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Issue 126:
We start out with Sonic wasting a few panels unconscious with textboxes giving pointless recap, until the sleeping Sonic is bathed by an eerie light, and sucked up a tractor beam, by what at first I thought was a giant spider alien, but it turns out is apparently just a vessel instead. Who would ever design a vessel like this to have EIGHT LEGS or six or whatever?! It doesn’t make sense that they’d make something that’d be so much more complicated to move, when they could just give it wheels!
When Sonic wakes up, he asks groggily if this is heaven even though he’s surrounded by scary ant people, so I have to wonder why he took more than a second to get worried and run out of there! He then freaks out at a loud noise, and then sees some giant insect-like monsters making the ant people freak out.
He finally finds an exit, to the vessel I guess, and I’m really surprised at how Sonic responded to seeing the ant people being attacked with, “ Not my problem! “ I mean he IS supposed to be an Anti-Hero but up to THIS point in the comic we’ve seen Sonic portrayed as the kind of hero who’d save ANYONE, including the freaking NERBS, the most unlikable group of people he’s ever SEEN! So apparently he’d rather save a group of racists who speak his language than some perfectly fine ant people who don’t. Does he think he can’t beat these monsters? Isn’t he supposed to be overconfident?
Instead he only cares about trying to figure out where he is which I can imagine he’d only figure out after running ALL over the surface of the planet, and finding that he’s not on Mobius anymore, since he can’t exactly talk to someone and learn where he is. I still don’t understand how he was brought to some random alien planet instead of killed by the way!…
Surprisingly, Sonic decides pretty quickly that what he’s doing is pointless, thinking, “ Oh, who am I kidding? “ and decides to stop resisting the urge and attack the monsters with his spindash and Spin Jump.
Then an ant person actually speaks to him telepathically, which I can tell from his head glowing golden and the text appearing, and he thanks him in English. I can buy this just fine because we’ve already seen a group of ant people who can speak telepathically transmitting their thoughts through antennas, the Fire Ant Mobians who we haven’t seen in a while.
I’m gonna assume that they’re not REALLY speaking English and are just fooling Sonic’s brain into thinking they are, by altering his brain waves to make his brain simulate the experience of being spoken English to. Like for example if they say their word for rose, Sonic will think of a rose, because otherwise, I’d really have to ask how these people speak English.
One of them simply explains, “ We accessed your thoughts to learn your language, “ which is good enough for me, I guess? And Sonic is a little awkward smiling while being carried to their city which makes him look relatable in this situation! I’d be nervous too! Sonic is really lucky these guys have a method of speaking English, ‘cause otherwise he’d be completely screwed!
Sonic is told by the government of the ant people, the Blodex people, that he’s on Thoraxia. Neither of those names really relate to insects or ants, but anyways. Unfortunately the Blodex are incapable of space travel. OR air travel.
Their mortal enemies, unimaginatively called the Bzzz, believe that they are the only ones entitled to flight, or even life. So I guess that explains the lack of flight vehicles from them. They’d all be destroyed anyways! Sonic is told that an alien trading vessel will arrive here tomorrow which might let Sonic get home. Wait, why doesn’t THAT get destroyed? THAT’S a flying vehicle…
We then see Sonic getting treated as a guest, being given a tour of the city! These guys are so friendly! I’d expect them to be all mean to him for being of a different species, or assume he’s a monster or something, but instead they’re so polite to him, probably because he saved some of their kind earlier. And that trading vessel was mentioned to be from another species entirely. So maybe these guys are used to seeing other species and have a broader definition of people now like the people in Futurama.
Sonic notices that the statue of the Bo-Boldex-I mean Blodex’s ancient champion, looks like he’s holding Chaos Emeralds and he’s shocked to see that they’re red instead of green. This seems to be when it’s finally explained in the comic continuity that creatively enough, Chaos Emeralds are colored differently depending on the world they’re in.
So wouldn’t that mean that there would only be as many sets of Chaos Emeralds as there are discernibly different colors? Like there’d be a pink Emerald world and a light red Emerald world and then a dark red Emerald world. Either way there’d be a very limited amount of worlds with Chaos Emeralds which is fine because they’re such magical Cosmic Keystones anyways.
And I’m fine with them existing on every planet or multiple planets, because logically, what is the likelihood of them ONLY existing on the planet relevant to the comic’s stories? That sounds overly convenient and fictiony! Mobius is already special as it is. I wonder if Sonic’s planning on getting some Chaos Emeralds to teleport home with Chaos Control. Did he learn how to do it from Shadow in THIS continuity TOO?…
He’s told that the Chaos Emeralds fell from the sky and gave the Blodex’s ancient champion the power to destroy the ancient Bzz queen. Somehow I’m expected to believe that for thousands of years they were safe, but NOW all of a sudden the Bzz are back! WHY?!
The only reason they’d be safe, is if the only queen of the Bzz people was killed off somehow BEING the only queen in an entire intelligent race of people, but if THAT was the case, why didn’t the entire race go extinct for good since bees need queens around for reproduction purposes? And if that’s NOT the case, why would the destruction of ONE queen cause the Bzz to go hide for thousands of years just to COME BACK?!
Sonic is pressured to stay on Thoraxia and be their new defender, which of course he isn’t too fond of because he wants to go home. I guess while the Blodex can sent messages telepathically, they can’t read minds – yes they can, they accessed his thoughts to learn his language! So I guess the ant he’s talking to is just being polite by pretending he didn’t read his mind to learn his “ sorry “ response.
After Sonic finally lampshades why the hell he was brought here instead of killed anyways, instead of the writer bothering to answer that since even he knew it was arbitrary, some Bzz people show up for an attack, and the queen of them was brought along to make sure the job was done right. Why the hell would they put their only royal figure at risk like that?!
Why would that make sure of ANYTHING, is she the most powerful one? Is that why she’s being led into battle? She DOES look pretty big. It doesn’t change the fact that from what I’ve been told the death of one queen puts the entire race into hiding for thousands of years, so why are they risking it AGAIN?!
Then after Sonic worries about being outnumbered even though he SHOULD be able to just move at super speed and defeat every enemy in sight in seconds anyways, it’s explained that the queen’s stinger can actually shoot toxin that can melt through any substance. Well it IS an ALIEN bee after all. And it makes sense to me.
By the way, is Sonic gonna be all squeamish about killing these things just because they’re organic sentient beings? If so then he’ll make a TERRIBLE defender for this planet. He’d also have a hard time if he was the protagonist of a Mario game because all of the enemies in those games are living beings and a pacifist run can only get you so far, especially if you have to jump on and kill Paratroopers to badnik bounce far enough to progress.
Then it’s revealed, as I suspected, the Chaos Emeralds being held by the statue of the ancient champion are NOT JUST a part of the statue for decoration, but actually ARE real Chaos Emeralds, which lets Sonic transform into Super Sonic from quite a distance just because he wants to, ‘cause I guess they were feeling generous that day.
Maybe they have a more generous activation distance. But why is he able to turn super with just six of them? Is this particular set of Emeralds arbitrarily more powerful? I guess so, he can activate them from further away after all! Also why is Sonic the only one here who goes super with the Emeralds? Logically speaking why couldn’t it have been any of the other people here who went Super too?
And good, it looks like Sonic has no problem with killing the Bzz people after all! So he’s perfectly fine with murdering his enemies as long as they look like ugly insects. I’m fine with that, he is an Anti-Hero after all! And he’s perfectly justified in doing this. At first I was expecting the queen to give him a real challenge, but no, she goes down just as easily as the rest. She could’ve gone super with the Emeralds HERSELF.
TWO SONICS?!… Why is there a separate Super Sonic from Sonic, what is this, the Fleetway Comic? This has never happened before! I did hear about this, though. And I was worried about seeing “ end of part 1 “ in a text blurb but thank god they don’t end the issue on a cliffhanger like that!
Instead Sonic deduces that instead of transforming him into Super Sonic the way other Chaos Emeralds do, the red Chaos Emeralds have manifested him as a separate being. That’s pretty interesting! I love that the writer cared enough to differentiate them like that! It would’ve been lazy otherwise.
Sonic then inexplicably says that this can’t be good, and he turns out to be right as Super Sonic immediately goes on a destructive rampage for no good reason, implying that this particular set of blood red Chaos Emeralds must be evil and malevolent, since they don’t just fuse Super Sonic with Sonic again after he’s done carrying out Sonic’s will.
So is Sonic gonna get blamed for all this destruction and turned on, even though he’ll clearly be seen helping out civilians separate from Super Sonic? Why is Super Sonic so evil anyways, it’s so inexplicable! Archie Sonic in particular is so blandly nice that it’s harder to believe he’d have an inner love of destruction manifested like this just because he likes destroying robots.
After Sonic helps get some Blodex out from under something, he’s told by the Super Sonic that there’s no good or evil, only power, so this is a separate version of Sonic gone mad with power like Metal Sonic was before he was convinced he was wrong in the volcano story arc. I don’t see why magic power would inherently make you go THAT EVIL though! I mean why would it brainwash you like that to have a completely different personality? Sonic snarks, “ What a grouch, “ after dodging his laser, which is kinda funny because it’s such a jarringly TAME response to that!
And the Super Sonic is so desperate to exploit his power just for the sake of taking advantage of it, that he’ll try to destroy some moons of Thoraxia to jumpstart global chaos! After I read Sonic the Comic, I can’t help but appreciate seeing this as an unintentional nostalgic throwback to Fleetway Super Sonic, because this is EXACTLY the kind of thing he’d do!
Sonic fortunately tackles him to keep him from hitting EITHER of the moons that are so close together that I have to wonder why they didn’t crash into each other from their own mutual gravity, and Sonic gets beaten up briefly before Super disappears as some text blurbs reveal that much like on Mobius, Super Sonic’s existence is only temporary. This makes much more sense than in Fleetway. If he was IDW Sonic he wouldn’t be cheerfully saying goodbye when this guy vanishes, but this is actually relatable.
Sonic is happy about this logically, and says, “ That’s a side of me I never wanna face again! “ Yeesh, talk about harsh in hindsight, considering he’ll have to face Super Scourge much later. And with that, the issue ends, right when I’m most invested in it.
This issue was written by Karl Bollers, and I was pleasantly surprised honestly! It was a pretty interesting story! So has the evil Super Sonic completely killed off all the Bzz and rendered them extinct? Good, they were genocidal anyways, like The Shark were. Well it IS explained why Sonic was fine with killing living beings like this because it wasn’t Sonic at all, but instead a separate being manifested because the red Chaos Emeralds work differently. It’s interesting that they can do this when there’s only six of them.
It’s also interesting that Super Sonic isn’t just carrying out Sonic’s will when he appears like an extension of him, but it’s confusing because the whole reason he was made was in a response to Sonic’s desire to HELP the Blodex people! Wouldn’t this Super Sonic be given the same motivation? He created Super with the POSITIVE power of the Chaos Emeralds! Instead he’s totally insane and obsessed with using his power for the sake of it! It’s kinda arbitrary since Sonic in this comic is so boringly nice.
But I like how accepting and nice the Blodex people are of Sonic despite being a separate species! And I actually really like how this is an entire arc of just Sonic having stories to himself! Like a “ Sonic “ Miniseries for a change only it’s just Sonic like you would expect it to be unlike in Sonic’s Quest. It was a pleasant surprise!
It IS weird seeing aliens so prominent in something Sonic-related, considering that Sonic isn’t normally THAT sci-fi, but I can accept it just fine in a series with a world where a talking hedgehog and some humans all live together. I mean, why wouldn’t there be aliens too? Aliens are just one more separate species of people than usual, who just happen to live on a separate planet in the same universe.
Considering the endless creative potential of this kinda arc, I kinda wish there was another one like that. Imagine if there was an entire Sonic show or comic like this. I don’t know if Thoraxia was a pop culture reference to something, it didn’t seem to be to me, so it seemed to be original enough and that’s what I want to see in stories about other planets and universes.
Plus I can sympathize with the writer for wanting to write something different from what he normally does for a change of pace and try something new. Not to mention we’ve had aliens in Sonic since the beginning, I mean, Marble Zone originally had UFOs in the sky in its prototype design! They had to have been put there for a reason! (Not to mention Aosth had three episodes with aliens in it, and different ones every time.) So yeah, I loved this story, it was pretty engaging!
Go here for a review of the second story in the issue.
Issue 127:
We start out with Sonic in a space shuttle shaking hands with an alien saying that the Blodex ant people said once he was on board, he’d be given an implant that could translate all intergalactic lingo. So is he gonna always have that in him from now on?
I guess not since he puts it in his ear, so it’s not like it’s in his skull or anything. It shouldn’t be called an implant, then, if it’s not an implant. I like that these guys are nice to him too! Sonic seems so relatable, I fully sympathize with his awkwardness here.
Unfortunately the 81st “ orb “ near the system’s “ tri-star, “ explodes near the spaceship creating a light that you’d think would blind everyone! I guess it’s customary for them to say “ orb “ in space situations rather than saying planet or moon or whatever because they are in space so much that they don’t always wanna be specific, but tri-star? What’s that?! Can’t they just say “ three suns “ if that’s what they mean? So did a villain explode it?
This explosion sends forth a massive “ anti-wave, “ whatever that means, of space debris in all directions. Why’s it called an anti-wave if it’s not about antimatter since it’s just space debris?! And thus would be matter?
So yeah, this random explosion caused the space shuttle to be randomly damaged by debris in a Diabolus ex Machina. Sonic just can’t catch a break, can he? The writer just had to have this happen to delay him getting home. (Though it’s worth it.)
Everyone gets into bio-pods that are designed to automatically seek out habitable planets and naturally the crew runs into the problem where there’s two people but only one escape pod left, that can only hold one person, because they never accounted for an extra sentient being aboard. That’s pretty bullshit because even regular SHIPS have a tendency to include extra life boats just in case!
Sonic stupidly refuses to get inside the pod just because it’ll kill someone else, completely ignoring the fact that as a powerful hero, his life’s more valuable. Fortunately he gets paralyzed by Owi’s stinger though, and put it in the escape pod by him. If all of his species can do that at will, wouldn’t that be abused for sinister reasons by the more evil among them?
So instead of making Sonic look like an anti-hero, he has to be physically forced to allow someone to sacrifice himself for him. This is a good way of making it work out. I really LIKE these guys, I mean as out of place as they look for a Sonic comic, since they’re such generic aliens, I love that they just met Sonic, and ALREADY one of them is willing to sacrifice his life for him!
Sonic thinks, ” Goodbye, “Captain Oe. Goodbye, ” and sheds a tear, showing that he truly respects him and his sacrifice and is sad about it. Fortunately for Sonic his paralysis is very temporary as he’s able to move again as the pod is heading for a planet with thick clouds and rain, causing Sonic to complain that he can’t see a thing and he hates rain.
Then the escape pod warns Sonic that he shouldn’t exit because the atmosphere is highly toxic. Wait a minute, is Sonic able to understand this warning with his translator implant? He has to because there’s no way the warning would actually be in English when the pod wasn’t meant for him. And it’s initiating a distress signal.
I like that Sonic lampshades the fact that the escape pod specifically designed to take him to a habitable planet didn’t do so! But at least it’s TRYING to help him. Maybe it’s just the closest planet it could find and there ARE no other habitable planets close to it. It’s only got so much fuel, after all.
Sonic shows gratitude that there’s still food in a rations bin and enough to last him weeks. Sonic leaves the pod because it tells him that the atmosphere is habitable and he wants to explore. And Sonic finds himself in a desert surrounded by puddles. So is this the same planet?! Does the planet become uninhabitable when it rains and then suddenly becomes healthy again? Is it really bad acid rain that poisons the planet then? No WONDER it’s a desert!
Sonic shows some subtle homesickness by noting that the pink water reminds him of his mom’s lemonade, which we never got to see sadly. Why does he assume it’s water? Or maybe he’s just thinking of it as “ water “ as a synonym for liquid.
He then notices some growing microbes in the water that suddenly form themselves into a tree right in front of him! And now its leaves are falling off as it’s going from autumn to winter in seconds, leaving the pink sea totally frozen over and then it melts. This is SOME magical planet! I’m loving this honestly, this is fascinating! Not only are there actually some pretty cool interesting planets that scientists have discovered in real life, but add magic to that and it makes it even cooler! Plus Sonic is a really relatable audience surrogate here.
Then Sonic notices a frog emerging from the depths, and is confused about that since the planet couldn’t even support life 8 hours ago. This is reminding me of that episode of Futurama where they put nanobots on a planet and they formed into an entire planet’s worth of robotic beings similar to our own, mimicking a sped-up version of OUR planet’s evolutionary history within DAYS. But here we have magic instead of robots justifying it, or at least I can only assume it’s magic.
After there’s suddenly snow again, Sonic has his mind blown at the idea that evolution on this planet is taking place at an accelerated rate, which would only happen if the planet was bathed in radiation to create evolutionary mutations a lot faster, and even then wouldn’t Sonic be negatively affected by it? It’s not just radiation, because the WATER got frozen over in the winter and then melted, so it’s clearly time itself that’s faster.
And that’d only make sense if some magical artifact altered this planet for some reason, like one stolen from a wizard drugged at a party, used on this planet to get a mad scientist whose inter-zone portal generator got destroyed quick access to a new one by getting a new advanced society formed for him nearby. Wouldn’t it be cool if another version of Rotor or Chuck was responsible for this?
Sonic decides that the safest thing to do is hide in the bio-pod because there’s no telling what would happen next. That’s pretty smart of him!… Is the pod gonna be attacked by a giant animal? I dunno, I just had that feeling.
An hour later, Sonic opens the door of the pod for some reason and sees some huts across from him, and while Sonic is saying, “ blowing my mind, “ there’s a cool effect where the village is already advancing to a futuristic metropolis as we speak! Oh thank god, for some weird reason, time is now slowing down to a pace he can deal with, because if it kept going fast there’d be trouble. Like maybe “ the end of the world “ trouble. Is the explosion that caused this whole mess ever gonna be explained? I guess not.
Sonic then wonders why a hedgehog-shaped symbol is part of the architectural design, when you’d think he’d just come to the conclusion that these are a race of hedgehog people, at least, it would make sense. Some coincidence that they’re blue like HIM, unless as the alien calling him a wondrous blue-spined immortal is implying, the emblem was made because Sonic is considered like a god over there. Again, just like with Farnsworth, the creator of the robot planet in Futurama!
Sonic then thinks that he can understand the people’s language because of his implant, but that’s pretty confusing because these people literally just came into existence! Why would the implant be programmed with the translation for their language in mind? Unless it works by reading minds and thus translating like THAT. That would be able to translate literally ANY language. That’d mean he should be able to understand Antoine’s French after this point.
Anyways, Sonic is told that the three-eyed aliens in front of him are scientists who created a device to slow down the speed of time on this world. With SCIENCE? I could understand them using Chaos Emeralds to do it, but just SCIENCE? This would’ve been the perfect time to introduce some variation of the Time Stones, or at least show us another set of Chaos Emeralds, but no, it’s just science!
Sonic has a nice line where he’s all wide-eyed and shocked and says, “ Time out! For the first time in my life I feel as if someone is going too fast for me! “ Again, he’s being a fantastic Audience Surrogate here! He asks awkwardly, “ Uh, question: WHY does your city look like it was modeled after ME? “
He’s told that back at the dawn of the planet’s civilization, the Azurites’ early people discovered Sonic’s pod. I like the Azurite name by the way, it makes sense since they worship a blue person, “ Azure. “ And because he moved at such a comparatively slow rate compared to them, he appeared like a statue to them, because they couldn’t comprehend what he really was, they worshipped him believing him to be responsible for their fates.
Thank god they decided to worship him instead of going in the opposite direction and assuming he was a demon that should be destroyed, because they could’ve just as easily gone to THAT conclusion. You’d think some of them would think he was an omen of bad luck that would blow up at the end of the world since THAT would have just as little evidence for it and the worshipers would have to defend Sonic.
For some reason technological scans of Sonic’s capsule, seemed to reveal that he was a living god. Hopefully they’re not supposed to mean “ literally “ and instead that he ages slower which would appear godlike to THEM. But anyways many of the Azurites were OPPOSED to the idea that he was a living god and waged war because of it, preferring to think of him as just an idol statue. The facts eventually prevailed but the Azurites could find no means of opening the capsule.
So the whole reason time was slowed down was so that Sonic could meet his so-called creations… Wait, actually it would make sense that he created them unintentionally if he brought microbes with him! But I assumed they were ALWAYS there… I mean, by the time Sonic went up to the pink lemonade, it already had microbes in them.
Anyways after Sonic meets his creations, I love how awkward and relatable he is making a speech! He’s not an egotistical megalomaniac embracing being worshipped, like Eggman would be. Instead he acts like a normal person going to interact with them in a more normal way! He says, “ Well, uh, first thing is… I’m not a god, and I didn’t create you, either. I got space-wrecked here a long, long time ago… and because of the differences in our evolutionary rate, you dudes mistook me for something that I’m not. “
I doubt the Azurites would be that willing to accept the truth from him no matter WHO he is, which would be frustrating. I guess he’s only saying “ long, long time ago “ for THEIR benefit because it’s just a few days for HIM, or even just ONE day.
Fortunately instead of a riot being caused by him saying he’s not a god he’s told by a friendly Azurite that they could possibly construct a vessel to bring him back HOME. That’s SO nice of him! These aliens are SO NICE!
And this time it makes perfect sense, as the Azurites wanna thank Sonic for creating him, even though he just said he didn’t. But I guess they all assume he’s mistaken and he created them by accident, and they’re just way too polite to correct their “ god. “ It’s a good thing he happened to coincidentally land on a planet that could get him a vessel like that eventually, that was pretty convenient.
He’s told that the vessel won’t take years to build from HIS perspective if they temporarily switch off the temporal decelerator, and with that, Sonic has his personal spaceship being built around him – even underneath his own feet somehow – bringing him one step closer to Mobius!
I’m surprised that the people of this planet didn’t ask him a million questions about himself and his world! I mean, they just let him go off on the spaceship… without any questions at all, I mean, they WORSHIPED him for their entire civilization’s history, you’d think they would ask him about his LIFE, but instead he just leaves, right away. That was convenient.
So, that was the issue! It was written by Bollers and I really enjoyed it! It reminded me of the Futurama episode with the robot planet, so I love seeing this concept, but in the Sonic universe! I also loved how Sonic was a very relatable Audience Surrogate to the madness, being kind of awkward and careful about strange aliens and not wanting to be called a god.
It wasn’t perfect though, there were a few plot holes. The whole reason this story happened was because of an explosion damaging the space shuttle Sonic was in. But it’s never properly explained why that explosion happened. Planets don’t just randomly blow up for no reason! It felt like it just happened to delay Sonic for no reason!
But the story was worth it honestly! I loved how polite and willing to help all of these aliens were with one of them who just met Sonic, already willing to sacrifice his life for him! And the Azurites are nice enough to help Sonic go home instead of getting mad at him and not believing him when he says he’s not a god and didn’t create them.
THAT amount of niceness EASILY makes up for the fact that they’re too on the sci-fi side of things for Sonic. But again, plot holes, I’m left to just ASSUME the planet has faster time from an overflow of magic on it! What caused it to become time accelerated? Was it just created when Sonic landed on it? At least when Futurama did it, it EXPLAINED the faster evolutionary rate as, “ robots do everything faster! “
But the story makes up for that by, one, taking place in a magic-filled universe so we can just assume it’s magic, and two they put a neat twist at the end, where instead of the people there evolving into glowing floating gas that communicate telepathically, since that’s supposedly the next evolutionary step for humanity, instead the accelerated time thing is STOPPED by the people THEMSELVES.
And then that machine is taken advantage of as a Chekhov’s Gun to send Sonic home which surprised me again! What can I say, overly sci-fi or not I was really blown away by this story, and there’s a lot about it that I like! I even like the fact that Sonic’s the only Sonic character that appeared in it, because like last issue, it’s nice to see him in a solo story for once! It’s like a breather story or something.
Go here for my review of the second story.
Issue 128:
Sonic is in the Azurite spaceship on his way to a technologically advanced world that might be able to get him home. But according to his onboard visual display there’s nothing but asteroids, which fortunately for Sonic he’s able to avoid by steering the spaceship thinking to himself that all those sleepless nights playing Sega game consoles might have paid off. That’s a charming kinda relatable line.
Unfortunately Sonic gets a message that his ship is flying in a ” hostile ” zone and he has to dock it at once. That was just a lame excuse for him to have to meet Commander Bagbar. Sonic then meets a hideous-looking commander that looks like some kind of imp, with some other members of his crew ALSO looking rather gremlin-like. I’m not sure I trust these people not to be bad guys later.
Sonic explains his situation and is told that unfortunately the planet he was heading to was torn into an asteroid field three hours ago by EVE, who their fleet is sworn to destroy. People like to say there were a million dropped plot threads that Ian Flynn picked up but while there ARE SOME of those, I like to point out every instance of a plot thread being picked up before him that I can. And this is a prime example, because I’m surprised to hear about EVE again THAT quickly.
Wait, did Sonic ever learn what EVE’s acronym stood for, does this make sense? Oh okay, EVE told him what her name stood for when she became an Eldritch Abomination. But the fact that even I forgot what it stood for makes it hard to believe that SONIC would remember what it stood for, after hearing it JUST ONCE.
After some recap about what EVE is, Sonic is then blamed for EVE savagely destroying all those industrialized worlds after going into space, even though he didn’t have any choice because if he HADN’T gave her the speech that caused her to go to space, EVE would’ve killed him and caused a lot of destruction ANYWAYS. Why is she doing all of this? She seems like such an arbitrary villain. Well, it is good writing that Sonic’s being called out on for the dire consequences of his actions for once because when Mobotropolis was taken over again thanks to his absence, he got knighted for it!
Sonic runs back to his ship in fear from the angry people being called a coward, with them not being the least bit grateful for someone so fast not attacking him or commenting on his super speed in the slightest.
And Sonic goes into his spaceship wasting some MORE time on recap about EVE that we already got told about in this very issue, and his spaceship’s computer pinpoints the nearest planet that Sonic could potentially save.
It turns out this planet is one where four generations ago, the Eco-Tech people made a utopian society with nature and technology coexisting just fine, even being free of death, so naturally I’m assuming it’ll get destroyed. Yep! EVE strips the planet of all its metals and fifteen minutes pass before only rock remains.
Naturally Sonic lampshades in anguish that EVE did this in the first place and blames himself for the world’s destruction even though it’s not HIS fault the spaceship’s not fast enough. It is a good character moment that he’s heroic and responsible enough to feel guilty that an entire world was destroyed on his watch, though.
Then we see EVE just shrugging off laser blasts from the spaceship that was chasing after Sonic. And the entire fleet of warships gets torn apart by a tractor beam… This upsets Sonic too even though those people were out to imprison him for life at best for something he was basically forced to do.
Then a textbox says that what happens next is unimaginable even though it really isn’t, it’s common sense that Sonic would attack EVE with the spaceship. though not common sense for him to try to ram her with it. I suppose with his huge amount of stress and guilt right now, it’s believable that he’d take this risk to try to kill EVE.
To his surprise, it passes right through the hull, letting him go inside wearing a spacesuit to protect himself that makes him look like an alien species. Sonic tells EVE that what she’s doing is wrong, and that he’s here to shut her down before she’d destroy any more worlds with people in them.
EVE emotionlessly tells him that he has no chance of saving the next world from incorporation, which she puts in sarcastic quotes for some reason even though it’s supposed to be her justification for DOING all this that she believes in! I’ve said “ even though “ a LOT in this issue.
At least Sonic lampshades, ” You were supposed to EXCEED your programming, go onto greater things! What happened? ” She was written by a different writer that’s what happened. At least it’s not technically a Derailment because it makes sense she’d turn out like this, as we’ll see.
Sonic is then completely shocked at seeing what apparently is Sally in a red spacesuit of her own, and SOMEHOW he recognizes her on sight just as she recognizes him, which is weird because they both look unrecognizable in those suits. And there’s plenty of voices in the world, some of them are bound to sound similar. So why would either of them assume it’s the same person they know just because of a similar voice?
Either way they both have a heartwarming and adorable hug as I wonder if this isn’t the real Sally since there’s no reason she should be here, or even know that Sonic’s still alive to look for him in space to begin with.
They then bump helmets by accident which is a nice touch of Reality Ensues, and show cute awkwardness about it, and then Sally says she’ll explain how she found Sonic once she gets to the wormhole that brought her there because they have to go NOW before it would CLOSE, or else they’d NEVER get home!
I hope that’s a wormhole meant to take Sonic back to Mobius and not actually a trap. If he did go in there the arc would end after this issue. I’m surprised because there’s no reason she can’t just explain everything to Sonic WHILE they’re heading to the wormhole, right?
Sonic refuses to go with her until EVE’s been stopped, naturally since she plans to destroy another planet, as he’s a hero, and the so-called Sally immediately makes me suspicious because she says, “ That’s illogical! “ and tells him he’d lose his means of getting home and Sally with it… I HAVE to wonder if this is actually fooling Sonic with a fake Sally created from his memories that she obtained by scanning him Nicole-style.
Sonic shares the suspicion too as he says that the Sally he knows would be more heroic and wouldn’t mind being stranded in another galaxy as long as she was with him. And it looks like I was right! But this “ subterfuge, “ – I dunno why the writer can’t just use a word people can understand – has served as a distraction to delay Sonic so that her sentries could arrive, which Sonic destroys with a kick and spindash as he floats with his spacesuit.
He thinks that he must be getting closer because EVE’s doing everything she can to stop him, and goes through a very bright light at the end of a tunnel to meet at the very least a more acceptable-looking design in her CPU area. I mean at least she’s not an Eldritch Abomination this time.
EVE explains that no matter where she went in this universe to have a happy fulfilling life like Sonic suggested, she was met with fear and violence. With the way she looked, what did she expect? She should’ve changed her appearance to look more friendly! Metamorphia did with just as little exposure to other people’s beauty standards! Her being mistreated is arbitrary as a result because she was just being an idiot instead of transforming, when she’s a shapeshifting robot.
But I guess the thought that she was being mistreated just because of her looks didn’t occur to her through her sheer lack of experience with the world, since nobody would’ve explained to her what the problem was. But shouldn’t it have been obvious that she looked menacing, wasn’t that the whole reason she transformed into that more menacing form to intimidate Robotnik? How’d she even survive that interstellar weapon if it nearly destroyed her?
She was feared everywhere she met and interstellar weapons nearly killed her, explaining why she became a villain, but she adapted and evolved and throughout the cosmos she sensed sentient computers – SOMEHOW, the whole plot is contrived – and thought that it would be right to liberate them from their organic masters. So THAT’S why she’s robbing the worlds of metal! Even if it means destroying them.
She’s liberating robots at all costs! Does she reprogram them afterwards to not still wanna be loyal to their masters and continue carrying out their orders? Or does she mean only sentient computers get freed, because if she’s stealing ALL metal, then there’s gonna be a lot more than just sentient robots that get sent to her! Sonic tells her angrily that she has no right to destroy planets just because they create artificial intelligence, and EVE explains that she doesn’t and the act of incorporating their tech into her shell has given rise to a higher organism.
Sonic then argues that she’s being selfish, as, “ Yeah, but instead of serving everyone else, now they just listen to you! “ I like that line. EVE looks sad and replies, “ Your logic proves that I am no better than the oppressor. My mission is flawed. It must therefore be terminated. “ You mean “ oppressorS. “ I love this kind of flawlessly logical way of thinking actually letting her listen to reason! It’s pretty interesting for a character, and we don’t get to see that with Nicole.
And she doesn’t feel guilty since she’s emotionless – unless the sad expression means that. But she should’ve looked sad in the panel afterwards too. And she felt compassion, didn’t she? That’s why she turned on Robotnik in the first place because she was slightly made from Sonic’s DNA giving her his heart, and she even said so.
Either way she explains that the key to Sonic returning home lies on the Bem homeworld, Wheelworld. Wait, how would she know that at all? She doesn’t thoroughly explore planets and get to know them, she only knows if they have sentient computers and when she finds them she immediately destroys the whole planet! So Sonic even going to Wheelworld knowing where to go is contrived.
I like that we’re FINALLY visiting the home world of the Bem, those aliens that made Eggman human, rather than forever having them be just a Big Lipped Alligator Moment that never gets elaborated on. And it makes sense that EVE would know what Sonic wants to do because he got his memories for creating a fake Sally. She for some reason then gives Sonic a short countdown before she’d change her path for the nearest star from subtle guilt, forcing Sonic to run to his destination, when she could’ve just given him some more time.
I didn’t get that she was killing herself from the guilt of destroying planets at first because it was so subtle and downplayed. and if she was okay with destroying planets in the first place, it wasn’t easy to believe that she could regret it. Sonic never tried to talk her out of it at ALL, kinda uncharacteristically, because he was already put on a time limit to escape.
This issue was by Karl Bollers and picks up a plot thread that’s been loose ever since literally the first issue Ken Penders ever wrote all by his lonesome, FINALLY telling us what EVE’s been up to. It gives her a surprisingly logical motive as a villain! It makes perfect sense that she’d become one because not only did she have a scary appearance that would naturally make everyone afraid of her, but she’s also an AI who escaped from Robotnik’s grasp, so she’d naturally want to liberate all the robots she can find out of sympathy for them, for THEM as opposed to the rest of the people on the planets that she destroyed by robbing them of their metals with absolutely no remorse, because hey, she’s a robot, she works purely on logic, it makes sense.
And for some reason she had no problem going into a star and DESTROYING all of the robots she just liberated with no indication that she freed them from herself at all. Way to make things right, EVE. It also makes sense that Sonic was hated and chased down by the aliens in this issue because if he hadn’t convinced EVE to seek out her own destiny, plenty of industrialized planets and innocent people wouldn’t have been destroyed.
That wasn’t his fault of course, he had no choice but to convince her of that because otherwise she’d destroy his OWN planet and go off to do that stuff ANYWAYS. But I can understand the aliens being too angry with him to care about that. I didn’t enjoy it as much as the previous issues in space, but it was kinda well-written in the character motivations and I also liked the concept of EVE making a fake Sally out of his memories, and trying to lure him away from her.
And at the end, Sonic actually convinces her that she’s enslaving robots HERSELF no better than the oppressor she hates, and because she works on logic, she’s immediately convinced she’s wrong in one panel like last time she showed up and goes to help Sonic go home, presumably so he wouldn’t stick around complaining all his life. It feels too easy, rather than her stubbornly clinging to her old ways, but for a purely logical machine like her it does make sense, and it’s nicer that she actually realizes she’s wrong, even if she just gets destroyed anyways.
Issue 129:
We start out with narration saying that there’s a lifeless planet with a bubble with a city teaming with life, okay that’s kinda misleading they should’ve said “ ALMOST “ lifeless, then. This IS interesting at least! And in that city are people ready to enjoy one of their favorite pastimes, the galactic space race.
Viewers watch holo-transmissions of the event in excitement as their favorite runners get into position, and all of them are curious about Sonic signing up for the competition. Naturally he wants to show off! His goal’s ALSO to win a prize and keep his ship. Oh so he HAS to do this, as apparently he used his ship as an entry fee, and wants the prize to get his ship REPAIRED. Maybe it was damaged by asteroids? But not enough that he couldn’t land here.
Sonic notices some blatant cheating in the race which I guess is allowed because the audience finds it entertaining, and has to avoid some cheating himself in order to win, including an attack with claws! Unfortunately as I suspected for a plot twist he actually LOSES the race, because one of the racers were faster.
Then, wait, even though this race allows blatant CHEATING in the form of the opponents ATTACKING each other, APPARENTLY a racer using a rocket-booster to win ISN’T allowed. Racers causing each other physical injuries and risking killing them is fine, but one of them being slightly faster is going too far! This arbitrariness allows Sonic to be recognized as the true winner! Wasn’t he supposed to be going to the Bem planet to flesh it out a little more?
Well it turns out he’s JUST NOW going to it, after getting his spaceship repaired from that race. Sonic gets encountered by an Obstructive Bureaucrat saying that the only reason he’d be allowed to visit the Bem planet is if he’ll be attending the trial of Ceneca-9009. Why would they ever be expecting non-Bem people to attend a Bem person’s trial if they’re apparently such isolationists that they forbid visitors to their planet?
This alien should have a list with photos of who’s allowed in the trial and Sonic wouldn’t be on it. No visitors are allowed otherwise because this is an isolationist planet apparently. So I suppose they go to war every time another species comes around? That sounds like more trouble than it’s worth. Sonic naturally lies, and he gets led in. It sure is nice of the person to humor him and let him in even though, with his dialogue, there’s no reason for her to actually believe him. He made it so obvious he was lying.
The world has an outer rim of solid bedrock, while its gravity-containing inner tube has oceans and continents, and on a clear day you could look up at the sky and see the other side of the planet! This is really creative, and would probably only work because magic.
I like that Sonic thinks his Uncle Chuck would spend the rest of his life studying this place, and he doubts that anyone would ever see him again if he got his hands on his spaceship because he’s that curious of an intellectual. I guess this means we’re supposed to assume that Sonic destroys this spaceship offscreen, specifically to prevent this from happening.
Can you imagine if Scourge’s Uncle Chuck DID research alien planets because he never had a reason to quit science? And at the same time, he wouldn’t be motivated to use his science to HELP his own planet because he’d be less morally good, so it makes sense that he might go to other ones out of curiosity.
Sonic notices a bunch of aliens of different species together even though this is an isolationist species planet and wonders what Ceneca-9009 did to warrant such a huge turnout. Like Sonic – so he’s a great audience surrogate – I assumed when I first read this that Ceneca-9009 was the PLANET, because naturally it sounds like a stereotypical sci-fi planet name. So Sonic’s a good audience surrogate by assuming the same thing.
Why the hell would anyone give their planet a name with a number in it, or accept their planet being given that name by someone else? And the same question would apply to it being the name of a person. It’s a stupid sci-fi convention that makes no sense, and because of that sci-fi convention, I assumed that Ceneca-9009 was not the person on trial, but a planet. And while it’s weird that a planet would be put on trial, he’s already in an alien world, where other planet’s people can just casually visit it for a trial.
Sonic finds a courthouse and sees someone pleading not guilty to the crime of disobedience against the planet’s high command. I hope he doesn’t get involved trying to waste time defending him because all he needs to worry about is getting HOME, not risking it by pulling a stupid move like THAT.
Sonic wonders if EVERYONE’s named Ceneca on this planet, which would be REALLY STUPID, and we see proof being shown in camera footage of the person being guilty. It constantly annoys me how they talk about time in rotational cycles. Why can’t they just say years? They say ” century ” later!
It was the vessel of the defendant that discovered a smog cloud planet of robot people. It turns out these defendants were stupid enough to think that these robots, or, people with natural metal, had a plight that had to be cured by turning them organic AGAINST their WILL, even though this would obviously kill them by being exposed to the smog, which would probably kill the Bem too! HOW stupid ARE they?
At the very least this does give a proper explanation for why the Bem can deroboticize people so easily. This is when they first made their deroboticizer, labouring for 50 years to do so, so it feels more well-earned. And since they didn’t have a roboticizer already, it kinda makes sense that they’d take so long with a deroboticizer, although it took Chuck way less than 50 years to make his roboticizer, and a deroboticizer that could explode to return tons of people to normal, so, uh, I guess he was way smarter an engineer than the engineers of a super advanced alien planet.
Obviously the entire race of robots perished because their metal skin had evolved as a defense against their own planet’s deadly microbes, as opposed to the smog, so I guess the microbes WERE the smog? This caused deroboticization to be OUTLAWED! WHAT?! As if it’s inherently evil?! WHY wouldn’t it be allowed if it’s obvious that people would really WANT to be deroboticized?! That’s forced of the writing.
At least the aliens in charge here show no indication that they’re aware that roboticization removes free will. For all they know, Robotnik was planning to make Mobius’ atmosphere inhospitable to organic life, and so they assume he was doing this to people to keep them alive.
Then the camera footage shows what happened to Tails’ father, causing Sonic to put his hands over his eyes while thinking sadly, “ I’m SO SORRY, Tails! “ being very sympathetic. Wait a minute, why the HELL is Amadeus looking gray like a generic robot?! This is a serious continuity error by the colorist because the WHOLE reason Rosemary DIDN’T notice that he was a robot when Tails was born, was because he was still his normal color, just all masked up!
So there’s no way this color of his is canon. Here it implies that he only looked his normal color because he was painstakingly painted that way to fool her after which Robotnik wasted resources to remove the paint to make him gray again!
We see Amadeus walk away from some energy field or gas just as Rosemary’s reunited with her spouse to find out he was a robot. This BETTER not be trying to pretend that Amadeus was only turned into a robot right when Rosemary was brought to him by Robotnik, because that’s not what happened! She’s asking Amadeus what’s become of him as if she just saw him get roboticized or was told that this robot would be her husband ahead of time. I hope this attempt at a retcon gets ignored later because this art is being very misleading about what happened back then.
Then we see that before anything could happen to Tails’ mom, his parents were saved by the very person that’s in trouble right now! OK, NOW I get why Sonic would defend them! Their crew was blatantly being HEROES, and these IDIOTS trying to punish them for it, even ACKNOWLEDGING that Robotnik was a ” despot ” roboticizing people against their will!
And they STILL, had the gall to try to punish them for this! WHAT ASSHOLES! It’s pretty convenient that the Bem saw Tails’ parents, specifically, and saved them, when their spaceship seemed to have no business anywhere near Mobius at the time. They could have just as easily decided to save, I dunno, Sonic’s mom, or Chuck.
What’s worse is that their request to deroboticize everyone on Mobius was DENIED by even MORE complete assholes, although to be fair, a world deroboticization at that point wouldn’t actually stop Robotnik from taking over the world, it’d just keep him from roboticizing the people he already tried to roboticize, which would be barely any people at that point, and he’d still overthrow the king.
It is interesting that the textbox says, ” your sister Bem, ” implying that all of the Bem are actually female, which is subtly indicated by their eyelashes, but they’re still bald, so it’s very easy to not notice. Still, this is an extra detail the writer didn’t have to come up with, and it doesn’t do any harm being there.
And the hero was imprisoned for what she did! FINALLY, Sonic snaps, “ Are you jokers KIDDING ME? “ getting everyone’s attention. Hopefully they’ll actually listen to his argument, especially since he’s FROM MOBIUS! Then Tails’ parents recognize Sonic because they happened to be in the crowd at the time, and they hadn’t seen Sonic since he was four years old. Wait, I thought he was five back then, though that was never stated.
It’s explained that they weren’t allowed to come back home to Mobius because after Ceneca-9009’s imprisonment, ALL Bem vessels, were forbidden from traveling there, because they have no sense of justice. Lawful Stupid Obstructive Bureaucrats are easily the most hateable villains to me. All they do is obstruct justice by sticking to STUPID laws! And that makes them no better than villains! In fact, they’re worse because at least regular villains, we’re used to them and they’re more honest that they’re bad guys with bad guy reputations in cartoons, they’re not considered good guys by anybody!
Wait, if Ceneca-9009 was imprisoned, why would she ever be hired to be part of the crew that deroboticized Eggman, experience or not she still had a criminal record related to what she did in that very same job! Logically it shouldn’t be the same person who saved Tails’ parents who was put on trial for what she’ll be prosecuted for later on, this was just an easy excuse to explain Tails’ parents’ rescue without them having to do it in the middle of a trial. Sonic snaps at them, “ More like you’ve been holding them prisoner here against their will! “
The idiot he’s talking to simply tells him to shut up being too stupid to make a proper rebuttal to what he said and continues with the camera footage revealing that, as I eventually assumed, the same species of green aliens that deroboticized Eggman and Snively, ALSO proceeded to do that to all of Mobius. And are being PUNISHED for it. At least Sonic is just as angry about this as I am. But instead of having a crappy story like this, we could’ve just had an uplifting one where Sonic deroboticized the world himself using portable deroboticizers!
Apparently the people of the Bem government demanded that the Bem crew would prove their case by showing that non-roboticized people were superior, only for Sonic and Tails to win the fight with Eggman and Snively as robots, causing this predicament because the Bem government were TOO STUPID, to realize that being trapped as a robot with no free will, or even WITH it, wouldn’t be considered worth it to someone who doesn’t want to BE that way! Do these people have NO sense of morality at all?!
Sonic says that he could’ve won that fight as his organic self too and is idiotically told, “ Irrelevant! “ Bullshit! He had a good point! He could’ve beat Robo-Robotnik’s mecha and tied him up too if he had rope, and he should’ve pointed out that normal Robians don’t have infra-red vision, net-shooters and lasers, so that test was clearly rigged in the robots’ favour!
The Bem were given a direct order to roboticize all of Mobius for their own good, and did the exact opposite. Then Sonic naturally points out that the defendants did the right thing, saying, “ Mobians aren’t supposed to BE roboticized! “ The camera footage itself CLEARLY shows the people CELEBRATING! How does that not convince them?!
After the HERO is told that he, or rather she, will be executed and naturally says that she regrets nothing, Sonic’s told that the reason no ships are allowed between here and Mobius is that the Xorda declared war on Mobius a while ago. At least that’s an explanation. even if the decision should’ve been reversed a long time ago. Why would an alien planet operate on outdated information for its laws?
Sonic is told by someone that not everyone considers her to have deserved this punishment. If anything, she made up for the tragedy of the robot planet by doing so! HOW does the government that punished her even manage to BREATHE?! I don’t find them to be believable characters at ALL!
Sonic is told that in orbit near the planet is very conveniently an artificial wormhole of Bem design that could take him and Tails’ parents to anywhere in the universe, including Mobius. After Ceneca is rescued with Sonic spindashing through the metal floor of her cell to get to her, they find out that the ship is only big enough for one person because Diabolus ex Machina.
They hear police sirens because someone discovered her empty cell already. And Sonic tells her compassionately that she has everything to lose if she doesn’t take it. A spaceship goes into the wormhole which isn’t followed because the Bem are afraid of the Xorda, even though the Xorda shouldn’t be near Mobius to be feared anymore! Then it’s revealed that SONIC was the one that was piloting the airship, and that was Ceneca’s plan all along!
Also why does Amadeus have that weird glass thing over his eye like a monocle instead of an eyepatch? Either way he says happily to his wife that as long as Sonic gives Tails the package they sent that they conveniently had on them, Tails will always know how much his parents love him.
Just then Sonic sees the Mobian Moon, which like the LAST time we saw it is STILL blown in half, proving that this comic has more respect for even the most basic of continuity than the games do. I say that, but Sonic’s saying “ THE Mobian moon, “ is by itself a stupid retcon because we were told in “ Space in yo Face “ that there were hundreds of Mobian moons, and the whole reason the plot could happen was that the heroes landed their spaceship on Mukury, Mobius’ mud moon.
And Sonic was on that moon. But apparently that story’s non-canon now, which sucks because I loved the concept of tons of different moons for Mobius. I knew it would be retconned eventually. All because SA2 and we gotta have it be as unoriginal as possible, because VIDEO GAMES! Good god this story SUCKS!
And Sonic hopes that he’ll land in the spaceship in one piece. Now I have to wonder how Tails’ parents are going home since they’re still being kept prisoner on Argentium! Considering that they only get to go home when Flynn takes over, it really is disappointing that Sonic didn’t just get to bring them home himself right from the start, just because arbitrarily that ship could only hold one person. Who the hell would make a spaceship that can only fit one person?! Why would those be common enough to have been stumbled into so easily?!
This issue was actually written by TWO people; Romy Chacon for the very short pointless story where Sonic wins a race with a bunch of flagrant cheaters, which was TOTALLY pointless since they could’ve just as easily had Sonic arrive on the Bem planet right away, and had a cheater be punished in a race full of them!
The other story was written by Bollers. It turns out that as I suspected, it was the Bem aliens who deroboticized Mobius. And it turns out they had a very good reason for their experiment with Eggman as they were ordered to do it. While I do appreciate that they had a good explanation for all these lingering plot threads like the disappearance of Tails’ parents, who I’m wondering how they’re going to return home, I found this story REALLY frustrating because the HERO who deroboticized Mobius, being sentenced to execution just made me angry!
This is the worst issue since the Issue 39 arc and Wrath of Khan! Nothing since then has made me so angry just from hearing about it, especially because of the fact that a native of Mobius was explicitly telling everyone in the courthouse, that HE was OPPOSED to being roboticized! What thick-headed idiots would STILL choose to execute her after that?! What absolute bullshit.
I can’t help but feel like if the courthouse decided not to execute her because of what Sonic said, actually acting like how actual PEOPLE would by LISTENING to the Mobian’s reasoning, then I wouldn’t have hated the story as much. After all, we see her outside just fine, there’s no clear indication of what happens to her after Sonic goes through the wormhole, so I think the story would’ve gone the same exact way if she had been pardoned and we just would’ve cut out a jail break scene.
But instead it was very frustrating how stupid the characters were, and if I can’t enjoy it, I can’t say that I like it, and if I can’t say I like it, it’s hard for me to recommend it as a good story. At the very least Sonic’s FINALLY going home now. But if this crappy story was the justification for why the world was deroboticized, it clearly wasn’t worth getting the answer, and it should’ve just been Sonic doing it with portable deroboticizers; “ Deus ex Machina that’s at least a Chekhov’s Gun “ would feel a lot better than this,
I’d gladly take a story that’s forced but happy over a story that’s forced and depressing, that’s easily one of the top 10 worst issues in the entire comic. (It’s right up there with 39 and 197, and ALL of those feature trials against people who don’t deserve it! What do you know, it’s almost like that’s an inherently horrible idea for a story to begin with!)
Issue 130:
Sonic FINALLY returns to Mobius after an annoyingly unspecified amount of time and finds some smoke coming from beyond the trees, causing him to see, much to my surprise, the surreal image of Knothole burning while a priest is forced to marry Geoffrey and Hershey, who are wearing military gear and goggles. HUH?! Also he says skunk and wife instead of man and wife. Does that mean he HAS to say the name of the male species every time, even if it’s multiple syllables? “ I now pronounce you elephant and wife! “ Doesn’t really roll off the tongue as well.
I’m SO full of QUESTIONS, why are they just CASUALLY getting married in a situation like this?! There’s a SWATbot nearby, and Eggman, in contact with them, says that the two of them had escaped his prison SOMEHOW – I hope THAT’S explained! – but his SWATbots tracked them here ANYWAYS, hiding in one of HIS villages. He had razed the town to the ground for harboring spies – the word spies really confused me at first because they couldn’t be spies for Eggman, right? At least he admits that he went overboard in what he did.
Now that the people have to be relocated, Eggman’s plan is that Geoffrey and Hershey will never get to tell anyone what he discovered in his arms factory, and asks them if it was worth it finding that out. Unless he’s about to kill them, he’d be delusional to think that the village being razed alone would make them keep quiet. He’s not having a gun pointed at them, so it wasn’t immediately obvious what he was planning to do to them. I’m glad that the people in the village are safe and will be relocated rather than roboticized or lining up for it.
Then I’m promptly even MORE confused, after the whole “ them looking like traitors despite being the blindest of Lawful Stupid “ thing is proven false by “ last request, “ because I see a text bubble, that looks inexplicably weird coming from offscreen so I don’t know what it belongs to saying, “ ADAM? “ a robot answering to it and calling a person, “ father, “ and then Eggman having a text bubble looking similar to it, saying that they’ve honoured the lovers’ last request that they logically shouldn’t have honoured in the first place since they’re enemies.
At least we actually got to SEE them get married, but this whole wedding was just an excuse to have them survive long enough to be rescued and it could’ve easily not been that way and had their surviving feel so contrivedly lucky. Wait a minute, was the ” A.D.A.M? ” textbox belonging to EGGMAN? I couldn’t tell because it wasn’t connected to him in the panel showing ADAM! It took me several seconds to realize who I was talking, even though I already knew that ADAM saw Eggman as his father before even reading the issue!
Anyways, Sonic FINALLY attacks the SWATbots with his spindash after learning what he wanted to know, and destroys all of the robots. The whole crowd cheers including Geoffrey and Hershey, Geoffrey who happily congratulates Sonic for being still alive.
Okay, so I guess that eases my immense confusion! That panel where he was getting married REALLY made it look like he and Hershey burned down the village themselves, because why the hell would they think getting married was appropriate at a time like that?! Sure, “ last request, “ but it’s like fiddling while Rome burns!
Sonic is a great Audience Surrogate by asking what the hell’s been going on. It turns out that surprise surprise, Eggman went back on his promise of sharing the planet and declared war on the entire Kingdom of Acorn.
Sonic is for some reason blown away by this instead of being like, “ Well, DUH! What did you EXPECT? “ So much for an Audience Surrogate. Also it’s not like he hasn’t been waging war the whole time anyways! Apparently Eggman’s amassed the atomic arsenal to prove that he means business now, and tried to have Geoffrey and Hershey executed before they’d be able to warn Knothole.
WHAT TOOK Eggman so long? Why didn’t Robotnik use those on Knothole years before the Freedom Fighters? The fact that he’s got this plan NOW makes him and Robotnik look especially stupid for never doing it earlier. Then for some reason Geoffrey tries to tell Sonic to wait instead of warn Knothole, which was really annoying. At least that proves that this ISN’T Knothole, just a village that looks EXACTLY LIKE it.
Then we cut to Eggman asking someone who looks like a human woman with a REALLY SHORT, mannish hairstyle, why they lost their live video feed. Eggman reminds ADAM that he controls all of his SWATbots because he put an AI in charge of something big that could horribly backfire on him for some reason. “ ADAM, YOU control all of my SWATbot units! “ is what Eggman said around M.
Combine Eggman saying this with us learning earlier that ADAM talks through robots, and M being the last letter of the word ADAM, and hopefully you can understand why I was confused for a while into thinking M was yet another robot ADAM was talking through.
I hate how they just plop this ADAM stuff on you out of nowhere as if I’ve missed an issue, which I know I haven’t! These time skip changes are confusing at first, they just show up with no explanation. I like the concept of Eggman having a sort of son. It’s something that should’ve been legitimately tried a LOT EARLIER, so it’s a shame that it’s gonna be temporary. (No, AoStH’s laughable attempt at this idea isn’t good enough. I hated that character and the direction taken with him.)
Well, considering that SWATbots will snark at him occasionally, after he has to tell them to get to work, and one time a SWATbot flew his airship away from Dulcy out of fear, NO WONDER Eggman put all of the SWATbots under the control of one hive mind AI that he thought was loyal to him because it was better than the SWATbots individually having free will even a bit, no better than the people he’s now ruling.
I wish I’d been shown or told this motivation for him doing this, because all I was seeing at first was that it’d so easily result in ADAM turning on him and sending his entire SWATbot army against him because AI turn on their masters in the media all the time. No wonder that was Bollers’ original plan for ADAM eventually, because it was the immediately obvious potential result.
ADAM has free will to oppose Eggman ANYWAYS, so I’m not sure how Eggman trusted that he had solved the problem with the SWATbots. It’d be pretty dumb if the resolution of ADAM’s character completely IGNORED or forgot that he can control Eggman’s entire army of SWATbots.
Apparently the entire “ phalanx, “ which I can only assume means, “ army of robots, “ have been destroyed, by Sonic. Eggman screams in fear and wastes a whole bunch of panels telling ADAM who Sonic is when WE already KNOW that, ending it off by saying that he had deleted all his files on Sonic because he thought he was dead.
It must have been in celebration, and he had every reason to believe he was gone for good, so this mistake of his makes sense. But you’d think considering the amount of missions Sonic was involved in, deleting all the files on him would mean deleting massive chunks of information about the Freedom Fighters’ missions so that ADAM and M should logically be lacking tons of experience with how they operate and their previous missions.
Finally it’s explained in a text blurb exactly how long Sonic’s arc took him; only six weeks. Not a year like I heard it’d be before the space arc, but six weeks. That’s much more acceptable, but I still have a really hard time believing that Knothole SURVIVED him being GONE for that long when nobody else is NEARLY as capable of fighting robots as him, since we haven’t seen Geoffrey or anyone else use ray guns in a LONG while, and while the Chaotix have special powers of some sort, they don’t have super speed and the minute Sonic lost his, all his friends were almost roboticized.
Sonic is shocked at seeing Knothole all metallic and different – the artists are going to forget all about it looking like this, or maybe it was just one very small section of it like that– and then thinks he just ASSUMED the same amount of time passed in Mobius as it did in outer space. LOGICALLY since it’d be stupid otherwise! Did that wormhole warp him ahead in time?
I guess it would kinda make sense, it’s called space-time continuum for a reason so it might only move him in space if it also moved him in time. But logically, Zonic should’ve warped him home instead of being worthless and incompetent as usual and risking Mobius falling without Sonic around!
So again, this time skip is forced. So never mind I take BACK my compliment about it being six weeks, because it turns out it’s been a YEAR since the Xorda were beaten! BULLSHIT! Absolute bullshit that Knothole had survived for that long without him, especially since in all that time, Eggman’s known where it is!
I’m sorry but what happened literally every single time Sonic was put out of commission? Especially in the earliest comic days? RIGHT AWAY, the Freedom Fighters were captured and almost roboticized! Like when Sonic first lost his super speed! And the writer expects me to believe that this hasn’t happened without him?! Bullshit! Absolute bullshit. Every other issue after Eggman discovered where Knothole was, he tried to destroy it! The giant robot, the Cater-Killer! And now this plan!
He runs to the guards who let him in fortunately instead of assuming he’s a fake of Sonic sent by Eggman. I know that he’d need his DNA to make a fake him, but one he knows where Knothole is to get it and two there was a perfectly good Sonic infiltrator being ignored in the camp where Ray and Mighty reunited, so I refuse to believe he wouldn’t have used it at some point.
Wasn’t there literally a Sonic infiltrator there in the place Fiona was once enslaved in? You’d think Eggman would’ve used it, but I guess they assume since they might have already destroyed it by now, this one’s the real deal. But Eggman could’ve sent robots to get Sonic’s DNA from his pillow here, tiny robots that no one would notice. There’s nothing but unbelievable writing here so far. Geoffrey surviving because his last request was honored, Knothole surviving, and now this.
Okay, okay, so Knuckles and Mighty are talking to the king and queen. So that means they STILL have SOME superpowered heroes protecting Knothole. Knuckles has spiked knuckles, although his powers are very mundane compared to Sonic’s, and Mighty has super strength, while Espio can turn invisible, and Vector has sound wave headphones to blast stuff away.
So that makes it SLIGHTLY easier to buy that Knothole had survived a whole year without Sonic but it’s still bullshit. Knuckles says to the king that if he and the Chaotix infiltrate Angel Island just after midnight, they can liberate it from Eggman’s forces by lunchtime tomorrow.
Then the king naturally denies his request on the basis that Knothole CITY, requires his presence longer. Why’d he say “ a bit longer? “ Wait does this mean that all of the echidnas on Angel Island are enslaved by Eggman, even Knuckles’ mom? Or did they mostly escape to Albion with the planes they were shown to have when Athair talked to Tails? Uh, I hope so! No, THAT would make SENSE!
You know what would also MAKE SENSE? The Brotherhood using their magical powers to successfully defend Angel Island by obliterating any vessels that threatened it! Steppenwolf could make people feel like their brains were on fire for fuck’s sake! The very idea that Eggman conquered it just because Knuckles was gone is completely ridiculous and yet I’m expected to buy it just fine!
Not only was the Brotherhood there to defend it but so was the Dark Legion! AN ENTIRE MILITARY of teched-out echidnas! A time skip to it doesn’t do this change any favors because it means we’ll never get to see HOW Eggman MANAGED that because the Dark Legion are HUNDREDS of years more advanced than him. Anyways the king says that “ we know that “ Eggman’s hatching a new plan in New Megaopolis. But they just don’t know what.
This is when Sonic shows up much to the joy of everyone else because I guess they wanna believe he’s alive so easily that it doesn’t even OCCUR to them the possibility that it’s just a fake Sonic to fool them. You’d think Eggman would’ve tried that plan a million times by now!
Afterwards, it’s pointed out that the king can walk again which was foreshadowed by him using one of those walking things you hold onto with both arms trying to learn to walk again that George Constanza used one time, but it’s still pretty sudden.
You’d think that Sonic himself not being able to explain how he survived would make the king wonder if he really is Sonic. They all just really wanna believe it’s him. After saying that he thought the guards had lost their minds, Chuck hugs Sonic, and Sonic says that he should’ve known Sally was crying at his statue.
That’s right, it’s been an ENTIRE YEAR, and she’s STILL completely devastated by his death as if it was LITERALLY just yesterday! She STILL hasn’t gotten over it, she still is so miserable about it that she regularly comes to the statue of him to cry! That means a LOT about her emotional state by now!
Even if you ignore all the signs that the stress of her life was getting to her BEFORE this point, like her yelling at the king and Knuckles and going Stoic, by THIS point, it’s obvious that this isn’t the same Sally we know and love and she’s more fragile than she used to be, and it was written that way for a very good reason; this is gonna come up later.
Sonic kisses her, on the lips for literally just the second time as far as we know. Great chemistry, although the paparazzi IMMEDIATELY annoy them and ruin the moment. It’s annoying that one of the guards is kind enough to ask the paparazzi to give them some privacy, another one of them asks, “ Where were you raised, in a kennel? “ That was rude!
Sally is asked whether she’s gonna say she thought he was dead and ask how he survived, and she says no. She knew Sonic would come back to her eventually, meaning that even after ALL that TIME she was still JUST as deep in DENIAL, as she would’ve been when she first LOST him! NORMALLY that’s not how the stages of grief work, you get PAST that phase.
So she was actively deluding himself that he would come back after ALL that TIME, as her ONLY WAY of coping with losing him! I have no idea WHY she would love someone so completely opposite to her in personality and temperament that much… but apparently she DOES, and it really speaks to how traumatized she was at the idea of him “ actually “ dying! Also, it’s weird that she doesn’t ask how he survived right away. I would think that everyone would wanna know that right away.
Every one of Sonic’s friends and family, run up to him happily, with Sonic’s badly drawn dad asking if he needs a hand and helping him up, and Sonic’s mom hugging him and saying that she missed him so much. And Sonic actually admits that he missed her too.
And THEN, uh-oh!… THIS isn’t Antoine anymore. Yep, I could tell RIGHT AWAY because of that scar on his cheek because I know who has that in Issue 151. Not to mention the fact that he was eerily serious about greeting him, saluting him saying, “ I salute the hero on this return most unexpected. “ I’m just gonna be honest with you all because of my knowledge of some later issues instead of annoyingly playing dumb, this is Patch. Antoine’s evil twin.
I just think it’d be far more interesting to review this series acknowledging that this isn’t Antoine, instead of playing dumb to the audience, examining Patch’s character the whole time. For example you’d think that if Patch was as evil as he could be, he would’ve just killed all the Freedom Fighters by now, instead of playing the long and patient game! But I guess I don’t give enough credit to his patience and intelligence.
