Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue ¼

Sonic the Hedgehog: Issue ¼
Publication Date: November 1992

Merry Christmas and happy holidays, faithful Hedgehogs Can’t Swim readers! Thank you for taking time out of your busy celebration to cast your eyeballs on my dumb-ass blog! What with it being Christmas Eve and all that, I decided to do something really special today. Since I’ve already reviewed the Sonic Christmas special and talked about the December I got a Dreamcast, I’ve decided to devote this update to the true reason for the season: Spending your hard earned cash on stupid bullshit!

As you’ve probably figured, I have a nearly complete Archie Sonic comic collection. A lot of these issues I’ve owned since childhood, and they have the tattered pages and missing covers to prove it. As I’ve entered into what is ostensibly adulthood, I’ve managed to fill most of the gaps in my collection, via eBay and comic shop back issue bins. These days I have all the issues of the main series, as well as all the spinoffs, mini-series, and one-shots. But I’m not here to brag about how I have a crap ton of ratty old comic books instead of a 401k. Because I discovered not too long ago that my Sonic comic collection wasn’t complete. I was missing “Sonic 1/4.”

You may be wondering, what the fuck is “Sonic 1/4?” I’m glad you asked! “Sonic 1/4” was a free promotional comic given away with the November 1992 issue of “Sega Visions,” Sega’s attempt to compete with “Nintendo Power.” (In defiance of all logic and reason, Sega’s self-promotion rag managed to run for twenty-five issues. Maybe I’ll review them when I have absolutely nothing else left to talk about.) The freebie contains the first six pages of issue 0 of Archie’s original “Sonic” mini-series. “1/4” was released a few days before the full-length comic book and not quite a year before “SatAM” premiered on television, making it the technical first ever appearance of Sally and the rest of the Freedom Fighters.

It’s probably one of the rarer Archie Sonic issues. Luckily, most people don’t know about it, so it’s far from the priciest. (A quick perusal of eBay shows that people like to slap the biggest price tag on mint issues of the mini-series.) I managed to find a decent copy selling for twenty bucks. Because it’s the holidays, and because my girlfriend is totally indifferent to my blue rat fetish, I decided to buy “Sonic 1/4” as an early Christmas present to myself. That’s the contrived reason I’m posting this review on the 24th and, look, it only took me four paragraphs to explain it.

So let’s talk about the actual contents of “Sonic 1/4.” It’s yet another reprint (preprint?) of “Don’t Cry for Me, Mobius.” The first six pages anyway. This is a story I’ve already reviewed twice. There’s no point in going over it again. It’s so simplistic and silly it borders on shitty. But I still found myself smiling while reading this. At this point in my retrospective, I’m just beginning to re-read the rebooted issues. That massive change left me cold for a long time. So going back to the very beginning of the series, the very root of all the convoluted lore I would come to love, does tickle my nostalgia bone right about now. It’s honestly making me want to go back and re-re-read the first eight years or so of the book. I wish I was joking.

“Don’t Cry for Me, Mobius” is well-trotted ground around here but, holding this old comic book in my hands, I do notice some weird little details. Like the goofy superlatives the creative staff give themselves on the credits banner. Mike Gallagher, for an example, is credited as “Super Sonic Scripter” while Scott Shaw is the “Pedal to the Metal Penciler.” You get the idea. The comic banked really hard on those speed related puns early on. The moment where Sonic casually breaks the fourth wall to address the reader also sticks out way more now than it did in 1992. Years before Deadpool made that stuff popular, Sonic did it almost every issues.

As for the collector’s item itself, it’s pretty shoddy. My copy is less beat-up than the digital scans I used for the images here but only slightly. It’s a twenty-six year old comic book that was shoved between the pages of a forgotten magazine, so I’m not surprised. There’s some obvious printing errors in the book. Sonic’s chin and belly are frequently colored a darker brown, making it look like he has some serious five o’clock shadow in a few panels. In one panel, his eyeballs just straight-up vanish. Fuck-ups like this were pretty common in the book’s early days and I doubt Archie put much quality control into a free giveaway like this.

