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Toby

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strangely, I remember the Sand Blaster freedom fighters too, even before this recent arc. They really do stand out from the rest of the faction...for the wrong reasons mind you, but that's the good part of having a group disconnected from the main cast, you can go completely off rails with the morality. 

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Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #218: Thicker Than Water, Part Two

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This is one of the few Sonic comics that I actually have two versions of. One of them I bought the regular way. The other I got via a purchase of a Jazwares toy. I don’t recall which one but I believe it might have been a Blaze the Cat figure. So I have one with the regular bar code and another that says “Special Collector’s Edition” on it, which amuses me, because I don’t think there’s going to be too many clamoring for the Special Collector’s Edition of Archie Sonic #218, even after the comic’s cancellation. That Special Collector’s Edition tag is probably the only special thing about it compared to the original one.

The cover itself is pretty good though. There’s a lot of ways to do the “This is a picture of Sonic” cover and I’ve always liked this one in particular. The half curling out of a ball pose works well on my dude.

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Ben Bates
Inks: Terry Austin
Letters: John Workman
Colors: Matt Herms
Editor: Paul Kaminski
Editor-in-chief: Victor Gorelick

We begin where we left off, of course, with our heroes beating the tar out of each other. Both sides of the conflict are waiting outside the oil refinery with baited breath. 

Jack and his men are doing nothing because they think it’s funny watching the two people they didn’t want here beating the crap out of each other while the Baron is just really proud of Bunnie.

Of course, because our heroes are actually friends, they end up chatting with one another about what’s going on as they’re fighting.

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Not only is the fight choreography really good but the nice little character flourishes are neat as well. I had to look back through this page a few times to catch what Sonic was doing with Bunnie’s hat but seeing him twirl it on his finger as they speak before she grabs him and, with a smile on his face, plops it back onto her head is really adorable.

Both sides manage to get their point across. Bunnie is sympathetic to this particular D.E.L chapter because it’s both going to come down hard on her uncle and his group if this place gets demolished and because of how tough a time they’ve had with the Sand Blasters.

On the other hand, they can’t just let them maintain it for the doc so they set about devising a plan.

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I like the look of deviousness on their faces and the quick turn to the comical this ends up going to. It’s funny because they mention it being fine if it was just them doing the same old hero stuff so that they’d take the blame only but in that case they’d merely need to start destroying the place on their own but, in order to keep up pretenses, they decide to pretend they’re still fighting while doing it.

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What’s interesting about this plan of theirs really is how instantly it becomes undone. Like not a page later, both sides are realizing what they’re doing and move in to immediately do something about it.

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I wasn’t entirely sure how successful of a plan this was going to be or even if they were barking up the right tree about it. This story is an insanely interesting clashing of ideals that’s making figuring out who to side with and why a bit of an exercise… and I’m all for that, honestly.

This whole, “No niece of mine” thing the Baron's got going on with the fact that Bunnie married a D’ Coolette is the most intriguing part of his character. It really does float in some hints that there is a layer of deviousness or at least unlikeable traits tailor made for Uncle Beau here. It’s not all sympathetic and, to be fair, it probably shouldn’t be. 

Regardless of his situation, he’s still working as a Grandmaster for the Eggman Empire. I do have sympathy for his situation, of course, as I do for all the ones that have a flare of sympathy behind them. Just like with the original Dark Legion’s incredibly sad “My body is disgusting and I need to turn it mechanical” thing, this story also has an air of conflict that lands me in a position of appreciating how complicated motivations for some of this stuff can be.

You know, having a tyrant like Eggman as the main villain opens things up for the people who work under him to have these kinds of foibles. It’s part of why I champion something like an Eggman’s Dozen existing in the main line games too.

Sonic and Bunnie seem to be more sure of what they’re going to do then I am though. When both sides charge in, they set about doing as much damage as they can and dive bomb into the fray.

We have short scuffles with each of the main Sand Blast Freedom Fighters. The weird green duck, the gator guy, and the weirdly articulate, genius, coyote looking…

… Oh wait a minute. Is that the joke? Is the green bird supposed to be the Road Runner and the coyote who uses big words and calls himself a genius supposed to be Wil E. Coyote?

Holy shit, and Jack is Bugs! I mean, I already knew he looked like Bugs but goddammit!

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Yeah, I was like… "Why is there a random coyote amongst these Sand Blasters who just talks with big words and acts like he’s a genius?"

I guess I’m proud of myself for figuring it out but I probably wouldn’t have if he didn’t stick out like a sore thumb so much.

Oh, and the bear guy’s name is Avery. Probably a “Tex Avery” joke. Goddammit.

Anyway, Avery gets smacked over the head by the Baron’s cane.

He then grabs Jack with his metal arm and squeezes it so that his gun falls out of his hand. When he has him pinned, Bunnie shows up calling out for him.

Uncle Beau tells Jack not to lecture him when he’s about to call Beau a backstabber. Good on him because he probably wouldn’t have if the dude wasn’t so abusive. Of course, when Bunnie shows up, Uncle Beau turns his ire onto her next and starts screaming at her that what they’ve done is bad news bears for them.

He straight up says that it doesn’t matter what the refinery is for and that it’s being made for something bigger than anything Eggman’s ever flown. This was a hint towards something that I did not see coming when it initially happened so, of course, the words blew right past me.

Bunnie’s response is pretty cold but it’s also true.

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Had myself a giggle at the little anime anger vein on Jack’s head when Bunnie grabs his gun. 

But yeah, it’s like I said before, sympathetic situation or not they’re still siding with the Eggman Empire and they’re the bad guys. It sucks. Truly it does. However, she’s got to do what she’s got to do and so does Sonic.

So, they destroy the place as promised.

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Good golly Miss Molly the art and poses and dynamic action in this issue are just wonderful. This is breathtaking stuff. We need more Ben Bates in our diets folks. 

As Bunnie crushes Jack’s blaster in the palm of her hand she reiterates that they’ve succeeded at what they’ve tried to do. They stopped the Sand Blasters from getting this place and they’ve crushed Eggman’s plans, whatever they are.

She seems sure of that but I’m not.

Also, Sonic and Bunnie say they’ve shifted the blame from him too.

Sonic tells the Baron to just tell Eggman that he was involved and they’ll be “completely” off the hook. A part of me can see that happening since Eggman will likely take any excuse he can to fuel his undying rage at Sonic for the meddlesome things he does.

However, on the flip side, this man is insane, lucid or not, and incredibly ruthless. I don’t think Sonic and Bunnie should be this sure of themselves that he’ll let them off the hook.

I’ll take that angle if the book desires me to but it’s admittedly a little flimsy. The baron is pretty certain of that in a sense as well since he makes it clear that Bunnie cannot play both sides forever. This only barely qualifies and next time it’s going to be far rougher for them.

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So that’s that.

The two go their separate ways and there’s a bitter aftertaste being left in the air.

Jack’s group just leaves. The Legion leaves. There’s a lot of smoke but Sonic is apparently certain it won’t spill into the atmosphere somehow.

He’s saying all this to cheer Bunnie up of course. 

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Sonic’s been more of a sweetheart lately so it’s been nice feeling like he’s the hero I knew and loved for all those years once more.

Then, we cut back to the Acorn Kingdom in New Mobotropolis where the good vibes immediately sour upon meeting up with our other favorite tyrant, King Max.

Dr. Quack is leaving after another visit with him and his wife is being adamant that he can’t shut out everyone.

However, clever Max says that she’s wrong. He doesn’t intend to shut out everyone, just the people who aren’t beneficial to him in any sort of tactical, military, or tyrannical way.

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My daughter? My son? Nah, fuck that shit. Get me the guy who was trying to mack on my daughter and was emotionally and mentally manipulating my son when he became king. I wanna see him. We can shoot the shit about how good of a dad I am!

I’d post the “Ah, Jafar, my most trusted advisor” clip again but ironically I already did that when it came to a scene of Max calling for his trusted Warlord Julian.

This dude shuts out and treats badly all the good people, surrounds himself with bad people, and then gets blindsided when those bad people betray him. It’s a wonderful cycle that just continues to put heavy emphasis on how bad a king this aging fossil always was.

 

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #218: Hindsight

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Jamal Peppers
Inks: Terry Austin
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: John Workman

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“I’m not happy Bob. NOT. HAPPY.”

The Dark Egg Legion pushes Snively into Eggman’s chambers for a little tit for tat with the rightful conqueror back in his rightful place.

I love the way he puts this because Eggman says “I let you have fun with Regina. You got to wear a cape and everything” as if he voluntarily stepped down or something. 

He went crazy and Snively took over but he’s framing that as some sort of courtesy on his part. It’s kind of wonderful.

Also, Snively is drawn oddly cute in this story. I like the way it all looks. Jamal Peppers is pretty great at this as well.

Anyway, the “treachery” he’s talking about is Snively contacting the Dragon Kingdom. Eggman does not like that Snively apparently still hasn’t given up on his quest for love with Regina. 

Snively tries to defend himself by saying he’s just been trying to set up a new Dark Egg Legion chapter there since he’s lost a lot of power after the Iron Queen debacle. Eggman plays the tapes and we see that Conquering Storm has been given a shipment of devices that will legionize the clan, cementing her clan’s status as a part of the D.E.L.

Hints of her being more villainous than the other clans weren’t exactly subtle of course. She almost, pretty much, told us this was the case. Still, it’s nice that this advancement in her plan is happening. One of these clans have sunk to a new low that they won’t be able to crawl out of.

Snively on these tapes IS indeed trying to set up a new D.E.L chapter here though. It doesn’t seem as though Eggman has watched these tapes yet either. He knows that Snively has been contacting the Dragon Kingdom but this is the first time he’s gotten confirmation as to what it’s been about. 

Snively was initially taken aback when he heard Eggman had tapes but then does that thing where he winces and grabs his nose before saying “What am I saying? Of course he recorded everything.”

One wonders why anyone would even bother being sneaky around here.

Eggman is watching intently until he overhears them bringing up Regina and what her status over in the kingdom is. Snively tries to frame it as him making sure she’s still locked away for Eggman’s sake but both he and Eggman know it’s for his own peace of mind.

This prompts the doctor to be clear and concise with him.

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With this scary monster looming over him and two guns pointed at his back, Snively has been left with no choice but to acquiesce to the doctor’s demands.

It looks like it almost kills him doing it too.

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Honestly, I’d be pissed off and near tears as well. Being a tyrant with a bit of a conscience has to be a tortuous thing. Again, he can’t excel at this because he’s not at all like Eggman who just tosses all affection aside in the pursuit of his grand design. 

Snively was finally given a flash of something that he could call success and on top of that found some form of a loving relationship, as rocky as it became. Now that’s been stripped away and he’s right back where he was before the Iron Dominion arc, only now there are lingering feelings for what he’s lost.

That whole thing about it being better to have loved than lost than to have never loved at all isn’t proving to be all that it’s cracked up to be. The pain he’s feeling is far worse because he finally felt what he’s always wanted to feel and lost it. 

That’s the thing that’s finally going to push him over the edge. Not immediately of course. We still have several arcs to go before we get to Scrambled but this is definitely the catalyst for it.

