Archie Sonic Issue #3 (Original Miniseries)

Well, I've got some bad news, folks. This cover is where we officially have to say goodbye to Scott Shaw, who up until now has been the singular artist on pencils duties up until now. There will be one small story in a special issue down the line where he makes a very brief comeback, but other than that this is where he exits the book. The cover itself is nice, though, with a good use of the classic loop-de-loops from the games. Definitely a better cover to go out on than Issue 2, that's for sure.

Our primary artist for the next several issues is going to be Dave Manak. In that Sonic Archives foreword I mentioned in my Issue 0 review, Mike Gallagher talks briefly about his work with Dave, with the 2 of them having a history over at Marvel Comics for years before they reunited over here at Archie. According to him, they had become really good friends, and their previous work helped them fall right into sync with each other as they worked on Sonic. Going forward, these 2 are going to pretty much be our main duo for the next several issues before other artists and writers slowly start to creep in, eventually pushing both of them to fade away into the background... not that either of them seemed to mind, as by all accounts they seemed to enjoy their work whenever they were back on board.

I'm giving all of this context before we dive into this issue for 2 reasons:

1. In order to fully grasp the insanely wild story inside this comic, it is immensely important to first understand the oftentimes even wilder story going on behind-the-scenes in its production. This might not seem obvious right now, but trust me, when a certain someone comes onto this book before too terribly long, it will become abundantly clear just how crucial it is to know this information.

2. Much like what I said about Mike Gallagher as a writer back in my Issue 0 review, I want to preface whatever criticism I give Dave Manak with the fact that I have absolutely nothing against him as a person. I'm glad that he got to work with a good friend of his, and I'm glad he seemed to enjoy it. But that doesn't mean I'm going to let him off the hook, because quite frankly, his artwork can be... well, you'll see.

Alright, with all of that out of the way, let's finally wrap up this miniseries, starting with our first story:

"Sonic Flashback!"

Oh boy... this first page definitely gives you a perfect idea of what you're about to be in for with the Gallagher-Manak duo. We've got Gallagher's signature "characters explaining what's happening as it is currently happening" shtick amped up to 11, and we've got our first taste of what Manak's art style is going to be like for the rest of this early era. If I had to describe it in the simplest terms, I would have to borrow from this classic meme format:

"Mom, can we have Scott Shaw art?"

"We have Scott Shaw art at home."

That's early Dave Manak in a nutshell. He's not a TERRIBLE artist, but in this era, he's essentially an inferior, less polished version of Scott Shaw. He's got the general cartoony atmosphere down, but the action is often stiffer, the characters are a lot messier, and the backgrounds are often way less detailed. I have seen some people who REALLY rip him apart at times, and while I think the hate is overblown, I do think there are times where it feels like he's cutting corners. 

Anyway, this story is... odd. It starts off with your standard "Sonic vs Robotnik" stuff you see above, but then as soon as Sonic falls off that cliff and lands on the bottom, he starts to have his head swirl, and talks about wanting to "redo the last few minutes" and feels his mind "rearranging history" as he goes unconscious...

And suddenly, we're in a dream sequence that, based on that dialogue from before and seeing Sonic smashing the Crabmeats here, seems like it's supposed to be a reliving of what got us to the first page... but it's not, exactly. Because as soon as Uncle Chuck gets mentioned by Robotnik here, he and Sonic both suddenly stop what they're doing and reminisce about Uncle Chuck supposedly being "the guy behind the current situation on Mobius, and Robotnik's origin"... and we go into a flashback depicting Sonic and Robotnik... as kids... living with Uncle Chuck. And as you can see up in that title above, this is supposed to be a "what if?" scenario, as in, not the actual canonical origin of Sonic and Robotnik.

So... we're inside of Sonic's dream, which is an imaginary flashback to when this chase with Robotnik started, and inside said dream, we're in ANOTHER imaginary flashback depicting a bizarre alternate universe concept that has nothing to do with any of this. Got that?

Yeah, only 3-4 pages in and you've lost me. Boy, this era is so much fun, I wonder why no one talks about it when discussing Archie Sonic?

OK that may have been a little harsh, I mean, this is just a goofy little alternate universe story, how bad can it-

OH. Right, they're kids, so... Robotnik looks basically the same as when he's an adult, except no mustache. Thanks, I hate it.

