) Yet I was left with one question: Why is Tails the protagonist of this episode, instead of Sticks? Tails' arc here invokes him learning a lesson about the consequences of his scientific dodadery. He must invent responsibly and consider the effects his devices have on the world, or else he'll get mistaken for a villain. "With great power..." and so on and so forth. This is a valuable lesson for the young fox and fits his mold as someone who is exceptionally talented but still inexperienced. 

Yet I can't help but imagine a plot about a doofy secret society being much funnier with the conspiracy-minded Sticks at the center of the story. Imagine Sticks, always paranoid that secret sects are up to no good, stumbling upon an actual secret sect... Only to discover that these guys never accomplish anything. And perhaps she's still convinced she has discovered an actual conspiracy, despite all the evidence to the contrary. I think that probably would've been funnier. It's just odd that the "Sonic Boom" crew thought up a conspiracy-related plot but didn't center their most conspiracy-obsessed character in it. 

Which isn't to say this episode didn't get a couple of decent sized chuckles out of me. The opening scene featured Sticks getting paranoid about trees, which I liked because it's such a Sticks thing. Eggman's solution to the Lightning Bolt Society going through his trash is amusingly low-tech. Sonic and Amy bicker about the best way to sneak into the secret lodge, a gag that is nicely extended. The biggest laugh for me probably came from an unexpected shout-out to "Batman." Yet there a lot of gags here that just miss the mark. Eggman using the same insult on the Lightning Bolts lacks a comedic spark to me. As does the show constantly returning the idea of Knuckles being an idiot. A sequence devoted to Tails picking a battery for his machine seems belabored. The Lightning Bolts' pathetic attempts at fighting the heroes is a funny concept but peters out quickly.

This is also evident in the episode's obligatory action sequence. Since the entire joke around the Lighting Bolt Society is that they suck, the show couldn't have built a fight scene around them. Instead, the would-be villains use a seed-shooting gun they stole from Eggman to repopulate the orchid Tails destroyed. Instead of beige berry trees popping up, a field full of vicious carnivorous plants pop up. I guess the writers of this show forgot that it's usually a different video game franchise that involves fighting discount Audrey IIs. Knuckles and Sticks stay back to battle the plants, which mostly seems like an excuse to remove them from the story for a bit. Once Sonic, Amy, and Tails return, they defeat this random threat within seconds. Once again, I wish this show would just put the action theatrics on the back burner and focus on the jokes. Thinking up creditable threats for the good guys is clearly not their strong suit. 

It's worth noting that "Sonic Boom" does have fairly strong continuity thus far. The other prominent members of the Lightning Bolt Society include Dave the Intern, the walrus criminal from "Dude, Where's My Eggman?," and one of the weasel bandits that appeared in "Guilt Tripping." These characters showing up again might be entirely due to the animators not wanting to design CGI models for new minor character, when they could just reuse older ones instead. Either way, it's good to know that Dave's thirst for evil is still growing. As for "How to Succeed in Evil Without Really Trying," it ultimately feels like an episode that probably needed another draft to truly reach its full potential. [6/10]

Sonic Boom, Episode 1.15: Aim Low

Sonic Boom, Episode 1.15: Aim Low

Original Air Date: February 28th, 2015

The fifteenth episode of "Sonic Boom" begins where most of them end: With Eggman suffering another humiliating defeat at the hands of Sonic and friends. This loss is so demoralizing, that the mad scientist falls into a deep depression afterwards. Looking to get out of his funk, he hires a self-help guru named Soar the Eagle. While Soar boosts Eggman's confidence, it does nothing to cure his lack of motivation. With the bad guy stuck on the couch, eating nachos, Sonic gets restless. With no one to direct his super fast energy at, he starts to annoy the hell out of Amy and the others. They decide to cook up a plan to get Eggman out of his stupor and give Sonic something to do.

In my previous review, I noted that, the more we learn about this version of Robotnik, the more sympathetic he becomes. I also theorized that his grandiose ego covers up a massive insecurity. This episode more-or-less proves this true. Defeat after defeat finally gets to the guy. He can't justify his own image of himself, as a super-genius so brilliant he deserves to rule the world, anymore. Thus, he falls into a deep depression. He sits on his couch, binges television shows, eats junk food, and never changes out of his pajamas. As someone who has lived with pretty serious depression most of my life, I can definitely relate to that. Even if Eggman's reasons for being depressed as ridiculous, loosing all motivation to do anything in life, and just gorging on garbage food and garbage pop culture to drown out the nagging sounds of failure in your head, is all too understandable. 

