Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context ComicBook / SonicTheHedgehogPromoComic

Go To

1[[quoteright:271:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/396px-STHPromoSTHPromo04_987.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:271:[[ARareSentence A not-so-blue, spunky insectivore meeting his soon-to-be archnemesis.]]]]
3
4->'''Kintobor''': "Who in tarnations are ''you!?''"\
5'''Sonic''': "Don't you ''know?'' I'm '''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'''[[TradeSnark ™]]"
6
7A very interesting entry from the earliest days in the ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' series, this 16 page oneshot promotional comic (simply named ''Sonic the Hedgehog [[Title1 Number 1]]'') was crafted by Sega of America, with writing and artwork by Francis Mao, in an attempt to provide an origin story for Sonic in the western world, as well as promote his [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1 debut video game.]]
8
9The comic starts in the Green Hills of South Island, located on the [[AdventureFriendlyWorld planet Mobius]], with Sonic rescuing his animals friends from several badniks created by a new local villain, the evil Dr. Ivo Robotnik. Worried, they question where their friend [[SdrawkcabAlias Dr. Ovi Kintobor]] is, only for Sonic to drop the bad news--that Kintobor ''is'' Robotnik! He then flashes back into an origin story, where Sonic explains how he first met Kintobor.
10
11His tale begins back when he was a prickly, brown hedgehog, with him accidentally burrowing into Kintobor's underground laboratory. By chance, the good doctor is working on a machine called the Retro-Orbital Chaos Compressor-- [[FunWithAcronyms or just R.O.C.C. for short]]. The machine is powered by six mysterious objects called the Chaos Emeralds, with their power kept in check by a series of gold-colored Containment Rings, and as soon as he finds the seventh Gray Emerald to counteract the other six in the machine, he plans to use the machine to rid the world of all evil by absorbing it directly into itself. Sonic and Kintobor become fast friends, and after a freak accident involving a treadmill (due to Sonic wanting to kick the mass versus velocity theory in the dirt) Sonic's fur is turned from brown to cobalt blue, and his quills are permanently fused together from the heat of the speed he was going at--as a token of goodwill, Kintobor promptly gives him a special pair of friction-less shoes to replace his old ones.
12
13But one day, Kintobor [[NiceJobBreakingItHero spills a drink on the R.O.C.C. controls]], causing the machine to go haywire; not only scattering the R.O.C.C.'s Containment Rings all over South Island, but also bathing Kintobor in 10,000 bolts of [[FunWithAcronyms Pure Evil Energy,]] causing him to transform into the evil [[BigBad Dr. Robotnik]], who chases off Sonic and immediately gets to work building an army of robots to take over the world and harness the power of the Chaos Emeralds for his own means.
14
15The rest of the comic is spent on Sonic partaking in loose adaptations of the levels from the games to try and stop Robotnik, as well as saving Porker Lewis in the end (albeit losing a Chaos Emerald to Dr. Robotnik in the process) and the comic [[BreakingTheFourthWall telling the readers]] to go buy the game to see what happens next.
16
17The comic was [[ContinuityDrift initially]] meant to be the canon backstory in some form or another for the western branch of the ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' series, [[AllThereInTheManual per word of the]] [[http://sonic.wikia.com/wiki/Sonic_Bible original]] [[Script/SonicTheHedgehogBible US series bible]], distinguishing it from the storyline of the series Japanese branch. However, none of this backstory was ever brought up or acknowledged in any of the video games (understandable, since Creator/SonicTeam had no involvement with Sega of America's western localization of Sonic), and it is [[CanonDiscontinuity no longer considered canon]] (if it ever was in the first place) due to ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' permanently merging the Japanese storyline of the Sonic games with that of the western Sonic games. It did provide the backbone for Fleetway's ''ComicBook/SonicTheComic'', which borrowed the same origin story (and curiously did an adaptation of ''Sonic Adventure'' without nullifying any of the previous continuity).
18
19No relation to ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'', which has a completely different backstory and continuity, despite also being ([[ContinuityReboot or rather, was]]) set on Mobius.
20
21You can find the comic in question in its entirety [[https://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_(promotional_comic) here.]] It was included in some older early 90's comic books, and was also included in the october 1991 issue of ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'', ComicBook/{{Superman}} #62, issue #8 of ''Sega Visions'', ''Disney Adventures'' Vol. 2 No. 1 (the latter in a heavily abridged form that chopped out the entire Kintobor to Robotnik part) and others. Predictably, it was also given away as a standalone promotional issue.
22
23Compare to the Japan only, three volume tie in manga, ''Manga/SonicTheHedgehogStoryComic'', which likewise provides a little backstory to Sonic before the main game (and are unrelated to the other Sonic manga series published there, which also had its own interpretation of the original games backstory drawn by the mangas artists, albeit as a tie-in to ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'' instead). Obviously, the former manga ignores the backstory established by the western continuity and sticks more closely to the source material, while the other manga [[InNameOnly plays fast and loose with it.]]
