Megathread Archie Sonic Main Discussion

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I can’t really say the Suppression Squad stories actually interested me as much back in the day.

It’s still a good Sonic fix, don’t get me wrong, and they’re not bad stories at all. But...I don’t know, they don’t grab me as much as the other stories Ian’s worked on.

Still better than Penders by a long shot, but outside of that, not really a strong liking toward it.

[Sonictrainer]

2 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

I absolutely hate it whenever people try to deal with situations like this by yelling at them to get over it. The entire concept of “tough love” is something I’ve only ever scoffed at whenever I’ve seen it crop up in fiction. I’m sure there are existing examples of it being done well but I personally haven’t seen them. 

Naturally, I tend to react this way towards scenes like this because I relate heavily to the position Knuckles is in right now. Looking at this just reminds me of all those times where I’ve expressed being in a depressed state and stuck in a position where I feel like I couldn’t trust myself to make the correct decision only to have the situation be made a thousand times worse by being yelled at and told to stop caring about it. 

It doesn’t work. I don’t know if there exists situations where this kind of thing works or has ever worked but in my experience it’s never worked. 

*sigh* Same.

2 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

She quickly dispatches Knuckles with a single kick.

If you can believe that. I don’t, honestly.

Yeah, I have to agree that they could have shown Knuckles getting defeated some other way.

They could have used Statis Bombs (which is a POW move all of the Nocturne can use in the game), use their HP Draining Attack, had a bunch of them overtake him, or used some “original only seen in the comic Nocturne Technology/weapon” here.

Maybe they didn’t have time or space for more?

2 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

As for Shade the Echidna, whenever I think of her the thing that comes to mind is plain white bread and nothing else. She left no impression on me and I honestly don’t really like the idea of her being around.

Shade is Ok...for a 4,000 year old woman whose entire civilization was caged by Cthulhu. 

2 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

It also goes without saying just how much “inspiration” this game took from these Archie Comics. Obviously, it was mostly the Ken Penders stuff which was a BIG honking mistake. I’m sure they didn’t anticipate how insane the man they were taking ideas from was but still. 

It’s a bit of a shame because with a bit of tweaking, this could have been something truly inspiring. I’d love to see Sonic take a crack at another RPG again. It’s a series that’s proven to have a lot of potential when it comes to lore and what not.

How can I look at this image and not get excited for something otherworldly and majestic?

The Twilight Cage was the most interesting part of Sonic Chronicles to me.

2 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

One quick note about Metal Scourge that I like is how his eyes are literally just Scourge’s glasses grafted to the robot’s face as his actual eyes.

Not only do I love how they did his eyes, I love how they incorporated the flames on Scourge’s jacket, made his claws sharper than Metal Sonic’s, and how they added the “2” scar on Metal Scourge’s torso.

I kind of wish they kept the spikes on the shoes as seen in the concept, but it’s a minor nitpick and having the shoes look the same as Metal Sonic keeps it clean & simple.

2 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Ian talked a lot about this scene once on his podcast. He doesn’t really recall the details that led to Scourge being drawn crying here but the point the scene was trying to make still stands. Scourge, underneath all that bravado and desire to stand out as above it all, has had a fairly opposite upbringing to Sonic and that’s molded him into a coward.

It’s honestly very sad to me. All that talk about how if one or the other just pushed a little harder, they could go in either direction lays it on thick but this is kind of the first time I’ve seen the story indulge a bit in the tragedy behind the fact that Scourge, for whatever reason, just won’t change himself for the better. No matter what, there’s always going to be this twinge of pity I’ll feel watching Scourge do what he does from here on in. 

I don’t know if that look on his face is from genuine fear creeping back in because of Jules, in that moment, giving him bad daddy flashbacks or if he was seriously considering that he’d feel awful about killing Sonic’s dad at the end of the day because of what he had to go through.

Or if it’s both. Maybe it’s totally both.

Either way, the emotions behind what’s going on are enough that he can’t go through with it and he just leaves, despite the fact that he totally could if he wanted to. Despite this, Jules still makes a point of saying in bolded letters that he was talking to “Nobody” when his wife shows up.

My sensitive ass kind of wanted a scene where Scourge just cried into Jules chest because he wanted a hug from some version of his daddy but obviously he wouldn’t do that. He’s got to keep the sheen of his cool guy demeanor up after all.

I seriously want to know more about these Anti-characters and their world. I want to know about their upbringing and the juicy details about how things got the way they did for them.

This is also interesting when we hear from the other Anti-characters in the next issues.

[Kaotic Kanine]

Wow, you're just about to the point in which I formally discovered the Sonic Archie Comics and began following them lol Been reading your "retrospective"(?) casually ever since I took notice about a year or two ago, I think. Major kudos for getting this far into this (mostly painfully) long comic series  You and Ryan's thoughts are fun to read and provide good insight. Honestly, you guys could host a YouTube channel reviewing Sonic's Archie Comics as a duo. I'd certainly subscribe to it ^^ 

For these issues in particular, I'd like to give an in-depth opinion. But I have no real thoughts on them whatsoever  They're just "there". Although, I can definitely say that I was always bothered by Metal Scourge. It's like, we've had a "Sonic clone" in the form of Shadow for many years by this point in the franchise, and the games included a plethora of badass characters whom Eggman could make Metal versions of. Yet Scourge, a very recent addition to the franchise by this point (well, okay, he's technically been around for years but Scourge and Anti-Sonic are two different characters as far as I'm concerned), gets a Metal version of himself? And quite literally right after Eggman formally meets Scourge  It's like, I felt Scourge was really overused in the comics by this point (owing to his appearances in 5+ stories/arcs in the span of 30 or so issues) and Metal Scourge sealed those feelings of mine, with that damn green hedgehog getting a Metal copy before even Shadow, because Eggman was that impressed by Scourge. Granted, I guess a Metal Shadow (among others) couldn't be done due to mandates, but still. 

In any case, looking forward to your reading of the next set of issues ;D Which I hope I can give actual thoughts to (beyond a rant about one thing). But of course, not gonna lie, I can't wait for when you get to Cream's long-overdue debut in the comic, yet am also very apprehensive about it. Can't wait because I really want to see your thoughts on Cream and how she was handled in the comics (especially as I think I saw you had a change of heart about her, after initially being negative of her character). But apprehensive because I've been overly vocal about my feelings on Cream's writing in the comics in the past, and I don't think I can contain those feelings on being exposed to it again...

[SkyHorizon]

Yay! Two more great issues of my favorite arc ever . A few thoughts as usual...

The Council of Acorn: Ah, I so liked this. Not the Council, I can't stand them and I think they're a bunch of idiots (except for Rotor and, in part, Chuck). But what Ian did was great. Much more dynamic than having a single asshole king and much more entertaining than having a good leader that does nothing and is redundant. And another little bit of Sonic growing more distant from the Acorn Kingdom/Republic and for good reasons indeed. I think that if Sonic had started to act this way the moment Ian took the book it would've been way too OOC with the previous ArchieSonic (and paradoxically more IC with SegaSonic), like this the transition really feels natural. As for the Council per se, I understand their reasoning, it's perfectly believable if you imagine something like that in real life. But, man, that was stupid. Scourge was the priority, that much is obvious (to us readers, at least).

Knuckles&JS: Well, in my opinion, JS was perfectly right here: Knuckles has been through a lot, sure, but he has had quite some time to face and accept it. When something like that happens, first time you support that person, second time you support him, third time you support him... then you have to say "stop"! None said that Knux had to be completely over it, but whining that way "it's all my fault, it's all my fault" like he is the sole victim in the whole world is pathetic and, as JS correctly said, it's just running away from reality. That and she was right: Knuckles has acted like an egotistical egocentric until now, not once we have seen him asking: "Hey, Julie-Su, how are you feeling, considering what is left of your family is working for the evilest dictator the world has ever known?". About time someone told him to stop whining and start pulling himself together.

The Suppression Squad: I've always wondered if the SS was a reference to the nazism... well, maybe I'm reading too much into it, it's a kid's comic after all... Anyway, nothing much to add here, Detective Mike resumed precisely most of my thought. In just a few lines, we get way deeper characters than we had in the whole Penders era. Miles on top of that, of course.

Jules: Well, honestly, I think you did a great job reviewing this story. What I liked about it, is that it's the kind of story that leave an impression even if you don't really understand all of the implications at play. Even that "nobody" at the end. What does that mean? Jules simply doesn't want to make his wife worry? Or is it a way to underline that he considers Scourge a "nobody"? That and, I'd like to point, is probably the only story where we saw Scourge crying. Honestly, Scourge was the best revamped character ever. And Jules was great, of course .

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Late, but:

-God, I've said it before, but I hate the council in Archie Sonic. I don't think I can sum it up any better than it's King Max's bullshit of stopping heroics, but with the added mix of pettiness, even further idiocy, and making both Charles and Rotor look like ineffective characters because they can rarely if ever change their minds. The two of them tend to be the only ones with a degree of sense, and it's annoying seeing them be shut down all the time. This made no sense to me, at all. Eggman wasn't going anywhere and what he was pushing out was easily dealt with. He's literally on his back-foot from having Enerjak wipe out his army.

Acting like not just Scourge, but the Surpression Squad as a whole was a non-issue is stunningly idiotic, as if Scourge wasn't someone who was capable of kicking Sonic and Shadow's asses several times by this point, and as if they hadn't already thrown the Freedom Fighters out of their own base. Letting them hang out in Freedom HQ was just inviting them to attack the city, hurt people, or bring in reinforcements from Moebius to increase their domination attempt. 

I like the idea of the scene (Sonic making it clear he wouldn't take this bullshit and do as he pleased if he felt it was right), but the way they did it was stunningly dumb and make the Council look awful.

-I'm going to go out on a limb and say that while I don't think they handled it in a good way, a tough love approach wasn't the worst idea here. Speaking from some experience, sometimes - you can try your damnest with being kind, compassionate, and understanding, and it gets you nowhere, going in circles. While I don't think screaming about your own problems is a solution, nor is just telling someone "get over it" as if their issues are non-existent, but sometimes a tougher approach is needed to snap someone out of a funk and get them to at least see enough reason to try make efforts to move on, instead of remaining where they are. 

But again, I don't think it's handled well at all. It'd be one thing if Julie-Su had taken an approach of calling it nonsense, and pointing out all the good things Knuckles has done as well, and using that tough love to help Knuckles see reason as to why it wasn't true that he was a failure and kept making bad choices. But the way she just tore into him, acting like he was a selfish dickhead for not looking at others' situations certainly wasn't the way to do so, at that point, it became making the situation about her than helping Knuckles through his own troubles, which is where the problems really comes from. It's not about making Knuckles realise that he can make good decisions, or showing that he's being too hard on himself, she's just shrugging the issue off to focus on herself, and that's not really good.

-When Sonic considers Scourge's offer, I tend to feel like he considers more the possibility if it's really true that with such an easy push, he could turn down a pathway to villainy. I think Miles makes the best point on that discussion - the thing that truly defines Sonic and Scourge is that Sonic is constantly selfless, even to his enemies. Scourge isn't, as indicated by letting Sonic get punched, even when working together. 

While it is true that Scourge could become a good guy if he had some decency and put the effort in, and Sonic could become a bad guy if he gave into his worst traits, the interesting thing is Sonic just has a instinct to be good and to help others, and that defines him to a fault, arguably. I don't think he'd ever seriously consider Scourge's offer, but the issue was about identifying how close Sonic could go to becoming like Scourge, and ultimately answering that by showing Miles' analysis of the situation.

-Again, I just find it hard to really sympathise with the Dark Legion. Like, above all else, even if you wanna excuse the whole going into bed with Eggman thing and making the deliberate decision to hurt other people, and god knows what else, it's Eggman. This dude literally subjugated and enslaved your kind just months ago, and you guys seriously didn't expect him to put a countermeasure in to ensure your loyalty? 

-Part of me wonders if Miles is just trying to kiss up to Sonic, or if apart of him is truly thinking about a world where if Scourge wasn't such a total scumbag, they could've worked well as partners, like their prime counterparts. Part of me wonders if under Miles' desperate attempts to seem adult, he envies the fact that Tails had a supportive friend like that, especially since he's still with the Suppression Squad, and what we know of Sonic's parents in the Anti-verse, Amadeus and Rosemary were probably total scumbags in that universe too.  

-I've already more or less covered Father and Son earlier when I talked about the previous two issues, but my main point is still the same - I think it's interesting how it isn't just 'everyone is born a bad guy' in the Anti-Verse, it's key personality changes that causes other people to change due to their treatment. Scourge wasn't always a bad guy, he wasn't always a villain - he only went down that route because of Anti-Jules' actions. Anti-Jules in particular doesn't seem to be a villain like say Scourge - but he was nasty in other ways (neglectful, boastful, egotistical, etc), which led to bad effects on those close to him.

-I do like the read into Scourge's character that beneath it all, the simple reason why he's such a bully and a ass is because he's just a sad kid, still desperately craving attention, and now he's just acting as evil as possible to demand it. He's a coward who won't change because he's still hurt and selfish, and he just can't get over it, so he continues getting worse and worse.

[SkyHorizon]

9 hours ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

-God, I've said it before, but I hate the council in Archie Sonic. I don't think I can sum it up any better than it's King Max's bullshit of stopping heroics, but with the added mix of pettiness, even further idiocy, and making both Charles and Rotor look like ineffective characters because they can rarely if ever change their minds. The two of them tend to be the only ones with a degree of sense, and it's annoying seeing them be shut down all the time. This made no sense to me, at all. Eggman wasn't going anywhere and what he was pushing out was easily dealt with. He's literally on his back-foot from having Enerjak wipe out his army.

 

Well, not wanting to justify the Council (who are idiots, I totally agree), one could argue that Eggaman has an incredible ability to quickly recover from even worse situations, so the basic idea of "attacking him" before he can recover seems legit (after all the only reason he didn't really built a new army was that he was losing his marbles). That said, Scourge couldn't evidently be ignored, so the whole debate should have even started.

9 hours ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

-I'm going to go out on a limb and say that while I don't think they handled it in a good way, a tough love approach wasn't the worst idea here. Speaking from some experience, sometimes - you can try your damnest with being kind, compassionate, and understanding, and it gets you nowhere, going in circles. While I don't think screaming about your own problems is a solution, nor is just telling someone "get over it" as if their issues are non-existent, but sometimes a tougher approach is needed to snap someone out of a funk and get them to at least see enough reason to try make efforts to move on, instead of remaining where they are. 

 

Interesting the differences the same action can be interpreted. I didn't see JS' actions as "screaming her own problems" but more like "ok, we've supported you until now, we're here for you, but now you have to react and not just complain without doing nothing". I find it a really realistic approach, consider also that the comics came out on a monthly basis, that meant that Knuckles was like that for, like, 8 months. I know it's not "Mobius' time", but I think that helped to convey the feeling of someone wallowing in self-pity. And finally, someone told him that it's hard for everyone and everyone is working to get past it. Knuckles wasn't.

 

9 hours ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

-Again, I just find it hard to really sympathise with the Dark Legion. Like, above all else, even if you wanna excuse the whole going into bed with Eggman thing and making the deliberate decision to hurt other people, and god knows what else, it's Eggman. This dude literally subjugated and enslaved your kind just months ago, and you guys seriously didn't expect him to put a countermeasure in to ensure your loyalty? 

