AH HA HA HA! DIE DRAGON! Wait, what’s that....?
Reviews...?
Oh yeah, better put Skyrim on hold of a bit.
Issue 14
Story 1: Tails’ Taste of Power
So the honour of being the first character besides Sonic to front a main comic story goes to Tails. And it’s one about him gaining super intelligence. Hmmm, talk about foreshadowing! So after a weak teaser involving a somewhat typical cartoon plant, Tails mistakes Sonic’s comment to ‘take over’ as taking about Freedom Fighter leadership and not watering Rotor’s plants.
Huh, I thought Sally was the Freedom Fighter’s leader, not Sonic. Guess she gave up that role during her pink phase. But Tails is left watering the plants, not really happy. When Rotor and Sonic comes back, Rotor is worried that Tails was left alone, and Sonic implying that watering planets in about the limit of Tails’ abilities.
Given that, I’m not surprised Tails will later get irritated at being treated like a kid all the time. Yet when the two arrive they find the plants are now gigantic which Tails explains in a technobabble wordy way was due to him creating a new plant food. After a moment confusion and panic, Rotor explains that one of his plants in the ‘Mobian Tree of Wisdom’ and by eating it’s only fruit, Tails is now super intelligent.
One thing that has confused me in almost all ‘character gains super intelligence’ stories, how the heck do characters suddenly know stuff they haven’t learned? And least when, say, Star Trek tends to give the super-intelligent granted characters the abilities to read/learn very very fast to explain it. That doesn’t seem the case here. But then I suspect people are gonna be shouting ‘magic fruit’ at me while doing jazz hands so let’s move on.
After saving Sally and Bunnie from a robot attack, Tails declares that he should be leader, harking back to his earlier conversation with Sonic. And is pretty arrogant about it. I have to wonder, where did this inflated ego come from? Over-confidence has been shown to be one of Tails’ traits in the comics, but there’s a difference between that and arrogant superiority. Maybe the fruit warps him more than just smarts. His manner of talking is also different, not just more wordy, but his speech patterns as well.
Heck, I’m half tempted to believe that this magic tree was actually created by Mammoth Mogul. It would explain the wordiness and the ego inflation.
The next day Tails has built a robot (more foreshadowing) but out of a metal Robotnik’s sensors won’t detect. So…. His sensors can pick up organic and metallic… How has he not found the Freedom Fighter’s yet?
After more arrogance, Tails goes off to fight Robotnik, though Sonic takes way, way too long to look up what ‘nemesis’ means in a dictionary. It’d be slow for a sloth! Robot discovers the intelligence effects only last a day, and in fact they wear off just as Tails reaches the big bad’s control room, and gets captured. Sonic rushes to the rescue, and successfully bluff’s that a medal Tails is wearing of the unescapable metal is actually bomb, allowing them to escape. Sonic puts it down to experience, explaining to Tails in fewer words that I’m using that a leader need experience. Okay, Sally had brought that point up earlier, but given she also brought up courage, something Tails hasn’t been shown to lack…
And something Antione at this stage in the comics lacks, which makes his lecturing of Tails rather hypercritical.
Taste of Power hits a lot of notes that stories of this type take. The trouble is, it’s not Tails suddenly being smart. It’s Tails suddenly altering his personality. Yet the rest of the group seems largely unconcerned. And despite the fact he is clearly smarter now, they still try and lecture at him, rather than debating. Something that will continue as Tails becomes more competent naturally over the course of the comics. As a story it’s not bad, just nothing special, and done better elsewhere. If Tails was less arrogant, and the story longer, it could have been better. AKA, the later comics!
On a side note, this fruit is sometimes claimed to have had a lasting effect on Tails after all, and is why he’s so intelligent. I don’t buy that. Mainly because in all but the Fleetway comics Tails in any continuity, even in the comic reboot, is either smart or super smart, and Fleetway gets a pass there as he’s from a dark age society. What it might have done however, is allowed him to unlock his potential sooner. Which is why he’s as smart as Rotor despite being younger. It’s a catalyst, not the source, for his intelligence.
The second part of the comic as a ‘fill in the dialog yourself’ competition. Nothing to say here, expect wow Sonic looks fat in the competition intro and outro. Also, I do like how the SCANF copy has ‘OFFER VOID’ in big red letters. Just in case anyone reading thought 1994 was in the future!
Story 2: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
We need to show our female characters are capable and not stereotypes. But we CAN’T show that unless all the males are not around to get in the way. *facedesk* Look, showing that female characters are strong and capable is good, but if the only way you think you can do that is by shooing away the boys, that’s just shooting yourself in the foot. Show them being strong NEXT to the others. Oh, and if you are trying to show they’re not stereotypes… why THAT title???
Anyway, the story. Robotnik is playing with some Freedom Fighter toys (what the heck? Who is even around to buy them?) Then Snively walks in catching him at it. Hmm, is that meant to be a Spaceball’s reference? And Snively is a little snarky, showing that he’s starting to move to his more traitorous personality.
Robotnik comments that the Freedom Fighters are weak alone. Er…, no. Weaker, yes, but that’s relative! Not actually weak! Then he describes Bunnie and Sally as nothing more than ‘paper dolls’. Okay, so far in the comics we haven’t seen Sally doing anything except yell at people, but Bunnie? A freaking cyborg? The only character who has physically assaulted Robotnik? Oh, wait, sorry, I tell a lie. Antione did it too, but less dramatically. And he still considers her weak? How the heck did you conquered the world Robotnik with that level of intelligence?
So Robotnik traps the two girls by creating… a fake mall. Yes, let’s show how unstereotypical our female leads are by showing them excitedly heading straight into a suspicious mall with no suspicions whatsoever! *sighs* At least they weren’t ‘squee’-ing.
So the girls fall into the trap, then almost immediately fight their way out of it. Okay, good to see Sally can hold her own well in a fight. Though I thought a karate chop could only break brick in specific circumstances, so using it against a robot’s knee seems at best wishful thinking!
And then they capture Robotnik! YAY! The war is over! Oh, wait, they’re walking off and leaving him tied up. So... this is like the third or fourth time the war could have been over. They also reprogram Robotnik’s toys to be more PC, make some more shopping puns, then comment as they pass Sonic how men only think of ‘fun, games and shopping’.
Ha, ha, ha. So, after trying to show our female characters aren’t stereotypes, let’s imply the male characters are. Not that shopping ever, ever applies to male stereotypes, causing a bad idea of a joke to fall flat.
The problem with this story is that it’s trying too hard. It’s pushing the fact Sally and Bunnie are capable too hard, especially considering we KNOW Bunnie can effortless kick robot ass! And in trying to avoid stereotypes they seem to embrace them. It’s badly handled for what it should be, the only good points being that we finally see Sally in a fight, and Snively not fully toadying to his boss for the first time.
Overall
Nothing here to recommend. An alright first story and a mishandled second one.
English