0 Calypso 0 HQ Forumer The #102 review Yup, again I'm posting my review! So spoiler alert and enjoy! Sonic The Hedghog #102 Cover: Well I must say, THIS is a bit different from the ‘preview’ in the last issue! And I’m glad, because this is a brilliant piece of work. Bomb is a little out of character, looking like some sort of demon, but that’s excusable considering the plot. I love how Sonic is drawn – good pose and dramatic expression. The whole thing works well being bright and forceful without being confusing. Let’s begin shall we? *** Family Dysfunction (Hmm…this can apply to many in this comic) Happy times in Robotropolis as the freed Robians reunite with family, including Mina finally meeting her mother. Sally reunites with her family and hands the sword to Elias, much to the sword’s protest. Yes, protest, the sword talked again, pleading Sally not to leave her. She seems to be the only one to hear it though. Finally breaking out of her previous spineless stupor from earlier issues, Sally responds to her family’s calls of concern with saying; “Mom, I’m not a porcelain doll…the sword had to be recovered.” Man, have I been waiting a long time to hear that! About time as well! Elias tries to free General D’Coolette, but there’s no effect. Now excuse me while I get really miffed at King Acorn – Elias drops the sword in defeat, and all the King does is demand to pick up the sword because he’s making a spectacle! Family dysfunction indeed! Is he so blind to see how nervous Elias is?? Geh. The crowd starts demanding Sally…SAL-LY! SAL-LY! And she doesn’t disappoint by ZAMing the General, giving him free will. Cue the mushy reuniting scene with Antoine and his father – good for Tony. Robotnik has a parade for some stupid reason, the Overlanders cheering “Hurray for the Kintobor Clan!” Huh…? Snively activates the ‘sleeper agents’. More anger towards the King as he chews Elias out for ‘embarrassing’ the Royal family. Then when Sally suggests having a rest seeing as it’s been a long day, he accuses her of always trying to take control of the situation. DUH, Max – she’s been a Princess and a leader, that’s what she DOES! Anyway, Geoffrey and the Stooge Squad comes in, asking for leave of absense – seems Geof broke an arm thanks to Kodos in issue #99. Elias says he wants out as well, saying this was never for him and Sally should be leader – she just proved it today! Suddenly, billions of mini-bombs come out of Heavy’s comparment, and the Stooge Squad roll on the floor in pain. Seems Robotnik also injected nanobots (microscopic robots) into the SS when they were in Robotropolis. Well, we all saw Heavy’s and Bomb’s mutiny coming a mile away, but nanobots – clever! I love this scene. Sonic senses something is wrong and zips off. About a panel later, he zips back and says “Trouble!” Sonic says he’s going in while Tails and Rotor go to whip up something to stop Heavy and Bomb. How would they figure out what was going on? Apart from some of the chibi-bombs blowing up the parameter, not much clues are given, especially since Sonic and co haven’t been allowed near the castle in ages! Jumping over that unexplained plot-point, the King asks Elias why he didn’t tell him how he felt in the first place, and the answer is obvious – Elias didn’t want to let him down. Alicia, just about jumping into Sally’s arm Scooby-Doo style, asks how she became so brave. Well, apart from the fact she lead a group of rebels, that’s just how she is. Sonic arrives on the scene and is briefed on the hostage situation – the royals go free in exchange of Rouge doing a nude bungee jump. Just kidding – Heavy explains that with every chibi-bomb destroyed, ten more shall take it’s place. Furthermore, the whole palace will blow if the Acorns try to leave. Sonic, using his noggin for once figures out that Heavy is the one who gives the orders, so – SHRAKT – there he goes! Which actually brings up the body count from 4 to five, and more so as Rotor and Tails, having made an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) simulator, takes out all the chibi-bombs. I found that quite clever. WOAH! Check it out everyone! An emotion scene is cut short not because of Sonic but SALLY! Like #100, Sonic said he was worried when the bomb was about to go off, but Sally (thinking of ‘the kiss’), says she has to go, leaving a stunned Sonic. A badly drawn Geoffrey says now the SS has to go to the medical center. I hope this means what I hope it means…that the FF will become the new royal service! That’d be so cool! And what else do you do when a family is reunited? Look at the family album! Aww…but, wouldn’t they have done this before? I think that before they were just thrown together, and now that Uncle Chuck was missing, they actually appreciate the family they are. Sweet. But, not all stuff is good…Elias has run away. He left a note saying he couldn’t bear to look them in the face again, and could hardly face himself, that Sally should be leader, and that he had failed everyone. Ouch. Rating: 7.5 – not a totally riveting story, but it worked out all in all, and some attempts at heart. Notes: Why in heck do all the guards look the same?? Doesn’t anyone believe in diversity anymore? Or can only some species be guards? In any case, the fluoro pink they’re wearing is horrible. That bit with Elias confessing was very wrong – it didn’t feel like someone unburdening themselves, it was like a kid blurting out what they did. Geoffrey comes along and then Elias just spews out jargon. And THEN Heavy and Bomb just cut it off! Wrong, wrong, WRONG! I’m pulling a Dan Drazen and show a re-writing: KING: Elias, what were you thinking? How could you embarrass the royal family so? ELIAS: (choking back tears) B…because…because I am an embarrassment to this family father…I should have never been appointed leader! ALICIA: But Elias, you’re the eldest…tradition dictates— ELIAS: Tradition dictated that I was supposed to be married and King by now mother! But…things are different, and I…we…can’t follow tradition anymore. Sally should have been appointed ruler from the very start. There, that wasn’t too