#stc issue 86

[samobservessonic]

I always like when they get letters from around the world. Given the price of international shipping, that’s a very good friend that kid had!

[samobservessonic]

Huh, so we’re already at Future Shock. In my head, I thought that this story happened much later into StC’s run, but I guess not. I feel like this is one of those stories that Sonic fans who are at least vaguely familiar with StC might’ve come across while browsing the Sonic wiki - or at least one of the characters in it, anyway - so let’s get into it

Sonic makes a misstep while fighting badniks and ends up falling into the goo. Maybe he was distracted by the pretty backgrounds that Corona draws, because I know I sure was

Wait a sec, is Sonic being saved by Sonic?

When I first read this story as a kid I did for a moment think they were introducing Uncle Chuck into StC. But that isn’t the case

I don’t have a decent ‘Mobius: X Years Later’ joke to make here. I’m sorry

Given the amount of doppelganger plots that Robotnik’s thrown Sonic’s way by this point, I don’t blame him for being wary

I also don’t have a decent Sonic 06 joke to make here. I’m really letting you all down today. But I bet Silver would be friends with Old Sonic

Tails references that cool solo story he had recently and then the two Sonics are off to validate his claims. It’s a nice detail that Old Sonic has the glasses appear over his spindash

I’m a bit sad that Sonic didn’t go to Tekno for help, but I guess they don’t really know her very well yet. I also had a feeling that this bear scientist might’ve appeared in an earlier issue that this was a callback to, but I looked it up and it doesn’t seem that he was

Anyway, it looks like Old Sonic was right. Or was he? We’ll find out in the next issue!

[samobservessonic]

In the second and final part of this Tails story, we rejoin Tails and Clive, as they’re taken prisoner by the troopers. Tails doesn’t exactly inspire confidence, with Clive’s reaction being about the same as when I tell my co-workers “I’m too busy worrying about making mistakes myself to be upset when other people make mistakes”. Some things just sound better in your head

This is the sort of story that wouldn’t really work for modern Tails, who’s a tech genius himself, but I can definitely buy it working for a younger Tails who hasn’t found his feet in that regard yet

I like this panel of Tails looking guilty as they get caught

That one panel being shown as if it’s falling down over the others panels is also cool. I’m not a comic artist and my friends who are often tell me they hate panelling, but I just see stuff like this and think it looks neat that you can have fun with it like that

Then we get a page of Tails out-smarting the last remaining trooper

This is a kids’ comic, so instead of getting caught up in the weeds about it, they can say that it’s okay for Clive to just give back all the money he conned out of his neighbours with the fake taxes and leave it at that

On one final donkey joke, Tails flies off to leave Clive to this victory. Hey look, there’s even one Mobian waving Tails off, that’s nice. We don’t see Clive again after this, so I can only assume that everything worked out well for him

[samobservessonic]

“Knuckles the Echidna is up to his neck in it again” as a caption combined with this opening shot. Just another day for that wacky echidna Knuckles

So basically, it was her or him. Not exactly the most noble character, but I can’t pretend I don’t see why she made the choice she did. Assuming she still has her free will at all

He’s figuring it out!

The rolling of the flaming wooden egg containing an echidna down the hill is yet another rural tradition. Made all the more difficult by echidnas not being native to Mobian Britain and understandably Mobian Australia won’t lend them any

Knuckles breaks free of his prison and breaks the curse of Mesmer’s staff! But if you think that means he’s out of the woods, then there’s more to come

The kindly tavern-owner from the first issue?

Surprise, it was Robotnik wearing another fursuit! I did remember this plot-twist all along, but I kept quiet for anyone following these who might not have known

That’s the ending flex! Robotnik knows that the heroes won’t kill him and the comic state plainly that as long as he rules the planet, what is anyone going to do about him? No justice system can stop him, because he is the justice system. I’m sure I don’t need to make any grim comparisons to modern times here :( 

We get an ending that we don’t see very often in the Sonic franchise in general, but the kind that Kitching doesn’t shy away from - the hero doesn’t win. We are gearing up to Robotnik’s big defeat, so this is essentially building more tension until his inevitable downfall, but for now, Knuckles has no choice but to walk away and leave this situation as it is. God, StC Mobius is so messy and I love that

