StC Post-Mortems: Johnny Lightfoot
Okay, let’s get the obvious joke out of the way - Johnny might be the first character I’ve written a Post-Mortem about who’s actually dead. Except for the Marxio Brothers, who I killed with my own two hands
Unfortunately for Johnny, he is best known for dying. Prior to this reread, I didn’t expect to have much more to say about him than that, he was never a character I felt particularly strongly about before. But you know what? I was wrong. After going through much of this comic again, I can say that there’s more to Johnny than he gets credit for. Yes, it remains true that people mostly know him for dying, but he had a long career in the comic before that, so let’s take a look at Johnny, how he developed as a character and even how the writers weren’t always in agreement about how he should be used
Johnny may have first appeared in the very first issue. I say may, because in these early comics based on Sonic 1, the small animal characters would appear quite randomly and unless they were directly named, it’s hard to be sure which of the many rabbits were Johnny. We know that Porker Lewis appeared in this issue, because he was named, but we can only assume that the rabbit character who appeared was probably Johnny. And the same would be the case for a lot of his early appearances prior to being used as a proper character. He was definitely named in issue 8, which I’m going to talk about in the next part, so he was either first introduced in that issue or any of the issues prior to that featuring a rabbit character. Who can say?
The turning point for Johnny was when Kitching decided that Johnny and Porker would become the two characters amongst the small animals who’d be part of Sonic’s team of Freedom Fighters. We first see this start in issue 8, when Sonic would choose to share his origin story with Tails, Johnny and Porker. While those three don’t contribute too much to the actual story, it’s now established that they’re the ones who Sonic really sees as his good friends and trusts with this stuff
For these early appearances, Johnny and Porker still looked like the small animals from the games. But this would change for both of them after StC published information about an early version of a Sonic cartoon that didn’t end up being what the end result would look like. This prototype included designs for both characters that didn’t make it into either AoStH or SatAM, but did affect what the two characters would look like for the rest of StC, even if they changed a bit early on until the artists settled on something they really liked
Porker got his redesign a little earlier than Johnny did, but not by much. In issue 21, during Amy’s introduction, we see Johnny appear alongside Sonic with his new design and the battle staff that he’d use from then on out. We’re now also seeing both of them being intentionally written as characters with personalities, though it’d take a bit for Johnny’s to really show through. He’s Sonic’s good friend who’s closer to Sonic’s own age than Tails is and often the more calming, rational voice in the group
There was also going to be a plot point that never really made it to print where Johnny has a crush on Amy, but Amy likes Sonic, and Sonic, well, he’s aro/ace, but Kitching did originally intend for him to realise he might’ve had some feelings for Amy after learning that Johnny did. I’m glad that this plotline never came to pass beyond a few very vague hints that Johnny might have a thing for Amy. Also, it would’ve been funnier if they completed the love triangle by having Sonic have a crush on Johnny anyway
Johnny appears a lot more in these early stories than I think he’s often remembered for. But this might be because he is usually just shown as part of the group and often the first to go down in a fight. He doesn’t have the same PTSD plotline that Porker does, so he’s just sort of there as reliable ol’ Johnny
One dynamic that I wish they’d built upon more than they did was Johnny looking out for Tails. We see in an early Tails story that Johnny both stands up for Tails when Sonic is being mean to him and even goes after Tails himself, having faith that Tails will join them for the battle at the end of the story. StC Sonic’s treatment of Tails is one of the biggest complaints I see about StC from people who don’t like the comic, so I think having Johnny there as a mediator to tell Sonic when he’s gone too far and offer a little kindness to Tails might’ve been a good way to take the edge off there
Also, here’s the one time that love triangle I mentioned earlier did make it to print, which was not long after the Tails story I was just talking about
Johnny gets sort of his own adventure only one time, during the Commander Brutus arc. It is still mostly a story about Brutus, but we see Johnny handle a situation without the others for the first time. This time, he’s being written by Stringer instead of Kitching, who brings this new angle to the character, which is this awareness that he’s not the one on the team who people think can solve their problems for them. Tails also has similar insecurities, but he’s a kid who’s growing stronger everyday, whereas Johnny is more of “the other guy” on the team and it turns out that other Mobians know that about him as well
Johnny does successfully manage to blow up the factory here. But unluckily for him, soon after this he’s beaten by Brutus and briefly has his mind copied into Brutus, until Brutus realises that this makes him act too heroic and erases Johnny’s mind from himself, along with the information that came with it. If all that sounds confusing, then check out Brutus’s story arc in full and it’ll make a lot more sense lol
It also seems that Johnny wins over some Mobians, at least in Metropolis City Zone, during the run-up to issue 100. At this point, Johnny is still an active member of the team and involved in the revolution that’d lead to Robotnik’s fall from power
Saying that Johnny stopped appearing so much after issue 100 wouldn’t be completely accurate, because he does appear in a lot of the issues immediately following Robotnik’s defeat. But this is the point where he’s seen less and less as part of the gang, with the stories starting to fall more into the pattern of: main Sonic story, Amy & Tekno story, interchangeable Tails, Knuckles, Shortfuse or Chaotix story - none of these leaving much room for Johnny. Issue 111 is the first time that Stringer calls it out that Johnny’s appearing less (though it definitely wouldn’t be the last time) giving the reason that he’s been visiting his large family following Robotnik’s defeat. Even in this story, Amy & Tekno get whisked away into space before Johnny can follow them, with Johnny remarking that those two get all the good adventures lately
(Continued in reblogs...)
