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13 minutes ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

I think I get it now.

I suppose I was just trying to figure out what the big deal was. Whether or not I believe he had a reasonable stance sat behind shitty intentions or you believeing he has neither, fact of the matter is he's wrong and we both agree on that. 

Also, I don't see how both can't be true. As I kept saying, my point had nothing to do with talking about his intentions. He can still be using the state of affairs on Angel Island as an excuse to convince Knuckles to return just because he wanted the Brotherhood back (which, by the way, I did say were his actual intentions as well) but also explain a plan that I feel is worth examining and talking about. I just chose to do the later. Most of the stuff I want to say about Locke's intentions I'm saving for later because I know what's coming and I'm going to be saying a lot of words about it there.

Although, I'm sure our interpretations on how big a douche he is will end up being different.

 

I mean, it's not really a big deal, I was simply giving my opinion on the matter. I don't think it's really wrong to explain and examine his plan, even if his intentions were terrible, but my personal opinion is there is no plan to examine, because Knuckles can't reasonably fix anything that's being presented to him. At best, he can do what Locke is already doing, which is keeping the Master Emerald safe, and trying to make sure the echidnas don't get caught in the crossfire of the civil war + the dingo attacks.

What would really be stood to gain from Knuckles and the Chaotix returning to Angel Island? They'd only be there kicking away endless numbers of Frost and Flame legion goons, as well as Dingos because they're all far too well-equipped due to Eggman and their retrospective leaders. All Locke is really doing is stating issues to Knuckles, and claiming that somehow him coming back will fix things, when Knuckles shoots it down and says that his efforts are better spent making a meaningful effort to stop Eggman on Mobius. 

That's sort of my problem I guess, Locke isn't providing a plan, he's just making an excuse to try guilt Knuckles into coming back by saying how bad of a state Angel Island is currently in, but he also doesn't have anything that actually explains how Knuckles' presence would fix things there. Locke didn't bother thinking about how to fix things because he doesn't actually give a shit about them, they're all excuses to him. He might as well be providing a news update to Knuckles more than anything.

Ultimately, yes - it's not a big deal because it just comes down to Locke being a fucking scumbag either way which is nothing new for him, it ultimately comes down to a disagreement on if he really had anything to examine before he revealed what he really wanted or not, I suppose.

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Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #166: Mobius: 25 Years Later, Part 1: Tempus Fugit

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Oh crap. I remember this.

What in the fuck is going on with these sock puppets? I mean Jesus. I could make an official cover for Archie if this is all it takes to get in. They’re pumping in way too much air into Sonic’s head. The poor fucker’s gonna explode.

I believe this was only really made because Ian Flynn wanted to give this story a proper ending for those who enjoyed it. At least that’s what I recall him saying about it on the Bumblekast. I remember this story being intriguing back when I first read it but I didn’t understand any of it. I also remember 30 Years Later just being a big slog. I honestly don’t know what my opinion on Ian’s version of this snooze fest is going to be so I guess it’s time to find out.

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Penciler: Tracy Yardley
Inker: Jim Amash
Letterer: John Workman
Colors: Jason Jensen
Editor: Mike Pellerito

This first page was like getting a fruit punch thrown in my face. It’s delicious but also WHAT?!

The first thing I’m greeted with is a horrific, glorified statue of Maria with angel wings in the city square with people worshipping it and a building with a poster beside it that reads, “The Chaotix are watching”. 

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Oh no! But also oh yes!

I’d give anything to see Charmy Bee the Enforcer. That sounds adorably intense. I know that’s not going to happen as I’ve read this before and don’t recall ever seeing him but it’s nice to dream.

I barely remember any of this and even reading it now, none of it is coming back to me. I’m even more in the dark here than I was with Darkest Storm but I think that’s because I loved Darkest Storm so much whereas this, I probably mostly just found extremely confusing. I hadn’t read the original Mobius 25 Years Later so all this talk of things being rewritten in their timeline and characters remembering things that aren’t relevant in their current timeline that I never saw probably sent me into a tizzy.

However, now that I have the context, my mind is overflowing with thoughts.

The first thing is Tails. This is Mobius 25 Years Later which means he’s at least 36. He’s almost 40. The fact that he’s drawn by Tracey Yardley and not some alsoran helps to really sell it too. He actually looks like a middle aged Tails. 

That’s SO WEIRD!!

I’m trying to wrap my head around that concept but it’s fucking weird, no matter how much I try. SEGA would never allow anything like this today. Not ever. 

Even more interesting is how Tails just bolts his way into the comic. He wasn’t there in the last one because Penders saw fit to just say that Sonic said goodbye to Tails after he got married to Mina (that’s even weirder, for different reasons) and just never talked to him again.

Now, Tails has jettisoned his way into the plot in a manner that I’m both grateful for but I am also finding it hard not to recognize how happenstance and extremely sloppy it is. He just flies to Angel Island, seeks out Knuckles (who works for a tyrant called King Shadow. Uh-oh) and belts out a shit ton of exposition in an astonishingly unsubtle way.

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Just sentence after sentence after sentence of Tails explaining the plot in that top panel. It’d be funny if it weren’t a by-product of what Ian probably felt was necessary to get this shit on track after Penders just… I don’t even know what. Penders was supposedly planning something but that something he was planning was honestly more NOTHING. 

Yeah, Penders wanted King Sonic to fail, effectively making it so that shit was useless for him. Here, King Sonic succeeded, but him succeeding changed the future which is by far a more interesting premise. It also makes a modicum more sense since changing the past tends to change the future in some stories, although, I will say that I think this also opens this future story up towards being a more alternate future than before. Ken Penders wouldn’t like that but that just means it’s more pertinent that we do it. 

Speaking of the actual content of the book, it’s definitely not perfect as an establishing of what’s going on. Tails is not only expositing a lot but some of the stuff he’s saying is so ridiculous it almost begs the question of why even bother to try and fix this nonsense anyway?

Knuckles points out that Tails knows a lot about this shit despite not having been there and Tails’ response is basically, “Well, I’m super duper smart so I totally knew anyway. Also, I just created a device that protected my family from the distortion in space-time because I can just do that. So now I know about the previous timeline so that the story can function properly.”

Meanwhile, Knuckles just works for Shadow and arrests people because I guess that’s what being Chief Enforcer means. He doesn’t seem too happy about doing it, although, when he enters the comic he’s shown smiling due to helping his daughter, Lara-Su, currently not in a string bikini, gain control over her powers. 

Lara-Su has never met Tails and has no idea who he is when he waltz in but she’s there having overheard their argument when Tails leaves. 

She recounts how she remembers bits and pieces of her past-future life and wishes to make things better, so she partners up with Tails to go find King Sonic.

Another significant improvement so far is how Lara-Su seemingly isn’t a bratty little bitch here. That’ll make her significantly more tolerable I hope. I’m also liking how we’re still on Angel Island for this but we didn’t begin with a classroom scene to sloppily dull out the exposition concerning the ENTIRE history of the island up to that point. Tails’ exposition was actually extremely necessary, despite the messy execution, because the fact that there had been a time adjustment is information the reader needs to even understand the story.

However, the rest of what’s going on is being told to us through the environment. The huge statue of Maria being worshipped by people tells you that King Shadow has taken over and has forced people to praise Maria Robotnik. The fact that he’s a tyrant sells this more because it’s truly horrifying and sad that he would take Maria’s image and force people to worship her as some sort of deity. It’s totally not what Maria would have wanted at all, to be displayed in public with angel wings while people were forced to revere her. It’s the kind of thing that I could totally see a warped Shadow the Hedgehog doing were he to see fit to even be a king and that statue alone let’s it be known that’s where his head’s at.

The poster of Knuckles’ face that says “The Chaotix are watching” tells you that they’re overlooking the citizens as his enforcers. Why they’re doing that isn’t necessary information at the moment but the poster itself gets across that’s what’s happening.

Then you’ve got this gym full of echidnas where Lara-Su is being trained by her dad. So they still have free enough reign to battle and fight, but with Knuckles being here it makes you question whether or not if it’s just for the sake of providing Shadow with more enforcers.

You don’t need Grandpa Chins McGee to exposit to a classroom of kids about it. At least not yet. Put the information through visual context clues and when it’s time to explain it, then explain it. It’s way more satisfying that way and I love that I can tell the difference between Ken’s stories and Ian’s stories at a glance like this. 

Oh yeah. Cobor is missing (or dead) and I don’t really care. However, Rotor does. 

Poor Rotor is chained up in a room where King Shadow is mocking and berating him. He wants him to crack so that he can be told some information. What information? We don’t know yet. All we know is that he’s gone through intense torture curdiousy of being turned in by Lien-Da.

Yeah, Lien-Da in this story isn’t making friendly housewife phone calls to Julie-Su so that she can talk about dinner. Here she’s giggling with delight about her chance to mess with Rotor next.

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It’d be hilarious if, after this, she went to go talk about dinner with Julie-Su anyway.

Here we have King Shadow, standing unnaturally tall at this angle from the floor with a huge red cape on his back and a crown on his head. Honestly, as an alternate future version of Shadow, I find it interesting. Reminds me a bit of those Injustice games, only those felt a little underwritten in a lot of areas. You have to buy a lot more with them I feel. 

Any of the “dark” alignment characters could be reasonably pushed into one direction or another depending on certain circumstances. Hell, it could even happen with the heroes. I still champion the idea of Evil Tails if only because taking advantage of his insecurities and pushing them to the point where he snaps, or even an alternate future where Eggman found Tails instead of Sonic, sound like neat ideas to me.

Lien-Da is Lien-Da though. She’s a villain and she loves it. It doesn’t seem like she’s the type to have a son in this timeline but if she does then that’s also interesting.

One of the hooded mooks reports that Lara-Su is “running around with the wrong crowd” and King Shadow gives orders to contact his “legitimate” Chief Enforcer so that he can handle this. Seeing as how Knuckles was introduced as that earlier, I can only assume that him emphasizing this either means Knuckles is illegitimate and someone else is his real enforcer… or his real enforcer is Lien-Da and Knuckles is “Legitimate” because he technically works within the law and acts as the public face for him. 

I can see either being true but I’ll go with the second option seeing as how closely knit Shadow and Lien-Da are. 

Meanwhile, Tails and Lara-Su somehow find Sonic the Hedgehog and he looks… awful. 

He’s downright pathetic you might say and it’s… really sad to look at.

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There’s a ton to wrap your head around on this page. 

The first is that top image of Sonic sitting in the gutter with a blanket full of holes on him, looking like a withered old man. His shoes in particular are really gross and messed up. Somehow the gold on his shoe buckle has deteriorated. It makes me wonder just how long Sonic’s been slumming it here.

That chili-dog with a single bite out of it, resting on that trash can lid, has to be one of the worst things to think about. It’s green chili and a crusty, bronze looking bun. 

It sells you immediately on how pitiable he is right out of the gate, and here comes Tails, his best friend and the original one from the timeline he knew to offer him comfort. He could tell right away too. That already makes the scene fairly gut-wrenching but the teary eyed hug they share as Sonic expresses his extreme wide-eyed sadness at having lost his kids to the fabric of time and his wife to a tyrant king is a huge soul crusher.

This scene is fairly infamous for having to be redone. Sonic can cry but he can’t bawl and the original image showed him doing just that. Granted, it’s probably more warranted here seeing as how he’s talking about how his children were obliterated from existence because of his actions.

Yeah, sometimes playing the hero can have consequences like this but Jesus Christ. It’s also really ironic considering King Sonic was talking a lot about how he didn’t want to be the king. He basically got his wish. He should have kept an eye out for that goddamn Monkey’s Paw. Holy shit.

You all probably know by now that I’m all for stuff like this. I’ll never say the series has to engage in deep dives into devastation to sell itself to me but I’m always here for it so you won’t see me complaining. Anything to make me care about what’s going on within the lives of my favorite characters.

Sonic, being Sonic, does emphasize what I also just said about him being the hero. He sacrificed so much to save everyone. He wants his kids and his life back and he’s ashamed of the fact that he never appreciated it when he had it. Tails says they can’t risk turning back time again and says that he hates that Sonic had to pay such a high price for it. Sonic says that’s what he does and he knows he’d do it again.

Twice now, he invokes the great Maria’s name. 

He says “Sweet Maria, have mercy” when Tails and Lara-Su help him to his feet and he says “Maria, help me…” when slumped in frustrated contemplation over the fact that he’d totally do the hero thing again if given a chance. 

This scene also has Sonic apologizing to Tails for “letting things get so bad” between them. We never really knew and still don’t know the full context to this but to be honest, I’m okay with that. Leaving it up to the imagination honestly makes the falling out between them feel more believable than showing it. No matter what you show, it’d be a huge pill to swallow without the proper time dedicated to it and we only have two issues.

Two issues to break into Castle Mobius, beat up King Shadow, and get Queen Sally to marry Sonic is what’s apparently supposed to happen. Lara-Su just rattles this off like it’s a grocery list. The fact that the three of them are so okay with just doing this probably speaks more to the lack of time then it does to the fact that they remember the original timeline (or in Lara-Su’s case, bits and pieces of it) but it’s a convenient excuse so whatever.

Anyway, Knuckles shows up to arrest them.

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Turns out it was the second option. Knuckles is the “legitimate” enforcer meaning he’s basically just a pawn so that Shadow can keep his real enforcer, Lien-Da, undercover from the general public. Smart man.

I also love how, despite what’s happened to him, Sonic is still Sonic, so when something bad happens immediately after they state their plan of action, he just makes a disgruntled, annoyed face.

As for this story, the meat of it was the scene with Sonic and as such, I do find it really well done if only because it sold the emotion to me. We’ll see how it concludes but right now I don’t hate this. It’s the best any of these future stories have been literally because of how it established this world and the new state of affairs. We don’t spend page after page listening to people talk about what’s going to be for dinner at the sleepover we’re supposed to have ten issues later.


Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #166: The Chaotix Connection

Plot: R. Chacon
Dialogue: Ian Flynn
Pencils: J. Axer
Inks: Michael Higgins
Letters: John Workman
Colors: Jason Jensen

Someday we’ll find it. The Chaotix Connection. The Charmy, the Vector, and … holy shit, that’s Romy Chacon back from the grave to write a story.

Holy shit, that’s J. Axer back to pencil a story! Cool!

We begin with Knuckles tied to a post, drooling due to apparently having just woken up or perhaps merely delirious from a beating he just took. Either way, he’s not in a good place and the person who apparently caught him is saying “You won’t ruin my life THIS TIME, Knuckles!”

This is obviously Ken Penders, having snapped and finally kidnapped the echidna, forcing him to either sign off on the Lara-Su Chronicles less he be drowned in paint thinner. 

In what is clearly Gotham City Station Square, a boy is handing out papers exclaiming that Casinopolis is opening soon. Our resident Batman, batgirl, Rouge, grabs the paper and talks about how our favorite character, Reinfeld, is back.

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She also appears to be in her Heroes outfit. Interesting, though, probably not something I’d be too jazzed to see again. 

Look at that boy, all blushy because of the hot bat lady with the big breasts.

Rouge contacts the Freedom Fighters and the Chaotix because of this news. Reinfeld T. Rodent was apparently jailed at some point. It definitely wasn’t shown because I remember complaining about the fact that he wasn’t back when the Lemon Sundrop Dandelion debacle happened. He’s been let go now that Eggman has control of Angel Island. Anyone they put in prison was probably someone he wanted to let loose.

