Luke Owen reviews Sonic Universe #76 – the first part of Worlds Unite
THE SONIC/MEGA MAN CROSSOVER EVENT BEGINS HERE! It’s the epic first chapter of the biggest story in Sonic/Mega Man comic book history with “Worlds Unite” Part One! Get ready for cross-world treachery as the wicked Sigma escapes the world of Mega Man X and arrives in Dr. Eggman’s secret Lost Hex base! When Sigma promises new power to the Deadly Six, how long do you think they’ll stay loyal to Dr. Eggman? We’re not betting for long! And just where exactly are our heroes during all this? Looks like Sonic and Mega Man are right in the middle of an ambush! The sense-shattering sequel to “Worlds Collide” starts right now!
The first time Archie Comics published a crossover between Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man, it caught a lot of people by surprise. Despite the fact that we all knew Archie owned the comic rights to both franchises, many of us didn’t image it was a road they would walk down. Of course the idea sounded cool, but there were a lot of factors to consider in order for it to work – but it ended up being one of the finest comic runs of its year. Worlds Collide was a fantastic story, brilliantly told and perfectly executed – it just got everything right. So when Archie announced a sequel to the series –Worlds Unite – was just around the corner, fans got excited. They got even more excited when they announced several other characters from both the Capcom and SEGA back catalogues would be appearing throughout the run. But putting that aside, can the story of Worlds Unite hold up against the brilliance of its predecessor?
Well, we’re not off to a great start.
Sonic Universe #76 is not a bad comic, nor is it a terrible start to this tale – but it is oddly mis-managed. It combines the plotlines from all Archie comic outputs (Mega Man, Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Universe) and ties them up together neatly so that everything makes perfect sense, but the problems arise when Ian Flynn crams so much story and exposition into this first issue. Scenes and panels zip and zap all over the place, allowing for nothing to sink in or for any emotional connections to be made. Sigma escapes Mega Man X’s world, is instantly with Dr. Eggman, who instantly is partnered again with Dr. Wily, who instantly build an army of robots, who finally (and instantly) capture Sonic and Mega Man so they can experiment on them. All with a span of a handful of pages. That’s a lot of story.
And worse still, the broken relationship between Eggman and Wily that made the Worlds Collide such a fun read seems to have fallen by the wayside. Not because Ian Flynn is a bad writer, but because he hasn’t allowed for himself the time to fully delve into their dynamic. Previously, we had a whole issue dedicated to their rather odd partnership, but here we’re just expected to accept that they’re working together again – which makes the ending of Worlds Collide now seem rather redundant. It all comes back to just how quickly Flynn is racing through this exposition. The argument could be made that we’re getting to the action quicker, but it does mean you can skip over Sonic Universe #76 and just read the ‘previously’ blurb in the next part of the story without missing out on anything.
One has to believe that this breakneck pace won’t be kept up for the whole run of Worlds Unite, however there is that worrying tingle in the back of my mind that reminds me we’ve got a whole slew of characters from both the Capcom and SEGA universes to introduce over the next 12 issues. It’s the comic book equivalent to Captain America: Civil War (the movie, of course) – can they handle this many characters and not lose anything? Hopefully this quick blast of exposition exists solely so we can spend more time on the story and character developments that matter moving forward. Sonic Universe #76 is not the best start to Worlds Unite, but all hope is not lost just yet.
Luke Owen is the Deputy Editor of Flickering Myth and the host of the Flickering Myth Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
