Sonic Boom, Episode 2.39: Victory

Sonic Boom, Episode 2.39: Victory

Original Air Date: August 5th, 2017

1981 saw the release of the John Huston sports drama, "Victory." (Known in the glorious United States as "Escape to Victory.") Extremely loosely based on the true story of the Ukrainian soccer "football" team that out-kicked some Nazis, the film basically assembled "The Expendables" of soccer players. Including Pelé, one of three pro-footballers I can name off the top of my head. Because it was 1981, it then threw in Sylvester Stallone of the actual "Expendables" and Michael Caine too, for good measure. The film only saw modest box office success in the US but has become a beloved classic in many other countries. This is presumably because Americans notoriously do not care about soccer – we want more concussions in our football, thank you very much – while it's the most popular sport across the majority of the globe. 

Why am I bringing this up? Because "Sonic Boom's" ninety-first episode is also called "Victory" and is also about soccer. Moments such as these remind you that "Boom" was a French co-production. Yet this episode was written by an American, Sam Freiberger, which is presumably why it's not really a homage to "Escape to Victory." Instead, the plot is actually based on "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo." That's a 1984 fad movie produced by the schlock masters at Cannon Films to capitalize on the emergence of breakdancing into popular culture, a sequel to a previous flick that Cannon put out only seven months earlier. Despite being linked to this very specific moment in time, "Electric Boogaloo" has become a campy cult classic. Its amazing subtitle and plot, of a bunch of proactive street kids poppin' and lockin' in order to save their beloved community center from greedy land developers, has been the source of repeated parodies and homages. (This episode also includes a shout-out to "You Got Served," the similarly hilariously entitled descendant of the "Breakin'" franchise.) This continues "Sonic Boom: Season Two's" streak of referencing movies that its audience of 2017 grade-schoolers were unlikely to be familiar with. I guess this is the Gen-X equivalent of boomers sticking "Leave It to Beaver" jokes in everything. 

Anywhoooo, "Victory" begins with Sonic and friends enjoying their newly acquired pastime of footballing it up association style. That's when Mayor Fink announces he's closing the recreation center so he can afford a new house boat. After a petition fails to persuade City Hall's ice cold heart, Eggman offers to buy the building instead. Turns out that the transferal of ownership of the rec center can only be decided by a sporting event. Sonic challenges Eggman to a soccer game before pointing out the doctor doesn't have any friends to build a team with. Eggman counters that he has something better than friends: Slaves! I mean, robots. He flies to the city formally known as Morristown and quickly brainwashes Team Sonic's cyborg doppelgangers into being his team. When the mechanical heroes are reprogrammed to act like high school jock bullies, the battle for the rec center really heats up. 

The "Breakin'" movies essentially have two cultural legacies. For many, the films were a rare chance to see people of their own color displayed as heroes against a white majority system, while also showing off the incredible talent of the dancers involved. To a bunch of snarky white people, the "Breakin'" movies are pop culture punchlines full of instantly dated fashion, silly slang, and improbable plots. I'm not saying "Breakin'" and its sequel aren't camp artifacts of a bygone era. Any motion picture that has a cameo from Jean-Claude Van Damme, struttin' it up in a leotard, can't escape that status. Yet perhaps we pasty-skinned folk should not be so fast to dismiss them. Step outside of your white privilege for a brief second and consider the societal impact of "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers for one minute, ya jive turkey. 

This is a conversation "Sonic Boom" is obviously not interested in having. Instead, it uses the antiquated atmosphere of these eighties movies as an easy punchline. The sight of the characters breakdancing, the overall ridiculous plot, and the many cultural signifiers of the past are meant to induce chuckles merely by their presence. However, I don't think Freiberger and the rest of the "Boom" crew were operating strictly in a mode of cooler-than-thou "look how stupid this objectively awesome thing is" irony. "Sonic Boom" is sarcastic about everything, including itself, so I certainly don't expect it to have reverence for Cannon Films. By the end of the episode, when the gang successfully beat their robot doubles with the power of dance, the show has seemingly come around to thinking this thing is kind of cool after all.

