"Ken Penders: Writers" -- OK, we now know that human cloning IS possible!  Manny Galan: Penciler; Andrew Pepoy: Inker.
     Kids, don't try this at home: Vector is under water listening to the soundtrack of "The Little Mermaid" on his WalkCroc and carrying his shoes on his belt, apparently because he likes the idea of swimming with dead weight, and the better to guarantee a case of trench foot when he puts them back on.  Of course, he's also wearing white gloves.  Proof once again that even furries who don't HAVE fur are Not Clear On The Concept of clothing.  However, he interrupts his Esther Williams impersonation after he notices a suspicious shadow along the riverbank.  After a nice full face shot of Vector looking out from the water, he leaps out of the river (having put his shoes back on at some point) and lunges at what appears to be a member of the Dark Legion left over from the last miniseries.  Vector's jive talkin' motivates the Legionnaire who softens up Vector quite handily, but before he can be turned into a wallet the stranger indicates that someone else on the island has got a date with a taser.
     Hurrying past a Captain Crunch ad, we find Knuckles "in pursuit of knowledge and enlightenment."  Here's some enlightenment for you, Knuckles: it's pronounced "Om!"  Archimedes breaks off his criticism of Knuckles' meditation technique to point out the would-be assailant.  Knuckles and the assailant mix it up for two pages until we discover that he's been fighting with...THE ECHIDNA VERSION OF ELIZABETH TAYLOR!  I guess it's those violet eyes.
     Well, it had to happen at some point.  The Knuckles saga has been pretty stag up until now, what with all the male bonding going on with Knux and the Chaotix.  We finally get to see some equal opportunity slugging, because the first thing she does on page 8 is sucker punch Knuckles and reach for the taser.  No doubt about it, what we have here is a "meet cute."
     A "meet cute" is Hollywood shorthand for a boy-meets-girl set-up that telegraphs the message that however inauspicious their meeting, these two will end up falling in love with each other by the end of the picture.  The key to a good "meet cute" is disaster: the worse things get for the couple, the more likely they'll be to fall into each other's arms at some point.  The scene in the beginning of "101 Dalmatians" involving Pongo's master and Perdita's mistress in the park is classic "meet cute" material.  So where were we?  She punches him out, then gets her mitten singed by Archy; oh yeah, THESE kids have got off on the right foot!
     As Knuckles removes the rather prosaic 1.5 volt batteries from the taser, Julie-Su (the new kid on the block) provides a brief exposition: seems it was Kragok the Marginally Pronounceable who activated the self-destruct at the end of the last miniseries.  She goes on to say that she noticed Knuckles during her escape and despite wanting to rejoin the Legion "it's been like someone forcing their will over mine!  I HAD to find you!"  Archy looks as if he's hearing "Lohengrin" in the background (and NOT liking the sound of it!), but then the Chaotix show up and while Vector starts harassing Julie-Su the others report seismic activity over by the Marble Zone.  This conversation is being observed by Knuckles' dad, who appears to be just as pessimistic as Archy about his son's new playmate.
     Fan Art: There's something about Jessalyn Alany's style that I really like, even if the gesture is weird.  Cristal Ramanaasras' drawing of Might's hands, OTOH, makes him look positively arthritic.  And Knuckles get his very own "Do Untold Damage To Your Eyesight Page."
     Back in Haven, Dad continues to utter dire prophecies about this latest plot twist while the two young echidnas continue to bicker.  Yet ANOTHER echidna in Haven (with brown dreads and wearing a monocle) seems to share the opinion of Knuckles' dad, whom he addresses as "Locke."  And none too soon; I was REALLY getting tired of typing "Knuckles' dad" all the time.  Locke also mentions that he "wasn't prepared...for Lara-Le, either," so there's another name to keep on file.  After several hours of inspecting the Zone Knuckles and Julie-Su are on the verge of going for each other's throats again when the next tremor comes along.  It causes an apparition to appear; it isn't the Emerald City, but it's close.  And now "Sir" (Mr. Monocle) AND Archy are concerned about their "careful planning" going "up in smoke" but Locke takes a wait-and-see approach as the two echidnas and Archy head for the city and soon find themselves up to their foreheads in echidnas.  Seems they've somehow gotten back to Echidnaopolis, Knuckles' old home town.  Nobody seems to be paying them any attention, however; well, ALMOST nobody, for Knuckles is recognized by a female echidna with green eyes and beribboned dreads who says: "I can't believe that a son wouldn't recognize his own mother."  Too bad Vector isn't here to witness this reunion; the situation cries out to have him say to Knuckles: "Yo' mama!"  At which point Knuckles would have given him a well- deserved punch in the mouth.  As for Archimedes, he's thinking, "Oh yeah, THIS day just keeps getting better and better!"
     What kind of son wouldn't recognize his own mother?  How about one who's spent most of his life living with only his father, learning how to be something called a Guardian?  Apparently, the Guardian apprenticeship rules didn't allow for regular visitations.  Either that, or Locke's custody arrangement was pretty darn favorable.
     Now is as good a time as any to unwrap a MAJOR SPOILER I've been carrying around since late March, especially since it's already been spilled on Ron Bauerle's list.  If you haven't got the stomach for that sort of thing, skip to the next paragraph.  It appears Locke's living in Haven isn't just one of the more dubious perks of being a Guardian.  At the Motor City Comic Con, Ken Penders told me that one of the things we'll be learning about Knuckles is that he comes from a broken home.  That's right: his parents are divorced.  Splitsville.  The Big D.  The subject of I don't know how many country-western tunes.  Oddly enough, this pretty much serves the same function as Sonic's race car bed in "Reality Bytes" [#51]: audience identification.  Ken said that a lot of the mail that he's gotten indicate that the readers of the comics (or a notable number thereof) come from single-parent households -- make of THAT what you will.  Come to think of it, MY folks split back in 1968 when I was in high school.  Oh, there's LOTS more stuff we'll be learning about Knuckles, but it can wait.
     As for Mrs. Locke (who may or may not be the "Lara-Le" of whom Locke spoke back on page 12), she and Echidnaopolis vanish again.  The reproachful look on her face as she vanishes communicates the message: "You couldn't pick up a phone once in a while?"
     Knuckles confronts Archy with the belief that the little fire breather knows more than he's telling; Archy's response is basically a variation on Jack Nicholson's "You can't handle the truth!" from "A Few Good Men."  Yet ANOTHER quake comes along, this one serious enough to cause a major rift which would have spelled doom for Knuckles if Julie-Su hadn't saved his skin by grabbing his ankle.  So she starts by threatening his life, then goes on to save it; yep, we'll be going to a wedding at SOME point!  Great dialogue, BTW:

