Megathread Archie Sonic Main Discussion

[SkyHorizon]

18 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

… But, it’s the only thing I can think of for why Sally would be this insanely angry aside from it just being for Tails' sake.

Tails' sake. Seemed obvious to me.

 

19 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Honestly, this next part is still really hard to read but damn if it isn’t effective.

 

True. Conquering Storm's look at Lightning still give me the chills... too bad in the Post-Reboot she was kinda pathetic...

 

19 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

It’s funny because that’s totally the reason Amy was mad at Fiona when she found out she was cheating on Sonic. Her grievance was entirely focused on the fact that Fiona was betraying Sonic’s trust. I figured it’d be kind of natural for Sally to feel the same but it doesn’t get brought up in that capacity at all. 

When Amy got angry, Fiona still hadn't treated Tails that way.

 

19 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

I can’t even really say it’s because she’s falling for Ken. The entire point behind why that was such a rockin’ move for Amy is because she wasn’t the object of affection, just like Sally wasn’t.

 

Actually, Amy was angry because Fiona was cheating on Sonic, not because Sonic was going out with her.

 

19 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

The only thing she SPECIFICALLY did to hurt HIM was smack him across the face.

Nope. It was the entire context behind that smack.

 

19 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

So, they’ll follow a random spider ninja to their clan. They’ll follow the summons of a Yagyu that fired a kunai into a tea pot and then ambushed them for their valuables on a trail. They’ll team up with the Destructix and follow them to Conquering Storm.

… But they won’t follow Espio.

Yeah, but Espio is STILL bound to the clan, who is affiliated to the Iron Queen.

[SBR2]

1 hour ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Well, I can't speak for other people, but I certainly hope me using that word doesn't mean you think my issue is with there being humor in Sonic. That's a bit of a different thing.

As for it's presence within the series... I feel it's definitely there. It certainly was a bit overpowering between 2010 and 2014 with Colors, Generations, and all the Boom stuff. 

For clarification, I enjoyed the Boom TV show and even the cutscenes of Rise of Lyric.

As of Forces and TSR it seems to have chilled out a bit (although playing Colors Ultimate definitely didn't help my perception). I didn't imagine that one word would elicit such an intense reaction so clarifying this didn't seem like it would be necessary. Sorry if you got the wrong idea.

I don't know outside of like "It's like it's his job or something" I don't really remember there being much meta gags in any Colors-onwards game. One of my issues with Generations plot is that there's not enough little nods in the dialogue outside the comment about the rings. Lost World is largely played like a Saturday Morning Cartoon but it's pretty straight. Boom is a comedy. I don't know "Meta Era" always strikes me as really disingenuous.

[SkyHorizon]

19 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Is it... supposed to be funny that Espio potentially... looked at Sally in an unmentionable spot without her consent?

 

Well... it is

19 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

I don’t exactly know how letting out the tantalizing secret of Captain Super Fox-Man has left Espio prone to them of course. He’s like “Shit! They know I know about some child’s shitty comic he drew in crayon. I’m vulnerable now!”

 

Totally agree with you on this one!

 

19 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

I’m envious of that skill. Goddamn would it have been great to have this ability back in High School.

 

Never too late for this kind of things

[Dr. Detective]

It just goes to show, I can be as careful as I want but one wrong word and things just blow up. I didn't even say the phrase "meta era". I was just saying its been a prominent thing for a long while, which it has.

I won't ever mention it again though since I couldn't imagine a conversation I want to have less right now.

[SkyHorizon]

6 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

It just goes to show, I can be as careful as I want but one wrong word and things just blow up. I didn't even say the phrase "meta era". I was just saying its been a prominent thing for a long while, which it has.

I won't ever mention it again though since I couldn't imagine a conversation I want to have less right now.

Man, you're too prickly, try to loosen up a little...

EDIT: Re-reading it, the post sounded a little bit... aggressive. I'll specify: nothing "blew up", it seems to me that you take too strongly comments that simply don't agree with you, which is bad because it just means that people have different opinions. You risk ending up disliked just because of a few strong reactions, while I don't think you really mean bad. And that's bad because your reviews are really good and while I don't always agree with your points, I consider most of those interesting tidbits of reflection (that's why I always hope to discuss about those). Sorry if my original post may sound mean.

[SanPolo4389]

Since your doing the rest of the issues don’t forget the Free Comic Book day 2010 issue is in between 211 and 212. 

[Dr. Detective]

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #211: Home Invasion, Part Two: Security Measures

This is one of those days where it feels nice reminding myself that I love the Sonic the Hedgehog series. I’ll never abandon it no matter how much it tries to abandon me. If only because, outside of the games, it does it’s best to be awesome most of the time so that I’m not starved of awesome content. This for example looks baller as hell. I was so hyped when I saw this cover and I remember this issue being fucking great too, if only because I imagined myself witnessing it through the eyes of Snively and it really got my heart pumping. I’ll explain more later. Let’s get into this final showdown.

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Steven Butler
Inks: Terry Austin
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: John Workman
Assistant Editor: Paul Kaminski
Editor/Managing Editor: Mike Pellerito

It honestly feels really good, holding this issue in my hands again.

Sonic and the others come flying in on the bi-plane just like the end of the last issue. Geoffrey proclaims that them being back means they’re finished but Regina is still under the impression that things are exactly the same as they were before.

She’s got everything she needs for a successful good time! That would entail--!

1 - Her Technomagic
2 - Iron Nicole
3 - The Invincible Jun Kun
4 - The Dark Egg Legion
5 - The Yagyu Clan
6 - The Other Clans in her Back Pocket
7 - The First Season of Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends on DVD

She’s not going anywhere sweetie.

First up is Iron Nicole.

Oh geez. 

Well, I guess we can cross that one off the list.

1 - Her Technomagic
2 - Iron Nicole
3 - The Invincible Jun Kun
4 - The Dark Egg Legion
5 - The Yagyu Clan
6 - The Other Clans in her Back Pocket
7 - The First Season of Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends on DVD

Nicole explains to Regina that before Sally and the others left they un-brainwashed her and she, Nicole, improved herself to be able to resist Regina’s magic.

Regina is understandably confused by the logic of a machine being able to reprogram itself to resist fucking magic but Nicole explains that she’s pretty much become something FAR beyond the Nintendo DS she started out as.

Honestly, Nicole practically feels like a magic being to me at this point.

Regina, not wanting to deal with that, decides that if she can’t command Nicole to command the nanites then she’ll command the nanites herself.

She transforms them into a weird looking ugly spider thing and sicks it on Nicole.

Meanwhile, Jun Kun is having the battle of the century against his greatest rival; a little pink girl.

Everything about this page is perfect by the way. 

I like that Jun Kun can be knocked down and battered but never truly ever beaten. It makes for some nice brief interludes of comedy before he gets back up and smacks the ever loving shit out of you.

I think another thing I like about the Sonic and Amy pairing is how it often makes Sonic the flustered and vulnerable one. Sonic’s zinger here was that he was trying to do the “Miss me?” cliché but Amy just fucking whiffs it and answers him like what he said was an actual question. So, Sonic has to explain what he was trying to do while she glomps him. 

It’s cute. With Sally it often just seems like Sonic is either just getting on her nerves or completely ignoring her so he can do his quips, like what we saw with the dirt and the invisible walkway of the Shinobi clan. I guess it’s a personal preference thing but this feels less mean-spirited and more fun to me.

Anyway, my point of view character for this issue has arrived; Snively Robotnik everyone!

How many chances did you give him Sally? I recall you allowing him to be with the Freedom Fighters and then allowing him to stay behind and take care of his crazy uncle. So, that’s twice in my head. I can’t recall a third one, let alone any more that you would lose count. My memory is ass though so I’m sure someone will be more than glad to correct me on the number of times.

Dude was trying to crawl away while the chaos was going on though. It’s great because I find it easy to imagine myself in his shoes more than anybody else here.

He’s basically just a normal human dude. He’s got no powers and he’s crawling on the grass, muttering to himself in fear. 

Then when Sally towers over him, he clings to whatever authority he thinks he commands to try and scare her. That being the ninja clans from the Dragon Kingdom! 

He still has those under his belt.

Oh but then Ken does this.

I love this scene so much. 

Everything instantly just falls apart for the villains step by step and this one was by far the funniest.

The Yagyu are listening intently while the Dark Egg Legion are just shrugging their shoulders going “what the fuck”?

Lien-Da has the reaction I probably would have if I were in her shoes.

1 - Her Technomagic
2 - Iron Nicole
3 - The Invincible Jun Kun
4 - The Dark Egg Legion
5 - The Yagyu Clan
6 - The Other Clans in her Back Pocket 
7 - The First Season of Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends on DVD

The hired help just walked out on her. Imagine how much that sucks. This word of honor thing is such a powerful tool. I guess in order for it to really work, you have to actually do the thing you said you did though since it’s something that holds true even among fierce rivals. Betraying it might be something that could land you without a single friend, regardless of whatever side you are on. A true double-edged sword…

It’s a good thing no one over there would ever break it. At least that’s what this book is telling me. I have a lot of admiration for these guys for staying true to it so succinctly. It’s kind of great.

Even better is this awesome, grand showcase of just how much Lien-Da sucks as a Grandmaster, yet again.

She notices that the Iron Queen is fighting Nicole and Jun Kun is busy dealing with four Freedom Fighters.

She deems this as reason enough to proclaim that the Eggman Empire now belongs to her, which grants Regina the opportunity to do the world’s most comical head-turn.

"YOU FUCKING WOT? BITCH?!"

Obviously Regina is insta-pissed that this… WONDERFUL lunatic who is supremely bad at her job just shouted this out loud within earshot of her. 

Like, yeah, she’s the only one with control over a legion now and therefore has more manpower than Regina but Regina can take the fucking Dark Egg Legion and Jun Kun ESPECIALLY can. I guess she’s hoping to use the confusion of the attacking heroes to overpower her but that’s assuming the heroes would team up with her and then not try to take them down afterward.

I’m just saying, I see why you thought this was a good idea Lien-Da but this sudden shift in allegiances has a few holes in it too.

When Regina tries to use her magic to command the Legion to do her bidding, Lien-Da lets it be known to her that the bogus chips she was given were modified… well, hers was. She modified hers to resist her magic and to make sure the legion was hers to command.

As she laughs in Regina’s stunned face about this, she’s apparently overlooked that the bomb in her cybernetics is still something that can be controlled and Regina just… activates it.

Lien-Da’s got a truck sized hole in her no doubt. Probably.

The mind controlled legion snaps out of it, wondering what the fuck just happened to them, until they spot the mess that is Lien-Da on the ground.

Snively, having witnessed that, realizes shit be crazy and fucking bolts when the going finally got tough, leaving the Legion to scrape up their Grandmaster off the ground and retreat.

1 - Her Technomagic
2 - Iron Nicole
3 - The Invincible Jun Kun
4 - The Dark Egg Legion
5 - The Yagyu Clan
6 - The Other Clans in her Back Pocket
7 - The First Season of Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends on DVD

Imagine this.

Imagine finally being turned to after wanting all this power and being told you were the only person left to command a legion of people and your response was to scream, cry, and run away.

Snively bolts. That’s when that imagination of mine kicked in. I imagined I was him and that the heroes were this horrible, scary, terrifying force that was destroying everything and tearing down the huge foundation I built. They were Boogie Men in the night coming to get me; the Jason on Friday the 13th coming after me multiplied by quite a couple of people.

Snively is running his brains out and so would I. 

Jun Kun here is STILL fucking invincible. Dude is being attacked by four main characters and manhandling them all with stunning ease. There is no beating him.

Sonic goes up to Ken and agrees with Jun Kun about the thing he just said about himself. There’s no beating him. They need the Fan of Fen Xing.

This moment I remember pretty well for a number of reasons. One, the last issue of Journey to the East had not come out yet and I hadn’t read any of the Iron Queen stories from before Issue #200 so I had no idea what this thing was when Espio suddenly showed up and handed it to Sonic and Ken.

Because of the release dates of these issues, this felt way more deus ex machina-ish to me than it actually was. Knowing all the info, however, this makes perfect sense, I’m happy to report.

Ken hands Espio his atom-bat and unfurls the fan. It looks like something that would fuck you up, for damn sure.

The Iron King is terrified of what he sees for once. I also love how you can see all the other heroes beside him scramble as Ken makes his beautiful play.

There he goes. Jun Kun not only gets fanned out of the dome and out of the city but he’s been tossed out of the comic for good. That’s it for the best villain, probably ever. 

1 - Her Technomagic
2 - Iron Nicole 
3 - The Invincible Jun Kun 
4 - The Dark Egg Legion
5 - The Yagyu Clan
6 - The Other Clans in her Back Pocket 
7 - The First Season of Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends on DVD

Regina’s list of things to rely on is looking a little light, I must say. She’s now just lost the biggest and best thing she had at her disposal too, which leads us to this page.

This glorious, wonderful page.

This perfect page.

The best page in this issue and probably the entire arc.

DUDE, I can’t TELL you how fucking hyped up reading this page got me. Again, this was me putting myself in Snively’s shoes. He was the protagonist of this issue, despite being a bad guy, in my eyes. Just placing myself in that position where I’m riding that little saucer, scared out of my mind now that everything has come crashing down around me only to see that ANOTHER thing has gone wrong in the distance, nay, the worst possible thing that could go wrong has gone wrong in the distance, I’d scream my head off about it too!

His reaction was so palpable. That feeling of your heart racing, wondering if you’re going to make it in time, reaching the detention center that belongs to the heroes and being in, for a brief moment of time, in an area that’s owned by those who are trying to take you down right now, so you can shakily input a code… it’s like the feeling I got watching Tails try and get a sample of the Metal Virus in that one issue of IDW. 

I love it when comics make me feel this way. It was my decision to put myself in their points of view, sure, but the avenue presents itself so well here. Of course, the big thing is how he lets the now, fully recovered, Eggman out of his cell because he’s the only one with the moxy to fix this.

He says it’s about time even though he made the proclamation that he’d be back only a single issue ago. It’s great.

Of course, it’s here where Snively’s true colors get shown to Eggman again. 

It’s like when Jesus told that one guy he’d denounce his name three times or whatever and then he went and did it under completely understandable circumstances.

It’s like that.

Throughout the story arc, we saw glimpses of Regina losing her admiration for Snively with each annoyance that she had to suffer. The wickedness was coming out and regardless of what she may have actually felt about him, it was clear she was going to be a monster to him in the end.

Snively was still gallivanting about as though it was true love. Maybe it is in both their minds still but the circumstances that be are making what they are as people come through first and foremost.

When Eggman asks about his precious Regina, all Snively can shout about is how there’s no time before ending on not wanting them to get HIM.

Eggman being Eggman already has something planned.

Okay so, let’s take a look at the list again.

1 - Her Technomagic
2 - Iron Nicole 
3 - The Invincible Jun Kun 
4 - The Dark Egg Legion
5 - The Yagyu Clan
6 - The Other Clans in her Back Pocket 
7 - The First Season of Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends on DVD

Oh fuck! Yeah, she’s toast.

Unless, of course, she can use the nanites to do something cool. Let’s see what you’ve got Regina. Will you surrender?

 

That insane, drooly mouthed, scream of desperate, last ditch effort, “I STILL AM THE SENATE, BITCH” energy she’s got going on here certainly stuck with me. Again, Steven Butler is the one to call when you want expressions that look fucking intense. My word.

She transforms into a giant dragon.

It looks pretty cool and would definitely be where the final boss battle music would start to play. Even if it were as easy as this issue makes it look it’d still be more epic than the final bosses of the last three mainstream 3D Sonic games just because of how much better the build up was.

That and it’d likely not be the same Colors boss again.

Tails flies in, ready to kick some ass, and he manages to help do just that. Regina is very easily overwhelmed by everyone here. She’s outnumbered and probably stressed as fuck. Not to mention, the nanites she has access to are limited now that Nicole is using her own kind of “magic” (not literally of course) to keep Regina from using anymore.

This dragon is literally it and…

… it’s not doing so hot.

So, since she can’t really use it on anything else, she’s run out of avenues to exploit her technomagic really. She can’t even use Bunnie as a hostage bargaining chip since she’s not out in the open here. 

Well then, I guess it’s time to update the list.

1 - Her Technomagic
2 - Iron Nicole 
3 - The Invincible Jun Kun 
4 - The Dark Egg Legion
5 - The Yagyu Clan
6 - The Other Clans in her Back Pocket 
7 - The First Season of Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends on DVD

Looking this over, I’d say that, frankly my dear, it’s time to RUN!

So she tries to fucking dip!

She tries her damndest to BYE FELICIA her way out of the open hole in the dome but Sonic pulls a Kid Goku on her the same way Kid Goku demolished Commander Black when he tried to retreat… only he doesn’t kill her.

He just does a move that looks like it should have totally killed her, had that been her actual body.

He zips his way up the large dragon, says a totally not-meta line (see I said NOT-META, thus expertly avoiding the argument like a coward) about how it’s time he won and then defeats her.

See? That’s a proper “I hate that hedgehog”. 

I don’t know if I would have had her say it twice though. She ain’t the new Eggman after all. Not anymore anyway. Once was enough.

That petty thing Ken did with the cloud is kind of funny though.

So that’s it. The heroes win.

Regina is shackled and carried away, with nothing but a single DVD of an awesome show to entertain her. Hopefully the prison has something that can play it.

Sonic tries to do that thing where he tries to make winning not sound like a big deal but Amy proves why she's the best girl again and gets the right energy going here.

Yeah. Don’t say it like that. You won! Don’t try to be all cool and “Whatever man” about it. I know Sonic in this book likes to do that but it’s always fun seeing it get disrupted by Amy here. It really is great seeing her be able to break down his defenses in a way Sally just isn’t able to. It’s also nice seeing Sally and Ken hug it out together there as well. 

It’s a very nice looking ending.

Of course, that’s not the end-end. No sir.

Snively, now with that dark side of himself starting to suppress itself, he’s sobered up with the fear pushed down and wishes to go back for Regina, hoping that there might still be a way to save her.

Yes! Here comes the other shoe. The one where the good in Snively overtakes again. He truly does DESIRE love and affection even if Eggman says he’s incapable of acquiring and keeping it. I’m truly rooting for Snively’s ability to one day fully reach the point where he can hold onto that affection rather than drop it for the sake of saving himself in a fit of panic. 

I know I shouldn’t considering what happens in Scrambled but…

Anyway, the man with the master plan is back. He rejects Snively’s plea to go back and save Regina because he’s got something truly evil brewing in that cracked but lucid Egg Dome of his.

Eggman’s head has never looked more like an egg in his life right now.

You can tell this man is relishing the idea that he’ll finally be able to get back to work.

