Knuckles the Echidna #4
				"The Phantom City-
			      Lost Paradise (1 of 3)"
				  Archie Comics

			     A review by Roland Lowery
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	OKAY, FOR those of you that I haven't already scared off with my
Sonic the Hedgehog #50 review ( =] ), welcome back!  I promise this time
not to rant and rave so much, because I actually kind of liked this one!
So far, the Knuckles universe is shaping up to be a much more coherent
story line that the main-stream Sonic universe.  Maybe this series will be
the saving grace of Archie's Sonic comics.
	But enough of that noise!  On with the review!

	THE GUILTY PARTIES -----------------------------------------------

	Hey, we got a nice group this time around . . . Galan, who always
does nice work with Knux and the Chaotix, . . . Pepoy, who's a great
second to Harvo on inks, . . . and Penders, who seemingly has gotten over
his fray with Sonic #50 and is ready to do some seriously good work with
Knuckles!

	Writer:  Ken Penders
	Penciler:  Manny Galan
	Inker:  Andrew Pepoy
	Colorist:  Barry Grossman
	Letter:  Vickie Williams
	Editor:  J. Freddy Gabrie
	Managing Editor:  Victor Gorelick
	Editor-in-Chief:  Richard Goldwater

	COVER ------------------------------------------------------------

	An excellent Spaziante/Penders cover (color by Heroic Age), with
but two complaints.
	First, why the watermarks?  If Mighty, Charmy, and Espio aren't
actually going to DO anything on the cover, why does Spaz still put them
there as faded images?  It could be argued that they are used as filler
for the empty spaces, but there isn't that much empty space to fill!
Espio's watermark is only the lower half of his face!  These marks could
have been left out without hurting the balance of the artwork.
	And second, it's just a small thing really, but Archimedes looks a
little . . . strange.  Definitely not like he looked on Spaz/Harvo's work
on the original Knuckles mini-series.  Plus, in some of the places where
he's teleporting on the cover, it looks like he's missing one or more
arms.
	But, all in all, a good cover.  I especially like the bottom right
hand corner, where Julie-Su (decked out in Dark Legion garb) is shooting a
laser at Vector.

	CREDITS PAGE -----------------------------------------------------

	A little bit of Spaziante and Mercadoocasio's work here, always a
plus.  This comic is proclaimed "Book Four" here, a nice touch that makes
it seem like a chronicled history instead of a "mere" comic book story.

	SPLASH PAGE ------------------------------------------------------

	I've always like the splash pages for the Knuckles books, but some
of them are kind of hard to see since they have no color (other than the
lines themselves) and the words get in the way . . . it ruins the effect a
little.
	Oh, and make sure you remember that grinning Guardian that can be
seen in between the first and second paragraph, the one with the shock of
hair combed back from his forehead?  See him?  Good, remember that guy,
and his placement in the Guardian line, because I'm going to be mentioning
him again near the end of the review.

	PAGES 1-4 --------------------------------------------------------

	"Under the stream . . . down here its hotter . . . under the water
. . . take it fro-"  Sorry.
	The story opens up with Vector taking a swim underwater in a
stream (gee, I hope that CD player of his is waterproof . . . ).  He
notices a shadow up above him and checks it out. It turns out to be (peek
a boo!) a Dark Legion member who very rudely (and very efficiently) knocks
a knot first on Vector's chest, then on the bottom side of his noggin.
The Legionnaire then pulls out a tuning fork- er, sorry, a stun gun and
finds some other "echidna to fry".

