Story: Ken Penders; Art: Manny Galan; Ink: Andrew Pepoy; Color: Barry Grossman; Lettering: Vickie Williams; Editorial: G-Force
     Spaz/Galan/Penders/J. D. Ray/Heroic Age cover: Knuckles, Remington, and General Buzzcut along with Enerjak's left hand.  That means Knuckles is in all three covers of the triptych.  That might be difficult to pull off but considering what happened to him in the last installment it's a little easier to spread him around these days.
     Credits page with a Kragok head shot.  I ASSUME these head shots are being done by Galan--they've been uncredited.  Impressive, but I still prefer the "cameos" from the "Lost Paradise" arc.
     "Here is all you need to know"--great, not only is Knuckles on a "need to know" basis as far as the Guardians are concerned, so are the readers!
     Our story begins with Enerjak making his usual flashy entrance among the Dark Legion.  "Great Dimitri!!!" Kragok says.  "That's my name--don't wear it out!" he replies, suggesting "Lord Enerjak" as an alternative.  He then orders his troops to follow the "golden arch that will take you to the promised land," or at least to a drive-thru window.  In response to a question from Kragok, Enerjak lets it be known that Knuckles is history.  This elicits a NICE response from Julie-Su at the top of page 4 but she has to swallow her sorrow as Kragok tries doing what I'm sure is a bad Patrick Stewart impersonation.
     So, Knuckles has been reduced to nothingness, the Chaotix are staked out in the desert, and the Dark Legion is on the move against Echidnaopolis.  This looks like a good time for...
     NO, not advertisements!  This looks like a good time for...
     ...our old friend, the Deus Ex Machina!  We see Knuckles rematerializing in a lush green setting with Athair in attendance.  He brings Knuckles up to speed on what just happened to him, and credits the Ancient Walkers with his rescue.  When I said "DEUS Ex Machina" I wasn't kidding!
     The AWs are represented by the three Tiki masks just sort of hanging there in space.  This is a FAR cry from their first appearance in "Triple Trouble" (Game Gear Adaptation #1) when they appeared to Knuckles as Tiki masks being worn by not-very- convincing-looking dinosaur types.  Their image has since then been nudged toward the mystical so that now it's easier to treat them as not so ridiculous as they used to appear.  Though they're still saddled with the basic Dave Manak mask designs.  Even Athair looks a sight better than he did in "Southern Crossover"--he's still got those wrinkles on his forehead but he doesn't look so much like a Klingon this time around.
     I know Ken has been working on a story arc (commencing with Knuckles #10) that will deal more with echidna religious beliefs, though I don't know how the Walkers will fit in.  Still, they present an interesting (and somewhat typical) group here, resembling not so much a trinity in the Christian sense as the echidna counterpart of the Hindu triad of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva (creation, preservation, destruction).  The skull masks leaves little room for fanciful interpretation.
     Speaking of interpretation, don't ask me the significance of the giant black bird that flies out of the mouth of the second Walker, swoops low over Knuckles, and somehow transports him to the middle of the desert where his comrades happen to be hanging around dying of thirst.  "The Chaotix(tm)", Knuckles exclaims with their logo in his word balloon, in what looks like Vickie Williams' salute to P. T. Bridgeport (the bear in the Pogo comic strip whose word balloons were always lettered in such a way as to resemble the typeface used in old circus posters--yeah, I know, another out-of-date cultural reference, but Walt Kelley was transcendently cool).
     Back in Echidnaopolis, Constable Remington is having his men station themselves around "the golden bridge" until they know what they're dealing with.  He then gets a call, but it's not from the Echidnaopolis Dental Association (hey, you figure if ANYONE knows about gold bridges....).  We never find out who placed that call.  ashe gets into his go-kart and zips off to...
     General Buzzcut addressing the troops: "What's with all the whining lately, ladies and gentlemen?"  Maybe I'm missing something here, but I haven't seen ONE FEMALE DINGO in all this time!  So maybe Buzzcut's calling them "ladies" is a motivational thing, I don't know.  At least he didn't call them "girly men."  At this point, Remington shows up to do a little recruiting.  HIS method of motivation: threatening to unleash the "Find Your Name..." and "Fan Art" pages.  "Benjamin 'Acorn Lover' Land" -- ah, another fanboy.
