Sonic The Hedgehog #53

Official Solicitation

Knuckles and Sonic… friends? As the Freedom Fighters handle recent events, Knuckles and Julie-Su come to town. For what purpose? Read and see for yourself…

"Sounds Of Silence"

Writer: Karl Bollers
Penciler: Sam Maxwell
Inker: Pam Eklund

And if you thought that was all the surprises we had in store for you- there’s more! So you thought Robotnik being gone would be the end of the Freedom Fighter’s problems? Not when you have the return of people like Robotnik’s mentor, Warlord Kodos and the ‘supposed’ creator of the Zone of Silence, wizard extraordinare, Ixis Naugus, vying for control!

Cover by Patrick Spaziante & Harvey Mercadoocasio

Sonic The Hedgehog #53 Review by Zifei Wu

Reviewer: Zifei Wu
Rating: 4/5 Rings

"Unfinished Business"
"Sounds Of Silence"
Ken Penders And Karl Bollers(W)
Art Mawhinney And Sam Maxwell(A)
I got this issue early, just two days after it came out in the comic store. The delivery system of Archie must have been upgraded! Cover art: Done by Spazainte and Harvey Mercadoocasio. Very nice transparent image of Warlord Kodos and a shocked Sonic with Dr. Quack. And something else is new on this cover, all the words and boxes have shadow effect now. Text page art (formerly known as the Splash Page) by: Sam Maxwell and Harvo. A broken magic wand falling through the sky...nice art covered by useless text. First story: "Unfinished Business" script/inking by Ken Penders, art by Art Mawhinney. Very good art and script, too bad it's only six pages long.

The story starts out with the Freedom Fighter working to tear down the former city of Robotropolis. Then Knuckles the Echidna came with Julie-su in a unidentified flying saucer. Both side informed of each other what happened in their comic. It seems Knuckles came because Sally called him, the reason for that was Sally wanted Knuckles to go on another quest to find the real Sword Of Acorn (yeah, Mammoth Mogul’s got the real sword). But Knuckles, having just discovered Echidnaopolis declined because he's got a lot of work ahead of him. Knuckles then went with Antoine to find Sonic. This time when the two saw each other, they didn't try to beat the crap out of each other. Instead they made some friendly comments. Who gave Antoine the right to laugh at Sonic's middle name? Antoine is a worst name than Maurice, ya know! Anywayz, Sonic's real first name is not Sonic, could be anything. A good start for maybe another mini-series or quest.

Rating: 1/2 Rings

Its odd that the shortest story ran first, but in the scheme of things it really worked out well in conjuction with the backup - which just happened to be longer. Made for a nice transition. Charater development like THIS we DEFINETELY need. Kudos to Ken on a nice story. Too bad it was only 8 pages. And is it just me - or is Sonic's middle name just as unfitting as it wants to be! ^______^

Backup Story: Sam has greatly improved since he first started to draw for Sonic, his Sally is still off model, but the detail level has grown a lot.

Pages 1-4: Sonic and Sally were on a cliff, talking about their current situation. On page 4, panel 1, we actually get to see Sally hug Sonic, a real full contact hug! Too bad Sonic didn't hug back. St. John then showed up and explained to the pair that Rotor, Uncle Chuck, and Dr. Quack has launched a probe into the Zone of Silence. Suddenly, there was an explosion...

Pages 5-8: The three raced into the lab where Rotor, Chuck, and Quack were knocked unconscious by the wizard Ixis Naugus, Warlord Kodos, and Uma Arachnis. A large fight starts...eh Sam, you forgot to draw Sonic's head on page 6, panel 1. After shooting just three arrows, St. John got hit in the head by Uma and lost conscious. Here's when the whole thing gets really confusing, Sonic seemed to go into a Sonic spin holding Sally! The spin brought crystals everywhere, blinding Ixis and his gang long enough for the Freedom Fighters to escape to safety.

Pages 9-12: The Freedom Fighters retreated to the King's bedroom. In there, the king explained to everyone that he made a deal with Ixis in the Zone of Silence that permits Ixis to gain control of Mobotropolis is he ever gets out of the zone. But Sally made the decision to oppose Ixis with the term "Get lost!".

Pages 13-18: Ixis and his group broke through the wall and attacked. Another big, big fight, in this fight, Sonic some how broke Ixis' magic wand and they intruders just...disappeared.

Rating: Rings

This story is not that bad, just a little too confusing. It leaves you wondering how Naugus will come to play in future issues as well as other things. But it just didn't read right for some reason. Karl's gonna have to get on the ball with the stories...

In Sonic Grams, we get to see the cover to Knuckles #7 and Sonic #54. After two issues of simple cover arts, we're back to complicated covers now. And for all you Nights fans out there, Archie is making a three issue mini-series of Nights. It's going to be drawn by Spazainte and Manny. Lets see how much they butcher it !!! ^___^

Overall Rating: Rings