Since the Chaotix have the closest connections to this case, Sally says she’s leaving it up to them. There’s a cute moment where Sonic’s about to continue her sentence for her by saying “And when you need to get bailed out…” but Sally interrupts and says “I’ll send Bunnie!” which prompts Sonic to stick his tongue out and do the stink eye.

Granted, this feels like an opportunity to have Charmy take revenge for the death of his best friend or something but I don’t think that’s where this is headed. Charmy and Saffron are absent from this story, again, which is insanely weird. I don’t know what this comic’s deal is with underutilizing him. I get why it happens later, after a certain event takes place, but that event hasn’t happened yet. It makes the least sense that Charmy, of all characters, wouldn’t be here to take on Reinfeld after what he did. Sally says the Chaotix have a connection to this guy? I know someone who’s connection runs deepest and he’s not here!

Reinfeld is setting up shop in Casinopolis. He wants to make sure everything’s nice and rigged with his new slot machines for Batman’s arrival, I guess.

The Chaotix and Rouge arrive. Julie-Su doesn’t like this and starts a fight with her for no reason that Knuckles has to break up. Yeah, Julie-Su still feels the same as ever, that’s for sure.

Mighty, remembering what happened last time, thinks they should check out the food first. I don’t know what they plan to do when they find the food though. Surely they don’t plan to personally test it by eating it again. 

Knuckles sneaks into a room and sees some people he doesn’t know. When one of them with a clipboard says “Contact Eggman” Knuckles immediately dives at them and kicks one of them in the face and punches the other two in the air.

He probably acted a tad too fast there. I don’t even think he took time to consider why they’re here or what they’re doing or even if they were being forced to do it. Nope. He just instantly bashes their faces in.

Yeah, this is starting to feel like a story from before #160 so far.

It gets even weirder.

Mighty orders a chili-dog and eats it, asking Julie-Su to watch in case he just poisoned himself. 

I… don’t… think that’s the best course of action to take. The fact that they just let him do that is insanely strange to me. I agree that he probably wouldn’t try the same trick twice… but only really because that’d be boring and this comic doesn’t need any more tales about LSD within its pages. Especially now in late 2006. 

Knuckles is fighting the horse man he saw and he’s taking a while to go down. He punches the skin off his face to reveal that he’s a robot right before getting knocked out.

Oh wait no. I’m sorry. Not robot. Auto-Automations.

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I had forgotten this was a thing.

It gets weirder.

Okay, so, turns out people are getting hypnotized. They see that Vector has had his mind warped by the machines. Apparently, they were rigged with hypnosis. 

For some reason, Rouge points out that it must be something with the screens… and then looks directly at the screens and gets hypnotized.

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Romy Chacon… you weren’t the worst writer during Penders’ era but so far you seem to be during Ian’s.

Reinfeld shows up and says that Knuckles won’t ruin his life this time, talking about how he’s a victim of circumstance and blah blah. He’s an asshole. 

He’s scanned the minds of Knuckles’ friends for data and they’re going to be used for Eggman’s latest edition to his “auto-automations”; the Infiltrators.

Shortly after Reinfeld explains his plan to turn Station Square’s Casinopolis into a hub to pump out robots, it just instantly fails.

Yeah, because, you know, two of the people here in their group didn’t look at the screens, it just immediately fails.

It’s almost like a comedy act the way it happens.

Reinfeld says it’s useless to point a weapon at him because he’s gathered up enough data. Julie-Su says “Nope, cause I pulled the fucking plug on the machine”. 

Literally. She just… unplugged it.

Then Reinfeld’s like “FUCK, I FAILED! I DIDN’T EXPECT SOMEONE TO UNPLUG THE MACHINE!”

Then Reinfeld says, “Ah but even without the data, the factory can make mindless robots for me!”

Then Mighty’s just like, “Nope, cause I destroyed the factory.”

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If this were a cartoon, a bunch of dumb clown music would be playing over this scene to elicit the appropriate response. It’s so strange how fast it all just goes to shit for him in the span of a page. Like, right after we find out what his plan is and how it’s supposed to be enacted it just dies because Julie-Su, legit, just unplugged the machine.

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God, you suck. 

Why couldn’t this have been a story about Charmy punching this rat’s face in?

Julie-Su says she hopes the hypnosis did permanent brain damage to Rouge. Fuck her for that. 

First Vector and now Rouge. The fact that this awful character hates MY favorite characters specifically isn’t doing her any favors with me. Seriously.

Somehow, the President just appears in the next panel after this talking about how Reinfeld will stand trial in Station Square. None of the panels in this final page have any backgrounds either. Plus, everyone’s just rattling off information at an extremely fast pace. This story was insanely rushed.

It ends with Knuckles shaking the president’s hand and everyone being happy. Cool, I guess.

I delighted quite a bit in wallowing in Sonic’s misery, if only because I have a strong desire to feel things for the characters of my favorite series. Whether it be official or fan-made, it takes quite a bit in order for me to feel you’ve gone too far with Sonic, and even then, it’s only really because of things that dive into the absurdly try-hard area like Penders’ obsession with Nazis or Richard Kuta throwing in a line about Charles Darwin in his cancelled bullshit SatAM project.

I love it when things get heavy and I’ll always appreciate it more when it’s handled with as much care as possible. So far, I feel like the start to this story was sufficient and well-done. 

That second story stood out for being a strange as hell regression in quality. If the difference in writers and the assurance that this was a new era wasn’t clear before, it has to be now. Romy Chacon’s plotting for that second story just did not work. I don’t even really know what the point of it all was in the end. Why did this happen? The only point in bringing Reinfeld back would be so that Charmy could take revenge but since that didn’t happen I’m left with this giant ball of nothing. It’s no wonder I didn’t remember it at all.  I was left really disappointed in that one.

 

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #167: Mobius 25 Years Later, Part 2: Tempus Aeternus

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This cover is only slightly better than the other one, if only because Sonic’s head doesn’t look like it’s about to literally pop. However, I can’t help but dislike it anyway because it’s still really ugly. Not to mention, that Sally that’s standing next to Sonic is basically a redraw of the one on the previous cover. It’s clearly different but she’s standing in almost the same pose with the same look on her face. It’s weird.

Good God, seriously, what on Earth happened here? Why did these two random ugly ass covers come in to throw everything off kilter? I feel like Chef Ramsay here. I was being served perfect scallops since #160 and then I get to #166 and #167 and they’re FUCKIN’ RAW!

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Penciler: Tracy Yardley
Inker: Jim Amash
Letterer: John Workman
Colors: Jason Jensen
Editor: Mike Pellerito

Immediately upon opening the book, one of my earlier questions from the last issue has been immediately answered. Lien-Da still, somehow, has a son. Still no word on who she did the nasty with but this change in personality for Future Lien-Da (as in, giving her the original personality she had in the past) has made for a much more interesting turn of events.

Here, Dimitri and her don’t just have their differences, he’s completely disgusted by her actions. Gloating about bringing down the line of Edmund and how Knuckles arrested his best friends and his own daughter doesn’t sit well with him. 

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From the look of her son’s face, it bothers him as well.

God, look at the way Tracey drew her sipping from that glass. So devilish. So wonderful.

This is rather neat. I do like that Ian kept Dimitri’s change in morality intact. The idea that losing the Enerjak power not only cleared up his mind but humbled him down to this point is honestly one of the few interesting things Penders managed to hit upon. Not to mention, the fact that I now know the origin of why he’s just a robotic head in a floating ball feels neat.

Granted, there is a part of me that misses the mystique of not knowing what the fuck Dimitri was and how he got that way.

We cut to inside the prison where our heroes are hanging in shackles in prison next to Rotor. I alluded to this moment happening sometime during a review way back when but I don’t remember which one it was so I can’t exactly do a parallel to it unless I shift back through all my stuff and find that image.

Suffice to say, it was basically this exact same scene with Sonic and Tails here. Sonic, Tails, and Lara-Su aren’t taking their imprisonment seriously at all. Sonic and Tails are mostly joking around while Lara-Su is just complaining about what her family will say.

Turns out, to the surprise of no one, Knuckles just made a big show of capturing them. He shows up and immediately let’s them out. Apparently Tails and Lara-Su didn’t exactly know that was going to happen though so… I guess they really were just goofing around despite being shackled to a wall.

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Nah. I have a feeling that deep down they knew too. Well, Miles maybe.

Anyway, they’re out now. The plan is to have Tails hack into the castle’s system and clear a path for Knuckles so that he can save Queen Sally. The point of that, Miles says, is so that the monarchy can remain somewhat stable. I’d be okay seeing it collapse so that we could get some real deep post-apocalyptic future vibes but I guess that’s being saved for Silver.

Meanwhile, Lara-Su has been tasked with getting Rotor to safety. She’s momentarily bummed about it but Knuckles tells her that being a guardian means protecting the people and this is a part of that. It’s a nice lesson to instill into her on top of being the fun dad that likes having a rebellious daughter.

It’s the total opposite of how he was portrayed in Ken’s version. Shock horror, it’s my preferred version as well.

Seeing Knuckles just grow up to be someone who’s taken to being a guardian in his own way and is open to rebellion despite admitting to feeling bad about turning on his own forces just makes him more interesting and more open to sympathy.

When he’s yelling and screaming at his daughter all the time while also making excuses for his shitty dad at his grave it just makes me think that nothing was learned and a legacy of lunatics is in danger of continuing. He even talked himself out of doing the right thing by the end of that story just because he had a big think at his dad’s grave that one time.

Lara-Su is wildly different as well.

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Yeah, she’s still headstrong and rebellious but because the writer is better it comes off as more charming and heroic than brash and bratty. She’s not judo flipping or attacking people because they dared point out that she was born with an insane amount of privilege.

She’s also very bouncy and bubbly which is not only kind of cute but it also highlights how much better her relationship with her dad is in this version. That’s nice to see. 

She’ll turn into an ugly alien monster that likes to sleep naked in space one of these days but for now she’s kinda alright.

I can’t help but wonder how old Rotor is. I’m guessing either late 40’s or early 50’s? 

Anyway, the heroes all go their separate ways to do their tasks. Sonic bursts down the door to King Shadow’s chamber and says a line about delivering poetic justice that Knuckles correctly guesses he was saving for this moment. Personally, I feel like he could have come up with something better than a “Who ordered the extra large butt-whooping--” line. 

I guess it’s better than the “extra large clobbering line” from Colors though. The second hand embarrassment when that scene refused to end made my skin crawl. I’m so happy I’m aware of what the original Japanese script was. 

Sonic and Knuckles are in Shadow’s chamber now. That horrifying visage of Angel Maria is hovering over the throne room and continuously making the poor girl roll in her grave. Sally manages to saunter over to Knuckles for safety, surprised to hear in the ensuing conversation that Shadow knows about the other timeline.

Shadow knows because he’s a master of time and space. Being good at Chaos Control means that now.

I’ll run with it.

I’m not sure how Sally knows the other timeline though. She’s the one who asks the question about Shadow but her knowing is more intriguing to me, honestly.

With Sally saved, Sonic goes to punch the king in the face…

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…but he just looks annoyed.

Remember that disgruntled Shadow face. He’ll be working on improving it as time marches on.

It’s here where we remember that Sonic is a withered old man that’s been eating crusty, old, green chili-dogs in the gutter after sinking in depression over the loss of his kids and the remarriage of his wife.

As such, this goes the only way it could.

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Love that Sonic’s beaten so fast that Shadow’s cape hasn’t even finished touching the ground by the time he’s been knocked unconscious. Though, the fighting here feels like it’s lacking in impact yet again for me. 

Although, King Shadow does bring up a neat point here. He’s the ultimate lifeform and thus he never ages, according to him. 

It makes me think about a lot of things. 

We’ll obviously never get to see it because Sonic must remain 15 forever, even when he has a canonical birthday, but imagining the other characters ageing while Shadow remains the same is a weird thought. The comic is a bit disconnected from the original canon so seeing it here, while weird, doesn’t give off the same effect. 

This FEELS insanely different because it’s this strange amalgamation of concepts and characters both exclusive and non-exclusive to the book, taken to an extreme the likes of which are astronomically divorced from what’s happening in the current canon. 

It’s not easy applying what happens here to what I considered to be… or rather, what’s left of, the canon. It’s an interesting thought though.

Lara-Su speeds in, nay, flies in to save the day.

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This is one of those Batman Beyond things where the old guard must step down to make way for new blood. Except, the villain in this case is someone the hero faced back when he was 25 years younger.

Seeing middle aged Sonic laying there, beaten to shit, on the ground as Shadow hovers over him, looking and feeling exactly as strong as he was 25 years ago is a sad image. Realistically, how long could they even be rivals? Maybe Sonic needs a shot of Professor Gerald’s super serum. He used that to make Shadow right?

Oh wait no. He used some alien’s blood… and that alien is dead now. Nevermind.

Anyway, Lara-Su… wins.

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She just wins. Just like that.

They prattle on Tikal’s chant for two panels and each toss a single Chaos Spear at the other before Lara-Su FLEXES really hard and freezes Shadow in black fiery time space that’ll last for as long as several millennia, according to that last word bubble.

It’s an insanely fast and sloppy end to him, for sure.

As someone who anticipated this and didn’t give a shit about M25YL to begin with, I can’t say I’m disappointed. I literally don’t care that this just ended in a single page. However, it would behoove me not to make mention of the fact that this was indeed very quickly resolved.

It’s only technically not a deus ex machina because we knew she was training with Chaos Powers before. The text never said how far in her training she was or how skilled she was at it so, technically, this doesn’t outright contradict anything. However, you could totally make an argument for it being unsatisfying, absolutely.

It’s certainly one of the few things that stuck out to me back when I read this. Back then I had no idea what M25YL was or how long before these two issues it had been a thing. This Lara-Su character was an enigma to me so the fact that she could do this to King Shadow and end things so fast either said to me that she was strong and it had to have been well known up to this point (debatable) or she used a technique that had been hinted and talked about before and it just wasn’t in these two issues (outright wrong).

Nope. Turns out it was just a result of the story needing to wrap up.

I admire Ian wanting Lara-Su to be the one to handle this of course, seeing as how he recognized that the original purpose for Ken’s story was seemingly supposed to be about her right? It wasn’t yet another vehicle for Knuckles… right?

Well, either way, he forced the story to be about her actually contributing something heavy to the plot. I appreciate the commitment even if this isn’t really a future I have any real desire to see again… and I know that I will. On the bright side, when I get to M30YL, I may actually know what the fuck is going on when I read it. 

To the day, I have no clue what that SU arc was or is about and as a result my opinion on it has just been a line of question marks.

Welp, that’s that. Knuckles bolts in and leaves with his daughter after hugging her and saying he’s proud of the way she defeated the king of an absolute monarchy. Sally reveals she was told of the other timeline by Knuckles which answers my question from earlier, thankfully. She also reveals that she only married Shadow to keep the monarchy somewhat stable. I’m honestly surprised Shadow agreed to it… or cared.

Yeah, the whole King Shadow thing is a bit weird still. Honestly. I can see him turning into a monster that wants to force people to love and revere Maria as a goddess but it’s somewhat hard imagining him bothering with the cape and the crown and the marriage. I need to see the steps he took to get there on that one. 