These last few arcs were all varying degrees of “nice” and “okay”. It’s really neat reading these and catching that these aren’t supposed to be just random stories with random adventures but establishing tales for the D.E.L and their Grandmasters. The whole Grandmaster system kind of sprung up on me and I wasn’t fully able to understand or grasp it as a thing until they all showed up in that room together that one time. 

When it comes to this story, it was definitely the best and most interesting of the three. The feud between the cat people and the wolves isn’t that interesting and as nice as it was to finally see the Rotor Family Hypnosis subplot get laid to rest, really, the most interesting thing about that arc was all the stuff with Silver and Akhlut being a giant mechanical killer orca.

This story had an interesting emotional and tactical conflict that utilized, to date, the most interesting team of Freedom Fighters outside of our main heroes. The fact that Sonic clearly doesn’t like them but still puts it in the column of positives at the end of the issue here that they helped them out is insanely interesting. The Sand Blasters are a really neat idea. Also, there’s Uncle Beau and his conflict surrounding Bunnie and, for some reason, the D’Coolettes. Don’t know what that’s about but I have a feeling I’ll probably never know unless it’s something I’ve yet again forgotten.

 

Sonic Universe - Issue #21: Treasure Team Tango - Part 1 of 4: The Salida

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There are a couple of things that Treasure Team Tango and its sister arc Pirate Plunder Panic have in common. One, their first issues both have Sonic on the cover for some inexplicable reason when all the others that don’t involve him… don’t. I don’t want to say it’s a female thing to combat whether or not little boys see the cover and pick up the issues but I’ll admit it’s the first thing that came to mind. The other thing is that they both aren’t well liked by me. I recall Tracey Yardley’s Pirate Plunder Panic to be a bit of a let down on multiple fronts and it’s definitely not because he was writing it because I thought Babylon Rising was fucking amazing. 

It was most likely a case of me just not feeling the elements and pacing came together as well as it should have. There are reasons for me not liking this arc as well, most of which come down to the portrayal of Team Dark. Ironically, IDW has an opposite problem with them where Shadow is their worst character and Rouge and Omega are perfect. Here in Archie, people have some beef with how Rouge gets portrayed here and you all know I really don’t like Pre-Reboot Archie Omega. Because Shadow is allowed to be more of a person at this time he comes off the best here. 

This is all me going by memory though. Again, what the arc has in store might be different from what I recall. It’d be nice to actually like Treasure Team Tango because the solicits and covers really made it look fun.

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Tracy Yardley
Inks: Jim Amash
Colors: Jason Jensen
Letters: Phil Felix
Editor: Paul Kaminski
Editor-in-Chief: Victor Gorelick

So this arc begins with a bomb being dropped on us. I recalled this happening but I didn’t remember where. Turns out it was here.

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How ominous. Sort of.

I don’t entirely know what this is about but if I had to wager a guess, the annoying Zone Cops who had their shit destroyed are chasing after a Dr. Nega. A doctor Eggman Nega most likely. 

I wasn’t able to recall this properly so I looked it up but the destruction of the No Zone and the Cosmic Interstate was also caused by the same guy. That immediately puts him on my side, of course.

It’s a very interesting thing reading this because he’s been kept off-limits by SEGA, even back then. I spoke before about how I recall Ian Flynn saying on his podcast a while back that he was worried he’d get in trouble for it but, again, the details elude me. It’s been so long.

Either way, it’s clear that, just like Infinite, SEGA has barred him from use. Recently, Ian has spoken more about Eggman Nega and let on about how he really doesn’t like his character. His headcanon is that he’s dead because of the improbability of him surviving the end of Sonic Rivals 2 and that being the last time he’s shown up within any game’s canonical story continuity. 

I guess him palling around with Eggman at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics doesn’t count. Granted, I can see why it wouldn’t. 

It’s a fine enough headcanon to have. It took me by surprise because I only recall witnessing the Rivals series’ stories once through watching an online playthrough (or perhaps just the cutscenes) and it was so insanely long ago at this point that drawing from any kind of memory would be pointless. I sure as hell don’t recall the fate of Eggman Nega, just that Shadow and Metal Sonic made a grand escape together. This was back when Shadow had a lot of respect for Eggman and helped him out from time to time, referring to him as “The Doctor” often and what not. I’ve got a soft spot for that Shadow.

What Ian would have done with Nega had he been approved to be here, I can’t say. The scattershot tidbits of him being at war with these annoying zone cops are only interesting because I want to see that Zone cop shit get demolished. 

If the leaked info from the Encyclo-speedia is to be believed and Infinite really did just get sucked back into the Phantom Ruby or whatever, then it’s possible Nega’s fate being as ambiguous as it is puts them both in the same boat. SEGA may be reluctant to re-use them again because they’re not sure whether or not they want to consider them “alive”. 

It’s the only explanation I can think of as to why their exclusion remains a mystery but they’re so certain that they don’t wish for Black Doom or Mephiles to be used. After all, those two are confirmed dead. If Nega and Infinite are only “maybe” dead then their use in stories going forward not being given a definitive answer seems the most likely excuse to me.

Then again, I’m just speculating based on what little I’ve heard. I’m sure there’s people out there with more concrete reasons they can point to for why some characters are barred “because they’re dead” and some are barred “because we say so”.

Anyway, Amy is giving Cream and Vanilla the tour of Freedom HQ, the disgusting, underground hovel that acts as their base of operations. Cream is very excited to see all of this stuff while Vanilla is… a little less than enthused. Most likely because she’s busy thinking about the mortgage on their freaking crushed mansion.

Nicole contacts Amy and says she’s got a weird energy signal and she can’t pinpoint its location. Amy says she has to cut the tour short to go investigate and bouncy little Cream wants to go too. I’ve never seen her character this amped for adventure. I guess you have to find some way to make her want to be a part of all this stuff too. Usually, it’s either a simple sense of justice or a desire to get back something taken from her like her mom or Chocola Chao. Giving her an actual personal motivation is going to be tough seeing as how she still doesn’t really have one nowadays… and she also hasn’t appeared in anything outside of the IDW comics since…

... Actually, hold on, when was the last time Cream appeared in something other than a mobile game or the comics…?

… Jesus Christ, I think it was… Generations? 

So yeah… TEN YEARS AGO.

I guess you can count the Tokyo 2020 Olympics as an appearance this time though. Sure, that counts. Why not? 

Cream really wants to go and Vanilla isn’t sure. Amy assures Vanilla that it’s just going to be a quick trot to the forest (there’s literally no way she can know this considering she doesn’t know what’s there) and that she wouldn’t mind the company.

Vanilla says it’s fine then, so long as there isn’t any trouble.

Again, Amy can’t confirm that there won’t be and because I’ve read this before, I know for a fact that there will be so… eh.

So, when they leave, Cream gets very unusually and kind of hilariously rude about where they decided to put Freedom HQ. It made me giggle.

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Amy tells Cream about the situation that went down in the legendary #175 and Cream apologizes, saying she was rude. Amy doesn’t take any offense since Cream didn’t know.

I agree that she didn’t know so of course no offense should be taken but I still had to laugh at her just laughing merrily as she calls the place fucking ugly. It’s great.

Like Bean the Dynamite, they spot a shiny in the ground and rush for it but then a line of fire gets blasted before them and low and behold it’s the anti-friendship princess from another dimension, here to burn your socks off and glare at you for trying to steal her favorite broken glass bottle.

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Yes, Blaze the Cat has returned. She’s here in Sonic’s world once again and on the hunt for the Sol Emeralds. 

Because neither of them have gotten the chance to actually see what the shiny thing they ran towards is, they begin fighting. Well, Amy fights because Blaze just started throwing fire around and threatening them. Blaze thinks she’s actually protecting something.

She isn’t.

Cream tries to tell them to calm down and talk but is mostly ignored until Amy off-handedly mentions Sonic which prompts them to slow down. That gives Cream the opening she needs to let the girls that are supposedly older and more mature than her that they’ve been fighting over literal garbage.

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Now that they’ve calmed down, Blaze wants to get the fuck out but Amy and Cream try to reason with her a bit more since they like helping people and she knows who Sonic is. 

Blaze does a quick recount of this comic’s version of Sonic Rush Adventure and using the context clues, Amy figures out that she’s Blaze.

She seems happy about it but Blaze just scowls and talks down to her some more.

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I understand this character has trust issues and a bit of a hardened personality at this point but my word. At the very least, acknowledge that she might have felt a little on guard when you threw fire in her face and refused to properly answer her questions ma’am.

Amy retorts by saying that she’s seen a lot of weird stuff and that Blaze doesn’t stand out THAT much. Fair point I guess.

Then they politely introduce themselves and we get a little scene outlining the futility of Amy’s affection for Sonic is in the Archie Comics that… was supposed to be funny but falls flat and just comes off as strange and mean on all accounts.

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In the games I feel like something like this would have been funny if Amy had said the “future sweetheart” line and Sonic (or Tails) just gave a sigh and sideways glance to the side or something. Not bust a gut funny but a nice, cheeky little “This again?” and moved on.

Or in Colors’ case, the joke would have been stretched out and restated a number of ways until it died on it’s way back to its home planet.

Here, because the context of the world is so different, Sonic actually has a girlfriend. Yeah, they’re not technically together right now but come on. They totally are. 

So, when Amy says stuff like this it just feels more pitiful because unlike the games, you can’t actually see an avenue where she stands a chance with Sonic.

The joke also has to work around the fact that Cream is saying this line, of all people. How in the fuck she knows that Sonic is dating Sally, I’m not sure. I guess it came up in between the story of her house being demolished and them moving over here?

Like I guess when this six-year-old came over, in that short amount of time, she somehow found out or was told by… somebody. 

Oh, and, apparently they actually are dating again and not just holding hands and making lovey dovey faces at one another. I guess it was so obvious that they didn't need to officially state it. It's funny to think about today because even if Sally were to come back into the fray, there's no way in hell they'd allow Sonic to be in love with her. Flirting with the idea that he might have feelings for Amy took them forever to get to and we all know that's not going anywhere tangible either.

Also, I just don’t like seeing Amy spewing venom at Cream like that. It’s not cool.

Blaze is understandably miffed that these two are so readily willing to help her out when they were just fighting a second ago.

They head into the forest and Nicole seems to be having a tough time getting a read on where the energy is coming from. Amy turns to Blaze to ask her what her gem says and instead of replying she hurriedly puts the gem away and gives them an expert bitch-face glance.

Amy gets pissed and demands she be immediately trusted right now and Blaze says her trust isn’t so easily won.

Then the most trustworthy of all the trustworthy people shows up, Rouge the Bat!

Yeah, she just shows up in a tree, wearing a Dragon Ball scouter before taking it off and saying she wishes to help. 

Amy REALLY doesn’t like her and doesn’t want to trust her. Cream asks if it’s hard to believe she’s here to help and Amy just gives a flat “Yes.” without a second thought.

You know, it’s weird, I don’t recall these two having too many interactions up to this point. I’d imagine that her disdain for Rouge would likely be rooted in the fact that she was hooking up with Evil Sonic for a time and was present when Scourge attacked them during the Birthday Bash with Croctobot. Ironically, the only person Rouge attacked during that bit was Fiona.

