Sonic #37 Review -- for FAQ File

From: Dan Drazen <drazen_at_andrews.edu>
Date: Tue, 4 Jun 1996 13:22:55 -0400 (EDT)

Well, something went wrong...er, RIGHT...with Archie's
distribution system and I actually found a copy of #37 on the
newsstand on June 3. So let me post this before the list goes
bye-bye. Consider this your usual SPOILERS alert:



















#37 [Aug 1996]
   I'm getting tired of these covers by Spaziante...NOT!!! Sonic
in freefall (apparently) holding Sally in his arm. Nice design -
- call it "The Mobian Pieta." And if you don't know what I'm
talking about, get thee to a library and read up on the
sculptures of Michelangelo [the sculptor, not the turtle!].
   "The Day Robotropolis Fell"
   Story: Angelo DeCesare/Art: Brian Thomas
   Sonic and Sally rendezvous with Uncle Chuck in Robotropolis,
who breaks the news to them that Robotnik has predicted that an
earthquake is going to hit the city (Excuse me, Dr. Robotnik,
some gentlemen from Cal Tech have just arrived; they keep talking
about "the big one" so I assume they mean you...). Robotnik's
plan is to hover over the city in a giant saucer-like craft
loaded with his SWATbots until the quake ends. He doesn't
particularly care what happens to the worker bots (i.e.,
roboticized Mobians) but Uncle Chuck does. Uncle Chuck's plan:
while Robotnik is hovering, they enter his HQ, reactivate the
deroboticizer (gee, that's the first I've heard of it!) and treat
as many worker bots as possible before the quake hits. This
assumes what Uncle Chuck doesn't: that Robotnik left a
comfortable margin between takeoff and the quake. Unable to
deroboticize the Mobians one at a time, he plans to blow up the
roboticizer by overloading it, counting on the diffusion to
deroboticize the Mobians in bulk, as it were. Sounds to me like
the scientific equivalent of supply-side economics, but never
mind. In the resulting blast, Uncle Chuck is NOT effected while
the rest of the worker bots are. Uncle Chuck and DeCesare don't
bother to explain how this could have happened before the next
tremor comes down the pike. Rotor just happens to arrive with a
transport plane, but it proves to be too small. Sally pulls rank
and orders Uncle Chuck onto the plane -- OK, so it's not exactly
the airport scene from "Casablanca." While Sally tries to find
out from Nicole what's the best way out of Robotropolis during an
earthquake, a sizable chunk of masonry lands on top of her. If
this weren't a comic book, she'd be a stain on the pavement; as
it is, she's unconscious and it's up to Sonic to get her out of
town. They manage, and we eventually see Sally with her head
bandaged and her arm in a sling. Robotnik lands and resolves to
rebuild, relying on a satellite-based force field to protect the
city during its reconstruction.
     I'll leave it to the Californians on the list as to whether
DeCesare's depiction of a quake is credible; me, I had enough
troubles with this story. Uncle Chuck is suffering from a bad
case of logic deficiency in this one: the business with the
deroboticizer--It will be most effective if I overload it to the
point of destroying it--reminds me too much of some of the plot
problems with "Steel-Belted Sally" (#29). There's no way ALL of
the roboticized Mobians could have converged on the deroboticizer
just in time for the explosion so some of them had to have been
victims of the quake, just as there's no way Sally could have
avoided becoming a blob of royal jelly after that masonry fell on
her. Nor do we ever find out how Uncle Chuck escaped the effects
of the deroboticizer, or how Rotor was able to get a plane from
Deus Ex Machina Airlines into the city in time. The premise of
the story was good, as was the artwork, but the more you think
about the plot the more it turns into a no-brainer.
     Sonic Art: I thought Brian Thomas had drawn the eyes of the
characters in "The Day Robotropolis Fell" too big--Sally
especially looked as if she belonged in a black velvet painting--
until I saw Charles Kusiak's fanart. You could drive a TRUCK
through those pupils!
     Bunnie's Worst Nightmare
     Story and Art: Rich Koslowski[debut]
     Bunnie's first solo effort starts out with quite a premise:
What starts out as an annoying itch turns out to be a spreading
