Knuckles the Echidna Volume 17:
"Deep Cover, Part One of Two: The Guardian Who FAILED!"
Reviewed by Chaos Theory T. Echidna.
October 10, 1999.
Okay, break's over. With this issue and the next one, we plunge back into the melodramatic shadow-play that IS the Guardian Family with a vengeance. This two-parter reveals a good bit about Knuckles' family and our hero himself, while also containing a lot of action to keep you fight-fans happy. Let's go right ahead, shall we?
First, let's start off with the cover. This cover was done by no fewer than FIVE PEOPLE (or groups; I'm not quite sure exactly who or WHAT "Heroic Age" is) but it still manages to be decent. In the upper left-hand corner, (left-paw?) we have a ghostly image of Knuckles himself looking down at the proceedings. This is because, as you will learn later, he could not possibly have been there when the scene below was taking place; since it happened way before he was born. (They LIKE doing ghostly images to symbolise things--just go look at the cover of #13 and get back to me. If you don't HAVE #13, go get it while you still can! And numbers 14 and 15, too, 'cos they're a trilogy.) Anyway, we have some kind of weird metal arms/claws sticking into a wooden wall, what looks like a crashed shuttlecraft, a fire/explosion, and the centrepiece is two echidnas, one chasing the other. One of them is partially bionic and is wearing a shirt with a flame on it; the other is wearing body-armour, a hat JUST like the one Knuckles has in the anime (hmm) and has lightning-bolts on his gloves. Fire, lightning--are these guys turning into Elementals or something? Anyway, to find out what that's all about, we'll just have to read the actual story, won't we?
"Born to the Strangest of Echidna Houses"...yada yada yada okay, the intro page basically says that the other Guardians at Haven know something--something DIRE and BIG and MONUMENTAL!!! about Knuckles that not even he knows..."yet". And tells us that there are still other pieces to the puzzle of his history yet to be unlocked. One of those pieces is on the surface of Mobius proper right now, so let's go there.
A mysterious figure--all we can tell about it in silhouette is that it is an echidna--emerges from the canopy of a forest (the Great Forest? Doesn't say) and looks up to behold the Floating Island. This totally freaks the figure out, who wonders, "COULD IT BE?" Well, YEAH, I mean, as far as I know, there's only ONE hunk 'o real-estate hanging above the surface of the planet! Anyway, he then LEAPS INTO THE AIR to test his theory and just FLIES there! Under his own power! Wait a minute...I thought these guys could only glide...
With amazement, he realises that he IS on the Floating Island now and we get our first good look at the figure--a male brown echidna of at least middle-age if not older, wearing ragged, beat-up green clothing reminiscent of something the Lost Tribe might wear. He also has funky yellow eyes with plus-sign shaped pupils, which I guess is supposed to tell us that they are bionic implants and not real. (As we'll find out later.) Then he hears footsteps--no, HOOFsteps (make up your mind!) and some very strange animal called a "Streaking Pasha" comes into view with--OH, NO!! A DARK LEGIONNAIRE!--on its back.
Who happens to be only Julie-Su.
Unfortunately for her, this nutcase doesn't quite seem to realise that she's a good guy and only looks like that still 'cos she CAN'T remove the implants (as far as I know) so he then proceeds to attack her. Can we say, "shell-shocked", boys and girls? I knew you could. This guy is quite obviously suffering from mental trauma as a result of battles with the Dark Legion from earlier in his life, 'cos he just goes BESERK the instant he sees her implants. While Julie-Su apologises for almost running him over and very nicely offers to help, he thinks about how "fate couldn't possibly be so cruel to me!"--that right after he FINALLY gets back to the Island, he meets up with his worst enemies again! Then he decides that maybe this is Fate's way of giving him one last chance for revenge!
"Is something wrong?" Julie-Su asks, still totally confused. He says nothing, just knocks her off her horse/lizard/dragon/bird (the Pasha is BIZZARRE looking) and yells, "Why don't you do us all a favour and be gone from our sight, YOU BIONIC PIECE OF SLIME!" as he clonks her over the head with both fists. Of course, our dear Julie-girl can fight BACK, so she causes his fists to hit the ground instead and and knocks him over, yelling, "Get off of me! I didn't do anything to you!" Dang right. I mean, the daughters can hardly be expected to pay for the sins of their mothers...
He calls her a "lying wench!" and slams her down on the ground, with his hand around her throat, saying he's going to "make her pay!" for what "she" did to him. I think this guy has got the idea of "individuals" and "groups" not quite figured out--just because the Dark Legion in general beat him up doesn't mean SHE specifically did anything to him--this person whom he's never seen before in his life...
Julie-Su tells him, through a clenched throat, "Then...just...do...it!" Fortunately for her, the mystery dude is then distracted by a page of ads and we switch scenes.
