Megathread Archie Sonic Main Discussion

[VO.SUPER]

What i don't get is why Archie wanted him back. Mustve been some hella nepotism going on, because if he quit the story here and now it would have been for the better frankly. 

Who knows, maybe Bollers could've made things more coherent from here on if he was the sole writer, but no, Archie gave into Ken's demands and wasted more comic space on M25YL. 

Don't forget, 5 issues is 5 months. Thats not even taking into consideration how many issues prior that the editors mustve mentioned these plans to him. 

 

[Dr. Detective]

23 hours ago, SBR2 said:

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I...disagree. This actually might be the smartest thing Max ever did. Eggman is sorta at the end of his rope now so taking advantage to even try to get a fraction of what he controls back is a really good move.

 

Except he's not going to do it and they should know he's not going to do it.

DOES he do it later? If so, why? He literally betrays them before the Xorda even launch their doomsday weapon.

I get trying to get something out of the team up but it'd be smart to haggle for something you needed immediately and could swiftly get before sending Sonic there rather than expecting Eggman to keep the ridiculous promise of acquisseing half of what he owns to the Acorns. 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Just now, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Except he's not going to do it and they should know he's not going to do it.

DOES he do it later? If so, why? He literally betrays them before the Xorda even launch their doomsday weapon.

I get trying to get something out of the team up but it'd be smart to haggle for something you needed immediately and could swiftly get before sending Sonic there rather than expecting Eggman to keep the ridiculous promise of acquisseing half of what he owns to the Acorns. 

I'm still not even sure how Eggman has 99.9% of the planet. Did they just forget that the Robians were freed like....an issue ago? Or the fact that there's far more territories than only Knothole, that has a ton of Freedom Fighter members? Like yeah, I'd say Eggman owns a wide majority of the planet, but 99.9%??

[Dr. Detective]

Sonic X - Issue #20: Speed Lines!

I wanna say this is Sonic challenging a Transformer to a race but knowing me I’m probably missing an even more obscure reference or something. Either way, this is a neat cover as well. I just now noticed the Eggman symbol in the robot’s eye.

Spoiler

 

Writer: James McDonough and Adam Patyk
Pencils: David Hutchison
Inks: Terry Austin
Letters: Phil Felix
Colors: Josh Ray
Editor: Mike Pellerito

I jumped the gun on assuming Ian Flynn would be all over this back when he got more into the book. We’re still relying on an assortment of writers for the book, which, to be fair, hasn’t been all that bad lately. These two, however, I have no idea who they are. David Hutchison did issue 18 of Sonic X though. I remember that.

The comic begins with business as usual.

You gotta feel at least a little sorry for him. My dude tries his best.

Yeah, the issue begins with Sonic wrecking all of Eggman’s shit, with Eggman getting mad when it’s pointed out to him that Sonic always wins. It’s a line that even annoys me when the games started to trot it out in a bid to undermine itself.

This is a circle of failure for not only Eggman, but Sam Speed of the S-Team who is driving his way after an out of control trolley. However, Sonic comes on the scene and he’s DRIVEN to be competitive and save the people faster than him.

He gets warned over the radio that he needs to let his engine cool but he refuses and gets hit with instant karma when the wheel comes off and he crashes. 

It’s a bit of a sad scene, watching him get out of the car over the cheers for Sonic, probably sinking in the realization that he doesn’t currently have enough of what it takes to beat him. 

That said, I don’t know. I remember liking the way the speed rivalry was handled more in the anime where Sam could get frustrated and obsessed by it but it never felt sad. It was more funny and kind of endearing in a “this guy is quite the character” way. 

Everyone loves Sonic though. Even Bokkun ends up cheering for him, much to Eggman’s extreme anger. For that, he banishes Bokkun to the Shadow Realm.

How nice of Bokkun not to fly out of there too. Loyalty is knowing when to take punishment after all.

Back with Sam Speed, he’s very bitter and upset about what has just transpired. Of course, it’s totally not the fault of the car or Sonic but he’s not in the mood to see it that way. After all, he’s got a lesson to learn for the purposes of this book.

It seems very typical but that’s fine so long as what happens to help Sam learn this lesson is fun and endearing. 

As I thought that, a truck with flames on it pulls up and we’re introduced to the real hero of the franchise, Robbie Nick.

The great hero, Robbie Nick, can only be found in the Sonic X comics my friends. What a tragedy.

Also, goodness me. That chest hair.

Eggman appeals to Sam’s ego and he sadly sees himself crawling into this truck with this stranger, desperate to improve. That’s usually how most people go missing in Station Square I assume.

When they get there, Robbie Nick introduces Sam to his best workers, Bo and Dee before they get to work on Sam’s new ride. It’s comical how little they’ve actually disguised themselves, as always, but that’s a clear part of the charm. 

The Speedster 5000 is created in a flash, equipped with all the radios and tech that a member of the S-Team needs. Right as it's finished, a broadcast on the radio talks of a fire that has gone off and Sam is immediately on it, determined not to lose again. Of course, when Sam is out of earshot, Eggman congratulates Bokkun for setting the fire so that Sam, Sonic, and the rest will get there and… somehow be his. 

I don’t have the full details of the plan yet, obviously. 

I guess it goes without saying that Sam’s new car is pretty suspect though.

It is quite an impressive machine though. Not only does Sam catch up to Sonic but he challenges him to a race of stopping the fire at the refinery and immediately leaves Sonic in the dust.

Also, it can fly.

Little side note though, it’s cute that despite how shaken and surprised Sonic is, his number one priority is making sure everyone is safe. I do also appreciate that Sam, when he got there, immediately recognized that he had no means of actually getting to the people to rescue them despite beating Sonic to the place back there. It’s nice when rivalries don’t scrub away the part of you that wants to help people.

By the time Sonic gets there, the situation is already wrapped up. Everything’s covered in soapy looking bubbles and the fire is gone. Sonic isn’t even upset or jealous of Sam and doesn’t get bothered by his ribbing. He just straight up acknowledges how fucking cool Sam’s new ride is. Sam’s mates have to tell Sonic not to boost his ego anymore in fact. 

It does kind of go to show how unthreatened by this Sonic is underneath it all of course. 

Sam on the other hand notices his mates complaining about his ego and wonders why the same congratulations Sonic got earlier in the story isn’t coming his way. It’s then that he wonders if he’s been acting like too much of a jerk.

Well, the realization is kicking in which means that it’s time for the lesson he needs to learn to kick into the “Oh shit, this is bad and I’ve fucked up” part of the tale. He can’t control the Speedster 5000 anymore because, shock horror, Robbie Nick has taken control of it himself.

Look at this marvelous revelation guys. 

Truly, he is a master of deception.

Sam’s car launches missiles down at Sonic and the blue hedgehog has to grab Sam’s mates and get them out of the way before they get blown the hell up.

The Earth shattering kaboom that happens as a result of this alerts Knuckles, who always seems to be close to the action even though he’s still always on his island, and he goes to where Sonic is because, I guess, Knuckles needs to be in this story now.

At first, I wondered if the cover was exemplifying something that wasn’t necessarily going to happen in the book, because that’s happened a couple of times. However, I’m happy to report that we do indeed have Transformers. Check out this Starscream looking motherfucker.

“MEGATRON IS DEAD! I AM THE NEW LEADER OF THE DECEPTICONS!”

Sonic’s in a bit of a bind because stuff happened so fast and apparently it was too fast for even him to properly retaliate against. 

Not to worry, Knuckles comes swooping in to punch the robot in the face and lend his friendly rival a hand.

What an adorable moment. Although, Knuckles looking so close to being angry while he asks if Sonic’s okay is throwing me off a bit. It looks more like he’s about to scold him like a child.

Oh wait he does. 

What a good papa.

Sonic defends himself by saying he just came to help, which is true. None of this is his fault but Knuckles is kind of wired to think it always is.

So then Eggman attacks, firing missiles everywhere now. It doesn’t seem like he even cares where despite him seemingly wanting to hit Sonic and Knuckles.

The lesson of the book kicks in again as Sam watches Sonic and Knuckles bicker with one another about which direction to go and how to properly fix the situation. It’s a very eye-opening experience for Sam who realizes that the two of them need to work together.

Still, he can’t reach them so instead he contacts the S-Team using his wrist communicator and tells them to patch him through to Grandpa Chuck so that he can tell him all he knows about the robot. 

This is a REALLY impressive showing for Eggman though. He’s designed a robot that Sonic and Knuckles are not able to beat. They just aren’t.

They’re getting knocked around and whacked all over the place super easily and the two of them look about ready to keel over and pass out. Sonic can only plead with Eggman to stop talking so much about how he’s delighting in kicking their asses and Eggman, of course, won’t.

Fortunately for them, Chuck manages to get a signal ready that can stop the robot for a split second. Sam uses it and restrains the robot long enough for the two animal shaped sandbags to finally retaliate.

Honestly, doctor, if I were you I’d consider this a bit of a success. Like seriously. Sonic and Knuckles were getting spanked across the fucking dirt. They should be sufficiently worried that you’re improving.

Still, a loss is a loss, which means the heroes win the day. Hooray. 

We’ve avoided the Bad Future timeline once again.

Of course, the book ends with the characters literally just expositing to us what the lesson is. Apparently, they also needed to have Sonic and Knuckles learn something too.

Cue the laugh track and the fade out with the Family Matters piano music.

 

The amount of times I said the word “lesson” in this post is probably significantly more than necessary but to be fair to me, this particular issue made it more than clear that it had something it wanted to teach the characters and it set about doing that. I can’t see any kids reading this and taking it to heart too much of course. They’ll probably see it as a typical adventure and leave it at that. Still, the stuff that surrounded the lesson here was pretty fun. Robbie Nick was as grand a hero as a hero could be and he was taken from us too soon. Eggman’s Transformer being a legitimate threat was also a nice surprise as well. I wasn’t even bothered that the plan basically amounted to “Sick a Giant Robot on em” because this time it was actually working. The award for most improved goes to Eggman. Give that guy a round of applause.

 

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #126: Tossed in Space, Part 1: Red Chaos and Tossed in Space, Part 2: Hog & Superhog

SPACE!

Look at the colors! So pretty! It’s good to make space look cool. I have to make sure to remember that whenever the thought of drawing something in space crosses my mind and I can actually do it. It’s very strange that Sonic looks like he’s about to attack Super Sonic. The little reflection with Super Sonic makes it almost seem like Sonic’s trying to punch through a giant window though. Is he? I guess we’ll find out.

Spoiler

 

Story: Benny Lee
Pencils: Steven Butler
Inks: Jim Amash
Colors: Jason Jensen
Letterer: Jeff Powell
Editor: J.F. Gabrie

We’re in a Penders-less world right now. I need to enjoy it while I can. Although, it does still irk me a bit that Karl is still using the Benny Lee moniker. Especially since part two of this same story credits his actual name properly. I’m wondering what the hell the point is anymore. Surely he’s gotten his answer to the question of whether or not the reviews are hypocritical by now, right?

Well, anyway, we start off with Sonic who is asleep and snoring on an alien planet. The narration box almost makes fun of the fact that he’s asleep too. Then an alien ship vaporizes him while he naps.

NOW he’s dead.

No, of course not. A space ship run by a bunch of space… ants… save Sonic and let him wake up. They’re clearly trying to explain something to him but they can’t because they speak in a freakish alien language. 

They get immediately attacked by the alien grasshoppers from A Bug’s Life and Sonic feels that’s his cue to bolt. I mean, he starts to anyway but the fact that he’s got a bone in his body that demands he saves people ushers him back onto the scene to do just that.

So, not only does Sonic make quick work of the attackers but the ants can speak to Sonic now. Why? Because they accessed his mind and basically downloaded the english language into their brains to communicate with him in his mind. It’s a neat trick that only aliens can do. 

They carry their hero back with them to the city and tell Sonic that the name of the planet is Thoraxia. Of course it is.

The natives here are called the Blodex and the enemies that Sonic fought earlier are called the BZZZ, which is hilarious. They’ve never heard of Mobius because they can do air or space travel because the BZZZ are dicks and own the skies.

So Sonic’s apparent only hope out of here is a D’novulan trading vessel set to arrive here. Apparently it’s got transpatial powers that can transport it and things to other worlds so hey, that’s the next best thing. I doubt I’d ever choose it over a Gummi Ship though.

Until then, he’s their guest, and the alien ant that told him all this, named Deeble, is ready to attempt to give him a tour but he’s never given one to a creature known as a hedgehog before and Sonic’s never toured an alien planet before either. 

The tour starts off in the most interesting and surprising way it could though when he sees a statue of an ant holding a bunch of red Chaos Emeralds!

You know… despite how convoluted the Chaos Emeralds are in the Archie comics, what with different worlds having their own hundreds of different colored emeralds rather than just a single planet having one of each color… there’s a part of me that does find this handling of them really interesting. 

I’d probably never want it to be done in the games but… I dunno, maybe, experiencing a different reality where this was how they functioned could have been fun. I doubt the comic handles it in a way that’s wholly satisfying seeing what ends up happening way down the line though. 

I do like the mystery and intrigue here however. It’s very unsettling but also mystifying in a way that gets the heart going. I almost can’t even believe I’m here reading this part of the comic.

Anyway, the BZZZ attack right as Sonic’s about to turn in for the night. The queen arrives with them this time to make sure they elicit wanton, pointless destruction correctly and spews acid at their buildings.

Sonic, seeing the red emeralds, decides that, hey, if the green ones can turn him into Super Sonic, the red ones should be able to as well right? If his hunch is correct, they’re just Chaos Emeralds but red right?

Lucky for him, he didn’t explode or something. Turns out he was right. Sort of.

He seemingly turns into Super Sonic and FUCKING MURDERS THEM!

Literally, he kills them all. He even gruesomely spin dashes through the queen’s FUCKING BRAIN!

I was about to say that maybe this is only okay because these creatures are both aliens and also shaped like monsters. Like, maybe they did some mental gymnastics to make Sonic murdering them okay.

But no, instead of that, it turns out that the Sonic that did this is a psycho murderer.

Part 2 begins here and these are the credits.

Words: Karl Bollers
Pictures: Steven Butler
Inks & Letters: J & A. Ray
Colors: Jason Jensen
Edits: J. F. Gabrie

Not a whole lot has changed except, Bollers is claiming to be himself this time and also the Inks and Letters are different. 

Anyway, we’re in for a bumpy ride. For you see, that isn’t Sonic. Instead of transforming Sonic into Super Sonic, the red emeralds created an entirely different Super Sonic that is just flying around destroying things! THAT ain’t good.

I feel so bad for these poor ants. I just want them to catch a break already.

Still, how is regular Sonic supposed to beat Super Sonic? He can’t use the red ones to turn into Super Sonic to fight it off, obviously.

Sonic goes after him and tries to speak with him, asking what his deal is.

He just laughs and gives us a nice evil passage from the book of evil.

Also, yes, I am aware of the insane Super Sonic from the Fleetway comics. It’s a pretty effective image. If only the real Evil Sonic were this menacing. Or, for Sonic’s sake, it’d be better if this Sonic were like Evil Sonic. That way a single throat chop from Antoine could beat him.

This one is very hell bent on destruction though. He wants to cause global chaos not by pulling a Freeza and blowing the planet up but by blowing up Thoraxia’s moons, the Master Roshi and Piccolo way. How cruel to settle for the slow and plodding death over the instant one. Sheesh.

He’s about to literally fire a beam that’ll destroy those moons when Sonic tackles him and throws off his aim. What an intense close call.
I was surprised Sonic was able to push him but then again, it doesn’t mean much because Super Sonic just kicks him to a wall and beats the shit out of him.

Then something happened that I didn’t even think of, but I found to be pretty clever nonetheless.

