Megathread Archie Sonic Main Discussion

[SkyHorizon]

Ah, I can see your points. I still think it's being overly sensitive, but I get your concern. 

That said, I always saw it like:

- if you're a new reader, you can read it as "Modern Era Charmy"

- if you're an old reader, you can read it as "Guy who got brain damage and despite that everyone treats him the same" (you can't really bring the out-of-universe context as a critic here). Which is a really positive message when you think about it.

Also, of course Ian wouldn't used it a lot before the reboot, considering the backlash he got from that, which we (Europeans) looked at with some kind of incredulity. 

Anyway, what's done is done, at that time they had that character, no use in keeping on digging up the past.

[Mobotropolis]

Don't think its being overly sensitive to be sensitive to bad writing. 

It's understandable that SEGA would want a character they owned to become similar to their game counterpart. 

There are ways of accomplishing that without handwaving it away as a character suffering a brain injury. 

Or are we saying To Hell with Character Development in a monthly comic? 

[SkyHorizon]

5 hours ago, Mobotropolis said:

Don't think its being overly sensitive to be sensitive to bad writing. 

It's understandable that SEGA would want a character they owned to become similar to their game counterpart. 

There are ways of accomplishing that without handwaving it away as a character suffering a brain injury. 

Or are we saying To Hell with Character Development in a monthly comic? 

"Character development"? Lol, how could you justify making a character go from "no-character teenager" to "8-years-old scatterbrain"? 

There were other way to do it? Sure, for example some kind of Chaos-hocus-pocus who would literally rejuvenate him. But (aside from the fact that that would've opened another batch of useless arguments like "teenager girlfriend to a 8-years-old guy") how could you qualify something like that of "Character development"?

It's bad writing to have a character being inflicted with brain damage? Don't think it is, Eggman is a monster in the comics, is not at all OOC for him to do something like that.

It is bad writing to have a brain-damaged teenager acting like an 8 years-old? Don't think it is, because it can be a pretty accurate depiction of such. And it has the bonus of showing acceptance.

You don't like it? Fine, I already wrote that I see your points. And that I think it's being overly sensitive. Agree to disagree.

But again, what's done is done, at that time they had that character, no use in keeping on digging up the past.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Brain-damaged teen acting like an 8-year-old isn’t bad writing, but it is something you should carry with a degree of sensitivity that isn’t always going to feel right with some people.

Like, if this was black humor, you could do it—black comedy is all about taking sensitive subjects and making them hilarious despite the context. But Sonic doesn’t naturally delve into that, so it’s not going to feel the way it was intended to feel.

It accomplishes it purpose, so don’t get that part twisted. It just comes with a much darker context that not everyone can laugh at.

[Dr. Detective]

Sonic Universe - Issue #49: Chaotix Quest - Part 4 of 4: Friends, Foes & Family

It’s time for “Childish Observation Theater” brought to you by the ravings of an angry late teenager from ten or so years ago. “Oh my God, why is Mighty headlining this cover? Look at him taking up all the space with him and his tank. Why is Vector so far in the back? Of course Espio’s so far in the front. BWAAAAAH!”

I think that’s probably a good impression of myself from back in the day. Probably. Anyway, it’s a cool cover. Sure, I’d probably like it more if it actually was Vector hurling a tank down at someone instead but, you know, it’s Mighty’s story despite it being called “Chaotix Quest”. It’s only called that for marketing reasons. I got that way back then and that’s still true now but the conclusion I’m likely to come to about this arc may surprise my younger self when this is all said and done. We’ll see though. It’s time to finish this up.

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Tracy Yardley
Inks: Jim Amash
Color: Matt Herms
Letters: Jack Morelli
Cover: Yardley and Downer
Assistant Editor: Vincent Lovallo
Editor: Paul Kaminski
Editor-in-Chief: Victor Gorelick

The Sand Blasters sure know how to make a prisoner exchange fun. We begin the issue with them racing the jeep that has the Chaotix in it like a game of desert bumper cars or something.

Espio isn’t wild about the way they’re treating this and Vector is a little sick thanks to all the swerving they keep having to do to avoid their jeep. Ray is just worried that Jack is going to find out Mighty tricked him to find his sister and Vector, finally, in the fourth issue of the book, does his thing by coming up with a plan.

It’s a very simple plan with no real specifics attached but it’s a plan. When things get bad they’ll grab Mighty and his sister and take off in the Warp Ring back to Angel Island. Jack and the others can fend for themselves. Charmy gets excited about an undercover escape plan. 

I like how this plan assumes Mighty’s sister would just naturally want to come back with them too. It’s very optimistic, I’ll give it that.

At the rendezvous point, Mighty is brought out and chained into a very powerful looking silver ring by the Baron. Again, it’s to keep up appearances because Jack knows that “Flex” is too strong to be held by regular cuffs. The plan is to do the exchange and send him home. Mighty is just eternally sad since he has to go back without Matilda. He can’t give her the home he wanted or the family he thought she would deserve. 

The Baron sympathizes while thinking about Bunnie. Their situations are indeed similar but it’s intriguing witnessing the Baron do his thing regardless. He really is the most interesting of the Eggman bosses due to the sympathetic nature of his connection to the doctor. It really sucks that this is the last we’ll see of the man.

Penders’ legal shotgun was already striking down any and all characters that were created by him. The ones that were alluded to via word of mouth that Ian just took and utilized haven’t been hit yet. Bunnie mentioned having an Uncle Beau waaaaay back in the infancy of the book and Mighty once mentioned having a sister. Their characters are still technically on the table at this point which is why they haven’t disappeared yet.

Not to worry though. Penders is on it. This whole thing is going to include concepts that he came up with too after all. They’re doomed.

It’s a good thing this story managed to complete itself before it REALLY got bad.

Matilda lets the Baron know that Jack has arrived and they begin their exchange. Jack just shouts back that he wants Flex but the Baron says that he wants to do the regular trade first and then he’ll give him back, trapped in the ring.

Jack is surprised by the lack of demands coming from him and The Baron just says that catching his best man and seeing him beg for him back is payment enough which prompts Jack to growl at his smugness.

Jack really isn’t one to talk though. 

Yes. It would seem clever Jack has opted out of doing the regular prisoner exchange. The people he was sending in were actually his own men in disguise. It was all a set-up.

The Baron says this is low even for him and gives the order to attack.

Explosions and shit start to ring out now. 

Granted, despite this being a good plan I’d have at least waited until the cloaked figures were on the huge metal transport thing so that they could take the Baron by surprise but what do I know?

Charmy asks if this is a good time to rush in and Vector says yes. He gives the rallying cry for the Chaotix to charge in and save them. 

Jack overhears “Chaotix” and is confused.

Charmy shouts “Hang on Mighty! We’re coming!”

Jack hears that as well.

Jack gets angry.

If it were anyone but Charmy who shouted that I’d probably call them out for being stupid.

Also, apparently the Chaotix are famous? Who knew?

Anyway, Vector realizes that there’s nothing covert about this and that they need to grab Mighty’s sister and go. Charmy says there’s nothing to worry about because Ray is off to handle it.

Yeah, go Ray!

From here on, the climax of this issue involves none of the people that were advertised on the first cover of this book. 

Mighty asks the Baron to let him go so he can help. The Baron is hesitant for some reason. He says something about Jack not letting him go now that his cover is blown and Mighty has to tell him that it’s blown. It looks like he’s about to do it but then the heroic Ray shows up and tells the Baron to let Mighty go. 

Then Matilda, another small child but this time with a painful looking robot arm that could destroy the skeletal structure of your face, grabs Ray and reels her fist back at him for threatening the Baron.

When the Baron points out that two children are fighting on a war front I got very unflattering flashbacks to an anime called “Now and Then, Here and There”. It was a very good series but extremely depressing. There’s the fun kind of depictions of war and then there’s actual depictions of war and that series does the latter.  

Instead of getting physically violent immediately, Matilda goes for the emotional jugular instead.

Cold as ice. 

Mighty starts crying again… this time out of only one eye and it looks weird. Then Ray just shouts “NO!”

We’re on the fourth issue of this story arc and the first half of it was utilized spending time on stuff that wasn’t this and thus Matilda’s development is in some serious need of some supercharged, fast paced acceleration.

She needs an anime speech, stat!

Ray is here to deliver.

At first, his speech doesn’t impress me much, honestly. He starts off going on about how long mighty has looked for her and how much it hurt him to think she was gone forever. My initial impression was that it wasn’t good to make it all about Mighty instead of her BUT I do like where he ends up going with it. The reason all of that is relevant to her situation is because he’s trying to get across how much Mighty loves HER.

The reason it hurt him so much and the reason he searched for so long was for HER sake. Then Ray starts to go into his own situation. He talks about how he didn’t age right and had no one left to call family but Mighty took him in. We see a shot of him hugging a large gem. 

If Mighty’s past is an enigma to me, I couldn’t tell you a thing about Ray. I literally remember nothing about his past if it was indeed told to me in detail. I don’t remember the significance of the jewel he’s hugging at all. It feels like it’s been years since I was in the position to even talk about it when they came around during the Fiona fiasco. I can't even say that I have vague flashes of a recollection of it. 

Ray’s speech starts to work on her though. He says it doesn’t matter that she doesn’t remember him because she remembers being alone and scared and that Mighty won’t ever let that happen. Mighty will always be there for her like he’s always there for him.

Ray is crying and wiping tears from his eyes as he says this. We see flashes of Matilda’s life go through her mind of her crying as a baby, her roboticized, her sad while legionized, her stoic while legionized, and a small scene of Mighty holding her as a baby and laughing along with him.

Hey. Maybe that last little bit is her having a flash of memory coming back to her. Baby memories are a thing that exist. 

It’s admittedly a little sappy. It’s usually super easy to get me to cry. I cry at fucking everything but sometimes it feels a bit much when a character is teed up for an emotional speech and it happens as quickly as it does here. Ray literally wiping his eyes while Mighty says “Wow. That was beautiful” in the background did kind of make me chuckle a little. It’s like they’re treating it like his Oscar moment or something.

Green Road Runner with a gun comes onto the scene and knocks Matilda, the Baron, and Ray to the ground. 

Mighty gets pissed when he sees that and starts to try and break free of his bonds. Still, this bird has murder on the brain and as such, Matilda, invigorated by that two-page speech that cut through the conditioning she’s suffered through her entire life by a small boy she just met, takes to punching him the fuck out of here.

“GET AWAY FROM HIM YOU BITCH!”

If it sounds like I’m criticizing how fast this is all happening, it’s because I am. No offense to the earlier moment. I’m sure it was a great moment for the lot of people that read it at the time and I don’t wish to take that away, but I can’t shake the feeling of acceleration that is happening here.

It’s interesting because I recall one of my biggest problems with Sonic Universe being how rushed the endings always felt. That actually HASN’T been the case upon revisiting these old stories though. Maybe it’s because they all work a lot better to read in a sequence or maybe my criticism of Ian’s pacing here was a bit overblown. However, this is the first time in a long time where it’s definitely felt like things are moving too fast.

And I get it. It does make sense that Matilda WOULD secretly want this despite how cold she’s been ACTING this whole time. I’m not saying this couldn’t have happened anyway but I feel like it’d work better as a proper resolution to a four issue Sonic Universe arc about this specific situation and not the resolution to a two-part series of issues that was preceded by another two-parts of the Chaotix dicking around in Mercia. 

Things are getting heated really quickly and the instant Jack sees birdo flying overhead, he loses his collective shit and screams at Murphy to fire fucking missiles on the Baron and Flex. Murphy tries to point out that there are children there but Jack just gets angrier and demands it harder.

Oh hey, look, there’s Vector. What’s he doing? Nothing important. Okay, whatever.

So Murphy fires the missile at Matilda. Mighty tells her to get the fuck out of the way but in a move so badass it might have redefined what it mans to be badass, Matilda fucking PUNCHES the goddamn missile and gets blown to shit.

Mighty takes it well.

Mighty starts to blow through everything. He rushes forward screaming “JACK!” as he tosses jeeps around and almost crushes the Mad Max Bugs Bunny with a jeep.

He’s going on a rampage!

"DRAAAAAAKE!"

He’s definitely out for blood too. Dude is blinded by rage and wants to kill him, no doubt.

Jack and his flunkies run off scared while the Chaotix have to run in to hold him back. Of course, since they don’t actually matter, the one that gets him to stop is Ray when he brings up Matilda.

After this, we cut back to the Dark Egg Legion camp some time later. Vector remarks about how weird it is that they battled against Freedom Fighters and are hanging out with Eggman’s flunkies. I’d imagine that would feel weird. 

Espio throws in a crack about Vector’s issues with him by saying “No crack about MY allegiances?” and Vector says it’s not the time.

It’s stuff like this that really makes me grateful for the reboot. Like, again, I hate that the pre-reboot stuff had to go away the way that it did but at the same time I’m more than okay with leaving… whatever this is behind. I really just want them to stop. The Chaotix just aren’t very good pre-reboot and this new drama they’re trying to inject into their relationship is supremely uninteresting to me. I really would rather they try to fix the nonsense they’re already saddled with first. At the moment, this just feels too petty.

Anyway, the Baron comes out, covered in oil to tell Mighty about her condition. He tries to say he’s done all he can for her but Mighty ignores him and rushes inside to see her… awake and smiling at him.

Matilda has accepted Mighty and Ray as her brothers. She’s one of the family now.

As touching as this all is, I found myself reading this while trying my absolute damndest to shake off the problems I have with the way this development had to happen. It’s a great moment and I want to acknowledge that and remain secure in that feeling but there's a nagging feeling in my brain that keeps stabbing at me and saying that for however sweet this is it still feels a bit hollow and contrived.

It’s not even that the emotion and the feelings don’t feel real. They do. It just feels like we skipped a bunch of steps to get here. The outline for what happens here is a good story but it wasn’t given sufficient enough room to breathe… at all.

Part of that is my own personal issues with Mighty’s character rearing its head again. I like him a lot more now, of course, but there is that part of me that can’t really shake some of these tiny grievances. He’s got the best personality, in that he's incredibly selfless and kind, but he’s also easily the strongest person there. He managed to solve the conflict that happened pretty easily. I guess you could say his anger is a flaw but not really considering it was the thing that saved the day in the end. 

I recognize that harping on that is also too petty of course. I think the real issue is that the balance in this story feels insanely off. The reason I admire the Modern Chaotix so much is in part due to how they all feel relatively well balanced in what they're able to do. The curious nature of how super strong Charmy is because he can lift both Vector and Espio aside, their abilities ranging from speed and stealth, power and brains, and flight and stamina really do come off as well and truly evenly distributed.

When you throw both Mighty and Knuckles into the mix, two characters that are also super strong guys, the balance feels really weird. Especially since Mighty is just, for some reason, WAY stronger than Vector. I don’t entirely know why but for whatever reason he is so unless Vector truly is the brains of the operation, the croc’s standing here just feels redundant. 

Not helping is that he does almost nothing in this story.

That’s not a criticism only he has though. After the second issue, the Chaotix are relegated to background fodder for the rest of this story. Legit, they do literally nothing of importance or significance in this final issue except BE the ones that shout aloud who they are and what Mighty’s real name is so that Jack can get pissed and shoot a missile at the children on stage.

The Baron isn’t done speaking however. He puts his hand on Mighty’s shoulder and explains to him that Matilda is in need of some more balancing and calibrating for the new arm she needs to get. It’s for precision and tools that they only have here. Mighty needs to go.

Mighty tries to beg and plead with him to stay, saying that he can dawn a robe and take up a new identity but the Baron tells him that’s a fucking stupid idea that won’t work for long at all. He also has to make it clear that he isn’t losing her and that he can visit… carefully.

He also has to be reminded that he’s got the Chaotix. They did try to find and help him even though they seriously weren’t much help.

After that, Mighty says goodbye to his sister, tearing up out of only that one eye again. Is his other eye broken or something?

The fact that Mighty made this promise with his sister an issue before shit gets royally fucked by Penders is the height of cruelty. Mighty will survive the wave that’s coming. Matilda will not. 

This time, Mighty will be the one who won’t remember her.

Holy shit man. That’s some extremely DARK irony. FUCK!

I forgot that the Chaotix guard the Master Emerald in place of Knuckles whenever he’s gone. I’d like to see Knuckles hire them to do that in the games one day. That might be good for a laugh. 

It gets stolen and they have to get it back before Knuckles returns and when they manage to do it, they just grin at him and say nothing went wrong, halos over their heads.

Anyway, we end the issue with the Baron comforting Matilda and being shown the silhouette of Bunnie D’ Coolette. What she looks like we won’t know for certain but she and a lot of other people are going to be going through some intense changes soon, that’s for certain.

I’m going to say something here that my younger self would probably barf up gallons of blood if he ever found out that the me of today was going to say but I feel like it’s true; this story should have just been about Mighty.

This isn’t a Chaotix Quest, despite the title. It sure as hell shouldn’t be called “All for One” either, by the way. The outline for Mighty’s story, what he goes through here, and what he accomplishes is a good one. That’s the story that you needed to tell and I feel like that’s the story Ian wanted to tell but for whatever reason couldn’t. Instead, half of this arc is dedicated to the Chaotix searching for Mighty’s whereabouts in a manner that doesn’t really advance much of anything. The Mercia Freedom Fighters were all fine and dandy. What specifically happens there is fun enough. It’s not that the material was bad but it stands out as a clear divide between what happens in the last two issues and what that whole section was. 

If the attempt was to divide the attention between the Modern Chaotix and Mighty so that the Modern Chaotix felt like they were getting something out of this arc that was named after them and using their images for marketing purposes well then I’m sorry but it only served to hinder the arc. All it did for me back in the day was make me upset. I saw the covers and got excited for a story about Vector, Charmy, and Espio and instead got two issues of them wading through exposition about what happened to Mighty and two other issues that barely involved them at all.

They show up to Jack’s group and immediately get captured. The rest of the story is them hanging back while the actual important characters get their development. They contribute absolutely nothing to the second half of this story. They aren’t given up during the prisoner exchange because Jack needed to create his ruse. They don’t help free Matilda or Mighty. They aren’t the ones that stop Jack’s forces. They aren’t even the ones who snap Mighty out of his rage. 

The Chaotix do nothing for the entire second half of Chaotix Quest. It’s really hard not to be bothered by that. 

I know the reason it had to be advertised the way it was is because the Chaotix as they are in their modern context was needed to sell the book. I get that. However, I still feel this would have been better served by having the Chaotix just show up at Jack’s a little sooner than they did. It’d be a tricky balancing act but the plot and the resolution this story offers needed more time in the oven. As it stands it feels a bit like a mess.

It’s a shame because out of all the SU arcs I wanted to change my mind on, you best believe the one about the Chaotix was one of them but unfortunately, I think this one still suffers quite a lot. I will say that my opinion on it HAS improved but not enough for it to be up there with any of the greats. 

I wish I could say things are about to get better but uh…

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #243: Endangered Species, Part One: On the Brink

This has been a long time coming and it feels very strange to finally be here. I honestly don’t even know what to say. So many things have been brewing and stewing behind the scenes with Penders at this point that it’s crazy. You could see the effects of it creeping in with each story I’ve talked about since Issue #242’s backup story. However, shit hits the extreme next level with this arc. It’s a four part story showcasing what happens when legal nonsense smashes a giant gavel through the heart of a story… and I’m going to be completely honest with you all here.

When this story was happening… I was loving it.

This was supremely entertaining to me. I don’t believe I’ve ever bared witness, before or since, to such blatant outside meddling in a comic book before. Getting to experience it AS it was happening was something else but there was also another thing that allowed me to enjoy it too.

It was the sheer fact that things were happening. Important and extreme things were happening.

After SO LONG of witnessing Team Fighters just chasing around the Death Egg, saying they were going to save Mecha Sally, letting Mecha Sally escape, rinse and repeat, I was hungry for something of actual consequence to happen and I definitely got that. Ho’boy did I get that.

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Steven Butler
Inks: Terry Austin
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: John Workman
Cover By: Tracy Yardley and Matt Herms
Assistant Editor: Vincent Lovallo
Editor: Paul Kaminski
Editor-In-Chief: Victor Gorelick

I can feel my hair turning gray. There’s already so much to talk about and I haven't even read the first page yet.

I mean, what could even be said about the atmosphere around the book at this time? Everyone was witnessing the Penders situation go down in real time. The changes being made to covers and to terms within the book were extremely prominent to the point of it being almost scary. I was never a reader or collector of the Sonic Select books but you better believe I found out about the change made to the cover of Book 7.

The things people were saying on both forums were incredibly negative towards Penders and his bullshit already but they were going to get far, far worse as things continued. Archie started to put Ken Penders name up front and center on reprints of books that barely saw him as a contributor and it very much didn't help THEIR standing amongst the comic crowd either. It just looked like they were licking the man's boots after they sued him and lost because they're so insanely fucking incompetent and stupid. Searching back through the earlier pages of this thread, it’s interesting reading some of your reactions to these things as it happened.

There were a lot of people calling into question just HOW huge the changes could realistically be. Someone who even posts here today said “I seriously doubt Ian’s actually gonna get rid of Penders’ Echidnas. He might just retool them if anything given how he’s done that for a lot of other things in the comic”. They even stated that Eggman’s use of the Dark Legion into his ground forces was enough to think that they might stay.

Unfortunately, this ignores the fact that it’s not really up to Ian and whether or not the story makes sense going forward wasn’t a factor that the people in charge were super concerned about. When someone responded by saying that “If the agreement that was made was to remove all of Penders’ characters from Archie then none will be spared” the response to that was “Like hell that’s gonna happen when the echidnas were designed off an official character. And nevermind how those properties belong to and are licensed off of SEGA.”

Talking about things that SHOULD have happened versus what the reality actually was seemed tough. I don’t blame anyone for thinking one way or expecting another thing to happen. The fact of the matter is, what’s happening here IS ridiculous and it really should be considered a deep cut part of comic book history just for how outlandish, awful, and fucking strange it all is.

This was also around the time that the Sonic Underground Finale comic was announced. It went nowhere.

The prelude for this issue once again calls the place where Team Fighters are headed the “Echidna Homeland”. We’re still not allowed to say Albion by name and we never will be again.

The first page of the book, shockingly, shows us actual echidnas. Yeah, we gotta remember that this story was coming out interchangeably with the Chaotix Quest that was going on at the time. That story started off mentioning Rob by name and then just stopped half-way through, meaning the same might be true of this issue. The caption box also says “The Echidna Homeland - Three Days Ago” just in case you needed a reminder that we’re indeed at the Echidna Homeland.

That’s what it’s called. It’s always been called that. Shut up.

Anyway, a young boy isn’t paying attention in class. At first it’s because he’s daydreaming while the teacher runs down their awful history but it eventually just turns into the beginning of a goddamn horror show.

HOLY SHIT.

Seriously man, Steven Butler knows how to make shit look imposing. Seeing that in the sky above me would make nightmares a constant for me every night afterward.

We cut to three days later where Team Fighters is about to reach The Echidna Homeland™ and have themselves a little complaint about the fact that Eggman keeps attacking random locations just to slow them down. Yes, I agree. It is very annoying and not at all conducive to an interesting story. I mean, it could have been had these locations they visited had interesting developments or plots of their own that warranted the visit but that wasn’t the case. The Status quo was maintained there because at the time they thought they were going to continue on like it was nothing. Oh my. What the benefit of hindsight could have done.

Anyway, they get attacked by Metal Knuckles!

Yeah, the claws of a Metal Knuckles hit pretty hard eh? Not surprising.