Going back to the comic’s earliest issue at this time strikes me as pivotal for another reason. It’s almost 2019. January begins the fourth year of this retrospective’s existence. If everything stays on schedule, this will also be the year I wrap up my Archie reviews. So merry Christmas, Hedgehogs Can’t Swim readers. When I started this project, I figured nobody would be reading it. I’m eternally grateful to have the regular commenters and viewers I do. Thank you so much for sticking with me. So enjoy the holiday, whether it’s spent with friends and family or just relaxing at home. Here’s to another year of being way past cool.

Sonic Super Special: Issue 3 - Sonic Firsts

 
Sonic Super Special: Issue 3 – Sonic Firsts
Publication Date: November 1997

These days, it’s very common for popular comic series to collect their issues in trade paperbacks. For a while there, the comic industry was counting on the popularity and sales of trade collections to save the industry. This is a habit that really picked up in the nineties, right around the peak of Sonic’s popularity. Despite this, Archie was very slow to catch onto this trend. They released the original “Sonic the Hedgehog” mini-series in trade in 2003. It wasn’t until 2006 that Archie started publishing the series in collected, chronological releases, with the “Sonic Archive” series. These days, there’s at least three on-going series of paperback collections, printing stories in color, black and white, from the distant past and the recent present. All of this is excluding digital reprints, which is the real future of comic book publishing.

Today, those older stories are very easy to find. When I first started reading the series, the only way to read those older “Sonic” stories was to dig up the original comics. That’s why the publication of “Sonic Firsts” was a big deal to me, back in 1997. Originally released as a proper trade paperback, loaded up with extras and goodies, the release was slimmed down for the third Sonic Super Special. It included the first appearances of Sonic the Hedgehog and the Freedom Fighters, Bunnie Rabbot, Super Sonic, and Knuckles the Echidna. In other words, stories from issue 0 of the original “Sonic” mini-series and issues 3, 4, and 13 of the on-going series. “Sonic Firsts” is how I first read these stories.

 
“Sonic Firsts” is not a perfect re-print. A few minor changes are made. Sally’s hair, blonde or brunette in the original printing, have been re-colored to the canonical red. Rotor, referred to as “Boomer” at the time, is called by his correct name. Other then that, things are the same. Instead of retracing familiar ground, writing new reviews of stories I covered just a few months back, let me take a different approach. Let me instead chronicle how these characters and their world changed between when these stories first appeared and when they re-appeared in 1997.

In “Don’t Cry for Me, Mobius!,” Sonic’s world is so much brighter and simpler then it was in 1997. Just the other day, when reviewing issue 54, I was noting how moody and complex Sonic had gotten. In this first appearance, he’s still a total joker, cracking puns at every oppretunity. Sally comes off as a comical straight woman, honestly a bit on the bitchy side. This is in contrast to the concentrated but conflicted leader she was, post-“Endgame.” Antoine, developing into an honorable solider, was the butt of Sonic’s pranks and jokes, remaining a wet blanket. Robotnik, a comic relief villain who posed little in the way of serious threats, was dead by '97. Rotor and Tails haven’t been changed too much, though everyone’s less sarcastic then they were back then. The story is awfully goofy. Though dated, Scott Shaw’s artwork is still appealing.

In “Rabbot Deployment,” Bunnie was mostly characterized by bad jokes about wanting to be a hairdresser. Thankfully, the book would drop that aspect of her personality quickly. Disappointingly, Bunnie still remains underutilized in the main book. She’s developed a romance with Antoine and has gotten a few stories to herself. Yet the defining Bunnie story still hadn't come along. Though a rightly beloved member of the Sonic’s universe, it would take a while longer for Archie to truly do anything with Bunnie. As for “Rabbot Deployment,” it’s still a very silly but mildly fun story. That scene of Bunnie dropping the BurroBot on its head remains amusing.