He dies because Super Sonic is a temporary transformation. That’s a good way of handling that mess.

 

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #126: Better Read Than Dead

Writer: Mike Gallagher
Penciler: Dave Manak
Inker: Jim Amash
Letterer: Vickie Williams
Colorist: Jason Jensen
Editor: Justin Gabrie

The very first panel of this comic told me I was in for a fourth wall breaking hedgefest. 

The second panel saw it hit full force.

Yeah, Sonic and the editor are happy to have a story all to themselves and it immediately goes wrong because Sonic starts to fade away.

This is the work of the evil Deadline, a grim reaper for comic books that has fourth wall powers that disrupt the story he was created for without destroying him because he’s just that powerful.

Some would say that this guy actually attacked the comic on numerous occasions, long before this point though. I would say it happened during that awful issue where “Many Hands” had Sonic and Naugus “““““fight””””” in the snow that one time for that insulting Super Special issue.

Also, thank God those are gone too. Jesus. 

Sonic tries to attack Deadline but he gets hit with an eraser which erases segments of Sonic’s body. It looks horrific. Deadline then turns to J.G and asks if he’d like to know why he’s here. J.G says yes because this story is only five pages and we’re already on page three.

So Deadline goes into a massive exposition dump about his woes and sorrows. Just laying it all out there for Mr. Krabs and his world’s smallest violin.

He’s sent in ideas for Archie but they never return his calls. The idea he drops are Mammoth Mogul joining a flea gang (the image is funny but the idea would probably be boring in execution), Knuckles discovering that his real father is Elvis (I mean… his dad would have upgraded exponentially if that were true so…) and a Robotnik mini-series where he literally just dances for six straight issues over the image of Knothole burning (I’d love to see that).

J.G says they’re all terrible ideas and that no one would approve them.

I mean, that statement is half right, I guess.

He then realizes that as the editor he has the power to end the story so he calls upon all the talent the book has given us thus far to crush and destroy Deadline into a puff of smoke.

There is a lot of talent there. 

Then there’s Ken Penders, stuck way up there at the tippy top at the side. 

The story ends and the narration box asks people to write in and tell them if they want more LONG off-panel stories like this one. 

Personally, I wouldn’t count on too many people clamoring for more of this. 

 

That was a very satisfying issue to get into the swing of things for Sonic’s space adventure. The red chaos emeralds thing was appropriately mystifying and it’s after effect did a good job of getting the wheels turning for other possibilities concerning the emeralds. I was surprised by all the gruesome looking death but you know what, I’m also pretty cool with it. I’m also glad that the issue dedicated its full time to just Sonic and his exploits. Jumping back to Earth for this first issue wouldn’t have felt right to me. In that sense, I can see ending this issue in a five page gag about editors. Though I doubt any kid REALLY gives a shit about that.

 

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #127: Tossed In Space, Part 3: Evo-Solution

THIS… is a FANTASTIC cover. I’m seriously considering picking it for one of my top favorite covers in the book. When I complete this retrospective, I may hold a reward show thing where I just run down my Top 10 favorite things or least favorite things in the book. For covers I may have to do a Top 20 or something though because I have a feeling it’ll be hard to choose. That’s way far into the future but man look at THIS. Look at those colors. Jesus. I’m jealous. I gotta learn how to do that thing with the lights.

Spoiler

 

Writer: Benny Lee
Pencils: Ron Lim
Inks: Conor Tomas
Colors: Jason Jensen
Letters: Jeff Powell
Editor: J.F. Gabrie

Ah. Ron Lim is back. Well, maybe he’s gotten better in his incredibly short time off.

Uhm… well, the aliens look good.

Sonic must be really trusting to risk getting a fucking implant. Though, I guess it’ll mean he can talk to aliens now. 

The D’Novulans are here, dressed like something out of Star Trek, to carry Sonic across the cosmos. The Captain introduces himself as Captain OE, which is an obvious reference to Captain EO, something that I know absolutely nothing about. They’re aboard the Magesteron and they’re happily transporting him to where he can get the most help finding a way home that he can. It’s a trading hub called Mezzo Jillion and cutting back and forth between the comic and where I’m writing all this to make sure I’m spelling all these alien words correctly has gotten old really fast.

Before more words can be spoken, a Tri-Star explodes right ahead of them. I would also jot down it’s name but I don’t have to because it exploded and therefore no longer exists. The important thing is that the space debris is going to hit their ship.

When Sonic asks what they’re going to do, Captain OE says that they just have to pray their ship’s hull is strong enough to take it.

Yeah, what the narration box said.

The ship is about to explode and they have less than a minute to reach all the escape pods and escape. Unfortunately, they have an EXACT number of escape pods for everyone that was on board but that didn’t account for Sonic so there ends up being only one pod left with two people who still need to escape.

Sonic, being Sonic, won’t allow himself to get on board but the Captain instantly wins a place in my heart for not wanting to go along with that.

What a guy. 

Not only did he go down with the ship, but he did it to save the life of someone he barely knew. It’s always the good ones we lose.

Sonic ends up landing on a planet with incredibly thick clouds around. It’s also raining everywhere. Sonic says he hates rain and I just have to balk at the mere thought of such a thing. Rain is excellent. I love sitting outside and watching it come down. Few things could ever be more relaxing. 

The pod tells Sonic that the atmosphere is highly toxic so as not to get out. The ship sends out a distress signal while Sonic is stuck eating the rations that were kept inside the pod, which supposedly will last him a few weeks.

However, it’s tough imagining being okay with that. Not only is this pod incredibly small but it doesn’t look all that comfortable either. Imagine being unable to properly stretch your legs. Hell, imagine being stuck inside that thing while being claustrophobic, but unable to get out or face actual certain death. What a nightmare. I’d love to see this written as a more intense and scary situation for Sonic.

Eventually, the atmosphere is given the okay to get out and Sonic does that. The rain has stopped and there’s a lot of pink lemonade all over the ground. It’s not actual pink lemonade but Sonic says it reminds him of it, handmade from his dear old mom.

Then a giant tree grows out of the ground and by this point both me and Sonic are just like, “THE FUCK IS HAPPENING?!”

At first I thought this was just a case of the seasons going by really fast. I did find it odd that the amount of time that passed wasn’t clarified to us at all, making it feel like it was only seconds between the rainfall and the rain stopping but turns out that was deliberate. 

However, it turns out it’s more ridiculous and mind-bendy than that. 

Evolution is accelerating at an extreme rate to the point where Sonic rushes back to his pod before anything can happen to him that he’s not ready for.

As such, in about an hour, evolution has just passed him by in a manner that would drive any normal person crazy if they witnessed it.

The Azurites is the name of the species that inhabit this planet now. When Sonic gets out of the pod once he realizes that time has slowed to a pace he’s comfortable with, he speaks with the leader of the science groupies that appear before him named, Professor Parg.

If you’ll notice their tech has a bunch of Sonic symbols on it and when he gets out of the pod they refer to Sonic as an immortal being. They used a device called the Temporal Decelerator to slow time on this planet down. 

Sonic is understandably overwhelmed and honestly, I’d be about ready to jump ship at this point myself. A monumental amount of responsibility is about to be thrust upon this guy in a way he couldn’t have foreseen before today.

For you see, as Professor Parg explains, time for Sonic and time for this species were so incredibly different that Sonic passed their entire evolution cycle. To them, Sonic was moving so slow that he was basically frozen. 

So they did what all primitive species do when they don’t have an explanation for something, they worship it. 

Like, the scientists even go on to say that as time went on, Sonic was factually declared to have been a god and fucking WARS were waged over whether or not he was. They had no means of opening his capsule because time was just off for them and Sonic so they invented a device that slowed time down to properly get him out.

So now, Sonic’s being led by a group of scientists to a crowd of this entire species that waged war with each other and worship him as a God, believing him to be their creator.

Sonic’s been asleep for an hour.

Never let it be said that the Archie comics couldn’t at least get creative. Holy shit. This would make me go wild. I have no idea how my mind would be able to process being responsible for all this by literally just sleeping inside a pod for an hour.

Look at the look of hope on this alien’s face. It’s very sad in a way. He looks so happy despite being told he isn’t a God or their creator. I don’t know. Maybe the mysticism behind discovering who and what Sonic is after so long is just washing over his body. 

The aliens aren’t gatekeeping Sonic though. Sonic says he’s just a guy looking for a way back home and they offer to make him a ship. Sonic is worried about that taking a long time but the aliens say not to worry because they’ll simply turn off the Decelerator. They do that and a ship forms around him as it’s being built in mere seconds in his space of time. 

The story ends with him on his way in his own ship, stylized after him.

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #127: Agent Sonic Vs. Agent Knuckles

Writer: Michael Gallagher
Art: Dave Manak
Colorist: Jason Jensen
Editor: J.F. Gabrie

It’s a Spy Vs. Spy parody with Sonic and Knuckles. As a fan of slapstick antics, I enjoyed seeing Sonic and Knuckles explode each other for two pages. The formula for each page was that it looked like one had the upper hand but it turns out that the other one actually did and they win. 

I say for “two pages” because the last three pages are just the story deciding that it needed Eggman up in this bitch. He shows up to crush Sonic and Knuckles’ fight fest and the two then decide to team up to beat the crap out of him.

But then, the big twist at the end is that it wasn’t Eggman, but an Agent Shadow.

Here comes Shadow, the new guy on the block, ready to make mincemeat out of the old fogies that came before him.

Knuckles would have an on and off again rivalry with Sonic at certain moments throughout the franchise before it fizzled away almost completely.

 

This issue was very interesting. I enjoyed witnessing just how insane and crazy the book can get with it’s out there ideas. The vastness of space and the mysteries that lie within are a good reason to get existential and strange with how things are handled. It seems more forgivable to try something like this out when it’s got no effect on the actual planet where the majority of the story is taking place on. Also, again, I really appreciate that it was just another story where we focused on Sonic and didn’t cut back to his home. It’s really selling the “lost in space” atmosphere. 

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Bruh, these are definitely not the reactions I pictured you typing in reviews for the post-125 space arc starting off. And here I thought they would just be my own guilty pleasures—I know you said you like weird things at time, but this part gets even more far removed from anything the games did at the time before they brought aliens into the games themselves. 

Good to see you’re enjoying it so far tho, cuz they we’re definitely among my favorites as a kid getting back into them before Ian took charge.

[Cuz]

Super Sonic running out his "ring count" is a clever little ending to #126. 

Unfortunately they don't really come back to the idea planet specific chaos emeralds. Quite the missed opportunity there. 

[VO.SUPER]

I guess its easier to enjoy these issues in hindsight when we already know when the plotline will end, and we'll be getting back to the gang. 

[SBR2]

Spoiler

17 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Writer: James McDonough and Adam Patyk

I jumped the gun on assuming Ian Flynn would be all over this back when he got more into the book. We’re still relying on an assortment of writers for the book, which, to be fair, hasn’t been all that bad lately. These two, however, I have no idea who they are.

I do! They actually wrote various Transformers comics for Dreamwave. Kinda fittingly I think mostly the tie-in's to the Animes Armada and Energon.

 

17 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

 

Don't quote me on this but I think this is a reference to running gag on AOSTH where Coconuts would always be thrown down a trap door whenever he messed up...and one time where he did good but was too late in telling Eggman about it. If that was the intent then that is an obscure deep cut and I appreciate it.

 

17 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

As I thought that, a truck with flames on it pulls up and we’re introduced to the real hero of the franchise, Robbie Nick.

The great hero, Robbie Nick, can only be found in the Sonic X comics my friends. What a tragedy.

"Hello stranger who's totally not Dr. Eggman."

 

17 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Look at this marvelous revelation guys. 

Truly, he is a master of deception.

A head band and different glasses. Truly a master of disguise. I can see how Sam was fooled.

 

17 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

At first, I wondered if the cover was exemplifying something that wasn’t necessarily going to happen in the book, because that’s happened a couple of times. However, I’m happy to report that we do indeed have Transformers. Check out this Starscream looking motherfucker.

Not as impressive as the cover honestly. Side note(s) 1. It's crazy Spaz has never drawn any Transformers comics right? 2. On the back cover this issue had an ad for the first Bay Transformers movie so maybe this was to capitalize on the fact that movie was coming out.

 

17 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Well, anyway, we start off with Sonic who is asleep and snoring on an alien planet. The narration box almost makes fun of the fact that he’s asleep too. Then an alien ship vaporizes him while he naps.

NOW he’s dead.

Game Over Yeah!

 

17 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

So, not only does Sonic make quick work of the attackers but the ants can speak to Sonic now. Why? Because they accessed his mind and basically downloaded the english language into their brains to communicate with him in his mind. It’s a neat trick that only aliens can do. 

If only he had a TARDIS he wouldn't need psychic bugs to learn English. Honestly I'm shocked they aren't saying "Juice it Loose" or "Way Past Cool" or anything since they downloaded this from Sonic's mind.

 

17 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

I’d probably never want it to be done in the games but… I dunno, maybe, experiencing a different reality where this was how they functioned could have been fun.

I mean isn't that what this is? It's a world beyond what you know from the Sega games as future narration will say.

 

18 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Anyway, we’re in for a bumpy ride. For you see, that isn’t Sonic. Instead of transforming Sonic into Super Sonic, the red emeralds created an entirely different Super Sonic that is just flying around destroying things! THAT ain’t good.

Which might be a reference to Red Kryptonite from Silver Age Superman. Before Smallville changed it to just making Kryptonian's assholes Red Kryptonite was a wild card. It could make Superman polkadot or really fat or whatever stupid bullshit the writers wanted. I believe it was the influence for the Kryptonite that split him in 2 in the Third Christopher Reeve movie even though that was green. ...I like Superman sorry.

 

18 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

 

Ok...that's basically just a line from Army of Darkness. "Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun."

 

18 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #126: Better Read Than Dead

Writer: Mike Gallagher
Penciler: Dave Manak
Inker: Jim Amash
Letterer: Vickie Williams
Colorist: Jason Jensen
Editor: Justin Gabrie

Hey kids do you like Off Panel? "No not especially." That's great because for some reason we did an 5 page Off Panel!

 

18 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

J.G says they’re all terrible ideas and that no one would approve them.

Says the guy who let Penders do whatever the fuck he wanted.

 

18 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

The story ends and the narration box asks people to write in and tell them if they want more LONG off-panel stories like this one. 

Personally, I wouldn’t count on too many people clamoring for more of this. 

...There's at least 2 more of these. I don't know why there's barely enough content to fill 3 panels in the regular Off-Panel.

 

18 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

I just run down my Top 10 favorite things or least favorite things in the book.

While not a part of the book I look forward to my commentary being on the least favorite things list. :p

 

18 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

The D’Novulans are here

Probably not but I wonder if they were named after the planet D'Hoonib from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? I mean it's clearly a different name but considering there's a guy in one of the next issues named after Zaphod Beeblebrox from Hitchhickers guide to the Galaxy I wouldn't be shocked.

 

18 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

The Captain introduces himself as Captain OE, which is an obvious reference to Captain EO, something that I know absolutely nothing about.

Yeah I'm lost on that one too. I like Sci-Fi but there's a lot I haven't actually experienced.

 

18 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Eventually, the atmosphere is given the okay to get out and Sonic does that. The rain has stopped and there’s a lot of pink lemonade all over the ground. It’s not actual pink lemonade but Sonic says it reminds him of it, handmade from his dear old mom.

Dammit. Now I want Pink Lemonade.

 

18 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Evolution is accelerating at an extreme rate to the point where Sonic rushes back to his pod before anything can happen to him that he’s not ready for.

As such, in about an hour, evolution has just passed him by in a manner that would drive any normal person crazy if they witnessed it.