 

Precisely that. MAKING THE DELIBERATE DECISION TO HURT OTHER PEOPLE. And the excuse: "but Mobius-Hitler promised me a prosthetic arm in exchange" is not only ridiculous, but also really pathetic.

 

9 hours ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

-I do like the read into Scourge's character that beneath it all, the simple reason why he's such a bully and a ass is because he's just a sad kid, still desperately craving attention, and now he's just acting as evil as possible to demand it. He's a coward who won't change because he's still hurt and selfish, and he just can't get over it, so he continues getting worse and worse.

Yeah, a kid trying to get some attention. That's precisely the vibe that he gives.

[Dr. Detective]

20 hours ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

-I'm going to go out on a limb and say that while I don't think they handled it in a good way, a tough love approach wasn't the worst idea here. Speaking from some experience, sometimes - you can try your damnest with being kind, compassionate, and understanding, and it gets you nowhere, going in circles. While I don't think screaming about your own problems is a solution, nor is just telling someone "get over it" as if their issues are non-existent, but sometimes a tougher approach is needed to snap someone out of a funk and get them to at least see enough reason to try make efforts to move on, instead of remaining where they are. 

Well, speaking from experience is something only we can do after all. In my experience it's only ever made things worse. People are wired differently and expecting the same approaches to work on everyone isn't a smart thing to do. "Tough love" as I've seen it portrayed in a lot of media would only be more damaging to someone like me who hangs onto every negative comment he gets and ignores the positive ones right in front of him. Even now, as I'm reading this, the only thing occupying my mind are the descending opinions and no matter how many years I try and work on it, I think I'm just going to have to live with the fact that I have a severe case of negative bias etched within my brain.

However, it's generally okay because the proof is in the pudding here. The fact that I can keep doing this and a lot of other stuff is proof of the support I have so it tends to not be as crippling as it used to be in my teenage years where I was just a massive wreck; harming myself and rejecting what my therapist said, etc.

So, you know, when I saw Julie-Su do that to Knuckles my reaction was extreme, visceral anger at her. The good will that build up from her character, like a rabbit in a magic show, just disappeared in a puff of smoke and I went right back to hating her. I just can't stand it. Even if it were written correctly, there isn't a doubt in my mind that I wouldn't have liked it.

I like the fact that it didn't work though.

Knuckles reacted the same way I would have and he snapped out of it via another way I would have. Just someone telling them calmly that they've been there before and explaining how they deal with it. It's like... yeah. 

20 hours ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

-Again, I just find it hard to really sympathize with the Dark Legion. Like, above all else, even if you wanna excuse the whole going into bed with Eggman thing and making the deliberate decision to hurt other people, and god knows what else, it's Eggman. This dude literally subjugated and enslaved your kind just months ago, and you guys seriously didn't expect him to put a countermeasure in to ensure your loyalty? 

Well, as I've said a couple of times at this point, sympathizing with them isn't the same thing as excusing their actions. I don't exactly know how often I can say that I know what they're doing is wrong and stupid. It's not like I'm ignoring that. It's part of what I find tragic about their whole situation. Lien-Da I don't feel sorry for. She obviously only did it because she wants a now arbitrary title that means so little it might as well be fast food restaurant name tag. However, the idea of being so desperate to feel comfortable living in your own skin and the desperation being so bad that it drives you to go down a dark path is what ails me about this. It would for any villain with a well-written backstory. It's happening to me with Scourge right now.

I'm overcome with a sense of disappointment and sadness when it comes to witnessing how they're reacting to this situation because it didn't have to be this way. That's why I find it so sad. There's always going to be that twinge of regret from now on whenever I see them in a fight with the heroes because of it.

Hopefully, I've explained my position a little better.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I don’t know, I always thought the Council was supposed to be a hate sink with their actions. They made fair points, but it was always done at stupidest, most inconvenient moment by narrative design—allowing the heroes to improvise and show that they will do what’s needed before it becomes too late.

In a way, it still correlates to Sonic being a rebel to authority, and now Sally would have a taste of how Sonic feels when stonewalled at the worst moment when she really needs to respond to a threat.

Also goes to show that whether a monarchy or republic, the authority in charge isn’t always going to make the best decisions in the face of something serious. Kinda goes to a head when the Iron Queen invades and ups the stakes in the future.

That said, one of the members is among those who nearly caused a civil war at the worst moment, so it’s kinda to be expected they this multi-member body would have different ideas that won’t align.

The troubles of keeping the peace in a nearly conquered world...

[Dr. Detective]

I really hope we go past the Knuckles and Julie-Su stuff at this point. Reading one of the replies here literally just triggered me. Reading someone call Knuckles egotistical, pathetic, and a whiner and saying the solution to this is to yell at them and shout "Stop!" just fucked with me a bit too much and now I legitimately feel sick. I know these are just words but I didn't expect this whole thing to hit this close to home for me.

I apologize for this. I know this is just a Sonic comic but I realized I was going into a pretty bad place when reading that post made me slam my fist onto my desk in anger. 

@SkyHorizon you're free to continue saying what you wish but I'm just going to let you know that if this subject matter comes up again I won't be able to read what you have to say about it. The extreme, unrelenting harshness that you're associating with this character having a mental breakdown is genuinely, extremely upsetting to me and it's bringing back some really awful memories. 

I need to calm myself down and move on because I want to be able to continue doing this. It's become a highlight of my week after all.

Sorry again guys. I don't mean to be so heavy. When I read that post, began sweating, and felt my heart race with that intense rush of anger I realized I probably should say something though. 

[SkyHorizon]

1 hour ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

I really hope we go past the Knuckles and Julie-Su stuff at this point. Reading one of the replies here literally just triggered me. Reading someone call Knuckles egotistical, pathetic, and a whiner and saying the solution to this is to yell at them and shout "Stop!" just fucked with me a bit too much and now I legitimately feel sick. I know these are just words but I didn't expect this whole thing to hit this close to home for me.

I apologize for this. I know this is just a Sonic comic but I realized I was going into a pretty bad place when reading that post made me slam my fist onto my desk in anger. 

@SkyHorizon you're free to continue saying what you wish but I'm just going to let you know that if this subject matter comes up again I won't be able to read what you have to say about it. The extreme, unrelenting harshness that you're associating with this character having a mental breakdown is genuinely, extremely upsetting to me and it's bringing back some really awful memories. 

I need to calm myself down and move on because I want to be able to continue doing this. It's become a highlight of my week after all.

Sorry again guys. I don't mean to be so heavy. When I read that post, began sweating, and felt my heart race with that intense rush of anger I realized I probably should say something though. 

I'm really sorry that you took it so badly. I like your reviews, I've started reading them since the beginning and it's also my weekly rendez-vous.

That said, don't take it bad, but I really think that if you reacted the way you did, you must have some unresolved issues. I'm someone who always says what's on his mind because I consider hypocritical lying about something. Of course, that also means that people will occasionally/often get angry at me for that; been there, done that.

If you don't want to read my opinions anymore I understand, but I really think that facing someone who has a different view on things could help you out. Without having to agree with me, of course. But finding the strength to face something difficult is the first step to overcome it. Take it as a unrequested advice and feel free to do whatever you want with it.

[Dr. Detective]

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #193: Otherside, Part One: How the Other Half Lives

Oh thank God. Something a little far away from home. Literally. It’s been a long time, years in fact, since I felt the way I did back there and it can sometimes be hard to keep the correct perspective and remind yourself to not dwell on the negative. Hopefully, I’ll never have to see or think about that stuff again. Instead, let’s have some fun with this picture of Blueberry Flavored Omega attacking Sonic!

I remember seeing this cover for the first time and thinking one thought and one thought only.

The Archie Comics are fucking weird.

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Tracy Yardley
Inks: Jim Amash
Colors: Josh Ray
Letters: Teresa Davidson
Editor/Managing Editor: Mike Pellerito

The issue begins with Amy clinging to Sonic, geared up and ready to head on over to Moebius to wreck some shit. A debriefing of the actual mission makes it clear that the plan they have for this is significantly… underdeveloped we’ll say.

I’ll be honest, I’m not entirely sure I understand what it is they initially hoped to accomplish invading Scourge’s world. I can think of a few things they could do. Gather some intel on him. Maybe rally some people on his world to their cause. Perhaps liberate a few people. 

The DIRECT plan they have, however, is something they’re either keeping in the dark or they don’t have. When Sally asks him if he knows the plan, Sonic says “Head over to Scourge’s world and find a way to reverse the invasion”.

In case you weren’t aware, that isn’t a plan. It’s a goal; more of an objective, really.

One dumb joke about how Sonic doesn’t want to be on a mission with Amy later, and they head on over to Moebius. Rotor tells Sonic to be careful because the star posts he and Tails built won’t clue them in on where on Moebius they’ll land so he’d better hope he isn’t free falling from the sky or dropped off inside an active, underwater volcano. 

Luckily, they manage to pop out inside a nice looking mansion and are immediately attacked by a Blueberry flavored Omega that talks like it’s from the exaggerated cartoon south. Who do we know that talks like that I wonder?

Blueberry Omega dispatches both Sonic and Amy using some hilarious non-lethal methods, though, Sonic’s little vertigo induced headaches just sent me into a bit of a tizzy because of how relatable it is.

I’ve been having headaches every single day since the Fall weather rolled in. I wouldn’t wish what Sonic looks like he’s feeling on anybody.

This lanky boy at the end of the page is Dr. Kintobor, the Anti-Robotnik and all around nice guy. He helps Sonic and Amy out of their scuffle with Blueberry Flavored Omega and is graciously informed by Sonic that the anti-versions of themselves are causing trouble in their world. Kintobor understands and invites them to talk outside since it’s such a lovely day. How thoughtful.

Initially, I was a bit worried considering the way Sonic was speaking to him. Sonic was sounding so familiar and so… unsurprised by Kintobor’s appearance here that I was starting to wonder if he’d met the guy before in some far gone story and I just didn’t remember. I feel like if he had, the comic would have done one of those “REMEMBER HIM FROM THIS ISSUE” things they do in the yellow boxes, but they didn’t so I think Sonic might just be playing it super cool here to the point where it doesn’t even look like there’s a moment of adjustment for him upon meeting a nice Robotnik.

He met a supposedly “nice” version of Robotnik in a story whose existence I really don’t want to acknowledge for fear of projectile vomiting on my laptop.

Back at Freedom HQ, Sally is left to pace around the place and wait. Nicole shows up with news that Miles of the Suppression Squad is outside the city so Sally calls in the army and bolts like a bat out of hell like Miles has an Egg Fleet in his pocket.

I know he’s a serious threat but, out of context, it still kind of amused me just how gung-ho she was about calling in the troops because a little fox boy was at their doorstep. 

Nicole immediately tries to console Rotor because, and it took me a second to notice this, Sally only called for Tails to follow her and told Nicole to contact Bunnie and Antoine. She didn’t even give Rotor a mention. Rotor doesn’t take it personally because he’s not a part of the field team anymore. 

He’s a good man, Rotor. You can’t help but feel for the guy.

Anyway, Miles reacts to Sally rallying the troops in a similar manner to me, honestly. He’s very amused by it but then climbs way up on top of that pompous high horse of his and starts to condescendingly propose an alliance.

Because Scourge is an abusive big brother and he needs a massive time out.

Back in Moebius, our gracious host, the Slim-Fast version of Robotnik, introduces himself to Amy and explains to her and Sonic that he runs the Hospital Tower that houses the Force-Field generator that protects the Grand Forest and all the Moebians who fear King Scourge’s tyranny. 

What happened is that Scourge and his group invaded his tower and stole his Globe Posts, using them to freely cross into Sonic’s world. Him saying this made me remember that Scourge, under normal circumstances, didn’t actually used to have easy access to Sonic’s world, which is kind of funny to think about. I guess when I’m not directly thinking about it, I just assume it’s like how Silver just comes to the past whenever he pleases but we don’t know the method he uses to do it. 

These are the Archie Comics so there’s always an explanation. Or at least there always will be now that Ian is the head writer. 

There were explanations before but, honestly, the Zone Cop stuff was so forgettable I… keep forgetting it.

Anyway, Kintobor explains that the reason he had the Globe Posts was so he could research other medical techniques from other worlds in the hopes of finding a cure for Buns Rabbot’s disease. 

Sonic then asks where Anti-Bunnie is and she claims to be right there. 

Here we have another glorious example of how the circumstances of the world they were born in made people their worst selves but didn’t necessitate that they stay that way. Buns Rabbot here contracted the Maria disease and Scourge promptly kicked her out of the group because diseased people who are dying are gross to him. Then she was picked up by the good doctor here and given a new lease on life.

Scourge had me feeling a certain type of way last issue but goddamn… he’s hard to stay sympathetic to. I mean, Jesus Christ.

The doctor here won’t rest until he finds a way to allow Buns to walk again and makes it clear that he only outfitted the Omega suit with non-lethal weapons. He refuses to build an army.

This is another manner in which he’s Eggman’s opposite. He’s a nice guy but the fact that he has the means to quell this storm and refuses to tip his hand with an army he could create kind of goes to show that he lacks that tenacity Eggman has for taking tremendous risks. You can see it in a lot of the expressions he makes just how secluded and subdued he comes off and it’s a very interesting thing to look at.

He literally has to be pushed to provide them with assistance on the matter because of how dangerous a certain person that Buns suggests could be helpful to their cause. This person is Rosy the Rascal, the Anti-Amy. She hates Scourge.

Cut to Miles who is in the middle of talking about how he hates Scourge.

Everyone hates Scourge. 

No one in his world likes him. No one in our world likes him. It’s just Fiona and that’s kind of it. 

Miles talks about how the Anti Freedom Fighters were always in flux as far as leadership was concerned but then Scourge showed up and put the kibosh on that. Dude forced everyone to re-name themselves and re-model themselves. Some of them took that to the extreme, like Boomer when he made himself all cybernetic, and others, like Miles just kind of decided they wanted to look old and weird.

We get a montage of things as he explains this, including a shot of Scourge stomping on our dear old friend, Irish Knuckles.

I don’t quite know how I feel about the idea that Irish Knuckles might be dead. On the one hand I don’t really care but on the other… he’s a Knuckles that speaks Irish so that’s kind of funny.

Anyway, Tails tries to interject in the conversation and Miles, no doubt getting an instant tummy ache from hearing his counterpart speak, shoots him down and denies him access to this adult conversation.

I remember reading this and being kind of amused that this child was talking to Tails like he was older and more grown up than him. It was so convincing, the way he talked and carried himself, that I actually began wondering if he actually was older. 

It’s hard not to look at our Tails and see a little kid in comparison to Miles here. It means that his plan to look old and mature is working too. Back in the day, I did genuinely consider the possibility that he might just be older. Tails doesn’t really help the image by instantly getting all mad like a child and having to be held back. Stinging even more is how both Sally and Miles just ignore him and carry on with their adult conversation.

It’s really amusing seeing Tails get so dunked on despite how much I love him. I guess it’s also kind of refreshing too, seeing him act so much like a child in these books. It really allows his personality to soar in ways it was struggling to around this time in the games. 

Oh, that delicious look of disgust on Miles’ face though. I love it. I want to see these two have a heart to heart so badly. It’s killing me inside. 

I know Miles won’t allow it but damn. I want it.

