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Toby

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So what the hell was the entire point of that Scourge arc? Nobody, but the Destructix got any development and in all honesty, the only character who needed it was Simeon. That was a pretty pointless arc and would have been better if it were never shown how Scourge escaped since we all knew he would eventually escape.

It reminded me of the older Cosmic Interstate issues with the silly Bat Sonic, Hulk Sonic, or astronaut Sonic or whatever, where the writers and artists are just having fun, but I gotta agree with the overall assessment. This is a zero plot gain arc, where things just go back to the way they were before after some events that mean not a lot to anyone. What it did do was open up the No-Zone a bit which is a good thing. Zone Jail got its official introduction with the warden characters which was alright. About the Destructix development though, I thought it was pretty damn poor. It felt like character color-by-number. These characters are not new, so their backstory should have been eased into. Instead all other characters are just as ignorant as the audience about the Destructix, as if they existed in a vacuum. Why write it like that? And they all just want to open up to Scourge for no real reason at all except it being convenient to write. Winning a villain's trust is apparently as easy as walking up to them and asking them to join your crew, like pressing A to talk to that guy over there in an RPG. Scourge is all like, okay two down and two to go, and that's exactly the lame ass breakdown of the middle issues of this series. What I said before about this arc being fun is how I feel about Universe now, since Treasure Team, Enerjak, and this Scourge arc. These arcs are more and more just self-contained romps of action or goofiness followed by not much effect on continuity at all. These last three Universe arcs just don't do it form me. I was even excited for the last two and managed to be let down. How that happened with the Enerjak one is beyond me because I love that Echidna shit. This is the main reason I'm glad to see the BBA putting Mobotropolis under fire now.

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It reminded me of the older Cosmic Interstate issues with the silly Bat Sonic, Hulk Sonic, or astronaut Sonic or whatever, where the writers and artists are just having fun, but I gotta agree with the overall assessment. This is a zero plot gain arc, where things just go back to the way they were before after some events that mean not a lot to anyone. What it did do was open up the No-Zone a bit which is a good thing. Zone Jail got its official introduction with the warden characters which was alright. About the Destructix development though, I thought it was pretty damn poor. It felt like character color-by-number. These characters are not new, so their backstory should have been eased into. Instead all other characters are just as ignorant as the audience about the Destructix, as if they existed in a vacuum. Why write it like that? And they all just want to open up to Scourge for no real reason at all except it being convenient to write. Winning a villain's trust is apparently as easy as walking up to them and asking them to join your crew, like pressing A to talk to that guy over there in an RPG. Scourge is all like, okay two down and two to go, and that's exactly the lame ass breakdown of the middle issues of this series. What I said before about this arc being fun is how I feel about Universe now, since Treasure Team, Enerjak, and this Scourge arc. These arcs are more and more just self-contained romps of action or goofiness followed by not much effect on continuity at all. These last three Universe arcs just don't do it form me. I was even excited for the last two and managed to be let down. How that happened with the Enerjak one is beyond me because I love that Echidna shit. This is the main reason I'm glad to see the BBA putting Mobotropolis under fire now.

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A lot of people seem to resent the fact that the plot not only did practically zip to develop the characters* and plot, but the ending was an anticlimax.

While I don't particularly hate it, I don't like it either. I mean, I told you everything that would happen and in which issue back when the info for SU#30 came out, it was all just that predictable.

*And no, backstory =/= character development, not effectually. :/

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They better eventually wrap up this whole Eggman Nega scenario or I just won't care anymore. He has been fleeing zone cops for some reason for nearly a fucking year.

That's because Sega won't let them do anything but namedrop the guy

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I can drink to that.

Going back on the line of the quality of SU and it's predictability, I think I might know one of the potential causes; every story is forced into a four-parter. As a result of this, the writing is forced into defined chunks that have to lead one into another while being able to stand by itself, thus forcing certain structures of story telling. Journey to the East is especially victim of this, as well as the last two arcs (Silver and Scourge).

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That's because Sega won't let them do anything but namedrop the guy

Then it is Flynn's fault for having him so essential to the plot knowing nothing will come out of it.

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I finally got this issue in the mail today.

I really enjoyed this story arc, but I feel that there was some stuff that should have been explored further.

1. Fiona gets herself arrested. I think this should have been explored more. Due to her past, you'd think that Fiona would show some nervousness about being locked up, but other then telling Abby about her past in Sonic Universe#30, Fiona doesn't seem too worried about being locked up, and not having her freedom.