	PAGES 5-7 --------------------------------------------------------

	In an excellently drawn panel, we see Knuckles "meditating", and
looking out of the corners of his eyes every once in a while.  Archimedes
shows up and admonishes the echidna just before warning him that an enemy
is approaching at six o'clock.
	Knuckle's performs an over the head kick, and he and the
Legionnaire go at it for a few panels.  Finally, Knux has the Legionnaire
pinned, and to everyone's shock-

	PAGES 8-10 -------------------------------------------------------

	IT'S A GIRL!  WAUGH!  Oh, sorry about that.  Ignoring the normal
rules for a "boy meets girl" scene, Julie-Su (the Legionnaire) decides to
go ahead and punch Knuckle's lights out.  She then picks up her stun gun
and promptly gets torched by the nearby Archimedes.  She drops her stun
gun, which Knuckle's takes and unloads the batteries from.  (Er, what's
this?  Duracells?  I would've thought Energizers would be more appropriate
for a furry comic book, what with the Energizer Bunny and all.)
	Hurm . . . Knuckles himself seems to need a course in the "boy
meets girl" scene.  He asks Julie-Su "Where's the rest of Kragok's thugs,
female?" in a seemingly very deragatory tone.
	Julie tells them that she had abandoned the Dark Legion when the
base in the Dark Legion mini-series blew up.  She attempted to join them
again, but found that she liked having her freedom better.  She had seen
Knuckles during the explosion of the base, and had to find him.
	Hurm . . . find him to do what?  Zap the hell out of him?  Makes
sense.  =P
	Just then the rest of the Chaotix runs up, and they tell Knux
about what happened to Vector.  They also mention that the Marble Zone
(which a handy dandy footnote tells us is where Vector lives) is having
some technical difficulties; namely, it's experiencing earthquakes.

	PAGES 11-13 ------------------------------------------------------

	Knuckles begins to wonder why they didn't feel the shock where
they were, while Vector and Julie continue to point accusing fingers at
each other.  Archy tells him that the island is pretty big, so any number
of things could've stopped the shockwave from reaching them (my bet is
that the Lava Reef took some of the shock and dispersed it through it's
liquid contents).
	While they begin to argue about Julie's loyalties, we get treated
to a shot from inside Haven, where Locke, Knuckles' father, is watching
them.  As he and (who I'm assuming to be) Knuckles' grandfather continue
to watch, Knuckles makes the decision to go with Archimedes to the Marble
Zone to check out the tremors.  Julie makes it a point to appoint herself
as part of the team.
	So, Knux, Archy, and Julie are walking through the Marble Zone
(with Knux and Julie arguing most of the way), when a quake hits, and-

	PAGES 14-16 ------------------------------------------------------

	-LO AND BEHOLD!  Echidnaopolis appears out of thin air, much to
the chargin of the fire ant and the echidnas in Haven.  The city flickers,
but reappears again, more stable this time.
	Now, this is all well and good, but didn't Echidnaopolis seem to
move over a little?  I wasn't sure, so I went and grabbed the handy dandy
map of the Floating Island in the first issue of the first Knux
mini-series.  Here I find that . . . oh, dear.  The Marble Zone and the
ruins of Echidnaopolis are approximately ten miles away from each other.
Sure, it's a phantom city and it can go where it wants, but why place it
in the Marble Zone?  Why not just say that the tremors were occuring
around the former site of Echinaopolis, where the city more than likely
would have REALLY shown up at?  Certainly Knux, Archy, and Julie didn't
walk all ten miles to the city (which they probably wouldn't have seen
from that distance anyway) and expect it to still be there when it is so
unstable?
	Oh, dear again.  According to the foot note earlier, Vector's home
is supposed to be on the outskirts of the Marble Zone.  They goofed,
because according to MY map, MIGHTY is the one that lives there.  Vector
lives in Swampy Swamp, which is located in the exact middle of the
Mushroom, Lava Reef, Hydro City, and Hidden Palace Zones.
	Bummer, huh?
	But, however it happened, the three of them end up in
Echidnaopolis, which seems to harbor a car dealership being run by George
Lucas (there's a Land Speeder and an X-wing Fighter flying around up in
the air).
	Everyone seems to ignore Knux, Archy, and Julie compeletly, all
except for Lara-Le, Knuckles' (gasp!) mother.  She asks Knux for a hug, to
which all Knux can respond with is basically a "duh, you're dead".  Well,
obviously she's not, Knuckle-head!  Hug her!