Then the focus ended up being more about her job as a spy for G.U.N. 

She definitely isn’t trustworthy but I am admittedly a little surprised that Amy seems to hate her THIS much. She almost looks personally attacked by her being here.

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From what I recall of how this story pans out, that little square at the bottom where Rouge is contemplating things getting complicated because of basic Mobian decency goes nowhere.

Of course, Blaze is all pissed off still and now Amy is too. 

This is all very un-fun so far, I gotta say. It’s just been a bunch of negative nancies and bitching and mean, scowling faces up to this point. Amy even got pissed at Cream. 

I get the point of some of it but it’s overwhelming me right now and Cream is too timid for any real positive energy to come out. Luckily, Rouge is at least fun when she’s being devious. There’s a balance that needs to be struck of course so… we’ll see if they strike it.

They reach a ravine and a huge energy spike happens. The emerald has to be down there.

It’s a dangerous area, especially because of the toppled over and brittle tree across the gap. When Rouge volunteers to go down and get it, Blaze says she’d rather retrieve it herself so she offers to fly her down. Amy decides to go with Cream.

They go underneath it and a huge branch connected to this huge tree breaks off and falls which prompts Cheese to try and be a hero but apparently in comic book land, overpowered Cheese doesn’t exist.

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I’m willing to bet there are plenty of people out there who called bullshit upon seeing that because they played the Advance games. I’ve only heard the legends of overpowered Cheese though so I only slightly felt it. Where were you when the massive controversy of “Archie Sonic Branch Vs. Cheese-Gate” happened?

The branch (or rather a log since it’s actually really huge) is still falling though. That’s when Blaze and Rouge, despite the friction between them, pull off a fucking badass team-up attack despite having met one another only today.

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Oh, and that swift catch at the end. Seems she must have at least a LITTLE bit of trust in her, eh?

They make it to where the Sol Emerald is. The metal casing that was dropped at the start of the issue has been opened, most likely from the crash landing, revealing the contents to be a Sol Emerald.

Dr. Nega was making off with one of these was he? He’s going to be pissed when he finds out the Zone Cops blasted it off his carrier robot thing. Hopefully that’ll give him enough incentive to head over there and continue destroying them.

Please, just destroy the place. 

I like the way this looks though. This weird cocoon of wood has wrapped itself around where the Sol Emerald landed, making it look extremely mystical and what not. I can only guess it’s because of the magic of the emerald and it’s innate desire to be protected. 

Or something.

Either way, seeing this prompts Blaze to finally chill the eff out and give the people who helped her their proper thanks.

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Oh dear. Who could have seen this coming?

So, yeah, shocker of shocks, Rouge decides to betray them all here and fucking boots Amy in the gut so hard she gets sent flying mid-hand shake.

It’s SO messed up. 

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Blaze, despite witnessing the arguing Amy was doing with Rouge from before and her stating that Rouge was untrustworthy and stating that she didn’t want Rouge to tag along because of it and the literal KICK TO THE GUT that she took right in front of her… despite ALL of that, Blaze has it in her head that she was being played from the start and that she shouldn’t have trusted any of them.

I’d understand her guard being up around them again but the ignorance of what’s happening around her is much harder to get over. Even a small, tacit acknowledgement of the fact that Amy clearly is not on board with Rouge would suffice. Have Blaze go “They may not like each other but they may still be after the emerald after all” or something that actually shows she’s been paying attention.

I know she’s supposed to be putting them all in the same boat of untrustworthy but she did eventually grow to have a modicum of trust towards the end here. It’s not like she’s so stubborn that she can’t be flexible in her observation of the situation. Plus, if she doesn’t trust any of them, it makes more sense that she’d pay more attention to what they’re saying and doing and how they’re reacting to one another.

Ugh. It feels so minor but that one panel really got to me. It thankfully gets rendered meaningless when Amy and Cream jump to Blaze’s defense and demand Rouge give the emerald to her.

Rouge, who I guess is JUST EVIL now, says she doesn’t care and kicks the metal casing of the device holding the emerald at the six-year old little girl's face and then flies past her so she can make off with the emerald she just heard Blaze say is needed to keep her world from dying.

Also, she does this to Amy?

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I guess she… spun her body and her fingertips and the tips of her heels… did… something to hurt her…???

Hey, you know, instead of Rouge stealing the emerald AFTER Blaze tells her that her world will die without it… why not have Rouge steal it BEFORE Blaze tells her that her world will die without it? It’s not like Blaze has any reason to try and reason with her. It’s understandable that she’d just attack her for it and not offer an explanation like she refused to do with Amy earlier.

She even confronts Rouge and threatens her life if she doesn’t give the emerald back. There’s not much room she’s allowing for conversation there and that’s FINE. 

It just needs to be utilized better.

That said, this moment where Rouge, unflinchingly, just pretends to be scared and calls out for her big strong boys to come and provide back up, is legitimately awesome.

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This is an insanely badass image. I can hear the two of them slamming down with literal explosive landings in my mind. Their black silhouettes behind that sneering face of Rouge as she fondles the emerald in her hand is magnificent. 

Again, it deserves some better context though.

The ending image also kind of suffers a bit from Rouge here being, rather infamously, drawn very strangely.

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Yeah, something about this looks really off. It’s a little too curvy. Her proportions are very strange. Her stomach looks almost concave and her head is either jutting off WAAAAY to the side or her breasts are just inflated.

It’s not quite Rob Liefeld Captain America levels of odd but the fact that it reminded me of that isn’t good either.

UuuuuuuuHhhnnnnnnhuuhhnnnhgdduuuuh… this issue was frustrating.

Fucking frustrating.

I… saw flashes of good here. I can see what’s being attempted and I appreciate the idea behind it but good God. The first half of this issue was taken up by all the girls just being really catty bitches to each other while Cream hangs in the background unable to get a word in edgewise. It gets a little better during that one part with the tree and then Rouge’s betrayal just kind of ruins it again. It’s not the betrayal that I take issue with, it’s how it was done. Rouge is devious and I love the fact that her character can play both sides. It’s what makes her so interesting in fact BUT… this feels like it’s a bit much. She shouldn’t be saying she doesn’t care that she’s stealing from Blaze when she was told that without that emerald, her world would die. You have that be the revelation that gets Rouge to back down, LATER. Though, even then, Shadow already knows and would probably have told her right?

Back during my initial read of this, I found Rouge’s behavior surprising and odd but I wasn’t upset by it, mostly because I was more annoyed by Blaze’s demeanor. Now I just don’t like any of it. Even if I can understand why Blaze is upset (and I do) the constant scowling and arguing and bitterness just made it hard to stomach anyway. 

I’ve changed my mind on a ton of arcs till now but I did figure that a couple of arcs were bound to leave the same bitter aftertaste they did upon my first read. Hopefully, this first issue isn’t a sign of what the rest will be because this was a really rough start. 

 

Sonic Universe - Issue #22: Treasure Team Tango - Part 2 of 4: The Cruzada

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Fun fact about this cover is that, the joke is supposed to be that they’re all looking for the Sol Emerald and it’s supposed to be in obvious plain sight, smack dab in the center of that tree… but I actually didn’t notice that it was there upon first seeing the cover. I believe I didn’t realize it for quite some time too until someone, in another state of obliviousness, seriously asked “Why are they all looking for it? It’s right there!” and completely missed the joke. I believe that’s when I first caught sight of it. I don’t entirely know how I could have missed it. I guess the blues that were already hued on the cover just blended everything together for me or something. I truly do not know.

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Tracy Yardley
Inks: Jim Amash
Colors: Jason Jensen
Letters: Phil Felix
Editor: Paul Kaminski
Editor-in-Chief: Victor Gorelick

We start with a short but sweet scene of Marine the Raccoon and one of the Koala people arriving at a dock. The sky is getting very stormy and the world looks like it’s ready to filet some fools. 

With the Sol Emeralds gone, fucking Zeus looks like he’s about to go ham on Blaze’s dimension. Marine lets her Koala mate know that Blaze is on the case and that she has full faith in her ability to fix whatever bad shit is about to go down.

Meanwhile, Team Dark, consisting traditionally of Rouge the Bat, Shadow the Hedgehog, and E-123 Omega are facing off against Team Rose, consisting traditionally of Amy Rose, Cream the Rabbit, and a purple cat.

So, anyway, Shadow actually knows how badly Blaze’s world needs the Sol Emeralds. Perhaps he could have informed Rouge of it but then there’d be no fighting and we need fighting to happen. My suggestion that Rouge find out about how badly the world needs them later kind of falls apart when you throw Shadow, having met her earlier in the mix.

Surely, Shadow would be sympathetic to her plight though right? What’s his reason for standing against her initially like this before his inevitable realization that this is wrong going to be?

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Fucking Lawyer’d.

“That was then. This is now.” has got the same energy to it as “I know you are but what am I”. It’s a classic for a reason folks.

Omega, who already isn’t known for tact, tries to gun them all down.

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Man, I can’t wait until Omega’s dialogue gets more blunt. The wanton destruction is hilarious when he’s just straight forward about it. Sometimes his pre-reboot self has a tendency to try a little too hard, like here with the altered movie quote. Again, I’m sure people found it funny though so… I’m happy for them I guess.

Blaze shields them all with her fire while Nicole DS lays on the ground asking if they’re alright since she can sense the huge spikes in heat but can’t see anything.

Shadow rightfully shouts at both Rouge and Omega for resorting to this, asking if they’ve lost their minds. Rouge… says that was just to scare them and not hurt them?

Look at the image directly above me and tell me that makes sense…

Like, Omega was outright surprised that Blaze managed to stop his barrage so, at the very least, Omega certainly didn’t know that was just supposed to scare them.

Blaze hits Omega with another wave of fire and Omega does that thing that, again, I’m sure people who aren’t me got a kick out of.

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Admittedly, I can see the appeal. 

They’re being watched by a group from above that’s currently cloaked in shadow. We know who it is already because we all saw the cover and can tell just by looking at their outlines but it’s for dramatic effect and I can appreciate that from an artistic standpoint.

I used way too many words in that last paragraph. I apologize.

Anyway, they all play hot potato with the Sol Emerald for a bit.

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This Looney Tunes bit is amusing at least. I’m having trouble deciding what my favorite bit here is. The part where Cream just screams and hurls the emerald into Omega so that it bounces off of him or the part where Shadow stands there, all cool-like to catch it, before getting smacked in the ass by Amy’s hammer.

Eventually, the emerald lands in Cheese’s hands and Cream tells him to fly out of there with it. Blaze claims that they won’t be able to find that tiny Chao in the forest and that means they win.

So, in retaliation, Rouge just does some bullshit that gets Blaze to summon the grey Sol Emerald…

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WHAT???

HUH???

What did--? What did she do? Did Rouge get her to do that by grabbing her arm and making her uncurl her palm or something? Was that the Vulcan Nerve Pinch? How…?

Dubuh??????

Well… anyway, that… works… somehow and she tosses it to Shadow so he can use Chaos Control to warp them out of there but then the gem just explodes flames to keep them from doing it, I guess, and it falls back into Blaze’s hand.