With that, we’ve reached the end of the Iron Dominion. The epilogue is next but as a reflection on what I just read, I must say, that was a very well-done story. I will say, I totally understand the notion that it may have been a bit too long having gone back through it. However, I do feel it did well towards getting across the overwhelming military power at her disposal and the numerous hoops the heroes had to go through in order to completely undo her. The fact that her downfall happened in a single issue ended up being supremely satisfying as a result of all that preamble. Witnessing all that shit just go wrong from bullet-point to bullet-point all while Snively lost his cool and scrambled to get away was quite the wild ride. 

Seriously, this was a grand ending and I don’t even feel a smidgen of the disappointment I felt seeing Regina herself get so easily beaten. It was much clearer this time that she was done and dusted this go around because I understood better the circumstances behind what was happening.

What an intriguing experiment this arc was. Ian may have considered it the wackiest, throw-away idea he had but I truly do believe he managed to create something incredibly unique here. I, of course, will always hold the Iron Dominion Arc in a certain kind of nostalgic regard seeing as how it was the first big arc I followed from month to month with this comic. It feels great being here again. 

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Free Comic Book Day 2010: Hide and Seek and Destroy!

We’ve got ourselves another Free Comic Book Day interlude. Seeing the cover to this a while back when I was laying out the order for covering these issues, I had a vague sense that I did indeed read this before. Just once though. There’s really nothing to say about the cover here. It’s just Sonic running. Never seen him do that before.

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: James Fry
Inks: Jim Amash
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: John Workman
Cover: Tracy Yardley and Jason Jensen
Assistant Editor: Paul Kaminski
Editor/Managing Editor: Mike Pellerito

So, James Fry is doing the art for this issue which means ANGLES. 

ANGLES, EVERYWHERE!

Everyone is looking really sharp this issue. Also, because of its nature as a Free Comic Book Day issue, the characters are a bit more compelled to do exposition. 

Sonic starts off the issue overlooking the Egg Dome and thinking to himself about what it is. He then rushes down towards it, explaining to himself about why he thinks Eggman is here. It’s basically because he was putting so much work into it before he went crazy so it’s probably more important than a lot of his other projects. He also takes yet another trip down memory lane, recapping to himself about how they used to try and take out Robotropolis. Those probably wouldn’t be fond memories for me if I lived in this world but I can totally see it being that way for Sonic.

Thankfully, this filler episode has a bit more meat on it’s bones so we don’t actually have to sit through scenes of Sonic reminiscing about this stuff. We just cut to Eggman, gloating in the shadows at Sonic about how he won’t be able to find him.

He even says his full name out-loud for all those people who wonder who the man is. There are definitely people out there who still don’t know the name of one of the most iconic villains in video game history sadly so hopefully they picked up this book to find out. 

I mean, if they cared, they’d probably just look it up on a wiki but…

...Anyway, Eggman is back. His mind has reconstructed itself. It only took eleven issues and a four part mini-series for it to happen too. That’s a record most people who stop being lucid would dream of having, for sure.

Then, of course, the dynamic that Eggman and Snively has allows for the scene to have the humor it so deserves.

You’re seeing everything you need to know about these two in the span of a single page. It’s really impressive. Snively is, again, the more practical and logical of the two but he’s easily scared by his dominating and crazy uncle. Eggman is more theatrical and sometimes his actions make little sense but his drive to push forward with what he wishes to do sees him taking advantage of more opportunities which gives him room for more success. That and he’s a heartless monster that values robots over organic beings. 

Aside from Eggman being in hiding, it’s almost as if nothing has changed at all. Thankfully, that’s only an “almost” but we’ll cover how I feel about how the handling of the return to a status quo of sorts is during the Iron Dominion epilogue.

Back with Sonic, he’s in full recap mode again. Thankfully, it’s happening while he’s in the middle of doing something in the present so it isn't that annoying. Plus, the events he’s recapping are all the recent stuff from Issue #200 and onward. Seeing as how I just read it, it should probably be more annoying but I’m just happy the recap isn’t about the stuff that happened before Ian came aboard really.

He recalls Issue #200 and how Eggman went crazy. He’s able to laugh it off now. This is followed up by a single page recap of the Iron Dominion thing. 

Sonic is exploring this Eggman base, searching for the man, but reaches another dead-end.

However, a special visitor with really gross, drooling sharp teeth and a plant mouth has been waiting for him.

Oh God! 

Have any of you seen Intruder II from Toonami? Tom is a robot who hosts that anime and action cartoon block and the first version of him was killed by a blob known as the Intruder. Then, like, two decades later or something, on the revived Toonami block, they do an Intruder II special where that blob is tormenting the new Tom using the scraps of metal from Tom’s old body that it killed. That’s what this reminds me of.

It’s this creepy plant thing (with what looks like weird blood spatter effects on the background) that hosts the heads of a bunch of defunct robot designs. Well, defunct for some of these. At least two of these designs are back nowadays but Generations hasn’t happened yet.

The robot-plant-hybrid thing acts a little friendly at first but then it cuts that shit out and tries to kill him.

I love Eggman’s reaction to seeing this thing.

I love that he said “Great Googly Moogly”. Every time I hear that phrase I’m reminded of Maggie and the Ferocious Beast. Does anyone remember that?

Anyway, I’m actually really grateful for that particular recap of things that happened in the past because, if it’s going to be relevant nowadays, I need to recall it and I didn’t remember any of what Snively just went on about there.

The Krudzu narrates it’s life since the nuclear explosion incident and Eggman is seemingly fascinated by it.

My dude is taking down notes like a kid in class who actually gives a shit about the subject being taught.

Sonic is delighted to fight this thing. He finds it nostalgic to face a creature that has all the old badnik weapons. The creature isn’t too jazzed that Sonic is delighted and wants him to be scared but Sonic assures it that it’s still very ugly and facing a creature that’s puppeting heads of the robots he used to fight when he was a kid is very creepy.

He then destroys it by slicing it to bits with a neat little spin attack and leaves it a pile of disgusting looking vines in the corner.

Or so he thinks.

The creature gets up again and starts going to town on Sonic. His taunts and jokes aren’t saving him this time, I’m afraid.

This thing survived a nuclear explosion. One spin-attack from Sonic isn’t going to do him in. Sonic is in trouble. 

Who could possibly save him?

Why, is that Daddy Robotnik? He’s coming to the rescue?!

BUT WHY?!

That’s why.

Honestly, never before has Eggman’s relationship with Sonic in this comic been so succinctly put. This whole time, he found this creature fascinating, but he was really taking notes on it so he could develop something that could destroy it.

Eggman’s got his own time-table and his own plans and he wants what he has in mind to be the thing to destroy Sonic. A surprise left behind by an older version of himself won’t take that from him. He won’t allow it.

Honestly, this page is incredibly important. It’s almost a crime that it’s in an easily missed Free Comic Book Day issue. I certainly didn’t manage to find this back when it came out because I didn’t frequent comic shops back in the day. It was a regular old bookstore and these were not there. 

Sonic is at this thing’s mercy now but right as he’s about to be killed, Eggman saves the day.

Honestly, it’s really cool.

This whole “That rodent is MINE and nobody else’s” shtick he’s got going for him could really come in handy when other threats try and make a big stink. It might even help some who are more easily annoyed with the idea of the Sonic and Eggman team-up to come around a bit. I’ve always enjoyed it whenever it happens so I don’t need as much convincing.

After that thing explodes, Sonic picks up it’s head and lets us know that he knows Eggman just saved his ass. A thing that survives a nuclear explosion just up and self destructs WHILE he just happens to be in Eggman’s base? Yeah, it’s pretty clear to him what happened.

Sonic tosses the head behind him and says he’s tired now and wishes to leave. He wouldn’t be able to fight Eggman even if he did find him now.

There’s a part of me that wants to believe he’s also leaving for today as a thank you for saving him but that’s a personal head-cannon thing. These two are such interesting characters. Sonic drives the man crazy and feels bad about it so he treats him with kid gloves until he recovers. Eggman, meanwhile, wants to kill him but will gladly save his life and let him go if any danger that doesn’t directly come from him intentionally tries to kill him.

These two were yet another dysfunctional couple in a past life, I swear.

With that, we’ve come to the end of our tale. Sonic proclaims that he’s going to be back, find Eggman, and find out what he’s up to. Eggman says that Sonic will do the first but the last two things will be up to him.

Both Sonic and Eggman are pretty satisfied with how that turned out. The only one who isn’t is Snively and it’s good seeing him so frazzled once again. He definitely does not like being in this position again. I bet he really wants Regina back, if only to maybe feel like he’s got some sort of person to lean on for support.

What an excellent way to get across that the doctor is back in business though.

I’m actually really impressed by that. That issue was a really good way of letting it sink in that the Eggman is BACK and he’s running the show now. Absolutely nothing is going to stand in his way or disrupt the flow of events that he’s going to outline for Sonic and his pals here. That’s the visage of a true mastermind for sure.

Honestly, I wouldn’t even call this a filler episode. That could have worked as its own issue, very easily. Maybe scrap a few of the re-cappy bits and you’ve got yourself a nice lead into what’s about to happen next. The events of the book may not be as important but the motivations established and how well established they are certainly is. Really well done. 

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #212: The Roads We Take - Iron Dominion: Epilogue

…

… This cover freaked me out when I first saw it. It looks genuinely scary to me. The least scary thing about it, ironically, is the really good menacing drawing of Eggman behind all the weird carnage happening in the foreground. Sonic is running at the reader but he looks like silly putty for some reason. Espio looks like a caricature from a stain glass window of a church. Regina… I don’t know what’s happening to her. She’s freaking me out the most. It’s supposed to be a visual representation of her defeat, I guess, so she seems to be obliterating into thin air and from the look on her face it’s causing her incredible pain. Happy fucking Halloween I guess.

They never try anything like this again, thank God. What a weird cover. I guess it’s nice to experiment but also why?

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Tracy Yardley
Inks: Terry Austin
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: John Workman
Assistant Editor: Paul Kaminski
Editor/Managing Editor: Mike Pellerito

The “important characters rundown” is being done in pairs for this issue. Sonic and Tails, Sally and Ken, Eggman and Snively, and finally Knuckles and Espio are the ones being given focus here. This is going to be a well and true epilogue so there’s going to be a great deal to speak about.

It begins with Sonic still rushing towards the ruins of New Megaopolis with Tails out of breath behind him. This has been true for a while but New Megaopolis really does look like absolute shit. Eggman is taking a bath in the dust living in the bunker of the one thing that’s still standing. Plus, the Egg Dome has a huge hole blown into it that Sonic keeps rushing into daily to explore.

A tired out Tails follows Sonic inside and tells Sonic that he’s been at this for like a week since the Iron Dominion has been taken down. He puts his hand on Sonic’s shoulder and tells him that he thinks he’s too preoccupied with this. 

Sonic is quick to try and reassure Tails before immediately going back to the grind.

It’s funny because I can totally see why Sonic would be worried about this. Lately, it feels a lot like Sonic and Eggman have been obsessed with one another. That little time away from each other and that really close call with Sonic driving Eggman insane really must have put things into perspective for them both. 

Of course, Eggman is still fine. He’s laughing about how Sonic isn’t going to find him. Snively is worried that they will but Eggman says that the video surveillance is re-routed so many times that they’ll never trace the signal down to where they are. He also says all access to the upper decks are sealed off and there are no clues, thus, they’ll only find them when he wants them too.

Or if Sonic decides to just blow the place up but he’s not the type of guy to do that, of course… and Eggman knows it.

Snively tries to use this reassurance of their safety to see if it’s possible to take a trip to the Dragon Kingdom and save Regina but Eggman isn’t about to let Snively’s girlfriend being in jail put a damper on his plan. He didn’t even allow HIMSELF to do that just last issue. 

It’s at this time that I must say, the art this issue is fucking phenomenal. It often sounds redundant saying that about Tracey’s work but it really looks great here. It helps that Matt Herms is such an expert with these goddamn colors though. You get the right two people on an issue together and it’s just magic.

Eggman also asks Snively about the recovery of their patient. They don’t name her but the context clues make it obvious they’re talking about Lien-Da. Apparently, something in her cybernetics saved her from being turned into extra chunky salsa. But hey, Eggman saved her life, despite the fact that she can’t be trusted. It was not out of the goodness of his heart though.

The man still has it in him to view certain things as a game. No matter what may pass there’s that side of him that just loves the fun of testing and challenging himself against possible betrayal and the heroes. 

He heads off to go be evil and we cut to a nice scene with Sally and Ken overlooking the Dragon Kingdom together. It’s nice that she’s taken some time for herself to enjoy spending time with a really good catch. 

This scene is a really nice representation of, more than anything else, how much Ken has changed. 

It’s true that I didn’t get to witness most of that change due to his long absence but it still feels fairly organic considering what he’s been put through and the circumstances leading up to where he is now.

What’s funny is that I remember reading this when it first came out and I remember seeing these two kiss… and I guess my mind kind of jumbled the order of things before they actually happened because I thought this page was Sally saying goodbye to Ken and giving him a goodbye kiss to go back to Sonic… but reading this here, she doesn’t say that until the next page.

That tells me that my younger self knew what was about to happen before it did. Of course Sally was going to go back to Sonic. I mean, obviously, she can’t literally STAY in the Dragon Kingdom. She was born with a title that she needs to adhere to for the rest of her life… also she likes her home and wants to protect it. That part is important too.

There’s also the fact that the fanbase at the time would have absolutely murdered Ian if this relationship had stuck. Who’s to know if they would have gotten over it too. People lost their shit when Twilight Sparkle became an Alicorn Princess or whatever so who the fuck knows? 

Changes in the status quo are always admirable things to me. I think I really woke up to just how important I felt it was witnessing this arc for the first time because despite not really caring a whole lot about Sally or her love life… I really did think these two worked together and I wanted to see it continue.

So when the next page happens and they break it off, not because of the long distance relationship, but because of Sonic… it's genuinely a little upsetting.

Obviously, Sonic’s not at fault for this and I don’t blame Sally for making this decision. Honestly, reading this page intrigued me more than anything.

Very interesting. Very mature.

Very unique.

While it’s true the status quo is being upheld with this decision and what it’ll lead to, the way it’s being done feels very real and sincere. She’s not breaking off things with him because “Sorry, the fanbase will kill the writer if the heavily marketed relationship between main male lead and main female lead isn’t upheld” but for actual reasons that cleverly utilizes the nonsense that Ian had to navigate through to get here.

I believe Karl Bollers had Sally break things off with Sonic the way that she did with the intention of fixing things but his last straw when dealing with Ken Penders got chucked down a ravine somewhere and he left (or something to that effect) so the mess was left in the hands of Penders himself to clean up.

So naturally, Penders did what any person with a cleaning task would naturally do. He took a big dump truck full of cow manure and dumped it everywhere. 

The further away we get from it the more it feels like a fever dream that Sonic dated Fiona Fox. 

The way Bollers intended to fix things never got to happen and to be honest, if it did happen, there’s a higher than high chance it would have been far more instantaneous. They probably would have gotten together about three to five issues later after we got Sally’s side of the story so that things could properly be patched up. With ONLY Sonic’s side to the story after his adventure in space, her actions had no sympathetic bent to them whatsoever.

Ian’s path towards getting them back together is naturally going to take them a lot longer. He’s stated that his intention was to make them friends again before they got to dating again and this little thing with Ken was most likely a way to have her explore other options to have her come off as more normal.

You know, I hear people in real life do tend to leave their options open to them when it comes to the early dating scene. If things don’t work out with one guy, they don’t just continue pursuing that same guy over and over again. This on again-off again thing between them isn’t natural or healthy but I like that Ian is doing his best to make it feel that way.

His efforts never quite got there for me and it seems as though the reaction to Sally being with Ken that I observed at the time went largely unappreciated. There were people who either just really wanted Sonic and Sally to be together and thought it was bad storytelling (worthy of ripping a book in half) if they EVER dated anyone else. There were also people that just thought the Sally and Ken fling was pointless because no matter what she was obviously going to go back to Sonic.

That second one I understand more since it was the angle I went with back in the day. That’s still true honestly. However, I do at least understand the method towards getting Sonic and Sally back together here. I respect the work that’s being put into making it feel more like a natural relationship. It doesn’t really change the fact that I prefer Sally and Ken stay this way and that the only reason they’re breaking apart IS because Sonic and Sally IS the item.

Ken says that when Sonic screws up his next chance, he’s going to be waiting for her and Sally laughs it off. 

It’s not going to happen. 

Pretty soon both Ken and the romance in general won’t even exist.

We then cut to a scene with the eight members of the Chaotix. In my mind it’ll only ever be three so it’s something I still haven’t managed to get used to. Try as I might. 

I realize that eventually I won’t have to try but I’m still persisting with it.

Knuckles says around a campfire that they need to be upfront with all their secrets and forgive and forget any grudges they may have if they want to be a team.

Espio immediately agrees and informs them that he’s been given clearance from his mommy to tell his friends all the secrets he’s learned about them from behind their backs. 

Vector’s reaction to this is a little playful at first. He outright says that Espio’s got nothing on him and Espio immediately proves him wrong.

Thanks, I hate it.

Yeah, I’ve gone into why I don’t like this origin for Vector. The origins of the three modern Chaotix all kind of suck in my opinion. Vector actually being from Mobius Australia was not a reveal I wanted back during the Knuckles arc. Espio being a ninja from a clan of ninjas was expected and obvious but I wanted a little more than just “We do nothing in secret”. Him monitoring the Brotherhood means jack shit considering all that they got away with. Good riddance to those old fucks floating in the void. The only good use this development has served so far is this scene right now where he has to reveal everything to the rest of the Chaotix. It’s good drama.

Knuckles also brings up, with a mean, angry glare at Espio (you can tell he’s trying hard to live up to the “let bygones be bygones thing he JUST talked about) about how Espio totally must have known about ALL the answers Knuckles was trying to find in all that time. 

You know, the existence of his people and of his forefathers. All that jazz.

Honestly, I’d be pretty pissed if it turned out Espio knew about that shit and said nothing all this time… if only because I had to suffer through witnessing Knuckles suffer through all the bullshit of getting those answers. It already wasn’t worth it. Don’t sit there and tell me it was pointless on top of that.

Thankfully, no, Espio reveals that he ONLY knew about the existence of the Brotherhood but never had any details. He only knew about Knuckles. 

That’s… even weirder. He was sent to monitor the Brotherhood without any details about the Brotherhood? Why?

Haven’t these chameleons been doing this for GENERATIONS? Those old echidna fucks have lived for a long time too. Why wouldn’t the Shinobi Clan have given Espio any info? They had to have had something.

I guess the reason Espio is being made to say he lacked details is to have it be so that he doesn’t come off like a complete douche here but it’s not really all that necessary since the implications feel the same regardless. Especially when Julie asks him an important question and he gives a non-answer.

The answer you’re looking for is “No”. You wouldn’t have told him. 

