#blockhead bill

Some Sonic chars and ocs with some vaguely superheroic leanings. Just kinda spitballing.

It’s time to look at Mighty’s gay dads. And honestly, I think that if anything from StC needs to become common knowledge amongst modern Sonic fans, it’s that Mighty the Armadillo has gay dads in this comic (and also that Amy Rose would eventually marry another woman - come to StC, everyone is super queer here!)

Now, my confession is that I thought that I’d already written a Post-Mortem for these two, but I checked back through the blog and it doesn’t look like I have, so I’m glad this was noticed and they were requested so I can fix this mistake and talk about them

How it started

Now, technically Max’s foot appears before the rest of these two, as we do a cold opening of Sonic being knocked into the house of an elderly couple after being attacked by a dinosaur. For an extra bit of StC trivia, the elderly couple in this issue were originally written to be Arthur & Madge, who took in Super Sonic for a while after he lost his memories. But during production, artist Richard Elson realised that this story was set in the Special Zone, while Arthur & Madge live in Metropolis Zone, so he edited them to be two different characters instead. Knowing this, you can tell from their dialogue that these two were originally intended to be Arthur & Madge and it would’ve been funny to see how quickly it seems their lives just went back to normal after Super Sonic

Anyway, that has nothing to do with Bill & Max, so let’s get back to this dinosaur attack. On the next page we get a full-page spread that introduces us to Blockhead Bill, the guy who’s riding the dinosaur to attack Sonic, although we’re none the wiser as to why this is happening

Sonic follows the dinosaur as this rampage continues and we see that the Chaotix are following him, before we cut back to Sonic as he gripes that this sort of thing always happens to him when he visits the Chaotix. He’s not wrong about that

As the fight wraps up, Mighty reveals that Blockhead Bill is actually his dad and it’s clear there’s been a mistake of identity, as Bill tries to get Mighty to join him in fighting Sonic, who he believes to be someone called the Crimson Cobra. We haven’t encountered that character in the comic yet (though he would appear later), but given that his both crimson and a cobra, you’d be safe to bet that he looks nothing like Sonic

Another bit of (slightly more relevant this time) trivia is that Nigel Kitching, the writer of this arc, didn’t originally plan for Bill to be related to anyone, but decided to make him Mighty’s dad so that the Chaotix would have more of a reason to feel responsible for him

Maybe Bill is just incredibly deep in online arguments about what shade of blue Sonic really is. But he does eventually relent when Mighty points out that he’s wrong

But Bill isn’t the only character here who needs an explanation. The dinosaur he was riding before shrinks back down into the form of a regular posh bloke, who goes by the name of Society Max. As a kid, I liked this character because I thought he looked a little like Gon from Tekken 3 (well, Gon is actually from a manga series, but I didn’t know that at the time). Anyway, Bill feeds Max an apparently foul-tasting root that causes Max to turn into the giant dinosaur who was fighting Sonic at the start of the story

Bill and Max are also a couple. This isn’t mentioned in the comic itself, but Kitching revealed it on his old Yahoo mailing group after the fact, which is good enough for me

How it went

That’s the end of the first story and when we next join the characters, they’ve relocated back to the Chaotix’s building, though Sonic isn’t any less annoyed about having been attacked by Bill and Max. Between issues, Max has also found a suit to wear, which is much better, because he looks oddly naked when he’s naked compared to most Sonic characters lol

The reason that Sonic’s come to the Special Zone actually has nothing to do with the two of them, they just happened to be there. Sonic’s here to talk to the Chaotix about their idea to set up a system of more permanent doors between the Special Zone and Mobius. Though before they can talk too much about this, it seems like Bill has a funny turn and gives Max one of the roots that turns him into a giant dinosaur again. Now, as the audience, we’ve seen that there’s some other character in a swamp somewhere who’s calling to Bill via some sort of psychic link, but Sonic and the Chaotix don’t know this yet

The people of New Tek City are almost entirely unfazed by this as the fight shifts outside

When whatever it is that has some sort of control over Bill realises that Bill’s not going to win the fight against Sonic and the Chaotix, they use a stronger spell to step in so they can take Bill & Max themselves, leaving everyone confused. Except for Vector, who says that he’s heard of something he believed to be legend called “Root” and assumes this is what’s kidnapped them

The Chaotix set off to the Mandrake Swamp to try to find them, with Vector giving them the lowdown on this Root as they go and then we switch to the guy himself talking to Bill & Max in his castle

You have to admire how dedicated he is to this misunderstanding

So then Bill is working with this guy? Root does explain on the next panel that he can control Bill’s mind at will, so letting Bill act on his own accord is something of a privilege that Root will revoke if Bill doesn’t get results

For a while, the arc cuts back to Sonic and the Chaotix fighting against swamp monsters, until they’re eventually captured and Bill reveals that he and Max are working with Root. He explains that Root captured them both a few months back while they were in the swamp looking for more of the dinosaur roots for Max and now Root controls their minds. I love the confirmation that turning Max into a giant dinosaur using roots has nothing to do with Root, the villain of this arc, and is just something these two were doing anyway. I think the implication is that Bill & Max are slightly past-their-prime heroes and the dinosaur transformation is something they use to fight villains, but it’s still pretty funny

