Sonic #90 - Comments and Review WB The Keeper Of The Cosmic Icky Stick And Your Friendly Neighborhood Goofus! :O) When we last left Rocky and Bullwinkle, Mojave Max and Death Valley Dotty AKA Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale, had tied our heroes to a large chuck of Upsidasium on the pretense of telling Bullwinkle that the moon was actually made NOT made of Green Cheese, but was in truth a very large chunk of Floating Gourmet Chocolate just waiting to be eaten by some happy oncomer! ..... Hmm? Whats that you say? This is a Sonic #90 review? **looks at daily planner*** Well, tickle me pink and call me Sailor Mini-Moon, so it is....You learn somethin new everyday ^__^ We open this issue with a REALLY cool cover by Spaz. ^_^ Sonic stands in a tall patch of blowing grass in the Great Forest gallantly protecting this issue femme fatale: Mina The Ever Crying Mongoose (who looks like something out of a Japanese CLAMP sketch with her big bright candy drop, little bunny foofoo eyes and cotton candy purple hair). Meanwhile, Some SERIOUSLY pumped up Combots (who havent been in the book for a while now) stand poised to ambush and surround our heroes. Look at the detail in the wiring on the background Combot's neck. Isn't that cool? ^^ This cover though is REALLY impressive, with the overlay of the leaves blowing, and top of the grass which is actually a psuedo-foreground in itself. There's really no negative space at all anywhere on the picture, and Spaz used the entire canvas. Really neat ^^ Anyhow we open this story on Third Earth, as the blue sickly looking Thundercat, Sonic-O and his mystical "Sword Of Omens" prepares to storm Mummbotnik's fortress for the 397th episode.... Would that make Tails, Snarf and Amy, Snarfer then? ^^ Mina performs Army spy tactics in the bushes as Sonic's Spidey Sense tells him he's being watched from afar. Cool silhouette effect on this page by the way - but whats with Mina's square fingers? With a sudden panel of shock Sonic realizes that his "Creeping Horror" isn't a creeping horror at all, but Mina The Mongoose, one of those scary, evil "girl" creatures Sega execs tell him to stay away from! Sonic then uses his hidden ability to talk like a sheep and lectures Mina on how BAAAAAAAAAAD the Great Forest has become since Robo-Butt-Nik's bots are everywhere. Afterwards Mina sits down on a rock and updates the newbies as to who she is, a babysitter, while Sonic questions her on battle tactics and ponders if this crazy confusing "girl creature" that big brother Sega warned him about, only wants to get captured again. Mina, realizing her prey may be in jeapordy, then resorts to the tactics that "Girl" uses to leer in thier victims in before they suck the life out of thier prey - big happy tears and a sob story. As the wily feminine creature begins to leak juices from her eyes she slowly breaks down Sonic who gives her that surprised look of confusion. Knowing that she has the prey trapped in her evil grip, the "girl" called Mina notices the Sword Of Acorns and pulls out her maternal insticts by wagging her finger in a "No No Stealing Bad" routine. But it all goes to waste, Sonic screams NOOOOOOO in a word bubble that is obviously aimed at the wrong character and pushes Mina away from an oncoming rougue SK-DOOM blast! The look on Mina's face goes from maternal to throwing her hands in the air and screaming for dear life (a typical reaction of the "girl" creature in hectic situations) as she realizes she has lost her prey once and for all and is about to fall face first in a patch of stinky mud! The creature called "girl" has been one-upped by a pesky SK-DOOM and the circle of life moves on yet again. ^__^ Sonic and Mina look up from thier harrowing situation to find the source of the SK-DOOM: Combots materializing from thin air, as we switch the page to: Happy Robotnik Follies! Doctor R, today's wonderful villian is busy monitoring his Combots, hoping that they kill two birds with one stone so that he can study the effects of the sword's ability to restore free will upon his subjects. One thing I've noticed about Doctor Robotnik now - and this is more a drawback than anything else, is the fact his head design REALLY limits facial expressions. Sure, you can get a wealth of expressions in ones eyes if you know how to