Anyway, back in the day, I didn’t really know who or what the Brotherhood was so there was little for me to cling to when reading this. I had no real clue as to why Knuckles was mad.

I had a vague understanding of what Charmy was talking about though. Sort of.

Him speaking up and everyone’s reaction to him being told what he gets told here is an insanely awkward moment for them. It was probably tough for Ian to write too since this memory loss thing with Charmy has not been mentioned since it happened back in #177. 

That issue came out in July of 2007. This issue came out in April 2010. I guess three years is long enough in real time to at least mention it again.

What Espio says here isn’t new information to any of them except Charmy and that’s only due to the memory loss that all of them are aware of. As a result, I always found this scene to be a little odd.

I guess Espio was taking the opportunity to say something since Charmy decided to ask. After all, he was going on about people’s pasts and Charmy likely doesn’t recall having much of one so…

…It IS really interesting seeing his reaction to being told all of it though. It’s just outright denial. He doesn’t even take a second to contemplate it. In that very last panel, he looks really upset while Mighty is talking too. 

I won’t read into it of course but the reaction was still interesting.

Mighty, meanwhile, is urging Knuckles to give Espio a break. He doesn’t know it yet, but he’s only saying this because he hasn’t felt personally betrayed by Espio yet.

That changes when this happens.

The pause in the panels there actually made me laugh. 

“By the way, your sister is alive and a part of a Dark Egg Legion chapter. I knew this the whole time and said nothing. Kay, thanks.”

I also love how Knuckles’ reaction is more so one of confusion than anything else.

That said, the bottom panel brought it back around for me. It’s rare you see heavy emotions from Espio so when a tear gets brought to his eye, it’s because of something big.

I don’t wish to downplay how good this entire scene was by the way. I’m taking a lot of pot shots at it because of some minor personal nitpicks but this entire scene and the idea behind it is actually really good.

Also, Mighty’s not even really mad at him so it’s all good. Sort of.

Back with Sonic and Tails, they race through the corridors of Eggman’s base and find the room that Lien-Da had locked down.

After Nicole makes a directional joke (You know the one. She tells Sonic to go left and he says right and she says no, left to fuck with him) they enter the room and find out where the weak signal Nicole managed to locate is coming from.

Despite remembering this scene happening I, for some reason, thought it was the end of a certain character initially when I saw their downfall happen but was quickly reminded of the story bits I had forgotten a short while later.

Yeah, guess who?!

That’s right, it’s Ronald McDonald. That’s where they’ve been keeping his hamburger eating ass all these years.

We then cut to Mighty, who is packing his things inside a room by a cliff-side, when Ray walks in on him. 

I must say if Mighty lives here then it really must suck. It’s literally just a dirt cave with a bed and some other furniture. Keeping it clean must be impossible. 

God, what happens if it rains? What then?!

Ray asks what Mighty’s deal is, with probably THE most intense stutter he’s had yet.

Mighty says he respects Espio’s traditions and that he’s not mad… but I dunno. He was definitely upset enough not to say this to Espio before he stomped off. I think there might be a little bit of resentment in him at this point. Just a tad.

Totally deserved and understandable if true though. Let’s get that right.

Plus, if there was, it's gone by now.

So anyway, the two of them are off on an adventure together.

I gotta tell ya, it wasn’t a happy instant hearing Mighty say that about Vector. Hearing that a character I liked took a training course under a character that (at the time) I didn’t like had me reeling a bit. Thank God I’m more mature now. 

Seriously, I couldn’t imagine a conversation I hate more than ones about WHO’S TEH STRONGEST! 

That Death Battle shit can’t be ignored hard enough whenever it worms it’s way back into my recommendations. Piss off.

Sally comes back home through a warp ring and has to immediately shield her eyes from the sun since it’s day on this side of the world. That makes it all the more fun to me that the four of those guys flew all the way there in a two-seater bi-plane. Fucking hell.

Sonic zips in and spooks Sally the instant she says his name. He cheekily let’s on that Tails and him have made some kind of discovery before they engage in two pages of snark that eventually, mercifully, ends on a nice moment between them holding hands… kind of.

The talk was about Sonic finding out that she told Ken that she wasn’t ready to get serious with him yet. So she ends the page by saying that Sonic can tell her all about how cool he was while she pretends to be totally impressed and Sonic likes that idea because it reminds him of old times.

Ken was right when he said these two make no sense but I guess you just have to be there to get it.

The idea of things being like old times really resonates between these two… despite the fact that the final page depicts things changing but, hey, ALSO staying the same.

Mighty did go and say his proper goodbye to Espio in the morning because he's a good boy who doesn't hold grudges. Eggman is hard at work on his next evil machination. Ken is now the proud king of the free people with WAY more on his plate than anyone in Sally’s domain has, honestly. Snively is still saddened by the loss of his girlfriend while Sonic is smiling like a dope, happy at the idea that he might get his back.

It’s got a nice sense of finality to it.

Probably would have worked better as a finale for the book than the one we actually got, honestly. That being it’s better than the abrupt ending we got.

That’s later though. For now, rest easy heroes. 

Yes, I made a lot of jokes at the expense of what happened this issue but to be completely honest, I thought that issue was perfectly fine the whole way through. There really isn’t anything I feel is technically wrong with it. Most of, if not all of, what I had to say about it that I didn’t like are all subjective things. Acknowledging how well handled the idea of exploring Sally allowing herself to have options doesn’t change the fact that I prefer her with Ken. The nicely handled drama with Espio doesn’t change the fact that I personally don’t like his backstory. It’s all just personal stuff but none of it detracts from the issue itself. 

This was a well done finale, through and through. After this, things start to oddly blur a little bit in my mind but hey, that just means I’m open for some nice surprises ahead. It was nice revisiting the Iron Dominion Arc after all these years but the time has finally come to move on. 

[E-122-Psi]

On 10/20/2021 at 1:30 AM, CrownSlayer’s Shadow said:

Did the Iron Queen know she could even do that at the time tho? I hear this criticism of Regina a lot, but nowhere until the moment she takes control of Nicole does it show that she was aware she could even manipulate the nanomachines, much less know that the whole city was made of it until Snively brought it up.

So I don’t see how the Iron Queen was stupid here for a lack of knowledge—she could tell Bunnie was cybernetic by looking at her, and she has enough history with Khan to know he was already cybernetic. But it’s not like she could look at the city and tell she could just yoink it under the heroes feet anymore than she knew the Egg Dome she occupied was secretly the second Death Egg.

I guess it's more the fact that well, if so many readers thought up the prospect 'well if she can control machinery then surely NICOLE is a possibility' long before the actual characters did, it holds a questionable substance in writing, especially since lots of readers are kids. I do remember when the comic was first released many questioned why the Iron Queen didn't do this until it finally happened.

Sally even lampshades how bluntly stupid an oversight it was in hindsight, but lampshading the idiot ball doesn't exactly justify it.

On 10/18/2021 at 5:37 PM, Kuzu said:

Naw I get it, I'm just generally receptive to characters that I don't necessarily think are likable but are still compelling nonetheless. Like Shadow is generally an asshole, but I still think he's fine....when they let him be.

Its definitely a hard balance to strike though and I understand when writers occasionally fumble it; Sonic tends to either be too obnoxious or too boring depending on the story at any given time depending on your preferences.

 

Was mostly commenting that I used to feel the same, but I grew to appreciate it over time when I understood the circumstances better; in most media, mainly the games and I guess IDW, Sonic is generally the one that holds everything together and the one that inspires everyone.

 

But in Archie, that's Sally's role primarily. So Sonic is kind of allowed to be a bit more obnoxious despite being the hero. It doesn't necessarily make him the most LIKABLE I admit, but I do think it allows him to be a bit more of a character personally and less of a mouthpiece personally.

But Sally also sometimes botches it by being an asshole too.

I don't think it's just the fact they are sometimes assholes, but the fact they're assholes but undeveloped about it, they sometimes don't face proper repurcussions for it. Even worse in Archie where often OTHER PEOPLE get punished for their misgivings because there are consequences for acting arrogant or foolish in a dangerous world stakes mission.

Like I see people's hatred for Lost Worlds because many see that as a bad attempt a making the characters more fallible and complex (at least for Tails anyway, Sonic at least in-universe acknowledges he screwed up royal even if he doesn't change his approach one bit afterwards).

I think Shadow is sometimes a mixed bag for this as well. In Sonic X and Free Riders especially they kinda try to 'have their cake and eat it too' making Shadow a complete tool most of the story but then turning good and being quickly forgiven at a convenient moment, basically getting a 'get out of jail free' card. He's basically a jerk but with all the spoils and none of the consequences, which can make him a bit insufferable and not really developed because of his flaws because they never hinder them.

I've already went through a billion times how they kinda botch Sally being flawed, either because they only do it at surface level or again, make her act like a complete bitch but never have it affect dynamics or have consequences. Her idiot ball moment in this story is handwaved, and when characters try to call her out on the consequences it had the next arc they are treated as the bad guy. Cases of her being a hypocrite like losing her temper against Fiona or the billion times she is reckless like Sonic have potential for a humanizing realisation for Sally, but they are never treated that way. She never relooks her role as Sonic or Khan's mediator because of these moments, that it's not just a case of them being less stable than her and that sometimes it's harder to practice than it is to preach. It's okay when SHE does it, but not them. This generally leads to Sally's flawed moments making her more insufferable than more fallible and likeable. She's a character designated the straight man, even when she isn't, so her "flawed" moments just always fall short.

It's not really that hard. A character acts like a douche as a result of their inherent character flaws, but suffers consequences that humble them. Even pre-school shows do it effortlessly (who didn't feel bad after Thomas the Tank Engine crashed into the stationmaster's house and got yelled at for it, no matter how egotistical he was acting before? ). You need a simple case of actions = consequences, and for that element to be acknowledged in universe.

The aforementioned deal with a character being so unlikeably flawed that fans ENJOY seeing the bad guys at least temporarily kick their asses shows the repurcussions of neglecting this, they feel like such a karma houdini that fans savour even just brief unintentional bad things happening to them.

It's probably why writers have a much easier time endearing a bad guy to the fanbase, since while they are often EVEN LESS likeable than even the worst heroes, they tend to write an intentional charm to it, and 99% of the time they are designated to lose and face their comeuppance in a pitiful way (besides aforementioned cases who face-turn at a convenient moment). This arc has Snively and Lein Da at arguably their most underhanded and vindictive for example (especially Lein Da who forgoes what was maybe her one redeeming aspect of being semi-loyal to her Grandfather), but they are essentially written like petty children who are completely out of their depth and by the end of the arc, despite their scumbagish qualities, they're in such a pitiful light from the consequences that the audience almost feels sorry for them. Hell the large shift into Lein Da's appeal was when she became a butt monkey villain, rather than just a minor extremely hateable factor in Julie-Su's backstory.

Heroes are harder to do in that regard because, not only are they meant to be on the pedestal morality wise, but they nearly always have to be on the winning end by the time the story's over, so giving them anything more than temporary obstacles is hard to do, aside from maybe in more tongue in cheek cases (eg. Sonic Boom routinely meshed 'good vs evil' plotlines with 'protagonist gets their comeuppance' ones).

 

...Phew, well anyway sorry that turned into another huge essay. I admit I struggle to elaborate on this in small words.

[Kuzu]

I really don't think its as complicated as you're making it out to be, but everyone in this fanbase always freaks the fuck out whenever Sonic or any of the heroes aren't being almost always morally upright and good.

 

So whatever. Guess my old ass just gotta tolerate it.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

12 hours ago, E-122-Psi said:

I guess it's more the fact that well, if so many readers thought up the prospect 'well if she can control machinery then surely NICOLE is a possibility' long before the actual characters did, it holds a questionable substance in writing, especially since lots of readers are kids. I do remember when the comic was first released many questioned why the Iron Queen didn't do this until it finally happened.

Sally even lampshades how bluntly stupid an oversight it was in hindsight, but lampshading the idiot ball doesn't exactly justify it.

Characters aren’t the audience, they’re essentially puppets who’re supposed to act on what knowledge they themselves have—just because the audience knows something doesn’t mean the characters do. Readers were aware of the nanites long before Regina was reintroduced, but not one scene prior to her actual taking control of Nicole was she told “hey, the city is made of microscopic machines you can control” until Snively up and said it later on.
 

So you can’t blame her for not taking advantage of it sooner. You might as well call her stupid for not knowing the Egg Dome she was in was the second Death Egg that she could have used instead. Or for not realizing on the spot that Nicole had already turned against her will. Or, he’ll, we might as well call Eggman stupid for not being able to easily take back his nanotech that he made—the guy’s a genius that should be easily capable of hacking back his own city in a similar way if you want to have a contest of dumb decisions. If anyone was actually at fault for not realizing this, it was Snively.

And as for the heroes, lamp shading the idiot ball is one thing, but tell me—exactly where else were the people of the city suppose to go to avoid that when their last home was razed to the ground?

And more importantly than that, are characters not allowed to make mistakes in fiction? Sally’s already been called a Mary Sue enough as it is, but the one time she makes a near-fatal oversight to show she’s not that perfect in planning and it’s a problem? 

How would you have written that part then?

[SkyHorizon]

Wow, that was a real great review, even better than usual. You made me realize a couple of things I wasn't even aware of. Honestly, the ID arc was pretty great when you look back at it in retrospective. Especially the way the Ken-Sally relationship was handled. Nice job!

17 minutes ago, CrownSlayer’s Shadow said:

Characters aren’t the audience

THAT! Honestly, it's a lot easier to put everything together from the outside. From the perspective of the characters, it's all different. People forget to consider that:

1. We always get good AND bad guys perspective, why heroes only have one.

2. We're the more "mature" (this word sounds funny when you think we're talking about a comic on anthros ) side of the fandom: kids surely didn't realize it.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

9 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

There’s also the fact that the fanbase at the time would have absolutely murdered Ian if this relationship had stuck. Who’s to know if they would have gotten over it too. People lost their shit when Twilight Sparkle became an Alicorn Princess or whatever so who the fuck knows? 

You know what’s funny? I know for a fact I would have eviscerated Ian for that too. I mean, I’d still read the comic, but Khan and Sally hooking up doesn’t seem like it should be a thing.

The funny part, however, is that I had absolutely no problem with Sally x Nicole later down the line come the reboot, even when it was revealed. I guess all their time together made more sense of the two girls hooking up than Khan coming from the Dragon Kingdom as Mr. Steal-Yo-Girl to Sonic.

Then again, for some reason I was cool with Tails X Mina during 25YL arc, so idk wtf?

[Kuzu]

Wait, how the fuck is Ray "flying"? He glides doesn't he? There's not even a sense of motion like when Tails does it with Sonic....

[Dr. Detective]

Sonic Universe - Issue #17: The Tails Adventure - Part 1 of 4: Trouble in Paradise, Part One: No Rest for the Weary

AH! It’s Tails! He’s starring in his own adventure too. 

Full disclosure, this is yet another Sonic Universe arc where I recall having a few reservations about it; especially with the final issue. I remember it being an example of Ian’s tendency to rush endings a bit and the satisfaction that was supposed to come with seeing Tails be smarter, better, faster, stronger than all these guys didn’t quite hit me. You know me; I like it when the heroes struggle, even if the point of the story is about how far they’ve come. But, hey, the point of this is to revisit these tales and see what the opinion on them is now. It’s still been years since I’ve read this and I now have new context for what Tails used to be like under my belt so this should be interesting if anything.

I still don’t know why these Universe arcs are insisting on giving these stories two titles though. The Tails Adventure is a fine name for this arc. It doesn’t also need to be called “Trouble in Paradise”. I understand giving each issue a sub-title like “No Rest for the Weary” and “The Honeymoon’s Over” but the main story name only needs one title in my opinion.

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Tracy Yardley
Inks: Jim Amash
Colors: Jason Jensen
Letters: Phil Felix
Assistant Editor: Paul Kaminski
Editor & Managing Editor: Mike Pellerito

Tails is taking Antoine and Bunnie to Cocoa Island for their Honeymoon. So much has happened that you’d be forgiven for forgetting that their marriage took place a short while ago.

Although, funnily enough, if it had taken place when Penders had originally wanted it to, this arc would be happening immediately afterward. 

Bunnie refers to Cocoa Island as Tails’ private lil’ island which is… honestly, really fun to think about. Imagine being so young and having an entire island to yourself because no one else seems to know of its existence? Then imagine being smart enough to make use of that.

Tails is surprised to get there and see that there are two sister islands here instead of one. Somehow he missed an entire island and it doesn’t really make much sense. It’s the biggest of all hints but it won’t matter until the very end so you’ll also be forgiven for not dwelling on it too much.

There is clearly someone here, spying on them of course. We see a tube in the ground monitoring their arrival and we cut to a room full of small birds observing them as they arrive, also confused since “no one” is apparently supposed to know about this place.

Again, I can’t exactly blame them for thinking this. I’d imagine there’s a lot of places in Sonic’s world that are like that; just places no one has ever seen or set foot on strung about his gargantuan, weird as hell world.

Tails leaves Antoine and Bunnie alone. The honeymooners ask if he’ll be alright on his lonesome and he says he will. He asks if they’ll get bored by themselves and they assure him they’ll be fine. Then when he leaves they assert their dominance as adults that know things behind his back.

Har har, the small child doesn’t know about fuckin’ yet.

Although, again, Bunnie’s design makes it hard to imagine how that’d work. It’s not something I have any interest in imagining though so I’m going to move on.

Tails starts reminiscing about his old home away from home and how he first discovered it way back in the old Tails mini-series. Apparently, he spent a lot of time here alone, stress-building on this island when Sonic was “dead” which sounds… just amazing. Honestly, everything about Tails on this island is going in the “I want this” column. I want my own private island where I can just make things and be away from everyone. Maybe occasionally I’ll go and visit the two people I brought with me and see how they’re doing but man, it just feels so cozy. It’s a loner’s dream.

The birds, known as the Battle Bird Armada, are still spying on Tails and when he starts to fly, they have a reaction that no one else in the series seems to have had up to this point.

These guys are flight bigots apparently. 

This guy with the diaper harness is named Speedy and he’s the son of the leader of these fools. It’s apparently been drilled into his head that only birds may enjoy the skies. It’s a ridiculous notion that gets even more silly later but exclusion like this is always irrational so it makes sense that it would be here too.

We get a nice little montage of how the two sides of heroes on this island are doing. In the scene, we bear witness to Tails just casually building T-Pup.

I really fucking hated T-Pup.

Do I have an actual, satisfactory reason why? No. 

Antoine and Bunnie have this surprising and really mature conversation about whether or not they rushed into marrying too fast. In the eyes of the reader, that question might seem a bit strange… or maybe people were thinking about it and that’s why it’s being addressed like this but either way, it’s a nice thing to bring up. They are pretty young but despite that they had to grow up fast because the war effort was left in the hands of a bunch of young kids at the time. It’s not exactly fair to expect them to conform to the expectations of a society that probably would not exist any more if they hadn’t taken charge the way they did.

