INFO BURST

Format: Comic strip
Initial Release Date: 21/8/93
Feature character: Sonic the Hedgehog
Villain: Badniks (Aquis)
Other Characters: Miles “Tails” Prower, Red, Super Sonic, Animal Friend
Locations: Mobius, West Side Island, Oil Ocean Zone
Items: Bi-plane
Continuity: Sonic the Comic
Synopsis: Sonic and Tails arrive in the Oil Ocean Zone where fire chief Red and his men are having difficulty putting out blazes in the Zone. Red hopes that Sonic will be able to get into the Zone’s control room and deactivate all the traps Robotnik planted there in the past. Things progress smoothly to begin with, but Sonic is soon attacked by an Aquis Badnik, who manages to take him by surprise. Ending up caught in the oil, Sonic is powerless to stop the Aquis from igniting it, seemingly burning Sonic alive. However, rather than being killed, Sonic emerges from the blaze with a golden yellow hue and red swirls for pupils – and a nasty demeanour. Tails explains to Red that this is Super Sonic, a form he saw Sonic take once before when he absorbed too many Rings. Tails notes that Sonic has no control over his alter ego’s form. Sure enough, Super Sonic makes short work of the Aquis, but things take a radical turn for the worse as Super Sonic then turns his attention to the prisoner freed from the Badnik casing. Tails and Red confront Super Sonic and Tails tries to reason with him, reminding him that Sonic came to the Oil Ocean Zone to help. Sonic’s reverts to his regular, blue self and he ascertains that when he was in mortal danger in the oil, he must have tapped into the energy of the rings he collected over the years. Now back to normal, Sonic returns to the task of deactivating the traps, managing to make the Zone safe in just five minutes.

CREDITS

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

Review

At last, the final piece of the puzzle for Sonic the Comic’s first year. Richard Elson’s art in this story is a wonderful breath of fresh air greeting the reader as they open the comic. In his first story for STC, Elson proves beyond a shadow of a doubt his mastery over layouts, dynamic posing, expressions, framing and just generally drawing excellent renditions of the cast and locations. For many Sonic fans, Elson belongs in the discussion of upper echelon artistic talent to ever draw Sega’s spiky speedster. What’s perhaps truly remarkable is just how quickly he achieved it.

Of course, Elson’s art alone isn’t the sole reason this story is held in such high regard by Sonic the Comic readers all these years on. Nigel Kitching delivers a twist on Super Sonic that is truly interesting and, more than that, a real hook for the readers to latch onto. Kitching came up with the idea of having Super Sonic be out of control when he played Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16-bit) and found Sonic’s super-powered transformation was more slippery than he would have liked, literally proving difficult to control. Kitching decided to take this to the extreme: what if Super Sonic was completely uncontrollable, invincible and, worst of all, every bit as vicious as Sonic is good?

The real master stroke of the story, of course, is in the reveal. The title of the piece obviously gives away to a tenured Sonic enthusiast that Super Sonic will, naturally, be a feature in the tale. Kitching allows anticipation to build up, not having Super Sonic show up until page five of seven so the reader can get good and excited for his appearance – and then Elson gives us that huge panel with Super Sonic practically bursting off the page, a snarling grin and the manic, swirling eyes, indicating that something is very wrong indeed.

Giving Sonic a Jekyll and Hyde style transformation was a bold choice back in 1993 and it’s one rarely repeated by the series, arguably in part because it was done so well in Sonic the Comic that anything else would invite unfavourable comparison. Suddenly, the readers are presented with a real dilemma: Sonic can tap into remarkable power, but should he do so he becomes worse than the bad guys he faces. The risk is, of course, too great and takes what was a reward for skilful play in the Sonic video games and turns it into a horrifying punishment.

If there’s one problem with the story, it’s that things are wrapped up rather quickly and comfortably on the last page. Super Sonic doesn’t feel particularly dealt with, Tails just sort of talks him down. But perhaps that’s okay. After all, Super Sonic resides within our lead hero – he can never truly be dealt with. Later stories would build on the Sonic/Super Sonic dynamic to much better effect and get a lot more out of the villain, but this works as an exciting introduction to the character.

Sonic the Comic would go on to get so much more mileage out of Super Sonic and he is, arguably, the comic’s most famous facet. This story hooked the readers and made a clear statement: this version of Sonic was going to stand out from the others. And it was going to look tremendous and be wonderfully written while doing so.