#sth 33

Let's Get Small!

Writer: Mike Gallagher Pencils: Dave Manak Colors: Barry Grossman

This.

Story.

SUCKS.

Ugh. Basically, Sonic comes home from some mission or another, and after Rotor slaps a mask onto his face, he finds that everyone has gotten horribly sick while he was away from eating fast food from "McRobo's," a name which he immediately recognizes as a Robotnik front even though somehow no one else did.

Rotor has just enough strength to beg Sonic to help them before he passes out on the floor, so Sonic decides the only thing to do is to shrink himself down with the old shrinking gadget from the Universalamander issue, and go down Rotor's throat. Because of course we needed the obligatory "character shrinks themselves down to go into another character's body and fight off the virus hand to hand" episode.

Despite its disgusting nature, this issue really is full of genuinely amusing puns. The sickness is caused by the "French Frirus," and Rotor's "Auntie Bodies" is trying to fight it off - although unfortunately she seems to have given up by the time Sonic has entered the scene.

Sonic refuses to give up, and so he runs toward Rotor's internal organs and straight into one of the grossest panels in the entire comic.

This. Is. DISGUSTING. I'm seriously gagging just reading this.

Sonic finally reaches his destination and is confronted by the "Paris-site," a very French virus with a beret (really, these issues lately have just loved adding in random French-tastic accents everywhere), as well as a being of sentient flame just called Fever. Sonic battles them, but Fever is too hot to punch, and Sonic has a bit of trouble till Rotor's Auntie Bodies (it always refers to her as "Auntie Bodies" as though there's multiple, even though we only ever see the one) shows up to kick some ass.

Together they fight off the virus and cure Rotor's disease, and Rotor's Auntie Bodies calls up the other Auntie Bodies inside all the other Freedom Fighters on her "one-celled cellular phone" (remember, this is the 90s) to tell them how to go about fighting the French Frirus. Once Sonic has exited Rotor's throat, he uses the power of a Rotor sneeze to propel himself up toward the switch that will bring him back to normal size, and thus everyone wakes up and is cured, if weakened! Now, what does Sonic do at this point? He's just been all around inside someone's digestive tract, had boils explode pus all over him, and has been wading around in stomach acid like he's trying to recreate the Jabu Jabu dungeon from Ocarina of Time. So naturally, the best course of action is to go and get everyone chicken soup!

Without cleaning himself off first!

Dear lord, Sonic. You really think everyone who's recovering from a life-threatening illness wants to eat chili-dog chicken soup with a garnish of Rotor's digestive fluids right now? Go take a shower before you start serving food, you moron!

The Big Picture!

Writers: Mike Kanterovich and Ken Penders Pencils: Ken Penders Colors: Barry Grossman

Another two-page continuation to the "who the heck is Archimedes and why is he kidnapping all of Knuckles' friends" saga. This time, we're not focusing on Knuckles, or the Chaotix, or even Archimedes himself. Instead, we get to see… a different mysterious figure. A figure who has not only been spying on Knuckles, but apparently even Archimedes himself.

He appears like some sort of aloof puppet master, watching everyone's movements from afar without letting his presence be known. But who is this person?

Sonic Shot

Writer/Pencils: Ken Penders Colors: Barry Grossman

It's time for a nice relaxing game of ice hockey! Antoine's really getting in the spirit by raging at Sonic before the game's even begun. Unexpectedly, Snively and a bunch of swatbots show up, and claim they're not here for trouble - they also just need a break and want to play.