It just goes to show why Penders’ plans continuing to be about Antoine having problems getting the okay to marry Bunnie were ridiculous. Political bullshit with new general titles and what not doesn't mean shit anymore and they honestly never should have. 

Anyway, the forest gets set on fire.

“ZZSNRAWK” he says as he wakes up. That’s a wonderful transition from snoring to surprised shouting. Excellent form, Tails.

Antoine and Bunnie get ambushed by the Battle Birds in what look like little green versions of the Sonic Adventure 2 Egg Walkers but the two of them manage to hold their own against these small birdies. Honestly, it’s a little weird seeing them get the shit kicked out of them. They look like babies or kids to me. They might not be but still. It’s kind of funny imagining it being an almost exclusively child army.

Antoine is doing really great without his sword though. Goodness.

I love how he just steals a weapon the first chance he gets and uses it like he would use a sword by smacking one of them across the head with it.

Tails rushes outside and is also ambushed by the Battle Birds and as he dodges, he takes time to himself to reminisce and have a short scene describing to me, a laymen at the time, what his character development here is supposed to be.

It’s all well and good. I didn’t really know what those scenes were depicting at the time but I had a vague sense of what they were about since the Mogul stuff was touched upon a bit and… I assumed the Tails mini-series was basically just him going on a little adventure and being overwhelmed by some badniks and not much else. When I did eventually read it, it WAS that but also some prophecy bullshit was there too. 

Funnily enough, the wind gets taken out of Tails’ sails when Speedy shows up.

It is kind of funny seeing Tails’ “I’m so much better than I was before'' scene and him acting so cocky and quippy like his big bro Sonic when fighting those birds... get followed by a scene of him immediately getting the shit kicked out of him. I kind of love it.

Of course, because an actual threat needs to be established, the advantage the heroes are managing to push being ambushed like this cannot be maintained. A surprise robot bursts through the fire behind Antoine and Bunnie and knocks them out in a pretty clean manner.

“It’s not time for the final boss since this is the first issue. I’m afraid you’re going to have to lose. Also, most of this thing needs to be in shadow. Those are just the rules. You can’t blame this on me.”

They get dragged away as the Battle Birds wonder who the fuck they are and why those two randos who showed up here looking like they were on vacation were such skilled fighters. Honestly, it really puts into perspective how fucking awful these guys are because if they had just been random vacationers, they’d have just set the forest on fire and come at them with tanks and shit for no reason. It’s really kind of messed up when you think about it.

Tails is living this in the moment and is able to feel how horrible it all is so he screams at Speedy’s face about his grievances while punching at him. He wants to know who they are. He throws out the possibility of them being a Dark Egg Legion chapter or a mercenary group. 

It’s funny because the Dark Egg Legion chapters thing is still a new concept all things considered. It’s really cool how the Dark Legion, the way it was conceived, really doesn’t exist anymore and is now folded into the Eggman Empire as this concept where a leader of a legion or group of people that belongs to Eggman is stationed around the world and they can be creatures other than echidnas. They can be platypuses or, what Tails is guessing here, even birds.

They’re not though. Speedy punts both his feet into the back of Tails’ head and makes him slam onto the roof of his house and fall onto the grass below before landing before him and asserting dominance with a downward perspective shot and a menacing finger point.

Gotta love how they keep referring to Tails as a freak. Lord knows the original version of his character would have a bit of a tense reaction to that. Luckily, by the nature of this book and how Tails grew up, the two-tails thing isn’t something that’s been (as far as I know) a point of any contention amongst the people of Knothole. That’s astounding if true because we’ve seen more than once their tendency to get a tad racist and exclusive to things and people that don’t fall within the bracket of “normal enough” to them.

Hey, it’s a new arc and a new villain for us to explore. The Tails Adventure elements are working themselves into the comic in a very nice way that most likely would not be allowed to happen today, sadly. I can take or leave a few of the old concepts that were brought into Archie and repurposed to fit within the story but I did genuinely like the Battle Birds… or rather, I came to like them a whole lot when the reboot happened at least. Here, they kind of flounder a little bit as this thing in the background that has relevance for reasons that never get the chance to fully flesh itself out, though it definitely tries to. Give it credit, the comic definitely goes places with these fucking birds.

Sonic Universe - Issue #18: The Tails Adventure - Part 2 of 4: Trouble in Paradise, Part Two: The Honeymoon's Over

Seriously though, forest fires are no joke. Please, for the love of God, put it out already.

This is a really cool image. I can’t help looking at it and wondering how the coloring techniques were applied to it. It’s sometimes hard to know how confident one should be when applying solid black to the body of a character to get the right effect, you know?

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Tracy Yardley
Inks: Jim Amash
Colors: Jason Jensen
Letters: Phil Felix
Assistant Editor: Paul Kaminski
Editor & Managing Editor: Mike Pellerito

We see Speedy pointing down at Tails and being all like “CRAWL! CRAWL ON THE GROUND WHERE YOU FUCKING BELONG!” 

It’s hard not being amused by it but I do get what this is. This whole, “we look down on all the other species” thing is helped a lot by this whole concept of these birds thinking they own the right to fly.

Although, again, because exclusion like this always makes no sense, when Tails brings up a good point, Speedy’s response makes no sense as a rebuttal.

Dudes gargling that kool-aid like there’s no tomorrow.

Now I’m thirsty. Sigh.

Anyway, Tails tries to explain that they just came here to relax but Speedy says he’s not dumb and proceeds to be completely wrong about everything he says is the actual reason they’re here. Apparently the three of them INVADED their personal training grounds. The little homely tent and the small bonfire they made looked so incredibly threatening and evil, let me tell ya.

It’s funny how they claim that this place is their personal training grounds but apparently didn’t scout out the island well enough to take note of the little log cabin here. Maybe they just thought it was long abandoned or something but it would have at least been something to be curious about. 

Anyway, T-Pup is sent to bite Speedy on the ass so Tails can get away.

It doesn’t really work. Speedy flies after them and is able to keep up, although he does give props to Tails in his head about how fast and good he is at flying. He can barely keep up. That’s what happens when you’re hanging with Sonic all the time.

Speedy does eventually catch up and rings Tails’ chin with a flying uppercut but when he circles around to continue attacking, he’s gone. He intends to search for him but the Battle Birds call and tell him he needs to report back to base on the Battle Lord’s orders.

So he growls at the hole in the ground he chased Tails out of and then leaves.

Tails got super lucky with the rock formation he managed to hide under though.

It looks like those rocks took the formation of a clam or something. Also, yes, I’m glad Tails recognizes that Speedy’s name is a tad silly but it does feel a little reminiscent of Sonic, kind of. Sonic is by far the cooler sounding name, to be sure.

The real kicker here is how, even though this is indeed the Tails Adventure, I love how Tails still can’t help but be like, “But this would be fucking cool as shit if Sonic were here, man!” He’s always Sonic’s biggest fan at the end of the day, which I’ll always love and appreciate.

Tails goes to sleep because he’s been hit in the head seventy-five too many times and needs to sleep so he can think of a plan to save everyone.

The next morning, Bunnie and Antoine wake up in cages, already with a plan in mind. When Bunnie gets taken out of the cage, Antoine grabs one of them under the assertion that he’s pretending to be concerned about how they’re handling her. In actuality, he did it to steal the key to their prison. 

Bunnie herself gets taken to the Battle Lord and we meet him for the first time in a scene that will very much not be the way his character acts outside of this story due to the circumstances behind this meeting.

God, this page is so much fun. Bunnie looks like she’s having fun. 

Yes, the Battle Kukku Lord XV here believes Bunnie to be a legionized member of some sort of Dark Egg Legion chapter, which is why he’s so chummy with her.

This actually surprised me. I recall the two of them getting chummy together in a scene but I couldn’t recall why. Even when I initially read it, I guess it was just another case where “legionized” was just a word on the page and I wasn’t processing what it meant. Ironically, this whole page and understanding it now completely flips the script on my perception of the Battle Birds pre-reboot!

I didn’t think the Battle Birds had much to do with Eggman until Post-Reboot but here he seems to be cool with them and considers her being a Dark Egg Legionnaire something worthy of friendship.

He even says on the next page that he’s affiliated with Eggman. He’s not a part of the official legion which means news of official operations comes slowly.

He keeps talking and I’m understanding every word NOW… but GOOD GOD, was I just a brain dead idiot back in the day? He’s laying it all out, clear as day, what he is, what they are, what they do, and WHY and I have no recollection of this scene being nothing but a bunch of words.

I can’t ask my teenage self what the fuck was wrong with him. I can only continue to be surprised at how little attention I was paying.

He gives Bunnie some mineral water and they talk about all this together. The Battle Birds are an ancient order of avians aspiring to command the skies, find their fabled homeland, and unlock the mysteries of their forebears.

Command the skies, find Babylon Garden, and discover all the sweet secrets hidden within. Easy, simple, and to the point.

He also points out that he’d have succeeded by now if it weren’t for the Rogues. Hearing that makes Bunnie almost choke on her water.

She recalls the story of Sonic’s meeting with the Babylon Rogues. The term “rogues” means something a bit different in this context. They’re not rogues just because they’re thieves and criminals but they’re literally deserters of the Battle Bird Armada. 

Now this is something that starts off rather interesting. The idea that the stories of these two completely different groups of birds from two games that couldn’t be more different from each other (Tails Adventure and Sonic Riders) are actually involved with one another is a compelling thing. I actually recall liking how it was handled for the most part.

 I also recall it being pushed a little too far the more it goes on though. I’m not talking about the Rogues, but the Armada. It gets a little ridiculous how EVERY bird character we’ve met or will meet in this story just happens to have some sort of former affiliation with the Battle Birds. I recall it not being a happy instant because, where the Rogues' thing was an interesting experiment, the thing with Bean and later Predator Hawk just felt like a little too much. It really only served to make the world feel a bit smaller in my opinion.

Anyway, when Bunnie says that she knows the Rogues because a rebel she’s investigating had a run in with them not too long ago, the Battle Lord asks for small clarification.

God, this scene is great. Look at her talking up Tails like that. It’s amazing. Also, back in the day, I got the sense that all these birds were just stupid and an extreme non-threat in part because of the leader here being tricked but it’s hard feeling that way now. I dunno. He’s being taken for a ride but he still has so much swagger. It’s hard not to like him.

Tails wakes up.

It’s funny because he actually has a mom now.

Haha. 

Anyway, he flies off and sees there are some birds guarding the Sea-Fox in case he comes back. He says that’s smart but then immediately calls them stupid (or lazy) for not doing the same with his workshop. So he whips out some bombs with sleeping gas in them and knocks them out before taking the Sea-Fox out to sea.

Man, these birds really must NOT want to disturb that fucking cabin. Honestly, I can’t even properly theorize why they care so little about investigating it at this point. 

Tails realizes now that the third island is most definitely a fake and proceeds to dive deep under the water to see how thorough they were about disguising it.

Turns out they were very thorough. He can’t find any obvious way in. Good job, guys!

Back with Antoine, he’s having a discussion with a guard about cooking and the difference using margarine instead of butter makes.

That last panel is hilarious. It’s not just the fact that Antoine is sneakily tip-toeing right towards Speedy but the look of sheer “What the fuck?” that’s on his face.

Also, I can’t tell the difference between margarine or butter. Mostly because I’ve only ever used butter. That’s right. I’m a margarine virgin. I admit it.

Apparently this margarine joke is a thing from the cartoon, which I haven’t seen so it went over my head before finding out this bit of trivia.

The Battle Lord is in the middle of explaining what their entire base runs off of when the room gets a huge alert. The Battle Lord asks Speedy for an explanation and he says that Antoine has escaped, prompting Bunnie to run out of the room to makes sure this situation gets handled properly.

Tails was shown to have been getting snuck up on pretty much immediately after he dived into the water. Here, we see the aftermath of that.

They have fun.

Well, at least until Tails attacks them for spurning his desire for knowledge. He destroys their ships and the three of them float away in their little glass bubbles, looking really sad. I just want one of them to break down in front of him and start crying about how they actually wanted to be a painter or something but the Battle Birds force them to be all into war and junk.

I think that one bird talking to Antoine was actually really into cooking. 

Tails gets attacked by one last one he didn’t see and it causes his poor machine to start filling with water. Tails fires a missile back and the bird boy who did it tries to apologize and say it was an accident but his thing gets destroyed anyway. Poor loser.

Antoine is running through the halls and manages to find a door to the outside… but when he opens it, it’s way high up and there’s water crashing against it below. He shouts “WHO THE FUCK PUTS A DOOR HERE?!” and the answer would obviously be, “People who can fly”. 

It’s still a funny line though.

Even funnier is what happens next. Bunnie shows up to try and handle the situation. Speedy gets all up in her face about not caring who she works for and that she answers to the Battle Bird Armada while on this ship. Bunnie says the Battle Lord gave her full clearance to handle this though.

Antoine, hearing all these words, has the best fucking reaction ever.

AH! He even threw in a “Goodbye, cruel world!” in there too. Antoine is the best Freedom Fighter, hands down.

He obviously understands what’s going on and plays along but doing that requires him to, in turn, trick Bunnie here.

I do also appreciate him invoking Silver and his traitor mission. It’s a nice touch.

Anyway, Antoine dies.

Speedy’s face is great. Look at that wonderful little shit.

I know what’s down there but I gotta be honest, I can’t help but wonder if his landing would have been harder or softer, all things considered.

Knowing where he lands, it sounds like it should hurt way worse than the water.

This issue was a barrel of laughs and a ton of fun. I feel as though every bit of this one did a really good job of shining in a way that I just wasn’t there for back when I initially read it. I was too focused on wanting these birds to give Tails an extremely hard time that I let all the comedy and good times roll right off me. I hope beyond all hope that my revisit of Treasure Team Tango feels like this because I really wanted to like that one. This one is proving to subvert my expectations yet again so far. 

Sonic Universe - Issue #19: The Tails Adventure - Part 3 of 4: Trouble in Paradise, Part Three

Why did they take away the sub-titles? Did someone forget to include one for this issue? The sub-titles were fine, it was the second main title for the story arc that was the problem. Now it just says “Trouble in Paradise, Part Three” with no subtitle like some weird under-seasoned risotto. The symmetry is all off and it’s really messing with my desire for things to be perfect and orderly.

Strange that I’d go on about that when I’ve got this wonderful cover to focus on instead. Like, holy shit, look at that. I love it when the covers take time out of their day to be so goofy. It’s honestly been a while since Antoine’s been so cartoony as well. Tails plays the straight man well. Also, gotta love that comically huge arrow pointing at Tails. All it needs is that big red Youtube circle around him. 

“Did you miss Tails? He’s right there. That’s because it’s the Tails Adventure, actually! Smash that like button, hit subscribe, and let us finally get into... our second sponsor of the video!”

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Tracy Yardley
Inks: Jim Amash
Colors: Jason Jensen
Letters: Phil Felix
Assistant Editor: Paul Kaminski
Editor & Managing Editor: Mike Pellerito

Bunnie looks down in shock but then her face turns into a smile once she sees what actually happened.

Then she continues playing the part of the double agent, rather well, but Speedy, despite having some ridiculous beliefs, isn’t an idiot himself. Sadly, that’s sometimes how it works.

Come on Speedy. You have to admit, she’s being really convincing. 

Well, I guess you don’t since you’re clearly not convinced. 

Ah. Nevermind.

Anyway, surprise, surprise, Antoine landed on Tails’ lap.

The comedy duo of the aloof uncle and the child genius begins before your very eyes.

After finding out what T-Pup is from Tails, they ride to the island. Tails made mention of this place’s complex cave network earlier and says he discovered an underground tunnel they can use to sneak into the bad guy’s lair from there. 

Antoine is carried to shore by Tails with a determined look on both their faces as he compliments the fox on his nice plan.

In any normal issue, that’s where that scene would end. These two would be on their way towards heroic glory with looks of fierce determination on their faces… but Antoine is the aloof uncle and he can’t fulfill that position without embarrassing the kid he’s working alongside.

Tails has to stop him with a shout and a sentence separated by a bunch of periods. Although, it’s a little hard to read it that way because EVERY word is separated by periods.

I know I'm ruining the joke by saying this but I have to; I don’t think with a sentence this long he’d separate literally every word like that. He’d probably go every three words or something to carry this point across, just to sound more natural in how pissed off he is. Reading it with a pause after every word the way it intends us to feels really awkward. It’s quite the good pissed off face he’s making though. He’s willing and ready to throw hands, even if neither of them realize it.

They discover the cave and are about to head inside. Meanwhile, Speedy stomps his way into Dr. Fukurokuju’s lab… I mean, Dr. Fukurokov.

He’s been mentioned before but this is our first time meeting him. How is he?

He’s great.

Everyone here is great. 

Anyway, Speedy looks on the doctor’s computer (I guess he doesn’t have one himself) and quickly finds out that Mrs. D’ Coolette isn’t in the Dark Egg Legion. They’ve got her name on file that explains everything about her, even the fact that she was half-roboticized before there even was a Dark Egg Legion.

I like how Dr. Frank-n-furter here doesn’t like roboticization. He calls it nasty, rule-bending pseudo-science, magitech malarkey. That’s a lot of words but it really gets across his disdain for it. Funnily enough, Eggman has a similar reaction to Regina technomagic down the line. These evil people just don’t like the methods OTHER evil people use eh? That sounds like it’d make for an interesting commentary on something. 

Speedy, realizing the Battle Lord is being deceived, decides to take some matters into his own hands, turning to the robot that was cloaked in shadow back in the first issue.

Tails and Antoine sneak into the tunnels and come across two Battle Birds, Bubble and Squeak, going on about what the bombs they’re carrying do and how the tunnels connect to the under-tunnel where the big army moves through and all that jazz.

They don’t pay for the bombs.

They just swoop in and punch them out while they’re in the middle of talking.

It’s always really funny seeing these birdies getting punched out like this. It always makes me laugh. I guess I’m just not too used to seeing the comic just relentlessly showing the heroes violently knocking out characters that are designed to look so small and cute.

They acquire the bombs, blow a hole into the area, and go to the under-tunnel where more easily defeated birdies are so that they can be easily defeated. 

Speedy tries to inform his father, the Battle Lord, that an alert is happening down there but he waves it off, saying that he just sent the D.E.L informant there to take care of it. Of course, that just means he’s uniting their enemies but, for some reason, decides not to tell him this. I guess so he can avoid an anger meltdown of epic proportions. Instead he relies on Dr. Funky Friday to finish upgrading his machine.

Bunnie shows up to take care of another bird piloting the green Egg Walker thing and she embraces her husband, happy that he’s still alive.

After Bunnie hugs Tails and gives him his props, she reveals that she has presents for them. She snagged a saber for Antoine to use in fights and schematics of the entire base from her talk with the Battle Lord.

