Knuckles the Echidna: Volume 16
"Reunions"
Reviewed by Chaos Theory T. Echidna.
October 9, 1999
After we finish "Picking up the Pieces", we slide back into the daily routine (not) of the Knuckles storyline with a nice light, refreshing little single-issue story, served up freshly-squeezed, with just a dash of lime. This is kinda rare for Knuckles, which is should be known as "The Trilogy Comic" if you ask me. But don't knock it when it happens--for once, you TOO, ladies and gentlebeings, can actually UNDERSTAND a Knuckles story after buying only ONE ISSUE! Whoo-hoo!
Many people don't like this kind of story, because it is too "boring". These people are called "males". NO, just kidding, but seriously, many fans hate the quiet little character-development and relationship stories. But as for ME, it's what I LIVE for. If Knuckles didn't have these things, I would never have gotten interested in it, and I wouldn't be so angry that it had been cancelled now. Some people say that the recent-ish "First Date Trilogy" was a sign of the coming apocalypse for this comic series; I say it was a sign of how GOOD the comics had gotten just before they pulled the plug. I suppose it was inevitable. INTELLIGENT series never live long. To quote Fox Trot, "Truly, people with brain cells are an opressed minority."
Okay, enough of that, onto the comic itself. The cover, which I can't find a credit for, but I'm guessing Galan himself did it (it can't be Spaz; Julie-Su has non-solid eyes) is truly a freakazoid piece of weirdness. Translation: Knuckles is floating randomly among a lot of disembodied heads, and the entire cover except for Knuckles himself and the title words are in shades of blues, greys, and silvers.
Among the "Floating Heads" (playing their hit song, "Burning Down the Palace!" Ah...wait...) I can recognise Locke, Lara-Le, Mighty, Archimedes, I believe that fire-ant with the beret is Deo Volente but don't quote me on that, Spectre? Sabre? Ya know, that creepy-lookin' Guardian dude with the things...you know...and the stuff?--Espio, and Julie-Su. It gives you the overall impression that poor Knuxie feels like he can't quite get a grip on his own identity; he is floating in a limbo where the advice of EVERYONE else pounds in on him and he no longer knows which way to turn. Very effective...
Intro page: "Born to the most Bizzarre of Echidna Houses..." yada yada yada. Basically it sums up what happened in the last trilogy (for those of you who missed it, BACK-ORDER IT NOW!)--Locke and Sabre got freaked out when they saw Knuckles beat up a gang of biker bears and create a wormhole with his mind, and the Chaotix said goodbye to Charmy Bee. Awww. Nice to see him at least MENTIONED...
Then it tells us that Lara-Le is gettin' funky with her bad self (kidding) in some place called the "Aurorium", which I take it is supposed to be the echidnas' church but as far as I can tell, the name means "Auditorium of Light." Or Gold. (Aurum=chemical symbol name for the element gold.) Anyway, it lives up to BOTH meanings quite well, as we see on the first actual panel, where light is streaming in through some gorgeous plate-glass windows and there's a waterfall and plants and everything. Gee, wish the churches where I live were that pretty...
Lara-Le appears to be very upset by something--in fact, she's on the verge of crying, just about--but then opens her eyes and is just happy, and goes walking back to her apartment at "Echidna Towers". There is no dialogue on this entire page, but it doesn't need any. But just one comment--MUST they name EVERYTHING after their SPECIES? Echidnaopolis. Echidna Security Team. Echidna Towers. ARGH! This is almost bad as the Mainlanders' "Great" trend... (The "Mainlanders" are what I call the people who come from/live on Mobius proper.)
Then we have a really cool two-page spread of Lara-Le finding Knuckles in her apartment (HEY, isn't that breaking and entering? Since she wasn't home at the time and all?) and is so startled, her eyes turn anime for a bit. (Well, actually, they were always like that.) I must say here...I LOVE Lara-Le's super-dooper-long-funky hair. AND her green eyes. If I could look that good by the time I have a teenage kid...
Oh, yeah, and I like her apartment. The round window is just TRES cool, and the futuristic cityscape outside is worthy of the best old-time science-fiction. Other interesting details are what looks like a miniature Easter Island statue on the floor and a SCYTHE on the wall. Don't ask. At any rate, I like the fact that there ARE details at all...details always make a living space in fiction seem more real and, well, LIVED-in.
So Lara hugs Knuckles, whose expression does the typical teenage boy thing of "Eeeww! Hugging! Emotion! ICK! Mooooooom, stoop iiiiitttt, the guys are gonna laugh at meeeeee!" and Wynmacher walks in.
This guy has...BIZZARRE fashion sense. But you really can't argue with a dude who drinks MILK out of a CHAMPAGNE glass. Lara-Le seems a bit confused/upset over the fact that Wyn knows Knuckles came back before she did, but maybe, just maybe, ya think it might have been because WYN WAS IN THE HOUSE BEFORE LARA WAS?! (Yo...MC Wynmacher is IN DA HOUSE! Uh, no.) He then says he's going to finish cooking dinner--yes, you read that right--WHOO-HOO! Yeah! Feminists rejoice! A house where the woman sits on her butt and the MAN does all the housework! All RIGHT! Now, let's think this over real carefully--a snooty tyrant who won't even let you have a say in raising your own son, or a sensitive New Age Guy who cooks GOURMET meals for you? Tough choice. NOT!