I love this. What a fun classic Sci-Fi idea. Y'know I think the problem people have with this arc mostly depends on how big of a Sci-Fi fan you are. It's been a long time since I read it for myself but I remember enjoying it but I'm also a pretty big fan of Sci-Fi.

 

18 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Like, the scientists even go on to say that as time went on, Sonic was factually declared to have been a god and fucking WARS were waged over whether or not he was.

So...a regular Tuesday in the Sonic fandom then?

 

18 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

It’s a Spy Vs. Spy parody with Sonic and Knuckles.

While I don't think either of them did Spy vs. Spy it should be noted that Gallagher and Manak both did work on MAD Magazine. So like Gallagher and Jim Valentino doing a Guardians of the Galaxy homage this is all a giant inside joke.

 

18 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

 

Holy hell Manak's Eggman looks wrong! Not as bad as his Rouge but that's still a ways off.

 

[Dr. Detective]

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #128: Tossed in Space, Part 4: Starmada and Tossed in Space, Part 5: E.V.E.ILL

This cover is very beautifully rendered but also very creepy. I guess, again, this is another way to showcase how to capture space. It’s big, it’s wide, it’s pretty, it’s creepy, and it’s unknown. 

Seriously though, those eyes are messing me up.

Spoiler

Writer: Benny Lee
Pencils: Jeff Axer
Inks & Letters; Michael Higgins
Colors: Jason Jensen
Editor: J.F. Gabrie

Sonic is flying through space and he manages to make it through a belt of space debris while commenting about being good at the SEGA master system. Hahaha~! Sonic plays on SEGA consoles. Cute.

I had a friend who owned a Dreamcast. Never got a chance to play on it though. Sigh.

Sonic gets contacted by a fleet of ships and is told to dock. He plays along, seeing as how, if he doesn’t, they could easily blow him into space dust. However, once aboard their vessel he’s greeted with a Gungan from Phantom Menace who has the Predator standing behind him.

Yeah, I’m sure this is all going to be just fine…

Well, anyway, Bagbar Breeblebrox, a guy who’s name you probably can’t say without accidentally beatboxing, asks what brings Sonic here and Sonic says that he’s supposed to be going to a technologically advanced place called Teragosa 6 and that it’s supposed to literally be right where he is.

Well, turns out he IS where he’s supposed to be. That debris he flew his way through was it. It was destroyed three hours ago. PFFT! What a close call am I right?

What destroyed it?

E.V.E.

I love how when the name is said, Sonic repeats it plenty to himself to help recall it.

I gotta be honest with you all, I don’t remember SHIT about E.V.E.

A little bit of familiarity floated into my head once Sonic gave the recap and especially when I saw this whacked out face. That’s a face a scant few would be able to forget. However, I only vaguely recall an enemy that had to be told to go off on their own and not serve Eggman anymore. This recap was very helpful.

Though, now with this context, because Sonic told it to go do it’s own thing, it retreated to space where it proceeded to murder and destroy lots of planets. The captain here scolds Sonic for this which did a lot to help this sink in.

Like… I dunno. The idea that Sonic could even be indirectly responsible for that many planets destroyed and lives lost makes me wonder if we’re jumping the gun here on what we’re ready to have Sonic’s mind handle. 

I mean, holy shit dude. I know the guy said E.V.E has “savaged” countless worlds so maybe not all of them were literally blown to pieces but the fact that at least one world WAS has to be like a brain crippling kind of guilt. The kind that could make a person breakdown.

Sonic obviously isn’t going to break down because he can’t, not in the way that plotline would suggest he probably should, but he does feel bad and wishes to take responsibility for it. The people on board this vessel don’t give him the opportunity to say anything further though. They try to capture him and Sonic has to escape back to his ship and fly out to space in order to find E.V.E and stop it.

With that, we move on to Part 5 of Tossed in Space.

Story: Benny Lee
Pencils: Dawn Best
Inks: Jim Amash
Colors: Jason Jensen
Letterer: Jeff Powell
Editor: J.F. Gabrie

The art took a bit of a drop in quality due to Dawn Best not being quite as good as Axer in my opinion but Dawn is still really good. 

However, it’s within this story that my suspicions about how dark this was and how Sonic was taking it hit a new level of “OH MY GOOOOOOOD! THAT’S SOME DARK SHIT MY DUDE!”

The page before talked about how this was a planet of aliens that managed to find a way to make technology coexist with nature and SOMEHOW evolved to the point where they’ve cured natural DEATH.

Then, over the horizon, UNNATURAL DEATH just swoops in and kills the fuck out of their planet. 

Oh and that thing about Sonic’s reaction I said earlier? Well, turns out all he needed to do was literally see a planet die right before his eyes.

I mean, I’m going to be honest, I’m kind of digging the dark as shit atmosphere and vibe this is giving off. However, the big problem is that it’s still hard to contemplate Sonic having the weight of guilt encompassing the deaths of SEVERAL planets on his consciousness like this. I know this is a visceral, powerful reaction from Sonic but the lengths they would need to go to sell this as a proper reaction to the horror that he just witnessed is something this book cannot and will not tackle.

Like, I didn’t even hear about this happening from any of the later Archie books I own. Maybe there’s enough cognitive dissonance between E.V.E’s actions and his that’ll make him get through what he’s feeling here. I hope that’ll work as a viable explanation because it’s too hard to fathom that this is on Sonic’s consciousness. I could see that cover where he’s crying in a corner holding a certificate for Sally’s marriage being a stand in for this situation instead.

Good lord.

Hmm… maybe Dawn’s art isn’t at it’s best this issue after all. 

I mean, sheesh. Look at his ears. Why does the right one have such a thick crevasse?

Sonic’s body almost looks like clothing. Or a costume. 

Well, anyway, it’s a good thing Sonic didn’t stay on Captain Gungan’s ship because they’ve decided that today is the day they save the universe and start shooting lasers at E.V.E.

Only it has no effect. None whatsoever.

E.V.E then proceeds to murder the shit out of their entire fleet.

OH GOD! THERE’S SO MUCH MURDER!

There’s gotta be a twist to this right? This is all secretly good in the end right? 

Sonic’s ship is about to get pulled in but for some reason it passes right on through harmlessly. At first I began to wonder if this was where the twist that everything was fine was coming but nope.

Sonic puts on a suit and tries to talk E.V.E out of being evil but it doesn’t work. He goes off instead to try and stop it from reaching the next planet but a shocking lucky break happens.

The totally real and extremely not-fake Sally Acorn comes out of nowhere, somehow knowing that Sonic was not only alive, but also in space, but also, also knew the exact coordinates within the vastness of space he was in AND had a means of getting to him.
Sonic doesn’t immediately question the shit out of this and just hugs her. 

He’s so happy to see her, he not only calls her “darlin” again but he’s literally wagging his tail.

God. It’s too cute. I can’t harp on him for too long when he does stuff like that.

Of course, it’s a fake. All the other coincidental stuff that should have been obvious eludes Sonic but the instant she suggests they head back home and leave E.V.E to devouring worlds, Sonic realizes it wasn’t her. He doesn’t even really say it’s because she’d want to stop E.V.E. He says it’s because she would stay even if it meant being trapped in space forever, so long as they were together.

I guess that’s true, mostly, but I think adding that she’d likely want to help save planets from being eaten would serve to make her look better too.

E.V.E congratulates Sonic for figuring out the obvious but is also happy that he took long enough that it can turn the tide and murder the crap out of him. Sonic manages to spindash his way out of the dangerous mechanical tentacles that try to skewer him in a totally, non-sexy way, and he makes his way towards a bright light where he sees E.V.E’s true and new form.

With this new form, also comes an explanation for what happened to her.

This is actually really fucking sad.

So, it turns out that E.V.E took Sonic’s advice and went off to try and live for herself and make friends but because she had a scary monster face she was persecuted and attacked everywhere she went. So, she thought that all artificial intelligence was being treated the same way and sought to liberate them from the planets she visited. 

However, Sonic just hit her with a logic smack upside the head about how she’s just becoming the thing she was supposedly saving them from by doing that.

Faced with this reality, she immediately decides to commit suicide by flinging herself into the nearest star.

She gives Sonic the information he needs to return home right before setting a course for immediate death, realizing she failed at living for herself. Sonic doesn’t really have time to properly react to this because he’s gotta get the fuck out of there.

Then she dies.

Wow.

This was a story written by the light-hearted Benny Lee eh? 

Oh geez. You know, I wonder why people thought that Karl Bollers could write some dark as hell stories. Clearly it’s Benny Lee who’s into the dark shit right?

Oh wait…

So uh… I guess to sum this up...

I mean, yeah, that’s kind of it, isn’t it?

E.V.E was ugly and scary and then everyone died. 

No twist. No, “they survived somehow”. Nope.

Fucking dead.

Fucking R.I.P.

E.V.E killed everyone and then felt so much shame when she realized what she was doing and how bad she was at living that she killed herself and all the A.I she absorbed.

Whoooooo-boy.

Yeah.

Feel good story of the week I tells ya…

Uhm… so yeah that was… really dark. Really sad. It had loads of death in it and a depressing showing of what happens when a happily ever after is unachievable and you realize that no matter what you do, you’ll never be loved and accepted in the world and that all your attempts to do so have only harmed all those around you, leading you to realize the world, nay the universe, is literally better off without you alive and thus leads you to committing suicide. 

So I’m just… feeling real peachy keen right now. Yuppers.

... Not sad at all. No siree…

…mmmngh...

 

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #129: Tossed in Space, Part 6: Space Gamble and Tossed in Space, Part 7: Welcome To The Wheelworld

So I like dark stories and I guess I got one last time. I probably should have kept better watch over that monkey's paw or I might have seen it curling when I wished for such a thing but hey, this looks like it might be more elevating… maybe. Fun fact though, when I saw this cover, until just this exact moment, I assumed Sonic was shaking hands with King Max and the woman beside him was Sally’s mom. I literally didn’t recognize those two as Tails’ parents. Can you blame me all that much though? They’re the same color and almost the exact same designs despite being two completely different species. 

Spoiler

Story: Romy Chacon
With the tip of the hat to: SW EP.1 (Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace)
Pictures: Dawn Best and Jim Amash
Colors: Jason Jensen
Letterer: J. Powell
Editor: J.F. Gabrie

Those are some interesting credits. I can’t help but wonder how well this will or won’t stick the landing. Apparently this is the conclusion to the stories of Sonic being stuck in space after all.

When it says it was giving the tip of the hat to the Phantom Menace, I wondered what part they possibly could have meant. Penders kind of had the whole Jedi Council thing down with the echidnas. Then I remembered the only other thing about that movie that people like aside from the Duel of Fates.

The Pod Racing scene.

Sonic has entered a Galactic Race on the planet he’s managed to reach and apparently he’s bet his spacecraft on it like he’s Han Solo or something. I guess it’s either the ship or a chance to get home. Seems there’s nothing left to do but hope he’s actually the fastest in the universe.

As soon as the race starts, the other contestants are taken care of rather easily and shockingly fast. This is mostly just because they start attacking each other at the starting line. Sonic manages to race through the chaos but is eventually beaten by a weirdo that looks like some sort of cockroach alien… thing.

But holy shit, Sonic lost the race!

Sonic tries to suck it up and is about to tell the guy where his ship is docked… but nope. Turns out that the cockroach alien is actually a cheating snake. He attached rocket boosters to his legs that the camera very easily picked up, which means Sonic actually won.

His ego is fine. Thank God.

Oh, and I guess he didn’t forfeit his only way off this planet too. 

Sonic also says this means he’s the fastest ANYTHING in the universe but that’s still a bit presumptuous considering I doubt those five other racers represented all that the universe had to offer. Unless all the fastest species just conveniently decided to enter this race at this exact point in time.

Well, whatever. Sonic can get his ship repaired (here’s me not even knowing it was busted) and we see him heading to the second part of the issue.

Story: Benny Lee
Pencils: Art Mawhinney
Inks & Letters: Michael Higgins
Colors: Jason Jensen
Editor: J.F. Gabrie

This story is “Welcome to Wheelworld” which is the weirdest title for a story we’ve gotten in quite a while. Apparently, that last story had nothing to do with Sonic’s regular journey. It was just a thing that happened to pay homage to the Phantom Menace with a conflict that arose off screen. Alrighty then. Hopefully this story didn’t need those pages.

Sonic arrives at the actual location that E.V.E informed him of and before he enters his ship is contacted by one of the Bem and he’s asked if he’ll be attending the trial of some dude. Sonic, not wanting to risk being shooed away, lies and says that he is. 

As he enters, he begins to think stuff about this place that I personally find a bit odd that he was able to deduce.

The only reason I’m even sure that’s Sonic speaking is because he called it a “way out world” which is just a very Archie Sonic way of putting something.

Anyway, Sonic makes it to the courthouse and sees the accused, Ceneca-9009 plead not guilty to the crime of sciencing too hard in the name of trying to do good.

You see, she allegedly visited a planet of metal beings and assumed they were suffering or something so she went to the high council to get permission to fashion a device that would turn them into organic beings. She managed to do that but doing so accidentally led to her doing a bit of a genocidal oopsie.

Whoops.

Whoopsie.

Anyway, robotization projects were outlawed after that… sort of. I guess. He went around on his science cruiser experimenting on random beings from different planets and ended up at Mobius, which explains why the Bem were there during that random story. 

The method of introducing them is something I have a little more respect for now. I still think the execution could have used some work. Plus, it doesn’t change the fact that having them suddenly appear and just initiate this fight that had everyone return to their normal organic states feels extremely lazy.

It’s here where Sonic learns the history of what happened to Tails’ parents.

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!

Turns out Ceneca-9009 spotted this happening from space and beamed Amadeus and Rosemary up to her ship. Rosemary, Tails’ mom, was about to be roboticized as well but got saved at the last second. Ceneca-9009 then used her device to turn Amadeus back to normal and then asked the high council if she could do it again to the Robians on Mobius.

Not wanting to risk another possible planet-wide genocide, I’m assuming, they denied her request and locked her up.

So, of course, it’s a story of good intentions gone wrong.

The exposition dump continues and begins filling the holes in on tons of stories revolving around robotization.

What happened to Tails’ parents? Why, they’re here! Sonic says he objects to Ceneca’s sentence being played up as though he did something wrong and Tails’ parents spot him. He rushes over to them and gets answers for why they suddenly disappeared.

Sonic was only 4 when Tails’ parents disappeared eh? It’s been twelve years and Tails was only just born when that happened so… Tails is either 11 and close to 12 or he’s 12. Or maybe he’s 12 and close to 13. Yeesh. That seems too old for Tails.

Anyway, Ceneca-9009 was given permission to try and prove her worth again after she completed her sentence. She REALLY wants to help people. It must have destroyed her inside when she accidentally did a genocide.

So this is the part where we get an explanation for why that random fight between Mecha Sonic and Mecha Tails and Eggman and Snively happened. The high council ordered the fight and said that the winning side would be proven the dominant species, because fighting good is the only thing you need to survive in all planets of the universe to them, apparently. 

I must be pretty worthless to them then.

Sonic objects again, saying he could have beaten Eggman if he was normal too. Plus, it wasn’t even his fault he got turned into a robot right then and there. The skill of the individual probably should matter more to these council fucks but I guess that’s not a concern either.

The experiment said that robo-people were superior so she was ordered to turn everyone on the planet into a robot.

She disobeyed and did the exact opposite, which is the third dangling plot line wrapped up; the major disappearance and reappearance of everyone in Knothole as organic beings.

Despite those earlier stories suffering from the way this was executed, I will say that I do actually like how this all came together in the end. At the very least, Bollers was able to take what had been laid out and mold together something that connected and against all odds forced it to make sense. What a miraculous shock. 