Sonic and Sally rekindle their love as Sonic decides he’s going to be the king again.

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This is seriously one of the few times where I’ve found Sonic and Sally’s relationship to be charming and adorable. The only excuse I have not to smile at this is sheer stubbornness from how much I’ve hated their relationship up until this point which is quite the accomplishment.

There were a lot of good parts to this story and a lot of interesting tidbits about it but it was ultimately just an ending to a story that was created long ago by a mad-man set to fast-forward. That’s it.

Ian did this so that it could have a proper ending and honestly, for as many issues as it had and the characters it just leaves on the table (like Lien-Da and her son) it’s miles better than the whole of Ken Penders’ version. As such it got a much better ending then it deserved to be frank. 

I mean, the fact that the old timeline had to be completely wiped just to give this story an ending that was at least somewhat tolerable is a testament to how much of a waste of time that original M25YL story was. What a slog.

We’re moving on though. I thankfully won’t have to think about this until I revisit that SU arc and finally, after all these years, learn what the fuck it was I was even reading.


Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #167: Hedgehog Day

Plot: R. Chacon
Dialogue: R. Chacon
Pencils: Dave Manak
Inks: Andrew Pepoy
Letters: Vickie Williams
Colors: Josh Ray

One could argue, “Hey, why not dedicate more pages to the M25YL story?” and my response would be, “...No.”

Granted, when I first saw this story’s art-style I got a little worried seeing as how Dave Manak’s art has that Off-Panel look to it. Romy Chacon isn’t the best writer but he’s not the worst. I’d take him over another attempt by Gallagher to flex how much of a funny old ass man he is in another one of those.

Sonic wakes up in his… very strange looking room. Like, the racecar bed, the baseball bat, the basketball hoop over the bed, the surfboard… 

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It’s like someone said, “What do little boys like?” and just shoved all that into a teenager’s room.

Anyway, Sonic is listening to the radio calmly before spinning into the sink as he brushes his teeth when the man on the radio talks about the fact that Sonic is a no-show for his birthday celebration redo. Apparently, they’re doing it over again despite Sonic saying he had fun at the last one.

Also, this radio guy is weirdly on it as far as calling Sonic out for being late even though the party was scheduled for 10 AM and it’s only 10:06 by the time Sonic is done admonishing himself for his mistake.

He set the timer for when he should be at the party rather than when he should wake up. A simple mistake. When I wake up I sometimes, momentarily, mistake the time I wake up with the time I’m supposed to be at work. Only for a moment though. My nerves don’t allow me to be confident in something for too long so I usually get the time right quickly if it’s wrong.

Anyway, Sonic races out of his house, bowls over the camera men, trips over a rock, slams into a tree, and ends up in the hospital.

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How sad. 

Also, the tree owner is filing suit? Fuck him.

Well, that was a pretty short tale but it was amusing enough.

Sonic wakes up in his… very strange looking room. Like, the racecar bed, the baseball bat, the basketball hoop over the bed, the surfboard… 

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… Oh. I get it.

Hedgehog Day = Groundhog Day. 

The next two pages are the same pages from before Sonic busted his leg.

The same drawings, the same dialogue; all the same for the next two pages. It’s a fairly neat excuse to get away with not having to do more work on it but I admire the work around enough that I’m willing to let it slide.

This time, Sonic knows there are reporters outside so he takes the back exit and slams his head into a wagon, somehow busting his leg in the process.

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The image of Sonic in the hospital looks like the same image as before but it actually isn’t. There’s differences in the fine details that you can make out by looking hard enough. The obvious one is that both legs are visible in this one and the picture on the newspaper is different. However, the way Sonic’s hand and mouth are drawn is slightly different too. This actually is a legit new drawing which I appreciate.

Sonic wakes up the next morning yet again. Third time’s the charm as he’s wise to what the radio is going to say about the weather, the party, who’s going to be there, and the fact that Sonic is missing.

This time Sonic’s strategy is to say “Fuck it” and lay back down in bed. Everytime he goes out there he ends up in the hospital.

Well, tough shit, because the media sucks.

They’re desperate for that scoop so they literally crawl onto his roof and fall through the fucking glass, landing Sonic in the hospital anyway.

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Sonic says, “The media is NOOOOO good.”

Apparently, Galactus out in space has decreed that Sonic must end up in the hospital on this day no matter what. 

Sonic wakes up at 7 AM this time… for some reason. Maybe he remembered to set his clock or the impending doom of being sent to the hospital again got him up earlier.

He zips to the celebration and sits on a chair with his arms crossed and a smile on his face while everyone sets the party up around him, wondering what his deal is. He’s just sitting there, not talking to anyone, smiling, like a smug statue.

It’s pretty weird, not gonna lie.

I guess this is what he needed to do to stop the loop from happening though because the story ends here. 

Wow. You know, I gotta say, I thought that was alright. I can’t say that it was straight up good, for the reasons I gave, but as someone who has no real investment in M25YL, it at least succeeded in making me feel something. That said, I’ve no interest in arguing about whether it deserves that faint praise because at the end of the day, I still don’t care. I’m happy it got an ending for those who wanted it and if they were unsatisfied with it then don’t feel too bad because it sucked way harder before. The second story was actually really fun. It was a small, cute idea that amused me internally. Nothing too much to say about this one. What’s done is done. You either enjoyed it or you didn’t. It’s time to move on.

Tails design in M25YL is like a grown-up version of himself from Sonic Boom, holy moly.

 

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #168: Order From Chaos, Part 1: The Gathering

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I’ve been gushing about this story and how much I love it since even before A.D.A.M was introduced. To this day it’s still, seriously, one of my favorites. I don’t know where in the Top 10 it ranks as I haven’t sat down and done that yet but it’s definitely in there somewhere alongside Enerjak Reborn and Eggman’s Dozen. So much of my favorite stuff of Flynn’s is happening at around this time. It’s astonishing. He came out of the gate throwing beautiful fireworks everywhere.

As for this cover, it’s also really great. Even divorced from those other two awful ones above it, it works as a nice ominous prelude for what’s to come. Just a bunch of empty tubes of nanites with the evilest of all evil computer’s looming in the background. It reminds me that one day I’ll have to do a Top 10 and Bottom 10 covers as well. I don’t know if this will make the cut but it’s good enough to remind me of it.

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Tracy Yardley
Inks: Jim Amash
Letters: John Workman
Colors: Jason Jensen
Editor: Mike Pellerito

This era of Ian Flynn cleaning the mess Penders left behind for him is insane. It’s been consistently good all across the board and we’re at yet another of my favorites in the book.

I think the reason these stories are so effective is because they’re being written with the explicit purpose of shifting the status quo. The book is being forced to change and thus the lives of the characters are being drastically altered from story to story and that goes a long way towards making them great to read. 

It’s definitely part of the reason why at some point when the book hits a lull for me, it’ll because several issues will have gone by where nothing really feels like it’s happening. That could also be rectified by simply telling something that was exciting and heart pounding in a way that was intriguing like I feel the Metal Virus in IDW did but it’s a toss up as to whether or not that’ll actually happen. 

I’m being vague as to which part of the comic I’m talking about but I’ll end up saying this again when I get there. For now, let’s talk about this story and the unrelenting awesomeness packed within.

We begin with very mean foreshadowing, riding in on a vehicle made of regrets and hindsight for these characters down the line.

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This is probably some sort of meta thing, what with the characters chatting amongst themselves about how much Tommy sucks.

Apparently, this was somewhat of a common opinion within the fanbase but as is often the case, going through these books, some of these things just don’t turn out to be all that they’re cracked up to be.

Tommy the Turtle is a character I was interested in seeing the origin of because I heard he was infamous for being some sort of strange, self-insert, gary-stu or something like that. Having read the books with him up to this point… he really isn’t that. Not entirely, anyway.

The strangest thing about Tommy is that he’s just there. There were certainly instances where he’d come off as though he were everyone’s favorite guy around. He was Sonic’s friend that we never heard of before who beat him in a race that one time. He was so precious to Sally that she stalled being mad at Sonic to go save him that one time. He sacrificed himself to save Sonic twice. He was suddenly very smart and good at organizing things. Then randomly, one day, he felt bad for the nanites so they grafted themselves onto his shell.

These things on their own aren’t much to write home about and all of them together are just scattershot enough that it’s barely noticeable to me unless explicitly pointed out. Or, in my case, anticipated.

Now that we’re here at the penultimate issue for the guy, I gotta say, his worst crime isn’t even being all that awful of a character. He’s just really bland and his presence is confusing. I don’t really know why he’s here. I could honestly say the same thing about Fiona before this point too. 

Ironically, he’s going to be given a badass send-off and as such, the only lingering impression he’ll have on me is what’s been provided by this story that I love.

The thick cut of meat and potatoes of which, begin here… with betrayal. 

Ominous betrayal.

We cut to Eggman who’s having a casual conversation with A.D.A.M about teaching Anonymous a lesson. A.D.A.M sends his father congratulations but then kindly asks why he’s being deleted.

Eggman repeats, he’s going to take down Anonymous. 

A.D.A.M acts like he doesn’t understand. Eggman says he knows better than that, like a father to his bratty son, relaying to him that he’s figured things out. He then provides a helpful rundown of all the convoluted bullshit that happened with Anonymous before #160 and the genuinely cool shit that happened in the Darkest Storm.

Eggman talks about how he should have been more suspicious from the start and admonishes himself for not realizing the video hidden within the Metal Destructix was fake back in #135. He knew then that they were cheap replicas but didn’t realize until later that they were just a vehicle to get the Auto-Automaton of Tommy Turtle close to Sonic back in #136. 

Then he recalls being told by A.D.A.M that it was Anonymous who released the nanites to make the Nanite City from #152. He recalls being told that Anonymous let in the Spider-Ninjas and freed Ixis Naugus, a man who wants to kill him, as well as disposing of all his occupied Egg Grapes back in #161. Then the Dimensional ripple that caused Naugus’ escape destroyed the Ancient Walkers back in the Darkest Storm. 
Then Eggman let’s it rip. He’s pissed off now. 

He screams at A.D.A.M about how he literally watched A.D.A.M steal Mogul’s Chaos Emerald and released both him and Naugus. Yes, the Eggman was spying on him.

A.D.A.M’s reply is “You’ve been spying on me father? That is not very nice!”

Eggman blows another casket and runs down some more of the shit that happened because of Anonymous, namely the death of A.D.A.M’s sister Mecha and the Neo Metal Sonic Troopers that came after him.

Anonymous has been up to a TON of shit dawg. Holy shit. 

I mean, when you lay it all out like that, it’s an incredible rap sheet considering how little time he’s been in the comic compared to a lot of the other villains. The death of God like beings are on his resume and all of this was accomplished literally just because he’s super fucking smart.

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So, of course, an evil this intelligent and scary would be done in by simple deletion from his father, correct?

Yeesh. I’ve read this story before but the atmosphere of this scene is still kind of unsettling to me. Especially with A.D.A.M’s screen having that single green dot on it. 

I’m glad this is how things shook out though. Eggman figuring out who Anonymous is and working to take care of the situation does well for his standing as an intelligent force to be wreckin with as well. Even if A.D.A.M is one step ahead of him, Eggman was at least taking some steps of his own.

Oh and A.D.A.M IS indeed one step ahead of him.

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Why can’t the games tell stories like this? 

This is so cool. 

The menace dripping from this evil mastermind is oozing off the page. He’s delightful and even after all these years, the ominous nature of what’s transpiring still hits me straight on. It feels good being so unsettled by this, even now.

Can you imagine Orbot pulling some shit like this? Fucking hell.

Crazy shit is going down back at home base too. Ken Penders’ very last story written for the book ended up paying dividends if you can believe it. His idea to have the nanites infect certain residents of Knothole is being used to make things come to pass.

Nicole is freaking out. She can’t do anything properly and right as the rest are cheering her on, Bunnie saunters in and smashes her fucking fist through Nicole’s screen, unable to stop herself.

Her metal limbs are going against her. She calls for strong guys to come in and stop her. Knuckles and Vector manage to do so but during Bunnie’s rampage, she knocked Tails the fuck out and now he’s being carried away by Sonic’s dad who, as a machine, is also under A.D.A.M’s control now that HIS nanites are going to work.

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“Way past personal”, he says.

All the pieces A.D.A.M needs to complete his master plan are coming together all at once for the big smash finale.

Jules is leading Sonic back to the Nanite City where the epicenter of all this stuff is going down. 

Meanwhile, Eggman is already there and is being greeted with a visit from Shadow. Shadow looks a little annoyed, being told to go all over the place like he’s Eggman’s butler. However, he quickly finds that there’s a huge surprise waiting for him in the next panel.

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“IT’S ME AUSTIN!”

A.D.A.M tosses Eggman back like he’s some kind of useless puppet and begins to attack Shadow the Hedgehog relentlessly. You can tell this was not what the black hedgehog thought he’d see when he arrived. Some Silver Surfer looking turtle dude holding Eggman hostage.

Shadow recognizes A.D.A.M’s voice and asks what Mobian he’s using to walk around like this. A.D.A.M is happy to explain that it’s Tommy Turtle. He was his hiding place for when Eggman figured out the Anonymous conspiracy.

He explains this while easily beating Shadow into unconsciousness.

After he does that, he carries Shadow over to a tube to be locked inside of, dangling him hilariously by one leg.

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As he does his little exposition dump, Tails arrives next and is carried over to his tube to be set inside of it like Elmur Fudd carried Bugs Bunny at the end of “What’s Opera, Doc?”

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All the while, A.D.A.M is explaining his plan. 

It’s an amusing read. He’s so proud of himself and to be honest I am as well.

He talks about how he discovered there were seven colored varieties of Chaos Emeralds throughout the Cosmos. We already saw the red Chaos Emeralds on whatever planet that was from before and now… we’re finally getting the rest of them.

Yeah, it took until Issue #168 and a long wait until November of 2006 before the other colors of the Chaos Emeralds were mentioned in the officially licensed Sonic the Hedgehog book. They still haven’t appeared yet though.

I can’t wait until they get here. What’s about to happen is not only monumentally cool but it’ll also finally rid me of any responsibility I may have still had in trying to keep all that shit about the Chaos Emeralds straight. Janitor Flynn does it again.

A.D.A.M needs Super Shadow’s power for his Chaos Control and Turbo Tails, the Chosen One, who is prophesied to lead the Gathering of all the Chaos Emeralds and bring about a great harmony.

Yeah, Turbo Tails. Not Titan Tails, because that would have been embarrassing.

Also, A.D.A.M talks about the prophecy as though it hasn’t been fulfilled yet, meaning, we can disregard the really embarrassing Titan Tails shit as being the catalyst for this Great Harmony. Mammoth Mogul may not be a God who can crush universes in the palm of his hand anymore but he’s been set free regardless and what A.D.A.M’s about to do is pretty nasty, all things considered.

No, the Great Harmony that’s been prophesied was actually talking about what’ll happen to ME and how all this confusing nonsense from the Pre-Flynn era is being cleaned up. Now it’s time to fix the situation with the Chaos Emeralds! 

He built this Nanite City to hide the Focusing Spire that’s going to gather all the emeralds to him. He freed Mogul and Naugus to keep Shadow busy until he needed him (which explains why both Mogul and Naugus were MIA during the Rouge and Scourge prison break) and he used Tommy to weaken the Freedom Fighters and nab Tails.