But he has no patience with Bunnie later, he always complains at her, although something interesting to note is that the writers on board were actually arguing amongst themselves over whether this would be Patch, or just Antoine after some “ Character Development. “ I put that in quotes because it’s not a positive development at ALL, he’s stone serious and grim. I can understand why they would’ve considered that, though.
While Penders’ idea that he was an evil twin was better rather than ruining Antoine’s character making him grim, Bollers’ idea made more sense to be not figured out by the heroes right away, as it would’ve had the implication that this shift happened gradually. By the way, “ return most unexpected, “ makes sense of a French speaker to make a mistake like that because in French, that’s how you do superlative adjectives, like it’s “ la tasse d’eau la plus claire, “ not, “ la plus claire tasse d’eau. “ for “ the clearest cup of water. “
It’s weird that Sonic doesn’t immediately ask anyone how Patch got that scar of his. I guess ‘cause he thought it’d be too painful of a memory? But you’d think basic curiosity and concern over his friend would take precedent. It’s so lazy that we’ll NEVER know the answer to this question!
Instead he gets brought to Knothole’s Technolo-Tree, a telecommunications port with satellite uplink that lets the Freedom Fighters interface with anyone on the globe, and has an annoying name where I keep trying to spell it as Technotree… Like Technolotree, I get it, it’s a pun, but… I don’t like it.
It’s interestingly ironic that it’s a fusion of technology and a tree, but Sally had no problem communicating with all her allies in Issue 52, so why is this concept necessary and impressive? You know what WOULD be necessary and impressive? A force field generator for Knothole! Sandblast has one for no reason, so what’s stopping Rotor?
Also Rotor seems to be wearing spectacles now, which makes sense since he’s a nerd, AND they make him look much older than he is, not that I care since he always seemed older than everyone else anyways from his bulky tall design. I always saw him as the adult of the group.
I love his tool belt and brown coat because it makes making him more fully clothed, although the problem with the spectacles making him look old is that since he retired from field missions as we’ll learn later, the spectacles seem to just emphasis that with a depressing feel of “ oh he’s old now, he’s just too lame to join in on the action now, “ which is a clueless direction to take with one of the original Freedom Fighters since the very beginning – if anyone should’ve retired, it was obviously the useless Antoine, not Rotor.
The president of Station Square calls them to warn them about GUN urging a pre-emptive strike against New Megaopolis. Just like it did to Robotropolis, right? But it doesn’t have a force field to keep the nuke in this time, right? Yet they’re still doing this.
The queen says it’s unacceptable because thousands will perish and the president says that GUN is calling it “ collateral damage. “ I could understand why they’d go to extreme lengths to get rid of Eggman, I really can. But what kind of government is Station Square’s where the military is completely separate from the president’s authority, to the point of, the president feeling the need to WARN them about this urge of theirs? That’s a military coup waiting to happen! It has to be that this is the case because otherwise the president would just tell GUN not to do that and it’d be fine!
Shockingly, considering that he’s about to say, ” Robotnik’s playing hardball. Maybe it’s time we played- ” that means even the president seems to be considering agreeing with GUN even though thousands would perish, which seems Out of Character for him. He’s so nice that he begged for Sonic’s forgiveness on his knees for not taking his help in the first place and he respected Sonic for standing up to his government for not wanting to accept refugees. But apparently he’s changed out of fear of Eggman, after he tried to kill him in his limo.
It’s logical of him to wanna play hardball back, but why would he TELL the king this? So that means that he’s lucky Eggman arbitrarily interrupted his broadcast to brag about a plan Sonic must have already told them about, because if he didn’t, logically the conversation would continue and the king and queen would get mad at him. (Sonic Adventure 2 Eggman theme plays)
Then Eggman hacks into the Technotree telling them to observe the still-irradiated city of Robotropolis, safe inside a protective force field. Wait, it’s had that force field kept up that whole time? I don’t understand how the force field stayed up after all that time! The missile should’ve destroyed its force field generator along with most of Robotropolis, though there’s still buildings left standing in that force field somehow, but I’m assuming only some of those were nukeproof and the big gray ash they’re sticking out of would be most of the city’s remains, and the force field generator should be part of that ash.
I can only assume that the Freedom Fighters are using a magical gem like a Chaos Emerald to keep that force field going after all that time, because it would’ve ran out of energy eventually! If it was being supplied by an energy source outside of the city that Eggman had access to, he would’ve cut it off by now, and if the energy supply was internal, how the hell did that energy supply survive a nuclear explosion and keep going on its OWN all this TIME?
Wouldn’t Eggman have turned it off, since it’s generated by his satellite? I guess the heroes had a mission to take over that satellite for themselves, sending robots of their own to keep it that way, having Nicole take control of it. Again, the time skip doesn’t do this favors, it just has it make no sense.
His robot forces are planning to penetrate that barrier and release the radiation on Knothole, which they didn’t do a year earlier for some reason. Why is he TELLING THEM this so they’ll know to stop him?! That wouldn’t happen, he’d just succeed! The heroes would have to have SWATbot detectors to have any chance of knowing about this! How’d he even get the idea he could do this, how was he supposed to know he could ever do anything about that barrier?
I guess the SWATbots have magical force field disruptors, and they DID disrupt the force field guarding the Master Emerald with lasers just fine, but what took him so long to do this obvious plan for the first time then? Unless this ISN’T a new plan but then why is nobody mentioning that this plan was stopped before?!
You’d think Eggman would’ve shot lasers at the points where the force field was weakest and destroyed it just like he did the one around the Chaos Chamber, and if he couldn’t destroy it like that, he’d give up realizing it was pointless. Maybe that’s his plan. Why didn’t he do that a lot earlier? I guess he’s just that stubborn about not defeating his enemies in a way that’d be too easy! So he tells them about his plan to have a challenge!
Then Eggman explains that right behind him are two missiles, one aimed at Knothole, the other at Station Square. The story just ends right then and there. Wait, so, what was the point of him trying to execute Geoffrey so he couldn’t warn the heroes if he was just gonna tell them about the missiles long before he fired them ANYWAYS?! He was almost being smart! He would’ve been smart if he only told them about the missiles the SECOND before he tried to launch them, but since he tells them he’s gonna launch them entire issues before he plans to, he’s just a complete idiot.
This issue was by Karl Bollers and reveals that Sonic was brought through a wormhole a year forwards in time to Mobius, which is used as an excuse for a time skip, to bring forth some interesting changes in the status quo! Including the king walking again, Knothole being transformed into metal buildings in a city, that made me think the place was taken over by Eggman at first, I’m not sure why Rotor didn’t at least paint the buildings to make them not look so menacing and off-putting.
And the Technotree shows up and it’s a telecommunication network. There’s also Patch replacing Antoine who knows how long ago – I don’t think it’s actually specified WHEN he DID this, and I hate that we don’t know how recent that replacement was. It was a year ago for all we know!
Sally is revealed to have been stuck in the same devastated emotional state as when Sonic supposedly died, because she stayed in the denial stage of grief all that time, and was regularly coming to his statue and crying, as if it literally just happened the other day and she’s stuck in the past. If THAT’S not trauma, NOTHING is. The time skip not destroying the Freedom Fighters from Sonic being gone for even a week is explained as the Chaotix all substituting for him all that time, which makes things the teensiest easier to swallow, I guess, a little.
Angel Island being taken over by Eggman when it has the Brotherhood and Dark Legion to defend it on the other hand, was mind-bogglingly stupid and I’m ashamed I didn’t notice how dumb that was the first read. Speaking of stupid, logically the time skip never even should’ve happened with Sonic leaving and coming back, because there’s no reason he should’ve been sent to the ant planet and even when he was, he should’ve just used Chaos Control with the Emeralds there to come right back home. They could’ve just had a time skip without having Sonic be gone for a year.
But my biggest hated moment with the issue was how confusing that panel with Geoffrey and Hershey getting married by a terrified minister in front of Eggman and SWATbots WHILE a VILLAGE is BURNING is! It made me think they were traitors and their characters had been mangled! COULDN’T they have gotten married at a less distasteful time?! THAT was confusing! The rest of the issue was fine though, pretty interesting!
Changes to the status quo are great, even if most of these ones were minor. Long-running series desperately need this kind of stuff to avoid becoming stagnant, although it took a few issues for me to get totally reinvested again since the changes were off-putting at first. Ultimately this story was contrived and forced.
Geoffrey would’ve never lived long enough to tell Sonic about the nukes because he wouldn’t be given his last request. Maybe the only reason Eggman told the heroes about his Operation Triple Threat was BECAUSE Geoffrey got to warn Sonic about it anyways, and if he hadn’t been saved, they would’ve been all screwed.
What’s really contrived is the guards letting Sonic into the castle instead of assuming he’s an infiltrator robot or alternate universe Sonic, everyone in fact assuming that it’s him, though at least it’s NICE, and SOMEHOW, Eggman not only took over Angel Island, but he also warns the heroes that he’s gonna release Robotropolis’ radiation, because its force field is still up! WHY would he warn him about that?! He’d just release it! Why didn’t he do it a year ago?!
Issue 131:
We start out after a few panels are wasted, with Sonic complaining that it would take too LONG for him to run all the way to New Megaopolis and stop Eggman, even though he’s the fastest thing alive and could run at over 700 miles per hour! He can run across an entire planet multiple times for a short little RACE, but THIS?! NO, THAT’S too hard! We need to have Sonic’s part of the plot start an issue LATER!
Sally tells him to wait and we cut to an airship above Knothole, with what I can only assume is Espio due to the textbox tail being closest to him, but it’s more likely Sally, saying that Bunnie, Patch, Fiona, and him, is the team that the king gathered to back up Sonic. The person talking says that Geoffrey and Hershey made it back just in time to join them… I guess that really was Espio talking. ” This is quite a team? ” I hope you’re joking. Only Bunnie and Espio seem remotely competent here.
It turns out this is the first voyage of the Freedom Fighter Special, and Geoffrey says they’re not even sure if it works yet! THAT doesn’t sound good. I guess they’re desperate. Rotor contacts them on his monitor and says that he designed the second airship to work on a very different travel principle from the first one. Are we gonna learn what happened to the first one in a story about it-no? It soars directly up into the upper atmosphere, where it moves into geosynchronous orbit around Mobius. Why is he telling them all of this just now?
FIONA asks why they haven’t packed spacesuits, being cautious. And Rotor reassures her that they included an onboard life support system. Fiona then sarcastically remarks making me laugh, “ Is this the part where I’m supposed to say, ‘ Gee whillikers…? “ That was kinda funny, her being snarky with him! It makes sense that she’d wanna have more reassurance! I really have to wonder why Rotor wouldn’t have spacesuits in his ship. It’s like having extra lifeboats on a ship! This is the guy who was prepared enough to have air bubbles form around his friends whenever their submarine got damaged.
Either way he has an unsatisfying reply and then says that moving in an accelerated hyper-spin around the planet, will make the ship a lot faster than the old one, letting them arrive at Old Megaopolis in thirty minutes. Wait, WHY OLD Megaopolis? Eggman isn’t there, I thought he was just in Megapolis.
Then we cut to what’s actually Antoine’s father, but from the distant camera angle I wasn’t sure who it was, saying what translates to, “ Good heavens! “ Since he’s Antoine’s father and not Patch, it makes sense that he’d use such a tame curse.
He looks through some binoculars near Robotropolis saying that Eggman’s SWATbots are gathering on the horizon, and says “ my braves. “ Oh, apparently he’s talking to Geoffrey’s men, makes sense that they’d become the kingdom military, and he says that they’ve been stationed here for the past 10 years in case of such an eventuality – wait a minute, they got Knothole and the king back way less than 10 years ago!
Why is he talking as if they were never interrupted from this duty by Robotnik? That was bad dialogue. He says they’re there to prevent the Robotropolis breach. Sheesh and they say echidnas look too similar! These are the same person cloned over and over!
General D’Coolette is interrupted, “ What is that it… “ the translation of, “ Qu’est que-ce ? “ UHHH, THAT’S WRONG, SO wrong that I could barely vocally translate the sentence in the script! It’s supposed to be “ Qu’est-ce que, “ with the ce being before the que to mean, “ what is it that? “ That REALLY threw me off! How do you get that wrong?! You’d think they would Google what the French translation of what they want characters to say is and not try to do it from “ memory. “
Anyways, Knuckles shows up, along with Amy, Vector, Julie and Mighty. Why is he surprised that these guys are showing up, was it too much trouble to call him on a cell phone, and tell him the plans have changed? Upon being told that Sonic’s alive he says, “ Très bon, “ instead of, “ très bien, “ which doesn’t sound right to me EITHER.
In fact I’m surprised they got THAT wrong because that’s one of the major things even non-French-speakers tend to know, that, “ Très bien, “ means, “ Very good. “ But I can at least understand not getting the bon and bien distinction, it’s pretty silly. Bon means good but it’s an adjective only and is usually used for describing food, and bien means well, it’s for putting after verbs.
Meanwhile Uncle Chuck says that the citizens have begun moving into the fallout shelters, and the king says that he’d like everyone to accompany his elite guard to the royal bunker at once, which includes Sally’s family and Sonic’s parents.
They all refuse to leave saying that they aren’t going ANYWHERE without the king, who reluctantly lets it slide even though he’s the king, and then is baffled at the president not telling his people about the atomic threat in the interest of preventing mass hysteria… Screw protecting them then, I guess! After this the king lampshades this the president says that the humans think differently in general, but it’s more like they aren’t as used to dangerous situations thanks to Eggman since Station Square used to be isolated in a mountain, so their people would freak out more instead of knowing it’ll be fine.
The king explains that he’s dispatched two strike teams; one to old Megaopolis to stop the launch since the launch is apparently from THERE, and another to defend Robotropolis against the SWATbot army. The president then reassures him that his government is trying to help and we see a helicopter near Station Square as I wonder how they even ARE gonna help.
At the president’s house, Commander Brass of the SA2 military group is surprised that instead of fighting back against Eggman, they’re leaving it up to Sonic and his friends. I guess he’s too arrogant to realize how powerful a super fast hedgehog IS!
The commander says that GUN is seriously urging him to reconsider his decision because the attack from the Xorda had left their city sky dome destroyed, making the once hidden city exposed and vulnerable. No wonder the military’s more scared! The dome was already drilled a hole through by the Egg Carrier. It was already a little exposed.
The president says that they won’t strike back until Eggman’s missiles would be airborne. At least it’s smart of him to still CONSIDER striking back. Sonic STILL hasn’t DONE anything in this issue by the way. He’s told that his GUN commandos are already en route to their destination.
And he’s assigned one of his special operatives to the mission. We then see in the GUN transport helicopter that someone is knocking on the door despite them being ten thousand feet above the ocean. Why not just say “ ten thousand feet in the air, “ or “ the sky? “ I misread above as below at first, I read it like they were in a submarine.
Anyways, surprise surprise, it’s Rouge the Bat. We’ll never see how she got hired by the president by the way. Then we see that the Old Megaopolis Harbor that ADAM is beginning the countdown, because they wanna make a COUNTDOWN instead of doing stuff right away. Gotta give the heroes a fighting chance! This makes the entire story arc contrived because this is the ONLY REASON the heroes are able to do all this planning instead of the missiles already launching. Then Sonic and Tails show up with the biplane but sadly the story ends right THERE to continue onto a backup-story I’m not really sure about.
In the next story, we learn that Merlin’s gazing into the future a lot. And we see Sonic telling Sally that while SHE was born and raised to be a queen, he thrives on action, and says, “ Listening to everyone rag and making decisions just isn’t my bag! “ The PERFECT argument against them getting married! I can’t see Sonic as a king, ANY Sonic!
Realistically what would happen is that Sonic would stay put with Sally for just a little while before SNAPPING from the lack of adventure, and running off to another dimension to be a hero somewhere else. The ONLY way this wouldn’t happen, is if either Sonic got his legs crippled so that he couldn’t run ever again, and even then he’d just get cyborg ones or kill himself, or okay so there’s two ways.
The second way this wouldn’t happen is if Sonic wouldn’t have any way to GET to another dimension, and considering he’s been zone-hopping so easily his entire life, with portals just showing up, I doubt that would happen, ESPECIALLY since Zonic’s been foreshadowing that Sonic is destined to save all of time and space, he’d wanna spend the rest of his life adventuring. The two would NOT stay together if Sally thinks him adventuring is a deal-breaker to her!
But yeah we see text saying Mobius 25 Years Later, with Lara-Su, who looks like she has her tongue out in a derpy expression that perfectly suits her weird design (well actually it’s lipstick but it’s kinda hard to tell), and Knuckles has a cyborg eye and cowboy hat next to Julie-Su for some reason. I’d like to point out that this isn’t technically canon. The stories of 25 Years Later get contradicted in later issues because Locke gets killed off in a different way in them. (Figures it’s the fanfiction writer that contradicts the earlier issues.)
So unless they miraculously brought him back from the dead at some point, the best I can say for this story arc to humor it, which I want to do to be fair, is that this takes place in an alternate dimension, and not the future of Mobius. I mean, why not? Even though it’s not the Prime zone I’m still interested in seeing what Penders’ interpretation of 25 years later was like, just for the sake of it. So let’s go into a different dimension that’s almost exactly like the one that we’re in, and see how ITS future is going to be!
We start out with a really old craggily-looking echidna, teaching history lessons with Angel Island as his example. As if they don’t ALWAYS do that. This implies that Angel Island really has stopped being isolationist entirely since he’s talking as if they don’t solely teach echidna history. A lot changed in 25 years, so I’m not gonna insult the contradictions to previous issues.
Anyways after he wastes time telling us stuff we already know while annoying me with the very lazy background not telling me where he’s situated, he says that Echidnapolis used to be the only city on the island somehow and consisted of “ zones, “ but during the past 20 years the echidnas have seen the development of their own self-contained biosphere. Wait, wouldn’t this have always been the case?
I mean WHY else would Angel Island have always kept its air just as thick as the air on the ground so the people wouldn’t suffocate upon being brought to the sky? And why else would it have always kept its vegetation thriving just as well even higher up? And why else would it not be colder from being high up in the sky? It has to exist in a sort of stasis bubble!
Anyways, the old guy explains that the “ most notable… “ The most notable WHAT? Biosphere?… He said that there was only ONE. Development?… “ The most notable “ has been the development and growth of the island’s gateway city of Portal, which I don’t think we’re ever gonna see in this arc anyways, named by people who really liked the game Portal apparently. Which has functioned as their main link of trade and travel with the mainland below. So it’s representing the echidnas not being isolationist.
Why couldn’t they just have Echidnapolis do this?… If the island has room for multiple cities, why didn’t they either have more than one city a LONG time ago, or already have expanded the one city enough over time to account for population growth, so there wouldn’t be room for Portal?
Meanwhile, Echidnapolis, still the capital city, has been recognized as the oldest democracy on Mobius. I forgot that the government of Echidnapolis wasn’t the Brotherhood but politicians that got elected, as we learned in “ The Darkest Alliance. “ Why did they start democracy? Was there a revolution?…
For some reason one of the students asks why, if they’re in a democracy, it says “ republic of Angel Island “ on the world map. That makes no sense, because Republic MEANS democracy! Like the French Republic is France. And I don’t like Angel Island being called by that long title! Why can’t it just be called Angel Island? That sounds nicer instead of just being a boring country! Good thing we never really see this title again.
Jaker says that it’s called a republic because the echidnas don’t believe in a monarchy, but for some reason the teacher says ” not quite, ” even though that’s correct. Then some panels are wasted telling us about what democracy is when I’m sure the audience already KNOWS THAT, and also reminding us of the echidna guardians’ special status, which we also know, causing Lara-Su to angrily attack a kid who snarks that someday they’re gonna have to bow to “ Miss Sunshine “ here. So, is, is she called Miss Sunshine because she’s really cheery? Turns out it’s sarcasm but since we don’t know her yet, we can’t be expected to know that.
This causes the other kids to laugh at the one who got attacked instead of at HER fortunately, and the teacher to scold her not because she was violent like her father, but because, “ This isn’t how young LADIES conduct themselves! “ Who cares if she’s a girl? You can TELL he’s pretty old!
Logically you’d think the teacher would be calling out Rutan as WELL, since he was being rude, TWICE since he called non-echidnas backwards earlier. But NO, that’d make sense! Maybe he’s too scared of Jaker’s mom Lien-Da to ever call him out.
He says he’ll see her after class to waste her time nagging pointlessly, and then we see a shuttle airship arriving from Mobotropolis… wait, Mobotropolis? So they got Mobotropolis BACK, they, deirradiated it? Or did they rename Knothole “ Mobotropolis? “ This was why calling this another dimension was so much easier. (Although later on it’s explained by Flynn that they have a device to suck radiation from Robotropolis to power New Mobotropolis, so maybe that’s supposed to be why eventually the city became radiation-free. Also, they could rebuild Echidnapolis.)
Anyways, anyways it arrived from Mobotropolis, with some fox and a cloaked person arriving on Angel Island for the first time. Rotor’s wearing a Dark Legionnaire cloak. That just immediately looks stupid and out of character and for some reason it always keeps going. He’s asked if this is his first trip in Echidnaopolis and Rotor says, ” Yes. ” Isn’t he lying about this being his first trip here? Why would he lie? Why would it be? Especially since he’s been long-time friends with Cobor.
Didn’t he come to Angel Island in the Knuckles Chaotix Special and the Mammoth Mogul story? I’d say this proves that it’s an alternate universe, but as the arc goes on, it’ll be made clear that the writer wants you to think it really is the Prime universe’s future. Or at least that this arc has the Prime Sonic.
And he goes into a yellow flying limousine, which Harry drives because it’d be boring if we had some other taxi driver we don’t know I guess, but it seems so overly convenient that it’s always the same guy every time.
Rotor asks if he has clearance, and then Espio shows up to him. Rotor says that he’s here on behalf of the king and queen who want to meet with the guardian and his family. At first I read that as, “ meet “ them for the first time which would’ve been nonsensical at this point.
Espio naturally lampshades how stupid it is that everyone’s now standing on ceremony rather than the king and queen just showing up. And Rotor angers me saying that they all grew up as if that somehow justifies them having to jump through hoops and middlemen to pay their friends a visit!
Espio says to tell Sonic and Sally that next Sunday would be fine, so I guess they’re only jumping through hoops because they have such busy schedules, and asks if they’ll be bringing the children. Knuckles is told by Espio that they are indeed doing that, and it’s added that Sonia and Manik were especially excited at seeing Lara again.
But wait, wait, he’s talking to him like he’s still his friend. So I guess this is a different dimension entirely from the one where Knuckles became the leader of the Dark Legion and started trying to take over the world. I like that Sonic named his kids after Sonia and Manik though, it makes perfect sense since he met them while zone-hopping. (Though if we’re supposed to believe this isn’t the Prime Sonic later, then apparently this would reference a zone-hopping adventure we never got to see.)
Knuckles complains that his wife mentioned something about a boy having a crush on his daughter, and Espio tells someone that maybe he should tell someone too young to be dating apparently because she’d love to date a prince.
Espio says that he suspects Rotor wants to see Cobar though he wasn’t honest about it, and whoever THAT is, they have a history together. Espio snarks that, “ it’s pretty scary when two mad scientists get together! Considering their last project, “ which I don’t think we’ll ever learn about. So in this alternate dimension, Rotor and Cobar are together… Rotor’s never had a girlfriend in the Prime dimension anyways, but it seems kinda pointless, they’ll just act like normal friends anyways.
Either way we see Knuckles saying in front of the Master Emerald that he has to get home for his daughter’s unveiling ceremony tonight anyways, whatever THAT is. Lien-Da, is reminded by her grandfather that she probably should go there too because she’s family. Is that DIMITRI? I guess so. Why’s he a floating head in a bubble?
Lien-Da points out that it’s not like she and her half-sister are on the best of terms. And Dimitri says that she should mend some fences, (even though Julie won’t be mad at her upon seeing her later so those fences were already mended). So it looks like the Dark Legion finally isn’t evil anymore!
But is it really believable that Dimitri would live with Lien-Da in peace in the future? Even in the past issues taking place in the present, Lien-Da wanted to get Dimitri assassinated so that she could take control of the Dark Legion away from him! Wouldn’t she wanna do that to him again? She doesn’t really deserve this.
I get that he cares about her because she’s family and he did too much to bother Knuckles to feel okay about spending time with him instead. He’s an outcast everywhere but here. He’s always been idealistic towards Lien-Da because she’s family, that’s why he called her a dear sweet girl and hoped she’d continue the path he’s set for his people, so I SUPPOSE it’s in-character.
But it’s still weird that they’re even putting up with each other at all. She’s not loyal to him, and that’s without her betraying him in the Iron Dominion arc later, which wasn’t planned at this time. Then Lien-Da asks what turns out to be her son what happened to his head. For some reason he doesn’t tell his mother the truth even though I’d expect him to WANT to get the person who hit him in trouble.
Lien-Da says that she doesn’t recall Kragok and her being violent children. REALLY, even though they murdered their stepmother? I guess she really DID die of an accident in this dimension! Either that, or she’s just referring to the fact that she and Kragok weren’t violent with OTHER CHILDREN.
Then Dimitri says that neither of them were temperamental. Why would he KNOW what they were like as children? It made me wonder if he really was her grandfather and not Dimitri. So in this dimension, he knew them as children. Then he goes on to say that Kragok and Dimitri WERE treacherous. Again, how does he know?
Julie then tells Knuckles that for some reason their daughter doesn’t wanna go through with the Unveiling. It turns out that all echidna girls are unveiled when they turn 16, whatever unveiled means. And Lara says that she wants to be a guardian, as if being unveiled would somehow prevent that. I thought she already WAS one! You know, because she’s the guardian’s daughter? Is it just because she’s a girl? That kid she attacked acted like she was ALREADY a guardian? Wouldn’t it be common knowledge that the guardianship stopped if it did and the kid wouldn’t make that remark?
Knuckles refuses to let her be a guardian, implying that it’s because he doesn’t wanna repeat the same mistakes as his father. He has the logical argument, “ What do you need a guardian for when others are essentially carrying out the same functions? Things are different now! “ What others? Plus HE’S guarding the Emerald just FINE, he’s always in the same room with it, not ” others. ” So yeah, that argument kinda sucked because it’s not others doing it, it’s him.
It’d make way more sense if Knuckles’ reasoning was simply that he doesn’t wanna stop being the guardian because he’s very used to it and that’s HIS burden, he doesn’t wanna put it on anyone else, and THAT part he explains later. He’s the guardian. Explaining that would make him sound selfish, so no. He just lies to her instead.
If he explained himself this way, it wouldn’t feel as arbitrary and unfair that suddenly Knuckles wouldn’t wanna train his kid to be a guardian, because drama. Knuckles complains that he wishes he could just spank her like echidnas once did, causing his wife to say that’s barbaric. He is Knuckles the violent hothead after all.
And he says that while he thinks his daughter would make a great guardian, he just doesn’t see the need for it, and not going to the unveiling tonight won’t affect anything other than her missing out on an important event in her life. This FINALLY convinces his daughter, who says with a smile that she’ll go as long as he promises her the first dance.
She reminds me of Korra from the first episode of Legend of Korra, where she really wanted to escape the place she was kept in by overprotective White Lotus members, and start actually working as an Avatar by exploring the world, and had been dreaming of doing so her whole childhood. But it took until she was a teenager until she was actually allowed to do that, after she smuggled herself into Republic City.
Combine that with Lara-Su standing up for herself attacking him for hitting a sore spot, and combine that with her being nice and reasonable enough to get convinced by her father to stop acting up, and I think I might LIKE this girl.
The first story was written by Karl Bollers and involves Sonic not getting to do anything yet, only showing up at the END, while all his OTHER friends organize themselves in a mission to stop Eggman from destroying Knothole and Station Square. It’s really just a story of exposition, leading into the next one where actual action will happen. Did we even need to see any of this?
One team is led by Antoine’s father protecting Robotropolis from the radiation being leaked potentially, and another team is a whole bunch of Freedom Fighters in an airship going to go stop the launching at Old Megaopolis. That team includes Fiona Fox! So we’re probably gonna have to wait until the action’s all said and done until we actually get to see a story explaining how and why she joined the Freedom Fighters. I’m kinda worried that they’ll never tell us! (NOPE, that NEVER happens because that would be good writing!)
My guess is, she was ALL ALONE, after Nicolette abandoned her from all their arguments, and she wanted a support group, a group of people who would always stand by her non-judgmentally and respect her as one of them, like a surrogate family, people who are SO LOYAL to her. I’m fascinated to start counting all the things she’ll do for them as a Freedom Fighter, finally filling myself in on that part of the comic’s history that’s so mysterious to me. But I’m not counting her as helping when she just stands around with everyone else! I’m waiting for her to actually DO something!
I don’t know why they just accepted some random mortal with no special powers into the group, when she shows no skills she could contribute! Mina had to remind them of her super speed to get in! I can only assume they felt sorry for her having nowhere else to go, and were desperate for extra manpower to make up for Sonic being gone. What happens to her clothes after this issue by the way? She’s back to her old design after this. I guess she thought they looked stupid after just getting them and threw them away.
Meanwhile, the second story by Ken Penders of course, is about showing us 25 years into the future of what I can only generously believe to be an alternate dimension, where Lara-Su attacks Lien-Da’s son for snarking that they’ll have to bow down to her because she’s sensitive about not being a guardian.
He for some reason doesn’t tell his mother what happened when she’s not murderous anymore, Lien-Da is encouraged by Dimitri to go patch things up with her half-sister, and Lara is reluctant at first to go to her unveiling ceremony, which I can only assume is a rite of passage for 16-year-olds. This reluctance I can only assume is part of her desperately trying to bargain with her father by saying she’ll only go to the ceremony if she’s allowed to be a guardian like him, wanting to be a proactive hero type like her father was as a kid.
And Knuckles makes an argument in favor of the idea that they don’t need guardians anymore with tons of different people willing to protect the island. Never mind the fact that he’s clearly still guarding the Master Emerald! Making him, that’s right, a guardian! And he’s gonna have to assign other people to guard it eventually, thus making them guardians! Just let her watch the damn jewel, she’ll see how boring it is!
She reminds me of Korra in the first episode of the show with her insistence on this, making me actually grow to like her, weird design aside. And it really helped that she shows genuine affection for her father wanting to have a dance with him, and being reasoned with successfully by him.
There ARE a few interesting good ideas here! Like Lien-Da possibly reconciling with her sister because I guess she’s grown past her sadistic psychopathic torturer phase of life. I mean it HAS been 25years. Or maybe this is just not who she is in this dimension.
I love the idea of the Dark Legion finally stopping with the world domination shtick since that was always arbitrary to begin with and we already have Eggman doing that, provided of course that the technology bans have stopped because that was why they wanted to overthrow the government. And I like Lara really wanting to be a hero when it’s too late for that, which is kinda tragic actually.
The problem I have with this story is kinda hard to explain. I guess it’s that it was bogged down by exposition? I mean, the old guy looking like he’s falling apart wasting a whole bunch of time with boring exposition at the start wasn’t fun, especially when he’s telling me about stuff I already know. I guess it was necessary to have a history lesson as a set-up to Lara attacking a kid to set up that plot point, but it goes nowhere anyways, and Portal is never technically used either, so why bother telling us about it?
The real problem with this story is that it has some ideas I hate being a part of the status quo of the future we’re supposed to just accept. I hated the idea that Sonic and Sally have to set up an appointment using other people as an ambassador just to hang out with their own friends! And “ they grew up “ isn’t a satisfying excuse! It’s just stupid busywork for them!
It took me a while to get that the reason for this could be that they’re so busy with their schedules that they need to schedule meetings with each other as friends, but that doesn’t make it fun to see that Rotor has to be sent as an ambassador for them to each other. Why can’t they just call each other on their cell phones?
The story starts out with Sonic explaining to Sally why he’s really not the type to sit down and be happy with being a king! And if the writer was aware of that, you’d think he’d realize Sonic would never have the patience to put up with such a boring life! No matter HOW much he likes Sonic and his kids? Remember how he reacted at the start of peace time? “ I hate to say it, but everything stinks now that Robotnik is gone! “ Why didn’t that happen again?… Especially 25 years later! This is the biggest problem I have because this is NOT how I would picture the future to believably be.
And I’m confused about Knuckles not going berserk with chaos energy being the new evil taking over the world with the Dark Legion. So I can only assume this is an alternate dimension from THAT one. So now there’s THREE alternate dimensions involved here! Why even introduce the concept of Knuckles having that fate if you’re not gonna follow up on it?
The story wasn’t the worstest thing ever, not by a longshot. It’s alright to go through, just a bit annoying. But it has an appeal problem from being so different from being set in the future, and the conflict is so mundane and minor for an action series because there’s no major villain. It’s a fine story, though.
At least there IS peace, I really should be happier for the characters. But I can’t find this a believable future when Sonic’s sticking around with Sally boringly instead of being an adventuring hero. In fact, him refusing to do that would be way more characteristic of him and Bollers will prove he knows that.
Issue 132:
Sonic shows up much to Eggman’s fear and calls Mecha a “ she “ multiple times and says that a Power Ring is probably why Sonic arrived so soon, when he somehow expected Sonic to stay in Knothole. M must mean that she assumes the Tornado has a Ring making it faster than normal.
Then Tails says that the Tornado’s hacked into Eggman’s computer system, because it can do that now. And he’s told by Rotor to find the launch program. Eggman explains who ADAM is; a sentient computer virus that he somehow created accidentally 9 months ago. He explains that when Sonic’s friends linked to ADAM, their own systems became infected by him, allowing him to control them too.
Then we see Julie trying to convince Knuckles not to help in the battle! First she feels the need to remind him that he’s not omnipotent anymore, and then, she says he could get really hurt. She briefly acts like a Tsundere lashing out at him from Anger Born of Worry because Knuckles was sarcastic about how he died once, with Knuckles still smiling and joking around to show that he still loves her, rather than getting mad at her.
And then she immediately follows it up by telling him that she’s worried, showing that she truly cares about him. Knuckles says that with the muscle he’s got on their side, they’ll be fine, and points to Amy, who’s sitting on the floor surrounded by yellow light with what I can barely recognize as the Piko Piko Hammer in a meditating stance. And he unfortunately says that she’s warming up instead of actually explaining anything.
Antoine’s father warns them that the robots are approaching Robotropolis, and Vector gets ready to blast them with really loud stereo music, with everyone around him including Knuckles and Julie wearing headphones to protect their hearing.
Then we see Sally warning her parents that ADAM is in control of the Tornado, which somehow hasn’t killed Tails yet despite being able to move the plane when he’s not the one steering it. Uncle Chuck looks on the bright side that now ADAM’s attention is split three ways.
Eggman says in a panic that he can’t stop ADAM because he’s got a mind of his own. I’m not sure why he looks panicked about that, wouldn’t he WANT him to send Tails’ plane into the ocean? Why call your ENEMY hero?
Creatively enough, he distracts ADAM by saying a classic joke about the chicken crossing the road making him save the Tornado from plunging into the ocean, as he’s curious about what the punchline is. And after M attacks Sonic, we cut back to ADAM still communicating with Tails while Mecha’s attacking Sonic at the same time. I like ADAM’s dialogue here. At the very least, why couldn’t Nicole have tons of moments like this?
Vector then complains that the robots vaporized his speakers, and Knuckles reassures him that he bought “ Amy Rose Hedgehog, “ some TIME. I REALLY don’t like her suddenly having Hedgehog as last name! I mean FIRST OFF she’s not related to Sonic, so why would she share his last name, even if it’s probably a very common one? Rose just sounds prettier as a last name, why change it NOW?
After I’m expected to believe that Amy can take on an army of SWATbots with a hammer on her own without ANY getting past her enough, even though she doesn’t have super speed and is just ONE Person, Tails keeps delaying ADAM with riddles, using his intellect to deal with him in a clever way.
And then he panics at the Freedom Fighter Special almost hitting him, causing Patch to be yelled at for almost hitting him. He naturally snarks about how he couldn’t POSSIBLY know what’s wrong with the biplane as I wonder why the king couldn’t have called up their airship and told them what’s wrong. Why didn’t he put any sort of telecommunications in there? First Rotor doesn’t bother putting spacesuits in here and now this.
Then Sonic is attacked by “ Mecha “ OH, so that’s NOT ADAM! Instead, this was a person that was intentionally designed by Eggman as opposed to ADAM. The fact that M looks like a man didn’t help me realize that it was supposed to be a girl and NOT ADAM controlling a robot. He really should’ve just called her Mecha, it’d be less confusing with ADAM around.
Eggman says that ADAM is software and M is hardware. I have a hard time believing that Sonic would be curbstomped by M like this! Why doesn’t he just spindash through him at the speed of sound?! It’s like he’s not even trying!
He then gets thrown into the ocean and unfortunately for Sally, she and the parents witness it through camera footage, revealing the true purpose of Sonic’s Wimpification. Now there’s even MORE reason for her to be terrified that Sonic might get himself killed adventuring.
She panics and starts to cry because Sonic can’t swim. Sally says in determination that she has to go into Old Megaopolis to actually do something finally, but who knows WHAT, as I finally admire that she has long hair now, which looks really nice actually!
The guards block the door and she expects them to follow her orders when clearly they’re doing this for the king. It just makes a fool out of her. Her parents try to forbid her from charging into battle the way she used to – so they ACKNOWLEDGE that she used to do it and it’s fine, but they STILL act like it’s always been a terrible idea.
I mean I could understand why they’re doing this, especially since Sally doesn’t have any special powers so what could she POSSIBLY do out there to help? She looks delusional here! But it’s still annoying to see a main character obstructed like this.
After Sally agrees sadly to listen to her parents, Amy gets up from her rest which she was allowed to have, is told that her hammer wiped out almost half of the robots with no indication that the Chaotix were helping fight the other ones, and at first I thought they were being approached by a giant robot because of the shadow over them, but fortunately it’s just Station Square’s helicopter with Rouge nearby, and she flew all this way looking weird in this panel because I guess she just loves flying! Seriously her wings are HUGE.
After Eggman orders someone to find Sonic in case he survived he gets distracted by Shadow insulting him, and Sonic, after climbing out of the ocean because big surprise, he’s the main character, and he grabbed the ladder… well, he got VERY lucky that he was thrown so close to the ladder, which showed no indication of existing before this…
Sonic is… brainwashed by M?… Is that what happened? That bullshit came out of now. I mean it looks like there’s black spots floating from M to Sonic and that was the same effect giving Knuckles a vision from Tikal. If that’s not what’s happening, then whatever happened to make him trail off and stand still instead of just destroying M with his spindash? Who cares if her eyes look totally blue, how’s he supposed to know what that means?
The next story, at Lara-Su’s unveiling, some random people I don’t recognize talk about stuff I’m not invested in, including one of them being told not to embarrass the family because most of the people at the party are married.
The echidna guy was actually Knuckles’ younger brother all grown up, but we weren’t introduced to him as a proper character yet so that was confusing, and the reason I didn’t recognize Julie-Su was that she no longer is a cyborg.
Then we see Knuckles dancing with a woman whose biggest problem in life is the dress she’s wearing, even when it’s a really good dress. Apparently that was Lara-Su, but I couldn’t tell at first because she didn’t have pink hair at the top of her hair like she normally did, just red hair. Also I guess I saw her glasses as spectacles and thought she was way older than she was.
Generic stuff that no one cares about happens. And then Rotor and some other echidna near him, says that due to centuries of zone-jumping, the time-space continuum is on the verge of collapse for NO REASON. Further instances of cross-over will hasten the end of existence… and while he at least says that the Dark Legion contributed a LOT to the problem, naturally, Sonic’s adventures toppled the dominoes. This REALLY seems like bullshit! Was this all the writer could come up with for conflict in this future?
Why would zone-hopping destroy the multiverse all on its own?! It’s not like the portals stay open forever as holes in the space-time continuum! So even if that was a PROBLEM, it’s not THE problem! With all of the zone-hopping the zone cops do, obviously the No Zone would’ve been destroyed hundreds or THOUSANDS of years ago if this were the case!
After Rotor says he can’t go back in time and change established historical events, even though Chaos Knuckles did that effortlessly, he decides that he has to be off for a prior commitment before his absence would be perceived as a royal snub.
Then Vector shows up with some crocodile I don’t know saying that he’s such a homebody, but it turns out he really CAN dance AFTER all! The arc doesn’t seem to have its priorities straight enough to care enough about explaining who the mother of Vector’s son is, or who Lien-Da’s former mate was, and instead wastes our time talking about a doomsday scenario that won’t even have anything done about until over 10 issues later! So it shouldn’t be mentioned more than two times!
So instead I’m forced to assume Lien-Da and Vector had their children from one-night stands in bars. FINALLY the pointless story of pointlessness, ends with Knuckles being given a note about meeting with someone I assume is Rotor, and him telling the emissary to meet at Locke’s Park in two hours.
The first story was by Karl Bollers and involves Sonic inexplicably getting curb-stomped by M the android after ADAM takes over the Tornado, and gets distracted by Tails telling him jokes and riddles. And Sally gets scared because Sonic was thrown in the water, saying that he can’t swim, but fortunately Sonic manages to be JUST FINE grabbing a ladder that he was nowhere near, while Sally gets told to stay put and do nothing by her worried parents. Makes sense since she’s got no special powers to contribute.
Even Amy and Vector were more useful with Amy taking out half of an entire army of robots heading for Robotropolis all by herself. At least I assume that’s what I’m expected to believe, when her having help like Mighty for the other half would be believable since she’s only one, not-super-speedy person. What took her so long to be this useful? She ALWAYS had a hammer for smashing robots, at least since the SA1 arc. And Vector defeated some robots with some loud speakers.
The problem is that Sonic and Tails and most glaringly an entire airship’s worth of Freedom Fighters, didn’t actually accomplish anything! What’s the point of the Freedom Fighter Special showing up in the story if it’s just gonna fly around? I hope the airship’s gonna try to take out M at least, especially since Sonic’s just standing in front of M doing nothing, which makes no sense.
What also makes sense is the only important part of Penders’ padding story of pointlessness. I’m somehow expected to believe that the mere act of zone-hopping, has put the entire multiverse on the road to destruction! Yeah I call absolute bullshit on that one, especially since the ZONE COPS have been zone-hopping for HOW long?! Why didn’t this happen a lot sooner then?! It’s like the whole concept is just an Ass Pull for artificial conflict!
If you perceive portals as being holes torn in the space-time continuum, well even then they don’t stay open FOREVER, they’re just really temporary! And it’s not like the space-time continuum is a human body that’ll die if it’s got holes open in it for too long, it’s not leaking out space-time continuum blood! So yeah, this makes no sense.
That’s not even mentioning the REST, which just feels like padding that’s not worth mentioning, because there’s too much focus on characters I don’t even know at all, and thus I can’t be invested in them, because I can barely even discern their personalities! Knuckles’ brother looks like he could be a fun character with his interest in flirting being mentioned, and it’s interesting that Vector’s son is a homebody who can still dance, but we don’t get enough time seeing these characters’ personalities and them doing stuff to actually get invested in them.
So yeah, not really worth talking about it, I think the summary complaining about it was a lot longer. The previous story in the arc was definitely a lot better. I know that the Unveiling was mentioned last story so we have to see it, but that’s really IT? Just her dancing? The story’s too short to have enough substance in the plot for me to care about it.
Issue 133:
Well they definitely didn’t make it clear what M was going to do at the LAST panel of the main story, because he didn’t mess with Sonic’s mind at all! He just shot eye lasers at him! So what if M had blue eyes with no corneas last time? And Eggman’s floating camera broadcasts his struggle to his friends at Knothole.
After we see Shadow having my FULL SUPPORT at wanting to kill Eggman, since Eggman’s evil and all, but it’s still frustrating padding because we know it’d never get to HAPPEN SOMEHOW when he HAS CHAOS CONTROL, we go back to Tails doing riddles with ADAM which he doesn’t do well at at all, because Eggman never did those with HIM. He tells Tails to ask him another riddle, wanting to prove his capability.
Then we see a whole bunch of the heroes ready to prevent a horde of robots from releasing the radiation from Robotropolis. Wait, WHAT?!… Julie says that Knuckles has lost his powers to the point where he can’t even GLIDE anymore!… Okay, so apparently he didn’t just lose his omnipotence, he lost everything that made him useful!
I mean I guess I… maybe he DID try and fail to glide, right before the Xorda thing all ended… but I thought when he was… I didn’t realize he was trying to glide, since he was on the SNOW and not on a high ledge SO HE WOULDN’T. I just thought he was trying to fly up to the laser cannons with his omnipotence!
What does limiting Knuckles contribute to the plot? Would the plots have been any different if he could glide and climb when he’d have no reason to do that for these plots to begin with? An absence of something doesn’t contribute to the plot, it just lets Sonic do all the work as usual, it’s not like he has new powers or is doing stuff regardless.
Did Aurora do this just to spite him for wanting to go save the world? So I kinda take back Knuckles substituting for Sonic for a year making sense, but at the very least, Espio and Mighty were there and they have special powers too.
Julie also has little blue hair dye on the spines on the top of her hair. It’s hard to notice at this point in the comic because the art isn’t good enough to encourage me to stare at it for long enough to study it, like later. It’d be easier to accept the blue if she always had it, because it makes sense to try to distinguish her from Knuckles more. At least Knuckles has a wider muzzle than her. That alone helped solve the problem.
Even back in this issue, Julie-Su says, ” Hmph! ” in jealousy after Rouge flies away with Knuckles. This was after Issue 125 where Rouge called Knuckles handsome. She’s still not hurting Julie and being openly antagonistic to her though, so she’s still actually in-character enough that I don’t notice this.
After M has the foresight to aim at where Sonic would BE and hit him in the shoulder with a laser, Sally naturally panics at seeing this apparently knock him out, and runs away terrified of the possibility of him dying on her, saying, “ Not again! Not again! “ The sheer fact that she said that sentence means a lot. Isn’t that what PTSD sufferers stereotypically say?
After M shows sadism, Bunnie suddenly shows up out of nowhere along with Geoffrey and the others from the Freedom Fighter Special. Sonic lampshades what took them so long, and Geoffrey Hand Waves, “ turbulence. “ And if we’re going to have Bunnie have a hairstyle, I’m happy to see that it’s at least a LONG one, this looks great!
Fiona says, “ Let’s have a look at that shoulder, you, “ which is a charming line, and puts a washcloth on it which I can only assume has some medicine so she’s not wasting her time. And Sonic tells Bunnie to fly out to Eggman’s aircraft carrier and stop him from launching those missiles. Then he tells her to take Patch along for some reason.
Sonic is confused about her asking why she can’t take someone else, since the two were in love. Fiona then explains to Sonic unhappily that Patch and Bunnie broke up six months ago, although she doesn’t specify who did the breaking up. Are we ever gonna see a story about that? There’s so many stories we could see about the events Sonic missed in the time skip, but NO, of course not.
After their attention is gotten by a noise, an explosion happens with a scary-looking gray M reduced to a skeleton saying, “ You ruined my makeup! “ What makeup?… She didn’t even look like a woman at ALL at that point! Why would EGGMAN design a female robot to not have long hair?
ADAM then finally figures out that the answer to Tails’ riddle was a newspaper, thinking creatively enough to realize “ red “ was a pun on “ read. “ No wonder it took him forever. Then there’s a meaningful silence from him after Tails says adorably, “ Isn’t this fun?… I said isn’t this fun? “ to an AI that just tried to kill him. That’s what I love about Tails, when he’s portrayed right; he’s both smart AND naïve!
Then we see that the robots threatening Knuckles and his friends went offline, because ADAM was controlling them and he realized he was having genuine FUN with Tails! So it was especially sweet that he turned the robots threatening people OTHER THAN TAILS offline and didn’t just save Tails.
Eggman complains that his missile countdown stopped just before it could happen, and gets slapped by Shadow which isn’t satisfying because we didn’t get to see the actual physical contact. At least Shadow finally decides to do something besides standing in front of him uselessly. But they’ll never have the guts to take down Eggman or even injure him, let alone with someone other than Sonic, so ultimately this scene is just a big tease when it logically would’ve involved the ultimate lifeform being powerful enough to get rid of this jerk. He would’ve Chaos Blasted him, not slapped him.
And Bunnie reveals that nobody’s seen Shadow in months. WHY? Why’d he isolate himself like that?! That’s a part of the time skip that makes no sense, again. You’d think if Hope reminded him of Maria he’d wanna spend all his time palling around with HER! Who’d Shadow live with, what was he doing? I guess I can be generous and assume he was fighting Eggman on his own because what ELSE would he do with his life? Become a cashier?
After Eggman somehow escapes through a trap door out of nowhere because that’s not aggravating at all and Shadow is advised against going after him for some reason, Tails realizes that he’s got control of the Tornado again and wonders what happened to ADAM.
Then we see Eggman asking in a submarine he’s escaping in because he conveniently had it there apparently, “ What about my atomic missiles? “ ADAM suddenly says he’s launching them NOW, and starts the countdown again! I guess he’s really really conflicted? More like he’s scared that Eggman will delete him if he doesn’t, but he doesn’t explain, he doesn’t have a thought bubble explaining that he just feels forced to do this and has faith in Bunnie to stop the launch.
You know, why did anyone bother to come here if Bunnie could just stop the missile launch by herself? Doesn’t he realize the missiles would kill Tails anyways? He’s supposed to be a genius, right? Patch naturally takes offense to Shadow telling Bunnie to take him to a safe place, as it’s implied that he can’t do anything to help, which he can’t. But Shadow runs off along the surface of the water before he could do anything.
And Bunnie takes off with her rocket boots, attacks the submarine, and after Espio tries to use his long tongue attack from Sonic the Fighters which is a nice touch, he gets grabbed by it by M and thrown onto Geoffrey. M is so Genre Savvy!… Why did he think he’d hurt him with that? Why does Hershey think she can do ANYTHING to M?!
Sonic asks Fiona if she’s finished patching him up. And despite his arm being in a sling, even though he was hit in the SHOULDER and not the arm, he runs around M in a circle and uses the sheer force of his speed to send her falling into the sewers below and make her start sparking, because M’s skeleton wasn’t designed to be waterproof for some reason!
With the battle won we see Sally’s mother hugging her trying to comfort her, reassuring her traumatized daughter that Sonic’s still alive multiple times in a row. Perfect foreshadowing and fans were still confused next issue.
The story ends with ADAM saying that he had fun, as I wonder what Eggman’s going to do to him after that. I mean, why would he not punish him for betraying him like that? Does he like him THAT MUCH? Logically this would be the end of ADAM!
The next story, 25 years later, has Knuckles show just minor resentment that Rotor didn’t show up for his daughter’s bar mitzvah – I mean, unveiling. Rotor says that nobody would care if he didn’t show! Gotta work on the self-confidence there.
And Knuckles says that his wife was disappointed that Sally and her kids didn’t make the trip, and we’ll never get an explanation for that either. Rotor says that Sally was equally disappointed and doesn’t explain why they didn’t come.
Rotor says it’s the beginning of the end because bullshit, and Lara complains that her friends got to spend the night out after their OWN unveilings, and Julie says that SHE’S not her mother. She’s called out on for being overprotective and still treating her daughter like a kid. At least Lara’s pink hair is colored way closer to red now, so that looks a lot better! I actually kinda like her design now!
Julie then confuses me when she says that her parents were watching her every move as a kid and she just didn’t know it. That makes no sense considering her parents died when she was very young due to “ accidents “ thanks to Lien-Da, unless she means her ADOPTED parents. I guess they were spying on her even when they were forced to be kept away from her, SOMEHOW.
Lara points out that her parents aren’t even… and gets cut off although Julie’s reaction makes it obvious what she means. Why’d she try to say that? How would she be so sure anyways? And why would that be the case when Knuckles and Julie seem to get along fine?
Julie then proves that in the end, her parenting is making one of the same mistakes as Locke’s, as Lara says something that Knuckles did a lot. “ Don’t I have a say in the matter? “ He’s not the only one with this problem, although I’m actually on her parents’ side for this one, because they just wanna be responsible with her just in case she gets hurt or something on a night out.
It’s kinda weird that Julie is so responsible as a mother when she was a spunky punk full of sass as a teenager. She’s been turned into a generic mom/wife. I guess she matured when she grew up, but it made her boring.
Meanwhile, Rotor continues to explain that the signs he’s found of the apocalypse include lightning, the tides, atmospheric pressure and temperature, and somehow neglects to mention that these could all just be Days of Fury symptoms again. Since THEY disrupt the weather too!
Then I’m promptly confused as Lien-Da’s son is seen making out with a girl for a little bit, close enough to hear their conversation. Then I’m expected to believe that he only overheard the SECOND half of the conversation despite being JUST as within earshot for the first! So all that he hears is that Rotor needs resources from echidnas and the king, and says that the king will be left to him, and he says that his mother will be hearing about this with an evil smirk because he’s a dick.
The main story was by Karl Bollers. I’m really glad so many characters got to do something here, with Bunnie getting to be awesome single-handedly ruining Eggman’s submarine launch, Sonic’s friends protecting him after he was injured, and Fiona patching him up although I’m sure literally anyone could’ve done that.
And Sally was pretty sympathetic here, and in this arc in general, as she’s having panic attacks over Sonic almost getting killed right after she got him back, twice in a row! Consider that the minute she got her mom to wake up finally, she learned that her father couldn’t walk.
So the minute something good happens to her, something bad is always waiting around the corner. She got her dad back, now he’s crystallizing! She thought she would get Tommy back an explosion happens. She met Nate to get a new friend and he gets roboticized and nuked. She gets a brother and he runs away! At that point why would she think Sonic surviving would last?
It was also pretty sweet how ADAM got convinced to side with Tails by finding playing riddles with him fun, especially since even I wouldn’t have fun with riddles and just find them really frustrating and not bother at all. I just can’t think outside the box enough to solve them.
And the second story by Ken Penders was at least actually interesting this time around having a plot, where on the one hand, Rotor’s telling Knuckles that the world was ending because of bullshit and somehow being overheard by Lien-Da’s son for ONLY the second half that doesn’t tell him anything, because we need an excuse for conflict. That’s not gonna happen anyways, so what was the point? At least it’s interesting.
And on the other hand, Julie and Lara having a generic argument between mother and daughter about how Lara isn’t given any freedom by her protective parents isn’t that interesting, because it drags out too long considering how generic it is. So what if they care too much? It’s better than not caring at all!
I can definitely understand why she’d be annoyed at not being allowed to go out and have fun though. She’s being cheated out of half of the experience of the unveiling day, since other girls get to have a night out. I would think that the same Julie-Su who told Knuckles he was allowed to relax and have fun once and a while when riding a horse in SSS14, wouldn’t grow up to be a wet blanket mother like this.
Issue 134:
Sonic is told by Dr Quack that the implant letting him learn any language actually bonded with his nervous system, meaning it really WAS an implant after ALL. Good for him! Not sure why he didn’t REALIZE that it was actually an implant then if it was called an implant. He put it in his ear, so I’m not sure how it became an implant.
After Dr Quack has weird eyes while Sonic looks really weird in an exaggerated way to make him look like he’s freaking out because this new artist is terrible, Dr Quack reassures that he’s fine, and trying to remove the implant would do more harm than good anyways.
He says that so many things have changed, and for some reason he lists being at war with Eggman as one of those things even though that’s literally always been the case in the comic. In fact, didn’t some narration say that Sonic knew the meaning of war in Issue 48? Dr Quack then explains why he has an eye-patch while calling it a mere shiner for some reason.
He had accidentally stepped on a landmine while tending to the wounded in battle, causing the king to finally step in telling him to get out of the front lines. Why was he there in the first place?! They can’t afford to lose what might be their ONLY doctor! Since you know, we never actually get to SEE any other doctors than him! They’d be RUINED!
More importantly, HOW did stepping on a LANDMINE only cost him his EYE?! Wouldn’t that just obliterate him?! Or at least his foot?! Worst landmine ever! Maybe that’s why he has the cane because he has a fake foot from that and can’t walk on it well, but that’d destroy way more than just his foot! It should be explained that a Ring protected him the best it could.
Also I can’t understand why he wouldn’t just have a cyborg eye! A regular duck doctor gave Tobor cyborg eyes, centuries ago! I guess he’s one of those types of people who, probably like me, would be too superficial to have a cyborg eye if it looked scary. But couldn’t he just make a cyborg eye that looks just like an organic one? Technology can do literally anything in this universe! The infiltrator robots have organic-looking eyes! Why does ANYONE have an eye-patch?
After Sonic reveals to his friends and family at the castle that he’s still alive because he didn’t think to do that BEFORE going to Dr Quack, Sally says while her eyes have no corneas that she hopes he’ll never die! FORESHADOWING. Jules has ridiculous fashion sense. I also hate the ” U “‘s on any character’s eyelids.
Then Sonic and his parents get irritated by the paparazzi, who bombard him with a million questions. And Sonic is told that fortunately his parents left his old room untouched because they couldn’t bring themselves to change it when they thought he was dead.
Muttski calls Sonic his friend and tells him he’s happy to have him home again. Sonic then panics after learning that his implant can actually let him understand what Muttski’s saying, and has the humorous remark, “ Muttski can talk! I know a lot of things changed while I was away, but this is ridiculous! “ which I chuckled at. Oh, and Jules is having another human moment after him feeling like wearing clothes to try to look normal earleir, because he’s reading a book on the couch with a pillow and blanket. Chuck’s also reading a book.
Then Sonic tells his family about his experience in space in a brief recap, where Shortfuse has a cameo as a Robian, and then it’s explained that the injuries Jules had received before being roboticized were so serious, that if the process was reversed it would kill him. I GUESS that makes sense, but the problem is that I would assume the roboticizer healed injuries by virtue of turning skin to metal.
So why would reversing the process RETURN the injuries, instead of just turning the metal that replaced the old wounds into good skin? Jules’ metal doesn’t look damaged. His metal looks fine all over him, you can’t see where his wounds used to be. It must be all about the internal injuries, which can’t bother him as a robot.
I mean the Bem didn’t have access to the same roboticizer that turned everyone into robots, but they were still just as capable of deroboticizing them breaking that old rule in the comic about how only the same machine that roboticized you can cure you, because it still contains your body’s data on what it was once like for some weird reason, so it would know what to do.
It seems so arbitrary, it’s just as confusing as Tails’ father going back to having only one eye after being deroboticized, instead of the metallic new eye simply replacing his lack of an eye by turning to an organic eye! Why would he be deroboticized with a gap where his eye was when there was metal there originally?
The deroboticizer used on him couldn’t have KNOWN that he used to not have an eye! It should’ve just made his replacement eye organic like every OTHER part of his body! But instead, deroboticizing is seeming to work less on logic and more on “ reverse a magic spell “ rules. I’m kind of amused by Muttski talking I guess, it’s cute! “ Well, that solves that! “
Then Tails adorably hugs Sonic still happy that he’s okay, and explains in a huge textbox that’s justified by him having a cute Motor Mouth moment and personality, everything he did recently, which includes explaining that when he came home after the riddles with ADAM, Sonic wouldn’t wake him from his sleep to talk to him, so he decided to work on the Tornado.
After they briefly cut away to far away with everything in silhouette to spare us some recap, Tails is really shocked stammering at the idea that his parents are alive on the other side of the universe! I get why he’s crying, being sorely reminded that he had no parents his whole life, but why is SONIC crying? Pity? Why does Tails have a neck?
Tails is given a watch from his parents and pushes a button on it to get a hologram of them, who tell him that they love him very much. By the way, how long have they had this watch, because they seem to have it ready for Sonic the MINUTE they bumped into him, when they didn’t have time to go home and get anything to give him a package! Did they make it a long time ago on the slim chance that they might get it to Tails and always carried it with them just in case? That was convenient.
Rosemary has red hair and brown fur in this hologram and Amadeus has brown fur and an eye-patch even in this flashback, when Rosemary didn’t have red hair when Sonic met her. I took forever to notice this, I thought her red hair was just a Flynn thing, but apparently she dyed it back to that color it was before. They don’t look like they’re related to Tails anymore!
We then see Mina singing at a concert. Mina’s lyrics seem so terrible that I can’t imagine her as having a good singing voice at ALL when reading them! There’s also a cameo of Bob Beaky, who’s supposed to be Sonic in disguise.
And the king shakes hands with Sonic welcoming him back, which he should’ve done EARLIER seriously why is everyone acting like they’re discovering he’s okay for the first time? And he says to the crowd that in an effort to fortify the kingdom against Eggman, he and his wife will depart Knothole for a few weeks on a tour of the planet, with Station Square as their final stop. WHY would they ever endanger themselves like that?! And yet Sally doing stuff to be useful is too dangerous!
Oh, wait, Big the Cat’s in the crowd! Why is he here and not in the cat country? And this gets totally ignored later because when we see him under FLYNN, he’s in the cat country again. How did he know where Knothole was to decide to visit it? I guess Sonic or one of Sonic’s friends told him offscreen.
Also, Tekno and Ebony made cool cameos as pointless members of the crowd, which is a cool thing I only noticed after I read Fleetway, so good. I wish they were actually allowed to use them as “ alternate universe versions of Tekno and Ebony “ characters, but we don’t need ANOTHER engineer character, it’s more Ebony that would’ve been awesome due to her magical powers.
The king explains that during his absence Sally will be the acting ruler. Whoa, we literally see Tekno talk, and get CALLED Tekno. That’s pushing it into outright using the character without permission. So too bad they didn’t have the guts to go further with her. She talks just like any other civilian though, saying the obvious, ” Wow, Amy, Sally’s in charge! ” so she might as well have not talked. I’m so surprised they were able to get away with having her talk. Since she doesn’t show her engineering talent, though, I still don’t think this confirms that she’s a canon character in Archie Sonic.
But it definitely implies that other parallel universe versions of Tekno and Ebony could exist in Archie’s multiverse, and you’d think if Flynn truly wrote the best fanservice ever for the fans by the fans, he’d use these characters for real, even if under different names.
Mina then hugs Sonic saying that it’s great to see him again which gets Sally annoyed and jealous. I really HATE any time a character’s eyes are drawn like that by the way! That’s what eyelids are for! It looks REALLY WEIRD and I don’t know what the artist was thinking! It’s hard to sympathize with Sally when she’s looking like this, THING!
Mina says that the king naturally assigned her to sing for the people and troops as a morale booster, and that this guy named Ash is her new manager and boyfriend. So her boyfriend Ash Ketchum here has a position of POWER over her. That’s, great?… I like Mina’s outfit, except for the fact that she has cleavage in a kids’ comic.
Then we see the queen saying that she’s not sure if Sally’s ready for the pressure of ruling a kingdom, saying, “ You saw how Sally reacted when Sonic was wounded! “ FORESHADOWING. But she ruled Knothole for years before the king showed up, why are they talking as if she’ll be ruling a kingdom for the FIRST TIME? Well, they weren’t around then.