Anyway, Cencea-9009 gets sentenced to death for saving all of Sonic’s friends and family. She says she regrets nothing. Good.

Sonic leaves with the Prowers, stating that he’s not going to let that sentence stand while also catching up with them and letting them know that their son is a strong soldier and a mechanical genius. What a thing to find out eh? I’m sure they’re feeling a mixture of emotions that we don’t have time to properly dive into.

Sonic really doesn’t have time to either because when he gets back to his spaceship, he sees it getting taken apart. Why? Because Sonic’s from Mobius and the High Council has banned travel from here to there ever since the Xorda declared war on the planet.

This is actually a really impressive connecting of the dots. Honestly, it’s doing a good job of making those earlier stories I got mad at feel a bit more justifiable. Although, I loved the stuff with the Xorda already so this is just the icing on the cake.

A high council member named Ceneca-10050 approaches them and tells them that not everyone on the high council agrees with their ridiculously harsh punishments and tells them of a portal that can take them away from this place and back home. The plan is to bring Ceneca-9009 with them too. 

Sonic wants to know how he can trust him and he says he has no choice.

Well, fair enough.

Sonic breaks into Ceneca-9009’s prison cell and does his absolute best to skirt around saying the Terminator line.

Sonic, Ceneca-9009, Amadeus, Rosemary, and Ceneca-10050 reconvene to find that there’s only one ship with enough room for one person inside. It was the best that 10050 could do on such short notice.

Well, we get a nice sequence where the Bem try to blow apart the lone person on the escaping ship before it reaches the wormhole that leads to Mobius, thinking it’s Ceneca-9009 inside.

They fail.

Then it gets revealed that the person on that lone ship was Sonic.

Ceneca-9009 only has to live a life in exile for trying to help save the lives of a bunch of suffering strangers. So that’s… good?

Meanwhile, Tails’ parents stay behind. Sonic offered the ship to either one of them but they weren’t going to go without the other. Instead they gave a gift to Sonic for him to give to Tails once he gets home.

Truthfully, this was the right call. No doubt people are currently more worried about whether or not Sonic is alive compared to a surprise reveal that people they thought were long gone, 12 years ago, are back again. That’s not to say that confirming them alive isn’t important. It totally is BUT… Sonic’s a bigger priority I think.

Sonic manages to reach the right galaxy and he can tell because he recognizes Mobius’ moon. When I saw it, I was surprised and went “Oh, Mobius’ moon has a giant hole in it too?” but then I remembered that Sonic Adventure 2 happened off-screen… somehow.

SOMEHOW it happened off-screen.

Home sweet home.

Honestly, it was tough reviewing that. So much info was being thrown at me and the hard to remember alien names and places absolutely didn’t help. I did it though. Our space adventure is complete.

I’ve heard plenty of people talk about the fact that Sonic went to space but I’ve never heard anyone talk about the specific adventures he had in space. Most of what was talked about was all the stuff that happened when he returned which I’m about to experience next. However, these stories were nothing to sneeze at. They were weird. They were creative. They were quite literally out of this world. Going into space was the perfect way to do an assortment of tales that went above and beyond the call of duty with regards to how unapologetically insane they can be. I don’t know what the common consensus on these stories is but I enjoyed them all, greatly. Yeah, even the one that depressed the shit out of me.

Hopefully when we return to Mobius it won’t mean business as usual before the Xorda attack. I doubt it will be considering what I anticipate is about to come next.

 

Sonic X - Issue #21: Sub Sonic

Yes, and this is where I’d put my Rouge and Omega action figures… IF I HAD ONE!

Sorry, lost the happy, but the happy’s back… sort of. Focusing on the positives of this harsh reality we live in where there are still certain Sonic characters without affordable action figures out there while the same ones keep getting released with each new toy company SEGA hops to with each new wave, over and over again... this is a really creative cover. I’m glad there was at least some acknowledgement of the existence of an Amy figure with a hammer. Glad I snatched that up before they shot up to over a hundred bucks on ebay or some shit.

That’s quite the title though. I guess Sonic being a sub isn’t all that surprising if you were to consider his personality might be the way it is to hide that fact from the rest of us. This comic didn’t need to air his dirty laundry like that though. Not cool.

Spoiler

Writer: Mike Bullock
Pencils: David Hutchison
Inks: Terry Austin
Letters: John Workman
Colors: Josh Ray
Editor: Mike Pellerito

I don’t recognize the writer but David Hutchison is back again. He’s not bad so that’s good. 

It’s funny how this whole thing starts. Sonic is dreaming he and Tails are being chased by Eggman down the corridors of a toy store while they’re the size of toys. At first I thought the book was beginning in media res, but nope, his little brother had to wake him up from a nightmare he was having, which is super adorable. Although, just how much he fears toys is also kind of funny.

Guess what Robonicles are a parody of.

That’s right, Tickle Me Elmo. How’d you guess?

So Grandpa Chuck reads in the newspaper that a man named Alexander Pell (Really loving these name picks guys. I’m sure the guy who helped make the phone is happy to know his name was parodied in a Sonic X comic book. It’s his legacy.) has figured out how to create a ray that’ll put people on the sub-atomic level. Not only is he going to demonstrate his findings today but it was Chuck who helped birth the idea back when they were in college. Wow. We’re just swimming in coincidences today.

It’s almost as if the universe is conspiring together to make Sonic’s nightmares come true.

Also, for some reason, I keep getting the image of Pell from One Piece as a scientist and his creation is actually a sub-atomic bomb that blows himself up but he’s actually fine in the end.

Anyway, Chuck explains the complications behind why creating such a thing failed before and wonders where Pell got the Rubinite to make it. Since his lab is COINCIDENTALLY really close to the toy store, they go there.

Man, Sonic’s nightmare is just being willed into existence eh? There’s no escape from the--!

We literally then cut to Eggman who’s first line of the issue is “WHERE ARE MY TOYS?!”

It’s like when Frozone asked where his super suit was but sillier.

After his robots snark about how he’s too old for toys, he lets them know that he uses them for robot designs. Fair enough. Honestly, I wouldn’t even have a problem playing with toys today and I’m 27. Anything to escape the reality of the horrible world we live in right? 

Eggman also admits to just thinking a lot of the toys look cool. Again, fair enough. I’m the last person to judge. I began this review with a rant about not having enough Sonic action figures.

However, Eggman’s evil spark is ignited when he sees a Scarlet Garcia news report on the very same thing that Chuck read in the paper about a beam that, if successful, will allow us to travel dimensions on a subatomic level. I guess that could be a useful step forward in trying to get Sonic back home but I don’t think they want it to happen on a subatomic level.

Well, either way, they head to the doc’s lab and are about to try this out when Eggman bursts down the wall and accidentally gets shrunk alongside Sonic and Tails. 

Whoops.

Whoopsie!

So, Sonic and Tails try to escape in a toy plane and Tails is shocked when the controls won’t respond and they crash into the side of a small building of some kind.

Now, despite the fact that they’ve shrunk, there’s this weird full page where it looks like this building they’re crashing into is actually normal sized and full of people that can actually talk. Also, somehow, Amy and Chris are observing the crash through a small window. Then the final panel is of Eggman and his goons beside a collapsed shelf of toys…?

I’ve looked over this panel considerably and I’ve no clue what is supposed to be happening here. Where did those people come from and how can they talk? Are they all people the doctor shrunk and are living in a small scale model of a city? Or is this some sort of play-acting imagination thing where they’re actually just lifeless toys but they look like real people for the sake of the imagination… but that wouldn’t make much sense considering this could just happen in the real Station Square easily.

Also, why are Chris and Amy suddenly watching this through a window? The transition here really doesn’t make any sense and without a clear view of where everything in this room is, I can’t…

… Oh wait a minute. This was actually supposed to be them flying the plane OUT of the lab and crashing into the toy store across the street…!

Well, if that’s the case then it makes sense why Amy and Chris are looking out the window and why the people are all talking. That actually IS Station Square they’re flying through.

Sorry, I had to keep that entire spiel about how confused I was in to let you know of my thought process concerning this page. Someone REALLY messed up with that top panel because they look huge even though the perspective is most likely trying to get across that they’re tiny.

It doesn’t though. So when this scene happened I got incredibly confused. I thought there might have been a lollipop guild in the doctor’s lab with a random toy shelf nearby. Like it was a cardboard sky box and a tiny miniature of a city… but it wasn’t.

Also not helping is that the comic never shows them flying out the window. It just cuts to Eggman holding onto the escaping toy plane that Tails is riding on as they head for the toy store. TRANSITIONS ARE IMPORTANT. If you fail at them you can leave people confused.

Anyway, Sonic and Tails crashed and are here now. It’s the Toy Store of Doom.

Toys for Us is a really good name by the way.

I didn’t really give the reference much thought but yeah. Although Toys R’ Us sounds more like a toy store is proclaiming that they’re the one stop shop for toys while Toys For Us just sounds like they're hoarding the toys from all the little children who might want them and the only way to get them back is to give them money.

It’s not like the sinister edge isn’t warranted. This place looks scary from the point of view of the sizes they are. Not to mention, when Sonic and Tails have to hide in the claw machine, they end up coming face to face with their scary as hell merch.

I love Tails’ reaction there.

“Me? What?!”

Not anger or sadness just abject, pure distilled confusion.

Seriously though. Why are all their dolls so fucking angry?

Sometimes I can’t get over how cute Tails can be, even when he’s sneezing and alerting the bad guys to their whereabouts.

BAM! The Eggman crowd instantly knows where they are and starts chasing them.

Back in the lab, Chuck is about to ask Alexander for the third time where he found the Rudinite since he was sure there wasn’t any left but Chris says they really should focus more on fixing the current situation.

Unfortunately, it’ll take hours to repair the remote that broke and they just don’t have the time because Sonic and Tails are in trouble.

It’s telling that Sonic and Tails are choosing to run and hide from Eggman here. I would understand a bit more if Eggman, Bocoe, and Decoe were shrunk to the size of a huge action toy and Sonic and Tails were like 2.5 figurines but they look about the same in size. Maybe shrinking also shrunk their strength but kept the strength of the robots? I guess that could be a viable excuse.

Or maybe it’s just an excuse to explore the toy store. Probably that.

I do like a lot of these moments so it feels worth it. I especially like Tails’ reaction when he comes across the girl’s aisle. It’s my reaction whenever I see it too.

Yeah, seriously.

Pink is a fabulous color but it’s always saturating the girls aisle of toys. Meanwhile, the boys aisle is soaked in tons and tons of different colors. It’s almost unfair. 

Anyway, Bocoe and Decoe have chased Tails here and they start fighting over the affections of a Barbie doll while Tails scoffs at them for being stupid, followed up by him making another loud mistake.

I love it so much.

Meanwhile, Sonic gets stalled by Eggman in a toy monster truck, he calls Truckzilla. 

It’s a toy monster truck, which is hilarious.

Back at the lab, Alexander has managed to give the device enough juice for a five second activation. The two scientists are about to wholly express their feelings of companionship towards one another but Amy snatches the device from them and they head out early. 

Back at the toy store, Sonic’s interaction with Eggman’s toys is seeing him facing off against this monster truck shooting toy boxing gloves at him. At the same time, Tails finds Barbie’s convertible and steals it. Apparently, it’s drivable too.

God, you know, despite a few minor hiccups here, this is loads of fucking fun. It’s so ridiculous. 

Tails also can’t catch a break because Eggman just fires at his cute little pink car and causes another crash.

Well, anyway, Eggman and his goons have them cornered. Tails has a bandage on his forehead from out of nowhere now and he’s been demolished quite a few times now. I don’t blame him for thinking it’s over for them.

However, right as they’re about to be done in, the ray hits them again and returns them to normal. 

Well, not all at once. Sonic and Tails go back to normal first and dodge out of the way of the toy boxing gloves. However, I guess, because Eggman, Bocoe, and Decoe were charging at them, they end up going past them and flying out the door before crashing into some garbage cans outside. It’s a little hard to tell but it’s the only thing that makes sense to me.

So yeah, Amy and the rest got there in time and managed to find and save Sonic and Tails. Although, the ending shot is of Chris’ living room full of Robonicles because the store manager made them buy them all because of a “You break it, you buy it “rule. I’m not even sure how they knew it was the fault of Sonic and the others with them being bite sized but I guess it’s a nice ending punchline.

Poor Tails though. Look at this demolished kid. 

Give that lad a juice box and a bed. He’s done for the day.

It was touch and go for a bit there, I’ll admit. Sometimes it was hard telling what was happening due to the paneling and the awkward transitions. However, the main crux of what was going on came across and it was delightful. What a nice idea it was to just throw these idiots into a toy store and make them toy sized as well. We never did find out where Alexander got that Rubinite though did we?

I know I highlighted Tails a lot but I do feel it was important to capture the arc of him in this issue considering just how beat up and broken down he got by the end. It may have been Sonic’s nightmare but Tails was the one paying for it.

 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Oh god...

next week, it's finally time

[Dr. Detective]

1 hour ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

Oh god...

next week, it's finally time

Wait what?!

WHAT?!

NOOOOOOOOOOO~!

 

[SBR2]

Spoiler

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Sonic is flying through space and he manages to make it through a belt of space debris while commenting about being good at the SEGA master system. Hahaha~! Sonic plays on SEGA consoles. Cute.

I believe this is the second time that's happened. There was a reference to the Genesis Jurassic Park in like Issue 4.

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Well, anyway, Bagbar Breeblebrox, a guy who’s name you probably can’t say without accidentally beatboxing,

Hey he doesn't have 2 heads! Must be a distant Breeblebrox cousin.

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

I gotta be honest with you all, I don’t remember SHIT about E.V.E.

I wish I could forget. Fucking Captain N Mother Brain design is burned into my mind.

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

 

Meanwhile in the opening of The Transformers The Movie.

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Good lord.

Hmm… maybe Dawn’s art isn’t at it’s best this issue after all. 

I love Dawn's work but quite frankly she's way better at Echidna's and her own anthro characters than she is with Sonic.

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Well, anyway, it’s a good thing Sonic didn’t stay on Captain Gungan’s ship because they’ve decided that today is the day they save the universe and start shooting lasers at E.V.E.

Only it has no effect. None whatsoever.

E.V.E then proceeds to murder the shit out of their entire fleet.

OH GOD! THERE’S SO MUCH MURDER!

I'm honestly a little bummed. Breeblebrox's crew had really cool designs and didn't really get to do anything.

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

The totally real and extremely not-fake Sally Acorn comes out of nowhere, somehow knowing that Sonic was not only alive, but also in space, but also, also knew the exact coordinates within the vastness of space he was in AND had a means of getting to him.
Sonic doesn’t immediately question the shit out of this and just hugs her. 

I mean I'm not surprised. SatAM/Archie Sonic is kind of an idiot.

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Faced with this reality, she immediately decides to commit suicide by flinging herself into the nearest star.

I can't help but think of that line from SomeCallMeJohnny's Black Knight Video "So stop trying to kill yourself Knuckles because holy shit that almost really happened!"

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Story: Romy Chacon
With the tip of the hat to: SW EP.1 (Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace)
Pictures: Dawn Best and Jim Amash
Colors: Jason Jensen
Letterer: J. Powell
Editor: J.F. Gabrie

Those are some interesting credits. I can’t help but wonder how well this will or won’t stick the landing. Apparently this is the conclusion to the stories of Sonic being stuck in space after all.

When it says it was giving the tip of the hat to the Phantom Menace, I wondered what part they possibly could have meant. Penders kind of had the whole Jedi Council thing down with the echidnas. Then I remembered the only other thing about that movie that people like aside from the Duel of Fates.

The Pod Racing scene.