Back in Moebius, the group of Sonic, Amy, and Buns head off to the old Castle Acorn of Moebius where Maleficent Amy resides. The actually good doctor is relentlessly asking if they’re okay for no other reason then he wants to make sure. It’s cute. Sonic gets a bit impatient and they race off though.

The dilapidated castle is a very rundown, depressing looking building and Amy complains about how it’d be possible to enjoy living there but Buns defends the decision, finding it symbolic of… something. Different strokes for different folks.

The important thing is that there’s a creepy person sneaking in the shadows that starts singing a ghostly, echoing song about smashing people with her mallet until their heads pop.

They break into the throne room where Rosy is lazing about all over the seat. Sonic tries to ask for help but she starts going on about her backstory, talking about how she used the magic ring to make herself older so that she could chase Scourge around. Amy points out that this is what she did but Rosy makes it sound creepy.

Honestly, in it’s normal context, there are people who’d most definitely still find it creepy Amy.

Not to worry though. Rosy’s still got her beat. Because this zone is horrendous and wired to make things awful, there was a side-effect to her using the ring. It shattered her brain to pieces and made her go insane.

You know, at the time, this was the closest thing to a Classic Amy being in the comics that people were going to get. It’s such a strange idea, especially nowadays looking back on it. So weird.

What a weird point in time 2008 was. Next you’re going to tell me that Sonic’s going to turn into a werewolf.

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #193: Sonic Unleashed!

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Tracy Yardley
Inks: Jim Amash
Colors: Josh Ray
Letters: Stingray Grafik Wurks
Editor/Managing Editor: Mike Pellerito

Sonic Unleashed is on the horizon. One of my favorite Sonic games and one of two Sonic games to be in my top 5 favorites that came out past the Gamecube generation. The other one being one of the All-Stars Racing Games. Which one? Any one depending on my mood.

This tie-in to Unleashed, as well as the remaining ones in this comic, instead of scenes that weren’t shown to us before are instead just re-done versions of the opening cutscenes. In this game’s situation, the dialogue is far worse. 

“Curse you Sonic! You did the thing that I just saw you do but I have to say out loud that you did it because we started this story after you did that thing! Curses!”

That all said, the art and especially the colors look fantastic. It looks really good and I can’t help but feel as though a lot of painstaking work was done to replicate the way that opening scene in Unleashed looked with this.

One of the weird oddities of the way this tie-in tells its story is how Sonic just… walks away.

In the opening cutscene there was this BIG chase where Super Sonic went after Eggman to his main ship, presumably to do something to either him or the base or… something. 

Here, he just… I dunno. I guess he showed up here to gloat and then he immediately turns around and starts to walk off after Eggman admits defeat.

I mean, he obviously isn’t defeated. He traps Super Sonic immediately afterward but it’s a very odd thing to think about. Did Sonic really just zoom all the way there to hear Eggman go “I’m sowwy” and then decide to leave?

Even weirder is what Eggman says after he drains Sonic of the Emeralds and Sonic turns into the Werehog.

Eggman is actually frightened by Werehog Sonic for one, where in the game he didn’t seem to give a shit. Two, the transformation just kind of happens. Sonic is on the floor in one panel and then the next page we see various panels of him transforming whereas in the games, he was constantly being shocked by this glowing purple energy. That isn’t here so it just looks like Sonic randomly just became a werehog. 

Three is the biggest thing of all though. Eggman outright says that Sonic can take the emeralds with him. Now this might actually just be a general misunderstanding of the scene. They might have just been privy to the opening cutscene and didn’t know at the time that Eggman doing that was him making a mistake due to being over excited about the fact that his plan worked.

These changes are all not good in my opinion. Though, a few of my reasons for thinking that might just be general bias towards Unleashed’s opening scene since I do genuinely believe it to be perfect. Like, they haven’t come close to replicating anything like it before or since. I guess a good contender might be Sonic Mania’s opening, for different reasons of course.

Anyway, Sonic lands in the dirt, asks himself a bunch of questions like he’s reading off the back of the box for the game, and then we see the advertisement for the game at the bottom. Hurray.

Sonic Unleashed is in the zone and it’s here to give a massive Sho-Hog-Ken to your Adabat framerate baby!

Things are progressing. They’re not progressing slowly or anything like that but it feels like there was a significant drop in the number of things that happened this issue. It was nice seeing the Miles betrayal and the team up with the Freedom Fighters be confirmed. It was nice getting the story of and appearance of Kintobor and Buns Rabbot and it was nice seeing the insane Rosy the Rascal. Issues like this tend to make up for the lack of action by supplementing it with new, interesting characters to show off and as such I feel it didn’t suffer a ton from it as a result.

Things are going to pick up really quickly too after this though. I can already smell the Hedgehog Havoc over the horizon. 
 

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #194: Otherside, Part Two: Cross World Conflict!

Finally, we’ve come back to where it all began… again. Sort of. 

So yeah, I’ve already talked about this numerous times but, this being the issue where it happens, it’ll be the last time I do. Issue #181 was my first Archie Comic and Issue #194 was when I randomly decided to start reading month to month. This is yet another super old comic I have in front of me. I can still see the wet stains on it from when I spilled milk on it at lunch at school. It looks better than ever. I almost can’t believe I’ve made it this far.

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Tracy Yardley
Inks: Jim Amash
Colors: Josh Ray
Letters: Teresa Davidson
Editor/Managing Editor: Mike Pellerito

So the first image is a demented alternate version of Amy Rose that looks like a washed out Classic Amy Rose  trying to kill Sonic and the actual Amy Rose while a blue Omega in the distance watches… and in the character introduction screen, you can see that there’s actually a bunny rabbit inside this blue Omega.

… What… the fuck could have been going through my head upon picking this issue up and seeing this?

What a random issue to decide to start reading the comics from. I hope the old me was okay.

Sonic keeps ducking, jumping, spongebobbing and weaving out of the way of Rosy’ weird looking triple-X murder you with a hard point hammer while trying to appeal to… whatever sense she might have left. Her brain has been smashed to pieces so it’s not working. 

At first she says she wants to smash Sonic because she’s like Scourge and then she says she wants to smash Amy because she’s breathing. 

I like how Buns was just standing there watching until Amy called for help and then was like “Whoopsies!” because she legitimately forgot she was supposed to protect them.

I guess the show was too good to keep your eyes away from.

I can only imagine that Rosy here is kind of what most people like to think Amy kind of represented at the time, though, in a clearly exaggerated form to be sure. 

That hammer is still, even after all these years, freaky to look at.

Back at Freedom HQ, Scourge is getting impatient. Apparently his mission to just nuke their city was supposedly an easy one… and also something he entrusted to one lone child. 

Considering the efficiency of the council, it might have actually worked.

Still, he doesn’t have too much longer to wait as Miles bolts on through with the heroes on his tail and then dive bombs into the group of villains, looking like an actual child for the first time since he showed up.

It’s like something I would do when charging into my blanket fort. I used to call it Blanket Town.

You gotta love how he fixes his hair when gets back up too. Always concerned with his image.

Him addressing Princess Alicia in this manner is interesting considering what I recall being semi-revealed at the end of all this. I’ll talk about that when I get to it, of course, but for now it’s time to bask in the glory of seeing the Suppression Squad and the Freedom Fighters rise up against this tyrant.

Back with Sonic and Amy, things are going badly. Sonic is tasked with finding Kintobor’s globe posts so he and Buns go and do that while Amy keeps her busy.

I guess asking an insane person to help them out might have been a tad bit of a bad idea after all. Ah well.

Sonic says Amy will be fine and says he’s going to quickly check the situation back home while Buns says she’ll cover him.

He heads back in and oh my God. Everything is on fire.

Honestly, when I first saw the scene myself, I was amused by how hard it was to even make out what was happening at first glance. I suppose the two things that immediately stuck out were the fact that Scourge is cursing again. The other is that Tails has somehow gotten his butt kicked yet again. He’s been treated like Drago throughout this arc and I’ve gotta be honest, it’s pretty funny. It’s actually MORE funny to me than the Drago stuff.

Scourge goes on to prove why he's the king. As someone who has shown to be able to take on both Sonic and Shadow at the same time, the fact that he’s able to demolish all of these guys pretty much by himself shouldn’t surprise me but it’s still very impressive.

He knocks back Bunnie, Alicia, both Tails’ at the same time, and Boomer in several quick panels one after the other.

Sonic is lost. 

He turns to Nicole for an explanation and she informs him that the Suppression Squad has enacted a mutiny. They want to send Scourge back to Mobius. Sonic asks her if she can use her computer juicing powers to keep the portal open and she affirms that she can. Seems the goal posts on the other side are doing a good job of giving her a boost. Everything is turning out to be rather good.

Then Sonic comes across Fiona.

She’s the one person who didn’t mutiny against Scourge and is also probably the one person Sonic might have hoped actually did. Though, he seems confused as to why she didn’t. I would wager a guess it’s because what made her go to Scourge hasn’t changed all that much. Yeah, he shouts at her a lot when he’s angry but other than that it doesn’t seem like she’s seen anything that would make her change her mind.

Though, based on her reaction to Sonic pointing out that she’s still trusting and relying on someone, she’s a little preoccupied sorting out what’s going on in her brain to care even if she did. She seems sure of what it is she wants at the moment but there being a little bit of a confusing angle to what she thinks and feels here is interesting to think about. 

Trust is a hard thing to get and once it’s gone it’s nearly impossible to get back. I’d imagine, even if she did lose faith in Scourge, there’s no way in hell she’d ever come back to Sonic and the others. Honestly, it might just damage her ability to trust in these heroes even more.

It’s interesting how so often I fancy the idea of witnessing the morbid way things could play out. Like how I feel seeing Eggman win would have been a neat way to end the comics or how, sometimes, I do feel the villains have a bit of a point enough to want to see them winning for a bit longer than the four to eight issues this comic typically allows for. 

Maybe I’m just secretly evil though. I feel like I’m way too sensitive to be evil but perhaps that’s just a prerequisite to villany. 

Quick! Someone give me a super villain name! Make it as lame as you can too! We need to be accurate about this!

Amy’s hammer is destroyed. It’s crumbled to literal pieces because Rosy has overpowered her. I guess her hammer having a sharpened point just made that an inevitability.

Either that or she’s just actually stronger than regular Amy. 

Rosy tries to destroy the goal posts because it's… a thing that exists. Buns knocks her out of the way and tells Amy to tell Sonic to HURRY THE FUCK UP!

Amy sticks her head out of the portal and asks for him to get a move on. Sonic hears that, easily blows by Fiona, knocking her on her butt, and then races up to Scourge with a surprise deck to the face.

But then Boomer comes in from behind with the double-double cross!

Although, technically, they only made the deal with the Freedom Fighters. Sonic wasn’t present for it so who cares right?

I guess they must have figured that Scourge would take a while to come after them if he had Sonic to deal with. I suppose that’s a sufficiently comforting work around to do in your head.

Well, anyway, he’s trapped on the other end with Scourge, Amy, Buns… and Rosy the Demented.

It’s going to be a long banishment.

Our last scene of this particular story comes to us from Never Lake in Mercia where a long unseen old friend has come back into the story to grace us with his presence once more.

It’s Rob O’ the Hedge and his glorious echidna wife Mari-An.

It’s actually nice to see them both again. 

Though, it’s hard to ignore the fact that the only real reason he’s here is because the next story is Hedgehog Havoc and we need all the hedgehogs to be in one spot for it to happen.

Luckily, there is a decent excuse for it seeing as our visitor here needs a guide to Sonic the Hedgehog. He wouldn’t be able to accurately find him by himself and Rob knows him so why not?

Though, Sonic is trapped in Moebius so seeing that play out is going to be neat.

Who is this figure who appears upon the water, disturbing their humble abode with his bright and glowing presence?

It’s the very first appearance of my beloved, charmingly naive, loveable dork Silver the Hedgehog.

Coming to you live in a manner that suggests he’s going to be a lot more serious than he actually is… because, hey, that’s just how character introductions be sometimes.

Can I get in a “holy shit” though? 

When I saw this, I was a little surprised. I figured I must have picked up the actual first Archie Sonic comic where Silver the Hedgehog was making his debut in the book. Again, what a one to randomly begin reading month to month at. 

I don’t recall being a super huge Silver fan at the time but as of Team Sonic Racing and beyond he’s become one of my favorite characters. He’s become so relatable in such a short amount of time. It’s incredible. 

We’re around the time of Sonic Unleashed being out and about in the popular consciousness in either trailer or release form by now and Silver is just now making his debut. Granted, I don’t quite know where else you’d put his introduction. One could even argue he doesn’t necessarily need to show up now considering the clusterfuck that’s about to go down when it comes to all these hedgehogs coming together. 

Still, if you wanted a story where you got to smash all your hedgehog toys together, you can’t exactly leave out our glorious, glowing future boy now can you?

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #194: Sleepless in New Megaopolis

Story: Ian Flynn
Penciling: Jon Gray
Inking: Jim Amash
Color: Aimee Ray & Josh Ray
letters: Teresa Davidson
Editor: Mike Pellerito

Alright. So here’s an excellent time to explain something.

When I share my opinion about something, it’s because I’m reacting to what I’m reading at the time. What I think and feel at the current time is only reflective of what I believe the situation to be at the moment of reading it and thus things are subject to change the more I learn things going ahead.

While it is true I’ve read everything beyond this point, it’s been years since I have. Plus, with me having the context of the older issues under my belt, a lot of the stuff that went over my head or I just flat out ignored back in my initial reading are going to mean different things coming back to it.

My memory is pants when it comes to these books so each new story I’m reading feels like this half-and-half deal where I’m re-reading something but also, kind of, experiencing something new, especially with all those factors under my belt.

An example of this being the case happened earlier with Locke. I believe I actually gave him the benefit of the doubt that he cared a bit about protecting the Master Emerald during the time when he was asking Knuckles to come back to the island to guard it. I got into a bit of a discussion about the differences in opinion concerning Locke’s intentions… only to then come around to agreeing with the side I was arguing against once I got further down the line and found out that he willingly let Finitevus guard the Master Emerald just so he could look for those old asshole Echidna grandpas.

I think that might have been a case of me arguing with my current knowledge against someone who had a clearer vision of what Locke was doing because they retained more information about him and was able to pull from feelings about things he did that were further ahead of where I was at.

Situations where I’m arguing an idea that’ll be disproved or clarified later when I go further down the line in these books are going to happen, sometimes without either side knowing that’s what IS happening.

There’s not going to be any avoiding this unless one or both of us catches on that a lapse in information might be in the cards during whatever conversation we’re having next. 

So, as a result, it’s going to be important to keep that in mind. What I say, think, and feel about certain characters and their actions is subject to change as we move forward. 

Now… with that said.. OH MY GOD! Look at this goofy scene where Lien-Da and one of the randos from the Dark Egg Legion just blow a raspberry at Snively when he walks by!

Yes please. Show me more stuff like this. I need to see these guys loafing around and being useless smurfs that act like children. More stuff like that will do a good job distracting me from the tragedy of the situation. That way I can just focus on Sonic beating the bad guys and give a nice big ol’ thumbs up to it without annoying people with my “We could have had peace” outlook. 

Feeling bad for villains is something I’m way more inclined to do then you guys are, obviously. While no one is on my side in that way of thinking and this lonely dusty corner is quite lonely and dusty indeed, I understand why. However, I find that getting into the headspace of all characters, regardless of alignment, makes for a much more juicy story and it makes it so that I can better appreciate the narrative.