It’s all brilliant and it’s all coming together. 

Eggman just says it’s convoluted… and it is. However, it’s still impressive. He’s accomplished so much. Be prouder of your son Eggman.

Speaking of sons, Jules starts to talk about how HIS son is going to kick ass in a bit. A.D.A.M isn’t scared. He knows through Jules that Sonic is here in the city, being cautious of a trap that doesn’t exist… and he also knows that Eggman remotely contacted the Egg Fleet.

He doesn’t care. His plan is too awesome and the winds of change are blowing. Everything’s coming up A.D.A.M baby!

I love this little shot here of Eggman after A.D.A.M points out that he knows Eggman summoned his Egg Fleet. 

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Eggman’s just like, “Oh no no no no no. I didn’t do that!”

Things have gone into hyperdrive and I couldn’t be anymore here for it.

A.D.A.M’s rampage has been a long time coming, spanning across two eras of this book and we’re at the climax of everything he’s been working towards. 

He’s severely changed the status quo for Eggman, the villains, the heroes, and soon the Chaos Emeralds themselves and things are going to shift dramatically as a result of what happens here in a couple of ways as well. 

It’s time for the epic conclusion. A.D.A.M’s reign begins now with the summoning of ALL THE CHAOS EMERALDS IN THE FUCKING UNIVERSE!

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I SURE DO LOVE IT WHEN A PLAN COMES TOGETHER!!!


Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #168: Courage and Honor

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Gary Bedell
Inks: Rich Koslowski
Letters: John Workman
Colors: Josh & Aimee Ray

So here we’ve got ourselves a fairly necessary story about Antoine reflecting on… all of it. Just ALL the shit that he’s been through since being trapped in another dimension and coming back to all that’s precious to him having been pretty much destroyed.

Antoine is already in a somber mood and is a shockingly nice guy to even admit he has pity for the Evil versions of the Freedom Fighters, though he makes sure to state he doesn’t forgive them. 

So, of course, while he’s in the middle of feeling down, Sonic rushes in with the news that Antoine’s dad is about to die.

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The art by Gary Bedell is… not my favorite. I hesitate to say that it’s bad. I definitely don’t think it is. However, it’s certainly not a good fit for Sonic.

Everything that isn’t the Sonic characters looks fantastic. Look at those butterflies. Those look immaculate. The style itself would probably work really well for a picture book of some kind too. It’s not bad art on it’s own… but the super tall and lankiness of their proportions doesn’t work. It’s jarring and so clearly not what these characters should look like.

Sonic contemplating the idea of losing his dad a second time hits a bit. Going through something like that twice has gotta be rough and Antoine’s about to face just that. 

So, they see Dr. Quack and his explanation is that Evil Antoine was poisoning his father. That seems fair enough but the fine details are a little muddy to me. For some reason, King Max received much less of the same poison than Antoine’s dad did.

I… can’t really land on a reason as to why. I know the out of universe reason is that King Max needs to stay alive because there’s more stories to tell with him but in-universe, I can’t make sense of him getting less poison then Antoine’s dad.

Well, he’s dying so Antoine and Bunnie go in together to see him.

He still has enough left in him to give a dying speech though and to his credit, it’s a pretty good one.

When Antoine cries into his chest about being a failure because of how jealous he was of Sonic and how he’s been a coward and almost broke the team apart, his father rightfully says that’s a joke. Antoine worked through his jealousy, has been fighting against Eggman since he was a boy, and won the heart of a great warrior. A warrior that’s honestly a far better catch than Sally in my opinion. Their relationship is exceedingly more healthy than the one Sonic and Sally have. Antoine dodged a bullet.

After also giving Bunnie some words of encouragement and telling the two of them to hang onto their love, he goes peacefully. 

He goes about as peacefully as one could hope honestly. 

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Then it ends with a tribute to Jane Flynn, Ian Flynn’s grandmother.

I shouldn’t be this excited reading a comic I’ve already read but goddamn do I need it right now. Just, story after story right now has been knocking it out of the park, standing as a heavy example of just how much story potential this series has when someone who gives a fuck is driving that bus. 

It’s not just as good as I remember, it’s better. I’m so happy I can continue to say that but it really is true. Having the original context for all of this shit just enhances how monumental and huge all of what’s happening is. I feel like I’m experiencing something heavy and it’s an honor and a privilege to do so. The second story worked well for what it was too. Even if the style wasn’t my cup of tea, the writing and the expressions within the art did their job and in the end it didn’t demolish what they were going for.

I want to read the last issue of this arc right the hell now but I know if I try to do anymore, I’ll collapse. That’ll be a nice treat for the me of next week when things finally get SUPER!

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Random thoughts, as usual:

- I admit I probably give the Ian-written conclusion to M25YL some more slack than it's owed, but I think it's only fair. Penders left the arc in such a state that plot contrivances had to happen. You're also misremembering I think about Ian's explanation as to why this arc was a thing - M25YL was always intended to have a conclusion, it's partly the reason Penders left, alongside the Shadow game tie-in fiasco, he was being asked to make drastic changes to the M25YL arc by the editor, King Shadow being one of them.

So when Ian came on board, M25YL's conclusion was another part of Penders' mess that Ian was left to clean up, because the King Sonic going back in time bit was a blatant cliffhanger. Much like Darkest Storm being a scenario where Ian was just handed three issues and told to make it work, I'm fairly certain it's the same here, Ian was handled two stories in two issues, about 20-30 pages, and told to wrap up this arc, and in the state Penders left it in, Ian had his work cut out for him. I do think it's partly because people wanted a conclusion to M25YL, but it's also a case where the editor just wanted the story concluded and done already, much like the other random shit from other writers that Ian was told to tidy.

It's why I can excuse things like Tails randomly knowing everything. Keeping in mind - he's the scientist of the Sonic universe. If fucking Rotor and Cobar could figure out what was going on with the planet, I'm sure Tails probably could've done it in half the time and figure out what Sonic and Knuckles were going to do in an attempt to fix it. Is it a bit of an ass-pull? Sure. Is it unreasonable? I don't really think so? Time travel's been a thing in Archie Sonic for a long time, and again - Tails is the main scientist and engineer of the universe, on par with Eggman. As much as Penders would love you to believe Cobar and the echidnas are super duper amazing, I think most of us are willing to bet a fully grown-up Tails would probably trump everyone else in terms of engineering skill and intellect. 

Plus...it's just something that had to happen. Having a future story without the main trio was a garbage idea from the start, and if this was going to work, that had to be course-corrected. We had to see Sonic and Tails reconcile, we had see Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles' dynamic now that they were adults with very different lives and roles now. I'll take plot contrivances if it actively fixes massive misfires from Penders' story. Same with Lara-Su. Is it a bit lame she manages to capture Shadow solo, and so quickly? Yes. Is it required so that M25YL actually has a legitimate vocal point, and actually ties back to Lara-Su not being an annoying whiny brat, and actually a competent fighter in her own right? Absolutely. Plus, she actually feels like she could be the daughter of Knuckles now. With the same hot-headed, rebellious and cocky ego her father has. 

-On the subject of Tommy, Thanks Ken Penders made a good point on it, because I didn't really see the hubbub about Tommy either - but to understand why he was so loathed, you had to be in the time period. You have to keep in mind that during the Dark Age, the Freedom Fighters were nearly always in the background as characters during that period. Sally and Bunnie have relationship drama, Antoine was Patch, and Rotor was blatantly mischaracterised.

And instead of getting stories actually based on the characters people wanted to see, there was instead multiple main arcs and issues, as well as multiple B stories that were dedicated solely onto Tommy. Giving him nanites randomly so he could fight and make random shit out of nothing, having him constantly display hidden depths, justify the trouble he causes, having him be a super cool selfishless timid dude who sacrifices his life for Sonic, and everyone loves and appreciates him, even though he's barely been present until his introduction + his random slapdash inclusion into Sonic's backstory, and so on - and all of this happening in the dark age where you had to wait monthly for issues, and the main FF were getting blatantly mishandled? It doesn't take much to get why Tommy was despised back then.  

-Words cannot describe how Order from Chaos has one of my favourite "screw that" moments. Turbo Tails. Fucking Turbo. Tails. For as much shit as we give Penders, words also cannot describe how much of a gigantic and awful wet fart Titan Tails was. Not only was it a terrible payoff to something they hyped up for ages, but Tails wasn't even the one who did it. No no, it was Tails...and all of his ridiculously bad and weird universal counterparts coming together as one to randomly fart and suck up Mogul's power from it.

But here? No no, here's the true destiny, Tails was destined to unify the Chaos Emeralds scattered across the galaxy so they'd be made whole and capable of being used against Mogul. A destiny that only he gets to fulfil, and it's excellent. Not only is it not utterly ridiculous, but it's also fixes a huge issue with the comics compared to the games (the literal hundreds of thousands of Chaos Emeralds), let's Tails have his time in the spotlight proper, and retcon a godawful story so it wasn't the payoff to this long arc, easily one of Ian's best clean-up jobs IMO, especially seeing him team up with Sonic and Shadow to set things right.

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All I have to say in response is that I'm glad that I didn't read these during the Dark Ages. Waiting month after month for that shit sounds dreadful.

That said, the Tommy thing is unfortunately going to end up being one of those things I won't entirely get. I didn't read these during the Dark Ages and I'm not a huge fan of the Freedom Fighters either so they all tend to occupy a similar space for me. Tommy just kind of feels like a weird inserted OC because of it. Not entirely awful but also not necessary. 

His legacy will always be tied to Order of Chaos for me and what happens in it is awesome so that's that I guess. At least I finally know why after making it all this way.

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Tommy for me was just that character that wouldn't stay dead! It seemed like he had so many martyred moments, I half expected him to walk this one off back in the day. It's fitting he takes the form of phoenix in the next chapter with how often he rises from the ashes. On top of that he was one more for the brain trust then we really needed. I mean I'll go to bat for Rotor, Chuck or even Nate Morgan, but Tommy was pushing it. 

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I think that's also it, it felt they wanted to have their cake and eat it too with Tommy, by giving him all these big character ending moments and then continuing to use the character. 

If Tommy had stayed dead in his first appearance he would not have the hatedom he does.

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On 5/10/2021 at 9:42 AM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

All I have to say in response is that I'm glad that I didn't read these during the Dark Ages. Waiting month after month for that shit sounds dreadful.

That said, the Tommy thing is unfortunately going to end up being one of those things I won't entirely get. I didn't read these during the Dark Ages and I'm not a huge fan of the Freedom Fighters either so they all tend to occupy a similar space for me. Tommy just kind of feels like a weird inserted OC because of it. Not entirely awful but also not necessary. 

His legacy will always be tied to Order of Chaos for me and what happens in it is awesome so that's that I guess. At least I finally know why after making it all this way.

Glad you found that much enjoyment from part 1 alone, especially after your epic trials of the Penders era just to get here.  Would you say it was worth trudging through it just for a couple issues? 😝 

Seriously though, I've long been waiting for you to tackle this story.  It's easily the most cathartic, brilliantly composed moments in the comic's history.  How Flynn made A.D.A.M.'s plan actually so coherent, despite it being composed of several layers of nonsense storytelling and have a divisive guy like Tommy be given a more positive outlook is the kind of big brain moment you wish to have.  Shame A.D.A.M. only lasts this story though as he's the kind of villain you delight in reading.

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As a kid reading these comics who played the games first. I didn't really dislike Tommy for his focus or him over shadowing the FF or whatever, honestly I just bought the comics back then to watch Sonic and other game characters do cool shit and I didn't really grow to appreciate the rest until Ian started making them more interesting and likable. I simply did not like Tommy because he was fucking BORING, they couldn't come up anything for him to do so they just made him a smart guy when the good guys already had TO MANY smart guys. Hell friggin Rotor was losing relevance as the smart guy so what chance did Tommy have when competing against Rotor, Tails, Uncle Chuck and even Snively at one point? And giving him nanintes didn't change anything he was still boring! Good on Ian for blowing him to hell the first chance he got 

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Can’t really say I cared much for Tommy either. I never hated him, he was just...there to me. He wasn’t someone I was ever interested to see, but not someone I had an issue with appearing.

Matter of fact, why exactly was he created? I was introduced to the character in the same issue he died, which I believe was 116 (feel free to correct me) where he tosses Sonic out of the window from a bomb explosion. He never grew on me since, and the only time he made any impact was his final appearance where he at least got a proper send off.

Quote

If Tommy had stayed dead in his first appearance he would not have the hatedom he does.

People said the exact same thing, word for word, for Shadow, back during this very period of the comics.

Not saying that to defend Tommy, because I doubt he had Shadow’s level of popularity despite that, but rather that I would like this fandom (or at least these forums) to not slip back into old habits. 

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Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #169: Order From Chaos, Part 2: The Great Harmony

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We’ve gone Super on this cover and we will within the pages of the book too. It’s been a while so, of course, they have to advertise it like it’s the first time it’s happened. I can’t say that I blame them since I can barely remember the last time it’s happened. I remember Sonic getting a bunch of strange, random, weird looking forms that didn’t amount to a whole lot way back in the day. It’s best to keep things simple. Turbo Tails be stylin’ with that cape. 

It’s time for the epic conclusion to one of my all time favorite Archie Sonic stories. 

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Tracy Yardley
Inks: Jim Amash
Letters: John Workman
Colors: Jason Jensen
Editor: Mike Pellerito

I’m going to be so sad when this story is over. Mostly because I want more of the same feelings to happen, like, immediately.

Sonic zips around a corner in Nanite City and finds his dad collapsed on the ground. Sonic makes sure he’s okay while they engage in some amusing banter. A.D.A.M told Jules to go somewhere and self-destruct and then jokes about how he wasn’t given a time limit so he should have a good 40 years left in him. Sonic jokes that he should have the day saved by then.

Sonic races off, in an even worse mood, when Jules tells him that A.D.A.M is using the Nanites to take control of Tommy. As this happens, A.D.A.M is continuing to be his own hype man by commentating over how all the Chaos Emeralds in the universe are flying towards him at this very second.

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We’ve got the green ones from Mobius, first. These all originally being green still makes no sense and the confusing lore surrounding them on top of that with the Chao and the origin of the Master Emerald was even worse. Thank God, it won’t matter soon.

The next ones are the cyan ones from the Planet Weeet. I had no idea what this was but the caption says “Who remembers Car-Heem from the classic STH #23” so I have no choice but to assume I’m not supposed to remember this. 

As soon as I looked him up, I instantly remembered who Car-Heem was though, surprisingly. Taking a glance at his race on the page did nothing but seeing him in that old artstyle on the wiki summoned the old memories back. The details of the story were a bit fuzzy, as I was momentarily confusing it with the same plot as the Bem when they first arrived, but Car-Heem was actually just a collector who gathered up Sonic and the Freedom Fighters as well as Robotnik and Snively to observe them. 

Due to the book being in it’s more cartoonish infancy, villains were a lot easier to redeem back then so he learned the error of his ways after Robotnik nearly got them all killed and the Freedom Fighters had to save his life. So now he goes around only collecting non-living things. 

So yeah. That dude’s planet has all the Cyan Emeralds.

The Blue Emeralds were all taken from the planet Xorda. Obviously, I remember them. The hype as fuck alien invasion that saw to Sonic’s journey through space will never be forgotten. Their planet seems to be full of water, which makes sense, since they’re jellyfish.