That "Victory" reflects a certain juvenile smarminess is not surprising in light of its other content. Being good at sports will always make young people popular and popularity has a tendency to turn young people into monsters. This is true of the entire universe. Thus, it is not surprising that "high school jock" remains shorthand for a totally douche-tastic type of teenager who relentlessly bullies everyone lower down on the social hierarchy from them while remaining utterly convinced of their own superiority, simply because they are good at ball. "Victory" certainly has fun with this stereotype. The Cyborg Team acting like entitled little shit-heads, peppering their speech with "bros" and climbing onto the counter at Meh Burger, is clearly ridiculous behavior. Sonic and everyone else's reaction is less righteous outrage than grumpy annoyance. This episode is not a bitter nerd screed against the Chads and Stacies of the world. Characterizing the bad guys as "high school jocks" is another joke contrasting the apparent action/adventure seriousness of the "Boom" setting with the petty, childish behavior of its characters. (Not to mention another throwback to eighties movies, which did unironically utilize these stereotypes.) Still, maybe a fresher cliché could have been used. "Gym bros" or something. Let's leave the teenagers out of this, okay? 

Instead, let us direct our ire at a more deserving place: Corrupt politicians and the system they create that robs the everyday voter of any meaningful ability to change things. Mayor Fink, from the name on down, is obviously a parody of the ineffectual, incompetent, greedy, vapid local town leader. He follows a long line of such characters, that also includes Mayor Quimby and the Mayor of Townsville. When Amy gathers up signatures to show Fink, he immediately throws the petition into the paper shredder. But maybe Hedgehog Village deserves a leader like this, someone so blatant in his corruption that he admits to closing a beloved public institution strictly so he can afford another boat. When Amy asks a random citizen to sign the petition, they only agree to do so if she'll leave him alone. Amy says this is how democracy is supposed to work. Perhaps Fink stays in power not just because of the sitcom rule of maintaining a status quo. Perhaps the apathetic residents of the village simply can't be bothered to care that the only politician in town is a greedy buffoon. Surely this does not reflect our own reality in any significant manner! 

Anyway, wasn't this episode supposed to be about soccer? "Victory" really could have been about any test of physical prowess between two teams. One suspects that the European overlords figured an episode of Sonic and friends playing soccer would be profitable, since cartoon mascots doing sports is a weirdly common marketing trend. Maybe Freiberger combined that demand with a pre-existing "Electric Boogaloo" parody he had laying around, simply slotting soccer in for breakdancing. Either way, "Victory" is both totally indifferent and weirdly honorable about this sport. The specific rules and strategies of soccer have no impact on the plot. Stylized dance moves and cartoon shenanigans matter much more. At the same time, there are also no jokes about soccer. Nobody screams "Goooooal!" Nobody obviously fakes an injury. Nobody performs a headbutt. Did the French "Boom" overlords insist that their sacred past time of le football remained unmocked? Or was Freiberger, like all Americans, simply not bored enough to look up any actual rules or facts about soccer? The first one is funnier but I'm kind of leaning towards the second. 

Regardless of whether the script actually cared about what athletic competition it was discussing, the result is a decently amusing episode. There's a lot of the fast-paced, absurdist dialogue that "Boom" excels at here. Knuckles' inability to understand that Amy doesn't mean fighting city hall literally is a joke that keeps going nicely. Knuckles in general gets a couple of good zingers. Eggman's reasoning for buying the rec center and his underwhelming presentation to the Cyborg heroes are both jokes that progress in silly ways. There's some lame bits. The Cyborg teams bro-y language seems recycled from "Bro Down Showdown." (Amusingly, Cyborg Sticks doesn't get any dialogue like that and I can't imagine her saying "bro" anyway.) Old Monkey has a belabored moment at the end. Still, there's more than enough quality jokes here. Such as the Mayor's response to the heroic win and Amy's reaction to that announcement, a good moment of physical comedy that isn't lingered on too much. 

An unexpected source of humor in this installment is the soundtrack. "Boom's" musical team has made a habit of incorporating barely disguised soundalikes of famous songs and film/TV soundtracks in the past. They must've gotten a raise half-way through season two because there's been a lot more musical gags lately. The episode begins with an upbeat inspirational song about kicking balls, with intentionally awkward lyrics. Yet the words are delivered earnestly – by Amy's voice actor, Cindy Robinson – making the joke much funnier. Befitting the "Electric Boogaloo" mood-aloo, there are some shockingly convincing eighties synth back beats throughout. I unironically love this kind of music and was happily surprised at how decent the approximations are here. When Sonic and the gang start using dance moves to save the day, Sonic even bust out a Michael Jacksonian "Wooo!" I laughed. 

