INFO BURST

Format: Comic strip
Initial Release Date: 18/9/93
Feature character: Sonic the Hedgehog
Villain: Doctor Ivo Robotnik
Other Characters: Omni-Viewer, Miles “Tails” Prower, Johnny Lightfoot, Porker Lewis, Badniks (unnamed tank Badniks, Troopers), Animal Friends (Joe Sushi, unnamed dog)
Locations: Mobius, West Side Island, Emerald Hill Zone, Emerald Hill Village
Items: Egg Camera
Continuity: Sonic the Comic
Synopsis: Omni-Viewer returns Sonic, Tails, Johnny and Porker to the Emerald Hill Zone. Sonic doesn’t understand how Omni-Viewer was able to comply with Robotnik’s orders and yet let him and his friends go but Omni-Viewer excuses himself and returns to the Special Zone. Before Sonic can ponder any further, however, a pair of huge tank Badniks arrive, blasting laser cannons at the group. Sonic’s Spin Attack proves ineffectual but he’s able to trick the two Badniks into shooting one another to pieces, freeing some of his friends who were trapped inside. The freed animals are shocked to see Sonic, having thought he’d died when he vanished six months ago. Johnny realises what Omni-Viewer has done: Robotnik’s orders to send Sonic into the future have been complied with to the letter, but not the spirit. Omni-Viewer has sent Sonic six months into the future, where he’ll hopefully be able to put things right. Sonic and his friends rush to Emerald Hill Village, where they are dismayed to find it has been completely overrun and subjugated by Robotnik’s forces. Sonic rescues a villager from a Trooper Badnik, learning to his delight he can really open up on the Troopers as they’re purely mechanical and there’s no risk of hurting a prisoner trapped inside them. Sonic smashes the Troopers and spots flying camera shaped like an egg, correctly surmising it is capturing footage of him and transmitting it to Robotnik. Sonic vows to rid Mobius of Robotnik once and for all but Robotnik has bad news for Sonic: in the six months he was unopposed, he conquered Mobius and now rules it.

CREDITS

Writer: Nigel Kitching
Artist: Richard Elson
Letterer: Elitta Fell

Review

With this story, Nigel Kitching completes his bid to become the de facto head writer for Sonic in Sonic the Comic. While Kitching wouldn’t end up truly holding that position for a while yet, still having to share page space with other writers from STC’s early days (and, naturally, later with fellow Sonic the Comic legend Lew Stringer), it was now completely obvious he was the one driving Sonic’s adventures forwards. Back to Reality sets up STC’s most iconic and perhaps most beloved period, the backdrop of Doctor Robotnik ruling over Mobius. This would be the driving force behind years of storytelling for the comic. Kitching had correctly realised that it would be all-but impossible to create long-term story opportunities for the comic if Robotnik and his Badniks were routinely dispatched in seven pages. By completely putting Sonic on the back foot, in a seemingly unending battle, the options that become available are almost immeasurable. Sonic can still win but Robotnik remain a threat as long as he retains his seat of power as planetary dictator.

The twist that Sonic has been sent forward in time six months comes as a shock to the reader in no small part to its cleverness. Omni-Viewer has, almost paradoxically, managed to at once obey and defy Robotnik and the end result is a huge surprise, particularly against the backdrop of the idyllic Emerald Hill Zone. Robotnik hasn’t converted it to a mechanical wasteland, he’s merely stuck up some banners in the village and got Troopers on patrol, so the reader is able to be completely thrown when things seem initially to be absolutely fine for the first few pages, only for the big reveal that the worst possible thing has happened to the planet. The following escalation that not only has Robotnik conquered the Emerald Hill Zone but also the globe is a huge revelation to end on and, as with the previous issue’s cliffhanger, surely pique the interest of any reader. How could Sonic possibly get out of this one?

As with previous issues, Richard Elson’s art is gorgeous here, with plenty of dynamic action shots readers had now been looking forward to see him deliver. After the dingy Oil Ocean Zone and the bizarre Special Zone, it’s nice to see Elson’s take on the verdant, beautiful Emerald Hill Zone. That he’s then able to follow that up with a Badnik design that wouldn’t look out of place in an issue od 2000AD is all the more exciting. Elson truly excels at drawing overblown sci-fi machines and the tank Badniks are a great early indicator of that. The Trooper Badniks go on to become one of Sonic the Comic’s most iconic elements and their design here, while not quite finalised (their faces would receive slight alterations and their proportions would be lengthened a little to make them tower over Sonic and his friends) are wonderful pieces of almost mechanical grotesquery.

Sonic the Comic now had a perfect backdrop upon which to tell exciting stories. Nigel Kitching’s vision for the comic was paying off immediately, and would continue to do so for many years to come.