INFO BURST

Format: Comic strip
Initial Release Date: 12/6/93
Feature character: Sonic the Hedgehog
Villain: Doctor Ivo Robotnik
Other Characters: Badniks (Buzz Bomber, Chop Chop), Animal Friends (Sally Acorn), Miles “Tails” Prower
Locations: Mobius, South Island, Green Hill Zone
Items: Power-Grip Trainers, Flying Egg, Robofox Exoskeleton
Continuity: Sonic the Comic
Synopsis: Still on the search for the missing Tails, Sonic returns to the Green Hill Zone to find Robotnik has raided it and kidnapped everyone who lives there, save for one frightened rabbit. Sonic has come prepared, however, with some new power-grip trainers he’s trying out. Taking out some Badniks, Sonic eventually encounters Robotnik, finding he’s equipped Tails with a robotic exoskeleton and has brainwashed him to join the Badnik Army. Sonic and Tails briefly fight and Robotnik gloats about what he’ll do with Sonic out of the way, attacking Sonic in the Flying Egg. Hearing Robotnik’s cruel words brings Tails to his senses and he launches a Spin Attack at the Flying Egg, sending Robotnik packing and breaking the exoskeleton in the process, freeing Tails from Robotnik’s control. Sonic lightly teases Tails but finds to his dismay his new shoes have been wrecked, though he decides he doesn’t need special shoes to be awesome. Sonic and Tails head home.

CREDITS

Writer: Mark Millar
Artist: Woodrow Phoenix
Letterer: John Aldrich

Review

Yes, that Mark Millar.

This is probably as good a time as any to bring up a fun piece of trivia all Sonic the Comic aficionados love: Mark Millar wrote all of his STC scripts in a fortnight to pay for his wedding. And good for him, frankly, no judgement here! But, as a result and as one might imagine, there’s not quite the level of planning or polish one would expect from one of Millar’s works for DC or Marvel. Robofox is a clear indicator of this right out of the starting gate.

As with the previous story, the small page count isn’t maximised and we lose an entire page to Sonic smashing Badniks. That in itself isn’t exactly a sin but it has no real bearing on the story and an extra page to let things breathe would have really helped. As things are, we see Robotnik and “Robofox” (he’s never actually referred to that in the story!) for three panels setting up the impending encounter with Sonic – and then that encounter happens three panels later. Tails, under Robotnik’s control, gives Sonic a beating and a verbal dressing down then two panels after that he begins to come to his senses. It’s all so rapidly paced that nothing ever really gets the opportunity to land.

If the art in the previous issue wasn’t very good, this is somehow a step down. Sonic and Tails are almost never anything close to on-model and while it’s certainly true that Sonic the Comic never made a push for a “house style” (very much to its credit), what we end up with here is a series of deviations almost too far. He’s blue and he’s spiky so he’s definitely Sonic, but he doesn’t look right, particularly as he changes size between panels. Unfortunately, it’s not just the leads who look odd as the scenery and pretty much everything else in each frame is oddly messy too. It’s certainly possible these stylised takes were used in the early issues to give Sonic a “cartoon” feeling but what we end up with looks very rough around the edges and, dare I say it, almost amateurish and rushed in places. One certainly doesn’t get the impression some of the comic’s early artists envisioned it being a long-time gig.

There’s a strange edginess to Millar’s Sonic (what a surprise, I hear you cry) as he unironically leans into the character being exactly as cool as the promotional material says. The problem is Millar falls into the trap later STC writers would avoid, which is not realising that the writer has to be cool for the dialogue to work. As it is, Sonic comes across as tryhard, like a teenager who thinks he’s brilliant when he’s not got a clue, and nowhere is this better exemplified than in the panel where he puts on a pair of sunglasses and announces, “I sort things out.” It’s just a bit naff, really.

There’s a silly little gag about the famously rubbish and cheap British soap opera Eldorado towards the end of the strip that’s become a running joke in STC fandom but I mind it so much. It’s a joke that would have made sense to a reader in 1993 and, while it dates the piece and seems out of place on Mobius, one can forgive it as there was no indication we’d be discussing these strips decades later. Mind you, perhaps if more of the writers in STC’s early days took the approach of making the comic so good that we would, then we wouldn’t be picking fault with the bits that seem so randomly tossed together.

Two issues in and things are still not looking great for STC.