manipulate them correctly - but he has no visible mouth. The ONLY time I've ever seen Robotnik drawn with a mouth where the expression was actually drawn GOOD and without that creepy looking row of "Nutcracker" teeth Ron Lim gives him was the issue where Chaos 0 first appeared (can't remember the issue number, but it was Mr. Fry that did the work). Spaz did this superbly on the cover of #76 also, where Doc R was laughing. But even when I draw him, I notice its really hard to position what he'd look like if his mouth was open and speaking. Look at him on Page 4 in the 2nd tier, 2nd panel. Where do you fit a mouth on that? He doesnt even have a neck and his jaws are barely visible with that moustache, so if he were to open his mouth technically he'd look like one of those really cheap looking PBS muppets with no jaws. ^_^ The Archie artists really oughta try and improvise on future issues and maybe sketch out different positions of Robotnik's face, so that he doesnt always look the same in certain facial poses. Further reason why I think they should commision one of thier other artits to draw model sheets...**coughcough** We now return to "Days Of Our Lives" already in progress as we find Sally, Elias, Alicia, and Max. Question - Knothole Kingdom: Has that SatAM Sonic shot of Knothole Village ever been used before in Archie, or is this a first? The cast of Passions are resting in the infirmary while Sally is happy that they can become a family again - In THIS comic book? And as Alicia gets up to excersize dem old bones for what must be the first time in EONS, Max discoveres that after his accident where he got banged on the head really hard, his legs dont work..... You hit your _head_....but your _legs_ are the things that dont work... Ooohhhhhhhkkkkeeeeeeeee. Medical Hopistal, Karl Bollers is not. ^_^ As The World Turns in our little Super Squirrel Soap Opera we return to Sonic and the purple haired creature we like to call "girl". Sonic then decides to get all manly and brutish and pull out his great big sword (no comment) striking his Sir Gallahad "I shall slay the dragon" pose. While Sonic goes into his "Thundercats, HO!" routine, the creature we call "girl" leaps back amazed at sheer awesome raw power as she witnesses offscene SHLIKTS and KLIK-WHIRRs and deafening KRAK's! In a pose that looks like she's about to throwup from the metallic carnage, the creature called "girl" is suddenly abducted by a Combot. Activating its magnetic field, the Combot attracts the Sword of Omens from Sonic-O's hand as he is left befuddled and stupefyed at how the silly "girl" creature and her stupid little robot man ruined his kick@$$ pose. Sonic's words: "This makes absolutely NO SENSE". Neither does half of this email ^__^ Sonic becomes quite miffed at the situation and reacts like the creature that we shall now refer to as "boy". "Boy" is more often than not an odd non-rational creature that often reacts with fisticuffs before thinking, in testosterone induced fits to prove himself to the ever present "girl", who could care less. More often than not however, "Boy" often ends up looking like a complete schmuck while "Girl" laughs at him and troddles off to her latest womens lib meeting. ^^ Sonic, or rather "boy", does just that; jump kicking a Combot and almost lobbing off Mina's head in the process as she ducks for dear life. "Girl" however, instead of laughing, admires "boy" for his cool jump kick that almost killed her, while "boy" ponders if this no sense situation was even making sense at all. It is noteable here, that the mindspan of "boy" really isnt that bright at times. The Combots decide that this situation has gone on far enough. Cloaking, they attack Sonic with devastating sound and special effects! A THWOK and special effect to the jaw! A THUD and special effect to the chin! And a mindblowing K-BASH that landed who knows where, finally takes Sonic down for the count. And what does "girl" do during this fiasco? She stands there looking at the recloaking Combots with her mouth gaped open horrifically in a nice little DUH pose. And it is at this point in the story, where the art lurches from nice perspectives and silhouetes into the horribly schizo. ^__^ I'm not a fan of Ron Lim's artwork after this issue. It's kinda funky in places. :P Like - look at the Combots