INFO BURST

Format: Comic strip
Initial Release Date: 4/9/93
Feature character: Sonic the Hedgehog
Villain: Doctor Ivo Robotnik
Other Characters: Johnny Lightfoot, Miles “Tails” Prower, Porker Lewis, Omni-Viewer, Doctor Ovi Kintobor
Locations: Mobius, West Side Island, Emerald Hill Zone, Special Zone
Items: Retro-Orbital Chaos Compressor, Chaos Emeralds, Kinetic Gyratoscope, Flying Egg
Continuity: Sonic the Comic
Synopsis: Sonic brings his closest friends – Tails, Johnny and Porker – to the Special Zone to meet the Omni-Viewer, a living gateway through time, able to show instances from the past on his screen-like face. Sonic has Omni-Viewer show the others the truth about Doctor Robotnik and how the heroic hedgehog got his powers. Omni-Viewer shows a montage of events from the past, including Sonic’s first meeting with the friendly scientist, the gangly and scatterbrained Doctor Ovi Kintobor. Back at this time, Sonic was a brown hedgehog with a pair of beaten-up trainers and quills aplenty. Kintobor’s greatest invention was the R.O.C.C., the Retro-Orbital Chaos Compressor. Having tracked down six of the Chaos Emeralds, Kintobor used them to power the R.O.C.C., a machine designed to absorb all the evil on Mobius. Without the seventh Chaos Emerald, however, the R.O.C.C. was terrible volatile. Kintobor ended up testing the limits of Sonic’s speed using his Kinetic Gyratoscope and a pair of friction reducing trainers he gifted to Sonic, the Power Sneakers. Breaking the sound barrier, Sonic’s spines fuse together and he’s turned into the cobalt blue form he sports to this day. Sonic enjoyed spending time with Kintobor, until one fateful day when the doctor went to make something for the pair to eat and found he’d forgotten to go shopping, leaving only a rotten egg in the fridge. Kintobor crossed the lab, rotten egg in hand, but failed to notice a length of cable trailing across the floor. Tripping over the cable, Kintobor fell into the R.O.C.C.’s control panel, which short-circuited, resulting in the R.O.C.C. exploding. The evil energy stored in the Chaos Emeralds combined with the rotten egg and Doctor Kintobor, turning him into his dark opposite, the rotund and cruel Doctor Ivo Robotnik. The story over, Omni-Viewer warns Sonic and his friends to get away but it’s too late – Sonic, Tails, Johnny and Porker are all transported into Omni-Viewer’s face. Doctor Robotnik gloats at his victory – as master of the Special Zone, he controls Omni-Viewer and has had Sonic and his friends flung into the future where he can’t interfere with his plans.
Notes: This story is directly based on the backstory used in the Sonic Bible and Stay Sonic.

CREDITS

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

Review

The Origin of Sonic is the only story in Sonic the Comic based on an existing Sonic the Hedgehog story (outside of the Sonic video games, naturally). Of course, the first time this backstory was seen was in the 1991 promotional comic produced by Sega of America for the original Sonic video game, though that backstory was dropped almost immediately by Sega’s American arm. In Europe, however, things were different, an early sign of the disjointed way Sega’s different local divisions operated almost in defiance or ignorance of one another. British Sonic fans, in particular, were well versed in this particular tale, with it basically being common knowledge to any self-respecting Sonic aficionado back in the day. Of course, any good comic needs origin stories and this seven page adaptation of the Kintobor backstory into Sonic the Comic’s pages is a lovely take on the tale.

Of course, writer Nigel Kitching doesn’t just take the story wholesale without adding anything new. Instead, it’s presented in a framing device, specifically that Sonic has the Omni-Viewer show his friends the events of the past. It means the comic doesn’t have to do an out-of-continuity flashback early on in its run, but also allows for a greater setting of the scene elsewhere, which will pay off in the following issue. At the story’s climax, Sonic and his friends are flung into the future and Robotnik is left to pursue his ambitions of world domination. With a cliffhanger like that (the first true cliffhanger in the comic’s run), how could any reader resist picking up the following issue?

Richard Elson’s art shines once more with some scintillating, dynamic panels, giving Sonic and his friends exciting poses and framing the action with perfectly chosen shots and angles in a manner that would impress a high-budget film director. Seeing Doctor Kintobor’s appearance defined properly on the page is lovely but the best panel in the piece has to be Robotnik’s unveiling as he towers over Sonic, his clothes in tatters, smoke filling the room and pure, seething hatred etched on his face.

Kitching also finds the opportunity to elevate two of the lesser characters in the comic to series regulars. Johnny Lightfoot and Porker Lewis will become important part of STC’s DNA from here on out and Kitching takes the time to inform their personalities, even though they have almost no dialogue in the tale itself! Johnny’s eagerness to leap into action is displayed as impatience in the opening scene and Porker’s defining nervousness is set up immediately. In a way, it is almost a shame the two personalities weren’t flipped as Porker, thanks to his nervous stutter, has been subject to confused comparisons to Porky Pig in more recent years (and, let’s face it, rabbits are nervous creatures by nature!), but it’s honestly difficult to imagine the two being done any differently than what we got.

It is clear by this point that Nigel Kitching had grand designs for Sonic the Comic and this strip proves he couldn’t have asked for a better creative partner than Richard Elson.