The plane swoops down to go grab Sonic but damage has been done to it that can’t be immediately tended to. So, Tails does what he does best and crash lands onto the island.

Surveying the damage has him state that they’ll be here for a while but the Death Egg still has a tracker on it so they can catch up with it again soon. By then, Eggman might actually, FUCKING FINALLY, refuel and restock that thing. I never could have imagined that him ignoring Snively’s advice to do that would be the catalyst for this endless back and forth. Sometimes, Snively really does know what the fuck he’s talking about.

Team Fighters goes to see what the deal on the island is and find that it isn’t looking good. There’s a freaking tank here. Sonic destroys it.

Then some Dark Egg Legion people show up but get held at gunpoint by a squad of echidnas led by your boy Remington!

It’s odd to think that this story, of all stories, is their first formal introduction to one another but hey, you’ve got to start somewhere… even if “somewhere” is the last possible chance you’ve got.

Remington explains their situation. It’s a bit of a doozy. 

Never let it be said that Lien-Da isn’t one for situational irony. She probably really got a kick out of not only attacking this place but doing it with just a robot version of their precious guardian. What a delightful shit heel. She’s great.

Remington also explains that the area he met Team Fighters is where they’re keeping all the people they rescued. He wishes to liberate more while taking down enemy troops where they can and has set up a base camp in the theater where they’ve gone to talk right now. 

Also, the Matriarch has been captured. Who or what that is, I don’t know (or have forgotten) but they sound important. 

When Remington asks about reinforcements from Angel Island, Sonic butts in to finally break the news to Remington that Knuckles is all that’s left of the island. 

If my memory serves me well (and it usually doesn’t) the fallout from Enerjak: Reborn is what he’s referring to here. I was under the impression that all the echidnas from the island were sent here after that fiasco with General Stryker’s son being reduced to atoms and the Dark Legion getting their parts removed and going to Eggman. 

I know that Remington was going through some mental problems at the time but I just assumed he’d have been told all of that at this point. So him just now finding out that the Angel Islanders are all gone at this instant when Sonic tells him feels a bit strange. Did no one HERE tell him? I guess they also might not have known the full scope of the details either, I guess.

It’s hard recalling who knows what sometimes. There’s a ton of lore and junk scattered about this series. It can really get to you sometimes.

Remington has himself a good cry and Tails tries to get him back on track to focus on the situation at hand.

The more I read of this the more it sinks in just how ill timed this all was. I can’t imagine Ian going through with this story were he given a proper heads up about what he was about to have to do to these echidnas. It just wouldn’t make sense. This has to be an intense case of bad, bad timing.

We cut to Lien-Da who is in direct contact with Eggman right now. He chides her about being late with her report and she responds that they’ve captured most of the citizens and the Matriarch. Eggman’s reaction to hearing about the Matriarch is the same as mine. “The WHO?!”

It's the current head of government. Not like it matters.

He then asks if all the captured people have been legionized and, for some reason, Lien-Da says she’s waiting until the last of the resistance has been put down. Eggman tells her not to drag her feet because failure will be met with fire, most likely. She promises it won’t come to that before communications drop… and then she goes into the library area where the prisoners are being held to gloat about how ALL echidna kind will be under HER leadership.

Yeah, so I’m guessing the reason Lien-Da isn’t legionizing anyone yet is because she’s got her OWN plans and wishes to usurp Eggman eventually. Not surprising. She’s obviously way in over her head. Knuckles’ mom, Lara-Le practically spells this all out when she overhears Lien-Da going on about this nonsense and talks about how the accomplishments of a bunch of cowards who terrorized them, fell apart in their own civil war, and have been reduced to a handful of fanatics and flunkies aren’t going to materialize into anything special.

Lien-Da then reveals what I suspected about her being the actual Matriarch before one of the Dark Legionnaires runs in and says they’re under attack.

It’s Team Fighters of course. A nice little battle is happening and it includes a bit where Tails was faster than Sonic for once… in taking out a tank no less.

Steven Butler’s detail continues to impress with how gritty and dirty this concentrated war front looks. It’s insanely impressive to look at. It’s almost overwhelming me just looking at it. Seeing Remington and the gang dive in with their guns and shit. It’s WAR in the purest sense.

Then Lien-Da tells one of her flunkies to activate a bunch of bug zappers that act as the area’s defense system for the Legion. It paralyzes their allies but seems to either power-up or just not work on the Dark Egg Legion.

Then Lien-Da shows up, sporting some nasty evil lightning bitch powers. Apparently Eggman upgraded her. How nice of him.

Sonic says it’s not going to be enough and Lien-Da agrees… so she has Metal Knuckles descend into the fight. Sonic says that might be a problem right before it whacks him once and knocks him the fuck out.

Honestly, it’s kind of funny to me but I always find it hilarious whenever Sonic gets knocked out. He’s an all purpose character. It’s satisfying when he wins but it’s also satisfying when he loses. 

The last scene of the issue is a repeat of the same scene we got at the end of issue #242 from the Olympics tie-in. Knuckles is receiving a call from The Echidna Homeland™ that conveniently cuts off a lot of the names of specific characters and places… only it’s weird in this issue since Remington, Lara-Le, Lien-Da, and a bunch of other echidnas are all here. 

This in-between spot where things are being SORT OF cut out but still there is a little hard to gauge as far as where in the Archie V. Penders suit this was. It’s about to become a shit ton more clear where we are next time though.

This issue was a surprise to me. I vaguely recall seeing Lien-Da show up again and having lightning powers but I didn’t remember the bits with Remington or Lara-Le though. They were ready to go super all in on another Knuckles focused arc with the dregs of his remaining people and… it really did start off with a bang. This was a pretty fucking awesome starter issue all things considered. It’s going to be very hard talking about what happens next because…

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #244: Endangered Species, Part Two: Extinction Event

… There’s too much to say. 

There’s way too much to talk about and I’m not sure I have it in me to do it in a satisfactory way. I guess I can only try my best in the way I’ve done it before and hope it all works out because this is quite a stressful time in not only the book’s life but in my recapping of it. Where does one even begin?

At the beginning, obviously. Dumb question.

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Steven Butler
Inks: Terry Austin
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: John Workman
Cover By: Tracy Yardley! Terry Austin and Matt Herms
Assistant Editor: Vincent Lovallo
Editor: Paul Kaminski
Editor-in-Chief: Victor Gorelick

After two issues where the ending was “Knuckles is on his way” we finally start the issue off with Knuckles arriving fashionably late to the party. 

“The echidna rapture happened again and no one invited me… AGAIN?!”

It really is starting to feel like a big, cruel joke now. 

Honestly, everything that happened as a fall out from the Enerjak: Reborn arc was fantastic and necessary, not only as an appropriate punishment for the jerk-off echidnas that pushed and pushed for this bad ending they weren’t aware they were going to get but as a means of getting Knuckles’ arc to circle back around to feeling similar to what he is in the games.

He may not have been the last one but the echidna society was on the brink of collapse. It was a neat compromise and one I was fine not necessarily meddling with TOO much going forward. Although, even if we had, I’d have preferred it be because of something a little less happen-stance and immediate.

But no, Knuckles shows up and everyone is just gone. Even crueler, he catches sight of flashes of light behind him as, presumably, a Warp Ring has just closed itself off. Why? Well because of this.

He’s back ladies and gentlemen and he’s here to deliver on the billboard advertisement he made back in the Knuckles: The Return arc for revenge. It’s Thrash the Tasmanian Devil, being put into this story so that everything Ian had planned for him could be systematically ruined. 

In Ian’s own words, what he had planned for Thrash was ruined because of this. I can’t help but feel bad for the man.

Also, yes, like Hawkeye at the beginning of Endgame, Knuckles literally just missed seeing the remainder of his people, including his family, disappear forever.

We, of course, don’t necessarily know that he’s up to no-good just yet. He most likely is still presenting himself as a Freedom Fighter here but the front cover pretty much makes it clear that this isn’t the case.

Knuckles sees a ton of “FWASH” sound-effects happening around the city. We don’t SEE anything happen there because that would involve showing the echidnas and we can’t do that. Hell, I remember reading this back in the day and wondering if those two little snippets of the back of those two echidnas heads in that Thrash panel was pushing it. Penders is insane so if he ever actually read the comic he might have thrown a hissy fit over it. 

Knuckles tries to race to all these areas but misses catching anything every single time.

He happens upon a rabid devil dog facing down Tails’ weird robot fox dog thing as it’s protecting the Tornado. Even Knuckles doesn’t know exactly what to call it but he recognizes that it must be one of Tails’ things so he asks it to lead him to the others.

He finds Sonic, Tails, and Amy unconscious in a field of smoke being sniffed at by another rapid devil dog. After helping him up, Sonic says that the last thing he remembers was getting KNOCKED THE FUCK OUT by Metal Knuckles. They see Metal Knuckles collapsed on the ground and Knuckles has himself a nice little gloat about how it’s only appropriate since he can whoop him as well.

I flashed back to that Free Comic Book day issue where Knuckles punched Sonic clear across the room to get a control chip out of his head. It made me laugh. 

Apparently, what happened is that after Sonic got KO’d, Tails went to the fuse box to try and shut down the bug zapper security system and it ended up exploding into everyone there.

That’s intense. Getting hit with a wave of electric energy to the gut like that has got to hurt.

Another Penders character is absent from this scene. That would be Lien-Da. She was on the scene attacking Sonic with her new lightning powers when she summoned Metal Knuckles. One could say she took off after that to take care of something else but I find that hard to believe.

The three remaining heroes then wonder how they ended up being moved and we cut to a scene of Thrash finding them and helping them out.

Yeah, he’s essentially a guy who thinks he’s doing good. He still considers them his mates and all that but his mind has been conditioned to think that the echidnas mere existence just brings about pain and misery to all they come across.

You know what? Fair. At least when it came to the book before the Enerjak: Reborn arc.

Now, because they didn’t see who moved them, they aren’t aware of his nature being like this which is a little unfortunate but I guess it won’t really matter as far as what it means for the concern for the other echidnas. 

Because everyone needs to actually chat about what happens, we get this… distracting but hilarious bit of dialogue from Sonic.

Sonic sounds like he genuinely doesn’t know who the fuck he was fighting. Like he just heard of Lien-Da in conversation the day of this battle or something. There’s so many qualifiers he’s putting on there that it almost makes you dizzy just reading it. I guess being insultingly dismissive is sort of Sonic’s thing but it’s too transparent here. “Those jokers in the black pajamas” and “your crazy great-half-aunt or whatever” works well enough to get the info across I guess.

Again, seeing as how Penders likes the idea of getting litigious over the mere concept of Knuckles having familial relations, just mentioning a great-half-aunt might technically qualify as a risk. 

People didn’t realize just how serious this was at the time but there was no way this was going to be able to properly continue without some sort of reboot. It’s funny because there was even someone swearing up and down that it wasn’t going to be rebooted and that a solution to just write around the concepts and not have any of these characters mention them was possible.

It absolutely fucking wasn’t. There’s no way anyone would have been able to get away with having Sally and the entire kingdom ignore the previous existence of Elias or the fallout with Geoffrey when it came to Naugus’ takeover. Hell, last we saw of Naugus he took over Geoffrey’s body. What were they going to do? Just say he decided to strike up a contract with someone else, jump to a new body, and then say Geoffrey ran off forever, scared and ashamed.

I guess they could give that a try but damn.

This isn’t even going into the fact that Sonic and Tails’ parents are in the mix. Anyone who expected Sonic to just not care that his folks were gone and never mention them again was crazy. Tails too, especially since it was a huge plot point that they were out of his life for so long and they came back. How was that even going to be addressed? When Sonic got home were they going to find the kingdom destroyed and then they'd get the news that both sets of their parents were dead? Then from then on were they supposed to just not ever mention or talk about them? 

We continue to see the comic try to dance around the previous existence of the characters that were taken away. Knuckles wants to contact Angel Island so that Julie-Su and Saffron can come but he doesn’t mention either of them by name, of course. Tails sets up a comm-link with T-Pup and tells Knuckles to just speak into his eyes to do it. Knuckles calls her “hon” which made me giggle a little.

We then cut to a scene from earlier where Knuckles is speaking with what has to be Julie-Su. Again, we don’t see her face and her name isn’t mentioned so I initially thought it was Nicole up until the “Love you” part.

Granted, I thought that was Nicole teasing Knuckles at first until I realized what this flashback’s purpose was. Then I realized it was Julie-Su.

Those were her last words to Knuckles in the comic. She’s gone now.

You’d think I’d be happy considering how much I hated her but all I feel is ambivalence. 

Knuckles then decides to contact Nicole since she might have spoken to them last. Nicole tells them that the girls aren’t on Angel Island and suggests that maybe they went ahead of Knuckles. However, that can’t be true because he and Vector are the only ones with Warp Rings.

At this, Knuckles realizes that something serious is happening and that things are REALLY bad. As he realizes this, like with the Thanos snap, thunder crackles behind them. Only, here, it actually begins raining.

We’re shown a somewhat confusing flashback to Thrash breaking into Finitevus’ home to try and track him down. He says something about a Warp Ring dropped in Downunda being what helped him track things down. The long and short of it is that he happens upon Finitevus’ notes on The Echidna Homeland™ as well as notes on how to supercharge a Warp Ring.

Things are jumbled about quite a whole lot here. I imagine I was really confused by this when I first read this probably because I tended to miss the little boxes that said “Earlier” or “Days ago” and I would think things were happening in real time because of it.

Here, that’s not an issue anymore but it’s still a bit hard to get a handle on because of all the jumping around. Granted, I know WHY it has to happen. We need to explain why Thrash is here and more importantly HOW he got here in the midst of an arc that started off not even hinting towards his involvement. 

It gets a lot clearer when the heroes actually manage to get to Thrash though. 

They literally catch up to him as he says “That’s the LAST of em”. It made me laugh because it reminded me of when I was in 4th grade and I was forced to do a skit with three other kids about the Boston Tea Party. All I did was pretend to dump a crate in the river and dusted my hands off saying “That’s the last of it!”

The teacher shat on our performance. It was great.

But it’s here where we get our big, BIG reveal over the thunderous raining backdrop.

Please forgive me for what I’m about to say here.

…

… I fucking love this.

No, I’m actually not kidding. I love this.

This is hype as shit. It’s dramatic as fuck. It’s got some great goddamn atmosphere with the darkness and the rain. What Thrash just revealed he did is horrible but it’s also a potential monumental shift in the status quo of the book. The likes of this kind of game changing plot point is something I haven’t felt from the book for quite a long time now... BUT it's also ridiculous.

I am of two minds about this because of it.

I know WHY this is happening and I’m also aware that HOW it’s happening is too fast and too out of nowhere but I also don’t care as much for the same reason I didn’t back then… and it’s really simple. I wasn’t really all that attached to the echidna society or any of the specific characters that were just lost. I liked Remington, Lara-Le, and Saffron well enough but the only one whom I really, REALLY liked a whole lot out of who left was Lien-Da. The only way I was going to really be interested in what was done with them next would be if something climactic and dramatic as fuck were to happen next for them.

I spoke earlier about how cruel it was that they were going back to do this to Knuckles again but I can’t deny that it makes for some really intense drama. At least it did for me. Going onto the old forums to talk about how I was enjoying this story felt odd because I was in the midst of a minefield at the time. I wasn’t about to argue that this was a good direction to go for the book. What’s happening here is awful from the standpoint of what’s about to happen to these comics and what’s going on in the real world.

However, I can’t lie to myself here. I like how fucking dark this is and the implications of what it could have meant had it continued with this plot point intrigued me.

It’s sloppy as fuck, yes, absolutely, but the concept of this dude who called himself a Freedom Fighter and worked alongside them going on this revenge crusade and SUCCEEDING AT IT under the dark clouds of a heavy rainfall just gets my heart going. 

I found it exciting and interesting and I wanted to see what happened next OR if they were gone forever, how Knuckles was going to cope with it and move on. 

The thing that REALLY bites about this, though, is that I know this is ONLY happening right now, the way that it is, so that we can get rid of Penders’ characters in this story arc that was supposed to be about them. There wasn’t necessarily a plan in mind to continue on with this plot point after it happened.

To me I think THAT’S the real tragedy here. This idea that they were all displaced to an area where he can’t get to sounds like compelling stuff but I know in my heart of hearts that it’s not in service of telling THIS story but in service of rewriting a different one.

That’s why I said before that my feelings on this are complicated.

The execution of this plot point is bonkers. It's crazy. It kind of HAD to be and it's not Ian's fault at all but speaking purely about just what it is, it's ridiculous. For example, I mentioned Lien-Da before. Did Thrash sneak up on her and push her into the Warp Ring too? If not, he must have had himself a hell of a time fighting her with her lightning powers. I doubt she was looking for safety. 

Oh and this includes the ENTIRE Dark Egg Legion as well. Thrash shoved ALL of them into his one supercharged golden ring!

What about Marie-Ann? She's an echidna too. Thrash might not know about her but if he finds out I guess it can be used as an excuse to have him warp to wherever Rob is and BE the actual reason he's gone now. Maybe that's actually what happened?!

Oh, and Dimitri! He's gone too. However, he was relocated to Angel Island so I guess Thrash found his floating head and shoved him in there too without Nicole or anyone else finding out.

It's so stupid but the plot point itself is incredibly enticing to me. With a better, more serviceable execution, I'd have been on board for exploring what the fallout of this monumental shift in the status quo was going to lead to. I won't GET that however which circles things back around to being disappointing.

So even as someone who doesn't mind enjoying this pivot in the story for this new direction I still can't enjoy it because this pivot won't continue. It can't because the book needs to be rebooted if it's to continue with any semblance of comfortable, good writing that can't have the characters talking around the hundreds and hundreds of people that just took a Penders Thanos Snap to the knee and disappeared.

I like what’s happening here but at the same time I don’t like what’s happening here. 

Thrash hollers at ya boy Knuckles to get him flying off of him. Sonic then attacks him from behind saying that he’s going to fight him now. Thrash doesn’t want to fight Sonic, saying he’s got no beef with him. Sonic refuses so Thrash fights. 

ALSO, on top of what’s already going on, the Krudz thing wraps itself around the defeated Metal Knuckles and is just…back. 

Okay. Sure. Why not? Might as well, right? Metal Knuckles possessed by this weird plant thing and the Archie Sonic Loudred are the enemies now. So much shit is happening despite everything being so empty. It’s crazy to think about.

I don’t blame the Archie Sonic continuations out there for ignoring this part of the story. I get it. Another story was beginning and then it was interrupted and halted so that a new one could take its place. I understand. I don’t want to say that I wish I could be as upset about it as the rest of you but when it comes to the echidna stuff I don’t really lament it’s fall as much as I do the stuff with Geoffrey and Naugus. 

There probably is a sick sense of satisfaction just seeing it ripped away from the book like this. Yeah, Penders is awful for taking away Ian’s ability to put his worthless shit to some good use but it also feels weird regretting the loss of his bullshit anyway. That said, it IS true. I do lament the loss of some of his bullshit because what Ian managed to make of it turned out to lead to some good things. I still love Scourge. I still love Ian’s interpretation of Geoffrey, even after all the creepy shit Penders said on Twitter. You know why? Because it ultimately doesn’t matter what Penders says or thinks about what these characters did or didn’t do. His tweets about this stuff are equivalent to fan-fiction. What’s on the page is what actually matters and where we left off with those characters left a good impression on me because a writer who actually cared about telling good stories with good characters came in and transformed them into respectable elements that were worth mourning.

That goes for the echidnas too. I can see why people wouldn’t like this, absolutely. I really like Lien-Da. I like Lare-Le and Wyn. I like Remington. I can handle them being gone but that doesn’t mean I wanted to see them go.

On the flip side, I’m just a HUGE sucker for intense dramatic shifts in the status quo. THIS plot point, if the books had continued and this had been it for Knuckles’ people, Saffron, and Julie-Su... man… I get goosebumps imagining seeing what the stories that lied ahead would have been like. 

If Thrash had gotten away with this, how would Knuckles cope? Dear God, what about Charmy? He lost Saffron now as well! She’s gone. His entire family is dead. He’s mentally disabled. He’s got memory loss. The one thing he had from his old life was Saffron and because she was a Penders creation he no longer has her either! How would he react to that? That might just be the last piece of the puzzle to properly destroy what's left of his mind... yeesh.

I can’t help myself. I wish the story could have continued on after this point so I could satiate my curiosity at seeing how Knuckles and Charmy handled losing these people. It wasn't going to be pretty but I can't help but wonder.

However, just like the people that won’t get to see a continuation of the actual story that began this arc I also won’t see a continuation of the story that replaced it. It’s all going to be rebooted and none of us win because of that.

It’s a complicated mess of feelings I’m feeling right now but damn if it isn’t an interesting point in this book’s life. Experiencing this again feels surreal.

[Kuzu]

And so we're finally here...

[SanPolo4389]

SIGH (Matt McMuscles voice)  It's time......to talk.....about Endangered Species.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

2 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

 

When the Baron points out that two children are fighting on a war front I got very unflattering flashbacks to an anime called “Now and Then, Here and There”

…bro, do not!

Excellent taste in Anime tho. Gotta give you that.

Also, of most of the pre-reboot characters I miss the most, Lien-da is among the top. That we only saw a fraction of her new lightning powers pisses me off, because damn I wanted to see more of her in action.

[SBR2]

16 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

The Baron sympathizes while thinking about Bunnie. Their situations are indeed similar but it’s intriguing witnessing the Baron do his thing regardless. He really is the most interesting of the Eggman bosses due to the sympathetic nature of his connection to the doctor. It really sucks that this is the last we’ll see of the man.

Its a real shame. I get why he isn't used in the reboot, they didn't want to step on any toes, but they could have just done what they did here and just call him "The Baron".

 

16 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Bunnie mentioned having an Uncle Beau waaaaay back in the infancy of the book

Though he was mentioned by Mike Gallagher and not Ken but...yeah better safe than sorry. 

 

16 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

 

Anyone else hear a cartoon smack sound in their head here?

 

16 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

It’s interesting because I recall one of my biggest problems with Sonic Universe being how rushed the endings always felt. That actually HASN’T been the case upon revisiting these old stories though. Maybe it’s because they all work a lot better to read in a sequence

That's what I think. It's why I am adverse to getting critical of a story arc while its being done because if you're talking about individual issues it's not really...fair. because it's like reading a chapter of a book every few months and saying it's poorly paced. These issues are a piece of an entire story so I feel it makes more sense to give final thoughts on a story arc when its actually complete than on a month by month basis. 

 

16 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Mighty takes it well.

*Kill Bill music intensifies*

 

16 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

When this story was happening… I was loving it.

Don't take this the wrong way but...that's honestly not very surprising. XD

16 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

By then, Eggman might actually, FUCKING FINALLY, refuel and restock that thing.

Y'know big scary super bases are cool in theory but then you get into these kind of things. See also the Technodrome.

 

17 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

If my memory serves me well (and it usually doesn’t) the fallout from Enerjak: Reborn is what he’s referring to here. I was under the impression that all the echidnas from the island were sent here after that fiasco with General Stryker’s son being reduced to atoms and the Dark Legion getting their parts removed and going to Eggman. 

Actually...you're right. Thats exactly what happened. 

 

17 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

 

God it's so obvious how the word balloons were altered. It really makes a lot of the dialog clunky as hell.

 

17 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

After two issues where the ending was “Knuckles is on his way” we finally start the issue off with Knuckles arriving fashionably late to the party. 

"I gotta rally the girls to...stay home I guess."

