Sonic Super Special #15 Review by Rolland Therrien
Short review:
Worst Comic Ever.

...What, you want more details? Oh, ok...

This comic has two "stories", if you feel generous.

First one:
"Naugus Games"
Written by Ken Penders
Pencil and Inks by Many Hands

Ok, long (and dull) story short, Sonic goes to the Southern Tundra to pay his last respects to Eddy the Snowborg. Already this story starts on a lousy note with an implausible premise: Wouldn't have Sonic ALREADY done that before leaving the place with Nate in the first place? ...Besides, Sonic barely knew the big guy, so why the pilgrimage? I guess Ken needed an excuse for the rest of this "Story"...

Sonic goes to the ruins, and falls down a whole, and then we spend the next 2 and 1/2 pages with the cheapest "Save on Artwork" plan ever designed: Deep, dark cavern with us only seeing the eyes of the character trapped there. This, folks, is a new low of Archie comics...

Sonic eventually DOES find a bright spot in the cavern (that is, a place with actual light), and he finds all the Golden Rings that were somehow left behind when Naugus got kicked back into the Zone of Silence. (Well, Ken calls it the Forbidden Zone, showing some poor continuity here, but that's practically minor compared to what follows...)

Sonic figures out that he just needs to touch the rings and wish to get out of that hole (Showing us yet another way of using the Power Rings... I wish Archie would stay consistant here.), but when he touches them, the image of Naugus fills his mind and Sonic somehow accidentally wishes for Naugus to appear. We get a short "Pulled out of wazoo" explanation about Naugus' reappearance (You don't want to know anyways), then we skip straight to the fight, which has the typical "Tries to shoot and misses the guy moving at super-speeds, until Naugus starts a snowstorm, sending us into Cheapskate art-saving trick Number 2: the Blank Panel...

The rest of the fight lasts for 6 panels of pure white scenery, but since we can see it, who cares?

It ends with Sonic pulling out a Power Ring out of nowhere, dissapating the snow and shipping Naugus back to the Zone of Silence, via Deus Ex Machina shipping... We then end with a pointless tribute to Eddy, who had absolutly zip to do with this story.

Rating: Zero Rings. ...In fact, I rate this story a full Negative 5 Rings! That's how bad it is!

Comments: If you ask me for more than I provided in the review, We'd be here all month... Move along!

"Sonic Spin City"
Written and Penciled by Michael Gallagher (ain't he off this book yet?)

Ok, to make this even short, this story is a terrible attempt at parodying a "Mature Audiences" comic book, Sin City by Frank Miller, which features art done mostly through inking by shading black and white on a page. It also has content that are more or less incompatible with ANYTHING by Archie comics, so Gallagher choice of making such a story makes no sense to me.

In fact, I'll skip straight to the rating: Zero Rings again.

Overall Rating: Zero Rings

You want my final comments on this book? It's a piece of @#$#, that's what it is, and I think it stinks... The Sonic Super Specials were one of my favorite monthly moments, and Archie has systematically begun making them lousy issue after issue, ever since this whole "Zone Wars" mess got started. The Sonic Specials used to be showcases of imaginative stories and a chance for writers/artists to do innovative stuff, like the Sonic Kids special or the #50 director's cut...

...But this... this is lousy. And the worst part, is that Ken Penders has shown he can do better, much better then this. "Worst of Times" is an example of Penders' good work, for one. But this... It's like Ken just thought up a storyline while sitting on the toilet and wrote it down, deciding it would be the final SSS script.

Ken Penders, I want my 2.99$ Can. Back, darnit!!