Note: This issue has the winners of the "Do-It-Yourself" Contest. Since none of them went on to work on the comic, I'm not going to bold their names, even though this is their "first issue" to be published in.
Editorial Team: Editor-in-Chief: Richard Goldwater; Managing Editor: Victor Gorelick; Editor: Scott Fulop
Credits: By Dave Manak and Jon D'Agostino.
Description: A giant metallic blue being (revealed in the issue to be "Car-heem") has Robotnik and Sonic trapped in a glass bubble. Meanwhile, in the corner-box, Tails has bubble-gum all over his face.
Comments: I feel sorry for Tails. Bubble-gum on skin is just annoying, but in your hair it's another matter, and Tails' face is furry, after all. (Actually, having a mustache and beard, and still occasionally chewing bubble-gum, I've been in a similar situation to Tails, myself...)
Credits: Script: Angelo DeCesare; Pencils: Dave Manak; Inks: Rich Koslowski; Letters: Mindy Eisman; Colors: Barry Grossman
Description: Sonic, Tails, Rotor, and Sally are out picking berries, when Robotnik and Snively ambush them (without any robots, oddly). Suddenly, they are all sucked up a giant tube and taken captive by a giant blue metallic life-form by the name of "Car-Heem" from the planet Weet. (Or, as Sonic puts it, "Car-Heem of Weet"... :groan: )
Car-Heem is a collector and interstellar biologist. He puts the group in a huge terrarium, where he intends to keep them indefinitly. However, working together, Robotnik and the Freedom Fighters manage to escape. Robotnik attempts to kill Car-Heem, but the Freedom Fighters save the alien, gaining Car-Heem's gratitude and their continued freedom.
Having learned his lesson, Car-Heem deposits everyone back on Mobius - even Robotnik and Snively.
Comments: Action, humor, and a heavy-handed moral. Reminds me of saturday-morning cartoons (and I don't mean Sonic SatAM). Not a bad offering, but a bit of a let-down after the past two issues.
1st place: "All's Whale That Ends Whale" by Caulder Bradford; 2nd place: "The Mouth of Terror" by Breman Welch; 3rd place: "Sonic's Surprise" by Kenny Janda
If you're looking for great writing here, take a look at the ages of the writers, first. Actually, Bradford and Janda don't do that bad, though the writing in their stories still isn't up to the quality of the regular writers.
Also of note is that Janda drew and colored his version.
Credits: Script: Angelo DeCesare; Pencils: Dave Manak; Inks: Jon D'Agostino; Letters: Bill Yoshida
Description: Tails is worried because he left his backpack, with a Power Ring, in Robotropolis. Antoine volunteers to retrieve it. Along the way Antoine encounters various dangers, which he survives with the "secret" help of Bunnie.
Comments: Bunnie wears a skirt in this issue. I'm not sure if its' supposed to be some sort of sleep-wear (as it's the middle of the night) or what, but it does look cute on her.
Far more importantly, this story ends with Antoine kissing Bunnie in thanks for her help, and her obviously enjoying it. It was that last panel that made me a mild Antoine/Bunnie shipper, and it was that in turn that prepared me for when they eventually did start a relationship. If I hadn't read this issue and started shipping Bunnie/Antoine, I probably would have been shocked and surprised by the later turn of events, as there weren't a lot of hints before hand...
Scott mentions the final Sally issue, and the Sonic & Knuckles special. Letters from Steven Wise and Nathan Harson.
In the reply to Harson, Scott spills the beans on the Triple Trouble special, and reveals that Knack will be in it.
So, after the awesomeness that was issues 21 and 22, naturally NeoCoolGuy and me wanted to check out the next issue. We were disappointed by this issue, and that might have been the end of our Sonic reading, if Neo hadn't noticed in the back the preview for the next issue, featuring the return of Evil Sonic (who's introduction had been in my first issue, 11). Natuarlly, even if I didn't expect to get any more issues, I had to get that one...