Ahem, where was I? Oh, yes, Wynmacher goes off to finish cooking the dinner and Lara-Le looks at Knuckles with a really bug-eyed stare (which is normal for her) and Knuckles is worried that she's going to ask something. Yep, she asked it--she wants to know how he got back from wherever he went with Athair. In the trilogy I have yet to read.
We then switch scenes, and "switch to stealth mode", as some ship approaches the Floating Island, and goes through a wall of rock to reach Haven. At least this scene helped me out with SOMEthing--I'd been wondering where "Haven" was for some time now. In the air, invisible? In another dimension? In a Zone? No, just underground on the Island itself, looks like.
Then we get a lot of confusing dialogue between the various Old Farts--I mean, Guardians--in which I have almost DESPAIRED of ever learning exactly who's related to whom and why. They say they're going to "discuss and decide" about Knuckles' new powers. HELLO, they're HIS powers! Doesn't he have a say?
Back to Lara and Knux, and the former is understandably confused about how exactly Knuckles got back (and into her living room). Knuckles says HE doesn't know either, but he was hoping Lara could tell HIM! At this, Lara looks rather ashamed and goes into a flashback.
Now, as for the sideways pose of her on page 8, I must say it's EXACTLY the same pose and style as when Charmy started to remember about he and Mello visiting Happyland Amusement Park. I'm good at spotting things like that. I think Remington went into that pose at one point, too. ANYway, Lara explains that something weird happened between his "birth" (when she laid the egg) and his hatching--but only Locke knows about it for sure. In the flashback, younger Lara asks from her hospital bed why she can't see Knuckles, and Locke tells her he is having some "tests" run on him. Why does that sound sinister...? Oh, yeah, because it IS! Glad I got that straightened out. For some odd reason, the "tests" caused Knuckles to be "born" in a third of the time it should have taken, and Locke gives Lara a rather sweet but obvious compliment. Too bad he couldn't have acted like that more of the time...Lara then puts the "tests" out of her mind and assumes young Knux is fine--until she finds him spelling out "SEGA SATURN" with blocks! Oh, NO! He has magical mystical powers that tell him about video game systems on a planet in another dimension! How HORRIBLE! Heee hee hee. (Of course, it's only the blocks facing the READER that say Sega Saturn; who knows what they say on Lara-Le's side. Probably something like "CHAOS WONDER BOY.") She then says Knuckles was...different. (Ya think?) How? Well, he was spelling words way too advanced for his age--words she has trouble with sometimes! (Sounds like me correcting my mothers' spelling when I was seven years old. NO, I'm not kidding. And she STILL asks me for advice on spelling today.) At age THREE, Locke had cute little toddler-Knuckles studying out of books and writing, at a desk with big piles of texts. The understandably angry Lara-Le yells at Locke (in the flashback), "Don't you think I should have some say, Locke? He's MY SON as well!" YEAH! You GO girl! Locke explains that this is how he was brought up, and his ancestors before him. Ancestors, schmancestors...So, feeling confused (and angry as all hell) Lara goes running to Locke's mother and Knuckles' grandmother, Jenna-Lu. Jenna-Lu is ANOTHER generation older than Lara-Le, and she is STILL, barring a few wrinkles, a total babe! What are these guys TAKING and where can I get some? (I like her Robin-Hood-esque outfit, too.) Jenna tells her that Lara's "problem" is that she expects to have an EQUAL say in how Knuckles is raised.
SINCE WHEN IS THAT A PROBLEM?!!!
Sorry, just had to get that out of my system. This whole Guardians thing BUGS me. I swear to the Great Maker, if Knuckles walks off into a wall of fire when Lara-Su is nine years old, I'll...I'lll....I don't know what I'll do but it WON'T BE PLEASANT! Anyway, back to the story...
Since Guardians are always raised that way, Jenna has/had no problem with it, and is still with "her darling Sabre!" Either she's more old-fashioned than Lara, or she's a doormat; I fully support Lara's decision to dump the chump. Lara tells Knuckles she TRIED to take her advice, but she just couldn't. Meanwhile, Wyn-baby is listening to all this from the kitchen while chopping onions and wearing an apron that actually SAYS, "Kiss the Cook." Like I said...nice guy, but would somebody PLEASE get him some fashion tips...?
Back to the confusing Family Feud, the Guardians are going on about older Sonic issues and something called the "Dragon Kingdom" (waaaaaiiiiitttt...I thought Dulcy was the only one? Where'd a whole KINGDOM come from?) when Tobor tells them all to shut up about the comic plugs and get on with business. Namely, deciding exactly what one of the MANY problems they have now, instead of just one, ever since Robotnik was defeated, they should deal with, and also whether they should even BOTHER. See, now they have lots of LITTLE villians or "brush fires" to put out, instead of just one big centralised threat. It's more confusing and harder to figure out--BUT, like all brush fires, if you let them go too long, they BECOME large threats. So...