Yet this episode is more about the relationship between Sonic and his archenemy than it is Eggman's melancholy. The writers come to the same conclusion here that countless fans and analysts have noted about every major superhero and supervillain. These two complete each other. Eggman's acts of villainy gives Sonic someone to utilize his boundless energy against. The goal of defeating Sonic gives Eggman an objective in life, that allows him to exercise his genius engineering skills. Without one, the other falls into dysfunction. If you're making this point about Batman and the Joker, it comes off as trite. Yet this episode finds a mildly funny take on it but zeroing in on such pathetic foibles. Without Eggman, Sonic becomes intolerable. Without Sonic, Eggman is listlessly unmotivated. They need each other. 

Maybe Eggman wouldn't have gotten depressed in the first place if he had any real friends. When the villain is feeling down, he has to pay a self-help guru to spend time with him. This is despite the fact that Soar the Eagle is clearly disgusted with Eggman and is only there for the money. When Sonic starts getting antsy, his friends formulate a plan to help him out. Eggman doesn't have that. When he fires Soar, in a misplaced burst of self-confidence, he immediately sinks back into his funk. This makes a clear distinction between real friends, who actually care about you, and the predatory self-help industry, who only want your money. It also leads us to the unavoidable conclusion that Sonic and the others are the closest things Eggman has to friends. In the first scene, Tails even asks if anyone else has noticed that Eggman hasn't been himself lately. By exaggerating the hero/villain codependency, "Sonic Boom" reaches the point where Sonic and Eggman are as much pals as they are sworn enemies.

Despite having some clever and funny ideas within it, "Aim Low" still feels like a strangely incomplete episode. Take the subplot about Soar the Eagle, for example. Once he was introduced, I expected Soar to become the focal point of the episode. That this would be a largely eleven-minute takedown of pompous self-help gurus who claim they want to help people but can't disguise the abject contempt they hold for their customers. These guys present themselves, not as someone offering help and advice, but as personal messiahs that provide immediate answers to complex problems. In exchange for money, naturally. This is clearly the type of figure Soar is a parody of... Yet the episode never really focuses on that. The eagle shows up for a couple of easy gags, gets Eggman to try a couple of schemes, and is then written out. It feels like a half-formed skit, without a real ending, in service of an idea that isn't well explored. 

I've made this comparison before but: The idea of a self-help guru for supervillains is the kind of absurdist, clever premise that "The Venture Bros." could've built a hilarious, insightful half-hour around. (And it basically did.) Combining mundane, everyday concepts with fantastical subject matter is basically my favorite form of humor. "Sonic Boom" isn't as good a show as "Venture Bros." It doesn't even have thirty minutes to explore its ideas. 

Instead, "Aim Low" is a bunch of potentially amusing ideas that never amount to much. Eggman being depressed is an interesting idea but it only gets a shallow treatment here, the root of his feelings never really being probed. Getting into the oddball balance Sonic and Eggman give each other's lives is the episode's strongest thread. Yet even it is left half-completed. After Eggman and Sonic get each other active and focused again, the episode abruptly ends. We never see if the characters have learned anything from this or if they are comically missing the point. 

I'm really starting to think that the short runtime for each episode is why a lot of "Sonic Boom" feels rushed or incomplete. The Sonic News Network Wiki informs me that this was one of the first episodes of the series written. That series co-runner Bill Freiberger started working on it a full year before it aired. Is it possible that "Aim Low" was written before it was decided that "Boom" would only fill a brief block of time? Was Alan Denton and Greg Hahn's script cut down to make the episode fit? It kind of feels that way. That would explain why it ends so suddenly, why Soar isn't explored more and exits the story so bluntly. Or why Sticks doesn't have a single line of dialogue, despite appearing in several scenes. There's just a general sense of incompetence here. Hastily chopping a longer script up to suit a runtime would certainly explain that.

