Given the changes that will be happening to the story, Kent goes for stability and opens with a cozily familiar sight: Sonic and Knuckles trying to pound the snot out of each other.  Freddy helpfully tags along and supplies information that we would have gleaned had we read the Death Egg saga--it may not have made a major impact on the plotline but it does leave a lot of small potholes in the road.  In between blows, we learn that Robotnik tried yet again to filch Knuckles' chaos emerald and that Sonic knows about the spare one Knuckles acquired in "Crash of the Titans".  He wants Knuckles to cut loose with the spare as a way of treating King Acorn.  Tails arrives and hastens along the exposition that King Acorn has been rescued from the Zone of Silence but is suffering from an advanced case of crystalysis.  Sonic manages to shut Tails up about some development from SonicQuest #1 (as a way to boost sales, no doubt).  Knuckles, however, has a highly-developed sense of sales resistance and turns Sonic down flat.  Back at Knothole, Sonic delivers some extra power rings to Sally and again muzzles Tails about something.  The power rings having failed to revive the king, Uncle Chuck suggests some alternative medicine.  Sal explains that she believes her father wasn't wearing the genuine crown of the Acorn kings when he was nabbed by Robotnik.  An ancient scroll is trotted out, which indicates that the true crown may be located in the Hall of Limbo.  Next step: get enough power rings to fire up Sonic's brain cells so he can get to the Hall.
     Early next morning Sonic, Sally and Tails rendezvous with the "spy network" from "Rise of Robotropolis".  Sleuth, the McGruff the Crime Dog clone, arrives on the scene and almost immediately arouses Sally's suspicions.  Guess what, campers: he's working the wrong side of the storyline, as he brings in a welcoming committee of SWATbots, with a roboticized Fly Fly Freddy providing air cover.  It looks like Sleuth's got the drop on the Knothole gang, but he gets dropped on by Bunnie instead.  Unfortunately, everybody's so busy punching each other out that nobody's got a spare moment for retrieving a fresh power ring.  Sonic makes time and just before he's zapped by Freddy (the insect, not the editor), Knuckles drops in and takes out Freddy before you can say "Help me!" [mandatory movie reference for Ken Penders' benefit].  Sonic uses a move I've never seen before to finish mopping up the SWATbots and Knuckles presents Sally with the spare Chaos Emerald he swore 8 pages ago he'd never part with.
     One quick exposition from Uncle Chuck later, they try using the Emerald to restore the King to normal.  No go; it only makes things worse.  Well, that's one way to kill 14 pages.  Now it's up to Sonic to use the power ring to boost his brain with regard to the business about the Hall of Limbo.  After a nice panel that reminds me of some of the artwork of the old posters for the Fillmore in San Francisco (if you have to ask, you weren't from the Sixties), he declares that the King's sword has something to do with it.  Hey, try muddling the plot with even more of these mystical doo-dads.  Crowns, swords, what next, the royal Lava Lite?  Knuckles touchingly volunteers to undertake the quest for the sword, telling Sally "You shouldn't have to lose your father twice."  Uh, anyone want to tell Red what the Princess is REALLY going to lose come issue #47?
     Sonic Art: Rabbot art by Rabat.  No, it's not a failure of the spell-checker.  Elysaar Khoury Rabat of Morocco supplies a drawing of Bunnie.
     Well, we've wrapped up the Chaos story and so, in the words of Bill Cosby, "I told you that story to tell you this one" as we immediately segue to...

     Very nice opening sequence in the first page revealing a very improbable development: Knuckles perched uneasily on an open seat attached to the side of the SeaFox, with Tails at the helm.  What, Rotor couldn't have installed a proper sidecar?  Couldn't he have at least attached a seat belt?  How about one of those horse collar arrangements you see on rollercoasters?  Anyway, Tails supplies over a page of exposition taking in "Tttriple Tttrouble," "Ring of Truth" and "Southern Crossover".  Nice to see K&K have done their homework and anchored this story to ones that have gone before.  Speaking of "Southern Crossover" that's Tails' destination: Athair's crater in Downunda.  They eventually run into the old dude and if you thought things were weird up until now, strap yourself down.
     The Ancient Walkers reappear; this time, just the masks and no dinosaur suits.  It helps.  Knuckles and Tails get hurled past some faces that look like they belong on the Mobian equivalent of a deck of Magic cards: a black cat, a crow/raven and a goat who are supposed to be (respectively?) a "sorceror" [sic], a wizard and an alchemist, along with what looks like a disreputable Tails with a few years on him, a white rabbit and a horse in armor (a charlatan, an enchantress, and a paladin--THAT one you can look up yourself).  The ride ends and Knuckles is determined to go it alone.  Part of the declamation by the Ancient Walkers goes: "With patience and fortitude a blade of steel thou may embrace."  Hmmm, "embrace" a blade of steel...OK, folks, place your bets: who thinks that the King's sword is going to end up somehow being Sally's ticket to the harp farm?
     I know that just about anything would have been an improvement over the mediocrity that was "And One Shall Save Him" -- OK, with the possible exception of "Sonic Shot II".  But WOW!  The crew at Archie has really kicked out the jams for this one!  Despite numerous digressions and editorial boxes, Kent keeps the narrative moving with very few dead spots.  And there's the saving grace of Mawhinney's artwork for when things threaten to bog down: nothing happens in the top panel on page 5, but the expression on Sally's face more than compensates.  It's a crime that we haven't been getting this level of writing and artwork on a regular basis up until now, and it's all the worse because this current milieu only has eight more issues to run before the readers have a Brave New World thrust upon them.  Just when the gang at Archie looks like they've finally got a handle on the OLD world!
     The story line, and the Sonic comics generally for that matter, have never been known for having a particularly high mumbo-jumbo quotient.  Now all of a sudden we're up to our necks in magical objects, rhyming prophecies and archetypal characters.  Looks like I'd better keep my copy of Joseph Campbell handy again.  I don't want to say that this was the only way the Archie gang could figure out to bring the Sonic saga to some kind of satisfactory conclusion--heck, I'm having to resort to it myself in my fanfic--but this far along they haven't made any missteps on a path that could leave the story looking rather ridiculous.  Kind of like the business with the Chaos emerald -- after chasing after it for all those pages, it doesn't work anyway.  But that's an issue for another issue.
     Sonic-Grams: only one page, with very little hype from Freddy.  He doesn't even mention #43, all the while keeping our attention on the SonicQuest series and the Sonic LIVE! Special issue.  B. J. Kvito of Worthington, Ohio, wants to see (among other things) stories about "Knuckles' and Sally's shared childhood."  At the rate things are going, however, the only way that's going to happen will be in flashback, as Knuckles indulges in misty watercolor memories of the way we were....  Speaking of which, unless something's come up, #43 is supposed to be the major flashback/origins issue.  THAT I want to see!