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Mobius: 25 Years Later: The Review, Part 6 – A Brief History, Continued

With Endgame, the future of Sonic the Hedgehog was up in the air. The comic, which had relied so heavily on the concepts of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and the Saturday morning series, could no longer fall back on the status quo of those shows. With the defeat of Robotnik and the reclaiming of Mobotropolis, the future was suddenly unsure. With the 48-page special Brave New World, it was clear that the comic felt it still had life in it even if Robotnik wasn’t the main villain. The world of Mobius was not yet safe, one victory not suddenly making everything the way it was before Julian turned on King Acorn.

With Karl Bollers taking over as the main writer for the Sonic series, Ken Penders took on a new assignment – to focus on the brand new monthly Knuckles the Echidna comic book. Brainstorming all sorts of ideas for his new series, the seeds for the future were once again planted. Unlike the last time, however, it looked as though the licensing representatives at SEGA would allow Ken to explore the future of these characters in ways never before imagined…
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Mobius: 25 Years Later: The Review, Part 5 – A Brief History Of The Future

In the early 90’s, the continuity of the Saturday morning series Sonic the Hedgehog captured the hearts of numerous Sonic fans. For many, it was their very first exposure to the blue blur. For others, it was the chance to finally see their favorite hero animated on the small screen, even if it didn’t match up with the world they played in the games. Beginning with the second season, a storyline evolved that those who tuned in each week couldn’t wait to find out what happened next. They wanted to know what the future held for these characters, and if they would be able to reclaim their childhood home of Mobotropolis and defeat the evil Dr. Ivo Robotnik.

Television, much like comic books, can be a fickle medium. After two seasons the show went off the air, many thinking the comic book would follow suit. After all, how many licensed comics survived their source material? But to the surprise of many in the halls of Archie Comics, the title became more popular once the television series had unceremoniously ended, the four-color pages being the only outlet for those who felt unsatisfied with the cliffhanger ending of the cartoon. Even if the details were different, the future of these characters could be followed. Princess Sally, Antoine, Rotor, Bunnie and the rest could live on.

The idea of being able to show the “happily ever after,” though, was still something impossible. If the heroes defeated Robotnik and took back the kingdom, it would mean the end of the comic book as well. Even if the book is its own unique story, it still exists to serve as an advertisement to the games. There was no way Dr. Eggman could vanish from the book completely as long as he was the main antagonist in the video games. Sonic and Sally could not ride off into the sunset.

That didn’t mean Ken Penders wouldn’t try to show it anyway.
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Comics

How Fleetway Played The Games, Part 4: Of Evacuating and Electricians

 

You’ve waited over a year for it, but it’s here: the second part of possibly Sonic the Comic’s best story arc, that of Sonic 3 and Knuckles. However, I’m teasing a bit, sorry! The build-up to the final conclusion to the game’s story (which by 16-bit Sonic standards, was quite involved) took a couple of months, presumably to stretch out the material as much as possible before the next game came out. As such, we got a few shorter arcs before the final main story started, and that’s what we’ll be looking at today & next week, covering the final conclusion in Part 6 – simply as you miss things otherwise. Hey, don’t look so sad, you there at the back – there’s some fun stuff here. Think of these as an early Christmas present!

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Comics

Mobius: 25 Years Later: The Review, Part 4 – The Mobius Girls Can’t Help It

Sonic the Hedgehog is not a superhero. Yes, Sonic is a hero in the sense that he fights evil and wants to save his friends. He has an arch nemesis, he has a sidekick, he has a friendly rival, he kinda has a love interest depending on how you look at it. Unlike the traditional American superhero archetype, however, Sonic does not fight Eggman because he feels he has to. The blue blur possesses a strong sense of justice, but at the same time lives a carefree existence based on his own rules. He did not have a tragic event in his childhood that made him realize he had to dedicate his life to fighting evil, or come to find he was the only being on the planet with a gift he had to use for the betterment of mankind. Sonic is, to quote a phrase, “just a guy who loves adventure.” His fights with Dr. Eggman are not just because the doctor put his nose in his friend’s business, but because it is something exciting to do. If Eggman had looked for the Chaos Emeralds elsewhere, or decided not to start capturing the animal friends on South Island? Sonic would never have gone looking for Eggman just because he was power hungry.

In most western-produced media, though, the idea of Sonic actually being some sort of superhero took hold, with secret origins becoming motivators for Sonic’s entire philosophy. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why Ken Penders writing style doesn’t always work for what Sonic is supposed to be. Ken grew up on superhero comics. The works of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby shaped in his mind how a comic is supposed to be written. He wanted to emulate his heroes, and used the world of Sonic & Knuckles as his canvas to do so, his first real writing job. Also trying to match the trends of modern comics with long-form storylines that are really meant to be read in graphic novels and not the monthly publications they are confined to, Ken wanted to do so much more than what he could. Not just because he was using other people’s characters, but because his writing just isn’t up to par with those great iconic comic book writers. His own ideas seem to escape him, and while there are moments of brilliance, I often get the sense Ken is desperately fighting with himself to reel everything back in.