That doesn’t always have to come from a place of feeling bad that they’re doing bad when they could be doing good but it tends to be that way most of the time.

Take Snively here for example.

This story began with him sitting around, wondering why he was here as Eggman has his insanity monologue behind him.

The Eggman has cracked. He’s muttering out stuff about how it makes no sense for a genius like him to constantly be losing to Sonic. He’s not even fully correct in what he’s saying here. He admits that Metal Scourge was literally just thrown together but says it should have been enough to work anyway. Pfft. Okay. 

He also says that Sonic was the one who tore them apart when that’s not true. Both Metal Sonic and Metal Scourge were winning! The Suppression Squad beat those robots but Eggman isn’t even acknowledging them. He’s losing his marbles.

Snively wanders around the Eggdome reminiscing about the good old days where the Empire commanded respect and was a bastion of extreme power. Now it’s been reduced to near dust and everything is falling apart around him. There’s barely anything to cling to now. 

Snively is so in the rut that he even considers the possibility of going back to the Mobians, knowing full well he can’t after the incident in #175. As for starting over in another part of the empire, that’s out because Eggman’s left his sub-bosses go unchecked and he can’t even reach most of them.

What’s interesting about this is the fact that these sub-bosses are characters we still haven’t really been formally introduced to. We’re long past the point where I thought it would happen too. I figured the reason I wasn’t aware of who they all were when they show up at the big Eggman roundtable later on is because I didn’t read the stuff from before #150.

However, it’s just not ...a thing that was ever really given that much room to breathe. I’m sure things will be clarified a bit better once I actually get to when they show up. All that earlier context will no doubt be good for something.

It also helps that I’m actually retaining the information this time too…

Another interesting thing about this is, despite how Snively’s sulking because he doesn’t have enough power in his absolute robo-dictatorship, that twinge of disappointment I have in the guy for choosing to go this route after his interactions with Hope and the Mobians remains.

That’s great because I feel it makes my investment in his character all the more palpable. I wanna be able to see what he sees and understand why he feels the way he feels. 

I don’t want him to succeed in his endeavors necessarily but examining all this through this kind of lens is what drives me to be fascinated by characters like Snively.

It was a dumb idea to have him go and be with the Mobians, truly. Penders, expecting us to buy Sonic turning into General Patton because Snively uncharacteristically was planned to sacrifice himself for them was even dumber.

However, Ian did what he does best and took a rank bile idea and twisted it on it’s head so that it could be of actual use and dialed up the intrigue surrounding Snively’s character.

Now we’ve reached this point where he feels he’s at the end of his rope yet again so he goes on the Egg Network, a somehow far less evil social media platform than Twitter despite being run by the Robo-Hitler, to strike up a conversation with someone.

Snively does a “Routine Progress Check” and gets an immediate response by someone who’s there. Local resistance is keeping them at bay. The person on the other end wants to know how Snively is holding up and Snively, having given up any illusion of pride and control, just admits that they’re doing badly.

However, the shrewd honesty is met with understanding and that person saying that they can relate.

Holy shit. Snively found someone he can relate to before ME?! Fuck!

That was a joke, by the way.

I already know who’s on the other end of this line but the reveal isn’t what I find so fascinating about this. It’s the fact that this is happening at all and the way it’s happening is just shockingly humanizing. You know, for a tyrant.

That’s kind of the reason why I cherish this strange (or so I’ve been told) ability of mine to peak at these people through a lens that puts me in their shoes if only for a little bit. Not enough to excuse their actions but enough to understand why they do what they do and shake my head in wonderment as to how things could have been different.

It probably sounds strange because I’m saying that while fully admitting that Snively being a good guy is a TERRIBLE idea and I DON’T want it to happen. That’s part of why his character has that twinge of tragedy to it. It’s because he has that twinge of goodness tucked away deep within his little greedy black heart but he doesn’t have enough of it to ever fully stop being an evil brute. 

You go one way or the other and he stops being an interesting character.

Unlike the original Evil Sonic who was Sonic, but has the addendum of “IS evil”.

Oh wow. So interesting. Much character. 

Penders is a fucking muppet.

That was a lot of talking for a five page story at the end there but I desperately wanted to articulate as best I could why these villains strike such a chord with me. I probably still haven’t succeeded at that. Someone is probably going to misunderstand what I’m saying yet again but that’s fine. This is a journey and we’re traveling down this railroad together. So long as the journey is still fun, that’s all I can hope for. 

As for the issue itself… It's fine. It got us to a nice point where all the hedgehogs can converge. It was mostly just Rosy being insane and Scourge fending off his traitorous goons until he got ambushed and trapped in his own zone again. It’s an important issue though. The one where the betrayal actually happened and it set in motion the ensuing events that’ll lead to Silver thrusting himself into the plot. Not in a sexy way though. 

 

Sonic X - Issue #39: Big Trouble in Little Station Square, Part Two

Godzilla is approaching the generator.
The generator is losing power.
Godzilla is approaching the generator.
The generator is losing power.

GOZILLA IS APPROACHING THE GENERATOR!
THE GENERATOR IS LOSING POWER!

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Steven Butler
Inks: Terry Austin
Colors: Jason Jensen
Letters: Phil Felix
Editor & Managing editor: Mike Pellerito

That really awesome looking cover of Vector smashing a building in an attempt to chase down Sonic isn’t quite all it’s trumped up to be. Obviously. It makes for a great looking cover though, holy shit.

Mr. Stewart is leading all the children to the Tornado shelter where they’ll supposedly be safe until the 40 Ft tall Vector chillaxes on his rampage. Chris is very subtly trying to resist this.

He’s pushing him in that door so hard that there’s actual skid smoke coming from under his shoes. It’s kind of miraculous. His belt is strangely loose though. 

Vector goes “RAAAAWR!” above the city, which scares people away… but then he stops because he’s really just kind of woozy.
It’s one of those situations where he’s doing things a monster would do but by accident. I love it. 

Sonic is really angry at the two S.O.N.I.C.X goons for doing this to Vector but Espio chimes in saying that he knows of an “ancient remedy” he may be able to get to Vector in order to get him back to normal once he hears the doctor say that all he did was make Vector “swell up like a balloon”. I remember Espio’s solution being pretty funny and a showcase of just what it means to be a Chaotix Detective… but that comes later.

Right now, he and Sonic head off to find what Espio thinks can cure Vector and leave Charmy to guard the two goons.

It’s here where Charmy shows us what it means for HIM to be a Chaotix Detective too.

That’s what I call a miraculous success. You’ve done the agency proud, my boy.

Being distracted by a “What’s that over there?” for so long that two people had enough time to put on a helmet, rev up a motorcycle, and ride off. 

That’s my boy.

Back with Eggman, he’s returned from being defeated by Sonic. Turns out that scuffle last issue wasn’t just a background thing. He’s inserting himself into the plot as well. How nice.

He’s in a bit of a bad mood, obviously, since he’s just come back from a failure but the good news is a random kaiju is destroying Station Square. Eggman’s response to hearing and seeing this is, “Oh, how nice.”

He then immediately shifts gears into thinking about how he can spin this situation into something that the people can love and admire him for helping out with. It is amazing how instant the knobs in his head turn to be about something that can only correlate to himself being on top. Even something as fucking strange as a random monster destroying the city he just left isn’t enough to stop him.

Vector is stomping around and stirring up trouble on accident still. 

It’s very amusing but also that poor pilot’s pants are probably darkened to hell. 

Now, Vector seems to be a bit delirious but I still find it a tad dubious that the idea of him staying still while this huge isn’t something that’s coming to mind for him.

That’s okay though. Sonic hops on up to the big guy, pushes back his heavy as hell headphones with his feet, and tells Vector to stay put until they find that “ancient remedy” to cure him.

Vector gives the thumbs up and says he will, which gives Sonic and Espio the go ahead to complete their mission.

Of course, it’d be a pretty boring Kaiju story if the Kaiju just stood in the middle of the city with no one to fight. That’s where Kaiju Bokkun comes in!

Yes folks. Super Megatized Bokkun is here to save the day!

Eggman flies in like Syndrome with a Megaphone in hand, yelling at the people about how Bokkun is going to save them from the villainous monster that is Vector the Crocodile. It’s plausible that people may even buy that considering how little the people in this city probably know of Vector.

Also, for some reason, throughout this issue, Vector’s weird shoulder pad bubble things are colored green and not black. He looks like he’s being drawn a little bit like he’s from Knuckles’ Chaotix here for some reason and I don’t know why.

It’s even weirder how the entire rest of his body looks like his normal Modern design. It’s strange. 

Vector doesn’t take kindly to being talked about like he’s some sort of villainous heathen here to demolish and kill everyone so he snorts Eggman away with his nose and mouth breath.

Whether or not the people believed him when he said that he was here to save them, I have no idea. Probably not since I only saw scenes of people running away. I regret to inform Eggman that there are zero panels in this book of people actually praising him.

Vector knows what’s up and says to Bokkun that he knows Eggman put him up to this and that they don’t have to fight.

Bokkun keeps talking like he’s a heroic wrestling heel and eggs Vector on to have a brawl anyway. 

The fight they have is about as childish as you’d expect.

Though, I gotta say, Vector dunking Bokkun’s head in the water like that is fairly excessive.

Also, again, the art in this issue is fine for the style it is, I suppose, but there’s a bunch of tiny weird oddities that don’t sit right with me. Like Bokkun’s eyes are like… normal white eyes with black pupils for some reason? He looks really weird. I don’t know why they did his eyes like this here.

I’m not really a fan of this style, honestly. It isn’t drawn the worst but something about it feels a little too old comic book-y too me. It did back then and it still does now. 

As the fight goes on outside, Sonic and Espio make it to where this “ancient remedy” is.

A pharmacy.

Espio buys some aspirin.

Again, it feels great marveling at how wonderful the Chaotix Detective Agency is. 

“They do their very best” should probably be their slogan.

They’re wonderful.

GUN Fighter jets fly in, ready to nuke this crocoboy to kingdom come right as he finishes winning a thumb war against Bokkun.

Goddamn. It’s been a long time since I’ve done a thumb war with someone. I wonder if that’s something kids still do…

Well, anyway, turns out the cure for the doctor’s inflation grape juice really was aspirin so he throws it into Vector’s mouth and he instantly shrinks.

Bokkun, little boy on the inside that he is, is left to sulk in sadness at not being given a chance to win.

Sonic consoles him for a second before kindly telling him to watch out for the fighter jets and gives a happy wave at the screen as the crying robot boy is chased away by army men trying to murderize him.

That’s a look that says, “Yeah. Today was a good day.”

As an aside, I love that Eggman saw the fighter jets and the thing that came out of his mouth was “Oh no, my hero worship.” Bokkun is such a means to an end for him here. It’s cruel but also delightful in it’s shamelessness.

Sonic returns to the Chaotix and asks Vector how he feels and Vector says he feels like he’s been on a roller coaster ride for a half-hour. Then Charmy flies in and hilariously says “What do you mean “What happened to the prisoners?” like he’s heading off a question about his failure off at the pass.

The others ignore it as Sonic says that the pills he got really worked.

Charmy INSTANTLY wants those fucking PILLS!

So they immediately trap themselves inside of a weird Sesame Street PSA about the dangers of overdosing on pills!

This is fucking beautiful.

After that, the four of them decide to call for pizza.

Back with Mr. Stewart and the kids, he decides to just let them have a second recess to end the day since the Kaiju attack kind of rocked the boat a little bit as far as the urge to learn.

He then stares out the window, menacingly wondering what happened in a moment that feels like it was put there to insinuate that there was more planned ahead for this book than what’s actually left of it…

That very well could have been the case but Ian and the others decided to quit while they were ahead so if this means anything it doesn’t end up going anywhere I’m afraid.

Bokkun is sulking beside the Eggman base that I swear, at this point in time, should have been long destroyed. That thing went down in episode 13. It wasn’t a part of the show for very long at all. The GUN invasion of his base happened fairly early in the show’s run despite people’s complaints that they were just letting Eggman sit there. They most definitely were not. Eggman showed up in episode 3, they found Rouge and scouted out the inside of the base in episode 11 and launched the attack in episodes 12 and 13.

That means there were only 7 episodes where they let Eggman’s base rest there on that island. It’s an astonishing exaggeration of a complaint.

 Anyway, Eggman patches up Bokkun and says he’ll get to work on a shrink ray so that he can then get back to work. Bokkun is less than thrilled.

It sucks working for Eggman.

The very last page of the book is… something that BOTHERED the fuck out of me for years to come after issue 40 came out and I got no follow-up on it.

This one single page caused me so much ire for so many years. It was maddening. 

Reading that, you’d think the obvious follow-up for the final issue would be the conclusion to this threat right? Wrong! 

This is the last time the S.O.N.I.C.X group has any bearing on the plot. We don’t even get to see who the fucking boss is! 

That’s right! He’s cloaked in shadow at the end of this issue and they don’t reveal who he is in Issue #40, the LAST issue of the book! WHY?! 

I know what happens in the last issue and I feel like you probably could have done something with the visitors that show up in that issue to make a neat little action packed finale of sorts but they don’t. As far as this group is concerned, THIS is where they stop being relevant.

Also, of course Hector Dragg and Dr. Narasu have failed you twice. These two are the only ones in this group who’ve DONE anything aside from Gerome who gave the group it’s fanclub sounding name.

I really enjoyed the issue where these guys all showed up and I went down memory lane recalling who they all were and what little part they played in the anime. Those tiny snippets being taken and utilized for this book was such a good idea, especially for Dr. Narasu here. That scene of him calling Sonic a robot in episode 2 actually bothered me when I was a kid if you can believe it. I’m not quite so petty now that I’m older but it was a good branching off point for the focal point of his character. Thankfully, he didn’t end up wasted in this story but the group itself sure did.

They got introduced and then a HUGE gap of nothing came from them before the tail end of the book where they showed up again with a hilariously awful plan to kidnap the President and force him to make Sonic and his friends illegal followed by this Kaiju shit. Then the director here says he’s totally gonna do something and promptly does nothing.

It’s like if Arnold said “I’ll be back!” in that one famous movie and then never came back.

Like, what the fuck?

Now, based on the leader’s glasses there I feel I can only surmise that his identity is supposed to be our glorious Resident Evil looking douchebag, Captain Westwood. He was a big player at the beginning of the book and it would only make sense that he would play a part in forming this Sonic hating group here at the end. He’s got the connections to make it happen too.

It would have been a great reveal had they actually gone through with it but they didn’t. 

Also, not helping is how, at the time, I hadn’t read a lot of the earlier issues of Sonic X so I wasn’t even aware of Westwood’s tenure within the books. I only became aware of him when I discovered the rest of the copies online so I wouldn’t have been able to conclude it was him if I tried.

It’s a very unfortunate situation that regrettably leaves a pretty big gaping hole in the plot for our series of Sonic X comics here, sad to say.

It’s almost as bothersome as seeing all these fucking ads for Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood in this book. Goddamn. Who would have guessed that an ad for a game could age poorly simply by virtue of being an ad for THAT fucking game?

There it was, the penultimate issue of Sonic X. I’m almost kind of taken aback here. It feels like I’ve reached the end of another road. The fact that I’ll soon be able to make the claim that I’ve reviewed the entirety of this series is an interesting feeling. It’ll feel worth it in the end though. I really enjoyed this and despite my problems concerning what that final page did to me I think there’s more than enough good will left in what the comic did right for me to go out on Issue #40 with a smile. Certain events need to transpire within the main book before we can though. Sit tight and stay tuned. 

