Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): Issue #58

Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): Issue #58

Publication Date: March 1st, 2023

The exact machinations of comic book release schedules remain a bit mysterious to me, as you've no doubt observed during previous reviews. Issue 58 of IDW's "Sonic" book was originally due out on the first of March, 2023. For whatever reason, it was then pushed a week ahead... Yet, through methods I can only speculate on, the issue ended up leaking on the original release date. This prompted IDW to just go ahead and put the book out on the 1st digitally, with the physical release following on the 8th. This really raises the question of why the issue was delayed in the first place. Are their weird contractual or printing factory limits involved or something? My fiancée was the business major, not me, so this kind of shit goes over my English-major-having ass. 

Anywho, "Urban Warfare Part 2" picks up with Sonic battling Badniks in the otherwise empty Eggperial City. He gets a helping hand when Silver, Blaze, Amy, and Tails show up. After clearing out the army of robots, the quartet formulate a plan to disrupt Eggman's new power supply and free Whisper, Tangle, and Lanolin. The Diamond Cutters, while inside this weird micro-dimension, talk out some insecurities and try to put their own plan together. 

I criticized the previous issue for Ian Flynn's structure-centric writing. The first part of "Urban Warfare" was really preoccupied with laying the groundwork for the rest of this story arc. Unfortunately, this matter-of-fact, plot-heavy style continues in this second part. After being joined by the other heroes and clearing out the Badniks, Sonic and his friends turn their eyes towards saving their friends... Which means busting up the power source for Eggman's city. This leads to several very dull pages of our cast reasoning out how Eggman's latest scheme is powered and how they can interrupt that cycle. Really, the panels devoted to Sonic or someone suggesting an approach, only for that plan to be rebuked via another character spouting off some exposition, feels like the stuff of fanfiction. I don't read this comic to learn the mechanics of Eggman's improbable mad science! Approaching a story only in terms of what the plot can and can't do – much less devoting most of the dialogue to that exact topic – strikes me as pretty boring.

It also doesn't help that this story feels strangely free of tension. At the very beginning of the comic, Sonic is alone in a city surrounded by enemies. That sounds pretty upsetting, especially since he just watch his friends get sucked into an inter-dimensional reverse wedgie. Instead, the hedgehog is smirking in that first panel. After his friends show up, they make scrap metal of the Badniks quickly enough. Especially with Blaze and Silver's superpowers. These pages are devoted to the heroes tearing up the robots, not struggling against them. Amy grabbing the mallet from an Egg Hammer robot and turning it against the machine is played like a big, bad-ass moment... Yet it's hard to feel like the heroes have ever been challenged in these scuffles. Only after dropping the hammer on the machine's head does Amy seem to sweat any. It's a scene devoted to showing how tough and strong she is, not to making the good guys feel like they are outnumbered and outgunned. 

The cumulative effect is an issue that feels like it has little at stake. Even the Diamond Cutters, stuck in a pocket dimension, don't seem to be in any particular danger. They're just cut off from their friends. Sonic and the gang focus on cleaning the Badniks out of the city, before turning towards destroying the giant crystals that are now powering the city. I suppose some people might consider this a positive feature but that kind of structure – of “let's do this thing and then go here and then do this thing” – feels like a video game. It might be fun to play through a game and achieve such objectives. But reading something like this is not very entertaining or involving. 

About only one character moment emerges out of this collection of superpower displays and simple A-to-B plotting. While rushing off to their next goal, Sonic shares some banter with Tails and Silver. He reflects to himself about how much easier these things are with friends and how much fun he's having. (Maybe this mission being “fun” is why there's not much suspense in this issue.) I've noted in the past that Sonic works best when part of a team setting. While the IDW series has waffled back and forth on whether Sonic is a regular member of the Restoration, I'm glad to see Flynn outright admitting that the hedgehog is better served when surrounded by his allies. 

I guess, if the Sonic half of this issue is devoted to uninvolving action, the emotional content here is devoted to the Diamond Cutters' subplot. While trapped inside this alternate dimension, the trio end up talking out their differences. Lanolin is feels like she's failed her friend, in the way she herself felt after her village was attacked all the way back in issue 2. Whisper expresses her still lingering pain over the death of the original Diamond Cutters, which she was reminded of when Tangle brought up that name. She then realizes that her friends have never given up on her, even when she's given up on herself. By the end of this conversation, the trio re-devote themselves to escaping their situation. 

Ya know what this whole sequence feels like to me? A group therapy session. The same sort of mechanical writing that is evident in the A-plot is also clear here. Ian Flynn approaches the characters' emotional problems in the same sort of direct fashion that he does the action storyline, just having everyone bring up what's bothering them and then immediately resolve it with a few words. It doesn't feel very emotionally honest but, ya know what? I'll take it. Simply just because seeing Whisper get back together with Tangle, to finally put this schism between them aside, makes me happy. May our favorite furry lesbians never be torn asunder again.

What does end up elevating this moment further is that Tangle is, simply put, friggin' adorable. Thomas Rothlisberger clearly has a great time drawing the lemur and all the BIG EMOTIONS she likes to express. She grasps her hands towards the heavens and makes a goofy face when screeching about “this sci-fi whatever!” She springs up in the air on her tail while giving Lanolin a pep talk. She wraps herself in her tail and mumbles through it when Whisper expounds on her pain. After Whisper and Lanolin shake hands and agree to keep using the Diamond Cutters name, Tangle beams with utter joy. I just love this big goofball, you guys. 

Rothlisberg's artwork is excellent all throughout, of course. It's not as detailed or dynamic as some of his past work. Which is not to disparage his action scenes, which are well organized if a little overly posed. (A panel of Silver standing in a psychic bubble with his arms out looks a bit too loose for my taste as well.) Yet the big cheesy grins, hyper-expressive faces, or silly expressions the characters wear throughout do a lot of heavy lifting here. I'd wager that Rothlisberger's artwork adds more emotional heft to this story than Flynn's script does. 