Well except Linkara. Though this another reason people think Romy Chacon was Gabrie. I take it you haven't been reading his editorials but there was a long stretch where he was talking about nothing but Star Wars.It gives the impression that if Dark Horse wasn't going strong he would totally have fought for Archie to get those rights.

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

This story is “Welcome to Wheelworld” which is the weirdest title for a story we’ve gotten in quite a while. Apparently, that last story had nothing to do with Sonic’s regular journey.

Don't you love it when things are completely pointless? It's not surprising either considering it's the only part of this not written by Bollers.

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

You see, she allegedly visited a planet of metal beings and assumed they were suffering or something so she went to the high council to get permission to fashion a device that would turn them into organic beings. She managed to do that but doing so accidentally led to her doing a bit of a genocidal oopsie.

See kids that's why you don't jump to conclusions. And Cybertron had just finally signed  those peace treaties and everything.

 

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

 

Y'know it's actually kind of a nice touch having Art Mawhinney doing the art for this one since he drew the story that introduced Amadeus and Rosemary.

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Sonic was only 4 when Tails’ parents disappeared eh? It’s been twelve years and Tails was only just born when that happened so… Tails is either 11 and close to 12 or he’s 12. Or maybe he’s 12 and close to 13. Yeesh. That seems too old for Tails.

And Penders will later ignore that and have Tails say he's 11 because nothing can be fucking simple! But yeah the war with Robotnik lasted about 10-11 years though it's Sonic is five when the coup happened so that's a mistake on Bollers part but either way yeah Tails is at least 12 in Archie continuity which honestly feels more reasonable than 8 to me but whatever.

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Sonic objects again, saying he could have beaten Eggman if he was normal too.

I mean yeah but "Normal" for Sonic is running at supersonic speed and contorting himself into a cannonball so that's not really saying much.

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Despite those earlier stories suffering from the way this was executed, I will say that I do actually like how this all came together in the end. At the very least, Bollers was able to take what had been laid out and mold together something that connected and against all odds forced it to make sense. What a miraculous shock. 

See this why I personally try not to judge a story off it's first couple parts. It's why if I ever do my own reviews I'd honestly rather do a complete arc than issue by issue because I feel that's a better representation of the over all story. Especially in these non-condescended writing for the trade storytelling days thank you Brian Michael Bendis.

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

This is actually a really impressive connecting of the dots. Honestly, it’s doing a good job of making those earlier stories I got mad at feel a bit more justifiable. Although, I loved the stuff with the Xorda already so this is just the icing on the cake.

This is why I say Bollers is my second favorite writer on the book. He's not perfect, no writer is, but you can tell the man had ideas and stories he really wanted to tell even if they took controversial turns but we're not there yet.

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Sonic wants to know how he can trust him and he says he has no choice.

Ok I had previously written this response and deleted it but all the Bem are female. It's instantly noticeable but if you examine their designs you can see they all have feminine facial structure and eyelashes which in cartoon logic means girl.

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

 

I think that might be my favorite variation on that line.

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

I’ve heard plenty of people talk about the fact that Sonic went to space but I’ve never heard anyone talk about the specific adventures he had in space

It's an era people want to forget about for some reason but like I said last time I think it actually depends on how much you like Sci-Fi and I guess, oddly considering how much it dives into that genre, there just isn't that big a crossover between Sonic fans and fans of hard Sci-Fi.

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Yes, and this is where I’d put my Rouge and Omega action figures… IF I HAD ONE!

Any day now. Any day now. *Hello darkness my old friend*

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

I guess Sonic being a sub isn’t all that surprising if you were to consider his personality might be the way it is to hide that fact from the rest of us.

I see him as a switch myself but definitely leaning more towards the receiving than the giving. ...I love making people uncomfortable. XD

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

I don’t recognize the writer

I...have nothing on this one. I think he worked on his own IP but it's been a while since I checked his Comic Vine but I do remember some people mistakenly thought Mike Pollock wrote this issue.

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Guess what Robonicles are a parody of.

That’s right, Tickle Me Elmo. How’d you guess?

Huh. I thought it was Malibu Stacy. They got a new hat!

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Alexander Pell (Really loving these name picks guys. I’m sure the guy who helped make the phone is happy to know his name was parodied in a Sonic X comic book. It’s his legacy.)

I am ashamed to admit I didn't realize until this precise moment his name was a play on Alexander Graham Bell.

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

After his robots snark about how he’s too old for toys, he lets them know that he uses them for robot designs. Fair enough. Honestly, I wouldn’t even have a problem playing with toys today and I’m 27. Anything to escape the reality of the horrible world we live in right? 

I'm 30 myself. I've thought about having a toy collection (Power Rangers mostly) but I don't know it seems like a lot of money and space that I just plain don't have.

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

However, Eggman’s evil spark is ignited when he sees a Scarlet Garcia news report on the very same thing that Chuck read in the paper about a beam that, if successful, will allow us to travel dimensions on a subatomic level.

Man is he ever going to be bummed when he learns Hank Pym already beat him to this.

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

It’s not like the sinister edge isn’t warranted. This place looks scary from the point of view of the sizes they are. Not to mention, when Sonic and Tails have to hide in the claw machine, they end up coming face to face with their scary as hell merch.

I love Tails’ reaction there.

“Me? What?!”

Not anger or sadness just abject, pure distilled confusion.

Seriously though. Why are all their dolls so fucking angry?

Sometimes I can’t get over how cute Tails can be, even when he’s sneezing and alerting the bad guys to their whereabouts.

Wait this is supposed to be a claw machine? ...HOLY SHIT IT IS! I always thought it was a shelf since the pissed off Tails doll has a "Sale" sign on it's foot.

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

I do like a lot of these moments so it feels worth it. I especially like Tails’ reaction when he comes across the girl’s aisle. It’s my reaction whenever I see it too.

Yeah, seriously.

Pink is a fabulous color but it’s always saturating the girls aisle of toys. Meanwhile, the boys aisle is soaked in tons and tons of different colors. It’s almost unfair. 

Did you know that the idea that pink was for girls and blue for boys was popularized by Hitler? I'm not kidding he declared it so after years of pink being seen as a masculine color. I believe it was placed on gay concentration camp prisoners. This is totally a fitting thing to be talking about in relation to a comic where Sonic the Hedgehog fights Eggman with slinkies.

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Back at the lab, Alexander has managed to give the device enough juice for a five second activation. The two scientists are about to wholly express their feelings of companionship

yes. Companionship and nothing else.  >_>

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 6:31 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

 

Barbie's Dream Chase Scene!

 

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2021 at 11:28 PM, Ryannumber1gamer said:

Oh god...

next week, it's finally time

 

On ‎1‎/‎18‎/‎2021 at 12:24 AM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Wait what?!

WHAT?!

NOOOOOOOOOOO~!

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! Prepare for 14 issues of fucking nothing! Seriously out of everything in this era and there's a lot of bad coming this fucking thing is the absolute worst. Now Penders doesn't take over as head writer until #145 but I honestly think this is his magnum opus of shit. Don't want to oversell it or anything though.

 

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

To be honest, the whole Mobius25YL arc Penders did wouldn’t be seen in such a bad light if Penders didn’t turn egocentric and burn the bridges and any goodwill he had.

I know we like talking trash about it, but really, that’s the main factor in why it gets such bile—anywhere else, and it would’ve been seen no different to how Sonic X or even the Movie played by its own rules and setting.

Granted, it isn’t the most exciting read regardless, but it’s not too different from any other official Sonic work during that period or even after it. At best, it would’ve been a typical “what if” scenario that we’d move on from, but Penders’ name is the main reason why it gets such a heated rep, even despite his poor writing—Sonic Team weren’t exactly doing any better stories either at the time.

 

At any rate, what’s the verdict on the Sonic in Space arc as a whole?

[Ryannumber1gamer]

9 minutes ago, CrownSlayer’s Shadow said:

To be honest, the whole Mobius25YL arc Penders did wouldn’t be seen in such a bad light if Penders didn’t turn egocentric and burn the bridges and any goodwill he had.

I know we like talking trash about it, but really, that’s the main factor in why it gets such bile—anywhere else, and it would’ve been seen no different to how Sonic X or even the Movie played by its own rules and setting.

Granted, it isn’t the most exciting read regardless, but it’s not too different from any other official Sonic work during that period or even after it. At best, it would’ve been a typical “what if” scenario that we’d move on from.

No. M25YL is just a boring shitty story in of itself, irregardless of Penders' nonsense. It's a story where the characters are written horribly, all of the female leads get chickified into boring housewifes, to the point where Sally Acorn is shirking her responsibilities as queen and leaving decision making to Sonic, despite the fact Sally is the most qualified for that stuff and the most action we get out of this Sonic the Hedgehog comic is speaking about politics, lounging around pools in swimwear, boring Echidna history lessons, and slumber/dinner parties. 

14 parts for all of that is not a good story. It would be difficult to be a good story if it was written well, let along with Penders' crappy dialogue behind the wheel. Sonic X and the OVA play by their own rules, but they at least retain the spirit and action focused that people come to Sonic for. M25YL is horrible, melodramatic bad fanfiction tier bullshit. There's a reason that when Ian even touched the future Mobius stuff that he redirected focus immediately to stakes and action.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

17 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

No. M25YL is just a boring shitty story in of itself, irregardless of Penders' nonsense. It's a story where the characters are written horribly, all of the female leads get chickified into boring housewifes, to the point where Sally Acorn is shirking her responsibilities as queen and leaving decision making to Sonic, despite the fact Sally is the most qualified for that stuff and the most action we get out of this Sonic the Hedgehog comic is speaking about politics, lounging around pools in swimwear, boring Echidna history lessons, and slumber/dinner parties. 

14 parts for all of that is not a good story. It would be difficult to be a good story if it was written well, let along with Penders' crappy dialogue behind the wheel. Sonic X and the OVA play by their own rules, but they at least retain the spirit and action focused that people come to Sonic for. M25YL is horrible, melodramatic bad fanfiction tier bullshit. There's a reason that when Ian even touched the future Mobius stuff that he redirected focus immediately to stakes and action.

I never said it would be a good story, just that it wouldn’t be seen as such bile as it is and mostly because of Penders bad name that he would gain later on.

I can’t imagine this having anywhere near the level of disgust had Penders been on better terms given how we look at things in hindsight, and it’s not like the franchise as a whole was even doing average in the storytelling department during that period given how much further Sega jumped the shark themselves. At best, had Penders not been Penders, this arc would get more of a shrug compared to the likes of say ShTH or Sonic 06’s story—not really engaging and memorable, but nothing much to fuss over.

And I meant more the 2020 movie playing by its own rules, not the OVA. And even then, I wouldn’t make excuses for how they changed things up either.

[SBR2]

23 hours ago, CrownSlayer’s Shadow said:

To be honest, the whole Mobius25YL arc Penders did wouldn’t be seen in such a bad light if Penders didn’t turn egocentric and burn the bridges and any goodwill he had.

 

No. It's boring as shit and spins it's wheels wasting time on sleepovers and dinner parties instead of the END OF THE FUCKING WORLD!

How do you a story with a looming threat of the Apocalypse and not focus on the Apocalypse? 

Also just so it'sclear I'm not saying this out of Bias I don't really like Ian's version either. It might also have something to do with the fact I don't care about seeing these characters as adults losing their capabilities.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Do you guys intentionally ignore the parts where I make it clear that I’m not saying the story is good (twice on the same page), or do you do this just to vent over the whole thing?

Cuz I couldn’t care any less on anyone’s personal feelings toward 25YL. Good or bad.

[E-122-Psi]

On 1/20/2021 at 5:17 AM, Ryannumber1gamer said:

No. M25YL is just a boring shitty story in of itself, irregardless of Penders' nonsense. It's a story where the characters are written horribly, all of the female leads get chickified into boring housewifes, to the point where Sally Acorn is shirking her responsibilities as queen and leaving decision making to Sonic, despite the fact Sally is the most qualified for that stuff and the most action we get out of this Sonic the Hedgehog comic is speaking about politics, lounging around pools in swimwear, boring Echidna history lessons, and slumber/dinner parties. 

This is something that really bugs me to my core in terms of my beefs with Sally Acorn in how she is constantly developed. This is an epitome of it. A future where Sally has successfully changed and reigned in Sonic completely, got him to be king and settle down, and just convincing him to suck it up despite him clearly not all set on this idea. But of course Sally still gets to act like a hypocrite in this regard.

It's just a major annoyance I have with her finalised, she is always enabled and allowed to completely correct Sonic's life views while never being called out for contradicting them herself, to the point that in the final outcome she has 'won' over him entirely, he's dropped every ethic he held dear for her while she's made no compromise at all and has even regressed to point of slacking off. I just don't get how writers NEVER caught onto this toxic element they gave her.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

23 minutes ago, E-122-Psi said:

This is something that really bugs me to my core in terms of my beefs with Sally Acorn in how she is constantly developed. This is an epitome of it. A future where Sally has successfully changed Sonic, got him to be king and settle down, and just convincing him to suck it up despite him clearly not all set on this idea. But of course Sally still gets to act like a hypocrite in this regard.

It's just a major annoyance I have with her finalised, she is always enabled and allowed to completely correct Sonic's life views while never being called out for contradicting them herself, to the point that in the final outcome she has 'won' over him entirely, he's dropped every ethic he held dear for her while she's made no compromise at all and is even slacking off. I just don't get how writers NEVER caught onto this toxic element they gave her.

Writers did catch onto this aspect of Sally's character, because it went completely against her persona in SatAM. Sally was first and foremost a field leader and fighter before princess and negotiator. In a world ruled by Robotnik, title, prestige and royalty means jack-all, and SatAM Sally knows that. The point of contemption between her and Sonic was Sally wanting coordinated and well-thought out plans, while Sonic - being Sonic - had ego and thinking on his feet in mind. 

When writers for early Archie got into her, no one had a solid direction as to where to take her. Gallagher treats her as a nag at best, and worthless damsel at worst, a fact that often times gets excused because of the fact that Gallagher's work isn't as bad as Penders, and is a lot more AoStH-like in practice. Penders took Sally's agency as a character away entirely, seeing her as a bad influence to Sonic - someone who "cramped" his style, and would force him to stop the various ways Penders' wrote Sonic (which - in no short terms - was an asshole "playa").

First things first, Sally was reduced to an item. Someone for the boys to tug around, essentially. She stopped existing as her own character and instead existed as the prize in Sonic and Geoffrey's rivalry. Geoffrey is a total creep, who'd forcefully push himself onto Sally, and we know full-well how Penders decided to add to that later with his antics on Twitter. Her very own miniseries that Penders loves to tout around as "showing Sally as a badass" barely features Sally, instead showcasing a robot copy, while Sally spent the whole arc asleep, while Geoffrey got a good share  of spotlight too. I don't even think I need to mention his intentions for Endgame.

When King Acorn was revived, things got worse. Penders loves writing fathers as total scumbags, and both Locke and King Acorn was the bottom of the barrel, and still Penders somehow justified the fathers as "doing bad things, but really knowing what was right", so Sally got reduced to a single role - calling out King Max's actions, only to get shut down by King Max, and Sally storming off pouting.

This really reached it's limits when King Max literally wanted to commit genocide on the Robians, an act that most writers would show as irredeemable - but Penders tried to have Sally claim her calling out on Max was too harsh, and it was a "arguably pragmatic solution". Penders just loved using Sally to bolster Max, and justify horrible things. In this period of time, she was essentially stripped of all roles. She couldn't be a field leader anymore because her father disbanded the Freedom Fighters, and she couldn't be a princess because her father outranked her, essentially just turning Sally into nothing. 

