Re: Comments on Sonic #36 (spoilers)

From: William Graham <uug_at_sago.cuc.ab.ca>
Date: Fri, 3 May 96 09:22:10 MDT

Ron Bauerle <BAUERLE_at_engr.erie.ge.com> writes:

> How could fire ants chew through the wall in so short a time? (hours?)
> This seemed a bit deus ex machina to me...

Not at all. Some ants can strip a forest bare of anything green that lies
in their path in a matter of hours; it's not unreasonable that they can
disassemble a wall in short order. To make a computer analogy, ants work
like parallel processors; each one is fairly weak by itself, but because
there are so many of them working as a coordinated unit, they have a great
combined power.

I find it curious that a whole 1/3 page was devoted to the fire ants in
part one of "A Sense of History" in #34, and one ant made a cameo appearance
on a leaf in part two. The ants' world, the Mobian soil, was ripped apart
when the Floating Island rose into the air; I'd expect now they have a vested
interest in seeing it, and their various ant colonies, re-united. So I
wouldn't be surprised if they don't play a pivotal role in the Knuckles'
mini-series. And then in part three, a very similar scene (p. 5) with
Mount Fate collapsing, and Edmund & co. escaping (instead of the ants), just
has to make me wonder...

Another thing that struck my funny bone was Knuckles snapping his...
knuckles? I figure he must have fingers inside those mittens he wears,
like all the other echidnas we see.

> Also that with all that power, Dimitri could apparently be crushed to
> death by the collapse of the tower (and it wasn't clear that the skull-like
> (shades of The Phantom?) Mt. Fate was created by its collapse).

That was clear enough to me. But why would Mt. Fate be laughing at Knuckles
in the final panel of part 3? Is somebody or something trapped within Mt.
Fate? Is it Dimitri, biding his time for the chance to put an end to the
long line of Guardians of the Floating Island?

> Either this means Mobius is a future Earth,[...] or it was influenced by
> Earth culture/settlers, or [...]

My take on it is that Mobius is an alternate, present-day Earth. Issues
raised by having a villain who despoils the planet, destroys forests and
wildlife, and enslaves the surviving population like robots (sounds like
some jobs I've had) in a technological dystopia, also apply to our world.
And then you have a small group of individuals, with Sonic at their helm,
who reject that future and who know they can change it.

> I still think the decision to dismantle their technological society was a
> bit of an overreaction, but I'll accept it for the story's sake...

It shows that Echidna society were still masters of their own fate,
and they had the courage to correct a major mistake they realized
they had made.

> At least the UPC symbol will only cover part of her boots this time...

Odd how some of the early issues didn't have the UPC barcode on the cover.
I'm glad my Sonic mini-series #3 doesn't have it -- that Scott Shaw! cover
has to be an all-time classic!

 - William Graham - a net.freedom-fighter for a free Mobius! -







Received on Fri May 03 1996 - 13:09:37 PDT