Maybe it's just because I've gotten used to Evan Stanley's particular style of writing but I can't help but feel like Ian is phoning it in on this one. Thus far, “Urban Warfare” has felt largely uninspired with extremely ho-hum plotting. The last two issues have mostly been tedious plot set-up and action scenes so lacking in tension that they might as well be filler. Throwing a bunch of Sonic's friends together on a robot murder-fest feels like a desperate attempt to gain fan approval. This continues to be the case as the final page approaches and promises add yet another group of Sega-created cast members we haven't seen in a while. I'm really getting taken back to the “Hedgehog Havoc” arc here, another time when Flynn threw together a bunch of characters and had them fight it out simply because I guess he didn't have any better ideas that month.

If it wasn't for the interaction between Tangle, Whisper, and Lanolin, I would like this singular issue even less than I already do. The Diamond Cutters are about the only thing this particular arc has going for it so far. I guess there's still time to sort things out before the end. Will adding an actual antagonist to this story, as opposed to wave after wave of easily disposed of Badniks, improve things? Or will some actual thrills start to form as Sonic and his pals get closer to achieving their goals? I would like that though I'm not exactly excited based on these two issues. [5/10]

Sonic Boom, Episode 1.40: Tails’ Crush

Sonic Boom, Episode 1.40: Tails’ Crush

Original Air Date: August 22nd, 2015

In fandom spaces, there is no concept more commonplace, and contentious, than “shipping.” (A, honestly, kind of dumb abbreviation of “relationshipping.”) The more popular a show, movie, anime, comic book, piece of musical theater, or literally anything is, the more likely you are to find people passionately debating who should be dating and/or screwing who. Nothing makes humans nuttier than romance, so as wild as it is to think about, it’s not surprising that folks manage to get enormously invested in the love lives of people who don’t actually exist. Shipping wars have torn apart many once civil internet communities. Even a lack of actual romance in a story doesn’t stop people from putting enormous amounts of time and energy into manifesting and defending whatever match-up makes them the giddiest. 

“Sonic” media being so fractured, and “Sonic” fans being so uniquely impassioned, maybe makes the shipping debates in this fandom more frothing-at-the-mouth insane than the usual level of madness. Just the mere mention of Sally Acorn is enough to set some people off. I think even Sega, seemingly indifferent to most fandom drama, eventually became aware of how bad the shipping issue is. These days, they have an official policy of there being no long-lasting romances between game-originating “Sonic” characters in tie-in media. No matter how passionate the SonAmy or Silvaze crowds are, it's unlikely these pairings will ever actually exist in the "Sonic" games, comics, or whatever. Which is a little funny, when the games are where Amy’s unrequited crush on Sonic and Knuckles and Rouge’s flirtatious relationship began. 

Of course, it wasn't always this way. Obviously, the old cartoons and comics are full of love interests for the various "Sonic" characters... Which brings us to the topic of today's review. Sonic having a plethora of potential girlfriends makes sense, because he’s a hyper-confident teenager. Yet what of Tails’ various partners? Despite his official status as a prepubescent child, Tails has had a number of crushes and girls interested in him over the years. Sometimes she’s a plant, sometimes she’s a robotic doppelgänger, sometimes she's inappropriately aged for him. Not to mention the fans have shipped Tails with anyone and anybody. As kind of weird as it is to imagine an eight-year-old cartoon fox with a girlfriend, I get it. Tails is Sonic's sidekick and just as beloved as he is. If the hedgehog sparks intense infatuation with various females, why shouldn't his best buddy? Isn't it only fair? 

In its fortieth episode, "Sonic Boom" would add another name to the surprisingly long list of potential romantic partners for Tails. In "Tails' Crush," Sonic is noticing that the young vulpine engineer seems unusually distracted. After the gang notices him making goo-goo eyes at a cute fox girl named Zooey, they all figure out why. Tails is in wuv. Having an analytical mind, he decides to asks his friends on strategies for getting Zooey to notice him and fall for him. None of this goes well, as all his friends have weirdo answers for him. The best advice, that brings Tails and Zooey together, comes from the most unexpected place. 

"Tails' Crush" is a classic sitcom setup. Someone who is young and naïve in the ways of romance goes to different people in a group. Everybody gives them wildly different feedback, resulting in many awkward scenarios as the young person attempts to woo the object of their desire. You've definitely seen this play out in fiction before. But there's a reason for that: Having a first crush, and trying to get them to notice you, is a pretty universal event. Similarly, everybody has different approaches that work for them which will frequently (usually) not work for anybody else. We all have different experiences with romance, with failures and successes in attracting partners. Love is a messy, complicated thing and chemistry can be unpredictable. The dating advice industry is enormous but the most common, and aggravating, truth is that "the heart wants what it wants."  Whether or not someone is attracted to you, or vice versa, is something we actually have little control over. Yet everyone thinks they know best, everyone thinks what works for them will work for other people, and everyone is desperate for help. So people follow others' techniques in hopes of attracting a mate. When the messy truth is, they are usually just figuring out what about them sparks interest and attraction in a potential partner. 

Because sitcoms exaggerate reality in wacky ways, in order to produce laughs, this plays out on TV as a young person doing a bunch of dumbass shit in order to impress their crush. Sonic tells Tails to be "cool," which seems to mostly mean being tauntingly unavailable. Knuckles thinks being hyper-masculine, lifting weights and eating red meat, impresses girls. Amy assures Tails that drippy declarations of romantic longing and poetic complements work the best. Sticks, being a complete lunatic, recommends animalistic displays of colorful plumage. This results in ridiculous comedic moments. Such as Tails totally failing to appear effortlessly cool or absolutely fucking up the romantic poetry. (While dressed as the Phantom of the Opera, which made me snort.) Maybe the best of these predictable, if highly amusing, punchlines is Tails constantly undermining Knuckles' advice to appear macho and tough. This includes an incongruous interest in woodworking, a gag the show runs with in a funny way. 