2. Control Collars. So why do they only seem to work on Scourge, and not the other inmates?

3. Scourge takes leadership of the Destructix. I really enjoyed seeing Fiona being leader of the Destructix. It was nice to see her as a villain without Scourge, but now her story is once again tied down to Scourge's.

So much for Fiona being a villain on her own without Scourge. sad.png

The Good

More character development for the Destructix(and Fiona).

More character development for Scourge.

Fiona wears Scourge's jacket, and she looks good in it.

The Bad

Flying Frog seems to have the same personality as Rosy.

The Control Collars that only seem to work on Scourge.

The escape feel's very rushed.

The Ugly

Your clothes m'lady. And I won't try to wear them this time.

I give this issue a 7.5 out of 10.

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Welp, it's near 5am as I start typing this, I woke up at 7am yesterday and haven't slept since, and I have things to do all day today. Time to do an in-depth look at an old Archie story to kill time! For the heck of it, I'm looking at Home: Epilogue [say You Will] aka Slappy Squirrel's Sonic Sighting.

Page 1:

-PENDERS!...is not involved in this. Bollers story, if that's a surprise to anyone (shouldn't be).

-Nice page. Art looks nice, explains the whole thing with the alien communicator. Quack looks especially cool.

-Last panel breaks the stoic mood for a Gray shot. This is the first of many mood whiplashes, and far from being one of the more jarring ones.

Page 2:

-Bubbly swear! This later gets used in #139 where Espio swears at Sonic for using his and Vector's ride as a platform. It makes sense in context. This one is still more understandable.

-Dr Quack exposition. Goes sombre here as he recounts his accident briefly. This is how to do backstory as character development, folks.

-Sonic looks sad as he meets and greets his folk and Sally. More whiplash I guess, but hey.

Page 3:

-Everybody is happy for Sonic! Hooray! He's a great hero! Let's throw him a party!

-Bernie and Alicia commenting on what a cute couple Sonic and Sally make. Bear in mind that they were a couple as of this point. Besides...

Page 4:

-More banter between Sonic and his family. As much as I don't particularly care for them, they do add to this scene.

-LOLOL paparrazzi are privacy-invading, scoop-obsessive dimwits LOLOL.

-Cameo of a green flicky from Sonic 3D Blast. He's been coloured red though for some reason.

Page 5:

-More family banter. It's nice that the comic is doing things in a natural way (aka when you return from death, you seek out your loved ones first).

-RPG rest activated.

Page 6:

-Muttski say hi! Muttski make you look delusional until you remember the stuff from the first pages! It was there for a reason, buzz-brain!

Page 7:

-Explaining the whole Bem saga in one page. Cameo of Shortfuse here, as well as...Mina's dad? Can't tell!

-Sonic: I found out that dad couldn't be deroboticised because it'd kill him.

Chuck: I can't believe I didn't see that before now!

Bernie: Oh, Jules...

Muttski: Well, that solves that!

HAHAHAHAHA fuck off you sadist son of a bitch.

Page 8:

-Nice shot of the airbase.

-Tails is working on the Tornado. Was this the first time it was implemented into canon? Anyway, it resembles the SA2 walker Tornado, but WAY miscoloured.

-Tails briefly explains A.D.A.M and his defeat at the might of riddles to Sonic. I believe he cropped up again in the future as Anonymous.

Page 9:

-More outer space hijinks exposition. Tails learns that his parents are alive and out there.

-Wait until he has to go against their beliefs so much later! :V

-The page ends on a hopeful yet emotional moment. Time for more whiplash!

Page 10:

-CAMEO OVERLOAD BZZT. Here we have;

-Bunnie

-Patch

-Amy

-Geoffrey

-Hershey

-Fiona (albeit a back shot of her)

-Bob Beaky

-Rosie

-Rory, Snaggle and Sasha (aka the token orphans [that aren't Vector thus not cool])

-A star post

-Tekno

-A bad imitation of the Quack Pack

-Dr Quack himself

-SWING YOUR PARTNER LEFT AND RI--Vector and Espio dancing together

-Rotor

-Hope

-Julie-Su

-Knuckles

-Mighty, who doesn't give a shit about the concert

-Some IRL initial cameo, but I dunno what it means

Note that Charmy isn't here because his hive was being nuked during the events of this issue. He shows up in #138.

-More affectionate-ish Sonic/Sally panels here underneath the cameo-fest. Elias and Meg (and Alex) are here, their innocent bystanding being ironic now to say the least.

Page 11:

-Yo Mina, I'm happy for you and Imma let you finish, but I'm going on a royal tour in #138 to leave my daughter angsting from the break-up that she doesn't know about yet.

-More cameos! Just Tekno, Ebony and Big this time.