from James Fry's stuff into Ron Lim's Combots. They lose all detail from here on. Now thier all colored grey, and thier green camoflauge and detail is nowhere to be found on any panel with them from now on. The next bone I have is that his characters AND backgrounds are almost always flat in areas. Look at Mina's head at the bottom of the page where she uses her speed. She has no depth to her head! It's maddening! Its just a flat yellow circle with unfinished eyes and spiky hair! And the last point of contention I have with him is characters eyes and mouth. He doesn't the finish the eyes!!! He either draws unenclosed circles or little slits that cant even be called pupils, and leaves the colorist to fill in the rest. And his mouths just sorta...don't look proportioned with the heads. Either that or his heads are all icky looking and weird. Look at Elias's head on the next page, 2nd tier, 1st panel and you can see everything I mentioned - REALLY unproportioned and off model looking hair on top of head, unfinished eyes (where the colorist just lobbed eveything blue), and a head that looks like its too big to be supported on its own body. Fun-keeee. ^^ Mina, realizing that this whole situation has gone nutsy-cuckoo, picks up Sonic and then does something that popped out from pretty much NOWHERE. Carrying Sonic, she uses Super Speed to get away....I'll hit on THAT little bone of contention at the end of the review. I really dont like that pose that Mr. Lim uses to denote running. I mean - you could just use that trademark red swirly that Sonic makes when he runs or just have him doing a _running_pose_ altogether. But EVERY ISSUE that Mr. Lim has done where Sonic uses his speed (or in this case Mina) he just draws these doofy looking little lines that make them look like thier twiddling thier legs all hyper or some junk. Remember the way that Velma used to walk from "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo"? She'd just...diddle her legs really fast. Thats what his characters look like when they run and it annoys the heck out of me (except with Velma - I thought Velma's diddle was cute ^__^)! But with Sonic (or in this case Mina) it just doesnt look right to me at all. At least draw them to look like thier RUNNING! Use both legs or the big swirly thingummybob but for heavens sakes stop the diddling! ^^ Now that I've gotten THAT out of my system we return to our Squirrel Soap Opera! After realizing his legs are out of commision. King Max tells his slovenly uncombed-haired beatnik son Elias (well thats what he looks like in that panel! ^__^) that he is appointing him as head of state. Elias's head then swells and bulges to gargantuan proportions as he looks at Sally (probably in reference to that heart to heart they had last issue), as Alicia does the mother thing and reassures her daughter that this situation is only temporary. Hershey and Geoff then walk in (Must...resist..urge...to talk...about dislike...of poses and artwork..!!!) as Geoffrey shoves manners to the wayside to ask "Gee Sir, How are you?" and blurts into his "The sword has been stolen!" routine. Earlier I mentioned that its kinda hard to draw Robotnik with a mouth. Ron Lim has SOMETIMES been the only one to pull this off. The first panel on the next page, and the smile at the bottom being a good point. I would give him a lot more credit however, if he didn't give him that icky looking row of teeth that you find on a Christmas nutcracker. Nobody's teeth are that big and long and flat as cardboard. Speaking of which - Remember what I said about flat backgrounds? Doc R looks like he's dancing in front of a grey cardboard cutout. ^__^ But to be fair, and get out of the habit of pointing out nothing but bad things on Mr. Lim's art - I'll give him this. I may not like his art in general, but I LOVE those three poses he did on this page: Robotnik dancing like a madman, falling on the floor in laughter and busting a gut, and that bust shot of Robotnik at the bottom, which I will admit are pretty cool. ^__^ THIS is what I'm talking about when I say that the artists are gonna have to learn how to give Doctor Robotnik different expressions and movement and gestures so that he doesnt always "look the same". He looks much more expressive when he's in movement and you have a mouth (without