30 Days of Sonic DAY 30 [FINAL DAY] - Comic Panel of the Week 4: 'Victory' [30DOS22]

[Dreadknux]

This is it! The final day of 30 Days of Sonic! And it's a Comic Panel of the Week!

   

For participating in all four Comic Panel of the Week activities, you can earn a GOLD Badge. But that's not all.

If you took part in EVERY DAY's activity throughout the 30 Days of Sonic event (with the exception of the Sonic Stadium Banner Bonanza activity, which has its own Badge reward), you can earn the above Limited Edition Badge as well.

ALL 30 DAYS OF SONIC ACTIVITY DEADLINES HAVE BEEN EXTENDED UNTIL:
SUNDAY 10 JULY AT 23:59 BST (UK TIME)

Comic Panel of the Week

Victory

For our final activity for this event, we want to end things on a positive note. It's quite simple; what's the Sonic comic panel/page that you felt has truly embodied the theme of 'Victory' for Sonic and his friends?

EDIT: Being an avid Sonic the Comic reader as a kid, Issue 100 was an extra special book for me who followed the entire Emerald Hill saga from beginning to end. At this point in time, Sonic the Comic was running three or four different strips per issue. Not all of them were Sonic-related (some were based on other SEGA franchises like Decap Attack or Shining Force) but the ones that were featured Knuckles, Tails, Amy and new Sonic characters in their own solo stories. Issue 100 was an issue that connected every single solo strip into one continuing arc finale, from Sonic's showdown with Super Sonic to Knuckles' concluding battle with Zachary and more.

During the multi-strip saga, Sonic fights with his detached Super Sonic form, who ends up running out of energy and quickly loses his sense of identity... from there, he transports to assist Knuckles with his fight, capturing Robotnik in the process. In the third strip, the dictator escapes to a secret lair and this is utterly destroyed in the fourth and final strip of the issue.

Completely annihilating Robotnik's base and setting the Emerald Hill folk free once and for all, Sonic and crew get to celebrate. The victory is a long time coming, a culmination of countless stories that spanned around 90 issues.

Of course, the comic has to continue, so Robotnik pledges revenge... but as far as all of his hard work the last hundred issues goes, he's toast. Also, I just really enjoyed (and still do) this Harry Enfield reference in this panel where Robotnik is trying to get Sonic to stop overloading his systems.

[Covskin]

Do covers count?

Issue 100, and after months of stories leading up to this point, Robotnik is overthrown and Mobius is freed. He'd been in power for over 90 issues and this was a seismic shift in the comics.

[Eggman Fan]

To be blunt

Look at it. They went this hard in a comic arc that has the final fight be against ZAVOK. The lamest villain ever, got Super Sonic AND Super Silver. There might be better options, there might be cooler options, but there is no option that has the one who they claim victory from be Zavok.

[A super No.1 washedupgamer]

Archie sonic 177

 

After a seemingly hopeless situation and sonic thisclose to losing his friends and family, the freedom fighters all gang up on eggman right outside of new mobotropolis and kick his butt. This fight was actually kinda hilarious because all sonic did was figure out he needed his friends to beat eggman's new mech and everyone proceeds to curbstomp him. It was so nice to see them all working together.

This humiliating defeat would serve as the first nail in eggman's sanity coffin as he would suffer more in issues to come.

 

Honorable mention goes to sonic and tails fistbumping in idw after kicking the zeti out if the restoration base.

"They're the deadly six, they don't tickle."

[Indigo Rush]

I'm going to go ahead and pick the bittersweet one.

Issue 200 of the Archie Comics sees Sonic "finally" defeating Eggman, seemingly for good! 

The thing is, as victorious as this victory is... it's, well, bittersweet.

Sonic isn't exactly happy here. Yes, Eggman won't be a problem, but there's something off about it.

It's a result of Sonic driving Eggman to literal insanity. He's mentally broken. And Sonic feels awful.

