Sonic the Comic Issue 129


 * Editor: Deborah Tate
 * Designer: Gary Knight
 * Managing Editor: Steve MacManus
 * Production: Sarah Colley
 * Marketing Manager: Douglas Pocock
 * Managing Director: Julie Goldsmith

Sonic - "Robotnik Reigns Supreme, Part 3"

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

Synopsis
Doctor Robotnik has gained supreme powers and changed history so that Sonic never existed. Having brought Sonic to this ghastly world, the tyrant gloats that he's already won, but Sonic refuses to give in. Sonic says there's always a way, no matter how hopeless things seem. Robotnik decides to show Sonic how wrong he is.

The world shifts, and suddenly Sonic is decrepit and old, with a long grey beard, faded spines and a walking stick. Feeling strange, but unaware of what has happened, Sonic sees Robotnik and, believing the dictator has turned back to his normal self, tries to catch him off guard. However, before he can get up any speed he wobbles on his legs and loses his breath - he can't run anymore. Robotnik explains that Sonic has been suffering from arthritis for years, and shows the hedgehog how old he has become. In order to demonstrate that Sonic will never win, he has brought Sonic 65 years into the future, where Robotnik is still in charge and the miserable citizens are forced to celebrate Robotnik Day - the 70th anniversary of Robotnik's dictatorship. Robotnik reveals that Sonic is not going to win - he'll fight Robotnik for sixty-five years and it will all be for nothing.

Suddenly, Sonic feels young again. "Of course!" replies Robotnik. He has returned them to the present so that he doesn't miss out on the sixty-five years of Sonic's humiliation. Sonic refuses to accept this, and leaps at Robotnik, who decides to have a little fun. Sonic passes straight through Robotnik, and suddenly rips through the scenery at the back of a stage, where an actor in a full-body Robotnik costume calls him "the worst Sonic we've ever had in this show." Sonic says he's not an actor, and an audience made up entirely of booing Robotniks agree. Suddenly reality shifts again and again: Sonic-Peter Pan fights Robotnik-Captain Hook; Robotnik-Wile E. Coyote chases Sonic-Roadrunner; Sonic addresses an angry House of Commons from a podium; Sonic-guppy swims away from a massive Robotnik-fish with many teeth; then Sonic-vampire hunter wards off Robotnik-Dracula with a cross. Throughout it all, Sonic doesn't lose his nerve - no matter how powerful Robotnik is or how he changes reality, Sonic will never give up!

Returned to normal, Robotnik makes Sonic an offer: if he surrenders, Sonic can have it easy and become Robotnik's personal slave. The hedgehog laughs it off, knowing he'll win eventually. Without his powers, Sonic could defeat Robotnik in seconds, especially since in the past, Robotnik and other foes haven't even slowed him down. Realising that Sonic yearns for the "good old days" and thinks that he could beat any of his old enemies easily, Robotnik decides to conjure one of them up. He gestures to a pile of scrap metal, which floats of the ground and suddenly turns into one of Sonic's deadliest foes: Metallix!

Appearances

 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Doctor Ivo Robotnik
 * Robotnik Day crowds:
 * Dogs
 * Walrus
 * Rabbit
 * Pigs
 * Panda
 * Vole
 * Bears
 * Others
 * Metallix

Continuity

 * Robotnik absorbed the power of the Chaos Emeralds in Sonic the Comic #125, "Order & Chaos, Part 3", and became all-powerful in Sonic the Comic #127, "Robotnik Reigns Supreme, Part 1". He will be stripped of his godlike powers in Sonic the Comic #130, "Showdown".
 * Robotnik rewrote history so that Sonic never existed in Sonic the Comic #128, "Robotnik Reigns Supreme, Part 2". Reality will be restored in Sonic the Comic #130, "Showdown".
 * 65 years into the future, Robotnik celebrates 70 years of his dictatorship, indicating that he had been in power for 5 years before the present. The following issue, Sonic the Comic #130, was Sonic the Comic ' s fifth anniversary issue.

Tails - "Clear as Mud"

 * Script: Lew Stringer
 * B & w art: Carl Flint
 * Colour: John M Burns
 * Lettering: Elitta Fell

Synopsis
Yet another priceless work of art has been stolen from the Museum of Arty Art in the Eldorado Zone: the Bronze Monkey. The security guard is baffled, since the doors were locked all night and he was on guard right outside. Private detective Harry Mole is called in to investigate. After getting a description of the Bronze Monkey ("It's a statue of a monkey, made of bronze!") and seeing that the cameras saw nothing as they were cleverly obscured (by hanging a sock over them), Harry confidently reports that he has no clue what happened. Fortunately, the curator has asked for additional help: Miles "Tails" Prower! Harry mentions that he once met Sonic, finding him a bit abrupt, but the curator wants the two of them to focus on his case.