-Sally is taking charge, now! Expect the commando vest look to be the next big fashion trend.

-Hurrah Amy and Tekno are all girl power FTW. Ebony just looks on in her off-model glory.

-God, Max's face here is so derpy.

Page 12:

-Mina says hello to Sonic. The first seeds are sown as Sally is determined to drag Sonic away from her.

-One thing that's really noticable is that the backgrounds really don't fit the action. Half the time, the characters look like they're walking out of the bushes. :/

-Meet Ash -- Manager, introduced solely to be the love interest. Which M:XYL makes redundant anyway.

-Max and Alicia discuss whether a hormonal teenager who has a history of overreaction is fit to rule the throne in their absence. They deserve everything they get, really.

Page 13:

-Some of the folks from the concert (+ Tails) show up here. Julayla is new to the roster, though. Wonder what her special attack would be...

-Vector calls Sonic the Ess-Hog. I know what that's supposed to mean, but :/

-Third panel bugs me because the standing order has totally switched around too quickly from the first panel, and Ray came from absolutely nowhere.

-I was also going to note how Vector's arm was really abnormally long to reach Mighty, but I'm not. Instead, I'm going to note that they managed to colour an area green like Vector's limb that's supposed to be purple. Sheesh, Espio's arm isn't that hard to get right, colourist.

-More exposition, this time about the situation at Angel Island. Haven't had this in a while to be honest.

-The mood whiplash cuts Knuckles off mid-sentence. Forgive because the mood doesn't change that much (and I guess Sonic's line is where Flynn got the inspiration for Fiona's Face Heel Turn from?).

Page 14:

-More whiplash, courtesy of Rotor! Not to worry, Rotor and his missile-shaped firework that does a perfect picture of Sonic and Sally kissing are the best whiplashers.

:

Page 15:

-Geoff and Hershey just happen to be watching. Sonic takes this opportunity to amble over and congratulate them on their marriage.Scene feels like just a quick who's who panel, with a lead in to Bunnie.

-Sonic asks Bunnie why she and Antoine split, and hopes the scar didn't come from her.

Page 16:

-Best scene in book 100%. Bunnie explains that he just didn't seem the same after the war, and she broke up with him due to that, alluding to Quack knowing Patch's identity all the while. He then presses her about the 'old times', but she bounces it off as she walks off. Max and Alicia have also hired Patch as their bodyguard because Antoine's new attitude is perfect for the job. Even though we long know the outcome, you can still feel for Bunnie as she fights through a very dark period in her life and becomes more grounded and reflective because of it. She's certainly more sympathetic than the banshee to come.

-Speaking of which, Sally asks to talk to Sonic for a minute, but gets harassed by a photographer. These two panels are just for padding as he is promptly forgotten about.

Page 17:

-Sally pours out her thoughtson her new responsibility, and drop the bomb that she wants him to be her co-ruler (aka King).

-Sonic points out the obvious (aka THERE'S A WAR ON, DUMBASS), but she scolds his logic by saying that there's many others who are there to fight Robotnik (Protip, not only is he your best soldier, but IT'S ROBOTNIK) and that he needs to be by her side at the throne if they are to be together.

-Sally begs him to commit himself. Sonic is actually not holding the idiot ball today, and rejects her offer.

Page 18:

-*makes lightning shoot out of the stage* SMAK!

-I should've known you'd be selfish by being selfless!

-That's not where the issue ends, contrary to popular belief. Sonic is understandably pissed at that outburst, and rallies off his own rant at Sally. I really like the fact that it's all one run-on sentence. It conveys Sonic's fast-minded attitude brilliantly here.

-Sally gets dark shading and looks close to going Super Saiyan on Sonic's ass.

-Does he know what it's like believeing he was dead? No, but I'm sure Tails does, and Amy does, and Knuckles does, and...wait, I just noticed that Amy hasn''t said anything bout Sonic's miraculous return. Huh. In any case, I don't see any of them slapping Sonic for wanting to fight the fight.

-RAWR IMMA EAT YOUR FACE NAO. Notice how Sonic looks quite rightly terrified at this point.

-Epic stareoff ensues. Everyone in the audience is on the edge of their seats...expect the kid at the front eating Drano Cookies, what a time for comedy touches. And what a time for a random cameo by Tiara Boobowski too.

Page 19:

-Sally teleports from the stage to the back of the crowd (seriously, there's no other explanation) and legs it, crying about how Robotnik can have Sonic. Most of the crowd stares at her (while looking confused at her insanity, see Bunnie for a clear example), but notice that Tails and Amy immediately scramble on the stage to console Sonic as he bows his head and weeps. Yeah, clearly his stance is the wrong one, Princess!

