Some people say that good things come to those that wait. While this adage holds quite a bit of truth, it isn't the case for those that waited for Sonic the Hedgehog #150 by Romy Chacon and Art Mawhinney. What was both a milestone 150th issue for the series and also a culmination of a story arc that was introduced 10 years prior ended up being of the most ridiculous, lackluster and disappointing events in the history of Sonic.
With the massive success of Sonic's Sega Genesis games, it was only natural that the Blue Blur would get his own cartoon. Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog debuted in late 1993 and presented a slightly different take on the familiar hero. Sonic was a member of a resistance group that fought against the evil Dr. Robotnik and his army of robots to save their world, Mobius. A sequel show, Sonic the Hedgehog, followed, and from it came the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series published by Archie Comics.
Sonic the Hedgehog followed the events of the cartoon initially, but as the show was taken off the air, the comic began to follow more closely to the original video game source material. The comic adventures ran from its initial publication in 1992 as a four-part mini-series all the way to its cancellation in 2017. Throughout the course of the comic, many different story arcs were introduced and concluded, but none dropped the ball quite like The Chosen One did.
The history of the planet Mobius was a major focus during the early issues of the comic's run. It was explained that the Chaos Emeralds came from space and landed on Mobius. The power from the Chaos Emeralds ended the age of dinosaurs and brought about maddening technological power (which explains why Robotnik is so hellbent on gaining control of them). A prophecy was revealed: a chosen one would one day claim their full power and bring about true peace to the world. As this was published in Tails' mini-series, it was natural to assume Tails was the chosen one.
As the years went on, and the comics continued, an arch-nemesis was introduced for Tails: the supreme extra-dimensional villain Mammoth Mogul. In issue #150 by Ken Penders, Romy Chacon, Art Mawhinney, Jim Amish and Andrew Pepoy, Mammoth Mogul is destroying parallel zones, intent on becoming the ruler of all realities. As Sonic and Tails attempt to defeat Mogul, Tails is taken to the Perpendicular Zone and is brought before all of the other parallel world versions of himself. It is here that he learns that he is The Chosen One who is destined to defeat Mogul. This might have been more dramatic if his parallel selves weren't a collection of Tails such as Clown Tails, Baseball Player Tails, Cowboy Tails and Darth Maul Tails.
Tails watches Sonic get hit by an energy beam, assumes he's dead, and gets angry. So angry, in fact, that he merges with all of his other selves to form Titan Tails. Tails instantly becomes a giant, buff version of himself. To defeat Mogul, Tails spins his tails really, really fast and sucks up Mogul's power before reverting back to normal. All of this happens in the span of two pages. After 10 years of story building, a giant 150th issue celebration reduces the entire arc to two pages of Tails sucking energy up with his butt.
In a world of anthropomorphic animals, Chaos Emeralds and super robots, it wouldn't seem like this would be so off the mark. Maybe if this story wasn't ten years in the making, it wouldn't have fallen so flat for fans. Consider this: when this plot was first revealed, Knuckles Chaotix had just been released on the Sega 32X. When this issue came out, Sonic Rush and Shadow the Hedgehog the newest Sonic games. That is an incredible amount of time to pass just to finally be rewarded with two pages of nonsense. Tails wasn't even represented well, either. Tails is best known for his intellect and engineering skills. None of these traits were showcased in his big moment. There was no gradual build-up to his acquisition of this power; he just overreacted and turned into a dorky beefcake. This was an insult to fans of not only the character but to the comic as well. Lazy writing mixed with poor characterization are not the proper elements to reward and thank fans for following a comic series for so long.