INFO BURST

Format: Manga chapter
Initial Release Date: June or July 1991
Feature characters: Sonic the Hedgehog
Villain: Doctor Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik
Other Characters: Animal Friends (Cucky, Picky, Ricky, Rocky, Pocky), Badniks (Crabmeat, Caterkiller, Newtron, Orbinaut)
Locations: South Island (Marble Zone, Spring Yard Zone, Star Light Zone, Scrap Brain Zone)
Items: Prison Egg Capsule
Continuity: Sonic the Hedgehog Story Comic
Synopsis: Fresh off his defeat at the hands of Sonic, Doctor Eggman begins rounding up Sonic’s animal friends and putting them inside his Badniks, robots designed to attack Sonic. Sonic finds his friends mysteriously disappearing but, with a little help from Picky, is able to follow the trail to Eggman, overcoming the traps the devious doctor has left across the planet and releases the rest of the captured animals.

CREDITS

Writer: Currently unknown
Artist: Currently unknown

Review

The second chapter of Sonic Story Comic picks up not too long after the first part. Eggman is, as one might well surmise, back to his misdeeds and now enacts the plan for which he’s known best- capturing Sonic’s Animal Friends and cramming them inside robotic exoskeletons. Perfectly normal behaviour, right?

If the first chapter provided the backstory, this chapter provides proper context for what’s going on in the first Sonic the Hedgehog video game. The story focuses on Sonic encountering his first Badnik and learning that Eggman is capturing his friends to convert them into his mechanical minions. Sonic, of course, springs straight into action, knowing he has to bust open as many of the robots as he can to free his friends. And, just as simple as that, the reader has full understanding of not only what they need to do in the games but why they need to do it and how the situation arose. Okay, admittedly, Sonic 1 is so intuitive you can probably figure out all of that for yourself anyway, but regardless of that, it’s nice to have a little story to go along with it, isn’t it?

Sonic is given quite the showcase this time around, with lots of lovely expressions and poses for him to really show off the strength of the character design on display. On top of that, we get to know Sonic a bit better as a character than we did in the preceding part, with another example of the heroic hedgehog being willing to leap straight into action as he learns of Eggman’s fiendish plan. This is followed up immediately by a moment of comedy as Sonic realises almost immediately he has no idea how to find Eggman without a little assistance from the recently freed Picky. This complements what we know of Sonic very well and it makes him a hero who is so quick to act that he doesn’t think things through.

The real spotlight in this chapter, however, are the Zones of Sonic’s first 16-bit outing. This time, we’re treated to the Marble Zone, Spring Yard Zone and Star Light Zone (with the rest to follow in the third chapter). It’s established that the level hazards are thanks to the influence of Doctor Eggman rigging each Zone with traps, which is a neat way of marrying a story concept to gameplay mechanics. The one down side to this global tour is that the transition from one Zone to the next is less than seamless, with the action simply smash-cutting to the next scene before fully tying off the preceding one.

The art remains as nice as the previous chapter, though panel layouts and framing ensure your attention is drawn to the environments over the characters in many scenes. This is a perfect choice for a chapter which focuses on the Zones Sonic must traverse and would have served a perfect purpose for the target readers at the time, as if to whet their appetite and entice them to traverse these locales for themselves in the game.

Unfortunately, Eggman is dispatched even quicker this time than he was in the first chapter, with Sonic taking him out in a single Spin Attack. Granted, the low page count means you have limited options for fight sequences, but it’s a shame the encounters between the hero and villain are so quickly over.

As a continuation of the previous part, this one is more than up to the task, hopefully exciting potential readers to check out Sonic’s game and explore his world for themselves. That we also get some lovely comedy from Sonic that helps characterise him is a real bonus.