The king simply says that they have no other choice and Dr Quack says she’s up to it. He had her examined by Dr Quack? What, did he lie, about the psychological examination? Because you’d think he would’ve LEARNED something!
Sally looks really sad and is about to say, “ Sonic, I- “ which implies because she was sad that she was about to tell Sally how worried she was about him getting killed again. Unfortunately she was promptly interrupted by Sonic’s friends, and then immediately decides not to say it, even though “ I’m worried about you getting killed fighting Eggman, “ should’ve been a no-brainer her friends would’ve all known ANYWAYS. The time skip was an excuse for Vector to finally get his Modern design.
After we get panels wasted recapping the Tails and Fiona situation when we already know that and they lead to NOTHING, Sonic awkwardly says to Rotor that he’s been keeping busy while retiring from away missions. I guess the reason he has a sweat drop is because of the word “ Sweetie “ on Rotor’s invention-thingy we don’t learn about the purpose of.
Then Rotor says, “ You bet! Now I just invent doodads for you field agents to take along! “ His second line should be unhappy but he’s acting like he’s happy, it’s confusing! Why is he all excited about this? He’s not a coward like Antoine, so why is he happy and relieved about retiring, why did he ever retire in the first place? I would’ve liked to know the writer’s justification for this.
I got why Rotor retired in the sense that he can’t fight as well and has no special powers so he’s not necessary and really useful in the field missions anyways, so it’s kinda wise of him to do. It just seems weird from a meta sense to have one of the original SatAM Freedom Fighters retire, and it’s Rotor and not Antoine.
I wasn’t sure at all what was happening in the next few panels, Rotor just takes the “ Sweetie “ invention and shoots a laser into the sky with it. It’s finally explained that Rotor’s device had created some green fireworks in the sky that somehow look like Sonic and Sally being together, not that it looks like Sally at all.
Sonic finally congratulates Geoffrey and Hershey on their marriage, and Geoffrey says that they’re going off on a classified mission for the king to which Hershey adds that it’s their honeymoon. We’ll never get to see that mission when that could’ve made a plot by itself. How is that a mission?… Do they just love their jobs so much that they consider a regular old mission to be a honeymoon?
Sonic finally asks Bunnie why she and Patch broke up. I like the line, “ Hope he didn’t get that nasty facial scar from you! “ That’s such a relatable line that makes perfect sense for him to say! Bunnie explains with bad-looking eyes that only Dr Quack knows where he got it – maybe he threatened him into keeping quiet – and they broke up because the war changed him.
It’s weird that she’d buy that so easily, considering that change must have taken place LITERALLY in the course of a day at best! It wasn’t exactly a gradual process! This is a guy with a completely different personality from Antoine! He’s short-tempered, can’t take criticism, is stone serious and doesn’t seem to care about anyone!
You’d think with all their experience with fake robot duplicates, parallel counterparts and Mammoth Mogul making fake illusions, the FIRST thing they’d all think after seeing Antoine not acting like his normal nervous self one minute, and completely different the next, is, “ he’s a fake! “ Did they think him not being a robot suddenly made him the same person?! I could understand them buying that he changed over a GRADUAL course, but not THAT suddenly!
Anyways the king says that he wants Patch to accompany him and his wife as commander of the elite guard, on their world tour. So he’s not TOTALLY making a big mistake with having the tour because he’s at least got bodyguards.
He then explains, “ His new attitude makes him an excellent candidate for the job, “ implying that he thinks Patch is more badass. Well I can understand that. I can understand his reasoning. I guess Patch replaced Antoine pretty recently since the king is calling it “ new. “ I really hate that it’s not explained HOW recent it was! For all we know, he replaced him right after Sonic “ died! “
Then once again Sonic and Sally are interrupted while trying to have a moment to talk, because a news reporter wants to photograph them! They briefly stop to do so… and then the TALK begins… (Shadow the Hedgehog’s The Chosen One song plays) Sally explains that her overseeing the daily operations of the city will be a TREMENDOUS responsibility for her to bear. I guess she’s so stressed out right now that it’s now a big deal to her, since she handled running Knothole just fine before the king showed up, although she wasn’t ruling nearly as many people then..
So she wants Sonic, to rule by her side while they’re away. This is a pretty stupid thing of her to expect of Sonic, since he’s obviously the type to prefer thrill-seeking and adventure to just sitting around a chair doing paperwork and boring meetings! And if she knew him at all, as someone who loves him should, she would know that!
I-In fact, didn’t he make it blatantly obvious that he wasn’t INTO this at the start of the peacetime arc? He was LITERALLY falling asleep at the council! And she thinks she should get together with HIM?! You could not imagine a more incompatible couple! And THAT’S why I’m looking forward to this!
Sonic reasons with an immediately-irritated-like-a-mood-swing Sally that “ If I don’t help fight Eggman, who will? “ Well, everyone else was fighting him for a year and things magically turned out just fine, somehow. I’m sure the bullshit would’ve just continued! It’s confusing that he talks as if nobody was fighting Eggman, just so that Sally will get mad at him.
He’s completely forgetting about all of his friends. But I don’t blame him for saying this since he loves fighting Eggman, and he’s more competent at fighting robots than everyone else by a country mile! Super speed and all. Why couldn’t he just say, “ I’ll rule with you but I’ll have to take breaks to fight, too! “
Of course, even if he said that… the fire would STILL be thrown because “ ruling with her “ isn’t REALLY what the fight’s gonna be about. She doesn’t REALLY care about him ruling by her side. He could’ve said no to THAT and still not fought Eggman anymore and she would’ve been happy.
“ You can’t go risking your life in battle if we’re going to have a real future together! “ I’m surprised she made it THAT CLEAR what her problem was! And people still didn’t get it. She’s terrified of Sonic dying on her! She’s had more close calls than she can count, not just including the more recent two and the Xorda thing either! He had like 10 CLOSE CALLS!
Even as early as the Sonic Miniseries, she thought Sonic had died! Not to mention “ That’s the Spirit. “ It was obvious from the minute we saw Sally again that she wasn’t the same person as before, being more emotional and prone to bursting into tears! And the fact that she was regularly crying at Sonic’s statue even a year later proves it!
After ALL those close calls, thinking that Sonic actually DIED, broke her! At least temporarily, because it “ proved “ to her that she can’t keep deluding herself into thinking that Sonic would always survive! If Sonic keeps risking his life, eventually he could get killed, and they couldn’t have a future together. If Nicole chipped in at this point and TOLD HER “ no I’m from the future, you two are gonna survive just fine, “ that would’ve prevented this ENTIRE situation, so thanks Nicole.
It makes perfect sense that she’d always be scared of this because one of her main personality traits from the very beginning has been “ caution to the point of paranoia at times. “ And she’s been showing a lack of faith in Sonic’s ability to win, fight properly and stay alive consistently throughout the whole series.
Her lack of faith is even strong enough that she thought Sonic would stay in the simulation and she thought he’d abandon her and her friends to a Beetle machine that was kidnapping them! So even if this didn’t happen, she might just break up with him anyways because she’d think he was cheating on her if she has such a lack of faith. EVERYTHING was building up to this moment.
I’m so glad this is finally happening, I thought this would’ve happened 34 issues ago, although I obviously would’ve enjoyed this issue a lot more if the artist didn’t decide to draw Sally’s face, with no eyeballs, and with her corneas not filling the skin-colored area where they’re CLEARLY supposed to be at! I get that she’s angry and that’s how they show that in ANIME I guess, but this isn’t anime. This just makes me wonder why, realistically, getting mad would make your eyeballs shrink so much, and not have you go blind somehow because she’s not freaking out about it.
Then Sally immediately mood swings BACK to looking genuinely sad and crying, saying, “ I don’t want you to do it anymore. “ Well I think these are less genuine mood swings and more that she’s acting angry to hide her overwhelming fear, “ Anger born of Worry. “ So the ANGER was fake, just because you’re screaming doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re angry. It was anger that he was going to make her worry, but she was more sad than anything, her sadness was her dominant emotion all along and that’s why she went back to it so quickly.
Then she promptly reveals JUST HOW psychologically shaken she was by almost losing Sonic for good for a year, by saying the creepy line, “ Stay with me. PLEASE, my love… Say you will… “ She sounds like a clingy deranged stalker girl, the kind of girl who might snap and cut you if you break up with her. And keep in mind, I like Sally! I really do, because she’s a deep character.
I’m not saying this to say that she’s the worstest character ever like SOME people! I’m saying this because I find it fascinating the fact that the writer CARED enough, to portray the realistic effects of high stress on a stress-susceptible person, to the point of her demonstrating symptoms of a breakdown!
Everything from her supposed Chickification coming from her being open with her feelings after Sonic kissed her in Issue 50, to her rectifying that openness of emotions after dozens of issues of high-stress situations by bottling up ALL of her emotions becoming the definition of The Stoic, to gradually coming out of it and just when she thinks she might be fine, Sonic seems to die on her, and for a YEAR, she was crying at his statue! HOW do you think she’s gonna react?!…
Sonic sheds a tear apologizing to her as he probably knows deep down what’s actually coming, as he chooses having fun being a hero over her. Good choice!… Too bad for Sally she’s too emotionally fragile to HANDLE the lack of a supporting boyfriend.
She SNAPS, and slaps him, having a minor mental breakdown over what he just said, saying she should’ve known he’d be selfish. WHAT’D you EXPECT? And SOMEHOW Sonic responds, “ Selfish? “ instead of, “ HEY, you hit me! “
First off, I don’t really get why SALLY doing this is suddenly the worstest thing ever, aside from the OBVIOUS that she’s normally an overly righteous person and friends should never hit friends. You shouldn’t trust a friend who WOULD slap you but what I MEAN is, GIRLS slap GUYS in the media all the time! You know! “ You pig! “ Slap!
Just a few issues ago, Julie slapped Knuckles because he joked about the fact that he DIED a year ago and came back and she was worried about him getting in danger again recklessly. She was in the same situation as Sally and she did it too. Sonic just took longer to come back than Knuckles did, so Sally was a lot more stressed out than Julie was.
It’s been a longstanding Double Standard in the media that girls are allowed to slap guys. Julie slapped Knuckles when she still loves him and Amy slaps Sonic later on and yet no one really cared about THAT. So like, WHY is this suddenly so blown out of proportion just because SHE does it?
She’s ALWAYS such a goody-goody perfectionist trying to FORCE herself to always do good ALL the TIME, to the point of being such a people pleaser that she humoured Mina, AND Antoine at a bad time! NOBODY can keep that perfect girl act UP without a single mistake! OF COURSE she’d snap!… And it’s not like this is a regular event either…
Also I’d like to point out that Sally did something, MUCH WORSE, than SLAPPING him EARLIER. Remember when she hit Sonic over the head with a stick for saving her from Robotnik? And made him all dizzy and brain-damaged? THAT’s the most horrible thing Sally’s ever done. And she NEVER shows any regret for that! So a mere slap? PLEASE! Early on or not that was much worse because she didn’t HAVE an emotional breakdown to justify it! I’d RATHER people point at THAT moment as an excuse to hate Sally for something she did, because this is NOTHING in comparison!
In fact, Bunnie ALSO did something MUCH worse than slapping Sonic! She said she’d MURDER him with no hesitation one time, threatening to become a bounty hunter looking for him with a hedgehog hunter missile! WHY? Because she thought he screwed up trying to help his friends!
And Antoine literally plotted against Sonic putting him behind bars one time with his response to seeing him roboticized being to gleefully say that he’ll get court-martialed! “ I will be happy to form a sub-committee and start an investigation! “
Plenty of Sonic’s friends have done much worse things than a mere SLAP, that girls do to guys in the media all the time! Granted just because he was mistreated before by his friends doesn’t make it right, but it’s not that special in Archie. Plenty of worse things have been written in Archie; Issue 39’s arc, Wrath of Khan, Welcome to the Wheelworld.
Okay, maybe the outrage was not just the slap and more about Sally’s “ bratty controlling “ behavior overall telling Sonic to stop being a hero, getting mad at him and yelling at him. In fact even Fiona won’t yell at Sonic to stop being a hero for her. But again, one, she’s extremely stressed out at this point and scared of him dying so what’d you EXPECT, unless you didn’t read the dozens of issues before this. And two, she’s always been a control freak who tells people what to do, she’s ALWAYS nagged Sonic about being reckless, especially in SatAM! This is just it being taken to its logical conclusion.
More importantly, MORE importantly, I know EXACTLY why she’s calling him selfish. She’s making her terrified that he’ll be killed fighting Eggman! And she’s so absorbed in that from the trauma of almost losing him for good for a year that it’s all she focuses on! She’s not able to think straight!
Of course I understand SONIC’S the one who’s REALLY right, as Sonic’s being a hero is good for a lot more people than just HER. SHE’S the one being selfish. But she figures she needs the emotional support from him by him humouring her like this, failing to realize how ridiculous it is to restrain the most powerful capable hero on the planet just because you wanna protect him like a porcelain doll.
If this was the same Sally that the comic started OUT with, then yeah! This would be unacceptable behavior from her! A HUGE Out of Character Moment! And I used to take it at face value from people like the game purists that this was a horrible horrible thing! But in the context of the comic, after the kind of trauma she’d been through, she’s not exactly in the right state of mind right now!
The only horrible horrible thing here is that this isn’t explained fully enough to make it clear to the audience, most of whom weren’t paying attention to all the foreshadowing, or didn’t even read the issues before it to begin with. Maybe we needed a “ Sally Miniseries 3 “ or “ Battle Royale “ situation where there were a ton of panels dedicated to spelling out all the foreshadowing for us since apparently the audience needed it. With an issue this significant, why do we have back-up stories? Why isn’t this story with more comic space than that?
So I don’t blame her ONE BIT. We have had DOZENS of issues’ worth of foreshadowing to her snapping like this! And the fact that this didn’t happen in Issue 89 is a testament to how much she’s been pushed over the edge, because she already WAS pushed over the edge multiple times over! This is LONG overdue! And I plan to explain EXACTLY why. But first off before I go on that LONG train of thought, let’s continue with the break-up.
Sonic shows that he’s not meek and pathetic like 06 Sonic or something by getting ENRAGED with her, as he RIGHTFULLY should, saying, “ I sacrificed my life to save the planet ended up on the far side of the universe BECAUSE of it did everything I could to get back ONLY to find out that I lost a whole YEAR of my life and now I just wanna END this stupid war! How is that selfish?! “ I LOVE that line!
But seriously, I can accept the lack of commas because he’s talking fast in a rant. But WHERE is the exclamation mark before the word “ how? “ Also, it should be obvious that it could be seen as selfish because he did all of that because HE WANTED TO DO IT. He went on a tangent. She was mad at him for deciding to continue fighting Robotnik, not for anything he did in Tossed in Space.
Sally says angrily with tears streaming down her badly drawn face in Tranquil Fury, “ Do you know what it was like believing you were DEAD? It completely broke my heart. Watching Mecha hurt you brought it all back… And I REFUSE to have my heart broken again, Sonic. “ How much more clearly do you have to have it SPELLED OUT for you? It’s not even fanon from me at this point, there’s NO extrapolation here! This was INTENTIONAL!
She asks if punching out Eggman’s lights is more important to Sonic than being with her, and that’s actually a pretty funny line, IMAGINE Sonic ACTUALLY DOING that to Eggman! That made me smile. Too bad she’s drawn so badly here. She shows selfishness, again, blinded by how upset she is after a whole lifetime of trying to be UNSELFISH.
It’s hard not to be focused on yourself when you have so many problems to struggle with yourself. She runs off, saying the great line, “ Then he can have you ALL to himself! “ That’s actually really clever! I love that witty snark.
Now FINALLY I can explain. Here’s EVERY major problem she had leading to the slap, all of it starting after Robotnik disappeared, when she logically thought she’d be free from tragedies! But you’re going to see that it just keeps piling on until we get to the 23rd entry on the list. Granted, I KNOW that there’s no way the writer planned THIS far ahead and had ALL of this stress Sally went through happen as foreshadowing to lead to the slap.
But the fact remains that she went through a lot of stress even as far back as when the king came home and it’s only natural that it would all lead to her snapping, and it makes sense that the writer would eventually use her breaking from that stress as a story device when he realized how bad things would’ve gotten for her.
And the bad things she went through and worried about before Sonic’s “ death “ don’t stop mattering just because they were a year ago, they just kept adding onto the pile of things that worried her and made her more and more stressed out making her losing Sonic the final straw. (Giant’s Wing theme from Sonic the Fighters plays)
First off, in Issue 53, she gets a lot of pressure on her from having an entire city of people to rule after taking back Mobotropolis, because the Robians were freed. Before telling Sonic she was worried about that, she said to Sonic that, “ I don’t want to bother you with my dumb problems, “ showing that she planned to keep her worries to herself, proving that she, normally does this kind of thing! So far this seems pretty minor. But they add up.
Second, Sonic leaving her without him to chase Ixis for weeks. This has been regularly shown by me as the representative collection of images of her Chickification from a badass serious leader. Normally Sally would never be so open and honest with her feelings as to admit to Sonic that he’s somehow her best friend, ask when he’s gonna come back after leaving her, and then look all depressed asking, “ So what’ll I do in the meantime? “
This is relevant because it shows that she doesn’t complain about her problems openly most of the time, because she didn’t simply tell Sonic she’d really miss him, let alone that she had a crush on him, despite the fact that she kissed his forehead.
By this point it’s the most clear that after Sonic kissed Sally and let her know that she was ALWAYS allowed to show affection to him, getting her attached to him a lot more as the natural result of it, she’s opened the floodgates and been more honest about her emotions instead of being a Tsundere.
Problem is, that opens the door to her being more easily stressed out and making her more vulnerable, when she’s normally been bottling everything up to appear calm and collected most of the time. Only times she broke down crying outright BEFORE this all, was when she was overcome with despair because of her father’s crystallizing stuff, and she hugged Rotor crying.
I think there might have been more times but this is the most memorable. Yeah, there was one more time, when the white comet that was Nicole fell to the ground we saw her crying in private, and she cried about Julayla dying too which was around the same time.
That leads up to 3. Elias replaces Sally as the king’s right-hand man when the king was bad ENOUGH replacing her in power as the leader, and keeping her on a need-to-know basis as soon as he came back! Nice way to repay her for rescuing him from the Zone of Silence, by the way! Now with Elias there she’s even less in power than before! And this is a problem because literally her whole purpose in life, and the way that she makes herself useful is by being the LEADER. It was her entire IDENTITY! Now she can’t even do that! That’s not gonna be good for the self-esteem. Her whole worth was undermined!
And now for the first really major problem. 4, worry about her tubed mother, especially after her condition worsened. This and the king problem led to her blowing up at Knuckles and the king in the Knuckles Comic, saying Knux should’ve somehow known and told her about her comatose mother, and ranting at her father in one panel until she says, “ Whatever happened to the loving, caring father I used to know?! “
She had ranted, “ I don’t know where to BEGIN, Father! It’s like you’ve been a stranger to me for so long! Orders that seemed harsh and vindictive, DEMANDING that I marry Antoine, and now learning you’ve kept my own brother a secret from me! “ She’s been having that need-to-know basic problem and not being totally in power for a long time, and this was the ONLY chance she got to rant about it! Most of the time, she just kept to herself to be polite!
5 would be that Knothole’s population, all the free Robians, were kidnapped by Eggman and rebrainwashed with only Sonic’s parents returning right away. This doesn’t directly affect HER, but she must have felt pretty bad for Sonic and it was still a major loss for the heroes that took a while to resolve. While she didn’t LOVE Uncle Chuck and Sonic’s parents like Sonic did, I’m sure she still LIKED them and MISSED them.
6 is a big one. Eggman replaces Robotnik. MASSIVE disappointment for Sally since she thought she’d be DONE with this kinda thing and never have to deal with it again!… But no problem, she can handle it! She’d been fighting Robotnik for YEARS! 7. Eggman takes over Mobotropolis RIGHT after THAT, taking the Robians with him, and even roboticizing the people left in the city. So the Mobians all have to go back to Knothole. It feels like everything her team got in Issue 50 has been ROBBED of her, after Mobotropolis seemed so promising too. ALL those renovations and reconstructions were all for nothing!
8. The Brotherhood don’t agree to help fight Eggman because the Acorn Kingdom will be holding back against him instead of using the latest in munitions technology. And yet they didn’t just try to kill him THEMSELVES, screw you Brotherhood. After this, Sally doubts Knuckles’ friendship with her out of nowhere because he’s not a Freedom Fighter. “ HOW can we still be friends after that? “ Of course, it’s just for one issue and never directly referenced again, but it shows the kind of stress she’s going through that she would SNAP like that, being stressed out for an entire issue.
ALL of this is NOTHING compared to what comes after this, ALL in ONE issue! 9: Sally finds out her brother was kidnapped by Eggman while she was gone in the SA1 adaptation, and her father hadn’t told her until she came back, adding to the whole, need-to-know basis thing. “ Well, thanks for the timely recap, Dad! “ 10, her mother is getting prepared for intensive surgery with the cure to her illness, which worries Sally enough to make her hug Sonic sadly after ordering him to come see her. Then she looks really worried in a praying stance after Sonic says, “ Uh, SAL? “ to no response.
And 11, she reluctantly lets an injured Antoine go to Mercia with Bunnie and Amy to confront Antoine’s roboticized sub-boss father, just to humor them! Despite the obvious danger to their lives! She breaks down sobbing in Rosie’s arms right afterwards, obviously very worried. And why shouldn’t she be? She’s facing the possibility of losing her ENTIRE FAMILY in one DAY! EVERY major setback before this point is NOTHING compared to how this would feel.
And that’s not even the END of it. JUST ONE issue later, we have 12! Her father’s injured and now HE needs a doctor too, causing her to break down crying, tell Sonic that she trusted him to protect her, run away sobbing, and admit to Elias with her arms around her knees staring off into the distance in a FETAL position that things have been spiralling out of control for a while now. “ START? They’ve been spinning out of control for some time now. “ After Rosie told Sonic that “ her outburst came as a result of the intense PRESSURE she’s undergoing. “
The VERY next issue after THAT, making this the FOURTH terrible thing in a row that’s happened to her by the way, 13. Just when she thought that everything would be fine because her injured father was all happy with her mother waking up holding hands with him, it turns out that injury of his really was something to worry about because her father CAN’T WALK! Just when she gets her mother and brother back something terrible has to happen. She REALLY gets put through the wringer! This is the most miserable Creator’s Pet ever! She had NO way of knowing that he’d be able to walk again later!
14! Granted, this is more petty in comparison. After days of inexplicably not talking to or calling Sonic since then, Sally sees Mina kissing Sonic, and left unhappily before she could see Sonic backing away from her.
This causes her to worry paranoidly that he might move on from her, and she sadly decide NOT to go up to Sonic after that and tries to avoid him and treats him as if they’re not even FRIENDS being very distant for a while. She actually thinks back to this moment TWICE, looking depressed. Sonic asks Sally, ” Did I do something wrong? ” and she refuses to answer. There’s two different times where she refuses to just talk about things with Sonic and bottles it up after that.
From this point on, STARTING with her learning that Kodos went nuts and Uma died in front of her, she became The Stoic in her attempts to completely suppress ALL of her stresses and worry, looking blatantly emotionless next to surprised, emoting people! For dozens of issues after this she seems to be like a zombie, saying a lot of lines looking emotionless, when you’d expect her to be happy or sad or frightened or angry.
If this carried on regardless of who the artist was, then that just further proves that this wasn’t one artist not bothering to make her emote correctly, it was IN THE SCRIPT and multiple artists were told to do this for a reason. And this has never really, happened before! She’s never been emotionless like this for so long before! Even when Robotnik pretended he’d become her ally, she didn’t react with anything other than, “ Whatever. “
15. She uses the Sword of Acorns to kill Kodos and tell Sonic that Arachnis, who had become good, died in front of her. She says this completely emotionlessly! 16. Nate is left behind in Robotropolis sacrificing himself to let the heroes and Robians escape it. Nate was a FRIEND of hers, she’d be SAD that he died on her, when the whole purpose of her coming to the city was to rescue him and she failed in everything that mission set out to do, she couldn’t even bring back the roboticized Overlanders to free will!
17. Elias runs away because he doesn’t want to rule and thinks Sally should, making Sally’s mother cry. Sally blames it on her father not trusting her, saying her going to Robotropolis on a mission was “ preposterous “ and so on. “ Dad, if you had trusted me from the start, maybe Elias wouldn’t have run away. “
18. She learns that the Station Square military defense system automatically sent missiles to destroy Robotropolis and Knothole, which would kill her, and leave both areas uninhabitable from fallout, making everything she did in life POINTLESS. Of course, Sonic saves Knothole, but Robotropolis is still left uninhabitable, and NATE, along with ALL the other roboticized Overlanders that Sally FAILED to SAVE, are destroyed along with it.
At the very least after this happens she stops her Stoicism phase and starts to show emotion normally again. She’s also going through the added stress of the Sword of Acorns trying to force her to see the future, completely disrespecting her wishes saying, “ You have no choice. “ And her mother pulled her out of the Source of All and hugged her while crying. “ Oh my poor baby, what’s HAPPENING to you? “ This leads to Sally gladly giving the Sword again.
19. Sonic tells her that Tommy Turtle was destroyed in an explosion in a mission Sonic didn’t wait for the Freedom Fighters to come join him in, so maybe she blamed herself? He was a childhood FRIEND of hers, I mean, of COURSE she’d be upset about that. So even MORE people die on her.
20. Then the whole thing with Mina starts up again when she witnesses Sonic gently touch Mina’s face, after seeing her sing in front of an audience in a band. This happened just to worry Sally because it came out of nowhere. And why would Sally be written to get worried so arbitrarily with the lamest excuse for it? 21. And the very NEXT day she sees Mina and Sonic singing together, thinks, “ I need to sit down, “ CLEARLY overwhelmed and unhappy that they’re such a great pair.
22. EASILY the biggest one. Right after she and Sonic admit their feelings for each other and start kissing, right after something good happens to Sally, Xorda threaten to destroy the WORLD, and Sonic seems to sacrifice his LIFE to stop the world’s destruction! Yes, while the rest of her friends were just as silent and unlikely to complain about the bad things that happened, when Sally did complain she went on a rant, like in that issue of the Knuckles Comic where she called out her father. She isn’t as able to handle stress as the rest of them and bottles it up to look calm.
You’d THINK this would… FINALLY be what makes Sally snap, but it doesn’t, although she’s really sad for a while, long after she should’ve gotten past it. So she did snap in the depression sense of the word. But it’s the last big tragedy she can take.
23. AND the last straw! After Sally FINALLY gets Sonic back when she thought she’d lost him forever, he says that he wants to keep risking his life being a hero, even though he had TWO close calls when he came back where she thought that he had died! Once she thought he would drown, and another time, she thought he was going to die after being shot in the shoulder by a laser. For all she knew he was about to get destroyed when he was lying on the ground like that and Sally ran away thinking that if she didn’t, she’d see the final blow!…
The fear and outrage at him unintentionally putting her through that fear again with no regard for her, causes Sally to SNAP, terrified that he’d be so “ selfish “ as to scare HER like that. After all, she’s seen one tragedy after another. And every time a problem gets resolved and she pulls herself out of her turmoil ANOTHER one came right around the corner!…
For all SHE knew, Sonic would just get himself killed for real! And she was so upset about the idea of him doing this that she lashed out at him for it! She already thought he blew up with the Hamlin infiltrator in the Sonic Miniseries and thought he died when the antimatter machine exploded, though maybe that first thing’s non-canon.
So you see? Ever since Issue 53, the comic’s been building up to this moment, whether it was intentionally planned from the beginning or not. If Sally was a Mary Sue, you’d THINK she’d by definition have no FLAWS. So she wouldn’t HAVE the kind of human weaknesses in her where she’d end up gradually breaking and cracking under the stress of it all. She’d just laugh it off, like Sonic in the Modern Sonic games!
She’s not just The Ace, she’s a deconstruction of it, as someone who, as brave, stubborn and competent as she is, can only take so much!… And that’s what I find fascinating about her, she has so much effort put into her personality that she feels really REAL, making her personality deep enough for a believable three-dimensional character!
A lot of people who demonize this moment of weakness on Sally and say that they took a “ strange direction with her character, “ don’t seem to understand what the writer was going for with her. I can understand that having a character gradually have an emotional breakdown from stress is a little mature for the Sonic series, but at least the writer CARED enough to TRY!
Instead of insultingly having the problem of Angst, What Angst? And having NONE of the characters get fed up with all the problems at ALL! It’s bad ENOUGH that Sally’s the only one stressing out over them while characters like Bunnie didn’t, because SHE’S the most stress-prone of all.
It’s more realistic this way and makes her more sympathetic and relatable as a character, humanizing her. It’s frustrating to me to see that, this was LOST on so many people! Just because the writer didn’t have anyone SAY the WORD for what she was going through! Maybe he wasn’t allowed to do that because the censors would’ve said no! Even then, Sally’s “ Do you know what it was like believing you were dead? It completely broke my heart, “ spelled it out pretty CLEARLY even without going back to look at like 70 issues’ worth of foreshadowing!… (sighs)
In the NEXT story, we have an actually cool twist right away as Knuckles actually catches Lien-Da’s son with his cyborg eye, and it’s explained that the usefulness of the cyborg eye, is the reason why he didn’t just get cloned eye replacement. It makes sense that Knuckle would be practical like that and not just shy away from an eye that looks weird.
It shows character growth, Character Development, because Knuckles used to hate technology, as we saw in Super Sonic vs Hyper Knuckles, although I don’t know why they can’t just make cyborg eyes look exactly like regular eyes ANYWAYS since Uncle Chuck’s early robot design, seen as recently as the photo album of him and Sonic’s parents, had him looking just like his normal Mobian form but metallic! Not to mention infiltrators existed. But yeah, I’m FINALLY invested in the plot of this arc again!
After Sabre is portrayed in a too depressing way, and Knuckles is nice enough to kiss his head, Knuckles asks Sojourner, if the satellite monitors are still up and running, explaining that he doesn’t have his own set-up in the Chaos Chamber because he naturally promised his wife he’d never spy on family. Good because then he’d be no better than his ancestors. And somehow one of them asks why on earth he wouldn’t spy on his family like a creep! By the way, Sejourner means to stay at a hotel. Is that what the name means?
Spectre reminds everyone that they hate Lien-Da saying that he wishes she was in the dungeon, and Sojourner says that he thinks Rutan, her son, needs to be watched. It sure is a good thing for them that the spy monitors can record sound through invisible microphones to hear Lien-Da’s conversation with Rutan, and not only THAT, but they can also zoom in.
Rutan’s girlfriend says that she told her parents that she had been staying overnight with Lara-Su. Then Rotor compliments how Cobar could hack into the Brotherhood’s satellite network, even somehow ACCIDENTALLY!
And Rotor shows naivety saying that Lien-Da’s kid seems pretty harmless, and is told that he doesn’t know his mother, who could really muck things up. I call bullshit on the idea that after 25 years, Rotor would still have little to no experience with just how evil Lien-Da has been!
That’s especially true with the whole Dark Egg Legion nonsense in later issues, but even before this, though at this point in the comic he hadn’t met Lien-Da in the present day, he could’ve still been told about her by one of his many friends, like Knuckles in all the time he was stuck on the surface of Mobius, for example. And we see another dropped plot thread because for no reason, Rutan DOESN’T tell Lien-Da what he overheard Rotor and King Sonic talking about when he clearly planned to last issue.
The first story was by Karl Bollers. And it’s a story about downtime after Eggman’s major plan was thwarted, in which the king announces he’s going to go on a world tour with Patch as his bodyguard. Also Sonic realizes he can understand what his pet dog is saying now because of his language implant translating his thoughts into English in Sonic’s brain waves, which you’d think would let him understand Antoine’s French TOO, honestly, which would be interesting to see.
(Never Turn Back starts playing) And Sonic gives Tails the message about his parents. Also we learn that Jules stayed a robot because SOMEHOW deroboticizing him brought back his own fatal injuries instead of simply turning the metal replacing his damaged skin to skin and fur, which it should’ve logically been able to do! So THAT was bullshit! But I vastly prefer him staying a robot if only because he looks actually distinct from Sonic that way.
Most importantly of all… FINALLY, Sonic and Sally break up! FINALLY we get to see how they’d be with other people! And I couldn’t choose a better reason FOR them to. Sally’s been raised to be a queen. She looks FORWARD to beating Eggman so she could rule a peaceful kingdom. But Sonic is the exact opposite.
He’s about THRILLS and adventure and satisfyingly destroying as many robots as he can! He LIVES for fighting villains! So naturally I can’t imagine the two as a working couple because Sonic would be BORED out of his MIND as a king! And a king wouldn’t be allowed to keep risking his life fighting evil, would he? Not even criminals on the street! So OF COURSE they would break up over this!
But even BETTER! The writer added the extra touch, the extra layer, where Sally was pushed over the edge by intense worry and fear about Sonic actually dying because of his vastly different lifestyle! She thought he was dead for a YEAR, which is way worse than the 8 other close calls! This gives her the motivation to push this issue on him right away, before Eggman could be defeated and FORCE Sonic to accept ruling at her side boringly. NOW she has a reason to want to make him stop fighting. She’s scared! Paranoid! And yes, selfish.
Because her fear and anxiety, built up over dozens of issues in a row from unrelated stuff, have led to her being like that, being inwardly focused because there’s a lot to be inwardly focused ON. I especially like that she actively SPELLS OUT why she’s acting like this, with her line about the fact that her thinking Sonic was dead for so long completely broke her heart. The writer didn’t HAVE to have lines like that making it so OBVIOUS, but he DID!
It was a nervous breakdown of hers, to be blunt, which is why I’d say that her normally uncharacteristic behavior here was justified! It’s the most justified OOC moment the comic’s ever had, certainly more logical than Uncle Chuck saying the library’s no place for kids and scolding Amy and Tails for being there.
I also really love that Sonic got angry and stood up for himself! I thought he was just gonna be a victim and be all sad and confused. It was surprisingly WELL-WRITTEN for a moment where the normally pure righteous goody-two-shoes snaps and slaps a friend, especially when you consider this in the CONTEXT of the overall comic up to this point, which I had never been able to do before I read it.
However the story is heavily hampered in its potential enjoyability by the art. WHAT the HELL is with those eyes?! It’s a superficial complaint, but it’s one I can’t exactly ignore when over and OVER again I see Sally and her mom and other characters like that with these HIDEOUS demonic eyes with no corneas, just EYEBALLS that sometimes morph in shape to represent their emotion, like the SatAM cartoon only worse!
Because you have this whole clear part of their face shaped so that it SHOULD BE where their whole EYES are taking up, but instead it’s just LEFT there! HOW?! That doesn’t make any sense! It makes Sally look SO unrecognizable this whole issue, although it does work THEMATICALLY because she’s kind of a different person now with all the stress she’s under.
That’s not even getting INTO the complaint that I was PLANNING on saying that Sally’s eyeballs almost disappear when she’s angry! So many different times! And her mouth gets way too big, which makes the art HARD to LOOK at, because it just takes me out of it! All I can really think about, when I SEE that, is how ridiculous it is and how CREEPY it makes her look!
Would it really have been that hard to get a DIFFERENT ARTIST? Was he the cheapest one available or something, how did this make it past editing? Why didn’t the art of this story get done by the much more talented artist of the 25 Years Later arc?! And of course the art is a superficial complaint, but it’s still enough to almost ruin the story for me and made going through it a tedious SLOG, even though the plot is fine! It’s about a mostly downtime-filled breather story where Sonic questions his friends on the changes from the time skip, letting you get used to it better.
And the second story by Ken Penders was surprisingly good at keeping me invested for the 25 Years Later arc. I was pleasantly surprised that Knuckles actually noticed the kids spying on him, with a cyborg eye giving justification for why he’d accept to look like that even though it makes him look evil and menacing.
Sadly we don’t see the kids tell Lien-Da about the conversation they eavesdropped on, which would’ve been interesting. I also really like the idea that Knuckles promised Julie that he wouldn’t spy on his family, since that would make him no better than his father and the entire guardian line-up before him.
He put an end to the guardianship for a REASON, although that really does bring up the question of, are members of the guardianship no longer training their kids in the art of guardian magic? Because if they don’t, that’s REALLY STUPID, and Knuckles should’ve known how vulnerable that would make Angel Island not having any echidnas learning to be really skilled at magical arts, since, you know, the Brotherhood’s all gonna die EVENTUALLY, because he did some time travel and saw Angel Island get taken over by Eggman specifically BECAUSE he prevented the guardianship from being formed! You’d think he would’ve learned from that! (And I’ll never, TURN BACK, AGAIN!)
Issue 135:
We start out seeing narration with a black cloaked person walking through a dry and rocky land through a sandstorm, going through the town of Gravestone in the Forbidden Zone under Eggman’s jurisdiction. Who would name their town “ Gravestone? “ It doesn’t sound like a great tourist site. I guess Eggman gave it that menacing name because he’s evil?
He goes into the building with a password he somehow got that’s full of regular Mobians despite it being under Eggman’s jurisdiction, so it’s surprising that they haven’t all been roboticized. This is explained though. It’s explained that this place is frequented by Mobians who haven’t defected to Knothole because they’re scared of being noticed by Eggman. I don’t blame them honestly. It might be too hard for them to go there from where they are.
Finally he finds his contact, and at Eggman’s city of “ New “ Megaopolis so I was right to question why the missile was firing from OLD Megaopolis, someone who’s called Metal Snively is asked for a progress report.
He explains that the first hundred models of the experiment malfunctioned for no reason. REALLY no reason, because it’s based on technology that, well, for ALL WE know, every other instance of this technology has malfunctioned 100 times as well before it was actually activated, and we just never got to learn about that. So it doesn’t actually contradict anything. It just contradicts a false assumption I made about the auto-automatons not being really fail-prone. YEP, it looks like it IS Metal Snively! Since he’s called Snively. This really confuses me because later we see him DEROBOTICIZED…
Snively says that there’s a model that works and then we see Sonic unfortunately run into Tommy Turtle. I was figuring it was Sonic under the cloak but I wasn’t expecting to see Tommy right away, especially since I’m so confused about how he could’ve POSSIBLY survived that explosion to be copied unless his shell is magically explosion-proof, and Sonic ran away before he could get a chance to see he was fine. Even then, there was fire around him and rubble from the collapsed building thanks to that grenade, you’d think all of THAT would’ve killed him even if the explosion itself didn’t!
Anyways after Sonic jokingly says after being told Tommy has no codename that “ C’mon, Tommy, you’ve gotta make it a LITTLE fun, “ and he says that when he and Sally first got Tommy’s message, they were shocked that he survived. Tommy reminds him about when he was riding his shell down the conveyor belt.
He had seen a traitor dog throw a grenade at the power generators and yep, his shell saved his life It really IS magically explosion-proof! And what’s so confusing is that it’s never explained this is a magic power he has like Sonic’s speed or Knuckles’ gliding to make it acceptable and impressive.
At least him mentioning that the grenade was thrown at power generators kind of explains why the explosion was big enough to destroy the entire building, but it wasn’t necessary. The explosion knocked him out of the window, but he landed a mile away to explain him not dying to the fire and rubble, but not in any direction that Sonic would’ve ran afterwards to bump into him.
Sonic is told that Tommy couldn’t contact him right away because he was picked up by the roboticized goons Eggman somehow sent outside before the place blew up. Well this is a retcon, because there’s no indication that any of those roboticized criminals made it out before the building would explode!
In fact, how could they have possibly made it out that fast! Literally the SECOND the dog was hit with the roboticizing tentacle, he had already thrown a live grenade! NO ONE would’ve had the time to escape! Don’t they go off in SECONDS? This is such a lazy Hand Wave! But whatever, you can’t kill off so many villains THAT anticlimactically.
Tommy explains that he found out about some top secret stuff of Eggman’s somehow. He found a way to counteract the deroboticization effects that the aliens did to all the Robians (no he didn’t). Wait, how’d he know it was aliens when the former Robians don’t remember their experiences with them?
I can only assume that this is because, as I didn’t catch onto on the first read, this isn’t Tommy but actually the infiltrator of Tommy that DIDN’T malfunction, so he knows it was aliens because Eggman assumed the same aliens that deroboticized him also deroboticized the whole planet. So you’d think Sonic would’ve assumed the same thing but I guess not.
“ He can now re-roboticize some of the Mobians under his rule. “ This leads absolutely nowhere. He said ” SOME ” not ” a FEW OF ” or ” THE DESTRUCTIX. ” Sonic pointing out that Eggman hasn’t been doing mass roboticizations is probably foreshadowing to the fact that this is a lying robot and Sonic’s seeing through his lie, but trusts him enough to not question it.
And for SOME reason Eggman’s now become picky about who he’ll roboticize even though literally the entire comic up to this point, has had him want to roboticize EVERYONE, including Overlanders like Snively, which made zero sense since he should’ve stopped the first time when he saw that they just became statues. In retrospect, that was also a lie.
I’m glad we might get to see how he’d rule actual people with free will now! At least we’d see that if the comic was written well. But it comes out of NOWHERE that it’s not his thing anymore, it’s totally out of character! And he DOES try mass roboticization again! So, that makes it ESPECIALLY weird that he’s stopped.
Then some Robians show up trying to arrest Sonic and Tommy, causing Sonic to yawn and insult their speech which makes sense since they redundantly say “ designation “ twice when they shouldn’t have even felt the need to say it ONCE. It’s very hard for me to recognize these Robians. Only Predator Hawk is familiar.
After Sonic shows up the Robians with his super speed, getting one robot hit by another, he notices Tommy surrounded by the traitor dog and Drago. After a Robian flies towards him he thinks quick and jumps so that he’d land on top of him and cause the confused Robian to fly into another one, causing bolts to fly while Sonic flinches.
Tommy explains away how he dealt with the robots surrounding him. Apparently he magically developed the ability to hot-wire robots without exposed wires or anything to reprogram them to jump into the nearest lake! I’m glad he has a skill to avoid being useless, but there have been SO MANY do-anything inventors in this comic who can reprogram robots and stuff!
Archimedes did it, Chuck, Rotor, Nate and Tails, even Dr Quack made a dream-seeing machine to let Sonic talk to the king! And now Tommy too. This is easily the worst ” useful skill ” to give a new Freedom Fighter as a result. Even giving one Monkey Khan’s powers would still be better, because he’s not WITH them!
The story ends with Sonic deciding to make Tommy yet another addition to the Freedom Fighters that have grown overly massive at this point to the extent that it’s amazing that the writer managed to make all of them feel useful in the ADAM arc earlier. The Freedom Fighters have always had a huge problem with quantity over quality, where most of them have shallow characterizations and barely get to do anything to help because there’s too many of them and only so much comic space.
Now the group is larger than ever before, although it’s worked out fine so far. But I prefer the Freedom Fighters feeling like a close-knit group of friends over them being a wider group of soldiers fighting Eggman. At that point you might as well make the Wolf Pack and the Downunda Freedom Fighters part of the Freedom Fighters!
The final panel shows that the robots were NOT in the lake. We see their pieces here. Is that supposed to be the excuse for why Flynn revealed they weren’t the real Destructix, so he could bring the Destructix back, because oh, they weren’t repairable in this state? But Eggman could’ve put them back together. He can do ANYTHING. There’s other series where a robot person is reduced to a head but still gets repaired because the head is intact, like Mega Man, Zero was subjected to that fate and that series crossed over with Sonic.
In the second story I immediately burst out laughing at Eggman’s line here. After he tells ADAM he wants to take back what’s his from King Acorn, he mutters, “ which used to be HIS, but then it’s my rule that REALLY counts. “ It’s such a good character moment for him, like it’s all about HIM.
But again it’s running off the unbelievable idea that Eggman actually did transfer authority of half the world to King Acorn, which is ridiculous and so much so with so little focus on it that I actually FORGOT it was followed through with like this, because there’s no emphasis put on Eggman’s ruling the world duties and how it affects the lives of civilians, so it doesn’t matter how much of the world he’s ruling, I don’t NOTICE a DIFFERENCE now that he apparently only rules HALF.
His new plan is going to involve the unwitting help of one of Sonic’s friends. He then is actually shocked at seeing the roboticized criminals of Snively’s there, even though they were sent after Sonic in the previous story, so maybe this is a prologue to it that didn’t show up before it as the first story for some dumb reason.
But if EGGMAN’S the one who ordered them to leave the building before it would explode, why’s he so surprised that they’re alive and why hasn’t he had them working for him all this time?! The Tommy robot lied. Why’d it take so long for him to wrap up that dangling plot thread with him and Tommy? Who kidnapped Tommy then?
If these are just robot fakes, why didn’t the one who made them immediately brag to Eggman that he made them and reveal it was a gift to him so he could get some brownie points? There’d be zero point to giving him a gift just to not tell him who the gift was actually from! When all the gift benefits is Eggman! There’s no way this could make sense.
Then Eggman explains that he hasn’t been able to roboticize ANYONE since the Bem crew deroboticized everyone. That contradicts what the Tommy infiltrator said just a story ago that he CAN reroboticize. So maybe the Bem concocted a magic spell or used nanobots and placed the spell in their aura that prevents their hard work from immediately being undone. That makes a lot of sense actually, they wouldn’t bother doing the deroboticization otherwise. I hope this actually gets confirmed. Otherwise it’s a plot hole.
Then after Eggman says, “ Count them: SIX, ADAM, “ ADAM takes that literally and counts to six, which annoys Eggman, who is told that these roboticized criminals just showed up at the outskirts of their city when a patrolling swat of SWATbots picked them up and brought them here.
Eggman tells him to scan their memory banks to get any information he can find. If that can be done, then why didn’t Robotnik order a scan of Sonic’s memory when he was roboticized briefly to get any information he could get out of him? He could’ve RUINED him!
Then Eggman shows he still has a soft side for ADAM by surprisingly taking back his insult about not designing him well. See, this is part of why ADAM’s a great character, because he had a good dynamic with Eggman by bringing out a fatherly side in him. That should’ve been towards Metal Sonic and not ADAM, but ADAM at least reciprocates it by clearly talking like a human calling him his father while Metal is never allowed to talk anymore or be remotely interesting.
Then as we see the memory of the criminals talking about their potential deal with Eggman the traitor dog has it BLEEPED OUT the name of the person who won’t double-cross him like Robotnik did… Because he roboticized them, I guess that’s how he betrayed them.
ADAM explains that the one who “ roboticized “ them has tampered with their memory to keep their identity secret. Who would wanna do that?! Just to not get any brownie points from Eggman after he sends a gift to him?! Eggman says sarcastically to ADAM’s Captain Obvious remark earlier, “ No really. Of COURSE they would! “ and tells him to try to crack it to see if he can find the person’s identity by scanning all six memory banks at the same time.
ADAM then tells him hours later that he couldn’t do it, and actually says that he’ll begin a SELF-DESTRUCT countdown of his hard drive to PUNISH himself for his failure, showing such shame in himself and a desire to be approved of by Eggman no matter what! Eggman tells him not to do that because the only one who could get to destroy him is HIM.
Did ADAM know that Eggman would react this way and that’s why he did this self-destruct countdown, to look more loyal to him? It’d make more sense if he WAS just manipulating Eggman into forgiving him and knew that he’d tell him to cancel it. After all, he didn’t try to self-destruct to punish himself for canceling the missile launch for a while and was in fact proud of himself for playing riddles with Tails. So this would contradict his earlier character otherwise.
He learns from a split-second shot from Flying Frog’s memory, that whoever did it is as tall as he is, as we see a mustache like a Robotnik’s. This gets IGNORED by later issues. ADAM actually has a name but amusingly doesn’t think to TELL him the name right away because he’s not sure if that person’s the same one who did the (laughs) roboticization…
This is why I love this story. ADAM’s hilarious, he’s way better than Snively, and he actually manages to have more personality than Nicole does! She wasn’t being this funny, though I didn’t see why he said that, ” As the name may not be the same as the one who programmed it, logical probability the name WAS NEEDED is 35.2%. ” Why such low odds, where did that come from?
OH, the name is Anonymous! So ADAM took it literally not realizing it’s an alias! (laughs) I’m really enjoying how literal-minded and naïve he is, it’s hilarious! He then tells Eggman that Eggman has knowledge of someone who has reroboticized Mobians who is smarter than Eggman.
Eggman says that it’s someone who wants his attention and he’s got it, after ADAM confusingly says that person hasn’t identified himself as friend or foe, when he could EASILY tell him that he’s a friend who’s just inexplicably hiding his identity from him because he could’ve sent Eggman those robots on purpose. He must have because otherwise, he wouldn’t have thought to hide his identity from the memories of those robots and therefore Eggman, because he wouldn’t have predicted that Eggman would GET them. He would’ve just gotten them out of luck.
If Anonymous WAS ADAM, you’d think he’d have happily told Eggman he made those robots to get rewarded for helping him out, not thought he had to hide it as if he did something he’d disapprove of! Hiding it would clearly just bother and disobey Eggman because he wants to know the answer. Someone who wants his approval wouldn’t hide a secret he wants to know from him, CLEARLY.
In the next story Rutan is questioned about what he did last night and Dimitri surprisingly stands up for him as The Reasonable Authority Figure and a guy, saying to Lien-Da, “ He’s a TEENAGE BOY! These things happen! “ Lien-Da lampshades, “ That’s funny, great-grandfather! I don’t recall anyone saying that about teenage GIRLS! “ “ Boys are different! “ “ That’s very enlightened of you! “ (laughs) I like that exchange! She ought to be sarcastic more often!
Then it’s explained that Dimitri didn’t turn control of the Dark Legion to her after his last encounter with Eggman. We see Eggman in a flashback complaining to Dimitri that Dimitri’s having a change of heart, which was foreshadowed by him complaining about all the things he’s accountable for with Mammoth Mogul. With his empire crumbling, Eggman had sought him out with a plan to save everything in a last-ditch effort and became enraged when he wouldn’t.
Lien-Da gets offended that she’s being blamed for Dimitri being the way he is because she wasn’t there to help out. Where’d she get THAT idea? Is she saying “ the way you are “ in the sense that he’s a head in a bubble because of Eggman lashing out at him? If so, why would she think it was her who was being blamed for that and NOT EGGMAN? I like that Rutan’s thinking, “ Go, grandfather! “ Like, logically he’d be happy at someone taking HIS side! It’s cool that he appreciates it.
Dimitri says he doesn’t blame her for what happened but THEN says he blames her anyways, because she only acted in her own self-interests afterwards. After? Lien-Da lampshades, “ SOMEBODY had to make some decisions! You certainly were in no condition to! “ How? Lame excuse.
I guess this is supposed to fill in the gaps with what happened when Sonic was in outer space and led to Lien-Da being in charge of the Legion. Lien-Da asks what that has to do with her son before asking what happened last night. I feel bad for Rutan here!
His mother shouts at him for spending the night with a girl in the park saying that she thought she taught him better than that! She DID? I wouldn’t imagine that!… I mean I don’t think she’s a whore, but… strong morals? Lien-Da? I’m not sure it’s strong morals, she just doesn’t want him to get a girl pregnant. Why is she even mad about this instead of happy for her son for getting a girlfriend?
He tells Lien-Da that he and his girlfriend didn’t do anything because Lara-Su’s dad and someone else were around. Rutan explains everything to her and then feels worried because her mother is still suspicious with him and threatens him if he does that again, causing him to wish he could just leave that house, thinking, “ Get me OUT of here! “ Makes sense that she’d be a domineering parent and get her son to resent her.
I wonder who the father was? No, we’ll never find that out either, even though that’d be just one sentence. I guess it’s some random nobody then. The story ends with Lien-Da FINALLY calling Julie to talk. I guess the reason she has her Skype number despite being a hated enemy is Legion hacking?
The first story was by Romy Chacon and wraps up a loose plot thread surrounding the Tommy Turtle issue. As expected, Tommy survives because his shell was somehow explosion-proof. That still doesn’t explain, how ALL of the roboticized criminals left the building before it could explode from that grenade in time!
It then ends with it being revealed that Tommy can reprogram robots effortlessly now, despite the robots not having their CPUs exposed, being fully capable of attacking him, and I guess he just hides the tools for doing so in his shell. Or he’s lying and is actually an infiltrator.
It makes sense he’d be brought into the Freedom Fighters for this ability and he seems nice enough, but when you get right DOWN to it he’s just another Rotor! Only he doesn’t eat tons of fish! So while they both have the exact same personality, being Gadgeteer Geniuses who are lame, Rotor is somehow less bland than he is, and with other gadgeteers around I can’t imagine he’ll be necessary. He’ll just take away screentime from inventors I’d prefer to see get the inventing and programming instead because I like them better, like Tails or Chuck. He’s not a horrible character so far, just a bland one.
The second story was ALSO by Romy Chacon and involved ADAM having humorous interaction with Eggman showing how (laughs) literal-minded he is as a young AI, while explaining, with a whole bunch of exposition that is humorous instead of boring BECAUSE of ADAM, that one, the deroboticized people are immune to being roboticized again because magic spell or nanobots I guess, and two… someone actually managed to reroboticize Drago and the rest DESPITE that, just to send them back to Eggman and want to conceal his identity. This doesn’t make any sense, but it was funny! And I loved Eggman showing a soft side for his surrogate son. He desperately needs that in this comic since you already hate him enough.
And the third story by Ken Penders, managed to get me invested for a story that was just about Lien-Da having a generic dumb argument with her son the whole thing, because it revealed some new information about how Dimitri had a change of heart in the time skip instead of helping Eggman, and he’s standing up for Eggman because boys will be boys, and it also implies that Rutan is resentful of his domineering mother.
And it ends with Lien-Da deciding to have a talk with Julie, because she has her phone number apparently and can just send a Skype message to her without her questioning it angrily whenever she wants, even though they hate each other… So what can I say, I liked it, though not much happens in it. AGAIN. These stories are just there to give you exposition on how the future is without much of an engaging actiony plot, so far it seems to be just “ parents being generic parents. “ They’re hardly horrible or pointless, just kind of bland.
Issue 136:
We start off at Sonic’s house with Tommy asking where Sonic is and being told that he’s on a mission for the king. He asks immediately why Tails didn’t come with him for some reason, and is told that he has his finals in school today so Sonic wanted him to stay and study.
Tails then complains that he’d rather face three Robotniks than face the test, which is weird since, as a genius, he should just ace every test easily! Sonic then comes back home tired from running all night on a mission we don’t get to learn about and wants to go to sleep right away, not even feeling like thanking his mother for the breakfast like his father wants like a real dad, because he’d rather go to sleep as fast as possible.
Tails says he doesn’t wanna be late for school as Miles is misspelled yet AGAIN and then ADAM tells Eggman, somewhere, that an infiltrator’s in place and ready to strike. I was thinking this last issue, but ADAM’s like a male counterpart to Nicole for Eggman, which is pretty cool!
But again, considering that he stopped all those robots to save Tails’ friends, shouldn’t he not be helping Eggman? It’s not explained that he has to stay here and humor him while he’s preparing a safe way for him as a mere virus to leave Eggman’s side where he could be deleted by him. I wonder why he didn’t just give ADAM another android body like Mecha. Actually he did possess a weird robot when he first showed up, but that’s the only time he does that.
Did he get worried he’d be destroyed by Sonic more easily? After Bernadette gets sad from instinctively offering her robot husband a plate of food, Jules thinks that Tommy is rude to not excuse himself from the room. No, that’s just socially awkward at worst.
What’s REALLY rude is him going to bother Sonic when he needs to sleep. Then it turns out that either this isn’t really Tommy but a robot duplicate of Tommy about to drill Sonic to death or Tommy got roboticized.
Either way, Jules attacks him, and gets himself drilled. So after Sonic trashes the Tommy robot, Uncle Chuck has it be unnecessarily SAD as he inexplicably says that he can’t bring back the speck of life that made Jules a Robian, even though there’s NO REASON he COULDN’T! This feels so ARBITRARY, just fix him already! Jules’ brain is a hard drive right now, so he could use data recovery technology to retrieve the data from it and put it somewhere ELSE! He could put Jules’ data in a computer, and transfer it to a new body WHENEVER he WANTS! Robo-Robotnik switched bodies, so could Jules!
Zero got fixed when he was reduced to just a head, because he’s a ROBOT! This is a guy who invented IMPOSSIBLE things like the roboticizer and deroboticizer! It’s clear that his talent only has limits the three times when the writer randomly wants him to. Sonic thought he COULD fix him. It’s distracting and pathetic when even a character in the story has better logic than the writer.
Sonic, after shedding some tears, runs to the Lake of Rings and IMMEDIATELY heals Jules by wishing with a Ring. So, wishing with a Ring can bring anybody back from the dead?… OK, so if you’re gonna immediately use a Deus ex Machina like this, why not just have him be repaired by Chuck ANYWAYS?
Instead I’m questioning why either Sonic didn’t use a Ring to bring Nate back or why Rings are so picky with wish-granting that they only bring people back to life if they’re used right in front of the person needing help. I also have to question why the story skipped ahead instead of showing Jules wake up fully healed and thank Sonic.
Chuck’s able to find the chip that says what series of robot this is because he was a Robian. Then for some reason Sonic comes to the desperate conclusion that the destroyed Tommy model being season 17, proves that Tommy’s still alive. How? It proves he was alive at SOME point, but he could’ve keeled over two seconds go for all he knows and those robots would still exist! His DNA is all that’s needed and tons of infiltrators could be made from that.
In the next story, I’m confused and annoyed right away because Julie’s talking to SALLY over Skype instead of Lien-Da, who was going to talk to her at the end of the PREVIOUS issue! I was looking forward to that! Sally says that they have a problem looking worried and Julie complains about her OWN problems with trying to figure out what to cook for everyone’s particular tastes for this weekend.
Her servant complains about it MORE with Julie complaining that her daughter is a picky eater with her diet, and Sally relates to that saying that her son Manic doesn’t seem to like ANYTHING he’s given to eat. That’s gotta suck! I’d rather hear about what the ” problem ” Sally was gonna talk about with Julie was, but nope! Wait, Rosie’s still alive? And yet we won’t hear about Chuck any time soon. She already has gray hair by the present day. She’s lucky.
Julie says hyperbolically that overthrowing Eggman was easier than planning a simple get-together, naturally since that’s not really something she’s used to with her background, and then it’s revealed how reluctant Sonic and Knuckles are, to go to a high-class social function, as would be expected with THEIR backgrounds. Well it’s not that logical for SONIC since he’s a social butterfly canonically.
Then it’s revealed that Sonic didn’t become king right after the wedding, because Sally’s father didn’t step down from the throne the first two years they were married. Her FATHER? I guess Elias died and the king replaced him instead of Sally for some weird reason. Why does Julie need to be told about this instead of already knowing about it? Wouldn’t everyone know who the KING was?
And then Sally says that Sonic didn’t mind because, “ he’d have been happy had I given up the crown! “ And yet she STILL THOUGHT they made a great couple! He doesn’t really like Sally for who she IS, a PRINCESS! Honestly, Sally deserves someone who DOES. I sure hope Archie Sonic Online returns King Max to health and puts him back on the throne like A Sly Encounter did. Then Sally saying this wouldn’t be confusing.
Julie relates to her that Knuckles never really wanted to be a guardian either, and Sally complains that Manic naturally has zero interest in being a prince, like father like son, while more surprisingly, Sonia only SOMETIMES loves being a princess, as in she only likes the parts where she gets to dress up and wear her crown. That sounds relatable.
Naturally Julie wishes she could get her tomboy daughter to do that more often and when she’s told her daughter’s much like her when she was younger, Julie says, “ That’s what I’m afraid of! “ I can’t help but like the fact that Sally and Julie have become such close friends that they just have a casual conversation about stuff like this!… It’s like they’ve become best friends!
But, um… shouldn’t they already know all of this by heart? Especially the “ Sonic took a while to become king “ thing. Isn’t that basic conversation? Wouldn’t they already know from previous get-togethers whose children are picky eaters? It’s just an excuse for exposition I guess.
Then Julie gets a call from Lien-Da so I guess THIS is when it’s supposed to happen from the previous issue. Sally says she hasn’t spoken to her since her visit a month ago – why would she make a visit at all? Julie asks if Lien-Da would agree to a three-way call and is surprisingly told yes because Lien-Da actually represents the COUNCIL before the KINGDOM! That’s not really a satisfying answer. Is… I don’t see why that explains anything. And what council? The echidna government?!… Did Lien-Da… get elected for the echidna government now? HOW?
Sally says not to be so formal and prefers to just be called Sally after all these years. What was that about, “ I guess we all grew up, “ then? Why’s she being so nice to her? I feel like we completely missed dozens of issues of Character Development on Lien-Da’s part because they’re acting like she’s already redeemed herself and they’ve forgiven her with no explanation just because it’s in the future, and I can understand that just fine, but I’d like to see more focus on that redemption instead of it just being implied carelessly.
Lara-Su then shows up, and is told that Manic has a crush on her even though she’s too old for him. She’s then really nervous at seeing Lien-Da not because she’s a former villainess but because she doesn’t want her rival at school Rutan to hear about this, because if her friends find out about this she’ll never hear the end of it. Fortunately Lien-Da plays the Cool Aunt and agrees to keep the secret. That’s pretty heartwarming. I gotta say I kinda like this version of her! I mean I guess redemption is too easy for her, but I dunno, I’m just glad it HAPPENED.
Then it’s explained that Lara’s home early because lightning shorted out the power grid near the school so no lights, no class. Then they all discuss the crazy weather they’ve been having, wondering if Sally would be able to come and visit.
Sally asked Rotor about the bad weather cause and he lied to her that it was nothing to worry about! To be fair, Sally worries way too much, and can eventually snap after bottling it all up. He knows she’s better off not knowing about an APOCALYPSE scenario.
Sally says she looks forward to seeing LIEN-DA again on her next visit to the KINGDOM, and the story ends not with us seeing Lien-Da apologize and mend bridges with Julie-Su like was actually foreshadowed, and we actually looked forward to, but INSTEAD ends with the chef obsessed with food, telling Lara to her displeasure that she’ll be having escargot. I’ve eaten escargot and even canned escargot with shredded cheese is tasty enough that I kept eating more of it despite it not being cooked, so I don’t see why SHE’S complaining, if it tastes good enough you wouldn’t care that it’s actually snails.
Surprisingly there’s ANOTHER story after this taking place in the PRESENT, where Knuckles plans on taking back Angel Island. Good luck doing THAT without any powers. And ALONE! The narration explains that the island always travels by the highest peaks found on an island close to Downunda. Makes sense, the dingoes are from there and they live on the island.
Knuckles reflects on how he shouldn’t be here because the king asked him to wait until the proper time and resources could be allocated to such a venture, but Knuckles being the guardian is stubborn enough to wanna liberate it anyways… by himself.