Later down the line, Bollers course-corrected things a bit by reinstating the Freedom Fighters, and reinstating Sally's role as the field leader, up through around Issue 90 or so. Then the editor at the time wanted drama in the comic, and therefore forced a godawful love-triangle into the mix. This was Sonic>Sally>Mina. And then on top of that, the editor also wanted a manga/school inspired setting, so the FF were completely disbanded, the heroes were thrown into school, and Bollers had no choice but to go along with it. 

Later on, from what we could get from the infamous Slap, and Return to Angel Island, it seemed like Bollers was trying to set up an arc where Sally would be forced to realise she had been bottling up all of her emotions and frustrations from her parents constantly undermining her, the pressures of leading the FF, and so on - and had been focus-firing them onto Sonic, what she was deeming the only solid thing in her life.

When she blows up, it's after losing Sonic once and going through a year of mourning, plus another war from Eggman. As bad as the Slap was, it wasn't just Sonic denying her that he'd remain in Knothole, it was the last straw to years of stress, and pain from all sides, essentially, and Bollers seemed like he was tackling the angle that Sonic wasn't really in the wrong, it's just Sally was so far gone by that point and had attached everything to Sonic that when she was denied even that, she lost it.

Buuuut then you have Penders - again - who as we've established - does not have a particularly good track record. And true to form, his idea of Sally's future was that she reigned Sonic in, made him king, and got chickified alongside Julie-Su. It was a common problem with M25YL, and Penders in general. Sally was queen, and she was intelligent enough to know how to handle royal affairs, but because Penders had just made her a housewife, Sonic calls all the shots, while she does nothing but nod and wave, essentially.

Same with Julie-Su, who was once a tomgirl and gun-welding legionnaire was now just a housewife who doesn't even seem able to interfere with Knuckles and Lara-Su's arguments, happy to stand by while Knuckles handles everything.

There's a particular reason why everyone calls out the book's early handling of Sally, and why everyone acknowledges the book's later handling of her, and it's the fact that there's a shift on where Sally stands with her role as royalty.

Later Archie would take the SatAM route, and make it clear that Sally's rightful place would be the field leader of the Freedom Fighters. Where Sally isn't calling out Sonic for being pro-active in stopping Eggman, but instead works alongside him, and sees it as the right thing to do. It didn't always work out because there was still tons of baggage left over from previous writers and how they handled Sally, but a course-correction did happen, and following Issue 160, there was a lot less attempts at trying to change who Sonic is as a person.

[E-122-Psi]

18 hours ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

Writers did catch onto this aspect of Sally's character, because it went completely against her persona in SatAM. Sally was first and foremost a field leader and fighter before princess and negotiator. In a world ruled by Robotnik, title, prestige and royalty means jack-all, and SatAM Sally knows that. The point of contemption between her and Sonic was Sally wanting coordinated and well-thought out plans, while Sonic - being Sonic - had ego and thinking on his feet in mind. 

That's the thing though, even in late SatAm they were seeping issues of how to view these dueling sides. Ben Hurst by later episodes began to view Sally's more meticulous approach as making her consistently "the reasonable one" while Sonic was just an arrogant and reckless bone head rather than an on the fly character who was SOMETIMES overconfident (though only really as often as Sally was originally). Penders and Gallagher by contrast perceived Sally as a 'nag' who cramped Sonic's style. You'd think all these different takes would even out on paper and give both characters even playing field....but they didn't really, and I think the inability to really delve into Sally as a flawed character really hurt it, at least in terms of character dynamics. Bollers had an idea but it was horribly done even before Penders meddled. Even with Ian Flynn and his token attempts to TRY and make Sally seem more fallible, he generally still never touched this area. It was kept one note, Sonic was the one who kept having to face consequences and learn to change (which was exacerbated by mandates assuring he couldn't so just kept suffering Aesop Amnesia alongside it).

There's barely a turbulent or even mildly vitriolic relationship between Sally and another ally either, not one that isn't depicted as completely the other's fault anyway. Even Sonic was unable to put 2 + 2 together when Sally spoke bull crap and all the other FFs didn't even acknowledge Sally's outbursts or flawed moments, let alone called her out on it (let's be perfectly fair, friend or not, they would have had Amy go BERSERK towards anyone else viciously slapping Sonic). She's very rigidly handled in terms of being their straight man and leader and them not really knowing how to make any new effective interactions, even when her actual actions aren't really reflecting that formula. Like you see plenty of takes where the characters can playfully diss each other or acknowledge the other's flaws without it turning into WW3 or a soap opera melodrama, but Sally feels like a no no in that regard. Even in her iconic banter with Sonic, it's mostly just Sally calling out all of Sonic's flaws and Sonic going 'whatever'.

And again the big issue with nearly EVERY damn writer for Sally was that Sally ALWAYS contradicted herself, she kept preaching to be methodical and reasonable.....and then couldn't practice it herself. She made really reckless or emotion based decisions, had outbursts, or just forfeit any agency in a difficult situation, be it by her own choice or simply by the writers forcing her out of the plot before it got too heated. She was a responsibilities preacher who never took responsibility when the pressure was on HER. This wasn't bad on paper, it could have added some unique twist to her dynamic with Sonic, her learning to relate to him and realise it's very easy to tell people to 'be careful and reasonable' compared to actually doing it....if it was EVER called out. It never was. NOT ONCE. Not even in a playful hypocrisy nod. Sonic was the designated reckless and irresponsible one who had to change while Sally was allowed to think she always made the right decisions and didn't need to change at all, with M25YL culminating all that with Sonic having withdrew all his agency for Sally and Sally herself having become complacent to the point of not bothering to have any agency at all.

Hell what's the first ever story in the comics? Sally tries to pull a reckless stunt with the robotocizer and a nullifier and just refuses to tell Sonic out of childish spite. When Sonic inevitably 'saves' her because she kept him in the dark, she blames him, outright tells him he failed his Uncle Chuck and Sonic just...accepts it's all his fault. This is how it goes from beginning to end in their chemistry, with Sally being the designated hero of the story (except in cases like the slap if only because the fans badger writers enough about it, even there though only Sally herself is allowed to call herself out on it to show how humble she is).

I think the fact they tried to keep them total opposites and never acknowledged this 'not so different' side to them ironically made them feel incompatible, and for Sally's uglier aspects to pent up in a way that made her seem like an unlikeable karma houdini to some fans. The writers just thought she was there to change Sonic in a completely one sided way, it just varied whether they agreed about her doing that.

[thumbs13]

On 1/20/2021 at 12:07 AM, CrownSlayer’s Shadow said:

To be honest, the whole Mobius25YL arc Penders did wouldn’t be seen in such a bad light if Penders didn’t turn egocentric and burn the bridges and any goodwill he had.

I know we like talking trash about it, but really, that’s the main factor in why it gets such bile—anywhere else, and it would’ve been seen no different to how Sonic X or even the Movie played by its own rules and setting.

Granted, it isn’t the most exciting read regardless, but it’s not too different from any other official Sonic work during that period or even after it. At best, it would’ve been a typical “what if” scenario that we’d move on from, but Penders’ name is the main reason why it gets such a heated rep, even despite his poor writing—Sonic Team weren’t exactly doing any better stories either at the time.

 

At any rate, what’s the verdict on the Sonic in Space arc as a whole?

If Penders didn't write 25YL it would be better recieved, I guess, but people don't even like 30 years later that much.

[Dr. Detective]

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #130: Home - Part 1 of 4: The Blue Blur Returns

I’ve seen this cover a couple of times before and the whole time I did, I never quite got it because it was always me looking at it with a quick glance. I didn’t know who Sally was crying over nor why Sonic was haphazardly approaching her from behind as though he wasn’t sure he was allowed to properly comfort her or as though he had even more bad news for her that he was hesitant to deliver. 

Now that I know the context for this cover, it’s kind of hilarious. It’s a beautifully colored sunset set against a dramatic scene of Sally beside what’s obviously Sonic’s grave, especially now that I actually took the time to read the tombstone, with Sonic awkwardly shuffling up behind her so he can be like, “Uh… so about that whole Me-Being-Dead thing…”

Spoiler

 

Words: Karl Bollers
Pictures: J. Axer (pp. 1–3) and Steven Butler (pp. 4–24)
Inks: Michael Higgins (pp. 1–12) and Jim Amash (pp. 13–24)
Colors: Jason Jensen
Letters: Michael Higgins
Editor: J.F. Gabrie

This issue actually begins with a Star Wars title crawl.

While fun, it’s also kind of funny that they’re doing this for the issue where Sonic returned home. Seems a bit late doesn’t it?
It also just hit me that this is going to be a four part story. That’s great. I’d rather it be that then a story where he comes home and they just celebrate it for a single issue and move on. Still, that does beg the question of what on Earth could possibly happen here.

Well, obviously, the first step is figuring out what on Earth (former Earth I should say) happened while Sonic is gone? Apparently a whole lot.

He crashes down to the planet’s surface and risks getting poisoned by the fauna by kissing the ground before seeing black smoke in the distance. His hero senses are tingling and he rushes there to find… Geoffrey and Hershey getting married as a last request granted to them by Eggman right before they’re about to be gunned down.

Of course, before Eggman can finish, his signal gets disrupted when Sonic destroys the Swat-Bots. Also, no, I didn’t say that wrong. He said Swat-Bots, not Shadow-Bots. Apparently, they’re back and they’re sleeker than usual.

Although, there was one name in particular that stood out there.

A.D.A.M.

Ah yes. My boy A.D.A.M. I have such powerful, extremely fond, nostalgic memories of the A.D.A.M story but that comes waaaaaaay later. It’s good to know he was introduced here though. It makes for a much more powerful arc knowing how long he was around.

Geoffrey and Hershey are, of course, shocked to see Sonic but not as shocked as the Swat-Bots he destroys. Hoho~!

No, but seriously, we get some shots of Sonic turning them into scrap from his perspective as he watches what I can only assume is the horrified blank expression on an expressionless Swat-Bot right before he murders it.

Then he clenches his fist and proclaims that he’s home which gets a big cheer from all the people he saved, including Geoffrey. Sonic asks what the deal is and Geoffrey explains.

REEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAALLLLYYYYYYY????!!!

YOU DON’T SAY!
Eggman went back on his promise to share half the planet with the Acorns? Oh lord. It’s raining shocked Pikachu memes in my room all of a sudden. WHO could have seen that coming? He seemed so trust-worthy. I mean he only betrayed you immediately after you guys agreed to help. The instant Sonic entered that robot, he showed his traitorous hand without flinching. Didn’t even bother to wait for the threat to be neutralized. 

Oh but I’m certain that he was gonna keep his promise to give the Acorn’s HALF the world. 

Jesus Christ. 

Fucking dolts.

So no, of course he didn’t. He declared war on them instead and has an entire atomic arsenal at the ready that Geoffrey and Hershey discovered. He was about to kill them before it could come to light but Sonic stopped that and now he’s off to tell the others… not waiting for Hershey to tell him something else he probably oughta know. In typical Sonic fashion, he’s gone before you can finish speaking to him.

We then cut to New Megaopolis.

Yup. I barely knew anything about Old Megaopolis before it got destroyed but he’s got a brand spankin’ new one so I guess I’d better get familiar with this one. Hopefully it won’t immediately be destroyed and we’re left with Megapolis Classic, or whatever.

The scene that unfolds is a very humorous one and peak Eggman. That scene of that Swat-Bot’s glowing red eyes witnessing Sonic murder it was connected through to A.D.A.M since he controls them all. Due to that, Eggman gets a nice screenshot of the one responsible for demolishing his bots.

Witnessing the man try and fail at giving himself proper emotional therapy was delightful. The only thing throwing me off about Eggman is how his nose is the same color as his skin though. Jason Jenson isn’t bad with these colors but it seems he can’t help doing something like this from time to time. That whole fiasco with how wrong Shadow’s colors were come to mind again.

Here we get introduced to another of Eggman’s children, M. Robotnik. I’m well aware of her and what’s to become of her down the line. My God, do I really love that later story I’m thinking about. All this extra context is greatly appreciated.

Anyway, because so much has changed in the amount of time Sonic’s been gone, M. Robotnik doesn’t know who Sonic is and asks about him, which gives Eggman permission to lose his goddamn mind, stomping about, while explaining to her who he is. 

When M asks why such an important person has no files on them, Eggman said that he deleted them all because he thought he was sushi… I mean, dead. 

He DOES say sushi though. I like the idea of referring to a dead person as sushi.

Sonic, meanwhile, is on his way to Knothole, finding it impressive that he made it through the Great Forest in under an hour despite being trapped in space for what he claims is six weeks. That seems like a very short amount of time considering all the heavy changes that happened. I doubt Sonic’s right about that. 

Case in point, what he sees when he reaches Knothole is basically a section of Metal City on loan from Sonic Riders.

Truly, some really good art here. Mr. Axer, you’re quite the massive talent.

Upon seeing this, it hits Sonic like a moon to the face that maybe assuming the same amount of time passed for them as it did for him might not have been accurate. I’d have been panicking if I were him but considering he saw Geoffrey and Hershey back there not TOO much time could have passed. 

He dodged a Captain America situation is what I mean.

Sonic grabs the shoulders of a little girl and starts shaking her, asking her what day it is.

She says Wednesday.

That doesn’t help.

Sonic asks instead how long it’s been since the Xorda were defeated. 

She says one year.

Now that’s more like it. I can totally buy that a single year would be how long it would take for Knothole to turn into that. Even for a fantasy book like this, six weeks is pushing it without overpowered nanotechnology to pull out of an ass somewhere. Cough. Cough.

After playing a quick game of “Guess Who” with the doormen outside Castle Acorn, Sonic is let in only to see Knuckles pleading with King Max to help him liberate Angel Island from the Forces of Eggman. They’re refusing, of course, saying that they need him for a bit longer. Honestly, it’s a shock to see any version of Knuckles acquiescing to a desire to stay in a place where his island and his emerald aren’t, despite them being in IMMEDIATE danger.

This is a very different Knuckles for a very different kind of Sonic continuity though.

Sonic shows up and alerts everyone that he’s alive by simply saying, “S’up.”

Class act.

I love this exchange between Sonic and Knuckles here.

Literally, the last these two had heard of one another, the other was thought to have been dead. 

Just a day in the life I guess.

Then he sees King Max, who is standing for some reason (????), but that gets brushed aside (I really wish it didn’t…) so that Sonic can bow (I kinda wish he wouldn’t do that either… like a solider… but he literally got knighted so… blegh…) and tell them about the nukes that Eggman’s got ready for them.

Max says he was afraid of this and the only thing I can think of is how shocked he must be that instead of Eggman giving them half the planet, he’s giving them nukes. Seriously, it’s so shocking. M. Night couldn’t write a twist this bombastic.

Then, of course, Sonic and Uncle Chuck have their little meet up. It’s very sweet.

Sonic asks for his parents and then for Sally.

I’ll admit… it does kind of, slightly, sting a little bit that he doesn’t ask for Tails.

It’s probably a petty thing to care about but regardless, I care about Tails’ reaction to seeing Sonic alive more than any of those other characters, even if in this particular book, Sonic would probably have more concern for his folks and Sally. It’s the same old story of certain characters mattering more to me because of how I got into the series and blah blah blah.

Although, his Tails’ parents did give him a gift to give to Tails which makes me even more eager to see it happen.

For those wondering where Sally is though, she’s waiting beside Sonic’s grave of course. It’s not sunset. It’s very much daytime, which kind of kills the much better mood the cover was going for, but hey, I’m sure this moment will still hit hard for those who were anticipating this for so long.

So, how does the book handle the reunion?

No words.

It’s just a shot of Sally by the grave and her slowly turning around when Sonic approaches. Then the next page is a full page spread of them kissing.