Since I've already digressed a lot in this review, allow me one more. In order to get the normally heroic Morristown Cyborgs on his side, Eggman slaps some bracelets on their wrists that act as mind control devices. As long as they wear those bracelets, the super-powerful protectors obey all his orders. Now, remember: These guys are cyborgs, as opposed to totally mechanical robots. They explicitly have biological brain patterns. Does this mean that Eggman cracked the secret to perfect mind control? Even if it only works on people with robot parts, he could still have turned all the residents of Roboken into his slaves and then totally rewired their personalities with just a firmware update. HypnoBot couldn't do that. This is super serious villain technology, with world-conquering applications. Instead, he uses it to try and win a soccer game. The writers must have been aware of this, as they include a brief line about how "mind control is really expensive." Still, this feels like a definite "But I don't want to cure cancer! I want to turn people into dinosaurs!" moment. 

Sorry, this review ran a little long. You know how I get when this show gives me pop culture references to deconstruct. Either way, I guess the fact that I rambled on for over two thousand words about this ten minute cartoon proves that "Victory" is deeper than its goofball premise suggests. Or, alternatively, I need to hire an editor. Still, I think this is a funny episode! How often do we get to see Sonic the Hedgehog do an MJ while freezing and toprocking? Truly, we should treasure these moments. Boogaloo on, my friends. [7/10]

Sonic Boom, Episode 2.38: Eggman's Anti-Gravity Ray

Sonic Boom, Episode 2.38: Eggman's Anti-Gravity Ray

Original Air Date: July 29th, 2017

At the beginning of "Eggman's Anti-Gravity Ray," the titular scientist is having a pleasant weekend morning when his Sunday paper gets blown away by a persistent breeze. He decides the best way to resolve this is to move his base several degrees to the right. He plans to accomplish this with an Anti-Gravity device he cooks up seemingly in an afternoon. The scientist leaves the room long enough for Cubot and Orbot to start playing with the gizmo. This results in it getting stuck on Cubot's head, while casting anti-gravity rays all over the general area as the robot continuously floats upward. Before Eggman can contain the situation, the same breeze carries Cubot over Hedgehog Village. Now it's Sonic and the gang's problem, as more and more innocent bystanders and their stuff starts to levitate towards the mesosphere. 

"Eggman's Anti-Gravity Ray" is an episode built around a true statement of physical comedy: People floating around in zero gravity is funny. The fact that we are held to the ground by the rotation and mass of our planet is perhaps the most unavoidable truth around. That stuff falls down is probably the first scientific law we all learn, when we are still babies. To strip away that ever apparent status is an innate violation of something our brains understand to be inherent about life. It's why the sight of people floating in space, or Superman taking to the sky, always fills us with a sense of wonder and whimsy. Such an upturning of the status-quo is also an upturning of something standard and evident, one of the principles of comedy. I know, I sure wrote a lot of words to explain why it's funny when people are flailing around in the air. But that's true and it's also the kind of physical comedy not many shows can do, at least outside of cartoons with some sort of sci-fi element.

That alone probably could've provided enough gags for a ten minute cartoon. However, "Eggman's Anti-Gravity Ray" amusingly keeps escalating. We begin with the funny premise of Eggman cooking up a wildly impractical solution to a commonplace, extremely mundane problem. That rises to Cubot getting the machine stuck on his head, which raises to the anti-gravity effects wreaking havoc on the village. This is a big, sci-fi, action movie problem the heroes must think of a solution too, before everyone floats off into space. After seemingly solving that problem, the episode keeps going. The machine is reversed and now extra-gravity is slowly flattening everyone, forcing our heroes to rethink a solution to a new challenge. In other words, every incident in this script builds organically on the one before as the story moves towards bigger and more exciting events. That's what writing is supposed to do when it's good! 

Another indicator that scripter Marie Beardmore was paying attention during screenwriting class is how Knuckles gets a tidy little character arc in this episode. At the beginning of the episode, while Eggman is engineering the shenanigans that will occupy the rest of the runtime, Team Sonic are playing soccer. (Otherwise known as "football" to anyone not born without a screaming bald eagle wielding an American flag and an AR-15 tattooed on their heart.) Knuckles gets kicked off the field because he's embracing his masculine need to dig holes. At the very end of the episode, after the Anti-Gravity Ray starts producing excess gravity, Knuckles' digging skills are what end up saving the day. A minor detail from the first act becomes important in the last act. An element of a character that he was previously scorn for ends up earning him respect. This only amounts to two scenes but it adds so much to the episode, making this story feel like a pair of gears smoothly clicking together and working to power a bigger machine that gives the audience satisfaction. I think my metaphor might've gotten a bit obtuse but the point remains: Knuckles has a real purpose in this episode and the script is nicely structured. To think, the domino that led to this moment all started with Takashu Yuda looking up animals that burrowed and deciding the echidna was the coolest looking one... 