Meanwhile, in a completely different story far away, we meet up with Knuckles meditating (he's got his legs crossed Indian-style--NOT the Lotus position; if he was doing that his feet would be ABOVE his legs, not below) and going, "Awwwwwwww.....Hmmmmmmmmmmmm..."
Archimedes BAMFs onto his arm and first compliments him on the fact that he's finally meditating like he told him to, but on the other hand (and he's got four of 'em!) this isn't QUITE what he had in mind! Fer shur--the dude's sitting on the very, very, tippy-top of what appears to be the echidna equivalent of the Empire State Building with HIS EYES CLOSED!! I don't care if you CAN fly, that just seems insane to me. The panel where they show exactly where Knuckles is makes me get vertigo just lookin' at it. Knuckles then tells "Archy" that it's not as if he hasn't missed him, but a lot of stuff has happened lately and he's not ready to talk about it just yet. Then he jumps off the building, his dreadlocks flowing in the wind. "Stronger than a locomotive--faster than a speeding bullet--able to leap tall buildings in a single bound--it's SUPER-ECHIDNA!!" Dah-da-DAHHHH...(insert dramatic John Williams score here...)
Then we get some strange shots of the cityscape as Knuckles zooms down WITH HIS EYES CLOSED (and thank the gods, we'll find out why in just a moment) including a bizzarre building with a gigantic smiley-face that says "Mr. Happy" and a crowd of people, one of whom is also on a streaking Pasha. Then he lands in the middle of the totally amazed crowd, and explains, as he opens his eyes--and his hand--that something called a "Star Gem" that was given to him by someone named "Yanar" (from the #10-12 story arc, I assume, AGAIN) enabled him to just visualise his flight path. And that ALSO, finally, explains how he got from Albion to Lara-Le's living room.
Then we cut back to the Voyeurs R Us club as they are watching Knuckles and a bit worried about the fact that he's on the verge of discovering the Star Gem's secrets. (Geez, isn't he allowed to KNOW anything without these dudes being freaked out?) and they continue to watch as Julie-Su comes riding up--with another passenger on the back of her Pasha. Yes, Old Yellow-Eyes is back. Wow, those must've been SOME ads, to calm him down like that...Then the picture goes out. (HA-HA! Serves these old losers right. I'm sorry, but I just DON'T like these guys, or Haven.) Actually, not just the picture, but the power for the entire complex! Worried, they send Tobor and Sojourner to go and check on Grandfather Hawking, who is evidently on life-support, but his machinery seems to have its own backup system so it's fine. Then they mention another "patient"--this one in cryogenic stasis unit--and it's a FEMALE (in Haven? Hardly ever happens. Not that I'm bitter or anything) but they never mentioned who she was, in this issue OR #18, which bugged the life out of me. Mainly because I have a feeling this is ANOTHER thing I'm supposed to know already, instead of something that WILL be revealed later. Anyway, she seems to be fine, and Tobor makes some comment about how he's never believed in aligning himself with an outsider's cause. Sojourner says he agrees, but the Brotherhood rules by consensus as a group, and they leave for...somewhere...and we cut back to Knuckles and Julie-Su.
They are having a nice little luncheon at a quaint outdoor café with the brown dude, who tells them his name is...TOBOR?!
Wait...didn't we just barely see him up in Haven? Yes, we did! And no, he didn't teleport! Keep reading...
He tells them that he is--or used to be--a Guardian of the Floating Island. Knuckles doesn't believe him, so to shut him up, Tobor rips his shirt open and shows him the white ring-marking on his fur. (Ya know, he COULD have painted it there or dyed it, or...never mind.) Finally, Knuckles agrees to listen to his story. ("I'm all ears," which is funny considering that echidnas don't HAVE visible ears...)
Doing that same weird flashback-profile pose that Remington, Lara-Le, and Charmy have all done recently and that Manny Galan seems to love so much, Tobor launches into his sad tale. When Tobor was about 20, his father, Hawking--now looking quite young and healthy--and wearing THAT HAT, tells him that he is ready to become a Guardian now. Tobor, I mean. His mother and a cute little teenage girl echidna named "Voni-Ca" are both very proud. Now, I originally assumed that Voni-Ca was Tobor's SISTER, but in #18 he says she was his wife. Ooookkkaaaay...so, is the little kid echidna their SON--which would mean they got married VERY young--or Tobor's little brother, the way I originally assumed? I'm confused. But then again, what else is new?
Then he says something that shocked Tobor--he is leaving for the Floating Island. Why? Well, it was "destroyed" by the dingoes (whoah!) in issue #6, which I also don't have (I'm workin' on it, I'm workin' on it...) and Hawking wants to make sure that it is all restored, and also get Echidnaopolis back out of its pocket zone, no matter what, before he dies. Tobor will now have to be "the man of the house" and he puts the hat on HIS head. And after bidding fond farewell to his lovely wife Sonja-Ra and the kids, he flies off.
