Archie Sonic Issue #18

 

So... this cover... I guess I'll give it HALF credit in terms of story relevance, since this IS an issue where Sonic and Sally are "supposedly" getting married. But Tails beating up Robotnik is blatantly false advertisement, Tails gets absolutely nothing to do in this story, and also why are Sonic and Sally mad at him for saving them from being ambushed by their worst enemy? Jerks.

Low-key how it feels to be a Tails fan most of the time.

Today's issue follows the same pattern as the previous one. We've got 2 stories from Kanterovich and Penders once again, with the first being much lengthier and the second being shorter, albeit with slightly less of a gap between them on that front this time around. The first story will be standard Gag Era fare, while the second story continues the Princess Sally arc that we ended on last time... and MAN does that last bit feel so good to say. Don't get me wrong, there's going to be some serious tonal whiplash between these 2 stories, to say nothing of the comic as a whole moving forward, but we're FINALLY getting to the part where this book branches out from its simplistic roots and grows into something truly special. It took me over 20 issues worth of material to get here, but as the old saying goes, better late than never.

I think that's all I got this time, so let's just get right into it, starting with:

"Wedding Bell Blues!"

Alright, I'm not typically one to protest Sonic's less "idealistic" attitude in this comic like so many online Archie haters tend to, but I do have to say this near-constant bullying of Antoine is starting to get a bit excessive. The whole idea behind their dynamic is that Antoine is pompous and Sonic is there to knock him down a peg, but I've noticed most of these early stories tend to jump straight to the punchline without any actual set-up. More often than not, it leads to scenarios like this, where Antoine has done literally nothing wrong while Sonic points and laughs at his misfortune, which just comes off really mean-spirited. It's similar to a lot of those post-movie SpongeBob episodes that seem to serve no purpose other than to torment Squidward relentlessly for the "crime" of wanting peace and quiet every once in a while.

Completely valid crash out with incredible voice acting, and yet I'm supposed to root against him. What.

Anyway, as already alluded to by the cover and the title, this story has Sonic and Sally seemingly preparing to have a wedding... and yet, here we are, setting up a giant stage for some reason... and Bunnie is over here talking about how "seriously" everyone is taking this "production"...

Nope, nothing suspicious going on here. Definitely just a regular old wedding, and not the most obvious red herring this side of Krei from Big Hero 6.

OK fine, I'll shut up and just indulge this ridiculous premise for now. Speaking of giant, obvious signs, I will say I like the "Welcome to Robotropolis" sign first established here. It's a cute detail that adds some personality to the place, especially post-Endgame when the Freedom Fighters try to fully retake the city and change some of the wording and numbers to reflect that. Just a neat bit of visual storytelling, not much else to say until we get there much further down the road.

The next couple of pages here are... confusing, and honestly not even worth showing you. Moto Bug reports back to Robotnik about this "urgent" news, but the doctor dismisses it out of hand because "to him, EVERYTHING is urgent". Then, after Crabmeat shows him a newspaper reporting the exact same thing, the doctor decides to make extra sure by... sending Bat Brain, another one of his Badniks, out to confirm if it's true or not. Why does he trust Bat Brain over Moto Bug? Why does Robotropolis have a dedicated newspaper if it's just a city of robots all reporting to a single guy? Why is Robotnik being so uncharacteristically indecisive about this? 

Seriously, I can't remember the last time I saw a case of "desperately reaching the minimum word count on the essay" that was THIS obvious. We literally waste 3 entire pages of a 14-page story on that... though, it DOES lead to a mildly amusing scene once Robotnik finally kicks things into high gear:

Yes, it's the classic "some of you may die, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make" speech, complete with military hat to really sell it. I do always love me some over-the-top classical villain energy from Robotnik... though, it is ruined a bit by the presence of my biggest grammatical pet peeve of all time. To quote the great sage of our times, Al Yankovic: "'I could care less.' (What?) That means you DO care. At least a little. DON'T BE A MORON!" (Coincidentally, I actually JUST went to a concert where he performed Word Crimes live, so that was neat.)

