Sonic The Hedgehog #136 Review by Neo
COVER:
Sonic holds his semi-dead pops while his mom and uncle looks from behind. Where's Muttski? I wants Muttski. *is sad*
Aside from the pretty sky, it does a somewhat nice job of capturing emotions, though I believe it was VCP who said that all SPAZ seems to be doing to Sonic is making him pose and this is certainly the case here. Yes, he is holding his father, but that's ALL he's doing. As emotion-driven as it is, it doesn't faze me whatsoever (perhaps becaue the story inside is less then inspiring). I best just move on.
6/10

FRONTIPIECE:

Removing that dull checkered background cover with a picture centered in the middle, we get a general indigo BG with the color red in the center with Sonic posing in his usual cool, yet freaky manner. How come Sonic always poses weird, I ask? Is he trying to be cool? My opinion is a "not sure" because I ain't sure if his poses he does is even cool, let along weird. Maybe it's a combo of both weird and cool.

THE INFILTRATOR
A fine day in Knothole Village. The sun is shining, birds are singing, the hedgehog family are eating breakfast, Tails is being the good boy by studying, Tommy is (assumingly) living in the hedgehog's home, then it's all ruined when Sonic waltzes in, tired as hell. Hmmm, would it have killed to add some bit of blood shot eyes? Despite him tired from a random mission he got (though, in the first panel of the second page, he looks like he just upchuck on the carpet), he manages to eat those chili dogs like it's his last day on Earth...er, I'm sorry, Mobius. He leaves to sleep in his room (complete with random childish stickers gracing all over it. I haven't placed a "Keep Out" sign on my door since I was about 9. Right now, it's just a poster of Samaosuke from the Onimusha seris) while Tails leaves for school. I'm a bit surprised they kept that school idea.

We cut Eggmn who unleases his latest plan. Then we cut back to the hedgehog family with Bernie frowning over her mistake of giving her robot husband food and yet Jules still eats that thing, knowing all those cheese might gunk up his system. While Bernie continues to beat herself up, Tommy sneaks into Sonic's room (Jules notices him go in), closes the door, takes out a drill on one of his hand, and gets ready to kill a sleeping Sonic who, apparently must be TOO tired to hear the sound of a loud drill. Jules manage to play Superman and ends up getting drilled. Sonic wakes up and sees that, gets pissed, kills the turtlebot, then starts to get upset over his near dead father.

Sent to Charles, he does what he can, but ol' Chuck can't teach an old bot new tricks. While Bernie cries, Sonic screams that ever so cliche "NOOOOOOOOOOO" (Several "O"s in the comic would have made it more effective then just "NO"), runs out, goes to the ring pond (where some dog is bored to death), grabs a popping ring, goes back to Jules, and starts wishing. Flashes of light later, Jules survive.

The nexy day, Sonic and Chuck talks of Jules and them being alive. Oh, and Tommy is alive. That turtle has cheated more death faster then Mammoth and Ixis did in their own comic book existence. Sheesh.

STORY:
When have I ever liked the Tommy Turtle story...tell me, please, because I certainly don't remember. Oh, wait, it was #117 which has been pointless for about 3 months now, now that this horrid of a trilogy popped into our laps.
Romy tries to get emotional. She did a good job a while back, what happen here? The main reason was simply because it was rushed and done the wrong way.

Using a ring to cheapen the plot makes me wonder if the ring is nothing but a cheap plot device now. The easy way out. If the ring can make a wish come true, why not wish for peace from Eggman? Why not wish for all the flaws to go away? Well, because we can't do that, otherwise the comic would end. That's why Romy shouldn't put something like a this. Especially if the pond keeps giving a ring per hour or whatever. That's too much free will. An explantation might been in order, but no, that's not the main focus point of this story. It's cheap deaths and now both Tommy AND Jules escaped it, and ALL in one issue. Hurrah! Notice the sarcasm.

I am NOT a fan of cheap deaths. If Jules dies, he dies. While it does prompt Sonic to be a better son, or so he saids (which is a plot point that should have been more explored), his way to speaking didn't ease me. This entire story didn't make me cringe in emotions which is what I expected to happen. The reason is that the story is rushed. Romy needed to balance it out more. The beginning dragged on too long, and the ending was rushed to death. That isn't balance. That's...well, I don't know, but it ain't balance. I'll give some points in that Romy TRIED, but she ended up failing in the end anyways. Oh, and shouldn't Jules appear in the end of the story. I would have felt better if Sonic said he would be a better son to his own pops then his uncle. It might have raised my scores higher.
5/10

ART:

The saving grace of the story is Art's artwork which is as cute as ever. Only little errors could be Jules neck which starts off normal, then red and white throughout the rest of the story. His drawing of Bernie also isn't all that impressive. It's like she had some face surgery replacing her old face...and I still like her as lavender. Also, shouldn't Bernie be more sad looking in the middle panel of page 3 if she "sniffled?"
9/10

GIRL TALK

Julie and Sally talk and complain, Abby the cook complains. Lara-Su comes in the end...and...surprise, complains. Oh, yea, and Lien-Da also comes and acts...nice.

STORY: Lien-Da sweet talking with Julie-Su feeled me with awkward thoughts in my head (NOT what I meant, get your mind outta the gutter). I mean...Lien-Da, in the very beginning of M25YL, sure didn't look ready or willing to see her half sister, let along talk. She must've taken Dimitri's suggestion and try to patch things up. Whether or not she was faking this on this story is beyond me. She has her sneaky ways. Despite 25 years of change, her "Miss Nice Gal" attitude had me cringing in disturbed feelings. Her being nice to Julie questioned me. I mean, I can understand Julie trying to patch up. I've seen enough development on her for her to forgive and forget, but Lien? No. If Sonic is still stuck being the same in 25 years (according to #137 which I'll review later), what makes it so sure Lien will too? I'm keeping a close eye on her.

I like character development as much as the next guy, but this is dragging on too long. Other then Abby (whom I enjoy her spicy personality), this is another worthless addition. Get on with the actual plot!
5/10

ART:
Nice artwork. I like the design on Abby, just what I expect her to be, short, stumpy, and always frowning. Julie-SU, however, looks like she's wearing NOTHING but that apron. I am disturbed. Oh, and Lien looks weird in a couple of panals. Somehow, that flowing hair, those giant eyes, and the skinny neck doesn't work so well, which surprises me when it works wonderfully on Julie-Su.
8/10

PATIENCE
Knuckles has a conflict: should he return back to Angel Island, despite Acorn's request not to and stop the evil there, or wait? In the end, he waits.

STORY:
Well, it's about time. A Romy story that is somewhat decent. Not as driven as her previous works from the 120's issue, we get to see some deep thinking from Knuckles. We see his concern for his mom (which is the only reason he's going back), and then some. We see his patience growing. It's nice to see him developed, but I do question it slightly. I mean, Knuckles isn't usually the type to obey such orders, especially from King Acorn. For goodness sake, he DOES come from a practically royal family himself with their own ways, why now of all times for him to loose that patience? But then again, it does prepare for the Angel Island inflitration thing.
7/10

ART:

I will say one thing, Ron stopped giving mono eyes for Knuckles, other then that, it's the same Lim art.
7/10

J. Gabrie is leaving, replaced by Mike. Let's see what he can do...
  

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