those annoying nutcracker teeth and an added toungue thats conveniently missing here ^_^) to give it that extra oomph. Imagine that pose of him dancing if his mouth was hidden by that moustache. It wouldnt work the same way at all. Ron Lim may not get a LOT other stuff right, but he certainly did get the Doc down in his movements and I'll give him kudos for that. I strongly believe that if Archie could get the Doc down correctly in art, then maybe he wouldnt come across as being as "goofy and awkward" as he's often shown as. Robotnik suddenly gets an alert as two unidentified objects are hurtling in freefall above the planet, ordering his gray detail-lacking combots to forget Sonic, we turn to Mina and the hedgehog hiding away in a hollow log. Sonic wakes up, however - after his _three_ bangs to the head - his legs still work!! Who knew? ^__^ Sonic crawls out to find Mina resting on her rock. And while Mina looks on like she's stoned on something, a Sonic with no pupils, but slits in his eyes thanks her for saving his life..sorta. ^^ Robotnik rushes out of his complex to bio-mechanically merge with his Observation tower and watch his Combots return from action. Elsewhere Sonic and Mina wade through brush as Sonic tells Mina to wait while he rushes into Action. A floating Robotnik head, complete with Nutcracker teeth and square jaw goes into RAARRGGH mode as he orders his men to not let Sonic have the sword. The Combots pull the cloak trick again, but this time Sonic wises up, follows the footprints instead, and doing that diddle run of his Mr. Lim likes so much whacks the non-detailed Combot upside the head something silly. But its all for naught - Sonic knocked the top half of him OVER a forcefield generator that surrounds the city. And who comes to gloat victory after the barrier is turned on? Doc R! Small problem with this row of panels - there should have been something done to at least accentuate the barrier - the way the combot is colored so drably, its kinda hard to tell exactly where he was cut in half. Sonic boasts that no shield can keep him out for long, but the trick is - whoever said it was meant to keep HIM out as we end on a splash page with 2 huge meteors on a collision course with Sonic's head! Minus my biggest bone of all with the story - Mina's sudden speed, the story itself was very well written and plotted. It kinda dropped in the second half but otherwise it was pretty solid structurally. My only beef big beef though (minus the speed for now) is the ending - Haven't we done the Armageddon bit before with issue #68? Mr. Bollers has this "thing" with hurtling meteors from nowhere it seems. At this rate Mobius will end up looking like the moon with its millions of craters and pockmarks. And speaking of space - whatever happened to that spaceship we saw back in Sonic 76 and 77? Now for Mina's speed - which is a separate entity unto itself. To say this came out of NOWHERE is an understatement. Its obvious that this is a first cause Mr. Bollers wrote it that way for her. But no sir, I don't like it. One of the reasons I dont is because of this: why do we need someone else with _Sonic_ speed? It is and has been called _SONIC SPEED_ for a reason. The point of Mina so far has been how much she relates to Sonic as a friend. Now she realtes to him in the fact that she's speedy to? I _like_ the fact that Mina _hasnt_ been like everyone else. She's been the only person in the book PERIOD who's just plain normal. No dysfunctional family, no super arranged cosmic powers, no backstory a million miles long, no hidden agenda - She's just been a regular average kinda girl, with problems and feelings that relate to Sonic and draws the reader in. Thats why so many people have been so receptive to her since she first appeared as opposed to say, Nate Morgan. Now suddenly, she's got the same thing that makes Sonic and Tails special. The problem here, is that when you give too many characters the same thing of your hero, it takes away from what makes the original characters special in the first place. Look at Superman and Batman: Waaaaaaay back in the day we had Superman, who used to parade around as Superboy. Of course, before the crisis he was Superbaby, and as Superboy he had Krypto The Super Dog who could also fly. And lets not forget Supergirl! And since