Issue 137
Editor-in-Chief: Richard Goldwater; managing editor: Victor Gorelick; and, for the first time, I can say, “Editor: Mike Pellerito”.
Cover
Pencils—amazingly, according to Mike P., the pencils are by Spaz! Quite a different style for him! Also, a different style of coloring… the Freedom Fighters look 2-D in a 3-D world! Odd… but it actually doesn’t look too bad…
I guess that must be Spaz’s sig. there in the corner, but it looks different, too! (At first I thought it said “A. Ray”. Yeah, right!)
Frontis
Penciled by J Axer, colored by Jason Jensen.
It’s… the return of Cyber Sonic, the Terminator-look-alike Hedgehog! Er, well, maybe not…
“The Tommy Trilogy” Part 3: “Robo-Dyne Systems”
Written by Romy Chacon, penciled by Steven Butler, inked by Jim Amash, colored by Jason Jensen, lettered by Jeff Powell.
Sonic, Tails, Antoine, Bunnie, Rotor, and even Sally—-the Freedom Fighters are back in action. With Romy writing them, they feel like the old crowd (even if Bun & Ant and Sonic and Sal aren’t all lovey-dovey), and with Butler drawing, they look like the old crowd, too (despite the new outfits and whatnot). Amazing—it’s like the old cast in the new situation… I hope this is Mike P.’s doing, and a sign of things to come, not just a fluke…
So, the FF, flying the FFS2, head through old Megaopolis, toward new Megaopolis. Along the way, Sonic has time to mention he’s surprised Sal joined them in the mission, after their argument. Sal says Tommy was her friend, back in Mobotropolis—she doing it for him. (She also mentions that they ran off without telling the King—explaining how Sal managed to get out at all!)
This is a nice touch—it makes the story feel much more like part of the ongoing story, rather than a leftover from pre-125. It’s interesting, too, that although this is all mentioned in one short conversation, unnecessary to the overall plot of the chapter, it doesn’t feel out of place (and it’s lettered in the same style as the rest of the story). Either Romy put this section in herself, or Mike’s much more subtle with his continuity editing than Scott or Justin ever were.
…As the FFS2 flies into new Megaopolis, I can’t help but stop to admire the art. With Butler’s designs, and Jensen’s colors, the city is truly a sight to behold…
The Freedom Fighters disembark (and there’s some great characterization as they do so, BTW), and head into the city, where they find that “Robo-dyne” is mass-producing “Infiltrators” (or, to use Robotnik-Prime’s term, Auto-Automatons).
Falling into old, familiar patterns, Sonic and Sally venture into the heart of the complex, to rescue Tommy. …Meanwhile, the others plant bombs to blow up the facility, only to face robotic duplicates of Sonic and Sally themselves! (Too bad we didn’t get to see them put to more diabolical use! Of course, I’m assuming there aren’t any other infiltrators in place yet!)
Sonic and Sally grab Tommy in the nick of time, the others trash the Son/Sal duplicates, and Tails shows up in the FFS2 just in time to give them all a ride out, just before the bombs detonate.
And so, all’s well that ends well. (At least until they try to explain their reckless actions to the King, and Tommy’s survival to the fans!)
Wow. I give the story an 8 out of 10 (points lost for Tommy’s apparent survival, and for being part of an inferior trilogy). As for the art, a perfect 10! This is Butler and Jensen at their best—a true feast for the eyes!
“Mobius 25 Years Later: Trouble in Paradise”
Written by Ken Penders, penciled by Steven Butler, inked by Jim Amash, lettered by Jon E. Workman, colored by Jason Jensen.
In two parallel stories, Sonic and Sally, and Knuckles and Julie-Su fret about the upcoming get-together, and how Sonic and Knuckles will manage to get along…
In addition to this, Sonic’s having a mid-life crisis: he’s been thinking about how he really isn’t cut out to be King (even after 17 years!). Meanwhile, Knuckles is worrying about the Rotor and Cobar’s predictions of doom.
