“Yesterday’s” Comic> Knuckles: The Dark Legion #3

“But what they did in Sonic Boom with you wasn’t my fault!”

Knuckles: The Dark Legion #3

FINAL ISSUE

Archie Comic Publications (June, 1997)

WRITERS: Ken Penders & Kent Taylor

ARTISTS: Manny Galan & Andrew Pepoy

COLORIST: Karl Bollers

LETTERER: Vickie Williams

EDITOR: J. Freddy Gabrie

In the past, Steppenwolf confronts the Dark Legion with the hope of a peaceful settlement, but when one of the Legion tries to shoot him, he goes into fight mode and learns the leader of the Legion is his vengeance-seeking cousin, Meneker. Steppenwolf is forced to send the Dark Legion into the trap they recently came out of. That’s where Knuckles has his own confrontation with Kragok, after he and the Chaotix managed to deal with the fire. Knuckles’ dad secretly helps by disabling the Legion’s weapons and overloading the power supply, forcing the building to fall apart. The Legion manage to escape but the Chaotix plan to be ready for him next time.

What they got right: I was wondering about the placement of the flashbacks to Steppenwolf first meeting with the Council and then going after the Legion but after seeing that second part the placement during events didn’t bother me as much. The origin overall worked and the Dark Legion will become a serious threat for Knuckles going forward.

What they got wrong: Sorry, you’re not convincing me that Vector could take down a large fire and later a bunch of Legion troopers with a portable cassette player and speakers, even if it isn’t Earth.

What I think overall: This miniseries does a good job creating a foe for Knuckles as they were trying to spin his games off into their own comic series. It’s just hard to really get into in hindsight, knowing how this screwed up the Sonic comics altogether because Penders wanted to take his ball and go home.