Shanazar
Shanazar is a fictional planet in Sonic the Comic, and the setting for a run of stories from issue #149 to #165. It was intended to give Sonic a new environment to operate in .
The storyline has been criticised by parts of the fandom, with accusations of being overly long and having too many short, inconsequential stories (especially for the latter half); however, the Mystic Mountain story has been viewed favourably by others for the ambiguous morality (see below). . Most of the original plans for it did not see print and are detailed below.
The Planet
Shanazar was originally a planet existing on a sub-molecular level, working on laws based on magic and mysticism, and divided into distinctive Zones similar to Mobius. The central Kingdom of Shanazar and most of the nearby areas were a Arabian NiGHTS-type fantasy world with archetypal character & setting designs and magic, ruled over by the "extremely pretty" and tyrannical Princess Kupacius. (Writer Nigel Kitching had originally intended for only the Kingdom to be called Shanazar and be based on Arabian fantasy ) It was established in #150 that Doctor Robotnik, briefly transformed into his original Kintobor form, had introduced technological developments such as a new plumbing system.
Writer Lew Stringer would later become the sole writer for the comic. In the first part of the Time Zone run of stories, began moving away from this original set-up and had Sonic enter areas (called Zones in a parallel with Mobius based around other fantasy genres: a forest populated by medieval-style knights in #160, a futuristic sci-fi city #161-2, and a city based on Ancient Greece in #163 which was being plagued by the powerful Medusa. The Zone from #161-2 was in contact with alien races and took part in the brutal Space Races, a series of races on an asteroid belt where racers are blackmailed into acting as champions for their planets.
Shanazar was also invaded by the plastic alien hive-race known as the The Plax, who devastated Shanazer with earthquakes caused by their mining operation.
The Mystic Mountain
The original arc of Shanazar stories focused on the Mystic Mountain and its Genies. The first Genie seen was summoned from within a desiccated figure in #149 and was a physically imposing, powerful figure, whereas those in the Mystic Mountain were ghost-like entities.
In #152 and #153 it was revealed Kingdom of Shanazar's security was ensured for centuries by a pact with the Genies: every few years, a number of small children would be sent to the Mystic Mountain to have the spirit of a Genie placed inside their body. This would enable the Genies to leave the Mountain, and for five years the child would be able to summon a Genie and command its power in defence of the kingdom. The stress of containing this power would cause the child to age rapidly and die after those five years and the Genie would become a truly free being ; during those five years, the child would be treated like royalty.
This practise was ended by Sonic the Hedgehog, who took moral offense at the idea of the child dying and destroyed the Mystic Globe which made it possible. It is unknown what happened to the Kingdom of Shanazar without the Genies to defend it. From #156, Sonic was considered a wanted criminal by the Kingdom for his actions.
Union With Mobius ("World's Collide!")
Issues #164-5 featured a two-part story - Worlds Collide - by Lew Stringer which ended the Shanazar arc.
In order to return to Mobius, Robotnik developed a way to enlarge Shanazar and merge it with Mobius, intending to take over during the resulting chaos and destruction. The device merged the worlds together but Mobius was left unharmed, with the Zones from Shanazar being added to the planet and accessible via dimensional portals. As a side effect, gateways to alternate dimensions and planet Earth (at any time and any place) were opened, and Sonic spent the next few issues exploring The New Zones and various times on Earth.
In an online interview (archived at the sonicthecomic Yahoo! Group), Lew Stringer said he had designed the story as a way of both returning the cast to Mobius, under an edict by the editor, while simultaneously giving himself a new status quo: "The problem, as I saw it, was that most of the comic was now reprint... I felt that if Sonic returned to Mobius, it wouldn't contradict the back up stories too much. However, we still needed new Situations and villains, so merging the worlds and creating new unexplored zones was the way I thought we could do it."
Characters
The Plax
The Plax were a race of merciless and aggressive alien androids, possessing a hive intelligence. They are made from a form of living plastic that can be moulded into any shape, making them unable to be harmed by conventional force, and have minor psychic abilities. They were created in #159 by Lew Stringer and Mick McMahon, in a story called The Rig.
Their mining operations (centred around a machine called "The Rig") were causing devastating localised earthquakes, causing Sonic to battle them and destroy their operation. The Plax vowed revenge and would reappear after Shanazar & Mobius had merged in #171. The Plax swore fealty to Doctor Robotnik, believing him to be the spiritual leader that their prophecies had foretold who would wipe out organic life. With his help, they designed a machine that allowed Robotnik to drain the life-force of Mobius into himself, making him almost omnipotent. They fought Sonic and his team to a standstill to defend Robotnik until the process was complete, but were convinced by Robotnik's lackey Grimer that the villain planned to kill them as well. The Plax attempted to stop Robotnik but were wiped out in #173.
Death-Trap
Death-Trap were a trio of bounty hunters on the planet Shanazar, composed of - Kalus, a powerful stone golem; Prank, a sadist who could summon a demonic-looking Genie; and Totem Billy, an animalistic tracker. Hunting down criminals for money on a powerful motorcycle, they were hired by Robotnik to hunt down Sonic (in order to keep him out of Robotnik's way) with the pretense of arresting him for destroying Shanazar's means of gaining new Genies. They were introduced in #157 by Nigel Kitching and Richard Elson, forcing Sonic into a retreat and vowing to hunt him down for crimes against the Kingdom. After Nigel Kitching was (briefly) fired, Lew Stringer wrote them out in #163 by having them swiftly killed by the Medusa.
Death-Trap were originally planned to have a much larger role (see "Nigel Kitching's Original Plans" below).
Princess Kupacious
Kupacious is the tyrannical ruler of the Kingdom of Shanazar with an iron fist. Obese and petty, she was easily kept sweet by Robotnik (who she had a crush on) and manipulated into doing what he wanted. When he made his bid for power in #164, she was magically transformed into a normal frog; she was last seen assuming control of a pond full of other frogs.
Nigel Kitching's Original Plans
The original plans by writer Nigel Kitching were substantially different to what saw print, and he detailed them in a post on the Sonic the Comic Yahoo group. Shanazar was originally intended to not be a separate planet but Mobius in The Ancient past. Sonic would discover this when running into an old-fashioned version of the Drakon Empire, who would invade the planet and be opposed by the ancient Echidnas led by Knuckles (much of this was reused in STC's Sonic Adventure adaptation).
When only the Sonic strip in STC was left non-reprint and was divided between two writers, Nigel Kitching revised his plans and introduced Death-Trap. "Basically Sonic would be pursued across the planet... Lew could make up his own adventures in zones of his own invention and I could have Death Trap catch up with Sonic in the stories I wrote. Sonic would escape Deathtrap at the end of my segments an Lew wouldn't have to worry AbOUT them." Kalus was intended to not really be a villain at all, just a man who tracks down criminals, and a very private individual who was not always a golem; Prank was stated by Nigel Kitching on the Sonicthecomic E-group to be "the nastiest character I had ever written for Sonic. He actually likes inflicting pain on people and has no mercy at all", with Kalus having an unknown way of keeping him in check.
The plans went unused after Nigel was fired. He did intend to bring Death-Trap back from the dead and still hunting Sonic after #184, but the comic was cancelled by then.
There was a brief plan to use this cycle of stories to change Robotnik into his new look from the then-upcoming Sonic Adventure - his transformation into Kintobor and back again would be used as the excuse.