The only thought going through my mind when I saw this was, “Are Sonic’s eyes still flesh colored? Goddammit... I don’t like that. How’d I not notice we were still in that time frame…?”

They get immediately ambushed by paparazzi too.

It’s kind of funny.

Sonic asks what I’m asking in my head right now about whether or not she was wondering how he survived or if she thought he was dead. Sally says no, claiming that she knew he’d always come back.

Seems like a strange thing for someone who was kneeling and crying in front of a grave to say but maybe she was just finding it to be a nice thinking spot.

I don’t even know why I bothered wanting to see Tails and Amy’s reactions. I should have known they were just going to be super typical, although, I do appreciate Tails tackling Sonic in excitement.

Yeah, everyone’s happy and excited. It’s cute. It’s adorable. I guess that big grandiose thing they gave to Sally is what I wanted from Tails but this book definitely has its hand on the pulse of Sonic and Sally over Sonic and Tails. That’s just the nature of how it is. So I guess I’ll make due with these two panels until it’s time for Sonic to give Tails his present.

Then we have the set-up for a story arc that I also have in my collection. I had no idea it was being set-up THIS far in advance though. 

The real Antoine is going to be gone from this book for quite a long time it would seem.

Unfortunately, I’ve been spared wondering what happened to Antoine’s personality and how he got that scar in the year Sonic’s been gone. I already know what’s up.

Anyway, everyone heads on over to a room with a techno-tree in it that has a ton of monitors strapped to it. It’s a very weird thing but I guess it’s an attempt at blending nature and technology or whatever. Seems cool. I wouldn’t mind a tree that came with a shit ton of monitors.

They’re talking with the President on one of those screens about possibly sending a strike on New Megaopolis but the Acorns aren’t willing to risk collateral damage, as G.U.N puts it, for this mission. Right as Sonic is talking to the guy about possibly finding another way, Eggman does what he always does and just appears on all their television monitors. 

At this point it feels less like he’s hacking into their signal and more like he’s just a magic machine man. I mean, if he can just DO this whenever he wants then what’s the point of having secret meetings? You’re all fucked.

Also, he just tells them what he’s up to, giving them ample time to go and try to stop them.

So, I guess they should be grateful that the doctor’s a bit of an idiot too.

I do have to wonder about the accuracy of that silhouette of Robotropolis though. How on Earth is there that many buildings still up? Also, yeesh, I can only imagine how many Robians must look weirdly out of shape and melted, stewing in that bubble of radiation for well over a year. Nate Morgan must look like a stump of rotted metal. Poor guy was just a character who was created to be tortured and emotionally disturbed before he made a sacrifice that got so forgotten that I don’t recall him ever being mentioned in any of the later issues I own.

I will admit though, the concept of an entire city trapped in a force-field of radiation is a really cool idea and it’s even cooler that we at least got to see how it happened, even if the story it happened in wasn’t very good. It just feels like something that would exist in Sonic's world that would be shrouded in mystery should it ever be discovered in Silver’s future.

“Yeah, that old city from 200 years ago has a force-field around it. No one knows how or why but it’s got tons of radiation gas inside. No one knows what’s in there or how it got to be that way either.”

It’s a great set-up for a mysterious dystopian future landmark.

The issue ends with Eggman telling everyone why he ISN’T stupid actually because he’s doing the Lex Luthor thing of sending nukes to two other locations while his Swat-Bots go to release the radiation. He’s gonna blow up Station Square and Knothole at the same time.

He calls it Operation Triple Threat.

Damn. Would have given them massive points for calling it Operation Triple Trouble.

He then asks if they can tackle it. Whether they can or not, it won’t matter because it’s either try or start bathing in all that sweet glorious radiation. The worst that can happen is probably ending up with a Mobius full of Jokers right?

 

That was okay. Honestly, for an issue about Sonic returning home, it didn’t feel as emotional to me as I would have liked. Most of that might be due to my own bias concerning these characters. Sonic and Sally’s relationship does absolutely nothing for me. I don’t really complain much about it unless what’s happening is written badly or it’s just shuffling through annoying, tired old troupes. The best things about the issue were finding out all the things that had changed while he was gone though, especially with this being the introduction to M. Robotnik and A.D.A.M, two characters I’m only really excited for because of an awesome as hell story that I really, really love the hell out of. 

 

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #131:  Home - Part 2 of 4: The Gathering

Spoiler

 

Words: Karl Bollers
Pictures: Ron Lim
Inks: Jim Amash
Colors: Jason Jensen
Letters: Jeff Powell
Assistant Editor: Mike Pellerito
Editor: Justin F. Gabrie

You know, I’m thinking Ron Lim’s artwork might work better in a more stylized showcase of Sonic the Hedgehog artwork then in a comic like this. I dunno. I’m looking at this first page and I’m thinking about how I could see this working as a nice, weird little piece in a Sonic art museum.

You know?

The issue proper starts with Sonic and Tails about to reach their selected of the three destinations while he reminisces about how the planning went down back at the weird monitor tree. Bunnie, Fiona, “Antoine” (God, I really wish I didn’t already know the twist), Espio, Geoffrey, and Hershey are the only important characters who get sent on a ship heading towards space so that Rotor can do some mechanical voodoo that’ll zip them to Old Megaopolis in about 30 minutes. Sweet. It looked like Sally was there too… hmm?

We also cut to a scene right outside of the force field dome of Robotropolis where General D’ Coolette is standing there with an army of soldiers, talking about how they had a station set up here for 10 years for the eventuality of something like this. It’s here where he turns to see Knuckles, Amy, Vector, Mighty, and Julie-Su. Because we apparently can’t tell who they are, Knuckles lists them all off by their individual names. 

It’s here where I’m noticing that once in a blue moon problem where Bollers just gets weirdly expository with his writing. The unnecessary bolding is happening a lot more than usual too. I skipped over it, but a page back, Espio literally took up the first three panels explaining to Geoffrey a bunch of shit he already knew in the most awkward attempt at getting information to the audience.

He just listed off all the names of the people on board the ship and was like, “looks like you and Hershey managed to make it back with us in time too Geoffrey! Also, isn’t this ship a new version of the Freedom Fighter special that we’re currently sitting in and flying. Gee willikers, I sure am talking like a normal person today ain’t I?”

I mean, do you know anyone who talks like this?

“It’s you!”

“Yeah, it’s me but don’t forget, this girl, this guy, this other girl, and this other guy!”

I’m glad he wants to acknowledge his friends but geez.

We cut back to the Monitor Tree area where apparently Sally is still with her mom and dad, even though a panel earlier I could have sworn she was with the crew that was headed into space. 

Hang on. Let me look this over again…

… Oh wait a minute. That’s not Sally. That’s supposed to be Fiona.

Can you tell?

Everything about that color scheme screams Sally Acorn to me.

I literally wouldn’t have figured out that this was supposed to be Fiona and not an artist’s fuck up if they didn’t actually show Fiona in a later page.

The red in her fur. The fact that her chest shows a blue shirt and not a bare brown chest like Sally’s and the fact that I can make out her ears through her hair here really do wonders for my eyes. It’s almost as if the designs of the characters in this book are currently way too samey.

Again, I’ll reiterate that I thought the people on one of the previous covers were Max and Alicia until I literally was reviewing it and noticed they were supposed to be Tails’ parents.

Anyway, Max and the president have a bit of a reassurance of the other’s help, with a bit of added notable differences between the way the two species handle things.

I can’t tell if this is a Mobo-sapiens thing or if Max just can’t understand the concept of not risking sending an entire community of people into a widespread panic. I guess it doesn’t matter. 

Commander Brass returns (Remember him? Big, hunky, angry, rugged dude?) and is speaking with the President about how it’s silly to handle the Eggman Empire launching an all out attack on their exposed city by leaving it up to a blue hedgehog instead of their huge G.U.N army. Well, when you say it like that it sounds silly. Of course.

However, he isn’t. He’s waiting until Eggman’s missiles are airbourne to strike which… I dunno. I don’t want to judge that move since I’m not a President or a Military commander. Maybe not striking until the missiles are already airbourne is actually a good move somehow…???

Either way, he’s not worried because he’s sent his top agent to back up the G.U.N platoon that’s on their way to one of the three locations Eggman sighted. For some silly reason I thought it would be Shadow but then I remembered that we’re not at that point in Shadow’s career as a Sonic character yet.

So obviously it’s Rouge.

Our issue ends with Sonic and Tails swooping in to rain in on Eggman’s parade with the promise of something cool happening… next issue.

“Not even HE could get here that quickly!” sounds like quite the underestimation of Sonic’s speed when he didn’t even make the full trip on his fast feet. They’re riding in on the Tornado, for Pete's sake. You were really off on your calculations there Doc.

This is going to be interesting though. I wonder how Sonic and M will get along. What about A.D.A.M? Does he wish to have a war of the minds with Tails? The answer to those questions is probably nothing worth speculating about but it’s fun to do anyway.

I’m not sure what else I can say to stall for time so… I guess I won’t.

Damn.

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #131: Mobius 25 Years Later - Prologue

Writer/Inker: Ken Penders
Penciler: Steven Butler
Colorist: Jason Jensen
Letterer: Vickie Williams
Editor: Justin Gabrie

*Deep Breath*

*Sigh*

So… I went on a huge spiel earlier in this retrospective about my thoughts on taking peaks into the future back when it was revealed that Nicole had something on her tablet that was put there by Rotor from the future that Rotor from the present couldn’t figure out how to crack. I could go on about the potential paradox that could very easily lead to but for the sake of brevity, I’ll just say that messing with shit like this is troubling and extremely self-destructive.

To summarize, it’s of my own personal belief and opinion that should anyone attempt to risk ruining the suspension of disbelief of their own stories by attempting to show us what’ll happen in the future, the best possible way to avoid that is to NOT do that, first and foremost.

However, failing that simple task, the next best step is to say that the future you’re looking into is an alternate future, separate from the events of the story you’re currently reading. That way you don’t have the readers following a story they already know the ending too, thus making every threat they come up against feel like something even less worth worrying about.

Even still, if you don’t want to do an alternate future, make the future really shitty and awful, like with Silver. That would at least instill a mystery as to what cataclysm is coming that would render the world asunder and put a thought into the readers minds of something that our heroes would need to overcome and survive for the sake of changing said future. Or if it’s inevitable, make it 200 years ahead so that the characters we’re following are long dead.

There’s plenty of ways to work around it.

No though. Mr. Penders definitely wanted this to be the set-in-stone future for these characters and he wanted to show it to you all in a story that I just found out last week was going to span across 14 issues, JESUS CHRIST! I didn’t even know that! I knew this was coming but I assumed it would have been the length of the stuff from Ian’s run. Why was I so naïve?!

I think the thing that gets me about this is how Merlin here is talking as though he’s about to show the kids the greatest fucking thing they’ve ever seen in their lives. It already feels dumb that Lara-Su was shoved into that one story for no particular reason other than to, I guess, set this up, but now we’re gonna have to follow her as she reportedly ends up not amounting to much of anything, or so I’ve heard?

I’d talk more about the behind the scenes stuff associated with this but I don’t know a ton of it and continue to be mystified by how easily other people are able to find it. I’m mostly going to stick with scrutinizing the material itself.

With Ken Penders finally back after his merciful absences spanning several issues due to what I was told was basically a temper tantrum over something I apparently care so little about I’ve already forgotten it, it’s going to take a lot of perseverance on my part to survive what’s coming.

So, the story begins in the way that most things surrounding Ken Penders does, by the hand of some echidna word vomiting history at us.

I’m sure all the kids were like, “FUCK YEAH! AN OLD FUCK TEACHING SOCIAL STUDIES! WHOOO!” when they read this back when this came out.

Professor Old Rotting Melted Cheese the Echidna is here to deliver exposition, of course. This stuff could be cool but it’s not being presented as such so far. Most of what’s on my mind is the fact that in a story called “Mobius 25 Years Later” the first thing Penders wants to show to us is an echidna giving a classroom of people echidna history. You’d think we’d be starting off with things that dealt with what the main hero of the book, Sonic the Hedgehog, was doing right? Or, if not that, perhaps this is the start of a build up to that. We cut around to all the things that aren’t Sonic to build up to the main character. That’s a strategy they could use.

Oh, but it’s not. I know it’s not because this is Echidna Pope Penders we’re dealing with. His shit is just more important than whatever’s going on with the main characters of the Sonic series.

I’m not being too hard on him right out of the gate either. This isn’t just exposition. This is more politics being thrown at the reader, allegedly targeted towards children, in a manner that even I, as an adult, had to read over twice to make sure I understood. Then again, it might just be going in one ear and out the other because I know it doesn’t matter. Regardless, this is still fucking ridiculous. I mean look at this.

Even as someone who doesn’t mind the idea of Sonic comics tackling politics, this is not the way to do it. At most, show people following orders and getting orders from higher ups. Maybe have people sit around a table to discuss what they’re going to do about some big, evil problem or whatever. You’ve gone over the speed limit when you’re whittling yourself down to specific talks of republics, democracies, and monarchies. Even Star Wars had trouble making that shit interesting. That doesn’t mean it’s not possible. It just means you shouldn’t do it THIS way.

I could also complain about how only the guys have semi-normal names and all the girls have two syllable names for reasons I still don’t understand but I won’t.

Instead, I’ll talk about how much of a violent bitch Lara-Su is. 

When the subject of being a guardian comes up and talk of how that position has special permission to be like a monarchy despite echidna civilization supposedly hating that, one guy in the class says he doesn’t want to bow to “Miss Sunshine” here, referring to Lara-Su.

Lara’s reaction to being called “Miss Sunshine” is to assault this boy with a book and… call him a beast? For some reason?

Why…? Why is he a beast? I don’t get it.

She kind of showcased herself as a bit beastly there, not only being the first to physically strike someone but to do it over him venting a concern for one day having to bow down to her. I doubt that’s even how it works (because I’m sure as shit that no one bows down to Knuckles) but it’s still weird that she decided to clonk him over the head with a fist full of privilege like an echidna Karen.

She’s told to meet the teacher after class for assaulting another student. At least he recognizes that what she did was wrong so there’s that at least. I have a feeling Penders is all for it though. This is just how he writes girls. Angry and violent, ALL the time. Also, emotionally unstable to the point of not only refusing help but getting offended that a mere male would offer it. 

We cut away to see someone who’s obviously Rotor, acting as an emissary, coming to meet with the echidnas.

DOMO.

Rotor takes a ride with an old as hell Harry and then meets up with a wrinkly, old looking Espio who is informed by the walrus that the king and queen wish to meet with the echidna guardian for dinner. My mind had to rewire itself a bit to insert Sonic and Sally as the King and Queen though. Even still, the words “King Sonic” sound incredibly awkward and fake. All I can think of is the end of Black Knight where he told all the knights to stop bowing to him.

But yeah, Espio… looking… weird my guy.

Especially with that little beard. I dunno. I’m not too fond of seeing these characters old. 

25 years means Sonic is about 40. 

… That’s actually not that old but for Sonic the Hedgehog it feels like it is. 

How old is Espio? It doesn’t feel like he should be this wrinkly.

Espio checks in with Knuckles over a monitor to tell him that the King and Queen are going to be coming and they’ll bring their son and daughter, Manik and Sonia, to see Lara-Su again. It’s a nice touch having their kids named after the Sonic Underground characters I think. Although, I can’t help but think of the weirdness of imagining Sally giving birth to Sonic’s brother and sister.

Also, Espio has a daughter. Cool.

Knuckles’ right eye is being obscured for a reason I’m already aware of but the truly interesting thing is the matter they’re discussing concerning Rotor and a character named Cobar.