It's not like there aren't some laughs. Eggman grumbling despondently as he walks back to the EggMobile, following the opening defeat, is a funny image. The montage of Sonic annoying his friends includes some mildly entertaining sights, like Amy painting a self-portrait of her painting or Knuckles attempting to hang a birdhouse. Soar encouraging Eggman to shoplift a burger or a random appearance from the Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota on Mobius got a brief chuckle out of me. Yet "Aim Low" definitely feels compromised, in a way that keeps it from being a satisfying experience. [5/10]

Sonic Boom, Episode 1.14: The Meteor

Sonic Boom, Episode 1.14: The Meteor

Original Air Date: February 21st, 2015

In my previous "Sonic Boom" review, I noted that Seaside Island seems unusually prone to astrological phenomenon. I guess the writers have officially decided to make this part of the series' premise. Episode 14, "The Meteor," begins with the gang watching a colorful meteor shower. After one space rock crashes near-by, they all race off to observe it. Eggman arrives too. Some petty squabbling causes the villain and Sonic to grab the strange glowing meteor at the same time. The next morning, the two rivals wake up in each other's bodies. While Sonic-in-Eggman's-body immediately wants to undo this switch, Eggman-in-Sonic's-body decides to use this switch for evil purposes. 

Literally just a couple of days ago, I was talking with other "Sonic" fans about the body swap premise. It's a classic idea in comedy, made most famous by "Freaky Friday" and its subsequent three remakes. That led to a number of less popular movies with similar set-ups, like "18 Again," "Vice Versa," "Like Father, Like Son," "All of Me," and definitely some others I'm forgetting. This has made it a stock comedy plot that has been reused by countless sitcoms and TV shows. Occasionally, you'll see genre riffs on the concept, like "Face/Off" or "Freaky." In superhero comics, it's not an uncommon plot either. Marvel's "Superior Spider-Man" story arc is an especially well regarded recent example. 

Archie's "Sonic" comic did their own riffs on the premise a few times, most notably during a one-shot where Sonic and Knuckles switched bodies. Surprisingly, they never did a story that had Sonic and Eggman switch places in the main book. It wasn't until the "Sonic X" tie-in was totally out of ideas that Sonic and Eggman swapped bodies. Considering how common a trope this is, I'm really surprised "Sonic Boom" is the first blue hedgehog cartoon to touch on this idea. It really seems like something "AoStH" or "Underground" would've done at some point. We all wonder sometimes what it's like to walk in someone else's shoes. (Which is presumably why writers keep returning to this idea.) Putting this dilemma to hero and villain has a lot of dramatic or comedic possibilities. 

Unsurprisingly, "Sonic Boom" exclusively focuses on the comedic potential of this idea. There's a lot of gags you see coming here. Like Sonic immediately discover how quickly Eggman's body gets winded. Or Eggman learning that Sonic's speed is not so easily controlled. Yet the really fruitful humor here lies in seeing how Eggman interprets Sonic. The doctor's style of speak definitely sounds unusual coming out of Sonic's mouth. Roger Craig Smith really has a ball hamming it up like this. His delivery is the highlight of the episode, The villain immediately thinks about using this switch to undermine his enemies but does a poor job of disguising himself. He can't remember Knuckles' name, in increasingly amusing ways. He acts weird around Amy. He doesn't get to interact with Sticks at all which is a bummer, as I bet that would've been funny. 

At one point, Eggman-in-Sonic's-body vocalizes the belief that Sonic and the others fight Eggman because they are envious of his genius. This gives you a good perspective on how the big guy sees himself. Eggman is an egomaniac. He's so consumed by his own superiority that he can't even imagine other people don't see it that way. It's funny but also sort of pathetic. When the heroes react to these proclamations with laughter, I felt kind of bad for Eggman. I doubt "Boom" will give Eggman a traumatic childhood the way "AoStH" did. Yet I'm starting to assume that his greatly inflated ego, as is usually the case, protects a fragile sense of self-worth. If he was ever forced to really confront the fact that he's not a super genius that deserves to rule the world, he'd probably have a full-blown mental breakdown. Which could also be funny, depending on how dark "Boom" would be willing to take things.

Obviously, "The Meteor" doesn't do that because it doesn't really have time to. This is another episode where "Boom's" potential is constrained by the eleven minute limit. It is implied that maybe Eggman likes being in Sonic's body. He has to repeatedly delay destroying the heroes because he keeps making social plans with them. Maybe if this switcharoo had gone on a little longer, Eggman would've discovered that doing good feels good. Stories like this allow simple good guys vs. bad guys shows like this to interrogate the polarity of their own premise. They suggest that maybe what makes a hero or villain is entirely environmental. Again: The doesn't happen here. Instead, "Boom" goes for the gags. The closest Sonic and Eggman come to understanding each other is the hero learning the villain's ego can be used against him, in the fairly amusing climax. But the potential is definitely there.

