Sonic Super Special: Issue 12 – Turnabout Heroes

Sonic Super Special: Issue 12 – Turnabout Heroes
Publication Date: Janaury 2000

We interrupt you’re regularly scheduled Sega Dreamcast adaptation for something completely different! While Archie’s main “Sonic the Hedgehog” comic was knee-deep in the “Sonic Adventure” adaptation, a new Sonic Super Special quarterly dropped with no connection to anything happening in the main book. This suggests one of two things. Either Archie’s interior scheduling is horribly haphazard or Sega demanded the “Adventure” adaptation to roll out at a certain date. Probably both, if we’re being honest. So let’s just forget about Station Square and Chaos for a little while and focus on something else entirely.

The majority of the Sonic Super Specials had some sort of gimmick that separated them from the standard book. Such as the all female led stories in issue 11 or the ill-fated crossovers in issue 10 and 7. What number twelve offers us is a cover story that turns the page sideways, the panels being read from the bottom to the top. “Turnabout Heroes” matches this visual gimmick by turning its heroes around too. Dimitri has seemingly teamed up with Dr. Robotnik, despite the former character being dead. Their fiendish plot involves swiping Sonic and Knuckles’ minds and bodies, leaving the hedgehog in the echidna’s body and vice versa. They attempt to blackmail the heroes into stealing the Master Emerald, in order to power a new super weapon. It doesn’t work.

“Turnabout Heroes” is said to take place between issues 71 and 72 of “Sonic” and issues 28 and 29 of “Knuckles.” However, as the Mobius Enclopedia is all too eager to point out, this doesn’t make a lot of sense. There’s a reason for “Turnabout Heroes” seemingly existing outside canon. The story line was originally published as a reoccurring comic stripe in Comic Shop News, a multi-page newsletter and sales flyer sent out to comic shops. This is also the reason for the vertical page construction. The change of format also explains some other things about the story. “Turnabout Heroes” opens with Sonic and Knuckles flatly discussing their recent history. Each of the characters are simplified and there are few references to either Sonic or Knuckles’ convoluted series. Presumably, this was done so as not to loose new and inexperienced readers.

On top of these issues, “Turnabout Heroes” is also Ken Penders’ take on the well worn body swap story line. Sonic and Knuckles do not reach a “Freaky Friday”-esque new appreciation for each other after their experience. Instead, “Turnabout Heroes” mostly plays the body switch up for humor. Knuckles, in Sonic’s body, does a belly flop while attempting to glide. Both the hedgehog and the guardian’s supporting cast seem very confused by the switch-a-roo. More definitely could’ve been done with the premise. Because this is a Penders, the story also a hell of a cheat for an ending. After touching the Master Emerald, Sonic and Knuckles’ minds are restored. The con they pull on the villains at the end is also barely coherent.

Despite these many setbacks, “Turnabout Heroes” works okay as an action story. Both Dimitri and Robotnik are on the offensive, sending heavy SWATBot and Dark Legion forces after the heroes. The Freedom Fighter Special crashes on the Floating Island, a decent action beat. The high-light of the story is the Freedom Fighters teaming up with Knuckles and Julie-Su to wreck the shit of their mutual villains. (The Chaotix, presumably, were on vacation during all this. Or Ken just forgot about them.) Amusingly, Nate Morgan is seemingly involved in the combat, which is likely a result of Penders not caring what Bollers was up to at the time.

Simplifying the personalities of the cast for an audience outside the usual book doesn’t mess with things too much. Sonic and Knuckles pepper their speech with more catch phrases then usual but everyone is more-or-less in character. Except for the villains. In the story, Dimitri threatens to use a Master Emerald-powered cannon to robotocize the Great Forest. This is unusual for a villain who has mostly been concerned with conquering the Floating Island and inflicting revenge on his enemies. And what is the original Robotnik doing in this story, considering he died in issue 50? Turns out this Dr. Robotnik is a robotic double. Where did it come from? You probably already guessed that no answer is provided, either in these pages or outside the comic.

Sonic Super Special #12 has two stories, both loosely linked by the concept of different personalities inhabiting our established cast. In “Zone Wars: Giant Robotno,” Sonic gets another visit from Zonic the Zone-Cop. Initially apathetic, the Zone Cop talks the hedgehog into tagging along on another adventure. He’s taken to an alternate Mobius were giant, monstrous versions of the Freedom Fighters attack a peaceful Overlander city. Sonic leaps into a giant robot designed by a benevolent version of Robotnik, searching for a fuel source for Kintobor’s robotic protectors. This puts Sonic in the path of grotesque versions of his friends, forcing him to fight.

