Sonic Super Special #11
"The Female Furries: GIRLS RULE!"
A Review by Chaos Theory T. Echidna.
October 8, 1999
To paraphrase Amy's slogan in "Sonic Adventure", it's THEIR turn NOW!
Intro and Overall Review
This issue contains five seperate stories: "Princess Sally: Ascension" (reviewed on this page), "Hershey: Solo", "Lupe: Family", "Bunnie Rabbot: Upgrade", and "Julie-Su: Shadows". (What's with the one-word titles...?) Anyway, this review is indexed for your reading convenience. Each story will have its own seperate link, so that you may go straight to the story about the female furry you like best. Sally's story will be here. To read:
Hershey the Cat's solo story, click HERE.
Lupe's Story can be found HERE.
Bunnie Rabbot's solo is HERE.
And Julie-Su can be found HERE.
NOTE: The phrase "spoiler warning" hardly applies since this issue has been out since October of 1999. But consider yourself forewarned: The stories in this special contain major, life-shaking events for the characters in the comic, so if you have not gotten that far yet in your personal reading, you should NOT skip ahead.
And now, on to our show!
Warning: I don't know how well I can really review this, not knowing the background story properly. But I just couldn't RESIST the opportunity to review something BEFORE it hit the stands--and a SPECIAL, at that! So forgive me any weird mistakes or random guesses I may make here. In most cases, I couldn't tell what time period these stories were supposed to be taking place in--Sally's is a flashback, Hershey's is...confusing...Julie-Su's takes place in the present but TALKS about the past for most of its length, and as for Lupe--I can't tell what REALITY her story is in, let alone the time! (Mostly just denial because of what happened, is why I think that, but...)
Here goes nothing...
Well, first of all, we'll start off at the cover. It's reasonably well-drawn, (by Penders and Spaz--I'm not quite sure who did what part) but it's a bit too....anime, for me. Everyone has the HUGEST, glassiest, staring eyes, and it's a bit creepy at times. (Especially Julie-Su's violet stare and Bunnie's HUGE toothy grin.) Hershey is adorable, as is Sally, Lupe looks cool and I MUCH prefer what she's wearing here to what she had on during her actual story. I mean, considering that I've been told the Wolfpack is kind of like Native Americans, sandals and a beat-up tank-top/loincloth makes a LOT more sense than a blue spandex leotard! But I'll save that for her own story when I get there. The layout is good, and I see they basically placed the FF's (Female Furries, not Freedom Fighters) in a way and sizing that shows their importance to the story--except for Lupe, who I always thought was kinda minor-ish. But the others are all correct--Sally is huge and RIGHT in the front, Julie-Su and Bunnie seem to be about equal-sized; Bunnie is behind Julie but Bunnie's drawn somewhat larger, so the end result is that their differences cancel each other out, and Hershey, as a minor character is rather small and off to the side. Besides the "anime" thing, I have two problems with this cover:
"HEY! Whose comic is this ANYWAY?!" Sonic pushing his way down into the page on the upper-left corner. This really bothers me, this trend Archie is going into lately, where they feel they have to CONSTANTLY remind you that the comics are based off of Sonic the Hedgehog, as if you'll forget in the one month since you bought the last one! They're so desperate to make money off this thing that they have to keep telling you, "LOOK!! IT'S BASED OFF OF SOMETHING POPULAR!! REALLY!! WE MEAN IT!!" at all times. It's not just this--the "Buy Sonic Comics" back on issue #13 of Knuckles and also the way the Knuckles comics now say something along the lines of "Sonic the Hedgehog Presents" on the top of them. It's an ANNOYING trend. At any rate, didn't they think that the Female Furries would be able to carry an issue on their OWN merit? Hmph.
And my other problem is that all the FF's seem to be getting..."babe-ified", for lack of a better word. Except for Lupe and Hershey, who are both turned the wrong way, all of them have their...uh....upper body appendages...very prominent. (Julie-Su looks okay here more or LESS, but wait 'til you see her solo story's artwork!) Bunnie looks like a total bimbo and I SWEAR Sally's gone up a couple cup-sizes. And Julie-Su is supposed to wear body armour--ya know, padded, puffy, CONCEALING--not the super-thin, super-tight, slinky little tank tops she wears later on that hug her every curve. The Off-Panel at the end of this issue makes a joke about turning this into a "Swimsuit Issue", but I'm not so sure it IS a joke! As a feminist, I am, again, slightly offended.
Which is a bit silly, 'cos except for that, this issue was MEANT for the female readers! And I do think it's cool that all of them--including Hershey, whom I NEVER dreamed would be important enough to warrant her own story--got a chance to shine. But...it's a bit OBVIOUS that they were drawing this in such a way that it would appeal to MALE readers too...for different reasons...