Knuckles is also central to a moment in this episode that, unexpectedly, became something of a meme in 2017. What with the series' prominence in millennial pop culture, and subsequently being extremely recognizable among the terminally online, there have been a lot of "Sonic" memes. However, there are definitely layers to the "Sonic" Meme Iceberg. Bimmy is a meme among Archie "Sonic" obsessives but will result in nothing but a blank stare even from a person familiar with Sanic or Ugandan Knuckles. This fandom is composed of circles within circles and the cartoon shows are definitely deeper than the video games or movies. However, a scene from this episode – of Knuckles displaying an unexpected flash of brilliance by having an insightful feminist response to Amy girl-bossing it up – managed to break containment and gain notice outside the insular "Sonic" fandom. It went viral on Twitter shortly after airing, prompting reactions and think pieces from several industry news websites, including Entertainment Weekly. A YouTube clip of the scene currently has over two million views and it still gets reposted on social media from time to time. Considering most people probably weren't even aware of "Sonic Boom" in August of 2017, the show long since shuttled off to Boomerang where it could be safely ignored, this was a fairly big deal for the franchise. I definitely recall some folks commenting on the scene with bemused reactions like "whaaaat even is this show?!" and so forth. Weirdly, I mostly saw left-wing people applauding the joke as "based" or accusing it of "Echidnasplaining." I didn't see much in the way of right-wing hand-wringing over those dastardly feminists corrupting the minds of impressionable children with their woke agenda. I guess "Sonic the Hedgehog" cartoons are beneath the notice of Republican pundits and the deeper tentacles of the far right outrage echo chamber. 

But it is a good joke! It plays off "Boom" expectations of Knuckles being a total simpleton while, also, being a good general bit of absurdity. You don't expect a salient point about feminism in a children's cartoon, ya know? It's a sign of this episode being quite funny overall. There's a good mixture of the typical "Boom" gags here. There's self-aware jabs at the franchise and medium, such as a quality pun about "effecting cannon." Typical moments that are just good old fashion silliness, such as Eggman getting excited about fashion week or French fries, are present. Mostly, the laughs come from watching these characters interact with each other, their long-since-established personalities bouncing off one another. A good pile-up of jokes tarts with Eggman threatening to cut Orbot's wages, before Fastidious Beaver and Leroy the turtle pipe in with corrections. Even Comedy Chimp got a chuckle out of me, with a blatantly cheesy one-liner. Sonic's reaction to Amy being free to express herself, Sticks reacting with expected zeal to the sight of floating towels, or Knuckles murmuring "Touchdown" in a sad voice are all solid jokes built largely off of everything we know about these guys by now. Good, character-based comedy writing.

Not every gag hits. A bit about Eggman doing a gymnastic landing or Knuckles having a wacky line about pizza are fairly lame. This is a dense script, meaning another quality joke is right around the corner even if one whiffs. Cubot, unexpectedly, becomes a good source of yuks here. The droid's unobservant nature leads to some typical bits, such as his inability to understand levitation or to answer a simple question about his status. A wacky glitch leads to Cubot shooting levitation rats out of his hands, the machine immediately transitioning into a would-be New Age cult leader. Like I said, this episode packs in the jokes because imbecilic Cubot starting a touchy-feely cult could easily be the basis for a whole episode. Here, it's another delightfully unexpected joke in an episode that has an abundance of them. 

I guess my point is that "Eggman's Anti-Gravity Ray" is "Sonic Boom" operating in top form. The jokes are clever and abundant, nicely building atop each other as the episode pushes towards sillier moments. The notice of a comedy script being good is when, if you took out most of the jokes, you'd still have a decent story. This is also true of "Eggman's Anti-Gravity Ray," as you can imagine this same premise leading to a decently entertaining season one "Sonic X" episode or the like. And all in ten minutes too! This is what happens when a show is allowed to run for a little bit, so it can really build up its cast and characters, and you hire decent writers to bang out good scripts. The end of "Sonic Boom's" second season, and the entire show with it, is starting to loom. Episodes like this make me realize that I'm actually really going to miss this program when I'm done with it. [8/10]