You know, I know that Knuckles was an idiot in the games – even then purely in the sense that he got tricked by Eggman and Sonic X and later games Flanderized him – but that doesn’t justify him being an idiot in the comic if the idiocy is forced instead of making sense from a certain perspective. Then it’s just bad writing. At least it IS addressing that Knux still cares about liberating the island, though!
Is this ENTIRE STORY just gonna be BORING narration?! Knuckles thinks about how he thinks that this might be the ONLY TIME he might be able to get onto the island without the power of flight because he can reach it from the peaks.
Okay, he can still climb onto any surface because he still has spiked knuckles, that makes sense. Wait, no it doesn’t, when Eggman removed his powers he LOST his spiked knuckles! So why is Eggman better at this than Aurora?!
Knuckles then seems to delude himself in the narration that his only motivation at all is to save his mom and make her proud, when he lists some OTHER motivations that he HAS to HAVE. because Locke apparently believed in the king’s judgment a lot in the past and apparently told Knuckles about that, Knuckles then wonders what kind of damage Eggman’s made to the island in all the time he’s been there.
Then out of nowhere he decides to be patient and LEAVE. I miss when the Sonic characters were surprisingly smart. It doesn’t go for the easy drama at every opportunity, even if it makes someone look stupid.
And the story ends with Eggman telling a Shadow SWATbot controlled by ADAM that Knuckles would’ve been KILLED if he had gone to the island. It WAS explained that it took months for Eggman to equip Angel Island so that he could steer it wherever he wanted, in the Sonic and Knuckles Special, and use it against Knothole with laser cannons. So maybe the reason he hasn’t done that with the island this time is that he’s taking THAT LONG to outfit it to be controllable and dangerous again. If only I knew how long he’s had control of it.
The first story was by Romy Chacon, and reveals to the heroes that a huge amount of robot duplicates were made of Tommy in particular. WHY HIM? And HOW? HE wasn’t in the jewel mining camp! Did Eggman decide to make all of those with him right after he became one of the Freedom Fighters? Yeah this is confusing to a first-time reader. Either way the story doesn’t have much happening other than Sonic having to wish his father back to life with a Ring because Uncle Chuck arbitrarily can’t fix him.
Considering he was so exhausted that Jules needed to save him, since apparently being exhausted makes you deaf to the sound of a DRILL RIGHT NEXT TO YOU and yet you still wake up just before Jules gets hurt. But anyways, it’s a testament to how worried Sonic was about his father that he still made himself run to get a Ring anyways. Why DID Eggman feign ingorance over the whole thing anyways instead of boasting about his plan like he ALWAYS does? He even boasted about the nukes!
The second and third stories were written by Ken Penders. The second story was just exposition with nothing actually happening. But I was at least pretty invested in the conversation that was going on with all of the information I was being given up, including Sally saying that Sonic even 25 years later would rather his “ true love “ not be a princess at all.
I also love that Sally and Julie are such good friends now that they regularly chat together like that. It’s heartwarming. It’s weird that Sally’s not doing this with Bunnie though. Why isn’t she in this story arc? Where’s Antoine? I guess even he realized how bland those characters were. But if they’re best friends, shouldn’t they already KNOW all of this? Why even discuss it? It’s just an excuse to give the audience exposition on the characters.
And the third story was just an excruciatingly boring and pointless one because it had almost nothing but narration making me feel detached from what’s going on, and quite frankly there wasn’t enough material to make a whole story out of it! You could’ve had the whole story be, two panels! Knuckles wants to save the island but chooses to be patient anyways.
And that’s the right decision of his… So why was he stupid enough to come here in the first place when he obviously had no chance? It really didn’t need to EXIST and it would’ve been better if they had just used that comic space for the second story, to explain why Lien-Da was forgiven!
Issue 137:
With Patch flying the Freedom Fighter Special 2 bringing Sally, Tails, Sonic, Rotor and Bunnie to the hard to pronounce Megaopolis Island, I’m already seeing a plot hole, because unless Patch is really recent here, he shouldn’t have needed Sally to correct him that he’s going to OLD Megaopolis, especially since didn’t he just fly the airship here the LAST mission he was on?
I know OLD and NEW Megaopolis have similar names, but they’ve got two completely different FUNCTIONS, and while I confuse them too, he’s LIVING HERE, you’d think if Patch was making these kinds of slip-ups without faking amnesia as a cover like Moritori did, he would’ve gotten caught by now! Also I guess the king didn’t leave to go on his tour yet since he said he’d have Patch accompany him on it and it can’t be over ALREADY…
Then someone I can’t recognize at all says on the computer screen that New Megaopolis stretches northeast of the island and ends at a huge peninsula. Sally for some reason wishes she had told her dad about the mission, and Sonic snarks, “ I’m surprised you even came along, Sal. Aren’t you mad at me for going on these missions? “ I like that! Then he says that the king would’ve told him to wait, and by then, who knows where Tommy would be. Why is he so convinced Tommy would be going anywhere instead of remaining in this factory to be used some more?
Sally reasons that she’s helping because Tommy’s HER childhood friend TOO even though we never see him at all in the Freedom Fighters as kids stories. And she arbitrarily insists that for the mission to be a success, she needs to be a part of it. Somehow. Sonic then chooses not to argue with her even though I can’t imagine what she would contribute aside from her usual leadership skills anyways.
After I guess Sonic says that it feels good to have the old Sally back coming up with strategic plans on the fly, and yeah I noticed she’s back to normal TOO, it’s said that ” ain’t ” isn’t a word. Why doesn’t Bunnie argue with that?
She tells Patch to land the airship on the rooftop of a building in Old Megaopolis. He then says, “ Your wish is my command, “ I guess trying to be snarky about being ordered around by her to feel better. Sally then orders Nicole to show them the mission schematics, and plans that Sonic and her will take the lead while Rotor, Nicole and Bunnie will follow while Antoine and Tails will uselessly stay on the ship for a quick get-away.
I can understand Patch because he’s got no special powers, but Tails? ALSO, Rotor retired from active missions on the field… And yet he’ll be on THIS mission AND another mission with Shadow there later. Even the one who wrote that retirement thought it was too stupid to keep consistent.
Patch then gets annoyed at being told to stay behind, pointing out that Tails can fly the plane himself and he should be there to protect Sally, sucking up to her looking annoyed. Sonic puts his arms around both him and Tails looking at both of them joking around that he isn’t used to Antoine volunteering for anything, and calls Patch a brave new hero not wanting to miss all the action. I wonder how Patch felt about that, being called a hero? We’ll never know!
After Tails amusingly looks all pouty about being told to stay there, Sally tells him that she trusts him with the plane, even though it really should be the more useless Patch who stays here. Tails can even spindash to deal with robots, while Antoine’s sword has almost always been useless. Sally shouldn’t have her mind changed so pathetically easily by a subordinate!
Sally orders Nicole to calculate the best route to take to find the Robo-Dyne Factory with the unclear name, that manufactures the Tommy duplicates – as opposed to Sonic duplicates to ruin Sonic’s reputation and help Eggman, like would’ve been smarter. And somehow, she’s able to do so! It’s Hand Waved that Uncle Chuck’s detective work was what got them this far, trying to fill in that potential plot hole when we only saw him say that there were a series of infiltrators and we still don’t know how they found that factory.
Sally uses some binoculars and sees many SWATbots and supposed Robians that must be infiltrators without their fake skin and furs. After her group goes in, she whispers to her friends to keep quiet and then Nicole’s map indicates that they go right. She already SAID to follow her, she doesn’t need to tell them to go right and risk someone hearing her. What, is she gonna tell them to turn left or right every CORNER? Thus making noise?
Bunnie pulls Patch through a hole telling him to hurry up with Patch saying he didn’t need her help. He’s SO self-conscious about needing people’s help and not being as competent as everyone else, that he lashes out and gets all irritated because of it.
It makes perfect sense that Antoine’s evil twin would be like that, being an, exaggeration of his negative hidden qualities – the arrogance he used to show. And I like this implying that he’d got an insecurity, a sore spot about being treated like that, and reminded that he might not be that useful! He wouldn’t be sensitive about it if he was completely sure of himself!
They all are shocked at seeing several assembly lines of infiltrators being made by the thousands. So why did it take Eggman and Robotnik, THIS LONG to start making duplicate robots again after the Sally Miniseries destroyed the only factory with them? Why the only one?! Sally naturally says that this changes their priorities. They have to take down this place and THEN rescue Tommy.
Why doesn’t Sonic agree with her on this right away? Instead Sonic being the more emotional one, the Kirk to her Spock, argues with Sonic, because they wouldn’t be able to hide the fact that they did this mission from Eggman or the king. Why not?! They could just give some other group the credit! Why would Sonic let the king keep him from doing the right thing when he never let that stop him before?! That’s Out of Character! Sonic never cared about Robotnik finding out he inconvenienced him. Apparently, he’s more scared of the king than him
And if the king is really that much of a petty Control Freak that he’d punish them all for going to god forbid take down a fake robot duplicate factory as soon as POSSIBLE, then he’ll only prove himself to be the same meddling jerk he was earlier! HE’S not the LEADER of the Freedom Fighters! Who does he think he is, king or not?! It’s bad enough Sonic’s mission in Issue 136 was for the king! It’s instances like this that make me wish he was just killed off after they got him back because that’s the only role he’s serving onscreen and he should really just mind his own business!
As Rotor puts his hand on his face from exhaustion at it, Sally asserts that SHE’S the leader, so what SHE says GOES, and Sonic arbitrarily snarks, “ Oh yeah, and what if it puts Tommy in more danger? You ever think of THAT?! “ I love Sonic and Sally arguing getting mad at each other! It feels so much more natural having two opposing personalities clash! I couldn’t get enough of this if it was dozens of issues’ worth!
Then they get some Shadow SWATbots’ attention, and start fighting them, and Sally says, “ Rotor? “ before seeing that Rotor’s doing, uh, something, with a gray device with an antenna, saying that he’s already on it. Sally lampshades that great minds think alike, and says that she’ll get Sonic. Just because they’re both smart doesn’t mean them both coming up with the exact same plan without words makes sense. It’s not like they’re identical twins.
A Shadow SWATbot gets electrocuted because Rotor electrocuted the floor and Sonic is prevented from being hurt by that, by Sally swinging by on that rope she was holding saying, “ Hope you don’t mind being saved by a girl, “ with a blank expression. Sonic doesn’t mind, which is good.
Rotor figures that knowing Sonic, he went to save Tommy, and his friends will have to follow up on Sally’s plan to blow the building up hoping that they’d be able to escape in time, which they WILL because it’s Sonic the fucking HEDGEHOG.
Nicole hacks into the network somehow and they find out where Tommy is. Well THAT was EASY. After Sonic and Sally reunite with Rotor looking bored, Rotor asks where Nicole is. At first I was questioning why Sally would ever lose Nicole but then it turns out she and Sonic, are actually duplicate robots, naturally sent to confuse them. What are they doing HERE instead of outside to ruin their reputations?
Fortunately Bunnie figures out the trick instead of assuming Sally betrayed her, and the Sonic robot for some reason talks just like a mindless SWATbot trying to apprehend Rotor, even though duplicate robots like the last one of Sally and the Fiona duplicate and even the more recent Tommy duplicate are supposed to be better at talking than that!
There’s no reason that Sonic and Sally infiltrators, infiltrators of the MAIN characters and hated enemies of Robotnik, would be made to talk like this blowing their cover so easily.
After they fight the robots with Patch damaging one of the robots with his sword effortlessly removing its head, even though Antoine’s sword was always useless at damaging robots, though this is at least a GOOD inconsistency, Sonic and Sally free Tommy, arbitrarily having to save him from a SWATbot when you’d think it would wanna keep him around to make robots, and there’s actually a heartwarming moment as Sally says, “ I’m just Sally. Please don’t treat me like a stuffy princess, when a hug will do! “ And the hug is surprisingly heartwarming to see!
Then Sonic gets a message from Rotor that they’re on the rooftop meeting a LOT of resistance, and the bombs are ready to go off at any minute. After they get surrounded by robots with Sonic for SOME reason saying they’re in trouble instead of spindashing in a circle to cut them all apart immediately, the airship shows up making a smoke screen to to cover their escape, a very clever idea of Rotor’s that Tails activated, and they all hurry in with Patch being annoyed at being pulled in by Bunnie when he could’ve run in himself.
He’s like the Squidward of the gang, he’s always such a sourpuss. With that, they leave in the airship, with Sally saying that they SOMEHOW are FORCED to tell the king about them going on the mission, and that part will not be easy…
In the next story Sonic 20 years later complains about having to go along on a trip, and wants to not go with Sally refusing to go along with it, while Julie is trying to wake Knuckles up. Sally asks Sonic if he’s still mad about what happened LAST year, whatever THAT was – I wish I saw that – and Sonic says with no self-awareness that he NEVER holds a grudge! RIIIGHT, he never has any enemies, ever!
We see Manic get into the airship saying he loves the luxuries in it, like a true rich boy, and at first I thought that was Sonic because he looks just like him, but with a gap in his teeth! It’s pretty lazy having their children look exactly like them when they were kids! Lara-Su had a lot more effort put into her design being her own character instead of just young Knuckles or Julie.
After he asks, “ Are we there yet? “ just to annoy his parents, and Julie expresses concern about Knuckles maybe not wanting to see Sonic as I wonder why this is happening with no context, Sally tells Sonic that he hasn’t gone for his usual walks with Sally after dinner recently. Wouldn’t he rather RUN instead? WALKS should be INSANELY excruciatingly boring to Sonic! And he should TELL her that! And Julie tells Knuckles that their guests will be here soon, being told that they’re not due until early afternoon.
The Sally and Sonic part is easily the more interesting part of this story so I guess it’s a good thing that it annoyingly always shares half the page ‘cause you, never have to go a page without it, but couldn’t it at LEAST be horizontal instead of vertical? And this is where Sonic tells Sally, that while SHE was born and raised to be a queen, he’s not cut out to be a king, he’s a thrill-seeker.
The SHEER FACT that Sally’s SURPRISED at this at this point is proof that he never should’ve married her. She doesn’t understand him at ALL, she’s like, “ HUHHHHHHH? What are you SAYING? “ Isn’t she supposed to be smart?!
Meanwhile, Knuckles doesn’t wanna spend time with Sonic if he doesn’t HAVE to. Julie makes him promise that he won’t do anything stupid, Knuckles insists that it wasn’t his fault whatever happened last time, and Julie complains that he usually tells her everything and now she feels like such a stranger. Like Lara and Locke were?
Granted, Knuckles is known for being an antisocial loner who’s very stubborn, so I guess it makes sense that he’d have this problem with Julie eventually? NO, they were usually great together, I don’t like this at all!
Sally compares Sonic to his immature son Manic, saying very condescendingly, “ Did you forget you’re a grown-up, as well as a father? “ ARRGH! She doesn’t love Sonic, she wants to change him! And only THEN would she be truly satisfied once he’s not even really Sonic! The perfect ideal girlfriend for Sonic would love to spend the rest of her days going on thrilling adventures with Sonic, and most ideally of all should be able to keep up with his speed, which should really go without saying! I think a cool confident guy like Sonic would be way more picky about the one girl he’d have himself stuck with for his whole life.
You’d think if Penders was writing a conversation between them like this, he would’ve realized they didn’t belong together, and maybe he DID and is deconstructing things as a result when it’s way too late for him to change things now because he already showed them together in the In Your Face Special. They’re not even HAPPY together here! So what’s to be happy for?!
Meanwhile, Knuckles tells Julie about the chances that the weather effects are really implying something nasty. So Knuckles might be blaming Sonic for all his zone-hopping inexplicably causing that before the zone cops should’ve caused it thousands of years ago. And that’s why he doesn’t want to see him?
Sally accuses Sonic of having a mid-life crisis when it has nothing to DO with that! It’s about his WHOLE NATURE that he’s always HAD! He’d have this problem with living this gig as a king no matter HOW young he was! She just doesn’t GET it!
The guests arrive at Julie’s house, with Manic asking why his family doesn’t have a maid or butler to announce them since they’re rich and powerful. Sally asks where his manners are and he’s called a young hooligan by Julie’s servant. He’s even more like Scourge than Sonic is! He doesn’t seem to have an ounce of morality in him! It makes sense since he’s so much like Sonic who’s a troll and Sonic’s only a hero because of Robotnik.
I love this idea, so I wish I got to see WHY he’s considered to be a hooligan. This arc really has a running theme of introducing tons of better ideas for stories than the ones it actually has. But again, it just goes to show you why Sally marrying Sonic was a mistake because there’s no way Manik would be a good king, and he’s next in line for the throne. The story ends with Knuckles’ daughter telling the person who said there’s company to go away.
Then in the next story we see Patch planning on how he’ll start his arrogant speech about accepting the assignment as the king’s security guard. Why would there even be a speech?… By the way why does he say “ security de-tail? “ I doubt it’s a French thing because there’s no such word as “ tail “ in French! There’s no word spelled tail in French. They shouldn’t expect the audience to know what security de-tail means.
He’s such a lying poser that he’s gonna thank his father in his speech, when I’m sure Patch hates both versions of his father, JUST so people would be sure to think he was Antoine. Then Patch finds a letter from Bunnie about how she wanted to write about what happened with Tatiana “ the other day. “
Now I’m pretty confused because Patch thinks to himself that he REMEMBERS, and it was right after HE defeated Robotnik with Sonic when Bunnie and HIM were just starting out as a couple, except he’s not Antoine! Is this story non-canon?! Why would he remember something he had nothing to DO with?!…
Why’s he saying “ my ooh la la? “ That doesn’t make sense because, well English speakers think that it has a sort of sexual connotation, but it’s actually just meaning, “ Oh my, oh no! “ when you translate it. So, WHY would, why would a French speaker… is that some sort of actual thing where they refer to their love interest as that?… I’m getting the feeling this is just a mistake though.
We then see Bunnie talk to him like they’re dating so this must be a flashback, especially since Antoine gets all startled at seeing her, effortlessly tricks her into looking away by saying ” What’s over there, ” and and runs away hiding. Bunnie finds him, and he explains that his first love Tatiana fell for Sonic because he was a better hero, and Antoine then tried to step up the romance meeting her at the pond with flowers, only to see her hand in hand with Sonic. This is really confusing, wh-when, when exactly did this take place?! HAD to have been before Bunnie and Antoine got together!
Then Tatiana moved away, somehow, when her dating Sonic would’ve better explained why we were supposed to know Sonic and Sally didn’t start dating after their kiss because he would’ve been dating Tatiana instead. I guess she found ANOTHER village like Knothole, because she, felt so ashamed of what she did. Did she… go in a truck to go to Furville, somehow knowing where it was? Maybe she moved to Echidnaopolis.
Antoine expects me to believe that he didn’t want to fall in love again until Bunnie came along, but he also called Tatiana his first love, when CLEARLY he had a crush on Sally from the start of the comic. This is pretending otherwise.
This story makes no sense, I’m probably gonna just dismiss it as non-canon because it’s so contradictory! And the flashback ends with Antoine saying to Tatiana after hugging her calling the badly designed character beautiful that his heart no longer belongs to her for her to trample, and going with Bunnie.
Why is Patch smiling when reading this letter about the whole situation, if he then proves he’s Patch by heartlessly ripping the letter up? Is he a one-dimensional cliché villain or NOT? He still wishes that Bunnie would date him? He still thinks it’s sweet, I guess… But not sweet enough to not rip up the letter! Did even he have feelings for her, is that why he’s looking at her sadly?
The first and third stories were by Romy Chacon and the first one is better so I’ll start with that. After a title page that blatantly lies to you, the story’s all about rescuing Tommy from a fake duplicate factory before blowing it up. I love how Sally’s back to normal being calm and making plans, almost as if breaking up with Sonic was the HEALTHIEST thing for her! Maybe she just can’t handle having a BOYFRIEND that’s risking his life all the time because she’s too attached from all the kissing and hugging, so she has to DETACH herself, making her hate him… It seems to be working so far!
Patch shows some more character moments by showing how oversensitive and sore he is about being left out of the action like he’s useless, and gets defensive at the idea that he needs help. How abusive do you think his parents were to make him end up in this defensive, insecure way? I’d really like to know! Also, he defeats an attacking SONIC ROBOT in one hit with his sword, wasting a perfectly good plot, when Antoine couldn’t do that. It’s a good story, I love how Sonic and Sally argue!
The biggest problem I have won’t be a problem until next issue; that the king is gonna have a problem with the Freedom Fighters carrying out this awesome mission just because he didn’t tell her to! What, is he an Eggman supporter who’s mad at this factories being destroyed?! I’m sure Eggman would be just as much of a Control Freak. The only reason I don’t outright think he’s a terrible character is because he’s still Sally’s loving father who means well, and that’s it.
I also don’t like the fact that they don’t even try to explain why it took this long to get fake robot duplicates produced in a factory again after the Sally Miniseries! But I love how they made use of the factory’s concept by having a fake Sally and Sonic detect the Freedom Fighters, even if the fake Sonic talked like a generic robot for some reason.
The second story by Ken Penders, was not only devoid of action as usual, but had an appeal problem where it was frustrating to read because the first half of each page, was Sonic and Sally, and the second half was Knuckles and Julie having a much less interesting conversation. And you had to read them vertically! It was always distracting, the format, like my eyes kept getting drawn to the right from the left panels as I read from left to right like most people.
But I love how Sonic and Sally are having this conversation! Even if Sally’s being really frustrating here, because I love how the writer’s finally deconstructing and lampshading how they don’t belong together, as Sally’s proving she’s not the ideal mate by misunderstanding him as having a mid-life crisis, when he was NEVER the type to sit around bored on a throne! Sally just wants to change him and make him not who he is! She wants a mature man who doesn’t WANT to go on adventures! And that’s not Sonic! So I love that this is at least addressed but I can’t believe they made it this far!
And the third story, its biggest problem was that it had Patch REMEMBER, in his own thoughts no less so he’s not lying to anyone, that HE defeated Robotnik and had Tatiana as a love interest who we never heard of before, all the way back then! How can he privately remember something that didn’t involve him?!
The writer clearly wasn’t aware of or didn’t agree with him actually being Patch, even though it would be Out of Character for Antoine to tear up the letter from Bunnie instead of keeping it out of sentimentality and going straight back to his arrogantly planning his speech full of lies, which was kind of an important character moment for PATCH!
Also Tatiana being introduced as always being part of Knothole only to conveniently leave feels like a retcon, especially since she inexplicably moved away to who knows where to justify us not seeing her, only to come back to knothole for no reason! If he moved away out of shame for the way she dumped Antoine instead of just staying with Sonic like would be consistent with her Sonic-loving character established here,
WHY did she ever come back at all? The story’s biggest problem would’ve been solved if the writer just never had that ONE textbox, from Patch implying that HE was there all the way back then, since he’s not completely insane like Eggman and thinks he actually IS Antoine!
But I do love that moment where he looks at Bunnie with sad eyes and rips up the paper! Why would PATCH care about Bunnie? It makes perfect sense that he’d be quick to angrily tear the letter! And maybe he has more depths than you’d think if he actually was sad that Bunnie didn’t wanna give him affection anymore.
But I can understand that if you’re a first-time reader who doesn’t know the upcoming plot twist, this would be pretty annoying and heart-wrenching though, pointlessly having Bunnie and Antoine break up for what would be dismissed as romance drama for the sake of it, because all you know is that his character got mangled just to make the break-up happen.
Issue 138:
Man, I really wish the same person who drew this “ official art Sonic characters “ title page drew the entire story. THIS is why. Somehow this artist wasn’t fired after last time, because we’re back to the art quality of Issue 134 sadly and it starts out with the king being a HORRIBLE Control Freak actually COMPLAINING about Sally being USEFUL going on a vital mission, PURELY because he didn’t order her to. I thought he was supposed to have gotten OVER that horrible flaw!
Then Sally irritates me by not appreciating Sonic standing up for her calling her dad a grouch – I mean just because she just broke up with Sonic doesn’t mean she should be ungrateful! After Sally snaps at him furiously to stop caring and reminds Sonic that they’re broken up because she doesn’t want Sonic “ playing hero, “ god that’s something a VILLAIN would say – we see the king and queen about to leave for their world tour.
Uncle Chuck will come with them as their science advisor that I don’t see why they would NEED, since they’re not doing anything science-related, and Patch who is apparently a lieutenant now will command their elite guard.
While a lot of other people are dancing Sonic lampshades to Knuckles and Julie that “ Sally’s being impossible! “ and asks how they’re supposed to beat Robotnik with him being expected to do nothing. Good point, since they still haven’t! Ooh, another Tekno cameo.
I like how Julie LAUGHS after Sonic points out how useless Knuckles is for loosing his powers, as it gives her personality, she’s not like Amy Rose with Sonic being blind to his flaws. Even though it IS disloyal of her to do since Knuckles is obviously very sensitive about that.
Specifically, Sonic points out that really, JULIE would have more of a legitimate excuse to forbid her boyfriend from going out to fight the battles than Sonic with him, because as HE puts it, amusingly enough for her to laugh, “ I mean sure he can’t glide anymore, he’s as weak as a kitten and pretty much good for nothing, but still… “ while Sonic at least HAS special powers to survive with!
Surprisingly a fight DOESN’T break out from that, and instead a crashing sound is heard, and we hear Charmy and his fiancée weakly begging them for help and passing out I GUESS. Why does a crashing sound come from that? After Charmy receives medical attention for whatever injuries he even got, he tells Sally that Eggman finally sent his Egg Pawns to attack Goldenhive Colony, their home. So they lost everything.
My question is, why didn’t that happen a LOT EARLIER?! Why was it even AROUND for Charmy to RETURN to?! It’s not established that the kingdom had a security system with a force field and Eggman ruined the place when the force field malfunctioned! The very fact that this just now happened is ridiculous!
Charmy also explains that he couldn’t find any survivors from their country, losing his entire family in the process. So now he’s back to being an orphan just because he was that way in the games. What was the point of him being a prince if it only served to put him on a bus for a while? That’s probably why this happened because it was pointless.
I wonder if all of this Angel Island and Charmy stuff just happened to spite Penders because the writers hated him. They ruined the main settings he wrote just because they could, which would be unprofessional if that was the only reason this was written. And by the next issue, it’ll be especially obvious why I’d think this.
After Sally shows sympathy looking horrified, a guard awkwardly interrupts saying that they’re receiving a garbled transmission on the Tehnolotree for Knuckles. Fortunately the message is nice enough to ONLY go static in the UNIMPORTANT parts of the message, allowing them to explain that Locke is being held prisoner on Angel Island.
I guess they all assumed he died before this point so this is new info to them, but again, Locke should’ve easily saved the island from Eggman with his guardian powers that we’ve never been told the true limits of. So they had every reason to assume he wasn’t alive, and I guess the only way him not being able to free himself would make sense is if him being chained up restrains his hands so much that he’s unable to wave them around to use magic with them.
After Sally insists that they’re only going to go to the mission to rescue Locke, because she has no faith in them to liberate Angel Island like would be the more righteous thing to do, Sonic asserts that he’s going on the mission whether she likes it or not, to which she surprisingly allows him to go, but expects a full report when he returns…
Why is Knuckles so mad at him?!… He just stood up for him and volunteered to ensure his mission’s success! And it’s been a while since he had insulted him! If anything he should be thanking Sonic! But god forbid he insult Sally!
On the airship to Angel Island, Knuckles asks Charmy if he’s sure about coming with them to “ help “ on the mission, and Bunnie, after naturally asking why SHE can’t come with them on a mission since she’s a badass cyborg, is told that Sally needs to keep SOME muscle in Knothole while he’s gone, and they don’t wanna put all their eggs in one basket. That’s really logical and smart of Sonic!
They all jump out of the airship slowing their descent to the ground with stuff like parachutes and Charmy’s flight. Knuckles and Sonic bury their parachutes, and Sonic does high speed reconnaissance in the blink of an eye with his super speed before Knuckles could even finish his sentence, taking advantage of his super speed because for once the writers remember that he HAS it for something other than fighting robots.
And this causes him to find a prison camp run by teched-out dingoes. After a feeble attempt at a joke where Sonic says stupidly, “ Let’s do it to it, “ and everyone’s naturally confused, everyone charges at the dingoes, one of which, the Colonel, is shown to have an electrified sword. Why can’t ROTOR or TAILS make these things and give one to Antoine or Sally?! What happened to General Stryker by the way?… Sonic uses his super speed to steal the weapons of the dingoes, hopefully to give Knuckles and his friends some so they can believable FIGHT.
I totally get why these people would willingly work for Eggman since not only do they wanna do ANYTHING to spite the echidnas after their past history with them, but I’m sure most people on the planet would be too afraid to oppose him in any way and would just wanna avoid making him mad, especially since most people DON’T have superpowers like Sonic does to be ABLE to fight him. So Eggman offered them power in a world where most people have none and they took it because they’re more neutral and selfish.
That’s not to say they don’t HATE him! I’m sure they want him to get what he deserves and hate his ruining the planet as much as Sonic does! They’re just forced to be villains by circumstance, and they’re seeing it as taking advantage of him and that’s all. At least I HOPE that’s going to be the explanation for Mobians working for Eggman! RIGHT NOW, them hating him is only an assumption I’m making because Eggman’s so evil.
After Knuckles gets easily ganged up on and lies to Sonic that he could’ve handled those dingoes he fought off himself, a crowd of echidnas who are annoyingly in monochrome without even being all RED seem to WORSHIP Knuckles as the AVATAR! INCLUDING Constable Remington, who acts Out of Character for a normally serious person by being way too admiring of him! I’d like to point out that this story ISN’T by Ken Penders AT ALL! I’m not sure if he’d write this arc in general because again it’s so ridiculous that the Brotherhood would lose to Eggman.
Knuckles is told that when he first came back from the dead, Remington thought that he was an imposter, and it wasn’t until he had visited his shrine at the just-now-introduced Sky Sanctuary with his security team – not sure what the point is of him clarifying that it was an ECHIDNA security team – that he saw the truth. Knuckles’ body was gone from the tomb.
But it was too late. The dingoes had already sold out the echidnas in exchange for their own freedom, and Echidnaopolis was invaded by Eggman somehow. Since when is there an o before polis in Echidnapolis? Since the Knuckles Comic. They did the same thing with Megapolis. And since it’s not how it always was, it’s naturally confusing and takes a while to get used to.
Remington had been in a dungeon for months until he would wind up here. Remington hugs Knuckles and a crying Julie, and the textbox tail seems to be connected to just Julie, but it’s actually Remington who talks. He explains that the echidnas have faith in a prophecy of the Ancient Walkers they somehow knew about, that a hero would come back from the dead.
For SOME weird reason Knuckles thinks that they’ve got the wrong echidna! I know he’s creeped out from all the worship, I would be too, but they obviously haven’t made a mistake here! And “ deliver the world from its suffering, “ all suffering EVER? BULLSHIT. Who would believe that?!
Meanwhile, Eggman is told that the prisoner hasn’t cracked yet and he wants the Master Emerald which he somehow STILL hasn’t FOUND, even after owning Angel Island for like a YEAR. Compare this to the GAMES where he would’ve found it right away because it’s so poorly hidden. And compare this to the Sonic and Knuckles Special where Robotnik found it REALLY EASILY, which makes him not finding it by now even MORE stupid!
Of course LOCKE is their prisoner and is being threatened to try to make them talk. The heroes are in Lava Reef Zone – just like the Sky Sanctuary Zone these game level references feel totally hollow and forgettable because I feel like this story could’ve taken place ANYWHERE, and had the exact same PLOT. Anyways, they’re here since that’s where the transmission came from. And they notice a bunch of figures moving in the smoke which turn out to be Dark Legion goons.
So, uh… why didn’t the Dark Legion take down Eggman with their futuristic technology since he’s THE rival to their goal for world conquest?… I can’t understand why they would ever work together, I mean, why would that make sense when they BOTH want total power, why wouldn’t the Dark Legion have already taken back Angel Island for themselves?
I guess their centuries-ahead technology is no match for Eggman’s and they’re at a stale mate. I know they both love technology, but Eggman can’t be trusted!… The only logical explanation there would ever be for them working together is that they’re just using each other and both planning to backstab each other, but then why wait? And the Legion should’ve beaten Eggman easily with its more advanced technology! There’s a reaosn only the LEGIONNAIRES mastered cybernetics!
In the next story 25 years later in another dimension, which has the art the previous story’s arc SHOULD’VE had, while Sonic is playing with the kids throwing a ball around a pool, Julie and Sally complain about how Sonic and Knuckles hate traveling and socializing with each other, even though Sonic should logically be all for that! Sally explains just how Out of Character Sonic’s gotten!
APPARENTLY, he now RARELY talks to ANYONE beyond those he HAS to deal with!… And in the ULTIMATE betrayal… he hasn’t even spoken to TAILS in THREE YEARS! When Tails took off to move Downunda, Sonic didn’t even SHOW UP at the transport center to say goodbye! First off, “ move Downunda?… “ Is he gonna try to move the entire CONTINENT?! No. So, WHY would he even move there to begin with away from all of his friends?! Second, why are Tails’ eyelids white?
And third, most importantly, Sonic shunning Tails like the most neglectful brother and parental figure in the WORLD, would ONLY make the remotest bit of SENSE, if they had a huge fight and now hate each other! Like, maybe Tails snapped at Sonic for spending ALL his time with Sally and thus neglecting him… But that sounds a lot more like something his EVIL TWIN would do! That applies to both Tails AND Sonic! They’re supposed to be BETTER than that!
After briefly dunking Manik under the water because he hasn’t let him at the ball all day, Sonic is called out on by Knuckles, who says the great line, “ From overthrowing evil dictators to dunking helpless children! “
And Sonic does it AGAIN! I know Sonic can be a troll at times, but THIS MUCH, and to his own SON?! I AM fascinated by the idea of Sonic starting to lose his MORALITY, I mean, I mean… it makes perfect sense to ME since the main thing separating him from SCOURGE is “ no Eggman to fight. “ He hasn’t had a villain to fight in years! But STILL, this is unusual for him! That’s probably the way Scourge’s dad treated him.
Naturally Manik is offended at being called helpless. Knuckles says he doesn’t do water as an explanation for why he hasn’t shown up to the party yet, though that’s a lame excuse since Sally and Julie weren’t in the pool either and were still there. That just makes me remember that Sonic is normally supposed to be hydrophobic!
And Sally even SAID once that he can’t swim, although in most of the comic he spindashed or ran along the surface of the water just fine, and it’s been a long time, so maybe it makes sense that Sonic would’ve been forced to take swimming lessons and get over his fear by now. It’s just weird to see Knuckles having the fear of swimming since he’s notable for being one of the only characters who can swim in the Sonic games!
With everyone at the dinner table Knuckles for some reason has to remind Julie’s servant how everyone wants their meal even though it should be obvious to her after all the visits their families have had together. Knuckles is called a gourmand for remembering how everyone likes their food, when it shouldn’t be just him knowing that.
Clearly Sonic misses the good old days.
He lampshades Sonic knowing such a big word, and Sonic doesn’t explain it, and tells Knuckles that he doesn’t think he’s being responsible for everything that goes on throughout the island. It does make sense he’d be frustrated with his friend acting uncharacteristic of how he was when he first knew him in his nostalgic childhood memories of him, while Knuckles himself has matured and learned his lesson instead of always staying the same. He tells him that it’s because his concerns are more global. Logically, the guardians should still be focused on Angel Island first because they LIVE THERE! Anything else would be a betrayal!
It makes sense that Sonic and Knuckles weren’t looking forward to having dinner together then because they’re right back to their rivalry status from the start, bickering and teasing each other all the time. Sonic then asks Knuckles, “ Where were you during the Overlander Uprising last summer? “ Knuckles then tells him that he was busy with the drone problem, which contributed to that in the first place. Again, I would’ve loved to see a story about THAT.
This causes the kids to all leave the room with Sally, I mean Sonia, asking Lara to promise her that they won’t all argue when THEY’RE older because she’d hate to lose Lara as a friend. Lara then threatens to slap Manic silly for putting his arm around her like a friend and calling her baby!
Julie shows great annoyance at Sonic and Knuckles arguing and wants them to apologize to their guests. Then after the two both burp proving that Sonic really isn’t meant to be a king, right after Julie had lectured people about being bad guests… Sally had the gall to tell Julie’s servant that she’d always be welcome in HER kingdom if she ever wanted a change of scenery. I know she’s being nice, but still!
The servant says, “ Tempting offer, your highness, but this is home! “ That seals it right there. She just offered her friend’s servant from another royal family to go work for HER INSTEAD! How is that being a good guest?! She’s lucky everyone in the room is so fond of her because in any other situation with rich families, that’d be extremely rude!
It’s not like Sally never makes mistakes and this proves it, but the problem is that usually when she DOES, she’s not called out on it, which implies that it wasn’t intended to BE a mistake and it was just sloppy writing. Bunnie’s never called out on her mistakes and failures either when she makes even more of them.
Finally Knuckles tells Sonic about the impending apocalypse that makes no sense, causing Sonic to simply call him “ certifiable, “ instead of believing him. I guess he’s just going into denial because he’s the optimistic type.
Knuckles says that Cobar has detected pressure building up at the core of Mobius, and everyone has to solve the problem or it’ll be it… WHY is everyone freaking out when they could simply wish on a Ring or get all the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald and solve the problem with magic?! Why isn’t that first idea for a solution?!…
This “ the core of the planet might blow up “ thing seems SO inexplicable! And I thought the problem was with the space-time continuum as a whole! Why is it just one planet that’s in danger now because of ZONE-HOPPING and they have to get everyone off of it?!
The first story was by Karl Bollers. And involves, after Charmy’s kingdom is left a ghost town leaving him an orphan again in the cruellest excuse to be like the games ever, because, Eggman didn’t just capture any of the people in the kingdom or take it over to RULE it WITHOUT killing anyone like would actually be in-character for him…Sonic and the Chaotix all go to try to free Locke from Eggman in Angel Island, because they received a transmission from someone to go there that was coincidentally only garbled in the unimportant part of the message.
It makes sense that the dingoes did what they did, after all that build-up with their resentment of the echidnas. I just wish it was more firmly established that ANY of the Mobians working for Eggman still hate him and want him taken down for what he’s doing to the planet! And they just feel forced to work for him. It’d make it more logical that way, since it should be obvious to him that they’re not the good guys here.
The big problems I noticed right away, other than the horrible art, were really minor because they stayed in the beginning of the story; Sally is drawn as weirdly as she was in the slap story with her eyes, and yells at Sonic for god forbid being a hero, because she selfishly doesn’t want him to risk his life just because SHE loves him. ALL those years of worrying about Sonic’s safety would make ANY worrywart crack, but she still looks like kind of a bitch here. Only kind of because it’s justified.
Unlike when she acts ungrateful for Sonic standing up for her when the king, in the other big problem with this issue, ungratefully bitches about Sonic and Sally destroying the fake robot factory because he’s a Control Freak… When he was supposed to have gotten OVER that around the time EGGMAN showed up! And he was supposed to have gotten OVER his lack of faith in Sally every time she wants to be useful, when ELIAS RAN AWAY BECAUSE OF IT!
Overall, I didn’t enjoy this story. It just had an appeal problem. I did like Sonic saying that Knuckles is as weak as a kitten and pretty much good for nothing in the sense that it was amusing he actually said that to his face, but it just reminds me of how stupid him losing his powers is. I can’t stand this arc.
Also I hated Knuckles being worshipped. So what if he came back from the dead?! Heroes do that all the TIME in comics, how Genre Blind are these people?! And I’d like to remind you that Penders didn’t write this story, so, the whole “ Knuckles being worshipped “ thing? NOT his idea! It’s Bollers going with this whole Creator’s Pet idea where he’s worshipped as a god, probably to embarrass Penders since HE’d have no reason to really like Knuckles.
The second story, which is actually BY Ken Penders, is about Sonic and Knuckles’ family being together for a visit where they end up talking about the world eventually blowing up from bullshit, where Sonic and Knuckles get into an argument because Knuckles hasn’t been focusing on Angel Island like would be true to himself anymore.
This is after Sally’s conversation with Julie, where it’s revealed that Sonic has been so depressed over not being a hero anymore that in order to isolate himself so he won’t complain about to everyone, he’s made the uncharacteristic decision of refusing to socialize with ANYONE he doesn’t HAVE to!
In fact he made the outrageously neglectful decision of not even talking to Tails in three years! Unless they had a horrible fight over this exact kind of neglect, which would explain it better, I can’t help but see this as atrociously Out of Character for Sonic! Sonic and Tails would be best friends for the rest of their lives, age difference or not! Hell, Sonic RAISED Tails, LITERALLY since he was a baby in this continuity! That would be like abandoning his own son!
Not only do we see his morality deteriorate by betraying Tails, but he also dumps his son Manic in the pool for a while just to mess with him just because he was keeping the ball away from him at a party! Granted, Manik doesn’t have an ounce of goodness in his body and just comes off as a troublemaker, like a Scourge-in-the-making, and I can see why Sonic’s morality would deteriorate from pent-up stress with nowhere to go without villains to fight constantly reaffirming his position as a hero. Now he’s not a hero anymore.
But STILL, Sonic has always been shown as exceptionally heroic in the Archie Sonic comic, being the type to idealistically want to save the life of literally anyone! Even Snively! Or Robotnik multiple times! Or the Nerbs! Not to mention the fact that he effortlessly forgave his friends for trying to court-martial and exile him once!… That kind of person wouldn’t ignore and shun his own little brother figure like that out of the blue!
That at least makes the story interesting and memorable getting me invested because of the weird direction he took with Sonic’s character. It both makes sense and doesn’t make sense at the same time. And again I don’t understand why they can’t just get all the magical stuff they can find and make a wish to prevent the world from being destroyed, since it’s apparently just the world and not the whole UNIVERSE now! This is such forced artificial conflict that comes out of nowhere!
Issue 139:
We start out with a fight between the heroes and members of the Dark Legion with Sonic’s narration saying that he forgot how much Knuckles can’t stand them. So it looks like that whole progress with Dimitri making a speech to the High Council to reconcile the two sides was all for nothing, huh? ‘Cause Knuckles doesn’t like them anymore! That’s not an inconsistency at all! We didn’t even need this fight scene to happen!
It’s cool that the goons are using Flame Swords, although they’re back to being weird alien blobs under their cloaks which is disappointing since it doesn’t make any sense.
Then the overly long boring fight that was boring because the art sucked and it was just a bunch of still images, gets stopped by a female echidna with curly hair telling them that they’re all on the same side. And SOMEHOW, Knuckles recognizes this as his MOTHER, EVEN THOUGH she looks ABSOLUTELY NOTHING LIKE her to the point where even I didn’t know it was her because she has purely red, poofy hair, instead of red hair with brown at the top!
Then it’s explained that the Dark Legion are Angel Island’s resistance against Eggman and the dingoes, an encouraging thought that implies the progress really WASN’T for nothing since they naturally became the city’s military with their technology but makes me wonder why the hell the goons attacked the heroes on sight, then.
Also, Wyn is told to get off the ground and stop calling him Avatar. Why would he even be called Avatar anyways? The term makes more sense for, well, the Avatar series. Knuckles isn’t an avatar of anything! He’s just a heroic guardian. And with all his powers gone there’s even less reason to respect him! I really have to cringe at how Knuckles’ mother and stepfather are being portrayed here! They’re unrecognizable!
Maybe they would’ve been BETTER OFF if they were written by Penders who actually made the damn characters, although, he wouldn’t have any choice over the artist, I guess. But still, three different Character Derailments in a ROW just to mock 3 of Penders’ characters, this really seals the deal that this whole arc was probably only written by Bollers to spite Penders. If that’s true, it’s unprofessional and not very mature.
Lara had said that the Dark Legion were a threat to her children showing absolute irrational hatred of them… and now she’s completely flipped around to the other SIDE? I know it’s been a YEAR, but STILL!… She, ugh… It’s good that she realized they weren’t all bad since they’re doing nothing but good things as a resistance group so far, it’s a clever refreshing change of pace for them that for ONCE was naturally led into by Penders’ writing because he was working on redeeming them ANYWAYS. It’s just that this looks bad considering how much Lara’s character was mangled.
In the Hidden Palace Zone, Sonic naturally complains that he didn’t get such a warm welcome when HE came back from the dead even if he did get a warm welcome, making Knuckles really irritated it. Then Dr Finitevus shows up for the first ever time!
If only he had been drawn better since he looks silly here. I can’t really take him seriously. He says that the echidnas are all living here in freedom now that the Dark Legion has generously liberated them from Eggman’s prison camps.
He then leads them all to Lien-Da, who acts overly friendly and manipulative acknowledging Julie as her stepsister, and saying she and Knuckles can call her by her actual name now. Knuckles, not used to such a change in the status quo, asks if this is all a twisted joke. Maybe in a meta sense? It turns out Knuckles’ mother was the one who got in touch with him in the first place.
Sonic and Knuckles are brought down to the Hidden Palace where they have the wall mural from Sonic 3 and Knuckles, which they actually use in the story rather than just showing it in the art, as the characters comment on it. Lien-Da says that she doesn’t know who made the mural, saying that this palace is thousands of years old and the tapestry was here when the Dark Legion found the secret ring portal entrance to this portal.
Knuckles lampshades this because the island’s only 500 years old, but is annoyingly interrupted and shown the Master Emerald. I’m glad it’s finally being called that by the way, I didn’t mention it earlier because I took it for granted as its proper name. Naturally it’s explained that the Brotherhood brought the Emerald here even though she talked as if it was the Dark Legion who discovered the portal to this place, so I can only assume the Dark Legion helped them with that. How was coloring like this approved? Seriously?
When Robotnik’s forces invaded Echidnaopolis, the Brotherhood DIDN’T proceed to obliterate Eggman’s airships and stuff effortlessly with their unlimited magical power or advanced technology. Instead, they went missing for no reason, and are still missing to this day. They must have been locked up extra tight for their status! (No, Flynn, it wasn’t MEANT to be thanks to Finitevus. WHY would he do that when he’s leading a resistance group AGAINST EGGMAN and the Brotherhood was the island’s best bet against Eggman?! Why keep fighting him then if you don’t care about winning?)
Locke entrusted the care of the Emerald to the Dark Legion since… WHAT?! “ Locke, the Emerald’s current guardian, entrusted its care to my Dark Legion “ since things have finally progressed to good enough relations with them for that, apparently!
While HE remained behind to face the enemy. Alone. No wonder he got captured. I don’t understand, why wouldn’t he be locked up WITH the Brotherhood, and why would he go fight instead of guarding the Emerald? I guess he does look kinda armored with the shield.
Then Lien-Da explains that Dimitri is no longer with them, and she says that she’s in charge, at LAST. Did she kill him or put him in a prison, then? We should really have been told what happened to him right after this! Knuckles then screams and doubles over in pain causing Sonic looking mildly annoyed at the situation to show rare compassion to him, by putting his hands on his back and head to comfort him, which is really sweet! We need more moments like this, to feel like Sonic’s close friends with his friends.
Lien-Da taunts him saying that he’s not as invincible as those superstitious idiots outside believe him to be. I like that she calls him that because she’s right! So what did Lien-Da do to him? He’s acting like when he was green and in terrible pain from a failed Chaos Syphon attack all over again!
Then later with Knuckles NOT in pain anymore, he explains that Aurora told him there would be serious consequences if he came back to life to save the world like a hero, because she’s evil like that. Somehow he figures out that instead of giving him energy like it did in the past, the Master Emerald is now sapping what little he has as a curse. How would it sap any if he has none, wouldn’t he have lost all of it?
He shows despair, and Julie shows loyalty to him by kissing his head saying that she has faith in him, causing him to smile all flustered with a heart, which is really sweet and cute honestly! Mighty lampshades why they’re sitting here moping instead of “ cracking more dingo skulls. “ Isn’t Mighty supposed to be too much of a Nice Guy to talk like that and be that violent? Super strength or not?!
They’re all told by this creepy-looking Dr Finitevus that their double agent hasn’t contacted them yet to tell them where Locke was imprisoned. I’m guessing the only reason they trusted him when he’s so creepy is desperation. And it’s not like it’s not his fault that he looks like this because he could’ve changed his appearance! Dyed his hair red, had eyes that didn’t look like evil black and yellow eyes…
Then after some “ deeply spiritual people “ – I hate them already – say that they refused to give their blind daughter cybernetic eyes because they thought Knuckles could work miracles, since they’re unaware that he lost his omnipotent powers, after Finitevus snaps at how the avatar nonsense is just a cruel superstition, calling them imbeciles for refusing the Dark Legion’s offer to give the girl vision again.
I wonder if they actually, got the GIRL’S say on the matter? I guess she agrees with her parents. He calls out, “ Where was he while you were LANGUISHING in Robotnik’s prison camp? Off playing errand-boy to the Kingdom of Acorn! “
I wish the art wasn’t desperately trying so damn hard to make him look unlikable because he’s completely justified and mostly right! These guys are all idiots! And it makes him feel like a deeper character that he has moments like this where you can totally sympathize with him and get his perspective!
“ He cared NOTHING about your welfare, yet you bow down before him, while thumbing your noses at your true benefactors! Bah! “ Knuckles DID care about them but I totally get why he’s jealous of Knuckles here, and the Legion DOES deserve a ton of props for all the good they’re doing.
Sonic makes me giggle at his nervous witty line, “ Sheesh! Somebody sure didn’t need that extra cup of coffee this morning! “ and asks to be left alone with Knuckles, who didn’t say anything in his own defense during all that like “ I didn’t have my POWERS anymore! “ because I guess he felt so bad about himself that he agreed.
After Knuckles says he can’t help those people and Vector argues with Julie because she’s agreeing with the Dark Legion that the prophecy is wrong, so Vector STILL hasn’t gotten over this her when I thought he DID under Penders, Knuckles snaps to everyone’s shame, “ I’m sick and tired of the way this mission has been going! “ I agree, Knuckles, I agree.
He then furiously complains about all the big changes to the status quo that Angel Island has undergone, and his mother then chooses this time of all times to introduce him to his baby brother, who hits him with a rattle! I guess being violent is in the family? Even though she’s not SUPPOSED to be a brainless moron!
She was always the level-headed Only Sane Man to Locke! You’d think she’d HIDE HIM from Knuckles, or if she wasn’t, then why the hell was he not with us this whole time instead of just NOW being introduced to Knuckles at the worst possible moment! This was supposed to be a JOKE? This WHOLE STORY is a joke!
I mean the CONCEPTS are interesting, aside from the Knuckles being worshiped bullcrap, and Knuckles’ mother and stepfather being unrecognizable as characters, which, honestly those two things are enough to ruin the story for me. And that’s a shame because I love the concept of the echidna people all being freed and helped by the Dark Legion!
No way in hell it should’ve gotten to that point instead of the magical Brotherhood protecting the island properly, but at least the Legion progressed to being good guys finally, which was what Dimitri’s Heel Face Turn foreshadowed all along. We’re finally getting to see them portrayed as less than 100% evil just because they oppose the technology bans! Like it’s an illustration of how far everything has come since then!…
And I’m glad they finally introduced Dr Finitevus, I looked FORWARD to him, he got me interested with not only his cool design, but his perfectly logical resentment of Knuckles! Ignoring the way the art’s trying portray him as evil, the only thing evil about his actions and speech so far is that he’s jealous and angry of Knuckles’ good treatment when his Legion isn’t given their proper credit. That’s pretty good, deep motivation and characterization for a villain and that’s half the whole reason I LIKE him, it’s better than just a one-dimensional villain who just wants to rule the world or destroy everything because bad guy!
Knuckles having his energy drained by the Master Emerald is also interesting, although fuck Aurora for doing that to him instead of appreciating him saving the damn world! So, well, I guess that’s my summary right there. The story was written by Karl Bollers, but maybe it should’ve been written by Penders instead because it takes the respectable and likable characters Lara-Le and Wyn he made, and makes them unrecognizable! Wyn is annoying and Lara’s a stupid ditz who doesn’t look anything like her, although that’s the artist’s fault.
Now for the next story which I’m looking forward to in comparison. The servant complains about Sally trying to help because she can’t stand anyone else helping in her kitchen. For some reason Julie shows no awareness of Manik’s Casanova nature, saying she thinks he’d rather be in the game room than hang out with the ugly chameleon girl and the other girls. This is strange since you’d think she’d know him better after all these years.
Makes perfect sense that, Manik would be a Casanova like this, playing Spin the Bottle with girls, because that’s how I’d imagine Sonic to be. Riki-Le, who looks just like Julie when she was younger making me wonder why SHE isn’t her daughter, says that Lara could always beat up Manic if he gets out of line with his Spin the Bottle game.
Sonia then says she refuses to do anything her brother says. He’ll be the king someday, though. The chameleon girl says that while her younger sister Juanita, is annoying at times especially because of her unpronounceable NAME, she gets along great with her for the most part so she can’t understand why Sonia would have such a poor relationship with her brother.
After Lara says she doesn’t trust him, she says that Sally and Julie should play the game with him, causing him to hilariously get nervous and run out of the room. I couldn’t help but giggle at that. But it really shows how far the comic’s fallen after Tossed in Space when this arc is the GOOD part of every issue that I look forward to.
The chameleon then gets all annoyed trying to slap Lara when she reveals that she’s dating Rutan. The girls reassure her teasingly that they’ll keep the secret, and then we cut to the girls playing a board game with Sally and Julie.
Sonic then impresses Manic by playing pool and teaches him how, and says wistfully that there’s a lot of things he can do but he just doesn’t get the chance to show him. Naturally, since Eggman’s gone, so there’s no reason he should teach his untrustworthy son how to spindash, because who knows what he might use it on…
This story was written by Ken Penders. And while it’s pretty mundane, being about Lara having a mundane sleepover with her friends and then playing a boring board game with Sally while Sonic plays pool with Manic briefly, instead of TAILS, I found myself enjoying it a lot more than the FIRST story. I dunno maybe it’s because in THIS arc the art isn’t atrocious.
It’s confusing that they can’t just get this artist to do the whole comic, not just the main stories, but the whole comic, because when I see how common good art is in this comic, it really makes me wonder what all the fuss about Tracy Yardley is even about.
But I mostly like it because of all the good character moments. It was interesting seeing more of Sonic’s evil son showing his Casanova tendency which I can imagine Scourge would have too with a game of Spin the Bottle! And then we see Manic and Sonic actually do care for each other sometimes because they start playing pool together, with Sonic teaching him how after Manic is all impressed about it! For the most part though it’s mundane with not much conflict. But it was charming enough! At least it doesn’t have three characters I grew attached to being completely unrecognizable!
Issue 140:
We start out with the revelation that Knuckles’ little brother has the worst name in the history of ever, “ Knecapeon Mace… “ Apparently his nickname is Kneecaps, but, still! There’s a reason he went by “ Mace, “ in the 25 Years Later arc! Knuckles’ response, “ That’s got to be the worst name I’ve ever heard for a kid! “ as well as everyone laughing, would’ve been better if they were responding to his actual name Knecapeon, which was ten times stupider! At least Kneecaps kind of goes off the “ name your character after a body part “ theme with Knuckles.
Just because he’s an echidna and thus part of a Sonic-series-distinctive species, doesn’t justify him having a stupid name for the sake of having him try to sound special! What’s WRONG with “ Bob? “ Why does he have to have the name of someone randomly smashing on a keyboard? This story hasn’t exactly begun well. A forced joke isn’t a good one.
Who the hell’s getting all angry and fiery asking if something’s funny?! I have no idea because the art isn’t making it clear who it is and why he’s not screaming about being on fire. Apparently it’s Wyn but that’s totally Out of Character for him. So after that braindeadness that could’ve easily been cut out of the story it’s revealed that the heroes were pitched some tents so they’d have a place to stay for the night.
Knuckles feels depressed about it, and wants to be alone since the tents are only there since the echidnas are admiring him to a creepy extent! I feel sorry for Sonic here acting all depressed because of Sally acting differently after he came back to the planet. In front of a bunch of fire, Knuckles tells, uh, SOMETHING, to get out of his way because he’s got business inside the palace.
A Dark Legion goon approves him to come in for some reason, and as I wonder what’s the purpose of Dr Finitevus having a pink visible aura around him with pink and black stripes for a background, he and Lien-Da let Knuckles see the Master Emerald to mope, even though Knuckles KNOWS it drains his energy now! So he had NO REASON to come here!
Then it’s finally explained to me why he’s wearing these things on his gloves and head. He’s outfitted with hammer gloves and the air necklace from SA2 that Rotor actually invented. That’s a nice touch! My question is, why the hell is Knuckles saying that, his saving the fucking WORLD from the Xorda was regrettable because of his stupid ego?! He’s the reason that those laser cannons didn’t destroy all of his friends! That’s not ego, that’s being a hero!
How insecure is he out of nowhere that he’s being like this instead of hating Aurora for what she did?! Although I’d rather he be insecure and have actual sympathetic depths to his character than be unlikably arrogant like in most of the games. But he was clearly being confident when he was insisting on fighting in the “ Home “ arc, so what happened?! If he was that insecure, he would’ve retired by now!
Then after some lightning seems to come out of the Master Emerald, I’m not really sure, what resembles an ant with the letter A on his hat looks and talks like an Obviously Evil cartoon villain saying that everything’s going just as he predicted… If this is Archimedes, how brainwashed was he or how drunk was the writer and artist for forgetting the character this badly? He’s a GOOD GUY!
Meanwhile, a dingo who somehow agreed to have his face roboticized vertically to look nightmarish with only part of his body being not robotic, tells Eggman that the heroes have attacked one of the prison camps. Oh, okay, “ Eggman out, “ so Eggman’s calling HIMSELF that. ADAM offers to dispatch Egg Pawns to Angel Island unnecessarily, but Eggman says that’s unnecessary, shows racism against the dingoes and then complains about how he’s running out of time.
M says that he’ll go to Angel Island, is reminded that Sonic dropped him in the water, and is told that Eggman already got someone else who’s suited to the task perfectly despite not being a tough Genre Savvy android. He then sends a message saying that there’s a task that’ll get someone out of a prison pod, but a control collar on him will make sure he complies. Is he talking to Locke? That would be interesting.
Lien-Da then tells the heroes in Hidden Palace Zone that she’s received word from her double agent in the dingo army, informing them where Locke is being held prisoner. What TOOK him so long?
After Knuckles’ mother hugs him affectionately, Safron shows a complete 180 on what little character she used to HAVE by suddenly being fine with being told to stay behind instead of fight by Charmy, when the only character she showed BEFORE this point was complaining about being told to attack the weaker target! I guess that change to blonde hair also included a change in BRAIN! Is there any character by Penders in this arc that WASN’T drastically changed?! Well at least Lien-Da’s intact.
Remington offers to help Knuckles in battle, but is instead told to guard the Master Emerald. Sonic runs to the dingo city while everyone else rides behind him in Dark Legion UFOs. Wow, the art really tried as hard as it could to make the dingo city look as evil as possible! Look at that sign! How would any actual person support this logically? It even has a signpost saying blatantly, “ slave pits! “
A terrified dingo knocks on the door of a death chamber, apparently it’s Harry – makes sense since he’s the one sympathetic dingo but I would’ve liked to see MORE than just ONE – and he stammers to General Kage that he brought him his nutrient supplements, in between his tormenting Locke.
Kage then compliments the meals’ usual taste, and then after Harry drops the plate in fear instead of holding on super tightly for some reason, then we see that the nutrient supplements look like a normal breakfast. So why not just call it a breakfast instead of making me imagine futuristic food pills? He then throttles Harry, and taunts him about being so nervous all the time with electricity sparking all around him for intimidation. What’d you expect?
He’s then distracted into releasing Harry by a transmission from Eggman. And Eggman tells him to just kill off Locke because he’s not doing what he wants anyways. This comes out of nowhere to force more tension because he clearly wanted to know where the Master Emerald was and this isn’t gonna help.
Then an alarm goes off with red lights happening everywhere, Harry screams at seeing Sonic there even though you’d think HE would be the double agent and he’d know Sonic’s a good guy, and the heroes start a whole fight with the dingoes. Logically, I don’t get why Eggman doesn’t just treat the dingoes and echidnas the same way.
Sonic defeats General Kage by confusing him with his super speed making him run into a wall, threatens Harry calling him dog-breath like a racist, and then Locke awkwardly says, “ Err, Sonic? That’s Harry you’re about to pummel. He’s our double agent. “ That makes more sense. So he was scared because he figured Sonic didn’t know who he was and was afraid he’d hurt him, for good reason.
Locke is freed since Harry gives Knuckles the keys to the shackles, and Locke acts like he’ll be fine, and says that Knuckles is a sight for sore eyes. I like that the artist actually made an effort to make Locke look different from Knuckles, giving him a red band over a dreadlock and old man eyebrows because the stress from being tormented like that, made him age more. So that’s weird, his DAD looks better while his mom looks atrocious.
Then of course it’s revealed that Kage got up and is threatening Sonic, but immediately gets curb-stomped by Sonic in one hit because of course he was. He’s a Mobian, not a robot! So Sonic can easily just send him into the wall at super speed.
Then Eggman brags on the transmission to Sonic that he wouldn’t rely on Locke’s confession as his sole means of learning where the Master Emerald would be, so THAT’S why he tried to kill Locke, and he’s already dispatched one of his agents to find the Master Emerald before him; The Hunter.
It DOES make sense that he’d end up released because Eggman somehow took over the island. See, THIS is why they should’ve just executed him instead of keeping him in a prison! In-universe-wise, at least, I love that he’s being used again as a villain. NOW we’ve got a guy with a dangerous-looking energy-tipped SPEAR on our hands! I like his clothes, though. They look cool aside from the Eggman logo.
In the next story, Knuckles 25 years later step out to the backyard to find Sonic there. Knuckles is here because this is his usual walk before going to sleep, while Sonic says that he couldn’t sleep. They go for a walk in the woods while the women are hoping that they’ll be able to work things out.
After some panels are wasted as they go over the same argument they did last time, Sonic talks about how earlier, Eggman stole “ the Chaos Emerald. “ NOT sure why he’s calling the Master Emerald that, I guess that’s more proof that this is in a different dimension. Eggman planned to become the master of the universe with the Emerald. And somehow Eggman doing that caused Knuckles to become a living Chaos Emerald again, because Angel Island would’ve been destroyed otherwise.
Sonic reminds Knuckles that he didn’t JUST save the island and take down Eggman finally, but he also decided to remake Mobius as he saw fit even though he didn’t do that LAST time he was green, so that’s inconsistent, causing Sonic to inexplicably blame HIM for the incoming apocalypse. That would’ve made a lot more sense damaging the planet’s core than Sonic’s zone-hopping, but even then, how would that happen by accident??
