Story: Ken Penders; Art: Manny Galan; Ink: An drew Pepoy; Color: Barry Grossman; Lettering: Vickie Williams; Editorial: G-Force
     Ordinarily, I couldn't comment on the cover, since I'm working with the black-and-white photocopy.  It makes reading the comics like reading "manga" (Japanese comics), which are also printed in black-and-white.  This may have an impact on future Best/Worst lists, with regard to the Best and Worst Cover Art categories.  But I waited to post this until the issue hit the stands and I could see the Spaz/Penders cover: Knuckles hovering on a cloud above the ragtag "tribe" and giving new meaning to the term "Guardian."  I like the open hand gesture over the lead echidnas especially.
     We've had cameos on the credits page for the "Lost Paradise" arc and "head shots" for the "Dark Vengeance" arc.  Now we have what look like pencil sketches for the "Lost Tribe" arc, starting with a study of Athair by Spaziante.  At least I THINK it's Athair.  Kinda hard to tell, really.
     As for the stock "Born to the most noble house..." opening text, we learn that Knuckles has just survived "some of the deadliest perils he has ever encountered within his short lifespan."  OK, I know Kent Taylor's script could have used some tweaking, but isn't that a bit strong?  This overlays a drawing of Knuckles, Athair, and the Ancient Walkers.
     The story begins with Athair meditating/levitating while a quote from the "Tome of Prophecies" appears in script.  This isn't your standard Villain-of-the-Month storyline.  In fact, this is Ken's long-awaited story arc that goes into some detail concerning echidna religion.  Well, I'VE been waiting for it, especially since I have a B.A. in theology, and an interest in the subject generally.  I've also learned a few things about the story's genesis (forgive the double-decker pun) from Ken Penders himself.  So be prepared to learn a few things in the course of this review (don't worry, they WON'T be on the final exam).
     Athair is interrupted by an echidna whose name, we learn, is Yanar.  It would have been "Yaron" if Ken's first draft had been approved, but it was one of several changes made before the story received the editorial green light.  The name is the key to Yanar/Yaron's role: as Aaron (the inspiration for the name) was Moses' second-in-command during the Exodus, so Yaron is Athair's right-hand echidna.  They preside over a group of echidnas who appear to be the polar opposite of the Dark Legion: ragged clothing, primitive carts, not a machine in sight.  Given a bit more color, they could be mistaken for Deadheads.  BTW, note in the background on page 3 what appears to be a female echidna running after two younger echidnas.  Bookmark that image; it WILL figure in the plot, but not until Knuckles #11.
     Athair explains that he was contemplating "recent events"; he also warns that the "Day of Fury" is fast approaching.  Anyone who's into church music, or who's a Roman Catholic, will immediately recognize the reference; the following paragraph is for the benefit of the rest of us heathens:
     "Day of Fury" is an acceptable translation of "Dies Irae," the Latin name for a famous trope.  A trope is a musical sequence invented to keep Gregorian chants from getting so hung up on one syllable that they lose their place.  The "Dies Irae" forms part of the Requiem Mass.  The Requiem Mass differs from the Ordinary Mass by the dropping of some passages (such as the Credo and the Gloria) and the inclusion of others.   These passages deal with (among other things) the impending judgment of the world by God by fire ("judicare saeculum per ignem," it says in the text of Gabriel Faure's "Requiem," a beautiful choral work I was rehearsing with a group at the university while I was working on "Mobius Apocalypse", which probably tells you something about what influences my writing).  There's a famous Gregorian tune to the "Dies Irae"; Hector Berlioz worked it into his "Symphonie Fantastique," and Stanley Kubrick used an arrangement of it under the opening credits for his film version of Stephen King's "The Shining."  It's properly mournful and unforgettable.  "Dies Irae" may lose something in the translation, but it's what passed for fire-and- brimstone in the medieval church.  Some time after the Reformation the Southern Baptists came along and refined the art of preaching against The World, The Flesh, and The Disney Company.