We know all these attempts are going to fail not just because "Tails' Crush" follows a well understood comedic formula. These techniques fail because they don't represent who Tails is. He's not a cool bad boy that intrigues women with his mysteriousness. He's not a sculpted piece of sinew that activates lust. And he's not an eloquent romantic who can charm with pretty words. He's kind of an awkward nerd, truthfully. But Tails is brilliant and brave and adorable. When he squees over a Meh Burger Happy Meal toy or defeats a killer robot with the cool airplane he built, things he would've done anyway, that's what impresses Zooey the most. That's why Eggman's advice of "Be yourself" is what actually works. As frustrating as it can be to hear sometimes, I think this cliché nugget of wisdom is the best dating advice you can get. The right person will be attracted to who you are, for all the unique individual qualities you have. 

As wacky as it gets, this is still one of the most down-to-Earth episodes of "Boom" yet. Most of it is devoted to Tails being adorably dorky. When he sees Zooey, his tails start to spin and he floats up into the air. That's both a funny little gag and a good visual representation of what it feels like when you're crushing on someone. Tails' youthful awkwardness, honestly, is more charming here than it probably would be in reality. Tails' fans like it when he's being a fuzzy little guy, which is probably why this episode is more popular than the one where he wants to fuck his airplane. Zooey clearly already seems to like him, as she gets friendlier and slightly giggly whenever she's around him. Watching these two kids work towards each other is pretty gosh darn cute. 

I do wish Zooey was more fleshed-out though. Tails' object of infatuation is named for the new millennium's prototypal manic pixie dream girl, Zooey Deschanel. Yet I don’t think Zooey is even defined enough to classify as that trope. What do we actually learn about Zooey in this cartoon? Well, she's a female, with a very traditionally feminine style of dressing and accessorizing. And she likes Tails! And, uh, um... Well, we see her shopping for fruit in one scene. But that's pretty much it. I get that this cartoon has limited time to explore its character but they probably should've given Zooey more of a personality than this. 

She really does just exist as a plot device for Tails to have a puppy-dog crush on. In the last act, he rescues her from Eggman's robot and she immediately rewards him with a kiss. Not to accuse "Sonic Boom" as a show, or Reid Harrison as a writer, of being sexist or anything. but stories like this where the female character just exists as a prize for the male hero to win, who then hands out romantic attention as a reward, look pretty antiquated in 2023. I can't imagine it looked much better in 2015.  

Despite this, Zooey is a fan favorite. In fact, she's probably the most popular of the "Sonic Boom" characters unique to the cartoon. This is almost assuredly because Tails fans are desperate to validate their favorite boy with a cute GF, which is exactly what Zooey is. I know the character appears in more episodes this than one, so hopefully she actually develops a personality. 

The episode around her seems to be among "Boom's" most popular installments as well. I don't think this is just because giving Tails a love interest was going to instantly catch the most obsessive fans' eyes. This is a likable, amusing episode. There's a decent number of laughs, including a really funny subplot where Eggman is aggravated with the local postal service. (Another example of "Boom" contrasting its superheroic characters with utterly mundane frustrations.)  The script balances the typical "Boom" wackiness with more character centric sequences. It's a mechanically well constructed episode too, telling a complete story. If Harrison and the rest of the team had actually bothered to give Tails' titular crush an actual personality, I probably would've given it an 8/10 instead of the [7/10] I'm giving it instead.

 

Sonic Boom, Episode 1.39: Battle of the Boy Bands

Sonic Boom, Episode 1.39: Battle of the Boy Bands

Original Air Date: August 15th, 2015

As I mentioned in the introduction, I've seen very few episodes of this cartoon before. By 2015, I had stopped paying for cable, mostly due to my dislike of "prestige television" stretching narratives out for 24 hours and everything about the reality genre. Though a new "Sonic" cartoon piqued by interest, I was still skeptical of "Boom" for a long time. I guess it wasn't until I heard folks talking positively about it online that I decided to actually try the program out. While at my mom's place, I looked "Sonic Boom" up on OnDemand, and this was the latest episode. I was reasonably amused and intended to follow the series from that point on. And then I didn't do that, for reasons. Anyway, the point of this rambling introduction is that "Battle of the Boy Bands" is one of the few "Booms" I've boomed before. 

This is also a rare "Boom" episode that doesn't feature Eggman at all. Instead, the plot revolves around Justin Beaver, a new pop singer that is driving all the females in the village giddy with his dulcet tones and boyish appearance. Amy, caught up in Beaver Fever, even manages to make Sticks – initially skeptical of the corporate music – into an obsessive fan. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles quickly realize something is up. (In addition to hating Beaver's music.) They decide to infiltrate the boy band industry by forming a pop trio called Dreamboat Express. Soon, the trio does in fact uncover a conspiracy to brainwash females with hypnotic tunes. 

"Battle of the Boy Bands" takes us back to that frightful time when an earlier pandemic gripped the globe: Bieber Fever. Actually, by the time this episode aired, Justin Bieber had been a hugely successful pop star for five years. The cherubic castrato with the lesbian haircut had grown into a tattooed, abbed bad boy who was pissing in public, renting Brazilian sex workers, egging his neighbors' houses, and earning the obligatory aging child star DUI. His 2014 concert movie made 67 million less than his previous one. Two months before this episode debuted, he was the subject of a typically ribald Comedy Central Roast, confirming Justin as a punchline. Bieber Fever had been successfully inoculated by this point. But I guess the pun of combining the Canadian crooner with his home country's national animal was too hard to resist. What was the show gonna do to be more relevant in 2015? Introduce a character named Shawn Muskrat? Doesn't blend as well! Or maybe this cartoon was just written by old men who are perpetually five years behind whatever's current. I can relate to that. 

Regardless of how relevant a specific reference like "Justin Beaver" was by 2015, some things are evergreen. Teenage girls, and sometimes older females too, have been losing their collective shit for popular musicians since at least the days of Franz Liszt. Alan Denton and Greg Hahn's script nails the reason why. Justin Beaver's song titles include "Girl, I Like You" and "Yes, I'm Actually Talking About You." He tells every female at a record signing they are "the only fan he cares about." Yet his songs are filled with generic platitudes like promising to take you places you like and unspecific praise like "complex" and "interesting." Boy bands are designed to have as wide an appeal as possible while simultaneously making every girl's fantasy feel validated. Beaver's image is also blatantly non-threatening, as he promises to return home before curfew and perform only symbolic vandalism in the name of his love. This contrasts with the lewd, awkward behavior of actual teen boys, further marking teenybopper icons like Bieber/Beaver as blatant fantasy figures. 