They then run out of there before “Team Gruesome” as Amy calls them recovers. Cream flies up to go meet up with Cheese and, wouldn’t you know it, it’s Team Hooligan.

This is the first time that name has been coined in these books officially I believe but it’s Nack the Weasel, Bean, and Bark.

These three haven’t been together as a three man team until now I don’t think. They’ve definitely fought alongside one another a couple of times (that issue where they got embarrassingly off-screened comes to mind) but how this specific union happened the way it did, we’ll likely never know but it’s the one that sticks.

Cream fucking launches herself at them with vicious fury and gets grabbed in the face by Bark.

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“I’MMA FUCK YOUR SHIT UP!” she says all the while Cheese has a little heart over his head. He knows he’s loved.

Yeah Cream, this is what happens when you throw your lot in with people on an adventure. You come across groups of rough housers and the like.

And Bean I guess.

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It was funny until he put the image of taking Cream out for walks in my head. Then it got creepy.

The clusterfuck continues when Amy and Blaze come out of the hole. Nack does not want to eat hammer today so he tries to hurry off with everyone on his bike.

Blaze blasts after them and as Bean is in middle of warning them, Blaze missiles herself into them and demolishes their ride.

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Blaze skids to a stop and the bike literally bounces out of frame behind her while she catches Cream in her hands.

Blaze is suddenly very comfortable being friendly with them now. She even almost gets lost in a talk with Amy about how fast she is, being very modest when she gets compared to Sonic and tries to deny that she could be as quick as him. 

It’s nice to see after all that brashness from the issue before. Again, I understood why it was there but it was truly overwhelming me a bit. I couldn’t help but feel a tad annoyed. 

Bean is also, surprisingly, more lucid here than before. I guess since Bark can’t talk, someone needs to chew out Nack for how sloppy his spying skills are.

His comeback to the “stealing candy from a baby” line Nack says when they grabbed Cheese is pretty good.

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It’s nice to know that Bean can verbally hold his own against Nack. I’ll have to keep that in mind.

Also, Team Gruesome is back, as demonstrated by Amy getting ambushed by Omega’s stray energy blasts.

Shadow just fucking flying kicks Amy in the gut, which is excellent to see. 

Blaze carries off Cream from Omega’s shots. 

The Hooligans literally tip-toe away with the Sol Emerald.

Omega has a pretty good line as he fires at them, “Please surrender! Think of the poor trees!” he says as he continues to blow apart the forest.

Cheese tries and fails to clonk Omega. He’s 0 for 2 now.

Blaze tries to throw fire at Omega. It does nothing.

Rouge gets the drop on Blaze and knocks her out with a kick to the back and an elbow to the top of the head.

Shadow then… destroys Amy.

Just completely wrecks her shit.

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Jesus.

Then when they’ve got Blaze and Amy huddled together, Cream tries to say that she can’t let them do this. She approaches them with a long branch and Cheese approaches with a rock. 

It’s pretty funny.

Omega’s whole entire fists clamp down on both of them and he asks what Cream plans to do… which prompts Cream to start crying.

Omega asks her to stop, saying he doesn’t think he can handle that for some reason. 

He’s being more charitable now so he decides to actually ask her what happened.

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She’s laying it on as thick as she can here.

If they don’t decide to help now, they’re way beyond the moniker of Team Dark at this point.

I guess your perception of how these characters should be portrayed is what’s going to ultimately decide whether you like this development and how it was done or not.

I’m not a fan of how Archie Rouge and Omega are. Omega has his moments and I try to acknowledge them when they happen but it’s still not ideally what I want from him. Rouge is just… strangely evil now. Even weirder is how Shadow is the most sympathetic one here despite how he absolutely demolished Amy earlier.

There’s a lot. Are these characters living up to your expectations? Are they being portrayed to your liking? Do you think it matters? Is it alright to you because of the excuse of it being a different medium and a different universe? 

Who can say except for yourself I suppose. I’m just concerned with making sure I’m as transparent as I can be about my own position.

We end on the Hooligans trying to make off with the Sol Emerald as our last intrusive group makes a play at entering the fray.

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“Catch Me If You Can” is blaring from the speakers in the sky as they hover overhead.

This issue was a lot more fun than the last one, though only really from when Team Hooligan shows up and onward. Before that, there's still a lot of bullshit, especially that one part where Rouge does the really dumb thing to Blaze equivalent to that one time a writer fanboying over Deathstroke made him literally grab the Green Lantern's ring while it was still on his hand and overpowered him with will power because "Deathstroke's just that fucking awesome" was the only explanation needed to make that fly, I guess.

The later part of the issue was great though. It seems to actually exhibit the energy that this arc and the covers seem to be going for a lot better than the last one. That’s understandable since the build up needed to happen in order for us to reach this point. I just wish I could have stomached the build up a bit better. This was a lot more fun towards the end thanks to the Hooligans arriving and making the misunderstanding and fighting more complicated in an actual fun way. I love organized chaos and this gave me flashes of it.

There’s still the caveat of a bitter aftertaste towards how Team Dark is being portrayed but it’s honestly hard to tell how much I should put that on the issue itself or my own personal bias concerning the characters. Usually it wouldn’t matter (as I’m allowed to think and feel whatever I want) but for some reason it feels like it does here. 

The character that I want to be relentlessly mean is actually really sympathetic to the little bunny. The character that I want to be sympathetic to the bunny (at least a LITTLE bit) is just evil. And Shadow is...  I dunno. He’s Archie Shadow.

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Treasure Team Tango aka that one arc where Rouge (and I guess Shadow?) decide to be a jerk for their last appearance in the Pre-Reboot continuity. Like I remember liking the arc when it came out, but as people pointed out the part where Rouge is just being downright evil and now it's all I remember from the arc now. Which sucks because I like the idea with this arc being 4 teams fighting over the sol emerald but that one part with Rouge essentially at her worse just sours the whole thing.

   

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From what I remember from Pirate Plunder Panic that was from others was the Blaze didn't seem to do much in that arc besides a few things and getting the last hit on Captain Metal twice. I don't remember it being very memorable besides a few things and them solving the Sol Emerald sub plot.  

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Treasure Team Tango: Ah, Treasure Team Tango! I like this one! It's just fun without being too serious. In fact, what I liked, is the clear intent of putting together 12 people in some kind of Battle Royal. And that's fun. Unlike the "Battle Royale" between FF and Chaotix on the Special where Mammoth Mogul debuted. That was reeeeally bad.

Shadow: Little spoiler: I like the conclusion of this Arc, for Shadow. That said, I can't say I really like the attitude he got the rest of the arc. I understand that it had to feel necessary to have him on antagonistic terms with Team Rose, but, seriously: WHY NONE BRINGS UP THE FACT THAT BLAZE GIFTED HIM A CHAOS EMERALD??? Seriously, they keep going on this "the world will end, blah, blah" but, simply put, Shadow owes Blaze a big favor. So, meh, not completely alright with Shadow in TTT (it's still pretty good and a loooot better than in IDW, though).

Omega: Best character of the arc. And best incarnation of all the Omegas, no doubt in my mind. The most brutal character getting cute with the absolutely less menacing character in the cast was pure genius in my opinion.  

Rouge: Differently from a lot of people, I didn't see too much inconsistency in the way she is portrayed here. Maybe she is a little too "evil", I agree, but MAN: ROUGE IS A THIEF! And people are surprised when she is caught stealing? Personally I found her a lot more out of character when she announced that she was going to give back all the stolen treasures in IDW. Just why? That said, the fact that she didn't show even a little bit of remorse (except that one panel) knowing that stealing that gem would condemn a world is a little too much, I agree with that. All in all, I'm more irritated that Shadow didn't give the gem to Blaze immediately considering what she did for him.

 

4 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Regardless of his situation, he’s still working as a Grandmaster for the Eggman Empire. I do have sympathy for his situation, of course, as I do for all the ones that have a flare of sympathy behind them. Just like with the original Dark Legion’s incredibly sad “My body is disgusting and I need to turn it mechanical” thing, this story also has an air of conflict that lands me in a position of appreciating how complicated motivations for some of this stuff can be.

 

Once again: the situation between the two branches is completely different:

- Dark Legion: Ally with Eggman to get new toys despite being offered a chance at peace in Albion.

- Oil Ocean Dark Egg Legion: Ally with Eggman because it was the only way they had found to survive considering they had been exiled into the desert from the Sand Blasters. Doesn't justify working for Robo-Hitler, but at least they deserve some sympathy.

...the Dark Legion just don't.

4 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

That whole thing about it being better to have loved than lost than to have never loved at all isn’t proving to be all that it’s cracked up to be. The pain he’s feeling is far worse because he finally felt what he’s always wanted to feel and lost it. 

 

Uhm... like, not at all. Snively is not suffering because he lost Regina. He is suffering because Eggman keep him away from Regina. Nothing to do with that proverb 😅

 

4 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

When it comes to this story, it was definitely the best and most interesting of the three. The feud between the cat people and the wolves isn’t that interesting and as nice as it was to finally see the Rotor Family Hypnosis subplot get laid to rest, really, the most interesting thing about that arc was all the stuff with Silver and Akhlut being a giant mechanical killer orca.

 

Agree 100% on this

6 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Then they politely introduce themselves and we get a little scene outlining the futility of Amy’s affection for Sonic is in the Archie Comics that… was supposed to be funny but falls flat and just comes off as strange and mean on all accounts.

 

Honestly, I thought it was hilarious. Cream is so naïf that it can't help but make me smile :)

6 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

So, when Amy says stuff like this it just feels more pitiful because unlike the games, you can’t actually see an avenue where she stands a chance with Sonic.

 

Relationships aren't eternal, you know? In fact, paradoxically she got more closer to Sonic in the Archie comics (even going with him on a date) than in the games where we know she will never have a chance.

6 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Meanwhile, Team Dark, consisting traditionally of Rouge the Bat, Shadow the Hedgehog, and E-123 Omega are facing off against Team Rose, consisting traditionally of Amy Rose, Cream the Rabbit, and a purple cat.

 

Very good one! I was expecting some jokes on Blaze's weight, though :)

6 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Again, I’m sure people found it funny though so… I’m happy for them I guess.

Be happy for me, then! 🤣🤣🤣

 

6 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Like, Omega was outright surprised that Blaze managed to stop his barrage so, at the very least, Omega certainly didn’t know that was just supposed to scare them.

uhm... no, this was just an assumption from your part.

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1 hour ago, Kuzu said:

Oh man, the amount of vitriol TTT got on the Sega forums....

I was there. I remember it...

... I may have contributed to it a bit too actually. I don't recall but it wouldn't surprise me.

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5 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

Oh man, the amount of vitriol TTT got on the Sega forums....

I’m guessing because of Rouge’s depiction or other stuff?

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1 minute ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

I was there. I remember it...

... I may have contributed to it a bit too actually. I don't recall but it wouldn't surprise me.

Well were all young and dumb back then; I was just very confused why everyone was so mad.

Just now, SanPolo4389 said:

I’m guessing because of Rouge’s depiction or other stuff?