Tails finds out that the weak point of the base is the storage bay, so they head there. In another amusing scene, we see a battalion of Battle Birdies being shouted at by a ring leader telling them that invaders are coming and that they’re awesome and won’t let them by. Then immediately he gets kicked in the head and the heroes fly over him.

They reach their destination but are ambushed by the actual threat, Dr. Frank Stallone, brother of the guy who starred in the hit film “Stop or My Mom will Shoot!”

Tails trying to say this dude’s name with that serious look on his face is a great choice. Excellent craftsmanship on this page, I must say.

Unfortunately, Dr. Floccinaucinihilipilification doesn’t find it amusing that people can’t remember his easily rememberable name so he sicks his robot on them.

Bunnie recalls it from the beach and declares that she’s ready for it this time, which prompts her to punch it’s fist in a move that would have elicited a cool action breeze like in a shonen anime had they been evenly matched for power… but they’re not. Bunnie gets blasted into the wall.

Antoine tries to go after her but Tails dives into him to keep his head from being melted off by lasers.

Guys, I don’t know how to tell you this but…

Dr. Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is about to go ape-shit on us.

Nice to know this is called The Mole Mech though. For years, I just considered it a thing that had a disappointing finish at the beginning of the last issue… at the time at least. My opinion may change upon revisit like it’s done with pretty much this entire arc so far.

God, I love that insane laugh at the end. It sounds so great in my head.

Yeah, you know, there’s surprisingly not a lot to say but that’s honestly fine. This arc has just been a ton of fun. There’s really not much else to it. I like the characters, I like what’s happening a lot more than I did back in the day, and it’s flowing more naturally now that I can fully grasp what this situation really is. Treating it like some sort of big, monstrous, immediate and imminent threat RIGHT NOW wasn’t the intention. They are definitely supposed to be a huge threat but this is just serving as an introduction, hence why the Battle Lord himself isn’t taking part in much of the story. If this were literally just the story of how Tails came and wrecked their shit immediately, I’d probably be a lot more sour about it.

That said, that ending page is THE example I tend to use for how the structure of Sonic Universe arcs tend to go. The final panel of the third issue is always the reveal of a huge threat and then the start of the next issue is dedicated to taking it down followed by a very quick wrap-up. How well that’s handled shifts from arc to arc but I recall not liking how it did here. Again, hopefully that opinion changes with my new perspective on it today. 
 

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

3 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Unfortunately, Dr. Floccinaucinihilipilification…

Did you have to go apeshit on the name like that bro?

[SBR2]

13 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Then when he leaves they assert their dominance as adults that know things behind his back.

Married couple! Having Sex! Well I've never heard the like.

 

13 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Although, again, Bunnie’s design makes it hard to imagine how that’d work. It’s not something I have any interest in imagining though so I’m going to move on.

I really wish someone had realized this was a coloring error before the reboot. In SatAM her leotard covers her lower body too and it seems like it's just her legs. But Archie colored her entire lower half like it was roboticized and it just stuck.

 

13 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

I really fucking hated T-Pup.

Good bye! *leaves forever*

 

13 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Honestly, it’s a little weird seeing them get the shit kicked out of them. They look like babies or kids to me.

I...think they're supposed to be like Bean? I mean considering he was a member of the Armada it'd certainly add up. But also I think these guys look like this in the game too so IDK.

 

13 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

 

He doesn't draw them bad or anything but it's so weird everytime I see Tracy draw Classic Sonic designs. I think it's because he does it so rarely that it always takes me by surprise. 

 

13 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Tails goes to sleep because he’s been hit in the head seventy-five too many times and needs to sleep so he can think of a plan to save everyone.

Aw, shit he probably SHOULDN'T go to sleep after all that now that I think about it. Boy has to have a concussion. 

 

13 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Bunnie herself gets taken to the Battle Lord and we meet him for the first time in a scene that will very much not be the way his character acts outside of this story due to the circumstances behind this meeting.

I don't know why, there's no logical reason, but I can only read him in Beast Wars Megatron's voice. 

 

13 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Tails wakes up.

D'aww. He looks so adorable. 

 

13 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Back with Antoine, he’s having a discussion with a guard about cooking and the difference using margarine instead of butter makes.

It's the meme!

 

13 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Apparently this margarine joke is a thing from the cartoon, which I haven’t seen so it went over my head before finding out this bit of trivia.

It's one of the few genuinely funny moments involving Antoine in the show so it's not a surprise it stuck in people's minds. Seriously if you ever check the show out you'll be shocked to see how absolutely different and terrible Ant is on it.

 

13 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Antoine, hearing all these words, has the best fucking reaction ever.

It's so telegraphed that he saw Tails but I don't care this is amazing and I can 100% hear Rob Paulson hamming it up.

 

14 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Anyway, Antoine dies.

I've been watching so much of Pushing Up Roses That Time on Murder, She Wrote that I read that in her voice.

 

14 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

After finding out what T-Pup is from Tails, they ride to the island. Tails made mention of this place’s complex cave network earlier and says he discovered an underground tunnel they can use to sneak into the bad guy’s lair from there. 

I kinda like that because of the Metroidvania feel of Tails Adventure that instead of adapting it level by level Ian just took the concepts and made set pieces around them. It helps it feel way less repetitive than it could have been. 

 

14 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

 

God those swirly mad scientist glasses make me read him in Dr. Insano's voice. FOR SCIENCE! 

 

14 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Dr. Frank Stallone

You guessed it.

[Dr. Detective]

Sonic Universe - Issue #20: The Tails Adventure - Part 4 of 4: The Finale of... Trouble in Paradise!

Yeah, if I expected something super grand and epic, it might be the fault of this cover because holy shit does it do a good job of getting the blood flowing. This is a phenomenal movie poster and I can’t wait to see Tails take on his rival Darth Vader as he flies to please his boss, the Emperor, in this epic showdown. 

The titles for this arc were confusingly handled though. Last time, the subtitle for the second name  “Trouble in Paradise” was taken away completely and now the title of the story is being treated as the subtitle itself for this final issue. My brain can’t handle the lack of symmetry. I need order. There’s nothing wrong with just “The Tails Adventure, Part 4”. Seriously.

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Tracy Yardley
Inks: Jim Amash
Colors: Jason Jensen
Letters: Phil Felix
Assistant Editor: Paul Kaminski
Editor & Managing Editor: Mike Pellerito

Dr. Florence Flask is losing his marbles with excitement at how much he’s going to enjoy tearing these heroes apart. He’s really enjoying himself long before anything substantial truly happens, I must say. 

Tails thinks fast and asks Bunnie to blind the robot for a bit while they run behind some boxes and think up a plan. 

Our fox boy has well and truly grown up, rendering Rotor more obsolete then he already was (#Joke) by laying out in explicit detail how he’s going to demolish this robot.

Once the robot has regained its composure, free of the large chain it ended up being trapped in after taking Bunnie’s shot head on, the plan goes into action.

Tails flies all around the mech and starts to use his wrench and the bombs he stored in T-Pup to somewhat brazenly and quickly render the Mole-Mech useless.

Yeah, it’s pretty much exactly what I remember.

I do recall his being the first real big example of how disappointing a lot of these finale issues for Sonic Universe were. Usually I tend to appreciate it more when the Sonic comics reserved a nice fight for the entire length of an issue and then had the last issue be the wrap-up. It tended to help sell the threat and make the final confrontation feel like it had room to breathe. Of course, in order to manage that, it'd have to be a really good fight with well handled choreography and some nice dialogue to boot.

Reading this again, however, it’s definitely not as bad as all that. 

There IS a lingering bit of a desire to see something a little more epic but it’s easy to look past that desire to see what the overall point of this was and appreciate it for that. Tails put together a solid plan and executed it well. It does kind of render Dr. Foo Foo Kachoo’s claim that this was his best work EVER a bit of really sad trivia on his part but I guess he’s technically not the main threat anyway. Still, it’d be nice to see him come back with something a little more challenging for Tails. 

I’m sure someone out there appreciated Tails quoting that famous line from that one movie too. 

As of now, he runs off, shaking his fist at Tails and exclaiming that he’s earned his hatred for life. The AWOOGA AWOOGA alarm is going off as this place has suffered a damaging blow and it’s about to explode. 

Tails hears a voice in the collapsed Mole-Mech asking for some assistance. Tails goes and rescues the pilot inside. I’m just as surprised as he is that this thing was being piloted. I’m even more surprised that the doctor just ran off like that knowing who was in there.

Of course it’s Speedy. 

Tails, without a second thought, saves him and, taking after his big brother, tries to push for friendship.

This is a moment that I like. I’m always a sucker for the villains or the rivals giving respect to the heroes or even showing that there’s even a little bit of a possibility for the advent of friendship coming their way.

But, of course, it can’t happen immediately and considering what happens later, it’s going to be tough for them to be friends were this book to continue past the next arc where the Battle Birds show up.

So no, Speedy does the predictable thing he’d do at this point in his budding relationship with his adorable fox rival.

Everything is going to explode, probably.

Give him credit, Speedy not only accepted the handshake but warned him and his friends that they’d better leave. Maybe the AWOOGAs and the rumblings would have clued them in but you never know. That could just be the sounds of a normal Battle Bird Rave.

I always love it when the climax to an arc ends with the place they're in just fucking exploding and they need to leave before it happens. It never gets old and it’s always exciting. At least to me it is.

Fortunately, T-Pup is injured so they have to abandon him and leave him to die in the explosion. Such a shame…

… Anyway, that doesn’t happen. Instead they rush for the under tunnel.

Tails leads them to an elevator where a bunch of the Battle Birds all flee in fear. They’re all heading UP which causes Antoine to freak out. At first, Bunnie is all about trusting Tails and keeping the faith but the further down they go the more unsure and scared she gets.

Eventually, they end up in what looks like a tunnel that’s filling up with water. Antoine and Bunnie think they’re about to drown due to the place collapsing but that’s not what’s happening.

That look is what I like to call the confident Anime Protagonist Turn Around. Tails has done this before in Sonic X too. He’s very good at it.

Why isn’t he freaked out though? Turns out they’re not in any danger of drowning because they are actually in the air right now. The place wasn’t collapsing, it was taking off because it turns out that it’s actually a flying fortress.

That’s the Battle Bird Armada’s Flying Fortress alright.

I knew the island was fake but I honestly didn’t expect it to literally be their flying fortress. Color me surprised when it came to that little tidbit at least.

They fly off and the Battle Lord is what I like to call, “Pissed off with Composure”. 

He does this thing where he starts talking calmly only to then turn around and shout at the people he’s angry at to finish his statement.

First, he admonishes Speedy for not letting him know right away that Bunnie was a Freedom Fighter. Speedy doesn’t REALLY have a viable excuse for why he didn’t tell him. It was most likely an attempt to avoid this very situation but they ended up suffering a loss so it came out in the open anyway.

He then grabs Dr. Fuck Marry Kill by the beak and tells him that he’ll be delighted to know that he’s in charge of all the repairs that are going to have to be done down there.

Turns out the whole place wasn’t exploding. The rumbling was the fortress rising from the ocean. Everything being on fire from the battle they just had just made it feel like the place was about to go up. I appreciate that too. It set the stage for something and successfully subverted expectations.

The Battle Lord makes a declaration of what he plans to do next and we end their tenure in this particular story on Speedy, turning to make the statement of all statements in honor of his new rival.

Hells yeah.

As the Battle Birds fly off into the distance, we’re greeted by our old friends, the Babylon Rogues, coming into frame with a desire to intercept them and discover the secrets of their homeland first. The Battle Lord ironically just made plans to go and find the Babylon Rogues himself so this works out well for both teams I assume.

We end the issue on our three heroes resting in Tails’ log cabin. Tails is making some really chunky looking hot cocoa while Antoine talks about how much he likes the Battle Bird Saber he’s got and starts talking about starting up a collection. That reminds me a lot of my best friend. He too has a thing for collecting swords and weapons.

Anyway, we end on them celebrating the prospect of having a real vacation, all the while a collection of roguish birds hover over them symbolically  like the world’s weirdest framed photo of a dysfunctional family.

Coming up in the near future; MORE BIRDS!

Just in time for Thanksgiving dinner too.

Hey, that arc was actually pretty nice. The first three issues were way more fun than I remember them being. It was a nice, charming little escapade for our cute little hero, Tails. This last issue was probably the weakest of the bunch but only really because all of what needed to happen had to be squeezed in at the end here. None of the scenes themselves were problematic. The robot was taken down, they escaped through the under tunnel, then we had a little wrap-up to establish the motivation of the big players going forward. 

As an arc about Tails, it did its job re-establishing his character and making it clear that he’s finally matured. The implications of what these Battle Birds are about and what’s going on all around them is something of a much larger beast that at first glance doesn’t necessitate Tails but the connection to them will go a long way towards making future run-ins with them feel more powerful as a result. Or, you know, it would have. After Babylon Rising their status in the reboot is a tad different and never really does much to showcase a heavy connection with Tails but I’m sure if THAT were given the time it could have made one… but then the book got cancelled so… *Shrug*.

 

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #213: Reigning Cats and Dogs, Part One

Now that’s a really good goddamn title. I remember the solicits for this issue coming out and my reaction to seeing Big on the cover was a big “Hell yes!”. One of the other people on the dead SEGA Forums was surprised that I was actually excited for an issue of the book for once. I don’t recall it leading to anything all that memorable though. I don’t remember, one iota, what this two-part story was about. I just recall Big being some sort of communicator between Sonic and Sally and those weird cat people and him wearing that weird outfit. I also remember someone saying at the very end, something ominous about the black gem in this story not being a Chaos Emerald. 

As we go on from here, we enter a part of the book where I recall being extremely bored and blanking out a bit. It truly was the time of me just buying the issue, reading it once, and then putting it away without really absorbing the information so hopefully it’ll turn out that these were all really interesting, well done stories the whole time and I was just being an idiot. It’s been that way for a while now so I can only hope the streak of surprise goodness continues.

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Penciler: Steven Butler, Aleah Baker (single panel)
Inks: Terry Austin
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: John Workman
Assistant Editor: Paul Kaminski
Editor/Managing Editor: Mike Pellerito

It’s only the first page and already I have a BIG problem.

Big isn’t big enough.

That’s it. 

I know the sizes of the characters tend to be a bit wonky from time to time and from artist to artist but it’s still a bit jarring. Especially when the front cover has him at the appropriate size. Big is the biggest Sonic character in the series. Dude is both taller and wider than Dr. Eggman so when he’s not that, it stands out to me. Sonic is standing a tiny bit ahead of big but not ahead enough for the perspective to make him look that small I’m afraid. Also, googly eyed Froggy is back and it scares me!

Yeah, that’s me. Rambling for a full paragraph about something that doesn’t matter THAT much. 

Although, speaking about the art, it's really good but I'm realizing that the nature of these old as hell designs is making them stand out against the designs of the actual Sonic characters. These cats and the later Wolf Pack characters are thankfully being drawn and colored by people with an extreme amount of talent but they still kind of look a bit out of place regardless. 

The comic begins with Sonic saying, with one of his more adorable concerned faces, that they come in peace. The angry Cheetahmen have their spears pointed at him, no doubt jealous that the fuckin’ nerd hates their game but thinks Sonic is cool.

They’re in Soumerca which means it’s the return of that insufferable, weird, angry cat lady. Sonic tries to tell them that he’s not an intruder but then Big let’s on that he’s here for the Ancient Onyx.

For some reason, she doesn’t put it together that him being here for it would mean that he doesn’t currently have it though.

Ah yes. Those master thieves, always taking what they want and then waltzing up to the person they stole from and saying they took the thing they like. Class act.

You know, any excuse to get upset I guess.

Sonic is an outsider and therefore a liar so humble Big, who lives on the outskirts of this place, is tasked with being the recounter of the truth. How does this process work? Well, he puts on some fancy clothes and that transforms him from being a fisherman and a traitor who mingles with outsiders to someone who is worthy of listening to. 

This tribe places quite a heavy importance on this material possession of theirs. Sonic’s question is, un-shockingly, met with the answer of “It is our way”. I guess that would be the only logical explanation.

So when Big just goes “Uh…” Sonic says he doubles as a recounter interpreter. That prompts Cat Palpatine Lady to face palm and give Sonic the okay to speak. 

We do a nice little flashback to what happened. 

Long story short, this is a “Whatever Happened to the Wolf Pack?” story. 

I’ll admit, I never once pondered about what happened to the Wolf Pack but I guess it’s nice to find out. I don’t even recall if they’ve been seen since Ian’s run started. Maybe the got a panel during the Enerjak thing. The last I personally recall of them, they were starring in these really pointless stories in the back of the book of them journeying to different areas and then they picked up two kids and there was one racist wolf or something… 

Sonic and Sally touched down here to become honorary members of the Wolf Pack. They meet up with all the faces that I don’t remember. I recall Lyco and Leeta but only because of their significance in the Secret Freedom Fighters arc. 

Although, I wish I remembered that dude who looks like Drago because Sally voluntarily hugging someone who looks so much like Drago makes me wonder what, if any, connection there is. If there is one, there’s no way in hell I’d remember it. All I remember about Drago is that he abused Hershey until she had enough and kicked his ass and then he became the punching bag in every panel he’s appeared in afterward.

Sonic and Sally discover that Lobo is the new chief. Why? Because Lupe stepped down as chief so that she could step UP as GRAND Chief of their new NATION.

Yeah, they’ve got a whole ass nation now. Sonic and Lupe celebrate this with a high five. It’s great.

“Frankly, I thought the Lupe story was important simply because it
showed that even a female could make the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of
those dear to her. More often than not, it’s the girls who are usually
shown being rescued instead of heroic, and that’s why I felt that this
was an opportunity to really make a statement with this character.”

- Ken Penders, on the reason why Lupe was roboticized to be with her family.

So anyway, that dumb shit Penders said couldn’t be more irrelevant. I actually forgot that Lupe got roboticized. Also, this dude tries to paint himself with a feminist brush but then awkwardly says phrases like “even a female could make the ultimate sacrifice” as if that’s never happened in fiction before and he’s the first one to attempt it… even though that’s definitely not what he did.

Seeing as how the Sword of Acorns restored Lupe and her family’s minds and then the Bem restored their flesh soon after, it’s no wonder I completely forgot this even happened. 

Lupe explains things succinctly. After all that running around with their pack scattered she did a lot of tough, off-screen work that saw them coming back together in their ancestral homeland. She’s governing a whole nation now. 

And four children.

That look on Lupe’s face in the corner there. I’m getting “I’m annoyed but I look fabulous while doing it” vibes from it.

I wonder if I was confused just seeing two normal looking human children here with these wolves back when I read this. By this point I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw it and just waved it off as “Weird thing I don’t have context for” and moved on. Glad to see these two girls are getting along well in the Wolf Tribe… I mean, you know, as well as children do.