Incredibly cursed image aside, there is actually one incredibly important tidbit of Archie Sonic lore that has its origin here: the concept of the Power Rings as an invention rather than a naturally occurring magical item like they are in the games. While these early issues depict Uncle Chuck as the original inventor, there's going to be a whole plot down the road where Sonic ends up meeting the ORIGINAL original inventor, who apparently mentored Uncle Chuck. It's a whole thing.

As for the explanation itself, I'm... a bit mixed on it? Like, it's cool that they actually tried to address something that most other pieces of Sonic media take for granted (plus they actually ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR EXISTENCE, YES IDW I'M LOOKING AT YOU!), but having this powerful magical object explained through science is a little weird to me. It sort of reminds me of a lot of the early MCU where they felt the need to have some pseudo-scientific sounding explanation for all the magical occurrences before they eventually just gave up once the Infinity Stones were too wild to be able to keep up that charade. I do think the story we get out of this explanation down the road is interesting, but I'm still not entirely crazy about the idea.

Anyway, Sonic and Robotnik bicker back and forth, with Uncle Chuck trying to make peace even though, as Sonic rightfully points out, Robotnik's only idea of "fun" is making robots that do what he says, which should be a MASSIVE red flag. Even worse, Robotnik keeps making comments about how much he hates all hedgehogs even as Uncle Chuck, the guy trying to take care of and defend him, is also a hedgehog. Regardless of Robotnik being an orphan, or Sonic's admittedly insensitive remarks about it as shown above, this is all incredibly troubling behavior and should probably be nipped in the bud before-

Yeah, should have seen that coming. Basically, Robotnik took machinery from Chuck's tractor without asking (REALLY not helping your case here, buddy) to build his toy soldiers, which caused it to go haywire and get them both severely injured. Sonic, being the nice guy that he is, drags them both to the hospital, supercharged by the Power Ring that Uncle Chuck was making earlier, which shows that, despite his jerkish attitude towards Robotnik earlier, he's still a good guy at the end of the day. Robotnik then has the gall to blame Chuck for the accident, which backfires spectacularly because...

OK Robotnik, I know you're just a kid right now, so maybe your technical genius isn't refined yet, but like... the fact that your robot, which is supposed to only obey you, ratted you out the second it got the chance, is quite the embarrassment on your part. Also, I find it baffling that Uncle Chuck is worried about being "too hard" on him considering the fact that this maniac almost got the 2 of them KILLED, LIED about it, smashed his own robot for ratting him out, and then showed absolutely no remorse for any of it. Forget grounding him, this kid needs some serious psychotherapy STAT.

(Also, random side note, but having binged through Cobra Kai twice in the last 2 years, seeing Uncle Chuck berating Robotnik and calling him "Robby" just feels all kinds of cursed to me. I highly recommend that show though, it's peak television and better than almost every other sequel story being shoved down our throats nowadays.)

Rather than doing anything to address this problem, Sonic and Uncle Chuck decide to make the definitely responsible move of leaving this nutcase in their house completely unattended while they continue creating more Power Rings, and that turns out about as well you'd expect:

Can't lie, the fact that this kid went from cute little toy soldiers to creating THIS monstrosity in the span of a couple of hours is quite the stunning achievement. It's crazy what you can accomplish when fueled by ridiculously petty personal grudges.

The rest of it goes how you'd expect, Robotnik grabs Uncle Chuck, Sonic saves the day, Robotnik vows revenge, blah blah blah you get the idea. And then this whole weird fantasy dream ends, with Sonic and Robotnik continuing their chase from the beginning even though, with Sonic totally unconscious, Robotnik had every opportunity to kill him...

Robotnik, what did we talk about literally LAST ISSUE!? When your enemy is completely vulnerable, just GO FOR IT! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?

So yeah, that was "Sonic Flashback", and if you couldn't already tell, I didn't really like it. It's not as frustrating as the Sally story from Issue 1, but the entire concept of this one was just dead on arrival, to say nothing of the confusing way it was set up or the abrupt way that it ended. That's what happens when you divide up your issues into short stories like this without giving them the page space to breathe.

Before we move on, I do have a personal tidbit to share regarding this story, which is that this issue actually wasn't the first place I remember seeing this exact scenario play out. On the same day that I got the Sonic Select volume that started me down the Archie Sonic path, someone else in my family also bought me a short little children's book that, from what I vaguely remember of it, was also based in the SatAM/Archie world... and it depicted this story EXACTLY the same, just in novel form. I don't know who was ripping off who here, but the fact that people felt that this story needed to be told in multiple different formats is totally odd to me. I also recall that I lost that book at some point, and to this day I've never figured out how I did or where it ended up. I scoured my bedroom looking for it for EONS, and the fact that I never figured out what happened is probably going to haunt me for the rest of my days.

