Sonic the Comic Issue 115


 * Editor: Deborah Tate
 * Designer: Gary Knight
 * Production: Sarah Colley
 * Marketing manager: Douglas Pocock

Sonic the Hedgehog - "Crisis in the Chemical Plant Zone, Part 2"

 * Script: Nigel Kitching
 * Art: Richard Elson
 * Lettering: Tom Frame

Synopsis
The Mega Mack Factory in the Chemical Plant Zone is about to explode! The resulting pollution would be disastrous to all the surrounding Zones, including the Emerald Hill Zone! Sonic and Tails and ventured into the factory in an attempt to prevent this, but have found themselves face-to-face with a room full of humanoid creatures actually made out of Mega Mack. One of these creatures says it wants revenge on Sonic, although Sonic claims he has never met the creature before. "Still don't remember me, eh? Perhaps you will be reminded by this..." And suddenly the creatures join together into a vast column of Mega Mack with a furious face and arms.

"Oh, I recognise you now, slimy... you're what's-his-name... Mr Tox!" The villain is not impressed: "Megatox! Megatox! You idiot!" Megatox reveals that since his last defeat at Sonic's hands he has spent years growing, increasing his strength. He is now charged with thousands of volts of electrical power, and soon he'll have enough energy to burst out of the factory into the Emerald River, where he'll surge into the Emerald Hill Zone with the force of a tidal wave and poison the rivers and land, killing the Zone and preventing anything from living there for a hundred years. But first he will destroy Sonic. Sonic is nonplussed: "You wouldn't believe the number of times I've heard that!"

Megatox quickly takes the upper hand. Before he was liquid, but now by using the power of electricity he can harden his body and strike with great force. But when Sonic attacks him in return, he reverts to liquid and Sonic's attacks pass right through him. Even worse, every time Sonic touches him, he is poisoned more by the Mega Mack - very soon, Sonic feels himself becoming really ill. Pretty soon, Sonic feels sick, his vision has gone blurry, and Megatox is moving in for the kill. He only has one chance. Half an instant before Megatox is about to strike, he launches a Spin Attack and hits Megatox in the face, causing him to revert completely to his inert liquid form. Tail doesn't understand, but Sonic explains he just had to hit him before he had a chance to turn liquid, and knocked him unconscious.

Later, the clean-up operation is well under way. Megatox has been safely neutralised and stored in a reinforced tank, and the Marxio Brothers oversee their workers cleaning up the last of the Mega Mack. Sonic accuses Grouchio of orchestrating the entire thing just to get Sonic, but he insists they'd never do that to Sonic. Tails wonders if they're telling the truth - after all, why would they set a trap that destroys their own factory. Chicio promises they're on the level and that they'll make the Chemical Plant Zone into a great success. Sonic is none too happy about it: "Okay, okay, so maybe you tried to kill me and maybe you didn't!" As he leaves, he mutters that it almost makes him miss Robotnik... at least when he was around, you knew who the bad guys were!

Appearances

 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Kintobor Computer
 * Marxio Brothers (Grouchio, Chicio, Harpio)
 * Mega Mack creatures
 * Receptionist

Continuity

 * Sonic comments that Tails always was "an expert at stating the flipping obvious!" He previously made this observation in Sonic the Comic #6, "Attack on the Death Egg".
 * Harpio Marxio is still playing with the yo-yo he was using in "Part 1" of this story, last issue.
 * Megatox last appeared in Sonic the Comic #10, "Megatox".
 * Sonic recalls the time when the Marxio Brothers tied him to the tracks of a roller coaster. This happened in "Casion Night" in Sonic the Comic #18 and #19.

Tails - "Weather Beaten"

 * Script: Lew Stringer
 * B&W art: Carl Flint
 * Art: John M Burns
 * Lettering: Ellie de'Ville

Synopsis
Tails visits a doctor complaining of pain in his tails, and is told that they have been sprained by too much flying and he has to rest them. Looking on the bright side, he says it's a nice day for a walk... only for the skies to suddenly open and rain start pouring down. He takes shelter in a hollow log with a young couple (a cat and a dog), who say the rain is the work of Windy Wallis, an evil genius who can control the weather. She has returned after being beaten by Sonic a few months earlier.

In an airship far above Mobius, Windy Wallis plans to subject the world to extreme temperature changes until it cracks, as revenge on the people of Mobius. She follows her storm with a sudden heatwave and Tails realises he needs to work fast. With his tails out of action, he goes for his bi-plane, only to find that it has been clamped. Just then, inventor Roger Bodge comes along with his new invention: a helicopter he built out of a toilet. Tails is dubious (and thinks Roger's name is familiar, but can't place it), but decides he has no choice and decides to use the helicoper anyway.

Tails flies up to the airship, but Wallis fires a volley of snowballs at him, completely destroying the 'copter. (Suddenly Tails remembers where he's heard of Bodge before: everything he builds falls apart!) Tails keeps hold of the helicopter's rotor blades, which keep spinning and keep him in the air, while the main body of the helicopter (with the toilet and the engine) crashes into the airship and destroys it. Wallis plummets towards the ground. Tails catches her, but the helicopter blades start to splinter. The pair are saved with a soft landing in one of Wallis' snow drifts. Tails' doctor turns up to congratulate the fox on saving the day without his tails.