Also, I would be remiss if I didn't point out this wonderful scene that did this same joke way better. 

Most underrated Clone Wars arc of all time and I will die on that hill.

True to form, just as Sonic and Sally are performing their wedding scene- I mean, giving their completely authentic marriage vows because this is totally not a stage production or anything, Robotnik crashes the party because the entirety of Knothole Village decided to leave the safety of their homes and come out to this exposed barn right in plain sight of the mad dictator threatening to enslave the planet. Sure. Fine. Why not? *throws papers everywhere*

I guess that top panel is a little funny, though, mostly for Sally's expression. Good work there, Dave.

So then, the rest of this story...

Yeah, that's... pretty much it. Just a bunch of Sonic running around fighting Badniks until Robotnik shows up and gets immediately taken down by Sally. There's honestly nothing to say about it, aside from trying my best to prove I don't have anything against Dave Manak by praising this splash page of his:

If I had to nitpick, I'd say I'm not particularly crazy about the plain white background Sonic is fighting in here, but I'm also not entirely sure what I would have done differently, so whatever. And maybe you could argue it's a little chaotic, but in fairness that's... sort of the point? It's some decent action, and it seems he's really gotten the hang of Sonic's design by now, so I'll just give him props and move on.

Speaking of "props", that brings us to this story's STUNNING TWIST...

What!? It was a PLAY and not a REAL WEDDING!? SAY IT AIN'T SO!

In other stunning news, I think that lab assistant Uncle Monty hired might actually be Count Olaf. Call it a hunch, but he's looking real suspicious right now...

And... yeah, just like that, I think we're already done with that story. If you couldn't tell, I didn't like it very much. I think we've officially reached the point where the Gag Era is really losing steam, because it seems like every writer now has had at least one story where they just go through the motions with it. For Gallagher, it was in Issue 12 with the cavemen; for DeCesare, it was in Issue 15 with the magic frog; and now, for Kanterovich and Penders, it's in this issue with the fake wedding. For all my many grievances with the man, I can't say I blame Ken for wanting to steer this book in a different direction, because this is getting really dull. 

On that note, let's shift gears over to the REAL main event of this issue, with the next chapter of Princess Sally's Crusade:

"In the Still of the Night"

Continuing directly from last time, Rotor has been running tests on the Mysterious Floating Orb the Freedom Fighters stumbled across but has yet to make any progress. He hypothesizes that the surface he's been trying to crack open is actually a force field masking the true nature of whatever is inside, but the answer to that mystery will have to wait, because-

NEW SATAM CHARACTER UNLOCKED! Rosie Woodchuck is now available!

For those who don't know, Rosie is the kind, caring old woman from SatAM that brought the Freedom Fighters safely to Knothole during Robotnik's initial takeover when they were helpless little kids. With them all being effectively orphaned, she then took on the responsibility of raising them as best she could, before fading into relative obscurity after the fact. As a result, I don't really have any strong opinions on her one way or another as a character, but I can certainly appreciate her contributions in-universe. After all, sometimes it's the simple acts of kindness that can go a long way and change people's lives for the better.

"A hero can be anyone. Even a man doing something as simple and reassuring as putting a coat around a young boy's shoulders to let him know that the world hadn't ended."

However, for her very first appearance in this continuity, Penders decides to add a little bit extra by giving Rosie a cousin, Julayla, who apparently acted as Sally's mentor throughout the years both before and after Mobotropolis fell. In a shockingly well-done display of "show, don't tell", she relays the bad news to Sally that Julayla is on her death bed while Sonic and Rotor are continuing to talk about the orb, with Sally immediately running off without a word to anyone. When Sonic understandably wants to go after her, Rosie then stops him because, in her words, "there are some roads which must be taken alone."

