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Sonic The Hedgehog #113 Review by True Red
"Cry of the Wolf"
Written by J. Oliveras
Art by Many Hands
Beautiful cover as usual. On the cover, Robotnik is large, but not overly large as he has been in the past. The frontpiece is great. However, the "usual" box is gone and in replace are the credits that are normally found within the story. My rarely displayed cynical nature says that was done because no one reads stuff on the the frontpiece page, they just admire the artwork. Axer "sort of" gets credit for this frontpiece since if you look by Sally's vest you'll see "AX" and the rest is cut off. Unfortunately, this is the last bit of truly good artwork for the issue.
Well, if you've seen the episode Cry of the Wolf then this story becomes a what did Archie leave out or change from the episode exercise though it is rather faithful to the episode (though it did leave out Antoine's obsession with "the curse"). Unless you REALLY like Lupe and the Wolfpack and must have every issue that they're in or are a total completist or can handle bad artwork as long as the story is good (the story is good), I'd just say skip this issue. For the benefit of those who haven't seen the episode though, here's Archie's version of the story.
It starts from the point where Antoine falls down the steps in the cave after rejecting a ride back to Knothole with Dulcy. Considering I'm a big Dulcy fan, I was kind of hoping to get to see her in the adaptation as she's hardly in the comic as it is, but at the same time considering the "artwork," I'm kind of thankful that all she got was a mention.
Sonic, Sally and Antoine are stuck in the cave and are looking for a way out. Sonic runs off with the light to "check ahead" and reaches a cliff. When Sonic comes back he says that they can't go that way when suddenly a howling sound is heard. Antoine gets scared and ends up jumping into Sally's arms, though she promptly drops him. That's when the trio meets one of the Wolfpack members who wants to know who's trespassing. Sally introduces them and the group follows their guide a bit reluctantly. Their "exit" turns out to be a trap door that causes them to take a ride down a slide which ends with them in a meeting room with Lupe and the rest of the Wolfpack.
Lupe introduces the group as the Wolfpack Freedom Fighters, which surprises the trio as they didn't know the group existed anymore. Sally explains that they're checking on a weapon Robotnik is supposed to be testing and Lupe explains what has happened to the group in recent history. As for the weapon, the Wolfpack has currently disabled it, but it'll be operational soon, which causes Sonic to say that they've gotten here in time to help the Wolfpack destroy it. Sonic also comes up with the idea of a communications network and Lupe shows off the stockpile of "souvenirs" the Wolfpack has taken during their missions and she says that they have something that can fire a laser. Lupe doesn't know how to get it to work, but Sonic says that isn't a problem because Nicole will figure it out.
Meanwhile, Snively gets a "call" from Robotnik who wants to know how the repairs are going and Snively fibs and says that it'll be functioning "any minute now." Robotnik also asks about the wolves and Snively just says that they've disappeared. Robotnik claims that the wolves have just outsmarted Snively and orders him to find them.
The Wolfpack and the Knothole group are putting their plan into action. They are nearly spotted by Snively, but continue using the caves for cover while setting up the cannon. Eventually, Robotnik's new weapon comes around and the cannon is used to blast it. The weapon crashes and everyone starts celebrating. However, the weapon isn't destroyed and comes back online and starts firing at the group as it scatters for cover. Sonic asks for the power ring in his backpack and uses it to do the customary power up sequence in every SatAM episode. He uses the extra power to create a whirlwind, in which Snively's hover craft also gets caught in the middle of, to crash the weapon again. However, just like last time, it's still not destroyed as it comes right back up.
Snively goes looking for the Freedom Fighters again, and ends up "capturing" Sonic and Sally. Snively starts gloating that he's captured them when Sonic takes care of Snively. Sally uses Nicole to get information on the weapon so that they can finally destroy it. The only way to destroy it is to fry it. Sally tells Sonic to lure the weapon into the lightning field (seen earlier in the actual episode, but in the beginning scenes skipped in this adaptation). When the lightning hits the weapon, it overloads the weapon, which explodes. The Freedom Fighters cheer, while Lupe mentions that the other Freedom Fighter groups want to meet up with them. Later in Knothole, the leaders of Freedom Fighter groups join together to strive for restoring the Kingdom of Acorn and defeating Robotnik and his sub-bosses.
Rating:  Rings
For the actual story, I'd give this a 4 easy, but the art cannot be overlooked. I'm not an artist at all, but when I think I can do just as good a job, it's really bad. Granted there are a couple of panels done decently, but overall...ugh. The "animated" coloring was pretty good though. You could overlook some things because of it. |
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