 

17 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

He’s back ladies and gentlemen and he’s here to deliver on the billboard advertisement he made back in the Knuckles: The Return arc for revenge. It’s Thrash the Tasmanian Devil, being put into this story so that everything Ian had planned for him could be systematically ruined. 

I think he was always supposed to be here? I'm pretty sure Ian said the only additions were Shard and the Krudzu Hydra.

 

17 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Because everyone needs to actually chat about what happens, we get this… distracting but hilarious bit of dialogue from Sonic.

Thank you for the reminder that Knuckles girlfriend is his distsnt cousin by bringing up that her sister is related to him.

 

17 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

“Those jokers in the black pajamas” 

Which is also a line in the original TMNT movie. Though it was "Those guys in the black pajamas" but still.

 

17 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Please forgive me for what I’m about to say here.

…

… I fucking love this.

No, I’m actually not kidding. I love this.

This is hype as shit. It’s dramatic as fuck. It’s got some great goddamn atmosphere with the darkness and the rain. What Thrash just revealed he did is horrible but it’s also a potential monumental shift in the status quo of the book. The likes of this kind of game changing plot point is something I haven’t felt from the book for quite a long time now... BUT it's also ridiculous.

I...absolutely agree. I think this arc is a Goddamn mess but like all this stuff with Knuckles and Thrash is terrific including the final fight in the last part.

 

16 hours ago, SanPolo4389 said:

SIGH (Matt McMuscles voice)  It's time......to talk.....about Endangered Species.

Having watched a lot of Wha Happun recently I kinda wish he did comics because the Pendering would be a fucking great episode. 

[SanPolo4389]

1 hour ago, SBR2 said:

Having watched a lot of Wha Happun recently I kinda wish he did comics because the Pendering would be a fucking great episode. 

If he’d do it would he cover like all Archie Sonic or just until the reboot?

[Leebo4]

Any Archie sonic fans who wish there were figures of comic sonic characters? I know how you can have a representation of Mammoth Mogul

 

Poacher from McFarlane Toys’ Ultra Chaos toyline, I have a figure of him and I have been using him to represent mogul my fave Archie sonic villain

 

[Rabbitearsblog]

8 hours ago, Leebo4 said:

Any Archie sonic fans who wish there were figures of comic sonic characters? I know how you can have a representation of Mammoth Mogul

 

Poacher from McFarlane Toys’ Ultra Chaos toyline, I have a figure of him and I have been using him to represent mogul my fave Archie sonic villain

 

I would like to see proper figures of Sally Acorn and the Freedom Fighters, even if they aren't cannon to the main Sonic games.

[Mangoaxe5]

Look what I found.

[Leebo4]

3 hours ago, Rabbitearsblog said:

I would like to see proper figures of Sally Acorn and the Freedom Fighters, even if they aren't cannon to the main Sonic games.

We can dream

[Mangoaxe5]

One thing that quickly becomes clear in the last year of the old universe is how all the bad stuff is happening to the Satam/comic only characters.

Sally gets roboticized, and becomes Eggman's slave.

Nicole gets exiled from the city.

Antoine nearly dies, and is in a coma.

Snively is beaten, and left to rot in an eggpod.

Most of the Echidnas get sent to another world

You really start to see the limitations on the comic. 

[SanPolo4389]

21 hours ago, Vampfox said:

One thing that quickly becomes clear in the last year of the old universe is how all the bad stuff is happening to the Satam/comic only characters.

Sally gets roboticized, and becomes Eggman's slave.

Nicole gets exiled from the city.

Antoine nearly dies, and is in a coma.

Snively is beaten, and left to rot in an eggpod.

Most of the Echidnas get sent to another world

You really start to see the limitations on the comic. 

I mean yeah although Sonic and the other characters seem to only be dealing with the emotional stuff that happened to others although maybe it doesn't feel like enough to other people? 

[Razule]

43 minutes ago, Vampfox said:

One thing that quickly becomes clear in the last year of the old universe is how all the bad stuff is happening to the Satam/comic only characters.

Sally gets roboticized, and becomes Eggman's slave.

Nicole gets exiled from the city.

Antoine nearly dies, and is in a coma.

Snively is beaten, and left to rot in an eggpod.

Most of the Echidnas get sent to another world

You really start to see the limitations on the comic. 

All the echidnas disappearing is a bad happening to Knuckles by proxy. And the Freedom Fighters are Sonic, Tails, and Amy's friends, so same thing. The game characters being affected by the comic-exclusives' losses is a way of getting around that limitation.

[Dr. Detective]

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #245: Endangered Species, Part Three: Restoration Efforts

Last week I forgot to mention just how cluttered the front covers have become with all the excessive words dawning it. I think I was so used to Archie covers being littered with words that when I first saw the first couple of IDW covers I was thrown off by how much space was on them. Part two’s cover was the more ridiculous of the ones for that but this one isn’t a ton better. It gets the job done I suppose but this issue is shockingly climactic for just being the third one in this story. I don’t entirely recall how it wraps up after this either so this’ll be something to witness again.

Spoiler

Original Cover

Obviously, I don’t need to tell you all this but this arc was thoroughly fucked. Just because Thrash is being ruined here doesn’t mean he wasn’t originally supposed to be here of course. You can see the devil dogs still on the originally intended cover for this arc after all. However, instead of hastily reviving the Krudzu for yet another time and having that be a thing again for some reason (honestly, I’m still not sure why it needed to come back even earlier) it was supposed to be Lien-Da.

It can’t be Lien-Da now so the issue needs something else to occupy space. I guess that plant thing is it. Might as well put it to good use while we’re here.

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Steven Butler
Inks: Terry Austin
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: John Workman
Cover By: Tracy Yardley! and Matt Herms
Assistant Editor: Vincent Lovallo
Editor: Paul Kaminski
Editor-in-Chief: Victor Gorelick

The issue begins with a repeat of the confrontation between Sonic and Thrash. It’s the same lines and the same sequence of events but bigger and spread out to two pages. I guess they needed some space.

We then flashback to moments ago and get two more pages showing off the journey of the Krudzu. He survived his skirmish with Team Fighters and is now stuck in a little crabmeat. However, he can’t do much with it so when he comes across the downed Metal Knuckles from the Metal series, he takes it over instead. 

Thanks. I don’t know if that needed to be two pages either but… I guess they needed some space.

I mean, it’s true, since the story pivoted so hard from what they were originally intending, some scenes are probably being extended when they would have been reduced to a page or even a panel or two originally. 

We get back to the meat and potatoes where Knuckles is fighting Thrash and demanding he bring the echidnas back. Thrash says that what he’s done has made them equal because now they’re the last of their kind (except not really). 

Thrash then talks about how fucking sick and gross the echidnas were back in the day when they seriously just conducted lab experiments on an entire species of anthros and reduced them to regular animals. 

Again, I can’t help but appreciate just how much Ian is zeroing in on the echidnas being awful. This might even be the worst thing I’ve heard them do. Of course, this situation that Thrash has ushered in for the echidnas is still extremely fucked up as pretty much all of the people living here had nothing to do with what he’s talking about and most were just displaced citizens that managed to survive the aftermath of a crumbling society wrought with bullshit brought upon by shitty traditions and terrible governing practices. 

The birth of Enerjak, the creation of the Dark Legion, the war with the dingoes, the destruction of their island by Eggman due to them ignoring him and refusing to work with the Acorn Kingdom, and the REBIRTH of Enerjak as Knuckles are all examples of this. They practically destroyed themselves but that’s not good enough for Thrash. 

For clarification, what Thrash is talking about here hasn’t been gone into a ton by the books but it was a background element that’s been mostly largely ignored up until this point. Here’s an image for reference sake.

Now, what’s interesting here is that the story above says that this was just a small faction of scientists that did this and not the echidna society as a whole. When they were found out, they were actually arrested for it by their own kind. 

History might have been twisted a little bit but the fact that echidna society as a whole just breeds awful people like this anyway keeps it from being anything worth considering for me. These echidnas were stated to have been so technologically advanced that they were building rockets while those beta bitch hedgehogs were still dressed like cavemen. Yet, they were so technologically advanced that “nature” needed to invent the Soul Touch so that they’d breed less they never learn how to actually fucking love anything. It’s so gross.

It’s honestly one of those things I wish Ian had either debunked or explored a bit more. Like, if the Soul Touch gets removed from the “nature” of the echidnas would Knuckles still like Julie-Su? Did Lara-Le and Locke Soul Touch? If so, why did she have the ability to break up with him and remarry to Wyn? Is it like a “first try” situation and if it doesn’t work out then you’re free to choose? Does the Soul Touch just hook you up with whoever, give you feelings for someone against your will even if you’re not compatible at all and doomed for an unhealthy relationship? That’s honestly all I’ve seen happen with most of the echidna couples aside from the one Lara-Le remarried into. Also, Mari Ann and Rob. 

I could go on forever about how terrible the echidnas are of course. Penders and his weird rules for these creatures always raise too many sensible questions and since Penders isn’t a sensible human being, it’s useless to ask.

The point is that in the here and now, what Thrash is doing is severely fucked up.

If someone burst into your home with the intention of killing you and your entire family or banishing them to another plain of existence and stated that the reason they were doing it was because generations ago, at a time where none of the people in your immediate family were born nor had any clue of it happening, some jag-off in your family experimented on theirs and wrecked their gene pool forever what would the reaction be?

I’d probably feel a lot of empathy for their situation and, even though I’m not a scientist, I’d want to help in any way I could… but that doesn’t mean I’m just going to let you banish my family to some godforsaken land or whatever. Thrash’s ideology here is flawed, as it should be, because he’s a villain in this context, but it also works from an empathetic level because his species really did get royally fucked for literally no reason other than, “they were there so why not?”.

Knuckles keeps fighting him and eventually gets tackled by Thrash’s sister, who is just a regular looking devil dog. It’s REALLY uncomfortable thinking about. I can’t help but feel sorry for the guy despite what he’s doing here. It’s the sign of a really good writer, honestly. Even if Ian says what he had planned for Thrash was ruined because of this, it still comes through in this story that it was going to be something special.

Sonic is tasked with handling the devil dogs so he rallies together Team Fighters to do the “Spiny thing” they do. You know… THAT thing.

Anyway, Amy and Tails do the spiny thing and then Sonic uses boards and a rope to make a kennel for the devil dogs. Easy peasy.

Meanwhile, Knuckles is locked in a battle against his mortal enemy.

Whoops, wrong image.

Of course, Thrash isn’t listening to this. He probably feels it’s nonsense and just starts going on about justice or whatever. Knuckles tosses him into the mud and demands he shut the fuck up.

When Trash admits that he can’t beat Knuckles in a fight (although, it looked to me that they were pretty equal) he resorts to his Loudred scream!

At first it blows Knuckles the hell away but powered by raw anger and determination he claws his way through the massive sound waves and delivers a powerful hit to the man’s jaw.

It almost can’t get more decisive than that.

Sonic gives a little taunt to Thrash before going to help Knuckles up. Tails and Amy corral around Thrash to try and find the warp ring where he sent all his people… but then the vine lord of shit timing, the Krudzu, shows up to wrap it’s throngs around Tails and Amy’s necks, dangling them like little Christmas tree ornaments.

Someone was analyzing them from behind the scenes and at first I thought it was the Krudzu but him saying he didn’t have to get involved didn’t make any sense given what he was there to do. Also, he DOES get involved so it totally wasn’t him.

The person analyzing the situation is different and we’re shown their viewpoint as they watch the fight that unfolds between the Krudzu and the heroes. 

Yeesh. That looks painful. Imagine being swung around like that by the neck and slamming into two rough bodies like Knuckles and Sonic? Poor Tails.

Anyway, Thrash wasn’t down at all. He immediately gets back up and tries to escape via the warp ring. Knuckles goes after him and holds it open, feeling the need to tell Sonic why he has to go. Sonic just tells him to hurry the fuck up and go and he does. I like that Knuckles was polite enough to stop and assure Sonic that he cared at least.

The Krudzu gets its vines snapped apart by Sonic but it doesn't matter. It runs on machinery so it just gathers parts together to form a horrid looking eldritch monster.

What a gnarly looking dude.

It’s fine though because the person spying on them decides to get in on the action after all. 

The Krudzu is attacked and knocked down and standing before them is the robot boy what did it.

Shard is here and he’s looking pretty sharp.

This story was suddenly lacking a lot of characters and elements so we needed to add in more I guess. I’m not complaining of course. To be honest, he’s doing it rather well.

This is honestly eliciting the same emotions from me as it did way back when I first read it all those years ago. It still feels very climactic and cool and I can’t help but be tantalized by how strong this shift in the status quo is and what could have resulted from actually following this plot line. The issue itself is also really great. I love Thrash’s motivation and despite feeling empathetic it’s clear as day why this is wrong and why he needs to be stopped. This is a really good story, honestly. The problem is what had to happen in order for us to get it. 

Unfortunately, not many who are aware of the outside situation are going to look back on this story with any fondness because of that. It’s also hard to argue that the pivot it makes after the first issue was done well. It really wasn’t. You can’t go from having this place super populated with multiple war zones to it just being empty without it feeling contrived in some way but the people working on the comic knew that. The fact that you can still see such a strong effort to still tell a good story despite how shitty of a position they’re in is commendable. At the very least, I’m having a good time. Knuckles certainly isn’t.

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #246: Endangered Species, Part Four: One of a Kind

I’m about to crack too. It’s so intimidating; talking about a story this monumental and game changing in ways that it was never designed to be. Thankfully, this is the end. It’s time to lay this rivalry to rest… FOR THE LAST TIME!

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Steven Butler
Inks: Terry Austin
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: John Workman
Cover By: Tracy Yardley! and Matt Herms
Assistant Editor: Vincent Lovallo
Editor: Paul Kaminski
Editor-in-Chief: Victor Gorelick

Shard is here. He says hi to Sonic, Tails and Amy after having rescued them and because we’re in that point of the book where everyone is just angry and don’t wish to have actual conversations they attack him.

I know the reason why they do. I just don’t care. I’ve got little patience for sequences where people attack other people who are on their side and mean them no harm for no other reason than “We surmised that this is what we should do based on our natural assumptions” and nothing else.

Although, I do feel like being annoyed by this is a little justified this time. I mean, reading these lines, the only one making good points is Shard. 

I could at least see this going down in a better light if the heroes were making better points that made their reactions more tolerable but Tails never came off to me as someone who’d ignore the fact that he was rescued by someone even if they were the reason they were there in the first place. 

So the fact that their last memory of him was him rescuing Sonic and Tails, and now he’s come back to attack something that was trying to kill them makes it particularly annoying that they’re attacking him now. Sonic’s line is just petty nonsense.

Anyway, rant over. The Krudzu attacks the both of them and Shard pleads his case with Sonic. The two work together to start dragging it along the ground and leave Tails and Amy behind. 

Tails realizes that since the Krudzu has developed an immunity to water somehow they’ll need to rally some more fighting power to stand against it. He surmises that the devil dogs have enough intelligence to understand them and propose they team up while their master is busy.

Speaking of Thrash, we cut to the ring warping fight that’s happening between them and see them head to Downunda where the Tasmanian Ruins are. I always flinch whenever I type “Downunda”. It’s such a terrible name.

Even more terrible is this haunting image of old man Taz and the nam flashbacks he has upon instantly seeing Knuckles. Like that episode of the Powerpuff Girls where the girls went to the future and Him took over the world, he points his finger directly at Knuckles with his shaky, old, decrepit finger.

“It’s your fault… your fault…!”

Then Thrash screams at him and runs the fuck away, which is hilarious.

Well, see? Technically Thrash isn’t the last of his kind. That old man may have one foot in the grave but he’s not all the way in just yet. 

Back with Shard and Sonic, the two of them are having an actual conversation now. Obviously, I don’t have an issue with Sonic having trust issues concerning him so this, I feel, is more appropriate. I hate using Sonic 06 as my preferred example of this kind of thing but, you know, Silver spent that entire game attacking Sonic and when he showed up to help him Sonic didn’t just ignore that and attack him from behind. He asked him what his deal was. That doesn't have to be the same as immediately trusting him but it's a more measured response I prefer my heroes to have. Personally. Maybe other people like it when their heroes react to being saved by attacking the thing that saved them instead of asking questions first. I dunno. 

Sorry. I guess their reactions bothered me a lot more than I thought. 

Anyway, Sonic still doesn’t trust Shard and asks who sent him and all that jazz. Shard can’t tell which gets Sonic upset but Shard doubles down… but is left with little choice but to drop Uncle Chuck’s name so that he can at least get some trust thrown his way. Though, he notes that Uncle Chuck won’t like that he did and also adds that he doesn’t think Uncle Chuck likes him very much which is… kind of sad.

Anyway, Sonic reasons that Tails and Amy have come up with a plan by now and circle around to them where Amy is already in position for something. Sonic and Shard break off from the vine whip around them and Amy smacks the Krudzu through some buildings.

It thinks it can still win and thus Tails tells the devil dogs to charge and re-enacts a gruesome recreation of how Scar was torn apart by the hyenas in The Lion King.

It really does look hideous. I couldn’t help laughing at “SWEET MERCIFUL EGGMA–!”

It reminds me of Cherrymon being killed by Puppetmon and he goes “OH THE HORROR…!” Such a fucking odd reference to make in Digimon of all things.

Meanwhile, Knuckles and Thrash are hopping through ring portals over and over again still. They end up in White Acropolis next where the two of them have a scuffle and then Thrash does his shout that causes an avalanche. Knuckles is almost swept away by the snow but grabs onto the ring and climbs through it.

Thrash then lands on the Angel Island shrine with Knuckles following soon after. 

He escapes.

The way Thrash is teleporting actually confused me a bit at first because I thought in this page he was throwing a ring behind him and then jumping off the island into a second ring to maybe carry him out the other end back on the island. But no, what happened is that Thrash was drawing the ring they just stepped out of BACK to him so that he could toss it off the edge and fall into it. 

The sequence that happens here last a long couple of pages and I can only guess it was probably due to trying to figure out how to properly fill up this last issue. Even having guessed that, I gotta say, I’m glad it was done this way.

There’s rarely ever a time when the comics slow down like this and have time dedicated to just a single thing happening for a multitude of pages with zero dialogue. It’s just a huge, desperate, DESPERATE chase from zone to zone that becomes increasingly harder for Knuckles to keep up with and eventually, he loses his target.

At that time he sees a FWASH happen behind him. Any millisecond of hope that he might have had that this was Thrash or even “the girls” returning to the island was dashed the instant the Chaotix walked out of the warp ring with Mighty and Ray back from their looney tunes adventure.

They are all happy to see Knuckles again but slowly piece together that something is wrong… and then we are treated to the final page of Knuckles and his gang in the pre-reboot…

… and that’s it.

That’s the note that Knuckles ends on for this continuity of the comics. 

After all the shit he had to go through thanks to Penders and his bullshit; from being microwaved as a baby, to being abandoned by his father and made to think both his parents were dead only to be spied on by him and a bunch of other creepy grandpas, to the also creepy Soul Touch binding him and Julie-Su together, to the Chaotix, to the Brotherhood, to the dingoes, Dimitri, Enerjak, that shitty election, Knuckles becoming Green Apple Knuckles and suffering through tremendous pain, Knuckles fucking DYING and then getting resurrected because he’s Jesus, that shit with Albion where he walks across water because he’s Jesus, the destruction of Albion, Finitevus, Knuckles BECOMING Enerjak, the death of his shitty dad, the dregs from the fallout of his time as Enerjak being relocated to what’s left of Albion, and probably a shit ton of other things I forgot to mention…

… After ALL that, this is where it ends. One last vengeful stain on Echidna history came back to bite him in the butt yet again. The enemies of the echidnas and what they wrought just kept continuing to come home to roost and roost and roost until they were all extinct. 

It’s impressive just how shitty they are that their comeuppance continued long after the people who made things the way they are were long dealt with. Even Freeza and his family got off better than this it feels like. You know, because for some inexplicable reason Freeza is just being allowed to stay alive and conquer planets now.

I… have to just sit here and process all this right now because this moment feels… strangely cathartic despite being, quite possibly, one of the most depressing ends to a character’s arc I’ve ever witnessed.

Now, granted, this isn’t it for Knuckles, obviously. He survives the “wave” that’s coming and his life will go on… but that doesn’t make what happens to the people he’s lost any less horrifying.

Like, it’ll lighten the blow to his system mentally due to forgetting this life he’s had up to this point and things being re-worked so that it essentially never even happened this way for him but the abstract concept of what’s happened and what’s going to happen is still really haunting.

They’re all gone. 

They’re just gone and he’ll never see them again. Any chance he might have had to do so will be forcefully RIPPED from him when the universe resets because they’ll not just be missing. They’ll no longer exist. His memories of them will disappear too. His life up to this point won’t even have happened the way it’s happened here.

No one can even really use the fleeting comfort of maybe saying that the people who disappeared may still exist in the new continuity and we just haven’t met them on the planet yet for this. In the reboot, Knuckles is tied to the backstory of the games which has him as the last of his kind. He’s it!

It’s incredible. 

To call it cathartic is strange, I know, but I can’t help but be kind of… “content” that this exists in its current form? It’s an odd thing to admit but, despite how sad and horrible it is, the novelty of this story’s existence is something I can’t help but find fascinating.

I honestly kind of believe that this story, “Endangered Species” really SHOULD go down in comic book history. Not just “Sonic comic” history. 

What’s happening as a result of this story’s existence feels like witnessing some sort of miracle. Not necessarily a GOOD miracle but something that stretches beyond just being a story and into a once in a lifetime experience. 

I don’t know… if there exists something quite like this out there. I know tons of bullshit have happened in comics due to editorial mandates and lawsuits and shit but THIS?!

Every sentence I type I keep stopping to just sit and think.

Like, I just turn my head and stare at the wall and think for a bit and I keep feeling weird about it. 

There’s so many feelings I’m feeling right now. 

This ending is oddly satisfying to me despite the fact that it REALLY shouldn’t be and I feel like the reason it is circles back to the phenomena I was witnessing play out in real time. 

It sucks that this happened… but at the same time… I kind of revere and marvel at the fact that it did so that I don’t feel any regret. 

… 

… Does Ken Penders actually exist?

Are… are we certain he isn’t someone we’re all just hallucinating at the same time? 

...

We cut back to Team Fighters where the Krudzu still has the gall to say he’s not done. Sonic and Tails spin dash into it, Shard blasts off its head, and Amy smashes it. Sonic then grabs it’s little plant body and says that he’s going to plant it somewhere where there’s no machines.

Honestly, even if it isn’t harmed by water anymore I’d probably restrain it in a cage and chuck it in the ocean myself but I guess then you wouldn’t be absolutely certain you know what it was up to… I guess.

Shard then tells Sonic to stop and then Sonic is all “And here comes the inevitable betrayal”. I’m pretty sure I just told Sonic to shut the fuck up when I read that. 

Again, I know why he doesn’t trust him but goddamn. I really don’t like this troupe. It’s not fun knowing a character means them no harm and seeing the heroes actively trying to justify why they should attack him.

Anyway, Shard says something that makes no sense to me whatsoever. 

I don’t… really understand how the Krudzu being able to manipulate machines could equate to finding an antibody that could revert a robot back to flesh and blood. What about this thing makes it a viable conclusion to come to that an evolutionary step it has could lead to a deroboticizing agent? All we’ve learned from its evolution here is that it’s no longer affected by water.

Now, I feel like I actually know why this explanation is here and why it’s so flimsy and forced and comes out of nowhere. It’s another example of the Penders situation making things a bit wonky. 