It’s inconsistent with the fact that Knuckles was trustworthy with omnipotence before, but probably inevitable for ANYBODY, especially someone more morally neutral than Sonic like Knuckles is, so it does make SENSE, It’s probably a little more believable than Knuckles NOT trying to do this right away LAST TIME.
But yeah, apparently it was Knuckles who ended up destroying Eggman once and for all! I’d say this would, kind of be a Creator’s Pet moment for Knuckles with Penders, him defeating him robbing the victory from Sonic, purely because he views Knuckles as the actual protagonist when it’s more like there’s two protagonists.
But honestly when you think about it, it makes a lot more sense for someone as violent and short-tempered as Knuckles, to actually FINISH the job and kill off Eggman once and for all, while Sonic does nothing but delay Eggman’s defeat by not killing him to avoid feeling bad.
In fact we literally saw Knuckles consider killing Eggman when he saw him lying on the ground unconscious in the SA1 adaptation! That combined with his protectiveness over the Emerald and the island, and if ANYONE would’ve ended up finally killing Eggman, it would be Knuckles! It STILL feels wrong having him do it and not the main character of the franchise who always dedicated his life to fighting Eggman. But it’d feel even more wrong to have Sonic the Hedgehog murder Eggman.
While remaking the universe is a very classic stereotypical villain thing to do and it seems Genre Blind of Knuckles to think HE’S justified in it, I can understand why someone would do it if given the chance, because everyone has their own opinions of how to make the world better and thinks they could improve it if they were in the position to do so. And since Knuckles is a good guy, I can’t ACTUALLY imagine that a world remade by him would be terrible with changes for the worse to serve him.
We already saw that side of Knuckles wanting to make things better when he was green because he time traveled to try to prevent the Dark Legion from being formed. It’s kind of a problem that Knuckles made Julie MORE organic though because it implies that he never fully liked her for what she was, a cyborg, and instead loved her in spite of that.
Then Knuckles says that if anyone acted stupid at that time it was Sonic, because after deciding Knuckles was a threat, he attempted to use a gadget he didn’t understand on him, that he somehow got I guess from Albion. The nullifier somehow went off prematurely, and apparently while Knuckles went back to normal, Sonic had cost him his eye! Sonic remarks that the reason he doesn’t feel guilty is that the doctors could replace that eyepiece with a real eye any time Knuckles wanted.
Knuckles says the cyborg eye is a personal choice after the fact. Sonic then comes to the conclusion somehow that because this apocalypse is somehow Knuckles’ fault, he should be able to fix this too. By going green again?… There’s no Eggman left to provoke him, which reminds me. How is it still peaceful here instead of getting another Robo-Robotnik situation where another Robotnik comes here from another dimenson?
Robotnik had traveled to the Anti-Angel Island to syphon its Emeralds, because nobody was suspecting HIM there. With all the different Robotniks in the universe, not to mention Ixises and Mammoth Moguls and stuff, how could there POSSIBLY be peace in one universe for long when these villains could potentially dimension-travel? Granted, they might not see the point since they have their own worlds that they grew up in, but Robo-Robotnik didn’t let that stop him from inexplicably going to the Prime dimension anyways! So what’s the excuse for any other villains?
Anyways, Knuckles lampshades that Sonic cares more about assigning the blame than finding a solution. Even though it’s not HIS fault he’s not the smart solution-finding type! I think Sonic is kinda SUPPOSED to be immature, that’s how he always is!
Sonic admits, “ No, this is a tougher nut than either of us can crack on our own! So any ideas? “ This causes Knuckles to lampshade that he’s not the hedgehog he always knew, and ask what happened to him. Sonic then says he wishes he knew, giving a cop-out instead of actually telling us, the answer.
This reminds me of how Alicia insulted Scourge, “ whatever happened to the hedgehog that threw my dad into the Zone of Silence? “ after Scourge said he didn’t have any ideas, on how to breach a force field. Just because Sonic doesn’t have any ideas when he’s not the ideas guy, I mean, why should THAT matter much? Well, I theorized with Scourge that he was feeling depressed with how pointless and meaningless his life was with no challenging bad guys to fight. His body language with his hand on his chin while he was sitting down made it pretty clear. Maybe Sonic’s going through the same thing.
The first story was by Karl Bollers and while it still has Knuckles’ mother look cringeworthy, unrecognizable and a total ditz, which I hated, the story in general was fine, with the heroes finally storming the dingo city to rescue Locke because Harry, their double agent because of course he was, told the Dark Legion and the heroes where Locke was being held.
I’m glad General Kage was humiliated by Sonic so easily because he DESERVED it for going to Eggman’s side and snapping at Harry so cruelly. Charmy’s future wife does a complete 180 in personality, being perfectly fine with staying put doing nothing to help in the action! When she used to be the complete opposite! Was the whole “ no survivors “ thing so traumatizing to her that she became meek and timid forever? Actually that would make sense…
I-I guess if I have to point out a problem with this story other than the art, it’d be that panel where there was lightning around the Master Emerald and the ant Mobian, who MAYBE is Archimedes, acts like a stereotypical villain all of a sudden. That was just CONFUSING and really annoying! I had no idea what was happening! I guess Archimedes turning evil out of nowhere would explain why he disappeared instead of always being with Knuckles since he can teleport to him literally whenever he wants.
And the second story by Ken Penders, intriguingly reveals how Eggman was finally defeated. Knuckles became a living Chaos Emerald somehow just because the island was threatened with destruction and FINALLY finished him off! Makes sense since no other hero than Shadow would have the guts to kill Eggman!
And then Sonic stopped him from finishing with reshaping Mobius with his power uncharacteristically, with a device that brought him back to normal. But somehow it cost him his eye from going off prematurely. Cool story, and it explains why Knuckles and Sonic are sore with each other but WAIT a minute!…
Didn’t the In your Face Special introducing Nicole explain that Nicole died in the war against Eggman that finally took him down?!… There’s no war here! It’s just Knuckles beating Eggman when he gets into the Chaos Chamber, there’s no indication that the Freedom Fighters did anything! This proves that the 25 years later arc, whether Penders intended it to be the case or not, must have taken place in a separate dimension from the Prime one, because it directly contradicts what (laughs) Penders HIMSELF, wrote about how Eggman was finally defeated!
HERE, there was NO big war, and Nicole isn’t even mentioned to be destroyed in it! Nicole doesn’t even show up in this at all, nor does Bunnie, or Antoine or Amy or Fiona. I’m going to give it the benefit of the doubt and assume it’s because this story arc takes place on Angel Island, so these characters would have no reason to be here. Just because they’re not shown here doesn’t mean they’re dead. Amy wasn’t in Sally’s castle in the In Your Face Special after all, when all the other Freedom Fighters WERE.
Oh no… What if Nicole ends up destroyed in the future of the In Your Face Special because it was an automatic part of the fact that Knuckles made Julie-Su fully organic when he was omnipotent? His lifelong resentment of technology might have caused him to get rid of Nicole too in his efforts to make reality the way he thinks it should be, because it’d be a world without AI! I mean, what OTHER explanation is there? It’d certainly do the extra bit to explain why Sonic HATES him in the future and jumps at every opportunity to argue with and insult him, though it’d make me wonder why Sally ever forgave him.
So yeah, intriguing concepts that kept me invested the whole way through, but a Series Continuity Error that makes this a separate dimension story beyond a shadow of a doubt, which kind of defeats the purpose of making a 25 years later arc, although I can imagine that the actual future of the Prime dimension, would be kind of similar to THIS, but with a couple details different like Sally and Mina being married to the RIGHT people and Sonic not abandoning Tails like he did.
Issue 141:
We start out seeing The Hunter swinging an arm of chaos energy, and he throws something looking like a Classic Sonic bumper for no reason that sends chaos energy all over the place at panicking echidnas, with him saying that one’s down, even though there’s multiple people he’s attacking. He then says there’s millions to go. And Eggman tells him, “ Stop wasting time, you echidna-obsessed loon, and bring me the Master Emerald! “
Meanwhile during some pointless panels that serve NOTHING except to remind you what happened just one issue ago, Lien-Da complains that none of this would’ve happened if they didn’t have to waste time and manpower staging Locke’s rescue.
Naturally, Sonic’s confident he can win with his speed. I’d like to point out that if he had ONLY run out of here at the speed of sound INSTANTLY, instead of sticking around to arrogantly congratulate himself, maybe people wouldn’t have DIED to The Hunter! Locke suggests taking his son along for the ride. Even though Knuckles lampshades that he can’t do anything to help.
Sonic tells Knuckles to ditch the gear because he likes to travel light, even though they could be helpful and he should be strong enough that carrying him with his Air Necklace and Hammer Gloves shouldn’t matter to him! While Knuckles’ mother, Wyn and Dr Finitevus are worried, Archimedes shows up teleporting there, and says that there’s no time for explanations, they all have to hurry into the Master Emerald Shrine. I mean, c-couldn’t he have explained things to them WHILE they were running into the shrine?
Remington tries to insist on staying here to fight whoever’s about to walk through the door, being overconfidently Genre Blind once again because he thinks he’s allowed to defeat a major threat alone. Dr Finitevus, short-tempered as usual, asks Archimedes who gave him the authority to be here, and he’s told that Locke did after he told him to keep an eye on the Master Emerald after he trusted it to the Dark Legion. So NOW it makes more SENSE that Locke would entrust it to them.
Then that same mysterious figure with the A on the hat to the right of Archimedes says, “ you, “ and since Archimedes is in the same panel, it looks like he’s NOT Archimedes. What kind of panel design is THAT? If he’s the same person as Archimedes, he should be clearly in a different panel. The Hunter shows up right away causing Remington to try to attack him and I guess he’s killed off for real. It would’ve been much more tragic if this had happened BEFORE he started creepily worshipping Knuckles like the other echidnas, a concept which I remind you was not by Penders at all.
Then Dr Finitevus and Remington to face The Hunter, but we’re immediately cheated out of seeing a cool action scene between them that would justify why both of them survive this. And Archimedes teleports to Charmy’s fiancée telling her what happened to them, crying. This causes Charmy’s future wife to say that it’s up to them to make sure the Master Emerald doesn’t fall into the wrong hands, while the Master Emerald’s in the background sending waves of chaos energy out for no reason. Why do they think they’re even remotely capable of protecting the Emerald?
Right after The Hunter shows up, Sonic and Knuckles finally come here as I wonder why The Hunter had the CHANCE to kill Remington with Sonic running to the building at over 700 miles an hour! He couldn’t have been that far away! The fight starts and after Knuckles is surprised at Archimedes being here, Sonic asks what this bumper thing is, and is told that it’s something to keep him occupied, as in pointlessly distracted, while The Hunter goes on his mission.
This is actually pretty clever, like they’re having a Classic Sonic bumper here and they’re actually USING the REFERENCE in a clever way, as he bounces off it like an ACTUAL bumper! It’s better than Knuckles’ SA2 upgrades showing up just to never actually be used. But it’s still Out of Character of Sonic to be so stupid that he’d keep attacking the bumper and not The Hunter.
Knuckles then decides to go after The Hunter in a rage because I guess he thought telling Sonic to stop and come along would be impossible, and then the group of people bringing Locke back notice a whole chaos energy mass around their home, with Lien-Da shouting at Locke that the Dark Legion’s base has been discovered because he foisted the Master Emerald on them, which she calls stupid, even though it’s a major source of magical power, so why wouldn’t she want it, why wasn’t she DOING anything with it?
Julie-Su then stands up to her. By the way, I’d like to point out that people make fun of the Julie-Su naming thing of echidnas, but, Avatar The Last Airbender, and, Legend of Korra does it TOO, doesn’t it? I mean, you have Zhu-Li, a pun off Julie, and you have Joo-Dee?
They basically do the exact same thing, they take the normal names that we know and, hyphenate them and stuff, make them a little different. I don’t see why, when Avatar does it, it’s cool and creative, but when Penders does it, it’s the worstest thing ever and just “ symbolic “ of how “ bad “ other echidnas are. I just like to point that dumb hypocrisy out.
But yeah, Julie stands up to her that SHE accepted the Emerald because she wanted POWER, and wasn’t forced into anything. Then she continues to yell at her about her constant misbehaviour which includes throwing at people’s faces that the Emerald’s entrusted to her, and constantly complaining about her responsibilities.
She says, “ Well, stop complaining, Lien-Da, and if you’re going to be a real leader, grow up and start acting like one! “ I agree, but if they want us to agree with Julie, why is the art trying to portray her as monstrous with drool coming out of her “ fangs “ just because she’s mad?
This causes Lien-Da to glare at her back, but with tears going down her face that inexplicably no one seems to notice. It’s obvious that her speech hit her hard, and she knows deep down that she’s right and she can’t admit it. But nothing will come of this.
Then Vector is put into the odd role of trying to play the mediator for once, saying they should be fighting dingoes instead, and after Julie lampshades Lien-Da’s lack of a Freudian Excuse walking away, Lien-Da says in the dark resentfully, “ Father loved YOU more. “ Wow. I got one, except, I DIDN’T get one, because why would she ever think that? It’d be more compelling if I had more proof!
I guess a Freudian Excuse doesn’t have to be rational and true for a person to be affected by it. Jealousy of Julie and anger that her mom was replaced led to her Start of Darkness, because it made her and Kragok take out their parents wanting power, the power they didn’t have when their father remarried without their permission.
Julie and the heroes go to try to help Knuckles, The Hunter insults Knuckles because he used to be strong, and then Knuckles screams covered in pink energy and goes into Super Knuckles, without, 7 Chaos Emeralds… The only possible excuse for this is that the Master Emerald is here, and that’s 14 Chaos Emeralds. So it would ALSO be strong enough for a Super form.
But the Master Emerald was cursed to DRAIN his energy! So this is just the writer pulling his Super form out of nowhere because he wrote himself into a corner making The Hunter too powerful and Knuckles too weak, and Sonic simply spindashing him with his super speed would be too violent.
Then Archimedes is told that he was right, without us knowing what he meant. And then we see the Chaotix fighting some dingoes with fire behind them and the Dark Legion helping out, and Super Knuckles sends The Hunter into the water causing the dingoes to retreat into Warp Rings.
And much to Lien-Da’s amusing annoyance that I definitely share in, even some Dark Legion goons start calling Knuckles an avatar! I guess calling him a hero or guardian would be too bland, but again, what is he an avatar of? Does the writer know that, and that’s symbolic of how stupid this is supposed to be?
Either way, Knuckles earned that respect, and predictably, Knuckle’s chaos powers have returned. I still don’t get the point of him losing them in the first place, especially not if he gets them back so easily! I mean, it was interesting, but it was so inexplicable and, unjustified! It didn’t even make the PLOTS any different, ALL it did was have the characters remind us about it, just like Knothole being put in another dimension! If he lost them because of a magic spell from Ixis, it would’ve been better!
Naturally Locke explains that his powers had never left, they were in his DNA after all, and simply explains that they remain dormant since he returned from the afterlife and finally there’s a good explanation for all this!
Knuckles hasn’t been in contact with the Master Emerald for all that time, and he suspects that contact with it was all that was necessary to reobtain them, or as he says, “ reawaken them, “ which doesn’t make as much sense. Regular contact retaining it, sure, the Emerald’s where he gets his power, so it’s like a battery to him. But if mere contact with the Master Emerald was enough to RESTORE his powers, then why the hell was he all doubled over in pain by it in the FIRST place? Knuckles’ conclusion that it was draining him made more sense!
Then a hologram of Eggman’s says that while Knuckles may be useful again he still has the Master Emerald’s location and an army of Egg Pawns is en route to that not-so Hidden Palace. Sonic then amusingly destroys the thing broadcasting Eggman’s bragging saying, “ AAAH Shaddap! “ And I can’t help but remain smiling at that as Locke says, “ We’ve got to move the Master Emerald to a new hiding place! “ REALLY?! You don’t say! (giggles) I actually giggled at this every time, because come on, that was such a Captain Obvious line! It’d be even funnier if it was lampshaded.
Archimedes says that Finitevus and Remington were killed by The Hunter, which I don’t buy one bit with Finitevus’ major presence in the story especially since he SMIRKED at him. He must have a trick up his sleeve. Well, “ major presence “ mostly it was the ART portraying him as creepy as possible when he didn’t actually do anything wrong this whole story.
And Lien-Da for some reason says there’s no reason to waste time mourning “ family, “ while we see a picture of the Constable and some OTHER person who she’s not related to. This will never be mentioned again. Seriously, how could her and Remington be related when SHE’S born and raised in the Twilight Cage and he’s not? This is so unnecessary!
Knuckles makes Locke promise he’ll keep an eye on the Emerald and Lien-Da while he’s gone, as the Freedom Fighter Special arrives because, well I’m not sure how the people in it KNEW their mission was done. Did they get called on a cell phone, did they coincidentally show up at the right time?
Either way, Locke gets pretty mad about the idea that Knuckles and Julie are leaving the island because Knuckles made a promise to Sally to return to Knothole as soon as he’s rescued Locke. This makes perfect sense as NOW we’re following up on that fight Sally had with him about him not being a Freedom Fighter with his powers, resolving a dangling plot thread in a way that was subtle until now, as it showcases his Character Development. He finally wisened up!
Naturally Knuckles says, “ But what of your duties as guardian of Angel Island?! “ Makes sense that he’d say that but he should’ve said “ what about “ instead, that would’ve made the sentence flow naturally. And in fact I misread the sentence as that at first.
Knuckles explains that seeing everything that’s happened here while he was away made him realize that if Eggman takes over Mobius, the whole planet will be in trouble, and not JUST Angel Island.
Locke because he’s more traditionalist, shouts at Knuckles for turning his back on his home and not liberating the island from evil and tells him to suit himself. This is the ONLY time they’ve ever had a bitter argument like this! At least it’s justified in-universe, it comes as a natural result of Locke having always been traditionalist while Knuckles became more open-minded, but it’s still kind of jarring.
And we end the story seeing Eggman surrounded by echidnas in blue spheres being put electricity into, as well as a few Fire Ants. And Remington is one of the victims of the Mind Eraser. Even though I thought he was killed! So The Hunter just warped the echidnas to these slow death traps instead of his green chaos energy killing them right away. So this is pretty interesting.
They MIGHT get roboticized, but I have a feeling that this is going to lead to something more interesting than that because they’re in blue spheres instead of roboticizers. I forgot that roboticization wasn’t possible anymore again because it was so stupid and confusing that I kept forgetting that detail. My point was, they might get brainwashed and turned to Eggman’s side. Why’s it just called a Mind Eraser if it’s meant to power his whole city with the WHOLE PERSON and erasing their mind would do nothing to facilitate that? Because retcon that’s why.
In the next story, Cobor panics that the apocalypse process is accelerating. And then, wait, what kind of glasses are those? They’re mostly metal with TINY circular lenses. Won’t they do more to block his vision than help it? Anyways he asks Knuckles and Sonic how he found him and Rotor in their lab.
And Knuckles says he won’t tell Lien-Da’s favorite scientist his trade secrets. So no one will ever know. INCLUDING US, APPARENTLY! Sonic lampshades how Rotor’s trusting Cobor considering his position with Lien-Da, and instead of explaining to us why he’s best buddies with him and giving us an actual reason to care about Cobor, he changes the subject because time is of the essence.
He explains what’s happening to Mobius. The first event that caused massive disruption to reality apparently was when Sonic accessed the Cosmic Interstate in Issue 11. I could understand if he said, ” when Sonic gathered all of the Sonics he could, ” because that involved TONS of zone-hopping by all of them, but NO, ONE TIME he went to another universe.
And the textbox insists that this happened in Issue 11, so this comic does want you to believe it’s the Prime Sonic. Sonic could easily go back in time and prevent Sonic from ever meeting Scourge with no problems like preventing Sonic and Knuckles’ marriages. So it should immediately be obvious they could send him back to prevent THIS with no problems. ALL that’d do is cause all of the Scourge stories to not happen, big deal.
And yet they don’t all suggest doing that right away and not even consider the other nexus points. I don’t know why Sonic traveling back to prevent THIS would’ve caused Shadow to take down Eggman and take over the world in Flynn’s 25 Years Later arc. Nothing’s preventing him from doing that in the present as it IS because he has Chaos Control. But this was the ONLY event Sonic could’ve tried to prevent!
Why is Sonic being treated like the villain for ROBOTNIK firing the Ultimate Annihilator?! He would’ve fired it at Knothole whether Sonic was there or not, so why are they blaming Sonic?! This could only be prevented by Eggman getting killed just before he could try to fire it, and that would also undo the whole situation where Echidnaopolis was brought back to Angel Island and Knuckles even MET his mom.
Well, he could’ve met Julie if the Dark Legion inevitably broke out of the Twilight Cage on its own again, as it TENDS TO DO and it went to Angel Island in the Knuckles Comic instead of Echidnaopolis as usual, but maybe they only went THERE because of the Ultimate Annihilator breaking the zone barriers down. I suppose it would’ve stuck to only going to the Echidnaopolis Hyper-Zone if it weren’t for the Ultimate Annihilator, and so Julie would’ve never met Knuckles because they wanted to take over that city first, try to take the Emerald second. And Sonic saving the entire world, detonating the Quantum Dial?!
And again the idea that him going to the Cosmic Interstate to meet Scourge did this is just STUPID! Maybe I could understand, if the last two things caused this apocalypse RIGHT AWAY, but not 25 years later! It almost made sense, if it was the zone-hopping from all the different Sonics in Night of 1000 Sonics it would’ve been kind of plausible, but Issue 11 was just ONE zone-hop!
Knuckles says that the Dark Legion has done zone-hopping for centuries, which I hope means just them escaping the Twilight Cage to Echidnapolis. So why aren’t THEY being blamed for this?! And the story ends with Lien-Da showing up and asking them why they didn’t tell her what they were doing.
Well THIS story was uneventful! Nothing but the characters talking about what they already discussed with the apocalypse scenario! The writer could’ve cut out a LOT of this story, especially the part with Julie and Sally in it, although I do love the fact that Cobor is Lien-Da’s favorite scientist as it gives him more of a connection to the other characters and thus more overall significance, and explains how Rotor might have bumped into him. But he still has no personality, so what was the point of making him as a character?
So that was the second story by Ken Penders, and the first story, by Karl Bollers, is about Knuckles going Super in front of the Master Emerald to stop The Hunter, which is really CONFUSING since, while it’s said that his powers were dormant in him all that time, it was CLEARLY stated that the Emerald drained his power! And made him all in pain!
So WHY did that only get used for one issue, and all of a sudden the Emerald gives him a Super form?! Shouldn’t the opposite happen? Him getting a Super form would’ve made more sense if he had 7 Chaos Emeralds near him, but he doesn’t! So this all comes out of nowhere! All because of ONE panel last issue, this goes from the awesome moment it was meant to be, to just a confusing Deus ex Machina.
I guess it’s mandatory for a long-running series like a comic to have the Super form come out of nowhere rather than having to rely on all 7 Emeralds because, how likely is it that all of the 7 Emeralds are going to be there in one place? I mean, it’s very lucky that they were there in times that they were. It’d take several issues for characters to collect all the Emeralds in a way that’s satisfying and they’d be building up to an overly easy and predictable win for the heroes anyways.
But still, at least he gets his powers back! That was ONE Deus ex Machina. And unfortunately it just makes the superstitious echidnas worship him even MORE! INCLUDING a few Dark Legion goons! The overall story was interesting though! And it ends with Remington and a bunch of OTHER echidnas I thought Hunter outright killed, being in Eggman’s confines, either being partially roboticized since Kage can be that just fine or experimented on in a more interesting way. One of the echidnas the Hunter threatened was Dr Finitevus, but there’s no indication he was put in the Egg Grapes.
It makes sense that Eggman would manipulate The Hunter into thinking he was vaporizing the echidnas he hated so much when really the chaos energy was just programmed to teleport them to him. I hope Knuckles killed him off for real this time and he didn’t somehow survive falling into the water!… Wait, how did Eggman get access to that kind of chaos energy for him anyways, I mean, I guess he found a Chaos Emerald?…
This story was written fine, it had some good tension, revealed that Archimedes was a good guy still protecting the Emerald, even the art felt better than it was earlier, and it ends with Locke naturally being annoyed with Knuckles because he got Character Development that made him realize that he should be focusing on fighting Eggman and not just on staying on Angel Island like most guardians would do.
I STILL HATE the way Knuckles’ mom is drawn looking unlikably unrecognizable and stupid. But really the story had great enough concepts and plot to, mostly… be alright! It says something that I ended up liking it despite it having the same art style as the previous issues in the arc!
Issue 142:
We start out with Hope doing research at the Knothole Library for a history report, and finding on a computer information about the “ original “ Freedom Fighters, who I presume all got killed because they didn’t have magical powers like Sonic, or Tails.
She then loses her notes from the wind and Sonic catches them all for her at the speed of sound! Another creative use of his powers! I miss those! In the time it’d take for him to say the text in these text bubbles, it’d have to be spoken way too fast for her to understand it or he wouldn’t be able to catch these notes here.
Sonic explains to her during a walk near the Lake of Rings that it was Colonel Stripe who not only planned the escape to Knothole the day Robotnik took over, but also was the one who formed the original Freedom Fighters who unless they’re going to have distinct personalities, I’m not gonna care one bit about!
Sonic reminds us that he was five years old specifically the day Robotnik overthrew King Acorn. Then a couple panels are wasted because we already know this whole backstory and it just has these new characters retconned into it! Sonic shows up saying he got separated from his friends and is told that he has to look for Rosie and tell them to go to Knothole through the secret access way at Old Man Gallagher’s house.
Oh, like Mike Gallagher, that’s uh, swell? Too meta for me. How did he ever get separated from Sally when he was WITH HER when the king was thrown into the Void?! He’s told to go look for Rosie and he doesn’t say that he WAS with Rosie and Sally earlier and got separated from THEM.
It’s explained by Sonic that the original Freedom Fighters knew they couldn’t take Robotnik and just had to get as many citizens to Knothole as possible. At the very least, the value in this is that it DOES EXPLAIN how so many people got to Knothole so easily from knowing where to go, this is filling in a plot hole that should’ve been filled from the start. Still, most of this story feels like a pointless waste of time reiterating what we already know!
We see the original Freedom Fighters debating over whether they could do something about Robotnik since they don’t have the manpower for an army, or the resources to win. The Colonel says they’ll take resources from Robotnik and form units to stage hit and run ops that will hurt as much of Robotnik’s infrastructure as possible. Shouldn’t this have been OBVIOUS? Why’d they need him to tell them that? And who’s “ they? “ “ Until they find… defeat him. “
And while these guys called themselves the Freedom Fighters, Sonic silently fist-bumps a young Sally implying that they’ll be Freedom Fighters too, completely flying in the face of the Sonic Super Special issue where it was SALLY’S original idea to have the name and group of Freedom Fighters AFTER the king was overthrown, and Sonic said the name FREEDOM FIGHTERS was too extreme!
It’s revealed that these guys even rescued Sonic once when he was seven, and got too close to Robotropolis. Still, I refuse to believe that he was ever “ in way over his head, “ because he had SUPER SPEED, he could’ve gotten home JUST FINE! In SECONDS! He could obliterate any robot with that speed force!
It’s implied that despite being way more powerful than them, Sonic really looked up to them and saw the Colonel as his inspiration, although this seems really unnecessary since Sally planning to form the Freedom Fighters in their base was good enough for me as a motivation for Sonic, and he would’ve wanted to fight against Robotnik anyways!…
Wh-Who was it, who was the first person to come up with the idea to call themselves the Freedom Fighters, the original ones, or, Sally? Sonic said in that issue about the name Freedom Fighters, “ That’s a little extreme! “ So obviously he hadn’t have heard the name Freedom Fighters before… So, this story arc is going to be confusing with the chronology in that respect. It’s almost as if it was written by a totally different writer and it was.
And the story ends with Sonic saying that what happened to them is that they were betrayed by one of their own. THAT came out of nowhere. Since there were no actual personalities to them established to make it, there was no personality established for any of the characters, so…
In the next story we see Sally making a speech that she should know would just humiliate Amy about when Amy first wanted to become a Freedom Fighter, complete with her saying that while Amy made herself older, she was still ” very young and immature mentally. ” She’s bad at speeches. First she made a very boring redundant speech and now this.
Wait a minute why is Sally saying that Amy used Sonic’s billionth Ring to become older, when she DIDN’T?! She used the Ring of Acorns from that Indiana Jones place! I-I knew about her using the Ring of Acorns even before I read up to that issue!… I don’t know what even HAPPENED to the billionth Ring, you’d think it’d either still be mounted on Sonic’s wall, or it’d have disappeared when it presumably was what saved Sonic from the bomb in Issue 50.
Either way, Sally makes a speech about how Amy defeated an army of robots with her hammer in Issue 132, and fortunately Sally doesn’t get mad at her from her mentioning that she had help from her hammer, like Amy was scared of happening. Instead, Sally really shows off how far things have come since she responded to Amy asking to help with a heartless, “ Don’t even THINK about it! “ NOW she actually respects her as if she’s matured!
It’s pretty sweet, this ending, as Sally offers her a medal and says she can FINALLY be a Freedom Fighter, with Amy being all happy that it happened. I knew this would happen eventually but shouldn’t it have happened a LOT SOONER, if the reason she’s accepted is what she did several issues ago?
Because of her being released on an army of robots, I had thought she had already been accepted as a Freedom Fighter! Also, it was sweet of Robin to come here away from his wife and child just to see Amy’s medal awarding. Did she call him on her cell phone?
In the final story we start out with what took several seconds for me to realize was a representation of Knuckles’ worries going around his mind when he’s trying to sleep, but because they weren’t clearly in thought bubbles, I was confused about what was happening. In a thought bubble Cobor revealed that his best guess to the planet’s destruction deadline is a year. Well that’s not as threatening!
After Lara says to Knuckles that an old friend of his asked if he was training her to be a guardian yet and tries to change his mind again, Rotor the do-anything inventor is unable to use simulations to provide them enough data to work out a corrective formula, so he FINALLY gets the idea to just go back in time! And for some reason Cobor isn’t immediately corrected on his arbitrary skepticism calling him insane by saying that Chaos Knuckles time traveled, and might have mentioned that to people as basic conversation.
Cobor says that time travel is a field of research which echidna scientists are banned from exploring, as opposed to OTHER scientists, I assume. Cobor is in the Dark Legion! He’s like Lien-Da’s favorite scientist! But apparently even the Dark Legion follows THAT technology ban! I guess because if time travel was allowed, their leaders could be usurped by time travelers. Rotor says it’s not the echidna scientists he has in mind, and says he’s surprised at him. I am TOO, it should’ve been obvious that he’s capable of doing this!
Meanwhile, Sonic once again tells Sally that he’s not meant to be a king, and continues that he actually feels overwhelmed, and Sally’s the one who should’ve been in that meeting with Rotor and Cobor, because she’s the real power on the throne. GOOD! Sally says that she’s never pulled rank on him, SOMEHOW, I don’t really buy that since she certainly did that as a KID.
And she’s told that if they weren’t dealing with Knuckles, Rotor would’ve gone to Sally instead of him. Wait, that doesn’t make any sense. Sally gets along with Knuckles way better than Sonic does! Knuckles then tells him that there’s a call on the Vid-Phone with a terrible name – videophone would be better – and they go see a transmission with Rotor and Cobor in their den. Rotor says that to even make an attempt at saving the world with their method, they’ll need the king’s authorization since they require access to Robotnik’s “ tachyon displacement chamber. “ What’s tachyon?
IF ROBOTNIK MADE the TACHYON CHAMBER, why the fuck wasn’t he abusing time travel all this time?! If he was even capable of making a time machine, an actual one, then why didn’t he complete this chamber when Sonic was five years old instead of being stopped before he could complete it as a convenient Hand Wave?
He would’ve gone back in time to kill the heroes and undo all of their victories by now. Well, I can buy that it simply took so long for his robots to complete this complex machine that Knuckles defeated him before he got to use it, though, or he was ALMOST finished the time machine before Knuckles beat him and Rotor figured out how to complete it. That wasn’t explained.
Even all those different reads later, I forgot all about it being a chamber of Robotnik’s, I thought Rotor made it, but Robotnik making it is a lot worse! This would’ve been the perfect time to introduce the Time Stones into the comic, or at least the Sonic CD style of signpost spinning speed-based time travel.
Either way that’s the time travel phlebotinium with no foreshadowing that will let them travel back in time 25 years ago, to collect the needed data, as opposed to simply preventing Issue 11 from happening and therefore saving the world effortlessly. How is anyone supposed to know how to collect that data, how would that data save the world instead? THAT’S what makes it confusing and impossible to predict how Penders planned on this being resolved.
Rotor’s major concern is that whoever goes back may not be able to return somehow as opposed to the concern that he’d alter the future from the past and possibly wreck their peace later, not to mention even erase the existence of the future to replace it with the new one killing the people there. It sounds like the perfect out for Sonic to have an adventure!
Sonic says they’re allowed to do it and he and Knuckles will meet them both at the shuttle port in two hours. He then tells Knuckles there’s no reason that Sally and the kids should have to tag along or even know about this. Naturally since they’d be worried.
Meanwhile after Knuckles says he has some business to take care of, Sonia naturally complains about the bullshit that even though SHE’S the oldest child, her irresponsible brother Manik gets to be king because he’s the firstborn male. So, I guess Sally with her independence streak, didn’t think to oppose that law just because the KING supported it?!…
Wasn’t the whole reason she didn’t fuse with the Source of All being that she wanted to rule HER way? That’s SO frustratingly Out of Character for her! The story ends with Knuckles having his hand on his chin while Lara complains that she’ll never get to be a guardian! Is she finally gonna get her wish?
The first and second stories were by Romy Chacon. Most of the first story seems like a waste of time to me mostly since I don’t see any personalities to make me the least bit invested in the original Freedom Fighters! I was just hoping they’d be killed the whole time! That’s the problem with audience apathy. But the good thing about it is that it at least fills in a plot hole, in that now we know how so many Mobians got to Knothole in the first place! The only time I cared about this backstory was when Sonic revealed a betrayal. But by that point the story had already ended!
And in the second story I’m just confused that Amy wasn’t ALREADY accepted as a Freedom Fighter by this point! If she’s being rewarded for fighting an army of robots several issues ago what took Sally so long? Robin taking forever to get here for her ceremony?! At least it’s heartwarming seeing how far Sally’s come in trusting and respecting her. But I was expecting her to go on, like, a, whole adventure or mission, that would earn her place in the Freedom Fighters, but instead it’s just from her fighting off one army. That’s it.
Finally with the third story by Ken Penders we have Rotor finally bring up the idea of time travel to help save the world, or rather, gather data, but I have to wonder what his exact PLAN is because all three of the events, that supposedly caused the start of the apocalypse were very important significant periods in history, that would have terrible consequences from being prevented from happening!
If Sonic never went on the Cosmic Interstate that one time, he would’ve never met Scourge and given him that huge inferiority complex over not being the only Sonic, and giving him his whole motivation for every evil plan he’d do after that point; he wouldn’t have helped Robo-Robotnik or do any of the evil things he’ll do later – okay, that’s good actually.
But if the SECOND event was stopped, Robotnik would still be around and would’ve succeeded in destroying every living thing because the Ultimate Annihilator would be programmed the way he intended! And for the THIRD event being stopped, the world would’ve been destroyed by the Xorda! How exactly does Rotor expect to have time travel save the day, when all of these events, or at least two of them were unavoidable?!
What data could he POSSIBLY have Sonic gather to help them?! What could Sonic POSSIBLY have been expected to do? Instead of using this time machine out of nowhere, WHY didn’t they just use the random time portal that apparently they sent Nicole through to get to the past? I guess it wasn’t discovered yet. At least the story was engaging!
And it ends with the hope that Lara might be allowed to be a guardian after all! But… in retrospect I don’t see how time travel would solve it, if the only events that caused the whole core problem, were the unavoidable ones! I think I actually would like Chaos Knuckles being the cause of it a lot better, but they’re not saying that! If THAT’S the case then time travel wouldn’t save the day! They need a device that would actually fix the CORE problem! They shouldn’t be sending someone back in time to erase their timeline from existence by making even one minor change in the past, aren’t they thinking at all?!
Issue 143:
After a few panels are wasted on pointless recap as I wonder who’s talking in the narration, and Sonic sees a Ring from the Lake of Rings be caught by a net for Rotor – which is a nice touch rather than us being expected to assume the Rings always just go to waste – we see in a flashback the Colonel bouncing Sally on his knee saying that one day she might be big enough to do the same for him.
After Colonel seems to hold Rosie’s hand implying that there’s something between them, it’s revealed how Sally found out her father was exiled to the Zone of Silence. The original Freedom Fighter mission team apparently were the ones who found out about it. Wait, how? Did they see camera footage of it?
They planned to free the king from the void having an easy way of going into the castle through a ventilation shaft, because the actual infrastructure of the king’s old castle had remained the same. It turns out that the snake Scales, was the one who had betrayed them for Robotnik. “ Why? “ WHY, indeed?
He says that Robotnik will give him power and control even though it should be blatantly obvious to him that he’s going to be roboticized like everyone else in Robotnik’s hands! And then he says that it’s “ totally “ in his NATURE to be treacherous because he’s a snake Mobian… Who would ever say that?! Is he a self-hating snake? If so why is he talking about it being in his nature, as if that’s something to be proud of?! They went the predictable route making the snake the betrayer. But I guess it does feel right.
Either way, Robotnik did some modifications to the room and predictably wants Scales to help test it, throwing him in with the rest of his team with the justification that he can’t trust him, because as he said, he’s a snake.
With that, they were all roboticized! And yet we haven’t seen them again now that every Robian has been deroboticized by aliens. Well that’s explained too actually, because right after THAT they were sent into the Zone of Silence! That makes ZERO SENSE. Why the hell would Robotnik waste perfectly good Robians instead of putting them to work like everyone else?!
THIS was the best the writer could come up with for why these guys aren’t around anymore?! It’s just, like, it explains why we haven’t SEEN them yet but it doesn’t make sense in-universe for him to have done that! I expected them to get killed instead during a mission, and that would’ve made sense!
The narration from Sonic explains that they all learned this years later. We then see Uncle Chuck in his actually good roboticized design, being commanded to the Void , so, what, he went in there with a jet-pack to destroy them and then effortlessly went out?. He witnessed the whole thing and recorded it to his memory. Even before he had free will.
And then we see the actual Freedom Fighters get formed, and Sonic says that the Freedom Fighters would live on through them. At least in THIS panel as opposed to Sonic Super Special 5, the cave they’re in is BROWN like Knothole’s cave was, but in SSS5, Sonic said that the name Freedom Fighters was too extreme, and that made sense in that special because, I thought he had never heard the term Freedom Fighters before. But now it doesn’t make sense because he HAD! So in-universe, wouldn’t he instead be saying, “ But we’re not as good as those other Freedom Fighters that we know! “
The story ends with Hope’s teacher I guess being the narrator, who was also the wife of one of the original Freedom Fighters… because, connections! That was some coincidence.
In the next story, after padding, Knuckles 25 years later remembers when he traveled to the site with Archimedes where Angel Island came from, asking him why he’s moving there. Archimedes wanted to return to his ancestral grounds, even though Knux is right, he lived on the island his whole life!
And then after comparing it to some echidnas wanting to live in Albion, he reminds Knuckles that even all the way back then he was determined that the guardianship would end with him, to avoid following in his father’s footsteps.
Archimedes tells Knuckles that he couldn’t be prouder of him if he was his own son because he’s all grown up to him. He sure is nice to still be proud of him even though he’s ending the guardianship that he helped with himself. What a great friend!
And then already missing him, Knuckles used the guiding star gem to warp to his mother, and asked where Mace is… I forgot that Mace was the name of his little brother. Either way, she tells him that his father isn’t doing too well. I think I know what’s coming, I’ve heard about this.
Either way since his mother who’s back to her good design couldn’t bring herself to actually say what’s happened, Wyn took charge and got him, Knuckles and Lara-Le to the hospital, where he’s told by someone who looks way too much like Locke the last time we saw him, that by every standard of measure Locke should be fine, but his weight is down his stamina sucks and he’s in pain, and will need risky surgery.
It was up to Knuckles to make the call because his mom was a mess and eventually he was told that his father has a carcinogenic pancreas. WHY didn’t they just get a transplant to replace that useless organ, or better YET, replace it with a CYBERNETIC one? Why don’t they know they can just wish his problem away with a Ring, after all the time they’ve lived in a reality with Rings in it?
THIS kind of thing would… this kind of thing would’ve actually worked in some OTHER world or series where magic and futuristic technology aren’t readily available. But instead, it just makes no sense that they wouldn’t even suggest these as solutions! It’s just there to be unnecessarily sad, while ignoring how contrived it really is. It’s forced conflict.
Oh, Ascension Day, it does make sense that they’d celebrate the day Angel Island rose as a festival. Knuckles is told that his father has nine months to live at best and might have been exposed to a toxic substance a long time ago.
Locke then gets all emotional and passionate when he’s about to die telling Lara that he always loved her and made a mistake in leaving her, and wishes that he had done things differently with Knuckles even though if that was the case, Knuckles might have never been the hero he is while being at the right places in the right times, because he wouldn’t have been able to get the experience he needed on Angel Island, meeting Sonic and friends and helping them out, so Robotnik or Eggman might have ruined the world without him.
Then Knuckles 25 years later goes to his father’s gravestone after that pointlessly sad part of the issue. He points out that his mother and Wyn are thinking of moving to Albion, and then he goes on the long boring monologue that I remember hearing about him saying at this point. He says that he was so determined not to repeat his father’s actions that he found other ways to do them instead, and just as he had no choice but to BE a guardian, he had given his daughter no choice but NOT to be, and admits that it’s just as wrong.
WELL, THAT monologue didn’t take QUITE as long as I thought it would, it was, just one long sentence to explain it!… Just five textboxes long. All he talked about, was how he should’ve made his daughter a guardian from the start because she wanted it. I was expecting that to be way worse!
The first story was by Romy Chacon and in addition to being boring to me for the most part since absolutely none of the original Freedom Fighters had a personality, it also disappointed me because the intriguing idea of one of them betraying them, was ruined by the fact that, not only was it so inexplicable with no motivation, but, they were so vague about what he did to betray him!
I don’t know what Scales even did other than pull a lever and show them Robotnik. I didn’t get to see him meeting with Robotnik somehow for the deal in the FIRST place, which we could’ve seen to explain his betrayal better if the beginning of the story wasn’t wasted on worthless recap.
I mean, if they had mistreated Scales for being a snake or something, then I would get why he would harbor resentment and that would naturally cause a betrayal, as implied by “ Robotnik gave ME… power and control, “ but instead it’s totally, inexplicable, without that presumption! And that “ I’m of a specific species and so of course I’m evil “ thing is just disturbing! Who would actually say and think that?! If ANYTHING that’s more reason to NOT be evil, to PROVE that you’re an INDIVIDUAL who can REBEL against that!
And it’s good that it’s explained HOW Sonic knows what happened to these guys. Uncle Chuck recorded them being thrown in the Zone of Silence by Robotnik despite having no free will. So I guess he just recorded everything automatically because he’s a robot? Would that mean Robians have perfect memories, since they can go back to any recording at any time? Why didn’t he remember Lupe being roboticized then? Well maybe he intentionally ERASED that memory out of shame. Er, as someone with no free will?
And the second story was a non-sequiter story about Ken Penders working through his issues with his own father being lost to cancer, by putting it in a SONIC comic. I don’t really think it FITS. NO, not just because it’s too dark and edgy! The “ it’s just a blue hedgehog it should be kiddy “ claim exists because of trolls who hated Sonic trying to be cool, so they went around insulting everyone else and kids for their own agenda. I don’t care WHAT the characters look like!
But I still hate how depressing it is, because it’s there at all and thus making me unhappy by reading it. But that’s just a nitpick compared to the actual problems, because if a sad scene makes you feel sad, it’s just doing its JOB.
For one, there’s no reason WHY Locke got into this condition just by injecting himself with the things that made his son super powerful! They mention a toxic substance, and imply it’s supernatural because all the tests are saying there should be nothing wrong with him.
That’s really stupid by the way, just because it’s MAGIC doesn’t mean the tests wouldn’t be able to detect anything wrong unless they inexplicably DO discover the pancreas problem. Someone SAYS that Locke by every standard of measure should be able to just get up and walk out of here. Then how did this story happen? They’d have better technology than that.
And that problem, could’ve been resolved in a heartbeat by just giving him an organ transplant or giving him a cybernetic implant to replace the one with cancer in it! If that’s not how cancer works, EXPLAIN THAT TO US because we shouldn’t be expected to know those exact scientific details when the target audience is children.
Most importantly, they have ADVANCED futuristic echidna technology! Even without echidna technology, Rotor MADE NANOBOTS and there’s stasis tubes that healed Sally from near-death, you’re telling me that couldn’t cure cancer?! And don’t tell me it’s because the Brotherhood hates cybernetics, because it has cyborgs in it! Like Fake Tobor, Spectre and I guess Sojourner with that metal thing on his forehead.
Hell, why not heal Locke with the Master Emerald or Chaos Emeralds?! Those have never been established to be unable to heal people! How about heal him with the Rings like Sonic did with his father?!
This concept would’ve worked in a universe without ready access to magic and futuristic technology, but instead it just feels incredibly arbitrary, because it’s so arbitrary, it makes Locke’s sad speech at the end feel melodramatic because everything about him dying is contrived and forced to begin with, so it’s silly that it’s happening at all. It wants me to take it seriously, but I can’t. Besides, why would Locke have taken so long to get into this shape after injecting himself with a TOXIC substance?
And since NOTHING related to the overall plot happened in this story aside from the very end, where, well, OK, reflecting back on this DOES let Knuckles decide to let his daughter be a guardian, because by thinking about his father as he went to his grave he realizes that he made the same mistakes as he did by not giving his child a choice, the real problem.
But the fact remains that this story was depressing and especially nonsensical, and didn’t need to be that way to begin with. You could’ve just had Knuckles come to the conclusion at the end of the previous story in the arc, even if it wouldn’t have been as impactful.
I will compliment the story on this though, I was expecting Knuckles to have way more to say at the gravestone with a huge boring monologue about stuff we already know about his father’s parenting of him. But instead he just says a couple textboxes about how he’s raising his OWN DAUGHTER AFTER the fact.
So in the end, it was better than I thought it would be! This kind of mature monologue about how you learn from your parent’s mistakes is very refreshing of the Sonic series to care enough to have, it’s baffling that anyone would think it’s a bad thing to teach kids that valuable life lesson! It doesn’t matter that the characters aren’t humans!
But the story’s still riddled with plot holes as it didn’t even TRY to explain why Knuckles didn’t just try to heal Locke with Chaos Emeralds! He could’ve called Sonic up and, gotten him to speed around the world finding them in seconds! If Knuckles has magic guardian powers where he can do omnipotence-requiring things if he’s really stressed out, why didn’t he heal Locke?! You’d think this would be enough to trigger him into using that Deus ex Machina power, and sure, that would’ve ruined the emotional impact of the sad scene, but then it shouldn’t have been written then if there was no way for it to make sense.
Issue 144:
Already in the 25 Years Later story, we start off with Knuckles deciding to make Lara the next guardian, and he tells his excited daughter that they won’t start until the next mission will be done. And in the event he doesn’t make it back, Julie knows who to contact to begin her training.
Julie refuses to let her daughter come with him because it could be dangerous. Knuckles makes her not mad anymore surprisingly easily just by saying that he loves his family. It would be good to see Knuckles kiss his wife, but his eyelids aren’t red, so I’m too distracted by how bad he looks.
And Sally makes a request to make sure Sonic would come back to her. Wait, how’d Sally know what Sonic was about to do? Didn’t Sonic say that his family didn’t need to know about this? Knuckles for some reason says it’s against his better judgment and yet still agrees.
With Lara not there and upset that she’s not allowed to go with them, Knuckles goes to meet up with Rotor with the storm being much worse. Knuckles realizes their airship is flying over the Badlands, and is told that where else would one of the most deadly devices be than in the most toxic, uninhabited wasteland on all of Mobius, which hasn’t been cleaned up yet with Chaos Emeralds or otherwise in 25 years for some reason.
I remember Knuckles being in the Badlands and it was in a place where Sabre could still spy on him, so apparently in THIS dimension the Badlands are a very polluted place not on Angel Island rather than a not-polluted place there with bikers. Or the Badlands are destined to BECOME really polluted later on. I mean, why call it THE Badlands if there’s more than one? Knux never needed a Hazmat suit when HE was in Badlands and neither did the bikers!
They all go out in Hazmat suits, go underground down a ladder, and it’s revealed that Robotnik built this place as a back-up shelter from any enemy or weapon. Sonic asks why Eggman never used the weapon here if it was so powerful, and it’s Hand Waved that Sonic foiled his plans at the last moment. Oh, it was KNUCKLES who asked that question!
I couldn’t tell because the text bubble tail was pointing to Sonic and normally it’s Sonic who calls Eggman by the nicknames. Wouldn’t it make more sense for Rotor to say that Knuckles foiled his plan, because Knuckles defeated him, and he wanted to use the Master Emerald to somehow become master of existence?
Sonic insists on going back in time being a hero even though it’s never been tested, which makes sense for his personality. His life sucks, after all, why not leave it? And Lara predictably stowed herself away to come join them. Unless there’s an extra hazmat suit there, she’s screwed. She’s going to leave the airship not knowing that she had to wear one and just get herself sick! She should’ve revealed herself to them before they left the airship.
Unfortunately, she then panics at realizing that she’s VANISHING! And this is NEVER EXPLAINED! Rotor says that the A Circuit to his device is cross-circuiting to B before the process could be complete for no reason and Sonic is said to be gone!… which is ALSO not explained! I thought the whole point WAS to send him back in time, so why are they panicking at him being gone? I wish I knew why I was supposed to care that the A circuit cross-circuited to B too early, because who KNOWS what that’s supposed to result in?
Lara’s vanishing would make sense if Sonic changed the future so that she’d never have been born, but Sonic hasn’t even gone back to do anything like that yet! And why WOULD he do something to prevent Julie from getting pregnant from Knuckles, like, stopping the Ultimate Annihilator from ever firing and therefore Robotnik wouldn’t have been erased, but also the Dark Legion wouldn’t have escaped the Twilight Cage so early and had Julie meet Knuckles. I guess that’s what happened? Otherwise, how does THAT make sense?
The reason this ending really annoys me is because I still don’t know the conclusion to this arc! The writer ended on a huge cliffhanger that never gets resolved! We never find out what happens to save Lara and why she was vanishing and we never find out what happened to SONIC!… I can only generously assume that Sonic went back in time and did a time travel adventure… Good god this is disappointing! Did they cancel his arc an issue early just to SPITE him?! If so, that’d be very unprofessional!
Remember, there’s only ONE event back in time that Sonic could’ve prevented from happening and causing massive disruption to the space-time continuum that WOULDN’T undo Knuckles and Julie meeting, so obviously he would’ve prevented that, unless, the problem with the time machine was that Sonic was sent further ahead in time than Issue 11, so that he’d HAVE to settle for preventing the Ultimate Annihilator from being fired at Knothole.
He’d tell the Freedom Fighters about his mission, potentially warning them about the Ultimate Annihilator way early, Nicole would have no reason not to help him save the future in a way that wouldn’t erase Knuckles’ daughter from existence, provided that Sonic would THINK enough to realize that him saving the future WOULD do that, when he has no way of knowing that the Ultimate Annihilator breaking down the barriers between zones is why Knuckles and Julie-Su met.
Only Locke and Hawking talked about that. Knuckles was never shown telling Sonic that Echidnaopolis came from another universe, but he could’ve assumed that since it came out of nowhere. But he could’ve assumed that the echidnas WANTED to return their city to Angel Island, as that’d be simpler.
More likely, Future Sonic would’ve eventually stopped the firing of the Ultimate Annihilator on Knothole – which would mean Sonic would never end up with green eyes incidentally – and that’d be a mistake he’d only realize was a mistake after the first time he’d return to the future. Couldn’t Nicole secretly tell Future Sonic about the location of the trans-time portal that sent HER back in time, so that he could simply go back to his future and try the time machine plan again and get it right this time? That would be a good ending, it’d just render this cliffhanger a pointless bit of padding.
I suppose she’d have an incentive to keep him in the present so that he could be a hero there the whole time, maybe somewhere else so he wouldn’t be redundant with Sonic. That’d be morally gray of her since he’d still clearly want to go home to his kids and wife, not stay back there and have to wait decades, but it’s like an AI to be pragmatic.
He’d really want to go back to the future to try time traveling again though when he’d inevitably discover that Knuckles wasn’t meeting Julie-Su, ANY time SOON, and so while his future would end up the way he wants potentially, he wouldn’t have FIXED it in his people’s eyes. He wouldn’t wanna be a failure and he’d tell Nicole that. And without the Dark Legion going to Angel Island because of the Annihilator firing, Cobor would’ve never met and befriended Rotor, which means that he would’ve never told Rotor that the world was doomed and sent Sonic back in time in the first place.
But what Sonic does in the past couldn’t be destined to be UNDONE, because then why did Lara-Su vanish? She would’ve at worst blipped out of existence just to immediately come back along with Sonic. Not to mention that there’d be no hope of him or Silver changing the future at all if that paradox rule applied to this comic, because he’d go back in time and do something and then be sent back to the future with nothing changed, because he made it so that people would have no reason to send him back in time.
And Lara-Su still vanishing is proof against that, as is Silver actually saving his future in Archie Sonic later without vanishing and the future going the way it should regardless. Sonic would’ve created a new timeline, albeit one where the Dark Egg Legion would’ve never been a thing and made it super easy for Sonic to reach Eggman and make him go insane in Issue 200, leading to the Iron Dominion arc.
Him getting it right this time would have to involve preventing Issue 11. Why would that prevent Lara-Su’s birth? Sonic could’ve easily tried to prevent THIS FIRST. It wouldn’t be so hard to show what’s supposed to happen after this, where Future Sonic stops Sonic from accessing the Cosmic Interstate in Issue 11 to avoid massive disruption to the space-time continuum. If Sonic never met Scourge, Scourge never would’ve tried the plan where he met Antoine, so he never would’ve switched Antoine and Patch. Patch would’ve never poisoned King Max and caused Elias to take the throne.
Elias would’ve ruled the same way that Max did, but Flynn’s writing later on which Penders never planned for makes this weird. With Max in charge, being old-fashioned, I doubt he’d have ever agreed to the Council of Acorns and a constitutional monarchy, so his kingdom would’ve stayed in civil war with some people wanting democracy, thanks to Tails’ father. King Max would’ve refused to abandon his castle, even with the heroes offering to take him somewhere safe.
There’s power in a crowd, and Sally wouldn’t keep sympathizing with her father for long after all the people he’d arrest, including Tails’ parents. Maybe he would’ve been overthrown and put in prison and the Council of Acorns would be formed anyways, but without Elias in charge because there would’ve been no negotiation because Max wouldn’t negotiate.
The royalty would’ve lost its power completely, although, maybe A Sly Encounter is right about assuming that the people would want King Max back after they’d turn on Ixis NAUGUS, because the Council put Ixis in charge. That’d mean the future would still be the way it is with Sally in charge.
What about Scourge never meeting Sonic in 11 would mean that Knuckles would never have a kid with Julie-Su? Nothing, Sonic was just so dumb he undid the firing of the Ultimate Annihilator FIRST. While Scourge would’ve never wasted his time bothering Knothole in Issue 24 and sent the heroes to Robotnik just to get double-crossed in Issue 44… Robo-Robotnik still would’ve employed Scourge in Issue 19 because HE still knew about his existence for no reason.
That means Scourge still would’ve met Sonic. But Sonic-Prime in Issue 19 would’ve been no more special to Scourge than any of the other tons of Sonic he’d see there. Maybe he would’ve still wanted revenge on him for tripping him, but how in the world is he supposed to know which exact dimension that Sonic would be from?
Well, it’s not like Sonic told him which exact universe he was from when he met him in Issue 11. Scourge just happened to find a portal to the Prime Zone in Issue 24 for no reason. I guess Boomer figured out which exact dimension they went to after Issue 24’s events. Scourge would’ve never known which world the Sonic that tripped him was from without Issue 11 so he’d have left him alone in Issue 150 and onwards.
He would’ve switched a different Antoine with Patch. That Antoine would’ve never been rescued because that rescue would require a zone-link generator that his Sonic wouldn’t have, plus his Sonic wouldn’t have experience with the concept of an evil Antoine to the point where he might be guaranteed to figure out that’s Patch and not a hardened version of his own Antoine. The Scourge arc later was technically pointless in the grand scheme of the comic, it could’ve been removed.
If Scourge never had a reason to focus on the Prime Zone in particular, he never would’ve met Finitevus. He would’ve never gotten his Warp Ring. Without the Warp Ring, without Fiona getting it, Scourge would’ve had no way of escaping the No Zone prison, which he might have been put in anyways from bothering a different Sonic? He would’ve never dated Fiona and convinced her to come live with him, but Fiona never goes on to do anything significant anyways.
Future Sonic could’ve prevented the Quantum Dial from ever being sent to Mobius, so that it wouldn’t need to be blown up and have Sonic be missing for a year, and the only thing Sonic’s presence instead of absence would change is, no Metal Sonic Troopers, so no Shard. Clearly he didn’t do that without making his future a different UNIVERSE from Prime because we got to see Shard.
He could’ve come back in time with a huge ray gun from Rotor or some Dark Legion device or something that would completely destroy the Xorda spaceship as it’d first threaten Mobius. He could shoot a laser at it and incinerate it, or the Xorda spaceship. I’d like to think what Future Sonic did was prevent the Quantum Dial from being sent to Mobius. But somehow, I can’t imagine Sonic being capable of stopping the Quantum Dial from activating, so he must have prevented Sonic from meeting Scourge in Issue 11 instead.
So, Lara must have disappeared because the future already registered that Future Sonic was going to be sent to the past and prevent the Ultimate Annihilator’s firing. But, it wasn’t gonna be permanent. If we had seen her for longer in that scene, she would’ve come back and Sonic would’ve come back too. And of course, he’d come back to a future where nobody would be expecting him to have gone back in time to save it because it never needed saving.
So Lara-Su wouldn’t be in a shuttle in the Badlands because they’d have no reason to go there in a future that never needed saving. She’d just be at home. Sonic would go home and hug his family, who wouldn’t know what he had to do.
Meanwhile in present time, we see Knothole newspapers sell like hotcakes because of the love and loss column that was popular with the women. It turns out it was probably Bunnie who wrote the letter about missing Antoine and not knowing what to do as it’s made obvious by “ his funny way of talking, “ she mentioned. And obviously she used an alias to hide her identity like everyone else does.
She’s told that she and Patch should go back to square one and earn each other’s trust because they need to start communicating. By the way there’s French on this photo, the handwriting is really sloppy so it’s hard to read, but it seems to mean, “ I will always love you my beautiful flower for all time. “ Why is he saying vous instead of the familiar te? But it’s kind of hard to make out “ aimerai, “ the third word in the sentence because it’s so… sloppily written. She’s told she needs to tell him exactly how she feels and be blunt until he talks.
Then we get ANOTHER letter talking about Mina’s feelings about Sonic and how she’s not sure if she’s outright in love with Ash. This whole, love letter story feels like such a waste of time! She’s given advice that she should stay with Ash just in case and she decides to call him and throw a picture of Sonic in the trash. It REALLY is a SHAME things HAD to work out this way JUST BECAUSE Sonic and Sally were the Official Couple! When with Mina having super speed and a similar cheerful laid-back personality to Sonic, logically SHE should’ve been the ideal mate for him! But NO!
And then we see Amy’s letter about her OWN troubles where she complains that she’s always ignored by Sonic, even though he hung out with her as a best friend once and called her his best pen pal, but apparently becoming older and more competent made him LOSE respect for her instead of gain more. And people say it would somehow never work out between her and Sonic because somehow they’re too different, despite having almost the exact same cheery and gutsy personality.
And Amy proves she’s NOT mature by refusing to read the rest of the answer she’s given about how she just has a simple crush. This is why I don’t think she and Sonic could work out, she’s too emotional, immature and jealous the way she is in most portrayals of her. At least Mina never had that problem. To be fair, though, the message doesn’t seem like it has good advice for her and is just meandering.
Then for absolutely NO reason, Amy SOMEHOW notices Sally’s letter in the column based on her letter being too obvious with its descriptions, as plenty of women figure out it’s from her. The advice simply explains that she’s being overbearing, and they do indeed need some time apart. The story ends with it being revealed that Sally’s the one who’s been answering people’s letters about love trouble.
The first story was by Ken Penders, and has Sonic go back in time, and Lara seem to vanish, while a time machine is malfunctioning arbitrarily. And JUST when I was invested in what’s gonna HAPPEN finally the story cuts off FOREVER, and the second story begins! Leaving me with almost nothing to say about the FIRST one! Other than “ that DAMN cliffhanger! “
The second story is by Romy Chacon, and involves basically an explanation to the audience about how the various girls feel regarding their love life, thanks to a romance advice column. At least it’s UNIQUE for the Sonic series, but this is the kind of thing game purists demonize this comic for. Why would Sally actually write, “ …job, … business? “ instead of not having those, “ … “? It feels COMPLETELY POINTLESS!
Sally’s supposed to be the careful, cautious to the point of paranoia one!… So it feels really stupid for her to make such an obvious letter so clumsily FAILING to mask who she is! At least it proves she can make mistakes, regardless of what some people might think. The biggest problem, and only stand-out moment… is that Amy somehow noticed Sally’s part of the column when she threw it in the trash and walked away… when I thought she was going to CONTINUE walking away and not even NOTICE it! So the fact that she DID was arbitrary.
Issue 145:
We start out with Shadow staring at Hope through the bushes, I GUESS too awkward to talk to her, thinking that they, whoever that is, have been coming there like clockwork the past several weeks doing the same thing over and over. Doing what, who, why? We’ll never know.
He’s about to talk to her about whatever’s going on, when someone in a brown cloak says he needs his abilities, but Shadow’s a selfish asshole who says no, as Locke was too stupid to tell him what he needs help with.
And the narration explains that in his desire to confront the “ creature, “ he had carelessly overlooked the possibility that he might draw innocents into the line of fire. Shadow then gets tripped and snagged by the ankle by a rope.
He says that he knows he’s in front of an enemy NOW and is surrounded by a blue light. And then he AND HOPE get warped to a metal building. I didn’t recognize that light as warping light at first because it was blue instead of green! I thought Shadow was charging up a Chaos attack, which he should’ve used instead of fighting with his fists!
Shadow then gets somehow defeated in the fight when he should’ve MOPPED the FLOOR with him! He has CHAOS CONTROL! And he’s thrown in a chamber, but not a one of warm nutrients like Gerald had made him in.