Enough of that. Let's open the comic and go inside.
Opening page: Pink background and hearts (awwww...how sickeningly sweet...) and very shiny, sparkly, stylized anime-ish pictures of the FF's. Clockwise from the top: Bunnie, Sally, Julie-Su with her bizzarre transparent hair (more on that later), Lupe, and Hershey with her goggles on. And the pinkness and cuteness of the background reminds me of something--WHERE'S AMY?!!
Okay, I realise that she's only that important in the games, not the comic universe, but she is IN the comic universe, and if HERSHEY is important enough to get a story devoted to her, then...
Moving along, we have a lovely "splash page" of Sally standing in front of the moon, with HUGE, super-sparkly/glassy eyes, her hair blowing around wildly, and platform boots. Drawn by Suzanne Paddock and Pam Eklund. WHOO-HOO! This series needs a few more female artists...
Moving on into the story itself now: "Princess Sally in 'Ascension'"
Written, as were all the stories in this issue, by Ken Penders (do they HAVE other writers anymore? Oh, yeah, Karl Bollers on the Sonic comic. Ick.) and drawn by Jim Valentino. Now, I've heard others complain long and loud about his work in earlier Knuckles issues that I have yet to see, but I ADORE his work here. This is easily the best-drawn story of the entire special, and that INCLUDES Spaz's Julie-Su story artwork. The proportions of everybody are correct, the details are exquisite, the lighting and mood effects are perfect, the textures are realistic, and the sparkles and highlights are beautiful. The "emotion pictures" really WORK--the one where Sally is crying got me. (sniff). Each picture of this story is truly a feast for the eyes--it's WAY better-looking than I ever expected the Sonic and/or Knuckles series to look, and I found myself taking a full minute on each page--a few seconds to read the words, then the rest of it just DRINKING IN the pictures. Say what you will about Jim Valentino's earlier work--and maybe it DID stink, I don't know--this story is a feast for the eyes.
Okay, now, I don't get the back story, but evidently this takes place 2 years in the past, roughly, and Sally explains to the audience (in her head) why she's stepping into this weird golden pool and also how Elias had given up his right for the throne. Now she's trying to decide whether SHE really wants it. The artwork on this page, with her having a head that is just about the RIGHT size for her body for the first time ever, and her normal female body proportions, and the fact that she's stepping into a bath, made me go, "WHOAH, she's NAKED!" the first time I saw it. Which is silly, of course, 'cos she's ALMOST naked all the time! But I can't shake that impression that somehow I'm catching her at a private moment...eek! Shut the door! ;)
Anyway, she steps into the magical golden pool and somehow that makes her become one with "The Source of All". I get the feeling that this represents the Mobians' God or something like that--although it seems a bit more Buddhist than Christian. Anyway, Elias comes in, in a silhouette, and says to Sally that she has his support--even if their father doesn't approve. (Ya know, despite the stuff that is said about him in this issue, I really DON'T like King Max. He pisses me off. Almost as bad as Locke. In fact, I'm not quite sure which one I like less, but I guess I'll say Max. Treating your kid badly by controlling them TOO much is worse than treating them badly by not being there at all. At least the kid with no parents gets to make his own decisions.) Sally meanwhile is already under the water and doesn't hear him, so she goes right into her flashback/vision.
Here we see Queen Alicia as a young woman, holding Sally as a baby and with Elias as a toddler next to her. The drawings are all REALLY adorable and Alicia looks like how a Queen should--her outfit is like something out of a Disney fairy-tale. She says, (in the flashback), that she prays Sally will grow up in a world without war. In a really HEARTWRENCHING close-up, Sally says, "Oh, mother, how I wish that were true!" with tears running out of her eyes and an expression that sends ME running for the Kleenex. Now she sees a later memory: Herself as a young girl of about, oh, say, 5, walking with Julayla. (By the way, this is the first time I have EVER seen Alicia or Julayla in my life.) They talk about whether the war will end, and to illustrate how the "Overlanders" think, Julayla points out a devil-cat of some kind pouncing on a birdie. That is how the Overlanders see the Mobians, she explains. As prey to stomp on and kill whenever they feel like.
This was interesting for me because I'd always wondered whether or not Mobius also had NON-intelligent animals, and now I've finally got it confirmed that they do.