Although, I’m not 100% certain. For all I know the Krudzu could have originally been a part of the plan to revert Sally back to normal but what I DO know is that Ian’s original plan to revert Sally, as stated before, had something to do with Naugus’ magic as a little hint. He talked about this on the Bumblekast with an answer that mostly pointed to Lost Hedgehog Tales again but stated that there was a reason Naugus’ magic turned Bunnie back to normal. It was a hint towards how Sally was ultimately going to be restored despite her being weaponized.

Now, I have no idea how the Krudzu would fit into that which is why I’m assuming this was a last minute change since the original plan to restore her flew out the window. Naugus isn’t off-limits but he’s in Geoffrey’s body who IS off-limits so it kind of wrecked two birds with one stone… well, an entire FLOCK of birds really but you understand.

With that plan underway, Shard agrees to take the Krudzu back to HQ. He also says that he needs to plant a tracker on the Tornado on Nicole’s orders. Tails is suspicious of this and this time I completely understand finding THAT to be a bit odd. Shard realizes that he’s still being distrusted and apologizes for the volcano thing. I’m assuming he’s also apologizing for the part where he tried to save them because that part seems to just not matter. 

Anyway, they go their separate ways. 

Oh yeah, there’s a scene where Amy goes over all the bad stuff that’s happened and she hugs Sonic. It’s very heartwarming, I’m sure.

Anyway, Shard gets in contact with Agent Ace and tells them what happened and that prompts Agent Ace, aka, Silver to head out.

I like how “traitor” is in quotation marks. I don’t really know if I get the point of spelling out the obvious so much at this point but whatever.

Next time will be the last issue of the pre-reboot continuity and it will also house one of the worst, most anger inducing scenes from the book to date. Can’t wait.

That was Endangered Species and it was… a trip. 

I don’t know if I can articulate how I feel about it any better than I tried to back there. It really does feel like something that transcends just being a story that was fucked with and just exists as an insane force of nature. How many instances out there exist of something like this where legal snafus happening in the real world make it so that a story, already in progress, just has to dump nearly all the characters that were there and replace them with new ones just a single issue in? 

It’s astonishing. Even looking at the cover I’m just amazed. This story is still ABOUT the echidnas but none of them can be mentioned or shown or talked about because of a lawsuit. It’s the weirdest thing I’ve probably ever seen play out in real time and the fact that the Sonic series keeps lending itself to strange phenomena like this entices me greatly. The Sonic Movie design fiasco is another one of those things. Just an incredibly strange anomaly that actually happened and one I’m oddly proud to have been there to see play out. 

This story, I feel, is good. It’s got dramatic weight and tension the likes of which have been honestly missing from the main book since Sally got roboticized in my opinion. Maybe even before that happened. It is an incredible showcase of how talented Ian Flynn is that he could crank this out despite what happened while on the flip-side being the biggest showcase of how absurd a human being Ken Penders is. 

I could go on and on about how strange and mixed up this all is but I feel like you get the point by now. This was a monumental time in Sonic history for me and I felt it all over again going back to it.

Sonic Universe - Issue #50: Forged in Fire

We’ve got a double length issue this time around for our finale to Sonic Universe for the pre-reboot. I hope this is something you care about because we’re spending time on it for twice the number of pages. It’s strange because I recall this issue being really good and also being the thing that made me like Shard, or at least, tolerate him a lot more than I did initially. 

Having re-read up to this point, he’s certainly a fine character. It’s a little amazing how intensely loved he is considering how little his presence in these books actually is. Far be it from me to deny anyone a chance to snack on a delicious cinnamon roll.

Spoiler

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Tracy Yardley!
Inks: Jim Amash
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: Jack Morelli
Cover: Patrick “Spaz” Spaziante & Matt Herms
Assistant Editor: Vincent Lovallo
Editor: Paul Kaminski
Editor-in-Chief: Victor Gorelick

Oh yeah. I did kind of just ramble about how Shard was in this issue didn’t I? I hope you knew that going in. Surprise!

Yeah, it’s not that big a deal. I don’t even really know if anyone who hasn’t read these comics is reading these reviews. Probably. Probably not.

So days ago, all the way back in Issue #240, we cut to New Mobotropolis where the impromptu Eggman assault was still happening.

It’s the scene where Shard was fighting that Metal Sonic he beat extremely easily. He says it’s an embarrassment and tells it to get a laser installed in an appendage so that it can actually aim. Then he destroys it of course.

We then zoom out to see that this is actually Eggman watching a recording of Shard having said all this stuff during the attack. Yes, the man is literally bearing witness to someone finally calling him out for how shitty and useless Metal Sonic is in these books.

Cubot tells Eggman that his new Power Gem with all the combat data he wants installed into Metal Sonic is fresh out of the oven. Eggman inserts that into the hole in Metal Sonic’s chest and says a bunch of stuff that I half-like and half-don’t like.

Thankfully, the thing I have a problem with isn’t a big deal. It’s just the part where Eggman says that the silent killer shtick was getting old. My dude, no it hasn’t. If only really because those robot noises Metal Sonic makes are hilarious. Also, the upside to having a silent killer shouldn’t be disregarded so cleanly. I suppose it does benefit him to have him able to properly communicate with him if he’s going to give him a semblance of free will.

Speaking of which, Eggman’s analysis of Shard annoyed him because he realizes that the free will he gave his robots was the thing that gave them the edge in battles BUT he had to stop doing that because giving them free will led to constant, inevitable betrayal. In the comic continuity he’s aware of Gamma’s betrayal whereas in the games it amuses me that he most likely thinks Gamma went down in the line of fire against Sonic. The Chaos Gammas and even Omega were probably made in part to honor him which ironically, in the case of the Chaos Gammas, actually twists and dishonors his memory due to the fact that he betrayed Eggman. 

Eggman’s solution for that pesky free will becoming too much to handle is the “Soft-Reboot Defiance Kill-Switch”. It speaks for itself. When the free will gets too strong that the robot starts to defy what Eggman orders it to do, it has itself a soft-reboot to accept the orders it was given.

Not a bad idea. Of course, he wants Metal Sonic to destroy Shard and not Sonic. He says it’s time to retire that old robot but it’s clear a lot of this is him just being petty.

We cut back to Team Fighters who are still flying away from their last fight from Endangered Species. They’re talking about Shard and how they were creeped out to see him again. Getting to see them actually talking about this is, again, a much preferred angle for me. Tails does pose the idea of actually being happy he’s being given a second chance and Sonic acknowledges that but he also admits that he can’t help but worry.

He says that the power he’s got in him now is a lot of power for someone who’s still figuring out whether or not he’s a good guy or a bad guy. It’s an interesting concern to have, though, I’m not sure how Sonic knows about Shard’s mental state. I don’t recall Shard saying anything that would have made him think he was still figuring out whether or not he was a good guy but perhaps that’s just intuition?

We cut to Shard and Nicole. The two of them are having a heart-to-heart while playing digital chess. I figured this would be where we’d see the example of Shard trying to figure out if he’s a good guy or a bad guy but no. Instead, it’s Shard lamenting the fact that no one will trust or forgive him for the way he used to be. Nicole says she’s in the same boat because of the Iron Nicole thing but Shard points out the differences in their situation since Nicole had people to vouch for her and a stronger history of helping the heroes out.

This little exchange is pretty transparent concerning how Shard is starting to feel about her. Nicole mentions how he keeps coming back to visit her and his reasoning is that he’s not sure he’s ready for hanging out in the outside world. 

However, that ending line makes it clear that there’s something else there. This is literally the first time we’ve gotten something like this between the two of them and also the first time I think they’ve interacted but I ALREADY buy this relationship more than the one that was being attempted between Espio and Nicole.

Ian talked about how the fans liked Shard a lot and I think, maybe, it was a bunch of people shipping Shard and Nicole anyway that got him to pivot his attention to doing this ship and abandoning the Espio and Nicole one. To be fair, I never heard anyone say they liked (or even noticed) the Espio and Nicole ship happening. I wouldn’t blame them because its implementation was shockingly inept. I didn’t even know it was a thing until I heard Ian talk about it on the Bumblekast and spotting the bits where it was inserted into the comic just served to annoy the shit out of me. Just having Espio show up randomly to approach Nicole in random panels does not make a foundation for a ship. It also makes no sense. That’s probably the biggest issue; the fact that those two have nothing to do with each other so why the fuck is it happening?

Shard and Nicole just make more sense. That one conversation they had just makes them come off as better fit for each other. This isn’t even getting into the whole A.I compatibility thing. 

Anyway, Metal Sonic attacks the hospital and yanks Antoine out of bed. Shard bursts in and does the Dragon Ball thing where Goku tells him that they should fight somewhere else and Metal agrees to do so. They even fly to a wasteland.

THE wasteland to be precise. It’s the old site of Knothole that has burned to the ground. Not a speck of grass remains. It’s just a dead expanse of land. 

Metal Sonic chose this area because it was an area that proves the superiority of robot kind. A big honking robot did do this I guess, yeah. Shard says that if organics are so inferior then why do they strive to be more like them? He says this because he can tell that Metal Sonic has more of a spark in him than last time. Maybe it’s because he can actually talk this time.

Or perhaps it’s because Metal Sonic acknowledged him when he called him “brother”. Metal Sonic actually calls him “Brother” back too. It’s an interesting take.

Shard says he’s trying to change people’s minds about weapons like them and Metal Sonic attacking hospitals isn’t exactly helping. Fair.

And so… these two brothers… begin to DANCE!

THEY DANCE!!!

Metal Sonic slashes across Shard’s cheek and in the next couple of panels it’s completely fixed. I guess he’s got Tony Stark nano-reconstruction tech.

The next couple of scenes that happen are actually really good.

All that bitching and all that belly aching I did about how Metal Sonic’s been constantly destroyed and demolished comes back into frame. It’s a really impressive way to address the situation with him and use it to your advantage. This issue exists to make Metal Sonic a threat once again and it does so by having Metal Sonic analyze what Shard is doing and recalling his past selves defeats to retaliate.

When he sees Shard about to fire a cannon at him, he recalls a time when Shadow threw a rock into his arm cannon to make him explode… so he does the same thing to Shard.

HE THREW A ROCK AT HIM…

Wasn’t even that big a rock.

This continues on two more times before Shard is just battered to shit. Shard even ends up blasting through the rock in his arm cannon to try and get it out and launch it as a projectile but recalling when he was blown up by Marine’s cannon allows him to retaliate by blasting a chest cannon into it before it hits so that the threat is neutralized.

Shard is a smoking heap on the ground and Metal Sonic reigns supreme…!

Metal Sonic grabs him and an attempt to actually utilize what came before is being made in order to finally, properly make Metal Sonic an actual character. 

Shadow relaying his message to Metal Sonic all the way back in SU #1 meant nothing at the time because of the circumstances behind what Metal Sonic was. However, it’s being repurposed here because now Metal Sonic has all the data and memories of his past destroyed versions of himself, ironically, except for Shard, the one that’s become more than just a living weapon.

Because of this new direction, Metal Sonic feels as though he has an actual consciousness and his body is just a shell that consciousness is put into. From now on, whenever he gets destroyed it won’t really mean anything because it’ll be the same Metal Sonic.

NOW he’s a character… and it only took until the literal final issue of the Pre-Reboot for it to happen, which is low key kind of hilarious.

Shard’s arm cannon is fixed now so he blasts Metal off of him and charges in to try and drill into the Power Gem in Metal’s chest. It’s really dramatic too. He laments having to kill his brother here but knows if he doesn’t the people he wants to protect will be killed.

However, Metal Sonic still has tricks up his sleeve and manages to demolish Shard’s arm with a burst shield before he can do it. 

I imagine he screamed the same way Variant Loki screamed when Crocodile Loki bit off his hand.

Things are really intense!

Shard gets pissed and tackles Metal, saying that if he’s gotta go then they’ll go together, ala Xemnas. Except he means it differently.

Metal Sonic warns Shard that self-termination is imminent but Shard claims this isn’t about him. He’s realized that Eggman has made sure that Shard isn’t capable of changing and tries to grab his Power Gem.

However, that was also a bad move. When they crash into the dirt, Metal says that his target’s data has been successfully stored into the Power Gem Core and having detected the weakness of his enemy, decides to eliminate him.

He esplode.

He ded.

Except, not yet.

He’s alive enough to have some dying words. Considering what’s about to happen to the continuity, the bleak ambiguity of what’s happening here and the cracks in Shard’s… shard feel even more solemn and bitter sweet. 

A lot of these characters got left off in really shitty positions before the universe was nuked. If they didn’t survive the purge that happened anyway then he might as well be dead.

… That actually hurt to say but honestly it’s hard to look at it any other way.

Shard is gone.

We cut back to Eggman’s base where Metal Sonic steps out of the reconstruction chamber or whatever. He relays the message that the Power Gem was destroyed but he got the combat data. Eggman claims this to be a mixed bag but he’s delighted that Metal Sonic’s been perfected. 

As an aside, it’s cute that Orbot and Cubot actually placed a bet on whether or not Metal Sonic would be destroyed. Cubot lost that bet. Considering the history of this bot, that was a bit silly of him but it’s Cubot after all. I also enjoy it as a way to poke fun at the widely criticized recurrence of Metal being blown up so often. Really regretting never having done a counter for that still.

Anyway, Metal Sonic still wants to kill Sonic but Eggman says, “Not yet” and tells him that he’s got a “base” villain to join up with at a different location before that happens. I had no clue who he was talking about. I was assuming he meant Hugo Brass but Metal Sonic, funnily enough, has more personality than him now so I figured not.

I didn’t figure out who Eggman was talking about until I read the yellow preview box that said we’d discover Metal Sonic’s new partner in the World’s Collide crossover.

That’s when it clicked.

A base villain.

Bass.

Cute.

Sonic Universe - Issue #50: Go Ahead… Mecha My Day! Part 3 and Part 4

Writer: Mike Gallagher
Pencils: Patrick "Spaz" Spaziante
Inks: Harvey Mercadoocasio
Letters: Mindy Eisman
Colors: Barry Grossman
Assistant Editor: Freddy Mendez
Editor: Scott Fulop
Managing Editor: Victor Gorelick
Editor-In-Chief: Richard Goldwater

So, you’re probably thinking that was pretty short for a double length book. So was I, until I found out what the story in the back was. It’s the Sonic CD adaptation from Sonic the Hedgehog #25. Wow. 

You know, I don’t remember this being here. It’s probably because I didn’t read it. I may have had it in my mind back then that old classic looking Sonic was icky and I only wanted to read Modern Sonic stuff. I definitely do still prefer Modern Sonic stuff but I’m totally more accepting of reading Classic Sonic material in the comics. Just keep them separate. Also, please keep Classic Sonic out of the Modern Sonic games. Try for a Generations 2 in another 20 years. I’ll probably be dead by then.

Oh and he’s called “Mecha-Sonic” in this story, with a hyphen in between it.

This story is called “Go Ahead… Mecha My Day” and it’s part 3 and then part 4. It’s charming cringe like that title that makes these days of old so endearing.

Not to worry though, the dialogue follows suit as well.

Man… the dialogue back in these old days really was something else…

I can’t even find words to make fun of it. It feels so transparent how “bad” it is but, like, in a good way.

I almost forgot how characters used to speak in literal exposition text-to-speech. 

“Mwaha! N’yes Sonic. You won’t be able to defeat me for you will be eating my dust. STAR dust that is. As in STARDUST SPEEDWAY the level in which we raced each other in the hit game on the mega successful, totally-can’t-prove-it-wasn’t-a-hit console the SEGA CD in SONIC THE HEDGEHOG CD released in 1993  in which I and young ROSY THE RASCAL aka AMY ROSE made our first game debuts. Yeeeesssssss…!”

The exposition here almost reminds me of End of Days. That ridiculous kind of exposition that just makes you laugh whenever you hear it.

“The number of the beast is not 666. Often in dreams numbers can become distorted so that 666 becomes 999… LIKE IN 1999 THE YEAR OF HIS (Satan’s) RETURN!”

Fuck me. That always gets a laugh out of me. That wonderful line is fucking perfection.

Sonic races Metal Sonic to try and free Amy and Tails from Robotnik. He has them captured and tied to a chair because they’re both young damsels at this time. Tails also calls Amy by her full name when addressing her which is a thing they used to do that I had forgotten was a thing they used to do.

Sonic’s new move, the Super Peel Out, is what he uses to move at warp speed. Then Mecha Sonic narrates his defeat for us by saying that he’s moving faster than he was built to move and can’t keep up with Sonic. The heat he generates melts his legs and he loses.

Pfft. Yeah, okay. Sure, why not?

Sally drops out of an airplane to kick Robotnik in the back saying she has spotted his unmistakable “large body” thus providing her with a clear target.

Then, you know, Robotnik moans like a bitch about having lost and says he wants Sonic to get under the arch he designed. Sonic says he’ll do it anyway and he does and then when Robotnik activates it, Sonic just steps out of the way.

For some reason Robotnik thought he wouldn’t be able to and says that’s impossible.

I’m really not sure why. He just saw the Mecha Sonic he built lose to Sonic because it’s legs fucking melted from being unable to move fast enough to keep up with the thing it was built to keep up with.

Hilariously enough, Robotnik’s plans being foiled here just ends the story with this panel.

A Sonic Adventure line before Sonic Adventure.

It’s great. He just does a dramatic opera pose in the sky while Sonic gives the thumbs up. He doesn’t at all act like a man who devastated the entire world here but that was the nature of these early books. 

I really miss covering these. They’re too goofy and I can only see the charm in them now that we’ve come this far.

Knowing what’s about to happen to the continuity, was this the best choice for the final Sonic Universe arc before the jump? Honestly, it doesn’t really matter. This issue was fantastic. It had a really cool fight and it showcased both these characters at their absolute best. For Metal Sonic, especially, this was a long time coming and the adage of “better late than never” really does apply here since this is literally the Pre-Reboot SU's last hurrah. He’ll be fine of course but the trajectory of his past failures leading up to this will be lost along with the rest of the history of the book so it’s still bittersweet. At the very least, the idea behind making Metal more of an actual character carries through after this issue which is what really counts when all is said and done.

As for my boy Shard, man, what an ending. I felt even more for him here than I did reading it all those years ago. I think my saying that I liked him after reading this issue way back then was more of a kind gesture to those who wanted me to be more positive about the book which is ironic since I remember getting into a conversation with someone on the SEGA forums about how this issue still didn’t change their hatred of the character. I didn’t go to bat for him that hard but I wanted to acknowledge the work that went into making him work and reading it now it really shines through. It really is a crying shame that this is the end for him. I'd have really liked to have seen more of this boy.

Next week, it’s time to say goodbye to continuity… and welcome… TO THE NEW NORM!

[J77]

4 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #245: Endangered Species, Part Three: Restoration Efforts

Last week I forgot to mention just how cluttered the front covers have become with all the excessive words dawning it. I think I was so used to Archie covers being littered with words that when I first saw the first couple of IDW covers I was thrown off by how much space was on them. Part two’s cover was the more ridiculous of the ones for that but this one isn’t a ton better. It gets the job done I suppose but this issue is shockingly climactic for just being the third one in this story. I don’t entirely recall how it wraps up after this either so this’ll be something to witness again.

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Original Cover

Obviously, I don’t need to tell you all this but this arc was thoroughly fucked. Just because Thrash is being ruined here doesn’t mean he wasn’t originally supposed to be here of course. You can see the devil dogs still on the originally intended cover for this arc after all. However, instead of hastily reviving the Krudzu for yet another time and having that be a thing again for some reason (honestly, I’m still not sure why it needed to come back even earlier) it was supposed to be Lien-Da.

It can’t be Lien-Da now so the issue needs something else to occupy space. I guess that plant thing is it. Might as well put it to good use while we’re here.

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Steven Butler
Inks: Terry Austin
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: John Workman
Cover By: Tracy Yardley! and Matt Herms
Assistant Editor: Vincent Lovallo
Editor: Paul Kaminski
Editor-in-Chief: Victor Gorelick

The issue begins with a repeat of the confrontation between Sonic and Thrash. It’s the same lines and the same sequence of events but bigger and spread out to two pages. I guess they needed some space.

We then flashback to moments ago and get two more pages showing off the journey of the Krudzu. He survived his skirmish with Team Fighters and is now stuck in a little crabmeat. However, he can’t do much with it so when he comes across the downed Metal Knuckles from the Metal series, he takes it over instead. 

Thanks. I don’t know if that needed to be two pages either but… I guess they needed some space.

I mean, it’s true, since the story pivoted so hard from what they were originally intending, some scenes are probably being extended when they would have been reduced to a page or even a panel or two originally. 

We get back to the meat and potatoes where Knuckles is fighting Thrash and demanding he bring the echidnas back. Thrash says that what he’s done has made them equal because now they’re the last of their kind (except not really). 

Thrash then talks about how fucking sick and gross the echidnas were back in the day when they seriously just conducted lab experiments on an entire species of anthros and reduced them to regular animals. 

Again, I can’t help but appreciate just how much Ian is zeroing in on the echidnas being awful. This might even be the worst thing I’ve heard them do. Of course, this situation that Thrash has ushered in for the echidnas is still extremely fucked up as pretty much all of the people living here had nothing to do with what he’s talking about and most were just displaced citizens that managed to survive the aftermath of a crumbling society wrought with bullshit brought upon by shitty traditions and terrible governing practices. 

The birth of Enerjak, the creation of the Dark Legion, the war with the dingoes, the destruction of their island by Eggman due to them ignoring him and refusing to work with the Acorn Kingdom, and the REBIRTH of Enerjak as Knuckles are all examples of this. They practically destroyed themselves but that’s not good enough for Thrash. 

For clarification, what Thrash is talking about here hasn’t been gone into a ton by the books but it was a background element that’s been mostly largely ignored up until this point. Here’s an image for reference sake.

Now, what’s interesting here is that the story above says that this was just a small faction of scientists that did this and not the echidna society as a whole. When they were found out, they were actually arrested for it by their own kind. 

History might have been twisted a little bit but the fact that echidna society as a whole just breeds awful people like this anyway keeps it from being anything worth considering for me. These echidnas were stated to have been so technologically advanced that they were building rockets while those beta bitch hedgehogs were still dressed like cavemen. Yet, they were so technologically advanced that “nature” needed to invent the Soul Touch so that they’d breed less they never learn how to actually fucking love anything. It’s so gross.

It’s honestly one of those things I wish Ian had either debunked or explored a bit more. Like, if the Soul Touch gets removed from the “nature” of the echidnas would Knuckles still like Julie-Su? Did Lara-Le and Locke Soul Touch? If so, why did she have the ability to break up with him and remarry to Wyn? Is it like a “first try” situation and if it doesn’t work out then you’re free to choose? Does the Soul Touch just hook you up with whoever, give you feelings for someone against your will even if you’re not compatible at all and doomed for an unhealthy relationship? That’s honestly all I’ve seen happen with most of the echidna couples aside from the one Lara-Le remarried into. Also, Mari Ann and Rob. 

I could go on forever about how terrible the echidnas are of course. Penders and his weird rules for these creatures always raise too many sensible questions and since Penders isn’t a sensible human being, it’s useless to ask.

The point is that in the here and now, what Thrash is doing is severely fucked up.

If someone burst into your home with the intention of killing you and your entire family or banishing them to another plain of existence and stated that the reason they were doing it was because generations ago, at a time where none of the people in your immediate family were born nor had any clue of it happening, some jag-off in your family experimented on theirs and wrecked their gene pool forever what would the reaction be?