Most guys as you probably know, haaaate this. Denton/Hahn seem to understand the root behind that as well. Part of it is jealousy. Many a sweaty, stubbly teen boy has secretly wished the Bieliebers and Directioners and BTS Army were creaming their panties for regular guys like them. This is an unspoken reason why Sonic immediately forms his own boy band. Most adolescents would never stoop to that level because the blustering, macho ego cringes when presented with such one-size-fits-all-teen-girls fantasies. Knuckles fears that dressing snappy, looking pretty, and doing synchronized dances will threaten his "street cred." Tails directly says boy band behavior isn't manly. Guys want to appear gritty and genuine, which is why Dreamboat Express quickly mutates into by a three-piece hard rock band... Which is named "Dude-itude," a moniker that rejects the innocuous androgyny of the Tiger Beat set. They are DUDES! And they have ATTITUDE! The stereotypical young female wants to be pampered by soft, cute guys who respect them. The stereotypical young male wants to establish his prowess, to leave no question that he is male. The two concepts are hard to reconcile. 

Of course, the rock star fantasy of melting faces with sick riffs and banging sexually pliable groupies is also a ridiculous, manufactured ideal designed to fan unrealistic, youthful desires. Most teen boys aren't self-aware enough to realize their own daydreams are as fake as their distaff counterparts. I guess middle-age animation writers aren't either. "Battle of the Boy Bands" has fun mocking prefab pop. Beaver's music is literally hypnotizing girls into being rabid consumers, to make his manager lots of money. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles mastering the boy band aesthetic so quickly suggests it's easily replicated. This is also reflected in Dreamboat Express' lyrics, which are all about how their music is generic, safe, and sellable. Yet the guys saving the day with The Power of Rock – breaking Justin's spell by blasting him with a bolt from Sonic's guitar, which gave me "Underground" flashbacks – is too tidy. Saying pop music caters to commonplace fantasies, in service of capitalistic greed, is subversive. Saying acts like Justin Bieber are fake and suck and rock music rocks is simply being a boomer. At the very least, Dude-itude should have been mocked more after defeating Beaver, as their music is pretty objectively bad. 

Nevertheless, this is a very funny episode. Denton and Hahn include more of those meta gags they like. Sonic and the guys master the boy band dance moves in a scene transition, so they devote the allotted montage time to thinking up a name instead. The episode then mocks the typical visual language of montages, such as calendar pages sweeping by. There's two separate lines about dramatically waiting until the scenery changes to finish a sentence. Cartoon contrivances, like the villain revealing his scheme just as the heroes are listening or characters wearing the same outfits every episode, are lampshaded. There's also a Benny Hill homage, which always makes me laugh. Overall, "Boom" simply makes good use of its characters here. Amy's enthusiasm, the incongruity of Sticks becoming a fangirl overnight, and Knuckles' attempt to play the trumpet are all worthy chuckles. Even Soar the Eagle and Fastidious Beaver get laughs here. 

"Battle of the Boy Band's" parodying of pop music and the accompanying industry could maybe be a little deeper. I’m not going to blame the short runtime, for once, as “Blue With Envy” pulled off some similar insight within the same length restraint. Then again, maybe expecting in-depth pop culture commentary from an episode built around a fifth-grade level pun is an example of me being a pretentious dweeb and not this show missing the mark. I liked this one the first time I watched it. Now that I've seen every proceeding episode, it's solidly funny. Lots of good jokes and better written than it had to be, even if the ending kind of whiffs. [7/10]

Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): Issue 57

Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): Issue 57

Publication Date: February 8th, 2023

Ian Flynn has, more-or-less, been the driving creative force behind the “Sonic” comics for the last seventeen years. Considering his recent contributions to “Sonic Frontier” and a few episodes of “Boom,” you could even make the argument that he’s been the most consistently working writer of the character over his entire existence period. While I still tend to think of IDW “Sonic” as Flynn’s baby, Evan Stanley has technically been head-writer for a bit now. The truth is more like Evan and Ian have been trading back and forth for the last few arcs. While I’m sure Stanley had a hand in crafting the new plot that kicks off here in issue 57, this is the first story in a while that feels more like Flynn’s work than Evan’s. 

The issue is entitled “Urban Warfare, Part 1” and it starts in media ras with Sonic, Tangle, Whisper, and Lanolin swinging into Eggperial City. They find the metropolis strangely empty while also noticing that it’s bigger than the last time Sonic explored it. The heroes soon determine that the city is constantly expanding, by totally stripping the resources from the ground underneath it. Just after discovering this fact, Sonic and the team are ambushed by the portal technology from the “Test Run” arc. The hedgehog is soon left all alone in enemy territory, surrounded by Badniks. 

When I say that “Urban Warfare” is clearly more of a Flynn joint than a Stanley one, I don’t necessarily mean that in a positive sense. Don’t get me wrong, this is a decent issue, with one or two caveats. It’s also very much the first part of a loner story, displaying the kind of “laying the groundwork” story structure that is both Flynn’s greatest strength and most prominent weakness. This issue is very much devoted to establishing our team of heroes and their dynamic, while also introducing the threat they will be facing off against. It’s the first act of a longer story in a way that feels a little perfunctory at times. Here’s the guys, here’s what they’re up against, the actual good stuff starts next month. 

Either because Sega insists that Sonic has to be a free agent, or out of a desire to distinguish the IDW books from the Archie continuity, the blue hedgehog and his gang of video game-appearing friends are not technically members of the Restoration. In fact, it feels like the comic has been stepping back from the Restoration premise in the last year, as the chaos of the Metal Virus Saga fades further into the memory. So there has to be a rather laborious set-up scene here, of Sonic coming on as a freelance agent to the Restoration as Jewel puts together a new team of proactive agents. (Which Tangle quickly dubs the Diamond Cutters.) No wonder Flynn starts off in the middle of an action scene before flashing back to this relatively dull, expositonary set-up sequence. 