We get our first look at Manik since Sally’s vision of him in SSS11, and learn he isn’t a teenager, quite yet. (He’s even missing a tooth, just like Sonic in “Sonic Kids”.) He also wears sneakers much like those Sonic does in the more recent post-Adventure games, except, they’re gold.
As for Sonia, it’s as if she isn’t even there—she’s only in one panel, near the end, and most of her is off-panel... (I can see, however, that she wears purple boots and a purple jacket, and presumably nothing else.)
Story: 6 out of 10. (The alternating story gimmick is jarring, there’s no good explanation for Sonia’s camera-shyness, and J-Su’s mention of Manik not yet being a teenager seems to come out of the blue…)
Art: 8 out of 10 (Butler does another great job, but Abby looks more cartoony than she should, and I would have thought he’d have been able to sneak Sonia into the story sooner. Nothing special from Jensen.)
“One Part Ooh-La-La, and Two Parts Treachery!”
Written by Romy Chacon, penciled by Al Bigly, inked and lettered by Michael Higgins, colored by Jason Jensen.
Ant finds an old letter from Bunnie, which reminds him of an earlier crush, a cat named Tatiana, who was more attracted to Sonic in the good old days.
Story: After many years, real time, we learn what Ant was referring to in the Image Crossover special when he uttered the title phrase of this story. Whatever.
Art: Blech! 3 out of 10, or worse! What we have here is a sever mismatch of talent. I can tell Mr. Bigley is a talented artist (even if all his characters have the proportions of anorexic humans…). But Higgins’ inking is far too sloppy for Al’s pencils—it makes it look like the entire story was scribbled rather than drawn. And as for Jensen’s coloring… I guess he put all his effort into the first story, and none into this one. In any case, as sometimes happens, his shading is so over-the-top that everything looks shiny—yet another visual distraction to this already hard-to-look-at story…
Sonic-Grams
And we have a new look! (Been a while!)
Mike intro’s some of the changes in the comic, and shamelessly plugs the new “manga-style” Sabrina comic.
Off-Panel
Written by Mike Gallagher, penciled by Dave Manak, colored by the Art Department.
We get our first look at Mike, as get all hysterical when Archimedes (remember him?) brings some relatives over to visit Archie Studios…
Final Thoughts
Well, except for Ant’s story, this certainly reads a lot better than most recent issues. In a way, it felt like I was finally reading more of the old pre-Adventure Sonic comic again. Very nice. Now, if Mike can keep this up… |
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To Me it was like a breath of fresh air, I mean we got to see (after all this time) the Freedom Fighters the way we know and got to know them, as a team that likes to presevre their freedom and the freedom of others, like Tommy. What we also got to see was a new version/improved version of the old Robotnik automations now called "The Infiltrators", which in the story can fool anybody, I mean two of them disguised as Sonic and Sally almost fooled Bunnie, Rotor and Antione, except Rotor noticed the Fake Sally wasn't wearing Nicole on her shoulder, which made them realize this wasn't the real Sonic and Sally.
But in the end the did save Tommy and also destoryed the Infiltrator factory.
Overall this first story was 5 stars/smily faces (*****) ( )good!
The highlight for me was when Sally swung down on a rope and saved Sonic from being electrocuted, saying, "Hope you don't mind being saved by a girl".
And the quote for me was when Sonic said, "It feels good to have the Ol' Sal back coming up with strategic plans on the fly again." I couldn't agree more!
Now on to the second story, which was pretty good, When got to see Manik and Sonia (towards the end)for the first time, and they look just like Sonic and Sally when they were teens and kids, except Manik missing a tooth, and Sonia is wearing a purple jacket, boots and some kind of T-shirt or something I can't tell.
We find out a little bit more from Sonic and how he doesn't like to be king, because it's a whole new ballgame.
And Knuckles finally tells Julie-Su the whole truth about the weather sitution, and how he's not being told the whole story from Rotor and Cobar, and that it scares him that possibly except for Rotor and Cobar, that no one knows how dangerous the weather sitiution really is.
Overall I give this story 5 (*****)stars.
