“Yesterday’s” Comic> Sonic The Hedgehog #98

“I thought Sonic Free Riders wasn’t for a few games yet.”

Sonic The Hedgehog #98

Archie Comics Publications (July, 2001)

COVER ART: Patrick Spaziante & Harvey Mercadoocasio

COMPUTER COLOR PAINT: Josh D. Ray

EDITOR: J.F. Gabrie

“Sonic Adventure 2”

WRITER: Karl Bollers

PENCILER: Patrick “Spaz” Spaziante

INKERS: Harvey Mercadoocasio & Nelson Ribeiro

COLORISTS: Patrick Spaziante & Nelson Ribeiro

“When Shadow Awakens”

WRITER: Ken Penders

PENCILER: Ron Lim

INKER: Ram Eklund

COLORIST: Fran Gagliardo

LETTERER: Vickie Williams

I half expect the credits to be longer than the review. I haven’t played Sonic Adventure 2 so I don’t know how well the adaptation side goes. I just know the basic premise of the game, partly because it also showed up in Sonic X and some of you saw it in the third movie that I haven’t seen yet. A speedy hedgehog steals a Chaos Emerald in Station Square, so the military is sent to capture Sonic. Though they eventually do, he manages to break out of the plane over Station Square.

There isn’t much to summarize because outside of Sonic’s fight with the military not much happens. Most of the story is told through narration, like a bad cutscene. Sonic’s capture is where we left off in his story last issue.

The back-up story sets up the history of the game. Robotnik’s grandfather (on his mother’s side to explain why Professor Gerald’s last name isn’t Kintobar or Robotnik) created something called Shadow, which he hoped could lead to curing his daughter. The military, however, wanted Project: Shadow for a weapon and decided to take it by force. (I hate when stories do that unless they’re some unapproved shadow faction…no pun intended, and I’m getting tired of unapproved shadow organizations, too.) We know they’re evil because when the girl, Maria, attempts to help Shadow escape she’s gunned down as they target Shadow and miss. Shadow is captured off-panel while Gerald is forced to work for the military. Suspecting betrayal, they opt to just kill him off, but Gerald lost his daughter, and has a weapon in space that will be the instrument of his revenge.

Like I said, the evil military group trying to turn everything into a weapon and kill people without reason is getting old. Was Station Square secretly evil this whole time, or was this the Overlanders, which haven’t been shown to be particularly evil, just xenophobic when it comes to the intelligent animals of the planet. The “United Federation” doesn’t fit into the story as adapted previously.

Overall, the back-up is okay but the presentation is rushed for the main part of the adaptation. Again, I haven’t played the game or watched a playthrough so maybe the game makes the same mistake. I’m just not really charged for the adaptation or the game after this, and the comic is going back to the usual ongoing storyline, so this could have been a separate comic like the first Sonic Adventure adaptation, though at least in that one we actually see the full game adapted. All we get here is a preview advertisement for the game breaking into the story. If you like the game this might be a good comic, and the price it lists at over on Comic Book Realm (where I get my prices for the Sonic comics being sold over at The Clutter Reports‘ “comics for sale” area of the “clutter for sale” section) reflects that. If you’re into the comic story, however,  this is a distraction.