If you hadn’t guessed already, “Giant Robotno” is another Dan Slott joint, the sometimes writer returning to his beloved “Zone Wars” concept. (Slott plotted out the story with Karl Bollers doing the actual writing.) Like Slott’s previous stories, this one is full of weeaboo pop culture references. The story begins with Sonic encountering versions of Sally and his friends from a universe patterned after anime series “Gatchaman.” Amusingly, Sonic is totally disinterested in this event, the action playing out in the background while he talks with Zonic in the foreground.

Once Sonic is guilted into leaping dimensions, “Giant Robotno” reveals itself as a pastiche of kaiju movies and giant robot animes. We get to see a mash-up of Bunnie and Godzilla. The Tails kaiju, meanwhile, features Devilman’s bat-wing ears. The plot also resembles (and obviously predates) “Pacific Rim” and any number of Japanese shows about giant robots fighting giant monsters.

A combination of Sonic and a kaiju movie probably sounds like a terrible idea but “Giant Robotno” is surprisingly willing to play the premise for horror. The giant, mutated versions of the Mobians are visually unnerving. The Bunnie/Godzilla combo has a disturbingly scaly tail and scutes growing from her back. A giant monster version of Uncle Chuck, frozen in place, looms over the city, his face locked in a scream. We see, in flashback, versions of the Chaotix mutated into deformed monstrosity by Chaos Emerald radiation, their bodies twisting against their wills. Seeing our beloved Freedom Fighters transformed into ugly giants is an unexpected sight, at the very least. Knuckles’ dreadlocks have become tentacles. Amy gets hideous vampire fangs. Rotor and Sally are freakishly buff. It’s not exactly Junji Ito but is still surprisingly twisted stuff for a “Sonic” comic book.

The anime references and zone hopping are obviously the work of Slott. However, “Giant Robotno” also has an interesting emotional component, which I’m willing to credit Bollers for. While piloting the Eggman resembling machine, Sonic lands down on the island populated by the kaijuized Freedom Fighters. Sonic finds the sight of his friends, mutated not-quite-beyond recognition, very disturbing. Moreover, he’s forced to beat them into submission, which also upsets him. The emotional turmoil reaches its peak when Sonic is forced to fight a giant, monstrous version of his father, a Chaos Emerald embedded in its chest. During the fight, he accidentally yanks the emerald from Monster Jules’ chest, killing him. This, understandably, upsets the hedgehog. He exits the alternate dimensions not feeling like a hero but greatly unnerved by the experience. Bollers stays on just the right side of emotionally overwrought, managing to find some actual heart in an outwardly ridiculous story.

James Fry provides the pencils for “Turnabout Heroes.” Fry’s work is solid, with Sonic and friends looking on-model, bright and colorful. Robotnik and Dimitri, meanwhile, look slightly off. Nelson Ribeiro does the artwork for “Giant Robotno.” It takes some time to adapt to Ribeiro’s work, which is a little more exaggerated then regular Archie artwork. However, once it wins you over, Ribeiro’s pencils prove effective for this story.

Sonic Super Special issue 12 is an odd collection of stories. “Turnabout Hereos” is a decently entertaining if unremarkable tale. “Giant Robotno” is a very odd scenario but the creative crew manages to make it work, somehow. I’d like to say that the two stories combine to make this one of the weirdest Sonic books but this comic got fucking weird at times, so who knows. We now return to your corporate mandated video game adaptation, already in progress…[7/10]

Sonic Super Special: Issue 8 – Sally Moon

Sonic Super Special: Issue 8 – Sally Moon
Publication Date: January 1999

When Archie started publishing special issues of “Sonic,” the extra-long format usually served one of two purposes. Either a story too long for a regular issue would be contained with-in or a crap ton of smaller stories would be jammed inside. It’s been a while since we’ve had a Sonic Super Special of the latter variety. Issue 6 and 7 were all devoted to a single story. The eighth Sonic Super Special, otherwise known as the infamous “Sally Moon” issue, jams four issues of wildly divergent quality, most of them bad.

The book begins with “Zone Wars: Prelude.” One day, Sonic is minding his own business when a cross-dressing version of Robotnik from another dimensions shows up and starts shooting damn laser beams at him. Sonic is baffled and that bafflement grows when Sally Moon, Chibi Rose, and Tuxedo Knux shows up. Zonic the Zone-Cop, an inter-dimensional police officer, appears, cleans this mess up, and explains just what the hell happened.

