Story: Ken Penders; Art: Manny Galan; Ink: Andrew Pepoy; Color: Barry Grossman; Lettering: Vickie Williams; Editorial: G-Force
     Once again we get a "head shot" opposite the credits on the first page; this time it's Julie-Su with violet eyes and bionic braids.  Very nice.
     And once again we get a splash page of pictures and text fighting each other for space.  I'm not even going to bother.
     Knuckles' head is spinning (along with the rest of him) as he assesses his past: "Things didn't matter as much when I thought I was alone...."  Yeah, all he had to do was show up once in a while and try to pound the snot out of a certain hedgehog.  His social circle has now widened to include the Chaotix (well, a couple of them, anyway), Archimedes, Julie-Su, his mom Lara-Le, and...presumably the picture of his father, Locke, is there as a distant memory; as far as I know, Knuckles still has no idea that Locke is alive and has been keeping an eye on him from Haven; certainly the OTHER Guardians he's met haven't spilled the beans.  Anyway, once the exposition is out of the way we discover that Enerjak is the reason Knuckles is doing the outer space boogie above the surface of the Mobian moon.  Enerjak assures Knuckles that he's "going to break you totally--completely--MERCILESSLY!"  But also cleanly -- remember how Princess Sally "died" in "Endgame"?  Knuckles takes a moment to remind Enerjak of the final score of their last encounter; this honks off Enerjak who draws upon the powersof Stan Lee and with a mighty FAAVHOOM...bombards Knuckles with advertisements!  Talk about CRUEL!!
     Actually, Knuckles is taken from the Mobian moon to "under de sea", but Knuckles is too busy holding his breath to burst into song.  Still, there's a sadistically nice segue from the red-and-beginning-to-turn-blue echidna's plight to the water cooler in Kragok's tent.  There we learn that Enerjak may have "limitless power" (his assessment, not mine) but rather limited knowledge of the Knuckles continuity.  For he's gone and returned Julie-Su to the Dark Legion, where Kragok has reinstated her.  Probably because as near as I can tell she's the only babe the Dark Legion was able to recruit.  Still, both Kragok and a Sgt. Rykor (who's in no danger of EVER being mistaken for Jonathan Frakes) make it clear to Julie-Su that she's on probation.
     Quick cut to Constable Remington's office where Lara-Le has just made an awkward request of Remington: contact Knuckles' father and her ex, Locke.  Looks like she either doesn't know about Locke's retreat into the depths of Haven, or else she DOES know and is doing to Knuckles what Uncle Chuck did to Sonic: she's withholding the information from Knuckles that Locke is still among the living.  To stall for time, Remington refers Lara-Le to the "Find Your Name..." page ["Kevin & Kyle & Kelly Krumm" -- this family is brought to you by the letter K] and the Fan Art page.  Remington continues to avoid dealing with the request by having a convenient flashback to his "predecessor, Holmes" complete with violin mounted on the wall.  Yeah, I got the reference; why didn't they just show on his door that his office was #221B and get it over with?  Still, Remington successfully kills so much time that the angle is dropped and we're forced to cut back to...
     Knuckles trying to swim to the surface but being pulled back down by...a one-eyed kelp green tentacled echidna-eater.  OK, show of hands, who's familiar with the song "One-Eyed One-Horned Flying Purple People-Eater"?  GOTTA keep my cultural references more up-to- date.  But while that's happening...
     Quick cut to Haven where Locke is just getting over his mind meld with Hawking from the previous installment.  Colonel Klink [WHEN is he gonna get a name!?] tells him the patient lived but is prevented from saying much else about Hawking because some alarm or other goes off and he and Locke have to rush off to address the next crisis.  If you ask me, this Haven is beginning to look like Hail.  Anyway, Locke and Klink look in on Julie-Su back amongst the Legionnaires and guess that the D.L. is preparing to move against Echidnaopolis.  Once they figure THAT out...
     Quick cut back to Knuckles who gives the O-EKGTE-E a punch in the eye...not like Knuckles has to choose between more than one.  He finally reaches the surface where he encounters someone way uglier than Ariel.  Enerjak observes that Knuckles has yet to reach his breaking point.  Maybe he WOULD if the Comic Code let him torture Knuckles more convincingly.