Among other things. Mike's overall review might give you a a good idea. 

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I would say TTT is the prime example of a Love it or Hate It arc for Archie, and yea, it depends entirely on your perception of some of these characters. Admittedly, with the exception of Shadow and Amy, none of these characters really get chances to be fleshed out all that much in the games. It makes them very malleable for better or worse, so authors are just kind of...able to run wild with their own interpretations. 

I remember Ian said that the perception of Rouge at the time of this arc (roughly 2010) was that she was a evil action girl, so that's what he portrayed her as. At that point, Rouge's last major appearance was Sonic 06, and even then she's mostly playing a supporting role. Not really a lot to gleam. It's arguably worse nowadays because Rouge doesn't even have a role in most games now beyond just another one of the cast with no discernible traits to make her stand out. It makes her characterization in IDW extremely jarring when compared to this arc. 

 

That's what makes this arc so....contentious; I like the idea of a morally ambiguous Rouge, but there's a difference between being shady and just straight up being a bitch. Even ignoring how wildly different the characters are from their video game counterparts, Rouge is supposed to be an ally of the main cast, so this just feels needless self-destructive. Like imagine if Amy informed the Freedom Fighters about this and they decided they didn't wanna mess with GUN anymore and that would make everyone's jobs harder. And this fight can only work because Shadow is being so wishy-washy here. He...really has no reason to want to help Rouge other than to facilitate this fight, and it makes him come off as so ungrateful towards Blaze rather than merely being conflicted. And he's somehow still more sympathetic than Rouge lmao. Omega....exists, that's all I really gotta say. Its so weird, this arc is weird. 

 

I don't mind Blaze being more prickly though, and honestly I think she's the most justified here. Always felt like Blaze is way less interesting when her flaws are less apparent, and that's pretty much what they've done with her recent years. She's in an unfamiliar land, her world is dying, and she's an introvert with repressed anger issues. All things considered, she's being rather accommodating. And...her and Rouge make a surprisingly good duo and I'm kind of upset that has never been followed up on. Like for real, despite her initial distrust, her and Rouge clicked rather quickly as a unit. They're good foils. 

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9 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

Like imagine if Amy informed the Freedom Fighters about this and they decided they didn't wanna mess with GUN anymore and that would make everyone's jobs harder.

Or if Nicole stay the whole way and recorded Rouge's whole "not caring about Blaze's world if it dies" thing and maybe like send it to the FF and they would take it up with GUN? It's just a thought.

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10 minutes ago, SanPolo4389 said:

Or if Nicole stay the whole way and recorded Rouge's whole "not caring about Blaze's world if it dies" thing and maybe like send it to the FF and they would take it up with GUN? It's just a thought.

Man, Sally would have been pissed.

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I have to say that if Rouge’s character here was supposed to be a continuation of how she was presented in earlier issues, then I missed the issues where she displayed that. Since the early 90-100s, I was of the impression that as shady as she was, she was still on the side of the heroes—I mean, that part was confirmed by Sonic during that one issue where’s Bunnie and Rouge start fighting each other for no reason.

So yeah, color me shocked when she said she didn’t care what happened to Blaze’s world without the Sol Emerald. That didn’t match with the Rouge I knew even in the comics. Had I seen more of that before, then I wouldn’t argue, but this is one of those “wait wtf” moments where it’s hard not to call it out of character even for an alternate take.

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16 hours ago, CrownSlayer’s Shadow said:

I have to say that if Rouge’s character here was supposed to be a continuation of how she was presented in earlier issues, then I missed the issues where she displayed that.

I mean considering how she basically beat up Julie-Su and saying she's going to steal Knuckles and then later tricking Knuckles into leaving the island more often to steal the ME, then yeah she sometimes do these things.

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1 hour ago, SanPolo4389 said:

I mean considering how she basically beat up Julie-Su and saying she's going to steal Knuckles and then later tricking Knuckles into leaving the island more often to steal the ME, then yeah she sometimes do these things.

That just sounds like catty drama between two girls liking the same guy, and Rouge wanting to steal the ME for herself has never been anything new.

I’m talking “I’ll let your entire planet die because I don’t care” levels of evil. Rouge has always been shady, but never flat out evil to that extent—even if you include the part where she let Eggman nuke Prison Island in SA2, she never came across as letting an entire world die like that.

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On 11/29/2021 at 1:55 AM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

One, their first issues both have Sonic on the cover for some inexplicable reason

I mean the real reason is to sell them. Sad reality is this is a boys franchise as far as Sega is concerned and they don't think boys will read arcs largely focused on girls. Considering these 2 and the Sally and Nicole arc post-rebootare pretty low selling I kinda see what they mean. It sucks but that's what infusing toxic masculinity into kids heads will do.

 

On 11/29/2021 at 1:55 AM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Cream tries to tell them to calm down and talk but is mostly ignored until Amy off-handedly mentions Sonic which prompts them to slow down. That gives Cream the opening she needs to let the girls that are supposedly older and more mature than her that they’ve been fighting over literal garbage.

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I want to say because I don't know how much I actually have to say that won't just amount to saying this over and over again but honestly the reasonI personally like...most of this story while everyone else fucking hates it is that it's a comedy. I feel like most people (not necessarily you Mike just people I've seen talk about it over the years) arr viewing it through a lense of being a super duper serious story when it's not that. It's slapstick. Ian made it no secret that's what he was going for years ago on his forum when people kept referringto it as a "girl power" story. This is supposed to be a big silly fight over the Sol Emerald and things like this broken bottle are the major tip off that's this is just going to be for fun.

Now I will admit humor is subjective. Personally I find the jokes in these issues very funny but it might not be to everyone's taste. However! That doesn't make me ok with the arcs portrayal of Rouge. Oh, I got words for that.

On 11/29/2021 at 1:55 AM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

’m willing to bet there are plenty of people out there who called bullshit upon seeing that because they played the Advance games.

I personally say there's "Gameplay and story segregation" for a reason. If Cheese was really that God mode why not just throw him at everything? 

 

On 11/29/2021 at 1:55 AM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

 

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On 11/29/2021 at 1:55 AM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Oh dear. Who could have seen this coming?

Most people who know and care about Rouge's character most certainly wouldn't have! 

Ok look I'm not going to say Rouge being greedy is out of character of course it isn't but what is out of character is that she would let a dimension fucking die! Look yeah she's grey area for sure but Rouge is not a full blown villain like she was being written at this time. She literally throws the Master Emerald shards back to Knuckles after he saves her. She has good qualities. But no let's ignore all that and have her be willing to let Blaze's universe die because the Sol Emerald is pretty. 

Yes this is a comedy but it only works if the characters are actually in character. 

On 11/29/2021 at 1:55 AM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Also, she does this to Amy?

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I guess she… spun her body and her fingertips and the tips of her heels… did… something to

That's her screw kick from the games, dude.

 

On 11/29/2021 at 1:55 AM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

WHAT???

HUH???

What did--? What did she do? Did Rouge get her to do that by grabbing her arm and making her uncurl her palm or something? Was that the Vulcan Nerve Pinch? How…?

Well...you see...Yeah I'm going to be honest I never really understood how that worked either. I thought Blaze was like willing it into existence earlier but I guess she just needs to unfold her hand?

On 11/29/2021 at 1:55 AM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

 

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Someone on the olf Bumbleking forum honest to God thought Ian was setting up a ship instead of just having Bean be Bean. I love that he does the Looney Tunes joke but he'll name her Jorge instead of George.

 

On 11/29/2021 at 1:55 AM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Shadow then… destroys Amy.

Just completely wrecks her shit.

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I may not be the biggest Shadow fan but I gotta admit I always likedthis scene. 

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Also I may have said that before but  I remember in deviantart someone complaining that Blaze in this and PPP felt like she was being a jobber at how many times she kept getting beaten. Didn’t help he was a big fan of Blaze. 

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Ian tends to do that a lot to the more strongly perceived Characters, particularly Shadow, Blaze and Silver. 

I suppose its his way of keeping their power levels in check to keep the cast better balanced.

 

Otherwise you get scenes like the one where Shadow destroys Amy with almost no effort.

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1 hour ago, SBR2 said:

That's her screw kick from the games, dude.

It needs to be drawn better so I can tell what it is. Either that or make the transition from panel to panel flow better so I can tell its supposed to be a kick. Or something.  It's that issue I have sometimes with Tracey's action yet again.

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On 12/1/2021 at 3:53 AM, CrownSlayer’s Shadow said:

I’m talking “I’ll let your entire planet die because I don’t care” levels of evil. Rouge has always been shady, but never flat out evil to that extent—even if you include the part where she let Eggman nuke Prison Island in SA2, she never came across as letting an entire world die like that.

Dropping an entire island on a continent, on the other side...

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8 hours ago, SkyHorizon said:

Dropping an entire island on a continent, on the other side...

As far as we know, no one died when that happened, and both the island and land around it were unharmed. Compared to certain death of the untold amount of inhabitants in an entire dimension.

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On 12/3/2021 at 3:56 AM, Razule said:

As far as we know, no one died when that happened, and both the island and land around it were unharmed. Compared to certain death of the untold amount of inhabitants in an entire dimension.

When that happened it fell reeeeally conveniently in the sea but close enough to the land to not being completely submerged. My point is not if people like or dislike "evil" Rouge, it's just that I see a lot of people asking for her to keep going back on stealing the ME (condemning an entire flying continent and everything under it) and finding so out of character to what basically amounts to the same thing with the Sol Emerald. 

The story could've been handled better? Maybe. It's much of a stretch of Rouge's personality? I don't really think so. That's what I wanted to say.

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Sonic Universe - Issue #23: Treasure Team Tango - Part 3 of 4: The Llevada

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It’s the really infamous cover that everyone, even people who haven’t read the comics, have seen. The joke of timid, polite, almost pacifist characters being hard and bad to the bone is a pretty versatile one. I even did it myself when it came to one of my own pics involving Cream and Cheese. I feel kind of bad because I’m actually not that into it here for whatever reason. I don’t even have an explanation as to why either and I hate when that happens.

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Tracy Yardley
Inks: Jim Amash
Colors: Jason Jensen
Letters: Phil Felix
Editor: Paul Kaminski
Editor-in-Chief: Victor Gorelick

Bean is being a huge chatterbox at the start of the issue. It mostly serves as small exposition for how these guys came together. It was nothing all that special. Nack had his eyes set on a Sol Emerald and he got these guys to come along to help. Dude works really fast, I gotta say. Bean thinks it’ll be the start of a beautiful relationship.

Though, he gets mad when Nack doesn’t really respond to what he’s saying and he has to tell Bean that he’s focused on getting away from the huge Babylonian ship chasing them.

Back with Team Dark and Team Rose, we get a page of them being… the versions of themselves that they are for the Archie comics, I guess. This entire page is illustrative of who they are right now and it’s got it’s foibles for sure.

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By this point, Team Dark knows that Blaze needs her emerald or her world is doomed. Rouge is whining about Team Hooligan getting away with it because it’s HER emerald. She’s claimed it as her own already so that’s even more confirmation that she doesn’t care about Blaze’s motivation here.

