It’s time for the next big Showcase Presents review. DC has a lot of popular superheroes who were around back in the day and then went on to become super heroes. At the same time, they also had their classic war veterans and Sgt. Rock is arguably the biggest one around. Some would argue that he was more memorable than Nick Fury and I could hardly disagree. Sgt. Rock is a fighter and as with Judge Dredd in another comic, this collection made me an insta fan. He’s pretty cool!
This collection brings a bunch of comics together, but it’s hard to really say what the plot is. Aside from the fact that they’re fighting in World War II of course. If you’ve read any of the old civil war issues from either Marvel or DC, you would know why. Just about every issue is a stand alone. The Nazi’s try to take out Sgt. Rock and his pals only to be quickly broken. Once in a blue moon, they will actually gain the upper hand, but Sgt. Rock is always ready for their tricks.
It’s easy to think that this could get repetitive after a while, but I can’t say that I ever felt like that. Each comic is fun to read and it’s partially because the writing is so good. Today’s comics tend to have some pretty generic trash talking at the ready, but not this collection! Just about every line is a pretty good pun during the battles. (Then again, with a character named Ice Cream it’s what you may expect) The fighters are all pretty heroic and they have a lot of respect for Sgt. Rock. It’s hard not too considering how good he is.
Sgt. Rock really makes the comic. Sometimes, the cast and story can only be okay and the comic will still be great as long as the lead is rock (get it?) solid. That’s the case this time. Without Sgt. Rock, I can safely say that the collection would not be the same. He doesn’t believe in superstitions and he’s easily the best GI Joe of the bunch. He has good instincts and battle experience that help him overcome all challenges that go his way. His personality is basically like Fury’s in the old days, but he’s a little more intense and willing to do whatever it takes to win. He’s a great hand to hand fighter and the only time that he was defeated was when it was 8 to 1.
Even though the plots are mostly one shots, I’ll give a few examples of what a plot could be. One involved a guy who had these magical tarot cards that told him whenever someone was about to die. People began to die left and right to Sgt. Rock has to figure out a way to show his men that there’s no such thing as magic. In another comic, the army men had to team up with the French Cadets to stop a bunch of explosives from going off.
If there were any characters that I didn’t care for aside from the Nazi’s, it was definitely the cadets. They aren’t bad characters per say, but I think that it’s stretching it a little bit to have them there. They’re just kids so I can’t really picture them taking out whole squadrons of soldiers. They also never really get to say any puns. They’re very serious during the battles and the heroes always end up acknowledging that the cadets did good by the end. They appear in quite a few comics as they lend their support.
Another comic had Sgt. Rock and his men find many clues left by an unknown soldier. These clues warned them of danger and liked to playfully insult Sgt. Rock. This happens in a few different issues and they never really find out who’s leaving them there. One comic says that it’s more or less meta, but I’m waiting for a real reveal. This guy seems to be pretty cool so far and meeting him would be epic.
One of the more emotional comics is Sgt. Rock’s origin stories. Luckily, it only takes place before he got his stripes instead of showing us how he grew up. 3 of his allies died and he inherited their stripes. Another sad comic was the one where a solo act joined up with them and he refused to work with the team. He learned better…but he learned the hard way. There are many other comics that I could mention, but you get the jist of it.
Luckily, this was a little after the good ole horseback riding days so we don’t really get any animal violence that I could remember. There is one scene where Sgt. Rock is painfully interrogated, but it is luckily completely off screen except for a few hits so it’s not as bad as it could be. We know that Sgt. Rock is the kind of guy who will never talk so it could have been a potentially long scene.
I almost forgot to mention, but Sgt. Rock’s group is named Easy. It’s a pretty great name since it provides them with extra enthusiasm. There are so many puns that they end up making about the name. To enemies, it sounds like the group is made up of pushovers, but they learn better once the fights start. The team is especially good during the close combat brawls as they can all fight in their distinctive style. They would be dead against the airplanes without Sgt. Rock though because they don’t tend to see them quick enough. “Eat Dirt, Easy” is an example of what Sgt. Rock says as the airplane approaches. I’m not sure how effective that is to dodge the gunfire, but I suppose that you are making a smaller target out of yourself.