     Anyway, quick cut to the Chaotix being held as Legion prisoners.  Vector decides that his first impression about Julie-Su was right and she's no good: "A fox is a fox, and my Daddy said never to trust one."  Good thing for Tails' sake that Vector found work in THIS comic.  Vector slips his bonds but he and the others are sleep-gassed by Julie-Su.  Meanwhile, "at least 30,000 meters above the surface of the Floating Island," the atmosphere is as thin as Enerjak's patience with Knuckles.  When Knuckles continues to hold out, Enerjak decided to demonstrate that Princess Sally isn't the ONLY character who can fall from a great height.
     The next page, page 18 if you're following along, is quite simply one of the most impressive single pages I've seen since the Spaziante splash page of Sonic #43.  The composition, the diagonal flow of Knuckles as he falls to his certain doom, is flawless.  Only ONE little detail mars what is otherwise a true poster-quality page: the use of the word "THEYRE" when the word "THERE" should have been used instead.  I mean, c'mon!  "Theyre" (without an apostrophe) isn't even an English WORD, fur cryin' out loud!  Ken Penders wrote the script, Manny Galan did the pencil work, Andrew Pepoy inked the page, Vickie Williams did the lettering, Justin Gabrie is the editor...WHERE in the chain of command did someone let THIS get by?
     Anyway, quick cut to Archimedes and Deo Volente who are trapped inside some kind of sphere which in turn is sealed inside some kind of high-tech ice chest or something which is then buried.  Kragok exits and makes plans for the invasion.
     Meanwhile, Knuckles learns the truth of the old saying that when you're falling 30,000 meters to your death the first 29,999 meters are easy -- it's that LAST one you gotta watch out for.  Just as he's about to hit, though, Kragok realizes that if Knuckles lands he still has a chance of recovering so long as Dr. Quack gets him to a stasis unit in time.
     [Note: I've heard from at least one fan who thinks I should finally lay off criticizing a certain recent 4-issue story arc. My philosophy, however, to paraphrase Santayana, is that "Those who forget  Endgame' are condemned to repeat it."  I therefore have NO intention of ever letting Archie forget that they thrust that misbegotten travesty upon us.]
     Since his boxing glove-like mittens prevent him from giving Enerjak the finger (hey, Sonic got away with it in the anime!), Knuckles responds to a last offer of clemency with a Bronx cheer.  Enerjak then hits upon a clean death method that wasn't tried in "Endgame" and basically takes Knuckles apart molecule by molecule.  If Knuckles didn't have a case of transporter psychosis before....
     This is another high-class installment in the Knuckles series, if a little too reliant on quick cuts to keep up the pacing, which appears to be an old habit of Ken's.  This story also indulges several other old habits of his: tendencies toward some bad behavior and I'm not just talking about Enerjak.
     In a recent e-mail to Ken, I wondered out loud if he would ever make greater use of the character of Rosie the way Karl Bollers had done in "Running To Stand Still" (Sonic #54).  One of the off-hand observations I made was that Rosie's openness and simple wisdom were a welcome change from the secrecy, manipulation and mistrust on display in the Knuckles comics.
     The more I've thought about it, though, the more I've come to the conclusion that the themes of secrecy, manipulation and mistrust are becoming regular motifs in Ken's work generally.  This story features at least one of these undesirable characteristics on almost every page: Enerjak seriously manipulating Knuckles, Locke continuing his secret existence with the rest of the deadbeats...er...Guardians, Remington aiding and abetting that secrecy despite Lara-Le's pleadings, Kragok and Rykor's mistrust of Julie-Su who herself isn't being honest with Kragok as to where her allegiance truly lies, Vector's open mistrust of Julie-Su...you get my drift.  Enerjak is working himself into a lather when there's a much easier way to destroy Knuckles, Echidnaopolis and the whole comic continuity: have everyone in the comic be absolutely honest with everyone else for five minutes -- it'd bring echidna society to its knees!  Knuckles may be the hero of this series but if he picks up any of his associates' bad habits I'd think twice about calling him a role model.  Ease up on the spy novels, Ken; that whole mind set is starting to show up in your Sonic work.
     The usual: ads, letters, promos.  Green Gibbon appears yet again in the letters page...c'mon, quit hoggin' it, willya?  And the last line of the reply to Trevor Elvay's letter seems to have dematerialized along with Knuckles himself.  Transporter Room: On my mark, energize.