case of roboticization. Thanks to a convenient hologram of
Robotnik to describe the plot, it turns out that Bunnie may have
been partially roboticized at one time, but a "microscopic
device" implant has started to finish the job. On the verge of
total roboticization, she leaves Knothole. After traveling all
night she falls asleep and wakes up to...The Old Dream Ending!
     It's a pity Rich was only given 8 pages to play with; with
another 8 pages, this could have been the story it was meant to
be. It's not that this ground hasn't been travelled before: it
has, in everything from "The Amazing Colossal Man" to "Dr.
Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde" to the remake of "The Fly": what it's like
for someone to gradually lose their humanity (or in Bunnie's
case, to borrow a word from Richard Adams, her "animality") while
becoming something else. If you'll allow me, here's how it could
have played:
     At first Bunnie ignores the first signs of change, though
she may even have a suspicion as to what it may mean. This
proves the saying heard in 12 Step groups: Denial ain't just a
river in Egypt! Then the condition continues its slow,
relentless possession of her. I think it wouldn't be too strong
to say that, from Bunnie's point of view, this gradual takeover
of her bod must feel like slow-motion rape. An off-hand remark
from one of her friends (spoken in innocence by Tails or in
ignorance by Antoine) lets the reader know that she's not just
turning into a machine but also into one of Robotnik's minions.
After the obligatory note scene, she starts to leave Knothole but
is intercepted by Sally who tries one last time to talk her into
staying. After a tearful farewell, Bunnie begins to leave, then
pauses. Sally, ever hopeful, runs over to her, only to discover
that Bunnie's transformation is complete and that she's gone over
to the Dark Side, as it were. She now has a new set of
priorities, the first of which is: "DETAIN FREEDOM FIGHTERS. BY
ORDER OF ROBOTNIK."
     I'm not trying to brag, but I barely broke a sweat coming up
with this enhancement to the story line. Yet I also couldn't
help but think of (if you'll allow me to get momentarily off-
topic) an episode of Disney's "Aladdin." In this one ep, Jasmine
begins turning into a kind of serpent creature due to a spell by
Mirage, an evil being. She and Al journey in search of a
possible cure. When all attempts to get at the cure are foiled
by Mirage and Jasmine's transformation into a monster is
complete, Al takes it upon himself to become the same kind of
creature as she has become, for the sake of love.
     I mention this because while Rich does a good job of showing
what is happening--the plot certainly moves right along--there's
not much room in the story for all but the most superficial
treatment of Bunnie's emotional state. Her emotional landscape
is painted only in the broadest strokes; this was the fatal flaw
that made Tails' change of heart at the end of "Southern
Crossover" [Tails miniseries #3] patently unbelievable. Perhaps
this goes back to the question of the core audience of the comic,
but the Aladdin ep mentioned above demonstrates that it is
possible to tell such a story without dumbing it down
emotionally. I look upon this story as eight pages of "what
might have been." As glad as I am to see Bunnie getting a solo
shot, I really believe she deserved better.
     Sonic-Grams: hint that the theme of a devastated
Robotropolis will continue and that Sonic will become a slow-mo.
Plug for Knuckles #2, and a hint that Sonic will finally have a
date with the Roboticizer in #39. Cute depiction of Joe Pepitone
as Robotnik and Fred Mendez as a computer program. Lyrics to a
Sonic song, and a couple guesses as to the identity of
Archimedes, with an actual answer! Almost a full page of names
of readers who have written--major headache!

Will attempts to post further synopses and FAQs to the home page
whereon the Faq File resides. Otherwise, I may actually have to
(dare I say it?) SPEND MONEY for a computer and a subscription to
CompuServe or AOL! My current machine at home -- an XT vanilla
clone I got as a castoff from my brother-in-law -- can no longer
read its own hard drive. And my lunch hour at work is just
about...

Received on Tue Jun 04 1996 - 14:11:31 PDT