I’d probably feel a lot of empathy for their situation and, even though I’m not a scientist, I’d want to help in any way I could… but that doesn’t mean I’m just going to let you banish my family to some godforsaken land or whatever. Thrash’s ideology here is flawed, as it should be, because he’s a villain in this context, but it also works from an empathetic level because his species really did get royally fucked for literally no reason other than, “they were there so why not?”.

Knuckles keeps fighting him and eventually gets tackled by Thrash’s sister, who is just a regular looking devil dog. It’s REALLY uncomfortable thinking about. I can’t help but feel sorry for the guy despite what he’s doing here. It’s the sign of a really good writer, honestly. Even if Ian says what he had planned for Thrash was ruined because of this, it still comes through in this story that it was going to be something special.

Sonic is tasked with handling the devil dogs so he rallies together Team Fighters to do the “Spiny thing” they do. You know… THAT thing.

Anyway, Amy and Tails do the spiny thing and then Sonic uses boards and a rope to make a kennel for the devil dogs. Easy peasy.

Meanwhile, Knuckles is locked in a battle against his mortal enemy.

Whoops, wrong image.

Of course, Thrash isn’t listening to this. He probably feels it’s nonsense and just starts going on about justice or whatever. Knuckles tosses him into the mud and demands he shut the fuck up.

When Trash admits that he can’t beat Knuckles in a fight (although, it looked to me that they were pretty equal) he resorts to his Loudred scream!

At first it blows Knuckles the hell away but powered by raw anger and determination he claws his way through the massive sound waves and delivers a powerful hit to the man’s jaw.

It almost can’t get more decisive than that.

Sonic gives a little taunt to Thrash before going to help Knuckles up. Tails and Amy corral around Thrash to try and find the warp ring where he sent all his people… but then the vine lord of shit timing, the Krudzu, shows up to wrap it’s throngs around Tails and Amy’s necks, dangling them like little Christmas tree ornaments.

Someone was analyzing them from behind the scenes and at first I thought it was the Krudzu but him saying he didn’t have to get involved didn’t make any sense given what he was there to do. Also, he DOES get involved so it totally wasn’t him.

The person analyzing the situation is different and we’re shown their viewpoint as they watch the fight that unfolds between the Krudzu and the heroes. 

Yeesh. That looks painful. Imagine being swung around like that by the neck and slamming into two rough bodies like Knuckles and Sonic? Poor Tails.

Anyway, Thrash wasn’t down at all. He immediately gets back up and tries to escape via the warp ring. Knuckles goes after him and holds it open, feeling the need to tell Sonic why he has to go. Sonic just tells him to hurry the fuck up and go and he does. I like that Knuckles was polite enough to stop and assure Sonic that he cared at least.

The Krudzu gets its vines snapped apart by Sonic but it doesn't matter. It runs on machinery so it just gathers parts together to form a horrid looking eldritch monster.

What a gnarly looking dude.

It’s fine though because the person spying on them decides to get in on the action after all. 

The Krudzu is attacked and knocked down and standing before them is the robot boy what did it.

Shard is here and he’s looking pretty sharp.

This story was suddenly lacking a lot of characters and elements so we needed to add in more I guess. I’m not complaining of course. To be honest, he’s doing it rather well.

This is honestly eliciting the same emotions from me as it did way back when I first read it all those years ago. It still feels very climactic and cool and I can’t help but be tantalized by how strong this shift in the status quo is and what could have resulted from actually following this plot line. The issue itself is also really great. I love Thrash’s motivation and despite feeling empathetic it’s clear as day why this is wrong and why he needs to be stopped. This is a really good story, honestly. The problem is what had to happen in order for us to get it. 

Unfortunately, not many who are aware of the outside situation are going to look back on this story with any fondness because of that. It’s also hard to argue that the pivot it makes after the first issue was done well. It really wasn’t. You can’t go from having this place super populated with multiple war zones to it just being empty without it feeling contrived in some way but the people working on the comic knew that. The fact that you can still see such a strong effort to still tell a good story despite how shitty of a position they’re in is commendable. At the very least, I’m having a good time. Knuckles certainly isn’t.

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #246: Endangered Species, Part Four: One of a Kind

I’m about to crack too. It’s so intimidating; talking about a story this monumental and game changing in ways that it was never designed to be. Thankfully, this is the end. It’s time to lay this rivalry to rest… FOR THE LAST TIME!

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Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Steven Butler
Inks: Terry Austin
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: John Workman
Cover By: Tracy Yardley! and Matt Herms
Assistant Editor: Vincent Lovallo
Editor: Paul Kaminski
Editor-in-Chief: Victor Gorelick

Shard is here. He says hi to Sonic, Tails and Amy after having rescued them and because we’re in that point of the book where everyone is just angry and don’t wish to have actual conversations they attack him.

I know the reason why they do. I just don’t care. I’ve got little patience for sequences where people attack other people who are on their side and mean them no harm for no other reason than “We surmised that this is what we should do based on our natural assumptions” and nothing else.

Although, I do feel like being annoyed by this is a little justified this time. I mean, reading these lines, the only one making good points is Shard. 

I could at least see this going down in a better light if the heroes were making better points that made their reactions more tolerable but Tails never came off to me as someone who’d ignore the fact that he was rescued by someone even if they were the reason they were there in the first place. 

So the fact that their last memory of him was him rescuing Sonic and Tails, and now he’s come back to attack something that was trying to kill them makes it particularly annoying that they’re attacking him now. Sonic’s line is just petty nonsense.

Anyway, rant over. The Krudzu attacks the both of them and Shard pleads his case with Sonic. The two work together to start dragging it along the ground and leave Tails and Amy behind. 

Tails realizes that since the Krudzu has developed an immunity to water somehow they’ll need to rally some more fighting power to stand against it. He surmises that the devil dogs have enough intelligence to understand them and propose they team up while their master is busy.

Speaking of Thrash, we cut to the ring warping fight that’s happening between them and see them head to Downunda where the Tasmanian Ruins are. I always flinch whenever I type “Downunda”. It’s such a terrible name.

Even more terrible is this haunting image of old man Taz and the nam flashbacks he has upon instantly seeing Knuckles. Like that episode of the Powerpuff Girls where the girls went to the future and Him took over the world, he points his finger directly at Knuckles with his shaky, old, decrepit finger.

“It’s your fault… your fault…!”

Then Thrash screams at him and runs the fuck away, which is hilarious.

Well, see? Technically Thrash isn’t the last of his kind. That old man may have one foot in the grave but he’s not all the way in just yet. 

Back with Shard and Sonic, the two of them are having an actual conversation now. Obviously, I don’t have an issue with Sonic having trust issues concerning him so this, I feel, is more appropriate. I hate using Sonic 06 as my preferred example of this kind of thing but, you know, Silver spent that entire game attacking Sonic and when he showed up to help him Sonic didn’t just ignore that and attack him from behind. He asked him what his deal was. That doesn't have to be the same as immediately trusting him but it's a more measured response I prefer my heroes to have. Personally. Maybe other people like it when their heroes react to being saved by attacking the thing that saved them instead of asking questions first. I dunno. 

Sorry. I guess their reactions bothered me a lot more than I thought. 

Anyway, Sonic still doesn’t trust Shard and asks who sent him and all that jazz. Shard can’t tell which gets Sonic upset but Shard doubles down… but is left with little choice but to drop Uncle Chuck’s name so that he can at least get some trust thrown his way. Though, he notes that Uncle Chuck won’t like that he did and also adds that he doesn’t think Uncle Chuck likes him very much which is… kind of sad.

Anyway, Sonic reasons that Tails and Amy have come up with a plan by now and circle around to them where Amy is already in position for something. Sonic and Shard break off from the vine whip around them and Amy smacks the Krudzu through some buildings.

It thinks it can still win and thus Tails tells the devil dogs to charge and re-enacts a gruesome recreation of how Scar was torn apart by the hyenas in The Lion King.

It really does look hideous. I couldn’t help laughing at “SWEET MERCIFUL EGGMA–!”

It reminds me of Cherrymon being killed by Puppetmon and he goes “OH THE HORROR…!” Such a fucking odd reference to make in Digimon of all things.

Meanwhile, Knuckles and Thrash are hopping through ring portals over and over again still. They end up in White Acropolis next where the two of them have a scuffle and then Thrash does his shout that causes an avalanche. Knuckles is almost swept away by the snow but grabs onto the ring and climbs through it.

Thrash then lands on the Angel Island shrine with Knuckles following soon after. 

He escapes.

The way Thrash is teleporting actually confused me a bit at first because I thought in this page he was throwing a ring behind him and then jumping off the island into a second ring to maybe carry him out the other end back on the island. But no, what happened is that Thrash was drawing the ring they just stepped out of BACK to him so that he could toss it off the edge and fall into it. 

The sequence that happens here last a long couple of pages and I can only guess it was probably due to trying to figure out how to properly fill up this last issue. Even having guessed that, I gotta say, I’m glad it was done this way.

There’s rarely ever a time when the comics slow down like this and have time dedicated to just a single thing happening for a multitude of pages with zero dialogue. It’s just a huge, desperate, DESPERATE chase from zone to zone that becomes increasingly harder for Knuckles to keep up with and eventually, he loses his target.

At that time he sees a FWASH happen behind him. Any millisecond of hope that he might have had that this was Thrash or even “the girls” returning to the island was dashed the instant the Chaotix walked out of the warp ring with Mighty and Ray back from their looney tunes adventure.

They are all happy to see Knuckles again but slowly piece together that something is wrong… and then we are treated to the final page of Knuckles and his gang in the pre-reboot…

… and that’s it.

That’s the note that Knuckles ends on for this continuity of the comics. 

After all the shit he had to go through thanks to Penders and his bullshit; from being microwaved as a baby, to being abandoned by his father and made to think both his parents were dead only to be spied on by him and a bunch of other creepy grandpas, to the also creepy Soul Touch binding him and Julie-Su together, to the Chaotix, to the Brotherhood, to the dingoes, Dimitri, Enerjak, that shitty election, Knuckles becoming Green Apple Knuckles and suffering through tremendous pain, Knuckles fucking DYING and then getting resurrected because he’s Jesus, that shit with Albion where he walks across water because he’s Jesus, the destruction of Albion, Finitevus, Knuckles BECOMING Enerjak, the death of his shitty dad, the dregs from the fallout of his time as Enerjak being relocated to what’s left of Albion, and probably a shit ton of other things I forgot to mention…

… After ALL that, this is where it ends. One last vengeful stain on Echidna history came back to bite him in the butt yet again. The enemies of the echidnas and what they wrought just kept continuing to come home to roost and roost and roost until they were all extinct. 

It’s impressive just how shitty they are that their comeuppance continued long after the people who made things the way they are were long dealt with. Even Freeza and his family got off better than this it feels like. You know, because for some inexplicable reason Freeza is just being allowed to stay alive and conquer planets now.

I… have to just sit here and process all this right now because this moment feels… strangely cathartic despite being, quite possibly, one of the most depressing ends to a character’s arc I’ve ever witnessed.

Now, granted, this isn’t it for Knuckles, obviously. He survives the “wave” that’s coming and his life will go on… but that doesn’t make what happens to the people he’s lost any less horrifying.

Like, it’ll lighten the blow to his system mentally due to forgetting this life he’s had up to this point and things being re-worked so that it essentially never even happened this way for him but the abstract concept of what’s happened and what’s going to happen is still really haunting.

They’re all gone. 

They’re just gone and he’ll never see them again. Any chance he might have had to do so will be forcefully RIPPED from him when the universe resets because they’ll not just be missing. They’ll no longer exist. His memories of them will disappear too. His life up to this point won’t even have happened the way it’s happened here.

No one can even really use the fleeting comfort of maybe saying that the people who disappeared may still exist in the new continuity and we just haven’t met them on the planet yet for this. In the reboot, Knuckles is tied to the backstory of the games which has him as the last of his kind. He’s it!

It’s incredible. 

To call it cathartic is strange, I know, but I can’t help but be kind of… “content” that this exists in its current form? It’s an odd thing to admit but, despite how sad and horrible it is, the novelty of this story’s existence is something I can’t help but find fascinating.

I honestly kind of believe that this story, “Endangered Species” really SHOULD go down in comic book history. Not just “Sonic comic” history. 

What’s happening as a result of this story’s existence feels like witnessing some sort of miracle. Not necessarily a GOOD miracle but something that stretches beyond just being a story and into a once in a lifetime experience. 

I don’t know… if there exists something quite like this out there. I know tons of bullshit have happened in comics due to editorial mandates and lawsuits and shit but THIS?!

Every sentence I type I keep stopping to just sit and think.

Like, I just turn my head and stare at the wall and think for a bit and I keep feeling weird about it. 

There’s so many feelings I’m feeling right now. 

This ending is oddly satisfying to me despite the fact that it REALLY shouldn’t be and I feel like the reason it is circles back to the phenomena I was witnessing play out in real time. 

It sucks that this happened… but at the same time… I kind of revere and marvel at the fact that it did so that I don’t feel any regret. 

… 

… Does Ken Penders actually exist?

Are… are we certain he isn’t someone we’re all just hallucinating at the same time? 

...

We cut back to Team Fighters where the Krudzu still has the gall to say he’s not done. Sonic and Tails spin dash into it, Shard blasts off its head, and Amy smashes it. Sonic then grabs it’s little plant body and says that he’s going to plant it somewhere where there’s no machines.

Honestly, even if it isn’t harmed by water anymore I’d probably restrain it in a cage and chuck it in the ocean myself but I guess then you wouldn’t be absolutely certain you know what it was up to… I guess.

Shard then tells Sonic to stop and then Sonic is all “And here comes the inevitable betrayal”. I’m pretty sure I just told Sonic to shut the fuck up when I read that. 

Again, I know why he doesn’t trust him but goddamn. I really don’t like this troupe. It’s not fun knowing a character means them no harm and seeing the heroes actively trying to justify why they should attack him.

Anyway, Shard says something that makes no sense to me whatsoever. 

I don’t… really understand how the Krudzu being able to manipulate machines could equate to finding an antibody that could revert a robot back to flesh and blood. What about this thing makes it a viable conclusion to come to that an evolutionary step it has could lead to a deroboticizing agent? All we’ve learned from its evolution here is that it’s no longer affected by water.

Now, I feel like I actually know why this explanation is here and why it’s so flimsy and forced and comes out of nowhere. It’s another example of the Penders situation making things a bit wonky. 

Although, I’m not 100% certain. For all I know the Krudzu could have originally been a part of the plan to revert Sally back to normal but what I DO know is that Ian’s original plan to revert Sally, as stated before, had something to do with Naugus’ magic as a little hint. He talked about this on the Bumblekast with an answer that mostly pointed to Lost Hedgehog Tales again but stated that there was a reason Naugus’ magic turned Bunnie back to normal. It was a hint towards how Sally was ultimately going to be restored despite her being weaponized.

Now, I have no idea how the Krudzu would fit into that which is why I’m assuming this was a last minute change since the original plan to restore her flew out the window. Naugus isn’t off-limits but he’s in Geoffrey’s body who IS off-limits so it kind of wrecked two birds with one stone… well, an entire FLOCK of birds really but you understand.

With that plan underway, Shard agrees to take the Krudzu back to HQ. He also says that he needs to plant a tracker on the Tornado on Nicole’s orders. Tails is suspicious of this and this time I completely understand finding THAT to be a bit odd. Shard realizes that he’s still being distrusted and apologizes for the volcano thing. I’m assuming he’s also apologizing for the part where he tried to save them because that part seems to just not matter. 

Anyway, they go their separate ways. 

Oh yeah, there’s a scene where Amy goes over all the bad stuff that’s happened and she hugs Sonic. It’s very heartwarming, I’m sure.

Anyway, Shard gets in contact with Agent Ace and tells them what happened and that prompts Agent Ace, aka, Silver to head out.

I like how “traitor” is in quotation marks. I don’t really know if I get the point of spelling out the obvious so much at this point but whatever.

Next time will be the last issue of the pre-reboot continuity and it will also house one of the worst, most anger inducing scenes from the book to date. Can’t wait.

That was Endangered Species and it was… a trip. 

I don’t know if I can articulate how I feel about it any better than I tried to back there. It really does feel like something that transcends just being a story that was fucked with and just exists as an insane force of nature. How many instances out there exist of something like this where legal snafus happening in the real world make it so that a story, already in progress, just has to dump nearly all the characters that were there and replace them with new ones just a single issue in? 

It’s astonishing. Even looking at the cover I’m just amazed. This story is still ABOUT the echidnas but none of them can be mentioned or shown or talked about because of a lawsuit. It’s the weirdest thing I’ve probably ever seen play out in real time and the fact that the Sonic series keeps lending itself to strange phenomena like this entices me greatly. The Sonic Movie design fiasco is another one of those things. Just an incredibly strange anomaly that actually happened and one I’m oddly proud to have been there to see play out. 

This story, I feel, is good. It’s got dramatic weight and tension the likes of which have been honestly missing from the main book since Sally got roboticized in my opinion. Maybe even before that happened. It is an incredible showcase of how talented Ian Flynn is that he could crank this out despite what happened while on the flip-side being the biggest showcase of how absurd a human being Ken Penders is. 

I could go on and on about how strange and mixed up this all is but I feel like you get the point by now. This was a monumental time in Sonic history for me and I felt it all over again going back to it.

Sonic Universe - Issue #50: Forged in Fire

We’ve got a double length issue this time around for our finale to Sonic Universe for the pre-reboot. I hope this is something you care about because we’re spending time on it for twice the number of pages. It’s strange because I recall this issue being really good and also being the thing that made me like Shard, or at least, tolerate him a lot more than I did initially. 

Having re-read up to this point, he’s certainly a fine character. It’s a little amazing how intensely loved he is considering how little his presence in these books actually is. Far be it from me to deny anyone a chance to snack on a delicious cinnamon roll.

  Hide contents

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Tracy Yardley!
Inks: Jim Amash
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: Jack Morelli
Cover: Patrick “Spaz” Spaziante & Matt Herms
Assistant Editor: Vincent Lovallo
Editor: Paul Kaminski
Editor-in-Chief: Victor Gorelick

Oh yeah. I did kind of just ramble about how Shard was in this issue didn’t I? I hope you knew that going in. Surprise!

Yeah, it’s not that big a deal. I don’t even really know if anyone who hasn’t read these comics is reading these reviews. Probably. Probably not.

So days ago, all the way back in Issue #240, we cut to New Mobotropolis where the impromptu Eggman assault was still happening.

It’s the scene where Shard was fighting that Metal Sonic he beat extremely easily. He says it’s an embarrassment and tells it to get a laser installed in an appendage so that it can actually aim. Then he destroys it of course.

We then zoom out to see that this is actually Eggman watching a recording of Shard having said all this stuff during the attack. Yes, the man is literally bearing witness to someone finally calling him out for how shitty and useless Metal Sonic is in these books.

Cubot tells Eggman that his new Power Gem with all the combat data he wants installed into Metal Sonic is fresh out of the oven. Eggman inserts that into the hole in Metal Sonic’s chest and says a bunch of stuff that I half-like and half-don’t like.

Thankfully, the thing I have a problem with isn’t a big deal. It’s just the part where Eggman says that the silent killer shtick was getting old. My dude, no it hasn’t. If only really because those robot noises Metal Sonic makes are hilarious. Also, the upside to having a silent killer shouldn’t be disregarded so cleanly. I suppose it does benefit him to have him able to properly communicate with him if he’s going to give him a semblance of free will.

Speaking of which, Eggman’s analysis of Shard annoyed him because he realizes that the free will he gave his robots was the thing that gave them the edge in battles BUT he had to stop doing that because giving them free will led to constant, inevitable betrayal. In the comic continuity he’s aware of Gamma’s betrayal whereas in the games it amuses me that he most likely thinks Gamma went down in the line of fire against Sonic. The Chaos Gammas and even Omega were probably made in part to honor him which ironically, in the case of the Chaos Gammas, actually twists and dishonors his memory due to the fact that he betrayed Eggman. 

Eggman’s solution for that pesky free will becoming too much to handle is the “Soft-Reboot Defiance Kill-Switch”. It speaks for itself. When the free will gets too strong that the robot starts to defy what Eggman orders it to do, it has itself a soft-reboot to accept the orders it was given.

Not a bad idea. Of course, he wants Metal Sonic to destroy Shard and not Sonic. He says it’s time to retire that old robot but it’s clear a lot of this is him just being petty.

We cut back to Team Fighters who are still flying away from their last fight from Endangered Species. They’re talking about Shard and how they were creeped out to see him again. Getting to see them actually talking about this is, again, a much preferred angle for me. Tails does pose the idea of actually being happy he’s being given a second chance and Sonic acknowledges that but he also admits that he can’t help but worry.

He says that the power he’s got in him now is a lot of power for someone who’s still figuring out whether or not he’s a good guy or a bad guy. It’s an interesting concern to have, though, I’m not sure how Sonic knows about Shard’s mental state. I don’t recall Shard saying anything that would have made him think he was still figuring out whether or not he was a good guy but perhaps that’s just intuition?

We cut to Shard and Nicole. The two of them are having a heart-to-heart while playing digital chess. I figured this would be where we’d see the example of Shard trying to figure out if he’s a good guy or a bad guy but no. Instead, it’s Shard lamenting the fact that no one will trust or forgive him for the way he used to be. Nicole says she’s in the same boat because of the Iron Nicole thing but Shard points out the differences in their situation since Nicole had people to vouch for her and a stronger history of helping the heroes out.

This little exchange is pretty transparent concerning how Shard is starting to feel about her. Nicole mentions how he keeps coming back to visit her and his reasoning is that he’s not sure he’s ready for hanging out in the outside world. 

However, that ending line makes it clear that there’s something else there. This is literally the first time we’ve gotten something like this between the two of them and also the first time I think they’ve interacted but I ALREADY buy this relationship more than the one that was being attempted between Espio and Nicole.

Ian talked about how the fans liked Shard a lot and I think, maybe, it was a bunch of people shipping Shard and Nicole anyway that got him to pivot his attention to doing this ship and abandoning the Espio and Nicole one. To be fair, I never heard anyone say they liked (or even noticed) the Espio and Nicole ship happening. I wouldn’t blame them because its implementation was shockingly inept. I didn’t even know it was a thing until I heard Ian talk about it on the Bumblekast and spotting the bits where it was inserted into the comic just served to annoy the shit out of me. Just having Espio show up randomly to approach Nicole in random panels does not make a foundation for a ship. It also makes no sense. That’s probably the biggest issue; the fact that those two have nothing to do with each other so why the fuck is it happening?

Shard and Nicole just make more sense. That one conversation they had just makes them come off as better fit for each other. This isn’t even getting into the whole A.I compatibility thing. 

Anyway, Metal Sonic attacks the hospital and yanks Antoine out of bed. Shard bursts in and does the Dragon Ball thing where Goku tells him that they should fight somewhere else and Metal agrees to do so. They even fly to a wasteland.

THE wasteland to be precise. It’s the old site of Knothole that has burned to the ground. Not a speck of grass remains. It’s just a dead expanse of land. 

Metal Sonic chose this area because it was an area that proves the superiority of robot kind. A big honking robot did do this I guess, yeah. Shard says that if organics are so inferior then why do they strive to be more like them? He says this because he can tell that Metal Sonic has more of a spark in him than last time. Maybe it’s because he can actually talk this time.

Or perhaps it’s because Metal Sonic acknowledged him when he called him “brother”. Metal Sonic actually calls him “Brother” back too. It’s an interesting take.