They sit around inside the hut with their guests, lamenting the fact that not all the Freedom Fighters could come. The invitation came at a bad time though. Tails, Bunnie, and Antoine had already left to take their vacation before the letter arrived. Rotor is busy on the council, trying to help set up a new government, and Amy elected to stay behind so she can have her own Sonic Universe arc.

They say the ceremony will have to be informal because the ceremonial Ancient Onyx is missing. Lobo immediately growls and accuses the felidae of stealing it. 

The Felidae are those obnoxious cat people of course. Lupe tells the tale of how they lay claim to the entire fucking continent and how they’ve had a history of violence against their ancestors for generations, though they leave them alone today.

I also recall having to sit through their bullshit when their quarrelling with the Knuckles clan led to a lot of time wasting in the Sonic Adventure arc. 

By the way, the Ancient Onyx, I forgot to mention, is that Black Emerald. That weird as shit Black Emerald from the Sonic Adventure arc that Eggman struck with a croquet mallet or something to release Chaos in Issue #79 has gone missing.

It’s such a strange thing to think about but it DID happen so I guess it’s time to follow up on the mystique behind their being a fucking Black (Chaos?) Emerald around.

Lupe’s kids scramble into the hut to warn them that a Felidae warrior has entered the city.

The mightiest of warriors one might say.

And also extremely accommodating.

Sonic zips in, really happy to see the loveable lug again, and defends him from being stabbed and popped like a balloon. Sonic credits Big for being there to help in the fight against Chaos 6 on the Egg Carrier back when it launched off their Eastern Coast. 

I had forgotten this had happened in a goddamn Super Special that basically breezed through a huge chunk of the Adventure arc all at once (and still didn’t have the decency to remember to fucking finish Gamma’s story) and the caption calling Super Special #13 a classic almost made me wretch. 

Anyway, Sonic’s with a guy he can trust so he asks Big to explain himself.

Then after nearly pissing himself, Sonic asks Big to please clarify for the angry wolf men with saw-like spears. Turns out that the Felidae sent Big into their city to see if the wolves have it.

So, Lupe now knows that the Felidae claim to not have it either… or rather, they most definitely don’t, seeing as how they literally sent a fisherman in to find out if they do. 

When Sonic asks what the big deal about the Ancient Onyx is, Lupe explains that it’s a very special heirloom that preserved her people during the Days of Fury. It’s a symbol of perseverance and it’s theirs to rightfully reclaim, she says.

God. Remember the Days of Fury? A thing we never fully experienced but used to be talked about all the freaking time. Now I don’t even remember the full context. It’ll take no time at all to look it up though. 

… Okay, so after looking it up, the Days of Fury are just days where bad things happened that fucked the planet. One as a result of the Xorda attack with the weird gene bombs thing that got retconned because it was stupid and it was much more plausible that Issac’s files were corrupted and he went crazy, which I still love to death.

The second one was the arrival of the green Chaos Emeralds to Mobius…? They rained down on the planet and caused massive catastrophic changes to the weather? THESE CHANGES CAUSED THE EXTINCTION OF MOBOSAURS???

Fuck me, old Archie was weird.

Fucking Mobosaurs.

Interesting that Mobius didn’t just HAVE the Green Emeralds though. I thought they were native to individual planets since the beginning of time or something. I guess that’s what I get for assuming.

Anyway, Sonic decides to head back with Big so that he and Sally can act as a neutral party in this increasingly pointless sounding feud. Sally leaves to go take care of something that she doesn’t fully clarify. 

And that’s the story. 

It’s all true and all things that Big just said too.

What a champ. Probably the best recounter this sad continent has ever known, that Big.

When Queen Angry Amidala the Cat asks where Sally is, Sonic says truthfully that he doesn’t know where. Sally did that thing characters do where they go somewhere but don’t say where until it’s time for the dramatic reveal.

Well, dramatic enough I suppose. I’ll admit, it did shock me seeing this upcoming information touched on at all but I guess it would have to be since it’s where the Pachacamac and Tikal story has the most mirth to it.

However, it’s treated as such an extreme footnote in the Echidna history of these books. It’s kind of funny. It’s almost as if Penders, despite being handed echidna lore on a platter to work with, just preferred being the guy to shape all of it himself. He couldn’t even give it it’s proper due. These weird Felidae people and their pointless fight that Locke had to come in and mediate during the climax by beating up some big strong guy were introduced to waste so much time so that Knuckles could lift a steel beam in that one moment that ripped off Spider-Man.

Sally saying this place has SO much meaning is probably the biggest joke of this issue, honestly. 

She’s a detective now since the actual would be detectives aren’t detectives (except in that one issue where Ray randomly refers to themselves as detectives) and she manages to sneak into the ruins of the Pais Misterioso. 

Here, she comes across another Dark Egg Legion chapter. This one seems to be full of kitties. 

She figured the story about a relic that was precious to both of them disappearing was too convenient for her and figured it was the work of a third party that wished to instigate fighting between the two tribes. 

It’s a good theory and one that happened to be correct. As Sleuth Doggy Dog stated though, Drago is an idiot and he went back to the Eggman Empire, so who should she come across but him?

She’s ambushed by him and then his partner Razorklaw. Her running leads them to doing the Drago thing of Drago getting beaten and shat on but here it serves the more menacing purpose of ripping up their robes and revealing their true forms.

Drago has a new design and a scary, gnarly looking face now too. He just IS a monster now. 

He and his partner here have been legionized and Sally, surrounded, has no choice but to surrender.

Looking at this is kind of amazing for a couple of reasons. The first is how quickly Eggman has incorporated the whole LEGION thing into his Empire and how it works. The whole thing of taking a group of people in robes and outfitting them with robotic appendages was ripped full-sale from the original Dark Legion. Lien-Da inducting them into the Eggman Empire was the catalyst for a full-scale change in how the Empire functioned, all across the board.

Secondly, I’m realizing now that the thing I was wondering about concerning all the Grandmasters not showing up before is happening now, gradually. We saw Duck Bill Platypus and his Legion of platypuses. We’re seeing Drago and Razorklaw with their legion of wolves and cats. I’m sure we’ll see Uncle Beauregard soon, though I don’t recall him having a legion of bunnies. Memory is a bit fuzzy on that Oil Ocean story, really. We, of course, already have Lien-Da and her army of echidnas.

I wonder what the Akhlut story is going to be like when I get to it. 

By the way, I originally wrote Egg Bosses instead of Grandmasters but I knew someone was going to be like “Actually, Egg Bosses were what they were called Post-Reboot” so I changed it. I'm already playing with fire talking about things that happened in the past. I'm going to be "Well, Actually'd" so hard, I can feel it.

Reading this over it's, again, kind of amazing that these were the introduction to these Dark Egg Legion chapters. Reading it for the first time, I had assumed they already existed and was confused and worried when I reached Issue #160 and didn’t see hide nor hair of a single one. Turns out it was mostly covered in the issues I had already read.

I just wasn’t paying enough attention. That’s turning out to be the theme of this revisit eh? Just finding out how little qualifications I had towards having an opinion on the books I owned due to not fully reading them right.

Granted, some of that… nay, A LOT of that had to do with my confusion concerning a lot of these past elements. Like, I had no idea who the fuck the Wolf Tribe were or who the Felidae were. I didn’t know what the Ancient Onyx was and I certainly didn’t care about the feud between these two tribes. 

Hell, I didn’t even know that Sally’s talk about the echidna stuff earlier was talking directly about what I knew from Sonic Adventure… sort of. Imagine how surprised I would have been had someone told me that back in the day?

Anyway, Sally is captured now. She was thinking to herself the entire time she was trying not to be captured how she wished Sonic was here with her and the reason she didn’t bring him with was because she wasn’t sure he’d have the patience to sneak around with her. Just what you want in a trusting relationship, no doubt.

Even if that’s true, I still don’t know why Sally opted out of not telling him where she was going. She didn’t have to say why but giving him a way to find her in case she stumbled across something that might require his help or in case she was gone too long and he needed to come search for her seems like it would have been smart. 

Anyway, Sonic decides to be the negotiator this time. Queen Cat in the Stupid Hat judges things based on clothing so Sonic just points to his shoes and says they give him the credentials he needs to do it.

Honestly, this might be one of my favorite things Sonic has ever done in these books.

He tells her that if they don’t kill him with their sharp spears, he’ll track down the Ancient Onyx for free and figure out a time-share plan between them and Lupe.

Queeny is surprisingly accommodating about this. She says she’ll agree if Sonic promises to dispose of “this traitor who willingly cavorts with outsiders” and points to Big.

Sonic says he’ll just take Big back home with him when this is over and says to call it “exhile” or whatever.

Big’s response to this is “Exile? Aww…” 

Which is pretty funny.

Then Sonic says they’ve got awesome fishing where they live, to which Big becomes instantly happy again and goes “Fishing? YAY!”

Which is even funnier.

Honestly, I’m happy this happened. When this issue started I remember thinking to myself how sad it was that Big the Cat was stuck being on this land of insufferable weirdos. I guess Ian agreed because he’s orchestrated a means to get him off this place and into a zone where he can appear far more often and do way more good for the book.

The queen calls Sonic a “Barterer-interpreter” now and says they’ve got an accord.

Immediately after that’s settled, the Cheetahmen (they might be a different animal but I think it’s funnier calling them Cheetahmen because of AVGN memories) yell that an invasion is coming.

Wouldn’t you know it? It’s the exact people we don’t want or need to be fighting right now.

Lupe is doing the warrior strut forward while the Not-Drago behind her is carrying what I can only assume is an Iron Mace… Axe. 

Gotta love that caption at the bottom though. “Has time REALLY fun out for peace AND Princess Sally?” as if there’s a sliver of a chance Sally’s going to meet her end to Drago Wolf of all characters. Bitch please.

Big was the MVP of this issue. I don’t feel as though that’s a surprise or something that needed to be said but I will for the sake of clarification. His big, doughy eyes and his blunt, one-word answers to everything are delightful to read and look at. He entertained me immensely for being the kind of character that just doesn’t give this situation the gravitas it’s demanding and I can always appreciate that. As for the issue itself, there was a lot of talking and a lot of preamble about tribes and heirlooms and what not. 

The biggest thing for me was the reveal of this new chapter in the Dark Egg Legion and seeing that the Echidna stuff did indeed get mentioned again. I guess seeing Lupe was okay along with those two Mobian children was nice as well. While I don’t care a whole lot about the Wolf Pack, I can at least say that I don’t have a problem checking in on them after so long considering how they were just left a jumbled mess in the earlier issues. I’m sure the fans of them appreciated it.

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #214: Reigning Cats and Dogs, Part Two

The idea of a creepy black “Chaos Emerald” in name only is something that I, and no doubt, a lot of other people have come up with. Of course, different approaches to what exactly that would entail vary. The route of saying “Whatever this is, it ISN’T a Chaos Emerald” is by far the creepiest way to go about it. It leaves a nice mystery dangling over everyone, as it does in this wonderful image. Unfortunately, I don’t recall this going anywhere. We do return to the Cat Country after this but… I recall that story being a bit of a waste of time. My recollection isn’t that reliable though so take it with a grain of salt at this point.

The only other thing I feel the need to mention is how Big’s lure is holding up that emerald. Is it like a magnet? That hook has to have some sort of emerald magnet on it right? How is it hovering like that? I have no clue how fishing rods work. Can they do this?

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Steven Butler
Inks: Terry Austin
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: John Workman
Assistant Editor: Paul Kaminski
Editor/Managing Editor: Mike Pellerito

This feud between these two tribes is dumb. I don’t like the Felidae and I tolerate the Wolf Pack. Seeing them go at it like this is kind of only good for witnessing how cute it is that Sonic’s trying so hard to diffuse things.

This honestly feels more like a sit-com. 

Like, I can hear the laugh track playing every time Sonic makes a scared face or a whacky comment.

Then Queen Kitty Gaga gets all up in Big’s thousand yard staring eyes and does an amazing routine for the family watching this show on Nick at Nite.

Cue the laugh track.

Lupe is sure as shit these cat fucks are guilty and the Queen of those cat fucks are sure she’s guilty too. They start arguing their grievances with neither side actually attempting to analyze the situation in order to come to the quick and easy solution that none of this makes any sense as ordained by the order of operations here.

Like, Queen Hathor is calling Big a fucking spy right in front of Lupe even though Lupe’s group pointed spears and shit at him. That at least should clue Lupe in that something isn’t right. But no, no one is listening to anyone right now because we need to have a conflict.

Meanwhile, Drago is trying to taunt Sally but he’s dumb as fuck so she manipulates him into telling her everything about what’s going down with the new Eggman Empire and how it operates. 

He’s bragging a shit ton of stuff at her while Razorklaw facepalms in the background.

He also let’s her know that he’s a Grandmaster now, along with Razorklaw. Ah man. The title must mean jackshit if fucking Drago can hold it. Lien-Da’s ambition just became even more shit than it already was.

I will say, I’m liking his new design. He totally does not deserve to look this cool though. Thankfully, he’s still an idiot so he doesn’t end up wearing the new coat of paint well.

As for Razorklaw, well, that big buff guy that Locke beat up that I talked about earlier? Turns out this is him!

Ian has recycled another character for the betterment of his story once again.

I want to make a joke about how this is ironically another example of Locke ruining someone’s life but, to be fair, these cat people are terrible. 

Teaming up with a bunch of other disgraced Felidae that got booted by their shit system and seeing Eggman as the alternative gives them the grace of being villains but a small air of sympathy too. Kind of like my initial feelings on the original Dark Egg Legion. I can’t help but wonder how many avenues Ian had to explore for making it plausible that each Dark Egg Legion chapter would be made up of one specific kind of animal. At the moment, I don’t see any wolves here...

He even brags about how stealing the Ancient Onyx was his idea… although Razorklaw clears his throat at him and Drago has to concede that he helped a little as well.

He then points his metallic claw into Sally’s face and asks if they should make it seem like she’s the mastermind of the whole scheme or just kill her.

Uuuuuuuhhh, the second one.

Obviously, the second one Drago.

No one is going to buy that Sally set this whole thing up for starters but even if they did, the felidae and the wolf pack would just try to pawn Sally off to the other side as a spy working against them because they hate each other so much. That’s assuming IF Lupe actually does buy that Sally betrayed her which, I gotta say, I doubt she will. 

So just kill her. 

Meanwhile, Sonic is pacing back and forth as Big literally has to hold the two leaders of the tribe’s back with his hands. Eventually, Sonic gets the bright idea to ask either of them if there are places neither of them visit. Once they find out about the ruins, Sonic asks Lupe to trust him on where he’s going to take her. He also tells the queen to do the same and that, since she doesn’t trust him, he’s betting his life on it.

With an evil glare, she says “Very well. For you LIFE.”

Sonic says, “Cool. Now, which way to those ruins?”

He doesn’t seem to care, which I like, but because of all the new context we were just given about how quick they are to jump to exile, adding being fiercely okay with taking Sonic’s life if he turns out to be wrong here when he’s just trying to stop them from fighting kind of makes them feel a bit more villain-y.

Even if they’re not villains, they’re a tribe of terrible people and I hope they go the way of the echidnas.

Back with Drago, he’s still not killed Sally yet because he’s a dunderhead. Razorklaw just tries to go for it but Drago seriously stops him from doing it and goes on about breaking their will first or whatever. Then both of them stop when they hear a loud raiding sound going off.

They’re being invaded by both tribes at once.

This is where both tribes find out about the Dark Egg Legion. One of their hoods is pulled up to reveal… SOME GUY!

And Some Guy got dumped by one of the twins for two-timing them or something.

Okay. 

Obviously, the point here isn’t literally WHO this guy is but the fact that he’s a wolf. I guess Drago being a Grandmaster means he DOES have some wolves in a wolf legion then. 

Lupe is upset by this, of course. Having it be revealed that some of those who were unaccounted for after the de-roboticization AND after they had settled are actually just traitors rather than victims of the doctor or the hated Felidae is a tough pill the swallow and Sonic doesn’t relish in being the bearer of bad news here either.

The Queen Cat Bitch is amused that wolves were proven to be treacherous but Sonic stops that shit when he reveals that this legion has been double dipping on both sides of the war.

The majority of them probably got betrayed by you first. Just sayin’.

Although, I’ll also say that these designs are really spooky. Like the robot parts in the fucking eyeballs?! YEESH!

So anyway, seeing this shit prompts Drago to agree with Razorklaw that they should just kill Sally.

Unfortunately for them, Big is a fucking NINJA and managed to sneak up from behind the pedestal where they tied Sally.

Then he just clowns Drago immediately like Goku did to General White at Muscle Tower.

Razorklaw tries to take charge there and grapples with Big for a bit before Sonic spin-dashes into his stomach and sends him into a wall.

Then Sonic saves Sally and says exactly what I said earlier.

I guess it’s nice that they’re coming together once more but seriously, there really was no reason you couldn’t have told him. I’m not even sure it would have saved that much page space. We’d be down the one part where Sonic figured it out I guess. Perhaps that’s nice. Seeing Sonic be the one to strategize and put a plan together is neat. 

Although, once again, it doesn’t bode well for Sally’s position if the thing she figured out can also be figured out by Sonic. It starts that old chestnut of a conversation again where I start to wonder what she’s contributing.

Thankfully, the book does put that into practice in a different way here at the end.

Razorklaw presses a button while they’re not paying attention to him anymore. That button apparently just made the lights on some of the legion start to blink a lot. Drago tells his army to retreat and Lobo is all ready to follow after them but Lupe tells them to stop. 

That’s when the two sides consider whether or not there’s still fighting to be done but Sally brings out the huge as hell Ancient Onyx and makes a grand speech about how the Dark Egg Legion used their hatred for each other against them and played them for saps. Then she tells them that their coming together was what saved the day and we can give peace a chance and the Rocky IV speech about change.

Oh wait, that speech happened after he just got done beating the shit out of somebody. Well, technically so did they so I guess it still counts. Just don’t fight each other anymore, is the point.

Sally makes a proposal that realistically doesn’t end World War III here but, to be honest, I would have been okay with the feud ending if it meant I never had to see these tribes arguing with each other anymore. I think we come back here one more time and then never again. 

Well, that’s how it’s done in Archie Sonic Land at least. 

So it’s a start. They’re not friends yet but they’re not… literally murdering each other, I suppose. So whatever.

So that night, they finally have their Wolf Pact induction ceremony… this time with Big the Cat included! Hurray!

How great that a cat person has been accepted as part of the Wolf Pack. It’s a thing of beauty I tells ya.

Of course, that’s not the thing I remember about this whole escapade. Going through this, I remembered absolutely nothing about what transpired here accept for these last two panels.

