“Yesterday’s” Comic> Sonic The Hedgehog #53

“It’s Seth Rogen and Michael Bay fighting over who will do our next movie! RUN!

Sonic The Hedgehog #53

Archie Comics (December, 1997)

COLORIST: Karl Bollers

LETTERER: Jeff Powell

EDITOR: J. Freddie Gabrie

“Unfinished Business”

WRITER/INKER: Ken Penders

PENCILER: Art Mawhinney

“Sounds Of Silence”

WRITER: Karl Bollers

PENCILER: Sam Maxwell

INKER: Pam Eklund

If this is the back-up story then why is the comic opening with it? It introduces Sonic’s father, who hasn’t shown up yet, and introduces some strife between Sonic and roboticized father, who refers to him by his middle name, Maurice, and apparently Sonic isn’t his first name. That’s a strange addition to the history, though this being Penders we can pretend it was retconned out in the legal temper tantrum. It’s also an excuse to declare the search for the Sword Of Acorns to be a waste of time as it’s a fake, and nobody being able to go since Knuckles has his own problems (he and Julie-Su show up for the exposition dumping that is most of this story) in his own series. So in other words it’s an excuse to keep King Acorn crystalized while acknowledging the whole quest for the sword. This would have been lame as the back-up it’s clearly supposed to be but to start the comic it’s falling into the trap this comic is slowly becoming with Robotnik died.

On to the main story, which for some reason is in multiple parts despite being the same comic. It’s in four parts and yet the parts don’t really feel like chapter breaks because it’s what’s left of a typical length comic. Sonic and Sally are walking around the remains of Robotropolis, with Sally worried about the dangerous weapons still there and worried that it’s her responsibility now unless they find a cure for the King. Rotor, Chuck, and Dr. Quack send a probe into the Zone Of Silence, hoping it holds some answers but accidentally releases Warlord Kodos, the spider ninja Uma Arachnis, and sorcerer Ixis Naugus. Ixis forced the King to serve him to survive the Zone and he believes that he is not the rightful King. Sally disagrees and in the battle Ixis’ warriors are turned to crystal as Sonic finds a weakness to his powers, that Ixis can only affect inanimate objects and his own minions. Ixis flees and our heroes have a new enemy.

Ixis comes from the Saturday morning show and it might be interesting to see him as the new antagonist, which fans suspect the show would have done after the cliffhanger there that Snively survived and was joined by someone else we never got to see. Then the series sadly ended. The big problem with this story is the rush job. Unless you see the show, Ixis doesn’t really have time to come off as a threat. Ixis calling Sonic “quickster” is from the show in his few appearance as is his connection to the King and the Zone Of Silence, but half the comic is exposition (again) and the rest is the fight. Kodos and Uma don’t even get enough time to make it an interesting battle. Overall the story is a plot with a rushed execution for the sake of the unnecessary “back-up” story and even then there had to be a better way to introduces a show villain as a serious replacement threat. Sadly, this wasn’t it.

Overall the comic is ideas without thought put into making them work. What we get is a lot of exposition and a bit of action and not much else. This was not a good period for this title. It would be nice to see them get their acts together moving forward.