“Yesterday’s” Comic> Sonic The Hedgehog #96

“I’ve got something in my teeth.”

Sonic The Hedgehog #96

Archie Comics Publications (June, 2001)

COLORIST: Frank Gagliardo

EDITOR: Justin “J.F.” Gabrie

“The Messenger”

WRITER: Karl Bollers

PENCILER: Nelson Ribeiro

INKERS: Pam Eklund & Jim Amash

LETTERER: Jeff Powell

Knuckles: “The Chosen One”

WRITER/INKER: Ken Penders

PENCILER: Ron Lim

LETTERER: Vickie Williams

Sonic left Kodos outside the hospital but of course he won’t admit it, much to Geoffrey St. John’s annoyance. In school, Mina approaches Sonic for help controlling her superspeed when a Shadow Bot invades the school with a message from Uncle Chuck that Robotnik no longer has the Sword Of Acorns. Before the message finishes, St. John disables the robot and takes it away. Sonic is going to get his answers, whether St. John likes it or not, while Sally tries to find a way around him to meet with her friends.

Any positive I could have for this story is both lost in the parts of the story I’m missing and that Geoffrey St. John has not only regressed in character but become a total scumbag. He chides Sonic about not having seen Sally, clearly tries to coax her not to see her friends, disables a robot clearly leaving a message about the Sword and Chuck, and is just a jerk to everyone. In the past I didn’t like him but at least understood his motivations. Now I despise him, which is not just a regression of his character but an outright trashing.

In the back-up, Athair convinces Merlin to unlock Tails’ “Turbo Tails” identity to try to reach Knuckles, but the crazed echidna tries to attack Merlin. Turbo Tails stops him from attacking his uncle, and there’s going to be a fight. Again, there is so much detail I’m missing here that I’m confused as to what’s going on.

Overall I just didn’t like this issue, and it all boils down to Geoffrey St. John. He was starting to get better but now he’s actually worse than he was and he just brought down the whole story for me. He’s petty, obnoxious, and I hate him even more than I did before. What happened to him? Does this make sense in story or did Bollers just really want to make him look like the worst person possible?