INFO BURST

Format: Comic strip
Initial Release Date: 16/4/94
Feature character: Sonic the Hedgehog
Villain: Metallix
Other Characters: Doctor Ivo Robotnik, Grimer, Badniks (Troopers), Emerald Hill Folk Johnny Lightfoot, Amy Rose, Miles “Tails” Prower, Porker Lewis, Trusk, Captain Plunder, Filch, Sky Pirates
Locations: Special Zone, Robotnik’s Fortress, Mobius, West Side Island, Emerald Hill Zone, Robotnik’s Skyship, South Island, Green Hill Zone, Frozen Zone, North Cave, Sonic’ Secret Underground Base, Never Lake, Miracle Planet
Items: Chaos Emeralds, Bi-plane, Mega Drive, Time Stone, Shrinking Ray, Miracle Planet machine
Continuity: Sonic the Comic
Synopsis: Robotnik and Grimer put into action their final test of their Metallix project, successfully destroying a practice robot created to look just like Sonic. Robotnik declares that soon it will be time to begin Operation Terminate Sonic. At dawn, Robotnik’s Troopers launch a raid on the Emerald Hill Zone and arrest everyone in Emerald Hill Village as part of an effort to step up Badnik production. Sonic leads the Freedom Fighters into attack, loudly and recklessly attracting the attention of the Troopers and instantly getting the heroes surrounded. The Freedom Fighters are brought aboard the prison skyship the rest of the Emerald Hill Folk, where they meet Trusk, a seemingly high-ranking Robotnik commander who informs the Freedom Fighters the visit terminates atop Mount Mobius, where the Veg-O-Fortress is found – Robotnik’s Badnik processing plant. Sonic, however, is nonchalant, as Captain Plunder and his crew arrive in their own skyship and attack Robotnik’s forces, revealing this was Sonic’s plan all along. The pirates help the Freedom Fighters subdue Trusk and the Troopers, liberating the Emerald Hill Folk in the process. Filch and Porker share a laugh about Plunder initially wanting to get hold of the Chaos Emeralds – only for Porker to accidentally let slip the location of the precious gems. Filch gives the news to Plunder and the Sky Pirates make off at top speed as Porker is forced to break the bad news to Sonic.

Plunder and his pirates arrive at the North Cave, where Sonic keeps the Chaos Emeralds, though the Freedom Fighters have cut them off at the pass. The two sides fight one another with the Freedom Fighters more than holding their own against the pirates – until Tails swoops a little too low and ends up caught by Plunder himself. Not willing to risk Tails, Sonic permits Plunder to have the Chaos Emeralds. The pirates make off with the Emeralds and Tails thinks aloud – if Sonic keeps the Chaos Emeralds cold to prevent them from becoming unstable, what will happen to the pirates now they’ve taken the gems out of the ice-cold water Sonic had kept them in? Soon after, Sonic has Tails pilot the Bi-plane to bring him close enough to board the pirates’ skyship. To his surprise, Sonic finds the pirates have been turned into peace-loving hippies. Since he now believes possession is theft, Plunder willingly lets Sonic have the gems back. Sonic takes the Chaos Emeralds and returns to the Bi-plane, explaining to Tails that since the Chaos Emeralds absorb evil, the pirates were turned peaceful. Back in the Emerald Hill Zone, the villagers find themselves under attack from Metallix, the Metal Sonic, who demands Sonic be brought to him, claiming it is time for his extermination.

Some time later, at the Freedom Fighters’ Base, a distress call from Amy is received. She’s able to inform her friends she’s at Never Lake but her transmitter is destroyed before she can tell them anything else. With no Star Posts in the area, Sonic is forced to run to Never Lake on foot. Upon his arrival, he finds the Miracle Planet floating above Mobius – but covered in horrible machinery. Sonic finds Amy atop a rocky peak and carves steps into the rock by running up it at super speed to allow her to get down. Amy tells Sonic Robotnik intends to use the Miracle Planet as a base of operations. Sonic is then surprised by the appearance of Metallix, who hurls boulders at Sonic. Sonic fights back and the two clash wildly, with Sonic coming out on top. As Sonic is about to leave, thinking his foe defeated, Metallix blindsides him with an attack from behind. Metallix, running at thirty percent power, decides upon a tactical retreat and use of Amy as live bait, running up the chain connecting the Miracle Planet to Never Lake. Though irritated by Amy once again being captured, Sonic pursues.