A.D.A.M takes a moment to halt any attempts at nitpicking by asking the question that was probably on some nerd’s mind back in the day only to answer it for them. “How do I know all this? I am bound to the summoning sphere. The emeralds are telling me.”

Magic. Got it.

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The red emeralds from Thoraxia are next. I remember this as the only place we actually got to witness the emeralds. The red ones were the only other ones that we were shown in the 168  issues leading up to this point, which is wild to me. Reading this issue back in the day, I just assumed that these were all places that were visited or talked about at some point to specifically show off these emeralds. It really threw me for a loop just how much lore was being thrown at me.

Come to find out that while that’s technically true, this is the first time these emeralds have been stated as being from these locations. It’s interesting. I guess I thought that in order for this to be so thoroughly explained, it would have had to have been the result of the characters knowing these emeralds were all out there but now that I’m here, I’m realizing that’s not the case at all.

The purple ones are from the remains of Teragosa 6, a planet that Sonic found destroyed back in #128.

I remember that. The amount of death in those stories was shocking and the depressing end for our naïve space friend E.V.E still haunts me to this day.

Speaking of which, the next one is the star that consumed E.V.E. The Yellow Emeralds are being pulled from there which is making it go dark. Things are shifting for the outer universe as well now.

Finally, the Grey Emeralds shoot off from Argentum. The caption reminds me that this is the planet where Sonic found Tails’ parents, which makes it the place where all that stuff with the Bem went down.

The fact that Sonic ended up in the vicinity of all these places is funny to think about. I’m more shocked by the fact that all these references, aside from two of them, are all from pretty much the same arc. I didn’t expect that to be the case back when I first read this either.

Ian basically went down the line of canonical planets or aliens within the series and assigined them an emerald color. Smart man. It’s crazy just how disconnected these stories past #160 actually are compared to the ones floundering about like a fish out of water from before Ian came aboard. Being able to see where all the dots connect is crazy man.

A.D.A.M’s evil machinations have borne the biggest fruit that’ll probably ever exist in this or any other Sonic the Hedgehog story known to man though. It doesn’t get much more insane than gathering a metric ton of Chaos Emeralds from all over the universe!

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Literally all of them, one of each color, are swirling around above his appropriately nervous father for him to bare witness to. Meanwhile, Turbo Tails and Super Shadow look like they’re suffering in their tubes. I love that Tails has grown his cape inside there as well. Being the Chosen One grants you access to special red fabric summoning itself around your neck.

Eggman is beside himself with shock. 

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Dude literally can’t believe what he’s seeing.

It’s all there right in front of him; every Chaos Emerald in the universe and yet he can’t have it. None of that is for him. It all belongs to A.D.A.M, his son, who betrayed him for his “love”.

God, could you imagine? A.D.A.M uses the summoning sphere to bring your wildest desire straight to you, whether it be a ton of money or a seemingly endless collection of 10 out of 10 Sonic the Hedgehog games that cater to your every whim and works on any device you may want to play them on… and he just dangles it in front of you, playing keep away like a bitch.

As Eggman takes his time rebooting, A.D.A.M is left contemplating why he’s missing the largest of the Green Emeralds, the Master Emerald.

It’s because Locke and Finitevus are… working together to keep the emerald in place.

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I was mildly confused by this back in the day. I guess I must have figured these two were in some sort of stalemate and had agreed to work together for an undesirable amount of time despite not liking one another. 

… Turns out, that’s pretty much exactly it. I know the details now but the circumstances aren’t much different. Still, even with all that earlier context, this is still a very weird scene to admire. Finitevus is, of course, planning to use the Master Emerald for his own reasons. Those reasons being the catalyst to another of the best stories in Archie Sonic.

I also remember being confused by A.D.A.M calling the Master Emerald "the largest of the Green Emeralds" due to not thinking it was the same as a Chaos Emerald. I had no idea about the Master Emerald's origin in this comic and thus didn't know it was actually a bunch of regular Green Emeralds pasted together. That still baffles me. 

No time to think about that now though. Sonic has arrived and he immediately gets to work facing off against A.D.A.M. 

A.D.A.M starts speaking like Two-Face for this one instant when he says “We were wondering when you’d show up” to Sonic. Turns out Tommy is still conscious underneath all that Nanite goo. Sonic starts to admonish A.D.A.M for going insane with power like the “son” of Eggman would do. A.D.A.M defends himself by saying he’s fulfilling his function and when he’s done “Father will be so very proud of me”.

Yeesh. 

Eggman outright disowns A.D.A.M on the spot, claiming he’s no son of his, just a digital double crosser. He wants Sonic to tear him apart. A.D.A.M just says that sentiments like that are why he got rid of M and Sonic claims that’s more angsty than Shadow, a line I’m still not sure I understand.

I find A.D.A.M’s motivations more creepy to be honest but I guess I can see what Sonic means. Tricking his father into murdering his sister M literally just so he can be the only one that has Eggman’s affections is a very angsty teenager idea, I suppose, but A.D.A.M is doing it all with a wicked grin on his face. It doesn’t seem like he’s angsting about it. It's more like he’s gleefully opting for the position of favorite child rather than desperately trying to nab it out of sheer desperation. It’s not like M or Eggman ever did anything to him to make him think he wasn’t appreciated. 

Nah, A.D.A.M is just an unstable virus that got a taste of love and went insane with his desire for more. It kind of puts that scene of Tails teaching him riddles that one time into a new perspective for me. 

Sonic skids his legs along A.D.A.M’s face and then tries to bash him… however, A.D.A.M peels back the Nanite Symbiote goop to reveal Tommy’s disgruntled, suffering face. Sonic apologizes a bit too long and then gets decked in the face for his troubles. 

Eggman helps Sonic to his feet, telling him to hold him off for a bit longer because his Egg Fleet is in route and it’ll blow him away. 

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I love it. I love seeing them on the same page like this. It’s always great whenever it happens, especially with this version of Eggman.

However, Sonic doesn’t want what the Eggman is cooking because that’ll mean Tommy will get blown away too. He has to do that hero thing like normal and squeak out a win.

I’m sure Sonic can do it. He always does. No way did Eggman just outright state what’ll end up happening in the end. The villains never get to do that.

A.D.A.M takes off and flies through the spire of universal Chaos Emeralds while Sonic runs along it next to him.

Thanks to this, he’s now become Super Sonic…!

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… And A.D.A.M has become Golden Solaris!

I love Sonic’s face on that bottom panel. He almost looks insulted.

Even better, Eggman is still in the fray so he releases Super Shadow and Turbo Tails from their capsules.

He explains the situation to them and Turbo Tails takes the reigns immediately, knowing what must be done to send what was foretold to it’s end.

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Perhaps it’s my imagination, but Turbo Tails in this moment always seemed a lot more regal to me. It’s odd because his language is only… slightly tweaked to sound more proper. He’s not using big words or anything but the way he’s talking is making him come off more like a prophet himself. 

Phrases like “I know what must be done” and “That much power cannot exist here” sound like things a space wizard would say in that specific manner. Or Doctor Strange.

Tails asks Shadow if he can open a portal to the nearest zone. He stresses that he doesn’t want it to go to another dimension entirely (probably because there’s a chance actual people would live there) and Shadow gets the hint, opening up to another Zone.

It just so happens to be the Zone of Silence, to which Tails bemoans “Why do we always end up with the Zone of Silence?”

Either way, it’s a bit of a godsend because now Tails can get to work, accomplishing his duty in a manner that’ll actually cause a significant and important change within the status of the book that isn’t just something trumped up for the sake of fulfilling a prophecy set up eons ago that no one, until now, had a satisfactory way of following through on.

Tails outright states that he’s about to fulfill the prophecy that he thought he already finished by enacting the beginning of the Great Harmony.

Turns out, it’s because all the Chaos Emeralds will be unified!

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Haha. Special, he says. Get it? It’s gonna be a Special Zone. 

Now, when I originally read this I thought that they were just sending the Chaos Emeralds away. I didn’t know what the Zone of Silence was, exactly, but I figured it was like one of those special stages from the Classic Sonic games.

I also didn’t know about this prophecy Tails was talking about or even who, or what, the context for Turbo Tails was. I just thought it was cool that Tails had some sort of Super Form, minimalistic in flare though it may be when it comes to the change in his body. That cape works well on him though, honestly.

Seriously, that red cape, the position of his fingers, and the fact that he’s using mystic arts to open a big yellow portal just lays on the Doctor Strange vibes, super thick.

It’s true that A.D.A.M had little to fear from Sonic alone but he underestimated Sonic ability to act as a good distraction. Now the Chaos Emeralds have disappeared in a huge flash over the approaching glowing red sunset. Over on the other side of the horizon is the Egg Fleet. He’s supposedly beat… but his Super form makes him invincible!

Except, he’s not the only one occupying this body. Tommy finally wins back control, after having tried to for an obscenely long time, and gets to have one last conversation with Sonic.

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Sigh. Yeah.

I could tell from the replies last time that I’m a little alone on this but the feelings this scene and the follow-through of what happens next are also a big part of why I love this story so much. It just wouldn’t be the same without what’s about to transpire next. However, the words of this turtle proceeding it, honestly got to me as well, reading it here.

I… didn’t have any opinion on Tommy originally because I didn’t know who he was but despite that, his demise was so visceral and strong that it shook me anyway. Reading through all these issues and coming to this point didn’t change that lack of an opinion either.

There’s no real reason for him to have been such a prolific part of the comics out of nowhere back when he first showed up and his personality and the stories centered on him were all either confusing in terms of viable time consumption or worthless in terms of relevance to the plot. 

Now, all of it’s been finally made relevant and it’s culminating into this moment where Tommy apologizes for all the trouble he’s caused. However, I got a little misty eyed reading this because it honestly kind of reads like he’s apologizing for existing and his way of making up for that is to commit a heroic suicide.

The urge to apologize for existing is... a feeling I've felt. We'll just say that.

The sad look on his face, followed by the sheer determination etched on it when he realizes what’ll happen soon and what he has to do, followed by the smile he has as he flies off to make it so, having long accepted his fate just hits different now. 

With a horrified look on Sonic and Tails’ face, followed by the commanding clenched fist of Eggman pumped at the reader as he screams out his order, Tommy and A.D.A.M become the next victims of the house cleaning and are reduced to dust.

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This page is perfect.

Literal perfection.

Everything on this page is etched into my mind, both as individual panels and as a cohesive whole. The bright flash of orange and yellow that shrouds Sonic and Tommy in black as he’s obliterated by the Egg Fleet works well enough but the fact that the page has that large “KRA-KOOM” stamped all over it really sells how massive and powerful the attack was without even having to really see it. It’s like the light itself is flash frying him to dust. 

The next panel is of that dust wafted through Sonic’s hands as he stares ahead in disbelief, the shine of Super Sonic going away as the sunset lingers and everything slowly peters on to nighttime. Sonic wasn’t able to do the hero thing the way he wanted. For once, when Eggman said his Egg Fleet would take care of it, he wasn’t lying.

I think the biggest panel for me is the third one though. It’s that shot of Eggman from below as the cold wind blows by him. He stands there with his hand out, looking upset and says the line “What a colossal waste of time”. 

The amount of times I’ve had Eggman say that line in fan-fics or Rps or fan-comics I’ve dabbled in or even in just stories I’m dreaming up in my head is a testament to how much it stuck with me.

One of Sonic’s friends was just obliterated by his Egg Fleet and as the two heroes are stricken with clear and obvious grief, Eggman is just heartlessly DISMISSIVE of it. He just stares at the sky, momentarily scoffing at the idea of family and lamenting the loss of all the Chaos Emeralds while getting away with calling the events that led to Tommy’s death a “colossal waste of time”.

Then, without even looking back at Sonic and Tails, he struts off with Shadow and waves them bye, saying he’s letting them go because he’s had too long a day.

The fact that Sonic was aware enough of what Eggman had even said to him to mutter out a “Sure” in response is surprising.

The sunset goes away and it’s night time now, which leaves Sonic and Tails shrouded in darkness and staring at the meager light of the full moon.

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Yeah, I’ll admit it. This got me misty eyed. I don’t know what else to even really say about it.

The way the colors, the use of the wind, and the transition through time sell the atmosphere and the moment work so well. Every time I see this scene, I shiver a little because I’m suddenly aware of how cold my room is. It’s like I can literally feel the chilly air brush by my body when I’m looking at the pages. It never fails to work on me either.

So ends the life of Tommy the Turtle. I had no real opinion on him one way or the other leading up to this point but I’ve landed on the opinion that it doesn’t matter. I associate Tommy so much with this one grand moment and as such, this is what he is to me. Now that I know the whole context and I feel even stronger in my conviction regarding that, I feel it’s clear that I probably won’t ever change my mind about it. 

That’s a good thing because I don’t want to. I’d rather this character be as good as the last action he had in the book rather than stew in the muck of the confusion that got us to this point. It makes me happy.

 

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #169: ...For a Friend

Writer: Ian Flynn
Inks & Letters: Ken Penders
Pencils: Steven Butler
Colors: Aimee Ray

Ken Penders’ name being in association with this book, even for something as minor as the inks and letters, offends me. 

I figured there was a chance it wouldn’t be that bad but as soon as I turned the page my eyes were instantly assaulted by a bunch of words being bolded.

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I got SO worried. Thankfully, he chills out on that soon after this. The next thing that gets bolded is done appropriately too. Color me surprised.

Ray’s stutter is back. 

It’s just back again. I don’t… know why this keeps happening but yeah. 

Honestly, I’d rather he’d have the stutter than not. It’s cute and it’s a nice differentiating trait to impose upon him… but it’s annoying how inconsistent it is. I want them to hurry up and pick a lane because every time it shows back up, I do a double take and try to remember if he’s had it all the time or not, even though I know he hasn’t.

This week’s excuse for not including Charmy and Saffron is the fact that they’re on a double date with Knuckles and Julie-Su. I kind of want to see that.

This story follows Espio, Ian’s favorite of the Chaotix, as he infiltrates the transformed Golden Hive Castle, former home of Charmy Bee and now a base for Dr. Eggman.

Yup. 

Well, at least Charmy’s being mentioned again. It’s still odd that he’s not here for something directly related to his circumstances though. I suppose the in-story reason is that they want to do this mission without him to spare him his feelings, which I can buy just fine. I won’t get too bent out of shape over it.

Espio interrogates a robot and scares it into telling him exactly what he wants before he murders it by cutting it in half. He sneaks through the facility and makes it to the main Egg-Computer Room. 

An Egg Pawn is playing Solitaire or some other card game and Espio murders him before he can use his hint. Like a dick.

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Espio plugs in Nicole so that she can hack the system. As he does this, he looks over the pile of metal organs spilling out of the Egg Pawn he just killed and asks why Eggman would program his machines to feel fear as it serves no purpose.

Nicole disagrees, saying that Eggman thrives on the misery of others so without Snively and any family, he fills the void with his robots.

That’s a neat hypothesis that goes both ways. It could say that he’s desperate for a family with emotions that feel genuine but the fact that he thrives on the misery of others could also mean he thrives on the misery of said family in a certain sense.

Anyway, Nicole is in and now they’ve pulled up the info on what happened to Charmy’s family. Here is the first half of what’ll be considered a factory reset of Charmy’s position within the book. This first part is cruel but it’s not unwelcome. The second part comes a bit later and it's awful.