And anyone with any familiarity with storytelling knows that a standard scouting mission, which Lanolin presents this as, is never just that. Flynn tries to establish a sense of mystery, with the eerily empty city. The reader figures out long before the characters do that Eggperial City is some sort of self-perpetuating machine that heals itself and is always growing. (Not the least of which because it recalls the Nanite City premise from the Archie Comics a little bit.) Sonic insists the team stay and fight after Lanolin suggests going back, after which things go predictably awry. It feels like this was probably an ambush, a carefully laid trap, and the heroes not recognizing that makes them seem a little foolish. 

That Eggperial City draws the power necessary to fuel its ever-expanding growth by strip-mining the earth under it, admittedly, caught me off-guard. I honestly expected Eggman to have a Chaos Emerald or something shoved in a corner somewhere to get all of this rolling. That Eggman’s latest scheme revolves around sucking all the resources from the Earth is a nice return to the often overlooked ecological subtext of this series. If Flynn was a more insightful writer, the idea of a city that is always growing, at the price of destroying the environment, would be a handy little metaphor for capitalism gobbling up everything it can and not caring about the consequences. Since “Sonic” isn’t that deep, it’s simply a neat idea to insert here, to let kids know that unchecked growth of industry inevitably means the destruction of the natural world. 

This issue was hotly anticipated among IDW “Sonic” nerds specifically because it’s the technical proper introduction of Lanolin the Sheep. Now, Lanolin has existed in this series since the second issue, as a regular citizen that Sonic rescued before quickly cropping back up as a member of the Restoration. Because “Sonic” fans have a laser-like focus on new characters being introduced, readers immediately embraced Lanolin as a favorite. Even though she was literally just a reoccurring face in the background up until this point. This issue sees Lanolin — whose name we’ve known for months, after it was revealed on social media —introducing herself to Sonic and actually contributing to the plot for the first time. 

Lanolin represents a fairly unprecedented bit of evolution. In this comic, and in Archie before, new characters being introduced was usually done with a big trumpeting announcement. IDW didn’t sneak in Tangle. It dropped her right on the cover and said, “Look! It’s your new favorite!” Lanolin growing from nothing but a bit player, the comic book equivalent of local color, an artist sneaking an O.C. into the background just cause he could, to an actual character has never really happened before. It’s pretty neat. And I can see why fans latched onto Lanolin quickly, as she’s got a cute, eye-catching design. 

Of course, Lanolin’s origins and appearance has nothing to do with whether or not she’s actually a likable character. Now that the little sheep has an actual personality, what do I think of her? As opposed to the energetic Tangle and the quiet Whisper, Lanolin is a focused and practical soldier who always puts the safety of her teammates and the furthering of the cause above everything else. That’s nice, I guess, and distinguishes her from the overstressed Jewel. Lanolin also has a little purple wisp friend that hides in her bell, which gives her some action-worthy superpowers. 

Though the prominent role the Wisps continue to play in this comic always throws me — a guy for which “Sonic Colors” is just another game and not a beloved classic — for a loop. The moment where Sonic fuses with Whisper’s green wisp and turns into a flying spiral shaped like his own head confused me for a minute. “Oh, yeah, he can do that now.” Overall, I do find the characters getting random power-ups, at the whims of the writers when they don’t forget about them, distracting. Little floating alien guys that can snipe Badniks right out of the air, in very uninvolving action beats, still don’t feel like they belong to the “Sonic” franchise to an old fogey like me. But I guess that’s more my problem than anyone else’s. Since clearly “Colors” has long been accepted into the canon of actually good “Sonic” games by this point. 

Lanolin’s introduction is fine and the plot here is a potentially promising start, even if it’s pulled off in a somewhat dull manner. Yet the real heart of this issue happens between Whisper and Tangle. This is the first time the “very, very good friends” have been reunited since their mini-series together. Following the apparent break-up referenced in “Trial by Fire,” the two remain tense. Tangle tries to get friendly with Whisper several times, only for the wolf to give her a cold shoulder. When Lanolin asks how Whisper “handles her,” she replies that she doesn’t. This chilliness continues until Tangle yells at her near the issue’s end, about how she needs to stop trying to “go solo.” 

Of course, any resolution of this particular moment will have to wait, as the plot interrupts the gooey emotions. I’ve already pegged what is happening here. After seeing Tangle get Zombotted during the Metal Virus Crisis, Whisper is afraid of loosing somewhat she loves. So she is attempting to cut her girlfriend out of her life, in order to keep her love and her own heart safe. One expects Tangle will prove to Whisper that the joys of having love in your life is worth the risk that you might loose it. But we aren’t there yet. Until then, the “Sonic” franchise’s favorite sapphic pairing will continue to be apart. Hopefully this is resolved by end of “Urban Warfare,” as I hate to see my moms fight. 

As you probably expect, the art here is excellent. The opportunity for Adam Bryce Thomas to make his O.C. officially official canon is clearly invigorating for him. The character interactions are extra sharp here. Sonic’s clear boredom after Lanolin tells everyone to be cautious or the chilliness between Tangle and Whisper — which results in the lemur hugging her own tail awww — are expertly conveyed. The action is great too. A page made up of long, vertical panels, showing the heroes fight off an incoming wave of Badniks, is fantastic. (And Thomas clearly details in getting to draw a bunch of classic Badniks.) As is a panel where Lanolin drops down into the totally empty cavern underneath the city, which is portrayed in total darkness at first. Thomas is pretty definitively the best artist working regularly on this book and he proves it again here. 

