ARCHIESONIC 101, MODULE 0: SONIC ORIGINS
SONIC SUPER SPECIAL #9 (SONIC KIDS 2): ZONEWARD BOUND
TIMELINE: APPROX 3231 (3 YEARS BEFORE SONIC #1)
Well class, it’s time to look at our last Sonic Kids story for the moment. Like the others, this one was written by Mike Gallagher. This time the art was done by Sam Maxwell and Harvey Mercadoocasio. Wow, that name is a mouthful.
Hoo boy. I’m really not a fan of Sam Maxwell’s art. In my personal opinion he draws everyone’s heads too big, not to mention his habit of drawing them with closed mouths when they’re talking. He can also wildly exaggerate facial expressions sometimes, which we’ll see later on.
But enough grumbling about the art, how about the story content? Well, there’s a few important things to note. First of all, THANK GOD, Tails has shoes in this story. Seriously, seeing him with gloves and bare feet in the previous story weirded me out. However this means this story takes place after the other Sonic Kids story we skipped, the one where Sonic is telling a bunch of kids the tale of how he got Tails’ shoes for his birthday. Again, that story was presented as Sonic telling the story to a bunch of kids, so it will be presented later in the timeline.
Art Mawhinney drew the Freedom Fighters looking slightly older there than in any of the other Sonic Kids stories (certainly older than they’ve been drawn in this story), so I’m making a guess that Tails was about six or seven years old by this point. That’s just a rough guess, I could be way off.Â
Getting back to Zoneward Bound, the second point I’d like to note about this first page is that Rotor is asking not to be called by his childhood nickname any more, despite him still being called Boomer for like the first seven or so issues of the ongoing series. That’s right, Rotor’s friends literally, “Okay Boomer”-ed him. Between that and the way all four of the other kids are ganging up on Antoine, the only logical conclusion we can come to here is that ALL OF THESE KIDS ARE JERKS.
After Sonic accidentally beans Rosie the nanny in the head with a snowball, she tells the kids to go ice skating. Once again, Sonic takes the opportunity to show off. …this is something he never really grows out of, not even in the future stories where he’s in his forties. :PÂ
I think I’m going to get a bruise from all this nudging from the editor’s notes. But we’ll actually be seeing this well again soon.
I’m sure this won’t be significant at all. Also, why does Sam Maxwell always draw Antoine looking like he’s half-asleep?
Errrr… what just happened?
Seriously, I don’t know why this ring opened three portals for our heroes to fall into. It’s a weird plot device. I mean, it’s not like the rings will send Sonic rocketing through an otherworldly portal at any other time in the comic.
…okay, maybe one other time. No, actually two other times. But only those two other times! This isn’t normal!
…oh, let’s be honest. There was no normal for this comic back in the 90s. :PÂ
Remember when I mentioned that Sam Maxwell draws characters with far too exaggerated facial expressions? This is what I’m talking about right here. Sally’s mouth is taking up half her face!
More of what I’m talking about. Yikes, Sam Maxwell.
So what Sally is seeing here is a reference to what is happening to King Max at that time - namely, him being a prisoner in the Zone of Silence and enslaved to Ixis Naugus and his crystal magicks (yes, he has crystal magic as well as the four elements). Either that, or it’s a reference to how he’ll turn to crystal after being rescued from the Zone of Silence. But WHY is Sally seeing this vision, right now? Buggered if I know.Â
Okay, did Mike Gallagher drink a 1 gallon milk jug of LSD before writing this story? Because I have no idea what’s going on here. They’re falling through pipes and boxes, and their bodies are being mixed up randomly? Best I can figure is that the Ancient Walkers designed this as a test for their future “Chosen One.” Yes, that’s going to be a thing. Spoiler alert, I guess?
Okay, we’ve finally returned to some semblance of reality. Sonic ended up in a still-under construction Green Hill Zone, apparently. And having already been jerked around by one ring, Sonic immediately decides to start grabbing more. But at least this makes more sense than what happened to the others.
Unfortunately we won’t get to see his adventure with Mighty and Ray for awhile, because that's another story that was told as a flashback in the present day of the comic.
Mmmm, I can hear that classic Sonic 1 boss music in my head. I’ll give Sam Maxwell this, he draws a pretty dang good Robotnik.
Do you think Chuka-Doom is related to Chaka Khan?
So this is where Linkara’s continuity alarm would start going off if he was the one reviewing this, because I’ve got to point out a whoopsie here. As we saw in the first few pages, Tails has his sneakers in this story. Which means that this story has to take place after the story where Sonic gave him those sneakers. But that same story also features a confrontation between Sonic and Robotnik, with the hedgehog already well known to the evil dictator. So either Tails shouldn’t have his shoes yet (please, let’s not go there again!) or else Sonic and Robotnik should recognise each other.
For the purposes of our timeline it really doesn’t matter that much, because the story of Tails getting his sneakers is told as a flashback and thus won’t appear on our timeline until years after this. And for what it’s worth, this minor continuity snarl is probably the least confusing thing to happen in this story.Â
And thus the ring was sent back whence it came, to appear in a future story that was published five years earlier. At least some of the timeline has been preserved here. And the lesson we learned today? When a problem comes along, you must NOT whip it. DON’T whip it good!
I like most of the Sonic Kids stories, but this one? Not so much. There’s a lot of nonsensical stuff happening that I’m pretty sure the writer intended to make sense, and I really don’t like the art. If there’s any one Sonic Kids story I think you can skip without missing much, it’s this one.
This isn’t part of the story but it’s on the page right after, so I thought I’d include it here. Back in the day the letters pages included a short gag strip called Off Panel, which mostly featured Sonic characters and the comic’s editor of the time getting into wacky hijinks. Frustratingly this occasionally broke free of the letter pages and took up pages of the comic, something that I feel like exactly ZERO readers were asking for. Anyway, that’s a problem for another day. What’s today’s strip got for us?
…I feel like there’s a joke I could make here about the Epstein Files, but maybe I shouldn’t go there.Â
And on that note, we’re done with the Sonic Kids stories (for now, at least)! When we next see Sonic and the gang, they’ll be in their classic era ages and appearances! …well, mostly.
But we’re not done with the Sonic Origins module yet. Believe it or not, there’s still some issues of the comic we need to look at before we get to Sonic the Hedgehog #1. Prior to the ongoing series, there was a four issue mini series released we need to check out. So join me back here next time for Sonic the Hedgehog mini #0! Until then, class is dismissed!