Later, Tails, Harry and the curator lock themselves in the museum over night. Tails is confident that nobody can get in, only for the thief to suddenly appear right behind him. The thief, a green chameleon, introduces himself as Loot the Treasure Seeker, and promptly steals another statue, the Golden Handshake, before vanishing. Thinking Loot is a teleporter, Tails leads all assembled outside, but the thief is nowhere to be seen. However, Tails notices fresh footprints on the muddy grass (it's recently been raining), and uses his twin tails to sling mud in the direction of the footprints. It turns out that Loot was making the footprints, and he is now covered in mud. He never teleported at all: he's a chameleon like Espio, and had simply turned invisible.

Tails and Harry give chase, but before Loot can turn invisible again and give them the slip, he trips over one of Harry's molehills. As Loot is led off by the Zone's police, Tails explains to the curator that Loot was invisibly entering the museum during opening hours and easily leaving with his stolen goods the next day. He only wanted people to think he could teleport to throw them off track. It was a devious plan, but Tails saw right through it.

Appearances

 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Harry Mole
 * Loot the Treasure Seeker
 * Museum of Arty Art curator (brown bear with grey hair)
 * Museum security guard (aadvark)
 * Three penguin police officers

Continuity

 * Harry Mole previously appeared (and met Sonic the Hedgehog) in "Invasion of the Veg Heads" in Sonic the Comic #101 and #102.

Trivia

 * The artworks in the Museum of Arty Art are references to real world paintings and sculptures. They are detailed at Museum of Arty Art.
 * The Golden Handshake statue is named after golden handshake clauses, through which executives are promised significant severance packages if they ever lose their job.

Decap Attack - "The Dungeon"

 * Script & art: Nigel Kitching
 * Lettering: Ellie de' Ville

Castle Frank N. Stein's heating system is acting up again, so Chuck tries to fix the radiator... only for it to explode in his face, just like the dish washer did when he tried to repair that. Igor says Chuck will have to go down into the dungeon and check out the boiler, horrifying Chuck. "Not the dungeon!" Igor offers to call a plumber if Chuck doesn't emerge from the dungeon in the next couple of days.

Descending into the dungeon, Chuck and Head talk about the strange noises that come from the dungeon at night. Meanwhile, a small rat spies on them, then dashes off to report the news to a pair of vampires. It turns out the rat is a vampire himself. All three are delighted that food has come to them for a change, and they sneak up on Chuck and attack him. One of the vampires swaps out his fake teeth for a really big set of fake teeth, then leaps at Chuck, only to be headbutted into unconsciousness. The other two vampires nevertheless manage to grab Chuck by his long neck and discuss how they're going to eat him over the next several days...

Later, back upstairs, Igor thinks it was a great idea sending Chuck down to the castle vampires, but is disappointed when Chuck and Head drag themelves up the dungeon stairs. Chuck thinks Igor set him up, but Igor laughs it off. "You mean you think I sabotaged the heating system and then told the vampires to expect lunch? Would I do that?" Chuck asks if Igor knows what happens if you're bitten by a vampire, then displays his new giant pair of vampire fangs, causing Igor to run off screaming past the Prof, who has just arrived. The Prof wonders how long Chuck has been wearing false teeth (Chuck has now taken out the fake fangs), and Head says he'll never complain about Chuck eating garlic again, leaving Prof wondering just what's been going on.

Amy - "Fights, Camera, Action"

 * Script: Lew Stringer
 * Art: Nigel Dobbyn
 * Lettering: Gordon Robson

Synopsis
After Amy Rose and Tekno the Canary foil a plot by D.R.A.T. (apparently involving a giant metal duck with a gun turret on its head), they are greeted by Wilbur Z. Sprockethole the Third, who introduces himself as "The world's greatest film producer!" Amy and Tekno haven't heard of him or his blockbuster, Macho Weapon, Part Sixteen, but Sprockethole isn't concerned as he says that he wants to make a new film about the two of them. He invites them to his studio the following day to meet the stars of the movie: two male action movie stars named Pex Ripple and Brawny Gungho. Tekno had assumed that Sprockethole wanted them to be in the movie, and he says he does: he has a line for each of them on page 97, playing vapid damsels in distress. Disgusted, Amy and Tekno quit.

As they leave, Tekno notices badniks in the studio. Sprockethole reveals that they're cheaper than special effects, but when the badniks spot Amy and Tekno they activate and start smashing up the studio. Pex and Brawny flee in terror, although Brawny is caught by the leg and swung around by the badnik until rescued by Amy. (He thanks her using the very same line Amy's character was going to say in the movie.)

Sprockethole is dismayed that his studio is ruined, but Amy and Tekno are quite pleased that he won't be making his disaster movie after all. Sprockethole says it wasn't going to be that type of movie, but Amy tells him "We read the script, pal! Trust me, it would have been a disaster!"

Appearances

 * Amy Rose
 * Tekno the Canary
 * Wilbur Z. Sprockethole the Third
 * Pex Ripple
 * Brawny Gungho
 * Badniks
 * D.R.A.T. members

Other features

 * Control Zone
 * Pin-Up - Sonic the Hedgehog: Making Waves! Art: Mike Hadley. Presented with STC.
 * Speedlines
 * Graphic Zone - Screen Idols