This confused me for a bit, until I remembered that for a while there, the Floating Island and Echidnaopolis were two different places--they are currently IN Echidnaopolis, IN the pocket-zone, and the Floating Island is deserted. And evidently the Guardians can just go through the barrier between Zones whenever they feel like. I guess.
At any rate, the rather full-of-himself young Tobor goes struttin' around the city like the cock of the walk, until a rift in "the dimensional barrier" opens up and out pours--THE DARK LEGION!
Led by a guy named Moritori Rex, who, despite the different colours of his clothes, looks a lot like the guy on the cover who was chasing the dude with the hat. I guess the two of them must be Rex and Tobor, then. (Although the flame on his shirt has now become an "M".) He yells out to the citizens of Echidnaopolis to "reclaim their birthright!" Embrace technology!
Of course, Tobor yells out "NO!!" and they begin "the mother of all battles--with neither side asking--nor giving--any quarter." Basically they pummel each other in 3D sensurround for about two pages, until Moritori Rex, realising that he's losing, pulls out his D-hopper (dimension-barrier-breaking device. "D-hopper" is the name of it from the Myth books by Robert Asprin, in case you're wondering. It just seemed to fit here.) and BAMFs them into "oblivion!"
Which turns out to be somewhere in the Floating Island--with ruins collapsing all over the place, (HEY, Marble Gardens! Neato! Looks kinda like it, anyway...) and they are both injured badly. But Tobor gets the worst of it, as he is buried underneath some pillars.
Then tragedy strikes--Tobor, after laying there in the dark and despair and pain for the gods know how long, hears his father's voice calling out. (Remember, his dad went to the Island earlier.) But he realises to his horror that his father sees the broken body of MORITORI REX laying there, and thinks HE is his son, and picks him up, never knowing that his real son is buried alive just a few feet away! Ack! Oh, this part got to me. If something like that actually happened to ME it would break my heart--and haunt me for all eternity. And from his entrapment, all Tobor could do was watch...and cry...oh, geez...
Only ONE little quibble with this--sure, it's a great scene and very dramatic writing, and for once it made me actually CARE about an old fart Guardian (and that's saying something, with me) but...Moritori Rex has metallic implants around the edges of his eyes. They make him immediately look Dark Legion. Didn't Hawking SEE them? At any rate, poor Tobor took another entire day to dig his way out and by the time he did so, they were both long gone.
He is also beset by shame overwhelming at this time, because it was the first crisis he had ever faced as Guardian--and he had FAILED! (And we have title, ladies and gentlebeings!) So then he "wandered aimlessly, for what seemed like decades", unable to face anybody, until he discovered the Floating Island. WAIT a minute, I thought he was ON the Floating Island when he got buried underneath all the rubble! HEY! CONTINUITY GLITCH! Okay, so maybe he flew down from it, and then wandered around, but in that case, it seems to me that if he was already there once, he wouldn't have to "discover" the Floating Island. And come ON, it's HUGE, and it doesn't have a cloaking device around it! I imagine ANYone can see it from the ground if they're on the right hemisphere of the planet!
Then Tobor ends his story by saying how he thought he wanted vengeance--but it turns out that now, all he REALLY wants is his life and family back! With tears in his eyes, no less. Oh, geeez...sniff...
Julie-Su and Knuckles look at each other, and Knuckles stands up and embraces Tobor. And he's officially part of the family again.
But what about that OTHER Tobor, whom we now know is Moritori Rex? Well, it just so happens that at this point, we cut back to Haven, where they are STARTING to figure things out...
Locke has found some weird little metal doogie which caused ALLL their problems. Hmmmn. Sounds WAY too precise to be a random, accidental systems glitch. Not to mention, it was the ONLY one they had, and now they'll have to make a new one from scratch. Which means that Haven's systems will be down for quite some time. Could it be...SABOTAGE?! They haven't figured that out YET, but if they have any brains at all, they soon will.
For the last two pages of the comic, we then cut back AGAIN to Knuckles, who has decided that for some reason he now has to go interrogate Kragok, who was put in jail in yet ANOTHER issue I haven't read. Remington and an EST lowerling called "Murphy" accompany him to Kragok's cell, where Knuckles orders them to "lock him in" and leave them alone. We leave you with Kragok sneering and mocking at Knuckles' abilities to make him talk, and it is...
TO BE CONTINUED!
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tourists have stopped by to read Chaos Theory's review of Knuckles #17 since October 10, 1999. Of course, they all got beat to a bloody pulp and were replaced by impersonators from the Dark Legion, but hey...