You’d better believe this stuck in my kraw as a very scary little tidbit to leave off on. I mean, look at that thing. The inky blackness inside of it is creepy beyond belief. Plus, Sonic would have to be right about it not being a Chaos Emerald. Forget feeling it’s power, if it were an emerald, it would have arrived at the Nanite City when A.D.A.M brought all those emeralds together. The only one he said wasn’t accounted for was the Master Emerald. 

… So what the fuck IS that thing???

WE’LL NEVER KNOW!

Anyway, Rotor’s family is in danger… AGAIN!

Before this, they were doing boring council stuff so this should be a blessing in disguise right?

Man, it’s taking all my willpower not to make this out to be one big joke. I can’t take the “Rotor’s family is in danger” plot seriously anymore. Not after all that dicking around they did with him with that weird, situational hypnosis and the abandonment on a plank of ice and the “write in to tell us if you want to see Rotor’s family live” shit they used to do.

This next arc has its work cut out for it.

This two parter arc about these two tribes wasn’t as boring as I remember it being. Honestly, I wouldn’t even say it was all that bad. At the end of the day, it brought the action and a modicum of intrigue. Most of that dealt with stuff that I was learning in spite of this feud rather than any actual concern I had for the manner of their relationship. These two groups could fight forever or live in peace for all I care, so long as I don’t have to see it.

The biggest thing it left me with is the wonderful intrigue surrounding the Ancient Onyx. I remember seeing the cover for #214 and going “A BLACK CHAOS EMERALD?!” and wondering what it could mean. Turns out the story wasn’t really about what it IS but more about what it meant to these tribes of cats and dogs. That turned out to be a shame because I’ll never know now.

However, there is a teeny, tiny, part of me that’s okay with that. There is something to be said about it just existing as this huge black emerald with swirling dark energy inside of it that no one knows what the fuck it is… and the mystery is kept in-tact. That does admittedly make it creepier. Maybe one day, they’ll come back to visit this place and find it just a sea of darkness and everyone’s dead. The only thing left is the Ancient Onyx, sitting there amongst the ruins of the ruins, just as spic and span as they remember leaving it…

[Kuzu]

And now we begin the buildup to the events of 225. 

[SanPolo4389]

3 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

makes a grand speech about how the Dark Egg Legion used their hatred for each other against them and played them for saps.

Gee I sure hope they don't do that same trick again when they come back here later.

[SkyHorizon]

10 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Teaming up with a bunch of other disgraced Felidae that got booted by their shit system and seeing Eggman as the alternative gives them the grace of being villains but a small air of sympathy too. Kind of like my initial feelings on the original Dark Egg Legion.

 

Well, to be fair, your comparison doesn't really hold up: simply put, the Dark Legion were bad people, the disgraced Felidae were not.

10 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Unfortunately for them, Big is a fucking NINJA and managed to sneak up from behind the pedestal where they tied Sally.

That one killed me!

[Dr. Detective]

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #215: Family Matters, Part One

As for the cover, it’s fine. Three characters and a title card are posing for the reader on an icy background and nothing else. It’s okay.

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Penciler: Steven Butler
Inks: Terry Austin
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: John Workman
Co-editor: Paul Kaminski
Editor/Managing Editor: Mike Pellerito

We begin with a report asking for a spare hand from the Arctic Freedom Fighters. Remember them? I don’t. Anyway, Rotor’s family is fucked once again and are being used to build something huge. We, as of now, don’t know what though. 

Dylan is very clearly afraid of Nicole here. I probably didn’t get what was happening here back then but to be honest I barely remember this story at all. All I recall is that Rotor’s got a weird new suit he wears and also there’s some hilarious clean-up of some of Penders’ bullshit that happens not too much later.

Sonic is on his way and he’s just assuming Rotor is coming along. That’s cute. He doesn’t think the council matters. He’s just like me and probably all of the other readers at the time. Hamlin, ever the mouthpiece for authority, says that Rotor’s duty is to the council of the republic. He’s no longer a Freedom Fighter and thus cannot do things a Freedom Fighter would do like… say “Fuck you” to authority and go do what he wants anyway.

It’s still very tough, witnessing the book try it’s best to get around them being “Freedom Fighters” while working for the Republic. I’m almost waiting for the part where Eggman-Palpatine takes it over and everyone goes into hiding again but that would be backtracking at this point, strangely enough.

Rotor “agrees” with Hamlin, despite Sonic’s insistence that the dude should be allowed to rescue his fucking family and tells Sonic that he trusts him to handle it. When Sonic leaves he asks for Nicole to meet him at his place.

Sonic reaches Guntivar and the rest of the Arctic Freedom Fighters, apologizing for being “late” even though he only sent word the other day. Upon meeting them again I… don’t know if I remember these people or if my brain thinks it remembers them… or not.

I like the seal with the accent that almost crushes Sonic’s spine here though. It’s also funny how immediate the implied drama within the group just gushes out two panels later.

Apparently, they’ve got problems but who doesn’t these days, am I right?

The rundown of the plan is quite succinct. I had to re-read it once or twice before I got what was going on and what they were going to do to stop it. It’s nothing complicated but I promise you that ten years ago my dumbass read the words but didn’t let any of it sink in. 

Reading this plan about the sonar signals from the top of the Egg Totem tower and the legions on sonar from their cybernetics below the ice and how they’re planning to split into two teams to take care of it really makes me wish we’d gotten more stuff like this in Forces.

Like, yeah, there were times where people would read off plans to each other but it felt so lame and easily ignorable. It helps a lot to make this feel like an actual war effort when characters are actually split up around the planet, not only taking on problems in other locations but PLANNING things in other locations aside from just the Resistance HQ. Having everyone just huddled together in the same place all the time and going on collective missions together just feels lazy.

Then again, that game oozes lazy so it’s par for the course.

The others are wondering where Rotor is. Sealia has a funny line where she flat out says “Where is Rotor? Is he not concerned about his family?” as if that has to be the only explanation. It makes me giggle because she says it with such a genuine look of concern on her face.

Of course, Sonic has to explain that the real reason is because a fucking steel gurter crushed his back. He can’t adventure anymore. It’s funny because the image depicting Rotor pushing Tails, the one who took up what his function on the team was, out of the way of being crushed almost feels like a metaphor for something.

We then cut to Rotor’s house where Nicole has arrived as per the walrus’ request.

Rotor asks Nicole if she can create something for him with her nanites. At first, she expresses not being too comfortable using them thanks to her time as Iron Nicole. Apparently that was the first time she realized that her whole thing is pretty freaking scary once you stop to think about it. A lot of the people in the city feel the same and probably worse no doubt.

Rotor insists though, since this is supposed to be a secret anyway. Nicole also brings up what he said in front of Sonic and Hamlin and Rotor says he just did that to shut Hamlin up. Of fucking course he’s going to go rescue his family. Again.

Nicole makes what Rotor asks for in a matter of what looks like literal seconds and Rotor puts it on.

It’s a brand new battle suit and I guess it’s supposed to look cool or whatever. Hmph. Well I’m not impressed...

Nah, I’m just playing around. It does actually look pretty sweet.

As he flies off though, we get this wonderful set of two pages where Ian just… fucking takes a bottle of clean-ex to Penders’ dirty sludge and wipes it clean.

Remember that wonderful scene of Rotor showing Sonic his huge fuck-off gun that could blow holes through dimensions? Well, it’s been re-drawn. Also, remember that hilarious scene of Rotor telling Fiona that the Freedom Fighters “Don’t use guns! It’s just not how we do things!”

Well, they’re both here.

Rotor, being written under a competent writer, is actually acknowledging these two things back to back and we’re being provided an explanation for why they happened so that they can finally make sense.

“I’m sure I made a hypocrite out of myself more than once” he says, directly referencing the most hypocritical scene Rotor has ever been a part of. 

Oh yeah, and then after that, we go into his thoughts about when he and Sir Charles had been commissioned to create the Metal Sonic Troopers.

This shit is magical man. I actually was well aware of the hypocritical nature of Rotor’s statement to Fiona by this point. Even as I read that particular issue, I knew it was bullshit and I was also probably aware of who Penders was by that point 10 years ago as well. This scene and it’s context was something I’ve pretty much always been aware of, interestingly enough. As such, it holds a special place in my heart for being one of my personal earliest recognized examples of Ian cleaning up Penders and Old Archie’s bullshit.

Also of note here is the body of Larry being carried by Rotor like that, two pictures above. Larry was inducted into the Freedom Fighters in a side-story and never showed up with his weird team of side-characters again as far as I can remember. If Rotor accidentally blowing them up with his weapons during Sonic’s time in space is the explanation for why they’ve been gone for so long, that's beautiful. 

I know Larry becomes a Secret Freedom Fighter member later but this does well to fill in some gaps for my personal interpretation of the events.

Sonic and the Arctic Freedom Fighters are on their way to the Egg Totem at this point in time. Sonic, very amusingly, points out that the herd keeps getting hypnotized over and over again and finally asks why. He’s informed that the city of Iceborough is the most influential settlement in the entire polar cap and that they’re the most prominent species in the Northern Tundra.

Sure, but hypnosis every single time? 

Bah. It’s as good an explanation as any.

Sonic makes a few cheap, cheesy jokes that don’t land, at all, before angry girl gets annoyed with him.

No biggie, Sonic says.

To be honest, it kind of feels that way, if only because we’ve been through this song and dance before. I will admit that the art does a good job of making it feel more important and oppressive than before.

Not helping is that Rotor gets stopped by a visitor from the future.

Yup. Back from his time off doing extensive (?) research into the traitor, Silver the Hedgehog has re-entered the story to annihilate someone in cold blood for doing something they haven’t done yet. It’s the Minority Hedgehog Report, you might say.

I like how Rotor just says “Boomer?” like he’s aware of its status as an online insult today. I know his association with that name of course but it’s still funny.

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #215: Future Tense, Part One

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Jamal Peppers
Inks: Terry Austin
Colors: Ray Dillon
Letters: John Workman

Speaking of Silver, what’s he been up to?

Well, we jump to 3437 P.X.E on Onyx Island to find out.

What does P.X.E stand for? Don’t know. I do, however, like how this book knows that Silver is from 200 years in the future. Apparently, there were people who were surprised to hear that in Team Sonic Racing, even though I thought that info was readily available already.

Then again, there are people who still get the ages of the characters wrong so pfft.

Also, Onyx Island is a location that Ian Flynn has talked about having a lot of invested interest in. Apparently, in Sonic Rivals, it’s like a future version of Angel Island, all dilapidated and collapsed on its side in the ocean. 

I don’t blame Ian for being interested in it because it’s an insanely intriguing idea. Peaking ahead 200 years and finding shit you were familiar with just… demolished and destroyed is cool enough but the island having a completely different name and being all collapsed like that? I’d like to headcanon that it got its name from future residents that saw it and just decided to name it that because it was a mysterious island that no one knew anything about. I don’t know too much about it beyond that.

What I do know is that Silver is quite the huge idiot here.

I recall having some reservations about the way Silver was being handled upon entry into the story but what he pulls here is some Boom Knuckles shit.

Silver, there’s being naïve and then there’s just being fucking stupid. There’s so many reasons why this doesn’t mean anything concrete. At least when it comes to being concrete enough to kill a guy.

First of all, that’s a shockingly well intact picture of the Freedom Fighters as children in this old book from 200 years in the future.

Besides that though, the idea that Rotor is the traitor because his name is different has so many other obvious things to consider first. One would be the fact that all of the others still call him Rotor. You’d think that if their friend was named Boomer the Walrus and all of a sudden he were replaced with a different walrus called Rotor, they would be like, “Kay, but what happened to Boomer?” 

Does Silver think that Rotor just took Boomer’s place and insisted they call him by a different name? Why would he do that? Why wouldn’t he just go by Boomer if he was trying to take his place? Can you imagine a spy that was so insecure about being called a different name that he insisted he be called by his real name instead of the name of the person he was trying to take the place of undetected?

Also, do nick-names not exist in the future? Probably not, right?

Does the concept of changing one’s name not exist either? I guess not.

Even if they didn’t, it’s still weird that he recognized that the names were different and then put together a headcanon that would lead to him being the traitor. Although, it is kind of funny.

I suppose one could chalk it up to him being desperate but man I dunno. It’s a lot harder to forgive when time travel and murder are the things on the dockett here. You don’t know how killing the wrong person is going to affect the future my dude.

As of this comic, Sonic 06 was only four years ago, if you can believe it, so at this time, Silver was definitely recognized most as the character who’d totally do something this jumpy. 

We all must remember this is a guy who went to the past to kill a person he didn’t know because another creepy person he didn’t know, with no mouth, told him to do it. He also never questioned why this no-mouthed stranger with convenient time traveling powers didn’t do the deed himself. To be honest, I questioned that as well but apparently there was no answer because Mephiles DID eventually just do it himself so why the fuck did he need Silv--

Anyway, the point is, I can see the reasons behind why Silver would be thought to act like this. It’s tough differentiating between naivety and stupidity sometimes. I feel like Knuckles has a hard time of it too.

Silver psyches himself up to go and kill somebody but then slows his roll when he realizes that he’s about to fucking kill somebody.

No, Silver. You were on the right track there.

Honestly, even if there was a traitor, the fact that you can travel back in time to a point where they haven’t done it yet means there’s a way you can at least talk to them and try to figure something out. Even if they don’t intend to change their ways it couldn’t hurt to be more thorough.

I understand the future is fucked but you really need to make sure you’re not murdering an innocent person here.
He’s learning though. He’s still a naïve little starry eyed boy with that strong sense of justice. Because of that, he talks himself back into going on his murder journey and uses Chronos Control to warp out of there.

As the book he read from Edmund gets tossed out of his hand we see the destroyed statue of Lara-Su.

I recall this being another situation where witnessing the melding of the games canon and the comic canon threw me off. I don’t think I was all that aware of Lara-Su at the time but I could tell this was an echidna and my mind went back to “more echidna bullshit” as a reactionary flux. 

Getting used to this book is truly very hard. The mishmash of elements it has will never not catch me off guard sometimes. It makes for a good story at the end of the day but am I glad I have something I can turn to that feels more comfy in that manner. I just wish these books didn’t have to end in order to get it.

This story is a fairly generic kind of adventure but that’s not a bad thing. It honestly isn’t even bothering me all that much that we’re treading old ground with these hypnotized walruses again. I’m kind of liking this little train we’re on where we’ve got these two issue arcs that begin with a set-up and then a payoff for who the next Dark Egg Legion Grandmaster is and how they fit into the grand scheme of things. It’s providing a change in location every time and the focus on different heroes is helping to get certain character development bits accomplished without much of a hassle. Rotor’s declaration that he’s DONE after this adventure of his will always stick with me as a result. Dude’s been through a lot and it’s tough seeing him get dicked around so much but it goes a long way towards making you feel good when he comes out on top in the end.

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #216: Family Matters, Part Two

This is seriously one of my favorite covers in all of Archie Sonic. I always love looking at it. It’s such a strange image too. Sonic is riding a legionized, real ass killer orca underwater. Yes, he’s evil. The colors and the art style come together amazingly well in this one too. It’s just perfection. I could see this making my Top 10 favorite covers list for the main series of Archie Sonic comics honestly. It’s just too good of a striking image.

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Steven Butler
Inker: Terry Austin
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: John Workman
Editor: Paul Kaminski
Managing Editor: Mike Pellerito

You can tell the art is by Steven Butler because of how freaking tall everyone is. 

Silver and BOOMER have a brief scuffle in the snow. Rotor tells Silver that he needs to get his facts straight, that he’d never betray his friends, and that no one calls him Boomer anymore. On that last bit, Silver replies “No, they call you Rotor now, you imposter!”

Silver this MAKES NO SENSE what you’re doing and saying here. NONE!

But it’s fine. Because our naïve boy is super naïve, literally, all it takes is Rotor mentioning that lives are at stake and he agrees to help Rotor rescue his herd.

Silver doesn’t even consider for a second that this is a ruse to get him to stop killing him. He just immediately believes him.

Oi, this is a bit rough but again I recall how Silver was around this time. This was kind of almost all we had to go on as far as his character was. Nowadays it is shockingly hard to imagine this cinnamon roll ever wanting to kill anybody. Dude could step on a flower, cry about it, and hold a funeral for it the way he is today.

Back with Sonic, he recaps for himself (and me) what the significance of the tower and the hypnotic waves are so that he can be sure of what’s going on and what he needs to do. The line, “now the army of zombie walruses makes perfect sense” is a line I’d love to see in an out of context compilation. Also, it’s funny because before this story, it literally made no sense the way the hypnosis of these walruses was handled, funnily enough.

Sonic cuts a hole in the ice so Sealia, the Kid Cuisine Penguin, and the ICEE Polar Bear can go into the water and take care of the hypnosis tower that stretches into the water. The brand of Dark Egg Legionnaires this time are a bunch of orcas, Sonic’s worst enemy.

A few kind words are exchanged between Sonic and Guntivar and that makes Angry Erma mad because she can’t handle a little sweetness in her diet apparently. I’m not sure what’s jammed up her butt but bless the ever loving tolerance of Sonic that he just goes along with it and charges in to fight off the walruses with a smile on his face.

Or, he does at first but when he comes across Rotor’s Mom and Skeeter, he almost gets demolished by them because he can’t bring himself to harm innocent people. Angry Erma can though and she does this by going invisible.

The arrows are nice but I almost didn’t notice them at first. They didn’t stop me from reading the comic the way I was supposed to at first. It’s always tough witnessing moments where the paneling they wanted didn’t really line up with what they figured they could do so they had to resort to screwing with the layout a bit to make everything fit.

So yeah, anyway, this is something that she can do. She says she’s an ermine which, I guess, is supposed to be the explanation for why she can do this. I looked it up and it’s an animal that can blend in with the arctic background with it’s fur coat sometimes. I don’t want to do too much research into it though because I seldom think it’s going to matter after this.

It continues to surprise me just how patient and understanding Sonic is remaining of her attitude though. He’s not getting upset at all by her meanness. I like it. Whether he realizes it or not, it’s making him look good.

Meanwhile, in the water, the Arctic Freedom Fighters who took a dive earlier fight off a bunch of orcas with mechanical parts on them. It’s really cool.

Then, of course, our Grandmaster for the arc makes his appearance. It’s Akhlut the Orca and he’s come bearing exposition that ALSO fixes and explains why the Walruses randomly were just hypnotized again during a time where Eggman wasn’t giving them hypnosis blasts or whatever.

Ian is covering all the bases like a champ. Praise be to this man for trying so goddamn hard. You gotta appreciate the effort.

Silver and Rotor finally arrive on to the scene. Rotor tells Silver that the actual target should be the large fuck-off tower with the Eggman face on it. He doesn’t even need a mission briefing to know this and, to be fair, it’s a solid enough guess that taking it out would be the solution to the issue.

I mean, just look at it.

