Sonic The Hedgehog #80 Review by Rolland Therrien
Sonic the Hedgehog
"If Wishes Were Acorns"
And now, we continue the story from last issue, with the bright flash revealing what we all expected last issue: Amy, in her Sonic Adventure "Teen bopper/Spice girl" look. As we all suspected last issue, her wish was to become more 'mature' more quickly, and this is the result. While Sonic says she still can't come, since older don't mean more mature, and it's unsure if her 'condition' will last long. Nate thinks they should bring her along anyway, so he can examine her properly before she's had a chance to revert (okay, get your minds out of the gutter, people...) Unfortunately, the ring of Acorns is out of power, much to Elias' dismay.
After two short and touching scenes featuring Sonic and Sally and their respective parents, The Freedom Fighters gather near the Freedom Fighter Special and the Tornado, Sonic's new Chaos Emerald powered plane (like the one featured in Sonic Adventure), and prepare for depature while Nate tells them an interesting tidbit about the inhabitants of the Hidden City, who are all 5 fingered Overlanders. After a little bit of shock from Tails, surprised to hear about other creatures who are 5 fingered like Sonic and he, The crew departs as soon as Sonic arrives, leaving King Acorn and Elias to ponder what to do about Queen Alicia (and Elias to vow to find a way to restore her).
After a short flight, the FFs arrive at the mountain under which the Ancients have hidden their city. Nate does some more explaining, saying the people who live there came from a crashed aircraft imbedded inside the moutainside, before the Days of Fury, at a time before Mobians and Overlanders dominated Mobius. As they land and continue using a minecart rail-way system, the Freedom Fighters finally arrive at The Hidden City of the Ancients, which bears an amazing resemblance to to New York City, oddly enough...
Rating:  Rings
This was a pretty average story, as far as this reviewer is concerned. Still too short for confort, it featured the introduction of Amy, Sonic Adventure style, the removal of the Ring of Acorns as a Deus Ex Machina to help Queen Alicia and brought the Freedom Fighters to the City of the Ancients. The characterisation of the Freedom Fighters was pretty decent, with Sonic and Sally both getting good scenes. Nate continues his newly appointed job as the living plot device/Mr Exposition, thereby taking over the job once left for characters like Rotor or Nicole (remember her? The computer?). This has both it's ups and downs, since it does pull the spotlight away from the other characters. Hopefully, the other FFs will get more airtime as the series progresses.
Knuckles the Echidna
"Land Fall"
We reunite with Sonic's friendly Nemesis as he arrives in Haven, to check up with his ancestors as to what happened last issue. Once there, he finds that because of Hunter's actions during the last Knuckles issues and because the Guardians didn't restore the island defenses quickly enough, the Island was left wide open for attack.
Video evidence collected by Remington reveals the culprit: Dr. Robotnik. As Thunderhawk exposes their options (either pick up the pieces and fix the island or go after the guy who messed it up), he shows on the monitors that Robotnik is going to the mainland of the Mysterious Cat Country, where the blast spread Emerald pieces all over the place.
After a short argument, featuring Knuckles lecturing his father about how this wouldn't have happened if they had helped Sally in the first place and so on, Knux decides to go after Robotnik, to see if he can't be "persuaded" to put the Master Emerald back together.
Meanwhile, Knuckles' crew, the Chaotix, is checking out the hole where the Chaos Chamber used to be, when they hear a cry for help. They go to check it out, and find Espio having been captured by a hunting party of cat morphs with wicked spears. And our story ends here for now...
Rating: Rings
Nothing really happens, I have seen better art, and the supposedly very well prepared Brotherhood are as efficient as a chicken with its head cut off. The highlight of this issue is Knuckles chewing out his father and ancestors, pointing out how stupid it was to now help Sally when Robotnik was clearly a threat to them as well. I almost felt like cheering Knuckles onward, telling him to knock out his father's teeth out for being so stupid. As is usual for a Knuckles' storyline, the Chaotix are once again fighting a different battle from Knuckles' own, which will be dealt with along with the rest of Knuckles' storyline.
Big the Cat
"Swallowing Trouble"
This is a short story, so here's the telegraph version of it. In Mysterious Cat Country, Big the Cat is sleeping outdoors. Froggy, his devoted buddy wakes up, finds a puddle of Chaos water and drinks from it, mutating a bit and growing a tail. While Big wakes up and starts to check on his buddy, E-102 shows up, captures the frog, fights off Big and jets off, leaving Big to pick up his fishing rod and going after them to get his buddy back. (I would've gone with bazooka, but I'm no Big the Cat...)
Rating: Rings
Cheap art, a short and uninteresting story, featuring a character who pretty much makes Jar Jar Binks look like Keanu Reeves. Ho hum... Wake me when the back-up stories feature something interesting. |
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