With the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (SEGA Technical Institute, 1994) in February 1994, gamers were introduced to Knuckles the Echidna. This mischievous, dreadlocked antagonist was created by Takashi Yuda and is my favourite of Sonic’s supporting cast so I’ve been dedicating every Sunday to Rad Red!
Story Title: “Total Chaotix” (Part 1 to 6)
Published: 27 May 1995 (cover-dated: 9 June 1995) to 5 August 1995 (cover-dated: 18 August 1995)
Writer: Nigel Kitching
Artist: Richard Elson
The Background:
After finally knocking Nintendo from the top of the videogame industry, SEGA almost immediately transformed Sonic’s popularity into mainstream success with an influx of ancillary merchandise, mainly cartoons and comic books. Six months or so after Archie Comics published their first Sonic miniseries, United Kingdom publisher Fleetway Editions Limited published “Britain’s Official SEGA Comic”, Sonic the Comic (StC), a fortnightly comic book I collected diligently until its unfortunate end. Largely taking its lore from the now defunct Mobius/Doctor Ovi Kintobor storyline that originated outside of Japan, StC portrayed Sonic as a mean-spirited leader of the rebellious Freedom Fighters. Like the Archie comics, StC included some loose adaptations that recontextualised the videogames to fit its noticeably different lore. After his introduction in a multi-part story loosely based on Sonic 3, Knuckles immediately graduated to his own back-up stories that, after tying up loose ends from his debuted, eventually expanded on Knuckles’s vague backstory. His second solo feature, however, would be this loose adaptation of Knuckles’ Chaotix (SEGA, 1995), a bizarre and obscure title released solely for SEGA’s doomed 32X peripheral, which dramatically reinterpreted the titular Chaotix Crew for StC’s purposes.
The Review:
“Total Chaotix” begins immediately after (or, at least, not long after) Sonic and Knuckles finally rid the Floating Island of Doctor Ivo Robotnik’s forces, bring down his Death Egg space station, and return the all-powerful Master Emerald to the island’s hot-headed guardian. Thus, Knuckles is in high spirits at the start of the story as, for the first time in centauries, the seven Chaos Emeralds and their gigantic master are fully powered, increasing them in size, keeping the Floating Island high in the sky, and protecting the island with an energy barrier to deter unwanted visitors. Speaking of which, Knuckles takes a Zoom Tube to check in on his new guests in the Mushroom Hill Zone. Realising that Dr. Robotnik would turn his wrath on the Emerald Hill Zone inhabitants, Sonic arranged a deal with Knuckles to shelter the Emerald Hill folk on the Floating Island in return for the Master Emerald. While Knuckles isn’t exactly happy with this arrangement since he prefers to live in solitude, he honours the agreement and hopes his new guests won’t bother him. While investigating the damage done to the Floating Island by the Death Egg’s powerful eye lasers, Knuckles is shocked to discover an old echidna relic: a stone ring whose ancient writing apparently reveals it to be a gateway to a “dream country”. Before Knuckles can properly examine the artefact, a portal suddenly opens and sucks him through, depositing the naïve guardian in the Special Zone. Bombarded by the bizarre dimension’s kaleidoscope of colours and surreal imagery, Knuckles realises he mistranslated the stone and prepares for a rough ride since the Special Zone is almost impossible to escape from. At that moment, Knuckles is confronted by the Omni-Viewer, a sentient television screen who watches over the Special Zone and allows for transport to and from the dimension. While the Omni-Viewer is an ally of Sonic’s and was once forced to do Dr. Robotnik’s bidding, his intelligence is massively out of date and he still believes Knuckles is the dictator’s partner. Thus, he ignores Knuckles’ pleas and teleports in the “Guardians of the Special Zone”, the Chaotix (Vector the Crocodile, Mighty the Armadillo, Espio the Chameleon, Charmy Bee (referred to as “Charmee”), and Nack the Weasel) to deal with the perceived threat.