Now, look. There's a lot of things here that I could choose to be REALLY snarky about if I really wanted. I could go on an endless tirade about the disturbing trend this starts in Penders's writing of characters not communicating with each other or being left alone in the dark when dealing with incredibly heavy burdens. I could point out how absurd it is that he and Kanterovich are taking such a hard pivot into subject matter as serious as death in the same issue where Robotnik's army stumbles over each other for a cheap gag. I could even complain about the weirdness of expecting me to suddenly care so much about a character whose death is silently announced before they even appear on panel. But... I don't want to do that.

FINALLY, an excuse to share a small portion of the OST from maybe my favorite childhood video game! 

I know, pretty disorienting, but I'm actually going to try and turn my sarcasm button off for a minute and treat this story with the gravity it deserves. Not just because of the serious material at hand here, but... to be perfectly frank, I actually think this is a rare moment where Penders kind of knocks it out of the park? Granted, partial credit also goes to Kanterovich, but... these next few pages are REALLY well executed given the book's standards up until now. Don't believe me? Well, continue on with me and see for yourself:

First, a brief synopsis of Sally and Julayla's history. I suppose one could debate the necessity of this in-universe since Sally already knows all of this stuff but given the circumstances of this being a sort of "final message" from a dying mentor, I can see why Julayla would go over their whole history in this way. And... OK, fine, seeing Sally engage in science is a little odd given that's Rotor's specialty, but hey, at least Penders is actually writing her as competent and capable for a change. I hate to give the man ammunition for his next inevitable social media clash, but... I think that's the first genuine instance of such treatment for her in the whole comic (no, "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" doesn't count, I said GENUINE). Doesn't excuse what he does with her later on, but like I always say, give credit where it's due.

Next, we have your standard "rite of passage" trial, meant to test whether Sally is truly ready for her responsibilities as the future ruler of the Kingdom of Acorn. Again, could be incredibly snarky and ask whether Max cheated on this test as a child given some of HIS decision making in this comic... but no, that's a topic for another day, let's be gentle with this one.

I COULD also say that panel of Sonic all dressed up and dancing in a ceremony feels... off for someone like him, especially as a small child, but one could easily argue it's an early sign of Sonic's later view of his relationship with Sally, where she's the one person that he's willing to "slow down" for. Or maybe I'm reading too much into it like I do with just about everything, that's also entirely possible.

And then, finally, that test from Sally's childhood being brought in front of her one last time, and her passing with flying colors. This gives Julayla hope for the future that Sally is now ready, and she passes on in peace with certainty that Sally will lead the Freedom Fighters to victory one day. Not really much else to add there, it... kind of just speaks for itself. Good stuff.

With Julayla now gone, we end with one last page of Sally mourning her loss, and in maybe the first actually natural tease of their relationship, Sonic coming to comfort her with the promise of, to borrow from Sonic Rush, a New Day.

*inhales*

OhandalsothisislikemaybetheonlytimeinPenders'sentirewritingcataloguewhereusingtheword"tomorrows"isactuallywellwrittendialogueandnotthemostpretentioussoundingthingeverOKrantover!

*exhales*

Sorry, sorry, just had to let that one out. Back to our regularly scheduled, snark central programming.

So that second story was... well, by the standards of this era... kind of incredible? Yes, looking at the surrounding context, it does feel out of place with its contemporaries, and the set-up for the emotional impact it's going for is practically non-existent. Those are fair problems to have, but just looking at this in a vacuum, it's a solid, well-written story that handles the grief of losing a loved one with the maturity and weight that such a topic truly deserves, on top of adding in some much-needed character depth for Sally and expanding the lore of this world a bit with Rosie's introduction. Add in Art Mawhinney's excellent art style on top of all that, and we have a shoo-in for Favorite Back-Up Story when my next Awards Ceremony rolls around unless something comes out of nowhere to top it at the finish line. 

But what about our Mysterious Floating Orb? How does that tie into this? Where do we go from here?

Well, to answer those questions, tune in next time as we take a brief step outside the main book and conclude this story arc in our very first double-length one-off Archie Sonic special:

"Sonic: In Your Face!"