“Yesterday’s” Comic> Sonic Super Special #9

Waiting for their playdate with the Muppet Babies and Flintstone Kids.

Sonic Super Special #9: Sonic Kids 2

Archie Comics Publications (1999)

WRITER: Michael Gallagher

COLORIST/SEPARATIONS (FIRST TWO STORIES) Joshua D & Aimee R. Ray

LETTERER: Vickie Williams

EDITOR: J.F. Gabrie

“Zoneward Bound”

ARTISTS: Sam Maxwell & Harvey Mercadoocasio

“My Secret Garden”

ARTISTS: Manny Galan & Jim Amash

“Eve Of Destruction”

ARTISTS: Art Mawhinney & Rich Koslowski

COLORIST: Barry Grossman

We have three stories that go back and time to Sonic, Rotor, Tails, and Antoine as kids just as Robotnik began his conquest and sent King Acorn to the Zone Of Silence.

In the first story, our group finds one of the Power Rings while ice skating. It opens portals to different zones, sending Sally to an amusement park, Sonic to meet Robotnik while the villain searches for the Zone’s power source, and the others…I’m not quite sure. This is one huge foreshadowing of events we already know about, like the Ancient Walkers first seeing something in Tails, Sally meeting a visage of her crystalized father minus our context, and Sonic mentioning events from the Sonic arcade game…but I thought the first time he met Mighty and Ray was in later years according to Mighty’s backstory in the Knuckles comic? Continuity is already screwed up and apparently Gallagher and Penders didn’t co-ordinate Archie comic lore. Not surprising given Pender’s later actions. Meanwhile, Gallagher is still sticking Earth pop culture references into Mobius character conversations and taking the sting out of Sally’s vision of her father with a lame joke. Not much of a story, really.

The other two stories go back to a time prior to the King’s disappearance and Robotnik began his betrayal and takeover. The second story is the telling of how Sally and Knuckles met. This lacks the usual pop culture nonsense, but it still is just telling us stuff we already know, but not in an interesting way, like the disappearance of Alicia and Elias, whom Sally doesn’t know about, and that Sally and Knuckles had to hide their meetings because of Knuckles apprentice training.

One more tale, but now it’s the birth of Tails. Except this is also the day of Robotnik’s invasion. Tails’ dad learns of this and tries to take in Robotnik and Snively himself, but is grabbed by Robotnik’s new SWAT Bot and roboticized. Meanwhile, Sonic and Sally have to get Tails’ mom to the hospital to help Tails even be born. This is where I have to ask about the timeline. Sonic, Sally, Rotor, and Antoine are the same age in all three stories, or appear to be, but the first story has a young Tails while this story goes back to his birth. At least they remembered Bunnie, Amy Rose, and Dulcy shouldn’t be here yet in these stories

Overall it’s all just a bunch of foreshadowing what we already know happened, some odd art in the first story, and none of it really stands out or feels like it was a story that needed to be told. If you haven’t read this issue, you aren’t missing out unless you’re a completist. They aren’t terrible stories, just unnecessary.