Issue 57 is a slightly mixed affair for me. Whether or not this arc ends up going some really exciting places remains to be seen. As a kick-off, it feels a little by-the-numbers. The cliffhanger can’t help but be frustrating, as it separates Sonic from the characters I’m actually invested in here. Hopefully, there continues to be a balance between the interpersonal manners and whatever story line shenanigans Flynn is planning as we move forward. [6.5/10]

Sonic Boom, Episode 1.38: New Year's Retribution

Sonic Boom, Episode 1.38: New Year's Retribution

Original Air Date: August 8th, 2015

Holidays are, traditionally speaking, a time to be with the people you love. I doubt anyone spends President's Day with their mom or favorite uncle but all the big ones -- Christmas, Thanksgiving, Valentine's, Yom Kippur -- involve spending time with your family and/or romantic partner. Even lesser festivals, like July 4th, Easter, or Memorial Day, are usually accompanied by big family meals of some sort. Yet not everybody has loved ones to spend these festivals with. This can make holidays times of bitter isolation. For lonely, miserable bastards, New Year's Eve is, in many ways, the most melancholy of all celebrations. Not only are you by yourself when everyone else is partying, you also get to ruminate on another twelve months wasted, another set of hopes dashed and dreams deferred. 

But enough about my depression! How does this relate to Sonic the Hedgehog? Well, ya see, the thirty-eighth episode of "Sonic Boom" revolves around one year ending and another rolling in. As Sonic and friends prepare for their New Year party, Eggman attacks... And is, once again, humiliated. As midnight draws closer, he gets increasingly depressed that his New Years resolution – to finally defeat Sonic – will go unfulfilled. That's when he gets an idea: Build a device that will slow down time, giving him further chances to defeat Sonic before the clock strikes twelve. As the minutes before midnight are stretched, Eggman and Sonic face-off against each other in a variety of challenges. 

Considering going fast is Sonic's primary superpower and his entire ethos, I'm surprised there haven't been more stories devoted to machines that slow him down. He sometimes has his speed limited, by circumstances or age, or even has it magically zapped away. Yet I'm not thinking of any other plot where someone invents a slow-motion ray in order to render Sonic merely a normally fast hedgehog. In the movies, we got to see Sonic observe the rest of the world as frozen and sluggish. Doing the same thing to him would be a fittingly ironic obstacle for the hero. Doesn't every speedster hero deserve their own version of The Turtle? Eggman even has a pretty good trap here, as Sonic immediately destroying the slow ray will just trap everyone else at 0.25 speed. The hedgehog is forced to play by his rules. 

I guess you don't see more slow-motion rays in fiction because it's a pretty improbable idea, even as far as sci-fi technology goes. Somehow, if you weren't effected by time slowing down, the now frozen oxygen molecules around you would still make it impossible to move. More practically speaking, everyone slurring their speech just sounds funny. Plausibility is not a concern for a comedy show like this. (Which is evident in the absurdly off-hand way Eggman powers his latest miraculous gizmo.) So "Boom" immediately subverts the idea for comedy. Sonic and Eggman being stuck in a world where everything moves at a crawl results in many ridiculous sights. Lasers and weapons are rendered sluggish, so the two have to find other ways to fight each other. This amusingly results in ping-pong balls, checkers, and coins slowly twirling through the air, much to the duo's annoyance.

While the slow-motion gimmick is a very solid, organically funny premise, "New Year's Retribution" is good mostly because it gives us more insight into Eggman's personality. This is another episode where the villain's depression plays a role. No matter all the glorious, ridiculous machines and robots he's effortlessly invented, Eggman still feels like a failure. Rolling into the New Year by playing checkers with his robot lackies makes him feel pathetic. Despite his massive ego, Eggman can only measure his own value by crushing his enemy. His self-worth is dependent on other people. And maybe that's because, as a throwaway line of dialogue reveals, Eggman had a father whose approval he was desperate to earn. This recharacterizes the villain's desire to rule the world merely as another way to make his presumably distant dad respect him. Damn, why do the funny "Sonic" cartoon inevitably give Eggman the more tragic backstories? 

If Eggman's emotional hang-ups are one of my favorite things about this show, the way his depressive episodes are usually resolved is one of its best running jokes. Eggman doesn't want to have a lame New Years. He cooks up a dastardly scheme under the pretense of destroying his archenemy. This actually plays out as Sonic and Eggman spending the extended minutes before midnight competing against each other. They play board games, have contests, and finish the night with a dance-off. In other words: They have fun together. When Eggman was at his loneliest, Sonic was there to distract him, entertain him, and keep him company. They even acknowledge this in the final minutes of the episode, when Eggman realizes his time-freezing device prevented anyone else from seeing his victory. Once again, "Boom" comes to the suitably ironic conclusion. Eggman thinks Sonic is his greatest foe but he's actually the closest thing the mad scientist has to a best friend. 

This is a Reid Harrison script, the writer packing in as many jokes as possible per usual. Unlike his previous, derivative episode, he makes sure the jokes are genuinely funny this time. (This is also the third of Reid's scripts to include a dance scene. Read into that what you will.) There's a number of nicely absurd moments here. Tails attempts to shorten the amount of time it'll take to decorate for the party by inventing a tinsel gun. This simply results in everyone, Sonic included, bullying him. There's an extended discussion, between Eggman and his geometrical sidekicks, about the philosophical quality of slow-cooked meat. While I've never given much thought to "Boom's" Mayor Fink character, his expected qualities as an underhanded and weaselly politician leads to a pretty funny awkward interview here. 

Easily the episode's silliest, and therefore best, reoccurring bit involves Knuckles. He has no idea how to celebrate New Year's and proceeds to mix it up with Easter, Halloween, Christmas, and Groundhog Day. He describes each of these other celebrations in similarly garbled, misunderstood ways. What would normally be a simple joke about Knuckles being an idiot is made much funnier by everyone else having no idea what he's talking about. New Year's celebrations are universal but, clearly, none of our other standard holidays exist in the "Boom" universe. 