	PAGES 17-19 ------------------------------------------------------

	But instead, she and the city disappear, leaving Knux, Archy, and
Julie in the Marble Zone again.  Knux confronts Archy, trying to pry some
answers from the fire ant.  Instead of denying that he knows anything
(like he should have), Archy tells him that he can't tell because Knux is
not ready to know.
	Suddenly, another shockwave hits, abruptly ending the
conversation.  Knux and Archy nearly fall down a crevice, saved only by
Julie grabbing Knux's ankle.  When Knuckles climbs back out of the gorge,
and another fight is about to start between him and Julie (what a loving
little family is forming, by the way), Echidnaopolis appears again.

	PAGES 18-22 ------------------------------------------------------

	So, they waltz back into the phantom city to find it falling apart
and everyone screaming and running and generally making total fools of
themselves.  Knuckles stops one of the city's citizens (who looks
suspiciously like the second Guardian, Steppenwolf, albeit without the
little dreadlock doo-dads) and asks him what's going on.  The citizen says
something about it being the Judgement Day they were warned of, the end of
their world, then he runs off leaving Knux, Julie, and Archy (well, I'm
guessing with Archy, he probably knows what's going on) more confused than
before.
	They decide to find Knux's mom, because she might have the
answers.  Instead, they find a giant statue with a plaque that reads:

		      "In gratitude to our Guardian
			         HAWKING
		   Creator of the Hyper Zone Projector
		  Our Civlization Endures Because Of Him."

	Er, remember that Guardian that I wanted you to remember from the
Splash Page?  The one that had the shock of hair and the goofy grin?  You
guessed it, that's this guy.  This makes me wonder then, what has taken
the Guardians so long to blow up Echidnaopolis as was depicted in the
first Knuckles mini-series?  According to the Splash Page, Hawking is at
least Steppenwolf's great-grandson, if not anything further down the
line!  Plus, the statue of Hawking doesn't nessecarily need to be new . .
. it could be decades old for all we know.
	This Judgement Day that the citizen mentioned could be the actual
destruction of the city, but why did it take them so long to actually get
around to doing this?  And why didn't they wait until everyone in the city
was evacuated (peacfully or no) before blowing it up?
	It could be that Knuckles was lied to and this is actually how the
city was destroyed, but we won't know until the next issue, will we?
*sigh*
	Oh, well, in response to reading the plaque, Knux decides to
abandon the search for his mother and start one for Hawking, but they are
interrupted by a bunch of rude (but very well drawn) echidnas wearing
uniforms (the caps read EST . . . Echinaopolis State Troopers, maybe?  =]
) who tell them to come up with some answers post haste.
	To Be Continued, of course, in Lost Paradise, Part 2 of 3.

	LETTERS PAGE -----------------------------------------------------

	Er, as response to one of the letters, Knuckles says that Kragok
is the descendant of Menniker, just like he is the descendant of
Steppenwolf.  Now, not that I like picking nits like this (yah, right =]
), but how would Knuckles know?  It's never mentioned that they are
related in anyway in the Dark Legion mini-series (or, at least, if it was,
the reference was so obscure that I didn't catch it).  In such a rough and
tumble a group as the Dark Legion seems to be, it might not be beyond
belief that there may be internal conflicts that result in having a
variety of leaders.  If it's true and Kragok IS Menniker's direct
descendant, then I applaud their family for being strong enough to
maintain control even under such adverse conditions.

	PARTING SHOTS ----------------------------------------------------

	Overall, this is one of the best Sonic/Sonic related comics I've
seen from the people at Archie for a long time (ever since Mecha-Madness,
thereabouts), and I'm happy to see it!  It only has a few technical
errors, but these are easily counter-acted by the excellent art and good
writing (unlike in Sonic #50 where NONE of it was exusable).
	But, like Robotnik said in Sonic #50, "good news on one hand must
beget bad news on the other".  I think it's great that Archie is finally
getting some quality back into their work, but that means that nitpickers
like me will be out of a job if it keeps up!  Horrors!  And I just started
doing this review thing and all!
	Oh, well, as long as things keep going the way they are in the
Sonic line of their comics, I and all those other nitpickers out there
will have plenty of material to work with.  =]
	Until next time,

		Roland Lowery (a.k.a. Jim Doe)
			

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