Unbeknownst to me, the story kind of ended the minute Rotor blew a hole into this tower. He spots a machine and a headset where Eggman would sit down and control the herd with his mind. Rotor suggests Silver sit in it and use his psychic powers to amplify a signal strong enough to give a command that’ll save the herd.

Silver isn’t too sure he can though. His powers are mostly telekinetic. He’s not much of a telepath.

I do like the line, “I can give someone a headache, but…”

Rotor puts a gentle hand on Silver’s shoulder and says that if Eggman can handle it without psychic powers then surely Silver should be able to. I’m not entirely sure that’s how it works of course. It could just be that Eggman’s brain is mentally strong enough to handle it. 

Silver gives it a try and basically sends out a signal that hands them the win.

Afterward, when the walruses are free of their mind control and the orcas… I dunno, float upside in the water, Rotor and Silver come down to greet Sonic. 

Silver’s got a massive headache.

So perhaps my theory about just having a strong mental space might be correct. Who knows? 

It’s VERY nice seeing Silver and Sonic shake hands here though. The formal greetings between the two will not last. 

Later in Iceborough, we see everyone sat around a huge, uncomfortable looking ice table so that they can eat together. 

Seriously, I don’t know how Sonic and Silver are making do eating at a table made of ice and sitting on ice chairs with their bare bottoms having no pants to at least mildly shield them from that extreme cold. It makes me wince just thinking about it.

Chill Penguin explains that while they were fighting Akhlut, he and his orca gang just flipped the fuck out and retreated while crashing into each other over and over like runaway buses. It must have been hilarious to watch. 

Rotor explains their sonar was linked to that psionic amplifier so Silver’s psychic wave gave their brains a massive sledgehammering. 

Sonic and Silver have a heart to heart here as well. It’s a very cute scene and it also uses some technical stuff that they don’t really bother explaining well to thankfully do away with a certain, already ridiculous plot point once and for all.

Yeah. That dumb mind control shit for these walruses is done. Silver saved the day and ensured that the herd’s lives will be forever improved in their fight against the orcas. Now that’s a true hero moment right there.

It’s really great seeing Sonic and Silver clink their glasses together and the person he just found out wasn’t the traitor lifting him with his arm in celebration.

These are good times and they WILL NOT LAST.

Silver still has about three more of the original Freedom Fighters to accuse and Sonic’s all smiles now but, like the readers at the time, it’s eventually going to become too much for him.

Well, because of that and a different thing that ends up happening at around that time but that’s for later.

The last scene of this story is Tails, Bunnie, and Antoine coming back from vacation and greeting Amy and Sally at Uncle Chucks. Even though it was a vacation, Tails kind of slumps in the seat a bit, kind of tired. Sally informs them that they need to rest up quickly because she’s got a mission for Sonic and Bunnie this time.

Yes, it’s Bunnie’s turn next time. Hopefully, this’ll be fun because, once again, I’ve no recollection of what actually happens in the next Oil Ocean story.

 

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #216: Future Tense, Part Two

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Jamal Peppers
Inks: Terry Austin
Colors: Ray Dillon
Letters: John Workman

Silver returns to the future. 

I just love that upon returning, his first thought is, despite the celebration and all the good he managed to do, how embarrassing it was that he got Rotor being the traitor wrong… in front of his MOM no less.

We also see this Edmund guy he was talking about earlier. 

The name is… confusing me right now. I know of an Edmund but realistically he should be long dead by now so it can’t be the same guy, can it?  This dude says he’s over a hundred years old and this is 200 years removed from just Sonic’s timeline so there’s something wonky going on here.

Even more wonky is how Silver’s time travel works, but that goes without saying. It’s time travel.

He and Edmund still know each other but things get a little distorted everytime he moves through time. Silver is always fine but the events of the future change slightly, as he explains to Edmund.

Edmund also, very casually, asks if the fucking Ark has always been left burning on the horizon and points to it with his cane.

It’s incredibly weird.

I like it but it’s so strange. I wanna know more goddammit.

The fact that it's been burning for years somehow is the most strange to me. What else did Gerald have inside there?

Silver starts to get a bit worried that his master will be mad that he’s jumping through time. Edmund calls his master a “sad sack of lies” and says he doesn’t like the fact that Silver works for him. Silver thinks his master is pretty cool though and gets scared when said master speaks to him telepathically to tell his boy he done fucked up and to meet him in his office.

He doesn’t do this by yelling, as he makes it clear, but by chastising him. They have a telepathic conversation where he and his master exchange dialogue speaking about the mistakes his master made in the past and how he doesn’t want Silver to repeat them.

Silver just plain DOES NOT believe someone as wise as his master could make ANY mistakes but his master assures him that he has. Many of them were dire mistakes.

Silver finally reaches him and asks if they can talk normally since he’s no good at telepathy and he’s got a headache. His master acquiesces and tells Silver to prepare them dinner so they can reflect on his latest adventure.

OH MY GOD…!

.. SILVER CAN COOK??!

I wanna see him in a little apron, preparing dinner right the hell now!

Also, yes, that old ass, decrepit guy is his master. He’s Mammoth Mogul. Apparently being immortal doesn’t stop your body from decaying I guess. That’s fine. Who wouldn’t want to be a skeleton mammoth that lives forever in the future?

Or maybe there’s just a different understanding of how the immortality works on my part… I don’t know.

Either way, this is a cool development. The basis of which stands as something pretty heavy, I must say. I’d almost say this makes Silver’s wanton desire to just go to the past and kill people he doesn’t know make more sense but based on the kind of things Mogul is saying to him, it doesn’t seem like he’s instilled anything quite like that into Silver here.

We shall see though… or not. I don’t recall if this goes anywhere substantial before the reboot happens.

Nothing was really all that wrong with this issue. It was a nice, condensed little story that did a few house cleaning things and gave the featured characters some time in the spotlight. The most interesting stuff was all the stuff revolving around Silver of course. I feel his presence in this story elevated it to something a little more than just a vehicle for the artist formerly known as Boomer here. It’s all very interesting to think about. 

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #217: Thicker Than Water, Part One

At the time of me seeing this cover, my brain was trying to play the Oil Ocean music in my head but the only problem was that I didn’t know it at the time. I do now thanks to being way more familiar with the music of the classics than I was before. Still, this is a great location and it’s a shame we still haven’t seen it in a proper 3D Sonic game. My only other comment is, holy shit, Sonic is drowning in oil. That CAN’T be a good way to go. No doubt a ton of it has already gotten into his mouth. Gross.

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Ben Bates
Inker: Terry Austin
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: John Workman
Editor: Paul Kaminski
Managing Editor: Mike Pellerito

We begin with Sonic and Bunnie fighting each other. It’s another in-media res story. They’re fighting with smiles on their faces but the blue captions make it seem as though shit’s hit the fan. I dunno. It seems like this might turn out to be some kind of trick.

Sonic asks when this all fell apart and we cut to a panel that has a caption box that says, “Yesterday”. Funny.

Also, holy shit, Ben Bates! Artwork! Wonderful, lovely, beautiful artwork with Matt Herms’ colors. It’s so good!

As Sonic and Bunnie head on their way, they talk about answering the call for back-up from the Sand Blast Freedom Fighters. Bunnie is not happy about this, snarling and showing her teeth to let us know just how much it upsets her. 

Sonic says that the reason the two of them needed to go is because no other team knew them as well as they did. I was literally just about to make a remark about Tails but the two of them bring him up in the conversation as well. Apparently he wasn’t thrilled about being left behind. I wouldn’t have been either but Sonic fed him some bullshit about how if something happens to them, they’ll need someone experienced to LEAD them.

Tails was apparently cool with that. I’m imagining a grin on his face and a sparkle in his teeth hearing Sonic say such a thing and it’s an adorable image in my head. 

But yeah, the Sand Blast Freedom Fighters are still, by far, the most interesting Freedom Fighters group, purely because they’re so strange and antagonistic. The chaotic nature of their actions is one thing but then I think back to that Sonic statue worship thing and I find myself eager to see what new weirdness they’re up to again.

They reach the city and just as she’s bad mouthing it, Bunnie short-circuits and she immediately falls.

Sonic does what he does best and jumps to conclusions, saying that this is the Sand Blasters fault and that they double crossed them. He didn’t see them do anything but he’s technically right that it’s sort of their fault. 

Sonic lands in the middle of the city and gets a box of tools hurled at him. He’s called a traitor and then gets into a scuffle that sees him getting bashed and ends with Jack showing up to point a gun at him so that they can actually chat.

That last panel is like some big brother to little brother shit right there.

Turns out that they’ve got an EMP shield up that stops legionized people from getting too close. They also saw Bunnie fall from the sky and get taken by legionnaires so she’s been captured, just like that.

Jack tells Sonic not to worry though since she’s in good company. 

He also offers to help rescue her if he does him a solid.

God, it really does feel great to have a Freedom Fighter group that’s so dubious. 

Jack explains himself a little more when he gives Sonic a bit of a history lesson. That incident where the Robians attacked his city (something I knew nothing of when I read this initially) saw them trying to keep Sonic as a weapon against them and later they sicked them on Bunnie. The Bunnie story I don’t recall at all sadly. 

I can’t help but remember being confused by the fact that these guys were supposed to be Freedom Fighters at the time. I remember being really interested though. They were acting like such scary weirdos that it felt extremely different from the collection of fairly interchangeable animal groups we had before this issue.

Now that I know the full story, it’s honestly more intriguing and it gets even better when Jack makes the big reveal.

It’s a legion of Bunny Rabbit Legionnaires. An army of rabbots if you will. 

Sonic can’t comprehend them willingly going back to Eggman. I can think of a few reasons why; all of which are incredibly sad and probably subject matter that’s a bit too mature to spell out in a book like this. 

Ah man. This is fun. Finally seeing all the Dark Egg Legion Grandmasters and also finding out the pattern they operate by. Lien-Da has an army of legionized echidnas. Bill has an army of legionized platypuses. Drago has an army of legionized wolves. Razorklaw has an army of legionized cat people. Akhlut has an army of legionized orcas. 

Now we finally get to meet that one off joke from waaaaaaaay back in the early issues. Bunnie randomly name-dropped an Uncle Beauregard and because Ian is awesome and thorough as hell, he’s real now.

Remember folks, heroes always attack first and ask questions never. It’s just what they do.

Anyway, meet Uncle Beauregard, a grandmaster that leads an army of legionized bunnies. 
Bunnie runs in to hug him and he embraces her without a second thought. He even has a tear in his eye as they both express how they never thought they’d see the other again.

Bunnie takes a step back when she realizes that he’s a part of the Dark Egg Legion. Uncle Beau says “Yes’m, Grandmaster. Aren’t you?” 

Bunnie then says that she’s a Freedom Fighter.

Awkward.

So Uncle Beau asks his brethren to leave so they can sit and chat because CLEARLY they have a lot of catching up to do, as he so succinctly puts it.

Man. If I had known at the time that these stories were all new stuff detailing the introductions of all these Grandmasters and stuff, I would have been over the moon about it.  I definitely don’t feel it’s as effective as Eggman’s Dozen (aka one of the best and greatest written Sonic the Hedgehog stories, in any medium, of all time, EVER) but catching on now feels like a very good “Better late than never” scenario for me at least.

I’m happy to finally get it now. Because I hadn’t read before #142 I wasn’t able to tell what was new and what was old so I treated it all as if this was just stuff that was pre-established. Being able to tell where the old stuff ends and where the new stuff begins just wasn’t possible.

I guess that’s why the advice of starting at #160 can backfire if there isn’t a helping hand by your side to make which category some of these story elements falls under more clear.

The conversation they have is very much that of a girl speaking with her uncle; from the “YAH GOT MARRIED?! I BLINKED AND YOU GREW UP!” right down to “The person you married comes from a family I hate. We need to sit around the Thanksgiving dinner table and yell across it about politics and what not now.”

He’s very calm about telling Bunnie that they’re enemies and won’t be able to keep the peace for very long. Bunnie is also very calm about asking why they’re siding with Eggman. 

He makes a joke about how legionization isn’t all that bad because it fixed his bum knee, but, honestly, I can see the merits to that being a reason to… if, you know, you didn’t have access to any other scientists who could do something similar I guess.

When Bunnie asks him to tell her straight what the issue is, he does without hesitation, showing her a city where there are a bunch of the cannons from Sonic Heroes littered around the area. He speaks about how they all used to be Robians and treated as cannon fodder set against Sand Blast City. 

Then one day they were back to normal. They didn’t know how but they tried to make peace because of it. 

The Sand Blasters showed them no mercy and kicked them out to the badlands, saying “Once a Robian, always a Robian” which is wild. They have to know that they weren’t literally born Robians so I can only assume they just wanted some losers to kick around and be mean to.

After a cameo from Mighty’s sister--

--We get told that this action from the Sand Blasters left them no choice but to turn to the Eggman Empire for help. So, really, the issue the Sand Blasters are continuing to deal with is a monster of their own making here. 

If they had just opted for peace (or inducted them into their group of sand roaming roughians) then they could have been left alone.

Then again, that would have left them with no one to fight on a daily basis and perhaps that’s what they want? I can’t tell with them.

Either way, it apparently takes all the way until the next day before Sonic and the other Sand Blasters head out to the Oil Refinery to rescue Bunnie.
Jack spots Bunnie riding with Uncle Beau in the distance and Sonic bolts off like a rocket to follow them.

In what is the third example of our heroes leaping into a situation and punching somebody without asking a question, Sonic zips onto the flying saucer where Bunnie, Matilda, and Uncle Beau are and punches Uncle Beau in the face!

Bunnie retaliates by fucking punching Sonic so hard he skips stones across the goddamn oil of the refinery!

This leads us back to the present where the two of them are fighting. It’s an ACTUAL fight between them too. See, this would have been a good time to use that cover from the Iron Dominion arc where Bunnie is holding down Sonic and about ready to blast him. The caption asking if she’s turned traitor would also fit way better here too. It’s actually viable because it’s not mind control.

Honestly, I’m rather impressed by the conflict this story has set-up. Having familiar or friendly people within the Eggman Empire for sympathetic reasons can lead to a lot of neat story opportunities like this. I’m eager to see the conclusion.

 

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #217: Welcome Back, Chao!

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Tracy Yardley
Inks: Terry Austin
Letters: John Workman
Colors: Matt Herms

Or, we could call this, the issue where Cream the Rabbit and Vanilla can finally be allowed into the comics.

For any and all who were waiting for her, here you go. Issue #217 at the back half of the year 2010. Geez.

The story here is exceedingly simple.

Cream and Vanilla are trying to get a bunch of chao to safety because Snively, my favorite bald twat, is trying to use a drilling robot to reach a horde of magical energy that he can claim for the Eggman Empire.

See? Simple.

Amy Rose shows up in a warp ring and scares the crap out of Snively. However, she can’t reach him from where she is.

Cream offers to fly her up there. Vanilla says it’s too dangerous and Amy says she’ll protect her.

I’m kind of sad her reaction wasn’t, “FLY?! HOW?!” and then when she sees Cream flying with her ears she just goes, “Yeah sure. That may as well happen.”

Long story short, Cream gets a taste of what it means to be on an adventure and she finds it thrilling and exciting.

Then she’s given immediate cause to come to New Mobotropolis and be a part of the main gang when Amy smacks into Snively’s robot and crushes their weird mansion.

Are they royalty? Are they rich? Why did they live in a place that looked like that? 

Well, anyway, it’s trashed now.

Amy insists on moving all the stuff that wasn’t destroyed back to New Mobotropolis with her so that Nicole can whip them up a new house.

Cream doesn’t want to go because she doesn’t think it’s fair that they leave all the chao behind without their garden. Amy then says that these chao used to be in the Chao Garden that was back at their place before Eggman wrecked it and says that Nicole can also make a new one.

She’s heaping a lot of duties onto Nicole here without her knowledge or consent, I must say. It’s a good thing she knows Nicole would gladly do all this stuff for her. 

Anyway, that’s how Cream got into the comic.

Amy just knows this girl is going to be a life-long friend of hers. It’s like… written in the stars or something. Or the Sonic Bible, maybe. This random girl you just met on a mission, this one day, is real important now.

Also, that second panel of Amy grabbing the head of that Sonic looking Chao makes me laugh a bit. It’s probably supposed to be her petting it or something but it looks more like she’s about to rip it’s head off.

So that’s the story of how Cream entered the comic in time for Treasure Team Tango.

I gotta admit, I don’t remember this story at all. I was under the impression that her first appearance WAS Treasure Team Tango pulling from my memory but that didn’t make any sense to me either considering what I recall from that story.

Glad that I was able to get a refresher here. 

It’s a very “Ash destroyed Misty’s bike” kind of thing but, you know, for a character like Cream, five pages of preamble is probably all that’s necessary really.

The Sand Blast City stories continue their streak of being really interesting. The scenario as outlined by Uncle Beau here is very unique and I can’t help but find myself invested in where the ideologies of the characters are going to lead them going forward. The Cream story exists. 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

I really need to get caught up on these reviews again. Sort of fell off for a bit since the Metal Dominion arc is more or less a part of Archie Sonic that I'm not familiar with, only really having read from #217 onwards again. Can't believe we're nearly at Genesis, though.

[SkyHorizon]

Hey there, a couple of thoughts as usual.

Post-Iron Dominion Arc: I was never a huge fan of the series of two-issues stories that will follow until Genesis, it always felt a bit like: "we gotta do fill the space until Eggman will come back". That said, they were discretely entertaining nonetheless and Ian could make a few more cleaning and world-building. The Oil Ocean two-parters was one of my favorites, I always like were deep feelings and complex interactions are put together this way (more about that on the second part). Also, the Oil Ocean two-parter was the start of the amazing Ben Bates, too bad it didn't stick really long. Need it say more?

The Council: Here's the first time I seriously thought Hamlin was totally crazy. Aside from the total lack of tact shown with Rotor, he had every right to go help his family in his free time. It's not like being on the council meant "forbid to help your family". Too bad none ever mentioned that... And Dylan keeps being completely inadequate for the role, btw. Which makes him a good addiction to the Council.

Rotor's Battle Suit: Eh, I share your opinion, the suit was not cool at all aesthetically wise. That said, I remember Flynn saying that this was originally supposed to be a one-time mission for Councilor Rotor before definitively retiring from freedom fighting before changing his plans in front of all the people asking him to bring back Rotor.

P.S: I always read P.X.E. as "Post-Xorda Event". Is it possible I read that somewhere or I am just imagining things?

[Razule]

Everytime I see it I think it says "Post Xorda something" but then I remember that wouldn't make sense because the Xorda stuff was 12,000 years ago, and why would the dating system be based off an event no one was aware of.

[SkyHorizon]

53 minutes ago, Razule said:

Everything I see it I think is says "Post Xorda something" but then I remember that wouldn't make sense because the Xorda stuff was 12,000 years ago, and why would the dating system be based off an event no one was aware of.

Oh yeah, forgot about that... wonder what PXE actually meant, then