Now on to the third story, which is a flashback almost back to after issiue #50, we find out that Antione's first ooh-la-la is returning to Knothole and that her name is Tatiana, he then tells Bunnie about he and Tatiana's past, we then the present/teenage Tatiana comes up and embaces Antione, but Antione tells that his heart no longer belongs to her, but to Bunnie, then he and Bunnie take a walk towards the ring pool, when then to present (#137), Antione sees Bunnie walking past his hut with a little bit of a sad look on his face, but then he tears up Bunnie's letter he was reading (after #50)and contuies to pack for his trip with the King and Queen.
Overall I give this story 4 1/2 (****)stars.
But I still believe Antione and Bunnie will indeed get back together, it's just a matter of time.
And that is my personal review of Sonic#137.
What's yours?
God Bless You All!
-Brian Walmer |
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THE TOMMY TRILOGY: PART 3: ROBO-DYNE SYSTEMS
The Freedom Fighters are flying to the OLD MEGAOPOLIS Island in the FFs-MkII.
A new one is stretching northeast to the island, ending on a penninsula. Sally
comes along because it turns out she is also a childhood friend of
Tommy's as the Freedom Fighters are out to rescue him. Antoine lands on the
rooftop of one of the buildings. After landing, Antoine decides to tag along
with Sonic, Sally, Rotor, and Antoine. Tails has to protect the plane so they
can escape. After Nicole calculates the best route to take to find the Robo-Dyne
factory, Sally spots SAWT-Bots and appearant Mobians disguized Robians to be
infiltrators. The FFs need to quietly go right. As they do, they see a huge line
of infiltrators being made. Sally suggests that they take out the infiltration
but Sonic's here for Tommy and can't get distracted by infiltration. Sally and
Sonic get into an argument an argument on their views. Sally says she takes
full responsibility since it's her call, but it's also Sally's concern
to make sure this don't put tommy in bigger danger, which Sonic seems to only
cares about. Their arguing activates the SWAT-Bots, who then attack as Rotor
electrocutes the floor and Sally swings on a rope Tarzan-style and grabs Sonic
to prevent him from being fried. they then go off to find Tommy. Nicole hacks
the system to locate where Tommy is. Sonic dashes with Sally where Sonic knows
to go. They end up with Rotor and Bunnie, but they're infiltrators! Antoine
and Bunnie take them out with little effort while the real Sonic and Sally find
Tommy and take out the Bot about to trash him. Rotor contacts Sally as telling
her to beat it or get blown. Bombs are everywhere! Sonic, Sally, Nicole, and
Tommy are on the move already. As they are caught by Bots, Teiresu comes by
in the FFs-MkII and creates a smokescreen to delay the attackers long enough
to eacape. They head aboard the plane and the new harbor blows up. Everyone
welcomes Tommy back, but it's not over yet! They still gotsta explain ur'rthang
to da' King and that'll be heck!
Well, that was a rather enjoyable story. I saw no flaws in the art, story, or
dialogue at all! There are a few surprises to go as well like the infiltrator
Sonic and Sally. The frontpiece in beautifully illustrated as well! There were
no flaws period! A perfect story with perfect art by Buttler and Amash! The
cover is the single most beautiful peice or art I've ever seen in a Sonic comic
ever!!!!!! You'll just have to see it to believe it!
MOBIUS: 25 YEARS LATER: TROUBLE IN PARADICE
King Sonic's still not willin' to go along the trip with Sally and the others.
It's ride for a King to do so. It's cause Sonic is holding an old grudge with
Knuckles, who happenes to be cranky after being awakened by Julie-Su just 'cause
she wants Knuckles to experience what it's like to be unable to sleep .