Superboy had a super dog, Supergirl got Streaky The Wonder Cat! And dont even ask me where Beppo The Super Chimp and Comet The Wonder Horse came in. Adding to that the entire Legion Of Super Pets :P And with Batman you've had 2 Batmen at some point, Batwoman, 2 Batgirls, 3 robins, 1 Nightwing, Ace The Bat Hound, and a Superman Mxyzptlk clone called Batmite. See what I mean? Of course, Sonic is and was NOWHERE near as bad as that, and DC has long since weeded the Super and Bat clones down tremendously, but the more characters they added, the more it took away from what made the original so special. Its really stupid in a sense. Why would she need superspeed anyway? What more could she add to the FF's that isnt already there? That was the same contesting point with Nate Morgan too, and we all now how THAT ONE ended up considering that for a time he pretty much usurped both Rotor and Chuck. Sonic has his speed, Sally has leadership, Tails even though he also has speed, has his twin tails and flight moreso, Rotor has his brains, Bunie has her strength, Antoine has his omedy relief, Amy Rose has her magic (remember the hammer appearing in thin air in the SA adaption?) and her heart in general. Heck even Dulcy has something. I was HOPING Mina, if added to the lineup, would end up withholding the "friendship" and realism portion of the team. Unfortunately Karl Bollers managed to instead give her the same thing Sonic, the hero, has. :P It really weakens Sonic's individuality and Mina's importance as a character that he's been building so much upon. Now before anyone jumps to conclusions there are 3 things that could negate this entire argument, and that is: A) Mina has the ability to absorb others powers. She did ONLY do it while holding Sonic in the first place and she was as surprised as everyone else. B) The Sword of Acorns transferred a small bit to her. It has had that weird effect on people before. The problem with this is that she never held it. But she WAS within range of the goofy acting thing. Thus making the whole thing a deux ex machina of sorts. C) A variation on B. In the panel right after the com-bot grabs Mina you see that the com-bot activates a magnetic field type thingy. It may have magnetized the power of the sword to her, thus allowing her to get away. She was just as suprised over her speed as anyone else was so it wasn't an ability, but a freak accident. C) Sonic has the ability to lend objects speed like the Flash - HIGHLY unlikely - though Karl Bollers has used "Flash" tactics in the book before. The problem HERE is that in order for the Flash to have done that, he'd need to be already in movement with his speed. Sonic was unconcious. Either way - I _REALLY_ hope this isnt a mainstay. Mina was slowly becoming one of my favorite characters in the book and I just dont like this new take at all. ESPECIALLY this close to Sonic #100, and the fact that Mina IS going to be playing a more important role in the comics, _AND_ the fact that Ken let loose in his chat that Sonic may have a new love interest soon if things deteriorate between him and Sally. You figure it out. Giving her _Sonic_ speed is pretty much out and out dumb. Further reason why some are screaming for a new writer, but I'm jumping ahead of myself. Anywhoo - I'll wait until a next issue or two when KB has a chance to explain this before I pass my final judgement. :P And as I close this review out: The 90 second (give or take a few) Knuckles story - Albion go boom, D'Coolette goes offline, Rob pulls daring escape, our heroes decide to re-enact Ron Howard's "Backdraft", Knuckles turns into a living Green Lava Lamp and is compared to Enerjak, D'Coolette goes ONLINE, pimp-slaps Antione cause he didnt get him his money on time, Knuckles retaliates with a DBZ re-enactment of The Kamehameha Wave, Kool-Aid Red Gala-Na with Kung Fu Grip goes crazy and calls out the forces on Knuckles who probably saved her sorry behind, Antione waxes poetic on Rotor's BIG COMEBACK (one panel in a sorry flashback), pulls out a glorified tuning fork, Gala-na turns into "Typical Echidna Dumb@$$", refuses to let him and his father go and with a very loud NO everyone flies off into limbo - Amy and Rob back to Deerwood Forest, Antione and Bunnie are in a plane (???????) that came out of NOWHERE with his father