“Preparations for War!”
Writer: Ian Flynn
Art: Tracy Yardley!, Jim Amash (i), Jason Jensen(c), John Workman (l)
Publisher: Archie Comics
“Preparations for War!”, the opening chapter of the new “Enerjak: Reborn” storyline is…um…ah…ok. Despite the fact that it opens with Sonic fighting Robotnik and later has the Blue Blur battling the Chaotix, it’s a surprisingly low-energy issue. To be fair, “Preparations” is basically a set-up chapter for events to come, and it does follow two superb storylines so it’s bound to suffer a bit in comparison. But still, the adrenaline is barely pumping in this one. It isn’t until the final page that the story kicks into gear and by then it’s the last page.
In general the pacing and art are good and there are a couple nice lines, but it just doesn’t “Pop” the way it should. The basic story is weak and it suffers from being shoe-horned into a measly seventeen pages.
As noted above the issue begins with Sonic and Robotnik duking it out. It isn’t a very energetic battle as Sonic has other things on his mind – mainly the resurrection of Enerjak. Cue the exposition scene as the newly formed Council gets the CliffsNotes version of Enerjak’s history. Ian Flynn does a good job here of giving readers unfamiliar with the character a notion of who he is and Yardley, Amash, and Jensen contribute some nice poses; but the menace is just words at this point. There’s no real sense of threat. This is a scene that needed more than two panels to make it work.
The next scene baby hops the shark as far as I’m concerned. Taking something King Elias says out of context, Julie-Su and the Chaotix decide to charge off to Angel Island to rescue a missing Knuckles from Enerjak. This leads to the aforementioned fight with Sonic – a totally gratuitous exercise. Now it does show how Sonic is maturing and Yardley! stages it in an amusing manner, but as Sonic generally avoids superficial clichés so well, it’s somewhat disappointing to see one here – no matter how well-done it is. On the plus side, readers get to see the contrasting leadership styles of Julie-Su and Sally.
Jason Jensen’s colors are bright, but not particularly rich this time out, which is another contributing factor to the “light” feel of this issue. His use of black is reserved almost entirely for panels depicting Robotnik and guest villains Scourge, Fiona, and Dr. Finitevus. While appropriate and effective thematically, those characters aren’t in the story very much. It leaves the book feeling unbalanced.
Now the final page is everything the rest of the issue isn’t. The colors are blindingly vivid. The staging is dramatic and menacing. And the reader is left wondering what’s going to happen next. If this is a foretaste of issue #181, that one’s going to be a keeper.
Remember back when I said the story was only seventeen pages? Well, there’s a back-up story this issue, a prelude to Nintendo DS’s Sonic Rush 2 video game. Entitled “High Stakes on the High Seas,” it features a shipwrecked Sonic and Tails being shanghaied by the hyper dramatic Marine just before they’re all attacked by the “sultan of speed”. These five pages have all the drama and energy the main story was lacking. If I had a Nintendo DS, I’d check out the game after reading this preview. Credit for this little gem goes to Flynn, Yardley!, and Amash, with coloring by Stingray GW and lettering by Josh Ray.
Regular readers of Sonic the Hedgehog will accept “Preparations for War!” as a well-done bridging installment of the continuing storyline. It’s not the issue to hand a first time reader, though.
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