Sonic, Sally, and their son, Manik, find a seat and take off. Manik is too
impatient on the trip and can't stop asking when the trip'll end. Perhaps he
shoulda brought his hanhelds. Of course, who knows what handheld gaming'll be
like in 3161? Knuckles is not too happy to know that the King is coming. Seems
like neither of the 2've gotten over the grudge. Sonic's questioning
himself on how he's gonna be a worthy King. Sally's been born in royalty, unlike
Sonic. Knux starts to talkabout the lightning in the sky getting the feeling
that Rotor and Cobar aren't telling the whole story behind the weather. Nobody
know what it is but J-S is willing to face it together with Knuckles as a
family. What about Laura? Sally says the kingdom needs Sonic the most but Sally's
keeping it shut, forcing Sonic to hear from Knux. The Hedgehogs arrive at the
Echidna's, with Lara unhappy since Manik's with them. TO BE CONTINUED!
Not much in this story, but a god way to start things for the next story. I
personally can't waitta see what'll happen between Lara and Manik. Speaking of
whom, he's not who you think he is! He looks like Sonic only more literally
devilish. If I'm correct, then he has a sister names Sonia(seen at the left
side of the last page). I'll have to see later. More outstanding art by Butler
and Amash with no flaw. In all, decent but not outstanding.
ANTOINE De' COOLETTE in: ONE PART OOH-LA-LA, AND TWO PARTS TREACHERY!
Alright! Finally, another back-up with Antoine! Though they gave an "e" after
the D in the title. Ant's plannin' a speech for some assignment. Antoine then
recieves a letter thanking him for what happened with "Titiana" the other day.
Antoine remembers that the letter refers to when him and Bunnie were starting
their relationship. It's been alot of years as Antoine seems to have a feeling
about Bunnie. I've no Idea what's going on but it should be explained soon.
Bunnie comes in Antoine's hut, startling him to peices! Antoine be forced ta
jump out da window an' hide in a bush. Not very successful. Bunnie finds him,
not know ing what's goin' on. She says it can't hurt to know. Here's the scoop:
what Auintie was a kid, he was with this other girl named Tatiana. He calls her
his "first ooh-la-la". As he begun telling Tatiana his story, Sonikku comes by
and sarts to ruin it by making him look like a hero and Ant a zero. With this in
hand, Ant had to take the romance up a notch before it was too late. Antoine, with
flowers ready, went to approach Tatians. It was too late. Sonic had completely
stolen her from Antoine, who then never saw her again leaving his broken! Ant
lets Bunnie know that Titians was coming back for one day to visit and was afraid
that it'd offend Bunnie to let her know there was someone else. She arrives
behind Antoine, who lets her in on the painful truth of him and Bunnie. He's
officially Bunnie's. Unlike Titiana, Bunnie actually cared about
Antoine. Thanks to that, he's no longer afraid of his fears of falling in love.
Bunnie gives him the strength he currently has. Very meaningful! This must be
what made him what he currently is in the issues as he's no longer the Antoine
you all knew. Antoine finishes the letter an rips it up getting back to what
he was doing before. Peraps a letter to the king as h inted in the story's start.
I didn't really enjoy the art in this story, reminds me of Lim's old art(mostly
Sonic). On the other hand, I finally get to see another back-up with Ant! I'm
not into this love stuff at all for various reasons, but the end with Ant and
Bunnie was handled like they really meant it. Story was disapointing sadly,
by the art and thoug I don't do the love stuff, it was handled deently in the
middly and better in the end. 3 rings. An OK issue, but outstanding only on
the main story. |
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COVER: I love the new style. Kudos to Spaz, once again. Sonic looks almost Sonic X-ish
ROBO-DYNE SYSTEMS
This is the first time we get to see the Freedom Fighters in action on a mission since Sonic returned from outerspace. It's neat to see how their "new" personalities go into play.
I don't know what Chacon was doing with Bunnie's accent. "Ra-ight"?
Sally looks real good.
I thought Rotor wasn't in the field anymore? Oh well. No complaints!
Specifics:
p.1 I love the inset of Sonic grinning on the first page.
p.2 "Ain't ain't a word, Tails."
p.3 Sonic's double-take seems to serve only to point out the obvious. Tails looks so grown-up in the last panel!
p.5 Tension galore! Bunnie and Ant, Sally and Sonic. Poor Rotor in the last panel, he looks like he could throttle the lot of them.
p.6 Sally numbers their maneuvers, but they all seem the same to me...
