So not too long ago our buddy boy Skye decided to do a review series detailing all of the Sonic comics of the Archie series. ...not an easy feat with that, I wish him the bet of luck. However, in a way he has inspired me to try my hand at reviewing as well. So, I decided to review the Archie series as well. But if I did ALL of them like Skye is, it'd be redundant. Skye has a good sense of critical skill, There's nothing I could add to his reviews. That and, honestly, as much as I love Sonic and the Freedom Fighters, I grew up with Knuckles and the Chaotix as my point of interest. What Sonic comics I actually had a physical copy of, somehow and someway involved the Rad Red: Sonic and Knuckles, Knuckles #25, and Sonic #121. (Yeah, imagine my reaction to THAT Knuckles story without context. o.o; ) So, If Skye is going to be reviewing all the comics of Sonic, then I shall be his Knuckles and spin-off into my own short-lived mini-series. ^_^ As you may have already guessed, I am ONLY reviewing the Knuckles stories. The stories in which he, or the Chaotix, are the main protagonists. Sonic stories WITH Knuckles in them, do not count, ...though with a few exceptions. (Such as his debut story.) To put it simply, if Knuckles is not a centerpiece of the story, I'm not reviewing it. This also means any stories, main or side, that does not involve Knuckles or the Chaotix, I am not going to review. For example, I am going to review "This Island Hedgehog" of Sonic #13, but I will not review "Space in yo' face". Likewise, I will not review Sonic #121's "The Prince and the Revolution", nor "Songbird", but I will review "Afterlife Part 1". If there's a Sonic and Knuckles story where they're both equally important, I will review that as well, like the Special literally called Sonic and Knuckles. However, I AM going to be using Skye's guide and keep it in chronological order. Thanks again for that guide, Skye. ^^ I will critique art whenever I can but the only covers I'm critiquing is of the Knuckles the Echidna comics and the Sonic Universe Comics that focus on him. I must admit I'm not as good with critiquing art as I am with critiquing plot and character, so please bear with me as I try. One more thing: I am doing complete reviews of the stories at hand so there WILL be spoilers ahead. With that said...I am the Crimson Critic. *Puts on a blood red baseball cap* ...Actually, since I'm reviewing comics rather than games or movies...*Replaces baseball cap with a red fedora* I am The Jest, and welcome to Atop the Red Wall. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #13: This Island Hedgehog Our story begins, almost exactly how it did in the games actually...Except that Sonic, of course doesn't have the Chaos emeralds and as such, cannot sadly turn super sonic and jump off the plane just to show off his chaos powers. Another difference being Robotnik came here on a hovercraft, rather than crash-landing there when Sonic screwed up his Death Egg...by blowing up a giant mech that wasn't in anyway connected to the Death Egg, so it begs to question how he actually pulled it off... Huh. ...Actually, the only reason in the games that he knows about the "Floating Island" as its called at the moment was really because his landing there was a freak accident, so how DID he know about this place anyways if it's suppose to be just a lege- Anyways, as they head towards the island, wondering what kind of sorcery is keeping it high and detached from any sign of ground, correctly pointing out that clearly it has to be a Chaos emerald (Because as we ALL know, Chaos energy is to this series as nuclear radiation is to any superhero comics. Remember that, cause I'll back to it on a later review.) A mysterious red arm with a very unfair-looking boxing glove on him starts dishing out the "unwelcome mat" right through the Tornado, ...or as it's really called, A rocket-propelled fist missile with a mat decoration. (...Like the chaos energy, I'll get back to that later in another review.) As they land safely they conclude that Robotnik must be behind this, right before Master Hand's abusive uncle decides to apparently signal in the batter blimp as Tails calls it, and giant marble as I'll call it, ...which burns up the entire forest and apparently the side of a mountain. ...Ignoring the latter silly moment of burning up the side of a mountain like that, does anybody notice that the supposed guardian is outright LETTING the giant flamethrowing marble start a forest fire on his island? At least in Sonic 3 it was implied that it was doing this behind his back, and could blame Sonic and Tails on the destruction. But here it looks like he outright initiated the marble to start it. What the crap? Anyways, the fire is about to hit Sonic when...suddenly an energy shield pops in. ...Because the Walkers wills it? Using this to his advantage he jumps into a pond to evade the giant marble and drops into what I could only describe as Hydrocity's back alley...or going by the tunnel and water pressure, a rather giant sewer system...Oh, and Sonic's Deus Ex Shield, fulfilling its purpose, conveniantly disappears, reminding Sonic why this was a terrible idea. Though not to worry, they broke through the wall into the actual Hydrocity...or rather a giant brick tank that is pretending to be hydrocity...and look, they even ask the readers to help out...though help out with what exactly? They're already out of the-...oh wait, they're back in a suction tunnel in next panel and the player failed, (What'd be hilarious is if the kid who was doing this was actually pretty good at the games and got frustrated when the comic outright said he/she failed.) the pressure's too much for the two to handle, resulting in Tails falling into the tunnel and Sonic blacking out. ...Well...That went dark pretty fast. But no, of course they're not dead. Now they're in a pitch black place, apparently very much dry, and tied up as a spotlight shines on an empty space near by. ...I would ask where they are, but Sonic already did that for me, and was answered with a basic "I'm not telling" answer. The voice is not of Robotnik, however, like they thought, as the ever mysterious stalker steps into the light to reveal...Rocky Bal-chidna? No, it's Knuckles the Echidna, the apparent last guardian of the Island and its ...Chaos Emerald. ...