Meanwhile, Shadow is just being a wishy washy son of a bitch. The things he says and does in this scene and the upcoming ones make little sense. Trying to frame this as him being conflicted by what he should do makes little sense as well since we don’t even know why Team Dark wants this fucking emerald in the first place. As far as this story is concerned, it’s not been stated yet. 

Then there’s Omega who continues to just BE a different character from the one I liked in Heroes. They’re taking a lot of liberties with him and I sort of get it. Archie was where characters went to be sort of fiddled with and retooled for the sake of the audience enjoying them a bit more. At the time there was push back for how the characters were being written… though, I wasn’t really one of those people. I remember mostly loving that period for the characters but it couldn’t be argued that it was definitely the height of news outlets and other people championing the flag of “Sonic’s Shitty Friends” and what not.

People found it funny here that Omega was being a lovable lug who sometimes would talk about destroying things off-handedly but would, for some reason, ask if he could put down a cute bunny rabbit because he was afraid of popping it.

Hell, Omega doesn’t even feel consistent with himself within the same issue to me. 

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It was a bit of a weird shift for me, seeing him patting Cream on the head and calling her cute being followed up by having him saying his urge to maim something was rising because she talked about him being comfy. I doubt it’s an urge to maim her of course. That’s not why it feels inconsistent. It’s just hard for me to compartmentalize him in my head the way the book wants me to. I guess he’s just a sweetheart until we can think of something funny for him to say with regards to how much he loves destruction. I guess that’s how he works.

Team Dark and Team Rose decide to work together to track down Team Hooligan when Amy rallys them together for the sake of jumping on this opportunity for more muscle with regards to recovering the Sol Emerald.

Shadow stomps off to get his GUN vehicles for everyone to ride in and Amy goes along with him to ask him why he knows Blaze. Once he tells her she then gets confused as to why he’s doing this, especially since he heard the part about her world falling apart without it.

Shadow still doesn’t provide a reason and just stutters out a response saying he’ll do what he must before continuing off to get their ride. Amy seems satisfied by this, thinking in her head that she knows he’ll do what’s right in the end.

I guess this is sort of like the scene in SA2 that these two never got to have in these books, probably. I don’t know. It’s hard just accepting that she knows Shadow will do what’s right when they’ve interacted so little. They won’t interact after this point in the pre-reboot either.

They start getting a little chummy with each other on their way to recover the Sol Emerald. Blaze is irritated still but this feels like the most appropriate of times for her to be. I’m not even the one going through all this and I’m a bit frustrated by how this has gone down. Imagine how she feels.

We also get some talk about why Shadow has that bike for people who need it explained to them that it's possible to enjoy driving despite being faster than a car or a motorbike.

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It’s a good moment for Shadow but it’s followed up by probably one of his most embarrassing ones. 

Rouge mentions that the bike is having trouble traversing the terrain so she asks Blaze to trail blaze a path for them. She does so and they’ve got a nice dirt road to follow her on.

Shadow goes ahead and actually tries to apologize to Blaze. 

It doesn’t go well but that’s not surprising considering what Shadow says here.

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I mean, yeah. Honestly, why would you bother? He’s still planning to nab the Sol Emerald, ostensibly for the sake of his world I guess, so what’s the point? He even says "without regret" which isn't how an apology works. The only reason I can see him doing this is because he doesn’t want her to hate him and he wants her to understand that he’s totally doing this for a totally not evil reason.

I mean, first of all, she has no reason to give a shit. Second of all, it would help if I actually knew the reason you guys needed it. Rouge has only ever been talking like she wants to keep it for herself, Omega is pretty much in la-la land, and Shadow is remarking on some sort of vague notion of protecting the world but how exactly and why specifically he needs the Sol Emerald, I don’t know.

I still don’t think we know why they needed that Chaos Emerald from Feist. Perhaps this was something that was being kept hush-hush for the sake of a bigger picture thing involving GUN down the line. It might have something to do with the reason the Commander was being so coy about why they were called Team Dark. 

I can only speculate because the issue is refusing to give me anything substantial. I’m supposed to just take it on good faith that Shadow is struggling to not let Blaze’s world die for a good cause. 

Team Hooligan isn’t having too fun a time though. The Babylon’s ship keeps dropping bombs on them and eventually it blasts Nack’s bike off the ground again. He’s really pissed that his bike keeps being messed with. He calls it a delicate lady when Bark later tries to yank it from the dirt but it got hit on full blast by an enraged Blaze and bombed from the sky by the Babylonians and it looks fine so it’s got a lot more moxy than he’s letting on here. Give your old girl a little more credit.

Nack gets pissed and dares them to try blowing them up some more or else the emerald will get blow up (not true) but it doesn’t matter because they come out of the ship themselves and use their extremely fast extreme gear skills to grab it from him.

So now our fourth team has officially joined the tango.

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This then leads us into what is also another extension of the Battle Bird Armada’s backstory.

If you thought there wasn’t a bird character that didn’t have some connection to it, you were wrong. All of them do apparently and they’ll continue to do so down the line.

Which means Bean knows the Rogues and the Rogues know him.

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Apparently Storm was under the impression that the Battle Lord “took him out”... as in what? Like, death by firing squad? Did Bean’s brain get Egg Grape’d like Charmy’s? 

We’ll never know the full story to this but that’s fine. I’ve said this before but I’m not a fan of all the bird characters having connections to the armada. It just makes the world feel smaller. That’s really all it ever serves to do for me.

I was fine with it when it came to the Babylon Rogues because it gave a new spin on why they’d gone “rogue” but that was about it.

Nack gets his bike and his gun out from the ground and is about to snipe them, while calling them pigeons but Bean takes offense to that and shouts at him, which alerts Jet to the fact that there’s a sniper with a gun pointed at them so he gets them to scatter.

A fight ensues that leaves Bean dizzy and the Rogues making off with the Sol Emerald. However, Nack takes a hail mary shot at them that causes that wonderful Sol Emerald explosion from earlier.

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Freakin’ sweet.

Then, upon picking the emerald up, Nack comments about how it remained untouched after being shot directly like that. He likes the magical priceless gems the most now it seems.

Jet says that’s good to know and that they’ll be able to pick it out of the wreckage they create. So the three Rogues fly away and order their large ship to just nuke Team Hooligan! 

Yeah, I guess the Babylon Rogues are cool with murder…! 

I didn’t know that.

It’s Bean’s turn to be awesome in retaliation to this.

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Bean is a bomb bender.

Or something.

Either way, it’s pretty impressive and kind of scary. A power like that being in the hands of someone clearly unhinged like him isn’t good.

The two teams are ready to face off again but Omega’s gun fire gets them to stop in their tracks.

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“Menace and masculinity reaffirmed” he says… oh lord.

Oh yeah, and Shadow is carrying Blaze because she got a bit weak in the knees when Nack shot the Sol Emerald and that clued her into where to find them. Oh, but look, Shadow’s carrying Blaze. OoooOooo. How scandalous. Anyway, they fight.

Rouge is planning on betraying the girls. She says that she plans to actually stomp the girls while they’re overwhelmed and scram with the gem. Shadow is all like “Aww gee Rouge, I dunno man. That sounds pretty fucked up.” and then Rouge shouts at him to follow the mission or whatever.

Amy outright says she knows they’re planning on double crossing them and Blaze reaffirms it for innocent Cream who just wants to see the best in everyone.

Jet puts on his googles, ready to spread his wings and SCREECH these fools out of existence.

Bean asks if he can make boom boom and Nack says yes. He make lots of boom boom.

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Finally, the clusterfuck I’ve been waiting for… next issue.

It’s become nay impossible for me to fully enjoy this arc with my feelings on Team Dark’s conduct being so weird. I actually rather like the idea that Team Dark, kind of like a Suicide Squad, would do the more dirtier jobs for the sake of protecting the world but not at the cost of another world entirely. This isn’t shady business, it’s just the work of a group of villains. However, they’re not supposed to be that way. The one who should be the closest to that, Omega, is also actually the most docile and kind of the trio too. Shadow may have wanted to apologize but he just ended up sounding more savage at the end of that scene with Blaze, honestly. It’s just all sorts of fucked up for them right now.

As such, the scenes between them and Team Rose continue to be a huge boon towards my liking this arc. Thankfully, the squabbling between Team Hooligan and Team Babylon is exactly the kind of stuff I wanted. Their motivations are inherently selfish and I expect more of this kind of behavior out of them. You know, in an arc where the point is that it’s supposedly a goofy, comedy clusterfuck… it only really comes across that way when the Hooligans and the Babylonians are on screen. 

It’s tough. The premise is fine but the decision to lean in so hard on the heavy consequences of what’ll happen to Blaze’s world if she doesn’t get that emerald back are actually hindering its potential a bit. We wouldn’t really need to have these talks if the team that was here in place of Team Dark was just another group of assholes. Like a Team Eggman or something. I dunno. 


Sonic Universe - Issue #24: Treasure Team Tango - Part 4 of 4: The Parada

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Again, I feel bad because this cover is something I should absolutely love to death and in a way I do. It’s got a lot of neat little scenes here and there and the chaos it exhibits is something that looks and feels like it was tailor made for me. I don’t know why I’m wired to just think about stuff that bothers me about some of the characterizations when I look at their faces though. It’s not just Omega either. I want the comedy to wash over me without having to worry about what’s been done to make this goofy situation happen and I can’t do that here. It’s sad but this arc might have to remain a bust for me.

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Tracy Yardley
Inks: Jim Amash
Colors: Jason Jensen
Letters: Phil Felix
Editor: Paul Kaminski
Editor-in-Chief: Victor Gorelick

So, fun fact, Eggman Nega actually appears with a full-body presence in the Off-Panel at the end of this issue. I think this may actually be the thing Ian was worrying about getting in trouble for. I can see why if that’s true. The Nega mention at the beginning of the story arc was him testing the waters and he didn’t outright say “Eggman Nega” just “Dr. Nega”. Here he’s outright confirming that it was him and the artist is showing him off completely. If he wasn’t allowed to be in the book then putting him in the off-panel may have been playing with fire a bit.

It’s been so long and I doubt anyone cares enough about the off-panel for it to REALLY matter anymore of course.

Anyway, guys… I’m actually kind of surprised. I didn’t expect reviewing this one to be so hard but it’s actually proving to be a bit of a challenge collecting my thoughts and being confident in what I feel I have to say here. I feel like I should have been having way more fun up to this point then I was. The huge fight between Team Hooligan and Team Babylon last issue was the most fun I've had so far.

But now, the moment I’ve been waiting for is here. Finally, the real clusterfuck can begin here in the finale.

So, here’s me presenting you all with my rundown of this final issue.

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I love how the caption box is clearly setting the stakes as something high. “Decide the fate of the world” are the exact words used but when you stop and think about it, what's amusing is that the fight for Blaze's world is being decided by a group of twelve chuckle-fucks scrapping in a field somewhere. No one even knows this is happening right now. 

It’s just kind of funny to think about.

Cream has to psyche herself up to fly in and join the fray, stomping on Nack’s head before he can snipe Amy in the back. 