Shard says he’s trying to change people’s minds about weapons like them and Metal Sonic attacking hospitals isn’t exactly helping. Fair.

And so… these two brothers… begin to DANCE!

THEY DANCE!!!

Metal Sonic slashes across Shard’s cheek and in the next couple of panels it’s completely fixed. I guess he’s got Tony Stark nano-reconstruction tech.

The next couple of scenes that happen are actually really good.

All that bitching and all that belly aching I did about how Metal Sonic’s been constantly destroyed and demolished comes back into frame. It’s a really impressive way to address the situation with him and use it to your advantage. This issue exists to make Metal Sonic a threat once again and it does so by having Metal Sonic analyze what Shard is doing and recalling his past selves defeats to retaliate.

When he sees Shard about to fire a cannon at him, he recalls a time when Shadow threw a rock into his arm cannon to make him explode… so he does the same thing to Shard.

HE THREW A ROCK AT HIM…

Wasn’t even that big a rock.

This continues on two more times before Shard is just battered to shit. Shard even ends up blasting through the rock in his arm cannon to try and get it out and launch it as a projectile but recalling when he was blown up by Marine’s cannon allows him to retaliate by blasting a chest cannon into it before it hits so that the threat is neutralized.

Shard is a smoking heap on the ground and Metal Sonic reigns supreme…!

Metal Sonic grabs him and an attempt to actually utilize what came before is being made in order to finally, properly make Metal Sonic an actual character. 

Shadow relaying his message to Metal Sonic all the way back in SU #1 meant nothing at the time because of the circumstances behind what Metal Sonic was. However, it’s being repurposed here because now Metal Sonic has all the data and memories of his past destroyed versions of himself, ironically, except for Shard, the one that’s become more than just a living weapon.

Because of this new direction, Metal Sonic feels as though he has an actual consciousness and his body is just a shell that consciousness is put into. From now on, whenever he gets destroyed it won’t really mean anything because it’ll be the same Metal Sonic.

NOW he’s a character… and it only took until the literal final issue of the Pre-Reboot for it to happen, which is low key kind of hilarious.

Shard’s arm cannon is fixed now so he blasts Metal off of him and charges in to try and drill into the Power Gem in Metal’s chest. It’s really dramatic too. He laments having to kill his brother here but knows if he doesn’t the people he wants to protect will be killed.

However, Metal Sonic still has tricks up his sleeve and manages to demolish Shard’s arm with a burst shield before he can do it. 

I imagine he screamed the same way Variant Loki screamed when Crocodile Loki bit off his hand.

Things are really intense!

Shard gets pissed and tackles Metal, saying that if he’s gotta go then they’ll go together, ala Xemnas. Except he means it differently.

Metal Sonic warns Shard that self-termination is imminent but Shard claims this isn’t about him. He’s realized that Eggman has made sure that Shard isn’t capable of changing and tries to grab his Power Gem.

However, that was also a bad move. When they crash into the dirt, Metal says that his target’s data has been successfully stored into the Power Gem Core and having detected the weakness of his enemy, decides to eliminate him.

He esplode.

He ded.

Except, not yet.

He’s alive enough to have some dying words. Considering what’s about to happen to the continuity, the bleak ambiguity of what’s happening here and the cracks in Shard’s… shard feel even more solemn and bitter sweet. 

A lot of these characters got left off in really shitty positions before the universe was nuked. If they didn’t survive the purge that happened anyway then he might as well be dead.

… That actually hurt to say but honestly it’s hard to look at it any other way.

Shard is gone.

We cut back to Eggman’s base where Metal Sonic steps out of the reconstruction chamber or whatever. He relays the message that the Power Gem was destroyed but he got the combat data. Eggman claims this to be a mixed bag but he’s delighted that Metal Sonic’s been perfected. 

As an aside, it’s cute that Orbot and Cubot actually placed a bet on whether or not Metal Sonic would be destroyed. Cubot lost that bet. Considering the history of this bot, that was a bit silly of him but it’s Cubot after all. I also enjoy it as a way to poke fun at the widely criticized recurrence of Metal being blown up so often. Really regretting never having done a counter for that still.

Anyway, Metal Sonic still wants to kill Sonic but Eggman says, “Not yet” and tells him that he’s got a “base” villain to join up with at a different location before that happens. I had no clue who he was talking about. I was assuming he meant Hugo Brass but Metal Sonic, funnily enough, has more personality than him now so I figured not.

I didn’t figure out who Eggman was talking about until I read the yellow preview box that said we’d discover Metal Sonic’s new partner in the World’s Collide crossover.

That’s when it clicked.

A base villain.

Bass.

Cute.

Sonic Universe - Issue #50: Go Ahead… Mecha My Day! Part 3 and Part 4

Writer: Mike Gallagher
Pencils: Patrick "Spaz" Spaziante
Inks: Harvey Mercadoocasio
Letters: Mindy Eisman
Colors: Barry Grossman
Assistant Editor: Freddy Mendez
Editor: Scott Fulop
Managing Editor: Victor Gorelick
Editor-In-Chief: Richard Goldwater

So, you’re probably thinking that was pretty short for a double length book. So was I, until I found out what the story in the back was. It’s the Sonic CD adaptation from Sonic the Hedgehog #25. Wow. 

You know, I don’t remember this being here. It’s probably because I didn’t read it. I may have had it in my mind back then that old classic looking Sonic was icky and I only wanted to read Modern Sonic stuff. I definitely do still prefer Modern Sonic stuff but I’m totally more accepting of reading Classic Sonic material in the comics. Just keep them separate. Also, please keep Classic Sonic out of the Modern Sonic games. Try for a Generations 2 in another 20 years. I’ll probably be dead by then.

Oh and he’s called “Mecha-Sonic” in this story, with a hyphen in between it.

This story is called “Go Ahead… Mecha My Day” and it’s part 3 and then part 4. It’s charming cringe like that title that makes these days of old so endearing.

Not to worry though, the dialogue follows suit as well.

Man… the dialogue back in these old days really was something else…

I can’t even find words to make fun of it. It feels so transparent how “bad” it is but, like, in a good way.

I almost forgot how characters used to speak in literal exposition text-to-speech. 

“Mwaha! N’yes Sonic. You won’t be able to defeat me for you will be eating my dust. STAR dust that is. As in STARDUST SPEEDWAY the level in which we raced each other in the hit game on the mega successful, totally-can’t-prove-it-wasn’t-a-hit console the SEGA CD in SONIC THE HEDGEHOG CD released in 1993  in which I and young ROSY THE RASCAL aka AMY ROSE made our first game debuts. Yeeeesssssss…!”

The exposition here almost reminds me of End of Days. That ridiculous kind of exposition that just makes you laugh whenever you hear it.

“The number of the beast is not 666. Often in dreams numbers can become distorted so that 666 becomes 999… LIKE IN 1999 THE YEAR OF HIS (Satan’s) RETURN!”

Fuck me. That always gets a laugh out of me. That wonderful line is fucking perfection.

Sonic races Metal Sonic to try and free Amy and Tails from Robotnik. He has them captured and tied to a chair because they’re both young damsels at this time. Tails also calls Amy by her full name when addressing her which is a thing they used to do that I had forgotten was a thing they used to do.

Sonic’s new move, the Super Peel Out, is what he uses to move at warp speed. Then Mecha Sonic narrates his defeat for us by saying that he’s moving faster than he was built to move and can’t keep up with Sonic. The heat he generates melts his legs and he loses.

Pfft. Yeah, okay. Sure, why not?

Sally drops out of an airplane to kick Robotnik in the back saying she has spotted his unmistakable “large body” thus providing her with a clear target.

Then, you know, Robotnik moans like a bitch about having lost and says he wants Sonic to get under the arch he designed. Sonic says he’ll do it anyway and he does and then when Robotnik activates it, Sonic just steps out of the way.

For some reason Robotnik thought he wouldn’t be able to and says that’s impossible.

I’m really not sure why. He just saw the Mecha Sonic he built lose to Sonic because it’s legs fucking melted from being unable to move fast enough to keep up with the thing it was built to keep up with.

Hilariously enough, Robotnik’s plans being foiled here just ends the story with this panel.

A Sonic Adventure line before Sonic Adventure.

It’s great. He just does a dramatic opera pose in the sky while Sonic gives the thumbs up. He doesn’t at all act like a man who devastated the entire world here but that was the nature of these early books. 

I really miss covering these. They’re too goofy and I can only see the charm in them now that we’ve come this far.

Knowing what’s about to happen to the continuity, was this the best choice for the final Sonic Universe arc before the jump? Honestly, it doesn’t really matter. This issue was fantastic. It had a really cool fight and it showcased both these characters at their absolute best. For Metal Sonic, especially, this was a long time coming and the adage of “better late than never” really does apply here since this is literally the Pre-Reboot SU's last hurrah. He’ll be fine of course but the trajectory of his past failures leading up to this will be lost along with the rest of the history of the book so it’s still bittersweet. At the very least, the idea behind making Metal more of an actual character carries through after this issue which is what really counts when all is said and done.

As for my boy Shard, man, what an ending. I felt even more for him here than I did reading it all those years ago. I think my saying that I liked him after reading this issue way back then was more of a kind gesture to those who wanted me to be more positive about the book which is ironic since I remember getting into a conversation with someone on the SEGA forums about how this issue still didn’t change their hatred of the character. I didn’t go to bat for him that hard but I wanted to acknowledge the work that went into making him work and reading it now it really shines through. It really is a crying shame that this is the end for him. I'd have really liked to have seen more of this boy.

Next week, it’s time to say goodbye to continuity… and welcome… TO THE NEW NORM!

Did you just quote Eggman's line from Sonic 2: The Movie?

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Hot damn, about to enter Worlds Collide. I've got like 40 issues of catch up to do at this rate lol

[Dr. Detective]

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog - Issue #247: At All Costs, Part One: Fate Interrupted

Word of warning, I get really pissed off in the recap for this one, probably unjustifiably so. You be the judge of that. All I'll say is that my anger is pointedly at the situation and not at Ian Flynn or any of the people who worked their asses off to try and make this work. Even the stuff that actually is Ian's fault I'm not mad at the guy for. Just remember that.

This is it. The last issue of the Pre-Reboot. We’re finally here and it sends us off with a really shitty looking cover. It’s actually far worse than it looks because of what I’m going to show you in a bit too, however, just looking at this you can see how oddly proportioned, flat, and weird they all look. Sonic and Tails especially do not look right in the head. The only one that looks good is Mecha Sally but that doesn’t mean much. 

It’s also another Archie cover that just has a bunch of pointless words slapped all over it. I don’t know why the last couple of covers are so fearful of letting the art speak for itself but I guess it can’t be helped. Let’s get into this, the issue that pissed me off by having the worst moment from the heroes I can recall. It set me off. Fiercely. 

Spoiler

Original Cover

I mean come on. This is clearly the better cover right? I don’t even really need to see it colored. It just is better. It’s more dynamic, the characters are drawn better, it has a sense of menace and considering what happens here it even exudes an air of climax. We don’t really get much of what I feel qualifies as a climax but the cover at least would have lived up to generating that hype if this were what it looked like instead.

What baffles me about this one in particular is that this isn't a case of it needing to be changed because it had Penders characters on it. It doesn't. These are all officially okay-to-use cast members so I truly don't know what the deal is. What a low end cover for the Pre-Reboot to go out on.

---

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Evan Stanley
Inks: Terry Austin
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: John Workman
Cover By: Lamar Wells, Terry Austin, John Workman, and Matt Herms

Evan Stanley’s earlier artwork for the book was always a mixed bag for me. I love her stuff now, of course. There’s no one better when it comes to making 3-D looking 2-D art in my opinion but the earlier stuff was rough around the edges for me. She has come a long way from that one story about Naugus speaking with his inner demons already though. You can just instantly tell the difference.

The story is that the Death Egg has finally come to a stop in the Arctic Tundra. The Orca are (somehow) restocking and refueling this Death Egg after who knows how many issues and Sonic Universe arcs have gone by. It’s been an inexcusably long time. I know I lived through reading this issue by issue, month to month, but I just can’t imagine how I managed it now.

Eggman’s apparently been really cautious so Team Fighters and the Arctic Freedom Fighters (AKA the most disposable Freedom Fighter group with no interesting traits amongst any of them) charge in to raid Eggman’s base. At least these guys will have the “honor” of starring in the last issue of the Pre-Reboot before the universe obliterates them from the cosmos.

So, they all break in and start to fight off the Eggman robots… however, the robots are all grabbed and defeated single-handedly by the arrival of Silver the Hedgehog. Yes, he’s back in the tundra and because he helped “Boomer” before, the Arctic Freedom Fighters already know who he is.

Sonic does too unfortunately.

So, I’m once again reminded of Sonic ‘06. This is the exact same situation as that, sort of. There are a lot more people around and the circumstances behind what’s happening is different but it’s basically the same. Silver shows up to stop a bunch of robots before they attack Sonic while he’s in the middle of a mission to rescue a princess.

In the game, Sonic asked what was going on and Silver said “circumstances have changed” and that he needed to save the princess. Sonic didn’t question that because he wished to prioritize saving the princess too. One could say he got over that whole “trying to kill him” thing quickly but the interesting thing about that is… no one DOES say that. I’ve actually never seen anyone complain that Sonic forgave Silver and let him help him in an instant. Not once in the 16 years that Sonic ‘06 has been a thing. That’s just what Sonic would do, you know?

I’ve made it no secret that I’ve had… issues with grappling with how Sonic is portrayed in the Archie book. The Flynn era has been no exception due to how he’s intentionally going off of how Sonic is supposed to be more war-torn in these books. He admitted as such in his podcast and talked about how his approach for IDW Sonic was intentionally much softer as the damaged, war ridden background didn’t apply to him there like it does for Archie. It’s an interesting thing to think about.

Unfortunately, understanding it isn’t a substitute for preferring it. That’s all it is really. I just prefer a different flavor of Sonic and that’s okay. I’m sure there’s people out there that prefer this Sonic. 

I don’t judge. As I’ve stated before though, I’m not really a fan of my heroes being constantly angry and vindictive. So when Sonic’s reaction to getting a helping hand from Silver is to angrily approach him and outright declare he’s going to dismiss everything he has to say, it can’t not annoy and bother me. Already he’s starting on the wrong foot with me.

I don’t feel like I need to reiterate the fact that I’m aware that Silver isn’t blameless as well. He’s done a lot that’s been wrong and messed up but the issue is that I can’t exactly call him out on that stuff anymore because he’s already calling it out himself. On top of that, by this point, it’s shockingly obvious who the traitor is.

This is STILL the biggest point of contention I have with this whole mess too. This mystery is ass. It’s been solved for months… no, YEARS at this point. Sally became a robot at the end of issue #230 and that came out in November of 2011. THIS issue came out in April of 2013. 

The time gap here is incredible. The instant Sally became a robot, I and a lot of other people solved the mystery. I tried my hardest to have hope and pretend that all this pussyfooting around it that the book continued to do was setting me up for some kind of swerve but no. It’s exactly what we thought it was without any snafus.

The fact that Sonic couldn’t figure this out when Silver appeared outside his house that day got me angry. At THIS point I'm just nauseated by how frustrating it is. You’ve got to understand, my perception of Sonic as a character was already being ignored with how mean and quick to snap to anger at people trying to help him he was so adding the fact that he, nor anyone else, was even considering that the fucking MECHA SALLY was the culprit was making me want to tug my hair out.

Not only that but this issue sucks as a finale to the Pre-Reboot anyway. Might as well add that to the pile.

Silver keeps trying to plead his case, saying he’s got info from the outside. He can’t tell them WHO it is (it’s a guy literally named WHO) but he needs them to at least listen. Tails, recalling his encounter with Elias that one time, asks if the “true king” is involved.

At first I thought that was very strange wording on Tails’ part and I wracked my brain trying to figure out why he said it all weird like that until I remembered that Tails literally is not allowed to say Elias by name. It was a surprisingly easy thing to forget.

Tails tells Sonic to hear him out. Sonic asks what the deal is and Tails says to just trust him. Sonic says he will but immediately goes against that on the literal next page.

Anyway, Silver basically just lays everything out. He says that in his future all anyone knows is that in this era one of the original Freedom Fighters does something that destroys the team. He says he’s running out of time and Sonic cracks a joke about him being a time traveler. Hardy harr, he’s unaware that Silver can’t do that anymore right now so it’s whatever. Anyway, Silver gets upset by this and talks about all the shitty stuff that’s happened.

“Your team has already fallen apart. SALLY IS A KILLER ROBOT! Antoine is in a coma, and Bunnie is missing!”, Silver says. 

ONE OF THESE THINGS IS NOT LIKE THE OTHERS!

Does Sonic or anyone else put it together yet?

NO! CAUSE THEY’RE STUPID!

Anyway, Silver just comes out with it. He uses some very poor choice of words when he says who the “traitor” is but he was probably just trying to keep things in context of what the subject matter was.

Either way, it leads to one of my personal least favorite pages in the entire book. I know everyone’s got their sights on a lot of the stuff from before #160 as stuff to point to and I don’t begrudge them that. That stuff is awful. However, again, you have to understand that I was reading these books well after all that stuff and the stuff that sticks with me is going to naturally be the stuff that I absorbed when I first got into the comics and not necessarily the stuff I found to hate about it through this retrospective.

So, to me, when I see this page, even if it’s not technically worse than a lot of the Penders stuff before it, it fills me with the kind of anger and vitriol that Sonic is exuding. It’s another one of those scenes that I hate so much that I can’t stand looking at it. It physically hurts stalling this much to keep away from the image as best I can and to the rest of you, you probably don’t care about it as much but I can’t lie. I do.

Silver says the "traitor" is Sally…

…AND SONIC AND AMY’S RESPONSE IS TO TRY AND FUCKING ASSAULT THE GUY!

THEY TRY TO BEAT HIM UP… BECAUSE HE SAID A THING THEY DIDN’T LIKE!

There’s probably some defenses out there for this moment. I haven’t seen them honestly. When I brought up how much I fucking hated this moment all those years ago on the forum I frequented, I didn’t get any push back on it and I refused to talk about it afterward because, as you no doubt know, way more “interesting” things were happening with the book immediately after this issue came out and then some.

It’s easy to not care about this and just say the anger was justified or that they were feeling “some type of way” and that gives our heroes an excuse to attack someone because he said something they didn’t want to hear and were somehow, STILL, too fucking stupid to figure out themselves.

However, laying out all the facts, I can’t in good conscious take into consideration their actions as being in anyway understandable. Not to mention, the book is only portraying Silver in a sympathetic light at this point. He’s renounced what he’s done, apologized for it, bringing up nothing but good points, and said something that makes sense on the heels of Sally being turned into a murder-bot… and THAT was their reaction.

Sonic is one thing, but Amy? She’s barely met the guy and the instant he says Sally is the traitor she charges at him with her hammer and the arctic wolf and Tails need to hold them both back. They need to be HELD BACK! 

What was going to happen if they didn’t hold them back? Were we going to see a scene where Sonic punched Silver in the face over and over again while Amy smashed him with his hammer repeatedly… because he SAID something they didn’t like?

“How dare you accuse Sally, who is currently a murder machine and acting for the benefit of the Eggman Empire, of being the reason the Freedom Fighters fell apart (like what literally happened in part because Sally was roboticized) and led to the future being ruined.”

Yeah! This guy comes from a future that’s been ruined and has probably dealt with a ton of hardships and turmoil the likes of which outstretch our own by a considerable degree from sheer lack of any friends and family to rely on and he just saved us from a bunch of robots and just told us that the traitor is someone who is currently trying to kill us… let’s BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF HIM! 

Then Silver will ask, “Why are you doing this?!”

And they’ll be like, “BECAUSE WE’RE SONIC HEROES!”

And then keep kicking the shit out of him. A cookie for anyone who remembers that short.

I’ve stressed this so often but I feel like it really, REALLY can’t be stated enough here that it’s OB. VI. OUS. 

It’s OBVIOUS that Sally is the “traitor”. 

I don’t for the life of me understand why literally all of them are refusing to consider that what happened to Silver’s future was the result of Mecha Sally.

One of the original Freedom Fighters betrayed the team, broke the team apart, and ruined the future you say? Oh shit. That sounds like exactly what’s happening with Sally. Maybe that’s what happened. Done! That’s it. No more thinking required.

I can’t stand it. I still can’t stand it even after all these years. It’s just infuriating. I know most people got upset by the Thrash thing but this is the thing that set me off. I didn’t care if the Pre-Reboot version of Sonic died after this. So long. Good riddance.

Harsh, I know. I’m sorry if you don’t like it.

Back in Knothole, Nicole is about to cut the ribbon on the newly created Castle Acorn as her first act after being allowed back into the city. 

Nicole talks about how Naugus is deathly ill and wonders why his “agent” isn’t here to at least keep up appearances. Rotor says that the less they see of those two, the better. Nicole says back that Naugus is DYING and no matter how they feel about him, they have to make an effort to save his life.

Rotor basically says “Nah. I say let em die!” Then he starts singing, “LET EM DIE! LET EM DIE! LET EM SHRIVEL UP AND–!”

Anyway, everything starts to go to shit again. The nanites are dying and going haywire. I’m momentarily surprised they can even say “nanites” too but I guess it doesn’t matter since the reboot is literally mere pages away at this point.

Cream is then brought the Tails Doll by Cheese who looks really angry at it for some reason. Cream also gets mad at the doll and starts to… scold it… but then stops when she realizes that scolding it as if acting as if it has a mind of its own might actually be the case here. She puts two-and-two together in a manner that’s quite impressive for a young girl.

Seriously, even if the doll kept disappearing during these incidents I wouldn’t necessarily expect someone to think it was the doll’s fault… but it’s also plausible that she realizes this too because, hey, it’s Eggman and he builds weird stuff. It’s perfectly reasonable for her to be on guard for it. It’s also refreshing that she figured this out while our heroes in the arctic are busy being dumbasses.

It’s weird how Cream looks like she’s been sleeping on her ear wrong in this image though. Her ear is strangely folded and/or crumpled up like a sheet of paper here. I really don’t know why the decision to draw it like this was made.

Cream decides to tell Rotor her hypothesis. She lays out that she thinks Eggman sent down an evil doll shaped like Tails to fuck with their nanites. When she lays it all out like that, she realizes it sounded better in her head but Rotor takes her seriously and asks her where the doll is. She says she told Cheese to take it back home and thus Rotor comes up with a plan.

We then cut back to the Arctic where all the really obvious shit is spelled out for all the people in the room. 

It’s what you’d expect. Silver assumed the traitor was doing things maliciously but Sally was actually selfless and went against the Freedom Fighters against her will. History just lost the details. Amy reiterates that Sally isn’t a traitor then which means… this is a semantic thing.

Seriously, if the reason the heroes couldn’t or refused to put two and two together was because Silver kept using the word “traitor” then that’s just… I just… really don’t like that…

I can’t summon the energy to be angry anymore. Arctic Fox lady who’s name I’m not going to remember because she’s going to die soon says that what Silver said makes sense. Two hundred years after the fall of the Freedom Fighters and society would make the details go missing. They might not even know about Roboticization, which is crazy to me, but it's plausible. If that long a time passes and no one’s around to keep the records up to date then who would know?

Sonic marches up to Silver and says some dumb shit to him and then says if he means what he says then they’re cool. I don’t know if Sonic thinks Silver has some ulterior motive here or what but it’s still pissing me off. It’s probably unreasonable just how much hatred I’m feeling right now but everything happening right now sucks. I can’t stand it.