Even though "The Meteor" definitely could've been stronger, this is still a funny episode. Like I said, you really can't undersell the amusement factor of Eggman being a dick to Sonic's friends while in Sonic's body. The absurd dialogue provides some chuckles, like a debate on what "dibs" is. I'm even growing fond of the running gag of Cubot not understanding simple turns of phrase. There's also some weird moments here that made me chuckle. Such as the implication that Eggman roleplayed Sonic and Amy with Cubot, for reasons we can only speculate on. (But it feels like a weird sex thing!) Or a flashback to, apparently, a time when Eggman passed out on the beach. That's conveyed via 2-D still images, which are so much more appealing than the actual CGI animation this show uses. 

Though it must be said, the action scenes are a little better here than usual. The sequence where the heroes attack Sonic-in-Eggman's-body is well done. If only for the novelty of seeing the heroes give their adversary a hand-to-hand beatdown like that. There's also some goofy, dramatic slow-motion here, which the show seems to be using more and more to make its action scenes more dynamic and less awkward. Even if I would've much rather seen this set-up explored more via a comic book or longer TV episode, "The Meteor" is still a pretty funny episode of "Sonic Boom." They managed to have a good time with this worn-out premise, if nothing else. [7/10]

Sonic Boom, Episode 1.13: Unlucky Knuckles

Sonic Boom, Episode 1.13: Unlucky Knuckles

Original Air Date: February 14th, 2015

Presumably to dissuade any ominous qualities the number thirteen may have, the "Sonic Boom" writers decided to make the thirteenth episode of the series about the concept of luck. (The episode also just missed airing on Friday the 13th, which would've made things all the more perfect.) Sonic and Knuckles must be incredibly bored because they are playing golf at the start of "Unlucky Knuckles." After repeatedly missing the hole due to unlikely circumstances, Knuckles becomes convinced Sonic is luckier than him. Sticks tells him her crazy theory on the idea, that there's a universal luck balance. That he can redistribute the luck to his side by doing unlucky things. Knuckles goes along with this idea, grievously injuring himself in an attempt to burn through his bad luck, which really concerns his friends. As Eggman has an exceptionally lucky day, Sonic gets an idea.

There's certainly a great deal of debate around whether "luck" even exist. Some say that luck is merely when "preparation meets opportunity." Some go so far as to say that luck, if it exists at all, is a matter of quantum mechanics. I, for one, do believe in luck because I see the universe as so inherently chaotic that, inevitably, that chaos will come to favor random people at random times. Others, however, say that skill and planning are the only factors that determine the outcome of our lives. To quote a previous "Sonic" cartoon, it's all probability. Though this does not account for, say, whether you're born into a rich or poor family but let's not meander too far. It's a conversation worth having is the point.

This is the foundation of "Unlucky Knuckles" and in a surprisingly funny way. Sonic is strictly in the "skill" camp of the luck debate, which makes him seem more reasonable. Especially when compared to Knuckles and Sticks' unhinged ramblings. The episode exaggerates the idea of "luck" to such an absurd degree that the entire concept starts to look silly. Really, are we to believe that there's some sort of amorphous force in the world that, at unpredictable times, rewards some people while punishing others for no knowable reason? And yet, "Unlucky Knuckles" definitively concludes that luck is real, at least within the confines of this cartoon show. Knuckles misses the golf hole repeatedly because of ridiculous contrivances, like birds flying right in front of the ball or a leaf landing just in the right spot. By the end, luck bends the universe in increasingly unlikely ways. "Unlucky Knuckles" concludes that the concept of luck is totally ridiculous and also 100% real.

"Unlucky Knuckles" is fun for another reason. It is, thirteen entries in, the first episode of "Sonic Boom" that actually focuses on Knuckles. As I've said in the past, this version of Knuckles is by far the simplest member of the cast. He's a lovable dumbass, a child-like buffoon that exist to bounce the softest of softball gags off of. He intentionally resists the concept of depth, which must make it tricky to build an episode around him. The writers manage to find an angle here, making Knuckles' stupidity the crux of the story. Only a total fool would go along with such an absurd plan. Yet you end up sympathizing with Knuckles along the way, because who among us hasn't occasionally felt like the universe's chew toy? It's a good way to get us to both laugh at Knuckles' misfortune without the episode seeming mean-spirited about it.

