“Yesterday’s” Comic> Sonic The Hedgehog #64

He’s still upset that his season of the Sat AM show was canceled.

Sonic The Hedgehog #64

Archie Comic Publications (November, 1998)

COLORIST: Ken Penders

EDITOR: Justin Gabrie

“In Search Of…”

WRITER: Karl Bollers

PENCILER: Steven Butler

INKER: Pam Edlund

LETTERER: J.P. Money

“On His Majesty’s Secret Service”

WRITER/INKER: Ken Penders

PENCILER: Art Mawhinney

LETTERER: Jeff Powell

Sonic and Tails track Ixis Naugus to the southern tundra and finally confront him. They barely manage to hold their own against Ixis’ elemental powers when Sonic sees what he thinks is Tails under attack from what Ixis calls an “abominable snow bot”, though he looks more like a yeti cyborg. All the fighting, or possibly whomever is restarting all those satellites, causes an avalanche, and the yeti, Eddy, brings Sonic and Tails to his actual master, an “overlander” (aka human) named Nate Morgan, who knows Sonic’s father, Jules. Ixis manages to hide in Eddy’s flamethrower, declaring Nate the key to taking over Mobius!

What they got right: Sonic has matured, as he tries to get Tails to not give in to fear as Ixis has used fear as a weapon previously. The fight is okay. Not great, but okay. This isn’t supposed to be the final battle.

What they got wrong: Either Sonic isn’t the best at motivational speeches or the dialog is actually that clunky.

In the back-up story, Geoffrey’s team is finally given their mission, but Sally is still out of the loop and still angry about it. Possibly because the mission involves the queen and their son, Sally’s previously never mentioned brother. When they couldn’t get to Knothole during the Overlanders’ final attack on Mobotropolis, the King had them escorted by Geoffrey’s father to their residence on the Floating Island. With new evidence concerning the convoy’s attack, he’s sending Geoffrey’s team to find out what happened to his queen and heir.

I can see why he wouldn’t want Sally in on that in case there’s more bad news. Without Ixis’ influence he’s stern but fair. It’s not a bad plot. We’ll pick up this story in an upcoming issue of Knuckles The Echidna.

What I think overall: I’d say I’m curious to see how Nate factors into this but this being my first rereading I already know. Realizing I’ve never been interested in returning to this series for the most part is making me wonder if I really enjoyed it or only got it as a semi-continuation of the Sat AM show that I actually enjoyed. I did drop out of this twice, but I also picked it up twice during the Archie run, not returning after the last drop except for some Free Comic Book Day offerings. It’s been going up in the Clutter For Sale section over at The Clutter Reports so at the very least this readthrough is not as much fun for me as it was before.