   JULIE-SU: Is he [Knuckles] always like this?
   ARCHIMEDES: He's actually gotten better!

Think I'll work that into a .sig one of these days.
     The city reappears and the NEXT tremor rolls into the station and it's deja vu all over again.  They escape from the quake by running back into the city only to discover everyone
running around in a panic.  One echidna helpfully tells them that it's Judgment Day.  Knuckles doesn't want to discuss eschatology and suggests that they look up his mom.  Sure, NOW you think of your mother!
     However, they first come across a statue of an echidna who appears to be dressed like Buck Rogers and has a facial expression that tells me he was full of himself.  This dude is identified by a plaque: "In Gratitude to our Guardian HAWKING Creator of the Hyper Zone Projector -- Our Civilization Endures Because of Him."  While Knuckles theorizes that this has
something to do with the plot, our three friends find themselves facing what I guess is supposed to be an echidna police squad.  The leader of the group is wearing a hat that looks like it used to belong to Ranger Smith in the old Yogi Bear cartoons.  They appear to belong to something called the EST, and I don't think it stands for "Echidnaopolis Softball Team".  To be continued.
     Now THIS is more like it!  So far Ken's been successfully hitting us with some major new characters and plot developments while managing to keep the story moving.  The characterizations are perfect.  At first I was put off by the reception Knuckles gave his mom, but I suppose it would make sense if he'd never really bonded with her.  He could have looked a little more shocked throughout, though.  Lara-Le (I GUESS that's the name of Knuckles' mom) still needs to have her character fleshed out a bit, but Julie-Su is a revelation: her personality has been nailed down right out of the box.  I could sense a major chip on her shoulder from the moment she first flashed those violet eyes (note to the colorists at Archie Comics: PLEASE don't screw around with those eyes!).  She's more than some kind of generic tomboy echidna and WAY more than a Sally knock-off.  Sally carries herself with a certain maturity that's the result of both her innate personality and a knowledge of her station in life.  Julie-Su, OTOH, is positively volcanic -- I got the sense that she's toting around a LOT more anger than she's showing.  She doesn't just have an attitude; this has the potential for expanding into a full-blown case of PASSION!!
     Still, it's kind of funny: for the longest time, Ken has had to contend with the fact that Princess Sally was a strong female character who was more complex than Sonic the Hedgehog (who was supposed to be the star of his comic).  So what happens when he moves over to doing Knuckles comics?  He creates ANOTHER strong female character whose personality threatens to outstrip that of the male lead.  On an Irony scale of 1 to 10 that comes pretty darn close to an 11.  I am DEFINITELY going to work Julie-Su into my fanfic at some point, the character is THAT good!  Hats off to you, Ken.
     The Letters Page In Search Of A New Name: Contest deadline is July 31, and I get my copy in the mail on July 29.  The story of my life.  The thumbnail covers for Sonic #50 and Knuckles #5 simply DON'T do the real things justice.  And thanks to some VERY substantive Q&A from the fans we learn that:

- The white ring around Knuckles' neck is an hereditary trait, as is the office of Guardian.

- Knuckles WAS prohibited from having contact with outsiders, thus his meeting with the young Sally (remembered in flashback in "Black and Blue and Red All Over", Sonic #44) was technically a violation -- looks like I guessed that one right in my review!

- Menniker "is my great-uncle fifteen generations removed."  Have I simply gotten paranoid about the hints and clues Ken is supposed to be dropping in his stories, or does the use of "is" instead of "was" have some significance?

I've received a couple of e-mails lately as much as accusing me of hating the Sonic and Knuckles comics -- of engaging in criticizing for criticizing's sake.  I haven't wanted the moon as far as the quality of Sonic comics is concerned; I only want to see them approaching THIS level of artistic and narrative achievement. Is that too much to ask?