StC Post-Mortems: Windy Wallis
Windy Wallis the Weather Gerbil was one of the many characters in StC who was a parody of a real person, at least in name. But unlike most of the characters in this category, she appeared more than once, enjoying a short career as a minor villain before disappearing from the comic. Let’s take a look at what she got up to
Her real world connection is that she takes her name from Wincey Willis, who was a TV weather presenter in the UK during the 80s. But that’s about the only background information we have for Windy Wallis outside of the comic itself, at least that I could find
In the comic itself, Wallis appeared as the villain of a oneshot Sonic story that was used as the main story for issue 102. Like Norris (who debuted in the same story), this meant that Wallis was treated to shiny Elson art for her first appearance. This story was fresh off the Freedom Fighters’ victory over Robotnik in issue 100 and was part of the on-going theme of showing how Mobians were adapting to the loss of Robotnik, including people who’d worked with Robotnik, such as Wallis. She had posed as the world’s most accurate weather forecaster, but the truth was that she was using her own weather machine to cause environmental chaos across Mobius
Sonic was able to defeat her, but Wallis got sucked in by a tornado from her own destroyed machine, vowing to come back for revenge someday
And so she did! Having chosen to go for an aerial weather machine this time, to take her destruction on the move. This time, it was Tails who managed to defeat her in one of his solo stories, even with his sprained tails. He left Wallis lying in the snow at the end, so we can assume she must’ve snuck away on her own after this:
Wallis only appeared in three stories, making this “beginning/middle/end” format I use for these posts super easy this time around. But sadly, her final appearance doesn’t leave much to say. In fact, she only has a single line in this story, shown in the panel above, when Tails discovers that she was yet again causing bother with another weather machine, though this time seemingly only creating fog. Maybe she was burnt out after making two unsuccessful weather machines?
She escapes in a shuttle craft at the end of the story, but this is the last we see of her. The main focus of this story was more the ongoing Agent X mystery than Windy Wallis. But even without it being directly said, we can assume that Wallis did start working for Robotnik again after his reappearance on Flickies’ Island, since Agent X was also working for Robotnik and the two of them were working together in this story
Were there any unused future plans from the StC writers?
None that I could find. Once again, I feel like Wallis was the sort of character who’d only appear if there was a specific story that needed her as a villain than someone who was planned for. But since they went to the effort to show her escaping, I assume that if there was anymore call for weather-related oneshots that we’d have seen her again. It just didn’t happen up until the end of StC
What would I personally have liked to see next for her if StC continued?
I think Wallis has a lot of untapped potential as a villain. While her weather machines were quite easily defeated each time she appeared, the fact that she made three of them in such a short span of time and was able to cause havoc across the planet with them means that she really is more of a tech genius than she gets credit for. Having said that, needing to have her make a whole new weather machine for the heroes to destroy each time she appears probably isn’t the most practical storytelling, so maybe have her come up with something wearable that distorts the weather, that way she’ll be able to take it with her when she makes her escape each time
I’d also probably keep her more as a Tails-specific villain, I think. Which is mostly because I’ve always felt that Tails lacking his own support cast in the comic was what made his solo stories less memorable to me than the Amy & Tekno or Knuckles series were. With Tails most-likely growing into his role as the genius after Sonic Adventure, giving him other genius villains to battle against seems like a good call
Speaking of Sonic Adventure, we literally have a whole location turn up in that game called Windy Valley. Had StC kept going after the main Sonic Adventure arc had concluded, I believe they probably would’ve explored more concepts and locations from the game, so having Windy Valley as a sort of home base for Wallis (or at least a place she was causing problems) would be easy pickings
What if she was in other Sonic media?
I’ve joked before about how Windy Wallis had Mina Mongoose’s hair before Mina did. So I want to see them clash at the same salon. Maybe even Bunnie’s salon. Mina is of course a nice person, but Wallis isn’t and she’s not going to let Mina get away with having the same hairstyle as she has - one of them is going to have to change and it’s not going to be her. Is this just an excuse for a story where characters are drawn with lots of different hairstyles and also Bunnie appears? Sure is!
Another weather-related villain who willingly works for Robotnik. I think they should be friends! I think they should be besties! Wallis is both loyal enough to Robotnik, but also not attracted to him that Thunderbolt wouldn’t feel threatened by her, I don’t think, while also respecting her as someone else with the, eh, good sense to work for Robotnik. Plus, maybe Thunderbolt’s powers could help Wallis with her weather machine stuff. Between the two of them, I’m sure they’d kick up a real storm
