Review: Sonic Live Comics

Imagine what it would be like if characters from some of your favorite video games ended up in the real world. Such a concept is filled with possibilities: these people could find themselves adjusting to life on Earth, and perhaps if their archenemies had likewise crossed over to the real world and were planning to carry out a diabolical plan there, the heroes could foil the villains' plots before eventually returning to where they came from. Valiant's short-lived Game Boy comic pulled this off pretty well, but when it came to bringing Sonic the Hedgehog to Earth during his celebrated comic book run, the execution faltered rather badly. In 1996, Sonic Live, one of eight one-shot 48-page specials, was released, and seemed to promise a story in which the hedgehog would come to the real world, but what we ended up getting instead was a story that many people consider to be one of the worst Sonic comics in existence.

The story starts with our hero on his way to confronting Robotnik, who had captured the other members of the Knothole Freedom Fighters, a team dedicated to overthrowing the evil doctor and restoring peace to their home planet of Mobius. However, this rescue mission comes to an abrupt end when Robotnik's Swatbots seemingly blast Sonic into oblivion. Instead, he ends up in a strange zone, where he discovers that he can barely reach out from a television screen located elsewhere. The location in question just so happens to be Earth, where, of course, Sonic is a beloved video game character. It is here where two of his biggest fans, Stephen and Jessica, love to play Sonic games, but at one point in which they try to play one of his games, it somehow creates energy that allows Sonic to reach out and grab them, pulling them into wherever he is. Needless to say, the children are ecstatic to see Sonic up close and personal. The same type of energy also creates a portal which Sonic uses to return to Mobius, taking the amazed kids with him.

Once back on his home world, Sonic learns that the Freedom Fighters have been locked inside a rocket, set to launch into outer space and activate some killer satellites. After a few tries, he manages to abort the liftoff, but before he can free his friends, he and the kids end up being sucked into the portal. They were now back in the unknown zone, and so was Robotnik, who with the aid of several variations from himself taken from other worlds (the concept of alternate universes is common in Sonic comics, and has resulted in the appearances of other good versions of our hero, as well as an evil twin initially called Evil Sonic but who now goes by the name of Scourge) has built a mechanical version of himself. Before Sonic can try and stop him, though, he, Stephen and Jessica are locked in a prison cell along with two people named Mori and Jerry. Not a lot is known about these other two captives or whether they were based on real life people along with Stephen and Jessica (more on that later).

Things get ugly for Robotnik as his alternative selves betray and attack him, while Sonic and his pals are rescued by a nameless woman in a Robotnik costume. Our hero saves Robotnik, and Stephen manages to stop the robots by punching in the famous level select code from the first Sonic game (for the uninitiated, the code is up, down, left, right, hold A, and press Start). Once again, Robotnik's plot is foiled, and he and Sonic are sent home, but not before Sonic gets a chance to say goodbye to his new friends. Back on Mobius, he reunites with the Freedom Fighters, while on Earth, Stephen and Jessica are about to play the new Sonic game. Given that the comic was released in late 1996, I suppose the game in question would have been Sonic 3D Blast, which itself was pretty terrible.

So what went so horribly wrong with this story? For starters, the photo cover, which showed Sonic popping out of the TV screen, was misleading. One would take a look at the cover and assume that the tale would feature Sonic coming to the real world, perhaps to see what life is like on Earth. Instead, he never actually sets foot on our world, and he, Robotnik, and the kids find themselves in a zone located somewhere in between dimensions. The children are only briefly on Mobius, and no one has much of a chance to experience life on another planet. Had Sonic entered the real world, or if the kids stayed on Mobius for a longer period of time, the story may have been better, and the cover certainly would not have led young readers astray.

It also does not help that Sonic, who is supposed to be as smart as he is fast, gets into trouble and is helpless for no good reason other than to (seemingly) make the kids the story's real stars. Sonic could have avoided the Swatbots' fire power at the very last second, but he did not. He needed help to deactivate the rocket, failed to prevent himself and the children from getting captured, and needed their assistance again to stop Robotnik's alternate forms. The Sonic I know would have done plenty of heroic deeds without any help, or if he needed assistance, he could have turned to the Freedom Fighters had they not been captured. Having the kids steal the show makes it seem as if writer Ken Penders wanted the story to belong mainly to them.

Speaking of Penders, the children in the story just happened to be his relatives. Stephen is his real life son, while Jessica is his niece. Ordinarily, I see nothing wrong with including children in a story, but somehow I feel that including a writer's real life relatives instead of kids created especially for the story seems like a terrible idea. The kids themselves do not have a lot of personality here, nor do they get much of an opportunity to be anything more than typical 1990s children. Seeing as how they never made another appearance, it might be just as well that they were never really fleshed out unlike many other characters in the Sonic comic. Perhaps children who would make more of a lasting impact on the comic could have been created, but Penders was so intent on using kids in his family that he did not bother to do so. Simply put, the story is a mess, and could have easily been improved upon substantially before hitting newsstands.

To its credit, the comic book did have two back stories which were infinitely better than the main story. One of them featured the Substitute Freedom Fighters, which consisted of Larry Lynx, Cyril the Eagle, Penelope Platypus, Hamlin Pig, Dylan the Porcupine, and Arlo the Armadillo. They proved their worth by rescuing the Knothole Freedom Fighters while Sonic and the kids were trapped in the unknown zone. The story was a simple action tale, but it benefited from artwork by the talented Art Mawhinney and the presence of some lesser-known characters, who would make occasional appearances for years afterward, but who never appeared again as a team.

The other back story was the continuation of Knuckles the Echidna's quest to recover the Sword of Acorn, which was hoped to cure the true king of Mobius, who was slowly changing to crystal. He would deal with magical creatures who were summoned by Merlin Prower, a wizard who in later stories was revealed to be the uncle of Miles "Tails" Prower. He told Knuckles to explore the Land of Dark for more clues as to the sword's whereabouts. While brief, the story had beautiful artwork by celebrated artist Patrick Spaziante and a quest that would partially lead to the four-part Endgame saga that ran in issues #47-50 of the ongoing Sonic comic. These are pretty neat tales, but they only go to show that when the back stories are better in every way than the cover story, you know that the latter tale was a mistake.

The Sonic Live special has become hard-to-find, but only Sonic purists will want to hunt it down. While the back stories are pretty good, the main story is terribly flawed, taking a great premise and squandering it a great deal. I was twelve years old when it came out, and even back then, I could sense that the main story was lame. There is no telling when or if it will be included in a future Sonic Select graphic novel, though the back stories have been featured in the first two volumes of that series. There are some neat Sonic comics that Archie has published over the years, but Sonic Live is not one of them. Approach with caution, or avoid at all costs.