The Kingdom is said to have scattered. Anyone who wasn’t captured just fled in all directions and all the holdings and structures have been converted to serve Eggman. The Golden Hive Colony is gone.

Thank goodness. Good riddance to it. 

I remember being so upset when Ken Penders wrote that story that ended with the lesson being that Charmy needed to give up on the life he wanted to live to stay true to a position foisted upon him by his parents. The fact that he does this after being put into an emotionally vulnerable position thanks to the death of his best friend Mello and the story emphasizing that him doing so was the “mature” thing to do, despite the fact that it cost him even more of his happiness, disgusted me.

Good bye. Don’t ever come back, Golden Hive Colony.

Now, the terms used here are very wishy-washy. They don’t outright state that Charmy’s parents and his weird looking butler are dead but… they’re totally fucking dead. I mean, come on. If they weren’t roboticized, they were just killed. I doubt they’d have scattered and never once attempted to seek out Charmy or head to Knothole after him. 

Espio is extremely pissed off to hear this and decides to go full blown nuclear on the facility. He tells Nicole to enact a detonation on the base, disable all warning sensors, and block off all escape routes aside from his own.

Then we get a shot of him using his tongue the way an actual chameleon uses it and it’s freaky.

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Nope. Nopenopenopenopenope. So much NOPE!

He shows up beside Mighty and Ray and explains that he’s got the downloaded info. Mighty asks him what happened to cause that explosion and Espio simply states that Eggman hurt Charmy so he hurt Eggman back. Fair enough.

I can only hope future stories go more in-depth about how Charmy himself feels about it but I can’t recall that happening… and eventually, there will be nothing to recall...

Order from Chaos is a master class in storytelling as far as Sonic the Hedgehog and what can be accomplished with it’s concepts are concerned. This is by far the best example of a story that utilizes the confusing, disjointed, and weird nonsense from before the time of Ian Flynn to its advantage. All the pieces come together brilliantly and weave into a climax that has the pitch perfect atmosphere for the powerful and noble sacrifice that takes place. To this day, that single page after the deed is done continues to inspire and affect everything I do with my own creative concepts for Sonic. I want to one day create something that nails the atmosphere that scene has. What a colossal good use of my time. 

 

Sonic X - Issue #31: The Return of El Gran Gordo!

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The great hero returns! It would seem he’s taken to facing off against everyone’s favorite villain, Dr. Eggman, as well. Oh, but what’s this? Leaping in from the ropes is one Sonic the Hedgehog. It’s anybody’s match folks… except not really. Sonic doesn’t stand a chance against either of them. Clearly.

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Tracy Yardley
Inks: Terry Austin
Colors: Josh Ray
Letters: Phil Felix
Editor/Managing editor: Mike Pellerito

So this is the first page of the issue and it sets the stage pretty well, but, there’s one thing about it that kind of made me laugh from jump.

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Why is Sonic drooling like that? I know he’s sticking his tongue out because he doesn’t have much fondness for the wrestling but it’s like he accidentally made himself look dumb in a bid to look defiant. He sticks his tongue out in defiance and then accidentally drools like an idiot.

Andes the Ginormous is interviewed by Scarlet Garcia, because she’s the only news reporter that exists, about what his next challenge will be. Don’t know why but my brain decided this guy talks like Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

He calls out El Gran Gordo and calls him a coward. This gets Chris so excited, he starts bouncing up and down on the couch. Even Grandpa Chuck says it’d be a great match despite El Gran Gordo SUPPOSEDLY having been Eggman. 

Sonic walks away saying that there’s a fat chance of it happening since Eggman gave up on that a long time ago. As he walks off, Chris and Chuck look furious by the assertion. So does Eggman as he’s watching the TV but damn.

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These guys all really take their wrestling seriously.

I can’t blame them. It looks like it’s serious business. It’s probably a lot harder to deal with Sonic being a huge dismissive sourpuss about everything too.

Bocoe and Decoe quickly try to talk Eggman out of it by recapping the El Gran Gordo plot of old. He ended up having to face Sonic in the ring and then Bokkun ate too much sweets, went crazy, and tried to take over the world. As you do.

Eggman doesn’t really care though. He marches off and says that he needs to teach this Andes guy a lesson and tells Bokkun he needs him for this assignment, which Bokkun doesn’t look too jazzed about.

Sonic, either the next or current day after he walked off, is running in the street, thinking to himself about how worried he is that Chris may find something cooler than him. He doesn’t say that’s what the problem is but I feel it’s a charitable interpretation. 

He basically says in his head that he doesn’t understand why Chris likes that fake wrestling. He says, “Sure, it’s got colorful costumes, lots of action, and bigger than life characters but he lives that every day with me!”

I mean, he lives two of those things every day with you. I don’t know how many colorful costumes ya’ll are snagging up on your missions.

Anyway, he comes across Eggman in a page that looks delightfully whimsical and also the clear brainchild of an asshole who can just do whatever he wants.

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Look at this. It’s wonderful.

He just slammed a conveyor belt into someone’s bakery and is sucking it away. He barely cares about the money too which I also get. Why steal the money when you can just steal the stuff?

Also, the Forty Cakes thing is a Lex Luthor meme that I just found out existed. Comic book nerds writing comic books? Say it ain’t so.

Sonic is about to try and stop him when, all of a sudden, El Gran Gordo appears on the televisions in the store he’s running by to say that he’s accepting Andres’ challenge.

Sonic is STUNNED by the fact that this is happening when Eggman is right in front of him. It’s not a commercial because the TV says it’s LIVE. This means what we all knew all a long; El Gran Gordo and Dr. Eggman are two completely different people. Of course.

As Sonic contemplates the facts of life, Eggman gets away which causes Sonic to go, “Ah shit.” like he did in the second episode of Sonic X. Or at least, that’s my headcanon now.

That night Sonic is running beside Chris’ car as they’re driving to go watch the wrestling show. Chris asks Sonic if he’s coming and Sonic says he’s going to do laps around the city until he finds Eggman, saying to snag a picture of Gordo getting hit with a chair.

This vile heathen knows not what he says. If anyone needs to get hit with a chair it’s this non-believer, Sonic.

... So anyway, El Gran Gordo starts off the match, not doing so great.

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He gets slammed so hard that the entire ring bends inward.

It’s wonderful that El Gran Gordo, the great hero and better than Sonic the Non-Believer, feels compelled to make sure to clear up the confusion about him and Dr. Eggman. Yeah, it looked like it might have been the truth but come on? They’re so clearly different, it hurts.

Almost as much as that suplex probably would have hurt a normal person. Obviously, it can’t hurt El Gran Gordo because he’s immortal, probably. 

El Gran Gordo thinks to himself about how he forgot he used trickery to win only to remember that when he fought Sonic he lasted longer than most of his robots. He figures that’s reason enough to charge at his giant man and squeeze out a win but he ends up being clotheslined and tossed into the ropes before being laid out again.

Sonic is watching this happening on the TVs by the store’s window out at night. Look at this face of contemplation.

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“Hmm. Wrestling might be good actually.”

Before he does this though, he sees Dr. Eggman flying by in his Egg Mobile and goes after him instead.

This time, he blasts his laser into a candy store. If it wasn’t obvious before, it is now. This Eggman is a fake and he’s got an huge sweet tooth.

When Sonic runs up to him, this Eggman freaks out and starts trying to pretend to be him only to end up saying--!

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Ah yes. The greatest of all Eggman’s insults. Calling Sonic a “ninny”. That’s one for the books.

Sonic attacks and they get pushed to fighting inside the candy store. The Fake Eggman is freaking out even harder, pressing a bunch of random ass buttons to try and get them to do something. Sonic already knows he’s a fake by this point.

It’s interesting how this angle is being taken as a means of getting another El Gran Gordo story. It’s been a long while since we’ve had to deal with those S.O.N.I.C.X guys at this point but wrestling truly is more important.

The fake Eggman actually does manage to nail Sonic in the fucking face with the boxing glove from Sonic Adventure 2. It’s honestly a surprisingly visceral and powerful looking hit too. 

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Unfortunately, it spills the candy everywhere and the fake leaps off to save it, making it clear once and for all what’s happening.
Imagine the real Eggman leaping from his Eggmobile to scurry up a bunch of candy on the ground. My word.

So Fred takes off the monster’s mask, revealing it was Old Man Jenkins all along.

1asl09UejbBCVNliSZXho6tWHpGsrYFe3MJQdoI2GdChQ3Ce9BBWw2YAyEZkgf5PmS9aLCWyKx24JP8zbJdiH-RqPr33R1JP2sOhtwursNUiRloeMSj6wcq29H_VXW7cilUS1ywi

This image of Bokkun’s head on a robot Eggman’s body is a little haunting. I know he’s probably moving some sort of lever or whatever to make the body move properly but the appendages still look like they belong to him. 

You’d be sure to get a lot of strange looks if you were to go around cosplaying as this... this horrid, eldritch monster beast.

Sonic tells Bokkun that enough’s enough. We don’t know the full extent of what that means but we cut back to El Gran Gordo, who isn’t doing so hot.

He gets tossed to the ground again by this heel and is being bullied into tapping out himself. However, before all is lost, a single tear falls from the young, excited fan that’s supported him all this time.

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You can hear the music start to swell at this moment.

It’s intentionally hokey, sure, but that’s why it works.

El Gran Gordo summons the strength of 10,000 men in this exact moment and just beats the shit out of a legit professional wrestler.

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Just crushes him.

Just demolishes him.

Just turns him into paste.

He finishes him with the flying Gordo Smasher and holds aloft the championship belt as the official winner.

No tricks too. El Gran Gordo just got positive rage strength and beat the shit out of this guy. 

You know, after this, he really should take into consideration just how powerful a tool positive reinforcement can be. It’s no wonder the heroes win so often if this is what it can lead to.

We cut back to Sonic who is actually going to turn Bokkun into the police. However, Bokkun actually outwits Sonic in one of the most embarrassing ways he could have been outwitted yet. He does another Scooby Doo maneuver and tosses candy at the ground for him to slip on.

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Then he gets into the Eggmobile, smacks them aside with the wings of the mini ship, and flies off. It’s kind of brilliant how simple that is but also, damn, how humiliating. I guess this is Sonic’s punishment for being a non-believer.

Well, either way, he returns home soon after and greets Chris and Chuck there. Chris is on Cloud 9. He’s excited and presumably vibrating like he’s been injected with 10 rounds of espresso. 

The match was epic and he takes delight in revealing that El Gran Gordo isn’t actually Eggman. Chris asks him what he was doing the whole time and Sonic contemplates crushing his dream before deciding not to. He just says the night was uneventful and they head in.

Of course, the night is still young and Sonic has to pay for his transgressions against the might of El Gran Gordo.

That’s why the savior himself arrives at his doorstep.

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Then the “To Be Continued” sign rolls in while the start up to Roundabout happens to close things out for us. 

Wrestling, when done properly and handled by someone in charge who isn’t an abusive asshole that doesn't care about the people working under them, is great. I wish I could get more into it but my time is being divided up by so many things and the list of the amount of stuff there is to watch and do before I die is just getting longer. It’s a delight that it’s crossing over with Sonic the Hedgehog in this way of course. I wish the other characters could get in on this. Tails would make the most adorable heel. 

 

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #170: Comings & Goings

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This cover actually looks really good and the image of Tails looking over the message of his parents from the device Sonic gave him is obviously the most powerful one here. I especially like how the green light reflects off of Sonic’s face, even though Sonic can’t possibly be there because he’s ginormous. 

However, when you look it over, you do start to find it a little funny how it’s set up. Tails is here, looking distraught, and Sonic’s just got this big happy grin on his face because he knows he’s gotta pose for the cover. Meanwhile, Sally looks like she’s running into him because “OH MY GOD! EVERYTHING’S ON FIRE! STOP POSING AND FIX IT!” It’s wonderful.

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Tracy Yardley
Inks: Jim Amash
Letters: John Workman
Colors: Jason Jensen
Editor: Mike Pellerito

We open on Sally sitting on King Max’s bed, holding his hand as he lays there unconscious. Dr. Quack has a machine that’ll probably be able to pump some life into him but they need a Chaos Emerald in order to make it work. Sonic scampers off, ready to go find Rotor so they can get the ball rolling on that, while Tails whips out his arm band and shows off the hologram of his parents to Sally in a bid to relate to her position of having parents and not being able to do anything to save them.

Only, in this situation, the parents are lost and very loving while Max is… not.

Honestly, reading the synopsis at the top of the page about how Max is in bed and won’t wake up yet again got me wondering how long it’ll take before he just keels over and dies. Just keeping this dude alive is a hefty ass struggle as is. I’m surprised they haven’t bitten the bullet and made him half machine already.

Sonic and Tails go to Rotor and he’s created Star Posts from the Genesis games that’ll be used to get them into the Special Zone, formerly known as the Zone of Silence. Or maybe it's still called that. I don't really care. 

The place is way more trippy and colorful now and HO’ MY GOD! GIANT PANDA!

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I love that we never see this dude’s feet. 

He’s standing in what looks like a seemingly endless space so the very act of standing in and of itself is hard to comprehend. Apparently, sending in all those Chaos Emeralds not only transformed the zone but also made Feist extremely powerful. Good for him. Now he's got a presence worth remembering.

He grafted all the emeralds down to seven. He says he shaped them and gave them form which, I guess means, condensing them to a manageable number. That’s fine. The confusion era involving these things ends here.

Though, it is still different from how the modern games handle them. They’re just scattered about the world but this book has taken the classic approach of having them be of a Special Zone. Both approaches work towards making them feel mystical and mysterious. One approach has them being these bobbles of infinite power with no backstory just sat amongst the world, with a mystery no one is able to solve attached to them. Another has them tied to a special area accessed only by a few smart people in the world. It’s like knowing of their existence and having access to them is something you can only do if you’re a part of this elite club.

Although, admittedly, this makes it a bit harder to justify including Super Sonic in the book. I can recall one more instance where he appears in the Pre-Reboot Archie verse and it’s because he used the Master Emerald to do it, a move I’m not sure would work in the games.

Anyway, they explain to Mister Feist, sir, that they need a Chaos Emerald for the former king because he’s sick. He grants it to them as a thank you for their past efforts but warns them that next time, they won’t be able to get one so easily. He’s going to challenge them for it next time. He also made sure to give them the Grey Emerald because it’s the ugliest looking one in the comic. Funny though, in the games, it looks more white. The flat grey color with a bit of a shine on it doesn’t look at all as mystical or as appealing. It’s got a disappointing lack of luster.

They wave goodbye with fake smiles on their faces before panic running through the portal in a pretty humorous scene.

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By the way, Rotor’s looking a lot more scruffy now. 

I really like the new look.

So, with that, they use the emerald to… bring King Max back to the waking world in a scene that looks more like he’s being possessed by a ghost.

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I love Chuck crossing his fingers here. 

Anyway, it works. Thank God we didn’t have to suffer another endless round of stories to work towards bringing this guy back again.

The first thing out of his mouth is “How…” and Dr. Quack mistakenly thinks he cares one iota about the magic they used to wake him up but what he’s trying to say is “How stands the kingdom?”

He gets caught up to speed on everything. Elias is the king now. Sally and Alicia are… there too. That’s about the crux of it.

