The Forgotten Tribe (Part Three of Three) - Journey's End
Writer: Ken Penders
Pencils: Manny Galan
Colors: Barry Grossman
Funnily enough, the beginning of this issue directly breaks the usual trope of "if they explain the plan out loud, it's inevitably going to fail." Knuckles lays out a quick plan to save Yanar, and just as the hangman lowers the door, Rob's arrow slices through the rope, allowing Yanar to drop into Sonic's arms.
With that, the battle begins, with Knuckles, Tails, and Rob fighting off their enemies while Mari-An and Sonic lead the others to safety. Rob volunteers to create a distraction so everyone else can get away safely, and soon the team is leading all the echidnas out to a nearby hill. Before they get very far, we see Rob stumble upon a room filled with dynamite, and seeing an opportunity, he sets it off, causing a huge explosion that decimates the castle. At first, everyone is worried about him, but after a few moments…
He found Mari-An's brothers after all! While everyone celebrates their victory, and apparently forgets that an entire castle full of innocent mind slaves was just detonated with Antoine's father inside it, Locke and Sabre continue to watch over Hawking, still in a coma.
Deo makes a very good point, namely that the echidnas kind of vastly overreacted about the whole technology thing. It's clear now that echidna society has kind of moved on from the "no technology" rule by now, as Echidnaopolis is clearly very high-tech, but all they accomplished with their past ban was to inspire the formation of the Dark Legion, a problem that still plagues them to this day. Locke answers the call on their comm panel, and it turns out to be Remington, who's continued to be pestered by Lara-Le to be able to speak with her ex-husband. Remington informs Locke of the Chaotix reluctantly accepting Julie-Su into their ranks, revealing to us that it was Locke who advised she be put there, and Locke tells Remington to tell Lara-Le that he'll be in contact "soon."
Back in Mercia, after a bit more celebration of their victory, Knuckles says goodbye to Sonic and Tails as they continue their journey to find Naugus. When he goes back to chat with Yanar though, Yanar's previous odd comment about "after all those years" becomes more clear - when the door dropped out from under him he had a brief vision just before he thought his life would end, of white cliffs and a glowing city, and he believes that Rob is the "other," the one who knows the way to their journey's end. Knuckles approaches Rob to ask about it, and well, he gets a response, kind of.
Almost as if in a trance, he walks off to the exact spot Yanar mentioned, which is right close by, standing and staring out at the waters. He seems to feel called by this place…
So journey's end is Stonehenge? Good to know. While this is going on we get a short scene of Lara-Le and Wynmacher in which nothing really happens other than discussing Locke's short and vague message, but the scene does make it clear that Lara-Le and Wynmacher are a committed couple, if it wasn't clear already. I don't think Knuckles has really picked up on that, but it's meant to be obvious to us readers, at least. Back at the beach, Rob explains that he's stood sentry to this place as long as he can remember, not really knowing why, but that "only the worthy" can get past him and that this group is indeed worthy. Knuckles complains that he "can't even swim," a far, far cry from his abilities in the games as one of the most notable playable characters who can swim (plus it seems a little odd to me that his father would have taught him everything he needs to know to survive and protect his island but neglected to teach him something as basic to survival as swimming). Yanar then says that he has to have faith to take the leap, and Knuckles interprets this as "well I guess I have to try walking on water then." And so, with a single step, he moves further into his transformation into a weird Jesus metaphor!
I won't deny it's a pretty cool and cinematic series of panels, though. Also, hey, Mari-An's parents, are you kidding me? Your daughter is giving up on the thing she's been chasing all her life with the rest of her tribe to stay with a random guy she's only known for a day, and you're just like "make sure to invite us to the wedding"? Have you guys been watching too many Disney movies? That's not how love works, man! At least go on a date that doesn't involve smashing bad guys first!
With that, the rest of the tribe follows Knuckles across the water as the glowing city from Yanar's vision grows closer. Soon they're close enough to be greeted by a frankly very pretty echidna called Gala-Na, who welcomes them to Albion, like she's some kind of Wal-Mart greeter stationed here to welcome the new arrivals once every couple hundred years or something.
She explains yet another missing puzzle piece of history, that Albion was in fact the first echidna city, and Echidnaopolis was a colony established by those with wanderlust centuries ago. They've always been watching the plight of their fellows out in the world, but never thought to lift a finger to help, I guess. But now that the lost tribe is here, they can come in and stay here, home at last. I just want to remind everyone that according to Yanar they were literally wandering for six hundred years, with entire generations being born and dying off again and again, and somehow they never managed to find their homeland, nor did those in their homeland bother to help them or anything. They were all just going off those prophecies in "the Tomes." I hate to criticize Penders on worldbuilding, because the worldbuilding is genuinely one of my favorite parts of his work on the comics, but this is one point that makes absolutely no sense. The sheer scale of time is just all over the place and the actions of everyone involved are kind of ridiculous. But eh, it's what we have to work with for now.
Gala-Na, after finishing her spiel, invites the tribe to walk into the city and find a home, and as everyone begins to follow her Yanar notices Knuckles off to the side looking morose. Knuckles explains that he can't stay even with everyone else being so joyful.
…Okay, sweet ending and all, very cinematic final few panels, but what in the heck is a guiding star gem? I actually can't remember at all, so I have no idea here. Where did this thing come from? What does it do? Yanar just straight up plopped some random green jewel in Knuckles' hand and is just like "k bye" and Knuckles isn't fazed at all? Better not lose that thing, Knux, cause you of all people would know that your world is pretty obsessed over strange powerful gemstones…
This page is entirely too much. Knuckles is literally walking on water, and Rob and Mari-An are deciding to spend their whole lives together after knowing each other for A DAY
