#captain plunder

Captain Plunder and his cast of support characters - including many enemies, two regular crew members and a whole host of disposable extra crew members - may have suddenly disappeared from StC as of issue 108, but they still enjoyed a lengthy career in the comic before that. So it’s time to take a look at what was, what might have been and my admittedly far too long list of fan ideas I’d have liked to have seen from him (I like Captain Plunder, okay?) as I examine him for today’s StC Post-Mortem

How it started

This is Richard Elson’s original design for Captain Plunder, which seems to have stayed mostly the same when he appears in the comic. It’s interesting to see notes such as “gorilla type features with tusks”. I’ve never put much thought into what “animal” Plunder was based on, since I guess I generally think of him as being more human-like, but seeing gorilla, I can see that. That makes sense to me

Captain Plunder’s actual first appearance was in the main story of issue 23, where he’s presented as a villain who’s kidnapped Amy Rose (not long after her own first appearance), but ends up being talked around to being somewhat on the heroes side - even if he did have his fingers crossed behind his back when he made a deal with them

At the time, there weren’t many other villains outside of Robotnik and the few that there were tended to be one-off characters who worked for Robotnik anyway. So when Plunder appeared to buffer the rogue’s gallery, it was a welcome addition

How it went

With lots of silly pirate adventures fighting against everyone! After his first appearance, Plunder was a somewhat regular guest in the comic, sometimes working with Sonic and sometimes against him, but always for his own gain. He generally didn’t work with Robotnik, so at least he had that going for him

Of the crew members shown above, only Filch - the lizard ghost who Plunder shot dead for taking the last biscuit -  would remain constant from the start to finish of the series as Plunder’s loyal second-in-command, with the background fodder of crew members being cycled in and out on every adventure. There was a professor guy for one story that Plunder made a big deal of, but then he was gone without a word about him in the next story

The only other notable character to join Plunder’s crew was fan fave Simpson the Cat, a forth-wall-breaking rubber hose character who Plunder met in prison and, upon helping him to escape, would become the only other permanent member of Plunder’s crew

This would also mark the beginning of Plunder’s solo stories. For his early appearances, Plunder would always be escorted by a Sonic character, but it was clear that the team wanted to focus on telling stories about Plunder himself. With his new own series being introduced as a backup story in an issue that also featured Plunder in the main Sonic story, it was a good way to get the kids who came for Sonic onboard with these extra pirate adventures

How it ended

Exactly like that. In the conclusion to a six-part Captain Plunder solo story called the Spice Maidens, we see the crew marooned on what appears to be a desert island, after their ship was blasted out of the sky by yet another old enemy who Plunder wronged

To top it all off, Plunder was still cursed with bad luck at this point. I remember as a kid that I’d sometimes wonder what became of Captain Plunder and if we’d ever see him again. Maybe I should’ve written into the comic to say that I missed his stories

Were there any unused future plans from the StC writers?

Wait, so we were going to get a Plunder and Ebony story? That would’ve been the coolest thing ever! Two of my favourite StC exclusives in the same story? Damn, we truly live in a cruel timeline that this didn’t come to pass. I do wonder what what Kitching meant by the curse being “something far more significant” as well

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

Are you kidding me? I cannot come up with something better than Plunder seeking help from Ebony to get his curse lifted. Just throw Super Sonic into that story as well and it’ be perfect

What if he was in other Sonic media?

I have a bunch of different ideas for stuff I’d have liked to have seen from Plunder in a fantasy scenario where he could’ve appeared in other Sonic media:

Classic Sonic Games:

By “Classic Sonic” I mean the current version of it that’s still getting new games and comics and stuff. Captain Plunder was introduced to us as a pirate from the Mystic Cave Zone and if he was in the games (or the IDW Classic Sonic comics), I’d like to see them focus on that. Give him a cool boss fight. Make him a regional boss for that zone. The sort of character where Sonic knows that if he goes to that zone, he’s going to have to deal with Plunder. Honestly, the Mystic Cave Zone theme is already like Captain Plunder’s theme in my head, so that’s the association I have with it

You could potentially use the same idea to make him something like an Egg Boss for the Mystic Cave Zone in a Post-Reboot Archie Sonic setting, but I just don’t really like the idea of him working for Eggman. He’s better as a separate problem who can be swayed either way

Modern Sonic Games:

“We already have pirates on Blaze’s world” …Cool! Add more pirates!

The Sol Dimension is still largely unexplored by the franchise, but we know there’s a lot of sea-faring, so we can assume there’s more than one group of pirates. So, have Plunder be another problem for Blaze to deal with who’s either from the Sol Dimension itself or else a dimension traveller using that starpost of his who crops up every now and then to cause trouble

Alternatively, have him be a zeti. This is where I hold my hand up and admit that I haven’t played Lost World, it’s in my Steam backlog but it came out during an era where I wasn’t that into Sonic outside of the comics. So I don’t have a lot to say about this idea. In general, Plunder is a character who I don’t think needs to be “Sonic-ified” because I think his unique design already makes him stand out as a villain in the Sonic line-up, but if he does have to get a Sonic-y makeover, then instead of making him something like a walrus or gorilla, why not use him to expand upon an area of the series that SEGA keeps calling back on (at least, they invite Zavok over for sports sometimes) but hasn’t explored much? Adding pirates to the zeti mix just sounds fun to me

Sonic Underground:

I maintain that you could wholesale put the entirety of the StC exclusive characters into Underground without having to change a thing. I mean, this guy exists in Underground for crying out loud! Plunder wouldn’t even by the most unusual sea-faring character Sonic's seen over there

Skies of Arcadia:

I also have a couple of non-Sonic suggestions and this is my first “hear me out”. Captain Plunder is a sky pirate. SEGA already has a game about sky pirates. You know who’s favourite game is Skies of Arcadia and has also worked collaboratively with Nigel Kitching in the recent past? Ian Flynn. What I’m saying is that Plunder could totally work in this world. Let Kitching (& Dobbyn) handle the Plunder parts and let Ian handle the Skies of Arcadia parts and I’m sure they could make a fun crossover of it Captain Plunder, No Strings Attached:

My final suggestion and probably my greatest wish for the character is that Captain Plunder could’ve existed outside of Sonic Yeah, I know I went hard on wanting to include all of the Plunder stories in my blogging because he’s part of Sonic’s world, but mostly it was just because I like them! Team Nigel clearly had stories they wanted to tell about this character outside of Sonic, they were always very quick to ditch the Sonic elements in the Plunder stories up until they could finally tell a few stories that were purely Captain Plunder stories, so I want to let them cook. The reason I know about this character is because of Sonic, sure, but now that I do know about him, it’s a shame that he’s tied to Sonic when this could’ve been a wholly original series. And yeah, we’ve seen guys use the Sonic brand to tell stories about their own stuff before - look at Archie Knuckles or the Paramount Knuckles series - but Captain Plunder is one time where I’m like “Actually, this slaps and I would love to have more!” It makes me regret that after StC finished, I didn’t think to look into other stuff these creators worked on. Hell, I could still do that right now, but I’m gonna get this blog finished first