hard, and I’m pretty proud of it as well! Elias said what he needed to say – say to his dad he was a failure, that the Royals have a new situation and can’t follow tradition, and Sally should be leader. And I did it in only a few speech bubbles, too. There are numerous touching scenes in this, mostly with family, however, some work and some don’t; The royals: Well, well, well…this is a sorry lot. When Sally returns there are no hugs and kisses, but demanding to know where she’s been - like a mother asking a teenager who shows up at two in the morning. Elias bugs out but the King just reprimands him, it’s only after Geoffrey takes leave that Elias finally confesses, the Queen doesn’t even know her own daughter, Sally is bitter to the man she loves and Elias runs away. Oh dear. It’s just a case of no one knowing no one – as if they’re together out of force, which I suppose it is. The Royals would probably have to stay together for appearances, lovely. But it’s as if no one has made a real effort to find out about each other – four total strangers forced to care because they’re related. And that’s how it feels. Antoine and General D’Coolette: Brief as it was, this is a good example of family. The General wakes up and immediately is happy to see his son. I like the “Just as in my dream…” bit, because it showed that he had always thought of his son before he was roboticized. Art: Ron Lim pencilling this time, and what a drop from last issue! I praised it in my last review – what happened? We have bizarre villagers in the background, identical guards, people with huge heads and small bodies, and pretty bleak expressions. The backgrounds are pretty basic too. *** Knuckles back-up story: Life’s Realities Seeing as Knux shot the first chance to change time (by destroying the comet), this time he makes the magistrate approve Dimitri’s and Edmund’s plan with the energy siphon. However, it was lucky the plan was originally canned, because they overshoot the mark. Knux says he feels like he’s being ripped apart, and… We’re back to present time, nothing changed. Oooohhh…kaaaaayyy – can someone please explain what the frag just happened? Dimitri says that Knux by inscint stopped the time-changing process before it became irreverable. Um, yeah. One last shot to stop the DL – prevent Edmund from being murdered. But, Knux slowly starts to be roboticized! Before it’s too late, he ‘reverses’ the thing again, and he’s back to normal in the present. Turns out that without Guardians, Robotnik would have taken over the Floating Island. Dimitri says there’s another final option – try to undo the effects of the quantum beam manually. Rating: A lowly 6 for confusing the frag outta me. Notes: Plothole of the century – why doesn’t Knux go back to where Kragok and Tobor came from the portal and stop them from destroying the quantum beam?? That would make it so they could bring everyone BACK, without major side effects. As for stopping the creation of the Dark Legion, why not go with some negations?? Would save a lot of trouble, I think. Art: (sigh)…Man, I haven’t liked an issue’s art like this in a long time! The characters have great pose and gesture, great expressions, and the backgrounds are some of the most detailed. The thing that bugs me though, is the lack of showing the transition between times – not even a ‘poof’, and that makes it unrealistic ******************** Nick D Biped HQ Moderator Sonic #102 mini-review I meant to do this sooner, but we had guests staying over at our house, so I was a bit inconvenienced. :P Now I finally have a chance to do this. (BTW, Calypso, that was a good review) As usual, there may be spoilers below. Sonic #102 "Family Dysfunction" The story: I thought it was pretty good. One thing that I liked was Karl Bollers' attempts at including some heart in the story. Besides that, it was a pretty straight-forward story, and a bit of a throwback (Robotnik thinks up some evil scheme, and Sonic foils his plans), but that doesn't mean I didn't like it. The only thing I would've preferred would be if the emotional scenes lasted slightly longer than they did. Those scenes seemed to end almost as quickly as they started. And I hope this 3-way triangle between Sonic, Sally, and Mina doesn't drag on. Oh, well, I think the story was an improvement over last issue. Rating (out of 5 stars): 4 The art: I don't know what it is, but Ron Lim's art really leaves me cold. I've said it before, but his experience with human art doesn't make his furry art really work that well. Besides that, Sonic and a few others seem to have incredibly off-model heads. They look like balloons! :P I don't know, the quality seems to have dropped from last issue. There were some good moments, though. The very last page worked for me. Rating (out of 5 stars): 3 "Life's Realities" The story: Okay, this confused me a bit at first. It started out fine, but then it got a bit strange with Knux turning into a robot or something. I had to read it over a few times before I figured out what was going on. Now that I have a good idea about it, I think it's a pretty good story here. Not great, but it flows fairly well. Rating (out of 5 stars): 3.5 The art: Wonderful work by Dawn Best here. I think it's even better than last issue's work. The characters are on-model, and there's good expression in the characters' faces and gestures. Rating (out of 5 stars): 4.5 Overall rating: 3.75 stars Going off-topic here, about this issue of whether Heavy and Bomb "died", I think it's a bit more complicated than a yes or no answer. The problem is, I haven't really seen an instance where they show independent thought (the fact that Robotnik reprograms them proves it), so they aren't alive in that sense. But the question is whether they're sentient or not, whether they can feel emotion, pain, etc. or not. If they can, then I'd say they're alive. But if not, and I haven't seen any signs that they are sentient, then no, I wouldn't say they lived or died in the way we think of life and death. They've merely been taken off-line, and they might come back in the future. And that's my cue to exit.