At the start of my holidays my plan was to do a review and some drawing everyday.
And now my hols have passed. Guess things didn’t go as planned.
Issue 15
Story 1: Rockin’ the Bot
We open with Sonic boasting that he can outrun lightning, fair enough, and, apparently better, run between raindrops. Er, Sonic, if the rain is that light that there is the space to do so, it’s not that impressive, sorry.
And then we see a frog trapped by a tree. A very convenient tree. Heavy enough to trap the frog, but not heavy to squish him. Though, it is a Mobian frog. And it is MAGICAL! So maybe that’s why. And I’m gonna call him Froggy from now on for the hell of it.
So, Sonic rescues Froggy from both the tree and a mudslide, and as a reward Froggy gives Sonic three magical gems, each one of which grants a short, one use power. Sonic seems… oddly sceptical about Froggy’s claims. This despite the fact that he can speak, unlike most frogs as the end of the story shows, and the fact he made three glowing rocks appear out of thin air. And the fact that nigh-on magical stuff has been witnessed by Sonic before. He’s an odd kinda skeptic. Or maybe he just doesn’t believe that magic can be bought via credit-cards.
So a few days later…. Wait, it actually has time passing? Not immediately moving on like the time travel story?? So… a random story has a better sense of time than the one about time travel. Who’d have thought!
Anyway, said few days later, all the Freedom Fighters are testing out Rotors new buggy off-road transport thing. Er, I’m not an engineer, but even I know that one tiny wheel at the front is NOT a good off-road design. Not that it matters as, after established Tails has the glowing rocks with him, Robotnik shows up in his latest bot and smashes the buggy.
At this, Sonic immediately panics as says he has to take a chance that the magic rocks are what Froggy said there were. So… not even gonna try a token attempt to take it on normally eh? And rather quick to jump to hoping on the rocks from your earlier skepticism.
Of course, because he wasn’t paying attention, Sonic gets the stones mixed up, twice. By which time Robotnik has captured the rest of the Freedom Fighters and, maybe having learned from Issue 8, plans to head back and Robotize them before coming back to deal with Sonic.
But this time Sonic knows he’s got the rock to give him straight and as Robotnik’s craft is shaped like a bug, creates a massive flyswatter to smash it.
Then Sonic finally realises that yes, that frog WAS magical! So starts talking to every frog he can, wanting more magical rocks.
And somewhere, I imagine Froggy, panicked, hopping away frantically, begging this oversized Mobian he runs into to save him from the crazy hedgehog who’s stalking him. And thus was born a lasting friendship.
With Sonic’s odd skepticism bouncing all over the place, the story fells rushed, and adding even more glowing magic rocks into the story makes it get cluttered. On the other hand, there’s nothing truly bad about it either.
Story 2: What’s the Big Idea?
I’m not sure I can review this story. I said at the start of these reviews that I wouldn’t review the joke pages, and this story is an extended joke page as the Freedom Fighters try to guess what Rotor is building. And then it ends with an advert for Sonic merchandise. About the only thing of note is the strip seriously implied Robot blew up a cow at somepoint.
Story 3: Animal Magnetism
We open with Robotnik planning on using Bunnie to destroy the Freedom Fighters. Ooh, what’s your plan Robotnik? Take control of her robot parts and force her to attack. Nope! We learn later he simple plans to capture her and use her as bait. Because that worked out SO well last issue.
Amazingly, we have some continuity… in what Rotor is cooking. So… Robotnik isn’t learning from his mistakes, but what is being cooked is SOOOOO important.
Showing up in an oddly designed, even for him, machine, Robotnik uses a giant magnet to try and snag Bunnie. Okay, maybe that’s a way to keep her restrained, but its still a bad idea. And said machine goes unnoticed by Sally and Antione because…. They were looking the other way I guess.
Bunnie stops herself being dragged by grabbing a tree, and Sonic tricks Robotnik into facing Robotropolis which causes in Robotnik’s words ‘everything made of metal’ to shoot towards his machine. Okay, first, have fun spotting all the cameo’s in the metal pile, even if the inker mistook Grounder for a Burrowbot. Second, if that is ‘everything’ made of metal…. Then boy, there is very, very little metal in Robotropolis. Even if just loose metal it’s still not much. And third, sure, Robotnik said it was being turned to full power to capture Sonic, but you’d think that with that potential, Bunnie wouldn’t be able to hold onto a tree.
But regardless, Robotnik is stopped, Rotor covers Bunnies cybernetics in a paint to make them non-magnetic, and we end on a forced joke-laugh.
Overall
Issue 15 is just slightly below average. There’s not really anything good about it, but at the same time, nothing terrible. It’s there, it exists, it fills an issue. But that’s about it.
English