[SkyHorizon]

You know, I've always thought that one of the biggest limitations of the Sonic books was that Sonic had to be in every story. You can see that in those little backstories at the end of the main book, often they're far more interesting than the main story that you can often resume to: "Sonic (and friends) fight bad guys. Sonic Universe, on that side, was a much more interesting book in my opinion, considering he let you explore other characters and situations. Whatever...

Fiona: Yeah, I totally like Fiona's reaction when Sonic points at the absolute incoherence of her actions. She talks about not being loyal to anyone and then she is blindly loyal to one of the worst person in existence (Scourge). That is particularly evident in the Lockdown Arc. And the best part is that it is perfectly believable and a great characterization (especially compared to the bland "Fiona is the umpteenth Freedom Fighter with no personality at all). It's perfectly plain (for everyone but her) how, despite talking trash about loyalty, she is so desperate to stay loyal to someone. Of course, that doesn't excuse her awful actions, but being an awful person (who doesn't deserve any sympathy) doesn't contradict being a great character, speaking of which...

The Dark (Egg) Legion: ...it's the same for the Dark Legion. They are awful people who deserve to be put in prison for life for their actions. That doesn't mean that they are intrinsically evil. Your point on them is perfectly valid: they're weak-willed person who just made some mistakes, they are not criminals that tke pleasure in torturing other people or working for an evil dictator. I don't think you're more inclined than the rest of us to feel bad for them. Everyone does (in the limit of not being real characters, of course), that's one of Ian's strength. BUT that doesn't excuse their actions. They're allying voluntarily with Robo-Hitler, attacking/killing innocent people, trying to ruin the only small chance the heroes have to finally defeat Eggman, ... Those are the facts, the reasons behind these actions may be whatever they want, but what makes a person are the decisions they take, not the intentions they have.

Snively: Ah, that backup is splendid. I love how corrupted that little runt is, it's really an interesting character. I love how he thought of going back to the Mobians not because he was regretful of what he did to them, but just because at that moment was the most profitable option. Except that it wasn't really an option after what he did. AND he didn't feel regretful for doing it, he just thinks that by doing something so bad he burned the last bridge left. Marvelous. That makes his (kinda distorted) brotherly love for Hope even more interesting, because it really shows the only single circumstance when he has not acted in his exclusive self-interest. People can say what they want about Ian, but i think that he is a great writers, especially when you consider what he started with (meaning the state of the comic before 160).

Sonic Unleashed: I loved that game, I think is the moment the Sonic franchise started to reemerge after what I like to call "the first big deep". From there on, the games were progressively better, culminating with Generations that, despite a complete lack of story, was the pinnacle of gameplay. But Unleashed... Unleashed established the formula with Modern Sonic gameplay (the werewolf was kind of meh but i didn't hate it like some other people do). That said, the Archie adaptation was... actually, since the moment they decided to stick to the "Another time, Another space" formula I totally lost interest in those adaptations, waste of pages in my opinion. I agree with some of your remarks (like that line of Eggman dropping the emeralds, then again they had to somehow explain in a few pages that they were drained and discarded, so I understand why they did it), but I liked a lot better Eggman's reaction to the werewolf. I mean, when I played Unleashed I was like: "why did Eggman isn't surprised at all at seeing Sonic like this?" I find his reaction in the comic far more believable.

P.S: Oh, by the way, Sonic met Anti-Robotnik in Issue 11 (even if he still had the old fat design). The slim designs appeared in a single box in SSS 10 (the one with the useless Sonic Underground crossover).

P.P.S: I nearly forgot another interesting piece of trivia, initially they wanted to do a Chronicles story IN CONTINUITY WITH THE MAIN STORY. There exist a page of Julie-Su meeting Shade (or going to meet, it was only in black and white and I can't remember it precisely nor find it anymore). When you think about it it's just... wow.

[jungle_penguins]

These reviews remind me of why I love this revamp of the mirror universe, a concept I often dislike. Turning it from just-opposites to having a fleshed out background on how they existed and how Scourge reflects Sonic's possibility is fascinating. It's still a mirror universe at the end of the day so that makes some of the development a bit iffy but it's well worth it. If they keep bringing back mirror universe stuff (often popular among fan circles of many different franchises now that I think about it), might as well be like this. 

Also I totally pronounced Moebius differently back then and that's an embarrassment. Still not sure on the meaning of pronouncing it the same.

[SkyHorizon]

2 hours ago, jungle_penguins said:

Also I totally pronounced Moebius differently back then and that's an embarrassment. Still not sure on the meaning of pronouncing it the same.

Same here, I discovered it's the same pronunciation only later :). I think it's to symbolize that despite all of their efforts they couldn't get out of Mobius' shadow. Or something lie that

[thumbs13]

Westwood being the leader of S.ON.I.C.X makes sense, I just never thought about it before. That reveal would have been cooler if the book went on any longer.

Also, from what I remember, a lot of the issues of the Sonic X comic take place in a very short period of time because of where they were in the show at that time. 

[Dr. Detective]

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #195: Hedgehog Havoc! Part One

Instead of reading #194 and not following up on the Archie comics for no other reason than “I’m scared” I decided to remember that I’m basically the biggest Sonic fan in my state, probably, and got the next one. In doing so,  I was gifted with Hedgehog Havoc and it’s wild and crazy. The work it must have taken to justify all these hedgehogs being in one spot is something I have a bit more respect for, certainly. Also, I’m happy to report, I didn’t spill milk on this one at lunch!

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils : Tracy Yardley
Inks: Jim Amash
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: Teresa Davidson
Editor/Managing Editor: Mike Pellerito

I remember this panel well. It was the very first time I had ever laid eyes on Sonic’s parents. It was easy to tell they were his mom and dad despite one of them being a robot. That said, I remember being like “Okay but… WHY is Sonic’s dad a robot though?” and soldiering on with that knowledge in my head. A lot of this I remember kind of having to just be like, “Yeah, okay.”

Man, now that we’re here, it really feels like I’m at the actual beginning of the Archie comics for me. I know that’s weird but the fact of the matter is, I read this stuff first. Issues #142 and onward we given to me so much later and I didn’t read anything before that until I started this retrospective.

It’s a strange thing but my experience with these comics has been separated into a three act structure and that structure amounted to me reading almost the entire book backwards! 

So that’s why this FEELS like I’ve reached the start of the book again. It’s a fascinating feeling.

Even weirder is reading it with the actual context now. Back then these guys might as well have been speaking gibberish as far as their explanation to Sonic’s parents go. This whole scene acts as a pseudo recap for those that need it. Since this was the third issue of the main series I had ever picked up, with one of them stretching back to #181, I was in need of it post haste.

After Nicole explains what happened to Sonic to her parents we get that patented scene where someone, namely Nicole, ends the scene by starting to say that Sonic has things under control, probably, only to cut to the next scene where she finishes that sentence in a text box and the scene is very much not under control.

I’m not a huge fan of comics doing that really. I know it acts as a scene transition but to me it just feels off. 

As Rosy tries to smash Scourge, Sonic earns both my and Amy’s ire by saying that she’s reminding him of his Amy. She naturally threatens to smash him if he keeps talking shit and Sonic with a shit-eating grin on his face just tells Amy to go help out Buns.

Buns is fine though. The Omega Unit is ripped to shit but she has enough firepower to get back to the doctor so she flies off. I can’t really recall what I must have thought of Buns back then. I had already seen the Anti-characters at least so I wasn’t confused as to which Bunnie was which, thankfully.

The art and colors for this issue are magnificent, as an aside. It’s a duo between Tracy Yardley and Matt Herms and the dream team is definitely in top form here. 

We cut back to Eggman’s Eggdome, where Eggman continues to lose his mind. Though, you wouldn’t necessarily know it based on this conversation. Eggman seems fairly Eggman on this page, in part because his recklessness is the norm. As such, there was no real hint given to me at the time that Eggman was losing his mind. No wonder it blind-sided me.

I love that little joke there about the engine models. The SXSU-401 is an obvious fusion of the two upcoming issues, Sonic X #40 and Sonic Universe #1, both of which will be the end and the beginning of a new book and both of which, as Eggman stated here, will be the denizens of the new worlds Metal Sonic is going to end up traveling to.

The standard STH-25 model means Sonic the Hedgehog #25 which was the Sonic CD adaptation in the old Archie books. Very good in jokes, Ian.

Anyway, as soon as Metal Sonic goes online it immediately buggers off to go find Sonic, leaving a smoking spot behind on the assembly line where Eggman created him.

This causes Eggman to snap, throwing shit about because the Metal Sonic was supposed to wait for his order and now it’s gone with the engine. The entire scene, Snively is beyond done with this shit and once this happens he just waltzes off saying that he’ll be at his workstation if he needs him.

Again, I wasn’t too aware of it at the time, obviously, but Eggman’s so far into the shitter at this point it’s almost unbelievable. Though, Ken Penders would have you believe his shitty Dark Legion of old could have handled Eggman at his best, they’re barely passing as an army at their worst and he keeps doing dumb, irrational things off to the side. If it were ever important to chill out on doing the weird, ineffective, typical Eggman stuff for the sake of his sanity, now would be the time.

But nope. He's too far gone even if he wanted to try.

Anyway, back with Silver, Rob, and Mari-Ann, future boy asks him where he can find Sonic. Rob is very helpful. He tells him straight away where he is and Silver throws out a warp ring to take them straight to Freedom HQ.

Sally is arguing with Princess Alicia as this happens so it’s a little hilarious how a character that hasn’t been seen in who knows how long just stumbles their way out of a portal in between them while they’re arguing.

Also, Silver’s speech bubbles have this blue circle around it. I guess it’s to indicate that he’s from the future? Maybe his future speech bubbles sound more futuristic?

Well, either way, they arrive and there’s no Sonic. Sally has to explain that the Suppression Squad here trapped Sonic and Amy on Moebius.

Silver already knows of Moebius. He says that his knowledge of it is unfortunate which is an interesting tidbit. However, he uses the warp ring and he and Rob are off.

At this point, despite how cute it is that Rob’s being so helpful, I gotta say that he’s being very trusting of this random stranger he just met. He senses that the mission he’s on is an important one but, as we’ll find out later, the Silver of this time had his eyes set on actual murder.

It’s almost hard to imagine nowadays with how much of a loveable dork he’s become but these were his humble beginnings. 

Sally tells Tails to get the star posts up and running while Alicia seriously believes there’s a chance Sonic has done away with Scourge by now.

No, they’re in the middle of a fight. However, as soon as they charge at each other for another collision a certain someone, on the cusp of kicking off a new book, warps in to set up what his first adventure in that book will be.

Turns out Shadow took a wrong turn at Albuquerque and found himself in Moebius. He’s trying to get to the Special Zone for reasons we’re not supposed to know yet. 

Sonic takes this chance to invite Shadow in a nice round of ganging up on Scourge.

Then Metal Sonic shows up. 

Boy, the Smash Bros. “New Challenger Approaching” siren must be going off over and over again.

It isn’t but a single page later when the four of them are lined up and ready to brawl that yet another warp ring opens up in the center and out comes our last remaining competitors, Rob and Silver.

We literally have enough hedgehogs for an 8-player Smash here.

I remember reading this scene out loud to my friend at lunch. It was so wild and crazy, I couldn’t imagine jumping into this without knowing any of what’s going on. 

The fact that he managed to pull off having all these hedgehogs being in one place at the same time with the stipulation that the fight was going to take place on Moebius, another dimension entirely, is astounding.

The dilapidated ruins of the old Castle Acorn would probably make for a neat Smash Bros. stage, I guess, but I’d still prefer something a little cooler in aesthetic like Eggmanland. It is a crying shame they haven’t brought back that level theme yet. I know everyone loves Rooftop Run but the imposing atmosphere of Eggmanland is a treasure. 

Anyway, the Smash announcer does his thing and the 8-Player Smash begins.

This is a fairly memeable picture, of course.

In it you can see the wide-eyed look of woe on Silver’s adorable face as all these other hedgehogs fight off one another. Rosy looks a little bit worried there. She was so excited to have so many hedgies to smash but I guess too much is too much.

Our poor boy goes around to all the fights and tries to politely ask which one might be Sonic.

Eventually, he gives up and shouts “ENOUGH!” holding all of them up with his power. Then he proceeds to explain what he’s doing here, leading to yet another scene where Sonic tries to do whatever he can to maximize pain onto Scourge.

He doesn’t say his famous line “The Iblis Trigger must die” but it’s fine. That wouldn’t make sense in this context anyway.

I really love the way both Sonic and Scourge are drawn in that panel where they’re pointing at each other. It’s one of the times where they look and feel like the same character and it’s cute how they’re trying to pawn off the trouble ahead onto the other one. Though, Scourge was just telling the truth.

Rob points an arrow at the back of Silver’s head and demands an explanation.

Rob explains to Silver that it’s kind of stupid to murder someone on a hunch and Silver’s response is “But… it makes sense…”

Silver doesn’t know who these people are or what their characters entail so him being so brazen to come to the past and murder a guy because “It makes sense” that he’d be the most likely to betray the Freedom Fighters and doom his future is a little crazy.

He’s a bit too loose with what he deems acceptable enough proof to do so. This legend says that one of the original Freedom Fighters did this act so further research into it might be a tad more warranted. Especially if his actions can change the future. Time isn't something to play around with and a mistake like killing the wrong guy could make things so much worse, my dude.

Silver’s mission has always been a thing that led to a lot of questions, even in its original form back in 2006. I really wish they had taken the obvious and proven Future Trunks inspiration all the way and made it clear he was from an alternate future. Leaving that tidbit out of the designing process was a massive mistake. Now, with Silver changing the past being something that does have an affect on the future, Silver himself makes little sense. 

Unless doing this grants him the ability to be a man out of time, of course. Or perhaps they can confirm later that it is an alternate future, though, that might lead to some problems for IDW considering what happens there. It might still be an easy fix though. Maybe just say a different catastrophe caused the world to go to ruin and the one they thought it was just wasn’t it… and the future Silver went to wasn’t his own…?

Okay, there’s a lot of retconning that would have to be done but this is why time travel needs to rely on the alternate timeline thing to work properly, in my opinion. It never does any good saying that changing the past will change the future. I know Avengers: Endgame came out way later but I really wish SEGA could have heard what Banner had to say about that.

As for Silver’s revised mission here in the Archie comics; the IDEA is solid. I really love the mystery angle of having one of the original Freedom Fighters be someone who turns on the team and dooms the future. Again, having it be an alternate future thing could have led to a story where we saw that happen and it not turning out to be a cop out. That way the original Freedom Fighters we’re following don’t actually have to have one of them turn bad. 

I mean, I’D be okay with one of them legitimately turning traitor but that’s just because I’m not a fan of the Freedom Fighters. I don’t hate them necessarily (just the system they work under) but not caring affords me the position of finding it more interesting seeing one of them turn evil. Not so for actual fans of them.

I mean, the idea of good guys turning bad is one I tend to like in general really. I also like the idea of having a safety net to avoid keeping them that way if they’re someone like Tails for example. Perhaps it can be blamed on corruption, mind-control, or as stated before just be an alternate version of him like Miles is.

Or maybe the alternate version could be OUR Tails but despite growing up the same way he did in these books he still found himself going down a darker path. 

