I’m trying something different this week and taking a look at a fan-comic- namely S3ason, an interpretation of what a third season of ABC’s Sonic the Hedgehog (better known by its fandom as “SatAM”) may have delivered. Mostly influenced by the creative vision of late show co-writer Ben Hurst, it does a great job in expanding on the characters and giving them even more depth, but in a much more efficient way than most fan fiction.
The Sonic franchise is known for having a near infinite amount of different continuities, and the darker, Americaized SatAM is perhaps the most renown outside the main Sega one, running from 1993 to 1995. While it was never too harsh or inappropriate, and not a perfect show by any means (if I had any enemies, I wouldn’t wish the “Ro-Becca” episode on my worst), it was arguably influential on future franchise-driven cartoons and the risks they could take.
Stumpy troll villain Ixis Naugus and Knuckles were cited by Hurst to be major players in the proposed third season, so of course they serve as major players in our comic. Snively, Robotnik’s prematurely balding nephew, now runs his uncle’s cybernetic empire. Working with Naugus, he continues their anti-environment campaign against the spikey backed speedster and the rest of the Freedom Fighters. Eventually the Chaos Emeralds enter into the plot, which weren’t mentioned during the show’s two seasons. Most of the mythology, outside of the rings Sonic collects in the games, was made from scratch by the US developers.
Sonic remains as cocky and showy as Dolph Ziggler on Red Bull, yet not quite to the level he was on the actual show. In fact, an entire side story is dedicated to Sonic alone with his thoughts, which reveal him to be plagued by self doubt.
He acts as the lancer to team leader Princess Sally Acorn, who is sort of like a ground squirrel MacGyver in her ability to wit her way out of most tight spots. Tails, as was initially planned, tries to further prove himself to his fellow eco-terrorists, though not without getting himself into trouble. Bunnie Rabbot, a rabbit with robotic limbs, has a (beautifully drawn) short story of her own, as does scientist walrus Rotor when he makes a surprising new friend.
For a cartoon about a running rodent, SatAM was unusually talky at times. S3ason keeps pretty much everybody and their dialog in character, with the debatable exception of Knuckles due to him never being officially animated for the series. What he gets is pretty much in line with most of the other Sonic canons, though he speaks much more formally than usual. It winds up being a nice contrast to Sonic’s usual jive speak.
Writer E. Mason and producer/director Paul Scott and John Roberts don’t push the comic off in any wild or unexpected directions the way a lot of fan fictions usually go. The story generally walks the straight and narrow path on what would probably air on Saturday morning television- there’s no author on board to worry about. Penciler Tim Campbell and colorer Stephen Wood start out solid, and get better and better as the chapters move along. Head here for a fun look at a video game legend that’s told a great story so far, despite a number of hiatuses.