[Note: Funny, I'd have thought someone else would have commented on this
issue by now. Oh,well. Spoilers ahead, yadda yadda yadda...]
#32 [March 1996]
Cover art: Pat Spaziante seems to be making his mark as a cover
artist, and a dynamic one at that. And he continues to push the outside
of the envelope in his drawings of Sally. Talk about a tail to
astonish....!
"Blast From The Past" (3 parts)
Story: Angelo DeCesare/Art: Art Mawhinney
The Knothole Freedom Fighters are somewhere in the mountains when
they're attacked by SWATbots. One of them gets off a laser shot that
severs the rope that Sally has been climbing. She begins to fall to her
doom....
and this is just the first panel!
Tails catches Sally on the fly as the freedom fighters make
their escape. However, they run into other SWATbots with a
robodog...which just happens to be Sonic's old pet, Muttski. However,
the impending attack is broken off by Uncle Chuck using a device that
looks like a remote control for a toy car. Antoine then tumbles into a
gorge where he discovers... I'm sorry, but Mawhinney's talent totally
fails to make his rendition of a frozen prehistoric "Mobian bear" very
convincing--especially when compared with his rendition of a polar bear
later in this issue. The two don't look anything alike. The
prehistoric bear (dubbed "Mobie" by Tails) looks more like a hulked-out
version of that obnoxious animal from the Honeycomb cereal commercials
on TV (note to overseas readers who don't get American TV: you're not
missing a thing!). Rotor suggests that they take Mobie back to Knothole
to revive him.
Sonic accidentally causes a speedup in the thawing process and Mobie
promptly begins running amok. Bunnie trees Mobie until he calms down.
Anti-Mobie sentiment begins to grow (Antoine: "He is ze librarian!"
Sally : "I think you mean 'barbarian,' Antoine." Just for the record
I'M the librarian, and I have the Master's degree in library science to
prove it! But enough about me....). Bunnie, however, tries using
pictures to communicate with Mobie; since he was holding a paint brush
in one hand when he was found, she thinks he may have an artistic side.
Mobie takes one look at the group drawing of Bunnie's, has a dim memory
of his own family unit, and runs away from Knothole to look for them.
Sonic gives chase, reluctantly.
Finding Mobie by a nearby mountain surrounded by SWATbots, Sonic
comes to his rescue. Mobie returns the favor when Sonic manages to
knock himself out and almost gets chomped by Muttski. Snoic has to do
some quick drawing in the dirt before Mobie tries taking Muttski apart.
The story is wrapped up in short order: Muttski's mind is restored and
Mobie is dropped off in a Mobian jungle.
Pretty good action yarn hampered by an unbelievable "cave bear." I
suppose by making bears the sapient species instead of primates,
evolution on Mobius took a different turn. But I'll leave that to the
theoreticians on the list -- I'm a Mobian creationist myself ;-) .
"Prisoners"
Story: Mike Kanterovich & Ken Penders/Art: Ken Penders
Yet another 2-page installment in the Chinese water torture that is
being passed off as a Knuckles story. Espio, Charmy, Mighty and Vector
are trapped somewhere and encounter a shadowy figure wearing the same
digger-style hat as Knack the Weasel.
"Tundra Road" Part 2
Story: Mike Gallagher/Art: Art Mawhinney
We left Rotor sinking to his doom in the waters of the North Sea.
One other fan has summed up the situation best: we know Rotor will be
saved; the question is, will his rescue be as contrived as Tails' rescue
from the roboticizer in "Growing Pains, Part 2"? As it turns out, Rotor
is indeed saved by two of the polar Mobians left over from "Way Way Past
Cool" (Sonic #26): Sealia the seal (who didn't have any lines the first
time but who has now acquired a copy of Antoine's dimestore French
accent) and Augustus the polar bear. Using a literal Trojan horse
gambit, Rotor and the two polar Mobians invade the ice cave where the
walrus herd is still gathered, but Robotnik orders the brainwashed herd
to destroy Rotor. The polar Mobians separate Rotor from the herd by
setting the herd adrift on an ice floe. Rotor vows to return to release
the herd from Robotnik's influence...if the zombified herd doesn't die
of starvation in the meantime. Oh well, at least Manak took a break
from doing the artwork.
Sonic grams: same old office humor. Hype for Super Sonic v.
Hyper-Knuckles special issue (story by Gallagher *ack!*/art by
Mawhinney). One letter concerns Sonic's sneakers and there's some
teasing of Knuckles' story in issues 33-36.
Received on Tue Jan 09 1996 - 09:16:45 PST
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