I also like that Robotnik just does this stuff when he’s not busy hunting the Freedom Fighters. Whenever Robotnik and Grimer meet up again after their days off, Grimer is like “I made missile-seeking shoes and tried to kill Tails with them” and Robotnik is like “Well, I dressed as a Mobian again to test out the new hypnotist on some village in a forest somewhere”

One last thing is that I've had a couple of people mention that this story is a homage to "The Wicker Man", which I've shamefully not seen and hope to one day plug that gap in my British pop culture knowledge. So I wanted to mention it here, so it wouldn't seem like I'm ignoring the references, I just didn't have the source material to pull from to make jokes about this time

[samobservessonic]

It’s a footie theme in this issue’s Graphics Zone and while I have zero interest in football, I like some of these pictures a lot! Mighty might’ve been coloured green for what I assume is (was?) the Liverpool club colours of ‘96, but I like that this accidentally makes him the same colours as his sister Matilda from the Archie Comics - one of the many very cool Archie characters I was sad to lose

I love when the fanart draws Amy looking as badass as she is in StC. The caption is also funny to look back on, since in recent years the profession womens’ football teams have been doing much better in the UK than the mens’ teams have

This Knuckles is wearing the Newcastle kit and since they’re the closest team to where I live, I feel obligated to give that a thumbs up

It’s also funny to me that Knuckles and Mighty are both advertising alcohol on these. I doubt you’d get Sonic fanart published these days with the Carlsberg and Newcastle Brown Ale logos on

[samobservessonic]

I have a rule of only posting one issue to ‘Sam Observes Sonic’ per day, but I’m gonna be honest with you folks - I was so excited for the next part of this story that I started reading this issue immediately after finishing the last one

The Chaotix have entered the fray, with Vector being presented as the leader again, because StC got that right. We also get the confirmation that the Chaotix and Lord Sidewinder are familiar with each other and their run-ins have probably not been on the best of terms

I know I said I like Lightmare because she’s the girl one, but I also like her because her powers are cool

But we’re not about to forget about the main event here, not when Super Sonic doesn’t even need to use his own super speed to fight and Sonic’s just barely managing to out-run the guy. Sonic has a plan this time because, as we’ve seen before, the only way to beat Super Sonic is to out-smart him, since he can’t be overpowered

We then get a glorious double-page spread, because the comic really wasn’t afraid of letting Elson just go ham with these massive images for the fight scenes. This is why I wish there was a way to show all of you these comics in person, because they really are huge and deserve to be seen in their full magnificence. I sincerely hope that this page’s original art is framed on someone’s wall somewhere, because it deserves to be appreciated forever

Sonic forces Super Sonic into the Omni-Viewer and then tries to escape before he does, but the plan doesn’t work out as he expects

Omni doesn’t have time to explain what’s going on, but instead of acting out Sonic’s plan he’s frozen Super Sonic in time to keep him from hurting anyone else. It’s a big sacrifice and we’ll be feeling the effects of it for a while

Also, those other villains escaped

Vector explains this on the next page, once they get Omni and Super Sonic back to their base. They don’t say it this issue, but this also means that Sonic’s trapped in the Special Zone now, since Omni was his way home

A week later we get this ominous warning that Super Sonic might not be as frozen as it seems, as Charmy notices that more of his hand has started to slip through the Omni-Viewer. But since Charmy expects that Vector will yell at him, he doesn’t bother telling him about it and assumes it probably isn’t important. There’s a lesson to be learned here, though I’m not sure the Chaotix will learn it

[samobservessonic]

Megadroid even mentions it in the Control Zone. My comic stinks, dude! Megadroid, I thought you were my friend…! D:

[samobservessonic]

Holy shit, this cover gives me violent flashbacks because my copy of this issue STINKS! That isn’t a critic of the art - I think this cover art fuckin owns and the vibes are off the charts. What I mean is that the free gift they gave away with this issue - the Planet Krapz sample pack - was the most foul-smelling thing I’ve ever had the misfortune to sniff and the stench of it lingered on my comic for years. I bet if I took it out of my bag of barely surviving StC issues now that it’d still have a faint whiff of Planet Krapz…

A few months back I actually saw a copy of this issue on eBay that still had the free gift attached and I was almost tempted to buy it for science to see if the awful “free gift” had retained its smell for almost three decades, but someone outbid me and I realised I’d have no way to prove the smell for the sake of this blog anyway. I hope whoever won that auction enjoyed their smelly prize tho