I’m not sure why Archie felt the need to high-light Super Sonic’s first appearance. Since “Lizard of Odd” first ran in issue 4, Super Sonic had only appeared one more time, in the “Super Sonic vs. Hyper Knuckles” one-shot. (Though his third appearance was just around the corner in issue 56.) In later years, Super Sonic’s appearance would signal that shit had gotten really bad. He was the nuclear option, a form so powerful that he was only called on when essential. UniverSalamander is such a silly threat that it’s hard to get too worried. Nevertheless, I still kind of like “Lizard of Odd,” just because its silliness is rather endearing. Super Sonic does boost Sonic’s already smug behavior to almost unmanageable levels.

Maybe the character that had grown the most since his first appearance is Knuckles the Echidna. In the time since “This Island Hedgehog,” Knuckles has gone from the sole echidna on the planet to having a girlfriend, a mom and dad, a bunch of grandfathers, an army of arch-enemies, and an entire city populated with his own species. Knuckles had also lost much of the gullibility that defined him at the time. Now, he’s far more cunning and confused about his world, though still pretty hot-headed. It’s not a high compliment but “This Island Hedgehog” is probably the best story in “Sonic Firsts.”

These days, “Sonic Firsts” is a truly antiquated artifact. If people want to read the first appearances of Sonic, Bunnie, or Knuckles, they can find the digital downloads on an app and have them on their computers, game systems, or phones in seconds. Back then, we relied on reprints like these to find the older stories. Are the older stories truly worth seeking out, for anyone but Sonic completest like me? Well, probably not. Yet just for nostalgia points, I have to give “Sonic Firsts” a [7/10.]

Sonic the Hedgehog: In Your Face

 Sonic the Hedgehog: In Your Face
Publication Date: October 1994

I may be remembering things wrong. From the beginning, I’ve been saying that Issues 17 and 18 were my first “Sonic the Hedgehog” comic. Thumbing through “Sonic the Hedgehog: In Your Face,” huge waves of nostalgia washed over me. Maybe this one-shot special was actually my first “Sonic” comic? If it wasn’t the first, it was a very early issue for me. The bizarrely named “In Your Face” – the title doesn’t reflect anything in the story other then the hedgehog hero’s general ‘tude – was the first 48-page “special.” Archie would publish these on a roughly quarterly basis for about two years until the tradition was folded into the “Sonic Super Special” series. Most comic companies publish quarterly double-length issues of their biggest characters without much fanfare. Archie, however, always made these one-shots feel like events. They were Giant Sized 48 Paged Collector’s Editions, you guys! Today, I recognize this as the savvy, cheesy gimmick it is. As a kid, it totally got me. I treasured the one-shots more then the regular issues. They were specials and I treated them as such.

Despite Sonic getting top-billing, “In Your Face” actually begins with a story primarily revolving around Sally. “The Quest” concludes the Sally-centric backstories Penders had been sneaking into the main Sonic comics for a while. Despite sparring with Sonic in slightly Jason Voorhees-esque protective gear, Sally is distracted. Julayla’s recent passing and the mysterious orb that fell from the sky still weigh heavily on her mind. Julayla willed Sally all of her possessions, which include the Princess’ trademark blue vest and a mysterious treasure map. Later that night, Sally is awoken by the orb. Inside is a handheld computer that calls itself Nicole. Julayla’s map leads the Freedom Fighters on a journey into the Forbidden Zone, a perilous piece of Mobian land filled with monsters.

After the two very good shorts that proceeded, “The Quest” is a little bit of a disappointment. It does finally bring Nicole, the last major SatAM cast member yet to be added, into the comics. The early scene of Sally going over Julayla’s possessions is touching, if slightly hampered by typically stiff Penders’ dialogue. Once the titular quest gets going, the story looks like it’s evolving into a bad-ass team on a mission tale. However, Bunnie, Antoine, and Tails mostly just stand back while Sonic and Sally trash SWATBots. Bunnie and Antoine actually do nothing throughout this story. You’d think Bunnie’s super-strength and Antoine’s swordsmanship would come in handy.