It’s all a very neat idea… however, I recall the execution of this traitor subplot being one of the more annoying things about the book at the time.

The discourse online from the places I frequented back then, despite being horrible places so take that with a grain of salt, weren’t digging how Silver ends up jumping back and forth and back and forth on this traitor thing with reckless abandon.

I remember finding it to be alright for the most part but I did remember getting a bit worried about how this was going to resolve itself when so little progress ended up being made. 

Then the rug was pulled under me when a certain event happened that made it obvious who the “traitor” was and I had to wait several months before Silver figured it out himself and confirmed it. It was a massive, massive disappointment to me at the time.

Spending so much time on a subplot only for the reveal to be something so obvious due to the current events at the time but for it to mean jackshit because the heroes were already in the process of handling it anyway… it made me wonder if things had to be shuffled around because of other factors at the time… 

I truly don’t know but here at the start, Silver is on that “Murder the traitor" hype train. 

Scourge knocks down and attacks both Rob and Silver while they’re talking. When it comes to Rob, he says something interesting about him.

So I guess Anti-Rob is dead, killed by his brother.

How sad.

I don’t even recall seeing Rob’s brother in the stories of old where he first showed up though. Maybe it was something Ian was planting a seed for? Or maybe it’s the fault of my crap-tastic memory.

As this is going down, Sonic and Shadow are trying to fend off Metal Sonic. The fight is getting too out of control so Sonic calls for a time out and rallies for everyone to attack Scourge. All this time, regardless of who has shown up, Sonic still recognizes that Scourge is the biggest deal here and he needs to be handled. 

He tells Metal Sonic that instead of attacking everyone and getting nowhere, he focuses on getting rid of Scourge. Metal Sonic finds this acceptable.

Sonic tells Silver that they’ll finish their business later. Silver was just spin dashed into the stomach by Scourge so he’s got no problem with that.

He also tells Rosy that she’ll have final smashes. So, I guess he’s giving her the Smash Ball.

Scourge is UPSET that they’re all ganging up on him but he isn’t going to lay down and take it.

He runs away and they all start attacking him… but it’s too late. He reaches his throne and says that it’s stocked with Anarchy Beryl.

We never get to actually see what Anarchy Beryl looks like. It’s just… IN his throne. Sonic puts those words through a logic train in his head and deduces that those must be this world’s Chaos Emeralds.

It’s true. Amidst the black energy around him, Scourge transforms into Super Scourge right in front of Sonic.

What I love about this design is that it affects his clothes too. His jacket has blue flames on them now and his glasses have turned from red to blue, as though they’re a literal part of him. It’s kind of great.

Also, I keep forgetting that this is Scourge’s castle. I’m so used to it belonging to an Acorn.

Hedgehog Havoc was a nice blast to the past for me. Memories aside, it was a fairly straightforward transitional issue. Despite all the hedgehogs being present for this massive 8-Player Smash it never felt like it was a clusterfuck. It didn’t go on long enough for it to feel that way I guess. Plus, there’s an explanation for why they’re all here, despite some of those explanations being a tad flimsy for sure. As for Super Scourge, I gotta say, he definitely looks cool but man was this quite the time to start reading the comics. I remember reading the line “Anarchy Beryl” and wondering if that was something Sonic knew about because he’d seen it used before. Nope. He just knew what the synonyms for “Chaos” and “Emeralds” would probably be. That’s all. 

 

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #196: Hedgehog Havoc! Part Two

Sonic looks as though he has fallen and he can’t get up. If only Super Scourge hadn’t crushed his Life Alert. This is a fairly cool looking cover, though, the words at the side asking if Scourge has gone super could do without the question mark. It’s clear he has. An exclamation point was all we needed thanks.

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Tracy Yardley
Inks: Jim Amash
Colors: Jason Jensen
Letters: Teresa Davidson
Editor/Managing Editor: Mike Pellerito

I hope you all can forgive the fact that whenever I’m initially on the heels of discovering a villain’s motivation and backstory, I tend to be outwardly sympathetic. It’s just how I am. When I latch onto someone’s primary motivation or see an avenue where something could have been better for them but they decided to make the wrong decision or go down the wrong path, I can’t help myself but wallow in pity first and foremost.

It’ll take a nice big block of them being nothing but heinous before that’ll go away, but, if it doesn’t just know that this is all opinionated. I’m recounting all this from the point of view of a big softie who tends to not indulge in a ton of harshness. 

I bring all this up because the image of Scourge in this book has transformed into something legitimately scary. Whatever twinge of pity was there before is hard to find amidst the ocean of pure frightening majestic power that he’s in control of.

When the two Freedom Fighter groups make it over to Moebius to check on Scourge finally, instead of Miles and Alicia getting what they were expecting with Sonic having won the fight, they’re instead greeted by this image.

I dunno. Something about seeing Scourge floating, holding Sonic by the neck-area, with all those bodies around him, and his eyes completely bkack just kind of hit me in a way it didn’t back then. It’s really unsettling looking at it.

It just goes to show an informed opinion on what I think of these characters, overall, is something that’ll only really be possible by this retrospective’s end. There’s a chance I’ll feel completely opposite about the way I do for some of these guys in time. All it might take is a monstrous display of power or any real action that goes towards delighting in harming people.

Next is just a two page montage of Scourge beating up both sides of this conflict.

Just relentless beatings from one end of the spectrum to the other with no mercy regardless of age. Sally noticeably gets off with an off-screen toss though. There wasn’t much I expected them to do to her here honestly.

I especially love the page where he takes on his old clique.

Alicia gets tossed as well, only this looks like a baseball pitch into a hard as hell throne. Boomer and Patch’s weapons don’t work on him and he uses this time to ask about Fiona. She’s gone and all Scourge has to say about that is that she’s smarter than they are.

I’m guessing this means he thinks she was probably a part of the coup? Who knows what’s going through his mind at this point.

The best part was the bottom panel though. The cowering Miles being hovered over by Scourge in his super form is the perfect representation of their relationship, isn’t it? Just imagine a Sonic that was already a brute to Tails before but now was willing to exercise his right as king to rip his body to shreds because Tails tried to stop Sonic from bullying him. Miles tries so hard to be an adult but the fear of God does well to keep him locked into the position of a scared little pup.

Silver tries to stop the rampage by grabbing Scourge with his powers but Scourge breaks out of it because he’s in his Super form. Nothing’s working.

Sonic tries to think up what his weaknesses in Super form is but he gets got by Metal Sonic who’s basically in “Fuck this shit” mode. He’s prioritizing Sonic again because beating Super Scourge is impossible. Makes sense. Killing Sonic is his only real purpose so why not skip the formalities and go for the gold?

At this point, Metal Sonic is literally JUST in the way so Shadow takes it upon himself to break up the Hedgehog Havoc and use whatever engine’s in Metal that allows him to go between words to induce Chaos Control.

Ah. Look at Shadow. Being all helpful.

Would be a shame if word from up on high deemed that getting Shadow to help would require the pulling of teeth to the nth degree. 

Also, Rosy gets knocked out of the running too.

Yes, Rob is a sweetheart. It’s too bad he’ll succumb to a fatal case of Penders-itis and disappear from the book. 

That weird rubber band arrow was always an eyebrow raiser for me back then though. It looks like it stabs the wall and then shoots out a bunch of bands that tie you up from within the cracks of the wall. I guess it’s just mechanized to work that way. It’s a very odd weapon.

Not only that but it continues to amuse me that these two are cousins. They’re so different from one another but at the same time I guess that makes them removed enough to be cousins after all. I like that.

Anyway, Miles is trying to run for his life but Sonic grabs his tail and demands to know where more of that sweet, sweet Anarky Beryl is.

Miles says it’s been stashed away and that he doesn’t know how Scourge got any. Sonic tells him it was stashed in his thrown to which Miles basically says “Clever girl… anyway, how about we lead him back to Mobius!”

Sonic vetoes that plan immediately. Not just because that’s his home world but also because most of the Chaos Emeralds are in the Special Zone and the two that aren’t are out of reach. Mogul’s got one of them and… I’ve forgotten where the other one is but it doesn’t matter. The point is there’s no Chaos Emeralds coming to help them.

Sally, our glorious leader, stands up and says that’s bogus. She’s got a masterful plan to handle this super powered being and tells all the heavy hitters to hit Scourge at the same time.

Then she enacts her master plan!

DOG-PILE ON SCOURGE!

Ah man. If only this were the playground and not a life or death battle against a super-powered being with access to unimaginable, god-like power.

Oh no.

The dog-pile on Scourge didn’t work.

Oh well, I’m sure the master tactician Sally Acorn has another idea. Hide-n-Seek perhaps?

Sonic tries his hand at a new battle strategy and that one is just him whacking Scourge repeatedly while shouting “FALL DOWN! FALL DOWN! FALL DOWN!” over and over again.

But Sonic, say that he DOES fall down… what’s to stop him from standing back up again? Think boy.

Sadly, Scourge doesn’t take Sonic’s suggestion that he should fall down. No, instead of immediately surrendering for no reason, Scourge drags Sonic outside into the much cooler, rainy atmosphere of Moebius and slams him into water gathering in the dirt. It's raining and thundering out here hard for this special occasion. 

Suddenly, things look even bleaker than before and also more desperate and really fucking cool. Add an awesome villain speech on top of that and you’ve got yourself a really exciting, cinematic set-piece. 

It always tortures me inside whenever I can’t think of the right event music to play in my head at a time like this. It’s usually just a bunch of generic “DUN DUN DUN DUNS” which pisses me off because I know there’s a perfect music track out there for scenes like this.

Scourge’s villain speech here sounds demented and evil… because it is. He’s lost his goddamn mind BUT it’s also an open display of how far his development has carried him. The loser who used to get knocked out, accidentally, by Antoine is now powerful enough to devastate two worlds at once if he wants to. All the while he’s boasting about his power, he throws in the line about stomping on planets until he finds one that gives him the respect he deserves.

Again, even at this hour, he’s still going on about finding other people that’ll admire him. It’s long since gone past the point of cozy companionship. His mind is so warped now that nothing but constant subjugation and prostration before him will satisfy his will. 

It's really scary because this is a version of SONIC! I keep reiterating that point but imagining Sonic doing this stuff; bullying his best buddy Tails, threatening to split worlds in half because he can, abusing his partners and demanding to be revered by the people... it all legitimately unnerves me inside when you put it through that lens.

It's SO sad to think about. 

Sonic isn’t even talking to him at this point. He’s just trying to get away long enough to think up a plan. Literally anything will do. He’s invincible. He honestly feels like the most powerful being they’ve ACTUALLY yet faced at this moment aside from Enerjak.

Sonic thinks it over in his head and comes to a very calculated conclusion in his head that turns out to be correct.

When Scourge has him cornered over the hue of thunder and lightning in the sky, Sonic says he’s got no regrets and boasts about how Scourge had to go super to beat him when Sonic could take him no problem. This isn’t exactly true, and Scourge points this out, but still falls for Sonic’s ego poking when he dares him to fight him in his normal form.

So, Scourge voluntarily drops the super form to wail on him as his normal self.

God, I love this image. What a way to get across that Scourge just got hit with a sucker punch of exhaustion. I couldn’t imagine pulling it off any better.

Sonic goes on to explain to the exhausted Scourge how things balanced out. 

The first thing Sonic says is “You guys get tons of Anarchy Beryl. We only get Seven Chaos Emeralds.”

Now that’s… interesting, considering that not too long ago your world had literally thousands of Chaos Emeralds. Or, should I say, "dimension" since most of those weren’t on Mobius. The point still stands. I don’t know what the Anti-Xorda are like but I can see wanting to avoid the hassle of answering how the other planets and whether or not they had chaos emeralds factored into everything. 

Already though, Sonic’s point here is a bit muddled. I don’t quite know how the comic is accounting for the time before A.D.A.M did what he did here.

He goes on to explain that the Super forms are the same with the one difference being that Scourge’s may last a little longer than his. However, when Sonic powers down it gives him a small boost (it sure as hell didn’t at the end of Unleashed when that came out) and when Scourge powers down it burns him out.

Honestly, if the Anarchy Beryl works in opposite ways to the Chaos Emeralds as far as powering someone up, I can see it burning you out after use if Sonic truly does get a small boost every time he uses them. This is the first and only time I’ve ever heard that as the case though. 

Also, I feel like having a ton of Anarchy Beryl and a much longer time in Super form is a great compensation for the burn out but I’d like the addendum that it was definitely a stronger Super form too probably. Or… I dunno. Maybe they should be the same but Scourge’s just lasts longer like Sonic says here.

Ehhh…

I remember struggling to figure out what about these rules I was okay with and wasn’t okay with at the time and I feel like I’m doing so on repeat here. I’m still not sure what to do with this knowledge.

Scourge still tries to talk about how much better than Sonic he is and rolls out that tired old line about him conquering the planet and him being king.

Sonic has had enough and gives him the angry eyes and the heroic lecture followed by a shove into a puddle before promptly getting over it and being all peppy and happy again.

The line “You’re a bully and that’s it” always stuck with me for whatever reason. I didn’t remember the lead up to that line or what Sonic says afterward, just the images associated with those lines. However, the straightforward way Sonic just tells Scourge to his face what he actually is before shoving him in the mud just kind of lays on the incredibly harsh smack down that tends to stick in your craw. It’s no wonder I remember it so well.

The next day, Boomer is disconnecting the globe posts to give them back to Dr. Kintobor. Not of his free will, of course. Miles turns to Buns and offers her a spot back on the Suppression Squad since it was Scourge who wanted her out. Buns’ response is "You’re a creepy little cuss, you know that?" which was an excellent come back. 

The heroes head home as Miles overlooks them from his spooky tower window. He and Alicia begin to have a rather formal chat and we’re left on THE MOST PAINFUL OF OMINOUS NOTES EVER!

OH GOD! MY HEART!

MY POOR HEART! 

PENDERS! YOU FUCKING BASTARD! HOW DARE YOU!

If there was anything that was going to make me go J. Jonah Jameson on Penders it was this. I want pictures of Lara-Su, tarred, feathered, and dipped in acid on my wall! 

I wanted to find out what this meant… SO BAD.

You guys have no idea. Or maybe you do. I’ve gone off a lot about how much of a fan I am of “Evil Tails” as a concept. Alternate timelines or alternate dimensions or whatever. I don’t want the actual Tails to turn evil for real and stay that way, obviously, but the image of there being a Tails out there that’s this diabolical fucker is like the cutest damn thing ever. It’s in my signature for Christ’s sake.

I wanted to see what the fall out from this was going to be so badly. When the page ended there a part of me was like “Where’s the rest of it?” and then I had to read the next issue, which I remember feeling like filler, and not getting to see anymore Miles.

The 30 Years Later Sonic Universe arc should have been about Moebius goddammit. Maybe I’ll have a slightly warmer response to it upon revisit but I’m just… I’m just… dammit.

Goddammit.

It’s going to linger in the air forever. I’ll never get to know how this happened and why? Alicia is just the figure head but that little punk looking version of Tails managed to claw his way towards being in charge. How did he do it? Was it just his intelligence? His fake regal posture? Or was it perhaps… something MORE?

I’LL NEVER FIND OUT! 

It’s also important to remember that the snafu with Penders is also the fault of Archie too. They were a bunch of really embarrassing incompetent fucks too. I always have to remember to ram my verbal boot up their ass whenever I talk about that debacle as well.