Porker, Tails and Johnny arrive at Never Lake, finding no sign of Sonic or Amy. Worse, they watch as the Miracle Planet fades away, with Porker explaining the planet only appears in the same dimension as Mobius once every month, meaning they have no choice but to be patient. Sonic and Amy reunite on the Miracle Planet and Amy ponders how the planet came to be covered in machinery when just a month ago there was no sign of it. Sonic also wonders where Metallix gets, before the Badnik phases through a wall and attacks the two hedgehogs. Metallix insists that its purpose is to destroy Sonic and it will never stop, though Sonic is unperturbed, running the entire circumference of the Miracle Planet to hit Metallix with a Spin Attack. Metallix soon puts Sonic on the back foot, however, as he is able to draw limitless power from the Miracle Planet, having been made from the technology that first produced it. As things look grim for Sonic, he is rescued – by a small version of himself! The small Sonic explains he is Sonic from the future and encourages Sonic to step into a shrink ray, bringing them down to equal size. The future Sonic hands Sonic a rock, a Time Stone, and tells him to travel to the past and prevent everything they’re facing from ever happening. Metallix reboots and towers over the two Sonics, the robot now crackling with electricity at one hundred percent efficiency.

Future Sonic tells Sonic to run, assuring him he’ll figure the situation out just as he did. Sonic runs as Metallix shoots an energy beam at his future self. As Sonic continues to run, the Time Stone glows and, sure enough, Sonic is transported into the past, whereupon the Time Stone strangely disappears. Sonic finds himself on the Miracle Planet as he remembers it, verdant and untouched by Robotnik’s machinery. Sonic follows a smoke trail to find a hideous machine which seems to be growing. Now shrunk down, Sonic is small enough to fit in a hole in the side of the machine, wherein he finds the Time Stone powering it. Sonic removes the Time Stone and runs once more, with the stone now returning him to the present, where he rescues his past self from Metallix! Sonic explains to his past self that he’s him from the future and encourages past Sonic to step into the shrink ray, bringing them down to equal size. Sonic hands past Sonic the Time Stone and tells him to travel to the past and prevent everything they’re facing from ever happening. Metallix reboots and towers over the two Sonics, the robot now crackling with electricity at one hundred percent efficiency. Sonic tells past Sonic to run, assuring him he’ll figure the situation out just as he did. Sonic watches past Sonic run as Metallix shoots an energy beam at him – initially confused that nothing has changed. However, as Metallix blasts his beam, flowers go flying. Sonic watches as time re-organises itself. Sonic grows back to his normal size as the shrink ray now never existed, Robotnik’s machine never grew to cover the planet… and because of that, Metallix was never created using its technology. Metallix disappears from existence. Amy is impressed with Sonic’s efforts and looks forward to spending a month with him on the Miracle Planet before it reappears in Mobius’ skies. Sonic quips that he’s going to miss Metallix.
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
Artist: Richard Elson
Letterer: Steve Potter

Review

The final lead strip of Sonic the Comic’s first year is the point at which everything feels like the comic has settled on an identity. At this point, the shaky artwork is a thing of the past with Richard Elson easily becoming the comic’s most popular and most recurring artist – and from here, the artists who were perhaps less confident in the task of rendering the world’s most famous hedgehog are phased out. At this point, the stories have a clear direction as Nigel Kitching has ensured the vision he had for the comic came to fruition. Simply put, none of the other writers had a vision for the comic beyond a paycheque – that’s not intrinsically a bad thing, but Kitching had a belief that STC could be something more than just licensed comic. And with this story he and Elson proved it.

Of course, one of the real triumphs of The Sonic Terminator is in how easily it manages to trick the reader. After all, it’s not really a five-part story – it’s the final five parts of an eight-part story. Girl Trouble and Pirates of the Mystic Cave provide set-up for this, ensuring Sonic the Comic’s first year builds to a wonderful crescendo with what was, at the time, the longest Sonic story in the comic at five parts. Eight issues of content, bear in mind, translated to four months of issues and readers were on tenterhooks to see what would happen next. Pirates of the Mystic Cave even manages to serve as something of an interlude, but the silhouette of Metallix at the end of Girl Trouble made sure you knew there was something larger to come to tie everything together.

With thirty-five pages to play with, Elson is afforded the chance to draw all manner of scenery: Robotnik’s Fortress’ gloomy test room, the Emerald Hill Zone at dawn and red-skied evening to accompany the terrifying threat of Metallix, aboard Robotnik’s high-tech skyship, the frozen tundra of the Frozen Zone and the North Cave, Plunder’s classically piratical skyship, Sonic’s Secret Underground Base with Porker working on a huge, crazy invention in the background, the rocky landscape of Never Lake, the hideous machine world that Robotnik has turned the Miracle Planet into and the beautiful and restored version of the Miracle Planet Sonic saves. It’s an absolute tour-de-force which serves as proof of one of the very best things about Planet Mobius – it can be absolutely anything you want or need it to be as the story requires. Elson is up to the task of every single one of these scene changes. It’s clear he has a talent for drawing over-the-top-looking machinery so what more could you want from someone with that skill than to have them draw a story in which a weird machine grows to cover the planet with its unpleasantness?