 
The encounters with the three monsters are all slightly anticlimactic. The giant purple Cyclops (which Sonic refers to as a “one-eyed monster” without a hint of irony) is defeated by standing still. The only time Tails makes himself useful is when he pulls a sword from a stone. This, for barely defined reasons, causes the Griffin to fall down dead. The two-headed dragon is defeated with some circular logic puzzle on Sally’s behalf. And what’s the secret treasure Julayla hid within a cave full of monsters, for some reason? A piece of paper saying “To Thine Self Be True.” Seems like a lot of effort for that. Because it’s not done defusing tension any, “The Quest” ends with a flash-forward to the distant future where Sally and Sonic have married, had kids, defeated Robotnik, rescued King Acorn, and restored peace to the land. This revelation not only spoils some suspense but it also provides a convoluted origin for Nicole. You see, Nicole was actually invented in the future and sent into the past. This is a fact that would be largely forgotten over the years. (About the only thing I like about the Post-252 rebooted universe is Flynn simply making Nicole the invention of a present-day scientist. That’s way more simple.)

It’s a bummer “The Quest” is a bit of a dud. Art Mawhinney’s artwork is, once again, excellent. The more of his stuff I see, the more I realize how much his pencils defined how Sonic and his cast look in my mind. Unfortunately, the story really lacks a sense of forward movement. It seems to exist to build up the mythology Penders was only starting to build and boost Sally’s character, despite her not really needing it. A story about Sonic and friends fighting a bunch of monsters really should’ve been a lot better.

The second story, “The Mirror Zone,” isn’t worth discussing much if not for one thing. The story only takes up two pages. Sonic and Tails chase a SWATBot into a parallel dimension – Mobius is crawling with parallel dimensions – where everything is backwards. Basically, the two-pager is another silly attempt to get fans involved. You’re supposed to read the pages in front of a mirror. What makes this one notable is the artist. Patrick “Spaz” Spaziante contributes the pencils. Spaz would soon move on to doing cover art for the series, which he would do for years. His highly stylized character work, incredibly dynamic action sequences, and anime-esque energy would also largely define the look and feel of the series.

The final story is a silly if fun short revolving Tails. (Archie pushed Sally and Tails very hard in the early years of the comic. Both characters would headline their own mini-series within the next year.) Tails is invited to a local convention for Sonic fans, full of nerds arguing about shit. While wildly exaggerating an encounter he had with a frog, Robotnik attacks the con, incensed that there’s an entire convention devoted to his enemy. Tails has to leap into action, outsmart the villain and save the innocence.

Though it’s unlikely, “Tails’ Tallest Tale” is maybe my favorite story out of this one-shot. Scott Shaw’s artwork has been sorely missed. It’s cartoony and exaggerated without being rough and jagged, like Dave Manak’s stuff. The plot is silly without being ridiculous and actually functions as a fairly cute little adventure. It also allows some more character development for Tails. His budding genius is shown in the way he outsmarts Robotnik. The convention location also allows for some good-natured jabs at comic fandom. I even like Posey Possum, the earliest love interest the comic would introduce for Tails. Disappointingly, she would never be seen again, not even as an in-joke. It’s a fun little story and shows how much better the comic has already gotten at balancing goof-ball comedy and more serious issues.

I wouldn’t normally comment on this but, in the SonicGrams, someone sent in a new character. Like most fan-created Sonic character, it’s an awful idea. Trigger is gimmicky, being a pirate, and obviously grimdark, wielding a gun and being a crack shot. (At least he’s not a brightly colored hedgehog.) I suspect the character was based off the writer’s dog. Instead of ignoring this like they would most fan ideas, Archie saw fit to draw a little illustration of Trigger. Weird. Let’s see Flynn fit in a reference to that one!

As for "In Your Face," the art work is nice but only one of the three stories contained within are very exciting. [6.5/10]

Sonic the Hedgehog (Original Mini-Series): Issue 2

Sonic the Hedgehog (Original Mini-Series): Issue 2
Publication Date: January 1993


In the third issue of the “Sonic the Hedgehog” mini-series (which, once again, I must point out is issue 2.), the comic series begins to resemble its Saturday morning cartoon counterpart a little more, while still featuring lots of goofy humor. Mostly, issue 2 is where the series’ complex, convoluted mythology started to take shape. A further sign of the series’ slow tonal evolution is present in this issue’s construction: Aside from a few gag comics, the entire issue is devoted to one story.