Alright, enough of that. It's time to move on to the very last story of the original Archie Sonic miniseries and see if this issue can stick the landing after such a rough start. Next up:

"Why Ask Spy?"...is that supposed to be a joke? Like, a pun or something? Someone help me out here, I'm genuinely confused.

This story starts out with Sally calling Sonic to get him up to speed (see Mike, I can make bad puns too) on a mission she has for him to infiltrate Robotropolis. But before she does that, she and Rotor decide to play quite the sadistic prank on him first:

Between this, Sonic letting Sally think he was dead last issue, and the way Antoine is treated by everyone in general, I'm starting to get really concerned about the Freedom Fighters' idea of good humor. I get that they're kids living through a war, but yeesh.

This little prank of theirs serves as a demonstration for what Sonic is about to do: disguise as a robot, infiltrate Robotropolis, and wreak havoc. Because in this goofy era, swirly eyes and a fake metal jaw is all you need to pass as a robot apparently. I guess it's a step-up from Issue 0 literally just having all of them stand there with hypnotic eyes, but that's an insanely low bar to clear. I will also give Sally the mildest form of credit for finally being the leader she's supposed to be and coming up with a halfway competent plan, although as we'll see in a minute, it mostly relies on Robotnik being a complete moron as per usual.

That being said, this next part is... something. In order to sell the ruse, Sonic pretends to chase Sally through the Great Forest, where they're both spotted by Tails... who apparently was not told about the plan beforehand, because he completely flips out at seeing his best friend as a robot. I suppose from a logical standpoint, I can get behind this as a way of getting a believable reaction out of him, but that's still insanely messed up of them to scare the kid like that. Not that Tails seems to mind, because...

 Yeah, so... remember back in Issue 1, when I said that Gallagher sometimes has a struggle with getting Sonic and Tails's dynamic right, with emphasis on Tails specifically? This is what I was referring to. Not only does Tails suddenly have no care at all for the fact that his best friend and hero has been roboticized, but he also uses the fact that he "saved" Sally from Sonic as a way to boost his own ego. What a loyal sidekick, am I right?

This is something that Gallagher is going to get wrong a LOT. Tails absolutely has a struggle with his pride, but it's typically in the OPPOSITE direction, where he feels insecure and like he can't measure up, even as he commits his heart and soul to whatever cause he's wrapped up in and constantly proves his worth through his smart thinking and keeping up with all of the craziness of the world around him. That's what makes him such an endearing character. And on a personal note, being a younger brother myself, this also makes him extremely relatable to me. 

THIS version of Tails is arrogant, feels like the world owes him everything, and constantly gets himself into danger doing stupid, blatantly suicidal things, and then being shocked when it doesn't work out for him. His frustrations do become a bit more understandable over time, and he eventually mellows out of this mindset, but it is really annoying in these early issues. As much as I hate him in Lost World for essentially the same reasons, at least he backed up his smug attitude with actual talent. This just feels like a less charming version of Gilderoy Lockhart.

OK, I'm off my soapbox now, back to the story.

So, this Buzzbomber takes Tails's newspaper that he was selling (seriously dude, you're PROFITING off of this!? WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU!?) back to Robotnik, who smugly declares that Sonic is already her. So... that entire detour with Tails was completely pointless. We risked mentally scarring this child for life for absolutely no reason. Great hero work, guys!

Also, this story Sonic presents about how he got roboticized has to be the worst case of "Blatant Lies" I've ever seen. Like, this is even worse than the time in Revenge of the Sith when Anakin said he "didn't want to hear any more about Obi-Wan" and then proceeds to ask about Obi-Wan literally 5 seconds later. Come on, Sonic.

Thankfully, Robotnik finally has the tiniest bit of competence for a change and tries to test Sonic's loyalty by asking him where Knothole is... and is immediately interrupted by the sound of an alarm going off at one of his factories. Sonic runs off to "investigate" and heads on over, running into Sally and Antoine when he arrives, with the 2 of them being the ones to set the alarm off for him. 