Amy grabs Cream and runs to Blaze, shouting that they need a plan.

Blaze forms a circle of fire around them and they talk… not about a plan but just to reaffirm for the reader that they’re friends now and that Blaze does indeed trust them. 

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It’s a nice moment and I’m glad Blaze is finally at this point with the two of them but why did Amy say “We need a plan” and then leave the fire circle before they came up with a plan?

Amy rushes over to Shadow and says “Time’s up! You’ve got to decide!”

Shadow asks her what she’s talking about as he punches Bean in the face. Amy clarifies the obvious. She asks him if he’s going to do what GUN tells him to do or help Blaze save her entire world.

Normal Shadow probably wouldn’t have bothered being too conflicted by this truthfully. I’ve always envisioned Shadow as a character that, even when working under GUN, would only do something that was asked of him if he wanted to do it. GUN being a convenient thing to work within the system of so that they don’t bother him when he’s trying to do his own shit sounds like a good way to handle his relationship with them. 

Thankfully, even though Shadow is more wishy washy here, he does pretty much decide when Amy puts his feet to the fire, though it’s not through a cute little speech about how people are good. She’s a lot more stern and angry with him, which works too.

Shadow says “It’s decided then…” and rushes over towards Jet when he has the emerald to boot him off his board and say the thing from Smash Bros. in Sonic’s stead.

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Wave and Storm don’t like that and fly at Shadow to handle him for attacking their boss but Rouge and Cream attack them respectively to stop that… but Rouge accidentally bashes into Wave so hard that her board smacks against Shadow anyway causing the emerald to go flying.

Omega is pushing against Bark while trying to get the emerald but Amy climbs on top of them both and nabs it. 

She then tosses it to Blaze and than Bean tosses her a bomb… which Blaze promptly snuffs out with a snap of her fingers because she’s a fire bender.

Bean’s reaction to this is a Shakespearian diatribe of nonsense that goes on for two pages while cartoon violence happens in the background. 

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This story would have died on the vine for me had this issue not happened. I’m really, actually, finally enjoying myself a lot more.

Amy goes up to Rouge and asks for another alliance for like five minutes. She just wants to work together for five minutes so that they can beat the Groggy Ring Monsters at the Davy Back Fight together. Then they’ll go back to hating each other.

Rouge is about to dismiss her but Amy’s assurance that Shadow’s going to do what she wants sounds flimsy enough to her that she’s willing to go along with it.

Rouge gets Wave to fall off her board. 

Shadow teleport-fights Jet towards where he wants him to go.

Omega uses his thrusters to boot Storm towards the other two.

The three Rogues crash together and land on top of one another.

Nack, meanwhile, is running towards the other thugs while trying to blast at Amy, wondering why he could beat Sonic all those times but all the girls keep giving him trouble. Amy tells him to stop whining and that Sally didn’t hit him THAT hard which… I have no idea how she could possibly know that. Unless she hits you on the regular as well and you consider her hits to be the equivalent to a paper fan batting you in the face, let the man whine about his pain. It’s the very least you can do to a struggling sniper who just wants to blow a hole through your brain.

Blaze pushes Bark back with her flames like she’s manhandling a dog.

Cream kills Bean with kindness.

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Well, at least they got to have that walk together finally.

When all the thugs are huddled together in a group, Blaze re-ignites the bomb in Bean’s hand and he’s beyond delighted.

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It's low key kind of cute that Storm seems to be shielding the other two here. Either that or they hid behind him and he's feeling super unlucky right now.

So, the two groups react to getting a bomb literally blown up in their face like you’d expect them to, except Jet but Wave takes care of that.

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As fun as this issue ended up being I think that top image got the first real, genuine laugh out of me. That image of Storm is straight out of Looney Tunes. It’s great.

Bean can’t feel his hands, which is very concerning. I’ve woken up from laying on my arms and legs the wrong way and felt the same. Noodle arms are neat but pretty scary all the same. 

I love how Bark is just pissed and walking off with Nack under his arms but the thing that sells it is Bean’s dialogue. He wants to leave too but he’s stuck in a bit of a daze so he can’t help but smile as he says that leaving sounds good. That and he’s crazy.

So when that’s over the two remaining teams celebrate briefly before Rouge fucking ruins it by demanding the emerald again. Blaze practically does a cat hiss with her ears down as she clutches it and holds it away from her. There doesn’t even exist an avenue where Rouge could ever be on friendly terms with Amy or Blaze at this point.

Shadow tells her to stop being a bitch and openly says that the safety of an entire world outweighs their mission.

OH! 

So the mission you were on wasn’t as important as an entire world dying? Good to FINALLY fucking know! Even though I still don’t know what the mission IS it’s nice to know it wasn’t as important as the fate of an entire other planet.

Rouge’s only rebuttal to this is that she doesn’t walk out on a gem.

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Except you have. 

You literally did in the game you DEBUTED in. You tossed the Master Emerald shards back to Knuckles when he did you a single kindness.

God, she is trying her damndest to wreck the good vibes I was finally starting to get with this arc.

Oh, and remember the more recent news about how Team Dark aren’t friends? Well, apparently Treasure Team Tango wanted to get the jump on that being the case early, even though in IDW, they act more like friends then fucking THIS–!

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Not only is Shadow threatening Rouge but Omega is also talking about not wanting to make Cream cry!

What?! Who are these people?! Is this Team Dark?

Oh God, and then Omega does this embarrassing shit. Fuck me.

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UGH! BLEGH!

I know it’s supposed to be funny but I hate it so much!

Goddammit. I was feeling so good about the way that wrapped up but as soon as the Hooligans and Rogues leave the comic goes to shit again. 

Or rather, as soon as Team Dark is allowed to have another scene it starts to suck again. 

Team Rose was handled fine throughout the story. Yeah, the arguing and bitchiness in the first issue got on my nerves and they (well, just Amy and Blaze) contributed to that but the rest of it was fine on their end. At least there was an appropriate reason for why Blaze was so bitter at the start. It was rough to get through but I wasn’t upset with her. I understood where she was coming from. Plus, the other times they were angry they were just reacting appropriately to Team Dark’s weirdness.

God, they’re SO weird here. I don’t even remember them acting THIS off in the Shadow Saga. Rouge definitely wasn’t a huge bitch in that and Omega’s off moments weren’t this radical. I’m actually kind of relieved we’re done with them for a while. This was definitely their worst outing, bar none.

So anyway, they leave, thank God, and we’re left with Team Rose to say their goodbyes to each other.

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If you meet up with the Zone Cops, please, feel free to melt their asses for me, okay?

That’s how they depart. 

By sunset they head back to Freedom HQ where Cream is telling her mom about everything that happened. Vanilla looks like her hands are shaking as she hears the tale. The worried mom thing isn’t doing it for me with her either, even though it’s understandable. But I dunno. I like how she is in IDW and Sonic X more. She seems way more chill and sure of herself and sure of her daughter. 

That’s a minor, personal thing though.

Then we end on the Looney Tunes ending circle joke of the arc.

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As adorable as the sideways frowny face on Nicole here is… does she need to be picked up by Amy? I thought she was pretty much all over New Mobotropolis? How does Nicole work again?

Yeah, so, I’ve finished my re-read of Treasure Team Tango after all these years and I’ve reached a new and informed conclusion as to why I didn’t enjoy it back in the day and why I still feel it’s probably the weakest of the arcs I’ve read so far: Team Dark KILLS this story.

They fucking murdered it.

Almost every scene they were in contributed to all my intense bouts of frustration with the way this story was handled. All the fun was jam packed into the Hooligans and the Rogues but the Hooligans don’t really show up until half-way through the second issue and the Rogues don’t get properly involved until the third one. 

I understand wanting to properly build up to the big chaotic clusterfuck for the finale. I get that. However, the connecting parts were only fun when it involved some of the characters. Most of the time it was just me witnessing Team Rose and Team Dark struggle to find common ground. 

And even then THAT would have been fine if their characters weren’t all weird. I’ve gone into the Omega thing numerous times so there’s no point talking about it again. You either love him or you hate him here. Shadow though… he’s so… not himself. Even the Shadow that had things to learn felt a little bit more like he had some agency before this. Seriously, I gave him the Morty voice at one point because Rouge kept taking charge in a manner that made her look more like his bully rather than his field leader.

Then, of course, there’s the biggest problem with the arc; Rouge the Bat herself. Yeah, there really is no excusing this or getting around it. She’s just an evil bitch here. I don’t know why. Ian’s explanation for what he was trying to do with her is something I have a little bit of an understanding of but it still feels like it doesn’t quite make sense. She’s never been this intense in her pursuit of gems before. Not even in SA2. It seriously reminds me of how Free Riders just turned everyone into one note, base assholes for the sake of the competition they were in. 

It really sucks because she’s in my Top 10 favorite Sonic characters. I don’t like it when she’s done dirty.

My opinion on a lot of these arcs have done several 180s upon re-visit but this one just feels like a re-affirmation of what I originally felt upon first experiencing it. It’s a shame because that final mess of a fight was REALLY fun to read. This final issue is the best one of this arc, easily. I recall having fun with it back then too but it just wasn’t enough to clear away the sour taste I got from the majority of what bothered me about the story.

At the very least, it ended strong. The first issue was a frustrating experience, as was the first half of the second one. Bits and pieces of the third and fourth were also pretty bad but technically it DID get better as it went along. Not enough for me to grant it a seal of approval on the whole, unfortunately.

Yeah, it’s a shame but I think as far as Sonic Universe, this is currently on the bottom. I honestly had less of a hard time with 30 Years Later.

 

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #219: In Service to the King, Part One

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This is a pretty awesome cover. The first time I saw this I got the sense that something big was about to happen. I don’t recall if it ended up feeling that huge at the time though. I do remember what happens in the next issue though and how the cover made me think of a different plot development at work but that’s for later. 

Of course, that little nagging feeling at the back of my head that won’t go away concerning Sonic doing things for a king and it’s kingdom is going to set off alarm bells again.

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Jamal Peppers
Inks: Terry Austin
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: John Workman
Editor: Paul Kaminski
Editor-in-Chief: Victor Gorelick

We start things off with a good ol’ fashioned nightmare.

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Nicole is everywhere.

She knows when you’re asleep. She knows when you’re awake.

She knows when you’ve been bad or good so be BAD for the Dominion’s sake!

Mina has a nightmare about being grabbed by Nicole’s scary nano-tech arms and swung around like a doll. She’s got a lot of drool there, I must say.

She wakes up and it’s thundering rain outside.

The weather is used as an excuse by the former Queen for why Max’s mood is bad. She apparently hasn’t caught on that he’s an old bastard who’s aged like cheese. He’s also mad because he only called for Geoffrey and Sonic is here too.

He doesn’t like Sonic. Despite all the stuff he’s done for him, he just don’t like him. Those attempts by Karl Bollers to make the king more likeable are truly a thing of the distant past now. They were out shadowed by how Penders just made sure his terrible nature was the most consistent thing you saw of the man.

Now, Geoffrey approaches the man while his wife and Sonic are in the room and flat out says in a normal, non-secretive voice, “You tasked me with finding a means to restore the monarchy to proper authority, correct?”