24-----------------
25!!Tropes Related To The Comic:
26* AdaptationExpansion: The comic tries to elaborate on the backstory for the original game and explain elements of it, such as the purpose of the Chaos Emeralds (they were magical items intended to be used for good purposes and rid the world of evil) and the rings (which are [[HandWave handwaved]] as being "Containment Rings" for the R.O.C.C. machine and its energy, which got scattered all over the island when the machine went haywire).
27* AdaptationOriginConnection: The story ties Sonic and Robotnik's backstories together by positioning them as friends at one time before Robotnik became an evil scientist and before Sonic was blue.
28* AlternateContinuity: The comic was meant to provide a distinctive backstory for western audiences of Sonic, which does not match up with that of the Japanese branch of the Sonic games (which is now considered the sole canon for the main series of video games).
29* AmericanKirbyIsHardcore: The original game and what little backstory it had proper was a [[ExcusePlot straightforward, kiddy good vs. evil scenario]]. This comic practically turns it into a tragedy for kids.
30* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Invoked; Kintobor's treadmill acknowledges a proper estimate of Sonic's natural speed using the Mass Versus Velocity theory as 17 mph, but Sonic, being as brash as he is, decides to spit in the face of it by going so fast that he breaks the sound barrier (767 MPH), and thus violently overloads the treadmill--and the heat from the speed also changes Sonic's color from brown to cobalt blue and permanently fuses his quills together. This does raise the question of why Sonic wasn't killed by having his body reach such a dangerously high temperature (we clearly see it burned his shoes into a crisp and warranted Kintobor to construct specialized frictionless shoes for him) or suffer from the inertia of launching himself and stopping at such incredible speed, unless we accept that he was somehow [[RequiredSecondaryPowers resilient enough to withstand that kind of situation in the first place.]]
31* BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil: Kintobor believes he can tip the scales in the favor of good by using the R.O.C.C. machine to harness the power of the Chaos Emeralds and use them to rid the world of all evil, trapping it inside of the machine.
32* BeneathTheEarth: Where Kintobor's secret lab is located.
33* BigBad: Dr. Robotnik.
34* BigGood: Dr. Kintobor, until he becomes Robotnik.
35* CanonDiscontinuity: ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' brought the original japanese storyline back into the western Sonic games, knocking this early backstory out of the game canon forever from 1999 and on. Even if that wasnt the case, later games contain story elements that would [[ContinuitySnarl flat out contradict the events of the comic anyway]], such as Sonic's World in the games explicitly being stated to ''not'' be Mobius and the existence of Eggman's grandfather Gerald Robotnik.
36* CanonForeigner: "A Gray Emerald" gets mentioned offhand in the story, even though at the time only six Chaos Emeralds existed in the early Sonic games. The seventh Chaos Emerald (of similar color) wouldn't become canon until ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'', and while the Grey Emerald could neutralize the others in ''ComicBook/SonicTheComic'', this concept wouldn't be applied in the games until the Master Emerald was introduced later on.
37* CanonImmigrant:
38** Porker Lewis would become a prominent character in the UK Sonic Comic.
39** The squirrel wears a bow in her hair, resembling the ''ComicBook/SonicTheComic'' version of Sally.
40** The idea of a seventh Chaos Emerald would be used for the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis[=/=]Mega Drive version of ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2''.
41** The basic plot of this comic was adapted as the canon backstory for the [[ComicBook/SonicTheComic Fleetway Sonic comic series.]]
42** Also, the idea of Sonic's shoes being designed to be heat-resistant was carried over to three other Sonic continuities; the WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog cartoon, [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics the Archie Sonic comics]] and the [[ComicBook/SonicTheComic Fleetway Sonic comics]].
43* CliffHanger: Basically an adaptation of the original game with an added background for Sonic and Robotnik, skipping Marble Zone and Spring Yard Zone, and stopping short of the Final Zone with the Chaos Emerald tally one-to-one. The reader is encouraged to play the Sega Genesis to play out what happens next.
44* ClothesMakeTheSuperman: Strangely, despite the western original manual for the first Sonic game saying his sneakers are what gives him his speed [[note]]although this was likely a reference to the Power Sneakers power-up, which made Sonic go faster than normal[[/note]], the comic makes it clear that Sonic was already capable of breaking the sound barrier on his own without explanation. He does acquire a pair of fancy friction-less sneakers from Kintobor, but that was to replace his old ones that got burned to a crisp from the friction of him running so fast and ensure Sonic could run without having to replace his shoes each time.
45* ContinuityDrift: Initially the canon Sega of America backstory, but this was either ignored or forgotten (the actual game obviously does not acknowledge the western backstory this comic elaborates on, since Sega of Japan didn't have a hand in the comics creation, and Sega of America likewise didn't make the actual game), and it was made moot anyway when ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' nullified the concept of different localizations getting different storylines. Later games like ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'' would introduce story elements that would contradict the events of this comic anyway, such as the games clearly being set on Earth and Ivo Robotnik having a grandfather in canon whose surname is Robotnik, which rules out the Ovi Kintobor backstory.
