Well there’s not much interest but I enjoy doing these so ONWARDS! Issue 22 So last Issue came the shocking event of Robotnik’s death. How would things play out now? Would Snively take over the Empire? Would the Freedom Fighters disband? Could Robotnik return? Well, put that suspense to the side as the cover loudly proclaims Robotnik’s return. Okay, it’s mostly silhouette, be we still see his clothes pattern and Sonic says everything short of ‘Robotnik’ so… yeah… Way to kill the suspense comic cover! But let’s see what’s inside! Story 1 – The Return We open with Sonic and Sally enjoying a day out. With their kids. Which means this is either the future, an alternate Zone, or both. This peaceful family gathering is interrupted by a sudden flash of lightning, which forms into the image of Robotnik. Only for it to vanish a few moments later. Sally wonders if Robotnik could have returned, but Sonic claims he saw Robotnik die, and there was no way he could come back. Which still doesn’t help clarify if this is a future or other Zone yet. The lightning flash is redirected to a satellite in orbit, where it does indeed reform into the Robotnik we all know and well.. I’m not sure ‘love’ is the word, but, anyway. A creepy voice expresses curiosity, and as Robotnik tries to gain his bearings he comes face to face with himself! Or rather, a robotic version of himself on a screen. Well that confirms the ‘other Zone’ theory. This ‘Robotnik-mach 2’ as I shall refer to him explains his backstory. How Sonic was close to defeating him, so he robotized himself, but even that wasn’t enough. So he transferred his now mechanical mind to an orbiting satellite. Now this background, plus the fact that this Zone’s Sally is alive and nether she or Sonic are cyborgs shows this is a very different alternate Robotnik to the Robo-Robotnik seen in Issue 19. So of course they would never try and combine the two into one character, surely? Ahem, anyway, back to the present…er, such as it is given the Zone’s timelines don’t sync up. Robotnik-mach 2 (Okay, calling him Robo2 from now on to save my keyboard) says that the satellite’s power is limited, and slowly draining so he is unable to take any actions. Uh huh… how were you able to pick up Robotnik’s Zone crossing lighting teleport then? Wouldn’t that take a helluva lot of power? Also, this satellite clearly has life support as Robotnik can breathe. I hope Robo2 didn’t leave the air, or the lights for that matter, on cause he doesn’t really need them! Our Robotnik explains to Robo2 what just happened about being killed by Eve…. Yeah… that’s odd. I thought you killed him, not teleported him to another Zone Eve. What the heck is that all about? Stupid creepy Lovecraftian AI. Trying to come up with a reason for this is like trying to come up for a reason to why it looked so utterly horrific. Anyway, back to the story, Robo2 believes he could send Robotnik back. Wait…. Despite the whole ‘low power’ issue? Is the teleporter attached to a separate unconnected battery or some such? Well, common sense seems to have been left in the other Zone, so it works and Robotnik is send back home. Speaking of back home, in the Prime Zone the Freedom Fighters are clearing out a warehouse of robot parts, not that we ever find out exactly why. Observing them on a monitory, Snively laments that he is completely powerless as Robotnik never trusted him with some much as a password, only for him to speak the phrase ‘Sonic has finally won it all’. Which turns out to be a password. Huh, shouldn’t voice activated passwords be limited to a certain voice? Especially if they trigger ‘scorched earth’ plans, like this one does. Yep, every Swat Bot and other armed robot is activated with just one mission; Destroy EVERYTHING! And a pre-recorded message from Robotnik plays, giving the usual ‘If I can’t have the world NO ONE WILL’ speech. Swat Bots swarm the warehouse where the Freedom Fighters are, and despite their best efforts they’re trapped inside, and can only delay the inevitable. Snively is having his own problems as a pair of Swat Bots try to execute him. He dodges a few shots, despite not being the most athletic person, so even on ‘destroy everything’ mode Swat Bots STILL have horrible aim. Another explosion erupts, and suddenly Robotnik is there. A few snide comments to Snively, then Robotnik notices the Swat Bot now taking aim at him. So he whips out a laser pistol and blasts the bots. Given how quick he was on the draw, you can see how he could be a threat to Sonic despite his speed. Of course, Robotnik