Sonic #67 a Review by Rolland Therrien Tomb Raider No, it's not that game... it's the title of this issue of Sonic the Hedgehog. Although I suspect Archie will get letters from Playstation, the title is discriptive enough for what goes on in this issue, styled after the classic "Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Arc" motif: get inside the temple, find the booty and bring it back. The temple: The lost Temple of Sahzamazon, right in the middle of the Great Rainforest (home of the Guerilla Gorillas and Mobie); the booty? You'll see later. As Sonic (dressed in "Indiana Jones" paraphanelia) makes his way to the temple by Spincutting his way through the jungle, he does a flashback/recap of the last few issues. The only new thing about that recap is that Nate Morgan decides to go back to Mobotropolis with Sonic and Tails, and that because the Ring in Sonic's plane is drained, they have to find a new power source, located inside the temple. As Sonic enters the temple, he thinks this is going to be a breeze. Just as he finishes that thought, however, guns pop up to shoot at him, bearly giving him time to duck out of the way. After he believes he's escaped, he encounters the classic "break-away floor with usual Lava pit underneath" trap. As Sonic escapes this trap with ease, up above, in space, another one of those satelittes, the T-Sat, activates and starts tracking something... Hmmm... Usually, when one of those things activates in orbit, something bad tends to happen down below... And, as if on cue, back at the temple, a few of the statues decorating the outer walls suddenly spring to life. Wait a minute! Those aren't statues, they're Robians! Okay, back to Sonic. He walks into the inner sanctum, a large, circular room, and finds his prize: a power ring, called the Ring of Acorns. Hmm... royal property, you think? He then carefully makes the switch, taking the Ring of Acorns and putting another ring in it's place, then proceeds to walk off, job done. Sorry Sonic, you ain't getting off that easy: the room starts to fall apart. As our hero makes his way out of it, he discovers it wasn't a room at all, but a giant sleeping cobra mutate, one of those monsters from the forgotten wars of Mobius' past. Sonic runs all over, finally tying that creature in a knot, then calmly walks away, thinking it's over... This Hedghog's just asking for it, ain't he? He then turns around, and sees the Snake-beast is still after him, rolling like a ball after him, in a clichèd parody of Raiders of the Lost Ark. As he runs towards the exit, Snake beast in tow, he finds his way blocked by those mindless robians. always thinking on his feet, Sonic decides to burrow his way, Sonicspin style, under the robians, letting them handle the mutate. As he explodes from the ground back outside, he finds himself in the middle of another pack of robians, who proceed to attack him. This just isn't Sonic's day... Back at the Winged Freedom (Now in sea plane mode), Nate and Tails are getting to know each other better, as Nate explains he placed the Ring of Acorns in that temple to replace the Super-Emerald that was originally there, which he used to make all the power rings Naugus was after in the last three issues. (I guess he should've told Sonic how to get past all those traps...) Sonic rushes in, tosses Tails the ring and tells him to start the engines, 'cause he's got robians on his tail... We get a final parody of "Raiders" as Sonic finds a bunch of snakes in his seat, which he just tosses over board, after which, Nate tells Sonic to make a wish as the engine rev up. Sonic just wishes for this Jungle Adventure to be over, which it then is. The end. Next time, Homecoming. Well, I thought this story was nice, if only because it's the last chapter in Sonic's adventures away from the Freedom Fighters. The art was good, and the story had a nice, fast pace to it. The "Raiders" joke were somewhat clichèd, though (that "huge rolling ball" bit, for exemple, has been used by everybody...), though the running gag of Sonic finding a new danger before him, just when he thought he was home free was good. All in all, a nice filler between the end of the "Search for Naugus" storyline and the "Return of Sonic" for next issue. Rating: 3 rings. And now, for the back-up story... Shadows in the Dark. Lupe assembles her Wolfpack and begins the long journey back to their home, to the region they call the Grand Canyon. Sally sees them off, before meeting up with the long forgotten Bunnie, and they go back to Knothole to plane Sonic's B-day party. As the Wolfpack walk away from Mobotropolis, which they consider a lousy place to live, Lupe remenisces as to how their own pack had to split up, she leand a warband against Robotnik, and her mate, Lobo (Lupe, Lobo... both words for wolf, if you hadn't noticed :-P), assembled the cubs of the pack to get them to shelter. Afterwards, the Wolfpack met up with the freedom fighters (as shown in the "Doomsday" episode), and the rest was history. They continue marching, but find their way blocked by a huge river, which they don't remember being there before... After they unpack an inflatable raft and start to row their way across, a storm begins, and the story ends there. Well, what can I say... There isn't much to this story... The art's pretty good, but the story is slow, all the characters but Lupe and the cameos by Sally and Bunnie are dull, and the plot is going no-where... 'Nuff said. Rating: 1 ring Overall Rating: 2 rings.