Oh, it’s Locke!… If it was Locke, then why didn’t he just reveal himself to him from under the cloak IMMEDIATELY? Why does Locke think Shadow’s not biological, or mineral? He clearly has fur, and he clearly isn’t a robot. He tells Shadow that he may be the key to helping him find his family again, a family that everyone believes to be dead.
Hope then tells him to let him go thinking he means him harm because he won’t let him go, even though you’d think she’d have heard what he just said proving his good intentions. Shouldn’t Hope immediately know that Shadow will hurt Locke if he lets him go, so that’s why he isn’t letting him go?
Locke explains that apparently the teleport field didn’t dissolve fast enough getting her warped here. And then Locke immediately proceeds to warp her back home right away because “ it isn’t safe, “ except no he DOESN’T do that, though maybe Shadow would assume he vaporized her if he warped her away, but logically Locke should’ve just done that.
INSTEAD he keeps TALKING to her, provoking a traumatic flashback in Shadow as he goes berserk on him thinking that he’s gonna kill the girl who looks like Maria, because the ONLY TIME he saw someone other than Gerald interact with someone looking like Maria, he saw her get killed. So naturally he’s terrified of that happening AGAIN! Maybe THIS Shadow really DOES have PTSD, because the GAMES Shadow doesn’t!
While he does REMEMBER bad things happening he’s never been afraid or acted out of a berserk panic trying to prevent his past experience from happening again at the slightest of reminders! Instead the Shadow game cared more about being edgy than dark and so it wanted to make him “ cool “ when he already was instead of making him more sympathetic like this.
After that interesting turn of events where Shadow proves he lacks the killer instinct, since he doesn’t just kill him with Chaos Control right away, but Locke thinks he DOES have it, Hope tells Shadow to stop hurting him saying she thought he was better than that, and that she’s more scared of HIM right now.
Shadow then snaps at her because she’s not Maria, and says that he doesn’t NEED any friends, jumping through the roof and leaving without helping Locke get back his family. So much for a story arc! Well THAT was INCONSIDERATE! I understand why he’s acting this way. But it should’ve never gotten to this point! I thought Hope would stay in her HOUSE and not go to them,, and there’s no way he would’ve simply spied on her for a year instead of being buddies with her since she’s like Maria. I don’t buy that direction with Shadow’s character.
In the second story, it feels like a waste of time as we see Eggman telling someone we can’t see about his worst enemies, which involves explaining that Tails is acknowledged to have prodigy-like skill at machinery at this point in the comic. Why are Tails’ eyelids white? He looked horrible in that panel where he was hugging Sonic, and Sonic looked stoned, so that wasn’t as heartwarming as it should’ve been.
Surprisingly AMY is the fourth worst enemy he mentions to his Shadow SWATbots! This is pure braindead meta logic at its finest because this is only the case because she’s the fourth main character of the GAMES. Logically BUNNIE should be in this position because she’s so much more capable than her thanks to her cybernetics.
And it’s mentioned that Amy can use her tarot card deck as a weapon, which only reminds me of how annoying it is that she’ll never use them at all. If she was a psychic… though obviously I don’t want it to be in the gamebreaking “ learns knowledge psychically like Nicole “ sense, but in some other more balanced way a psychic. I think that would be the perfect way to make her more useful with special powers of her OWN instead of just summoning a hammer.
Meanwhile, in, I suppose a DIFFERENT story, Tails is reading a history book when several hundred miles away out west is a massive explosion. I’m not really sure what that explosion was all about. And back in Knothole, Sonic’s playing a friendly game of darts with Ash, Mina and Bunnie, which causes Sonic and Ash to show a rivalry after Sonic says he was robbed of his dart victory, with the writer misspelling “ was “ as “ wuz “ somehow.
Finally back to Tails from that pointlessness, Tails is surprised because he thinks to himself out of nowhere that he always thought that the kingdom relied less on technology to avoid being like Robotnik. That would be very stupid of them, and stupid of him to think that was the case. He goes to Rotor and Tommy the former who says that a seismic event, with no aftershocks in the middle of nowhere happened, exerting enough force to potentially do serious damage to Knothole.
Tails gets annoyed that Sonic and Bunnie are said to be better for handling the threats and he needs Rotor to TELL HIM, that while they’re Freedom Fighters they’re not the ones to lead the charge. They’re the brains, who provide “ support. “
Tails then nervously asks Sonic if he’s got any plans for the next few days, and Sonic goes to the airship with stuff like a music player and nutrients. Oh, GOOD, Tails actually DID come to the airship with him! It makes sense he’d wanna do this instead since he’s not just a genius who can do nothing but that, he’s also able to fly and spindash.
This is after we see a badly drawn Sally reveal in her thoughts that she’s well-aware she’s still inexplicably in love with Sonic. The story ends with Eggman saying that he discovered the prototype from Gerald’s data files. It’s not Emerl purely because Emerl is forbidden and banned from the Sonic comics for no good reason, so too bad for us. So was Shadow the one who made that seismic explosion?… Was he just MAD?… Because otherwise this doesn’t make any sense!
The first story was by Ken Penders, the first one in a VERY long TIME by him that’s not a KNUCKLES story. And I really loved it by the end because Shadow’s reaction thinking that Locke was going to hurt Hope, was a very realistic reaction for someone traumatized by the death of a friend. He goes into a panic, not hurting her to get hurt, and attacks. And then he left instead of befriending Hope because she wasn’t Maria. It was irrational behavior that makes perfect sense for him! I love this interpretation of his character, it’s how the games should’ve handled it, because it’s sympathetic making me feel sorry for him.
I also like how he talks all formally. It makes sense as he did that in SA2. He’s not portrayed as trying too hard to be cool like a moody teenager, like a character only used for fanservice. He feels like his SA2 self! It really is a shame Locke couldn’t get his help though, you’d think he’d be able to RELATE to his problem a little, what with losing family and all. Ultimately this wasn’t a good direction for Shadow’s character, as it would’ve made more sense if he became friends with Hope when he met her, and Locke shouldn’t have screwed up and cheated us out of a story arc. But I get the idea behind this.
The second story by Karl Bollers was TOTALLY pointless because we already KNOW who Eggman’s enemies are! And if ANYTHING it just raises a HUGE QUESTION! Why wouldn’t Eggman have knowledge of his worst enemies already programmed into his new robots? This story logically shouldn’t even EXIST because he shouldn’t NEED to waste time doing this with EVERY new batch of robots!
And the final story, also by Ken Penders, is just a story leading into one where stuff will actually START to happen, as Tails goes along with Sonic as he should NATURALLY not wanting to squander his talents being support just because he’s smart, and he and Sonic go on an airship to find the source of the explosion. It was sweet of Sonic to let Tails come along! I thought he wouldn’t because we cut past him potentially saying yes. It was alright but it was just the beginning of the arc and you can’t really judge much from, the very beginning of an arc where not much really happens.
Issue 146:
We start out right away with Shadow attacking Sonic for apparently no reason to send him into crates. To be fair there was a reader in Sonic Grams asking for a story where Shadow would fight Sonic. So there WAS fan demand for this. After a long pointless fight where Sonic gets him sprayed with water, Shadow leaves before Bunnie and Tails could show up.
He thinks about how even HE had problems navigating around, and he’s certain that all his answers could be found HERE, as ALREADY he’s accessed data relevant to the mystery of his origins, including… “ him “ SOMEHOW. Why the fuck would he need to learn about his origins?
Remember, at no point did he ever say or think the word, “ amnesia, “ or the words, “ memory loss, “ after he fell to earth. Him having an amnesia arc now out of nowhere despite him clearly remembering Maria and being in a tube near Gerald just one issue ago, is just confusing and arbitrary and unnecessary, all because it happened in Sonic Heroes.
He asks a golden Gamma his status and is asked why he left before Bunnie could find him. I’d like to point out that seeing this Gamma made me immediately check paranoidly to see if I missed an issue, because why would the writer introduce him being buddies with this robot out of the blue like that when it makes no sense?… Shadow lampshades that there was no logical reason not to pursue the hedgehog other than the buzzing in his head which apparently means his memories.
He recaps the last issue and explains that he went to Angel Island for no reason instead of fighting Eggman and found a signal like the one Gerald had APPARENTLY sent for no reason before the invasion of the ARK. WHY was that signal THERE? He wouldn’t believe anyone would go save him from the soldiers.
He dropped to the ground from a high height and was somehow perfectly fine because he’s the Ultimate Lifeform, and survived a defensive device creating blue smoke behind him, as he had Rings,
And then he discovered the gold Gamma sealed within an airtight chamber instead of being either scrapped for metal or taken advantage of by Eggman. You’d think Robotnik would’ve discovered this place by now if Shadow could find it, you’d think he would’ve scoured every inch of the planet in the five years he was ruling using his flying camera-drones. But I guess it was just too hard for him to penetrate, and Shadow teleported inside just fine? You’d think he’d make a robot shoot a big ray gun to get inside this place.
Shadow had released him because he was wondering if he was one of Gerald’s creations from finding this Isaac ROBOT similar to HIM. HOW? To his disappointment… some other professor designed him instead, with a professor Clark designing his hardware and Doctor Niven, however you pronounce it, programming his software, and he doesn’t know where either of them are… I really think I should’ve been shown Shadow first meeting Isaac BEFORE seeing him and getting confused!
Upon running Isaac’s diagnostic through the mainframe, Shadow learned that Isaac was created over 10 millennia ago but was never used for some reason. Him being “ never used, “ is contradicted later. Why the hell does he look just like Gamma, a robot Eggman built completely unrelated to him? I doubt Gamma got based on him since Eggman doesn’t know that Isaac exists! Shadow is disappointed that while Overlanders made Isaac, they weren’t related to Gerald.
And then we see Sonic injured with Fiona, and Rotor coming up to him with Fiona being really worried right away. “ SONIC! Oh, my! He looks pretty BAD! “ I was really wondering when the hell Fiona would be brought on a normal main mission with the main Freedom Fighters again because she was surprisingly absent for a while! Why did Bollers bother putting her on the team if he planned on barely using her? Penders would care about her a lot more than he did. So what’s she gonna be good for? Thank god she’s finally wearing CLOTHES, I like her design a lot more now.
Rotor calls Bunnie saying he needs a medi-kit and Bunnie says she’ll retrieve it from Freedom One and be back in a flash. Wait, Freedom One? What’s THAT? Didn’t they lose the first airship? Isn’t that why Rotor made a space-traveling one? Tails is really worried at Bunnie leaving without him and Tommy, and asks how they’re going to find Sonic and Rotor, since Bunnie ditzily took their Comm-Link with her.
With Fiona looking concerned, Sonic says that he’s just exhausted and after Fiona points out that he’s banged-up, Sonic says, “ That obvious, huh? “ Then he explains that while everyone was playing around with the computers, he checked out the joint while waiting for the others to hook up with them, and Shadow asked him what he was doing here! I really think this should’ve been shown first too, I wasn’t sure I’d get to see this at all!
Then it’s shown that the reason the fight started was from a lack of communication skills, as Shadow arbitrarily refused to tell Sonic why he was there making himself look suspicious and Sonic said he wouldn’t tell him why he was there either just out of spite!
Rotor says that he doesn’t believe Shadow’s related to Sonic in any way or even a Mobian like them even though he has Sonic’s powers and CLEARLY LOOKS like a Mobian, as if they still don’t know what Shadow is. But the SA2 adaptation happened, and was implied to be just like the game, so they should all know what Shadow is by now! But I guess he never TOLD them!
Meanwhile we cut to a flying roboticized, uh, THING, which is a flying spy for Robotnik, which sees Bunnie going into an opening in rocks where the explosion from last issue happened. I really hate that this story arc is told out of ORDER. It makes it harder to understand and gets me detached.
Eggman wonders if the heroes might find something there that could be used against him and decides to get into the game just in case. He hopes that nanites will be a better alternative to roboticization, but no, that’d be smart of him, to put explosive nanites in people to get them to do what he wants.
He says that once he activates the power supply for a small sample of self-replicating, pre-programmed microchips, he’ll get, which ends the issue, a brand new Metal Sonic, which he decided to make like THAT instead of simply making it the way he did the OTHER Metal Sonics. I guess this way it’s more advanced. So is this gonna be the point in the comic where Metal Sonic starts being trashed and humiliated so easily and frequently that Sega itself butts in and tells them to stop?…
For the second story, Rotor goes to wake up Tommy in his bed and at first screams at seeing what he thinks is him without his head, but it turns out he was just hiding in his shell. I actually laughed, that was pretty clever! My question is, can he actually feel the bed under his shell? Does his shell have touch receptors too?… It has to, I guess, but… I don’t know how he’s just fine with lying on his back in bed…
He’s reluctant to go explore Knothole, and before he could say something that they COULD do, Rotor leaves saying that he has to run maintenance on the Technolotree, and then go back to the lab for something top-secret.
Then he’s called his old nickname Boomer by Tommy since he’s known him since he was little, and while it’s lampshaded by Rotor it’s not lampshaded enough because once, he doesn’t just tell him he’s called Rotor now, and two, you’d think that with all the time that he’s been in Knothole he would know not to call him that by now by heart!…
This would be a much more natural and less spiteful way to write him out of the Freedom Fighters.
Tommy then complains sadly that everyone’s always so busy, and he doesn’t have anything to do. For some reason, even though he should just be able to do technology stuff with Rotor. And he points out that he talked to Sonic and Sally more when they rescued him than now.
Rotor then confuses me by saying that he’s sure he’ll find SOMETHING he’s really good at, even though we saw him earlier on reprogramming Robians to leave him alone – though that was an infiltrator, the infiltrator would have the same skills and potential wouldn’t he? And he was seen with Rotor as one of the smart guys EARLIER! So, wouldn’t he already know what he’s capable of?
Either way, after Rotor panics that his files on the Technolotree system diagnostics are gone, Tommy tells him that he organized them in a prodigy-like way. He also had to force himself not to organize Rotor’s clothes without his permission too.
Rotor thanks him, fortunately, and then Tommy says about the Technolotree that he may want to re-link the delta connection and re-install the input component, knowing what to do because he’s been reading his files and while he’s a slow turtle he’s a fast thinker…
So it’s at THIS moment that Tommy was discovered by Rotor to be the perfect lab assistant for him, even though he also had Tails and Uncle Chuck for that! Can you see why he’s redundant? Perfectly nice and fine but redundant!… At least his organization obsession gives him a quirk and talent! But when would he actually use that, in an action series?
Then the story surprisingly continues as Rotor explains to a badly drawn Sally that Tommy’s been helping him, and says that he’s found a way to harness even more energy from the Rings. He explains that normally when they increase the power output, the Rings’ stability decreases which could be bad enough to level Knothole recreating the Nate failure or simply burn the Ring out. He’s not sure which would happen.
Sally gets Nicole to run a diagnostic of that Ring. Wait, why did Sally trip when Tommy’s JOB was to organize and thus clean up the lab? She trips and gets shocked for some reason. Her face doesn’t even look like she’s in pain. She just looks confused and bored.
Apparently, Nicole and Sally switched bodies after Sally tripped on a wire and fell?… HUH? HOW?!… It’s a concept I love but I don’t know how it could happen! A magic spell would’ve been a better explanation! Rotor figures it out because ” Nicole ” responds to being called princess and can’t feel her hands.
Sally in Nicole’s body is confused about how to scan the properties of a liquid and after she figures it out by doing it with the power of thought, she complains that it won’t slow down, there’s too much info, and she has to try to control the speed of it through the processor.
Meanwhile Nicole in Sally’s body left the room, naturally absolutely LOVING being in an organic body. I wonder why all those civilians look startled and confused by her? Well maybe it’s because they’re reacting to what she’s actually SAYING. She walks through some greenery saying, “ The colors, the smells… my limbs move at my command. Everything about this experience is so intoxicating. So this is what it’s like to be alive… to feel… to love? “
For some reason just seeing Sonic in Sally’s body makes her get flustered at seeing him proving that love or at least her love for Sonic truly is just a physical chemical process invading a person’s personality in this comic, and has nothing to do with the soul or the mind, because Nicole didn’t love him BEFORE! I guess that makes sense.
Nicole says, “ Sonic, I-I don’t know why this body has a feeling of happiness and sadness concentrated in the chest cavity area when I look at you. It is most… strange. “ I’ve never liked Nicole MORE than I have in this one story!
Then after she passes out, it turns out the effects of the body changing were disappointingly temporary. So much for having a properly sized STORY or even story arc about this fascinating concept! If the body-switching doesn’t make sense, then it wearing off so fast makes even less sense! Did the magic in Nicole leak out, is that what happened?
I actually had to look the issue up to find out that the reason they body-switched, was because they were both drenched by a mysterious blue liquid from a beaker in Rotor’s lab! They didn’t make that REMOTELY clear in the panels! That liquid just looked like an electricity effect! Sally, or rather Nicole didn’t have to, wipe down her hair and body because she was drenched with the blue liquid!
The first story was written by Ken Penders, and I found it annoying how out of order the chronology of the events were! We should’ve started with Shadow coming to this place and meeting the ancient gold Gamma, and then went to Sonic fighting Shadow from a frustrating lack of communication skills on both ends, and THEN seen the rest of the story with Sonic being hurt!
Bunnie flies off with something Tommy and Tails need to track down Sonic, which I really hope will be acknowledged as a ditzy mistake on her part because she needs more than just a short temper as personality flaws to be a well-rounded believable character! Her being a little flighty would’ve been good too!
I like how Fiona got worried about Sonic so easily and seemingly more than everyone else did! It’s the third time she’s shown compassion as far as we know. The first being when she told Nicolette after breaking out of a cell that she’s not safe there being compassionate despite everything she’d just been through, and the second being when she looked worried when Tails was almost hit by the plane.
The rest of the issue is by Romy Chacon. The second story involved teaching us that Tommy’s unique skill was a prodigy-level organizing skill. This causes him to be hired as Rotor’s lab assistant after him going through his data papers makes him give him a good solution to his problem. This would only make sense if this story was a prologue to Tommy being hired as his lab assistant for the first time, because I thought he was ALREADY in that position!
I also sympathize with the fact that he was upset that he wasn’t spending as much time as he THOUGHT he would with Sonic and Sally because everybody’s busy with their own missions. It’s very relatable of a new Freedom Fighter to go through that. Again, he seems like a perfectly fine character, the problem is he’s so redundant with Rotor around!
And his being hired to clean up Rotor’s lab only makes the next story more confusing, because its whole plot hinges on there being a wire for Sally to trip on, when Tommy should’ve gotten that wire out of the way!…
And yeah, the third story! Waste of fantastic concept of Nicole and Sally switching bodies, because one, I had to go look it up to see how it even happened since it was so unclear making it feel very arbitrary, and two, they were switched SO TEMPORARILY that the writer didn’t take advantage of the concept much! The only significance to the story is serving as the moment where Nicole started getting the desire for an organic body, because she realized what she was missing.
It really is a shame that this story was ended so quickly because I can imagine if it went on for LONGER, having Nicole spend a whole DAY that way for example and letting us see how SHE’D handle Sally’s life, maybe things would’ve been more interesting! Like I can imagine that an evil version of Nicole would’ve tried to run away with Sally’s body to avoid losing it. This kind of concept really belonged in a whole story arc with a few issues about it, not just one short mini-story! And started by some random arbitrary magic liquid at that! Rotor didn’t say it was a body-switching liquid he had been working on.
Issue 147:
We start out with Metal Sonic spindashing all the way across the desert. Makes sense since he’s kept protected the whole time he’s in ball form. And I call bullshit on being expected to believe that the area they’re in hasn’t been walked in for well over a thousand years. Every part of the world gets explored regularly!
Either way the story then shows us that 19 hours ago when Tails and Tommy were left behind by Bunnie they conveniently saw Sonic on the camera footage that happened to be right next to them, seeing Bunnie wrapping a bandage around Sonic’s hand!
So I can’t even say that Fiona gets to be useful by doing THAT because Bunnie got to do it INSTEAD. I was thinking that maybe she was going to be the medic of the group who’d be best at first aid, but… someone else did it. And she’s not even GOOD at it because she wrapped the bandage around his GLOVE, and apparently everyone’s just too polite to correct her on it.
Then they see Shadow and Isaac in camera footage as well and Tommy calls Isaac a guy and wonders what he is. After that they see Fiona on the camera footage with twisted wiring in front of her while she’s in front of a control panel that’s sparking, and she’s really annoyed saying, “ Whoever did the wiring in this place should be strung up by their thumbs! “ A harsh line that makes perfect sense coming from the girl who’s interestingly a fish out of water in a group full of pure heroes with squeaky clean pasts.
I hope we hear MORE of those lines, give her a niche. I think if she had lots of lines like this I’d be able to forgive her for the lack of unique skills because of her interesting personality. Same reason that I like Sally even though she has no powers and skills only she could have, it’s the personality that counts.
It makes sense that she knows about wiring ONLY because it was implied, that learning about programming was part of the Freedom Fighter training thanks to Mina. So maybe I can assume that she learned this from Rotor who was trying to make her more useful. As a mere mortal she needs all the help she can get!
Still weird that she’d know what good wiring is though. It’s trying to give her justification for being a Freedom Fighter when she’s just redundant. Also it’s kinda annoying that she’s spontaneously changed outfits. It’s mostly the same jumpsuit but the zipper line’s way more noticeable. I doubt she would’ve had the time to run away back home just to get a different dress!
She gets called by Rotor on her wrist-watch thing and complains, “ I was doping out a control panel when a connection triggered prematurely! I couldn’t cross-circuit to B in time to cut it off! “ causing Rotor to complain that this is bad. HOW bad? Bad enough that it counteracts her trying to be helpful and makes it so that she never should’ve done this? She just can’t catch a break, can she? When’s she gonna get to actually be useful? Why was she doing this ANYWAYS? What compelled her to start hacking?!
Rotor says that the complex they’re in is the product of a paranoid culture designed to take offensive action at the slightest threat, and says that they need to get to Fiona fast. Why WAS she doing that to the control panel, what was the point of it?!
Sonic is asked, “ What about Rotor? “ and he runs out with Rotor, and Tails and Tommy tell Sonic from a control room P.A. that they ran past Fiona. They reach her, and Tommy explains to him that Isaac and Shadow, are three sections away from them according to an onscreen map.
Then Tails tells them in fear that Metal Sonic has threatened to deactivate Shadow and Isaac. Oh Shadow you naïve hedgehog. He assumes Gerald built Metal Sonic as well, even though he never got the chance to MEET Sonic! Why wouldn’t he assume EGGMAN made him to fight Sonic?
Metal calls organics bio-trash and it’s WEIRD that Eggman would program him to think that of his own master. He doesn’t have a free will power core. And he says right after this that Shadow has binary pulses similar to him before calling himself Shadow’s superior for some reason. What are those?
The two start to fight and destroy the place, with Rotor saying that they’re only making things worse for some reason, Fiona being all cautious tries to warn Sonic that three-to-one odds aren’t that good, obviously wanting to keep him from getting hurt.
But Sonic runs off for a fight anyways, as he was all eager about it the minute he heard the word. I love the part of him that loves fights! It’s ironic for a hero. Fiona sighs unhappily at his rashness.
For some reason Isaac is surprised at meeting a non-human species capable of intelligent speech, well I guess he was made long before Mobians were created, and he even suggests DISSECTING Sonic in his robot-like way. But Shadow looks just like a Mobian, so why didn’t Isaac react like that to HIM?! Why would HE assume he was a robot?
Shadow says he’s met Mobians plenty of times before, and then for some reason Isaac thinks that because Sonic’s witty, he should be destroyed with a laser. Well, I did giggle at this a lot just retyping this, so I guess it’s funny in an “ outlandishly violent E-123 Omega, “ sort of comedy. But it’s still dumb!
And then Shadow inexplicably says, “ I agree, “ and starts to fight him again! But the SA2 adaptation, he should’ve gotten to respect and like Sonic by now! He’s not written at all in this arc. He just tries to fight Sonic for no reason! At least in GENERATIONS, which was a pretty low standard for ALL of the characters other than Sonic and Tails, Shadow at least had the excuse of wanting to test Sonic’s strength! In THIS, he inexplicably wants to fight Sonic like an enemy despite working together with him in SA2!
After Metal Sonic shows up too, Sonic thinks to himself that he’s really in danger now while still talking confidently in his bravado saying they have no sense of humor, which is good characterization for him. He’s not REALLY vastly underestimating his enemies! He just ACTS like he DOES, when really he’s smarter than he looks.
Tails and Tommy see that while Sonic is being attacked by Shadow and Metal Sonic, Rotor, Bunnie and Fiona are all being ELECTROCUTED out of NOWHERE, fortunately being fortunate enough that the electricity doesn’t just go straight through their hearts and kill all of them immediately, which it logically should since it’s enveloping their entire bodies. I should’ve asked this earlier but if Tails doesn’t wanna be called Miles, why hasn’t he told Tommy that a long time ago?
Either way, Tails complains about the fact that with all these buttons and controls in front of them, they still have no idea what they could do to help and finally be useful here. They panic, and Tails presses a button that drops Sonic and his enemies down a trap door while Eggman laughs at seeing it, because I guess he can see through Metal Sonic’s eyes all of a sudden, and Tails is horrified at what he might have done. Sadly the story ends there. After a non-canon Off Panel story about arguing superheroes, which I reviewed in this article:
We see Sonic leaving Muttski because he’s too busy being a hero to play with him, which makes Muttski sad beause as he puts it cutely, “ Aw, you never play anymore! “ He’s adorable! That’s a good Team Pet, he’s finally filling that role well, and we barely see moments like this with him.
Then Tails asks the sad-looking dog what’s wrong and wishes that HE had a universal translator in his ear like Sonic’s so he could know what he was saying… Why can’t he just BUILD one? I mean Tails did it in Colors! You’d think the plot would be about that since Tails is a do-anything inventor, but then again that’d be more predictable than the actual story.
Then Tails says adorably that if Sonic and Muttski can become good friends then so can THEY! He plays fetch with the dog, hopscotch even though a dog can’t play it back, AND a dog paddle race.
And then they play hide and seek which ends with Muttski growling at Tails making him really nervous. When he tells Sonic what happened, Sonic says that Muttski thought they were playing Foxhunt, a game they used to practice to hide and defend from an attack. But Muttski’s never involved in the action for good reason, so why would this happen?!
The first story was by Ken Penders and continues with Shadow confusingly and annoyingly trying to fight Sonic for no goddamn reason causing forced artificial conflict, Rivals-style, that only makes things harder for Sonic when Metal Sonic shows up. You know, you could’ve had Shadow BRAINWASHED, that would’ve WORKED! Or had a Shadow Android for the plot?!
At least Isaac firing at Sonic I could kind of understand because he’s a ROBOT and thus probably not programmed well in this case and panicked at meeting a Mobian! Not sure why he didn’t panic at seeing Shadow then since he looks just LIKE a Mobian!…
I would’ve liked if Fiona finally got to DO something USEFUL being the only one in the room for a change, but the problem is that I don’t know WHY she had to dope out a control panel in the FIRST place! And, electrocution follows! So it’s hard to say she was useful! At least it kind of shows that she HAS that skill, knowing what good wiring is and stuff because Rotor probably felt the need to teach her.
The REAL second story by Romy Chacon is an EQUALLY pointless story where Tails gets scared from playing with Muttski because Muttski started growling at him thinking he was practicing defending himself. The biggest plot hole I just realized, is why would Sonic make a game about practicing and hiding and DEFENDING himself with his PET DOG? It seems really pointless, although it WAS really CHARMING seeing Tails adorably play with Muttski, in all sorts of different ways, making both of them look more likable, when he didn’t have to waste his time like that.
Issue 148:
Sally is told by that guy from the Substitute Freedom Fighters that’s a realistic hedgehog, that he lost all contact with Rotor and the others almost an hour ago. The last words they recorded, were Sonic saying, “ Never tell me the odds! “ Sally’s not gonna react WELL to this.
Well surprisingly she keeps her cool, and acts calm, just like under Romy Chacon. It’s like her being like that is only a Bollers thing. She says seriously that she needs Jules to be brought to the royal court immediately.
Tommy tells Tails to stay there while he’ll go see what he can do for Rotor. Normally I’d prefer Tails to do stuff since he’s better, but Tommy really needs to do more stuff to justify his existence and role on the team. It’s still stupid of him to risk this since he’s not nearly as useful as Tails, who can at least defend himself.
Tails naturally complains resentfully that, “ Even with the newcomers I’m still treated like a JUNIOR member of the group! “ as in like a kid. I like that, it’s referencing his problem that made him go on the Tails Miniseries adventure instead of pretending it magically went away.
Sonic is lying down with his back hurting from the fall thinking that if it weren’t for his spin moves breaking his fall through the power of bullshit, he would’ve been hurt even MORE. He thinks that it’s hard to tell where Shadow is in the dark that doesn’t seem dark at ALL and then he notices a rumbling sound and a light shining in his face brighter and brighter.
Finally he moves out of the way of a speeding train in a completely lifeless building by the way, and decides to ride on it deciding to make Shadow and the rest fight on HIS terms. Shadow wonders why he would use a train since he can run faster than it as I wonder why Metal Sonic’s just standing next to him without being attacked by Shadow the HERO like LAST time.
Isaac says that Sonic’s options are much narrower once he reaches the end of the line, and they can follow in one of the many cars that are part of the network. Does Isaac work with Metal because he’s just ignorant of how evil Metal is and doesn’t know Eggman? I guess so! It’s frustrating because he doesn’t come off as a bad guy but he’s still antagonizing Sonic! Same goes for Shadow! So the whole source of conflict just feels completely stupid!
Shadow then shows an independent side finally saying he’ll run off getting his answers through more direct means. By the way where’s ADAM?… Isaac says that his sensors that magically tell him everything somehow indicate that Metal Sonic can pursue more efficiently, via his sole thrusters.
Metal Sonic says that his first priority is interestingly to gather data for Robotnik, which Isaac says is an anagram of Kintobor, a family name that apparently existed over 10,000 years ago for Isaac to recognize, so he asks if there’s any relation while the two get on a tiny train car, which I think Metal looks surprisingly adorable in, I dunno why. Maybe because his torso is so round and it fits in it so tightly.
Tommy says looking at the camera footage of Fiona and the others being shocked that he’s going to need something non-conductive to break the electrical connection… Tommy knows that a leather glove he found conveniently is immune to electricity because he’s a genius I guess, and geniuses magically know everything that the plot needs them to know. Don’t know why he went out of his way to study what materials are non-conductive BEFOREHAND!
He takes out the circuit box by smacking it with a metal bar, doing something useful and even badass for the first time, and briefly worries that they didn’t survive because they all fell, but since Reality Ensues would be too dark, Rotor corrects him immediately.
Tails tells Sonic through the control room to listen to what Isaac is saying. He says that his creator Kintobar… wait, literally one panel ago he was called Kintobor, an actual anagram of Robotnik! But now it’s back to Kintoba? Well I make that mistake all the time too but this is a professionally edited comic! Isaac says his creator is ” Ivan Kintobor, ” born in 2006, who led the design team that created him. Isaac explains that his creator had many projects including adapting alien technology as part of the “ matrix. “ Matrix?… And I don’t know what that means in context. And we never will!
However his methods proved antagonistic toward the Xorda from whom the technology was appropriated and in retaliation, the Xorda unleashed a gene bomb on the planet with the previous panel having shown us the Xorda dissection. Kintobor then programmed him to ensure his survival ina post-apocalyptic environment.
Then why was Isaac found trapped in an airtight chamber, why was his diagnostic telling Shadow that he had never been used, why was he built just a thousand years ago now and not over 10,000 years ago? It’s pretty sloppy and unprofessional that Isaac’s entire backstory was completely changed in just two issues, and within the same story arc at that, even if THIS backstory is better because it’s actually clear.
For several decades afterwards his primary tasks included monitoring his life cell chamber as well as the physical alterations that befell the planet. Metal Sonic asks him interested to elaborate on those wanting to continue with a normal human conversation getting to know him when you’d THINK he wouldn’t CARE. That’s cool! This is the most human Metal’s seemed in a WHILE, I like him having a curious intellectual side, rather than just being a mindless killing machine like every other robot ever made.
It’s explained that the gene bomb, which was intended to preserve the physical environment as it was at the time for some reason when the Xorda hated the humans and would’ve wanted to destroy their world completely as they tried to do later, instead triggered volcanic reactions which sent billions of tons of ash and dirt into the atmosphere, which is known to echidnas as the first Day of Fury.
How would Isaac get the assumption that the bomb was intended to PRESERVE the physical environment, when the Xorda had no reason to want to do that? Why is he being so naïve about the Xorda? He had no way of knowing what their bomb was designed to do. More importantly, how did anyone on the planet survive the ash and dirt in the atmosphere so that we could have life up to THIS point? “ Sonic! Do you realize what he’s saying? “
Before Tails could tell us exactly what this all means, Sonic tells him that Shadow’s fighting him and he can’t talk, pressing a button to send Shadow flying off from inertia. Then Isaac keeps telling us stuff we already know about how the Mobians were all created while also trying to imply that the gene bombs triggered a devolution of, homo sapiens. Into WHAT? This was NEVER implied before! I thought they just died, and that just brings up the question of how some of them still exist on Mobius today!
The process from the Xorda lasted for well over a thousand years – bullshit, then the ash would’ve still existed up until very recently in th 3200s – until the sun finally burned through the last of the ash and dirt in the atmosphere that somehow hadn’t killed off all life on the planet a LONG time ago, from the drastically colder temperatures, and the ash rain the world over.
It was THEN that during one of his rare forays from the life cell chamber, Kintobor added historical events to the list of scientific data he was to collect. Yeah, well over a thousand years later, when echidna history went back 500 years, so he was pretty late there! Wait a minute, Isaac said two issues ago that two different scientists programmed his hardware and software NEITHER of which were Kintobors! Clark, and Niven… Where’s this Kintobor coming from?! At least this is a good retcon since I’d rather him have a clear backstory than an unclear one where he was never used and built 10,000 years ago.
Sonic turns the volume down on his wrist-watch because the announcement from the robot could just attract Shadow to where he is and he lampshades at LAST, “ Why oh why does Tails think we need a history now of all times? “ Yeah especially since most of it is just stuff we already know! And even the parts added to it just don’t make any sense!
Then after Shadow starts heading his way, Isaac continue that as various societies began – even though they should’ve existed well over 500 years ago what with Albion and all – a second cataclysm erupted from below the planet’s surface as the beryl deposits reacted to the energy of the gene bomb as it was absorbed over time, except the Chaos Emeralds have existed for over 500 years before present time in the 3200s, echidna history and all.
But this is pretending that they were only created well over a thousand years after the Xorda stuff and therefore extremely recently. He really should’ve just said “ a hundred years ago “ not “ a thousand. “ Tails says worried that Sonic’s not there, which is confusing.
Isaac continues that as Emeralds are Beryls, the conditions were perfect for the creation of the Chaos Emerlds. So is this supposed to explain away the Chaos Emeralds as, their magic coming from gene bombs? Which really shouldn’t be magic at all unless the Xorda were wizards. Uh, I guess that would make sense. It’s the Sonic series… doesn’t seem really… doesn’t seem really necessary… There BETTER have been magic in those gene bombs, I hate the idea that it’s trying to take away the actual magic from the Emeralds. Like midichlorians but for Sonic.
It’s much less lazy than just having them always be there and not explaining where they came from! It does explain why they weren’t stuck underground in jewel mines for all time. But people would’ve mined them anyways, like the echidnas did! It’s not like every planet with Chaos Emeralds got gene bombs released on it to create them, right? The ant planet probably didn’t, though it was never said the Xorda DIDN’T do that and the Bem WERE afraid of the Xorda.
Some more panels are wasted, and then Isaac says that crossing paths with Eggman would somehow exceed the parameters of his programming when attending the first Acorn king’s coronation didn’t. Does that mean he’d blow up? Metal said merely “ cross paths, “ which could imply accidentally stumbling on him, not, “ did you seek him out? “ which of course WOULD exceed those parameters since he’d have no reason to do that. Isn’t Eggman the main one making history now?
Then it’s revealed that Sonic went through a place where the door slammed shut right behind him, and Isaac says that he’s doomed. He opens the door immediately surprisingly with his super strength pushing it right upwards, and FINALLY asks Sonic to have a TALK with him which comes out of nowhere, but instead Sonic arbitrarily starts another fight with him to keep up the conflict. After Sonic actually spindashes Shadow despite Shadow being an organic being, that violent reaction only hurt Sonic’s leg a little, and he asks if he’s made of a brick wall.
The story ends with Sonic discovering a giant rocket about to blast off behind him telling him that he’s stumbled onto the most fatal secret of all. If the rocket’s already got orange smoke below it, you’d think they’d start burning up in the exhaust and it’d already be in the process of rising.
In the next story, “ Playing Around, “ we start out with a crowd of people about to watch a play and already I’m irritated because it starts with an immersion-breaking fourth-wall joke!… That’s NEVER a good sign! Particularly this far into the comic! One of the civilians asks why Eggman’s never found this place, and he’s told that then they wouldn’t “ have a story! “ Is that story really gonna be worth it though? And I don’t think they even needed to have him say that! Knothole wasn’t destroyed so logically neither should this place have been.
Either way, Rosie asks Sally who’s gonna be her up there in the play because she’s with her, and Sally giggles, as it turns out this play about Sally almost being roboticized had Knuckles playing her! That’s kind of inconsiderate of Sally to make Knuckles embarrass himself like that!
But I can understand why a girl who dedicated most of her life to trying to be perfect and always do the right thing, would actually want to do something like pull a prank every once and a while for a BREAK!… STILL, having a play about Sally almost being roboticized! It’s AMAZING they can even make light of that! It’s Harsher in Hindsight! You’d think that would be considered unsuitable for children in this universe!
The script of the play is pretty horrible. Characters literally say their names when they show up like “ Bunnie “ and Big, and Knuckles amusingly breaks from script to insult Sonic as lousy, which would’ve been FINE if he had just let himself say it all for the funny ad-lib! But he just started the line up again!…
And then Big says, “ Get them Snively my evil sidekick! “ which is so STILTED! Also, Big really IS in Knothole, he really wasn’t just a mere cameo in the crowd in 134. Why, when did he come here? It’s weird to have a play so pathetically amateurish in script! Man, ever since Sonic came back from space, I really can’t enjoy these issues…
One of the worst things about this play is that they don’t even try to have much of a plot. They just immediately have Sally get captured with no plot leading up to that with her and Geoffrey tied up, and immediately she’s about to get roboticized, it’s so lazy! What was she doing with Geoffrey, what was her mission?
I like that Jules asks, “ Whose… IDEA was it, to cast ROTOR as TAILS? “ That brings up a good point, in fact I don’t understand why everyone wouldn’t just play THEMSELVES!… And Mighty looks enraged for some reason, I guess he hates this just as much as I do. Why would Mighty have trouble holding onto the rope above the play when he has super strength? The story ends with Sonic joking around trying to kiss Knuckles who threatens him into not doing so.
In the next story, we see Tails moping about. “ How come MY parents can’t come back?… What do the BEMS still need them for? “ He then acts immature insisting that bringing his parents home when home isn’t exactly safe to begin with is more important than fighting Eggman or anything ELSE they do here. I like that he’s acting like an ACTUAL CHILD. It’s all about you, isn’t it?
Then Athair shows up with Tails as just a kid saying he needs him. After a panel is wasted recapping the first time Tails met Athair, he says he remembers something about a great harmony after the Chosen One gathers the Chaos Emeralds.
Then ANOTHER panel is wasted on recapping Turbo Tails who’s not orange as Tails lampshades, “ WHY does everyone have to be so cryptic?! How come everyone knows that but me?! “ FINALLY we get to the actual story as Athair tells him that only the most devout of practitioners of something he doesn’t say, ever learn about the ancient prophecies of the Ancient Walkers, including his uncle Merlin Prower.
And, the echidnas who worship Knuckles because they knew about an Ancient Walker prophecy despite not being devout practitioners of magic… Tails is shocked that he has an uncle, without mentioning the fact that he’s a WIZARD.
Athair says that Merlin’s ALWAYS known he would be born and his destiny, and would’ve explained everything to him given the chance, but then the doppelganger business kicked in, which ANOTHER panel is wasted on recapping, when it COULD’VE been spent on telling us why the fuck Merlin decided to be completely absent from Tails’ life when he loves him! By the way it’s really glaring that Knuckles isn’t green in that panel when that was KIND of an important plot point! Why are Tails’ eyelids white? Why is it always the eyelids that get miscolored white, why isn’t it something like an arm?
And after ALL of that recap, when Tails asks angrily why he can’t tell him what any of this stuff means… even though it should be obvious that it means he’s the Chosen One and especially magical… Athair looks cowardly and rudely DISAPPEARS, telling him that the hour of the Chosen One is now at hand… Why did this story need to EXIST? Why couldn’t we just… have… NOT had these two back-up stories, and left the whole issue to the MAIN story to get the arc done and over with faster?
The first story was by Ken Penders, and was mostly just Isaac having a history lecture that gets more increasingly nonsensical the more you think about it while Sonic runs from Shadow who inexplicably wants to fight him since he’s horribly written, until Sonic finds a missile. Sonic is RIGHT, why oh why did Tails think he needed to HEAR all of this. It would’ve been nice if when Tails said, “ Do you realize what he’s saying? “ he had finished that train of thought!
It would’ve been even nicer if Tails and Rotor actually pointed out that Isaac was totally wrong because he says “ well over a thousand years later “ and not “ a century later, “ making everything after that make no sense. Instead it just seems pointless!
While I didn’t know about Isaac being created by and keeping alive a Kintobor, especially since he said his hardware and software each were designed by two people completely separate from HIM, I DID know about how the Xorda impacted history! And I didn’t need to know about how the Chaos Emeralds came out of the core of the earth from it with power from the non-magical gene bombs inside! At least Tommy got to do something useful by stopping an electrocution, but couldn’t Tails have done that?
The second story by Nelson Ramero, was an entirely pointless story about a horribly amateurish play put on by the Freedom Fighters which had a very stilted script, having the characters blatantly say who they are, the casting choices sucked because nobody plays themselves, meaning Sally humiliated Knuckles making him play as her, and the actual plot of the play was too basic as it just rushed to Sally being kidnapped and saved by Sonic like a helpless damsel in distress, in a portrayal you’d think would offend Sally, with nothing happening leading up to that!
It was meant to be funny but it was such a bad play that I refused to buy it would happen that way, so it was just frustrating instead. And the story starts out with a stupid fourth-wall breaking joke that says, “ This story makes no sense to have happened but fuck you we’re wasting comic space on it anyways. You bought the comic! “
And the third story by Ken Penders is just there to pointlessly recap Tails’ history being the Chosen One. The only thing of significance is that he finds out Merlin’s his uncle, but, it’s not like he talked directly TO Merlin and they had a bonding moment like they should’ve!… Athair could’ve told him that EARLIER!
And I was expecting it to be explained why the fuck Merlin didn’t just RAISE TAILS and teach him how to be a useful powerful wizard, having an actual unique niche in a comic that’s full of engineers as it is, when Athair said Merlin would’ve explained everything had he been given the chance. But they didn’t. It’s an unacceptable plot hole that Merlin would neglect his only family like that, when he loves him! The story ends with Athair saying the hour of the Chosen One was near. So does this take place AFTER the main story’s arc is done?
These backup stories were so pointless I actually MISS the 25 Years Later arc! Even though they actually have engaging plots! At least THAT was CHARMING and the setting was a unique change of pace! Is that whole “ Lara and Sonic disappearing, “ and the apocalypse thing EVER gonna get concluded? Because that’s such a, that’s such a bullshit cliffhanger to end it on! ALL it would’ve needed is literally ONE more story! And that was it!
I’m hoping it was just Executive Meddling forcing that arc to end early, much like how I’m hoping it was Executive Meddling that forced Penders to write that recap story this issue because why would he bother otherwise? We don’t need to know that for the next arc to make sense.
Issue 149:
We start out with Uncle Chuck waiting for Jules’ shuttle because his help is needed, and he had to go apologize to the king for leaving him for some reason to go here. You’d think the king would have his priorities straight, he didn’t need Chuck with him to begin with!
As Jules and Chuck go in an airship to help Sonic get home, Isaac suspects that Sonic knows what the “ secret “ is for no reason as I’m wondering where the rocket went without them burning up in the exhaust if it really launched, and a fight breaks out. Shadow and Metal Sonic get sent down.
Meanwhile, Tails tells his friends what’s going on with Sonic and Rotor decides that they have to go find Sonic and abandon this place because he discovered ancient diagrams over the years of a nuclear missile. Fiona finds something that looks like a gray rifle saying while looking badass, “ Now THIS looks like my idea of a robot buster! “ That’s pretty awesome of her, and as a mortal, she’d need any way of dealing with robots that she could get.
Then Sonic lampshades that Shadow is being so hostile saying, “ What’d I ever do to you? “ If the writer knew why this was stupid, he never should’ve written it with the real Shadow. Oh after some time-wasting fight THIS is where Fiona is idiotically lectured on using an EXCELLENT weapon against robots, JUST because of what the weapon LOOKS like.
Rotor says stupidly that Freedom Fighters never use guns, EVEN THOUGH they just fight evil robots and have already used ray guns that kinda look like guns anyways. I wanna slap him for thinking that! Why don’t they just have ray guns with them already so that she wouldn’t feel the need to pick this up?! He made a huge ray gun in Issue 44! He tried to shoot Eggman with it when he went to Knothole!
I bet the reception of the Shadow game is the only reason this is happening – so dumb meta logic – because come on, this is so stupid, normally this comic takes risks all the time, it even had Robotropolis get nuked no big deal, but all of a sudden it’s being lame NOW.
I’m wondering why this rifle was even HERE, and wishing it never was since it only contributed this awful panel. This is a good Establishing Character Moment for Fiona showing her as the fish out of water in a group of pure heroes who are too purely self-righteous for their own good, holding themselves back in fighting Eggman and beating him a lot faster. She’s the Only Sane Man to all the nonsense reacting like a normal, neutral person would. I feel sorry for her here.
Meanwhile Isaac says while having a laser at a metal wall with beeping at the top of the panel that the hedgehog’s companions are inside the armory, and preemptive action might need to be taken. We then see some laser-shooters above ground cause an explosion.
Sonic teases Shadow about the fact that Isaac isn’t there anymore while Metal Sonic’s lying on the ground. Sonic says that one of “ these “ is about to go off, I guess a bomb, and he says that the way out is blocked.
Shadow saying he’s not a robot just reminds me of the missed opportunity with the arc because if this was actually just a Shadow Android, him being a jerk to Sonic the whole time would’ve actually made sense, and Isaac didn’t identify him as fully organic like he did Sonic, so it would’ve had foreshadowing. FINALLY they stop fighting for a little bit to go up the stairs and try to find a way out.
And of course Tails and the others are fine, making the explosion seem pretty pointless, and Tails asks if they’re certain this way will lead them to Sonic. He’s given a print-out of the layout that I can only assume Tommy downloaded in an attempt to figure out Sonic’s location.
Then Sonic pants in exhaustion from running, which almost NEVER happens! So that was out of character! How does he run across the whole planet then? He’s just arbitrarily shown to have no stamina so the writer can emphasis SHADOW having stamina! It’s like Shadow is his replacement for the super powerful Knuckles.
I really don’t understand how Shadow went from being evil in this arc to suddenly being his ally, when he was acting pure evil before! Sonic then says the rocket is set to launch, so they have one last thing to do as a result. Did they stop the launch? I DUNNO, it cuts to them being outside!
Jules and Chuck are in an airship, which is being attacked by lasers on the way to Sonic, and after Jules says they’ll drop him and Chuck right here to try to find the kids, Chuck tells him to stay there, logically since it’s better not to risk the both of them at once. Chuck then tells Tails and his friends with cringeworthy dialogue to get themselves on the shuttle right away.
Neither of them would’ve gotten hurt anyways, but at least Chuck tried to do something, but the fact remains, since Jules piloted the airship, Chuck wasn’t necessary. Jules somehow didn’t plan on having Chuck be the only one to ask for the kids all along. So then why did he waste time picking him up if he could’ve left the shuttle and asked for the kids himself?
Sonic is shown a way out by Shadow, sees his friends leaving and complains that his ankle’s shot. Shadow says pragmatically that he should just get in his Spin Mode since it’ll get him places without him NEEDING to use his ankle. He’s gotten injured a lot recently with the arm and shoulder and now this. It’s almost like Wimpification, because it’s so rare of him, why start being realistic NOW, with JUST him?
Shadow leaves saying he goes his OWN way rather than making it up to him for his behavior some more, and Sonic makes it to the airship. Then Rotor points out that they never did learn what caused the seismic graph to go off the charts. They BETTER or this whole arc is gonna feel pointless! It was already unbearably pointless as it is! It just built up to a grand total of NOTHING aside from them stopping a missile launch offscreen that happened for apparently no reason! It didn’t seem that obvious that they stopped the missile launch, so that wasn’t a satisfying conclusion.
Sonic then asks what this place was, who built it, and why. These are the kinds of basic questions that should’ve had answers thought up to them before the arc was even written and we’d be given those answers right from the start at best, not had this question delayed so it’s never answered.
Tails asks Sonic if he’s read this book that Sonic thinks is by a crackpot lying about how Mobius life was like thousands of years ago. Makes sense that he would doubt its validity when all historical records on Mobius were destroyed by Days of Fury hundreds of years ago. But the only possible author to that book if it’s true would have to be the guy that Isaac was looking after, meaning he has to have escaped that building to publish that book… only to return here, as we’ll see later.
Rotor then says that if only they could’ve brought Isaac back with them, Sonic could’ve been shocked at what he’d tell them. We see Isaac in a metallic building saying that the bunker still stands and all systems are good, and he’s awaiting the next orders from his doctor, who’s trapped in a tube of blue liquid so how can he talk to him? Why did his doctor go back into the tube after writing Tails’ book? Wouldn’t he live a LIFE in Station Square?
By the way we still don’t know who the hell roboticized Drago and the others again just to send them to work for EGGMAN. And it wouldn’t make sense for it to be THIS guy because he’s have no reason to support Eggman if he even knows he exists at all and he’d have nothing to gain from it! So I guess THAT mystery was dropped… There’s been a LOT of dropped plot threads recently since Tossed in Space ended, I mean there’s always been those but now it’s especially obvious.
In the second story we start out in an alternate universe where Stealth the Hedgehog battles Professor Egg. It does make sense that while there would be counterparts of people in other universes, that doesn’t guarantee that they were given the exact same names for their parents, and since Eggman obviously wasn’t his birth name anyways, and same would go for Stealth, these could just be nicknames they chose for themselves.
In the world of Mobius-17, the two of them are facing off with each other with futuristic clean light blue skyscrapers behind them, and with some green fire around Professor Egg’s hand. Does he have magical powers?
That would be an interesting twist and it seems to be a case since we see a black hand blotting out the sun, and growing beyond the planet to reach the very essence of the galaxy itself. Or, “ orb “ since the writers insist on calling planets orbs.
But yeah, that black hand, tears the galaxy apart, planning to do the same to millions more. Is he gonna have any sort of explanation at all for why he decided to start doing this? Having villains do such unbelievable things for no other reason than to do evil things is just insulting!
So if the zone cops are able to do surveillance on EVERYBODY, why didn’t a zone cop just drop-kick the person about to do this and kill him instead of letting him and costing so many innocents their lives?!… These guys really do believe in non-interference to the max which destroys the point of having interdimensional cops!
At first I thought the comic ended way too quickly because of the stupid comic space wasters, but instead we cut to Tails playing hide and seek with his big brother figure, only for them to complain about a bright light appearing as Zonic warps to them.
Okay so zone cops ARE part of the story, making my observation earlier even MORE relevant! WHY do the zone cops let this maniac destroy galaxies like that?! There’s a point where non-interference makes you just as heartless as the villains! The Zone Cops should’ve spied on Mogul, seen his plot in advance or heard him brag about it and gotten their plan ready against him LONG AGO, instead of planning all this at the last minute.
Zonic says that there’s a disaster threatening the destruction of the multiverse. And to Sonic’s shock, TAILS is the one Sonic’s going to for help. Unless Tails is gonna make sense of newly discovered magical kitsune powers THAT MAKE SENSE, I don’t see how he’d be more useful than Sonic, with his super speed and spindash and tornado-creating power. Why on earth would he turn to Tails instead?
Zonic says Tails is coming to HIS zone and is nice enough to let Sonic come along too if he’d like – somehow THIS Sonic’s the only one ever who came along with his Tails – before giving them all special wristbands that’ll keep them perpendicular to the perpendicular zone so they aren’t standing sideways in it. But really I don’t see why they should need that! Wouldn’t the natural force of gravity force them to stand on the ground normally anyways?
Zonic is in his office and again somehow expects me to buy that he’s able to spy on ALL of the Sonics, and Sonic is told that some of the screens are blacked out and Zonic reveals that this is because those zones no longer exist, or at the very least the cameras in those zones no longer exist, he should’ve pointed out THAT possibility too…
The last image seen of them was a giant black hand, which has destroyed millions of zones for no reason. Sonic and Tails are worried about how they could help, naturally since they haven’t even freed one world from Robotnik, and this is a situation involving a whole bunch of zones!
They’re told to observe images to find out who is responsible and then figure out why Zonic went for Tails. Apparently that person was Mammoth Mogul. So WHY is he doing this when he has absolutely NOTHING to gain from it? Especially since his goal is to CONQUER. So isn’t destroying zones the opposite of that?
After a bunch of panels are wasted on pointless recap making Penders’ Tails recap story even more pointless and making me wonder how non-fans of the comic could get lost in its continuity since there’s SO MUCH of this, it’s REALLY ANNOYING how the story keeps being interrupted by advertisement pages by the way! It keeps taking me out of it! So much comic space wasted on that trash! When Knuckles released all of his power when he was green, that power was absorbed by Mogul since Emerald energy attracts Emerald energy as the Triple Trouble Special revealed.
Apparently if Knuckles had stayed in the afterlife and become one with the Chaos Force, it would’ve remained in balance, I guess because he’d get to fight Mogul, but instead he was powerless when he returned to Mobius, and Mogul, also one with the Chaos Force, took advantage of this to take its power completely.
So if Knuckles had stayed dead, while Mobius Prime’s heroes would’ve been screwed, apparently his presence in the Chaos Force would’ve magically kept Mogul from destroying millions more zones, even though he didn’t mention ANYTHING about seeing Mogul when he was one with the Chaos Force and Aurora didn’t tell him about Mogul as an incentive to stay, so it couldn’t have been that he was fighting him while one with it.
That’s why Aurora punished him for being a hero, except she had no right to do that when she didn’t lift a FINGER, to stop Mogul from doing all that, including TELLING KNUCKLES he had to stay and fight him, meaning that she’s just as bad than she was viewing Knuckles as!
After being told that Mogul wants to destroy every zone in existence Sonic finally lampshades why his plan is so idiotic. “ But then he’s got nothing to rule. “ So why the hell did the writer give him that goal then? Zonic says that he figures on creating a zone. Maybe the reason he’s destroying all the universes is so his zone could be the only one with people in it. That’s spiteful and selfish.
With all the power at his disposal though, why can’t he just take over those zones instead of destroying him? Why can’t he just brainwash the people of those zones to let him rule them instead of destroying them? You’d think if he has that kind of power, he would just recreate all the zones the way he likes INSTEAD OF DESTROYING them and giving the zone cops early warning to beat him up. He would retcon the zones so that even their pasts were ruled by him so the zone cops wouldn’t notice anything had changed. But if he did that, we wouldn’t have a story.
Tails naturally lampshades how he could fight Mogul and neither of them are particularly helpful because they don’t know. Then a lot of screens are blacked out much faster than Zonic thought. Then I’m expected to believe that the only zones left in existence are the Prime Zone he arbitrarily left for last and the one they’re in. Either they’re gonna do something to bring all the zones back good as new, or I’d really have to question how the Anti-Mobius survived that which it must have judging by later issues.
Predictably, Mammoth Mogul shows up, and every single zone cop is prepared to give him all they’ve got, as I wonder why the hell they didn’t do this EARLIER. If their whole purpose is to be interdimensional cops, then EVERY zone is in their jurisdiction! So why did they wait until he came here?
Zonic, running away and down some stairs opening a door with them, says that he brought Tails here because he knows Mogul’s afraid of the Chosen One, but he wasn’t sure which Tails was able to deal with Mogul. Wouldn’t it be obvious it’s the Prime one?
We see an entire room full of them all, literally ALL of them somehow fitting into one room. Interestingly enough at least based on their appearances, most of them seem to be intellectuals, proving that Tails IS by his very nature a genius. What I like is that Zonic was also open-minded enough to bring the evil Tailses. The frustrating thing is that I can’t really tell which evil Tails is Miles. There seems to be two possible candidates. There’s one with a leather jacket and black boots except he’s also got nerdy glasses he’s never seen wearing instead of shades.
And then there’s one with Miles’ haircut from LATER in the series, in his more famous design, implying that either Miles got inspired to have that haircut from seeing him, OR he inexplicably stopped having that haircut just to have it again. I mean he does have spiked bracelets too AND an ear piercing. Stuff that only Tails in evil gangs rebelling against a world that doesn’t accept their second tail, go figure, would have.
Those are all Miles-esque things, but then there’s another pierce just above his eye that we never see on Miles, and not to mention this guy has no shirt with just a belt. I mean his friends can really make him do anything, even make him get painful piercings! I like his expression too, he doesn’t look stereotypically menacing. Just a little agitated!
But again there’s also another Tails that looks like Miles except with glasses. So why’d he get rid of his glasses unless he’s wearing contacts now? And contacts are high-maintenance, you have to keep washing them and worry about losing them and put them directly in your eyes, would Miles agree to all that? Does not wearing nerdy glasses mean that much to him? Well I guess it would with his… wannabe gangster reputation?
There seems to be plenty of Tailses here that could also qualify as evil, either because they just look serious or because, for example, not only is he serious but there’s one with a Viking helmet holding a sword, gee I wonder if he’s murderous… Maybe they were bullied. It’s interesting, there’s so many different what-if scenarios of how this kid could’ve ended up, and some of them are even different ages from him, probably because their parents met and had a kid earlier or later. It’s a shame the story ends here.
The first story was by Ken Penders and involves the Freedom Fighters leaving whatever metal compound area they were in with a frustrating lack of answers about it! I’m sure they stopped the nuclear missile or maybe they’ll deal with it later. Them dealing with it for good had to have been pretty forgettable if I feel like it happened offscreen! At least Shadow stopped fighting Sonic inexplicably but it’s not explained why! They just decided to work together temporarily to escape the base!
There’s also a great character moment for Fiona where she’s a fish out of water Only Sane Man to a bunch of self-righteous heroes telling her stupidly, “ No, you can’t use a rifle to fight evil mindless robots, because that’d be wrong! “ This probably taught Fiona that the heroes care more about making THEMSELVES look like good people than actually being as productive as they can.
I feel SORRY for her here! Rotor’s being such a hypocrite considering the giant ray guns he used in stuff like Issue 49! As if bullets are any worse than lasers shot by a ray gun! And I’m glad Jules and Chuck got to be useful flying the airship here.
But the more interesting story was by Romy Chacon and involved Tails being brought to Zonic’s dimension to face off with Mammoth Mogul, who’s become a zone-destroying threat because we need a villain. The intriguing twist is that Zonic actually brought ALL the Tailses here, because he had no way of knowing for sure which one’s the chosen one.
The obvious answer is that the Prime Tails is that, but that would be an assumption and if he’s wrong, he’s screwed, so he’s just trying to put all the odds against Mogul. He was even open-minded enough to bring some Tailses that possibly weren’t even good guys! So I like the concepts here a lot!
The problem is, well one, why the fuck are there so many advertisements interrupting the story?! It’s so annoying, they’re immersion-breaking like that! What a waste of valuable comic space, on stuff people probably tore out of their comics and threw away for that very reason! But more importantly there’s a huge plot hole here.
Why didn’t Zonic send all the zone cops to fight Mogul BEFORE he destroyed any zones? I guess Mogul was just that powerful that they couldn’t fight him then but then they go fight him here anyways! What’s the job of the zone cops if not to prevent stuff like this? Worst, police, ever!
And if Aurora made Knuckles powerless as a punishment because she psychically KNEW him not being one with the Chaos Force would let Mogul destroy zones, then, if she’s powerful enough to know Mogul’s plan ahead of time, then that just brings up the question of why she didn’t stop him herself! Or at least TOLD KNUCKLES why he should stay in the Chaos Force, to fight Mogul! This clearly wasn’t planned from the start. How dare she treat Knuckles like the bad guy when she could’ve done something and didn’t!
Also we’re supposed to believe every zone except for two got destroyed but Anti-Mobius will obviously end up being fine. I know that for a fact! So obviously they have to get restored later on. Or that’d be a huge waste, much like Mogul destroying zones instead of conquering them with his power like he wants to so bad.
His whole motivation for doing this is non-existent and arbitrary. He’s not a believable villain at all when it comes to his character, which is just puppet on strings to be pulled by the writers. I can only guess that his survival of the fittest mantra is making him think he’s justified in killing innocents with that because they’re weaker than them, but what was his childhood like that his parents made him end up like that?!
Issue 150:
We start out with Sonic having fun defeating a Shadow SWATbot that was going to attack a chili dog salesman, the natural problem with having Eggman know where Knothole is. And then it gets sent into the water and short-circuits.
The chili dog salesman who’s French, for some reason, compliments Sonic with a chili dog, and Ash calls Sonic a show-off for being a hero. So it looks like he’s taken over the jealous douchebag rival role that Geoffrey had. But Geoffrey was a better character because he at least was a Freedom Fighter of his own group, the king’s guard, and then a secret service member, while Ash has no such competence. I like that Amy actually points out that he’s just jealous. And I like that Amy likes Mina enough to be hanging out with her regularly as if they were always friends.
How MUCH later that day? What’d he DO in the meantime? Is this after he talked to Fiona?
Later on Sonic says with a smooth smile that he was thinking maybe him and Mina could hang out down by the creek, and gives her a flower not caring about what Ash would think. Well I think I know what’s going on here now. After all, Sonic’s never even given Mina a chance as a girlfriend, because Sally exists.
Meanwhile, a time zone away in a trendy establishment uptown in Station Square, a comic-space-wasting filler scene happens instead of having all the story devoted to the real plot, because an unlikely customer, Fang, is meeting with an upscale patron, and asks him if he’s finally gonna break down and let him have a go at the Angel Island stash. This is the first I’m hearing of that, I thought there was just the Master Emerald. How’d anyone find out that the one Chaos Emerald ended up becoming the Master Emerald?