Pfft. So, yeah, remember when Queen Acorn here said to Elias that Max needed more time to accept the concept of democracy? I’m not surprised to report that she didn’t seem to know what she was talking about there.

I’m pretty sure Elias is dead to him for that. 

As for Sally… I’m not even sure he remembers he has a daughter at this point.

So, all he can recall is his love for Geoffrey and his hatred of Sonic, probably.

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Geoffrey literally goes on to say that King Max is “losing his marbles”. It’s wonderful he’s so honest. 

He’s losing his marbles to the point where he openly talks about Sonic as an acceptable loss when he is standing right next to him. That look of evil deviousness on Max’s face as they talk is wonderful.

But that’s the set-up. The two of them take off into the rain to go secure a Chaos Emerald so that he’ll be happy thinking things are changing back to the way they used to be when he was the acting dictator.

The conversation Sonic and Geoffrey have on their way over to Freedom HQ has hints of homoeroticism to it too. 

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So, Geoffrey, you’re saying there’s a chance?

Anyway, when Sonic opens the door he accidentally knocks into Mina. That sends off Ash’s defensive boyfriend sensors and he’s about to lay into him with words. Mina tells him to kindly shut up and he does. It’s understandable though. They’re both in a pretty bad mood too.

The look of concern on Sonic’s face as he’s made to go on the mission with Geoffrey instead of sticking around to see what’s up with her is so sad but also very cute.

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Mina’s here because of the nightmares. She says to Sonic that she needed to get out of the city because she needs to think on a new album and wants to brainstorm here.

The lie detector test determined that was a lie.

She’s here because Nicole’s nanites aren’t what make up Freedom HQ. When Ash and her are alone, she goes into explicit detail about what she’s afraid of. Her theatrics even seem to tilt the couch.

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A part of me wonders if this is more of a dramatization of what she’s imaging because I’m having a bit of a hard time seeing how the couch is tilting down that way when the two people weighing it down are being lifted up... unless that pillow is made of several hundred pounds of concrete.

Or maybe it’s just the perspective from the floor’s point of view and it's not tilting at all. That’d be weird but I guess it’s another explanation. 

Yeah, the more I look at it the more I think it might be the latter.

That’s so strange though. 

Sorry, this image really did just catch my eye a bit. I had to do some mental gymnastics to figure out what I think it was going for.

Ash comes up with an idea that finally cheers her up though. They’ll write sweet music for the masses to listen to. It’ll be a propaganda song about not living in fear of the Skynet A.I that literally sees all.

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Seeing these two again and so excited to make music together is cute but what’s really nice is finally peeking into what the citizens would naturally think about all of what’s happened here.

It’s great that Nicole was able to make them a new city immediately when Eggman burned their old one to the ground. There was no real adjustment period to not having a home but there is one towards having a NEW one.

This one is a very advanced home that has an A.I that can just pop up in to your room while you’re sleeping in your kiddie race-car bed to scare the crap out of you and tell you that your best friend is trying to relieve his father of his false imprisonment.

The idea that the normal, non-freedom fighting residents might have a voice or some say in what makes them feel comfortable and safe is something that should be on the forefront of everyone’s minds with a story like this. If you’re going to tie these characters to this god forsaken kingdom, it needs to justify itself, otherwise it really should have stayed burned to the ground. So, I like the idea behind this.

There is an argument to be had about whether it should have been Mina to do this I suppose. Some would likely point out how unfair it is for her to pin the blame on Nicole for being mind-controlled when she, herself, had the same thing happen to her because of Mogul. 

I say it’s fine. Truth of the matter is, the situation with Nicole has always been outwardly scary. It’s nice to see it be addressed and having Mina’s music be the thing that rallies the people into thinking about it is a good idea in my opinion.

Plus, you just know she’s going to feel remorse for all this. Sometimes heroes need a lesson to learn.

So while they go off to make the citizens relevant to the story again, Sonic and Geoffrey prepare to head off to the special zone.

Sonic asks Geoffrey about Hershey.

Geoffrey pauses and says she’s fine and that she’s deep undercover.

It’s an obvious lie that I didn’t pick up on at all back then because I honestly had no idea who Hershey was. I don’t even recall her being in any of the issues I read from #142 onward. She might have been but… I really don’t remember. 

If she wasn’t then she’s been absent for a shockingly long time.

They head into the special zone and are immediately grabbed while on top of a checkerboard purple ball by Feist. 

Feist is fucking pissed. He’s been made a fool of by Team Dark recently and he doesn’t want a repeat of that embarrassment. Sonic was under the impression that the two of them were cool because he got him some payback against Naugus. 

Seems they are. Well, they’re cool enough that he won’t immediately smite them but he wants them to play his Jigsaw games.

Geoffrey suggests something truly kind of fucky when he tells the giant panda man to pit the two of them against each other since it’ll lessen the chances of one of them getting out of there.

Sonic doesn’t like it at first but Geoffrey convinces him with a playful smirk and a reassurance that the hatchet has been buried between them for a long time. They even do a fist bump.

Then the game starts.

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Sonic zips off. Geoffrey doesn’t.

The half-pipe special stage that Feist generates with the palms of his hands is easily raced through and conquered by Sonic while Geoffrey stands there and loads a dart into his gauntlet all cool like.

Then when Sonic grabs the emerald and races back, those wits of our skunk commander strike him in the back.

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Like, he literally shot Sonic in the back. It’s great.

His treachery delights me as well, Feist. Oh ho ho ho ho!

God, you know, it truly has been a long time coming but we’re really here aren’t we? It’s time for the start of a ride from a big ol’ train that’s going to leave the station here and it won’t stop until the Super Genesis Wave forces it to.

Geoffrey rides his skunk bottom all the way to Mogul’s casino. After a totally awesome and probably truly epic off-screen battle with Coconuts, he’s admitted into Mogul’s office with the purple Chaos Emerald he took strapped to his back.

Mogul sees this and has the best reaction to it. “I don’t think we have enough chips to exchange for that.”

Geoffrey says he’s not here to gamble. He’s here to barter. When Mogul says he’s retired from daily antagonism (except that one time he just decided he wanted to fuck around with Sonic in #187 to #188) he asks him what use he could have for another Chaos Emerald.

I would say that it’s always good to have a back up but Geoffrey clarifies that it isn’t for him. It’s for his mission.

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Naugus is back motherfuckers… almost. He’s still feral and out of his gourd but he won’t be for long! 

Yes, it’s here. It’s finally time. Geoffrey has been revealed to be a traitor to this shit awful kingdom and wishes to have Max make good on his promise to promote this mad Ixis weirdo to the throne.

Remember that? It happened so long ago but my goodness, it feels great having context for what the fuck led to all of this happening.

 

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #219: Sonic Colors

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Tracy Yardley
Inks: Terry Austin
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: John Workman

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Aww. Dizzy Tails is cute. This should have been how Sonic Colors opened just for that. 

Anyway, I find myself talking about Sonic Colors yet again this year. It’s the game that refuses to stay out of my line of sight lately. Well, it wouldn’t hurt to talk a little more about it.

Well, the first thing to talk about is the fact that this is the first comic book appearance of Orbot and Cubot.

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It’s almost hard to believe it but these two have been around for 10 years. They can’t even be considered new to the series anymore. 

Just your daily reminder that time is meaningless.

It’ll be a while still before they make their official debut into the Archie comics proper. It’ll be very sudden and swift but I guess the two of them don’t need too much preamble. Though, it is sometimes hard to see an Eggman this ruthless putting up with the two of them. I suppose that’s for later.

As for this story’s standing as an advertisement for Colors… it's pretty good, honestly. If only because it looks fantastic. I wasn’t that excited for this game frankly. I don’t remember following the trailers or the previews with baited breath like I did with Unleashed and Generations. I remember almost all of the trailers for that game but I think I may have only seen one or two trailers for Colors… and it was only really because I had to remind myself to watch them.

Reading this story within the pages of this book didn’t do much to change that opinion of course. I think the game might have already been out by the time this story reached the comic actually. I’ll have to check the dates again but a smidgen of my memory seems to recall me reading this story and recognizing that the dialogue was different from what I remember from the games… and in some cases better.

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Fuck man! THE OMELET DICTATOR is such a funnier and yet, somehow, more awesome mistranslation than Baldy Nosehair. One is just the features on a guy’s body and the other is a fucking badass name that’s also really fucking goofy. It’s great!

That mistranslation in general sounds like an actual mistranslation that would actually happen too. The game did that a couple of times but then it would fly off the rails just to be random. I’m still not sure what the origin of “underwear to be worn by salad” came from. Maybe a random word generator?

Well, either way, things play out the same despite the shift in dialogue. Sonic absorbs the laser wisp, destroys some robots, lays out the plot of the game, and they race off to save the day.

Well, he does at least. The game will try and trick you into thinking Tails has a vital role to play but… he doesn’t.

That’s just how it’s going to be from now on. 

We’ve reached, from what I remember, a pretty controversial point in the book. I recall there being a lot of ups and downs for me at this point. One very frustrating event awaits me when Naugus finally gets back his shattered mind and tries to declare himself king. However, there are other bits that people didn’t like that I totally was cool with. As someone who tends to champion characters being allowed to make mistakes and sometimes be stupid, I feel more inclined to wait and see how things play out whenever it’s allowed to happen. That doesn’t mean I’ll excuse them being annoying or weirdly written but I’m open to more stuff like this. 

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The worst thing about this is that this is last time we see Shadow and Rouge and it’s a shame this is the note they end off them and it just really sucks. 

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The funny thing is that if you remove Team Dark from the arc entirely, it suddenly flows a lot better lmao. I don't know why Flynn felt he had to include them here; for the sake of the big clusterfuck fight? We already had two antagonistic team to our Heroes, was a fourth one needed? It honestly feels like they were included just to facilitate another fight

I wanna stress that I'm not comparing the characters here to their game counterparts;  I funny understand that they are not the same and its not fair to do that. But the lack of context and meaning to their actions just really kills them for me; they're on an unexplained mission to retrieve the Sol Emerald cuz....reasons. Rouge is suddenly so selfish that she's willing to let another world die and actively go against her own teammates to get what she wants and keep in mind this is the same person who wouldn't let Scourge kill Locke because "that's not how she rolls", Shadow is too much of a bitch-boy to do the OBVIOUSLY right thing, even when he was working for Eggman he wasn't this indecisive; and it wouldn't be an problem if it was an actual issue to be conflicted over; your teammate is being an asshole and this person your fighting against just wants to save her world, where's the conflict??? the choice is clear cut, it makes no sense for him to mull it over and he then more or less patronizes Blaze with a half-hearted apology. And like I said, Omega just...exists. 

Yea, I tend to be way more lenient on Archie compared to most of its detractors as I generally understand what is it they're trying to do most of the time. But yea, I completely agree, Team Dark completely drag this arc down. I think Flynn needed to think a bit more how to use them more organically if he wanted them here, because he just threw them in and completely rewrote their characters in service to getting that big fight at the end. We already had two antagonistic teams of selfish assholes and they're already villains to begin with, so Team Dark wasn't even really needed.

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