If you ask me, getting rid of Robotnik was the best thing that ever happened to these comics. And yes, I AM aware of the fact that I am against most fans' opinions on this. For one thing, I never liked Robotnik as a villian--I always say him more as the incompetent goofball from the games and AoSTH. Whenever I heard about the deadly-serious creepy scary Robotnik from SatAM and these comics, with his robotic arm and all that, I was like, "THIS is the SAME GUY? Oh, no way." 'Cos it's just WRONG. So that's one reason I'm glad he left us for a while--wish it had been longer. For another thing, it's just as much fun and just as good as when The Computer went down in Paranoia (a role-playing game). After that happened, everything fragmented and broke apart and became silly and colourful and CHAOTIC. Independent radio stations sprang up. Citizens wore weird funky colours. Secret socities opened up chili-dog stands to make extra money on the side. Hot, X-Rated Robot Revue nightclubs and old-fashioned D&D- taverns. Citizens went on daring night-time raids into enemy territories to steal their valuable supplies--for once The Computer broke down, it was no longer telling the Complex's machinery to keep making food. Life went from being silly and short because the authority was so strict to being harsh and lean because there was NO authority. And all kinds of GREAT conflicting and shifting alliances sprung up on all sides. I LOVE that kinda stuff! The game itself went from the original version--humour based off the fact that everyone is living in a dark parody version of 1984, with everything TOTALLY controlled at all times (except for when it isn't) to a more campaign-based, rather than single-adventure, role-playing game with deeper characters and more complex goals. I never got to actually play it that way, 'cos my gaming group wanted to stay in the original Phase One where The Computer was in control. They didn't want to try new things. Sure, the original IS fun, but Post-Crash Alpha fascinates me. When you have just ONE monolithic force of evil against the good guys, things are much simpler and black-and-white. But when there are lots of different groups all over the place, and NONE of them is all good, all evil, or easy to figure out at all, it's "shades of grey" and it's MUCH more interesting.
And, just as the Reboot wasn't anywhere near as much fun, neither is Robo-Robotnik. But I digress. Then the Fire-Ants show up on the viewscreen and basically chew the echidnas out--"outside concerns" ARE their concerns, and if they don't stop sittin' around on their worthless old tails, they're gonna be in deep pootertoots!
Back to the happy little domestic scene, Wyn-baby brings ou the dinner on a silver tray with a dome over it, (this guy is just CLASSIC in everything he does...) and it turns out to be...some kind of weird...orange...thing. I woulda guessed it was something along the lines of orange "ambrosia"--you know, that Jell-O fluff stuff you have at picnics sometime--if it wasn't for that earlier mention of onions. As it is, I don't even want to KNOW...
Knuckles eats a couple of bites and complains about how his mother is living beyond her means (helLO, it's her life!) and Lara says, no, she doesn't usually eat this fancy, but today is special--she and Wynmacher JUST GOT ENGAGED!!
With this pronouncement, Knuckles runs out of the room with a look on his face as if he's about to toss his canard ala exquisite (the stuff Wyn was cooking.) Lara wants to go after him but Wyn-baby wisely cautions her to leave him be to work out his thoughts and feelings for himself.
(Knuckles: "Go away. I want to be alone with my thought.")
Been wantin' ta do that Simpsons gag for some time now...
A voice from behind him turns out to be a member of what's left of the Chaotix (in this case, Mighty) and they all want to go after him, but Julie-Su says SHE should, and tells the others to stay put or she'll put it FOR them! Wait...did that make any sense? Anyway, she and Vector ALMOST get into ANOTHER fight and she runs off. Espio then tells Vector that when a woman has a look in her eyes like THAT, you should just stay the heck out of her way...and we cut back to the Family Feud.
For some reason, the Guardians all think Knuckles is a bigger problem than the entire outside world, and Spectre especially, is really freaked out about it. So that convinces the others that they should be freaked too. And they're going to do...something...about it. Of some kind.
Cut back to Knuckles, who is "sittin' on the dock of the bay" (yes I KNOW Dan Drazen said that in _his_ review too, but what else CAN you say to this picture?) and Julie-Su shows up, asking if he wants some company. He says no so of course she sits right down next to him. Then they argue, until Julie shuts him up by...KISSING him?!
Don't get excited, it's only a quick little peck on the cheek. Still...
Julie then explains that she was just trying to cheer him up the way that he tried to cheer HER up once in an earlier issue, and we end with the two of them sitting together in a LOVELY moonlight harbor shot, from the back, both thinking with all their might and main about how they did NOT like that kiss. No sir. Not a bit. Uh-uh. Never.
Well, maybe just a little......
And with that, dear Sonic fans, we leave you. Tune in next time when we'll have a review of Knuckles #17, the first part of a two-parter. So long, and stay way past cool!
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tourists have stopped by to read this review since October 9, 1999. Of course, they were all killed by Wynmacher's cooking.
(Wynmacher: HEY!)