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Sonic Super Special #8
Archie Comics Publications (1998)
EDITOR: J. F. Gabrie
This one is an anthology issue, with four stories. So we’ll be zooming through these.
Zone Wars: Prelude
WRITER: Dan Slott | PENCILER: James Fry | INKER: Bob Wiacek | COLORIST: John D. Ray | LETTERER: Jeff Powell
Thanks, Jeff. If you let Vickie Williams letter this story as well I’d have one less credit I’d have to type out each story. As for the story, Dan must have watched too much Sailor Moon and wanting to create a new version of Access. Sonic is attacked by an amalgam of Robotnik and Queen Beryl (look, I know the TV dub and that’s probably what he saw). Luckily, Zonic the Zone Cop brings along Sally Moon and Chibi Amy to bring her back, with some help from Tuxedo Knux. Yeah, I don’t know why Tuxedo Mask wasn’t Sonic either, unless you factor in Sonic’s ego. I’m actually okay with this part of the story, dumb as it is.
What gets me is they drop a retcon bomb and explain that Zonic actually sent Sonic to all those other zones because he’s a Zone Cop and needed the Prime Sonic to help right issues in those zones. Wouldn’t the video game Sonic be Prime Sonic, in the same way that in the Ninja Turtle multiverse the first comic was the Turtle Prime reality? Did we need an outside force really behind Sonic’s various trips across the Cosmic Interstate? It kind of takes the fun out of it, really.
Running On Empty
WRITER: Roger Brown | PENCILER/CO-PLOTTER: Nelson Ribeiro | INKER: Jim Amash | COLORIST: Frank Gagliardo | LETTERER: Vickie Williams
Sonic tells young Amy (this is before the video games defined the character we know today) about the time Snively booster Sonic’s superspeed so much that he started aging rapidly and couldn’t control his speed. I know Snively isn’t too bright but even he is tricked way too easy into activating the reversed ray and restoring Sonic to normal, and I’m not sure how that gave him his youth back. It’s a good story, and Sonic gives Rotor credit where it’s due in saving his life.
Den Of Thieves
WRITER/PENCILER: Frank Strom | INKER: Jim Amash | COLORIST: Barry Grossman | LETTERER: Vickie Williams
This is a Monkey Khan story, as he finds a village under attack by thieving ninja bats and offers to help. The two he meets think he’s a blowhard but soon learn he can at least back up his boasting when he defeats the ninjas’ dragon robot. Is it sad that the best story in the Sonic comic is the one minus Sonic?
Ghost Busted
WRITER/ARTIST: Jay Oliveras | ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Pat Alec | COLORIST: Frank Galiardo | LETTERER: Vickie Williams
“Ghost Busted” is a filler short in episode 206, “Fed Up With Antoine” of Sonic SatAM (watch here if you want). Told from Tails’ perspective in this version, he is on a camping trip with Sonic and Antoine to learn tracking skills when something scares Antoine, who believes he saw a ghost. (Neither version shows us what he actually saw.) Later that night, scary stories give Tails a nightmare and he wakes up seeing his own ghost, though the comic is wise not to call him the headless gopher when he’s neither headless nor a gopher. Turns out Antoine sleepwalked into some fluorescent plants. The art is not very good as it doesn’t quite resemble the comic or cartoon styles. Everyone is too thin and tall, and they somehow made a short even shorter.
overall
The Monkey Khan adventures is the only really interesting one in the whole comic. I thought Zonic was going to be the framing device for the story but he wasn’t, meaning the “Zone Wars” prelude is leading to something in another comic. Frankly, the Monkey Khan story isn’t worth the whole comic to me. They aren’t bad stories, and the last one is the only one with remotely bad art, and even then it’s more the clashing style than the art itself. They’re just not ones I found particularly interesting.
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