Sonic Boom, Episode 2.37: Return of the Buddy Buddy Temple of Doom

Sonic Boom, Episode 2.37: Return of the Buddy Buddy Temple of Doom

Original Air Date: July 22nd, 2017

Despite the prominent billing it gets in the title, "Return of the Buddy Buddy Temple of Doom" isn't really about the Buddy Buddy Temple. The episode begins with Sonic easily out-matching Charlie and his mech suit, which prompts Eggman into a jealous rage. He builds his own bitchin' mech suit but finds himself without a power source potent enough to fuel it. A chance encounter with Charlie sees Eggman learning about the Tummel Crystal, a legendary magical rock said to be buried under the titular location. Eggman begins digging for it and stumbles upon some Froglodytes, who immediately begin to worship him as their new god. They kidnap nearly all the residents of Gogoba Village to act as slave labor in the mines. Sonic, Tails, and Amy decide they better put a stop to all this. 

I know I've been going on about this a lot recently but the fact of the matter remains: I'm still impressed with how the "Sonic Boom" writers have managed to take a bunch of basically one-off jokes and build an actual universe around them. "Return of the Buddy Buddy Temple" might actually be the most continuity dense episode of the program yet. There are at least five previous episodes you'd have to watch before this one to understand where all these elements came from. Charlie and the Gogobas are well established by this point. The Froglodytes definitely seemed like nothing more than gag characters to build a single episode around but here they are, making their third appearance. The Buddy Buddy Temple, however, only appeared in one previous installment. When Sonic leaps into his own battle robot at the end, a reappearance of the primary plot device from "Mech Suits Me," without any further information, I realized that this one truly is an episode for the hardcore fans. This is like if "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog" made an episode weaving together Wes Weasley, Breezie, that town full of hot dog people, the "Mean Bean Machine" robots, and Easy Eddie's Chaos Emerald ring. I didn't expect this much care actually being taken with a gag show's universe. I guess that's to be expected when you're talking about the differences between a licensed kids cartoon from the early nineties, when nobody was paying attention to this shit, and the mid-2010s, when we were already living in the age of meticulously detailed fan wikis. 

The result is one of the more plot-centric episodes of "Sonic Boom." Instead of primarily being a joke delivery machine, there's an actual clear narrative here. The villain has an absolute goal. He enslaves some locals to do it, definitely among the most evil things this version of Eggman has done. The heroes see this clear injustice and set about resolving it, briefly getting captured themselves before breaking loose to save the day. Now, I realize that this plot structure is partially a homage to "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." Aside from directly referencing that movie in the title, Eggman also wears a head dress not unlike Mola Ram's in the latter half. (Disappointingly, he does not yank a guy's still beating heart from his chest.) Considering the last two episodes where about Eggman being afraid of ghosts and going back to school, it's surprising to see "Boom" utilizing a fairly standard action/adventure plot. Even if it's largely taken from the most underrated entry – yeah, I said it – in a huge successful and popular franchise. 

Sam Friedberger's script manages to do all of this without sacrificing the essential "Sonic Boom"-ness of these characters. While Eggman is ostensibly motivated by a thirst for power and wanting to subjugate people here, his latest quest is largely built on petty jealousy. He sees Sonic defeat Charlie and wonders why the hedgehog gets praised for something he could do. Instead of then setting off on a career of heroics, Eggman gets distracted by building and powering a giant doom-mech. Fair enough but it still shows how this Eggman is motivated more by childish neuroses than your typical supervillain antics. Sonic, meanwhile, has to be repeatedly talked into doing good guy shit in this episode. Not because he doesn't enjoy smashing Eggman's hopes and dreams but more so because he hates spending time with the Gogobas. Again, a totally understandable feeling that nevertheless shows how this program repeatedly subverts the classical action cartoon personalities. 

All this high-minded talk aside, this episode is also about another universal truth: Everyone thinks giant robots are bitchin'. The Japanese have built multiple whole genres around this fact, all of which are variations on the idea that all of us wish we had an enormous robotic suit we could ride around in. Considering how ever-present robots are in all branches of the "Sonic" franchise, I'm surprised we haven't seen more instances of Sonic leaping into a highly marketable mech suit and wailing on Eggman in his own set of toyetic armor. (The comics have done it a few times, though usually as a homage and not as a means to its own thing.) A robot fighter "Sonic" game would probably be kind of neat, right? Get to work on that, Sega. Anyway, the machine Eggman builds in this episode is cool. I like how it invokes his classic look, with a mustache-like design on the face, while still being its own thing. And having some cool, beetle-like wings for no particular reason. I, personally, wouldn't enslave a whole village of indigenous people in order to dig up a power source for my awesome mech suit but, I gotta say, I understand the temptation to do so. 