To be fair, he never did make Sonic adopt a secret identity and wear a mask to fight crime. That was all Karl Bollers. But that’s a story for another day.
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Comics

Mobius: 25 Years Later, The Review: Part 3 – The Adventures of Lara-Su and Old Rotor

Hello and welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to the world of Mobius: 25 Years Later. I am your host, David the Lurker, and I know you can’t wait to jump right into part three of this exciting series. After all, so much has happened up to this point, how could you not want to know what exciting twists and turns are around the corner? Ok, it’s more of the same, but remember, back when this came out, people had to wait a month at a time before they got their next six page fix, longing with anticipation the continuation of a storyline the readers had been waiting for since 1999. With the first part not seeing print until the end of 2003, the Archie devout waited four years to see the future of their favorite characters. You, the readers of Sonic Retro, only have to wait a week at a time before you deal with the longest review in the world about anything Ken Penders has ever put to paper.
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Comics

Mobius: 25 Years Later: The Review, Part 2 – Of Frightened and Dancing Crocs

When looking at Mobius: 25 Years Later as a whole, it is pretty clear just how important Ken Penders wanted this story to be for the readers. Running in the comic for over a year, coupled with its promise of wrapping up numerous storylines that had been running through his Knuckles narrative since nearly the beginning of his time writing for the title, it was meant to be this grand finale for a medium whose very nature would prevent an ending from coming about. If the series were to ever end, there might not be enough warning to give the comic any sort of closure, as has been the case for numerous titles throughout the industry, not just at Archie Comics. The publication of a licensed comic going for as long as Sonic the Hedgehog has is still unprecedented, and only in recent years have Archie and SEGA really begun to comprehend this. It’s been said more than once that SEGA’s input in the series currently far surpasses anything they did during Ken’s tenure, quite possibly wanting to avoid a situation where the interior of the comic book is in stark contrast with how the franchise is being portrayed in the games.

Though it’s uncertain if Ken ever thought about the possibility of his work being collected into a trade paperback, Mobius: 25 Years Later certainly feels like something that was meant to be released as a single volume at some point down the line, similar to how Archie have recently been collecting the Sonic the Hedgehog comics in its Archive and Selects books. While the issues 25 Years Later appeared in are still a ways away from being considered for inclusion, it wasn’t that long ago that almost the entirety of the storyline was published together in Issue #4 of the Sonic Super Special Magazine, a quarterly publication whose goal seems a bit all over the place, collecting random arcs of various quality.

For anyone who owns a copy of Issue #4, those in the know may have noticed two parts of the story missing: “Prologue,” which was covered in detail in our previous installment, and “Father’s Day,” the penultimate chapter which we’ll get to in due time. So for those who have only experienced the saga in magazine format, we’re reaching territory you are now familiar with as we once again journey into the world of Mobius: 25 Years Later…
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Comics

Mobius: 25 Years Later: The Review, Part 1 – What’s Future Is Prologue

The American Superhero Comic Book. A strange enigma in the creative world that attempts to be the small, self-contained tales of yesteryear while also being a sprawling epic that will leave people talking for years to come. While many have attempted to find a balance, few have truly succeeded. Now, you could say that Ian Flynn‘s work on the Sonic the Hedgehog comic by Archie has attempted this formula, having smaller arcs and stand alone issues that build upon what he’s been doing with the comic since cleaning up all the various threads left by his predecessors. Even Archie has acknowledged this by compiling his work for the Sonic Saga line of graphic novels that are slowly being released. Discussing just how well he’s done could make an interesting article, but would be lacking until his tenure on the comic is over.

However, Ian wasn’t the first to use the Sonic comic book as a canvas to tell a much larger story. No, the first man to truly try and tackle this feat in the pages of the licensed series was Ken Penders. The name should not be unfamiliar to people who have read my previous articles on the front page, or even those who can’t help but watch the slowest moving trainwreak of our times. But there was a point not all that long ago when he was considered the architect of Sonic, even though he wasn’t the main writer for the flagship title during much of his time working under Archie. Still, many of his concepts and characters that he came up with became integral parts of what the other writers played with during the 90’s and early 2000’s. He would be the one fans turned to for sneak peaks and explanations of what was happening in the monthly adventures of everyone’s favorite blue hedgehog.

