Special #1
First special of the series! So big you're gonna have to cough up two bucks for this one.
"The Quest" is the main story, as it should be. This is the the final part of the Sally's Crusade story. We find out that the mystery orb is Nicole (Sally's talking mini-computer gadget from the show). Sally heads off to the Forbidden Zone in order to attain "oneness of the soul" as Julayla put it, but of course the gang won't let her go alone. As soon as they enter they have to fight a robot Cyclops who keeps swatting them away. Luckily Nicole and Sonic figure out a solution: Nicole detects that bot only responds to motion, so Sonic stands completely still until it shuts off. Simple enough...but can they handle a FIRE-BREATHING GRIFFIN!? Tails thinks he can, but is easily taken out. He falls next to a sword in the stone (they're not even trying to be subtle), and with all his might, Tails pulls it out and slays the beast. At least I wish he did, but he never had the chance; simply removing the sword took away the beast's mobility. Finally they encounter a Polysaurus Rex (dragon with two heads), along with two doors. One head always tells the truth, the other always lies (I always loved these kind of riddles); as for the doors, one leads to what Sally's looking for, the other leads to certain doom. Given only one question to ask one head, Sally asks what door the other head would tell her to take. If you ever seen this riddle before, you would know to take the opposite of the answer provided.
They head through the door, and inside is Julayla's Hope Chest. Sally opens it to find a scroll in it. They have no idea what it means, but then we get a glimpse of the future. Robotnik is defeated, Sally's father is saved, Sally and Sonic become king and queen and raise a family. Also there's a trans-time portal which allowed a future Sally to give Nicole to the present Sally to help her achieve this future. That ends the story, with an editor's note asking if this is the true future or just a possible one.
"The Mirror Zone" is next. Sonic and Tails chase a swatbot into said zone, and you have to hold the comic up to a mirror to read the dialogue. I'm not going to bother, if someone would like to be my guest. It's only two pages long anyway so it's nothing important.
A reader mail seriously asked Sonic what this "?" symbol was. Another reader professes her love for Robotnik and even left a picture (apparently she's still stuck in the 80s).
"Tails' Tallest Tale" is the last story, with Scott Shaw returning to pencil this one. Already I can tell the difference in quality. Tails is asked to speak at a Sonic-Con convention (yes, really). He lies about defeating a Toadzilla singlehandedly, which bites him in the ass because Robotnik shows up and everyone is convinced Tails can handle him. Clearly he can't, at least not with brawn. Using his brains instead, Tails grabs some tentacles from the bot Robotnik is riding, and spins his body so fast that Robotnik gets dizzy and crashes his machine. Tails saves the day, and gets a smooch from one of the sonic-con animals.
Very important issue here. We get introduced to Nicole who will become a critical ally in the battles to come, and Sally begins to assert herself as the leader of not only the FF, but Mobius itself. This also marks the spot where the comic starts moving away from pure slapstick comedy and getting more serious. The other two stories were just there for a gimmick and fanservice respectively, but still interesting. The art in Tails' story is enough to take a look, particularly during the Toadzilla story.
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HBJ Dubs
~Project 1000~