in restraints, and Gala-Na and the EST wake up from underneath a pile of rubble pretty much saying SCREW The Floating Island and its problems, lets go hunt us some Knuckles Jim-Bob, YEEHAW !!!!!!! Next issue: Nack, Nic, Nicnac, Nacknic, Knick Knack Paddywhack Give the dog a bone lets call the whole thing off. .... OK - somebody tell me: What the he-double L happened???? ^____^ That story moved along at a pace that would make slow readers dive off a cliff in suicide. There was SO MUCH stuff going on and so mach "Huh? What? Who? Where?" in the final part that after awhile I had to slow down to keep up. ^_^ Bones of contention: 1. Why on earth is Gala-Na the color of Red Kool-Aid? This has been asked before, but she looks weird like that ^^ Someone really needs to study past stories before you color certain thiiiiings..... 2. Steven Butler is OK normally, but this issue his stuff looked really rushed or..something. I can understand that he doest normally do regular panel layouts like everyone else but stuff was just EVERYWHERE this issue ^^ 3. I know Knuckles got cancelled Mr. Penders - we all hate it. But if the stories are gonna come off looking like something creatively exploded inside ones brain its kinda hard to keep up with things ^^ And lastly - I said it once I will say it again: Echidna's are quite possibly the stupidest things on the planet. The Powerpuff Girls narrator said it best: "Just cause your a genius doesn't make you a smart guy". And that's pretty much the best way to sum up how KP has set up Echidna civilization. Point blank: They bite big wind. Priorities be damned they think of no one but themselves and are the most selfish creatures in the continuity. I hope Knuckles goes crazy, and wipes out the lot of them, and takesup future residence somewhere in Cancun sipping martini's and ginger ale's ^_^ I'll close this out on something Ken brought up in his chat the other day: The UV, or Ultimate Villian who will appear in Sonic 100. Ken seems to like being associated "Ultimate" things. First there was the "Ultimate" Annihilator. Then there was Endgame which was "ultimately" cut down into half a story and was thus christened the "Ultimate" Archie Screw up. Then there was the "ultimate" cancellation of Knuckles (which Ken wasnt responsible for) - that ended up being the "Ultimate" idiot move by Archie. "Ultimately" lets hope that this "Ultimate" Villian and Sonic #100, the "Ultimate" Sonic issue, doesnt end up being one big fat hairy "Ultimate" mess. :P Anywhoo - lets play the game "Who Wants To Be The Ultimate Villian?" The most anyone managed to "ultimately" get out of KP is that by Sonic 100 he/she used to be a good guy and he/she is a major character. Who do you think he/she might be? Sally is the Archie Punching Bag but then again, she was originally supposed to die and the Sal we have now was supposed to be a robot auto-automaton - but well we know how THAT "ultimately" went ^^. So here's my guesses: 1. Knuckles The Echidna Knuckles is the OBVIOUS choice in this. But then again - Ken and Karl have pulled the obvious before. Look carefully at the previews and the way things are now: Knuckles has now turned Chaos Green just like Enerjak and is already being compared to him. Knuckles will be hunted down by both Nack and Nic the Weasel next issue. The Floating Island, The Chaotix, and Julie-Su are conveniently out of the picture for now. Knuckles has the EXACT SAME power that Enerjak once had barring a few differences and the fact that he hasnt learned how to fully manipulate it yet. Knuckles has ALWAYS been Sonic's main "rival" to an extent. Enerak will be getting HIS powers back VERY SOON. And now Knuckles is on the surface of Mobius. Or better yet - what if Enerjak never really existed - YET? Someone brought up a REALLY good point at the Mobius Forum at SHQ. When Enerjak first appeared WAAAAAAAAAY back in Rites of Passage, Archimedes called him "The Great Evil Of Legend" which would indicate that Enerjak was a being of legend...a name Dimitri adopted for himself after absorbing the power of eleven shattered Chaos Emeralds. But perhaps the name was never meant for him. Perhaps it was meant for Knuckles, who now looks EXACTLY like Dimitri after that accident with the Syphon - difference is Dimitri NEEDED the syphon for it to happen. Knuckles