That plot concerns a specific item: King Acorn’s Crown. Attached to the tips of the crown are four round emeralds, called the Freedom Emeralds. The jewels exuded some sort of magical powers and reportedly, while in the hands of a member of the court of Acorn, will ensure the kingdom’s protection. Considering King Max got overthrown in the first place, it looks like they did a bang-up job with that… Anyway, as Sonic and Sally open the jewelry box, turns out the emeralds have been stolen, forcing Sonic and friends to race around the area in search of them. The Crown of Acorns would later be established as one part of a trio of magical MacGuffins that the kingdom acquired. This story would entirely be retconned out of existence, like most of the comic’s early years, later on. However, “A Crowning Achievement” still represents the comic’s first attempt at building up a mythology for itself.

The story also ups the stakes slightly. In first part, Freedom HQ is threatened by a Robotnik android disguised as a part of Antoine’s royal guard. The pig threatens to explode, which forces Sonic to make a dash for the surface. Obviously, the hedgehog survives. However, the moment, along with the robot’s deranged swirling eyes and evil smile, generates some mild suspense. The story also introduces what would be Robotnik’s primary goal for the comic’s first fifty issues: Locating the Freedom Fighters’ secret hide-out and murdering them. Granted, this issue has two of Robotnik’s lackeys discovering the locale, before they are conveniently destroyed. Because the robots couldn’t just beam that information back to Robotropolis? I guess Wi-Fi wasn’t invented yet. Anyway, the situation is a little more serious.

The story line also features the series building on its continuity. Sonic ventures back to the underwater cave he was in last time, fighting with Jaws once again. (And also swimming again, because the title of my blog is more a vague idea then a concrete concept.) The relationship between the characters’ continue to build, as Sally’s outright affection for Sonic is confirmed, along with his rivalry with the snooty Antoine. The badniks also continue to be a presence in the comics, with SWATBots, Bat Brains, Buzz Bombers, and the newly introduced Burrobot all playing a bigger role in this issue. Hell, we even see Tails fishing again. Apparently, this was a hobby he once had, probably because there wasn’t a whole lot for him to do at this point, besides moon over Sonic.

Sonic is defined beyond his ‘tude and ability to deliver puns. He starts to use his super-speed in clever ways. He kicks up some flames to start the sprinkler system, in order to reveal the robotic spy. He uses a series of badniks as mid-air stepping stones in order to reach a target, a move which wouldn’t make a proper appearance in the video games until the Dreamcast era. Beyond his ability to run fast and spin in a ball, the character has always been clever too. It’s nice to see that in the comic.

So Issue 2 is more focused and serious. Which isn’t to say it still isn’t full of goofy bullshit. The character’s communicate mostly in puns and silly jokes. Antoine continues to be treated as a pompous asshat. His hot-air seems to power a balloon in one panel. A blimp declares its association with Robotnik’s regime by having a giant red mustache. Jaws is defeated when he swims into a drawling Sonic and Tails quickly made on a wall. They did this underwater, where they also carry out full conversations. A sassy SWATBot makes a cameo. And the comic continues to feature winking, meta jokes. Sonic comments on Sally’s changing hair color. The story ends with Robotnik bemoaning his few appearances in this issue. Which takes an entire page, by the way. A one-page gag makes fun of the current comic environment. It references David Letterman, Archie’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures” comic, the Energizer Bunny, X-Men, Batman, Spawn, Michal J. Fox, and the “Death of Superman” story line. While mildly amusing for those that remember the comic scene in the early nineties, this does seem like Archie, a perpetual fourth-placer in the sales rack, taking cheap potshots at companies out of their league.