By bringing back the Froglodytes, this episode does raise some questions though. First off, the previous appearance of Buddy Buddy Temple had no connection to the frog monsters living under the island. We never actually see them – or anyone, for that matter – step foot into the temple, so presumably no link is meant to be implied. I guess we have to go with the idea that digging underground anywhere on this island brings with it a high probability of running into some of those frog guys. Despite the idol of their frog god being displayed, this episode also suggests that the Froglodytes will worship anyone who comes along. After Eggman breaks into their chamber, they mistake him for a half-robot centaur thing and, after he promises not to destroy them, immediately dedicate themselves to serving him. Obviously, this is so the bad guy can have a horde of henchmen in this episode. This plot turn also suggests that any display of superior technology is enough to convince the Froglodytes. I guess, if the John Frum cult is anything to go by, this is not a terribly unrealistic depiction. But it seems these primitive amphibian critters have a rather inconsistent dogma, that slingshots from human sacrifices to conquering the surface world to bowing before the first person with a hovercraft they see. There should be an episode where someone writes an anthropological study of the Froglodytes. The kids would love that! Anyway, the running gag of the Froglodytes screaming and flailing their hands, seemingly as a gesture of worship, got old fast though. 

 

This being "Sonic Boom" and all, there's some good zingers in the script and quite a few meta moments too. Amy observed that "Eggman is despondent," which is a funny enough line on its own, but Sonic and Tails top it off with a brief conversation about the oddness of their relationship with their archenemy. Later, Eggman and Charlie discuss their ability to defeat their enemies being ensnared by an unforeseen formula. Amy gets another stand-out moment, when she uses reverse psychology to get a Gogoba to hand over her hammer. In fact, the Gogobas – usually more annoying than amusing – get a decent amount of chuckles here, when bickering with their Froglodyte overseer. I guess the secret to making the Gogobas' guilt tripping habits amusing is to give them some enraged cave frogs to bounce off of. By far, the funniest moment here is a real blink-and-miss-it gag. Before Eggman's robot minions are shut down by a plot contrivance, one of the machines deadpans by asking "Eggman, will I dream?" That was absolutely a throw-it-in line and the one that made me laugh the hardest in this entire ten minutes stretch. 

With this being a piece of "Sonic" media from the late 2010s, when the franchise was in its most self-aware era, there's a random shout-out to the PINGAS meme. I'm so used to hearing Long John Baldry say that line that hearing it in Mike Pullock's Eggman voice caused a moment of psychic dissonance for me. Eggman also says "Hail to the king, baby!" Which is obviously an "Army of Darkness" reference but the editors over at the "Sonic" wiki seem to think it's taken from something called "Beetle Adventure Racing." This might be an example of one form of autism getting in the way of another. (The same editor seems to think this episode is full of references to a different Sam Raimi movie, which also strikes me as a stretch.) Also, Knuckles and Sticks aren't in this episode, presumably because they didn't fit into the hero/heroine/kid sidekick roles dictated by this being a "Temple of Doom" callback. If only Sallah had been in the second "Indiana Jones" movie. I can totally see Knuckles intoning gravely about "bad dates." Anyway, this is a good episode. [7/10]

Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): Issue 72

Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): Issue 72

Original Publication Date: August 28th, 2024

 

I often refer to "Sonic the Hedgehog" as a multi-media franchise because that's exactly what it is. The fast blue rat exists as a video game series, a comic book long-runner, various animated adaptations, popular blockbuster movies, and a horde of merchandise. The nature of this multi-branch structure sometimes means "Sonic" stuff ends up competing with other "Sonic" stuff for the audience's attention. I had completely missed that a new issue of IDW "Sonic" had come out last Wednesday. I assumed this was simply because I was knee-deep in preparing for my two month long horror movie marathon over at my other blog. Upon second thought, I had seen zero chatter about issue 72 in the various "Sonic" fan communities I participate in. What other hedgehog news happened this week? Oh yeah, the trailer for the star-studded, multi-million dollar new movie. I'm sure the new comic being released two days after the "Sonic 3" trailer was a complete scheduling fluke. If IDW was hoping hype for the new film would draw eyeballs to their comic, it seems the opposite is true. Any discussion of issue 72 has been totally overshadowed – pun! – by the trailer drop. Luckily, there's always time to catch up. 