Ridiculous pop culture parody was common in the early days of the book’s life. This is, after all, the comic book that brought us Spawnmower and the Termite-nator. Pretty much all of Issue 19 was about smashing Sonic together with other pop culture characters. We haven’t seen goofiness like this in a while. It’s been long enough that the sudden appearance of Sally Moon comes as a pleasant surprise. Yeah, the version of our favorite Princess as the short-skirted anime heroine doesn’t do very much. She gets blasted by the alternate Robotnik before Tuxedo Knux downs the villain with a rose. Still, I’ll admit to having an affinity to this vein of silliness.

There’s something genuinely good about “Zone Wars: Prelude.” Writer Dan Slott does something straight forward and simple. Zonic, a wall-walking super-cop who polices alternate realities, explains some shit to Sonic. Basically, every time our hedgehog hero crossed over into another zone or through a portal, it was the work of Zonic. That… Makes an astonishing amount of sense. Later writers would get lots of praise for welding together different arcs like that. Slott, meanwhile, doesn’t get any credit for doing the same thing long before. Sadly, “Zone Wars: Prelude” doesn’t do much more than set up these elements. Yet the effort is appreciated. Jim Fry’s artwork is slightly off-model but not distractedly bad.

The second story, “Running on Empty,” begins with Sonic telling Amy Rose a story of the early days of the Robotnik War. In it, Sonic runs to the cries of Princess Sally. This was a trap, a hologram created by Snively. During the faux-rescue, Sonic is zapped with a ray. The device gives him even faster speed… Which has the side effect of making him age the faster he runs. As Sonic gets older, Rotor and Sally sneak into Robotropolis to find a cure.

“Running on Empty” has got its problems. Nelson Reibeiro’s artwork is frequently wildly off-model. His Sonic often bends in uncomfortable angles while his Snively looks weirdly buff. A bit too much of the story focuses on Rosie’s apple pie recipe, weirdly. The worst part is that Roger Brown writes Sally less as a girl of action and more like a weak-willed princess who cries a lot.

For its many flaws, “Running on Empty” still has a decent amount of heart. Sonic’s life is at risk here and his friend’s drive to save him shows how much they care. When Tails, Sally, and Rotor are surrounded by SWATBots, Tails refuses to leave his friends’ side. Naturally, the damage is undone by the end. Still, it’s not a bad adventure story.

Any good will Sonic Super Special Issue 8 builds up in the first half collapses in the second. “Den of Thieves” is a Monkey Khan solo story. This allows Frank Strom to discard the Sonic characters entirely and focus on his crappy self-insert original creations. Anyway, some stupid bat ninjas have been stealing gold from some hideously deformed puppy creatures. Monkey Khan appears and beats them up. Khan teams up with the ugly puppy creatures and follows the bats back to their lair. There, he beats up a robot dragon and retrieves the gold. The end. Who gives a shit.

Fans sure as fuck weren’t demanding Monkey Khan solo stories, I’m relatively certain of that. Frank Strom’s artwork remains bloated and disproportionate. Seriously, what the fuck are with the ears on Monkey Khan’s sidekicks? The artwork is flat as hell too, as the action is stiff, looking like paper cut-outs. The story is total bullocks. Monkey Khan remains obnoxiously perfect and nobody else is of interest. I have no idea why Archie kept inviting Strom back to work on the book. His devotion to Monkey Khan, and the character’s corresponding lameness, makes Penders’ echidna fetish seem restrained and controlled in comparison.

As shitty as “Den of Thieves” is, the next story is even worst. “Ghost Busted” is adapted from one of the goofier season two episodes of “SatAM.” For those who don’t remember the cartoon, Sonic, Tails, and Antoine go out camping where the hedgehog tells Tails a spooky ghost story. Later, Tails awakens to see a strange creature… Which is just Antoine covered in some glowing leaves.

I don’t know why Archie felt the need to adapt a random, not especially well regarded episode of “SatAM,” especially in such a short, mangled form. And I mean “mangled.” “Ghost Busted” features some insanely terrible art. The back-up is the sole pencil work of inker Jay Oliveras. Oliveras’ work brings to mind the infamous “Many Hands,” as its grossly off-model, amateurishly proportioned, hastily sketched, and garishly colored. Thankfully, the story only runs a brief eight pages. Presumably, “Ghost Busted” exists in the first place because Archie needed to fill eight pages. It’s just shitty, you guys.

The eighth Sonic Super Special is not the quarterly series’ finest hour. The cover story does some mildly clever arc welding and features some good-natured goofiness. The second story has its problem but at least has some sort of point. Both of the latter two stories are totally worthless. Dems da brakes. [6/10]