Scott Shaw’s artwork continues to be sharp, cartoony, and colorful, though he goes off-model a few times. In the Sonic-Grams letter section, Gabriel from Texas asks when the action figures based on the comic are coming out. Archie says they’re working on it. 22 years later, I’m still waiting. As for Issue 2, over all? It’s the best so far. [7/10]

Sonic the Hedgehog (Original Mini-Series): Issue 1

Sonic the Hedgehog (Original Mini-Series): Issue 1
Publication Date: December 1992

In the second issue of the Sonic mini-series, which is bafflingly issue one, things are already looking more normal. Sally’s hair is the black curl she wore in the original SatAM pilot, though her figure is still less then svelte. Robotnik receives his black eyes and red pupils, showing that he’s part-machine and all-evil. He is shown transforming fleshy humanoids into mechanical robots, though the machine is called a “Robo-Machine,” instead of a Roboticizer.

There’s still plenty of early installment weirdness here. Robotnik has plenty of opportunities to just kill the heroes at this point but doesn’t, because this is a kid’s comic. Antoine wields a gun in one panel. Rotor’s nature as the team mechanic is more prominently featured. However, he’s still called “Boomer” throughout the comic. He also provides yet more goofy one-liners. Apparently, Sonic is the whipper-snapper while Rotor is more sarcastic and low-key. Sally, meanwhile, is super bitchy, yelling at her comrades like a spoiled brat. The comic still freely mixes cartoon and video game elements, as the second story has Sonic rumbling with Jaws, a badnik from the original “Sonic” Sega game, in what appears to be the Labyrinth Zone. (Distressingly, it would appear that hedgehogs can still swim. You’re messing with me, Archie.) Somehow, the characters can still talk underwater because comics.

Once again, the comic is broken up into two stories with several silly one-pagers padding the page number out. The first story is superior to anything from Issue 0, though just barely. As the kidnapping of Uncle Chuck was established as Sonic’s motivation last time, here we get more information on Sally’s father being captured. In the first story, Sally goes off to meet and negotiate with Robotnik. Sonic, Tails, and Antoine obviously realize this is a trap, especially when iron bars burst through the ground to capture them. The trio race into Robotropis to rescue the princess from the obvious trap. In what is a hilarious misunderstanding, it turns out Sally realized this was a trap. She planned to sabotage Robotnik’s roboticizer the entire time. The second story is far sillier, with Jaws interrupting Sonic’s fishing(?) trip, leading to a brief underwater scuffle.

The tone remains comedic, goofy, and meta. All the characters are comedic goofballs. When Sonic smashes Robotnik’s Robo-Machine, the evil dictator quips about how it’ll take two issues to repair it. Puns fly a-plenty, such as quips about “submarine sandwiches.” Tails references Otis Redding’s “Sitting On the Dock of the Bay,” a song I doubt anyone would be familiar with 11,940 years into the future. On the first page, Sonic throws dust into Tails’ eyes, which causes the young fox to run into a tree. Because Sonic should always be slightly characterized as an asshole. The book is filled out with goofy one-page gag strips, like Sonic playing baseball or tennis – that’s two separate comics, by the way – or Rotor joking about the postal service. As expected, Michael Gallagher’s script is very silly.

Well, I still like Scott Shaw’s artwork. Isn’t it weird how he draws Sonic’s back spines as one paper-thin stripe that blows in the wind? The characters’ faces are cartoonish and expressive. The artwork is silly but there’s certainly nothing flat or boring about it. Weirdly, a mid-book poster features a slightly off-model Robotnik and a seriously off-model Bunnie Rabbot, who hasn’t even appeared in this comic yet. As harmless entertainment for kids, this is fine. As entertainment for twenty-something internet hipsters, I can’t give this anything more then a [6/10].

Sonic the Hedgehog (Original Mini-Series): Issue 0

Sonic the Hedgehog (Original Mini-Series): Issue 0
Publication Date: November 1992

These days, an on-going comic series usually starts that way. Things were a little different back in the early nineties, when the comic boom was still on-going. New characters and series would often première in a limited run mini-series, in order to the test the waters. Archie’s “Sonic the Hedgehog” book began this way as well, with a four part mini. It’s from these humble waters that the longest running licensed comic book began.