Where is the Phantom Rider/Clean Sweepstakes story arc taking us this month? Surge and Kit express their desire to quit Cleansweep to Clutch, who essentially laughs their announcement off. This enrages Surge so much that she generates a massive lightning storm above, at the same time a horde of flying car traffic is passing by. Coincidentally, Sonic is lurking around in the same traffic jam, his disguise malfunctioning. The Babylon Rogues swoop in, redirecting traffic in the storm and playing hero in hopes of rehabilitating their own public image. At least until Jet spots the Phantom Rider and that hyper-fixation takes over. Sonic is rescued by an unexpected ally: Nite the Owl and Don the Rooster, who also happen to be in this same traffic jam. 

In my review of issue 71, I referred to the current on-going arc as a collection of subplots all acting in their own lanes. Perhaps Evan Stanley was feeling that weigh on the plot too, fearful that it might collapse under the weight of so much happening at once. Her solution to bring some of these threads together in this issue is inelegant. Surge getting mad at Clutch results in a thunderstorm, that Sonic and the Rogues and Sonic's rescuers all happen to be caught in too. If this was depicting as Surge's atmospheric freak-out being so powerful, it stretches over an entire metropolitan area, that would be one thing. Instead, it seems almost all the current plot lines come together in the same spot by sheer coincidence. What makes this massively convenient fluke more frustrating is that it does little to push the overall arc forward. The last issue felt like the buffer between the middle of the arc and the finale. This issue feels like... More of that buffer. How much longer are we going to watch these various divergent plot lines bounce around each other before they come together for some sort of satisfying whole? 

This frustration is most felt in Sonic's portion of the issue. What does the blue hedgehog actually do this month? He lurks around a traffic jam, trying to hide his face. He has a brief interaction with Jet before getting yanked into Nite and Don's Space Winnebago. They talk and, after Don patches up his Henshin-A-Go-Go gadget, then he leaves! While forcing Sonic into a double life was interesting at first, now it's clear that isolating the hedgehog from his friends has also isolated him from the flow of the rest of the story. This issue feels as if everything is happening around the hedgehog. Which is not a great position for the titular hero to be in. 

If I were to be cynical for a moment – something I never am – I would say this sequence is only in the issue for strictly commercial reasons. First off, you've got to have Sonic the Hedgehog do something in the book with his name on the cover. The fans who complain about the comics being nothing but the author's O.C.s doing stuff will get mad otherwise. This sequence also allows an issue otherwise focused on character development to have an action beat early on. The minute Jet sees the Phantom Rider, he deviates from his plan and chases after the guy. It's the briefest struggle and there's a longer fight scene in the issue's back half. The feeling that Stanley is trying to make Jet and Sonic's rivalry a major lynchpin in this arc is starting to become a little sweaty. She wanted to do a racing arc and, if you're doing that, the Rogues have to be there. But the Rogues aren't that interesting on their own, so Stanley has seized on Jet's obsession with Sonic to beef up that particular corner of the story. However, you can always tell where Stanley's interest actually resides. And it's not with Jet's raging hate-on for Sonic. 

The rambling point I'm making here is... This scene feels like it's in this issue because it has to be. There has to be an action scene within the first few pages. Sonic has to do something. If the Babylon Rogues' dedicated plotline, of trying to reinvent themselves as heroes the way Surge and Kit have, went anywhere, this would feel less intrusive. It doesn't though. Jet is still determined to chase Sonic until the ends of the Earth and the hedgehog is more annoyed by it than anything else. The moment where Wave feels unappreciated that ego maniac Jet never allows her to take any credit for her ideas is the sole moment here that catches my eyes. Will that go somewhere? Will Wave become so fed up with Jet's bullshit that she leaves the team? That would be a good end to this story, Jet's obsession growing so great that the closest people he has to friends abandon him. I kind of doubt that will happen though. Would Sega allow Stanley to break up the band, even temporarily? Feels like that would violate their unified brand vision or something.

While you can feel the author struggling to make compelling fiction out of this part of the story, she's clearly more invested in other parts. Namely, and perhaps unsurprisingly, the comic exclusive characters that she's more-or-less defined. Surge continues to be the beating heart of this saga. Last month, an enthusiastic fan made Surge realize that she didn't have to be bad to be loved. This month, she stands up to Clutch, tells him to take this job and so on. He immediately fires back that the public coming around to love Surge was his work. He gave it to her, he can take it away. Being the angsty little marshmallow she is, Surge immediately has to have a temper tantrum about it. Has to bemoan how someone is always trying to control her. Kit gives her a big hug and it's absolutely fucking adorable. I do wonder why Surge wouldn't just shock the shit out of Clutch and call it a day. I suppose his villainous monologue is very convincing to her. Considering part of her thundering rage involves screaming how no one can tell her what to do, hopefully she will find a way to rebel. Still, I love when this unhinged psycho bitch shows her soft, squishy, vulnerable insides. There's no doubt in my mind at this point that Surge is one of the most psychologically fleshed-out characters in this entire series. 