Sonic taps Tails on the shoulder as the Acorn Family talks and they head out together. As Sonic is congratulating Tails on his work, Sally rushes over to bring them the Chaos Emerald, saying that Merlin told her to have them bring it to him when they were done. She says it’s her way of “returning the favor”.

They find out what that means when they arrive at Freedom HQ where Merlin awaits. Knuckles was also called in to bring his Guiding Star Gem. It can make portals to distant lands. Apparently, Merlin needs a Chaos Emerald, the Guiding Star Gem, and access to the Ring World of Argentum to bring Tails’ parents back. Jesus.

They sit around the emerald and place their hands on it. Tails tries to find them with his heart… I guess, and Knuckles uses the Star Gem to try and guide them to the location. Sonic just has to hold onto something. Sonic also complains that Fiona isn’t here. His girl would have found this fun, he says. I don’t know how true that is based on what little of her I’ve seen but I guess I’ll take his word for it.

Then they get teleported there! Apparently the place is different but I can’t tell. It looks the same to me. Tails freaks out and runs off to find his mom and dad with Merlin racing after him. Knuckles then points out that the fucking Xorda are there in space above them, fighting against another alien race.

It’s then that we see Tails’ parents and get an explanation for who these aliens are.

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Yeah, it’s the Black Arms. They’re in the book now and instead of heading to Earth/Mobius to destroy it like the Xorda were probably going to do, they actually cross paths with one another and start fighting.

This war has been going on for months and it’s not showing signs of stopping either. It’s so strange thinking about this. 

I’m trying to wrap my head around the circumstances of the comic being so different that another alien race that hates the planet Sonic hails from comes across the one that’s canon to the games and they start fighting, stalling the time the Black Arms promised to return. What a lucky break!

The meeting of the hour happens here of course. Tails’ parents hug Merlin because he’s the first one in their immediate vicinity. Tails is hanging a little in the back but gets pushed forward by Sonic. They instantly recognize Tails as their son. I'm guessing the second tail was a big clue for Rosemary.

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Then, they blast out of there.

The reunion was sweet, if not a little subdued. There’s been bigger splash pages dedicated to Sonic and Sally sucking face. However, I do think it gets the point across with the limited amount of space it has for the most part. It’s just really adorable. 

Although, it always bothers me how solid the tears look. They're just a flat solid blue color. It always reminds me of goo rather than tears.

It’s also kind of funny that they just zip on out of there and leave the alien situation the way that it is. We don’t even get a special appearance by the Bem or a mention of that one girl that helped them out last time. It’s really telling how quickly they want to deliver these plot points at the moment.

God, there’s so much that needs fixing. I didn’t envy Ian because of this herculean task he has but to be honest, he’s been doing such a good job that I’ve looped around to being envious of how good these stories are.

Elias and Amadeus share a heart to heart when Elias arrives to formally welcome them back. The exchange they have is… interesting.

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Knowing this is a prelude to my most hated Sonic the Hedgehog story (and most hated Sonic the Hedgehog character moment within it) did enough to bring me back down to Earth. At the end of the day, the man is still human, though, the circumstances behind why what happens is so bad that’s come to light nowadays makes it more pitiable too. 

I doubt there will ever be a story that surpasses the punching bag status I’ve given to House of Cards. I used to rail on and complain about it endlessly back when the old SEGA Forums existed. It was like my own personal running joke.

I think the thing that really soured me was the fact that seeing the cover of Sonic and Tails fighting was actually the thing that ironically made me want to finally start reading the comics. I had to know the context for it so badly too…

Now, thanks to current events, it's a story that's miraculously somehow gotten even worse.

We cut to Sonic overlooking the graves of Tommy and Sir Connery. People are dying a lot recently and it’s only going to continue happening.

I know that there’s no reason they would do this but I still find it funny that there’s no grave for the Ancient Walkers. Fuck em. 

Seems a bit weird that there’s some dirt dug into the ground in front of the two graves when both of these characters were reduced to literal ash. They were cremated against their will. 

Sonic sees a shadow appear behind him and assumes it’s Fiona, saying he’s been looking for her all day. He’s instantly disappointed when his girl turns out to be Knuckles though. Knuckles says he’s not surprised because the graveyard is a terrible place for a date.

They get a bit serious when Knuckles asks why Sonic is hanging out here since he usually isn’t the morbid type. Sonic gives it to him straight, saying that he’s still hurting over Tommy and Connery’s deaths, pointing out that they don’t usually lose so much so fast. Knuckles agrees, bringing up the Brotherhood. Sonic also points out that the amount of villains they’ve been having to deal with is increasing too.

It’s a sad state of affairs for them but it’s like swimming in candy for me.

For so long, the book was just stewing in it’s own muck, stuck to the status quo, circling the drain, and trying it’s damnedest to make a bunch of badly conceived concepts work without much effort. Now, someone’s come along and is finally forcing change. When stakes and consequences drive the plot forward, it makes for more of a heavy investment in the story. 

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It’s a good scene. 

They head off to Uncle Chuck’s diner while still talking, running down all the beats that they can think of as far as allies in this situation. They have some all over the world but the conversation lands on Shadow, eventually. They don’t think he’s a bad guy, more so confused.

It’s true. Though, to be honest, I’m more confused about Shadow’s standing in this book then he probably is.

The way he came back and the way he’s been utilized since hasn’t made any goddamn sense and it’s high time we got all that shit cleared up. 

Thankfully, we will.

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You know what’s funny? When I originally read the issue that comes after this I thought it was incredibly strange. I figured it was acting as both a quick explanation for Shadow’s backstory that hastily shoveled all the Shadow the Hedgehog game content into it so they could easily bipass the story while setting up stuff that dealt with the Black Arms for a future tale.

That future Black Arms story didn’t exactly happen in the Pre-Reboot and even in the Post-Reboot, things had to be reworked so that Black Doom was already dead as the events of the game already happened.

Reading that issue without the original context felt really underwhelming as a result. I have a feeling that it’ll feel a lot better this time around now knowing just how convoluted and messed up Shadow’s treatment in the book has been so far and how desperately it needed a single issue dedicated to just ironing out the details properly. Let’s see how well Ian does… next time.

 

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #170: The Island of Misfit Badniks

Writer: Mike Gallagher
Pencils: Dave Manak
Inks: Jim Amash
Letters: John Workman
Colors: Jason Jensen

I skipped the Off-Panels back when I originally read these issues. This was the first time I bothered to read them.

Surprise; they suck. They’re not funny and they’re not worth talking about.

Maybe some kid, somewhere, found them funny but... mrughgheehgh…

Anyway, old man Gallagher is back.

You can totally tell it’s Gallagher too. Suddenly, Sonic’s talking like someone who’s aware they’re in a comic book, even though this story is written like it’s happening in universe. He’s constantly talking to himself in a manner that looks like he’s speaking to the reader and rattling off sentences that vomit exposition with each word that comes out. It’s shocking how bad it is.

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“Amazing. I’m saying the thing that I just read aloud for some reason. Wow!”

Of course, there’s an old school pun here too. “Spy-Der Hole” sounds a bit derpy.

Sonic makes it to the island of Misfit Badniks by paddling on a piece of board, saying “Well Chili my dogs” when he finds the island. It’s totally something Sonic would say, especially the one we’ve had for 10 issues since Ian came aboard now. Yup. Nothing feels inconsistent in the writing at all right now.

Sonic makes landfall, discovering that the sand is hard and makes a metal clanking sound when he hits it. Before he can contemplate the fact that there’s nothing actually living here, he gets knocked out by an Orbinaut’s spiked ball.

Instead of killing him like he said he would, for some reason, the badniks on this island tie him to a wrack. 

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It’s apparently not that hard to kill Sonic the Hedgehog. The things he fights are just really reluctant to actually do it. Lucky boy.

Sonic breaks out by… vibrating.

Yeah, been a while since we’ve seen that old chestnut but hey, by now, this comic has established that’s something he can do. It only seems to be a thing with these older writers though.

He kicks all the badniks asses until he’s decked in the face by Pseudo Sonic.

Remember him? I do. Barely.

He recounts his story for us thankfully. Apparently, he never got to meet Sonic. Sonic was busy scratching his body all over thanks to being poisoned by sumac. Tails was the one that actually defeated him.

Sonic grants him his wish to fight and the two of them go at it. 

Eventually, because they’re somehow evenly matched, they decide to end it with one headbutt charge towards one another.

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Yes, I was thinking about the “Strange, Isn’t it?” scene from the OVA. Obviously, I was.

They collide.

Sonic gets sent to the ocean, right by his boogie board, luckily.

Meanwhile, the island… sinks.

Sonic thinks it’s due to how hard the collision was but thankfully it wasn’t because that makes no sense. The badniks sunk it themselves as a means of keeping hidden and making Sonic think they were all destroyed. With Psuedo Sonic on an operating table, they vow to come back with an ending caption card that says “Definitely not the end”.

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Oh man. I can’t wait for the bootleg Team Rocket of robots to come back and barely scrape by with a super fast, expository driven story about how lame things can still somehow act as a threat to Sonic. 

This issue and the next one are probably going to feel a little fast. I understand why they will be a lot better than I did back in the day. There’s a lot of things to fix and I just wasn’t aware of how fucked up things truly were. Plot points that were hanging in limbo for WAY too goddamn long are being given proper attention so that we can finally move onto the next phase of development for these characters. Tails can now finally interact with his parents and form a relationship with them instead of having an endless plot carrot dangling in front of his face as a cheap way to keep people invested. Shadow’s no longer going to be wandering aimlessly, looking for a purpose that the comic had no interest in properly clarifying for the sake of having excuses to make him and Sonic fight. We’re on our way

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Oh hey, minor detail I forgot to mention with earlier issues - Eggman is finally getting drawn correctly.

If you don't know what I mean, in most of Eggman's appearances from his initial resurrection in the mid 70s to somewhere in the 160s, Eggman was drawn with his glasses being his eyes, the lenses being treated as if Eggman just had some really damn weird camera lens eyes, and they would constantly fail to add on the bridge between the two glasses, and even when Tracy and Ian jumped on-board, it still took awhile to fix. It's a minor, but annoyingly off-model detail that took far too long to rectify.

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I think that Island of Misfit badniks story was meant to promote Sonic Archives which I think they were out at this time but don’t quote me on that.  

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4 hours ago, SanPolo4389 said:

I think that Island of Misfit badniks story was meant to promote Sonic Archives which I think they were out at this time but don’t quote me on that.  

Nah, that’s another story altogether. That one was a story featured in an early Archives volume and was a story cut from the series, to the point the art was 1:1 to the first few issues.

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7 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

Nah, that’s another story altogether. That one was a story featured in an early Archives volume and was a story cut from the series, to the point the art was 1:1 to the first few issues.

Ah ok my bad. 

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6 minutes ago, SanPolo4389 said:

Ah ok my bad. 

No wait, I think you’re right too, I think the Misfit Island was a promotional tool too due to having the early badniks. I got it mixed up lol. That Archives story was a special extra to drive up sales while Misfit Badniks IIRC was made to put into the main comics to showcase the early badniks and market the Archives to people reading the main series.

Ironically, given these two stories are Gallagher’s very last stories for the series, it probably didn’t have as much of an effect as Archie hoped,

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11 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

We’ve got the green ones from Mobius, first. These all originally being green still makes no sense and the confusing lore surrounding them on top of that with the Chao and the origin of the Master Emerald was even worse. Thank God, it won’t matter soon.

I mean not to play devils advocate but honestly a lot of western media didn't really get the Chaos Emeralds. AOSTH had 5 4 were different cuts and stuck at certain points in time and one just existed naturally in Sonic's time embedded in a ring and the American made Spinball has like 12 and they're all blue.

 

11 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

The fact that Sonic ended up in the vicinity of all these places is funny to think about. I’m more shocked by the fact that all these references, aside from two of them, are all from pretty much the same arc.

It's admittedly kinda convenient but hey whatever gets the plot running.

 

11 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

also remember being confused by A.D.A.M calling the Master Emerald "the largest of the Green Emeralds" due to not thinking it was the same as a Chaos Emerald. I had no idea about the Master Emerald's origin in this comic and thus didn't know it was actually a bunch of regular Green Emeralds pasted together. That still baffles me. 

I remember back in the day on Ian's forum some people actually thought the Green Emerald was supposed to be the weakest because of this. But like Infinity - Infinity is still Infinity.

 

11 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Thanks to this, he’s now become Super Sonic…!

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I always love how Ian always comes up with these unique ways for Sonic to turn Super. Running through the spire here, Standing on the Master Emerald, Shocking himself with a cable filled with Chaos energy. It's never just the Emeralds fly around him and I seriously dig that.

 

11 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Perhaps it’s my imagination, but Turbo Tails in this moment always seemed a lot more regal to me. It’s odd because his language is only… slightly tweaked to sound more proper. He’s not using big words or anything but the way he’s talking is making him come off more like a prophet himself. 

Phrases like “I know what must be done” and “That much power cannot exist here” sound like things a space wizard would say in that specific manner. Or Doctor Strange.

That might be the point since Turbo Tails is supposed to be Tails whole mystic chosen one form the idea seems to be he's more...wizardly than regular Tails.

 

11 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Tails outright states that he’s about to fulfill the prophecy that he thought he already finished by enacting the beginning of the Great Harmony.

Turns out, it’s because all the Chaos Emeralds will be unified!

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And again I want to stress this matches the prophesy as said in the Tails Miniseries so much better. The wording in the mini literally said it involved the Chaos Emeralds being unified. Nowhere did it say "The chosen one will become a jacked monstrosity and fight an Elephant".

 

11 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Yeah, I’ll admit it. This got me misty eyed. I don’t know what else to even really say about it.

The way the colors, the use of the wind, and the transition through time sell the atmosphere and the moment work so well. Every time I see this scene, I shiver a little because I’m suddenly aware of how cold my room is. It’s like I can literally feel the chilly air brush by my body when I’m looking at the pages. It never fails to work on me either.

So ends the life of Tommy the Turtle. I had no real opinion on him one way or the other leading up to this point but I’ve landed on the opinion that it doesn’t matter. I associate Tommy so much with this one grand moment and as such, this is what he is to me. Now that I know the whole context and I feel even stronger in my conviction regarding that, I feel it’s clear that I probably won’t ever change my mind about it. 

That’s a good thing because I don’t want to. I’d rather this character be as good as the last action he had in the book rather than stew in the muck of the confusion that got us to this point. It makes me happy.

I'm definitely glad you felt something here. For me I did think Tommy's death was a shock but it never really hit me that hard. I didn't really know who Tommy was either he was just kinda there and I guess Sonic and Sally's old friend. I do love this whole sequence but IDK it never really hit me that hard and I'm someone who cries at the scene in 358/2 where Axel confronts Xion outside the mansion in Twilight Town (and 358/2 Days story in general. Say what you will about the gameplay the story is great) but I can see how it can connect with other people.

 

11 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Writer: Ian Flynn
Inks & Letters: Ken Penders

The only time you'll see these names together in one place!

 

11 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Ray’s stutter is back. 

It’s just back again. I don’t… know why this keeps happening but yeah. 

It's just to give him a character tick. My bigger issue is it's not consistent. Sometimes he has it but other times he doesn't.

 

11 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Honestly, I’d rather he’d have the stutter than not. It’s cute and it’s a nice differentiating trait to impose upon him… but it’s annoying how inconsistent it is.