They go down deeper in an attempt to reach the heart of the Death Egg. Silver tries to light their way and OH SHIT, they’re surrounded by Akhlut and his gang of orcas.

It’s a very interesting image.

This killer whale just fucking rams it’s face through the tunnel to try and kill these motherfuckers and Sonic and Tails bum rush the guy in the water to try and stop him. Silver uses his powers to try and keep everyone else around him safe.

However, sensing Silver’s power with a power similar to his own, he realizes that Silver is the reason the orcas hold over the walruses is gone and gets REALLY pissed off. He leads a murder charge on him and tries his damndest to get this dude killed. 

Seriously, he’s pissed. Even when they’re out of the water he keeps attacking Silver and when they try to run away he screams at the troops to murder them and have their bodies tossed to him for some fresh meat. He really loved having those walruses under his control, dammit.

Eggman, Orbot, and Elongated-Headed Cubot are witnessing this on their monitors. Eggman is freaking out. He just got this place repaired AND he’s about to kick off another Genesis Wave.

Oh my God… Eggman is teaming up with Alberto Robert, the shoemaker from Sonic ‘06. I knew that man and his arms that he can never lower weren’t to be trusted. The fucker.

No, we know who he’s really talking about. Maybe Eggman sent Albert a letter explaining the Penders situation and that he needed his help with a reboot, stat.

Amy is the first to come across Mecha Sally. She does so in an immediate, lovely way too.

This image is hilarious.

Anyway, Sonic bursts onto the scene too and grapples with her, saying he’s taking her home for what has to be the billionth time. 

Sally just thanks him for the point blank range as she charges up her laser. She even calls him sweetie. How considerate.

Back in Mobotropolis, Vanilla and Cream fake a conversation in the house to trick the Tails Doll into thinking it’s being left alone.

It scurries out the window as Cream eyes it from the roof of her house. It then slithers creepily along the ground into the power supply area where it gets ambushed by all of Team Freedom, including Cream.

She calls it a bad dolly and Nicole says she doesn’t appreciate what the Tails Doll is doing to her nanites.

Tails Doll, now that it’s been found out, decides to shift priorities to killing Team Freedom and turns into this overdone, overcompensating, vagina monster with large breasts.

The old adage about the Tails Doll being creepy was something I never quite understood due to having never played Sonic R at the time of hearing about it. I didn’t even know where it originated from or why everyone kept posting creepy images of it while saying “Can You Feel the Sunshine?”. I had no idea that was even a song.

I did eventually play Sonic R when I got Gems Collection for the GameCube but I didn’t play much of it because it played like complete ass. No way I was going to be able to beat enough of it to properly experience the Tails Doll.

Still, I always thought that the meme was… a bit much. I still didn't quite get it. So, when I saw this, instead of being creeped out my reaction was more “Okay… sure. I get what you’re trying to do but this is a bit much.”

It’s one of those times where you lean into the meme of it being creepy so much that you just turn it into this gross monster and it just stops being a meme and starts being real in a way that feels kind of forced to me. I dunno. It’s probably just me but seeing this didn’t do much for me aside from confuse me a bit.

Then, after this page, I shit you not, THIS is how this issue ends.

This is the last page of the Pre-Reboot before the Genesis Wave. 

I knew this issue ended with a whimper but this is seriously the whimpiest whimper to ever sputter out of a comic I've read.

The very SECOND page that Mecha Sally is on, this happens. She’s on the cover, looking all menacing and shit, does nothing throughout the issue, shows up and then gets tapped in the back by Silver in a scene so rushed you swore they ran out of pages, and then she just collapses.

That’s it.

Done.

That’s the end to the two-year long Mecha Sally arc and the endless chasing of both her and the Death Egg from village to village. That’s what it was all leading up to.

It’s…

… REALLY bad.

Holy shit guys…

… I don’t even know if I can follow that up with a proper send off for the Pre-Reboot continuity now. I know I probably should but now that I’m here and with THAT as the ending I feel like I can’t.

What can I say as a eulogy that wouldn’t be anything anyone here hasn’t already said before? It sucks. This sucks. This was, for me at least, a terrible final issue of the pre-reboot. I hated the emotions of the characters, it’s focus was pretty unnecessarily split, and I don’t know why they bothered to dedicate so much page space to Akhlut when the Mecha Sally resolution was the main issue here. At least the Tails Doll thing was something that’s been going on for almost the same length of time and was in need of some kind of pay off but that was mostly just filler.

Then it just ends. Mecha Sally’s actual part to play in this issue just fizzled out immediately the instant she showed up. Who gives a shit now?

Honestly, the main book was having a hard time maintaining itself throughout this Mecha Sally arc. It was too formulaic and too repetitive for WAY too long and it got old fast. The stalling on what was to be done with her and the stretched out nature of this story had no benefits to it either. With something like the Metal Virus, there’s progression happening regardless because each person that gets infected is a character lost and an avenue towards victory that’s been compromised. 

Here though, there’s nothing happening to make it lasting this long feel like it makes sense. Sally just goes to one town, does nothing important, leaves, they follow, rinse and repeat. They do that for 40 years and then they die.

It was truly a shame because the background story elements concerning Naugus, Geoffrey, and a couple of other things were on the cusp of finally finding their resolution but by then it was too late. Ian waited too long and the Penderp hammer dropped when he wasn’t prepared for it.

All the work he did beefing up the story of the pre-reboot from #160 onward was, in a lot of ways, a treasure. Even the stuff I didn’t like I can’t say I don’t appreciate in some way because it all came from a place of at least attempting to course correct and get this Sonic the Hedgehog comic back on track towards feeling like something you’d expect out of a Sonic the Hedgehog comic book.

Penders and his weird obsession with everyone being an allegory to the fucking Nazi regime had no place here and we needed all this bloat trimmed down to something serviceable and something that was worthy of respect.

It didn’t get that respect because it’s Penders. Granted, Archie didn’t give it any respect either. Archie is just as at fault, if not even more so. Their actions were nothing short of shocking and the incompetence on display on their end only begins with this lawsuit. The fact that they were the ones who filed it without being properly prepared and then lost has to remain a huge fucking embarrassment to them. 

They really should be rocked thunderously to their core that they orchestrated a situation where they lost to Ken Penders, of all things, on this planet.

But they did and the ones who suffered were all the creative people who worked on the book and the people who loved or were finally learning to love a lot of the characters from the book.

Granted, we can make due without Penders’ characters, definitely… but it still sucks that it had to happen this way. If we could have, at the very least, been given a chance for a proper ending and send off I wouldn’t even feel that cheesed off about this but it is what it is.

We’re diving head first into something a bit more fun now and then… it’s time to begin anew.

This issue wasn’t very good at all. The problems with it’s flow, it’s focus, it’s character writing, and it’s extremely bad pacing towards the end are all on open display. I don’t need to reiterate it all or explain it in further detail then what I’ve already done. It doesn’t even matter because THIS doesn’t matter anymore. None of what I just read REALLY matters. No one’s going to defend this issue and that’s to be expected. It’s a by-product of everything that’s wrong with what was happening to the book at the time due to incompetent outside influences that saw it get royally fucked over.

It’s the end of an era and said era died with the saddest, most pathetic death whine that’s probably ever been put to paper. This is an ending so unremarkable it probably wouldn’t even defend itself were it sentient enough to do so. 

The only thing we can do is view the next 12 issue long epic as the celebratory finale this era of Flynn deserves and embrace the unmitigated awesome that awaits us. I think we’ve all earned it after having to put up with what just happened. Let’s finally get to it. 

Mega Man - Issue #24: When Worlds Collide - Part One of Twelve: Kindred Spirits

It’s finally that time. That’s right. It’s time to switch binders. I have about seven of them for the Archie comics alone, including the small number of Mega Man comics I actually did buy. Not including the ones I had to get for both crossovers, I think I have about three issues of Mega Man. This is because I decided to try and collect Mega Man after World’s Unite. Bad move, to say the least.

One of these days I’ll find the time to actually read the Mega Man books because I really want to. There’s too much I want to read, watch, and play. The backlog of games on my shelf is ridiculous. Getting around to Mega Man in any capacity has taken well over a decade and it still hasn’t happened. Imagine still having so much to catch up on despite a series only releasing one game in that amount of time. 

Still, I recall enjoying my time with the Blue Bomber here and I find myself also desiring to see these two crossover yet again but in an actual game. It most likely will never happen but it feels appropriate. Also, this is a fantastic cover. Everyone’s favorite part about it back in the day was Charmy’s thumb and where it was about to insert itself. 

Spoiler

Team Mega Man Variant

If you were Team Mega Man you were tasked with getting this cover to support the side of the Blue Bomber. To be honest, I’M Team Sonic and I still probably would have enjoyed seeing Mega Man kick Sonic’s butt. I love Sonic but seeing him get humbled is always fun. This one gives you some computer lines in the background. For some reason, the Mighty No. 9 music is playing in my head right now and that’s not fair to Mega Man.

 

Team Sonic Variant

The other side has been washed out again, only it’s Mega Man’s side this time. You’ve got Green Hill and checkerboard patterns for your troubles here. Honestly though, I think they could have kept the two sides looking the same as before and just had one faded in and out. I didn’t need Sonic to move over to the left. How am I supposed to pretend this is a flip-book now? I mean, I can’t. I don’t have either of these covers but I could have if I did and they did it the way I wanted.

 

Convention Exclusive Variant

Finally, this was the cover that was first revealed to us as a way to… well, reveal that this event was happening. It was more of a banner but the message was clear. Mega Man took off his helmet and Sonic managed to take off his shoes. I imagine convincing Sonic to do that was tough since he rarely ever does so. As in, I’ve never seen him take his shoes off before. He might have done so in one of the old 90s cartoons though. They didn’t give a shit.

---

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Jamal Peppers
Inks: Jim Amash
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: John Workman
Cover, Variant Covers and Convention Exclusive Covers by Patrick “Spaz” Spaziante

We begin the issue of this grand 12-part epic with our two heroes fighting each other.

It can’t be a proper crossover without a fight between the two of them, of course.

It’s funny, looking at this I find myself actually rooting for either one of them. It’s fun whenever Sonic gets taken down a peg, sure, but I also like seeing Sonic win so… I dunno. I’d have been cool with whatever. There probably wouldn’t have needed to be an ending where it went unfinished for me.

Of course, that can’t happen because this comic isn’t being written for just me. There are people on both sides who REALLY give a shit about seeing which ever one they’re rooting for win for whatever reason. It’s that shitty Death Battle mentality. These two fighting can’t just be for fun.

I say we all take a page out of Dr. Eggman and Dr. Wily’s book and just enjoy the ride. We cut to Tails Man, a robot Tails, floating in the sky above the fight as it’s recording the match and the two doctors are dancing around together celebrating their union while rooting for the other doctor’s hero to kill their own hero. They even share a manly drink together.

What makes this really interesting to me is that this isn’t some out of universe spiel that’s happening. Hints to this happening were sprinkled about in some of the earlier issues proper, making it clear that this was a part of the continuity. It’s got impertinent information that ties into the plot of the Sonic book. I don’t know if that’s true of the Mega Man book but I would hope so. The only thing I know is that when this is over Wily, having forgotten everything (which always sucks after crossovers like this) just has a desire to stomp on a carton of eggs. 

Thankfully, the Sonic side ends up remembering what happened at least. 

You’ve also probably taken notice of that huge board with the Chaos Emeralds on it. Two are missing but interestingly enough one of the ones that have been found is the blue Chaos Emerald. That’s right. It’s been found. But how?

Well, we cut back to weeks before this point. Dr. Wily is in his lab. He’s asking the scary as fuck looking Ra Moon to create a rice cooker for him which, given the way Ra Moon keeps being addressed by the characters in both this story and what little flashes I’ve seen of Mega Man, sounds absurd. He keeps insisting on this being what he wants when… one of his robots approaches him with a special thing he found out in the forest.

His robot tells him that it’s probably beryl and Wily says “Fine, so it’s an aquamarine or whatever. I’m no geologist.”

It’s fun hearing all the names I heard on Steven Universe again. Rocks have a lot of fun names.

Anyway, I apologize for calling that character “robot”. You know that thing where the Archie comics have a name plate next to a character to tell you who someone is? Well, this would be the perfect opportunity for that. There’s plenty of people who don’t read Mega Man (or Sonic) that are reading this now and in situations like these, I’d prefer they actually be here this time and they’re just not aside from our two blue heroes and our two mustached doctors.

But yeah, Wily found the Chaos Emerald that Eggman was looking for all this time. Turns out it ended up in Mega Man’s world. How bonkers is that? Literally anything can happen when you hit something hard enough with a Genesis Wave. It’s incredibly irresponsible of Eggman to keep doing it so often.

As for Eggman, he’s back in his base, preparing to yell at his commanders for failing him again like he’s an actor for television. He asks “Am I on?” with a solemn, concerned look on his face and when Orbot and Cubot call for action he gets into character and starts screaming at the monitor, thinking his admonishing his commanders for failing to find the Chaos Emerald… when he’s actually screaming at Dr. Wily.

Yes, Dr. Wily actually took the emerald and put it on some weird scanner thing connected to a tiny computer and this allowed Eggman and Wily to cross paths across the Egg Net. So now, they’re talking to one another.

Impressively enough, when Wily claims to be the greatest robotics genius on Earth, Eggman pauses and asks him what year it is there. Wily says 20XX. These were apparently all the clues Eggman needed to figure out that he talking to someone on a different world. Impressive.

Wily thinks he means in an “alien” sense. Like a creature from another planet. He comments on how Eggman doesn’t look like how he’d picture an alien too. Eggman finds this amusing and realizes this is Albert’s first time dealing with parallel universes.

He quickly offers an explanation and the two of them IMMEDIATELY click. They suspect that the other might be looking to “better” the world with their robotics and also that they might have a young upstart getting in their way to do so.

It’s funny because Eggman’s explanation of how parallel universes work in the Sonic verse makes this make more sense. He says some universes have only minor differences while some are VASTLY different. However, they still exist within a parallel universe so it’s still likely that they have some similarities between them. The two of them realizing that they might be the mad doctors of their worlds and that they may both have a young upstart trying to ruin their plans is, as a result, not a stretch of logic at all.

It’s really fascinating how the status of parallel universes in this comic can be used to this effect. Sonic and Mega Man DO actually have enough similarities between them for this notion of them being parallel universes with heavy differences to be seen as something plausible. 

Eggman decides they need to meet and they do so in a zone that Wily created by manipulating the energy of the Chaos Emerald per Eggman’s instructions. I both didn’t know that’s how zones like this were created nor that Eggman knew how to do that… 

Wow. Eat your heart out Feist.

Anyway, the two of them hit it off in ways that are expected of the two of them.

Thus, the Skull Egg Zone was born.

Damn, that’s a good idea. It’s a shame it’s trapped in this Archie book and not in something where it could be mined for good use in the future.

They get to work on creating something grand within it. Apparently, time passes by in this zone way slower than in either of their dimensions which gives them ample time to create. They use their robots and the power of Wily’s Ra Moon to create the Death Egg III… or no, the Wily Flying Fortress… erm…

Sure. Let’s go with that. Who cares if it sounds like ass?

The important thing is that we’re working together.

When that’s settled we get a helpful explanation for the audience as to what the hell the main crux of their plan is. 

Basically, they’re rewriting reality using the power of the blue Chaos Emerald. They can’t get rid of any of the people who are already alive in their worlds (interesting…) but they can shape it so that the world is not only different but their memories of how it all played out will be altered.

It’s also a good catch that Eggman mentioned that they can’t change their spirits either. I would have wondered why they didn’t simply re-write things so that the heroes were on their side and had to be left with the excuse of “because it’s not as fun that way” or something.

Man, wouldn’t it be some shit if they could do that though? Eggman’s a petty motherfucker so I bet he’d get a sick thrill out of rewriting reality so that Tails was not only on his side but make sure to have it so that he used to be on Sonic’s side but betrayed him. He wouldn’t rewrite it so that Sonic was on his side. He’d rewrite it so that Sonic’s spirit got stomped on relentlessly. 

That said, he can’t do that so this is the next best thing.

Wily expresses his desire to resurrect all of his robot masters and Eggman says he’s got a better idea.

Tails abuse.

This is still funny to me.

He expected Sonic at the door and got a really shit candy gram instead.

Say hello to that Bass villain that was mentioned before. Metal Sonic has teamed up with him finally after that skirmish with Shard, as promised. 

The first thing I took notice of when I turned this page was seeing Tails’ lab. I could tell from the small glimpse of its interior that I saw that it was the one from the Mystic Ruins most likely. The cosmic reset gave Tails his workshop from the games. He also doesn’t remember his parents most likely.

I’d say that’s sad but what he doesn’t know and has never experienced can’t hurt him.

A robot punching him in the face can.

Tails wakes up in a tube and sees the two doctors. Wily is fascinated by the idea of Tails being able to fly with two tails as the doctor must have told him off-screen. Tails is mad at Eggman but then gulps in fear when the doctor says he’s going to be a part of an experiment.

You see, the two of them are having trouble sending a thing from one world to the other without a specimen OF that world accompanying it. That’s why Bass needed Metal Sonic to come with him to ambush him in Sonic’s world.

So, they decided that the best solution for this problem would be to combine Eggman’s roboticization process with Wily’s robotics. A combination of their world’s concepts and genius should allow whatever they create to zip freely between both worlds.

Tails doesn’t get it but I do.

What do you get when you fuse Roboticization with Robot Masters?

Roboticized Masters!

What an excellent idea! It’s literally my favorite idea to come from this crossover too!

It sure would be a shame if this concept and story element was trapped within the Archie book, never to be mined from again as a result of a terrible fallout…

Wait, I said the same thing before. Oh well, I’m saying it again.

I want a game version of this arc. It’s honestly kind of perfect the way it is so a straight up adaptation would be preferred greatly. However, that can’t happen. It just can’t. If the two were to eventually crossover in the games, would the idea of creating Robot Masters out of Sonic’s friends even be allowed? If it were allowed, they’d assuredly need new designs. 

It’s tough because I don’t technically know who owns this stuff. My gut tells me that using this stuff SHOULD be okay. The elements of this story SHOULD belong to both Capcom and SEGA, correct? How much influence would Archie even have here? I truly don’t know.

What I do know is that there’s nothing here for Penders to lay claim to. The more time passes the more irrelevant that man becomes. His stamp still has a somewhat ghostly stranglehold over the comics as they continue despite his story elements and characters being gone due to the reboot needing to rebuild it’s world from the ground up as a way to compensate for what he’s done but when the book gets canceled and IDW comes into play, the full nature of his irrelevancy will finally be here. As in, he’ll literally no longer matter and he’ll do whatever he can to try and pretend he’s still relevant by talking about how he’d write the story if IDW hired him or saying that Knuckles having a dad is an affront to him from a legal and respectful standpoint and blah blah blah.

Sorry. I just divulged into another Penders rant. That happens sometimes. The point is, this is a really cool idea and I want to know if it’s possible to utilize it again. I don’t hold any delusions that it WILL be used again but I like the idea of it at least being available.

Because Tails Man is their robot now, the two creepy older men are free to bad touch all over his body now.

This panel lives rent free in my head.

Anyway, I like that Wily doesn’t really like that it doesn’t have much of a personality. Eggman says that it’s a feature because it means your minions will give you less sass. Wily doesn’t really seem to like that still but acquiesces because it’s not really one of HIS robots anyway.

Nice. I like seeing the differences between the two.

Wily also asks if Sonic has any other friends. If they can capture them and turn them into Roboticized Masters then they can mess with Sonic’s head and have a whole army of Roboticized Masters to beat up Mega Man. 

With that decided we time jump ahead to a scene in Mega Man’s world where we get a re-enactment of the opening to Sonic Adventure, except it’s day time and also it’s Proto Man instead of Sonic.

I’ve seen Pogo Man Proto Man around before but I know nothing about him. The caption says he’s the heroic brother of Mega Man but he seems a lot more serious and stoic. My impressions of him have me feeling like the relationship is probably a situation where Mega Man is more of a free-spirited Superman and Proto Man is more of a softer, kinder Batman. 

That’s just a guess based on what I’ve seen of these two though. The whole Break Man thing is another thing that I’m a little confused by too but that’s why reading the Mega Man books when I can is still a priority. One day I will so please no spoilers.

Anyway, Proto Man sees the destruction outside of a bank and catches the door of a safe when it’s tossed at him. He goes to confront the ones who did it and we’re greeted with a whole host of Roboticized Masters. 

Knuckles Man really doesn’t roll off the tongue well. Rose Woman does though. As for Shadow Man… I guess there are just two Shadow Mans now. Alright.

I was going to ask how they even managed to find Shadow but I forgot that they gave themselves all of the knowledge of everything ever. So I guess the question of how they managed to beat Shadow the Hedgehog is the only pertinent one and the obvious answer is that they found all 11 endings.

It’s the big crossover slam session of the century and it began with a massive bang. I thought this was an excellent way to begin the proceedings. We started in media res with our two heroes and then cut to where it all truly began; the evil machinations of our horrible, evil, wonderful doctors. This is like something out of a dream and it continues to be a fantastic showcase of what can be done when you’ve got the right series and the talent to pull it off. At least, as far as I recall and what I gathered from re-reading this first issue. It also helps that a lot of what went over my head before is a lot clearer now thanks to me having actually paid attention to the blue Chaos Emerald mystery and noticing all the hints. Smashing. Jolly good show.

Sonic Universe - Issue #51: When Worlds Collide - Part Two of Twelve: Mistaken Identities

Everything feels so charming. It’s a great way to remove the sting of what just happened in the Archie Sonic comics for now at least. This is also a much better character select than the one from the Scrambled cover. It’s still pretty primitive but it’s obviously supposed to be an arcade machine thing so it’s fine. Granted, that makes Team Sonic Racing’s roster stand out as even more silly since there’s only five characters separating this one and that one. Oh well. 2022 is a very rare time where Sonic fans are being allowed to have nice things so I shouldn’t be surprised when I look back on minor disappointing elements to other games that I liked.

Spoiler

Rivals Variant

Nice cover. I can’t say I’d have preferred it over the one we actually got or anything but it’s nicely drawn and nicely colored. I love that the focus is on someone who isn’t Sonic and Mega Man as well. That’s always a nice luxury. At the end of the day it mostly feels fairly standard since it’s just these two posing. The sprite background looks nice here though.

---

Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Jamal Peppers
Inks: Jim Amash
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: John Workman
Cover by Patrick “Spaz” Spaziante
Variant Cover by Spaz, Thomas Mason, and Ryan Jampole

We’ve got more backstory for you folks.

This issue threw me off a bit when it started because, again, for some reason, the credits and title were at the end of the book. I still don’t get it but whatever.

Here, we’re cutting back to Mega Man’s world. I don’t think Mega Man was in need of a cosmic reset due to some asshole meddling with the nature of the book so seeing how it affected him must have been interesting for his audience. Or not. 

It doesn’t look like much could have changed honestly. Dr. Light is lost in thought in his lab when Rock (Mega Man in casual clothing basically) enters to just ask if he’s alright. Dr. Light just says he was lost in thought for a bit and starts talking about beginning construction on Bond Man. Right before he says what he’ll do, Roll, Rock’s sister, runs in to warn them that Blues is being attacked by weird looking Robots. It’s all over the news.

I actually had no idea that Proto Man’s name was Blues. I like these musical names by the way. I love how this is something you can get away with in fiction. I encourage any and all people to try and get away with it as much as you can.

SUPER FIGHTING ROBOT…! 

MEGA MAN!

Yes, I saw the caption. 

