ARCHIESONIC 101, MODULE 3: KEN PENDERSā ECHIDNA OBSESSION BEGINSā¦
TIMELINE: 3235 (1 YEAR AFTER SONIC #1)
Welcome back to ArchieSonic 101, my friends! You all know why weāre here, so letās just jump straight in and see how Tails is going to manage to save the day when half of his bones are broken!
This is a pretty dramatic cover, drawn beautifully by Spaziante. Tails seems to be in some real trtouble, but I have no idea what Athair is doing here. Is he trying to sabotage the tank or something? Just holding on and enjoying the ride? Itās not really clear. Maybe weāll get some answers by reading the issue?
I donāt have much to say about this splash page. It looks good, but thereās not a whole lot going on here other than showing off the new characters. Although⦠are they all just running through the clouds here? Thatās a bit weird.
Haha, I had to. I quite like how they recap the story with these comics drawn by Tails himself (once again drawn by writer Mike Gallagher). Itās a shame we donāt get to see any more of these after the end of the mini series, because theyāre quite fun. At least this time around Tails has gone for a more honest approach than in previous issues. Either the latest in his series of butt-kickings has finally given him some humility, or Gallagher just didnāt want to take a few panels for Tails to admit that heās a big, fat, liar-pants like he did last issue.
Tails is being awfully casual about this whole scenario. āOh, youāre Knucklesā ancestor, even though we thought he was the last echidna? And you think Iām the chosen one? Thatās neat and all, but I really need to take half an hour to work on my comic book. Do you mind waiting?ā
Soooo... what do you think these old weirdos what they want this time?
Oh sure, now Tails is in a hurry to get out of there.
That said, this little history lesson is neat. It makes sense that Angel the Floating Island originally came from Downunda, as all the inhabitants weāve seen there in the Sonic & Knuckles and Triple Trouble specials seem to be Australian animals - kangaroos, dingos, cockatoos, and of course, Knuckles the Echidna and Vector the Crocodile. Although we will later learn that Vector wasnāt actually born on the island. Spoiler alert, I guess. :P
Whoops, I got so distracted by the revelation that the Floating Island came from Downunda that I overlooked the fact that weāre getting echidna lore here. Thatās quite an unexpected twist in a story thatās not about Knuckles and not written by Ken Penders. As the editor notes on the previous page said, weāll be getting more details about the comet incident in upcoming issues, and those will most definitely be written by Penders. But here we also get our first look at Knucklesā father Locke (not counting the Sonic Kids story he was in, as that issue wasnāt out yet at the time this issue was published), as well as his grandfather Sabre, who will look nothing like this when he is introduced later in the series. Iām assuming that Sabre wasnāt actually intended to be a character back in these early days, hence his placeholder portrait of generic echidna #652.
Yes, stake Tails through the heart, itās the only away to stop the echidna lor-
Seriously though, why do these guys keep threatening the main characters of the series with pointy sticks?
āAh man, 150 different channels and none of them have anything good on!ā
The insertion of this CD requires our villain to put on an Akubra. However this does increase his coolness factor by 73%, and his Australianness factor by 300%.
The heroes are not off to a promising start in this battle. Also, I donāt think the editorās note was strictly necessary for this one. I feel like the kids could have figured that one out by themselves. :PĀ
I feel like this is a case of Tails, being completely confused with what Athair and the Walkers were trying to tell him, said, āOkay, okay, why donāt you start at the beginning?ā And so they started at the literal beginning. :P
Also, props to the creative team here who decided that the Chaos Emeralds came from space, decades before that was retroactively made canon in Sonic Frontiers.
Who keeps putting echidna lore in my Tails story?!
But okay, there is an interesting revelation here - the Walkers are dinosaurs who got their hands on some Chaos Emeralds and apparently became divine beings as a result?
Was there really any need for Athair to gaslight Tails here, other than for his own personal amusement?
KOALAS ARE NOT BEARS THEYāRE MARSUPIALS AAAARGGHHHHH
Ahem. Seriously though, this is something I used to see books and tv shows and movies do all the time back in the day - call them ākoala bears.ā Is this still a common error these days, or am I showing my age again?
It seems that Athair went to the same ninja school of dramatic exits that Batman did.
I do question the idea of fitting an explosive into a boomerang, considering that those things are designed to COME BACK TO THE PERSON WHO THREW THEM. But on the other hand, every time Iāve thrown one of those things Iāve never been able to make it fly back to me, so what would I know?
A perfectly timed attack and quip from Tails! Our boy is growing up!
If this comic had come out about seven years later, I feel like Tails would have said, āSee ya later, boi!ā
Is this page making light of the Hindenburg disaster? How long does it take for, āToo soon,ā to no longer apply?
Ouch, that looked like it hurt.Ā
ā¦why didnāt Crocbot just use the same door his giant rambot did, rather than smashing through the wall?
Guruās change in philosophy certainly came about suddenly. Just one page ago he was singing about giving peace a chance.
The power of Crocbotās nuclear tank is no match for the power of Athairās medicinal marijuana! This is why supervillains should invest in renewable energies. :PĀ
...I know, what I just said makes no sense. But neither does that cloud.
Tails never actually met Bottlenose back when the Forty Fathoms Freedom Fighters showed up to save his butt back in issue 1 - he was a little preoccupied with drowning. But with a name like Bottlenose, I guess it wouldnāt have been too difficult to figure out that they were a dolphin.
We can make it if we all stick together!
We won't give up, not ever!
It's easier with my friends by my side!
Also, I must applaud Tailsā dedication to storytelling - getting āThe Endā tattooed on his tails and/or butt is very impressive.
While I do enjoy the conclusion of this story, once again I feel like having Tails absent for a large chunk of the action in a book with his name on the comic isnāt the best choice. While the Downunda Freedom Fighters are off fighting for their lives, Tails is on a hippie trail, head full of zombie (at least Guru Emu would approve though).
That said, I still quite like this final issue, and the mini series as a whole too. The idea of Tails being āthe chosen one,ā is an interesting one - you would expect a chosen one prophecy to be about Sonic, not his (sort of) humble sidekick. However I think this issue shows that Tails actually has learned some humility from his experiences on this adventure. Getting beaten up and nearly killed multiple times seems to have taught him that he does still have a long way to go, and that itās okay to ask others for help rather than trying to save the day all by himself. Indeed, when he teams up with the DFF in this issue he finds that he does a lot better than when he tried to take on the bad guys singlehandedly (Crocbot-induced migraine aside). While it could have been fun to see Tails winning more of his battles rather than getting beaten within an inch of his life multiple times, I think this mini series serves as an excellent first step on his heroās journey.
Next time: Sally has a plan to get thrown in a roboticizer and sabotage Robotnik! ā¦again! Until then, class is dismissed!