Fang’s told that the merchandise he speaks of is still too high-profile, and then it’s explained that said stash is the largest and only known supply of Chaos Emeralds, apparently, and he’s confused as to why he thinks it’s worth going after. It makes sense that the stash would be on the island, but since when?! If they were on the island, why didn’t Eggman find them? Or the Dark Legion to use them against Eggman? And why does Fang care about whether someone would LET him go for a stash? Why doesn’t he just do it?
Fang is asked while Rouge is listening in secretly, how he could possibly get the gems when they’re heavily guarded, especially now that they’ve been rebuilding the island after Eggman had his fun. Does that mean Eggman was kicked off the island offscreen? T-That was anticlimactic! The text blurb pretends we can get the full story in the Issue 138 arc but we CAN’T.
The last we heard of him there, he was about to send an army of Egg Pawns after the Master Emerald! Apparently Locke beat them all himself and freed the island by himself when this is the same guy who got captured trying to protect the Emerald and imprisoned.
Fang is told that Locke has backup guarding that stash – no he doesn’t, unless he means that tiny little ant, I forgot about him – and the man talking to hm would rather go for a sure thing down in Cat Country than an unknown on the Floating Island. Totally ignoring his “ heavily-guarded, “ warning, Rouge thinks to herself selfishly that, “ Who else is more deserving of Chaos Emeralds than Rouge? “ Sonic, for one. Tails for another. I doubt they’ll ever explain WHY she turned out to be so entitled.
At least she feels like an actual character with life to her personality now, because Bollers just wrote her so bland and boring, she was just the president’s agent and that was it. Penders started making her a villain finally because she’s a jewel thief, as she’s always been.
She flies to Angel Island thinking that the security guard will be putty once she gets her hands on him, and at first we see Mina appreciating being shown affection by Sonic with him gently touching her chin – kind of surprising that he would do that and he wouldn’t just kiss her outright, honestly. I guess he’s REALLY got a soft side to him!
Unfortunately, Mina quickly decides that she’d rather be with her jealous douchebag boyfriend instead. I almost wrote “ girlfriend, “ (laughs) for some reason… Sonic looks confused asking, “ Something wrong, babe? “ I’d like to point out that this would hardly be the first time Sonic said “ babe. “ He called EVE that. So it makes perfect sense for his character.
As Mina runs away saying that this somehow isn’t what she wanted, Sonic for some reason says yeah like he’s agreeing with her, for some reason, and thinks a sigh instead of doing it before thinking, “ So close! “ Mina runs away with Amy thinking of her as rude for not talking to her – wait a minute, this makes the whole plot kinda forced because if Mina HAD told Amy what just happened, which she had no reason not to do, the next part of this plot wouldn’t have happened, as Sonic immediately goes to flirt with her instead calling her babe while thinking of how many hot chicks are in the vicinity.
He asks if she’s free right now, while he looks goofy because his eye clearly isn’t focused at her, so it looks like he went cross-eyed. Several hours later while the sun is starting to set – stupid time skips – we see Tails wondering why Sonic didn’t come over when he was supposed to, and then he’s completely blown away at seeing Sonic kissing Bunnie.
Wait… so why did someone as supposedly clingy and infatuated with him as Amy NOT insist on keeping spending time with him up to this point, to the point where down the line he HAD to settle for Bunnie? How’d he ever end up in this situation?! I could understand if Amy was the one he found last and Bunnie was the second one, instead.
Either way Bunnie shows that something good DID come out of this as she says that after Antoine and her broke up, she didn’t think anyone would be interested in her, causing Sonic to sweetly compliment her, “ A babe like you? What’s not to like? “ He didn’t have to say that, that was sweet! He’s got NO problem with her cyborg legs. Still though, why did he have to settle for her and not just stick with Amy or someone else like that?
What failure would cause him to get to this point, instead of spending all day with someone else? Sure, Bunnie’s the most desperate, with her low confidence in getting another boyfriend, probably due to the fact that she’s got cyborg legs and so she thinks no one would ever settle for that. But he didn’t know about that desperation! And Amy was pretty desperate to get him TOO, more than Bunnie would ever be! You’d think they would’ve stuck together.
Sonic then gets annoyed at how Tails is acting all betrayed at them getting together saying, “ What are you doing?! Say it isn’t so! “ That last line being almost the exact same kind of thing he said when he thought Sonic killed Sally, and when he thought Sonic was betraying him when he had amnesia! Not exactly appropriate to the situation!…
I mean, Tails shouldn’t be thinking “ Antoine “ still loves Bunnie and wants to be with her and therefore this would be disloyal to Antoine, because he’s shown no indications of that with anyone and just been grumpy instead. You’d think he’d be CONGRATULATING him being happy for their love and thankful that Sonic finally MOVED ON and that Bunnie did! But no!
Instead he acts like this is the worst thing EVER, when he should have NO way of KNOWING there should be ANYTHING WRONG with the way he’s acting! I mean if it’s because Bunnie and Antoine used to date, well, he never insulted Sonic for going after Sally when Antoine used to have a crush on Sally! But with Bunnie it’s the worst thing ever?
Sonic since he’s naturally pretty irritated at being treated like the bad guy in this situation when all he wanted was to get affection, says, “ What’s it to you? When I need a kid sidekick I’ll let you know! “ But that’s still not nearly enough. I would’ve written it so that he told Tails off for this by outright questioning WHY he’s not HAPPY for them, because yeah, Tails would’ve deserved it at that point! Neither of them are bothering to explain their side of the argument, which is totally unrealistic!
Tails then stormed off looking miffed from his confusingly harsh last sentence. Don’t worry, I know what’s going on, but even with that in mind, I still find it confusing! It does explain a lot if this is how he behaved towards his little brother figure when interrupted kissing.
After Bunnie tries to push him away from another kiss asking if HE’S okay due to his apathy at Tails, for some reason she’s still cuddling with him hours later when I expected him to immediately leave in a huff like Tails did. It’s like she’s almost as desperate for affection as HE is! Instead of getting mad at him for the way he brushed off Tails, she ended up napping with him for a while before commenting on how weird this has been! I hate that I didn’t get to see what Sonic’s response to, “ Are you okay? “ was! That’s so stupid!
Sonic happily says that if it’s a dream, it’s been a great dream, and Bunnie leaves looking worried saying that he’d better patch things up with Tails and it wouldn’t do to be seen out late like this. Sonic says, “ Well, don’t be a stranger! “ and Bunnie says, “ Good luck with your parents. “ They would lecture him for making them worry after all.
He then talks blissfully about how happy his life is and yep, it’s finally revealed why “ Sonic “ has been acting like this. This is actually Scourge. Wait a minute he has GREEN eyes?! But Sonic only got green eyes from running around a planet with the Super Emerald! So… why the hell does SCOURGE have green eyes? HE didn’t have to save Knothole and the planet from a temporal beam trying to get Knothole out of being three hours ahead in time, because the Ultimate Annihilator was never built and stopped!
If he got his hands on a Super Emerald himself, what’d he DO with it? What reason would he have to run around the planet with it then? We should’ve gotten a story explaining THAT, not the nonsensical story in SSS10! If his eyes are green because he’s wearing contacts, well he must only be wearing them to disguise himself as Sonic, but he KEEPS HAVING green eyes AFTER this arc, so THAT can’t be it, because he would’ve given up those contacts after they served their purpose!
It was specifically pointed out in Sonic Super Special 10 that Scourge DIDN’T have green eyes and Sonic did as a way to differentiate them. So if this was a retcon so that he always had green eyes, then this would be a big contradiction to that issue, which has to have happened to explain why Scourge was in Litigopolis and why he was in Knothole to threaten Antoine. So there has to be an explanation for why this happened to him, but we won’t get to see it.
Either way, this revelation has a lot of deep insight to his character! The MINUTE he impersonated Sonic, he proceeded to not ruin his reputation – well, on purpose anyways. But he proceeded to NOT commit a whole bunch of crimes, NOT kill anybody, not even write graffiti like in Litigopolis! Instead, this so-called evil twin, lived life almost exactly the same way Sonic did right down to saving a chili dog salesman from a SWATbot!
Granted, he was in it for the long haul, so him doing those evil things would be nonsensical of him for his plan because then he’d get in trouble and wouldn’t have the happy life he’s enjoying right now. But it says something that he even WANTED that happy life stuck with instead of refusing to be a hero! That he even KNEW it would BE a happy life!
And besides, you’d think he would’ve killed Patch the second he came to Mobius because he would’ve outlived his usefulness because the whole reason he sent him to Mobius Prime was to AVOID being around him. He could’ve knocked him out, carried him far away and killed him somewhere where no one would know it was him, and blamed it on a robot! So he could’ve killed one person, the evil Antoine, and not necessarily lost his happy life from a good reputation.
But instead of carrying out revenge against Patch the second he could, he never even TRIED and someone else will have to deal with him instead. And THAT SAYS something. Sonic wouldn’t kill Patch either. He was being just like Sonic, no problem! The only difference is, he’s a Casanova.
Exactly, Bunnie.
Now let’s think about why SONIC would go out of his way to get affection as much as possible to the point of approaching three different girls! If you didn’t know this was Scourge, you could’ve logically concluded that Sonic couldn’t STAND not having Sally as a girlfriend anymore, and wanted to feel better about it by getting affection from OTHER girls instead, using them for affection to get over Sally, because being left by Sally left him LONELY and DESPERATE. I mean, look at Scourge when he’s being pushed away from a kiss by Bunnie. How does he NOT look desperate right now?
Maybe if his entire group of friends hadn’t walked out on him and ditched him for no good reason and instead actually LIKED him, he would’ve gotten the emotional support and kindness he needed, but instead, he’s gotten so lonely from his depressing life that he’s desperate to feel loved, no matter who it’s from. Scourge is being like Boom Eggman in the sense that all he really wants is to be loved. I don’t see why that’d be hard to believe of him when Boom Eggman is that way too when Eggman’s outright the main villain of the series, and even HE could have that motivation.
Scourge must be REALLY lonely and desperate to get a girlfriend as soon as possible if he’s acting like this, and that’s not an insult by ANY means! I LOVE the fact that he has this quality to him because think about what that means. Sonic would be lonely and desperate because he misses affection he isn’t getting anymore. Or maybe for Scourge he never got any to begin with.
Maybe Scourge barely got any affection from his family, if at all, and that led to him becoming desperate to get as much of it as he can to overcompensate, which led to him becoming the Casanova he is today. It’d also lead to him becoming the rebellious delinquent he is today because I’m sure that’s a pretty common motivation behind why kids get rebellious, they want love and attention from their parents and are angry at not getting it.
It’s such an easy quick to think of explanation for why Scourge became a bad guy so it’s very baffling that this was never dwelt on. It’s certainly more interesting than him just being one-dimensional! And this is why this is my favorite issue of Penders, because I love thinking about Scourge more deeply like this, which I can do in this case because he’s actually being a deep character, and not just a generic Take Over the World bad guy or something.
He’s proud of the heroic thing he did, instead of self-conscious and embarrassed and denying it. There’s no indication he’d do anything ELSE differently from Sonic. He might be a hero just like Sonic would aside from having a rebellious urge. The fact that he’s happily going through with this instead of clinging onto his villain reputation just from habit says a lot!
I’m not sure he’d even be different in the sense that he’d kill the bad guys or want to, because he never killed Patch despite all the times he tried to kill HIM, so either he somehow has too much emotional attachment to Patch to do that just because they were in the same gang together for years, or he’s humoring Miles, or he doesn’t really wanna kill ANYONE, regardless of what he says.
He’s being just like Sonic as a hero, but because he’s flirting with Amy and then Bunnie right afterwards, we have a situation where if he stayed any longer, he’d end up getting in huge trouble, with not only all the girls he flirted with, but also with Sonic’s parents. What if he would’ve gotten kicked out of the Freedom Fighters for that? And all because of a mistake from someone who didn’t know any better, because he doesn’t think of the consequences of his actions.
Anyways, this all started when Patch threatened him when he was sitting on a comfy chair against a stone wall, looking totally apathetic at best and mildly annoyed at worst at seeing Patch threatening his LIFE. Patch says that once he presses the button, he’ll eliminate his greatest enemy, who is inexplicably HIM, now, and not Antoine or Kintobor, forever.
Have we ever gotten any indication that Scourge ever did anything to him to deserve this? No… That’s ironic as hell since he’s like an evil twin! Sonic did more to ANTOINE to have this happen from all the bullying he put him through! We have no indication that his evil twin bullied Patch at all! No bear trap to the foot, not even a whoopee cushion! Isn’t that lop-sided?…
And WHY isn’t Scourge reacting more appropriately to this? Is he so dissatisfied with his pointless life that he just doesn’t care about anything anymore? Like he was acting LAST time we saw him with his friends. Or is it that he doesn’t take Patch seriously as a threat at all? Why can’t it be both?
Most importantly of all, Scourge seems to imply he was the top dog in his gang again. HOW did Scourge get back into his old position in the gang of being the top dog when the last time we saw him, he got arrested by Zonic after threatening Antoine and his father?! And before that, he was on the run in Litigopolis after his gang ditched him! What’d he do to get accepted back? This is a serious continuity error completely ignoring how Scourge wasn’t home last time we saw him!
You’d think he’d have either not bothered returning to a gang that didn’t want him around, which would’ve been the only reason why he would’ve taken so long to return to them and done zone hopping instead, or he would’ve gone through with his revenge plot of SSS10 (” Well they’re gonna pay, one by one! “) and at that point, why would they have accepted him being around them without plotting to kill him every time his back was turned, if he was so mean to them when he came back?
He apparently used violence and force to get back to this position after he turned green, but the writing and them were acting like this was a new thing for him and he didn’t already intimidate them into accepting him back BEFORE. And I’m guessing Patch’s device was meant to make him explode.
Well instead it turns out that Patch, who’s actually called Patch now and not earlier, was going to send Scourge to Mobius Prime. And I quote, “ courtesy of Evil Rotor’s latest doo-dad. “ I highly doubt his parents actually named him Evil Rotor! (giggles) He’s just calling him that because of his knowledge of other Rotors, I guess…
Either way, Patch was going to send him to Mobius Prime to get rid of him for no reason, and after he predictably got knocked out by Scourge, who, uh, wait, what’d he do to knock him out? It LOOKS like he hit him with a spinning thing, but we see the ends of all his limbs and he’s not holding anything in his hands! How’d he hurt him?
And honestly, I don’t see why Scourge stopped him from sending him to Mobius Prime, because then Scourge would’ve been able to bother Sonic and the Freedom Fighters all the time, would be free from his friends, and best of all, he’d have an actually challenging enemy who’d be fulfilling to fight in the form of villains like Eggman. What, is he so attached to Miles that he thinks staying on Moebius is worth it?
If Patch had succeeded here, then if Sonic was up in space at this point, that means Scourge would’ve replaced him on the team with no one knowing any better, and inevitably gotten in trouble from his acting more like a Casanova and talking or acting more harshly and selfishly.
While I doubt his friends would’ve outright kicked him out unless he really, really screwed up, since he does have sonic speed to help out after all, they could’ve been more sore with Sonic when he came back from space trying to excuse his previous actions as it being an imposter, when for all they’d know HE was the Evil Sonic since it’d be more likely than the explosion of the Quantum Dial sending him to the ant planet.
And while everyone would be asking how “ Sonic “ survived the explosion, Scourge not knowing what to say wouldn’t necessarily be a dead giveaway if people assumed he, well one, just isn’t knowledgeable about science and how the device works, or ran away from the explosion and then got hit on the head getting amnesia, and therefore would’ve taken a long time to come back to them. He could just let them believe that. Hell, he could say that the explosion itself gave him amnesia.
If Patch succeeded here, it could’ve either led to Sonic’s reputation being ruined from Scourge, though that’s unlikely since he would’ve at least tried to keep things good for his own sake, OR, it would’ve led to Scourge’s redemption because he’d have to be a hero like Sonic was to fit in for his role, and he would’ve gotten used to it. By the time Sonic would’ve come home, Scourge would’ve done so many good things for his team that the heroes would have good reason to want to keep him around. It’d be unfair to ignore everything he did for them after he hadn’t been evil in forever.
And he’d have gotten to like the new status quo enough to not want to leave the team. The heroes might even tell Sonic not to kick Scourge out because he’s so useful and did far more to help than anything. That’s probably what would’ve happened with him at this rate, considering he loves rescuing chili dog salesmen.
We’ll never know, but maybe that should’ve happened instead, but instead Bollers was in charge of the main comic while Penders was just doing the Knuckles stories. So Antoine going grim was explained away as him being Patch, and at that point it was too late, Bollers had already written people being happy that Sonic came back from space.
Anyways, he figured Patch would try to fry his tail again. He’s phrasing it as if sending him to Mobius Prime would’ve killed Scourge! Sure he has tried to kill Scourge, but that has nothing to do with THIS. Either way, he decided to fight fire with fire by sending Patch to Mobius as a punishment. Why was he surprised that the device actually worked?
I guess the reason he didn’t simply kill Patch was that his friends would notice Patch was missing and immediately assume Scourge killed him, so if he wanted to stay in his gang, he had to do this instead. Why did he want to stay in his gang? What, is he scared of Eggman?
Conveniently the minute the portal opened, he saw Antoine through the portal, and kicked him considering him a goody-two-shoes in the narration thinking, “ Who would miss this dweeb anyways? “ If ONLY this had happened to the EARLY Antoine when he was still an arrogant jerk pining after Sally and calling Sonic a commoner, I would’ve fully believed he deserved this! But instead this happens long after he received the Character Development making him simply a nervous good guy!
By the way, it SURE is lucky for Scourge that Antoine happened to be ALONE when Scourge went after him. We could’ve gotten an explanation for why that was. Logically you’d think he’d be spending every second of the day with Bunnie, so she’d be a potential witness and have to be knocked out with him to avoid seeing anything. There was no reason for him to be taking a walk in the woods alone.
I could understand if he was alone in his own bed, but the art made it clear that he wasn’t and that was a huge mistake on the part of the artist, and the writer if this was in the script. You’d think Antoine, being the coward that he’s supposed to be, wouldn’t take the risk of walking alone in a world with Eggman and his robots in it when Eggman knows where Knothole is and at no point has he ever successfully fought off robots without needing to power up his Sword with a convenient Ring. You’d think that even if he didn’t have Bunnie with him, he’d still be with other people, like his father or friends.
Scourge didn’t take a long time to try to find Antoine with the portal, waiting until he would be alone. The minute he turned it on while thinking that this thing really works, he already had seen Antoine here, alone somehow. And since Patch could wake up at any moment, he would’ve HAD to have done all this now the seconds after Patch was knocked out, not at a time where Antoine would be alone in bed, or, hey, maybe if he was in the bathroom, having just gone in there or just about to leave, that would’ve justified this perfectly fine while making sense to have happened during the day.
When Patch woke up in Antoine’s clothes he panicked calling them hideous. And Scourge, still in the process of putting Patch’s clothes on the unconscious Antoine, teases Patch, “ I can’t believe you wear this eye patch only to pick up girls! You phoney! “ First off, wouldn’t he have known that by now since he’s known him for so long?
Did Patch seriously never put his patch over the wrong eye even once? Second, ” just ” would be less stilted than ” only. ” And third, I guess he’s so Casanova that he just projects and assumes he wears it to pick up girls because that came out of nowhere, we never saw any girls flirting with him because of his eye-patch. The only girl who’s shown interest in Patch as far as we know is Alicia.
Then we see Scourge seeing Patch being knighted by the king, and he saw that Patch realized that if he couldn’t be the top dog at home, the other Mobius would serve just as well, as he watched him scheme and worm his way into the king’s confidence. To be fair, maybe it’s just that I haven’t seen him in that process thinking to himself during it, but Patch was just acting like a brave and proactive Antoine! Of course he’d get into the king’s confidence, even if he WASN’T intentionally trying to do so for an evil plan!
I guess Scourge is just being cynical from his knowledge of how Patch is because for all he knows, Patch turned good, which could’ve been a possible assumption since instead of Patch immediately doing evil things when he was sent to Mobius like you’d expect of an evil twin, he just did everything Antoine would’ve done being a hero. That doesn’t look evil.
Then we see Antoine wearing Patch’s clothes holding the eye-patch up asking nervously, “ But what about ME? “ Why wasn’t this panel BEFORE the previous one? It wouldn’t make any sense otherwise! Patch didn’t get into the king’s confidence THAT fast! Scourge then told him, “ Survival of the fittest, babe! I’d keep wearing the disguise if I were you, especially if you hope to ever see home again! “ I guess he was calling him babe as a joke?
And naturally this threat worked on the cowardly Antoine since for all he knew, if the evil twins knew who he really was they’d imprison and torture him, rather than being smart and just continuing to take advantage of the fact that he can be made to do whatever they wanted, and so nothing would’ve changed. That’s what I think would be more likely to happen.
Really, Scourge wanted him to keep the disguise on because if his friends or the zone cops ever figured out what happened he’d get in trouble, because Zonic wasn’t watching the right screen while this was going on apparently, even though Scourge is the evil Sonic they should be watching the most closely! What’s the point of every zone cop having camera footage of every Sonic if they won’t catch stuff like this?! The zone cop watching Antoine should’ve done something about this right away!
And it’s not like he showed up and Scourge killed him or imprisoned him when he came to him. Even if he did kill him, he’d just get replaced, but I guess the new guy wouldn’t know what changed, so that would work. Zonic must have been in the bathroom.
It was obvious why Scourge really did this to Antoine instead of just killing Patch, but I guess the explanation for why Antoine didn’t simply tell Scourge’s friends what happened to get him into trouble with them anyways, was that who knows what Scourge would do to him for snitching on him?
Anyways, Scourge decided Patch had a great deal, saying, “ Best of all, no more Sally and all her whining and complaining! “ If only Sonic had said that, because that would’ve made perfect sense, although I don’t understand what Alicia would complain about. SHE doesn’t have to constantly fight against Robotnik. And she’s not constantly worrying about anyone’s safety in dangerous situations, other than maybe Miles’ since he’s the youngest. What would she possibly have to stress out and complain about? And why would Scourge ever think that the OTHER Sally would be different?
He sees Sonic running around while Sonic’s planning to deactivate all of Eggman’s landmines at super speed. That’s the best portal ever if it’s fast enough to keep up with Sonic while he’s running so that it can continuously show Sonic as he’s running instead of just showing him Sonic for a second in a blue blur.
Then as Scourge talks about taking an opportunity, he’s wearing a metallic glove on one hand that looks like the Giant’s Glove he got for Robo-Robotnik, but that was sought after by him and then was never seen again, so I guess it’s just a metallic gauntlet. Which he uses to hit Sonic from the other side of the portal in what must have been an especially damaging blow since it knocked him out.
Scourge says that he’s not wild about Sonic’s shoes for some reason, and then smartly says, “ But I guess everyone would catch on real quick if I wore black leather! “ It’s so interesting, it’s like, you’d think Scourge would be obsessed with keeping his villain reputation since he’s always been one, that would’ve been the predictable route to go, but instead we see a guy who would gladly give up all of that, including his clothes, just for the sake of having fun hedonistically, and not by being a criminal, because when you get right down to it, Scourge doesn’t really care about just being a villain per se.
He’ll race Sonic and scuffle with him instead of killing him, and merely do graffiti in Litigopolis, because he doesn’t really care about being as evil as he could, which is fascinating for an evil twin! As long as being a hero would net him a happier life than he had before, he’s happy! Even if it means giving up his whole identity as an individual.
His only crime other than replacing Sonic is being a hedonist, selfish! Granted maybe he would go on to do really bad things if he stayed in his life for longer, maybe he’d get sick and tired of being ordered around by people like Sally and the king and go back to his old ways, we don’t know, because in a prime example of a wasted opportunity, we’ll never get to see anything like that! For some reason SONIC being replaced by an evil twin was wasted on just a two-issue arc, while someone as unimportant as ANTOINE being replaced went on for dozens of issues!
So I can only go off the data that I’m being given, which is the interesting data that if Sonic was replaced by an evil twin, things might not be so bad. While he might get sick of being good impersonating him, I doubt he WOULD since he’d be giving up that happy life if he did that, so that’d be stupid of him.
The only person who’d get really hurt by it on Mobius would be his evil twin himself, because he’ll get in huge trouble with the girls in the group for wanting affection. Even then, what if they forgave him for it? Which they might if he EXPLAINED why he did it and they felt bad for him. They might keep him in the group and just tell him to get some other girlfriend. Who would kick out ” Sonic “?
Anyways, Scourge calls his gang a bunch of lame-os for some reason he annoyingly never elaborates on because fuck giving depths to any characters. You’d expect him to call the HEROES lame-os! You’d think he’d respect the evil twins more because they’re also evil like him!
Meanwhile, the NEXT DAY, Rouge is surprised at finding a city on Angel Island much like Station Square but filled with echidnas instead of Overlanders. Has she never even heard of Echidnapolis? Why is this so surprising to her? Well, the city IS isolationist, I guess it would make sense that it’d stay hidden.
She rudely responds to someone people trying to give her a tour of the city with, “ Go find your mommy, Junior, “ although if she’s had an entire life of annoyingly being flirted with by guys she’s not interested in for the way she looks, then maybe she feels justified in being rude to them at this point. Besides, maybe they’re way younger than her, but they don’t look it.
Either way, after Locke says that it’ll be nice to finally rid the island of Eggman’s filth, Rouge finds him attractive, and Locke says in a deadpan way, “ Somehow you don’t strike me as the meek helpless type… “ She then explains that after a chance encounter with Fang, who she doesn’t mention by name but only by species, she says that things haven’t been the same since. So she’s manipulating him into thinking she’s scared and needs a bodyguard.
Scourge then wonders what kind of fun he could have at Sonic’s parents’ house. You’d think they’d constantly ask him questions and make him give up impersonating Sonic because they’d find him out eventually, that he wouldn’t think he could get away with even being snarky or grumpy because he thinks it could make him too obvious and THAT would make him give up. Wish we saw that. It’d be nice to see Sonic’s mom hug him or something, but no.
For some reason when he finds a landmine he thinks, “ That looks like one of my doc’s gizmos… “ But the good Robotnik of his world never made anything RESEMBLING a landmine! At least he clarifies that it’s nastier, so it makes more sense! It SURE is fortunate for Scourge that he didn’t get killed by walking into a landmine when he didn’t know he had to be running. That landmine was sure generous to wait for him to jump away from it before exploding.
Sally comes out of a hut asking if he’s alright, and says she should’ve known better than to send him on this assignment. This would seem like a very dickish thing of her to say if you were Scourge and didn’t know the context behind it. She’s had a huge phobia of Sonic dying even since the Freedom Emeralds story, so that’s why she said that even though he’s the perfect man for the job. Logically she should have more faith in his abilities. But she’s never had faith in Sonic to begin with.
I would completely understand if Scourge got angry at her for sounding totally dismissive of his worth like that, especially since it wouldn’t be the first time she showed a lack of faith in Sonic. She once held him back from fighting robots that Dulcy ended up destroying with her fire breath.
Fortunately for Sally, Scourge is holding his head looking too winded at narrowly surviving an explosion to get mad at her. So he was too focused on that to really complain about her insulting remark. Rotor says that if he hadn’t set off the beta bomb, the effects would’ve been a lot worse. I guess it gets gradually more dangerous over time instead of being the most dangerous it could possibly be right away. Huh?
While Sally scolds that Sonic was supposed to mark the locations, and bitches, “ Can’t you ever play it safe just ONCE?! “ Scourge, still holding his head and leaning to the side like he’s got a headache, thinks, “ How do you like them apples? THIS Sally’s just as big a pain as the one I left behind. “ I agree with him a thousandfold for that! I mean I like Sally, I really do, but she can be annoying in these instances, because she’s so Genre Blind not having faith that Sonic will be fine!
And Scourge is probably cynical for good reason only focusing on the fact that she’s being a nag, and not on the fact that she’s only nagging because she cares about his well-being, because since when did he have friends as far as we know that cared about him? He’s not used to that, so he doesn’t think about it.
Meanwhile, for more worthless filler with Rouge, Locke asks Rouge in a friendly way what brings her to Angel Island and says that the echidnas are a little suspicious of visitors. Rouge lies that she wants a chance to start over, starts making up a whole story to him that gets skipped over, and Locke says that she sounds like someone who lives life on the edge, while he’s learned to be prepared. So even in her made-up story about her life, she still displays some of her actual character!
After Rouge somehow figures out that Locke was the guardian just because he says he’s prepared, and Locke naturally gets suspicious of her reaction, she then panics at herself disappearing from the feet down like Lara-Su did in that damn cliffhanger, and Archimedes explains that he had teleported her away, explaining that Locke and women have always been a bad combination. I like his snarky line here. “ Really, Locke! Your son Knuckles has more sense than you! “ But WHY show us ANY of Rouge’s scenes in this issue if SHE’LL FAIL ANYWAYS?!
After Rouge gets teleported to Knothole, she decides to get a distraction for Locke to be a pigeon for her, and Scourge then decides that she’s the best woman of them all. By the way, why didn’t we get to see Scourge interacting with Sonic’s parents this issue? Even though that was being built up to? He was just saying that he was going to see what fun he could have there, and Bunnie told him at night to go home!
But now it’s daytime! So did he legitimately spend all night sleeping outside in the cold, rather than go home and get yelled at by people who look like his parents? He’s probably been yelled at too much by his own parents for him to stand anymore. But then why didn’t he just go sleep over at some other house instead of sleeping outside? And why did he even CONSIDER going to that house to have fun there long AFTER it was mentioned and he had already slept outside?
Maybe we could’ve seen him going there and judged how his relationship with his own parents was like based on the way he’d be reacting to SONIC’S. We could’ve seen that to get even more depths to his character, the amount we should’ve had from the start, if ONLY Rouge hadn’t completely wasted all those panels on a worthless subplot we didn’t even need to see!
She just gets sent away by Locke and we could’ve just had her mention that in the passing without us having to outright see it! This entire story should’ve been dedicated to Scourge, but instead we barely get to see him do anything! That’s so lame, and all because the writer remembered that Rouge existed!
In the next story, we start out with an entire page wasted on worthless recap of literally just ONE ISSUE ago, because Viewers are Goldfish apparently! Then the story starts out for real after ANOTHER page is wasted.
Huh, so once again we see right away that, rather realistically, there’s far more than just one evil counterpart of a person, because Tails is immediately bothered by a Tails with spikes on his head and an electrified blunt weapon, who insists that once he removes Tails, HE’LL be the Prime one, never mind the fact that he doesn’t come from that universe and would never BE the Prime one, or that nobody there would ever accept him as the Prime one, especially since the spikes are a dead giveaway that he’s not him. He’s delusional! Again, maybe he was bullied so much that he just totally snapped.
Fortunately the selfish jerk is immediately kicked for that and the other Tails start arguing over who will fight Mogul because they can’t all do it at once for some reason, like Sonic did fighting Robo-Robotnik with all the other Sonics. I love how Sonic’s reaction to all the other Tailses perfectly represents how deeply he loves his little brother! “ So many little buddies, so very weird… But where’s MY little buddy? “ It’s so sweet that he thinks of EVERY Tails that way on instinct, even though they’re not his!
I like that what’s probably Miles from the black leather jacket and lack of glasses is one of the Tailses who are shy enough to fly above the arguing Tailses looking alarmed, rather than being boringly evil enough to just be one of the arguing arrogant ones. Also I like that one of the Tailses says he has a 300 IQ, so PLENTY of the Tailses are geniuses out there!
While most of the other Tailses discuss in a committee, Tails decides to just deal with Mogul himself. So I guess what’s supposed to make him the best Tails is his independence streak being strongest? But you’d think one of the evil Tails like Miles would think to do the same thing, isolating himself from everyone like he’s kind of doing already by flying, but instead Tails is the most arrogant and STUPID of them all because he actually thinks he can deal with Mogul by himself!
So Tails takes off to fight Mogul without telling Sonic first for some back-up, for SOME reason. I’m surprised we can even still SEE the zone cops after they were dealt with, instead of Mogul completely vaporizing them! I’m surprised he didn’t kill them, since one of them is groaning, or maybe he killed most of them and Tails isn’t aware that he did.
Mogul tries to throw a laser at Tails and fortunately Sonic immediately happened to be there to save him with his super speed, because I guess he zoomed around the other room at super speed, couldn’t find Tails there and came here.
After Tails says he came to the crazy conclusion that Mogul’s blast would’ve turned him into Turbo Tails, Sonic at least lampshades the craziness saying he could’ve just gotten himself killed, and he says that they’ve got to deal with Mogul the smart way, not the hard way.
He’s more strategic than people give him credit for. But it still pisses me off that even NOW, Tails is being portrayed as the same brainless idiot who independently ran off and tried to take down Eggman by himself TWICE, while SONIC is the smart one when it should be TAILS being like this!
After Sonic and Tails taunt Mogul, they then get all of the other Tailses to go rush at him, a pretty smart plan I’m glad they used. Did the writer really have to have the caveman Tails say that stupid brainless line? “ Ooga booga! “ So they all rush him at once to overwhelm him. Oh, I think I see Anti-Tails there because of his black jacket and sunglasses, which weren’t on him before. And he’s flying up to fight him just as bravely as the rest of them!
We then have a callback to when all of the Sonics fought Robo-Robotnik’s mecha, as they say something just like what they said in the same situation! “ While he’s off-balance, let’s hit him with everything we got! “
Then it’s proven that this was indeed intentional, as Mogul asks if they think he’s as weak as the Giant Borg, which he knows about with his psychic powers! He says this while smacking several Tailses away with his hand, including the Anti-Tails.
He then explains that he had witnessed Robo-Robotnik’s defeat that day from afar and then he calls HIMSELF EVIL! Again, that’s psychologically impossible! He doesn’t strike me as the type of rebellious person who would happily call himself evil because he thinks that it’s cool! I wouldn’t think he’d CARE whether he’s good OR evil, OR cool!
Either way Mogul uses his omnipotence to throw lasers that can MISS instead of using it to paralyze everyone and suffocate them immediately, and after Sonic pushes some Tailses out of the way of a laser strike, he gets attacked by another laser himself with that laser seeming to create Chaos Emerald shards below it. This terrifies Tails at the sight of it, making him jump to the conclusion that Sonic was killed from it when he’s been hit with lasers BEFORE. But Mogul IS pretty powerful.
He’s enraged, and Athair conveniently shows up at the NO ZONE, to tell him that he can merge with the other Tailses for a super form since that’s his destiny, except he wouldn’t have ever thought to DO that if Athair hadn’t TOLD HIM he could because it was supposedly his destiny! It’s like the time travel problem!
So, yeah, Tails has a horrible-looking creepily muscular-looking super form where not even his head looks the same. Let’s not dwell on the superficial here, there’s more to a story than just ART. Appeal problem ASIDE, the POINT is that Tails absorbs Mogul’s power because he can do that APPARENTLY, and after Sonic’s told by Zonic that Tails is now the ultimate power in the multiverse, Tails teleports to him back to normal as I wonder what the hell it was like from the other Tailses’ perspectives, being merged with him like that! Hopefully they were all unconscious during that endeavor!…
Sonic asks Tails how he got him after he says “ Tag, you’re it, “ and Tails shows off his genuine intelligence by saying that hiding in the trees would’ve worked if the sun didn’t cast his shadow to the ground.
Merlin, proud of Tails, says to Athair that with the power to shake the cosmos, he instead used it to restore everything to its proper balance as if it never happened, and with no evidence of his heroic deeds to the multiverse.
Does, “ no evidence, “ include nobody remembering what happened? So he restored all of the destroyed zones to normal. Athair then points out that the only evidence left is the fact that Mogul is back to being sealed in the Master Emerald. The narration explains that with him finally separated from that Emerald, his chaos powers are gone.
Wait, no, instead the narration explains that he’s been imprisoned in the very same Emerald that had been in his chest for centuries, not the Master Emerald. So now that Emerald is being held by Merlin, so hopefully this spells the end for him because it’s gotta be hard to recover from THAT! Wait, never mind, I just remember that he DOES show up again later despite being here and POWERLESS, because fuck logic! Status Quo is god!
We should’ve been told that if Merlin simply chucked the Emerald into a volcano to destroy it for good, Mogul would’ve escaped perfectly fine because he’d be part of the magic that would harmlessly spill out of the vaporized Emerald shell. So maybe the reason Merlin kept the Emerald with Mogul inside it with him instead of burying it so that no one would ever find it was that he wanted the power for himself, but WHY?! He can defend himself with tangible illusions and levitate people! You’d think he wouldn’t see the need for keeping the Emerald around and tempting fate!
NO MENTION AT ALL of any Ancient Walkers making the charm against Mogul whose deaths would release Mogul really easily, by the way! TAILS DID IT. If the Ancient Walkers, who are dying so that’s why Tails had to be sent after Chaos Knuckles, were the ones who did this with their weakened power, that’d make NO sense.
The first story was by Ken Penders. Naturally, since the story’s about Scourge and the story introducing Scourge was the first one Penders ever worked on. This was the perfect example of a Penders story; I loved the concept, but the execution could’ve been better. There were a LOT of missed opportunities with the main story this issue.
I loved the concept of Scourge replacing Sonic, I especially love how it was implemented, what LITTLE of it we actually get to SEE thanks to all the worthless filler scenes with Rouge wasting all that comic space for Scourge. That was the biggest problem with the story aside from the plot holes!
Instead of him acting like a stereotypical evil twin by doing evil things for no reason, his evil is entirely unintentional! He’s a selfish hedonist first and foremost. All he does is flirt with Mina and Amy and then move on to Bunnie hours later because I guess Amy was too busy to spend ALL her time totally devoted to him, and so he moved onto the NEXT girl who could give him all the affection he wanted.
He Desperately Craves Affection as if he’s been lacking it for his entire life at worst, and is overcompensating for it now, giving him a potential Freudian Excuse if you read between the lines, which is something that fiction expects you to do all the time, not everything has to be blatantly spelled out to the audience to be canon.
His loneliness causes him to be a Casanova not thinking of the potential consequences where the girls would get to talking and then go after him for it. Naturally, since Sonic doesn’t think ahead either. I guess him only doing that, makes SENSE since not only has he never been as evil as you’d expect (all he did was race Sonic when he first showed up, he didn’t kill anyone in Litigopolis), but also because he doesn’t wanna risk getting caught as an imposter, and losing the happy life he tried to get.
Like Patch, he’d rather keep it subtle… But subtle’s not Sonic, or Scourge. How long would he have been able to keep this up? Especially with Sally being just as much of a nag here as she apparently is on HIS planet! The missed opportunities with a significant concept like the main character being replaced, are ridiculously high because it’s used for such a short amount of time, and we never get to see him interacting with either Sonic’s parents, who you’d think he would’ve run into instead of sleeping outside, OR with FIONA! He barely interacts with ANY of Sonic’s friends!
So yeah there’s a LOT to say about this concept! I would’ve preferred if THIS was the arc that took forever over the stupid Metal Sally bullshit, because this concept was a lot more entertaining and fascinating. Ultimately, the story is seriously put into question because it’s built on two major plot holes that aren’t filled; one, Scourge magically got back to being the top dog in his gang when last we saw he was being arrested by Zonic after zone-hopping a lot, so Patch was even able to threaten him in the first place. I guess he saved Miles from drowning to get accepted back.
And two, Scourge happened to see Antoine walking ALONE in the woods the SECOND that he looked for him through the portal, so he could replace the two Antoines before Patch would wake up. It’d be less forced if he was in the bathroom about to leave it.
Not to mention the story after that hinges entirely on Mina NOT telling her friend Amy that Sonic was just flirting with her, since logically news of that would spread and she wouldn’t have just let him flirt with her without questioning why. Maybe he could’ve kept her around after that if he had just been honest about the fact that he was lonely and “ I just want affection, “ but I can imagine that’d be too embarrassing for him to admit because it’d make him look weak from being so desperate and lonely. Amy didn’t need to be written to pass by Mina.
Romy Chacon wrote the other story. Yeah yeah I know Titan Tails looks terrible, the entirety of the Sonic fanbase has already made it a joke! And it’s been used to rag on the entire comic by people who don’t even read it! As for the actual STORY, the writer did the best he could, Tails stupidity aside. I love the reference to when the Giant Borg was fought, it really felt rewarding as a long-time reader seeing the writer make that, and that reference makes perfect sense in-universe, too!
I love seeing the Anti-Tails fighting just as bravely as every OTHER Tails! I love seeing that he wasn’t the only Evil Tails out there. In fact, I’d say the one who tried to actively kill Tails to become the new Prime Tails, was WAY eviller than MILES, because MILES never expressed a desire to do that! And plus it make even more sense for there to be tons of Evil Tails, since a mutant like him is bound to have gotten bullied and turned on humanity! Or at least gotten cynical from it. I also love Sonic’s reaction to the other Tailses, thinking of all of them as little buddies. It shows how much he loves him!
However, Tails’ ability to merge with the other Tailses and absorb Mogul’s power with that super form, came out of complete nowhere! It’d be much more acceptable to defeat him with all the Super Emeralds of the No Zone or at least the Chaos Emeralds, which would be gathered here to fight Mogul by the zone cops so they’d actually have a CHANCE! Lots of great concepts and Mogul gets what he deserves, but there was a huge appeal problem with that design.
Issue 151:
Right away we start out with Sonic, having been forced to wear Scourge’s clothes, noticing the evil twins smirking in front of him. Even ANTOINE looks mischievously happy, while Alicia looks just genuinely happy, and the writer FINALLY remembered that Anti-Bunnie exists, what took him so long to show her?
The interesting thing to note is that somehow Antoine looks like he has the same scar Patch does, when he doesn’t have it for the rest of the comic. So it seems like they avoided the problem of the evil twins knowing he’s Antoine from a lack of a scar, because Scourge must have found a way to fake the scar with make-up or something. I GUESS, how do you FAKE a SCAR? You’d think if he was really that evil, he would’ve given him the scar for real! You’d think if he was that evil, Patch’s scar would’ve been from Scourge and justified his hatred of him, and so he’d have no problem doing it to Antoine too.
The narration calls them the badass duplicates by the way, which doesn’t make sense. If anything the opposite would make sense because they don’t have as much proper combat experience because they’re not Freedom Fighters. So while they’d be used to fighting PEOPLE, they wouldn’t be used to fighting robots with their hard metal surfaces. So they wouldn’t be as good at it.
Rotor, Miles and maybe Alicia all immediately kick Sonic with Alicia saying, “ Ditch me and the others while you do your own thing, will you? Well, pardon my boot! “ while Anti-Bunnie and Antoine just stand there not joining in to attack from the other side for some reason, very strange since Antoine has more reason to hate him than any of them.
What Alicia just said, is interesting and reveals a huge plot hole. In the moment we saw Scourge being threatened as the top dog by Patch we were expected to just buy that somehow the stars aligned so that everything would be back to normal for Scourge here, even though he was left by his friends last time! That’s the whole reason he did his own thing so much in the first place! Maybe Penders thought that was just as stupid as I did, so he wrote like it never happened, but it’d be a lot less sloppy to just explain how he got back to that status quo.
What caused them to take him back, so they could get mad at him for ditching them for Mobius? I can only assume that Scourge did something really monumental to get them to take him back, like saving Miles from drowning or something.
After all, if he simply intimidated them, then they wouldn’t be acting as if it was the first time he ever threatened and beat up his way to being the top dog when he got his gang back in his green form, because he would’ve already done that before, and I can’t buy that they wouldn’t have just tried to kill him whenever his guard was down if they didn’t want him there and only took him back out of fear, like they could’ve tried to kill him when he was asleep at midnight or when his back was turned.
You’d think if they hated him so much, they wouldn’t CARE that he ditched them to do his own thing, because they’d have been made free of him! But instead they’re all really eager to get revenge on him for something they should’ve been thankful for! The only explanation I can think of is that Miles was REALLY UPSET that his best friend and brother figure from childhood abandoned him to do his own thing, especially since his parents aren’t around him either and since they’d be evil in this dimension they probably ditched him for his second tail.
So Miles would’ve been upset and maybe even started crying from abandonment issues at Scourge ditching him, and that would’ve gotten his friends against Scourge from being protective of their youngest member. And Miles doesn’t explain exactly how bad he made him feel because he doesn’t wanna embarrass himself and look weak saying he was crying earlier, when he COULD be giving him what he deserves.
Just look at how Scourge treated TAILS, brushing him off so he could kiss some girl more after he acted like he thought Sonic kissing Bunnie was as evil as murdering Sally. He said he didn’t need a kid sidekick at the moment and Tails left in a huff. If he treated Miles like that a lot, passing him up for girls, his resenting him would make perfect sense, as even the heroic Tails would resent Sonic for the same reason, and it’d only get a lot worse if he outright ditched the gang without taking him along for the ride, which he could’ve very easily done!
Speaking of reverting to the status quo with no explanation, I also don’t know why Anti-Geoffrey isn’t here anymore since he’s supposed to have been his replacement. And I can only ASSUME that Anti-Bunnie was sick in bed every time we didn’t get to see her. I can clearly see Antoine’s eye under the patch, it’s not really fitting right.
And Miles looks like a GIRL here with his hairstyle and his earrings, which makes him harder to recognize as the evil Tails. No wonder he changed his appearance later on! You’d think he would’ve never gotten this appearance since everyone would’ve just told him he looked like a girl.
After Sonic gets tasered by Boomer, who threatens him saying he’s not allowed to so much as LOOK at his devices in the lab next time – naturally he must have learned about Scourge stealing the interdimensional teleporter because he ditched him with it… then Anti-Bunnie says the interesting line, “ As for you, two-timer, I could understand you seeing SALLY behind my back, but Penelope?! With that beak?! “
This reveals two things. Well, 3, he must have been very desperate for affection to resort to Penelope while not caring about actual appearance at all. Second, he started dating her when he came back just to go back to also kissing the girl he called a nag and a pain later! And he didn’t flirt with SALLY by the way, so I thought that he was so irritated by Sallys that he wouldn’t want to kiss anyone LIKE her. But the fact that he DID see Sally as well, AND that duck girl too, says a lot about how he desperately craves affection so much that he’s resorting to girls he doesn’t even like!
But more interestingly, “ I could understand, “ she says. So despite being an evil twin, she could understand him cheating on her with Anti-Sally? Maybe because he used to date her, but the sheer fact that she could understand and maybe forgive that at ALL instead of just hating him for it is baffling. It makes sense that she’d find out about his cheating from talking with Alicia and finding out the two were kissing…
Wait, we didn’t get to see the part where Anti-Bunnie got all irritated with Alicia for participating in kissing her boyfriend behind her back then! Is her friendship with Alicia really that strong, that they’re still friends after that and she could understand him cheating on her with her?
I mean, in order to keep the secret that he’s dating Alicia from Buns, he would have to deprive himself of affection from Alicia in front of her, since only then would he be able to keep up the act that he’s stopped dating one in favor of the other. He wouldn’t put up with that! When I first saw these panels before I read the comic up to this point, I assumed from Google Images out of context, that everyone knowing about Scourge’s misdeeds and turning on him was all Miles’ fault. But I guess he’s not evil enough to do that to him, or he’d be bragging about it.
Before Sonic could stammer out an explanation of who he really is, he gets jump-kicked by her while she says that she’s not putting up with his act anymore. Then as Antoine looks all smug at this with his sword sheathed that, I’m assuming he gets away with never using it against people somehow because that’d traumatize him and give the game away, making me wonder why he hasn’t gotten rid of it and lied about how he lost it!
Is the gang already used to Patch not slashing or killing people with that sword, so they don’t question Antoine for holding back? It has to be, it has to be that just like the eye-patch, the sword is just there for show, because that’s the only way him not getting caught by now makes sense.
Miles says, “ Don’t be greedy, girls, it’s my turn now! “ He calls his friends “ girls, “ which is kind of like Scourge calling girls, “ chicks, “ or, “ babe. “ So he’s still talking like a kid, which is surprising in hindsight. Also there’s what I can only hope is a non-canon art mistake here. What happened to his gloves?! He was clearly wearing gloves and he’ll clearly be wearing gloves later on! Only for them to disappear again! It wouldn’t make any sense for him to constantly take them off just to put them on again, so that can’t be canon!
Sadly we cut PAST Miles potentially telling him HIS motivation for hating Scourge, the one I was the MOST INTERESTED IN LEARNING, and INSTEAD we see Scourge being all smooth with Rouge. He talks like Sonic would saying that Angel Island’s like a second home and saying, “ Knuckles wouldn’t know what to do without me! “ And Rouge asks him to show her around the place. Scourge then potentially gives the game away by saying that he’d even show her the Chaos Emerald.
First of all, he proves that he doesn’t know it’s called the Master Emerald now, although a lot of characters made this mistake even after the Master Emerald was formed, so that’s not too irredeemable. Second, he SHOULDN’T KNOW there’s only ONE Emerald there because the Anti-Angel Island has a bunch of Emeralds in it. Oh, wait, I forgot that he went into the Chaos Chamber in Issue 44 and saw that there was just one Emerald in it. So that explains why he’s aware of that vast difference.
Third, he’s saying something that Rouge should KNOW Sonic wouldn’t say! But to be fair, he’s not literally saying, “ I’ll let you take the Master Emerald. “ He’s just saying he’ll show her, as a tour, so it’s at least somewhat believable. Plus Rouge doesn’t know Sonic very well, she didn’t even know that Knuckles was from Angel Island! Even though the SA2 adaptation happened. And Sonic doesn’t know ROUGE, so maybe he doesn’t know she’s a jewel thief, so it could be perfectly believable that he’d show her around the Emerald without knowing what she’d do with it, at least from Rouge’s perspective.
Sonic is tied up upside-down thinking that he’s going to give Scourge a major smackdown when he gets out of this, as opposed to the other evil twins like Miles. Antoine who has a wrist-laser-shooter like Boomer does, says that payback’s a bitch, or rather, the LAME CENSORED version. Wouldn’t that give the game away?!
His evil twin wouldn’t have any problem with cursing! Why wouldn’t they comment on it like, “ Since when did you get so lame? “ He adds that Scourge has had this coming for a long time, explaining why he enjoys participating in this so much. He can easily enjoy victimizing people who deserve it. And again, Alicia looks genuinely happy at seeing this, not smirking at all.
Talking like a villain, Antoine says happily, “ We do so hope you enjoy your swim! “ and he’s the one to say, “ On my mark, ready, set, fire, “ putting more responsibility on HIM for potentially murdering someone when he didn’t HAVE to. It would make sense that the evil twins would make Antoine more open to killing people he believes deserve it as long as his friends approve, and again, he has more reason to hate Scourge than any of them.
On “ fire, “ all of them fire lasers at the rope above Sonic with their wrist devices, because they have those apparently. And I can only assume Miles’ laser-firing wrist thing, is… either strapped to the other SIDE of his spiked bracelet, or he actually can shoot lasers out of the spiked bracelet himself, we’re cheated out of actually seeing the answer. Or he can fire it from his glove. I guess the laser-shooters work on a timer where there’s a delay between pressing the button and it firing because it’s not like we see their other hands next to the laser-shooters as their laser-shooting-device arm is raised.
And Sonic falls into the water all tied up. Even if he did manage to get out of the ropes, like with his vibration intangibility power, falling into the water from too high up would be like hitting concrete. How high up is the highest diving board? His only chance of survival is if the cliff he fell from wasn’t any higher than that.
After Rouge flies Scourge to Angel Island, we see Locke getting out of the cave and Scourge says, “ Looks like an older version of Knux! VER-RY interesting! It’s obvious he’s never seen the father of Anti-Knuckles before. I love that line of his, his dialogue’s always great. Rouge tells him to wait for his signal, he says entertainingly, “ Yeaaaahhh? And THEN? “ and she says he’ll know what to do when she does.
Meanwhile the evil twins are staring down in front of a cliff with a dead tree with Antoine’s smile looking forced and reluctant. Is he thinking, “ My god, what have I done? “ That’d certainly explain why he doesn’t kill him later on. Miles’ expression is hard to fully discern, his eyes certainly don’t say anything. He just says, “ Well? “ Anti-Bunnie is the one who says, “ Maybe the Octopods got him! “ while Boomer says that the high level of thermonium in a random river of all things would’ve done him in too.
But somehow NEITHER of that happened because fuck logic! We aren’t ever gonna find out how exactly he survived that situation because, having the panels dedicated to that would’ve been too hard, especially with some of them being wasted on Scourge meeting Rouge!
The ropes were tied around him so tightly that he shouldn’t have been able to spindash at all, if that’s what he did to escape them. It’s easy to forget that Archie Sonic can vibrate himself to go intangible, because it’s so stupid, but since it’s something he did before, I could’ve easily accepted that as the explanation, but instead we’re just left confused!
And he clearly fell into water that apparently had polluting chemicals in it, but is just fine! No long-term medical effects at all, although he must have had Rings in his aura to make him invincible to them, and so much of them that as they’d be draining from the poisonous water, he wouldn’t run out of them anyways. Why is there a river of thermonium, what benefit could it possibly serve the evil twins to have put that in a river?
He also doesn’t have the shades or jacket on anymore, but he’s still wearing the boots. So MAYBE he took off the jacket and the ropes around him went with it? But how do you take off a jacket with your arms and legs tied to your body?! This is just insulting! And if we hadn’t had those filler scenes with Rouge, we could’ve had the panels to show us what he did to survive! Miles then says the incredibly mature and sophisticated line, “ No way! “ something that Tails would never say!
For some reason, Antoine almost recognizes Sonic for the SOUND of his VOICE, which is STUPID, because Sonic and Scourge have to have the same vocal cords down to a T because they’re the same person just from another universe! Maybe it’s just really wishful thinking on his part, and he realizes that because he doubts himself immediately.
Antoine reminds himself how much he hates Scourge for what he did to him, and takes out his sword thinking, “ If at first you don’t succeed, it’s time to slice and dice! “ It’s canon that he was becoming less pure good just by being around them, then. Again, he’d gladly murder someone he thinks deserves it as long as his friends approve. And that’s not an insult at all! But why’d he think that two can play at this game, WHAT GAME? Scourge didn’t try to kill him!
Sonic dodges a sword swipe by simply backing up, which Miles smirks at rather than being disappointed or frustrated at all. Antoine was acting like he was going to slice and dice earlier, and yet he’s not even trying to get close enough to hit him!
He thinks, “ No matter how much I wish to skewer le pig, I mustn’t forget he’s my only means to return home! “ which he apparently did EARLIER since he wasn’t worried at all about trying to kill him with his friends. He was clearly enjoying it! Why does he think with a LITTLE French, instead of just ALL in French? If the point is that he’s thinking in his native language and it’s translated to English for our benefit, why the sudden French there? Cochon means slob or pig, by the way, it’s one of those I had to look up. So apparently he got to learn that Scourge was like that, when we didn’t.
Antoine wonders how Patch did it because he’s amazing he hasn’t gotten killed while stomping around in his boots. WHY, what’s wrong with the boots? It’s not like they’re high heels! Sonic trips over a rock when going backwards only to put his hand on the stone to break his fall with his boots falling off and spindash at him, which I can only assume is somehow a CAREFUL spindash not letting his sharp spines cut into him. We unfortunately don’t get to see him land unconscious.
He calls Alicia and Buns chicks like Scourge would, and proceeds to throw them into the water and call them lame. The VERY SAME WATER that has both Octopods AND thermonium in it! The LATTER of which I guess is invisible because the water looks fine to ME. You can understand why Miles hit him with his tails there because for all HE knew, Scourge intentionally tried to murder his friends!
Sonic didn’t know how deadly the water was-OH WAIT, he DID, never mind, he CLEARLY responded to hearing about it! He doesn’t know whether they can swim or not! What if they drowned and he murdered them?! He’s being very rough in this fight, no wonder they still think he’s Scourge! He REALLY doesn’t think ahead!
Miles doesn’t have the chance to say ANYTHING to stand up to him for potentially killing his friends, and reveal a sympathetic motive, because he gets made to spin around from him running around him in a circle. He looks SO CUTE with his eyes all cross-eyed! And I love how Sonic says, “ NICE move, lil’ buddy! “ and doesn’t hurt him ONE BIT, settling for just making him so dizzy that he’d sit down all dazed. So just like with when he saw all those other Tailses calling them so many little buddies, he proves that he considers MILES to be a little buddy TOO! That’s so sweet!
Wait, Sonic’s running around with just socks on? Didn’t his shoes get explained to be specially made so that he wouldn’t cause fire from the friction of running around? Why the hell didn’t he create fire when he ran around MILES? Or at least burn the soles of his socks?! Another way this fight could’ve gone horribly wrong!
Anyway after Boomer somehow misses with his laser, despite all the experience he must have with it, Sonic says that he can’t outrun his sonic spin and spindashes at him TOO which somehow doesn’t cut him from the tops of his sharp spines clearly being below him! Once again, he almost murders one of the evil twins without even noticing! This is not a well-written fight scene! He wouldn’t be this psychopathically reckless when fighting a bunch of ORGANIC beings! Almost NONE of them would’ve survived this!
He crushes the wrist-laser under his foot because I guess he brought it down at super speed, and after giving a flimsy justification for how he survived without coming up for air involving strong currents heading downstream, clean living, and the speed, he says in his amusingly drawn-out informal way that he’s not his friend and he just wants to go home.
Somehow this causes Boomer to figure out he’s Sonic, even though if Scourge was in this situation he wouldn’t call himself his friend ANYWAYS and would say he’s going home if he went to Mobius, his “ new home. “ And then we just CUT PAST Boomer solving his dilemma, ANOTHER Bit of laziness as I guess we’re supposed to ASSUME Boomer already had another teleporter made up already in his lab, and Antoine didn’t get it because he didn’t know about it. I would’ve liked to see at least one panel of Boomer getting Sonic home, but we don’t!
We could’ve had all of this filler scene REMOVED up to the point where Sonic saw Scourge again, and had PLENTY of time to see what Boomer and Sonic were doing and see how the girls survived being thrown in that river and how the others reacted when they woke up. All of Rouge’s plot is completely pointless anyways because we know she’ll just fail, so why bother?!
Scourge wonders why Locke isn’t putting the moves on Rouge, thinking that if Rouge doesn’t light his fire he’s a lost cause. Rouge says a sob story that she’s been alone most of her life with no one to turn to. Isn’t that true, though? She doesn’t have a family. It must not upset her since she’s fine with talking about it without getting genuinely worked up! Locke says that he can relate somehow, and isn’t sure what she wants.
Rouge says that she wants someone to love her, and Scourge thinks that this is his cue. He then simply walks down the stairs with the Master Emerald instead of simply having ran down them at super speed, because, well, I can’t imagine how he could walk downstairs at the speed of sound. But Sonic’s been shown to be able to do ANYTHING at super speed, so why didn’t he do this? Was he afraid of tripping?
Either way, Sonic teleports to Scourge because I assume he saw him through the teleporter portal by shifting around which location on Mobius he’d warp to, insisting on warping directly to Scourge to fight him. Scourge calls his old friends a gang of screw-ups, and Sonic says that Boomer’s spare zone-link generator helped him. It sure is convenient that he had a spare! Why didn’t he just have only ONE? Why would it be a SPARE?
You’d think the ONLY reason the evil twins would make zone-link teleporters is to go fight Sonic in the Prime zone whenever they want, so they’d use those teleporters the second they were completed to all warp there. But apparently despite Boomer making TWO of them, his team didn’t go actually use them by now. Scourge then says confusingly that Boomer was always pretty useless in a fight. I don’t get that because Boomer looks all big, you’d think he’d be the second best in a fight next to Scourge himself! Instead we’re expected to believe he’s totally incompetent.
Sonic tells Scourge to leave since the island just got fixed after Eggman “ trashed the place, “ and Scourge says, “ Y’think I would wimp out like those chumps on my homeworld? “ Why does he think they wimp out? Is it because his gang refuses to kill people out of a good conscience? Did he think Sonic survived because they wimped out? We just saw them try to kill someone! Even Miles, as a kid in a gang can be peer-pressured into ANYTHING, that’s what the psychology around that has said. What about that is “ wimping out, “ does he just insult them like this because he doesn’t like them?
Then I’m promptly confused at Sonic saying with a smile that he thought Scourge would wimp out. Oh, here’s some forced joke dialogue, when he calls Scourge a poseur with a U in it, which would’ve been led into by the “ wimp “ insult, he compares him to Antoine. First off, poseur in French means artisan or pretentious show-off. You want poser translated, you say imposteur.
And second, poseur sounds just like poser in English. So why would Scourge just assume that he was speaking in French? Why would Sonic pronounce it with a French accent for no reason just to force the lame joke? And third, I guess Mobius French is different so that poseur with a u actually IS a synonym for poser and imposter. Scourge saying ” poseur ” only happened so Sonic could make fun of him. The only explanation I can come up with for why he said it is he’s spent so much time with Antoine that he rubbed off on him a little.
Why should I care about the fight scene, when I can’t even see Sonic’s fist impact Scourge? After Scourge calls Sonic a wuss for some reason, either to just insult him or he’s delusional, Sonic takes his shoes back, and Scourge throws a rock at his head, saying that he’ll do whatever it takes so that he’s numero uno and Sonic’s not. I miss when the Chaos Chamber looked all pretty with that green gem ceiling! Now it’s just a boring brown cave!
When Locke remembers to watch the chamber realizing something’s wrong SOMEHOW, he makes sure that the 18-year-old girl young enough to be his daughter stops kissing him at last. I guess he was really desperate. He jumps into a hole in the ground instead of going into a cave like Scourge must have. He had sensed danger to the Master Emerald, I assume because it psychically sent him a signal about it WAY AFTER Scourge actually entered the room with it. Deus ex Machina!
You know, if Archimedes had just done his job and told Locke what was going on in the Chaos Chamber and warned him about it, it could’ve been written naturally, especially since the only reason Rouge got to distract him was because for NO reason, Archimedes wasn’t there THIS TIME. What was he DOING, then? Why didn’t he warp her away again? How was she expecting to keep that from happening the SECOND time, Scourge or not?!
Locke figures out that Scourge is the evil twin because Sonic would never use a boulder on someone as a weapon to try to kill him. I hate how he actually phrases it as, “ Sonic would never resort to a weapon, “ because that bullshit reminds me of how FIONA wasn’t allowed to use a rifle ray gun, when Knuckles used one just fine in the Knuckles Miniseries and Rotor used one to try to stop Robotnik when he found Knothole. He’s just jumping to that conclusion for no reason, when Sonic would use a weapon if he HAD to, and
Apparently using weapons is supposed to be considered evil now even though Antoine had a sword the whole comic. What if there’s something Sonic wouldn’t be able to handle WITHOUT a weapon? Something that was immune to his spindash? Well, an organic being wouldn’t be, but what if he needed a flame sword against a robot? Locke’s sentence makes sense in context, but not in general.