Well, at this point Sally is starting to get a bit annoyed that all this "Source of All" is showing her is past visions, so her father shows up in a glowing rainbow of lights and sparkles to tell her that the Source of All is the sum total of everything that came before her, from the dawn of time. Sally wants to know why can't she just rely on her own experience and the advice of her family. King Maximillian explains that if she wants to be able to make the tough, ruthless decisions that he has been forced to make as a monarch, and make them RIGHT, she _has_ to bond with the Source of All. Sally then demands why he never told her about her brother?! (Good question!)
Elias then arrives in the flashback and explains that their father's only aim was to protect her, and that just because he had to make difficult decisions doesn't mean he doesn't LOVE them. (Sorry, I'm not buying it, I STILL don't like Max.) Then a truly bizzarre apparition shows up.
It's Sally's head, only filled with stars and planets and space and junk, like she's made out of the universe (good imagery, that. Weird-looking, but effective.) It says that since her father is one with the Source of All, he is fully aware of the consequences of each action he takes, and that he also basically has knowledge of the future. "Does that mean my father is ALWAYS right?!" demands Sally.
And the Source of All tells her, basically...yes.
But I STILL don't agree. I don't care if it's the wrong thing for the balance of karma in the universe, Sally CAN'T marry Antoine. She and Sonic belong together, and Antoine and Bunnie belong together! Not to mention I still think not Max's telling her about her brother was a boneheaded maneuver.
It then goes to a flash-FORWARD vision, showing the Drakh attacking Centauri Prime--I mean, Mobotropolis (I assume) being hit by fireballs. (This series gets VERY Babylon 5 at times. I'll bet you ANYthing Ken watched the series all the way through AND Crusade AND all five movies.) We then see Sonic and Sally, who look basically the same except for they both have crowns on (Sally is going along with the grand Sonic-universe-comic tradtition of "gorgeous middle-age", started with characters like Lara-Le, who hardly look older than their teenage daughters-in-law (to be).) I do like seeing a glimpse into the future, but it seems to me their outfits could have been done a LEETLE more imaginatively. Sonic should have had on a flowing robe and fancy shoes, not his ordinary socks, sneakers, and gloves, and Sally should have been wearing a beautiful medieval-style gown instead of just her ordinary vest and boots; long, flowing, braided and looped hair in an elaborate style would have also been a nice touch. Oh, well. Anyway, baddies of some kind (unnamed, unshown) are breaking down the door and Sonic tells Sally to get the kids and run. The two kids are ADORABLE but it bothers me that they each look like a total clone of one parent--a squirrel-girl who looks JUST like a miniature Sally and a hedgehog-boy who looks JUST like a miniature Sonic. How boring! Couldn't they have at least TRIED to make the kids look like a hybrid mix? Or at least give them different clothes, different hairstyles, SOMETHING? Just you wait until I get my "Princess Fleetaway" picture scanned...grumble grumble grumble...
Anyway, they get onto an escape pod that looks like a tiny Borg Sphere ship, and Sally hopes Sonic will be able to catch up with them. (Well, YEAH, this is SONIC we're talking about here...)
Then the creepy space-face comes back in and tells her that she has not "completed the cycle", and if she does, the vision she just saw would come to pass.
Sally then more or less says the polite Mobian equivalent of "Get the hell out of our galaxy!" and decides she DOESN'T need magical mystical wonder-forces telling her how to run her life, after all. (You GO, girl!) Unfortunately, this makes it so that she can never have the throne. I THINK. This is very confusing. Did I mention that this comic sometimes reminds me of Babylon 5?
Sally then steps out of the pool, dripping wet, and tells her brother that bonding with the Source of All may have been the right path for their ancestors, but it isn't the right path for HER. She'll have to find her own way (it doesn't matter now what happens, she will NEVER give up the fi-HIGHT! Oh, wait, that's Sonic's theme song...)
Now, it would be nice if by "finding her own way", she meant that she was going to be Queen ANYWAY _without_ bonding to the Source of All--and REALLY be independent and non-traditional. But she might also be saying that she is not going to be Queen at all, because she would HAVE to bond if she did so. I don't know. I do think it would be way past cooler if she got the throne and made her own decisions too. But since this is written by Ken Penders, who is evidently a fatalist/"consequences of your actions" type writer in the same vein as J. Michael Straczynski, she PROBABLY just gave up the throne.
Much as I would like to see her become Queen (and definitely marry Sonic and have two kids), I must say I THINK she made the right decision.
The ability to think for yourself, not just blindly follow authority, tradition, or religion (ooh, I'm gonna get flamed for that) is WAY more important--and valuable--a power than anything you could ever do with a crown.
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tourists have stopped by to read Princess Sally's solo story since October 8, 1999. Of course, they all were confused out of their skulls!