*Sigh*

I mean… I would have taken just one story arc. You could have cancelled the book after I got that at least…

Well, anyway, after this scene Sonic says his goodbye to Silver. Sonic asks if he and Silver are cool and Silver, while glaring at his warp ring like it owes him money, tosses it and heads back to the future, claiming he needs to do more research.

Sonic wishes him good luck on his endeavors.

He’s going to start doing the exact opposite of that as this plot line goes on… 

I’ll have… things to say about it. 

With that, we end on everyone returning home, with Dr. Kintobor handing off Scourge to Sonic who has decided he’s going to personally deliver him to jail in the Zone Cop place where the perpendicular and sideways jerks live. 

Apparently he wants some answers.

I don’t have any recollection of these “answers” he gets. I don’t even really know or remember what questions he wants to ask. 

This next issue really is a massive blur to me. All I remember was Scourge pointlessly escaping so he could just get caught again and end up right where he was being taken anyway. So either the answers Sonic gets aren’t all that important or they are important and I just didn’t care because the Zone Cop stuff didn’t interest me.

Or maybe Sonic just doesn’t get his answers. We’ll see.

As for this issue, it was a solid finale to this longer than I remembered confrontation with the other side and how they all live. Super Scourge really did come off like a monster. As a force to be reckoned with, I feel he probably could have lasted about another issue had he not dropped his super form then and there. It pales a little bit in comparison to the devastation caused by Enerjak, much to Knuckles’ dismay, but I was definitely feeling it.

Scourge isn’t done as far as these books are concerned but Moebius is. That’s the very last of those characters I recall ever seeing and it… hurts. Like REALLY badly. ESPECIALLY after that cliffhanger. How you gonna promise me something I’ve always wanted and get cancelled before I could experience it? Ugh. 

Everything Ian did with Moebius went above and beyond the call of duty. He took a relatively simple and (if done wrong, like Penders did) lame concept and made use of it in ways that opened the door for prominent character study and development on both sides. The way they’re not bound by any urge just to be opposite and merely are the way they are because of opposite circumstances frees him up to do so much more with them as characters than what the norm was before. It truly is a massive shame that this is where we part ways with Moebius. 

 

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #197: Consequences

Interesting cover. It’s definitely one of the more symbolic ones and I didn't find out why until I read the issue. This particular scene definitely does not happen in the book. I remember around this time the covers start to take more liberties with how they portray events. By “liberties” I mean, sometimes they straight up lie. I think this one tows the line well enough but there will be others that just straight up try to hook you with promises of a more interesting idea only for you to read and go “Oh wait. That’s not what’s actually happening.” 

Stuff like that will always be a double-edged sword. Or maybe it’s just a single edge sword because at the end of the day, I’m always going to wonder what could have been if they went with that cooler idea. 

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Layouts: Tracy Yardley
Pencils: Matt Herms
Inks: Jim Amash
Colors: Jason Jensen
Letters: Teresa Davidson
Editor/Managing Editor: Mike Pellerito

Sonic is running along the connected zones stupor highway or whatever. It looks pretty messed up. Oh no. 

He then begins to have flashbacks to when he first met Zonic. He seems to be recalling this in a more happy way but I only have bad memories of those old days. As he’s lost in thought, Scourge stirs from his slumber. 

Apparently turning Super REALLY fucking conked him out because holy shit man. He wakes up and kicks Sonic in the back to run free right as Sonic explains to the audience that he was planning on grilling Zonic for not doing his part of the job. 

I guess that was the question he had. I think I questioned once why the Zone Cop shit wasn’t happening but then I realized that I didn’t really care and never allowed it to occupy my mind again.

Sonic also brings up the lovely tidbit about Zonic saying that he was destined to protect "it all". I wonder what Ian plans to do with that.

Honestly, I wonder what this Zone Cop stuff has left to play in this story now that Ian is here in general. I suppose they go more into it during the Scourge: Lockdown thing but I can’t recall details about that off the top of my head. I can only surmise that it wasn’t something he was about to readily tear down at the seams like a lot of the other stuff. At least not yet.

Sonic attacks Scourge and breaks his handcuffs off during the scuffle.

Ha. Should have seen that one coming.

He’s not at his best but he seems about ready to put up a decent fight… at least until the Zone Cops show up and say “You are in violation of the Multiverse Lockdown Act! You’re under arrest!”

I sure hope that whatever this Multiverse Lockdown Act is, it was properly explained to the people who have access to this place. Being arrested for a crime you weren’t told existed seems like a bad way to get off on the right foot as far as a reintroduction to these guys are concerned.

I can’t help but feel this is about to look like a “variants are committing crimes against the Sacred Timeline” sort of deal.

So… back with the council in Castle Acorn.

Their point within the story continues to come to fruition as the deliberation that hinders heroes acting like heroes starts to come into play even heavier than it has those other times before.

If there was one scene I remember heavily, it was definitely this one. Though, it doesn’t surprise me that I didn’t remember it happened in THIS issue or even what it was REALLY about. All I remember was that Hamlin was making a statement and it made me actually like his character.

It was most definitely because, at the time, I liked things that were antagonistic towards Sally. Perhaps re-reading this again will clarify things for me now that I'm… you know, paying attention.

Sally asks them straight up why it feels like she’s being arrested when she’s brought before them by two beefy supermodels. Dilan is assuring her that she isn’t being arrested because they haven’t pressed charges. Poor guy continues to feel like the uneasy one in the group.

Rosemary clarifies that they haven’t done so “yet”. Sally is momentarily livid but Hamlin says that the charges under discussion are her ignoring the council’s authority and going rogue. 

So it’s plenty clear that decision definitely wasn’t something Elias slyly convinced the Council to reconsider. Apparently, when Sally proposed that Sonic’s “punishment” was to lead the invasion into Moebius it wasn’t something the rest of the council were aware of. I guess they definitely found out though because here’s Tails’ mommy saying that Sonic’s “punishment” for his earlier disregard for their decision being treated as a cleverly worded excuse to ignore the council again is easy to suspect as some large royal conspiracy.

Ooooooo~! SPICY!

Of course it’d be Tails’ revolutionary mom who’d be the one to suggest the kingly side of things was doing shit to regain authority. I guess Elias agreeing to do this hasn’t allowed the glass of trust to go past half full. 

See, this is also what can happen when the monarchy becomes a democracy. The king can’t just go against what the council says without suspicion falling upon where his loyalties lie anymore. Not entirely.

It’s great that Elias took Sonic and Sally’s side but him being the king doesn’t mean as much if the entire council ends up finding their actions treasonous.

I thought I would hate this but I’m actually really enjoying this drama right here. Before, I’m pretty sure I had no clue what any of them were talking about or who was aligned with who but listening to Ian Flynn’s podcasts again and hearing him talking about how he wished he could have gotten that full year to do House of Cards properly is really putting things into perspective.

I know that in the long run stories about where each individual here aligns politically would probably be seen as boring or hard to understand. Hell, that’s exactly what it was for me back in the day. However, I feel like despite recognizing that this is a book targeted mostly for kids I can appreciate a lot of what’s happening here on the side that wishes to be for adults too. It’s not like the other side of that coin is being completely ignored.

It might be the reason why this issue is something I initially didn’t remember a lot of though.

Then we have Hamlin here, proudly doing whatever he can to back Sally into a corner with a shit eating grin on his face.

Oh ho ho! 

I don’t quite know what my feelings are on this now. I remember being on Hamlin’s side back in the day literally just because I wanted Sally to sweat a bit. However, nowadays, I have such a scathing hatred of authority and they both kind of represent that in different ways. Sally probably a lot LESS so than Hamlin in this case because he’s being a bit vindictive about it but Sally was such an acting force for this kingdom for SO LONG in the book that now that Ian is going back to the more “Freedom” side to the Freedom Fighters it’s hard to fully recognize that and not associate her with that strict princessy shit she was all about before.

I couldn’t help but look over this scene and wonder how it would play with some Ace Attorney music in the background.

Back on the Cosmic Interstate we see that the two Zone Cops that have stopped Scourge and Sonic are Zector and Zespio. There’s no Zharmy because of course there isn’t.

Sonic doesn’t resist because he actually wants to see Zonic and Zector is happy about that. They head to the No Zone which, I guess, is an area that’s just… void of the rules of the other zones? I dunno. We’ll call it a… Special Zone if you will.

Anyway, Scourge kicks them down and starts to tear the place down. 

He figures if he can just destroy the prison, he won’t have to stay locked up in it again.

Makes sense.

Dude has some balls on him though. He’s definitely the type to take a small as hell chance and run with it. 

Although, like Sonic said, the place is in ruins. Something happened here to devastate them and whatever it was I can only hope is still around or shows up again to finish the job. I’m very much rooting for Scourge in this scenario. Even on a re-read I can’t say I wouldn’t enjoy seeing this whole Zone Cop area get burned to the ground.

Back in the council, Chuck urges Sally to please provide some answers because as it stands Hamlin’s words are accurate, based on the system they’ve got here.

I mean, hey, whether or not I agree with the council’s decisions, if Sally agreed to follow these rules and then blatantly disregarded them then I’m not sure what I would say or do either. Luckily, she has a pretty convincing counter-argument.

If they can trap her with lawyer speak then she’s free to counteract with lawyer speak as well.

So with an imaginary finger point Sally gets to it.

She points out that the specifics of Sonic’s “punishment” were left up to her so technically whatever she decided was also approved by the council.

Hamlin counters by saying that the council wouldn’t approve actions that undermine its own authority.

Sally says that they totally fucking did by allowing two council members to help with the construction of the star posts.

Hamlin says that the star posts are supposed to be for getting to the Special Zone, which is an ongoing mission (what mission that is, I’ve forgotten because my brain is ass) and on top of that the councilors that helped with that, Rotor and Chuck, fall under her command when she’s the field leader. 

It all comes to a head with this final confrontation between the two.

I gotta be honest guys, I’m having loads of fun reading this.

I think this might be the most I’ve ever been impressed by Sally and on top of that, I’m liking how the council’s presence is allowing for this crap to take hold. I’m not usually the type to dislike something because it hinders the good guys from doing what they want. That’s generally what I like to see happen if it’s a conflict that can be overcome. Conflict makes for good stories. 

The problem I saw with the council before was this fear that their interference was going to go unchallenged and thus lead to situations that were all like what happened when they were first introduced where the characters had to wait around for approval and get into pointless scuffles with their allies before being told they could do the thing that they were already well and ready to do in the first place. 

Presenting it like this where it’s a challenge to overcome works a lot better in my opinion and the outcome does well to sell it to me because Sally absolutely doesn’t budge on her convictions here.

She just calmly makes the appeal for common sense and they all take her side, except the clearly vindictive pig out to get her.

A near clean sweep of approval for Sally here. Even Rosemary gave the okay to her. 

It’s funny because on the next page, Sally points out to Rotor that Hamlin most definitely had her but it really was just a matter of convincing everyone to let her go anyway. 

Sally is a bit miffed by why Hamlin is so frothing mad at her though. She says he used to be one of her Freedom Fighters and Hamlin quickly revises that as “Substitute” Freedom Fighters; trained by the best only to be forgotten and left behind every time.

I do believe that’s something I also pointed out way back in the day. The book would often do this thing where it would introduce groups of new Freedom Fighters and then promptly forget about them. The only ones that would show up again were the Downunda Freedom Fighters and that was hard to stomach a lot of the time because they were so boring and Crocbot was such an insanely unthreatening villain. 

Sally tries to placate Hamlin by saying he was never forgotten. Hamlin sees through it. He totally kind of was. 

Like, honestly. I know it was mostly because the writers of that time didn’t REALLY give a fuck but using that as an excuse to say that IN universe it must have been the same deal is a really clever work around.

Then the big scene I remember from this issue that made me like Hamlin and want to see more of him came up.

God, I remember having a fairly vivid argument on those old, deleted SEGA Forums back in the day about this. This was one of the few characters back then that I actually defended. I didn’t get along with the people on there who were genuine fans of the Archie book because the people I liked the most tended to be the ones who were the most antagonistic to our heroes. 

That’s still true today, admittedly. Most of my favorite characters are the villains. I didn’t give a fuck about Geoffrey until it was revealed he was working for a certain somebody and than all of a sudden he became one of my favorites.

Then a certain other somebody took to Twitter and ruined that but I can divorce it from my mind. Like how Scourge is Ian’s character I can say that Ixis Geoffrey is Ian’s character too. Whatever makes me sleep at night right? You all want me to sleep soundly at night right?

Anyway, my point is that I saw Hamlin’s point and was sympathetic to it, as you all know I'm prone to do. Nowadays, I understand what’s troubling about this more. While it is true that he did genuinely have her backed into a corner there from a legal standpoint, it’s not a good look that he was so clearly taking things personally.

I can see why there’d be concern of him eventually doing the thing he warned Sally she might be capable of one day where he could just choose to assert his authority based on a feeling he had that day.

I would argue that right now this isn’t exactly an example of that. As the book says, he was technically correct and Sally only got out of the situation she was in by an emotional appeal to common sense but I would also argue that we could stand to have a system that takes that more into account in a lot of areas. 

The one thing I remember being argued back at me by one person when I initially discussed this character back in the day was them shouting at me that “he was a traitor” which confused the hell out of me because his literal last line shows that he’s definitely not. He’s working within the system that they all agreed to and none of what he said, again, was technically wrong. His intentions were clearly based on something personal and despite that being a worrying thing for someone sitting in an active position of government and authority, it kind of barely holds up here when analyzing the scene itself.

So, I still don’t agree with that person. However, I’m definitely glad that I gave this a re-read and am more open to understanding the terrible implications of this and how it could be exploited for some really wonderful drama down the line.

So I guess you could say my new opinion is that I thought that scene was fun and I think it was the first time the council was used in an effective way to stir up conflict that could actually be surmounted. No system of government is perfect. Even if this is a million times better than having that asshole Max at the helm it’s going to have it’s problems and this was a really well done showcase of how that could happen.

I’m anticipating a much harsher reaction from some of you though so I’ll let you feel the way you do about it in your own way of course.

Back in the Cosmic Whatever, Sonic has finally met up with Zonic and is given a device to keep him from being perpendicular to the world that he’ll keep stashed under his glove forever so that we never have to see it again or explain this thing again.

Then Zonic drops us some knowledge on why this place is destroyed.

Here was the first big hint that Eggman Nega was originally supposed to play some sort of part in the story… I think. 

Maybe.

It’s weird because they only refer to him as Dr. Nega but at the same time, who the hell else could they be talking about?

Also, what’s interesting about this is Sonic saying he ran into him briefly and the caption that says to check out Sonic Universe #1 for more details. However, my recollection of Sonic Universe #1 tells me that it’s a Shadow story and he spends most of it in Blaze’s dimension fighting off a Metal Sonic made by the regular Dr. Eggman. Also, Sonic never appears.

The only real connection to Nega there is that Nega debuted in Sonic Rush which took place in Blaze’s dimension also but he never personally shows up in that or any other issues of this book. The only thing I recall was a brief scene of some Zone Cops chasing a small ship through dimensions and telling him to surrender. We never saw Nega’s face or body. Not even a hint of a mustache.

He never shows up and even more interesting is how when someone asked Ian about Nega in the Archie Comics, his response was something akin to “I may have gotten myself into some trouble with that.”