As far as Sonic knows, that's it. The whole status quo of fighting Eggman's robot army in a whirlwind adventure across Mobius every other week is gone. And, well, while the whole taking over the planet thing being stopped is absolutely good, Sonic can't shake the guilt of breaking Eggman down to this degree. He's a good boy, deep down. His desire to see people change didn't start with the IDW comics, it's always been there. 

So yeah. Victory. But bittersweet.

 

[Sonictrainer]

After the epic fight in the last issue, the freedom fighters celebrate their win against SATAM Robotnik

[Rabid-Coot]

With Robotnik defeated the Emerald Hill folk can return home.

Conversly with Robotnik defeated Sonic is left with little to do.

[Iko]

The end of the Metal Virus arc obvioulsy. Specifically, some of the covers from issue 29 and 31

(ignore the hand of Eggman's robot in the last picture lol)

or this page:

There's not much else to say, the tears of joy for the Metal Virus finally being cured, and all the charactetrs having a big party speak for themselves.

[castell-neath]

I've gone with Sonic's victory over Metal Sonic (Metallix) in Issue 28 of Sonic The Comic. I always liked the fleetway adaptation of sonic cd and thought it great that in this interpretation of the game not only does Sonic win, but Amy too!  Of course fleetway Sonic has the usual put down for her but its still a neat ending and a great victory.

 

I think this makes 30 posts in 30 days, plus a banner too! Wow...this really is a first for me...i've really, really enjoyed it. What a great way to get involved in the community! Thank you for sorting this!@Dreadknux

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Given we're on the final day, I thought I'd post my own one, followed by a few runner ups. Gonna be a bit tricky because all of the 'major' ones have been taken, but I'll go with a few, starting with...

Best of the Best - Worlds Collide Part 12 (Sonic #251):

The reason I picked this one above everything else is because Super Sonic and Super Mega Man really define the point where the tables completely turn on the evil doctors in Worlds Collide. They'd already been on the backfoot, both because of their own friendship falling apart and their shortsightedness causing Sonic and Rock to free all of their Roboticised Masters. 

Luckily for the two, their final mech manages to knock the duo out, allowing Eggman and Wily to entrap them and initiate the Super Genesis Wave...until Knuckles and Proto Man break into their stronghold, and successfully mount a rescue, partly thanks to the doctors' own backstabbing nature that causes the duo to disrupt their own mech's offensive and defensive capabilities, hoping that the retrospective rivals would take out the other doctor.

However, the doctors managed to get their mech up in the nick of time, and the Super Genesis Wave can't be stopped, meaning despite all the setbacks, the doctors have finally attained the long-awaited victory they had been waiting for. Within minutes, the multiverse would be theirs to change and alter as they pleased...

...until Sonic has the bright idea of using the power of the Chaos Emeralds to attain super forms! With this, this finally causes Eggman and Wily to completely and utterly crack. Eggman can only blankly state they've attained a super state while Wily completely loses it, pulling at his hair and declaring it wasn't fair. And while it wasn't a total victory on Sonic's part because of Eggman, the duo proceed to utterly lay waste to the doctors, their best attacks being unable to do anything whatsoever to scratch them. Despite the doctors' best efforts, their ultimate mech is utterly demolished. 

The doctors are left in a heap - Wily left with a sobering realisation that after everything they'd done, after traversing and altering the multiverse itself, they still lost. Usually, Wily can't accept failure at the best of times. He would blame others, and pathetically beg for mercy, but here, his sober realisation causes him to simply muse if he'd remember any of this once the timeline is fixed, and in his words - simply take his defeat with a bit of dignity.

Eggman meanwhile goes utterly ballistic, having only just recently willed himself back to sanity after being driven insane by Sonic's victories as @Indigo Rush mentioned. As such, the very idea of Sonic utterly destroying him once again and throwing all of his plans to tatters causes Eggman to go nuts and drive the remains of the mech into Sonic, disrupting his chaos control and completely shattering their world.

