Editor-in-Chief: Richard Goldwater. Managing Editor: Victor Gorelick. Editor: Justin Freddy Gabrie.
Penciled by Patrick Spaziante, inked by Nelson Ribeiro, colored by Josh D. Ray.
So, it wasn’t Elias and Meg on the cover, it was Amadeus and Rosemary Prower. My bad.
Penciled by J. Axer, inked by Michael Higgins, colored by Jason Jensen
A picture of the star of this issue, along with a small spoiler for the story…
Written by Romy Chacon (with a tip of the hat to Star Wars Episode One), penciled by Dawn Best, inked by Jim Amash, colored by Jason Jensen, lettered by Jeff Powell.
Needing money to fix his ship, Sonic bets it in a race. Course, he’s in the race, so he’s betting on his own speed being greater than that of the other participants. On Mobius, this would be a sure bet; out here on the other side of the Galaxy, it has an element of risk.
When another racer crosses the finish line first, there’s a nice little scene of Sonic having to face the fact that he might not be the fastest thing alive, after all.
Luckily for the series (it wouldn’t work too well to have him stranded on an alien world), it turns out the apparent winner had cheated, so, as second to cross the finish, Sonic receives the title, and the prize money.
Pictures by Alina Velazquez, Angel Rodriguez, Nick Foster, and Brittany Batchelder. Alina’s picture is pretty cool, while Nick has an interesting style…
Written by Benny Lee, penciled by Art Mawhinney, inked and lettered by Michael Higgins, colored by Jason Jensen.
Sonic arrives at "Wheelworld" (the description of which still reminds me of Ringworld, even if it’s drawn differently). The Bem are all busy conducting a trial of "Ceneca-9009", so no visitors are allowed, unless they’ve came to watch the trial. Sonic simply says he came for the trial, and they let him in. (Those aliens, with their weird ways of thinking--! :) )
At first, Sonic thinks Ceneca-9009 is a planet, but when he gets to the court, he discovers that 9009 is actually a female Bem—the same Bem that turned Sonic mecha and Robotnik flesh. (Incidentally, the judge’s name is Ceneca-10050. Another detail to make the Bem more alien; I like it.)
The judge tells a sad story, of how eight thousand years ago, 9009 deroboticized the population of a robot-dominated planet, inadvertently leaving them defenseless against the planet’s deadly microbes.
Thousands of years later, 9009 witnessed the beginning of Robotnik’s reign of terror, and decided to atone for her earlier mistakes by saving the population. She deroboticized Amadeus Prower, and took him and Rosemary Prower to Wheelworld, asking for permission to deroboticize the other Robians.
The High Command denied the request, and imprisoned 9009 for a few years in punishment for using the outlawed de-roboticizer. Then, when she was freed, they gave her a task—to determine which were superior, Mobians or Robians. The little switcheroo trick was the test—and Robians were determined superior. The Bem then demonstrated their absolute disregard for the philosophy behind Star Trek’s Prime Directive, deciding to roboticize the entire population (after all, it would be an improvement, right?).
9009 disagreed, and did the exact opposite, deroboticizing the Robians (as seen in "The Last Robian").
For that act, 9009 was put on trial once more—just in time for Sonic to arrive.
While the story is being told, Sonic meets up with Amadeus and Rosemary, and they try to sway the tribunal.
Like the trial of Cobra Commander in G.I.Joe the movie, though, the story told by the Judge is enough justification in itself for a guilty verdict. The sentence: execution.
Sonic isn’t going to just stand by, of course, and while catching up with the Prowers, makes plans to break 9009 out of prison.
Before they can, 10050 finds them—and informs them that although spokeswoman of the Tribunal, she did not agree with the verdict, and wished to help them rescue 9009.
Sonic busts 9009 out, but there’s a slight glitch—the ship 10050 provides is only big enough for one. At the others’ insistence, Sonic takes the ship and heads through the Bem wormhole to Mobius, pretending to be 9009 to keep the authorities of her tail.
Next stop: Mobius.
Whew! What a wild story! Very good job in the "heart" department—loved how the Bem High Command’s orders, and the Tribunal’s verdict, were obviously unfair by the standards of Mobian (and our) culture, and yet you could see that they weren’t evil—they just had a very different view of things than we do. In other words, another successful portrayal of an alien culture.
JG chats about Sonic X, and about various possibilities for incorporating it into the comic. He asks for opinions about it—here’s mine: The comic has always incorporated elements from the various shows and games, so it might as well include some Sonic X. From what I’ve heard, Sonic X takes place on a different "Earth" than the one the show’s Sonic comes from. So, the simple solution is have Sonic and the gang (preferably including the Freedom Fighters) head to the alternate Earth.
Ken answers letters from Haylo the Fox-Bat, Mark Teo, and Tom Harritt. Haylo praises the comic, asks about the possibility of Mobian animal crossbreeds, and complains about the difficulty of getting the comic in Australia. Mark Teo also praises the comic, but complains there are too many characters—only to ask for the introduction of Cream. And Tom spends his entire letter singing the comic’s praises… Gee, you sense a pattern here?
Not too shabby. They even divided the chapters logically for once!
But it’s next issue I’m really waiting for. Finally, Sonic returns home… but what will he find there? Hmm…