#sss 15

[fyeahsonicthehedgehog]

[thankskenpenders]

RIP Sonic Super Special

We’ve come to the end of Sonic Super Special, a quarterly series of double length 48-page specials covering a wide variety of storylines from a wide variety of writers and artists. These longer, more expensive issues were treated as big events, heavily promoted by Archie. (They were also easier to find in comic shops than random back issues in the later years, in my experience, so I actually read five of these as a kid)

What exactly did Archie use these beefy issues to do? A lot of nonsense, mostly

In the early days, the Sonic Super Specials contained key events that tied into the main storylines. Stories like Battle Royal, Brave New World, and Return of the King may not have been great, but you had to read them to follow the overarching plot. King Max’s worsening condition, the fights over the Sword of Acorns, the tension with the Robians, the reconstruction of Mobotropolis--these were all central storylines that were touched upon in the specials

However, this wouldn’t last, and the series quickly began focusing more on crossovers, flashbacks, dimension-hopping parodies, and random filler stories that didn’t fit anywhere else. We got things like the Image Comics crossover, an Ally McBeal parody, a bizarre kaiju-themed dimension, pointless prequel stories about the Freedom Fighters in their youth, that sort of thing. In the two year stretch when Robotnik was absent from the main series, lots of stories set before his death started popping up in Super Special, showing just how much he was missed

Why did the Super Specials take on this bizarre life of their own? Maybe they just wanted a place to experiment, free from the plot of the main series. Maybe the uncertainty of comic publishing schedules meant they didn’t want to split key events across two titles which might get published out of chronological order. Or maybe kids just didn’t like having to pick up the specials to get the whole story. Who knows

I want to say that this experimental, lighthearted nature wasn’t a bad thing. The recent annual issue of IDW’s Sonic took a similar(-ish) approach, giving writers other than Ian and a variety of artists the freedom to explore some fun side stories, and that worked out well. The idea of the Super Specials having their own separate storyline (Zone Wars) is also a good one. The difference is that the Super Specials just... aren’t very good. Most of the stories are dull, or nonsensical, or just outright bad ideas, and the art ranged from some of the best in the series to the absolute worst. It gave me some very goofy stories to cover, which I always enjoy, but God, I’d never recommend non-Archie fans actually seek these out

It’s a shame they didn’t do anything more interesting with them, but at least they killed it off before it overstayed its welcome. The less Dark Age issues we have to get through, the better

[thankskenpenders]

Let’s talk a little bit more about Naugus Games, because BOY is there a lot to take in there

The art in this story (or rather, lack thereof) was more than likely slapped together by multiple artists in a frantic rush to have SOMETHING done in time. The thing is, the script by Penders leaves a lot of room for those blank pages! But scripts are completed ahead of the art, right? So what gives?

I have a few theories

1) Penders was told that the issue was behind schedule and slapped something together real quick, specifically intending for it to be easy to draw. If he threw the script together hastily, this may explain why the story is so uneventful, and why it revolves around characters Penders never cared about. Penders already had plans for his own characters, so maybe he just picked a random plot thread Bollers had left open and wrote a quick epilogue

2) Perhaps this story was actually supposed to be shorter, leaving room for a third story to appear in this special (which was pretty common for SSS). However, when that plan fell apart, they padded out the Naugus story with some more pages of darkness and snow

3) Hell, maybe Penders intended for Sonic and Naugus to be partially visible in the darkness and the snowstorm, but the time constraints on the art meant that they just copped out. There’s clearly a fight going on in that six-page snowstorm! I could very easily envision a version where we can see Sonic, and Naugus keeps popping out of the storm from different angles to attack him

I dunno. As much as I hate Penders’ comics, I want to believe there must be a reason why he wrote a story with ten empty pages. The man might be a hack, but he takes pride in his schlock. There’s nothing to be proud of here

[thankskenpenders]

Let’s close out this dreadful issue with a look at the fanart pages. Why not! Some of this is pretty cute. Two of the kids here were from Florida, and they’ve made my home state proud

Also, I previously shared a story about that drawing of Knuckles and Benedict on the second page! Half of it was hastily scribbled out to remove non-canon elements like Benedict having a sword (possibly Penders’ doing). What an incredibly petty thing to do. Benedict with a sword was too far, but “Sonic the Hobo”? That’s A-okay

[thankskenpenders]

There’s something unsettling about Sonic parodying the gratuitous violence of Sin City even if it’s just Badniks and they’re keeping it PG

[thankskenpenders]

The last thing these comics needed was a Swatbot with titties doing a burlesque show

Or, well, Bunnie disguised as a Swatbot with titties doing a burlesque show

[thankskenpenders]

Do I even want to know what a “chili dog float” is

Also after the four solid pages of darkness in that last story I would prefer it if the lights stayed on, thank you

[thankskenpenders]

Hey, Grounder deserves more respect than that! So does Orbinaut, for that matter. See how his maceballs allow him to hover?