The early days of the comic were schizophrenic in their influences. This is clear on the cover. The weirdness is right there up front. For some reason, the first issue wasn’t marked with a big, bold number 1. Instead, Sonic’s premiere issue is number 0, for some reason. The cover of the comic features a Sonic that easily could have leaped off the Genesis box. Robotnik, meanwhile, is drawn in a cartoonish fashion and obviously based off the game design. The cast of the comic was drawn from the SatAM cartoon, their designs matching, with a few of the regular villains from the games also appearing. The tone of these early comics, however, were more heavily influenced by the goofy “Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog” cartoon. Robotnik has white eyes and he operates out of an office building. The Freedom Fighters hang out in an underground bunker. Rotor is called Boomer. Sally’s hair is yellow. What the fuck is going on here?

Many of these early issues were broken up into multiple stories, which where then broken up into several parts, for some reason. The introductory story, “Don’t Cry for Me, Mobius,” is split into two parts. And it’s an introductory story in the truest sense. Sonic is introduced being chased by Robotnik and a few badniks. All the while, he’s slinging goofy comebacks. Robotnik, floating around in his Egg Mobile, acts like a buffoon. Sonic breaks the fourth wall, literally introducing readers to his world and its situation. The power rings, as they were in SatAM, are basically plot devices, rising out of a well to provide Sonic with a power boost. The second story, meanwhile, shows Robotnik’s rise to power and Sonic’s first meeting with the Freedom Fighters. In-between the two stories, several one-page gags introduces us to the Mobians’ plight, Sonic’s abilities (which shows, contrary to this blog’s title, that hedgehogs can swim.), and Robotnik’s league of robot slaves.

The Freedom Fighters are reduced to simple archetypes. Sonic is the smart-ass, fast-foot hero. Sally is a mouthy worry-wart who obviously shares some romantic tension with the hero. Tails admires Sonic without fail and usually ends up falling on his ass, attempting to replicate his hero. Antoine is a blowhard and a nincompoop. Uncle Chuck is a kind patriarch, who supplies Sonic with shoes and chili dogs, and whose capture provides a motivation for our hero. Muttski is a regular dog, in a world full of furries, so mull that one over for a minute. Rotor… Cracks a bunch of lame puns? These are the characters in their infancy, is my point.

The tone of the comic in this first issue is silly and irrelevant. The first story concerns a leak in the underground HQ of the Freedom Fighters. The cause are literal weeping willow trees, sad that the rest of the forest has bulldozed by Robotnik’s industrial force. The second story is slightly more serious, showing Uncle Chuck and Muttski’s capture and Sonic becoming a Freedom Fighter. Unlike the cartoon and later issues, where the two are shown turned into robots, they are instead shown hypnotized into servitude.

Even then, there are plenty of jokes about Robotnik’s weight, Sonic being flattened by a wrecking ball, and pithy notes from the editor, which were endemic in these early issues. Robotnik’s rise to power is not shown as a military coup but as a sudden appearance, his robots tacking poster proclaiming his anti-happiness laws to public walls.

Even then, this first issue still establishes Sonic and the gang as rebels, fighting against an evil dictatorship. The ecological theme that would run throughout the series for many years, which it inherited from its cartoon roots, is in place right from the beginning. The Freedom Fighters live in a lush, green forest. Robotnik lives in a factory district, belching smog into the air. Living in harmony with nature = Good. Exploiting and polluting the planet = Bad. That’s right, kids. Sonic is a gerddurn tree-huggin’ hippy. He’s a planeteer. You can be one too.

Michael Gallagher’s script is never really funny, save for some random pop culture references to “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “The Flash,” which probably went over the intended audience’s head. However, Scott Shaw – or Scott Shaw! as he’s identified here – provides some loose, likably cartoon-y artwork. The characters are animated and fun to look at.

You really can’t judge the series to come based on these first issues. For what it’s worth, this is what the Sonic comics were like when I first picked them up, twenty-some years ago. It was a different world. It’s an easy read, if nothing else, and purdy enough to look at. I guess that equates to a [6/10].