The artwork is pretty solid. I can’t say that I liked the formatting for the graphic novel at one point though. It’s in black and white, but that’s not really a negative. What I’m talking about is the size of the print. It’s good for most of them, but there must have been a malfunction somewhere as one of the comics is really unclear. It’s still readable of course, but it can be a bit of a strain to read it. This won’t really affect the score and it could have just been this particular collection and the toner was just a little off.
Overall, This was a very fun collection to read. If you like the World War II stories (and even if you didn’t) then you’ll like this one. Sgt. Rock is a very good character and the writing is easily 5 star material. I can’t say that I had very high hopes for this one coming in, but it was definitely very well done. It’s too bad that Sgt. Rock hasn’t appeared all that much i the modern comics, but maybe it’s for the best. He will always be remembered for his World War II adventures and his reputation will stay untarnished. I highly recommend this collection and it is definitely not a bad deal financially considering how many stories are included. Go Easy!
Overall 7/10
Update! Star Lord got some extra power when he got a gem in a recent comic and he was even able to take Thanos down. I’m not sure if I agree with the outcome, but his extra powers definitely score him the win here. Star Lord wins.
Well, the legendary Sonic Saga Series continues with this electrifying volume! To be frank, this volume wasn’t quite as exciting as the last few, but it was still pretty fun for the most part. I definitely preferred the first half, but the cliffhanger definitely hints at cool things, which are to come. We will see if Sonic has what it takes or if he will be quicklu defeated by this threat.
The first half concludes the big Eggman event. Eggman has followed Sonic and his pals to their new home. After Sonic was casually crushed in their first encounter…does he really stand a chance!? He hasn’t gotten any stronger after all and he’s still pretty fatigued from their last bout. Luckily, Sonic has a plan, which may turn the tides against Eggman and his army. It’s going to have to be a doozy at this rate!
The second half is mostly an arc to help you pick which side you’re on. Team Sonic or Team Tails. It’s a clear choice right from the get go as far as I am concerned. Tails looks pretty bad for the entire volume, but more on that later. Tails’ (shady) parents have decided that the place needs a new ruler and they want the King to step down so they create a mob and attack the castle. The King arrests the parents, but Tails helps them to bust free. While the parents go to dispose of the King, Tails stays behind to take Sonic down. Sonic is going to have to choose between the country’s safety and his friendship with the kid in this big climax. How did it come to this!?
Sonic is the main character and that’s how it should be in a Sonic collection. He does pretty well throughout and it reminds me why I’ve always been a fan. One part that I didn’t care for was Sonic’s resolution against Eggman. In the end, Sonic basically admitted that he couldn’t win. He did get wrecked during their first battle, but I like to think that Sonic would find a way to use his speed to his advantage and secure a win. Let’s face it, if it is to be it’s up to me Sonic will always be able to crush Eggman’s robots when the going gets tough. The other part would be the ending to his battle with Tails. He’s being nice to Tails of course, but the stakes were decently high so I’m not sure how great that was. If something had happened…well, it would have been very dicey for Sonic. The whole issue wasn’t really his fault at that point. Nontheless, Sonic definitely did well in these issues and I look forward to seeing how he’s going to deal with the next threat. The Sonic comics definitely wouldn’t be the same without him since Sonic provides most of the laughs.
Well, Tails definitely goes through a lot of character regression in this volume. They’ve been hinting at it for a while now so it’s not like the issue came out of left field. Unfortunately, everything finally blows to the surface in the comic as Tails has his big fight with Sonic. Now, Tails is doing all of this to break his father out of prison, but the guy deserved to go there. He organized a mob and basically made everyone crazy. Tails has to realize that justice must come over his personal feelings at times. Sonic naturally arrives to stop Tails from making this mistake and the fight begins. It should be noted that Sonic is trying not to fight Tails, while Tails is getting in every cheap shot that he can muster.