Mega Man’s Blues Brother is getting his ass kicked and Mega Man shows up in the nick of time to rescue him. 

In the ensuing page, Mega Man is debriefed on what happened and we get him, sort of cockily, sort of confidently, letting Proto Man know that he’ll be taking over for now.

He goes down to confront the robots saying that he’ll let them be treated peacefully and respectfully if they surrender now. These robots aren’t looking for peace though. They share a glance that says “Is this bitch for real?” before Shadow Man gives the order to destroy him.

If Proto Man couldn’t handle them by himself I can’t imagine Mega Man would but we’ll see. Maybe he’s got more ingenuity?

We cut to Sonic in Green Hill Zone… again! 

Yes, he even recalls this being a familiar scene too. He makes a comment about having deja vu of a time he once had deja vu. I’ve done that before as well. It’s not as weird as he thinks.

The point is that he’s back to a similar scene from the first time the Genesis Wave happened. Because his mind has been altered to think his reality is a bit different, he only feels it’s strange rather then 100% knowing it is.

He’s clued into something being VERY wrong when he goes searching for his friends though. He was supposed to go on an adventure in the Mystic Ruins with Tails but he’s not there. He takes the Tornado to Angel Island to find Knuckles but HE’S not there. He even tip-toes sneakily into Amy’s house AND her room but SHE’S not there.

So, Sonic decides he needs help finding his friends. While he goes out searching, he gets the Chaotix to search somewhere else.

Boy, Sonic sure was lucky THEY were still here.

We cut to the Chaotix after Sonic has already hired them for this job and it’s… surprisingly, not one of my favorite scenes.

I dunno. It’s the usual Chaotix I’m used to but the way they’re written here feels a tad off. It feels a bit… too mean? I guess?

The thing that stood out to me was Charmy flying off and saying the ice-cream man would give him ice-cream for free because he’s cute and adorable which… I mean, I don’t disagree but it feels like a weird thing for him to say. I never really pegged Charmy as the kind of kid who would brag about being cute and adorable. He’s a free spirit who does and says whatever he wants like a scatterbrained child. This feels more like something one of those Machiavellian children would say on cartoons where they scheme against adults in their neighborhood or something. I also don’t know if he’d like being called cute. Maybe he would?

I like the part where Espio says they can’t afford ice-cream though. Literally, how do you three live?

I’m also a little concerned by Espio saying that Charmy is liable to get himself arrested? Do they think he’s planning on stealing it? That’s not what he said was going to happen. Would the ice-cream man call the police on a small child because he wants ice-cream without money or would he just tell him to go away like a normal person? Maybe not in Sonic’s world.

I’m sorry for being so hung up on this. I really want to know how the ice-cream man in Sonic’s world works.

Anyway, Charmy disappears and Espio and Vector try to find him. Espio notices something and goes off on his own to find it, which is a bad idea. He then gets got leaving Vector on his own.

Vector tries to find his boys but he’s ambushed by Copy Bot. 

Since Proto Man is the Knuckles of Mega Man apparently and Bass is sort of like the Shadow or the Metal Sonic then I can only assume Copy Bot is… I dunno. Pseudo Sonic.

They’re going to treat Copy Bot like the Metal Sonic for this section but as you’ll see later (and as we’ve witnessed earlier) Metal Sonic is more comparable to Bass in terms of badassery whereas Copy Bot… isn’t.

We cut back to Mega Man’s battle in Mega City where he’s trying to take out the four Roboticized Masters in his way.

His charged shot just stuns them and to make matters work, he just gets rear-ended by a blue blur!

God, that look on his face is the best. I love it.

I foolishly thought that was Sonic but it made no sense for it to be considering the circumstances.

When a ring portal opens up and they go through it, Mega Man goes after them, letting Dr. Light know that he’s in hot pursuit before doing so.

As this happens, Silver the Hedgehog just comes flying in from the sky. It’s just what he does whenever he arrives to the past from the future… however he does it.

Sonic even calls him everyone’s favorite walking paradox. Ian Flynn may be confused by how Silver is supposed to work but that won’t stop him from making fun of it.

Anyway, because everything’s been reset, Silver shows up to warn Sonic that he arrived because he sensed a weird anomaly at this point in time. Due to the reset, the two of them aren’t being awkward around each other and Sonic isn’t super fucking angry at him. It’s refreshing.

Then Copy Bot shows up and blasts Silver to catch him in a bubble. He looks just like Mega Man too so you probably know where this is going.

Sonic chases after him and we see where Mega Man is. The blue blur that hit him wasn’t Sonic. It was Metal Sonic. Of course, it’s too fast so Mega Man can’t see it clearly. It just bashes into him again like a bully that won’t stop picking on him and typing that summoned a really painful elementary school flashback and I’m sad now.

You bully a sweetheart too often and this is what you get.

The orders to split up are given by Eggman. The Roboticized Masters are all told to go to a rendezvous point while Tails Man is told to gain higher altitude to transmit the events back to the doctors. Metal Sonic’s task is to head towards the coordinates that Copy Bot just gave the doctors as he’s currently got Sonic on his tail.

They get close and the orders to break their line of sight is given. 

Then Mega Man, poor Mega Man, gets hit with a blue blur a third time.

This time it actually is Sonic.

I’ll admit, it is pretty funny that he keeps getting bashed by a blue blur over and over again. 

Sonic cheers when he does this, saying he knocked the scarf right off of him. He didn’t see it happen but notices that there’s no scarf on him so he just assumes it’s because of him. That’s our Sonic.

Mega Man is thoroughly pissed now. I would be too considering what just happened to him. He wonders if his sensors are broken because they’re saying that Sonic is organic but no creature alive could possibly be that fast.

The two begin fighting and as Tails Man asks if the doctors are receiving this, they respond in kind that they are.

I’m loving it too. 

No, this evil team up is not sponsored by McDonalds. 

This was another great issue. The pacing of this crossover is working really well so far. The first issue was the backstory of the doctors meeting up to set up the crux of their plan while this one was the explanation for how the two heroes ended up meeting and fighting. The third issue is most likely going to be the Sonic Vs. Mega Man fight that’s standard for this kind of crossover and the rest will have to be revisited in order for me to remember properly. I can’t wait though. This is already a ton of fun and I’m glad this came to be when it did. 

We needed this when it happened and to be honest I find myself desiring it again in game form the more time that passes. Forget putting Sonic and Mario together. This is just a much cooler idea.

[SanPolo4389]

1 hour ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Rotor basically says “Nah. I say let em die!”

Rotor will now be played by James T Kirk.

[SanPolo4389]

1 hour ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

SUPER FIGHTING ROBOT…! 

MEGA MAN!

 

1 hour ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

This is also a much better character select than the one from the Scrambled cover. It’s still pretty primitive but it’s obviously supposed to be an arcade machine thing so it’s fine.

Well it's referencing Marvel Vs Capcom 1 so yeah it's great.

[NegaMix]

Oh cool! I wasn't sure if you were gonna be covering Worlds Collide or not, so great to see it's here.

There's only really one thing to note regarding Mega Man's world during this crossover, since I don't exactly recall them specifying it later on: What the Genesis Wave has done here is effectively push his world's timeline forward a bit, rather than rewrite it to nearly the extent of Sonic's world. Before (and after) this crossover, Mega Man's world was set somewhere between the second and third games chronologically, while here it's set after the tenth game, since that was the most recent at the time.

This is why there are some Wily bots here way ahead of time, like Bass.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Was actually gonna start up my catching up, but the forum was nice enough to erase my post for the first three issues I missed, so I'll go back at another point. For now - Worlds Collide is actually the point I was able to get the comics physically (even if the comic shop I was getting them from was unreliable, didn't get them in order, and charge extra rates for them). Needless to say, I've got nostalgia for them. So I'll do my regular post here and try to go back for previous ones at another point:

-There's a deeply cruel irony that our last runaround with Archie exclusive characters is yet another one of the boring, bleak Freedom Fighter bands that Gallagher made in the early years of the comic. When you compare the great arc Mina has had throughout #220 up to now, it just becomes depressing, frankly. 

-I can get your point, but to be frank, I'm completely understanding why Sonic's angry with Silver here. Everything from Mecha Sally up to now has been constant depressing failure after depressing failure for Sonic, with Silver intermixed into it, and throwing half-cocked accusations at Sonic's either injured, depressed, or kidnapped friends constantly willy-nilly. When your last interaction with the guy was him literally accusing your friend who was currently trapped in a coma - specifically because he gave his life to protect the kingdom, and his friends - and accuse him of being the traitor with very little evidence, Sonic has every right to call him a jerk for the shitty things he did.

We're more sympathetic to Silver because we've seen more from his perspective what he's had to go through - we've seen Silver Saga, we've seen Secret Freedom Fighters. All Sonic has seen is Silver constantly starting fights at the worst times, and having attempted - at least twice - to kill two separate Freedom Fighters on two occasions on flimsy reasons, and now he's here again - right as they finally have one shot at deroboticising Sally. Sonic's under an immensely stressful situation and has been for 25 issues to this point, I'm not gonna hold it against him to get angry when Silver has been consistently and consecutively wrong over and over again, and has continuously made the situation worse and worse. 

-I'm not gonna defend Sonic and Amy trying to assault Silver, because it should be pretty fucking obvious what he means - although I am gonna take a moment to at least say Silver...still really could've handled the situation better, and it's a example of poor writing because it's clearly done for drama's sake. He could've easily started the whole convo off with "I was wrong, there was no traitor, and that's what threw me off the trail. Because while they destroyed the team, they weren't in control of their actions", or something like that.

Again, this has to be seen from Sonic and Amy's sides - all they know is Silver has done nothing but constantly and consistently throw around completely irrational and totally idiotic conspiracy theories on immensely flimsy grounds, and each and every time he's done so, not only was he wrong - most of the time, he refused to do the leg work to confirm those theories and instead jumped right to the option of attempting to kill the supposed traitor. He'd done it to Sonic, he'd done it to Rotor, and he very stupidly tried to claim Antoine when the dude was literally in the hospital, in completely critical condition at that. In Sonic and Amy's eyes - Silver had a shit track record, and was now suggesting this right when they were about to save Sally. I don't think any of them was willing to put up with yet another "this is definitely the traitor and i need to eliminate them". You're missing the fact Silver literally waits until after saying that to even state he doesn't intend to try to kill the traitor now, even though he's done that no less than two times already.

Not that it defends them because again...the explanation should have been completely freaking obvious by this point, and all of this - frankly no offence to Ian - was just poor writing - the mystery was obvious from ages ago, and this reveal was done intentionally in a way that would rile up Sonic and Amy for the simple sake of conflict. But I don't really think it's fair to specifically pin the blame on Sonic and Amy here - I think all three of them are just written badly in this scene - Silver's pathetic dancing around the issue, and both Sonic and Amy's overreaction. But to be frank, I still can't put this above any of the shit Penders has written. This is just a simple case of bad writing - this ain't remotely near the kind of shit Penders pulled in Issue 150, or 152. 

-I think it's pretty funny that Cream figures Tails Doll out, because one of the things kids tend to do is be imaginative enough to believe toys and such can be real. I don't know if she necessarily thought that, or was just scolding it in a playful way, but I like to think it specifically being her and her treating a doll like that naturally is what ends up causing her to click the pieces together in her mind that the doll actually is alive, and it's a Eggman scheme, most probably.

-I mean...yeah. It's kind of a obvious mistake. The word traitor is really important here, because it literally means a person who betrays someone. As in you assume they're willingly going along with it. That they intentionally backstabbed you to tear you or others down. Hell, there's kind of a reason for them to assume that, given Geoffrey was a actual legit traitor, and caused the entire kingdom to be driven under Naugus' rule. You might see it as a word difference, but it's a pretty clear and important distinction between someone who has legitimately betrayed and is willingly acting to destroy their friends, or someone who has been forcefully captured and is forced to act against their will to harm the people they care about. I wouldn't really neccessarily call the second one a betrayal, or say they're traitorous.

Hell, if we need the clear example of why that distinction is importantly - let's bring up Mecha Madness and the fact that everyone was accusing Sonic of being a traitor to the kingdom because he 'disobeyed' orders and went to Robotropolis, which led to his being roboticised, and trying to raze Knothole to the ground. It was utterly idiotic and bullshit when they tried to arrest and punish Sonic for something Nack had done, and something he had literally zero control over - and the fact that they made a distinction this time to clarify that Sally isn't backstabbing them here isn't a bad thing. The reveal was obvious, but I can't agree that Silver constantly calling them a traitor wasn't important.

-Honestly, while I could've been fine with losing out on Penders' characters, it's just shit how we lost all of them, such as Mina, or Fini. I'd say they were the absolute biggest losses in the long run, frankly.

-Ah, Worlds Collide Part 1 and 2. The very first physical Archie Sonic books I ever owned - and I reread them over and over and over again. Now this is where I'll get super nostalgic. 

-Archie Mega Man was actually my intro to the series in general, and what made me such a large fan, and Worlds Collide can partially be thanked for that as well. I didn't even really have anyone I was rooting for in the Sonic/Mega Man fight either. 

-Can confirm that the Mega Man book had several hints as well that the crossover was about to happen. Similarly, Mega Man #23 also had Wily mentioning Eggman on a first name basis. In general, the books actually paralleled themselves - while Sonic and co were dealing with Mecha Sally, a major thing was occurring with the ongoing Proto Man arc, with #23 being Rock's first battle with Break Man (IE Blues) - and Roll discovering that Break Man was their brother IIRC. It similarly ends mid-action, although it's handle much better compared to At All Costs Part 1.

-Wily was actually asking for one of his Mets to be modified into a rice cooker iirc - it's not too out there, not for Wily anyway who can be pretty childish and petty. Probably helps that it gives him an excuse not to let Ra Moon examine the Chaos Emerald because...

-Wily and Eggman's interactions are easily one of the absolutely best attributes of the entire crossover. Even the first issue shows it really strongly with the two ego's clashing, but then they keep coming to excited compromises over it, it's really fun. The fact that they also love constantly goading each other's petty ego because they see themselves as dimensional counterparts is also pretty funny.

-The roboticised masters is easily one of the coolest ideas to come out of these crossovers - and frankly, that extends over to Worlds Unite, with frankly - is quite a lot shitter than this crossover is - but the first four issues of Unite remains a fun read solely because of the added additions of Sonic Man and M'Egga Man to the mix. Not only is it the perfect combo of both worlds' technology, but it's just a really fun way of adding the Mega Man formula into the crossover, and allowing Rock to gain Sonic-themed powers. My only criticism is I wish the roboticised masters retained their personalities, like Sonic Man does in Worlds Unite.

-Bluntly - Archie own nothing. To my knowledge, it was assured for a long time that anything written for the comics was being signed over to SEGA/Capcom. Capcom owns all of the original Archie Mega Man characters for example, even though that was made in 2011, well before Penders reared his head, and Archie Sonic most definitely was being told they had to sign over the rights to anything created after the utter shitshow that the Penders lawsuit was. I'm aware there was a misconception going around for awhile that Archie owned the redesigned Freedom Fighters, but that was proven to be absolute fabricated bullshit. 

-Proto Man is more so the conflicted character who started off vengeful, angry, and betrayed, and slowly became a mysterious, cool, collected, and redeemed character. It's difficult for me to really go into it (although if you read Mega Man Issue 54, you'd get the gist) - but Blues (Proto Man) was the original child built by Thomas Light, the prototype to many of his robots. However, Blues had dangerous issues with his power core, and while Dr. Light was trying to fix it, a misunderstanding caused Blues to believe Light intended to reprogram him in the process, which caused Blues to run away, believing he'd like to do good with the little time he had left, and do so as his own person. He did eventually go back to Light Labs to apologise to Light and make amends, only to find Rock and Roll, and mistakenly believed Light replaced him.

However, after about a year or two, and Blues had finally reached his peak, Wily found him in the forest where Ra-Moon is holed up, nearly burnt out - and got a very devious idea - Wily repaired Blues with a nuclear power core (intending to use it to blackmail Blues if he disobeyed) - and fed him a bunch more lies to turn Blues even further against Dr. Light and Mega Man, turning him into the vengeful Break Man - an arc that wouldn't be resolved til Issue 46 of the series. Here, he's Proto Man as the timeline has been pushed forwards to post MM10, while the rest of the series takes place around MM1-4, with the arc before this taking place between MM2 and MM3.

-The reason why Wily pushed his timeline forward was pretty simple - by Mega Man 2, he only really had eight Robot Masters to his name - 16 if you count the MM3 masters created by Ra-Moon. In order to add a lot more into his side of the equation, he did a significant time jump on his timeline so he could bolster up his army even further with numerous lines of Robot Masters, and then using the power of the emeralds, they could continually time-clone them as well. 

-I mean...

-I really like how the fight was set up to be frank. I can't help but feel the emerald robbery was a two-fold scheme too - obviously to get the emerald, but to set up the Roboticised Masters in advance so Mega Man would more easily fall for the Metal Sonic trick - keep in mind as well, with his charged shots not working, there'd be more reason for him to believe his sensors were glitching out - these 'robot masters' clearly react with his usual attacks differently, so there'd be the excuse that it's happening here too. 

-Mega Man can't catch a break with these blue blur hits. I think its time to officially root for him in this fight :v

And while I'm at it, very brief catch up thoughts - gonna be very brief since the board already ate up my nearly complete post before, and in general - some of these issues, I either haven't read or don't have the best recollection of:

StH 201-203: 

Spoiler

StH 201:

-I still really like how Sonic is just somewhat broken over what had happened with Eggman. Like, it goes to show how empathetic Sonic really is as a character - he has more than enough reasons to utterly loathe Eggman, and yet he still feels awful about breaking him to such a degree. Him being so conflicted over this is a really good moment of character for him. The only thing I find kinda off is it's weird it's just him. I thought we'd see other characters like maybe Tails be equally as conflicted, or at least understanding of why Sonic felt like this. Some like Knuckles or Sally would take the logical approach of "Eggman was a nasty threat and all of this was enginneered by him, it wasn't your fault", while others take the emotional stance (IE - Sonic, Tails, and so on being a little frightened how their believed harmless actions drove a man to sheer, total insanity, as utterly evil as he was).

-Tbh, I think Khan was completely in the wrong here, the dude literally just waltzs in and assumes that everyone is well aware of what's going on around the world, and decides 'screw you for partying'. Khan was completely being a total ass here. It reminds me of the days where Sonic or Knuckles would walk up to each other and sock each other in the face for the sole purpose of kicking off a fight for no damn good reason.

-To me, I kind of get why they let Snively go - they saw Eggman as the big massive threat, while Snively has consistently sucked in any kind of leadership role. He couldn't handle the band of villains he supposedly helped break out of prison in the early issues after Endgame, he's always been the cowardly, and snide backstabber to Eggman, and Snively in general always tended to just leach his resources off Eggman rather than be able to create any big comprehensive schemes or inventions of his own. I feel like they were being compassionate due to what they'd just done to Eggman, and assumed 'well, it's snively, if he tries anything, we can take him down pretty easily', although of course they weren't expecting the Iron Queen to come into play.

-It's really honestly amazing just how much Lien-Da really just fucked over everyone with her stupid deal. She screwed up big time, and now everyone's stuck dealing with the fallout - Dimitri now included as he's forced to deal with all the raw ends. Probably doesn't help that the Iron Queen is considerably worse than Eggman - she could take over the Dark Egg Legion, or even Dimitri at a moment's notice with her abilities. 

-A egg-shaped cell, you have to admire how much of a considerate nephew Snively is for customizing Eggman's humble abode. 

-It's pretty amazing how Khan can come into this situation, absolutely infuriated over the Freedom Fighters partying their victory over Eggman, and yet after explaining the situation, he's got no issues thinking about getting with Sally whilst the duo are on their way to try stop the Iron Dominion. You can't make this shit up.

-Yeah, to be absolutely honest - I really don't get the whole structure of all these different tribes. Neat idea, but it feels pretty over-complex to me, and hard to get. Still, Espio being obligated by honour to turn against the heroes was a neat enough twist though that tied his ninja origins to the ongoing story in a believable way.

StH 202:

-Yeah, that opening exchange is just awful. It's clearly there because of the fact they wanted to recap the previous issue, but it makes literally no sense - Sonic was clearly paying attention during that conversation. It feels utterly weird that the last issue has him genuinely introspective about what his actions had done to Eggman, and here - he cares so utterly little that he's like "lol didnt pay attention".

-I think it's funny how they continue to show just how ineffectual the Dark Egg Legion is. I know it's not meant to be a knock at Penders, but it's just amusing how Ian showed just how kinda pathetic they were at this point, even if it was explained in-comic why, especially when other threats now come in to give Sonic more of a challenge. Maybe I just like it because of Penders' utterly idiotic comments about the Dark Legion easily beating Eggman.

-Espio socking Sonic is great only for the fact he did it more or less the exact way Knuckles smashed him in the face back during Unburying the Hatchet. Sonic's jaw can't catch a break when it comes to the Knuckles Chaotix gang.

-I really like how we just see the utterly inexperienced Iron Dominion deal with Sonic, and how it shows how clueless the Ox King is - that he thinks Sonic's spirit is so utterly broken while Sonic's been through much worse. I can just imagine Lien-Da thinking what an idiot when he thinks Sonic or Khan would legitimately be honest and say they got their asses handed to them - there's no way they don't just play it off and embellish the story a little to make themselves sound better lol.

StH 203: 

-I can't really say Sonic could try better than that - the kids aren't really outsmarting him, they're pretty much just telling the truth - Khan was an ass and decided to attack the concert unprovoked, risked lives, and ruined it for everyone. Doesn't justify the stone throwing, mind you - and Sonic telling them off is justified, but they've got a point there.

-That said, Sonic's completely right - the dude's feeling shitty enough as it is, there's no need to throw rocks at the poor guy, and I'm happy Sonic stood up for Khan here. 

-Sally telling them to surrender has the same energy as this bit from Recess School's Out:

"Don't do it Dr. Benedict!" 

"...Don't do it? What? You think after all this planning, after all this work, you can get me to stop by saying 'don't do it'?" 

"..."

"...What if we added please?" 

-Tails cannot catch a break at all here, can he?

-Seriously speaking, is it me or was Khan kind of a short-sighted idiot here? Like seriously? It's clear he knew full-well what the Iron Queen was capable of - given that he runs away in terror once it was indicated she would be arriving - for obvious reasons. However, he didn't feel the need to alert Sonic, Sally, or ANYONE about the fact the Iron Queen controls powerful magic that lets her easily control robotics? He didn't at all think this info might've been important with Bunnie being half-robotic, or - oh, I don't know - the entire city that is controlled by an AI? 

-Khan coming back is a nice moment, and him striking down the Iron Queen is neat as well. Kinda dumb, given what's coming next, but badass, nonetheless.

-To be fair with the whole Knuckles VS Espio thing - they are meant to be good friends at this point. They've gone through numerous adventures and have known each other for years - they were Knuckles' friends and confidants for a very long time, and stood by him no matter what for a long time. The problem is...Penders, again, as always.

Penders wrote them as nothing more than Knuckles' enforcers and nothing else, not helped by the fact he wanted to constantly shrill his stupid echidnas over and over again. Constantly dumbing down and making the Chaotix useless so Julie-Su could be the only capable member of the team, and the rest had little purpose but lounging around and talking about echidnas, or Knuckles, or fighting Julie, or whatever else. Penders basically treated the Chaotix like nothing like friends. Hell, let's not forget thrilling times like all of the Chaotix being easily destroyed by random cat people, so Locke could get into a big dumb Star Trek fight.