Look, I'm sorry for beating a dead horse here, but now I'm genuinely upset on Tails's behalf despite his attitude earlier. Why does ANTOINE get to know what's going on, but not him? That's not a knock on Antoine or anything, I'm just saying, literally everyone EXCEPT Tails got to be in on this plan, all for the sake of setting up a fake chase through the woods that was completely unnecessary! 

That said, I will go ahead and give Gallagher credit for this little twist right here. Just as Sonic is readying himself to blow up this factory, he instead is shocked to see that this is where Uncle Chuck has been set to work. That's actually a nice shake-up and creates a real dilemma. Not only does this prevent Sonic from executing the original plan, it's also his first real opportunity to potentially free his uncle from Robotnik. It's a nice set-up for some drama... which, being the gag era, we don't really get much of, but still.

Bonus points for Muttski here, too. He's the first Robian (roboticized Mobian, probably should have mentioned this term beforehand, sorry about that) that actually looks like a full-on robot. I suppose I could be snarky and ask, "what are even the rules for robot designs right now?", but I feel like I've been pretty cynical in this review, and I want to give credit where it's due. 

Sonic immediately rushes back to Robotnik with his disguise back on, fully intending to make sure Robotnik pays for his evil deeds. Confusingly, rather than simply asking for where Knothole is again, Robotnik instead gives Sonic full reign to handle his computer in order to fire missiles at the place instead. Uh... what happened to testing his loyalty? Does Sonic not hurting his beloved uncle and dog count as "loyalty" to you? Robotnik... I'm REALLY trying not to rip apart your logic in these stories, but you've got to work with me here, man. Please explain why your decision making has been so consistently terrible so I can help you out. 

Predictably, Sonic instead uses the computer to target one of Robotnik's other factories instead of the one with Uncle Chuck and then runs off, leaving Robotnik humiliated. And I'm sorry, I know we're just about to wrap up here, but before we can, I've got to do another quick round of "I have SO many questions":

First, I take back what I said before, because the more I think about it, Sally, this plan of yours has some serious holes in it. If this Buzzbomber factory was the largest factory in Robotropolis, why wasn't it the target from the beginning? Was Sonic supposed to blow up the factories from the inside originally, and there wasn't a way to do that in this one? If that's the case, what's even the point of the whole "fake robot Sonic" angle, if he's just going to sneak in and blow the place up like he would if he were regular Sonic?

Second, I've got a major issue with your solution here at the end, Sonic. How do you know that blowing up this factory is any different from the one with Uncle Chuck and Muttski? Sure, THEY'RE out of the line of fire, but did you even bother to check if there were some Robians working in the Buzzbomber factory? What if THEY just got blown to kingdom come? In fact, considering this is apparently the "largest factory in Robotropolis", that's actually EXTREMELY possible to be the case!

Whatever. Maybe I'm reading too much into it. But on that note, we have reached the end of this issue, and with it, the end of this miniseries as a whole. Final verdict?

Yeah, I won't lie, that was an extremely underwhelming note to end this miniseries on. I still think the first story from Issue 1 was probably the worst of the bunch from how infuriating it was, but it at least had the Jaws story afterwards to balance it out a little. Aside from the Power Rings lore drop and the drama with Uncle Chuck and Muttski, this last issue was one big nothingburger, which is a real shame.

As for the miniseries as a whole, it's a pretty mixed bag. Issue 0 got things off to a semi-decent start, serving as a solid introduction to the main cast and the world of Mobius. Issue 1 attempted to flesh out that cast to... less than perfect results, but it still had solid artwork and threw in some nice game elements with the alternate take on Labyrinth Zone. Issue 2 was arguably the best of the bunch, with a slightly more high-stakes adventure and some decent gags, but future events ultimately render it non-canon. And then Issue 3, as I just said, is a whole lot of nothing, and the much wonkier art didn't help matters either.

However, what ultimately mattered, both for Archie and for Sega, was whether or not this comic would sell, and oh boy did it sell. Riding off the heels of the early 90s Sonic craze, this miniseries' sales exploded overnight, allowing Archie to greenlight a full, on-going series almost as soon as these books were finished. Issue 3 came out in May 1993, and just 2 months later in July, the first issue of the new series would begin and last all the way until 2017, becoming the longest running comic series based on a video game. So even though I may not love this miniseries that much from a quality perspective, I have all the respect in the world for what it managed to spawn, because that is a truly impressive achievement.

Next time, it's on to new frontiers with Issue 1 of the main Archie Sonic comic!