On Vector’s order, the group’s muscle, Mighty, leaps in to land the first blow, leaving him plummeting into the void when Knuckles glides to safety. Luckily, the peppy “Charmee” is on hand to rescue his cohort, who doesn’t care for the enthusiastic youngster’s commentary on his humiliation. While trying to escape the unreasonable group, Knuckles is blindsided by Espio’s camouflage ability. The chameleon then throttles Knuckles (!) and calls Nack for an assist, only for both to be shrugged off by the echidna’s superior strength. Vector then enters the fray and tries to snap his powerful jaws onto Knuckles’ head; however, Knuckles dodges and lands a solid uppercut to Vector’s chin, causing him to bite his tongue. The fracas is halted by the Omni-Viewer, who does a bit of research and finds that Knuckles is telling the truth. However, just as tensions are beginning to cool, “Charmee” notices some distortion appearing on the Omni-Viewer’s “face” and, to the horror of all, the warping solidifies to show not one, but two Metallixes forming within the Omni-Viewer! Despite recognising Sonic’s robotic doppelgänger from a precious encounter in Sky Sanctuary Zone, Knuckles is as powerless as Vector to keep the Omni-Viewer from being downloaded to a handheld device wielded by one of the Badniks. The Metallix then flee the scene, leaving the Omni-Viewer an empty void and giving the group no chance but to team up to rescue him, despite Nack’s suspicions that Knuckles is still working for Dr. Robotnik. When Vector mentions the ovoid dictator’s abandoned Egg Fortress base, the group makes haste on a rescue mission, unaware that the Metallixes are working under the command of a gigantic Emperor Metallix! Thanks to Mighty flying head-first at the Egg Fortress, the group’s infiltration doesn’t go as quietly as Knuckles wished, though it’s Rad Red who must keep Mighty and Espio from coming to blows when the short-tempered armadillo trips the base’s alarm. After “Charmee” warns of an incoming Metallix, the group squeeze into the base’s ventilation system. However, an errant kick from Nack compromises their position, forcing the wayward weasel to flee when they’re spotted by the Metallix.
The Metallix attacks without mercy, blasting the group with its chest laser, easily sends them flying with a swing of its clawed arm, then buries them beneath debris by blasting the roof above. Although the Metallix believes it has killed its foes, Knuckles claws his way from the wreckage and flies into a rage. While the Metallix tanks his best shot and its speed throws Knuckles off-balance, Knuckles subdues the robot by hurling a girder through its chest. Though only a temporary reprieve, it’s enough for Nack to come out of hiding and for Mighty to muscle the debris off his team. With the damaged Metallix in hot pursuit and the Emperor Metallix’s plot to create a copy of the Omni-Viewer almost complete, Nack leads the team right into the “lion’s den” (as Vector puts it), betraying his team mates to the Emperor Metallix in return for “money, what else?” Although the Emperor Metallix thanks Nack for giving them the access codes to the Omni-Viewer, it immediately orders its Metallixes to attack him alongside his former allies, double-crossing the opportunistic weasel. Despite Nack busting out a hidden disruptor for just such a double-cross, he’s blasted by a Metallix. Still, Knuckles grabs the weapon and fires it, emitting what appears to be an electro-magnetic pulse that instantly disables the Emperor Metallix and its two minions. With the threat ended in surprisingly anti-climactic fashion, the Chaotix retrieve Nack and the Omni-Viewer and drop Knuckles back on the Floating Island. However, Knuckles can’t shake the feeling that there was something off about the Metallix and the Omni-Viewer finds he’s missing some memory banks from the ordeal. They’re right to be concerned by this for the story ends to show the Emperor Metallix and its brotherhood reactivating, having successfully feigned defeat, and that they now possess a corrupted version of the Omni-Viewer that will allow them to travel through time and space to realise their goal of world conquest!
