“Yesterday’s” Comic> Knuckles The Echidna #32

“That’s not how you use the starter’s gun! What kind of race is this?”

Knuckles The Echidna #32

FINAL ISSUE which I didn’t learn until a week later because nothing in the comic points to it unless I missed it

Archie Comics Publications (February, 2000)

WRITER: Ken Penders

COLORIST: Frank Gagliardo

LETTERER: Vickie Williams

EDITOR: J.F. Gabrie

“King Of The Hill” finale: “To The Death”

PENCILER: Ken Penders

INKER: Harvey Mercadoocasio

Espio The Chameleon: “The Worst Of Enemies”

PENCILER: Colleen Doran

INKER: Andrew Pepoy

Knuckles and Monk try to make the best of their head start, Knuckles leading them to the underground Hydro City. Knuckles comes up with a plan to beat the Hunter at his own game, but Monk is killed during the attempt, and the pain of the collar causes Knuckles to unleash primal powers due to his connection to the Chaos Emerald, taking the Hunter down. He’s put into an underwater prison pod by Locke, but he’s only biding his time until he can free himself and cause new trouble.

What they got right: Conceptually this is an interesting premise. Knuckles and an old enemy forced to worth together and get over their past differences, at least temporarily, against a greater foe.

What they got wrong: In practice it’s sadly weak. I think it needed another issue to really get the drama going. Instead it’s too short, victory comes out of nowhere, Monk’s death ruins any potential as a Knuckles foe that isn’t his own kin, the dingoes, or Robo-Robotnik, and the end result is just anti-climactic.

Meanwhile, Espio is forced to lead Valdez to the Chaos Emerald, but he leads them to his own sewer system trap. Failing to reach what remained of the old Valdez, Espio is forced to drown the roboticized chameleon and then sneaks past his forces to rescue the others. This was only the first round and Espio has to warn everyone Robotnik is back, though he’s not in on the details of events of the main comic.

It’s still a weak climax, but it’s better than the regular one. Once again an underground water city is the key to victory, and that’s twice in the same comic. In both stories the character are also stretched really long for some reason. Seeing how long the Archie Sonic comics were on model, seeing them come off lately is off-putting and confusing, especially how these artists worked on those books.

What I think overall: Good ideas badly executed, good characters tossed aside, and weak to boring endings. This was not a great issue.