M25YL: TROUBLE IN PARADISE
Our first glimpse of King Sonic!
I like the parallel stories format.
Specifics:
p.2 The first of many allusions to an incident "last year"
Manik's wearing SOAPs!
p.3 Sonia doesn't seem to be on the plane...
p.4 76 degrees doesn't sound to me like the weather is so freaky...
Ooh la la, Julie-Su in a towel.
p.5 Sonic reveals that what's been bothering him is--something we've known for a long long time.
p.6 It seems that even though the King and Queen got over their fight of 25 years ago in #134, they're still having the same problems.
p.8 We finally see Sonia, well, half of her. Next time: When worlds collide!
ONE PART OOH-LA-LA, AND TWO PART TREACHERY
It was a bit hard for me at first to realize that a flashback was going on. The only sign of the flashback is little bubbles at the corner of the panel. I was terribly confused at first.
Specifics:
p.1 Antoine may have a new attitude, but he's still one for writing speeches!
p.3 Bunnie looks terribly out of proportion on this page
p.6 Sheesh! Who drew Sonic here? Ron Lim? Oh that Sonic, he's such a playboy!
p.7 A wistful look at Bunnie walking by, and then he tears up the letter...
-Hawk- |
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| This is it, folks. Part 3 of the Tommy Trilogy. After looking at SPAZ's thoughtful and moody cover I had hopes this saga would recover, and Axer's sinister frontispiece strengthen my belief. But upon reading the story, I was soon disappointed...
It wasn't the art that let me down, of course. Steven Butler delivered fantastically in that department (aided by Jensen's rich colors and Amash's detailed inks). The images of Antoine and Bunnie working together managed to convey feelings of tension and hurt, while at the same time hinting at regret and wistfulness. Sonic and Sally ran a gamut of emotions as well, and their bickering (though less dramatic than WB's SLAP! in issue 134) seemed very natural. It was the WRITING that felt out of place. Continuity went out the window from the start- why was Rotor there? Granted it was amusing to see him roll his eyes whenever Sonic/Sally or Ant/Bunnie would squabble, but the fact remains that he's RETIRED and shouldn't be going on missions anymore. PERIOD. Also, the pacing is very abrupt, I was unclear as to how they were able to make Robo-Sonic and Robo-Sal appear so quickly. It was never explained how long it would take to make the fake "skins" and whether or not they needed a model. I had assumed a model was required, and that however was making the robots needed to capture Sonic before he could make a copy of him, oh well. This is just what I've come to expect from Romy Chacon, plothole after plothole. Speaking of plotholes, Antoine's story was so full of errors I'm not even gonna TRY to list them all. And M25YL is still plodding along, slow as ever. The best part of this issue turned out to be the letters section, I'm loving the new design. Can't wait for next issue when WB's art returns! Comic's Overall Score: C- |
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Sonic The Hedgehog#137 Reviewth...
COVER:
The new style done by SPAZ is actually refreshing. The many I know in terms of artists trying to imitate the style of the Sonic Adventure Art usually ends up failing. Infact, the only one I know who seems to have mastered it is Kojichao who’s art is very much like those in SA and SA2. SPAZ obviously decided to go this route when he decided to draw, ink, and color everything by himself. In many ways, he has succeeded. The medium lines, the two shades per color, the fluid looks, and even the eyes. I don’t 100% feel like it IS SA/SA2 art, but that’s probably because I haven’t seen enough artwork of the SATam/Archie cast looking like the way they are now. Still a valiant effort and certainly a step up from last issues which was pretty boring. Nice dark colorings in the background which looked liked “normal” SPAZ work in the previous issues (kinda creates a bit of unbalance), and a huge spotlight surrounding Tommy Turtle like he’s dying in front of an audience; overall, decent cover.
8/10
FRONTIPIECE:
Showing Sonic partially robot in a lightning background which is a bit inappropriate since there is no storm to begin with throughout the first story. Nice lighting and shadowing though. Nothing terribly exciting, but the red is nice touch.
