I’d bother making a joke, but I just can’t get interested in any of this.
Knuckles The Echidna #27
Archie Comics Publications (August, 1999)
WRITER: Ken Penders
LETTERER: Vickie Williams
EDITOR: J.F. Gabrie
“The First Date” part 2: “Who Wrote The Book Of Love Anyway?”
PENCILER: Chris Allan
INKER: Andrew Pepoy
COLORIST: Frank Gagliardo
Mighty The Armadillo: “Those Were The Days”
ARTISTS: Manny Galan & Andrew Pepoy
COLORIST: Barry Grossman
In the main story, Knuckles tries to sneak out of the restaurant before being caught by Julie-Su thanks to Archimedes butting in, something discussed back at Haven. After overhearing Vector rag on Julie-Su again he goes off on the crocodile. He considers talking to his mom, but finally decides to just go for it and asks her out. Julie-Su, not his mom.
Fully disclosure: I’m in kind of a sour mood while writing this, but while the words are harsh they are genuine. I just don’t care. Not because nowadays so many of the superhero stories are now this kind of romance stuff, but because this whole “soultouch” thing is just an excuse to not have to properly make a connection between Knuckles and Penders’ original character, something that doesn’t even matter when Penders left and underwent a legal battle to take all his ideas with him. I have nothing against trying to get Knuckles a girlfriend, but this isn’t how you do it.
In the back-up feature, Mighty does more reminiscing as we learn Fiona is Nic’s partner in finding whatever it is they’re looking for. Mighty remembers when he and Ray tried to stop the guards from taking Fiona but failing. A beat-up Sonic manages to get Mighty the key to his cuffs, but that’s all the flashback for this story. In the present, our trio finds offline robots of the Freedom Fighters and the vault they’ve been searching for.
So I guess this is where Robotnik made the fake Fiona to fool Tails, which Penders now wants to be a real fox for some reason. I don’t think anybody really cared about this character in years, and Mighty clearly doesn’t know about Tails’ encounter with the Fionabot. I’m glad he’s finding a way to get Ray out of obscurity and part of the cast, but did we need Fiona?
Overall, I can sum this up in three words: I don’t care. The main story is a forced romance (and does this mean Knuckles’ mom had the soultouch with both her current fiancé and Locke?) that will end up screwing the comic over later, and the back-up, while more interesting, has an unnecessary element that keeps me from really getting into it.
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