Though he clearly had a passion for Sonic in his writing as evidenced in the originally intended finale Endgame, Ken’s true baby was his Knuckles the Echidna line of comics. Starting with specials and mini-series, Knuckles was spun off into his own comic book that lasted for thirty-two issues before being unceremoniously canceled right before the Sonic Adventure adaptation (something I’ll get to eventually – I haven’t given up on the game adaptation reviews). Ken’s work did continue as back-up tales in the main Sonic series, and while he reveled in the continued adventures of the Floating Island, there was one arc that stood out in his mind. What he wanted to be his legacy and wrap up the Sonic series once and for all. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the first in the multi-part feature to look into Ken Penders’ “crown jewel” of storytelling: Mobius: 25 Years Later.
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Comics

Sonic Underground To Be Finished…In Comic Form


Sonic Underground wasn’t a series anyone asked for. In 1999, the west was finally able to experience Sonic Adventure, a game that, for better or worse, redefined Sonic for a new generation. At the same time, DiC entertainment, who had developed two Sonic animated series concurrently back in 1993, decided to take advantage of the license once again and create a brand new Sonic the Hedgehog series. Instead of trying to base it on the new game, however, the company went in a completely different direction. Making Sonic a prince and giving him two siblings, the trio fought Dr. Robotnik with the power of music in each episode while looking for their long-lost mother. Yes, the show didn’t make a whole lot of sense, and though 40 episodes were produced, it was lost in the shuffle, a strange child that reflected neither what SEGA was trying to do with the character or what even DiC had done a few years prior.

That’s why it might come as a surprise to find that, after all this time, the Underground will be revisited. Announced on the gaming site Destructoid, Issue #50 of the spin-off title Sonic Universe will feature the return of the Sonic Underground universe, picking up right where the show left off. Penned by current comic scribe Ian Flynn, not much has been revealed aside from the cover art and the fact it will serve as an epilogue. Though Sonic Underground isn’t the first Sonic series that comes to mind when thinking of much-needed conclusions, I must admit that I am a bit tickled at the prospect. Will Sonic jam with his siblings for one final time? Will their mother finally be found? Will Robotnik’s final demise come from the wailing tones of a magical guitar? Whatever the answers, they’ll have to fit in a single issue, since that’s all we’re getting.

This isn’t the show’s first appearance in the pages of the Archieverse. For those who remember, the Sonic Underground universe originally appeared in Issue #10 of the short-lived Sonic Super Special series, a simple crossover that simply acknowledged a new show had begun airing without trying to incorporate its continuity in a comic that was already dealing with multiple personality disorder brought on by DiC’s other Sonic cartoons. Sadly, we’ll have to wait until March 2013 before we once again visit the world of Sonic Underground. I just hope that Ian doesn’t take this trip down memory lane too seriously, because if he does…well, that would just be missing the point.

[Source: Destructoid]

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Archie Comics Confirms 12-Part Sonic and Mega Man Crossover, Details

It certainly didn’t take long for all the details to surface after a little teaser image popped up on Twitter from USA Today writer Brian Truitt.

Archie sent out a press release confirming Sonic and Mega Man will team up for 12 issues of robot smashing and evil doctorate base demolition, as penned by fan-favorite writer, Ian Flynn. In a report by USA Today, the book’s editor Paul Kaminski revealed that Sega and Capcom finalized the deal just before the start of last year’s New York ComicCon, and his first call to begin production went straight to Flynn.

Talking of the phone call to Flynn, “His response was, ‘I have been writing that story since we began the Mega Man title,’ ” Kaminski said. “Of course, I thought he was joking, but not an hour later my inbox was flooded with Sonic/Mega Man story synopses.”

“I’m already living the dream by writing the Sonic titles,” Flynn said. “Then I got to live the other dream of writing for Mega Man. With that many dreams being handed to me, I figured it was only a matter of time.”

Although no date has been confirmed for the first issue’s release, the series will be available both in print and digitally. Look below for the full press release.

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UPDATE: Teaser Image Hints at Sonic/Mega Man Comic Book Crossover

Image courtesy of @briantruitt.

UPDATE: Kotaku has posted up details confirming the comic crossover. The series will see Mega Man and Sonic teaming up to take down the nefarious duo of Dr. Wily and Dr. Eggman in their combined bid to take over the world.

Just over a year ago, Archie Comics – the comic book publisher behind the well-known Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series (among others) – released a new series based on Capcom’s Mega Man franchise, penned by head Sonic author Ian Flynn and featuring pencils by other Sonic regulars such as Patrick “Spaz” Spaziante and Ben Bates. Due to the overlap between staff members, today’s otherwise surprising news may have been somewhat foreseeable: USA Today writer and self-described comic geek Brian Truitt has tweeted the above picture with the caption, “Hmmm. Just got this in a super-duper top-secret email from @archiecomics. Wonder what this could be about?”

The image, which depicts trademark items worn by both of our favorite blue video game mascots, makes the clear implication that we’ll be seeing the two characters’ comic book universes cross over sometime in the upcoming calendar year. It should be interesting to see how Flynn combines the two series to create one overarching story, as well as how many ill-conceived jokes people can make regarding the state of both franchises. Archie hasn’t released any further information right now, but given the 2013 date hinted at in the image, expect more details on the crossover in the coming months. In particular, San Diego Comic-Con is this weekend, so keep your eyes and ears peeled for any announcements Archie may make at the event.

[Source: Twitter]

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