How it ended

The final issue in this storyline sees all of the Chaotix fall victim to the same mind-control that Bill has and Sonic fights them to break that control. Which of course includes fighting both Bill and big dino Max

Sonic beats these two with the revelation that Max is ticklish, something that Bill didn’t know about his boyfriend (husband?), but could’ve asked him any time. So that's on you, Bill

After Sonic manages to defeat everyone, he learns that Root is actually a small creature who was controlling the mind of yet another hostage and that form he was in grew around the hostage. We end this story with Sonic catching the real Root in a jar and the ominous threat of cooking it up with some chilli sauce and rice. While Sonic is probably joking about this, we do never see Root again, so feel free to make up your own mind about that one

We also never see Bill or Max again after this either. The Chaotix did have one more story arc after this one, which sees them battling the Crimson Cobra, who Bill mentioned being his enemy at the start of this arc, but Bill himself doesn’t appear. Sadly, this story came close enough to the end of StC’s run of new stories that there probably just wasn’t any more time for Mighty’s dads

Were there any unused future plans from the StC writers?

There were none that I could find. The only extra information out there about these two seems to be what I already mentioned before - that Kitching intended for them to be “in a homosexual partnership” (his words, I’m also gonna start saying this to refer to my fave ships) and that he decided to make Bill into Mighty’s dad after the fact, so that the Chaotix would have a greater feeling of responsibility for him

What would I personally have liked to see next for them if StC continued?

I fully believe that if we had gotten more Chaotix stories, then there’s a good chance that Bill & Max would’ve returned at some point. I see them as a great opportunity for recurring characters in the Chaotix stories. It’s a shame that the comic ended when it did, because after grappling through all those unfunny Marvel parodies, the Chaotix had hit a stride of great stories in StC that really held up. When they were allowed to just be about the Chaotix and their situations, I enjoyed those stories a lot more. And yes, you can argue that even the likes of Bill, Max and Root were all hero/villain tropes themselves, but at least for me it felt like it had a bit more substance than “Let’s fight a parody of the Hulk or whoever”. As someone who isn’t that interested in Marvel or DC, I always feel like I’m missing a joke with the early Chaotix stories and I definitely did as a kid, too

But I’m going off on that tangent again, which doesn't answer the question being asked

After the Chaotix do defeat the Crimson Cobra once and for all, it would be a good chance to have a follow-up with Bill, to see if he even believes them that the Crimson Cobra has been beaten. Maybe the plot could be that Bill gets confused enough that he uses big dinosaur Max to accidentally bust the Crimson Cobra and however many other villains out of jail. Bonus points if he breaks out Lord Sidewinder and his crew, bringing the most fun of the Chaotix-specific villains back into the mix

Bill also needs to get it into his head that Espio and Mighty are in a relationship, so that he can keep giving Mighty unwanted advice about how to treat Espio better, because it’d be funny. Espio would be weirded out at first, but then get a laugh out of how annoying Mighty finds it and starts egging Bill on, like “Yeah Mighty, is that any way to speak to the love of your life?” “...Shut it, Espio.”

And come on, we need to see where Bill and Max live at some point. He's literally called Society Max, he must be living somewhere swanky that can handle a few knocks from all the time Bill turns him into the big dinosaur. Maybe continuing my on-going Chaotix story idea that to bring them more in-line with the current penniless detective SEGA canon that they lose all their money via Omni-Viewer suing them and Charmy’s mum finally cutting Charmy off, the Chaotix could rib Mighty into trying to get Bill & Max to fund them. This wouldn’t work out and hilarity ensues. Or else this could be the story where Lord Sidewinder manages to take control of Mighty’s mind and leave the Chaotix as just Vector, Espio and Charmy, like in the current games. With Bill putting on his serious face to set out with Max to rescue his son after Mighty is taken

…Damn, it’s a shame I don’t make fanfics or fancomics, because it’s shaping up that I have a whole timeline for these Chaotix stories at this point

What if they were in other Sonic media?

I was a Doubting Thomas, but @charlesinator proved me wrong that Bill does make a cameo in Archie Sonic and much later on than most of the StC cameos:

You can see him in the bottom row of this crowd shot, second from the right. This was somewhat near to the end of Archie’s pre-reboot continuity, appearing in issue 232, and was provided by artist Ben Bates. Bates had drawn a few fanart pieces from StC on his deviantART back in the day, so he was at least somewhat familiar with the comic, but it looks like his deviantART has now been deactivated (he’s still on Xitter, but I don’t know if he ever posted his StC fanart over there)

While Bill being coloured green might’ve just been a random choice by colourist Matt Herms, who might not have realised this was a cameo of an existing character, it (maybe accidentally) lends itself to another potential headcanon:

In Archie Sonic, Mighty’s sister, Matilda, was green instead of red. So this could be an Archie version of Bill, who was Mighty & Matilda’s dad. The only thing holding this back is that both of Mighty’s parents, while unnamed, were shown once in Archie

archie's mighty is cool n all but it will never surpass fleetway giving him two dads and making him a stupid and funny hothead

Mighty: *picks up the phone* Hello?

Mysterious voice: Turn around.

Mighty: *Turns*

Mysterious voice: Down here.

Mighty: *Looks down*

Blockhead Bill: I can't get up.