DIDNT. The person also pointed out this: "This Knuckles has also recently lost everything and everybody he ever cared about…his family, all and only friends, and someone a little more than a friend. He has also failed in his duties as a Guardian, being unable to stop Dimitri and his Dark Legion from taking over the Island. He’s got to be pretty close to the edge…and it wouldn’t take much to finally push him over and make him snap…say the constant annoyance of a pair of weasels…" > Sega already pretty much lets Ken have his way with Knuckles. He's already said before that Knuckles won’t be on speaking terms with most of the cast after Sonic #100. In the blurbs for Sonic 93 and 94 - there are NO mention of stories for Knuckles. 2. Tails The Fox - In the original Tails miniseries, it was said that Tails would be the Chosen One who would begin some sort of "Gathering" (I assume by that, it meant a gathering of Choas Emeralds). Now it IS POSSIBLE and already established in Archie that Tails could be more powerful than both Sonic and Knuckles combined, but it hasnt been touched upon yet, only hinted at in the instance that the Ancient Walkers and Athair commune with him the most of all three of the Triple Threat. The factor of Merlin Prower is yet to come into play, But Ken said, I think, that he will be back before or right after #100. Plus - if it were Tails it would be a HUGE twist that Sonic has to fight his own sidekick. It would be less MUCH LESS obvious however than Knuckles, but if twisted the right way he could be the UV. PLUS Archimedes nor anyone else never specifically said that Enerjak HAD to be an echidna. 3. Sonic The Hedgehog - What if Sonic was the UV? Highly unlikely as Sega holds reigns, but its a maybe. Wouldnt it be kinda neat if the Ultimate Villian was none other than the namesake of this very series? What would happen if Sonic went bad, not by will of his own of course. After all - Sonic is impulsive - he did steal the Sword Of Acorns. But the point is - HE STOLE. And the full reprecussions of that theft will probably hit around issue 94. What would happen if Sonic went into Super Sonic, but the power of the 7 Emeralds and 50 Rings were corrupted somehow? Think of this - in a different continuity - Sonic HAS been evil before. Namely Super Sonic in Fleetway. During that time, Sonic was under TONS of pressure and failures and basically snapped. Granted that was a much different situation and a different comic altogether. But that doesnt say that it CANT be done in Archie, if the powers of the emeralds were twisted and Sonic were to go super. And besides - in Archie continuity IT HAS been done before anyway - look at Perfect Chaos and the Black Emerald... 4. Bunnie Rabbot - Waaaaaay back in the 30's of Sonic, a story was done that asked "What if" Bunnie's robotization was completed and Robotnik found a way to finish her robotization from afar, like lets say a chip of sorts. However, her recent surgery that changed her looks may negate that from happening, but it depends on just how much of the robotization technology was left in her after the surgery and how it could effect her if, in the long run, Robotnik ever figures out how to do it. 5. Antione D'Coolette - This is the loosest one of all and I wont delve into this that much but theres one things that could link Ant to this: His father, who just so happens to be a Robotnik general and who is on his way to Knothole now in Ant's custody. What if his father got a hold of him and roboticized him? Anywhoo - thats it for my long email. ^^ Comments anyone? --- Pyro T Fox About the UV, I have to say Dub's first pick is the most likely. Some people say it's the return of Enerjak... But what if it is not Dimitri ? As illustrated in Sonic #90, Knuckles is now an emerald green and has the stuff to become Enerjak II. He's kind of like Hal Jordan when he became Parallax in Green Lantern (vol. 2) #50. Only the Floating Island (or Echidnaopolis) is like Coast City, and now Knuckles has gone insane and won't rest until it's all restored. And no one, Sonic, Tails or even Dr. R will be able to stop him. But on his comments about Tails being the UV, NOT BLOODY LIKELY. I would not in the least think that Sega would allow that. But what if Tails as the Chosen One was to fight Enerjak II (Knuckles) to