This scene serves another purpose too, besides making all of us want to give Surge another hug. The longer the Clean Sweepstakes event goes on, the clearer it becomes what one of Stanley's big goals with this narrative were: To properly establish Clutch as a major villain. He's been floating around the sidelines for a while, being all untrustworthy and shit. Now he's making his big plan to rob the Restoration. The scene with Surge and Kit, meanwhile, show personally devious this guy is. He manipulates Surge perfectly with only his words, looming over her and breaking her will with a simple statement. When Starline would monologue at Surge like this, it worked. He "created" her, after all. I still don't 100% buy Clutch as a mastermind, high-ranking bad guy. He still seems like a petty crook trying to break into the big leagues. The comic needs to have him do some real bastard shit – engineer a public crisis, kill someone, run for public office – for me to see him as a truly S-tier antagonist. The comics have yet to develop him much beyond mildly foppish crime boss. Stanley clearly wants Clutch to be the Kingpin of the IDW Sonic-Verse but he still strikes me as more like the Crime Master or Big Man or whichever D-list Spider-Man villain best fits this metaphor. The narrative supports the idea that Clutch has graduated from wannabe to major threat but he still feels more like the latter to me. 

This issue also provides a chance for Evan to write two of her other creations into this on-going. Nite the Owl and Don the Rooster have been present since the Metal Virus Saga. Previously, I had no strong feelings about them one way or another. Don's grumpiness is mildly endearing. Nite's indefatigable peppiness is slightly annoying. However, these two didn't seem to fill any role other than a radio DJ and his sidekick. They added some color to the world but I didn't have any desire to know more about them. Why couldn't Kit the Capybara been the minor supporting character to take off? This latest appearance does give us a peek into Nite and Don's lives. Turns out the owl is a secret informer for the Restoration and they own a van together. (No word yet on if it resides down by the river.) I guess that means we'll be seeing more of these two guys in the near future, not only when Nite comes out of a goddamn up-tempo record when he has to talk about a fucking dog dying. 

Oh yeah, also, they're gay. Speaking of coming out! I mean, I guess Nite referring to Don as “my dear” could be totally platonic but the goo-goo eyes he gives the rooster in the same panel suggest otherwise. I had some vague recollection of some word-of-God confirmation that these two are lovers but doubted it would make it into the actual comic in any significant way. Revisiting the Tumblr post where Evan dropped this lore nugget confirms that these two are canonically a couple and have been from the beginning. As far as representation goes, this is still very subtle. It's not like they are pressing their beaks together in an awkward attempt to replicate kissing.. Considering how coy the comic has been with confirming Tangle and Whisper's really, really obvious relationship, it's nice to see these two being out and proud. That gay characters are allowed to exist in this universe without anyone drawing attention to it. (Though did Stanley consider the implications of making the “Sonic” universe's first confirmed bara a literal cock? Lol.)

Somehow, this does not cover all the fucking subplots in this issue. I still am not sure what timeline Tails, Amy, and Belle are operating on in comparison to the rest of the events. However, here they rush towards Jewel's office only to be stopped by the Cleansweep mascots, soon revealed to be Rough and Tumble in disguise. There is one adorable moment here, when Belle puts two-and-two together and realizes she's made a big mistake. However, this particular series of events still feels like it's being dragged out way too long. That Jewel doesn't hear the fisticuffs going on right outside her office is explained by her having some headphones on, which is very contrived. I'm beginning to think Evan is not great at actually pacing out her storylines, especially when there are multiple threads to juggle. 

Despite having some big problems, I still enjoyed this installment. Once again, the little character interactions end up saving the day. Surge having her wangsty cry session and Kit comforting her – and even Nite's tiny act of affection towards his boyfriend – make these convoluted action/adventure events feel a lot more meaningful. I would rather the forward momentum of the plot and the emotional events of the cast feel intertwined... But considering all the bad “Sonic the Hedgehog” comic books I've read over the years, I'm simply pleased that one of those elements exist. It looks like IDW is going to stretch this particular arc out for at least three more issues. Guess I better get used to complaining about all these subplots competing for time and attention. [6/10]