It’s definitely not a very effective way of accomplishing things. We also find out that Tails is mostly mad at Sonic because of the whole Fiona incident. Tails should have spoken up about it sooner and it’s not quite as serious as he makes it out to be. Romance should never come before justice and teamwork. Tails talks tough to the end, but I can’t say that I liked him at all in this volume. Hopefully, he will put this behind him and become a better Freedom Fighter for the next collection.
Eggman returns after his big victory in the last volume. He continues to explain how he has been toying with all of the heroes up til now. Even as he leaves, he explains that the heroes are basically doomed when he comes back to get them. He doesn’t really get to have a rematch with Sonic in this volume since a few others decided to jump in. It was short, but Eggman’s big run is already over. The collection ends with him making a truce with the Freedom Fighters so that they can combat the next menace. Eggman still makes for a solid villain and he’s much better than how he looks in the video games. At least, the newer ones. He was pretty decent in Sonic DX and Adventure 2 Battle. I would argue that he went downhill from there with the exception of Shadow The Hedgehog.
Scourge and Fiona only get a small cameo. They’re mostly just here to show us how powerful the new villain is. Hopefully Scourge has another fight with Sonic coming up and Fiona will likely toy with the heroes’ emotions for a while. It’s what she does best after all. Again, the next volume sounds pretty intense!
I personally blame Snively the most for the fact that Eggman didn’t win this round. He had an army at the ready so blowing up the forcefield should have been extremely easy. Not accomplishing this feat was pretty embarrassing at best. I’ve never really cared for Snively no matter how emotional they try to make him. He’s still more of a two bit villain and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
The very ending of the collection was definitely pretty intense though. Knuckles is finally going back to his island, but we see that things have definitely changed since last time. Is he already too late? Moreover, one of Sonic’s deadliest foes is about to return and that’s not good for the unsuspecting heroes. It may be time to call in the mighty Shadow The Hedgehog! (He is seen on the cover of the next volume so this guess may be validated…..)
It should also be noted that there is a mini comic at the end about how Sonic met Tails’ parents. They were a lot nicer back then and they didn’t have so many hidden agendas. The times have changed them as they have changed many of Sonic’s friends. Luckily, Sonic’s held himself together all these years…that’s why he’s known as one of the greatest heroes of Mobius! This story was all right, but nothing really noteworthy happens in it.
The artwork in the collection is as solid as always. We don’t get any real dramatic moments like the last volume and things aren’t quite as serious. This means that we can’t test the artwork as much as we may have wanted too, but it still looks solid for the characters and action scenes. Archie definitely knows how to stay consistent.
One big criticism that I had with the first part was that Eggman’s army probably should have won. Sonic and Knuckles were the only two heavy hitters left and Eggman proved to be more than a match for Sonic. With the power of friendship, the heroes manages to prevail, but it was still a little hard to really believe. Snively not being able to penetrate the barrier with all of his warheads was also hard to swallow. No matter how you slice it….Eggman should have won this battle. He came in with the better plan and the better tech. Better luck next time I suppose.
The resolution to the other part was also a little suspect. Tails’ parents were completely unreasonable, but the comic tries to show that they were at least partially in the right. They agree to a reasonable compromise of having a committee for the residents to help in important decisions. They could have merely asked for something like that instead of demanding it. The current King is very reasonable and he would have had no suggestions. I don’t like the way that they went about it so I can safely say that I’m not a fan of those two characters.
Overall, This was a solid Sonic collection. The second half definitely has a lot of weak points, but it was still good overall. The first part was definitely a lot more exciting. The collection is a little lacking in the action department, but I’m confident that the next collection will change that. It’s time for the next big villain after all! I definitely recommend this collection to all Sonic fans. Their is a lot of dialogue, but it’s all pretty interesting since the writing is very good. I may not agree with the things that some of the characters say, but it’s not the fault of the writer’s. Some characters have to be the fall guy once in a while. At least we can be confident in the fact that Sonic will always be a solid character.
Overall 7/10
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