really prove that the Ancient walkers prophecy is in fact. True. Bunnie being the UV... Does bring up a possibliity. But as seen in Sonic #37 she'd be only a lackey of Dr. R. But here's an even more of a possiblity... Princess Sally? She has the motives to go nuts, Her father lying to her, having the throne go to Elias, but heck I can't honestly say that would happen. --- Bumper347 Sonic HQ Staff Member I didn't think the first story was all that bad. The only real low points was Mina's burst of speed and Ron Lim's art. Did they really have to do that? Did they really have to take away Sonic's uniqueness by taking his speed? Stupid. I really hope it's one of those three explanations that wind up explaining this. Mina was becoming a likeable, aceeptable character, and now they do this... it's a swerve to be sure, but why? Ron Lim's art really didn't hit very well with me at all. The heads on his drawings look like they had an air tank taken to them. They just plain look bad. I liked the rest of the story's art though. Very detailed, and clean, IMO. I'm also glad to see the Combots come back. Adds a touch of spice to the enemy variety. Now for the back story. I'm sorry, but this kinda came out sudden and lame. Knux suddenly getting his powers from nowhere, and Rotor's 'return' was just the pits. But I've already spoken on that. I felt the story just trudged along. the only thing I was really finding myself looking for was the one panel in which they showed Rotor (I already knew the bad news about his comeback) and was appalled. Antoine shaking his hand. They don't even mention his name. But I'll stop now. I'm sorry my reviews aren't long, but oh well. Bumper, Rotor fan extraordinaire, scuba pic collector legend (maybe), and RPG demon! --- LianneKa Echidna Knux Nut & Animation Fan Re: Sonic #90 - Comments and Review I'll admit I was laughing all the way through especially with the "girl" creature and "boy" creature stuff. BTW, give the credit to my friend, Ellie-Za, about the "Enerjak" stuff. She's the one who pointed it out with a post at Angel Island. Oh, Bumper, as for Knuckles' powers, he's done that before a few times in his defunct series. Whenever Knuckles is in danger of being hurt or he gets really, really angry, his latent chaos powers emerge and you just better stay out of his way unless you want to get hurt. Though no one has ever been able to get out of his way so far... Lianne-Ka: Echidna Lover of the MoFo! --- LoneWolf23 HQ Forumer *Agrees, and adds his comments* WB, you're preaching to the converted here. And the last two issues had me keeping my hopes up, too... But now I'm disappointed again. Not only is giving Mina super-speed making Sonic less Unique, it's also practically yelling at us: "Look! They match! Aren't they the Perfect Couple?" I mean, come on, People. We don't want Sonic dating a clone of himself... We liked the Sonic/Sally relationship because it was a contrast: The Wild Hero dating the Methodical Heroine. They had contrast, they had attitude, they had conflict... I would've liked a possible Sonic/Mina "one-time" relationship if Karl and co. weren't trying to hard to make Mina identical to Sonic: Lost families, Personal independance, Super-Speed... Gah. And the Knuckles situation doesn't thrill me either, but I could see how to improve it: Knuckles taps into the Enerjack power, kicks Dimitri's Butt, sends everyone on the Floating Island to Albion, then De-Evolves the entire City to bring it at the same level as Mobius, says "Science has brought nothing but pain to the Echidna race. From now on, you kids are playing by the same rules as everyone, so behave and play nice with others. I'll be on the Floating Ilsand, keeping an Eye on you" and becomes the only Guardian on the Island (which he can now manipulate), overseeing the Echidna race, which has to learn to stop being so rude and speciest... Ok, maybe not, but you see my point, right? Things have gotten too complicated in the Sonic books. It's gotten to the point that kids are no longer able to just jump into the books anymore, since they'd miss everything that's gone on before. I haven't seriously liked the book since Endgame... And I'm thinking maybe the comic should've ended then and there... Anything's better then the mess we're getting these days... -Exit the LoneWolf