While that might not sound like a total victory, you just have to consider the cause - Super Sonic and Super Mega Man so utterly demolished Eggman and Wily's schemes that it left them complete shells of themselves. Wily lost his blustering ego, while Eggman lost his pride, leaving one forced to sit and realise how far they came just to fall at the tail-end, while the other went utterly insane from the experience. That's a total victory on Sonic and Mega Man's parts if I'd ever heard of one.

Runner-Up 1: Thanks for Playing... (Sonic Universe #40)

In all honesty, if the thread didn't specify it had to specifically be Sonic & his friends' victory, I probably would've went with this one solely for the fact it's one of the lesser known ones and it's more of a left-field choice. Still, I'd be doing myself a disservice to leave one of Eggman's most utterly badass wins out of the proceedings.

For those who are unaware, this panel comes from the Scrambled arc in Sonic Universe, which involves Snively's long-awaited endgame for backstabbing Eggman. With the Freedom Fighters in disarray and Eggman focused on how to utilise Mecha Sally against Sonic and co, Snively places his plan into action, having put out an message that Eggman had killed Sonic and was dissolving his Dark Egg Legion, creating infiltrator decoys to throw Eggman off his trail, and proceeds to make an attempt to bring his sister, Hope with him, and free the Iron Queen.

Despite all of his scheming however, all his attempts to lead Eggman into danger, all his efforts to put him down, it ultimately leads to a mech battle with Eggman VS Snively and Regina in the Iron Oni. Regina snidely attempts to chastise Eggman for foolishly using a technological mech when he was aware of her power to control electronics, until Eggman reveals that this was a specially made version of his Egg Beater mech that was controlled with zero electronics. What proceeds to happen is an utter curbstomp of a battle that ends with Snively and Regina defeated.

When Regina awakes, she finds herself within a room with Eggman, where after some questioning, Eggman suddenly reveals he's not going to punish the two, and instead allows Snively and the Iron Queen to work under him as grandmasters of a new Egg Legion branch, stating he likes having these kinds of betrayals, it makes the game fun. It looks like it's going to be a fairly happy end...

...until we cut away to Snively lying in one of Eggman's animal capsules reformatted into a cage, beaten, broken, and defeated. As it turns out - the Snively that the Iron Queen has seen before was actually one of Snively's leftover infiltrators that Eggman has reprogrammed to keep her happy and under his thumb. 

As it turns out, Eggman had long since grown tired of Snively's games, and as Snively lies beaten within that pod, he proceeds to explain how he used everything that Snively tried to turn against him as a tool in his favour. The false report about the grandmasters? Eggman was able to use it to reconsolidate his power and intimidate them. Snively's attempts to lead Eggman into G.U.N territory? Eggman's no worse for wear and has now thrown G.U.N into complete disarray. The infiltrators? The exact tool Eggman needed to ensure no one would ever know about Snively's imprisonment. 

Eggman has turned everything on it's head, and with one last statement, he leaves Snively. "Game Over, Snively. Thanks for playing". 

Runner-Up 2 - A Hero's Sacrifice (Archie Sonic #125): 

Another bitter-sweet one, so I didn't wanna use it as my actual choice, since while a total victory, it's one that bears an absolutely heavy cost:

In Archie Sonic #125, a alien doomsday weapon has been planted onto Mobius that will utterly annihilate the planet, forcing everyone to come together in an attempt to stop it and save the planet. Eggman even does so, albeit in an attempt to destroy Sonic. However, after Eggman's scheme goes wrong and it not only tries to kill Sonic, but fails to stop the weapon, Sonic is left with no choice - he's forced to put in place a plan that will deal with the weapon, but as Nicole puts it - will likely kill him.

With Sally begging him not to go through with it, Sonic tells her that if he doesn't everyone and everything will die. With a final tearful farewell, Sonic blitzs off, with the idea in his head that after every time he'd risked his life to save everyone, if he pulls it off this time, it will all have been worth it. And Sonic does - the doomsday weapon is stopped, but Sonic is gone. To his friends and his family, Sonic the Hedgehog bravely gave his life to save all of Mobius.