Elson also delivers consistently superb work on each of the story’s notable players. At this point, he’s got Sonic and Amy down to a fine art (potentially as they largely share a skeleton from an art stance) as well as Tails, with Johnny and Porker now being so perfectly suited to their more humanoid proportions you forget they used to come up to Sonic’s torso in earlier issues because they just feel right in this form. The villain side gives us some nice treats too. Robotnik and Grimer look suitably imposing but we’re treated to a lovely bit of character design in the form of Trusk, the boar in charge of bringing Robotnik’s prisoners to the Veg-O-Fortress. It’s a real shame we never saw Trusk again after this story as he’s got such a great design, and there’s always mileage to be had in a villain who’s a turncoat to his own people – after all, an animal willingly working for Doctor Robotnik has to either be foolish or arrogant enough to think they can’t possible be expendable. But it’s Metallix himself who’s the real masterpiece. Metal Sonic sports one of the best designs in the entire Sonic franchise, and Elson realises him perfectly. However, one thing Metal Sonic is not is expressive as he lacks a mouth and his facial features never change. Elson gets around this limitation by clever use of positioning of the character and how he chooses to place the reflections on Metallix’s forehead. The right bit of light reflecting here or there can make it appear Metallix if frowning or furrowing his brow – which is remarkable as he, of course, does not really have one! As a bonus, Elson is able to play around with Metallix’s eyes, determining they’d likely not be fixed, meaning he’s able to display different things to create new expressions there – such as spirals when he’s knocked for a loop. All of this combines with superb use of body language to take a character who says almost nothing throughout the entire history of the Sonic video games and makes him every bit as expressive as the lead.

Kitching’s script, then, is quite frankly his greatest achievement on the comic’s first year and one of his best through its entire run. It’s absolutely confident at all times but never disappears up itself. This is a writer who knows exactly who these characters are, what he wants out of them and how he’s going to get it. One of the things that’s so easy to lose sight of in this story is just how funny Sonic is in it. Even as he’s fighting for his life, he’s making quip after quip. In the fact of a robot duplicate designed to kill him and who tells him he’ll never stop, Sonic sarcastically asks, “Not even if I say ‘pretty please’?” It all feels very much like Spider-Man, joking in the face of terrifying danger, and it serves as a reminder, if you’ll forgive me, that Nigel Kitching is a very funny person, a fact often overlooked by people who saw him as the “action” writer of the comic. Of course, the action is also top notch here, with plenty of great fight scenes with the Robotnik’s Troopers, Plunder’s pirates, and, of course, the main event of Sonic versus Metallix, which really has room to breathe as it spans multiple parts, with elements of the story unfolding in between.

The title of the story alludes, naturally, to The Terminator, another popular work of fiction with a time travel focus. But Metallix also owes part of his characterisation to the Daleks from Doctor Who, a comparison Kitching will lean into much more heavily in future Metallix stories. But perhaps the most interesting part of the story – and this writer’s personal favourite part – owes greatly to Red Dwarf, specifically the episode Future Echoes. Kitching had worked on Fleetway’s Red Dwarf Smegazine so his Dwarfer cred was already known. The scene with Sonic interacting with his future self, before us seeing the same scene play out with an identical page in the next issue, only this time the reader’s perspective is on the other Sonic who is now talking to his past self is a wonderful homage to a scene in Future Echoes in which Lister has a one-sided conversation with a future version of Rimmer, only for the present Rimmer to then walk in and hear Lister’s babbling – as Rimmer gives the exact same responses the future version – now in Lister’s past! – just gave! It’s mind-boggling stuff and here, as in Red Dwarf, it’s used to perfection by a writer who really had a handle on the mechanics of time travel.

Kitching also toys with paradoxes, particularly a version of the bootstrap paradox. Sonic’s future self gives Sonic the Time Stone so he can go back in time. He then does so and returns the present to give the Time Stone to his past self. So where did the Time Stone come from and go? It disappears when Sonic goes into the past but effectively goes round in a loop. But the true bootstrap paradox isn’t the Time Stone itself, it’s the knowledge that Sonic had to go into the past. He’s able to give that knowledge because he knows he has to, but he only does so because he received it already – from a version of himself who only did so because he received it already. So where did the advice come from? It’s a genius use of the comic medium to do something really fun and unique with time travel and the fact it ties into the end – something set up earlier in the story when Metallix says he was made from the technology that covered the Miracle Planet – just makes it all the more perfect. The fun thing is, it ends things on another paradox – if Metal Sonic never existed, how could Sonic have stopped him from existing? But if he didn’t stop him from existing, that means he did exist and Sonic was therefore able to stop him from existing. Hope your head’s not aching too much!

The Sonic Terminator is one of Sonic the Comic’s finest stories and it’s a testament to the skill of both writer and artist. Sonic the Comic could have limped through a few rough issues based on the title’s brand value. But thanks to creative minds that wanted it to be so much more, it thrived, concluding a first year much more strongly than it began and laying the stage for several more to come.