#issue 8 stcb

[sonicthecomicblog]

Another ad for Sonic CD, with some badass Metal Sonic art. This in fact would have been the first time anybody in the UK had seen Metal Sonic. It’s also interesting that the Final Fever zone is mentioned here

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I’m just gonna bite the bullet and paste the next few pages in full since they’re incredibly important to future events and just STC lore in general. If you remember back in Issue 6, there were some references to Dr. Kintobor and how he became Robotnik. Now we get to see the full story:  

Where do I start? If you don’t already know, this was the basic origin storyline of Sonic in the west. This is the origin story that appears in the infamous Sonic Bible and was introduced to American players very early on in a comic promoting Sonic 1, where we get a less detailed (and unsightlier) version of the same story.

The story would be introduced to the British audience by the same book I’ve been occasionally referencing, Stay Sonic. So, while this story isn’t unique to STC, it’s definitely where most people remember it from.

To be honest I’m not much a fan of Sonic’s transformation, since I find it cliché that Sonic himself became a victim of the science fiction trope of only getting “superpowers” later. Well, maybe that’s a simplistic summary, since it appears that Sonic was already capable of running really fast before he met Kintobor, and the special shoes just allowed him to reach his full potential. A quick aside and rant: the concept of a friction-reducing sneaker is freaking stupid. Wouldn’t a friction-enhancing sneaker be preferrable, to give you a better pushoff with every step? Well, let’s not get bogged down with that.

But the real meat of the story is Robotnik’s origin. Unlike the games, where Eggman has always been an eccentric scientist bent on world domination, Robotnik was originally the kindly Dr. Kintobor. While his design is whatever in the American comic, I really like the look Elson gives him, with the crazy hair matching the mustache, and how he’s a direct contrast to Robotnik’s design, being a very tall, gangly man typically with a giant grin on his face. Kintobor’s goal is revealed to be the opposite of Robotnik’s: to rid Mobius of all evil. His method of doing so is using the Mobius rings to transfer all the evil energy of the world into six chaos emeralds (it’s never elaborated on how any of this is supposed to work, but I guess just the children audience is meant to wave it away as mad science that their tiny brains would never understand). It’s quite interesting how even in the version written to advertise Sonic 1 they’re referencing the fact that a seventh emerald is out there, with no idea whatsoever that Sonic 2 would introduce the seventh).  

Anyways, this is how the Chaos Emeralds are explained, and unlike the Japanese lore, where they can be activated by positive or negative emotions, here they’re filled with energy that is pure evil. I suppose that fits their name, and it will later be used to justify why Super Sonic is so insane (not to spoil too much). Moving on, one day Kintobor takes a rotten egg out of the fridge, and trips on a loose wire, causing him to fall on the machine holding the Chaos Emeralds, creating a terrifying homunculus of Kintobor, the rotten egg, and the evil energy stored in the emeralds (it’s therefore ironic in this continuity that Robotnik never got the Eggman moniker, not even once).

It’s a ridiculous story, one that reeks of early nineties cheese, and one that no doubt will get scoffs from modern fans, but there is a certain appeal due to it’s strangeness, and if you’re a fan of the eviller side of Robotnik, this gives him an extra layer of creepiness. I prefer Eggman from the games myself, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy this backstory to an extent. The appeal of this story to me is actually what they do with it later in the magazine, but I really don’t want to get ahead of myself

So that’s that settled

[sonicthecomicblog]

And all of a sudden there’s a giant floating face. The fuck?

So, this the Omni-Viewer, a weird omnipotent…freaky face thing that just happens to exist in the Special Zone. I suppose it’s nothing stranger than anything else in the Special Zone. Believe it or not, this guy will be incredibly important in future issues. Later on he’s depicted as more of a powerful computer program, but here he treated more like a deity than anything.  Sonic also happens to know him, and the Omi-Viewer immediately goes from old-testament god to stoner friend upon realizing its Sonic visiting him. Was them knowing each other something that happened when Sonic went into the special stages the first time, or did it happen later?

I’ve always wanted to know if Kitching based the Omni-Viewer off anything in particular, like some obscure Doctor Who antagonist or something, but I can’t recall a single interview where Kitching mentions him

[sonicthecomicblog]

I really don’t want to go to Eggman’s pleasure park

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But in fact, the story isn’t over. In fact, Sonic and his friends entering the Special Zone turned out to be a huge mistake, for Robotnik is also here (remember in Issue 4 he said he planned to make the Special Zone his base of operations) is able to use the Omni-Viewer to trap Sonic and his friends and send them somewhere in the far future, allowing Robotnik to proceed with his plans for Mobius unobstructed. Yeah, so that’s quite the cliffhanger

And that’s the Sonic story of Issue 8. We’re introduced to A LOT in a very short amount of time, and I think it was rather smart for Kitching to use the element explaining Sonic and Robotnik’s origins to also be the thing that greatly cripples them in their battle with Robotnik. This could have very easily been the type of story to be told in flashback and ending with Sonic going “wasn’t that a rad story, kids?”. Kitching was adept at this kind of thing, and he had to be, considering the main strip of every issue was just seven pages long. It is kinda weird how there’s just a giant computer face thing floating around out there, and the start was a bit awkward with Sonic just telling all his friends “come on, we’re going to the Special Zone to meet my god friend and learn about my superhero origins”, but it gets the job done well enough.

Elson’s art is superb as usual, and his especially vibrant colouring this time makes the story feel particularly surrealist in nature, which I think is a good thing. Robotnik is pretty silly looking though in my opinion, with his forced scowl and stupid black eyes, but I suppose he didn’t have much to work with when it came to Robotnik.

The plot is about to really get going in the next issue, so stay tuned.

[sonicthecomicblog]

We saw the star posts in issue 4, but this is the first time we actually see one be used, and it’s just like how it is in Sonic 2, where they’re gateways to the special stages

And it’s essentially identical to how it looks in Sonic 2, at least in this issue. God damn, remember how much of a pain it was to get the emeralds with both Sonic and Tails at once? Imagine doing it with four characters at once! Somebody should make a mod of Sonic 2 with everybody here…or maybe they shouldn’t. The Special Zone will be a reoccurring place throughout the magazine, so it was smart of Kitching to introduce it so early on. He even references the fact that the Chaos Emeralds used to be here, but now Sonic has them all. I also love Richard Elson’s slightly psychedelic looking art from this early period.

[sonicthecomicblog]

Here we get to see the basic set of Sonic’s friends together for the first time. There is Tails (obviously), but also Porker Lewis (who we first saw back in issue 1) and Johnny Lightfoot. Similar to how Ricky became Sally Acorn, these two have Americanised names, Johnny Lightfoot originally being Pocky and Porker Lewis being Picky. At this stage their personalities are still coming into being, but you can see the basic elements there. Porker is neurotic and gets nervous a lot, while Johnny…exists. Okay, that’s a bit harsh, but it was a common complaint that Johhny was always a bit light on personality. We’ll talk more about him later on, but I do think there was more to Johnny than people saw.

It’s interesting that of all the animal friends, it was Johnny and Porker who were chosen in particular. I wonder if this had anything to do with the fact that these two were set to be prominent characters in the very early antecedent to SatAM, or if Kitching just thought that these two had the most potential.

It’s also entirely coincidental, but I find it interesting that in the Sonic 1 manga, of all the characters Sonic interacts with, by far the most substantial conversations are with Pocky and Picky.

[sonicthecomicblog]

Go meet Sonic at Woolworths! That certainly dates this issue. The Sonic costume is pretty good for the time. Tails though is a little unfortunate