I don’t know why Rotor is being referred to as a mad scientist but apparently they feel it’s warranted based on something he did a while back. Also, this Cobar character was apparently supposed to be someone Rotor was really close with and they were gonna do this whole thing where Rotor was gay or something? I don’t know. I heard it didn’t pan out that way.

The next scene is of that kid from earlier, Rutan, coming home to his mother and ancestor, Lien-Da and Dimitri.

This is the first time I’m witnessing Dimitri as a head in a bubble. Quite odd seeing it just… here like this.

Lien-Da looks really good though. So does Dimitri. 

So does everyone actually.

In fact, this was the point where I had to check and see who was doing the art because there’s no way it was Ken Penders. It looks way too good.

So I checked and HOLY SHIT IT ACTU--no. It’s Steven Butler. I put the credits up top so I saw his name but there was a part of me that, for some reason, wanted to believe Ken was being good at something.

I gotta say though, this is some of Butler’s best work in a while. It looks really nice.

Lien-Da, a mother now somehow, sees the bump on her son’s head and asks about it but he doesn’t want to talk about how his mom’s sister’s daughter assaulted him in class so he marches off, leaving her and Dimitri to talk about his teenager temperament. Dimitri mentions Lien-Da having been treacherous back in the day which just made me do a mental headdesk. 

I don’t understand the logic of talking about things that haven’t had a chance to happen yet in the main story while also showing us that it works out in the end with them chatting about it here. Lien-Da hasn’t had a chance to be fully treacherous in the present timeline. 

It’s like if Piccolo Jr. confronted Goku at the Martial Arts Tournament and told him he was going to kill him and take over the Earth and then we randomly flash-forwarded to the future where he’s babysitting Pan and being a mentor to Gohan. We’re then expected to go back to the present story where he’s trying to kill Goku and be JUST as invested in the current threat? Like, what?

We cut back to Knuckles who is looking for Lara-Su. He comes across Julie-Su instead and is informed by her that she’s locked herself in the bathroom. Knuckles does the angry, yelling father thing and bangs on the door, telling her to get out because she’s a 16 year old girl and she needs to be… unveiled???

… EW?

I don’t know why the word “unveiled” sounds so gross and disgusting here. Probably because he put in the line “All Echidna girls are unveiled when they turn 16”. It just sounds… wrong. Like, horrifically wrong. 

However, the big thing I noticed here that stood out as being particularly odd is that Lara-Su is upset because she WANTS to be a guardian. This is the typical role reversal of positions troupe where Knuckles was kind of forced into the role against his will and, of course, his off-spring wants that role, unaware of all the shit Knuckles had to go through because of it.

This sticks out to me because the earlier scene in the classroom kind of gave off the air that she was a bit bothered by the fact that Rutan pointed out that she was going to be a guardian. It kind of came off as a bit resentful but… no. She totally wants to be that thing that she was chided for in class today about people bowing to her over, possibly. Though, again, I doubt anyone’s seriously going to bow to her. If they do then Knuckles truly got jipped.

So when I see this scene of her moping in the bathroom, it kind of feels off. That entire opening scene in the classroom already needed a massive rewrite but this kind of cements that fact for me.

Seeing Knuckles shift through trying to be rational to immediate anger is really amusing though. Helping this along is the fact that he’s completely right.

Julie-Su calls spankings barbaric eh? I guess we can cross that off the date night activity list for them then.

Still, Knuckles is about to give up and shuffle off but Julie-Su tells him to do the parent thing for her so he does. He simply reiterates what he just said again but in a calmer demeanor. He says there’s no need for guardians anymore, including himself, because the way society is run doesn’t necessitate it.

Which, I agree with just seeing all this shit. I don’t know why the whole of Echidna society can’t be equally responsible for being guardians now. With Knuckles in the games it made more sense because he was literally the last echidna around. It already doesn’t REALLY make much sense to have a secret society of echidnas selecting an individual one when they really could just do it all themselves. A lone person is kind of what I think of when I think of the word guardian, you know?

This gets Lara-Su to come out of the bathroom, on the condition that her dad will provide her with her first dance.

So this is definitely their equivalent to the Sweet 16. Got it. I don’t know why it had to sound so creepy coming out of Knuckles’ mouth though. 

 

So that was an issue of the comic, I guess. The first story did an okay job of shuffling the pieces off to different parts of the world so that it could psyche me up for something truly exciting and fun. I’m sure that’ll be at least mildly entertaining. The second story was… not the worst thing in the world despite the fact that I had way more to complain about than even I anticipated just starting out. I know I’m in for a really long ride though so I’ll just count my blessings that we didn’t start out of the gate being vomit inducing levels of awful. It was just the usual kind of bad that I’m used to Penders with an added hint of frustration for being a certain kind of story that I hate.

Also, it must be reiterated, it’s strange that a story titled “Mobius 25 Years Later” in this Sonic the Hedgehog comic book is starting off with a prologue all about the echidna society. It’s not surprising considering who’s writing it but it’s still very abnormal regardless.

 

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #132: Home - Part 3 of 4:  A.D.A.M. & Evil

I feel like this cover had the potential to be really fucking good but the way everyone is drawn is just a little off for me. I look at Mighty’s teeth and I see a cylinder made of Metal. I look at Sonic’s rotating feet and see a bundle of hair. I look at Amy’s creepy, soulless, pink Chao and wonder what blood sacrifices it wants me to make. I look at Tails’ mouth and see… a disconnected tongue and uvula. Tails’ mouth is the biggest distraction for me here actually. Also, I think that’s Fiona above Sonic. Again, I almost mistook her for Sally. I was also kind of surprised that we were on the 3rd part of this story. It feels like it’s barely begun.

Spoiler

 

Writer: Karl Bollers
Penciler: Dave Manak
Inks/Letterer: Michael Higgins
Colorist: Jensen
Editor/Art Director: Justin Gabrie

Sonic has slam dunked on to where Eggman is and immediately engages in a battle of wills and strength the likes of which has never been seen before in recorded history. Truly a dignified battle of clashing egos is commencing before us ladies and gentlemen.

Oh but wait! Eggman’s got another tyrannical asshole coming up on the side, ready to slam Sonic in the back of the head with a chair! That’s right, it’s Vince!

Oh and what’s this? Sonic’s gloating to Eggman about how both Tails and Rotor are going to hack into his computers? It would seem that he’s made the call on the early win too soon, for you see, they’ve sealed their own fates attempting to do so.

Why? Because of A.D.A.M.

Now that’s interesting.

I actually didn’t know that A.D.A.M himself was a computer virus. I also didn’t know that Eggman accidentally created him. That kind of makes him even more creepy in a way. 

Also, the answer to why Sonic was apparently so quick in getting here is given to us by M who simply states they used a Power Ring. Cool. 

Anyway, A.D.A.M controls all of the shit that belongs to the good guys. So THAT ain’t good.

Back at Fort Acorn, General D’ Coolette is sending out his troops while… for some fucked up reason, Julie-Su is trying to tell Knuckles to be like her and do nothing to participate in the fight?

Yeah, I could go into a spiel about how Julie-Su, since being foisted upon me, really hasn’t done much of anything and how her being super-glued to the Chaotix is kind of appropriate since they’ve all been completely useless as well… but instead I’ll talk about how this makes no sense.

Knuckles asks why he can’t join the fight and Julie-Su gives two reasons.

One reason is because he no longer has the power of the Chaos Emerald in him and to that I say, SO?! Knuckles doesn’t need the power of a Chaos Emerald in him in order to fight. None of those soldiers marching off to battle do either. Knuckles probably has more power in his fist than 30 of those soldiers do in their whole bodies. So that reason is nonsense.

The second reason she gives is because… he could REALLY get hurt.

Ignoring the possibility of him getting hurt when going out to fight in a battle being a really “no shit” thing to say, she does realize that what she’s saying here makes literally no sense right?

She JUST said that one of the reasons he shouldn’t go out there is because he no longer has the Chaos Emerald power in him. When Knuckles brings up the fact that he was actually hurting way more WITH that Chaos Emerald power, Julie-Su “counters” him by saying it ended up killing him. 

So the thing that Knuckles apparently needs to go out there to NOT get hurt in the battle is something you agree made Knuckles hurt a lot and is also what ended up getting him killed? 

I kind of wish this was just a single panel of her just being worried he was going to die again, which in and of itself would be understandable. She’s unaware that he literally can’t die due to a SEGA mandate and that she should be way more worried about herself in that department.

However, I don’t think she should have tried to pass this off as her being reasonable. There’s nothing she can do here to make this make sense. Knuckles is far stronger than the people who ARE allowed to fight and she should know that.

Well, Knuckles agrees to stick around anyway and they go watch Amy as she… warms up? 

Is… Is Amy trying to reach the Avatar State? Why does she have that sledgehammer? Is it supposed to be a new hammer or did the artist fuck up the kind of hammer she’s supposed to wield yet again? If it’s another hammer fuck up, I’m seriously starting to worry for these people. This issue came out the same month that Sonic Heroes came out in North America. I feel like this hammer issue should have been long since resolved by this point.

God, I remember when SA2 and Heroes dominated my childhood. To think I was unaware that a Sonic comic existed at that time. 

Meanwhile, Vector is setting up his Sonic Generations mission in the middle of the battlefield.

I mean, I guess this is accurate.

Anyway, back at the Monitor Tree area, Sally is freaking out to daddy because A.D.A.M is in control of Eggman’s atomic arsenal, his army of robots, and Tails’ tornado. Uncle Chuck says something unbelievably dumb about how this could be a blessing in disguise because this artificial intelligence’s attention is being split three different ways…

… I mean technically, if you want to count each individual robot and missile he’s in control of, his attention is split several hundreds of ways. Even if the robots are all in one area, they all have to move at different angles and such.

Not that it matters because he’s a computer. The amount of information it can process at once should be a lot more than three, especially in Sonic’s world. 

A.D.A.M has a great line to Tails when he’s trying to dive bomb Tails’ plane to make it crash.

“I am A.D.A.M. Tails, I ascertain no reason for your continued existence.”

Whoo-wee. That’s gotta hurt.

Though, Tails somehow regains control of the aircraft, I guess by asking A.D.A.M a quierry in a strangely out of nowhere but still really funny scene.

Tails just asks A.D.A.M why the chicken crossed the road. Even funnier is his answer overlaid on top of scenes of M kicking Sonic’s ass.

It’s like we’re in an anime now.

We cut back to Vector and the others where the robots have blown up Vector’s speakers. I guess the Chaotix Recital is over but don’t worry, they were just buying time for Amy Rose to rush in and demolish half of the robot army BY HERSELF because she’s finished… charging? I guess?

Oh but she’s too immature to be a Freedom Fighter. See, the magic thingie aged her up physically but mentally she’s just not ready to be a Freedom Fighter like Tails. 

The more I read these past issues, the MORE bullshitty that story and speech Sally made where Amy finally does become a Freedom Fighter feels. It’s EXTREMELY fucking dumb that she isn’t one already when she’s officially doing more than most of them have in a long while by comparison.

Literally the next scene is Sally trying to go out to the battlefield and being stopped by her parents because it’s too dangerous and she’s a princess and being a princess means… something more important I guess. Because it’s war. Does Eggman really give a shit about whatever authority these animals are trying to have? I don’t think he does. The fact that Sally is a princess is irrelevant to him. 

She wants to leave because Mecha Robotnik (or M. Robotnik for short) just beat the shit out of Sonic and tossed him into the ocean. Where as A.D.A.M was a software mistake, M was an intentional hardware creation of his. It’s almost a perfect combination.

It would seem that during the year that Sonic’s been gone, Snively is STILL missing though. Interesting.

Back at the battlefield where Amy has just finished kicking loads of ass, they talk about how that sledgehammer of hers actually IS supposed to be the Piko Piko Hammer... 

… Like, I’m just flabbergasted. It’s looked different before. It’s looked orange before. It’s looked pure metal before. However, this is just insanely bad.

IT’S NOT EVEN THE SAME TYPE OF HAMMER NOW!

What is this? A running joke? Is Amy going to be wielding a fisher price toy from the Bob the Builder collection the next time we see her?

They don’t even spell it right. They call it the Pico Pico Hammer. Like Pico de gallo? 

Anyway, Rouge shows up looking fucking awful.

They’ve not quite nailed down being able to draw this character yet. Either that or they’re doing that thing where sometimes they draw the curvy woman super tall and human woman like at random. It’s a very distracting thing that this book likes to do with Sally and Bunnie a lot. 

Back with Eggman, he wants to see a body so M dives into the water to go snag the body of Sonic… but Eggman hears a voice behind him and turns to see Shadow!

Shadow is colored correctly but he’s still drawn like ass so, I guess it’s only marginally better.

Sonic managed to make it out of the water, somehow, despite not being able to swim, but it doesn’t matter because M is scary competent. Not only did she kick Sonic’s ass but she found him immediately. 

She repeats that father wants to see a body and before Sonic can even finish insulting her, he clams up when she takes her shades off. Then he just goes Uh-oh.

This is appropriately creepy and scary and I really love it.

I really legitimately like M. 

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #132: Mobius: 25 Years Later - The Unveiling

Writer/Inker: Ken Penders
Penciler: Steven Butler
Colorist: Jensen
Letterer: Vickie Williams
Editor: Justin Gabrie

Some guy named Mace, who’s apparently Knuckles’ brother, walks in and starts making jokes about his brother Knuckles dancing with his daughter at her unveiling. Mace looks exactly like Knuckles. Literally, fucking, EXACT… except it’s okay, because Future Knuckles is missing an eye.

That makes it okay, you see.

There’s a bit of a funny moment where Knuckles leaves to go stare off a balcony, reminiscing about how his daughter is getting older. Julie-Su follows him and comforts him and then suddenly the horizon is encased in lighting. It’s a very strangely ominous thing to have happen in a scene like this.

Turns out we’re checking in on something ominous immediately here with Rotor and Cobar talking together about how King Sonic’s adventures in the past are causing the space time continuum to fall apart and it’s going to destroy their reality forever.

I especially love the part where Penders makes sure to let everyone know that, yes, while Dimitri and his followers have some of the blame, most of it is on Sonic. So, you know, the echidna characters he created don’t have most of the blame but you can bet they’re gonna be the ones to fix it. 

Those dumb motherfucking primitive hedgehogs. I can’t believe one of them is a king now. Blegh.

We also meet up with Vector and his son Argyle. He looks a bit different than he does in Mobius 30 Years Later but I guess that’s to be expected. He takes his turn to dance with Lara-Su, shocking Vector because he’s been made a fool of by his son because he can’t dance as good as his son can. Cause Vector’s a butt monkey. I wonder who he had sex with.

The issue ends with Harry giving Knuckles a letter and he has to go to Locke’s place now. Sure.

 

This issue was actually really good, story wise. Not art wise. I could actually feel the tension build to a nice point and the way the villains were utilized took the cake for me. I like both M and A.D.A.M a lot. It’s very amusing watching them do their thing. Perhaps someone thought they were out of place but I can’t agree at the moment. It also helps that Sonic got his ass beat and on top of that, the main story took up so much of the issue that it barely left any time for that nothing story that happened at the end of it with the unveiling party no one cares about. It’s nice to know that King Sonic’s fucked all their lives though. Specifically Sonic did it. Dimitri did a little bit of it but it’s mostly Sonic’s fault. Remember that.
 

[Kuzu]

Oh boy, I read these issues in preparation for this. 

 

Think the biggest shock was seeing a Spykids 3 ad in one of these issues and realizing that I'm fucking OOOOOLLLLDDDD.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

6 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

 

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #131:  Home - Part 2 of 4: The Gathering

You look so excited to reach this issue.

[Kuzu]

The fact that Knuckles is front and center on the issue while Sonic is just in the background, pretty much tells the entire story.