The Summary:
As is often the case, “Total Chaotix” is bolstered by Richard Elson’s stirring and visually engaging art. Having him work on Knuckles’ early solo strips gave them an air of legitimacy not afforded to other back-up stories in StC and showed that they were just as important to the ongoing storylines (especially StC’s multi-part adaptation of Sonic 3 & Knuckles). Elson draws a fantastic Knuckles, capturing his toothy smirk and temperamental demeanour, and a wonderful Metallix. Unlike the Mecha-Metallix last seen in StC, these Metallix are a return to form, featuring that sleek, sexy aesthetic that’s become so iconic. Knowing how troublesome just one of these Badniks was makes seeing two quite the moment and the Metallix retain their menace by how fast and lethal they’re portrayed. They make mincemeat of the Chaotix, who get no chance to fight back and are nearly killed by just one Metallix. Even Knuckles struggles to go toe-to-toe with the doppelgänger since it’s built to match Sonic’s speed and even a girder to the chest doesn’t put the Metallix down, so seeing a whole army of the robotic doubles ends the story on one hell of a cliff-hanger! “Total Chaotix” also introduces the Davros-like Emperor Metallix, a gigantic robot hedgehog permanently sat in a massive throne and who’s modelled after Metal Sonic Kai (fitting, considering this is a loose adaptation of Knuckles’ Chaotix). Knuckles suspects that the Metallix have split from Dr. Robotnik and that’s revealed to be true. The Emperor Metallix no longer serves its rotund master and has instead commands a “brotherhood” of robotic Sonics to make its own bid for world conquest. Its scheme to facilitate this is to download a copy of the all-powerful Omni-Viewer, a scheme that works despite Knuckles’ best efforts and which ends the story on a cliff-hanger that’s not only picked up in a later Sonic story, but which lays the foundation for future appearances of the Metallix.
Naturally, the titular Chaotix make quite an impact in the story thanks, again, to Richard Elson’s artwork, which closely emulates the artwork seen in their debut title. It’s interesting seeing them reinterpreted as the “Guardians of the Special Zone” considering they had no stronger ties to the Special Stages than Sonic and the other characters, but it makes sense in the context given (the Metallix are based in the Special Zone and this story is about introducing their “brotherhood”). Each character gets a little time to showcase their personality but, with so many of them, they’re largely one-dimensional. Vector is the leader (his headphones and love of music don’t come into play here, or ever, as I recall); Mighty is the hot-tempered muscle; and “Charmee” is the annoying little kid who gets on all their nerves. Surprisingly, considering he gets second billing in Knuckles’ Chaotix and is now known as a stoic ninja, Espio is probably the least developed of the group. He turns invisible, which is cool, but doesn’t seem that different a personality from Mighty, with the two almost coming to blows at one point. If course, the odd man weasel out is Nack, who’s less of a disreputable treasure hunter and more of a self-serving sell-out. It’s implied that this group has been together for a while, so it makes me wonder how deep Nack’s infiltration went or if he just decided to betray the team in this story. I guess anyone who had played Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble (Aspect, 1994) would’ve seen this betrayal coming, but then nothing’s for sure in StC, which plays it fast and loose with fidelity. The Chaotix are seen to be a relatively competent group when faced with a reasonable threat like Knuckles but are ridiculously outclassed against a single Metallix and don’t showcase much of their abilities beyond the basics, which is a shame. Still, the art and the significance of this story in both the wider StC canon and the context of its ongoing Sonic 3 & Knuckles adaptation make “Total Chaotix” a decent story. The new characters add a lot, visually, to Sonic’s extended cast and I enjoyed the ominous nature of the Brotherhood of Metallix, even if the story barely has anything to do with Knuckles’ Chaotix.
My Rating:
Great Stuff
Have you ever read “Total Chaotix”? What did you think to Fleetway’s version of the Chaotix and the reinterpretation of Nack as a traitor in their ranks? Were you happy to see the Metallix return? Would you have liked to see more elements from the videogame included in the story? Which of Fleetway’s Knuckles and/or Chaotix stories was your favourite and why? Are you celebrating Knuckles this month? Whatever you think about Sonic the Comic, and especially Knuckles and Chaotix, leave a comment down below and go show me some love on Ko-Fi.
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