     Anyway, Athair tells Yanar that the tribe has to continue its own exodus, with Yanar as their leader, pending the arrival of "the other."  Gee, I wonder who THAT could be?  Athair watches Yanar leading the tribe and hints that there had been problems between himself and "Sabre."  Trust me, he'll figure in the story later.  If I keep on digressing like this, though, I'll NEVER get finished.
     We segue from Athair and the Ancient Walkers in a burst of sunlight to the interior of an "aurorium," which appears to be a kind of church or house of meditation in Echidnaopolis.  We find Lara-Le in what is supposed to be prayerful contemplation, but she looks pretty concerned about something.
     Lara-Le leaves the aurorium to find Knuckles sitting on the curb, waiting for her.  She asks why he didn't join her inside, since "everyone is welcome inside the aurorium."  According to Ken, in the first draft she used the word "tabernacle," but that was probably too Earth-bound.  Ken had also wanted to show a carriage being pulled by a Streaking Pasha (c.f. Knuckles #2, page 6, last panel) in the third panel, but apparently Manny Galan was more comfortable drawing Star Wars-style cruisers than Mobian-style beasts of burden.
     In the ensuing conversation, we learn that Locke believed in giving his son a strictly secular education, a state of affairs of which Lara-Le apparently disapproved.  Small wonder it was Splitsville for the marriage.  Anyway, when mother and son arrive at her apartment, it seems someone is already there.
     Before we find out who it is, though, we cut to EST headquarters where Remington is doing the "Homicide" interrogation room bit with Julie-Su (you might want to enhance the effect by
moving the page around as you read it to simulate those jerky camera shots).  After an initial burst of defiance, she suddenly becomes withdrawn and depressed.  "I guess it doesn't look good for me," Julie-Su says; "Not from where I'm sitting," Remington says as he stands up.  Shouldn't that be "Not from where I'm STANDING"?  Oh, well.  Cut to the Find Your Name page where we get our first letter from Cyprus (along with Australia and Guam, this despite the fact that Archie doesn't honor Mexican subscription requests--I mean, what's wrong with THIS picture?), and the Fan Art page featuring work by Chris Vasquez from "Oklahoma, OK."  Translation: from "Oklahoma, Oklahoma."
     Back at Lara-Le's apartment, we see that Athair was already there waiting for them to arrive.  Knuckles isn't too thrilled about this turn of events and says so.  Lara-Le demonstrates that there's still something on the Floating Island more powerful than a Guardian: a Guardian's mother!  She as much as orders Knuckles to apologize to "your great grandfather" and even though Knuckles apparently doesn't think Athair is so great, he apologizes.  Athair then declares that he's come because "the time of prophecy is at hand."  That means Knuckles is going on a field trip whether he wants to or not.
     Back at Remington's office, his secretary, Teri-Lu, is serving up cookies and tea with his paperwork; she also wears an outfit suggestive of the uniforms worn on the original "Star Trek."  Hey, at least she didn't bring in a box of donuts.  The sharp of eye will notice that the armband on her upper right arm turns red in the first panel on page 11 and disappears before she can leave Remington's office.  She also seems to have succumbed to Chris Vasquez's condition since she speaks of an unnamed someone having "dropped out of sight since his his parole."  Anyway, Teri-Lu leaves (possibly to pick up Remington's dry cleaning on her lunch break -- she's obviously never seen "Working Girl" or "9 to 5") and just as Remington reaches for a cookie Archimedes shows up and we almost have a repeat of the visual gag from Knuckles #2, page 11.  Instead of heating up Remington's tongue, though, Archimedes starts to get grilled about Julie-Su.