     Back in the desert, Knuckles frees his comrades and the Ancient Walkers (we assume) provide a canteen full of water for Vector to drink from but it STILL doesn't keep him from flappin' his yap.  Knuckles then frees Archimedes, Deo Volente and Charmy while Mighty teases a product placement.
     Over in Echidnaopolis, the Dark Legion arrives with Kragok sounding like Mike Ditka at halftime.  Just as the Legion gets ambushed by both the dingoes and the EST, their weapons go dead.  But while Enerjak starts laying down the law, he ends up having the disappearing act happen to HIM!  Julie-Su takes the opportunity to hit the accelerator on the flying saucer she's been using to chauffeur Enerjak and Kragok around, and bails out as it smacks into a pile of sandbags.
     And what of Enerjak?  His horrid fate is to come face to face with...Mammoth Mogul!  Yes, after a totally gratuitous tease two issues back, he's returned, more conservatively dressed than in "Battle Royal."  Enerjak tries cutting him out of the plot, literally.  MM, however, seems to have FINALLY gotten clear on the concept of "unlimited power" and it appears his "unlimited" is more unlimited that Enerjak's.  He demonstrates this by using the Sword of Acorns to leach the power of all eleven Chaos Emeralds from Enerjak.  We then get that stock scene from so many vampire and mummy movies, not to mention ripoffs of "Lost Horizons" and "The Picture of Dorian Gray": Enerjak reverts to his true age and gets VERY old VERY fast!  Gee, looks like MM has also tested positive for "ruthlesness."  Knuckles and friends materialize and catch him just before he hits the ground.  And in HIS condition we're talking a double hip replacement at the very least!  The Chaotix realize they've arrived in the middle of an invasion and start throwing punches.  This is good for two panels; remember the bad old days when a fight could be stretched out into at least an 8-page story?
     Back in Haven, Locke talks a lot about not intervening versus intervening in a scene that left me confused as to what Locke is doing.  It took me a while to figure out that he wants to intervene but is prevented from doing so by...I don't know, union rules or something; his motivation is never exactly clear.  Anyway, in keeping with the Ken Penders Manipulation Motif, he decides to make the Knothole Freedom Fighters do his dirty work and bail out his son for him.  This explains the origin of the "distress call" at the end of "Rise of the Robians" in Sonic #55, and it explains why Locke just lost my vote for Father of the Year.
     As it turns out, Locke is a day late and a dollar short anyway because the D.L. has scattered, taking Dimitri with them.  All Remington has to show for his efforts are Kragok and Julie-Su in custody.  And while nobody seems to notice the elephant-shaped cloud in the sky (they must assume it's a balloon that escaped from the Macey's Thanksgiving Day Parade), they do notice some off-model Mobians arriving on the scene in response to Knuckles' message.  Knuckles protests that HE didn't send any message, and that's his last word on this or any other subject as he, Sonic and Tails disappear and Mammoth Mogul arrives and tells the assembled furries that they'll all get along just fine so long as they remember that he's God.
     This is loose continuity with a vengeance!  I mean, Mammoth Mogul has made great strides in the villainy department (the aging of Dimitri was a nicely sardonic touch), but now it appears that while the Dark Legion portion of the story arc is over MM is sending the story into extra innings.  Still, this story ended without the raw cynicism that made reading "Battle Royal" such a hateful experience.  We'll see about the next installment, in Sonic #56.
     Fistful of Letters: covers for Sonic #56, NiGHTS #2, Knuckles #10 and Sonic Special 4, which gives a grand total of 72.  Wait a minute....  And whose name receives prominence at the top of the page?  SEGA's!  The art for Sonic #56 will be done "by former X-Men Adventures artist John Hebert."  We'll see if he can make the transition from mutants to Mobians.  Letters: two replies give Knuckles' age as 15; and allow me to quote extensively from 12- year-old Josh Cunningham of Little Rock, AR:

Have you heard the news about Princess Sally?  It is so terrible that she passed away.  I hope you are taking it well since you knew her since you were kids.