Mobius is saved, the alien plan to destroy them all is utterly stopped in it's tracks, but it's not a joyful victory by any means, as all of the citizens of Knothole come together to mourn the great hero they lost, all while Eggman is gleefully celebrating the loss of his greatest enemy. While Sonic luckily survived and was only teleported into the far reaches of space, for a full year, everyone believed him to be dead, and had to fight on in his honour, to keep the world that he 'died' protecting safe from Eggman. 

[Rabbitearsblog]

This moment in issue 32 of the IDW series.  After Sonic and his friends finally destroyed the Metal Virus for good, Dr. Eggman comes back one last time to take down the heroes and Sonic goes missing after transforming into Super Sonic.  But once Sonic finally returns back home, he single handedly takes down Dr. Eggman and Dr. Eggman retreats as a result.  Afterwards, Sonic and his friends decided to do a big group hug to celebrate not only their victory against defeating Dr. Eggman, but also celebrating Sonic's return.  It's just so nice to see most of the Sonic cast hugging each other!

[WanderingBleats]

That's easy. This one comes from really early on in Archie-- Issue 6, to be precise. It's a tie-in issue with Sonic Spinball. Sonic has fought his way through the Veg-O-Fortress's deadly traps, gotten past the evil boss enemies, and is finally going to confront Robotnik!

...NOT!

Using his cunning brilliance, the magnificent Dr. Robotnik shepherds the hedgehog into a diabolical trap-- one that gives Sonic an instant Game Over, sending him flying from the fortress!

Tails catches Sonic, and he vows to return. Kind of. Evidently they didn't get enough letters to continue this storyline in the comic, because it's never followed up on. In other words, Robotnik achieves total victory! A resounding success!

...What do you mean it has to be victory for "Sonic and his friends"? Bah humbot! Where's the fun in that?! Let the doctor have some too!

 

(...seriously though, does it have to be a Sonic victory? The only ones that are coming to mind for me have already been posted.)

[NikoS]

Well, since @Sonictrainer, @A super No.1 washedupgamer and @Indigo Rush picked my main choices, I had to go for another,

This is the end of the Iron Dominion arc, the battle had been won, New Mobotropolis was free again, and there was, at least for the moment, peace. Everything was back to normal too, since some things went pretty crazy during that time, it was a victory in many ways for the heroes; a great, great payoff, It felt like everything was setting in it's place.

[Sapphirine Wind]

tbh, while this one was used by @Iko, this cover really stays with me because to begin with, the arc is very different from what you'd typically expect from a Sonic story.

It clearly had its moments of despair and just trying to cling onto hope in an overall hopeless situation, and tbh, even though we knew that this wasn't the end, the losses still struck a cord.

This cover hits in contrast with the story prior- because now we see Sonic and his friends have the upper hand. It's realized hope, it's relief, it's unbridled joy. Dare I say, it's almost celestial feeling, which is fitting considering it's Super Sonic and Super Silver who are getting rid of the virus.

You can just feel everything it's trying to portray. It makes me want to see it in animated form.

[Dr. Mechano]

In the first comic thread, Rivals, I posted from the El Gran Gordo saga in Sonic X. Now I'm gonna draw from that same story, in the fight between Eggman and Andes the Ginormous:

Let me tell you the awesomeness you've just witnessed: Dr. Eggman, on the verge of defeat, sees his loyal fans in the audience and summons the strength and will to physically overpower a man twice his size (and for Eggman, that's saying something). We get a beautiful two-page spread of Eggman absolutely clobbering Andes and winning the championship belt. No tricks, no gadgets, no gimmicks - just Eggman's pure raw power coming out victorious.

Oh, and just in case this has to be a Sonic victory (going by the exact wording of the first post), I'll just use this:

I just like this panel because it's so reminiscent of the classic games. That iconic capsule-popping, animal-freeing victory that Sonic's always doing - and in an Olympics tie-in comic, of all things. Fun times.