 

In fact, this is the first holiday we've ever seen anyone celebrate in "Sonic Boom." All throughout this review, I was tempted to refer to the episode as taking place on December 31st. But I guess there's no way to know when the "Boom" year ends and when it begins. If they don't know what Christmas is, they probably don't know what the Gregorian calendar is either. (Though they still play "Auld Lang Syne" and drop a big ball at midnight, so clearly this celebration has something in common with Earthly traditions.) This makes Cartoon Network's decision to air this episode in August – probably a result of "Boom" constantly having its schedule fucked with – a little less irksome to me. Only a little.  Anyway, overall, "New Year's Retribution" balances rapid-fire goofball sight gags with a little more character introspection, which is really the ideal place sitcoms like this need to operate. [7/10]

Sonic Prime, Episode 1.8: There’s No ARRGH in “Team”

Sonic Prime, Episode 1.8: There’s No ARRGH in “Team”

Original Release Date: December 15th, 2022

As the first half of “Sonic Prime’s” first season ends, the show only just now feels like it’s actually starting. Having traveled to the water-logged, pirate infested No Place zone, Rusty Rose and a submarine full of Eggforcers attacks Knuckles the Dread’s ship. After a drone scans Sonic’s magic shoes, the bad guys head off towards the Devil’s Lighthouse. Otherwise known as the latest Paradox Prism shard. Sonic manages to rally the pirates, including the reluctant captain, into taking chase after the villains. Lots of fighting and robot smashing ensues, as the good guys and the interdimensional invaders have a scuffle among the jagged rocks and water around the central plot device. 

As I've noted multiple times, "Sonic Prime" most excels at action sequences. Maybe the showrunners were aware of that too. Or maybe they just wanted to make the first batch of episodes ended on a fittingly action-packed note. Either way, "There's No ARRGH in Team" is composed almost entirely of action scenes. The entire last half has the heroes fighting off Rusty Rose and her army of Eggforcer robots. There's a pretty clever moment where Sonic uses his super speed and whatever random shit the crew has laying around to patch the hole the bad guys busted in the ship. Definitely my favorite action beat in the episode occurs halfway through, when Sonic uses his hovercraft shoes to pull the ship around the perilous rocks of the Devil's Lighthouse. This proceeds a moment so deliriously absurd that it made me laugh from sheer audacity. 

The episode is not purely action though. In a nice change of pace, some room is made for character development too. After Rusty and her robots fuck up his ship, Dread is ready to hightail it out of there. Sonic talks the pirate captain into coming back by appealing to that most masculine to tendencies: The need to look cool. He convinces the captain to come back by pointing out this adventure will finally provide a chance to conquer the Devil's Lighthouse. In a nice full circle touch, Sonic also has to be manipulated into helping later. His phobia of water makes him reluctant to skim over the ocean and tug the boat along. When his ability to go fast and win a race is questioned though, Sonic has no choice but to go along with the plan. Remember that, ladies: The masculine desire to appear tough, resourceful, successful, or macho can easily overpower our logical reasoning. 

Obviously, the most frustrating thing about "Sonic Prime" for me is that this series is just never going to develop the variants of Sonic's friends into distinct characters. Batton Rouge, Black Rose, and Sails are not personable people in their own right. They are closer to sight gags, jokey combinations of beloved, established players with pirate stereotypes. This makes something Knuckles the Dread does in the last act harder to justify. Upon getting close to the red Prism Shard, the treasure he's sought for so long, greed seemingly overwhelms him. Sonic has to struggle with him over it. 

I guess the idea is that pirates are, like dragons, naturally inclined towards hoarding treasure. Yet the lack of detailing that's been done with Dread – who is still the most fleshed out of this gang! – makes his actions seem like they come out of the blue. "Prime" seems to want to derive some easy shock value from Sonic's friends acting in non-heroic manners. Without some time being taken to make Dread, Rose Thorn, and Rusty more than just palette swipes of the good guys, these moments really are nothing but shock value. At the very least, Dread seems a little more reasonable than the Amy variants I mentioned. 

Looking back on this episode, and the seven before it, "Prime" really has missed big opportunity. Sonic has treated each alternate version of his friends that he's met essentially as if they are his friends. Even after learning that Nine is a grouchy loner, Thorn is a violent eco-extremist, and Dread is a cowardly pirate, the hedgehog still acts like they are his old buddies. This show needed more of a big part of the multiverse premise's appeal: People reacting with confusion to alternate versions of their friends and themselves. I mean, say what you will about the Marvel Cinematic Universe but they knew that you gotta have Good Doctor Strange fight an Evil Doctor Strange or there's no point in doing this whole thing. 

Since there's no other Sonics in the Shatter Spaces, and the Chaos Council have just now gained the ability to travel to other realities, "Prime" can finally get around to this stuff. When Rusty Rose first gets a peek at the pirate of herself, it short-circuits her programming for a second. Later, Black Rose and the cyborg do another double-take at each other. That's all this idea amounts to here but, hopefully, future episodes will do a little more with that idea. Will being around other, heroic Amy Roses cause Rusty Rose to rebel against her programming? Or will the contrast between an evil version of Amy and her better-intentioned counterparts simply be used for dramatic, ironic tension? It remains to be seen. 

The former seems likelier but I'm kind of hoping the latter holds true. If only because Rusty is the best villain this cartoon has right now. There's not much to her, other than being a super-strong killborg determined to fulfill Priority #1: Hedgehog. But throwing a Terminator into the mix always makes for a decent bad guy. The Chaos Council, meanwhile, still seem too jokey for me to take seriously as antagonists. In fact, this episode features the very first time those guys have done anything intimidating at all, in my eyes. After capturing Nine, Dr. Don't threatens to dismember the fox if he refuses to help them conquer the multiverse. See, that's some good villain-ing right there. Leave the hipster and baby jokes to the sideline. Let these guys actually be evil. 

For what it's worth, there's actually a handful of jokes here that actually made me chuckle. A moment where Sonic is unable to decipher Batton's thick pirate speak is a solid, if inevitable, joke. Dread's ship – named the Angel's Voyage, apparently – being held together with Christmas lights and inflatable dinghies isn't bad. Probably the best gag here is one that's quickly thrown away. As they the gang sails into battle, Sails the Fox climbs into the crow's nest and plays a heavy metal riff on Catfish's little pirate banjo. I actually chuckle at that one. 