Derp, most of the issue was good for story, and I've also killed time. Tune in next time for the in-depth look at the main story of Sonic Super Special #1: Antoine Gets to Act Like a Badass for a Change in Both Stories But VEDJ-F Is Too Busy Looking at the Vector/Espio Interaction To Notice.

Edited by VEDJ-F
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You know, page by page reviews is actually pretty clever an idea to review, especially if you have the issue in question (like me!)

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While it wasn't aimed at anyone in particular to read, I mainly wanted to highlight certain points that tend to go over people's heads because of the infamous ending. Not many people recall that Muttski acts like a douche towards Jule's predicament, nor that Bunnie's drama is Sally's drama but done right.

Besides, if they aren't Archie readers (which I know there ARE quite a few who aren't on SSMB), it gives them a little leg-up.

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The thing about the Scourge arc that disappointed me was that it didn't develop any characters that I cared about - especially Scourge himself. In fact, even the preview pages of the most recent issue made me groan... it was just a whole load of really cheesy wisecracks as Scourge got revenge on the inmates who'd been bullying him before. I honestly don't give two shits (or even one) about the Destructix, and even if I did, I kinda wanted the Scourge arc to be more about, you know, Scourge. It didn't develop him at all, and the ending was so predictable and anti-climatic. I can only hope that the open ending will lead to a more interesting arc involving both Mobius and Moebius, since I'm as interested in Scourge's world as I am in him ♥

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The thing about the Scourge arc that disappointed me was that it didn't develop any characters that I cared about - especially Scourge himself. In fact, even the preview pages of the most recent issue made me groan... it was just a whole load of really cheesy wisecracks as Scourge got revenge on the inmates who'd been bullying him before. I honestly don't give two shits (or even one) about the Destructix, and even if I did, I kinda wanted the Scourge arc to be more about, you know, Scourge. It didn't develop him at all, and the ending was so predictable and anti-climatic. I can only hope that the open ending will lead to a more interesting arc involving both Mobius and Moebius, since I'm as interested in Scourge's world as I am in him ♥

I don't know how much character development that Scourge can really get. If you give him too much character development, then he runs the risk of becoming an anti-hero, which puts him at risk of becoming like Shadow. Edited by Darkfox
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I don't know how much character development that Scourge can really get. If you give him too much character development, then he runs the risk of becoming an anti-hero, which puts him at risk of becoming like Shadow.

There are ways to develop a villain, Darkfox. Right now, Scourge is just a mild annoyance with some moral quality. He isn't a villain.He is just some perky villain squad leader like Jet. If he left Fiona, it would have made him more a villain and show that he has no redeeming quality.

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I don't know how much character development that Scourge can really get. If you give him too much character development, then he runs the risk of becoming an anti-hero, which puts him at risk of becoming like Shadow.

You can develop a villain without them becoming an anti-hero or too sympathetic. I'm not saying that Scourge needs to be complicated... he's not a complex guy. But I'd love to know more about him, nevertheless. He had an interesting past, if the little glimpses we've seen are anything to go by, and his world is fascinating.

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I still am surprised that people thought that Ian was going to have Fiona be the one who was left behind. I think that some fans set themselves up for disappointment.

I think that leaving Al and Cal behind is just as bad as it would have been if Scourge left Fiona behind.

The fact that Scourge left Al and Cal(the only two people who were nice to him in Zone jail)behind tells me that Scourge has no loyalty, and could be foreshadowing for what could happen to Fiona.

As for development, I like how at the begining of this story arc, we see that Scourge is mentally broken after getting the crap beating out of him so many times. And by the end he's back to his old self again.

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Because her getting betrayed by someone she personally cared about and worked hard to get out of jail would've been a more satisfying end to the arc rather than seeing two obscure characters who haven't been seen for while and had little to do with the plot other than being side-comic relief?

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Because her getting betrayed by someone she personally cared about and worked hard to get out of jail would've been a more satisfying end to the arc rather than seeing two obscure characters who haven't been seen for while and had little to do with the plot other than being side-comic relief?

Indeed. I don't think ANYONE had any emotional investment in Al and Cal or really gave a damn what happened to them. Heck, most people would probably be glad to see them stuck in the No Zone a little longer =P They're irrelevant at best and annoying as heck at worst. Scourge betraying Fiona would have given the ending so much more bite and been a much better twist, showing Scourge's utter self-centred ruthlessness and Fiona's guttedness and confusion at being ditched by the one person she thought would actually stick by her.

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