 

[Sega DogTagz]

 

 

 

 

This is probably my favorite. Mostly because leading into it, you got the "one bad day" take from both sides, so this wrapped a nice neat bow of the idea that Sonic's ideology would stand superior. It explained why scourge was able to accomplish so much so fast, and why Sonic never faltered in giving into the short game.

 

smashing the crown was a nice finishing touch.

 

and I love how Sonic gets in his face to hammer this point home.

[Zaysho]

7 hours ago, Sonictrainer said:

After the epic fight in the last issue, the freedom fighters celebrate their win against SATAM Robotnik

I was scrolling specifically to see if this cover was posted because this is my answer as well. I love Spaz's old covers and this is one of those that brings a smile to my face. Even though stories like "End Game" have aged terribly (both in general story logic and understanding the intent of the main writer of it years later) I still appreciate what it and #51 represented at the time for the book and that was a new start. It wouldn't be long afterward Sonic and Tails strike out on their own adventures for a bit and I'd argue those are actually some of the best stories of that era. Looking back, you do have give Penders, et al. credit for being able to convince Sega to let them take Robotnik out of the picture for a while and it's definitely a moment to refresh and refocus the book.

[Dr. Detective]

All of the ones I would have said (aside from the one that just happened in IDW issue #50) have been chosen. 

However, and I say this not just to avoid repetition or spoilers but, I do think we would be remiss not to mention the final fate sealing victory that happened during the last officially released issue of the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comic books with Sonic Universe #94.

That being when Charmy Bee asked if he could go to the bathroom and then literally said "Yoink" when he snatched the keys from the captain and the Chaotix fucking bolted off the island.

Legendary.

[Cuz]

First thought was also issue 51. The big after party following endgame. It's right there.

[Nix]

Rouge is the world's unsung hero.

The Metal Virus arc had a really satisfying conclusion with everyone getting the virus pulled from them and finally reuniting with their friends and loved ones. Just seeing everyone be happy for once after months of continuous despair was refreshing.

Also, Knuckles is mad, but he still lets Rouge chill on the Master Emerald until the next issue anyways, and I think that's funny. 

[Celestia]

#200 will always be one of my fave issues of Archie Sonic. The complete turnabout after Sonic getting his ass kicked in 175, the 1 on 1 fight between these two, and how it somehow manages to feel just a little less triumphant than you would have expected entirely because of how Eggman loses it. It's hard to feel bad for the guy but still. If they did this kind of thing constantly it would lose it's edge but I wouldn't mind something else like it again, namely the part where Sonic loses a fight and a proper rematch only happens a good while later.

 

Also I always found it amusing but kinda cool that, in this incarnation, Eggman's eyes behind the shades were the classic western Robotnik eyes. Using a climactic fight to reveal that was fun.

[JezMM]

A lot of the STC ones in this thread are great choices and memorable to me, I've been very taking advantage of the 10-day extension to try and remember one that hasn't come up that means something to me... so let's go with probably my most read of all Sonic comics, since for a long time it was one of the few that I had - the 1994 Sonic Yearbook.

A punsomely sticky victory for Sonic (and yes, every page of the annual was like this).

And if puns don't do it for you, here's a slightly more unorthodox victory for Tails' special solo story in the annual:

Nothing says victory like your hero breaking down into tears and their best friend not giving one single shit.  Classic UK Sonic.

[Ducktor Naldush]

This is a small one, but one I like nevertheless. 

While I do like IDW Sonic as a whole, my favourite arc is the first one, the one that gets handwaved as just the "introduction" to the comic and not worth anything more according to most of the fans I have met or talked to.

Shame, because I think it's a solid one without any of the hiccups I have personally seen in the following arcs (which, zombot aside, I still really genuinely like, don't get me wrong.)

So, what's the panel?

Why, it's this one.

What's better than seeing Knuckles finally back home, with the love of his life, free from any of that "Resistance" and "Restoration" nonsense? That's where he belongs, that's the biggest victory he can get, and boy does that make him happy.