Appearances

 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Windy Wallis
 * Roger Bodge
 * Owl doctor
 * Cat girl
 * Dog boy
 * Ape reading newspaper

Continuity

 * Windy Wallis last appeared in Sonic the Comic #102, "Unnatural Disasters". She next appears in Sonic the Comic #127, "Fog Warning".
 * Roger Bodge last appeared in Sonic the Comic #103, "DIY Danger".

Decap Attack - "Chuck and the Cheese Factory, Part 2"

 * Script: Nigel Kitching & Richard Raynor
 * Art: Nigel Kitching
 * Lettering: Elitta Fell

In the Slurp-A-Cheese factory, the Slurp-A-Kins workers have sabotaged the production line, vowing an end to runny cheese and the rise of hard cheese. The factory owner, George Curdle, works hard to lower the pressure in the cheese vats before they explode, but no sooner has he declared his cheese is now safe than the vats rupture. "By thump!" he says. "I was right wrong there!" Covered in runny cheese, he turns on the Slurp-A-Kins for their betrayal, only for them to reply that they only work in the factory because they have no sense of smell.

Chuck decides he has to take matters into his own hands to save the factory, and despite Head's claim that he actually likes hard cheese, Chuck wades into battle against the Slurp-A-Kins. However, Curdle insists there's no need for fighting. He offers to start a new hard cheese line: Slab-A-Cheese, 'stuff so hard you can build a block of flats with it!' Chuck is dismayed and forced to concede that Head was right all along. George Curdle is a nutter.

As they leave, Head tries to cheer up Chuck with all the other novelty foods he can try, like chocolate-covered kippers, spicy dip-and-lick chaffinch, and even the glow-in-the-dark comedy rice range! A miserable Chuck tells him to shut up.

Trivia

 * This story is a parody of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The Slurp-A-Kins in particular are parodies of the Oompa-Loompas.

Sonic's World: Amy & Tekno - "Earthbound, Part 2"

 * Script: Lew Stringer
 * B & W Art: Bob Corona
 * Colour: John M Burns
 * Lettering: Tom Frame

Synopsis
Amy and Tekno have been captured on Earth by Operation Starwatch, a secret military group created to locate UFOs, and locked up in Starwatch's underground base. The operation's commanding officer, Colonel Granite, interrogates the two girls, accusing them of trying to contact an "invasion force of googly-eyed, six-tentacled aliens", thus exposing his own paranoia and leading Amy to question his sanity.

Granite then goes to a different room to interrogate Professor Cratermass, a human that the girls had befriended after landing. He claims that Cratermass was part of a plot to take over the world with the two aliens, but Cratermass insists he was just trying to help them get home to their planet and that they are good aliens. Granite is not convinced.

Back in the other holding cell, Amy and Tekno get bored of waiting. Tekno reveals that she created her explosive earrings for such a situation, and uses her left earring to explode the door off the cell. They quickly get past the guards and rescue Professor Cratermass, run away from Colonel Granite and head towards the hangar, where Operation Starwatch has been keeping their spaceship. As it is a two-seater spaceship, Cratermass is forced to hold on to the outside as they fly back to his house. With Tekno and Cratermass working together, they plan to finish the work on Cratermass' "gateway to infra-space" which will allow them to teleport back to Mobius.

With thanks to the Professor, the two Mobians dive through the portal and reappear on Mobius. Moments later, Colonel Granite once again bursts into the room. He wants to follow Amy and Tekno through the gateway and recapture them, only to find out that Cratermass had deleted the program, and it is impossible to access again without Tekno's input. Granite is furious.

Some time later, on Mobius, Johnny Lightfoot asks what Earth was like. Amy replies: "Let's just say it was okay for a day trip, but I wouldn't have wanted to stay any longer!"

Appearances

 * Amy Rose
 * Tekno the Canary
 * Professor Cratermass
 * Colonel Granite
 * Operation Starwatch operatives
 * Johnny Lightfoot

Continuity

 * Amy and Tekno finally return home to Mobius, having been transported into deep space in Sonic the Comic #111, "Spaced Out, Part 1". They reappear just where they left - in Tekno's workshop, right next to Johnny Lightfoot.
 * Professor Cratermass' "gateway to infraspace" was introduced last issue, "Earthbound, Part 1".
 * Amy and Tekno next encounter Colonel Granite in Sonic the Comic #140, "Out of Time, Part 1".

Trivia

 * Professor Cratermass is named after the character Professor Bernard Quatermass, a British science fiction TV character created by Nigel Kneale. Quatermass first appeared in the TV serial The Quatermass Experiment, and occasionally in other serials thereafter, in which he would deal with alien invasions and corruption in the British military.

Other features

 * Control Zone
 * STC Pin-up! - High-Flying Sonic & Tails. Black and White art by Richard Elson, colouring by Nigel Dobbyn. (From Sonic the Comic #113, "The Detour".)
 * Speedlines
 * Metal Gurus (Graphic Zone)