*Walks out of the room for a second and looks at the instruction manual to Sonic the Hedgehog 3* So, normally I'd rant about this, as this used to bug the crap out of me during my read through of this series from the first time I heard about it. But it seems that, indeed, the manual says he does guard the Chaos emeralds as oppose to the Master Emerald he guards nowadays. Seeing as how this was made during and for the release of Sonic 3, this is justified. Anyways, if you've played Sonic 3 already, then you know the deal from here. Knuckles is the guardian of the Chaos Emeralds but was tricked by Robotnik into believing that he was a good guy while Sonic was a thief attempting to steal the Emeralds from him. (Which is most likely disguised as a reason why Boom Knuckles has an Intelligence Debuff, when in reality, Knuckles is only naive to social activity since he's been almost alone all of his li-...But, I digress.) This ends Part 1, and in Part 2 we see Robotnik and ever-the-verbal-punching-bag-Snivley watching from their hovercraft...I think, as Knuckles interrogates Sonic and Tails. After a little wisecracking as to be expected by Sonic and Tails. Knuckles, of course, gives them a chance to leave his island before he basically makes kabobs out of them with those gloves of his, to which Robotnik is understandably...disappointed. "KNUCKLES!! Is your brain as tiny as the insects you devour?" ~ Dr. Robotnik Apparently Sonic Team seems to think so. -.-; (Ok, Ok...I'll try my best to keep the Sonic Boom jokes to a minimum at least.) Also, noticing that question now after all this time, ...well, you'll see the irony of those words later on. Anyways, upon basically responding to that with essentially a verbal version of the finger, Robotnik decides to take matters into his own hands, and sees that C-alliteration x2 Crabmeat has, somehow, gotten the Chaos Emerald from the place where it was taken. I'd ask how he managed to pull that out of the chamber it was in without anyone noticing since, well, let's just say there'd be a pretty good sign of gravity feeling a tad lighter. But I'll ignore that seeing how neither the chamber in question nor its purpose has been introduced, possibly even made creatively speaking, yet. Turn to the next page and we see Sonic and Tails racing towards the Emerald with Knuckles noticing and taking a shortcut before realizing the Chaos Emerald was gone...from a pillar of stones...out in the open... Did I say I'd ask how Crabmeat managed to get it from a chamber? I meant that I'd ask how it was a good idea to leave such an important emerald out in the open and TRAP-LESS...on an altar of gray stones just to make it stand out even more? If you didn't have a proper hiding space, why didn't you just keep it with you on hand? Guarantee that would have been much safer, and it's not like Robotnik wouldn't have a chance pickpocket it from him so the story still would have continued like it does. Anyways, long story short, Knuckles realizes that he's been duped by Robotnik since it's pretty obvious that Sonic and Tails didn't take it, as they're just then heading there. They team up, head for Robotnik, destroy his daily unit of swatbots, making him retreat on his...apparently malfunctioning hovercraft, (So this might have been a freak landing after all.) and thanks to Knuckles picking up all the pieces of the tornado, (Must have been a pain...) and Sonic putting it back together in practically an instant, the duo fly off into the sunset with Knuckles looking on, making the accurate prediction that this won't be the last time we see of him. ...Technically that it won't be the last time he sees of them; different words, same meaning. Now art-wise I don't necessarily have a problem with the art. The Island looks rather excellent, albeit undetailed with the background and all, and the characters all look fine...save for Knuckles. ...I don't know, it's probably just me, and I can't quite put my finger on why even if it is, but something about his design seems...off. Maybe it's simply because I'm more use to the modern version of him, since he seems like a complete duplicate of his Original game self...in concept art. But even still, seeing him in the Genesis game he debuted in and looking at him here...something just doesn't feel right to me about it. Overall...The story was alright. It has a few problems, but as the single tie-in to Sonic 3, it served its purpose well enough, even gave a little kid-friendly interaction even much like a couple other stories in Sonic. It also did well as the first outing of the Rad-Red himself and showed him for what he is: somewhat intelligent, somewhat cunning, (Certain exceptions aside) but ultimately sheltered and gullible therefore to outside forces. Honestly though, I think Fleetway did his debut a bit better, giving him 4 issues, 3 of which plays off the fact that he was basically Robotnik's version of Sonic (Besides Metal Sonic, of course.) and Sonic's equal rival until Sonic and Knuckles, of which the fourth issue seems to have been based off of, set the record straight. But regardless, as a stand-alone single issue, it did good with what it had. As such, I give it a 7/10. And speaking of Sonic and Knuckles... Next Issue: Sonic and Knuckles Special!