46* TheCorruption: What turns Kintobor into Robotnik.
47* CreateYourOwnVillain: Robotnik, who Kintobor unwittingly turned himself into by spilling a soda over the R.O.C.C. controls.
48* DownerEnding: Not the main story itself (which counts as a BittersweetEnding) but If you take the story at face value as the official backstory for the classic games, Sonic was never able to return Ivo Robotnik back into Ovi Kintobor.
49* DramaticIrony: The benevolent Ovi Kintobor built the R.O.C.C. machine to rid the world of all evil by using the power of the Chaos Emeralds, but it unwittingly ended up [[GoneHorriblyWrong turning him into the very thing he wanted to destroy]] by transforming him, both physically and mentally, into the pure evil Dr. Ivo Robotnik.
50* EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference: This comic was produced when "[[WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM Sally]] [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics Acorn]]", "[[Comicbook/SonicTheComic Porker Lewis]]", and "[[Comicbook/SonicTheComic Johnny Lightfoot]]" had not yet undergone DivergentCharacterEvolution and were still just Sonic's [[WoodlandCreatures Animal Friends]] with new names from Creator/{{Sega}} of America. This early version of Sally is notably just a [[http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091002173929/sonic/images/e/e4/Ricky_(Sally_Acorn)_1.png Ricky]] [[TertiarySexualCharacteristics with a bow on her head]].
51* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The backstory presented here for Sonic and Robotnik is very odd and quite different from their more straightforward rivalry in the games proper. And because this was made as part of the long abandoned western storyline for the Sonic games, it also has outdated story elements that were ignored and later dropped from canon, such as Sonic being on Möbius instead of Earth or "Sonic's World".
52* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Sonic introducing himself to Kintobor.
53* ExcusePlot: The next [[ComicBook/ActionComicsNumber1 Action Comics #1]], this story wasn't. When you look past all the additional backstory and characters added, it's a transparently obvious showcase mini-comic made solely to get kids to [[NowBuyTheMerchandise buy the video game after theyre done reading it]].
54* ForWantOfANail: If Kintobor had just kept that soda away from the machine (or at least bothered to make the machinery waterproof in the first place), the entire plot (and by proxy, the entire series) wouldn't have started.
55* FunWithAcronyms: R.O.C.C.
56* GratuitousLatin: Kintobor refers to Sonic as an Erinaceus Europaeus, which a footnote claims is Latin for hedgehog--specifically, the Latin taxonomical name for the European Hedgehog species.
57* GrimyWater: In Labyrinth Zone, due to Robotnik's pollution. Sonic almost drowns in it.
58* MechaMooks: The Badniks.
59* MineralMacGuffin: The Chaos Emeralds.
60* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Ovi Kintobor is obviously patterned after UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein.
61* NoWaterproofingInTheFuture: Kintobor's R.O.C.C. machine goes completely haywire just from having a soda spilt onto its controls.
62* NowBuyTheMerchandise: Sonic tells the reader at the end to buy the game it's based on to find out how the story ends.
63* OffscreenVillainDarkMatter: It's not explained where or how Dr. Robotnik was able to build a large army of robots on his own so quickly, much less gather the resources to pull it off. While it's not impossible for Kintobor to have been smart enough to plan or build them at all given he was able to create a machine that could (theoretically) remove all of the evil from the world, his barren lab doesn't give the impression that he was resourceful enough to create what amounts to his own private army or massive factories like Scrap Brain Zone.
64* {{Prequel}}: Intended to be one to the first game.
65* PungeonMaster: Sonic.
66* SadisticChoice: In Scrap Brain Zone, Sonic is forced to choose between stopping Robotnik from stealing a Chaos Emerald, or saving Porker Lewis from being helplessly sliced in half by a buzz saw. Sonic ultimately saves Porker, but Robotnik makes off with the Emerald.
67* SdrawkcabAlias: Kintobor and Robotnik.
68* SlidingScaleOfAdaptationModification: The comic is a Type 2 (Recognizable Adaptation). It follows the art style and character designs and the setpieces and enemies are lifted straight out of the video game, but the story itself is drastically altered from the basic good vs. evil conflict of the actual game.
69* SuperHeroOrigin
70* SuperSpeed: Sonic, naturally. He breaks the sound barrier early in the story.
71* TokenHuman: Like in the pre-Sonic Adventure games, Kintobor/Robotnik is the only human in the story. The rest of the characters are animals.
72* WalkDontSwim: Averted. Unlike the game its based on, Sonic is able to swim, but it doesn't do him any favors in the polluted waters of Labyrinth Zone.
73* WritingAroundTrademarks: While the Mass Vs. Velocity theory was written by UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein, here he's called [[PunnyName Eggstein]] due to the Einstein name being trademarked.

Top