6/10
ROBO-DYNE SYSTEMS
WRITER: Romy Chacon
ARTIST: Steven Butler
INK: Jim Amash
COLORIST: Jason Jenson
The regular FF teams we’ve all known and loved back in the SATam there have finally rejoined since-well, I lost count, but they rejoined enough to fill nostalgic in ol’ SATam eyes, difference being the outfits they wear. They’re all color heavy as the majority are green, but Tails is somehow a brilliant magenta. Slightly disappointed to see Amy Rose is NOT in the story, but I bet Ms. Chacon was trying to stick as close to an SATam story as possible. If it were Bollers, I’d bet ya that little pink hedgehog would be tagging along. And apparently, Ms. Chacon was trying to keep it as realistic as possible by making Bunnie speak with a “real” Southern accent. Unfortunately, it just raises confusion in my head and I had to have read her speech like three times before I finally understood what the hell she said.
And also by “old” FF means Sally and Sonic are tagging along. Her reasons is because Tommy was her friend. *shrugs* I’ll give her that for now. The FF team enters and lands on a rooftop and commands everyone to follow except Antoine until he makes his argument known and gets Tails to babysit the jet plane, a task the little fox is non too happy about.
Sally uses Nicole to find the best route inside while Sonic talks about his uncle, who apparently, did the REAL work around by helping him get this far. They get to the missions afterwards where Sally spies robots, robots, and more robots. Oh, joy. So, they decide to sneak in, with Bunnie and Antoine at it again. It’s a time out for you guys! Once they get closer, Sonic, Rotor, and Sally finishes each other sentences upon seeing infiltrators, a crapload of them. So, the plan is changed: Save Tommy AND stop robots. Just another day, eh?
Sonic disagrees with Sal’s action and they break into an argument. Do I need to put you two in a separate room!? Their argument stops when Shadowbots comes, so they fight and fight and fight some more, including the princess rescuing the hero which is probably the only time we’ll ever see something of that sort happen in this comic. Sonic and Sally leaves to find Tommy, leaving the others to their death bed by letting them fight the rest of the Shadowbots or whatever. Some friends they are, not even telling them where they’re going.
The next three panels shows narrations done for Sonic and Sally. No offense, Chacon, but it could have be done WITHOUT them, because we can TELL by the pictures just what they’re doing. We ain’t blind. I find it necessary pointless.
Going back to the others who end up seeing Sonic and Sally again. Sally comes close enough to Bunnie to tell them her plan, only to be interrupted by party pooper, Rotor who notices she doesn’t have Nicole. It’s Sonic ENDGAME ALL over again (when fake Sonic didn’t have his backpack which real Sonic did).
Scene switch to Tommy who’s about to die a burnt death by a Shadowbot before Sonic slices the robot in two. Tommy is surprised. You’d be to if you were near your death bed and about to die a bloody death, then was saved by the hero of the comic.
Back to the rest of the FF team whom they found out that Sally and Sonic are infiltrator robots. How? Because the two are trying to kill the FF team. Antoine cuts robot Sonic’s head off and Bunnie thrashes robot Sally until she breaks apart. It’s pretty evident now that these robots are built to look like whoever they’re to look like, but not possess their abilities. In #28, Sonic manage to kick all the normal FF team’s butt, even Bunnie and she’s the one with super strength.
Scene switch to Sonic, Sally, and Tommy who is free now. Tommy bows, but Sal prefers a hug and considering her issue with Sonic, it seems that’s the most romantic she’ll ever get to anyone at this stage. They then get an urgent message from Rotor who tells them to meet on the roof before the bombs he assumedly installed goes off. So, after more fighting and running, the gang is surrounded. Of course, since this is a comic and everything turns out alright for the heroes, Tails luckily comes down with the jet plane and flies them to safety before the bombs go off. Tommy is back, the sun is setting (or rising), and we have another pointless character to worry about or not, depending on your taste for Tommy.