So, either a mistake was made concerning what he thought would be okay to include in the book or I’m misremembering a certain detail that makes this all make sense. I have a feeling reading Sonic Universe #1 when I eventually get to it isn’t going to answer these questions.

I’m in for such a talking to from you guys on this. I can feel it. I can taste it. I’m about to get schooled. 

Anyway, they agree to kick Scourge’s butt and they manage to subdue him when Zonic tosses a golden collar around his neck. This happens in the span of a single page which is acceptable because we didn’t need it to go on for too long after last issue’s climactic final bout.

Then we get this scene where Sonic seriously tries to pawn off Eggman on Zonic.

It was interesting seeing Sonic try to just rid his world of Eggman by going “He’s YOUR problem actually” as I wasn’t sure of whether or not he would do that. I guess the liberties taken with Archie Sonic and Archie Eggman do sometimes muddle what I think their characters would do in any given situation. It’s sometimes hard to tell. The Eggman in these books is a fucking monster but that doesn’t necessarily mean Sonic would change how he’d handle him. It depends on how he’s written. It’s interesting to think about. I’m not making any judgment calls on what Sonic would or should do. I’m just saying I didn’t see that coming.

Although, after reading Zonic’s rebuttal, I feel Sonic’s frustration and pain.

What Zonic is saying there doesn’t make any sense. He’s basically being told that Eggman dying in Sonic Prime’s timeline wasn’t really a good thing and an Eggman being there is “Needed” for the stability of his timeline.

If I were Sonic I’d demand a much bigger and better explanation then, “this war mongering tyrant is NEEDED for the STABILITY of your zone.” Fuck that noise.

Sonic NEEDS to be fighting Eggman in an endless conflict that goes on forever? These characters think there’s an endgame (pun not intended) in sight for them but Zonic is straight up telling them that there kind of isn’t... I guess aside from the part where he saves "it all".

But, at the same time, how does this account for the future? What if Eggman croaks again? Hell, what if Sonic croaks? Are you gonna fish a Sonic or an Eggman that isn’t doing anything from another dimension that have “close enough” backstories to Sonic and Eggman Prime and toss them into the Prime universe? Or can that not happen because Sonic Prime is destined to not die or something? Ugh! 

God, this Sonic Prime thing isn’t coming off any better after reading this. The shackles on how Sonic’s story is supposed to play out feel like they were just tightened a little bit by this Zone Cop. I can only hope this ends up being another hokey, ret-conned prophecy or this place gets destroyed again or something.

I think maybe something like that was supposed to happen but this Dr. Nega character never saw the light of day because of… circumstances beyond Ian's control and he didn’t feel like, or have the time, to establish something else to fill in the void.

Or just come up with a different character and just call him Dr. Nega. Would have been weird but it maybe could have worked? I dunno.

Sonic asks that if Zonic isn’t getting involved then why did he have to bring Scourge to him. I thought that was Sonic’s decision but apparently it wasn’t. Zonic says that Scourge’s mutation has made him a wild card. He’s like… some kind of freak in the cosmic scheme of things. They don’t quite know what to categorize him as.

This feels like a Loki situation the more and more I read into it. He’s even green. It’s wild.

Of course Scourge still thinks himself the superior Sonic even though he’s been beaten by him. It was through trickery, of course, but a win is a win. However, that’s what makes him a good narcissist and a great villain. Sadly, this’ll be the last we see of him for a while but he’ll be back to wreck some shit up again.

Sonic returns home to his parents and we get this little homey looking shot of him hanging with his folks.

Sonic talks about how weird it is to come home to his parents.

Honestly, despite how long these books have been in my possession, it remains weird seeing him with parents. Bernie looking so much like him will never stop feeling weird as well. The early designs of these characters were so unfortunate. The people who could make a good looking Dr. Finitevus or Scourge the Hedgehog got here too late to keep a lot of the animal folk from looking like video game skins of one another. It still amazes me just how hard it was to tell Elias and General Prower apart on first glance back in House of Cards. Literally, they had the same color, same head shape, and same type of tail while also being decked out in blue. They're supposed to be two completely different species too.

If there’s one thing the Sonic series is good at, it’s making characters look unique from each other. Even when a hedgehog is supposed to look enough like another hedgehog for the sake of a plot point, the uniqueness to the design makes it a hard sell.

Sonic says he can only rest a minute and says he’s got one last thing to take care of.

We cut to Snively who’s being called down to help Eggman… only this time, when Eggman calls him, he shouts Snively’s original name “Colin.”

Snively doesn’t realize this until he’s already stomping out of the room, mad that his conference call with the now confirmed, Regina was interrupted. The two of them are already making kissy faces at each other and calling one another pet names. It’s adorable seeing evil love bloom between tyrants.

However, this “Colin” thing is a massive red flag for Snively. Although, the random babbling Eggman's been doing was already setting a precedent that he was kind of on his way out as far as his sanity was concerned. 

Snively takes this to mean that he’s becoming less dangerous and possibly easier to subjugate and as such has himself a holly, jolly jaunt as he approaches the testing area, making fun of whatever new thing Eggman is going to sick on Sonic.

Then he gets behind the blast shields and a massive mountain of exploding flames scares the ever-loving shit out of him. When Eggman asks for results, Snively is barely able to tell him that the readings are all above his expectations.

The Egg Phoenix is ready for launch.

Sadly, any Phoenix Wright joke I made here would be burn out before it got off the ground.

 

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #197: Knight Time

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Tracy Yardley
Inks: Jim Amash
Colors: Michael Watkins
Letters: Teresa Davidson
Managing editor: Mike Pellerito

There’s literally nothing to say about this one folks.

This is another tie-in comic for yet ANOTHER Sonic game. We’ve had so many of them recently. The last one was four issues ago with Sonic Unleashed and two issues before that was Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. This was definitely back during the time where they were still releasing game after game after game with absolutely no chill. This period of time wasn’t like today where we’re about to reach half a decade without a new main-stream title with the only spin-offs in between being a single racing game and another Olympics.

I mean, hey, at least back then sometimes the gamble paid off for me. Though, I would prefer they have the time they need to pump out something good… it’s just that after Forces, which also had a similar gap in time from Lost World, time is officially no longer a promise of quality or quantity.

It’s honestly a miracle that those older games had so much content in comparison while coming out so close to one another. I don’t know how game development works over there.

Then again, I don’t know how game development works in general. Most people here have a much stronger idea about it than I do… I assume. 

Anyway, this tie-in is for Sonic and the Black Knight. Unlike the Unleashed tie-in, there’s nothing to talk about here.

The art is fine. It’s not Tracey’s best work. The Unleashed adaptation definitely looked top tier. This just looks okay in comparison.

The reason there was stuff to talk about with the Unleashed adaptation is because in that one there were weird dialogue changes and the structure of how the events played out were slightly different because of it. Not by much but enough that I noticed and could point them out.

This is literally just the opening cutscene to Black Knight, word for word. Panel to panel, the same stuff happens, right down to there being a panel of Sonic reaching out for his blown away chili-dog. The only thing missing is the "No!" Sonic shouts when it floats away. 

It’s almost kind of funny crediting Ian Flynn as the writer here. Not a single word was changed from the opening cutscene. 

If you’ve never played the game before this isn’t what I would call a preferable substitute for the opening cutscene because that’s obviously paced a lot better and it looks better too. Maybe it worked as a small hint of what was to come back in the day before the game hit shelves but today it’s literally just the opening cutscene to Black Knight but drawn and squeezed into five short pages. That’s it.

I had no idea I was going to have so much to say and so much to think about when it came to this issue before I read it. This took me by surprise because I distinctly remember my opinion on #197 before this being that it was a forgettable filler issue where nothing important happens. No, not really. There were a lot of things that came through to me as a result of that scene with the council. I remembered liking the scene with Hamlin but I had no recollection it was in this issue and that might be because most of my thoughts were about the Sonic and Scourge stuff serving virtually no purpose to me and that somehow flavored what I thought about it going forward.

Upon revisit, it’s not as bad as I remember on account of the fact that I have a frame of reference for what they’re saying now but it still leaves me tilting my head at some of the concepts. Of course, it’s not Ian’s fault really. That Zone Cop stuff is very muddled and hard to write around. The explanation for why Zonic can’t do the Zone Cop thing for Eggman is a little sloppy but it’s necessary to make sure this tidbit of the Archie universe doesn’t wreck the flow of Ian’s story.

He has plans for what he wishes to do with it too which is why he won’t tear it down just yet. Unfortunately, if he ever planned to, he never got the chance, which is sad. At least to me it is. I liked the part where when Ian jumped on board he just started killing everybody. It was great.

Next week, we’ve got two huge changes coming and I’m going to have to write a lot of stuff. Hopefully, it won’t be the same amount of words I wrote for when I finally reached Issue #160 but I suspect it’s going to be quite the undertaking. 

[Sonictrainer]

1 hour ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

What I love about this design is that it affects his clothes too. His jacket has blue flames on them now and his glasses have turned from red to blue, as though they’re a literal part of him. It’s kind of great.

My favorite part of this design is the Metal Sonic/Robotnik eyes.

Also, the purple works so well. I'm so glad they reconned what his original bio said his Super Form fur color was.

1 hour ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

You guys have no idea. Or maybe you do. I’ve gone off a lot about how much of a fan I am of “Evil Tails” as a concept. Alternate timelines or alternate dimensions or whatever. I don’t want the actual Tails to turn evil for real and stay that way, obviously, but the image of there being a Tails out there that’s this diabolical fucker is like the cutest damn thing ever. It’s in my signature for Christ’s sake.

I wanted to see what the fall out from this was going to be so badly. When the page ended there a part of me was like “Where’s the rest of it?” and then I had to read the next issue, which I remember feeling like filler, and not getting to see anymore Miles.

*sigh*

I'll never see a story where Scourge uses a Nega-Wisp in a future battle.

...but I think I have a new idea for a sketch.

1 hour ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

So I guess you could say my new opinion is that I thought that scene was fun and I think it was the first time the council was used in an effective way to stir up conflict that could actually be surmounted. No system of government is perfect. Even if this is a million times better than having that asshole Max at the helm it’s going to have it’s problems and this was a really well done showcase of how that could happen.

It gets even more interesting in the future when a conflict is happening right in front of them and they get into an argument about actually getting out of their chairs to help the other Freedom Fighter groups protect & serve, despite half of them being trained and having combat experience.

[Dr. Detective]

1 hour ago, Sonictrainer said:

It gets even more interesting in the future when a conflict is happening right in front of them and they get into an argument about actually getting out of their chairs to help the other Freedom Fighter groups protect & serve, despite half of them being trained and having combat experience.

Oh god. Yeah, that's the famous moment where I almost drowned in confusion the first time reading it. It upset me so much back in the day and the way Sonic was being handled there really cheesed my onions too.

I can't wait until I revisit that part and see if my opinion has changed. My opinion has been changed a lot upon revisiting these old stories in surprising ways.

[jungle_penguins]

I completely missed the running gag of Tails getting punted every 5 panels in this Moebius saga. Poor Tails.

There's a lot of good set up here, really wish we knew what they were meant to lead to. I wonder if Zonic's dialogue was supposed to be meta, that Sonic always has to fight a Robotnik, or if it was supposed to be something else or mean something more. A weird story limitation, cause it means the Prime zones is arguably the most stable/consistent and any supposed bad or good future are just other zones.

[Kuzu]

Oh yea....this is around the point when I jumped on the book myself actually now that I'm remembering.

 

Right around when Sonic Universe got started....speaking of, are you covering that as soon as you finish Sonic X?

[QZX343]

I remember Hedgehog Havoc as the first issue I read for the Archie Comics (at least for the pre reboot) simply because of how cool and interesting seeing all the hedgehogs fight each other.

I also remember how confused I was as I wasn't very familiar with this continuity at the time, but I was able to understand a bit what was happening. The fight against Sonic and Super Scourge was definitely a major highlight for me.

[NegaMix]

Oh yeah, this was when Dr. (Eggman) Nega first "appeared". I don't recall there ever being a definitive reason why he couldn't show up properly, other than SEGA not allowing it.

I do wonder if it had something to do with the Sonic Rivals games (both of which had released by this time) giving the doctor a vastly different backstory that clashed with his Rush game appearances (which the comics allude to having happened) but it could also just be that they didn't want him show up just... because.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Honestly, the whole 8-Hedgehog brawl was one of the best parts of this arc. I mean, there’s not really much to be said. It was just a fun romp between hedgehogs.

Also, as far as the traitor sub-plot goes of Silver looking for the Iblis Trigger the one responsible for his future, for all the discourse it had, it was far, far, FAR better handled here than it was in Sonic 06. Yeah, Silver still jumps to conclusions over who the responsible party is, but folks really like to willfully ignore the fact that he’s doing this based on his own research—he’s not trusting a complete stranger out of desperation, believing a word at the drop of the had without hard evidence, he’s taking scraps of information that is still around for him in an era where such knowledge is lost and making a connection as best he can. 
 

Yes, it’s rash and it’s still not enough info to want to kill someone to save his timeline. But that’s the point, and the context here is more believable for Silver to make these rash decisions based on his own knowledge rather than someone he just met for five minutes. In both cases of his introduction, in the game and in the comics, he jumps to conclusions with little backing, but people really should pick their poison on this: would you prefer a Silver that gets the wrong conclusion based on his own research and knowledge, on one who gets the wrong conclusion because someone he just recently met (and is trying to manipulate him) told him without any evidence? I don’t know about you guys, but I prefer the former over the latter.

And it’s not like he gets away with being wrong either, so I really don’t see why people raised a stink in the past over this with Archie!Silver, because 06!Silver was far from being any better in this area.

[Sonictrainer]

Tracy Yardley showed off his concept art for the Sonic Man Heroes that would have appeared in STH #293 had the comic not been scrapped...

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Here’s a comics related note on the 4th anniversary of #SonicMania. The final finished cover art in Archie’s main series was this from the canceled issue 293 which took place in Studiopolis and would have seen a tokusatsu style tv show modeled after Sonic’s ”real life” adventures

Quote

Since there seems to be a fair amount of interest in the Sonic Man Heroes concept, here’s a bit more about its visual development. The world of the comics, post reboot, was largely based on the geography/visual style of Sonic Unleashed, which I thought was a good direction.

Since the visuals were based on Unleashed I referred to those human characters’ proportions when designing the human actors. It’s a style I think works very well in a world where humans, including a very cartoony egg shaped villain, coexist with rainbow colored talking animals.

Spoiler

 

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The general idea was they humans starred in a Power Rangersesque show based on the exploits of a world famous hedgehog (without giving him any licensing fees, I’d guess) Each character had a bracelet that let them transform into their hero costume

Spoiler

Quote

I tried to incorporate what I could, like hairstyles or nods to their clothing. Each has a red star ring on their belt in hero form. Cheese was to be a cheesy marionette during scenes with the characters as civilians, but an equally cheesy CG character during hero scenes

And yes, since knuckles is generally seen as an analogue for a Black man by most of Sonic fandom, it was indicated by Ian that his human counterpart was a Black man. To add some more diversity, I gave the Amy character a darker skin tone, I think intending her to be Hispanic

Lastly, there was to a Professor Robotnic character that I never got around to designing, but that’s about it for the visuals. I don’t expect this concept to come up in the new book since humans don’t seem to be a thing anymore.

 

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Knuckles as the Big Black Guy...

There’s a funny here that could go several different ways.