     Meanwhile, half a world away on "the eastern hemisphere" of Mobius, Knuckles gets his first look at the tribe and we get an earful of history.  It starts back when the comet that would have wiped out Echidnaopolis was first discovered by "your ancestors Jor-Dann and Kayla-La."  I'm guessing that "Jor-Dann" is a reference to another famous comic book scientist/prophet of doom, Jor-El, the father of Superman.  Either that or Ken was watching a Chicago Bulls game when he came up with the name.  Anyway, it turns out that there WASN'T complete agreement with the High Council's decision to implement Kayla-la-la-la-la's (sorry, it IS a catchy name!) solution after all.  A "holy man" named Arakkis led a group of dissidents away from the city "in search of a new home" before the comet hit.  There's probably a "Heaven's Gate" joke in there somewhere but I'm not touching it.
     The tribe that Knuckles encounters is apparently what's left of the Arakkis group, and we learn that they haven't had an easy time of it as we see them being "encouraged" to move along by a pack of wolves and being shot at by (apparently, since they're in silhouette) Overlanders.  We also see that even though the group had started out with a fleet of jeeps at their disposal, the tribe ended up hoofing it once the machines broke down.  So the tribe's simple lifestyle was as much a product of necessity as of conviction.  After all, once the motor goes out on a vehicle that's pretty much it, whereas if you're Amish at least your preferred mode of transportation--horsepower in the literal sense--has the ability to reproduce after its own kind.
     There's a one-page interlude featuring the Chaotix in what looks like a fast food joint, and Andrew Pepoy gets a break from the thankless task of inking to get some name recognition.  Read the page if you want to subject yourself to Vector trash-talking about Julie-Su for the umpteenth time.  I'd rather get back to the main plot.
     Just as Athair is about to supply some additional information to Knuckles, he senses the approach of the "Day of Fury."  And is it ever furious: the Tribe finds itself in the middle of an earthquake that opens fissures in the ground through which lava emerges, a storm blows up over Echidnaopolis and grounds Tails' and Sonic's plane, hurricane-force winds start tearing up Mobitropolis, and a blizzard hits Knothole.  This ain't no El Nino, people!  "The Day of Fury," Athair informs Knuckles and us, "is Nature's way of adjusting to environmental changes it undergoes over a certain duration."  Sort of like hitting the RESET button on a cosmic scale.  Athair rather passively informs his great-grandson that the last time this happened on Mobius "some twelve hundred years ago," most Mobians didn't survive.  Let's see, according to the standard continuity it's the year 3235 on Mobius, and 3235 minus 1200 means that the last Day of Fury took place around the Mobian year...2035.  I've never necessarily bought into the "Mobius As Future Earth" plotline but personally I think this might be a good time for the "global warming is a myth" crowd to take a hike.
     DEFINITELY not your typical Villian-Of-The-Month story.  Lara-Le and Athair undergo most of the character development this time around.  In his initial appearance in the Tails miniseries, Athair seemed like some weird plot device; he's a more defined character here, with more to come in the next installment.  Lara-Le appears as the member of Knuckles' family of origin with a spiritual streak, though I have to wonder whether she really understands things from Athair's point of view.  Most interesting of all was something that only sank in as I looked at the final panel.  Knuckles is looking WAY younger, at least in the context of this story.  Go back and check it out.  Before, when he was with the Chaotix or the Knothole gang, he didn't look this youthful.  Now he's surrounded by ADULTS, especially Athair who looks better than when Dave Manak introduced him in the Tails miniseries though you're still left with the impression that he's got to be older than dirt.  This puts yet another dynamic into play, reinforcing the fact that Knuckles is still the new Guardian on the block (according to the letters pages, he's 15).  Something for all you high school freshmen to think about.  This is one strong piece of storytelling so far.
     Fistful of Letters: First, plugs for Kunckles 11, which indicates that Athair somehow dropped out of the role of Guardian to ally himself with the Tribe.  Also plugs for Sonic #57, the "Return of the King" special, and NiGHTS 3.  The cover of the RotK special on this page has a white background, while the cover that appears as part of the ad on the previous page has a black background (and thus makes Sonic look more like Luke Skywalker in the old "Star Wars" posters).  The actual letters: Knuckles says, for the umpteenth time, that he and Sonic have buried the hatchet.  I think I'd better add this to my FAQ File.