“Hey, I had nothing to do with that first movie design!”
Sonic The Hedgehog #48
Archie Comics Publications (July, 1997)
“Sonic The Fugitive” (I think. Like on the cover the red lettering covering the “Hedgehog” is so light it’s hard to read over the regular logo.)
WRITERS: Kent Taylor & Ken Penders
PENCILER: Manny Galan
INKER: Pam Eklund
COLORIST: Karl Bollers
LETTERER: Jeff Powell
EDITOR: J. Freddy Gabrie
Sonic is taken away but Uncle Chuck seems to be the only one who believes he’s innocent. Antoine only follows Drago because he’s confused why he’s meeting with the king. Joined by Bunnie, the pair overhear Drago bragging to Hershey, who wants nothing more to do with any of this. Swatbots attack the plane bringing Sonic to the Devil’s Gulag, which gives Sonic a chance to escape. The King orders Geoffrey to go after him while Drago catches Antoine and Bunnie. Later, at a meeting, the King declares he reestablishing the position of Warlord…and Robotnik to the position as his forces arrive in Knothole!
I know why I don’t like this comic. The writing is good, the art is good, and having a big storyline coming upon the 50th issue of the ongoing comic (the numbering doesn’t include a miniseries) makes a lot of sense. It’s just filled with things I don’t like personally and that’s where my complaints like. From a critic’s perspective it’s well done but from a personal perspective…
I don’t like Geoffrey St. John (at times I even hate the character), I don’t like this plotline generally unless it’s an original property like in The Fugitive because it means the characters are way too easy to believe the hero who has risked everything for them is somehow in league with the very villain he or she has taken down for the full length of the series, and of course the comic HAS to reference that scene from the trailer of the movie version of The Fugitive where Harrison Ford’s take on Richard Kimble jumps down the waterfall in the hopes of escaping. I’m kind of neutral on the idea of the Tasmanian Devil being one of the few beings who didn’t evolve…though as memory serves we do see a more evolved Devil later in the series unless I’m thinking of Slam from Loonatics Unleashed for some reason but I don’t think I am. It’s an excuse to make up for the lack of dogs…but St. John is just using the tracking device in Sonic’s leg shackles to track him so what’s even the point? Plus there isn’t a lack of non-anthro dogs or some animals evolving and others not in the same species. Sleuth Doggy Dog is on the plane for no reason and he’s an anthro dog but Muttski is a normal dog.
All of my problems with this story are admittedly personal. Critically the comic is fine, but I just can’t get into it.
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