INFO BURST
Format: Comic strip
Initial Release Date: 30/4/94
Feature character: Kintobor Computer
Villain: Doctor Ivo Robotnik (seen in flashbacks)
Other Characters: Emerald Hill Folk, Animal Friends (Sally Acorn, Chirps the Chicken, Tux the Penguin), Sonic the Hedgehog, Badniks (Buzz Bombers, Moto Bug, Splats), Marxio Bros. (Chicio Marxio, Grouchio Marxio, Harpio Marxio), Porker Lewis, Johnny Lightfoot, Miles “Tails” Prower
Locations: Mobius, South Island, Green Hill Zone, West Side Island, Emerald Hill Zone, Sonic’s Secret Underground Base, Doctor Robotnik’s Laboratory, Special Zone, Robotnik’s Fortress, Casino Night Zone, Miracle Planet, Swampland Zone, Death Egg Zone, Frozen Zone, North Cave
Items: Time Stones, Chaos Emeralds, Ring, Egg Mobile, Death Egg Robot
Continuity: Sonic the Comic
Synopsis: The story’s narrator tells us of Mobius, its many Zones and the people who live there. They give special mention to Sonic the Hedgehog and Doctor Robotnik. The narrator continues, telling us of Robotnik’s bases of operations and how he rules over Mobius by co-ordinating attacks with his Badniks and his minions, such as the Marxio Bros. The narrator tells us about the Miracle Planet and the six Time Stones, which Robotnik has plans to find and use to control time itself. The narrator laments that Robotnik is choking the planet under his evil influence but the people of Mobius know that one day Sonic will bring the end of Robotnik’s evil empire. And how does the narrator know so much about Mobius? Because they are Doctor Kintobor! Well, sort of. The narrator reveals themselves to be the Kintobor Computer.
The Kintobor Computer tells us what happened in the aftermath of the events seen in the past sequence of The Origin of Sonic. Robotnik fled the lab to plan his conquest of Mobius. Meanwhile, Sonic called in Porker Lewis to help him unravel a technical problem – a Ring was talking. Porker worked out that the ring contained the brain patterns of Doctor Kintobor and used it to create a holographic interface for the Kintobor Computer. Porker enjoyed going through Kintobor’s devices, but soon disappeared. A trio of Badniks attacked Sonic and Johnny Lightfoot, leading to Sonic successfully testing out his Spin Attack on them – and freeing Porker from one of them. Porker explained he’d been captured by Robotnik, who was intent on taking over Mobius. The Badnik problem proved to be great indeed, with Badniks capturing Mobians all around the globe. However, as Robotnik had no memory of his former life as Doctor Kintobor, Sonic was something of a surprise to him, leading to Sonic being able to deal with the Badniks, capture the Chaos Emeralds before Robotnik could and see him packing (as seen in Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit)). But Mobius’ problems didn’t end there…
The Kintobor Computer then tells us what happened after Sonic’s first victory over Robotnik. The Chaos Emeralds were brought back to the underground laboratory that would become the Freedom Fighters’ base but began to give off radiation. Without warning, the emeralds disappeared in a blast of energy – a blast which Sonic took the full force of. Sonic turned a glowing yellow colour, his eyes a pair of spiral swirls and burst through the roof of the laboratory – Sonic had become Super Sonic for the first time. The Kintobor Computer explains that if the Chaos Emeralds are kept together, they grow unstable, resulting in an energy surge which warps them back to the Special Zone. Sonic eventually turned back to normal and landed in the Swampland Zone. Here, he overheard a cry for help and saw two tails sticking out of a nearby swamp. Sonic was forced to pull the stuck animals out one at a time but was unable to save the second animal. Fortunately, it turned out there was no second animal, for both tails belonged to the same fox – appropriately enough, nicknamed Tails! Tails then joined Sonic as Robotnik reappeared, having created the Death Egg and his mighty battle armour, the Death Egg Robot. Sonic and Tails were once again able to push Robotnik’s forces back (as seen in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16-bit)). The Chaos Emeralds were taken to the North Cave in the Frozen Zone, where the arctic conditions ensured they remained stable and also put anyone off ever visiting to chance upon them… until Captain Plunder made a move for them, that is…
Notes: The story asserts Emerald Hill Zone and Green Hill Zone are both on South Island. Given this clashes with larger Sonic canon, we have elected to list South Island and West Side Island separately above.
CREDITS
Writer: Nigel Kitching
Artists: Mike Hadley (black and white) & John M. Burns (colours)
Letterer: Ellie de Ville
Review
With Sonic the Comic’s first birthday looming, Nigel Kitching delivered this story, which retells elements of Sonic’s backstory from series documents which had not yet been turned into comic strips in STC’s pages, ties them together neatly with the video games and then adds in new, original material for good measure.
Reception to the earliest issues of Sonic the Comic had been mixed, with negative comments in other video game publications about the quality of the storytelling and artwork. Some of this was, frankly, justified. But with a writer who gave a damn about the storytelling opportunities, Sonic the Comic was quickly becoming something better. With a growing audience who may have been turned off by the initial shaky, juvenile scripts many issues of the comic offered, to say nothing of the art, Kitching clearly recognised not everyone reading Sonic the Comic got in on the ground floor. This story is a perfect way to bring everyone up to speed and give a few new tidbits to those who had been loyal readers since day one.
Let’s face it, everyone loves a good origin story in comics. Sonic’s and Robotnik’s are a classic bit of comic silliness that all sound terribly silly until presented with earnestness that the readers buy into. This story, then, is very much in the same vein – a lot of the details of the backstory of Mobius and its most famous inhabitants seem outlandish or silly, but when you present them authoritatively it all works in context. A lot of elements in the story perhaps don’t even need explaining – Super Sonic is a gameplay mechanic, did he require an on-page explanation? No, but it’s adds to the story. Tails could just as easily have been another of Sonic’s animal friends without the story of their initial meeting, but knowing how that meeting went down adds to the story. None of this is meaningless, dull lore for the sake of it, like a po-faced wiki page explaining how the individual circuits on a fictional spaceship work. Sonic became Super Sonic because of twist of circumstance and now he has to carry that awful weight with him – that’s characterisation. Sonic saved Tails’ life and now Tails practically idolises him – that’s characterisation. None of this is spelled out on the page, it trusts the reader to be intelligent enough to piece it all together.
Mike Hadley’s line art is clear and bold and John Burns’ colours bring them to gorgeous, vivid life. Hadley clearly has a much greater confidence in drawing the Sonic cast at this point than he has in previous stories, with a much greater level of consistency in the artwork. Here, he manages to balance the cuter elements of some of the character designs with the cooler aspects. On top of that, there’s a much more exciting use of panel composition and layout, plus an overall improved direction of movement. Burns’ colours combine with this to give an impression we’ve stepped into a Sonic cartoon series.
All in all, this first Sonic’s World series is a great look at Mobius and some of its secrets. It’s almost a shame the series would later become more of a spotlight for the Freedom Fighters as the boundless world of Mobius has unlimited scope for storytelling. As it is, this ends up being a solid piece of Sonic backstory both told and drawn with real confidence and belief in itself.
 RAVES |  GRAVES |
| Nicely fills in some narrative gaps! | The story ends abruptly and leaves you wanting more! |
| THE VERDICT | RANK |
| A perfect jumping on point for newcomers back in 1994 – and a handy refresher for the rest of us! |  |
The Kintobor Computer 