Despite being a relatively sturdy episode of a show that's still trying to find its footing, "There's No ARRGH in Team" still left me unsatisfied. The final moments return to the Shadow subplot. This has got to be the lamest of "Prime's" story threads. Shadow is floating out there in the ether, angry at Sonic for reasons he refuses to elaborate on because it's more dramatic that way, and has basically only popped up before this point to remind the viewer that he still exists. Honestly, if this episode was the first time Shadow appeared on this show, that would've been a good cliffhanger. That might've made me excited to head into the next batch of "Prime" episodes. Instead, Shadow has periodically appeared to bark vague statement and trade fisticuffs with Sonic. I don't care. 

Looking back at "Prime's" first half-season, I can't help but be frustrated. It doesn't have the character-based writing and lovable cast of "SatAM." It doesn't have "Sonic X's" quirky perspective or space opera grandeur. It doesn't reinvent "Sonic" lore in interesting ways, like the movies do. It's not even as funny as "Boom" or as nice looking as the OVA. (I must concede that I like it better than "AoStH" and "Underground.") There's so much potential here and the staff seem determined to explore it in as shallow and short-sighted a way as possible. Certainly, it is still technically plausible that "Prime" will finally pull itself together eventually. Maybe that'll be the case when the next batch of episodes drop on Netflix in six months or whatever. As of now, I have to say that "Sonic Prime" ranks as a disappointment for me. [6.5/10]

Sonic Prime, Episode 1.7: It Takes One to No Place

Sonic Prime, Episode 1.7: It Takes One to No Place

Original Release Date: December 22nd, 2022

The penultimate episode of "Sonic Prime's" first half remains committed to the multiverse premise, even we left the stakes in a pretty raised place last time. While running towards Nine and the Chaos Council's ship, Sonic unintentionally zaps himself into another ShatterSpace. He drops into No Place, a world where Green Hill is submerged under water and pirates roam the endless sea. He's quickly picked up by Knuckles the Dread and his crew, a curiously carefree group of pirates. After deflecting an attack by Dread's old crew, Sonic learns that the pirate lost his fearsome reputation when he wrecked his ship searching for the Devil's Lighthouse: The red shard of the Paradox Prism. Sonic's quest to find the jewel is interrupted by a familiar face...

Since I'm nearly done with the first batch of "Prime" episodes, I think I've determined when this show works and when it doesn't. The dimension hopping premise means it's hard to ever build up much familiarity with the cast or generate forward momentum with the story. Yet there's fun to be had in dropping Sonic into another colorful setting each week, populated with wacky variations on his old friends. Just seeing the traditional "Sonic" cast mashed up with the pirate premise in this episode provides some entertainment. Knuckles as a goofy pirate that has lost his mojo, with his beleaguered crew made up of other "Sonic" cast members, is an amusing enough idea on its own. 

If this show was more episodic and just focused on Sonic leaping around various zones, aligned by the goal of him collecting all of the shards, it would be a lot better. It's fun to imagine various archetypal settings Knuckles, Tails, Amy and Rouge could be slotted into. My brain immediately goes to gothic horror, steampunk, and superheroes as three that could easily work. And there's literally a hundred more you could think of. That was the fun of Archie's old multiverse and a whole show loosely inspired by that idea could be laidback entertainment. Jumping back and forth between that set-up and a serialized story, where we are expected to care about things like character development and an on-going narrative, is why this show feels so half-formed to me. "Prime" needs to play to its strengths.

Focusing on the latter is probably why I enjoyed "It Tales One to No Place" the most of any of this show's episodes so far. Knuckles and the crew as fearsome pirates is a cute idea by itself. This one further twists things by making Knuckles the Dread the wimpiest pirate you can imagine. He likes to throw parties every day, singing and dancing and tossing confetti into the air like the high-seas version of Rip Taylor. He hides when his old crew appears to ransack his ship. His partners are exhausted by the constantly carefree lifestyle and eager to do actual pirate shit. It's a twofold subversion. We expect pirates to be fearsome and Knuckles is fearsome too, despite being a big softy on the inside. Dread is a character that nicely defies both those expectations. 

Also helping this episode is its status as maybe the best animated installment of "Prime's" run so far. I was worried at first, as Sonic emerging from the water makes him look like wet latex. I also can't say the other original designs seen in this episode – limited to Dread's former crew, one of which is voiced by a prominent YouTuber for some reason – are all that memorable. Yet the fight scene that follows, where Sonic is leaping around the ship and floating on the water on his hovercraft shoes, is neat. Mostly, it’s the flashback to Dread’s attempt to take the red shard that looks really good. The water effects are much stronger in this scene and the stormy night lighting is quite atmospheric. 

This is not the only animated highlight of the episode. Upon meeting Dread, Sonic recalls the first time he met his reality’s Knuckles. As in the flashback with Tails in the first episode, this scene is done in Sega Genesis style 16-bit graphics. This one is also directly based on the boss battle between Sonic and Knuckles in the Hidden Palace Zone in “Sonic & Knuckles.” It even uses the music! While I supposed an animation style like this would wear out its novelty quickly, an old school Sega nerd like me still really gets a kick out of these moments. I would probably love an entire series that looked like this. (Though if the events of "Sonic & Knuckles" are more-or-less canon to "Prime," it really makes me wonder what the status of the Master Emerald is and why Knuckles hasn't been on Angel Island at any point throughout this show.)

While the exact circumstances surrounding what's happening with Shadow still aren’t totally clear, this episode does provide a little more insight into what’s happening there. Turns out, Shadow Chaos Controlled the minute the Paradox Prism shattered and Sonic was caught up in the big dimensional wave. This seems to explain why the so-called ultimate lifeform is blipping in and out of realities here. What purpose this will serve in the story, I still don't know. Seems like Shadow appears when he needs to say something mysterious, to trick the viewer into thinking the overarching narrative here actually has some greater purpose. But at least we have an explanation of sorts now. 

Like every episode of "Prime," this one also ends with an action-packed cliffhanger that promises to open the next installment on a big fight scene. At least the story, as it is, seems to be moving towards something of a climax for the Season One, Part One finale. (Or whatever you want to call it.) A solid episode like this really throws my issues and criticisms with "Prime" overall into sharper detail. The chance for "Prime" to be a satisfying overall experience, at least in this first collection of episodes, has passed. Yet I can still enjoy a goofy time with some silly pirates. [7/10]