Vote For Me was a complete story published in Issue 101 of Sonic the Comic. It is significant for dealing with the ramifications of The Final Victory and helping to establish the situtaion and nature of Mobius post-RBR.
Staff
- Lew Stringer - Script.
- Roberto Corona - Pencils & Inks.
- John Burns - Colours.
- Tom Frame - Lettering.
Story
Mobius is still in a jubilant mood after the deposition of Robotnik, and with power restored after the world's electrical systems were knocked out by the destruction of the Black Asteroid, the world is finally getting back to normal, with a weight finally lifted off the people's shoulders.
Sonic the Hedgehog travels to a green area to relax and savour the peace, only to be interrupted by Tails who informs him of an upcoming election to select a new world leader to replace Doctor Robotnik. Sonic is not impressed by either of the candidates - Derek Wombat and Giles Baboon - and considers the whole affair a bore, but Tails, who is quite enthusiastic about it, persuades him to attend a presidential debate. Wombat and Baboon begin to compete with each other on offering evermore outlandish campaign promises ("reduce the number of buttons on shirts" / "encourage the forming of more boy bands"), while evading any difficult, divisive matters. Sonic's opinion of them is not improved.
Election season drags on, and Amy has come to share Sonic's cynical view of the political circus. The debates between Wombat and Baboon have degenerated to personal mud-slinging and then to literal fighting, as both don power armour and openly brawl in the streets of the Metropolis Zone. Sonic decides that enough is enough - the conceited candidates desire to fuel their own egos is starting to burn up up the city - and intervenes, disabling both battlesuits and tying Wombat and Baboon up. If they want to free themselves, they'll have to work together to do so...!
Polling day arrives, and the result is a tie of 0. No-one voted for either of the candidates! The public acclaims the hero Sonic as the only leader who could possibly appeal to Mobius, but Sonic turns the offer down - being shackled to a desk would hardly suit the Fastest Thing Alive. He instead believes that Robotnik's dictatorship is a model of exactly why the very concept of a world president is bad for Mobius - better that every zone has its own local Zone Leader.
The only problem is how to go about appointing these new officials. On that note, Sonic is happy to leave it to the others!
Trivia
- The story opens with the restoration of power to "all Zones". Aside from a brief mention by Sonic that nobody could cook chilli dogs due to the blackout, there's no mention (here or in later stories) of any problems caused by the planet-wide electromagnetic pulse!
- In one gag, Wombat and Baboon spend the debate standing on soap boxes.
- Mobian insects are introduced, and are shown to be smaller than normal Mobians as opposed to the Special Zone insects, which are the same size. Worryingly, Mobian anteaters are going around eating Mobian ants...
- Even though the election is to appoint a leader with authority over the entire planet, the hustings seem strangely low-key - for example, only a single ballot box was provdied to vote in. If you thought that real-world participation was bad...!
Timeline
The previous Sonic the Hedgehog story was The Final Victory. The following story was Unnatural Disasters.