Comedy, after all, is timing. This is especially true of slapstick comedy. A pratfall coming two seconds too late is the difference between a laugh and something seeming desperate. "Unlucky Knuckles," astonishingly, understands this. It's shown in a simple gag. After repeatedly abusing himself, by swinging into trees or leaping in gorges, Knuckles is battered and bruised. Sonic expresses concern but Knuckles can only focus on his petty fixation on gofer ball. After walking away from this conversation, a refrigerator lands on Knuckles. It would've been easy to fuck this joke up. If the world is too wacky, inexplicable events such as these loose their shock value. If too much attention is focused on Knuckles getting hurt, the same thing happens. By distracting us just enough, the random event of our echidna pal getting squished by a falling fridge generates a laugh. 

If timing is crucial to comedy, delivery is equally important. A lot of episodes of "Sonic Boom" have sunk potentially funny lines by being too madcap or too relentlessly smarmy. "Unlucky Knuckles," perhaps because its central premise is so wacky, goes the deadpan approach with its dialogue. The results are fantastic. Sticks' nonsensical belief in "the luck balance of the universe" isn't done with a wink. This is also true when Sonic and Tails talk to her about it later. Knuckles never waivers in his commitment to his plan, making his endlessly masochistic behavior seem funnier than it would've been. Sonic mostly becomes the straight man here, in contrast to the absurdity around him. All of these elements are downplayed, to balance out the wackiness of the rest of the story. 

You can really see this in Eggman's subplot. The villain is introducing testing his laser guns... What he's actually doing is playing laser tag, a joke that might go over the really young kids' heads but is thankfully not explained. Eggman is also a believer in the luck balance, an amusingly unexpected contrast to his hyper-rational scientist beliefs. When things start to go spectacularly wrong in the last act, he just mumbles excuses to himself and flies off. Here is where Mike Pollick's vocal performance really makes a difference, the casualness he brings to the lines really helping to sell the joke. The same is true about Travis Willingham's performance as Knuckles. He manages to make an exchange with Amy, about feelings, one of the highlights of the episode. 

Though this one does raise one question. During his attempt to burn off his bad luck, Knuckles enters a canyon that is seemingly always being pelted with falling asteroids. That's the second time in this show that falling space debris has come up. Kind of weird, don't you think? Further proof that Seaside Island is actually some sort of post-apocalyptic wasteland. Anyway, "Unlucky Knuckles" is definitely one of my favorite episodes of "Boom" so far, because it's both really funny and gave me some deeper themes to chew on. I like it when that happens. [7/10]

Sonic Boom, Episode 1.12: Circus of Plunders

Sonic Boom, Episode 1.12: Circus of Plunders

Original Air Date: February 7th, 2015

This episode of "Sonic Boom" begins with our heroes fighting off Eggman's newest robot of doom. Though the good guys still drive the villain off, Tails using his latest invention – a zapper called a De-Bolterizer, that immediately strips the bolts and bearings off a device – misfires. The resulting rock slide nearly gets our heroes squished, which understandably annoys Amy. Tails flies off right before another plot intercedes on this one. A circus rolls in, run by T.W. Barker. He feeds the heroes a sob story about how his team of performers deserted him and he has no show to put on. Sonic and the gang volunteer for one night... But, of course, Barker is a scoundrel and intends to keep them there forever. Which means it's up to Tails to save the day. 

"Circus of Plunders" begins with what I can only describe as a boss battle. We don't see the events leading up to this scuffle between the Sonic Team and Eggman's latest death machine. One assumes they were running through colorful loops and fighting off a collection of minions. Cause Eggman appearing in a gimmicky vehicle and attempting to crush the heroes, and then flying off after he's been defeated, feels like what happens at the end of a level of any given "Sonic" game. His machine here, an octopus inspired contraption called Octopus Bot, even feels like it would fit right in with any of the classic game's various boss battles. This is "Sonic Boom" so, naturally, the sequence is full of jokes and one-liners. Such as everyone's inability to decide which cephalopod Eggman's vehicle is based on. Yet I still enjoyed how classically "Sonic"-y this scene is. 