blames Snively for this state of affairs, which is technically true. But Snively counters that he couldn’t know as he wasn’t told anything. Which Robotnik retorts is protection against betrayal. Snively then welcomes Robotnik back, and insults him under his breath. Watching the Freedom Fighters trying and failing to escape on the monitor, Robotnik considers a dilemma. On the one hand, the Freedom Fighters are going to be killed. On the other, by the time they die, his robot army might have wiped out most of the planet. So he makes a decision he knows he’ll regret, and deactivates all the robots. But after doing so he taunts Sonic, letting him know that not only has Robotnik returned, but that Sonic owes him his life. Robotnik’s plan is that knowing this will be a blow to Sonic’s ego, but as we’re still just getting used to the idea of continuity in the comic, it won’t come up again. The two share a bit of back and forth dialogue, and then both leave, knowing the conflict will continue again soon. The opening of this story is rather weak, a pretty much literal Deus Ex Machina for getting Robotnik back. Once we return to the Prime Zone however the story kicks forward, presenting a dramatic and desperate situation, and an interesting dilemma for the villain for a change. For this part, about the only criticism I have is, if Robotnik has enough robots to annihilate the world, can’t he just send them all stomping into the forest and wipe it all out, inevitably catching Knothole in the crossfire? The only reason is a character trait we see far more much later in the comics, which is wanting to treat his conquest more like a ‘game’ or challenge. Or maybe he’s just like a turtling RTS player who wants to research absolutely everything on the tech-tree before attacking. Story 2: Tails Knight Time Story That title is not promising. Sally is trying to get Tails to sleep, but Tails is more interested at playing at being Sonic. Sally tries to explain that despite appearances, Sonic’s adventures are not all fun and games. Obviously excluding the video game side of things. She tries to give a Mobian peril, “Never wish to be someone else until you have fought a battle in their armour’ which seems a bit more clunky than ‘walk a mile in their shoes’. But the reason is for Sally to tell a fable *groan* about a knight and his squire, based on Sonic and Tails respectively. The fable goes on about how brave, admired and skilled the knight is, while the squire is a worthless nobody. That is NOT my exaggeration, the story actually describes the squire as a ‘nobody’ several times. We get to the inevitable ‘one day the knight leaves his armour so the squire tries it on, then gets into a pickle’ part. Only to be saved at the last second by the knight. Which apparently makes the squire complete happy with his normal life and he lived ‘happily ever after’. Sally might say the moral is ‘don’t wish for something unless you know everything about it’ but to me there is a far more obvious, and disturbing one. ‘Don’t try and be like your hero. You’ll fail, so just be happy how you are.’ Seriously, the ending has the squire HAPPY to be a ‘nobody’ for the rest of his life. This is NOT a good message to put in a kids comic. Sure, it’s unintended, but I’d argue it is far stronger than the one they are trying to portray. If they didn’t use the term ‘nobody’ OR end with the squire training to be a knight but knowing how dangerous it is, or both, this negative message could have been avoided. An alternate way to look at it is the moral is ‘don’t try to rise above your social station’ which, given how backwards we find the Acorn Monarchy can be at times, wouldn’t surprise me if this was an in universe tale told to peasants to make them think it is better to just be lowly peasants. Either way, thankfully Tails wasn’t paying attention as he nicked Sonic’s shoes and is now running around in them, thanking Sally for the idea. You know, ‘walk a mile in their shoes’ might have fitted better after all. It ends with Sally saying ‘Next time I’ll stick with Fairy Tales’. Uh… is that meant to be a joke? It’s delivered as one, but there’s no punch line as far as I can see. Overall Despite a bit of an odd start the first story is pretty much important reading given how it will shape events further down the line. And once the ‘prelude’ to the story is over it quickly shapes into a very despite last stand with a serious feeling of tension. Shame the secondary story has to mess that all up.
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