And this is why I should read ahead instead of reading a paragraph or sentence and highlighting. XD 

 

11 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

This story follows Espio, Ian’s favorite of the Chaotix,

I mean isn't he most people's favorite? My brother doesn't even like Sonic and he thinks Espio is pretty cool. But he likes Ninja's and shadowy characters like Moon Knight so it's not that surprising.

 

11 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

So this is the first page of the issue and it sets the stage pretty well, but, there’s one thing about it that kind of made me laugh from jump.

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I like to imagine had we gotten a third installment in this epic storyline this gag would definitely have started it off. Gotta have them recurring themes.

 

11 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Andes the Ginormous

Star of the hit movie "The Prince's Bride".

 

11 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Don’t know why but my brain decided this guy talks like Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

I mean...I'd go for Andre the Giant but you do you.

 

11 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

 

EfPdoAp-WoFwlguXMFg3xyzEaIjUWVO1GAMFTJmsAo5z9TC7gnS1QTGu_z0SCy1iDyZLeDYkeQayxU2S3P3VHqSILJp0iBcITgvhsp84Ek0K325HDeNCP3s-QJec0YEaCVW7YDdH

Of course Ian had to reference "Lex Luthor stole 40 cakes." The man loves his memes.

 

11 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

 

PLW0xKhmYDu07zp0WRj2TihAgPk30Bda5W_7Llrruwn9SlkSvSmSGUEFUU9LXFDFoOrGg85yrjPgmI47b54gMyDPGCSB-NThBb5CPQq5kT7hJ0fvpsDlbfXEbK6ifrxyMyQjKN_X

Oh, my God! Gran Gordo isn't Eggman he's Homer Simpson! It's so obvious in hindsight.

 

11 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

 

H7Ew8uieBCb4-OqnyWAen_feP3pTh1C9GhrE5Gm5gV8G4yaMlGN_63pb0oCdxSs9QvE-yrp_M7hFCSs7J-MBmzs0-Xc210mQ_79k4UpEzLUTSrlbp9ibzfr_rwby2bk0W2sV2el4

I love how much Sonic loves watching him get hurt. Also I see those classic power up TV's in there Tracy!

 

11 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

It’s interesting how this angle is being taken as a means of getting another El Gran Gordo story. It’s been a long while since we’ve had to deal with those S.O.N.I.C.X guys at this point but wrestling truly is more important.

I'm honestly a little bummed S.O.N.I.C.X. doesn't really get a lot of focus. It was like one of the only major ongoing plotlines in this comic and they only appear in like 4 more issues.

 

12 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

The fake Eggman actually does manage to nail Sonic in the fucking face with the boxing glove from Sonic Adventure 2. It’s honestly a surprisingly visceral and powerful looking hit too. 

52R7FW9PH7NwQ-2E0pBUZPZf_oXC55VTOiF4BifbQmc6cKNfEbOh8TlyD3AZ6AeHJTEp9Lnp9LamMSv8CLaYkVAbNLYQBZxI-WDwuue5milk4cqCtzmHrxt8-WZWWLOu09fsCCRw

Bully! Sorry had to do it.

 

12 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

This image of Bokkun’s head on a robot Eggman’s body is a little haunting. I know he’s probably moving some sort of lever or whatever to make the body move properly but the appendages still look like they belong to him. 

It kinda makes me think of those Pinky and the Brain episodes where Brain wears his robot human disguise but he clearly still has a tiny mouse head.

 

12 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

 

yVA2VK7f4A9Jyc6BSVDmqxhBlZTUEo_Oz4Dn1guyQLnHd21TYr3lxcCW_D2PjRfNumlAW94Jmdn1Wx44JMEB6pF4hLnXE0eJJ91-6z0e7hKbTbjzPMTXQzCL6vWwseklHcxPVg3F

 

12 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

 

L2h-uTfwmdQnE03U2lRZ2wDS4xmUuv_Lh8Hl22W8VuK9ahVYI64meS5q08dZB5hYBDu-kKRK47QkQlFLZVY1YnEEuK1L7El1XM5DoilSR9F7YQEHiYUxTGq1v9Y6pDmxhXy_RGCQ

These 2 pages were posted by someone on Ian Flynn's forums and I knew eventually I needed to read these comics. When Archie sold all 40 for $40 I jumped on that and didn't regret it at all. I saw someone call the series "mid" and I don't understand how even beyond the El Gran Gordo stuff people can't enjoy this book. It's fucking bonkers and amazing!

 

12 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Wrestling, when done properly and handled by someone in charge who isn’t an abusive asshole that doesn't care about the people working under them, is great.

Yeah but...good luck finding that. AEW seems to be pretty good about how they handle their employees though. I mean I doubt so many former WWE superstars would be jumping ship for them if Cody was as bad as Vince.

 

12 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

The place is way more trippy and colorful now and HO’ MY GOD! GIANT PANDA!

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It is honestly always weird he's a preexisting character. Like I know he is I've read #43 but that doesn't stop it being weird they had this giant Panda lurking around and didn't think to ever do anything with him.

 

12 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Though, it is still different from how the modern games handle them. They’re just scattered about the world but this book has taken the classic approach of having them be of a Special Zone.

I mean TBF some Modern Games do have a Special Zone. It just kinda depends on what they're feeling.

 

12 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

So, with that, they use the emerald to… bring King Max back to the waking world in a scene that looks more like he’s being possessed by a ghost.

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THE POWER OF CHAOS COMPELS YOU!

 

12 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

V0s9R2kXQLdQfQDRuXsXzI8jpKQkuwF_YzuWYrcQxaHZp7NxqbRDdK-CV-sFqeBRPHZk00gpALPOggpOCVA3DSnW1kXoUwpToWS3Y8COPA8LnobDD-xmK8OHbkh-GSiI3dOWXIHA

Yeah, it’s the Black Arms. They’re in the book now and instead of heading to Earth/Mobius to destroy it like the Xorda were probably going to do, they actually cross paths with one another and start fighting.

This war has been going on for months and it’s not showing signs of stopping either. It’s so strange thinking about this. 

I’m trying to wrap my head around the circumstances of the comic being so different that another alien race that hates the planet Sonic hails from comes across the one that’s canon to the games and they start fighting, stalling the time the Black Arms promised to return. What a lucky break!

Honestly it's a pretty clever way to keep both potential alien invaders at bay and not have to do a full on Shadow The Hedgehog Adaptations while also acknowledging the backstory revealed in that game still happened...which BTW always confuses me on what Shadow's deal is. I thought Gerald finished him on earth and implanted memories of Maria...but Commander Tower saw him being worked on as a kid and he seemed pretty complete. This is why I say Shadow's story is too convoluted and he should have been a single game character.

 

12 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

 

hPEAJU7h32vCGyA7vTH7xaf2DkkEqgtdDedRCdO_5LyhGCYkodOZdsyNcwwMp2Mlva3sPAKFkmF9PqIjLaY57Rx7kZJZKAeU7Eios_W1iIIjvSWWX8cR7AWV5GZoZ4elQG1ti5Ho

"I was exposed to many interesting ideas I hope to share very soon." "Well that doesn't sound ominous in the slightest so I trust you."

 

12 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

 

3_d9R_eXSAlnamYPwQ53BFWWiBxQusCbZJL7vOnX57AsmEnjiJpfU5ZpXqFIIyxQk1jkxkCBhtLiXdynWkERBg8-9Kmmq1jHijh6GxdPX79sGF3nNNyT4B6-P21Q0a76wO2VaIyn

Ok quality of the writing nonwithstanding why has Manak never drawn Modern Sonic like this before? This is literally the only time he seems to get his design it's weird.

 

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15 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

I doubt there will ever be a story that surpasses the punching bag status I’ve given to House of Cards.

You sure about that?

I know almost everyone here has given that arc hell and back over its problems, but I really want to comeback to this and see how to the trashy execution that is World’s Unite when you reach it. Because in a contest between them, I’d personally rather have House of Cards—it at least moves the comic’s whole narrative along.

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5 hours ago, CrownSlayer’s Shadow said:

You sure about that?

I know almost everyone here has given that arc hell and back over its problems, but I really want to comeback to this and see how to the trashy execution that is World’s Unite when you reach it. Because in a contest between them, I’d personally rather have House of Cards—it at least moves the comic’s whole narrative along.

I can promise you, right now, there doesn't exist a timeline or parallel universe where I would choose to read House of Cards over Worlds Unite. 

Sorry, but I've read World Unite before. I've read it again last year on a whim in fact. It has a ton of problems and it's undeniably a cluttered mess but I still managed to squeeze a significant amount of fun out of it on multiple fronts, even if it was sometimes only because of a ton of beautiful splash pages of fighting artwork or some cute character interactions. In special event comics, I can forgive the narrative not being moved along. It's not a big deal to me.

There's nothing in World's Unite that offends me or makes me angry. House of Cards has that in spades, pardon the pun, and because of more current events and me being a black guy contemplating political systems and the way protesting is being treated, it's only managed to increase the laundry list of things that are upsetting about it.

Admittedly, I haven't read it in a while and back then the political stuff was mostly noise to me. I was far more put off by Sonic's behavior and the way the reasoning for Tails' anger was handled; even if an argument can be made for it making sense. 

I know Ian's not fond of either of these stories as well and I don't blame him for it.  I'm also aware of the unfortunate circumstances he was under when having to work towards creating both of them and why they ended up the way they did. I know it's not entirely his fault and I have a ton of respect and sympathy for his situation.  

Unfortunately what happened, happened and I'm going to judge the narrative based on what's actually happening within it. When it comes to House of Cards, I'm not going to be nice to that story.

All I can really say is that I wish Ian had been given the okay to do the political arc he actually wanted to do and it sucks that the state of the comic from before Ian was an environment that seriously allowed Ken Penders to get away with doing that multiple times. Good reason or not, as a reader, that's disappointing. 

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10 hours ago, SBR2 said:

And again I want to stress this matches the prophesy as said in the Tails Miniseries so much better. The wording in the mini literally said it involved the Chaos Emeralds being unified. Nowhere did it say "The chosen one will become a jacked monstrosity and fight an Elephant".

Hahahahaha! 😂

10 hours ago, SBR2 said:

Honestly it's a pretty clever way to keep both potential alien invaders at bay and not have to do a full on Shadow The Hedgehog Adaptations while also acknowledging the backstory revealed in that game still happened...which BTW always confuses me on what Shadow's deal is. I thought Gerald finished him on earth and implanted memories of Maria...but Commander Tower saw him being worked on as a kid and he seemed pretty complete. This is why I say Shadow's story is too convoluted and he should have been a single game character.

Uuuuh, there's nothing convoluted about that particular aspect of it. You're just incorrect there. Shadow was never being worked on on Earth and there's never been anything stated about Gerald implanting memories of Maria into him. We've literally only been shown scenes of Shadow on the Ark with Maria with regards to his past. I'm not sure what made you think that. Was this a scene in Sonic Battle or something?

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So the confusion with Shadow being worked on when Gerald was imprisoned is pretty sound to assume given Shadow knows too much about Geralds plan, and Gerald in his final moments alluded to Shadow being his instrument of revenge. But Gerald also could not have messed with Shadow's memories in the time he had. So he probably just put a flash drive in his pod and gave him instructions on what to do with it. 

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37 minutes ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

 

Uuuuh, there's nothing convoluted about that particular aspect of it. You're just incorrect there. Shadow was never being worked on on Earth and there's never been anything stated about Gerald implanting memories of Maria into him. We've literally only been shown scenes of Shadow on the Ark with Maria with regards to his past. I'm not sure what made you think that. Was this a scene in Sonic Battle or something?

Maybe I'm mixing in someof the Sonic X Adaptation which shows a completely different version of how Maria releases Shadow than how he remembers it but also I always thought that was the whole point behind the whole "wait us Shadow really Shadow?" thing that's introduced late into the game and like FlaconPawnch said he knows too much about Gerald's plan for him to have not been tampered with.

I'd also add that some of his Diary entries in the Last Story's opening cutscene makes it sound like he only just finished him after Maria was killed. 

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Idk which I think is worse tbh. House of Cards is a badly written arc forcefully cut down to two issues, based on a awful plot point to begin with, with horrible out of character depictions of Sonic and Tails as well.

However, Worlds Unite is also a long, vapid, waste of both time and potential, with inconsistent art, wonky pacing, and everything in the story being utterly pointless. As much as I dislike House of Cards, it had to happen in order to get us past this Sonic, Tails, and Fiona love triangle bullshit, and actually did something story-wise. Worlds Unite was so badly plotted that Ian made Sigma so powerful and OP that he had to literally 06 the whole plot out of canon to figure out how to let the heroes win.

I'm ultimately more bitter towards Worlds Unite because it also indirectly led to Archie Mega Man and Sonic Boom getting cancelled too.

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I'll give Worlds Unite this it did at least have an Ambitious idea. I do think the second half should have been dedicated to bringing the Unified Army together but unfortunately they weren'tallowed to use anyone before Act 3 so...eh.

A big problem with it is that it was pushed on Ian. Kaminski wanted crossovers to be the equivalent of DC and Marvel events but jumped ship and had the new guy edit it as more or less his first job which honestly is one of several reasons I think he was a pretty bad editor.

I do think there's some cool ideas in Worlds Unite the problem is they barely got time to actually bake.

Either way I will take both of them over Iron Dominion which to me is Ian's weakest and most boring story.

 

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2 hours ago, SBR2 said:

 like FlaconPawnch said he knows too much about Gerald's plan for him to have not been tampered with.

I'd also add that some of his Diary entries in the Last Story's opening cutscene makes it sound like he only just finished him after Maria was killed. 

Well, sure, but that issue is just an aspect that's gone unexplained. There's definitely blank spots in what happened that haven't been filled, for sure. In terms of the overall big picture, I don't personally find it that convoluted though. 

Even if I did, however, I'm not sure why that would mean he should only have appeared in his debut game. I don't know what those two things have to do with each other. Especially since the character put the past behind him. The only thing that should matter now is the emotion that drives him to do what he does based on those past experiences, not the fine details about when some diary entry was written.

As far as Worlds Unite and Iron Dominion are concerned; I have a lot more positive to say about WU than you guys might be comfortable with, even if I agree with it not being good. I certainly don't plan to argue against any of what you guys have said about it, because it's true. I can at least say I found something to enjoy about it.

Iron Dominion was the first FULL Archie story arc I got to follow from start to finish when I was collecting the books. All the other issues I read first, I started in the middle of an arc. As such it holds a special place in my heart for that. 

Don't know what my opinion on revisit will be but it seems like slightly opposing opinions are gonna be... everywhere.

Sounds like fun. 😗

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Quote

As far as Worlds Unite and Iron Dominion are concerned; I have a lot more positive to say about WU than you guys might be comfortable with,

I'll be looking forward to that. I'm still of the opinion hate for Worlds Unite is overrated. I just don't have the same knee jerk reaction everyone seems to have for it. Would definitely take it over House of Cards. 

 

Quote

 He’s instantly disappointed when his girl turns out to be Knuckles though.

Curse your choice of words. Brings to mind the play and Knuckles in the Sally wig. xD

 

Spoiler

5a827a5a6ce11_KnucklesCosplay2.thumb.png.9fef30d6bf802d7f49bee8eb261f31de.png

 

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