This episode of "Boom" is also a little more character centric than I've come to expect from this show, in the sense that it contains a clearly defined arc. At the beginning of our story, Tails has a crisis of confidence. His willingness to test out his new invention almost got his friends hurt. He let them down and feels bad about it. Before this eleven minutes is up, he will prove himself again to his makeshift family by saving the day. It's predictable but I like it anyway. A plot like this is a good way to combine Tails' tradition characterization – a kid desperate to prove himself – with the defining feature of his "Boom" version, that of an overeager genius inventor who frequently gets in over his head. 

If "Boom" was a half-hour show, instead of an eleven minute one, it would've had more time to balance Tails' arc with its A-plot. Instead, "Circus of Plunders" feels like it's going to be about one thing before a traditional action/adventure plot almost literally rolls in. There's such a disconnect between Tails' subplot and the main story of T.W. Barker abducting his friends that it actually creates a plot hole. Tails takes off his headset while perfecting the De-Bolterizer. After putting it back on, he immediately contacts Sonic who reveals they've been taken by Barker... Except Tails wasn't there when Barker appeared. He has no idea any of this happened! How does he know where the tent is set up or even what's going on? I guess you just have to roll with sloppy narrative shortcuts like this, when there's only half the usual time here to tell the kind of story usually told in twenty minutes. 

That's why "Boom" usually focuses on comedy, because goofy gags are easier to pull off in less time. Yet its focus on a classic "heroes vs. villains" plot does distinguish "Circus of Plunders" from your typical "Boom" episode. Either because contrasting the expected circus atmosphere of fun and joviality with villainy is easy to do, or because there's just something naturally seedy about circuses, there's a lot of evil circuses in fiction. Sonic and the gang being captured by such an enterprise, and trapped in archetypal circus performer roles, is the kind of plot you'd expect to see in a superhero show, not a comedy one. There's definitely some novelty to it though. Watching Sonic and the gang fight a villain-of-the-week, caught up in a stand alone scheme before defeating him in a suitably ironic fashion, is sort of fun. It's satisfying, you know?

And what of that supervillain of the week? T.W. Barker previously appeared in "Dude, Where's My Eggman?" Considering the extra amount of work that was put into his design, I'm not surprised they brought him back. Again, an evil circus ringmaster is a classical villain type. (There's a long-running Marvel villain literally named Ringmaster.) It's a logical idea, as the role of ringmaster brings with it dramatic flare and the premise of control. Barker is a pretty amusing figure. Kirk Thornton's vocal performance – which gives me Timothy Dalton as Mr. Pricklepants vibes – works well. The dude knows how to roll his Rs. It's pretty ridiculous that the good guys so easily fall into Barker's scheme but, ya know, that's just one of those contrivances you have to accept. Otherwise, we wouldn't have an episode. 

No matter how much "Circus of Plunders" feels like a superhero story, this is still an episode of "Sonic Boom." The yuk-yuks and chortles must be represented. They mostly appear here as pithy one-liners, most of which are not very inspired. Right before Knuckles gets rolled over by a boulder, he quips that "he can do this all day" before immediately changing his mind. (Barker also sticks him in the role of the human cannonball, but skips the helmet, leading Knuckles to being repeatedly concussed. See, cause he's stupid!) Sticks mentioning how she should've taken "a log-rolling class" is such a nonsensical moment. So is Barker admitting, while hyping up the audience, that his circus is no different than any other circus. He's trying to get people excited! Why would he do that? But there's still a couple of funny bits. Knuckles asking about Sonic's middle name, Sticks going on a paranoid freak-out about mole foxes, or Amy's distress at being cast as a sad clown are only mildly amusing. Still, I found myself once again wishing "Boom" had just put the giggles aside and focused on the story here. 

The action scenes are also very underwhelming. That's such a typical state of affairs for "Sonic Boom" that it's hardly worth mentioning. Only the specific way Barker is defeated struck me as especially clever. Otherwise, it's the same stiff, weirdly weightless robot smashing we've come to expect from this series. I really wish this show was traditionally animated. While "Circus of Plunders" flubs it in some important ways, I still kind of liked it. It hits the dramatic beats in a satisfying way, even if it feels constrained by the show's runtime and the expectations of being a comedy. [6/10]