STORY:
Okay, I’ll admit. Out of the three part Tommy Turtle trilogy, this one was the best and that’s saying a lot considering #136’s uneven story and #135’s bored fest. At least this has some action to keep me from being completely bored. But seriously, the story is still unimpressed because of one fact: I don’t care about Tommy freakin’ Turtle. One of the reasons stories get read good reviews from me is if 1.) the story IS intriguing enough or 2.) They have characters I care about. This story was neither. Tommy never appealed to me (except #117 in which he “died” an honorable death). It was a total rush and pointless. I mean, the whole Sonic/Sally robot is unnecessary at best. We could have seen a scene where Rotor and the other FF teams place the bombs so that the explosions in the last page is better executed, but no, we get some cheap fillers of robot Sonic and Sally fighting the others when they get killed in a heartbeat.
The narration in page 7 featuring Sonic and Sally was also pointless. We can SEE what is going on, we don’t need a narration. How pointless is that?
Not to mention Chacon tries to fit in the whole SATam feel to it. Simply adding the SATam FF cast doesn’t automatically make it SATam-ish. Especially since the characters are NOTHING like the SATam they were in the past. If you want classic SATam done right, read the main story of #76 which is executed brilliantly in my opinion. This just felt random. And please, Ms. Chacon, make Bunnie speak right again or at least make the speech more understandable then adding apostrophes in every random word. Honestly.
5/10
ART:
I admit that Jenson’s coloring is a bit bright, but overall, the artwork is decent. I do have to agree with Mr. Drazen in that the artwork is too small for the characters. They can barely show nothing BUT their heads in each panel. And when they show their whole body, it’s crowded. I don’t blame him. Ms. Chacon probably wrote a lot more then she intended to.
8/10
M25YL: TROUBLE IN PARADISE
WRITER: Ken Penders
ARTIST: Steven Butler
INK: Jim Amash
COLORIST: Jason Jenson
Now HERE’S a clever approach. Two different scenes, split in two, actually, one of King Sonic (still makes me cringe because that dude is wearing a freakin’ tiara), and Queen Sally, and Knuckles and Julie-Su who wakes up her dear husband while Sonic complains (which he will be doing for the rest of this story, thank you very much).
Sonic basically talks of how much he hates Knuckles and with his current status as King, the job he hates. Sonic, you should have thought of that AFTER you married Sally. Looks like someone needs to be smacked with a baseball bat to regain some sense into them brains of youse. Well, at least he ain’t no deadbeat dad. He values family over royalty. Where’s HIS father of the year award? Oh, and he rags on to his annoying son, the annoying Manik, who brags on and on about the royal life (forget that father of the year award now). Then he goes back to complaining so more, seriously making me wonder WHY he married Sally if he knew he was going to hate the King job. At times likes these, I’d call for a break-up before marriage. They arrive to Angel Island where Sonic rings the doorbell with his “happy” face on (Sonic’s grin is mainly his happy face in many situation), despite him complaining about Knuckles from earlier. Oh, and Manik continued to be more annoying, while tapping his foot in classic SATam/AsoTH Sonic-style.
Knuckles’ side deals with Julie being worried (her woman’s instinct must be kicking in) and waking up Knuckles because of that (I am STILL very curious as to WHY they wear their gloves to bed? Even if they wear it all night, is it really necessary? I know they don’t shower in gloves, I’d be even more freaked out). Then Julie gets more worried and Knuckles doesn’t seem to give a hoot, even if it’s seeing his wife, wet, with a towel wrapped around her. That’s enough to get any male echidna to come running through their door with promises to her to the trip to the Promise Land if she married anyone of them. Then, Knuckles changes the subject (when Julie started to talk about Sonic), about the strange weather they had. Then, the doorbell rings, Abby insults, Julie yells, Knuckles (assumedly) yells for his daughter to come down, and Lara (seeming to have PMS) refuses. Some mid-life crisis.
STORY:
I give points, major props and points for making the story split in two. Very innovative. But that’s the only thing I liked about the story. The rest was awful. Sonic complaining about his life? Mr. Penders must obviously care greatly for the Sonic/Sally pair that he made Sonic suffer. All he does IS complain. How Sally puts up with him, I’ll never now. Too much complaint can’t be a good marriage, can it? I’d be one on a way ticket to the divorce train if my husband thought our marriage was crappy. Yeesh, some way to live life. The speeches don’t cut it in for me either. I have NEVER heard an adult there age say terms like “bizaaro” or “let’s get real” or “Yeah, right”. Most of these came from Sonic’s mouth. Granted, this IS Sonic we’re talking about, but seriously, he’s over 40, can’t Mr. Penders at least make him SOUND like an adult? They obviously failed on making him look like one (more on that in the art section). And Manik-ugh-he annoys me already. It’s a shame we never hear Sonia speak. Heck, she’s halfway edged out of this darn comic, and Lara doesn’t even get a look.
6/10
ART:
This was isn’t so crowded as the other story, but a reason can be is that the panels mostly have two people complaining to each other. I personally was happy that Butler manage to make a dress for Sally instead of her blue vest and boots which Queen Sally had on before, but the question remains, WHY isn’t Sonic changed? All he has is a tiara, but he looks like his 16 year old counterpart. At least add some wrinkles underneath his eyes (he already looks mighty stressed, probably because he was complaining so much), or some clothes, maybe. You’d be surprised how much difference that can make. I don’t care what others say, this irks me to no end. Other then that, good artwork as usual.
8/10
ONE PART “OOH-LA-LA and TWO PARTS TREACHERY
WRITER: Romy Chacon
ARTIST: Al Bigley
INK: Michael Higgins
COLORIST: Jason Jenson
Antoine’s love story I’ve been expecting comes up and just as I imagined, it’s nothing like I imagined. Basically, Antoine practices with his sword, finds a love note from Bunnie from a while back, then we get flashbacks, flashbacks, flashbacks of Antoine’s first love with some-er-cat creature thing named Tatiana (what a bizarre name), Sonic being a joke (and looking like Ron Lim drew him), and going back to present day (actually, it’s still the past because Bunnie has her “old” outfit on), where Antoine explains that Tatiana is coming back and she does, looking like-well, a slut, for lack of better words, which is a far cry from her “cute wittle girly dress” she had on when she was a young’un. How times change. Any who, after hugs are exchanged, Antoine dumps her (despite them not even being a couple), and walks away with Bunnie, while Tatiana looks on with eyes half closed and mouth open like she just got drunk off of something. NOW, we cut to the present where Antoine, after reading the letter from Bunnie in the past, rips it up and goes back to his duties.
STORY:
Wha-? Sorry, but the way Romy made the time line was a tad bit confusing, though I manage to get it. For some reason. Romy doesn’t make Bunnie speak in a nonsensical language like she did in the first story. Somebody in the Archie office must’ve told her to cut it out, so she made Bunnie speak normal again AND understandable, too.
When I read this, I was NOT expecting this kinda story. I was expecting a story of Antoine’s struggle with Bunnie, and while it was mentioned, it was hardly emphasized, and instead replaced this issue’s most random character of the issue. Even for a 6 page, this story was rushed to great extent and hastily done. I can only imagine the guys at Archie during the meeting of Sonic #137 where the editor would be all like;
“Men (and women), we have exactly three days till deadline and no six pager. So, therefore, I’ll get the expert on six pagers and have him write a brilliant six page story and-oh, hell, I’ll just get Romy. She can crap out something in 3 days.”
Romy WAS a good writer. Where that went, I’ll never know. This is NOT character development, or if it is, it’s a poorly done at best. I’m not convinced.
5/10
ART:
For Bigley’s first take on Sonic (as far as I’m aware, to me, he popped out of the blue!), it’s like seeing a fluid Ron Lim art. Bunnie looks too human, Tatiana looks like she’s been beaten by an ugly stick repeatly, Sonic has Ron Lim-style face, heck, in one panel, he gave Sonic his Ron-Lim-ish long spines. I’ll say that his poses are better then Lim’s, but still unimpressed. The art is just plain messy at general. Sometimes, it’s hard to see what is going on, especially with a lackluster background.
4/10
The new editor reveals his face and he certainly emphasize “new”.
~Neo |
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