And if Scourge actually WANTED to kill him, why didn’t he just run at him at the speed of sound and snap his neck? A LONG time ago? Why’d he hold back in the first place?! There must be a part of him that doesn’t want to succeed in this, why else wouldn’t he have won by now?
He calls him a dope without a clue and a simp for SOME reason, I guess it means simpleton but my spellchecker doesn’t know what simp means, and I can only assume that he’s only calling Sonic this out of insecurity to prop up his own ego because WHERE would he actually get the idea that Sonic was stupider than him? That doesn’t make any sense.
Now that I know what simp means, well the only person Sonic’s a simp for is Sally, but he wouldn’t know that, so why did he say this? And Locke uses his magical powers to send Scourge flying up out of the hole, and then shows concern for Sonic’s nasty bruises which Sonic brushes off with bravado as he gets helped up.
Why isn’t Rouge suspicious that a hero like Sonic as far as she knows had been trying to steal her the Master Emerald?! Seriously, why isn’t she questioning this? Rouge calls Scourge totally pathetic saying that THIS is what she gets for sending a male to do a female’s job, and wonders if she should check out the pickings Downunda.
Scourge tells her to hold up a minute, Rouge says she shouldn’t because they’re not best friends, and Scourge says that while he didn’t get the Emerald, he did pick up a FEW little jewels. Is that a shard of the Master Emerald? I didn’t see him pick that off!
He tells her that “ the both of you have potential! “ If he saw the potential in the Master Emerald from the start, why didn’t he use it to become more powerful during his fight with Sonic, which would’ve been much more justified that time around because he’d need an edge against someone equally-matched with him?!
And Rouge flies away with him saying she’ll discuss this someplace more private even though they’re already alone together. I can’t wait to see an adventure with Scourge and Rouge in Downunda-oh, what’s that? We’re never gonna get to SEE that? Thanks a lot!
Sonic’s back in Knothole an hour later, thanking Mister L, Knuckles’ father for giving him an airship ride home. And he thinks about how he never found out what Scourge wanted over here calling him dorky when he’s clearly the opposite, just to insult him. You’d think he’d insult him a different way, calling him a jerk. Just like how SCOURGE should’ve just called his friends “ jerks, “ not, “ lame-os, “ and wimps out of nowhere.
He thinks, “ What did he think he’d get out of being me? “ Praise as a hero, but mostly chicks, it really is a shame Rouge distracted him like that. It would’ve been awesome to see him doing a mission with the heroes as WELL as that Casanova stuff to see how he would fare – probably badly since he’s inexperienced, but it’d be cool if he did good at it in some ways.
Amy kisses him on the cheek being worried about his bruises, he walks her home because he was too polite to just run away from her like a more stereotypical Sonic, making me wonder why people think Archie Sonic is a heartless jerk since he’s too nice to run away from Amy, and he says looking confused that he’ll let Amy know if he’s not doing anything tomorrow, rather than just turning her down.
So, did he never tell her what happened to him? Just because she kissed his cheek? If he did, she’d know it wasn’t him who flirted with her, and wouldn’t be so open as to ask him for a date, considering her earlier characterization where she didn’t flirt with him at all!
Sonic’s thoughts really demonstrate how much more respectfully Amy Rose is written in this comic, thinking, “ I don’t ever remember her coming onto me like that before! “ when in the other continuities, that’s literally her only character.
The story ends with Bunnie asking happily if it’s about time he made up for their staying out late. I really HATE that it ends HERE instead of seeing what happens right afterwards! He didn’t explain ANYTHING to Amy, but he’s gonna have to explain what Scourge did to BUNNIE or he’ll get himself in the same situation with the ladies that Scourge did!
But apparently he doesn’t care about that and just wants to take advantage of them being more affectionate with him instead of telling them the truth from basic conversation about what his day was like, which at least makes sense in that he’s a twin of Scourge, but still!
In the next story, Sally sees in her bed Nicole broadcasting a shadowy hologram of a Mobian, that for some reason doesn’t simply show up right there. Also Sally is drawn REALLY Off Model here. Something about her ear, I could barely recognize it as her! How did this get past the editing? Everything else looks fantastic, though. But it’s not worth it with that face.
Sally asks Nicole if she detected any movement a minute ago when she CLEARLY SAW her broadcasting that shadow from her handheld form. She asks if her files are secure, wonders if she’s in sleep mode because she didn’t answer, walks out the door that she noticed was open, and we see her meet Nicole’s holo-lynx form for the first time! Too bad IT’S drawn horribly Off Model too.
For some reason Sally asks why she knows her name, even though she’s the freaking PRINCESS, literally everyone in Knothole should know her name! That was a stupid line! She was being hounded for pictures by the paparazzi earlier, so it’s not like people DON’T know her! More importantly, Sally asks her why she sounds like Nicole as her textboxes are green like hers.
And when she touches Nicole’s arm, she says right away that she’s REAL. Nicole insecurely says, “ Not quite. It’s actually a complex simulation that I’ve been working on for some time. Ever since I experienced life in your shoes. In fact, that’s what gave me the idea. “ Yeah, all 30 seconds of it. Makes sense, she said that even that short amount of time was intoxicating to her!
She explains while holding water and letting it drop to her hands that she’s already a sentient being, but she’s never been able to breathe air or feel the wind on her face, or touch water. I love that she’s FINALLY getting that characterization! NOW she’s actually INTERESTING instead of just a boring living Deus ex Machina! Now I have more to like about her than just the occasional snarky quip! This should’ve happened way sooner.
Nicole says sympathetically that she realized how lucky Sally is. Sally tells her looking sad, “ Stay this way! You’re still a genius, only now you have MORE capabilities! We could use another Freedom Fighter like you! “ Nicole was ALWAYS a Freedom Fighter, what about her being a handheld computer made her not QUALIFY? She’s been an idiot this whole story, it’s bad characterization for her.
Nicole then explains sadly that she’s already too tired because the program drains a lot of energy out of her and her files aren’t secure in this form. Maybe because It’s too energy-intensive for her antivirus to work too. That’s why she chose tonight when Eggman’s less likely to attack because all of the Freedom Fighters are in Knothole. Wait, why would this make him less likely instead of more? I guess because there’d be more of them to gang up on his robots and machines?
By the way does her textbox being green mean that she speaks with a clearly AI voice? It can’t be because Sally would’ve immediately questioned THAT, and immediately realized she was an AI, in addition to just questioning that she sounds like Nicole!
Nicole explains that she’s always analysed the stars, plotted their movements and mapped out the constellations, maybe because she was just THAT BORED, but then she says, “ but I’ve never realized how beautiful they are! It’s like I’m seeing them for the first time! “ OK, so she could see the stars BEFORE, because I guess her screen has EYES IN IT – how the fuck else would she be able to experience the stars? – So why is she reacting like this now just because she’s organic? She has the same mind! Wouldn’t she also have the same capability to see that they’re beautiful?
She complains sadly that her power’s fading and says, “ Soon I’ll be nothing but a computer again! “ Sally then reveals that she’s always been the only friend that she can talk to, since she’s always been hiding everything from everyone else and I guess she thought Nicole was unjudgmental enough because she was just an emotionless computer to her, and then she says that she wishes she didn’t have to go. Nicole then reassures her that nothing will change as she disappears and Sally feels ashamed that she, too, was seeing the stars and appreciating them for the first time, shedding a tear in the process.
The first story was by Ken Penders. While it DOES make sense that Scourge would get distracted by Rouge and would be lonely enough to stay with her instead of returning to Knothole to bother Sonic or impersonate him again, or return to go kill Locke, it DOESN’T make sense that Sonic SURVIVED being dropped into polluted water with octopods, TIED UP through a complete Ass Pull! They could’ve at least SHOWN us a few panels of him escaping the ropes, but instead it’s nonsensical!
It’s not explained how Scourge got accepted back into his gang as the top dog after they ditched him, it’s not explained why they cared so much about him ditching THEM, when THEY ditched HIM for a REASON, and it’s not explained why Boomer had a spare teleporter just conveniently in the lab and no one ever used it! If the evil twins had so much fun fighting their good twins last time, why didn’t they immediately go fight them with that teleporter? Were they too AFRAID? They weren’t last time!
And it’s not explained why Locke took that long to sense that the Emerald was in danger so he could go save Sonic, who somehow wasn’t already killed by Scourge by his super speed by that point when Scourge wanted to kill him. So the whole story was wrapped up in plot holes and Deus ex Machinas! And I hated how the story just ended without Sonic explaining what happened to Amy and Bunnie, even though they were flirting with him! I love this story as a concept but it could’ve explained more, a lot more.
You know what’s especially bullshit? You know how it’s revealed that Antoine was sent to Anti-Mobius, right? We NEVER get to see what Antoine’s daily life was like over there! Sure we get a glimpse of it, but even then that’s hardly a normal day, because they were plotting to kill SCOURGE, who was normally their leader!
This is one of the MAIN characters of the COMIC, people, what was so hard about dedicating one of those many pointless or terrible backup-stories, to A Day in the Life of Antoine on Anti-Mobius? This would’ve been the perfect opportunity to show off the evil twins not just in their DAILY LIVES, but also in their downtime, developing their characters more! Showing if they have any hobbies like Miles playing a violin!
But NO! The evil twins all inexplicably HATE him and want to KILL him for GIVING THEM A VACATION FROM HIM! You’d think that logically, they’d be GRATEFUL, if they hated him that much! Sure, Buns was mad that he cheated, and Boomer was mad that he took off with their teleporter BUT HE HAD A SPARE! WHO CARES?! Why was this comic so desperate to avoid showing them off in their daily lives as actual people with actual personalities, that it spits on every possible opportunity?
Instead we have no idea what they all DO all day, let alone know what their unique interactions with each other are! What’s the character dynamics of this gang? So, they don’t really feel like people! And all we can do is GUESS the kind of inner turmoil Antoine was going through, like not trusting the evil twins not to snap at him and even not trusting HIMSELF not to gradually lose his morality and become like them from happily joining in lashing out! Basically being no better than them in practice! He never shows guilt over this at all, which would’ve been more sympathetic.
Nor do we see if he formed any genuine friendships in the gang, like with Miles who would look like the more innocent adorable little kid of the group to him. Such a perfect opportunity was wasted, by only showing the idea halfway, as while we see a LITTLE BIT of Patch with Antoine, we almost NEVER see ANTOINE as PATCH! Even though ANTOINE was one of the main characters since the BEGINNING, and even in SatAM he was always there!
The second story was by Tania del Rio, who’s credited for words and pictures rather than just called the writer, and on the one hand I love the concept of it, the fact that Nicole’s finally interesting with her sympathetic desire to be organic leading to this force field-hologram body, and the way Sally reacted to it proving that they’re best friends. But I really wish the way the art was the way that I’m used to. Sally looked too different. The art would normally be great but the characters are so different that it’s off-putting and distracting!
The writer had to do both words and pictures and failed at both instead of excelling at one, because not only was the art kind of bad, but the writing was off, too, because Sally was an idiot the whole time. She didn’t immediately get what was going on when she saw the shadow broadcasting from Nicole and she asked a bunch of stupid questions. If Nicole’s textboxes are green, why didn’t Nicole complain about her sounding like an AI in her efforts to be more organic, and solve that, and why didn’t Sally point it out before? If she can have an organic body, I don’t think her voice would be that of an AI!
Issue 152:
We start out with an overly long textbox saying that despite all the destruction Robotnik did for the past 11 years since seizing control of Mobotropolis, much of the world’s environment remains untouched somehow. I hate that textbox because it goes on for an eternity describing exactly how long it’s been when I don’t really care!
Why would I when I’m not being told what month it is? Actually, it was explained that it was June when all of the Robians were taken away to be deroboticized. But usually the comic isn’t clear enough about how much time passes between stories that I could figure out when every other story takes place. That story could’ve been a week after the previous one for all I’d know.
After we see Lupe walking through some artist, Eggman wastes precious comic space complaining like a generic villain, making me wonder why Eggman’s found so entertaining. ADAM says that at Eggman’s rate, it’ll take him a century to take over the world, so Eggman tells him that if HE can figure out what’s necessary to beat Sonic, then he needs to do it.
He leaves ADAM alone complaining about having to eat in an organic body, and you know, that’s really weird because you’d think a fat hedonist would’ve REALLY MISSED being able to eat, like even Jules does! He ate that giant sub in Unleashed! Is he a REALLY picky eater who doesn’t like anything he eats? Isn’t he supposed to be too arrogant to call his body pathetic? And ” original? ” He wasn’t born a robot.
Then ADAM goes over his options. fortunately explains why he won’t simply send his SWATbot army after Sonic. There aren’t enough SWATbots to achieve a radical change in the status quo that he apparently wants for NO reason instead of simply wanting to play riddles with Tails again! Hence why you shouldn’t have a character’s Establishing Character Moment have nothing to do with how he’ll be afterwards.
He says that the pod chamber’s drawback is that it’s too early for interface with anyone beyond their immediate environment. Wait, I don’t understand, later it’s revealed they’re just energy-drainers for Eggman’s city, so why would he say it’s too early for interface when the people would never be let out of the Egg Grapes anyways?
Well, one of the pods had the word ” mind erase ” on it, so what ADAM means is, the people would still have their memories if they were let out of it now. WHY wouldn’t he just drain everyone in the Egg Grapes as fast as possible right away, so they’d have amnesia instantly afterwards, like Charmy will?
Anyways, he decides to release the nanotechnology, and allows it to increase exponentially in an unrestricted environment. We see the Wolf Pack with Lupe wondering what could’ve made that metallic noise, saying that they haven’t come across anyone in the past several hours, so she can’t imagine what could be making it.
And she’s told that it could just be the birds chirping – how would they POSSIBLY think it was anything other than a sound coming from a ROBOT, it’s a klak sound! Lupe says that birds and bees can’t make relentless noise like that, and someone tells everyone to run because they might all be trapped as they all start to panic.
We cut away to Sonic with some narration saying that he’s just learned something’s up, and he finds everyone gathered in a special bunker below Knothole, asking if he missed anything while Rotor’s making a speech into a microphone…
Rotor, with camera footage of, uh, some metal stuff behind him, says that the only thing Sonic missed was the explanation of how they’re receiving the video feed. What they’re looking at is happening as they speak. Sally then coldly says that in the future when a meeting is called, “ it’s NOT conducted on Sonic time! “ Sonic looks hurt and wonders if it’s aimed at HIM or his evil double from earlier.
Rotor explains that the technology is terraforming the natural environment into a sprawling artificial one. How did Eggman not invent the technology to do this way earlier and already mechanize the world? This technology in the games had to be what mechanized Little Planet so fast, and that’s the GAMES Eggman, how was he more competent than Robotnik? Eggman and nanobots is nothing new, not only did he make Geoffrey sick with them, but he made the FREEDOM Fighters sick from them because of nanobots from McRobos!
Locke’s satellite transmission for them shows that this thing originated in Megaopolis, and is spreading rapidly in every direction. It might reach Knothole in 24 hours. The entire surface of Mobius would be covered in under a week! I love this idea for a story threat, I mean not only is this perfect for the nature vs technology theme since Sonic 1, but again, this happened to Little Planet in Sonic CD.
Then we see the Freedom Fighters with Fiona sitting beside Sonic in UFOs that I guess the Dark Legion lent them to take off from the invaded Angel Island. That was nice of them! I’m really glad they’re still using these and they haven’t been forgotten about. Amy says that she doesn’t get how the teams were chosen because Uncle Chuck should be leading the charge. Why? How would he lead the charge better than the experienced heroic Sonic?
Sonic replies that as much as he respects his uncle, speed could be the key on this round. This naturally has Fiona looking annoyed while hideously drawn because he’s flying a UFO, his super speed has nothing to do with how fast he’s flying!
Mina cheerfully calls him a chauvinistic oinker, which came out of NOWHERE! All he did was say he’s fast! He says that all the time! Also is she just inexplicably part of the Freedom Fighters now? I thought she quit after one mission to become a singer! Seeing her in this issue on Google Images or something was why I thought Mina was going to be a Freedom Fighter with Fiona. If she’s going to join, they shouldn’t be so sudden about it!
Meanwhile, Chuck says that this is a good spot to set up stations before the first team would reach the intercept point. Amy says she’s getting goose bumps about what she’s seeing and Fiona, staring through binoculars, shows her intelligence by saying, “ Fascinating! From what I can tell, matter is being manufactured literally out of thin air! “
From air molecules being changed to different chemicals, I suppose. I like that she has that intellectual side, as useless as it is. Sonic talks as if something coming from nothing is impossible when he should be used to magic by now and it’s not nothing if it’s air, and Sonic talks about how they’re about to do it and they go in.
Amy says that she’s scared for once because the thing in front of them is bigger than anything they’ve ever faced, and asks why the others didn’t come with them. Good point, what are the others even doing of worth? Well they can’t just put all their eggs in one basket. But wouldn’t this place just look like Robotropolis? Why are they so scared of it when there’s no SWATbots in it?
After a friendship moment involving Fiona where they put their hands together and say let’s party, which is diminished in enjoyability because Fiona’s drawn terribly, Sonic goes down a rope and tells Rotor with his walky-talky with his friends behind him that it’s like trying to sneak into an empty Robotropolis. What’s hard about sneaking into a city that for most of its lifespan had no force field or wall around it?
After he tells them to split up, without even a textbox saying that some time has passed, Sonic asks Amy if there’s anything to report. There’s NOTHING to report, they’ve just entered the place with nothing happening after all of this time. Amy wonders why Sonic hasn’t asked her out since their kiss. He STILL hasn’t told her about Scourge impersonating him? If he’s not into her, for no reason, then why didn’t he just tell her the truth?!
Fiona then says that she’s picking up an unusual humming sound. Sonic then thinks out of nowhere with the nonsensical backgrounds continuing to make me not at all invested that the mission’s tough enough SOMEHOW without being saddled with all of the girls. The writer REALLY wanted Mina to be proven right about Sonic being a chauvinist! That was forced as hell. And come on, HOW is this mission TOUGH?! NOTHING’S happened since they all came here!
Some black hands surrounded by green goop approach Bunnie, and grab her arm, and the signal blips out. Sonic tries to find her unsuccessfully and tells Rotor that he just found a section that would give his lab a run for “ the money. “ Isn’t it “ run for ITS money? “ Where is the floor? What is that background? I’m SO BORED! The pacing in this story’s terribly slow because they came here and so many panels were wasted with NOTHING happening! This is an action series! All I’ve been doing is paraphrasing dialogue and narration! So far, this doesn’t have to be a comic, it’s more like a fanfiction.
Rotor asks if there’s any terminals they could tap into and something they could access a database with. Then he says they’re breaking up and he can’t hear him and Sonic FINALLY notices Snively, who’s deroboticized all of a sudden when he was roboticized the LAST time I saw him! Is anything remotely interesting gonna happen?
Bunnie panics at potentially being forced to become joined with the computer, I really don’t see why ADAM would wanna do this, and Sonic attacks Snively, who says that all this is happening because of self-replicating nanobots, which he wants to stop before they’d become the dominant lifeform on the planet. He admits they’re lifeforms NOW, but he’ll say they’re not alive LATER!
Sonic lampshades why Eggman made something that could end up greatly inconveniencing him. Wait, why would he assume that it WOULD instead of assuming that Eggman had WANTED to use them to mechanize the world? Eggman always hated nature! Why is Sonic assuming that the robots would’ve did something Eggman didn’t want?
Snively explains that, “ When he was trying to recreate Metal Sonic, he found these things! “ He just FOUND them?! That’s a lazy Voodoo Shark. Also, didn’t he mention that he made them, saying angrily that the Freedom Fighters were adapting his technology? Robotnik’s been making nanobots as early as the McRobos’ story in the pre-40s, and Eggman’s been making nanites since he made Geoffrey and his Elites sick for months! Why couldn’t Eggman have made THESE nanites? Was that too simple?!
ADAM’s taken control of the nanites and is expanding his father’s territory, and he’s called a virus in every sense of the word. Fiona furiously shouts at him, “ Maybe Robotnik should set some OTHER goals in life! As should YOU! “ Naturally since she was forced to work in a jewel mining camp for a while and imprisoned for two YEARS by Robotnik, even if not the same one, so it makes sense that she’d always have a fiery grudge against Eggman. This standing up to him would be a lot more enjoyable if she wasn’t drawn horribly. What is it with Fiona and being drawn terribly?
She explains that she found the EMP detonators that Snively’s been setting. It’s Fiona who has to explain to Sonic what EMP stands for, explaining that these surges can render anything electronic useless, while being somehow harmless to any living being. Again, she’s showing an intellectual side. Did Rotor teach her that?
Snively yells that he was programming the timers so the detonators would go off simultaneously before Sonic stopped him, and now that Sonic’s stopped him, the only alternative is to set off the detonators at the three flashpoints manually. Mina tells him they can take care of the detonators while Sonic saves Bunnie.
With Mina agreeing with her, Fiona explains that when the EMP will go off, Bunnie’s robotic limbs will be affected and there’s no telling what’ll happen to the rest of her after that. Snively explains that while the girls get into position to trigger the detonators, he’ll be manning the master generator here to ensure that the maximum surge would be provided. I love Snively being in this position, I mean, it’s an interesting novelty, that’s been foreshadowed by him always scheming against Robotnik from the very beginning – just like the Freedom Fighters did.
Uncle Chuck then tells Sonic over the radio where to go to find Bunnie, because he knows where they should go for some reason. Snively shows the girls where the detonators are. There’s three detonators and three girls. Good thing Fiona’s there! Amy asks how they get out to the two furthest detonators when she’s nowhere near as fast as Sonic, and Mina says while holding acorns in her cheeks that SHE is fast enough, and she’ll carry Fiona to where she needs to go. Shouldn’t that have been obvious? Why’d Amy ask this? How could she forget about Mina’s super speed?
After Amy briefly stays behind because she’s so distrustful of the unlikable Snively, Snively’s honest with her that he’s only helping to get revenge on ADAM. For what? It took a long time for me to realize that Eggman kicked Snively out replacing ADAM with him for some reason (as Fiona says later, “ The nanites probably had no idea of coexistence until they encountered Bunnie! ADAM couldn’t handle it too well either considering how he booted Snively from Robotnik’s side. “)
And that’s why he wanted revenge, and this is because it was such a confusing thing to happen in the first place. Snively’s his own nephew, a human, compared to ADAM and M who are just AI when normally Eggman NEVER acknowledges AI as people, and you’d think he’d want as much people on his side helping him as possible, so why would he ever fire Snively, a brilliant engineer? It doesn’t make any sense, so it took a while to sink in. I could understand if Snively left Eggman because he always hated his jerk of a boss anyways and he mistreated him, but that isn’t what’s said to be the case.
Fiona says in a transmission that she’s now at the second flashpoint and tells him where to go next. Oh, wait, was it Chuck who told Sonic where to go next? I guess that would make sense since it’s a separate textbox. So is that necessary? With Bunnie having one eye closed looking weird when it looks like she has a hole instead of the eye because of the shadows on it, Sonic is told what’s happening to her and gets enraged because of what ADAM’s trying to do with her and the forest, telling him that he can’t absorb that.
Chuck then gives him an unclear explanation about how ADAM and the nanites somehow MUST be binary, so while they understand organic and inorganic, ADAM doesn’t understand mixing the two. He only understands logic, and this is supposed to be why he was confused by Tails’ jokes when I thought the real answer was, “ Father never attempted such queries. “
Sonic asks ADAM if his programming lets him kill people and is told that organic tissue isn’t adaptable and serves no purpose to “ the contiguity, “ whatever that’s supposed to mean, this is a kid’s comic remember. One is either carbon or silicon-based. Sonic then points out that Bunnie is half-organic.
For some reason he’s all polite correcting himself after he calls them robotic limbs in front of her, and his reasoning makes ADAM stop all activity! Well at least this is kind of consistent with his character because once again, the words of a hero convinces ADAM to stop his evil plan. This makes Bunnie herself again.
After Bunnie gives Sonic a kiss from being her hero she says ADAM probably went back to the motherboard as I start to wonder why he gave himself that weird green form with the evil smirk. And Amy tells Sonic that an opening to the daylight just opened up above her in the metal building. Mina says the same thing happened to HER only it provided a ladder. And later on Bunnie even says the nanites have become harmless! If ADAM’s being human enough that he’s doing this just to be courteous to them, why couldn’t he have apologized to them for all the trouble while he was at it?
If he’s supposed to only understand logic, you’d think nothing like pride and embarrassment at apologizing would’ve stopped him from admitting he was wrong about doing his plan and saying it was regrettable that he inconvenienced them. EVE ADMITTED that SHE was WRONG, and she’s all ABOUT LOGIC! But I guess with him being an AI with no social experience, he wouldn’t understand why he should apologize because he never did it or saw anyone else do it.
Chuck in a UFO says that if they go inside they might find out. Sonic asks them what do they expect a robot to tell them, and Rotor corrects him that they’re not robots they’re nanites. As if that makes a difference. They’re still ROBOTS! They’re made of metal and have CPUs, you’d think an engineer would know what a robot is!
A textbox explains that because the nanites are capable of independent thought even without ADAM’s input, chances are those who were caught in their path didn’t suffer any serious harm either. What gives him THAT idea? If they ALL have independence, then only ADAM helped the heroes but the rest of the nanites wouldn’t want to, because they have independent thought!
Fiona complains that with all the nanites around, it’ll be decades before the ecological balance would be restored with all this metal around. Why would she care about that? She then figures out that the nanites had no idea of coexistence until they encountered Bunnie, and Bunnie says, “ I guess being unique does have its advantages. “ She’s talking as if this is the FIRST time she ever appreciated being a cyborg when she was THRILLED and enjoying her super strength from the minute she became one!
Amy then says that she’s glad she never had to “ resort to “ Snively’s option. So Fiona didn’t get to be useful because none of them got to activate any detonators! Most of the people here didn’t get to do a thing! So much for girl power, right?
The story ends with Snively explaining with a fake nervous smile that if they examine the sample Rotor took, they can see activity going on despite their dormancy, and if they can establish a link, the nanites may provide an answer for bringing down Eggman once and for all. A link with what?
For some reason, Chuck says there might be hope for him yet instead of assuming that Snively just wants to take Eggman’s place like he tried to do when Robotnik was sent into the Void. But it IS good characterization for him as the lovable jovial uncle that he should be. And he asks them if they trust him fully, with Tails naturally not doing so. Yeah that’s a way to encourage him to stay on your side, be passive aggressive to him and shun him.! I’m sure that’ll work out great for everybody! I’m sure Fiona would agree!
FINALLY the issue’s over, god that was BORING! I don’t know WHY, it was just SO BORING! Nothing really HAPPENED in it! In an action series like Sonic, I spent most of the review rephrasing dialogue and narration instead of describing stuff actually happening! There was too much exposition! Even when they found Snively and they had a big plan, Sonic just talks to ADAM to save the day with none of the girls even getting to DO anything! Normally I don’t care about the art, but here’s an issue where the art ruins it.
Ever since the heroes entered the place, until Sonic found Snively, there was nothing but abstract anime backgrounds not making it remotely clear where they are in-universe and showing me their actual surroundings, so I eventually realized that the reason I was so bored was partially because that art didn’t get me INVESTED in the STORY AT ALL. How can I be invested when I don’t know what’s surrounding the characters?
I always hated that about comics, and anime somehow gets away with that too! HALF the work of doing the art is supposed to be drawing everything BUT the characters! How’d the artist get away with this?! And Fiona was drawn terribly, and so was Snively. And Rotor looked awful too, and so did Sally with her tiny eyes!
There WAS an excellent source of tension with Bunnie’s situation, but I have to wonder why it was taking ADAM so long to absorb Bunnie, like why didn’t she get absorbed already? And why did he do this to her at all?! This is the same guy who shut down the robots threatening Tails’ friends just because he had fun playing riddles with Tails, not even Tails’ FRIENDS.
The nanites taking over thing was just there as an excuse for the heroes to go to a place and do almost nothing. Apparently Eggman just FOUND the nanites! And I hate how Fiona and Mina didn’t get to DO anything, because the detonators weren’t used! And Sonic being a chauvinist felt really forced and out of nowhere, it’d make more sense for Scourge! It’s hard to explain why I hate this so much, I guess it was too much talking and exposition? Characters were saying their plans, saying stuff over and over not actually doing anything! The story was by Ken Penders, and it was just excruciatingly boring!
Issue 153:
We start out with Fang in a lazy black void saying that someone is willing to pay him 50 rare gems if he can get to the Acorn Kingdom for an assassination mission. He agrees to the job from Eggman, and this isn’t the first time he’s worked for him either, although again I really have to question why he’d want these jewels since he’s a criminal who would have no problem just killing or threatening people to get what he wants without NEEDING to bribe people!
Then after I’m completely confused by Sonic being held by the neck and I wonder if Sonic’s being attacked by a villain In Media Res, it turns out it was just combat practice with the Freedom Fighters, as Sally thinks that the best way to encourage her friends to be great teammates would be to make them pummel each other. Logically that’d just make them resent each other, and bicker MORE, but whatever! Why does she think that the previous mission requires her to reinforce teamwork? The team got along fine!
Antoine’s father says that Patch grew up too quickly and forgot the important things like love and family, and actually wonders if HE made him go cold AS WELL as the war. Why would he blame HIMSELF for that? He was nothing but nice to Antoine, he even went fishing and camping with him, although that does raise the interesting question of, maybe Patch’s father DID make him go cold!
Maybe Patch DID grow up too fast. After all, the Moebian General D’Coolette would’ve been evil, so he’d be a terrible father. But we’ll never know because we never GET any sort of BACKSTORY for Patch, despite the fact that he’s one of the main characters right now!
He tells Sally that because Patch is so different now, he now knows that Antoine was never right for her, and hopes that he never put any pressure on her. Then he coughs and King Max says that he thought HE looked bad, and the queen says that they might cut the tour short unless there would be some improvement.
Dr Quack had told the king that they might have been poisoned, but on the battlefield years ago and it’s somehow only affecting them NOW. WHY did he say “ battlefield “ instead of saying that it was because of, say, his time in Mobotropolis, which would’ve still had pollution and toxins in it left from Robotnik’s rule? That would’ve made more sense than, “ the battlefield, “ when he was last fighting on the battlefield over 11 YEARS ago! With Sonic listening in, Sally suggests that the king come home because he and Antoine’s father are both showing similar symptoms.
WHY didn’t the queen get poisoned TOO?… I mean seriously, if he’s going to waste time poisoning Antoine’s father, he might as well poison the queen too! And it would’ve been more logical for HER because she stands more of a chance of getting the throne than he would! I mean, doesn’t he want to get rid of her so that she won’t take the throne? Also, there’s a line, “ YOU of all people should know that incapacitated is no use to anyone. “ There should really be a “ being “ before “ incapacitated “ there, she’s normally a formal talker.
For some reason someone in a cloak – the queen when I see nothing queenly about cloaks – says that the king’s been having some weakness in his legs and it’s apparently nothing to be concerned about. Then when Antoine’s father passes out, Bunnie’s confused later about how Patch didn’t even flinch when he heard what happened, and yet he wanted to know about the battle simulation with the Chaotix. Why’d he care about that though? Wouldn’t someone like him only care about himself and not care what goes on with other people?
Tails nervously tries to ask Fiona to spend some time with him at Mina’s concert that night, with Sonic thinking about how an awkward moment’s going to happen where he’ll get shot down, by asking a much older woman out on a date. Honestly I think she’d agree not even realizing that he meant it to be a date, and then when he’d try to put the moves on her, she’d shoot him down THERE.
Why does Fiona call Tails, “ Miles? “ She’s been on the team since AT MOST right before Issue 130! After all that time! Does she think the name Tails is too insulting? Did people NEVER say to her that she can call him Tails? Did she not HEAR people call him that? Are they not close friends enough after all this time – I don’t even know how long she’s BEEN with them to BEGIN with – that she wouldn’t call him by the affectionate nickname?
Trying to make sure that Tails wouldn’t get embarrassed – or worse, have his heart broken after he goes on a date with her and she doesn’t want him to put the moves on her – Sonic decides to suggest to his friends all going to see Mina’s concert together.
Tails agrees no problem, and then Sonic tells Fiona that Tails has a lot of “ respect “ for her for some reason. That’s not respect, that’s “ I think she’s pretty! “ I assume anyways because at no point does he ever say or think that he loves her because of her intelligence.
Fiona confuses the hell out of me by saying, “ Respect? You should have thought of that before! “ She doesn’t know that Tails likes her so why’s she talking as if she knows that by respect he means love? Like, “ you should have thought of that before flirting with me! “ Why would she say that if she didn’t know? A textbox says that Scourge had tried to make a move on Fiona in Issue 150. So why the hell didn’t we get to SEE THAT?! I can only assume it took place in between him interacting with Amy and Bunnie, and that he moved onto Bunnie because Fiona got busy and he was still lonely.
Also, the editor’s textbox says about Scourge’s flirting with Fiona, “ unknown to Sonic “ SOMEHOW when she’s referencing that so it’s not exactly unknown to Sonic anymore and couldn’t have been since why would she even start dating him without referencing it? Can what an editor says being a blatant lie count as a plot hole?
I’m really confused by how Fiona’s line could possibly logically lead up to the next panel where she recaps how she was left behind some bars in front of a wall, when Sonic, Ray and Mighty were rescued from one of Eggman’s bases. Wait, what? That never happened!
Now I’m confused because she says Ray had been rescued from one of the bases, but he hadn’t! I’m really confused here because unless this is a retcon, what happened in Knuckles 28 was that Fiona was taken onto an airship by Eggman after Ray was lost to the void, and so there’s no possible way Fiona could’ve been tracked down since nobody knows where she was. Actually they could’ve found her DNA in the camp and made a Fiona locater, but still.
This panel on the other hand, is just nonsensical! First of all, if Fiona was close enough to Sonic, Mighty and Ray to SEE them in her cell, why didn’t she just SCREAM their NAMES and get their ATTENTION?! Logically she should’ve been rescued a LOT sooner, then!
In Knuckles 28, the heroes didn’t even leave with Ray at all until after FIONA FOUND HIM BY LEADING MIGHTY THERE, and Mighty, NOT SONIC! So this means that despite the textbox referencing Knuckles 28, this clearly has nothing to do with Knuckles 28! Instead, she’s referring to Sonic not saving her on a mission WE NEVER SAW! That mission we NEVER SAW is gonna be a justification for abandonment issues when we never even saw this happen!
I always thought it had to do with her being in a cell for 2 years having to claw her way out. Naturally, because the textbox SAYS, “ Knuckles 28. “ But instead, she’s referencing being left behind in a cell AFTER Sonic rescued Mighty AND Ray from a base of Eggman.
Also, apparently this happened BEFORE Sonic was tossed in space. So then how was she left behind by THEM, THERE, when obviously she wasn’t a Freedom Fighter yet at that point, there was no hint of that at all? So she wouldn’t have been on a mission with them. So why was she in his base? Why did she expect to be rescued unless she knew them already? This is SO CONFUSING. A big part of her personality for later on shouldn’t have been defined by an event that happened OFFSCREEN! On a mission tha there was no indication of it happening at ALL until NOW! How DID she escape that cell?
The very idea that she would even be left there and forgotten by Ray and Sonic at all is forced to begin with, especially with THREE different PEOPLE there, somehow all of them forgot! You could say that it makes sense because Tails forgot about the Fiona infiltrator when he promised he’d make Robotnik fix her, but I called THAT bullshit, too!
Fiona explains that she blamed Sonic for a really long time, but when he nearly sacrificed his life to save the world, she had a harder time believing that he would leave her there on purpose. I guess she thought he would leave her there on purpose, because it was too risky a venture, and he was lazy? Again I can only assume that her parents ditched her and a lot of other people did too because, unless she had deep-seated abandonment issues already, I can’t understand why she would be paranoid enough to assume Sonic left her behind on purpose, especially when he had no way of knowing where she WAS!
And then she says out of nowhere once again that sometimes Sonic is so selfish. Where’d THIS come from?! This would make sense if she was chastising him for, what she thought was Sonic trying to kiss her, because Tails likes her. But, she doesn’t know that he likes her yet, because she asks him later, why he’s acting so strange around her all the time! So why did she say he’s selfish?!
Meanwhile, Sonic and Mina hug backstage before the concert and Sonic wonders what Ash’s problem is as he’s so quick to remind people that she’s not just her boyfriend, but also her manager, and vice versa. He nags her that he has to leave her friends in a hurry.
Fang then tries to assassinate Mina instead of Sally for some reason – at least that was a genuine plot twist – I guess because Mina’s a good morale booster from singing and so that was his original mission? But then I’m promptly confused that somehow, Fang missed… and created a fire.
Sonic then gets worried that while he has to stop Fang, Sunset Hill will go out in smoke if he doesn’t put out the fire. I like how the writer used Sunset Hill from Advance 3 in this. They could’ve very easily just had some generic field. It’s not like it matters, though.
Fortunately Bunnie intervenes to put out the flaming tree by, uh, attacking it with a kick, to send the burning half of it into some convenient water. And this lets Sonic go after Fang and naturally take him down pathetically easily, where he gets put in Knothole Prison.
Fang’s told that he’s gonna be imprisoned for a very long time, unless, as Sally says, he tells them why he tried to kill Mina. UNLESS?!… Is she seriously going to let him out of prison, as a reward for telling them this?! This better be a lie to manipulate him!
Fang then shows pragmatism by saying that he’d rather cool his heels in lockup while receiving three square meals a day, even if it means staying in prison, because he thinks selling out his employer would ruin his street cred. Even though you’d think even criminals would hate Eggman enough to understand.
Then Fang’s told to take a look outside, and tell them how much he wants to be reunited with his former accomplices, who went to jail while HE somehow escaped scot-free. I don’t know why they went to jail and he didn’t, it makes no sense. You’d think he would’ve stayed with them and they all would’ve escaped together. I guess they only hate him out of jealousy?
For some reason Sonic thinks he’s lying when he tells them who put them up to it, and at first I thought Eggman was listening in on them but it turns out it was just a flashback panel telling us that Eggman hated Mina’s singing. Why? And why’d he turn on the radio in the first place? I guess THIS Robotnik doesn’t hate all music, which makes more sense.
So because he hates pop music, like that of Mina’s, he outlawed all Mina memorabilia in his territories, and jammed the air waves so nobody could listen to her music, all because he personally doesn’t like her songs. But he still couldn’t get her catchy singing out of his head. Makes sense since pop music is literally programmed to be catchy.
I guess the reason he hates her singing despite it sounding good apparently is that she sings songs rebelling against Eggman? But later it’s implied that they’re all love songs, so, uh, wouldn’t he just hate and ban all love songs in general if he hates Mina’s songs? Why just her? Oh, because she’s a character we know, so meta logic. So that’s why he hired Fang, to silence Mina once and for all. But THAT wouldn’t get her out of his head either, at least not right away.
Sally tells Ash on the throne that since Mina’s life is in danger she wants the Freedom Fighters to replace her security detail, with Sonic serving as her personal bodyguard for the remainder of the concert. How would that prevent another sniper when Mina’s security didn’t notice the suspicious trench-coat guy either? They wouldn’t either. It’s worth a shot though. WHAT security detail? What detail, what’d she mean by that? Shouldn’t she have been written to say, “ security forces, “ or, “ bodyguards? “
I kinda laughed at Sonic’s response to Ash’s idiotically saying, “ What can HE do that our regular bodyguards can’t? “ and instead of listing off that he can move at the speed of sound, spindash, create tornadoes and stuff, Sonic simply says, “ Uhh, keep her BREATHING? “ I mean her own security did fail at their job, but that’s still a weak argument.
Then Sonic snarkily says that just NOW he’s got a feeling that Ash doesn’t like him too much, and Eggman’s plan B is to rebuild Heavy and Bomb. Cool. Wait, are they the same people who did nothing in Geoffrey’s Elites or are they entirely new robots? They have to be because there’d be nothing left of their remains aside from the destroyed metal which would’ve stayed in Knothole, not in Eggman’s grasp.
What’s the point of him making the new Heavy and Bomb look the same? Laziness? Really, it’s just, like, this is an example of an EMPTY nostalgic reference, there’s no reason for them to look like Heavy and Bomb, they just are. They could’ve just been regular-looking robots who can explode, and I honestly completely forgot that Mina’s concert was threatened by “ Heavy and Bombs “ retyping this several reads later, because it could’ve been bombs but it didn’t have to be THE Bombs.
So that’s the end of the issue! Well there IS an extremely pointless backup story by Romy Chacon, but it’s just Rosie telling some sick kids a stupid story about Sally of all people as a pirate with her friends, there’s nothing to say other than, it just wastes comic space on a story that’s fictional even in-universe.
Rosie tells the orphans she’s looking after a bedtime story where Sally and her friends are the main characters, except Sally’s a pirate, and while at first I didn’t care about it because it was fiction within fiction anyways, the story itself is rather interesting, giving the main characters different roles than usual. The story ITSELF is rather interesting and enjoyable. So it’s about time I gave it the full analysis it deserves.
It starts out with all three of Rosie’s orphans being sick with a cold all at the same time. I assume they caught it from each other, but you’d think one of them would have a better immune system than the others, but I guess this makes sense. She brings them medicine, and one of them thanks her, and asks her to tell them a story. She says humbly that she’s not very good at telling stories.
They beg her to and she agrees. It would be better to have the main characters’ new roles in this bedtime story be naturally introduced to us one at a time. This is overwhelming. It’s harder for me to be interested enough to read every textbox.
So one day, Pirate Sally was sailing in the lazily named Mobian Ocean with her first mate “ Bunnie “ B-Bot by her side. Seriously it wouldn’t be called the Mobian Ocean, that’s like calling a place Earth Ocean.
It’s harder to tell that’s supposed to be Bunnie in this art, but her cyborg arm gave it away. She points out a fox falling from the sky. I find it annoying that her southern accent is written out so obviously. It makes it harder to read her dialogue, and while she’s always had that problem, it’s especially bad in this story. She says pallin’ from the sky instead of falling.
She extends her arm to catch Tails before he’d fall into the water. But if he started falling from high up enough, it wouldn’t matter, he’d still die the minute he stopped, and she caught him with her METAL HAND. If this was being realistic, he’d die from smacking into it anyways. Even falling into the water at a high up enough height would be like hitting concrete!
It’s a good thing Rosie justified that she isn’t good at telling stories. So for all I know, all of the plot holes will be intentional. I don’t feel that way, but it’s fiction within fiction anyways. Of course it’s not gonna make sense. Why is Tails even where he was? Where was he flying to?
I have to assume B-Bot is a cyborg for the same reason Bunnie is, that Eggman was responsible. But this would be a good excuse to give her a creative new backstory. After all, if Eggman did this to her with magic, you’d think he’d use magic to outright brainwash her, or make her entirely a robot, so it had to be Chuck who did this to her.
Tails says that one of his magic twin tails has been stolen by the rogue assassin Rouge as he was flying. So I guess they’re gonna go after her and fight her for that. While I love that it’s established that his tails are magical since it explains why he can fly with them just fine, it’s still very confusing that one of his tails can be ripped off like it’s nothing, and more importantly – since it could be explained away as Rouge having super strength in this story – obviously the tail being ripped off would have a gory result and he’d bleed to death, unless it wasn’t actually his tail and just attached to the outside of his body artificially. Even without a gory result, I can’t buy that Rosie would think having this be a part of a children’s bedtime story would be acceptable, because you’d think the kids would be horrified and interrupt the story.
And somehow Sally and B-Bot aren’t horrified at this. Instead after B-Bot asks him if he’s alright, Sally happily says that she’ll have to steal it back for him. Good thing she has enough compassion to do that for him and B-Bot cared enough to save him even though they’re pirates. It’d be interesting to learn why people like them would become pirates.
And it’d be pointless to make them pirates if they aren’t gonna do any pirate stuff. I wish the alternate universes idea got as much creativity as this bedtime story because they could do all sorts of changing of the roles of the main characters and still be interesting with little effort.
The story cuts to Sally and B-Bot riding on white horses they already conveniently have on land, despite being pirates. I’m forced to assume the horses were always on the land, because how could they take care of the horses on the pirate ship? It’d be so small and cramped. How’d she GET her pirate ship? She’s a teenager.
I guess she was still a princess at some point so she could’ve bought anything. Maybe she bought it as a kid before Robotnik, or rather, the evil wizard Kintobor. And Rouge is one of his henchmen, going off SA2. I guess she actually supports him, which is a creative twist now. It makes perfect sense that Eggman would be reinterpreted as a wizard because mad science and magic produce the same results. They’re not that different from each other.
The heroes soon get lost in the woods. Sally says that she heard that Kintobor lives in a castle, but isn’t sure where it is. At least it’s creative for a wizard to live in a castle and not a tower. I guess he stole the castle. But apparently not from her family or she’d already know for sure instead of just saying “ I heard. “ Either he actually did inherit the castle or he stole it from a completely different royal family from hers. I guess this Sally was never a princess and became a pirate for the same reason real people did. Then whose castle did Kintobor take over?
Antoine finds them in the woods and says that he’s the wizard’s jester, who happened to be all the way in the woods instead of in the castle because I guess he really likes taking walks in the woods in his spare time. And he’s immediately happy to try to escort them to the castle. I guess he wants Kintobor to be foiled in his plan. Maybe he wasn’t told what the word fool meant so he’s fine with calling himself that.
Antoine takes them down the wrong way and they end up getting chased by the Naugus Rider, as suddenly there’s a third horse that HE’s riding. I guess he showed up with one in the first place. I wonder if Rosie thinks Antoine’s an idiot and that’s why she made him this way. Calling him Ant the Fool I can understand because he’s a jester, but then she called him “ the idiot. “
Sonic shows up out of nowhere to hit away Naugus Rider and has him lying on the ground afterwards. To be fair, it is logical that someone hitting someone at sonic speed or even close to it would kill him in one hit. Maybe he doesn’t know he killed him. He attacked Naugus before he’d be able to use magic against him, that makes sense. Sonic’s called the blue knight here.
Soon they find their way to the castle where the drawbridge is guarded by Mog the troll, or rather Mogul in this story. You’d think a wizard wanting to protect his castle from intruders would summon a magical force field generator, not leave it to one guy.
I guess that one guy approached him and told him he would guard his castle and he didn’t bother thinking of a different idea after that. I guess this version of Mogul doesn’t aspire to the throne. He doesn’t wanna take over the world, since if he did, he’d just kill Eggman in his sleep since he’s always so close to him. But it’s a different universe.
Sally challenges Mog to a game of chicken, being brave like Sonic, and uses her own speed against him with a side step, so Mog falls into the water, being gotten past easily with no action scene at all, even though this is Mammoth freaking Mogul we’re talking about, though it IS an alternate universe bedtime story, so I guess in this universe he’s meant to be a joke, and is lacking the magical abilities he’d need to avoid drowning after falling into the water.
And I can understand why Rosie would probably want the catharsis of portraying terrifying bad guys that exist in her universe as complete jokes that get defeated immediately after all of the trouble they caused. Of course she’d hate them that much. It’s an idealized version of her own world by comparison.
There’s not much of a point to it being Sally if she’s gonna act like Sonic the whole time though. Kintobor tells the heroes they’ll never get this tail. Sally’s text bubble should be to the left of his. Otherwise it just looks like she’s blatantly ignoring what he just said and telling him to give it up anyways.
He says the tail will give him magic to become the most powerful wizard ever. I thought he already WAS. I guess there’s still some abilities he’s incapable of, no matter what. I suppose there are other wizards on this planet that are more powerful than him and they’re better than him morally, so they haven’t taken over the world, but if that was the case they would’ve taken him down. I guess they don’t know about him. I guess Rosie hates Snively a lot if she portrays him as just a useless parrot and not a character. It is symbolic of how he was just a henchman yes-man to him.
The entire team attacks at once, causing Kintobor to momentarily lose the tail. It does make logical sense that someone as fast as Sonic would hit Kintobor before he could do anything and the sheer force of that attack would put him out of commission. After all, in Sonic the Comic when Sonic was faced with a wizard, he attacked him before he could finish saying his spells, so the wizard was forced to undo all of his spells.
It is very anticlimactic that he’d lose in one fight instead of a proper action scene, but I understand that it doesn’t have the comic space at this point to have full action scenes for these villains, especially not when it’s wasting so many pages on worthless advertisements, and even without doing that, it’s just a side story. But at least I can say that it MAKES actual sense logically that the villains all got defeated so quickly. Tails gets his tail back. It immediately reattaches itself with no problem afterwards. It really IS a magic tail.
Tails thanks them all, and then says, “ especially you, Pirate Sally. “ But why show preference for her? None of them had any close friendship moments. It was Sonic who did most of the heavy lifting. He defeated two of the bad guys in one hit. B-Bot was the one who saved his life and brought him to the people who’d eventually bring him to Sonic.
Even Antoine was useful because while he got them lost, if they hadn’t gotten lost, they never would’ve met Sonic. I guess if Sally wasn’t a pirate with a ship, Tails never would’ve met B-Bot and been saved, and sure she defeated Mog, but still. I think Rosie is just showing too much preference to Sally for obvious reasons.
And with that, Sonic takes Sally’s hand and they live happily ever after, even though they showed no attraction to each other before this point, but to be fair, I guess we were supposed to just assume they were attracted to each other and it just wasn’t mentioned in the story because that’d waste time. So it can make sense, but it still comes off as too sudden and forced. But it makes sense that she’d want a happy ending.
At least Rosie’s good at fast pacing. It’s not a story arc dragging on forever and almost all of the heroes were competent, surprisingly so. They weren’t complete idiots at any point, making me mad at the story, forgetting to ask for a nanite suit of their own when they’ve lost their cybernetics. I wish she could’ve written most of this comic.
One of the kids asks what happened to Kintobor. He died from Sonic smacking into him at sonic speed, obviously. Why does he think anything else happened? Of course, it makes sense to assume that Sonic wouldn’t have the heart to intentionally hit to kill, and with all of his speed experience, he’d know which speed is non-lethal and stick to that.
One of the kids says that he doesn’t understand the characters’ individual motivations. How does he not understand that? They wanted to help Tails, the end. One of them asks how Sonic and Sally fell in love so fast. That’s answered by the obvious meta logic that Rosie ships the two together in real life. I just wish the story didn’t end there and instead let me see how the kids would’ve rewritten the story. I guess we’ll never know why Sally was a pirate.
Well, that was still interesting and charming after I actually gave it a chance. This was by Romy Chacon. I loved the refreshing change of pace where Sally was a pirate with Bunnie, who extends her arm to catch Tails when he’s gonna fall into the ocean. It was also interesting that Antoine was a jester stupidly leading her in the wrong direction through the woods, where Ixis the horse riding knight went after her in the first place. And best of all Tails’ tails are confirmed to be MAGICAL.
It’s just that all the villains are defeated in one panel way too easily. It was impressively smart of Sonic in the story to directly attack Eggman though, it’s sad when HE’s smarter than the ” real ” Archie Sonic who barely ever thought to do that. If only he was this smart in Issue 224. He could just spindash Ixis! It’s interesting that a goody-two-shoes like Sally would be a pirate in this story, I loved that the villains were reimagined with different designs for all the good that did.
It has Rouge not only working for Eggman, but also somehow rip one of Tails’ TAILS OFF when he was flying and somehow it wasn’t a horrible kid-unfriendly sight because of that. Somehow he didn’t die from that! Why would Rosie tell a story where THAT happens? I love that his tail was acknowledged as being magical and that’s why it was stolen, though.
It was going to make Eggman super powerful, and somehow Tails got it reattached extremely easily just because he wanted to. Rouge was reimagined as one of Eggman the wizard’s henchmen in this story. She’s more interesting when she’s more of a villain for once. But it missed an opportunity by not explaining why she would work for Eggman. It didn’t even explain why Bunnie and Sally were pirates.
I at least like that the kids are all smarter than Rosie, as one of them points out the plot hole asking what happened to Kintobor since the story was supposed to end happily ever after, when all that happened to Eggman was Sally and Sonic attacked him to get Tails’ tail back. One of the kids doesn’t understand the kids’ individual motivations which would make sense since why ARE they all pirates, especially Sally?
And another kid naturally questions how the story’s Sonic and Sally, could fall in love that fast? When the kids start cleverly discussing what they could do to improve the story, which I find pretty admirable, Rosie just says everyone’s a critic which annoys me as it implies that the writer’s insulting the audience for critiquing his work in any way.
The actual main story, written by Karl Bollers, Fang is hired by Eggman to try to assassinate Mina and then after he SOMEHOW misses her, and Bunnie gets rid of the fiery tree by kicking it into the water I didn’t expect to even be there, Fang is talked into revealing why Eggman hired him because it turned out that SOMEHOW he had escaped scot-free last time while his weasel friends all got put in jail. And now they hate him, because they’re jealous, I guess.
And Fiona’s dialogue with Sonic doesn’t make any SENSE, it’s as if… all the panels of her dialogue are just taken from completely separate issues, or rather put out of order. She randomly comes from one train of thought to another nonsensically, all to justify telling us about a mission she apparently got left behind by Sonic and Ray on that WE NEVER SAW.
And Flynn never bothered showing us that mission either. How does she think Sonic’s selfish? She doesn’t know Tails likes her that much! And I have to wonder why Sonic isn’t even irritated at HER calling him selfish when SALLY doing that made him lose his temper.
At the very least it was much engaging to me than the previous issue which was just boring characters talking! The art’s way better than certain recent issues I hated, which helps for the appeal! It was a downtime issue where the characters go to a concert. Oh and it’s revealed that Antoine’s father and the king are sick. I’d like to point out that the king isn’t sick when we see him in the FUTURE in the story where Nicole’s introduced! So he has to be destined to get better!
Issue 154:
We start out with Mina saying that she feels so much safer knowing that her friends the Freedom Fighters are going to be assigned as her bodyguards to a concert. You know, they could be doing something ELSE to try to take down Eggman, but instead they’re stuck here. Fiona looks SO BORED! I actually giggled at that! It’s relatable of her.
After some pointless recap, Ash acts like a complete jerk asking to talk to Mina in private, and I love that Sonic stands up to him saying that no matter what Ash’s status is, Sonic’s her bodyguard and she’s not leaving his sight. I mean I’d be jealous too if I was Ash considering what I’d have as competition, but he’d still a total douchebag, and even his design screams it!
After Ash idiotically doubts Sonic’s ability to be a bodyguard again saying he’s gotta be kidding him, Mina breaks up a potential fight as a mediator and for some reason Sonic lets her talk in private with Ash as if she’d be safer with HIM. He’s been built up to be nothing but a douchebag since we met him, so having him get what he wants is just BAD writing. What kind of lesson does that teach?!
Ash suggests cancelling the concert out of overprotectiveness with Mina saying, “ How can you even suggest such a thing? “ I agree with her, not just because of her reasoning that she’d be letting her fans down, but because of Sonic’s. She’s rebelling against Eggman by singing! Even if she never got to actually sing because the concert would be attacked too early anyways, her not even TRYING to go to a concert would just be letting Eggman WIN, it’d be symbolic of that and that wouldn’t be good for the morale.
Then Ash claims that the reason he hates Sonic is because he broke her heart completely unintentionally. What a fucking pathetic excuse. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that he’s jealous and Sonic is infinitely more competent than he is. And he’d know Sonic didn’t mean to do that.
Ash then points out that the majority of Mina’s song lyrics are obviously about Sonic. I guess since they describe his personality and green eyes. Evil Bunnie wears those exact same spiked wristbands. He tells Mina, ” if it’s not true, tell me you don’t love Sonic the Hedgehog anymore. ”
And since she can’t deny it, he says that from now on, he’ll just stick to being her manager. That doesn’t make any sense of him to do if he wants her so badly, he clearly didn’t think this through, but it’s for the best. He didn’t make a good boyfriend anyways. No matter HOW much he loves her – and I haven’t seen him show ANY affection or fondness for her ONCE by the way, so that kind of censorship just makes it so that the only purpose of him being her boyfriend when he could easily just be her FRIEND is to have him be an obstacle to keep Mina and Sonic from dating as they logically should.
He only exists because of meta logic, he’s Bollers wanting to keep Mina and Sonic apart for no reason. That’s the only reason this character exists and that’s not a foundation for a good character, especially when he’s the definition of a douchebag and yet he gets almost everything he wants handed to him, so how are we expected to ROOT for this character and support Mina in doing so?
She just looks like a ditzy idiot dating someone like him! But even pretending that he DOES love someone that he never shows affection to, he’s still an unlikable jerk who doesn’t deserve her from that alone. There’s PLENTY of other guys out there and she’s gonna be with him for the rest of the comic, isn’t she?
Sonic tells Sally that the Freedom Fighters are all scattered around various areas of the concert strategically to protect Mina, with Tails flying for example. For some reason, Sally picks a fight with Sonic because he didn’t join Mina in her dressing room. HELLLOOOOOOOO? It’s called a dressing room! Why would a guy be in a girl’s, (sighs) Can you tell this is by Bollers? Because only he writes her like this.
“ I don’t have time for excuses! Now go perform your duty! “ She’s just looking for an excuse to be a bitch. Just because Sonic wants to be a hero and she’s worried about it doesn’t give her the excuse to arbitrarily pick fights with him like a, like a 6-year-old!
What is it with Sally recently and wanting Sonic to spend time with girls he could potentially move onto? First she sticks him with all of the girls as if she’s trying to send a message to him and now she tells him to spend time with Mina, the exact OPPOSITE of what she wanted him to do with her LAST TIME! Wasn’t she jealous BEFORE, which would make sense for her paranoid personality? Shouldn’t she know this isn’t what she wants?
Eggman tells ADAM after calling Mina’s lyrics too saccharine that according to GPS an army of Bombs have already infiltrated the concert area in Knothole. Can’t Rotor just make a Sandblast-style force field generator around the concert instead of being useless? No?
This army interrupts the concert as the heroes have to go fight it, although Ash annoyingly delays them by saying that HE’LL get Mina to safety MUCH SLOWER than SONIC would. Sonic could, you know, pick her up and run all the way to her house and then run back and just continue the fight seconds later! I assume Mina’s freezing up in fear and that’s why she won’t run home herself in a SECOND.
But no. When Heavy shows up Sonic decides to let Ash take Mina to safety much slower since he has to stay and fight the robot and can’t leave for even a SECOND. And after some more action panels where the heroes throw Bombs so they explode above them we see Sonic spindash through the ground, wondering if the robot will take the bait.
He traps the robot underground, somehow ends up in the WATER and almost drowns, with Bunnie saying it’s a good thing she got to him in time after he wakes up. So, he passed out underwater, and, he didn’t have to go in the hospital from getting water in his lungs? And with Sonic being revealed to be okay, Fiona smiles in the background with everyone else.
Bunnie says that there’s no more Bombs left and after Mina hugs Sonic and plans a date, Ash is interrupted from telling Mina he loves her when he sees another Bomb in her dressing room, and gets himself injured protecting her from it, TOTALLY forgetting the fact that Mina can run at the speed of SOUND, and could’ve just run out of her dressing room perfectly FINE, even carrying him away! But NO.
It’s stupid that this was the best the writer could come up with to justify what’s gonna happen later because it makes Ash look like an IDIOT and worst of all, that SHOULD’VE JUST KILLED ASH, but SOMEHOW won’t PURELY because there’s only ONE meta logic reason for why this was written to happen. This makes me chuckle out of context. Ash just leisurely walks away with a bomb, what an idiot.
Sally comments to the doctor that first Antoine’s father becomes seriously ill and now this while looking bored out of her MIND. Dr Quack says that Ash is going to pull through and he’ll be slowly recovering for several weeks.
He lets Mina go see him as he’s napping. And this is the most enraging part of the story. Seeing Ash like this from his own stupidity somehow impresses Mina enough that it causes her to randomly say that she doesn’t love Sonic, she loves Ash, out of complete NOWHERE, just because Ash idiotically saved her!… when she didn’t NEED saving, and when Sonic saved her TOO and probably a LOT more times than THAT-What kind of WRITING is THIS?!
I can’t help but feel like this is the writer trying to awkwardly finagle a way to get Mina out of the picture as Sally’s rival love interest to Sonic, without ever giving Mina and Sonic a CHANCE together, not even like a few issues! It’s almost like they KNEW that they’d make a MUCH better couple, and so breaking them apart would be much harder to do! So he sunk the ship before it could even take off! It’s so awkward! This isn’t written professionally at all because it’s so obvious the writer had a bias because her decision is completely contrived.
Even Mina being a concert-maker travelling to do so isn’t any excuse for her not being a good girlfriend to Sonic because Mina can run at SUPER SPEED so she could easily run over to Sonic in seconds and keep making dates, and her being a travelling singer doesn’t stop her from making casual appearances in Issue 150 and 152, so it’s not like she’d be TOTALLY absentee even if Sonic COULDN’T just run over to see her in seconds whenever he wanted. That was the only excuse I could think of for how they WOULDN’T work together, compared to the mountains of evidence against Sally and Sonic.
So after some consideration back and forth, I’m going to tentatively qualify this as a Creator’s Pet moment for Sally, because, yes, while Sally herself isn’t glorified and, doesn’t even DO anything, ultimately this is just ridiculously good luck for Sally, breaking the Willing Suspension of Disbelief, as the writer just favoritized her. If this hadn’t happened, Sonic would’ve ended up with Mina. NO DOUBT ABOUT it. So the ONLY reason this was written to happen was to benefit SALLY.
Now, being part of an incompatible Official Couple doesn’t make either character a Mary Sue, by that logic Penny or Leonard would qualify from Big Bang, but the reason this is so glaring is just how big of a contrivance it always is that the Official Couple even happens at all when someone CLEARLY BETTER FOR ONE of them, is totally shunted off for no good reason. That doesn’t happen in the shows I can think of with Official Couples. Jimmy Neutron, Big Bang, Friends.
An incompatible Official Couple is easy to overlook if there’s not constantly a much better alternative for one of them that the writer writes the stupidest of plot-hole-ridden excuses for the character NOT dating instead, and that’s something that makes the whole thing’s foundation go from cracked to crumbling apart.
So yeah! Mina says from Survivor Guilt that maybe Ash SHOULD’VE let the Bomb finish her off. That was unnecessarily dark and unnecessary. And she doesn’t even MENTION the fact that, and I quote, “ We mongooses heal quickly. “ So YEAH! Maybe he SHOULD’VE because if ASH survived and was merely injured from them, Mina would DEFINITELY survive and not be injured for NEARLY as long! WHY didn’t she MENTION that?! Why didn’t she think of that?! That’s kind of important!
While it was a BOMB, it was the weakest and most pathetic bomb ever since it somehow didn’t even kill Ash, so that’s no excuse. Granted, he saves her and that proved that he loved her, but, he didn’t NEED TO! Ugh! That line WAS SAD until I remembered that little detail and realized nobody pointed it out!
Eggman wastes our time complaining about how hard can it be to kill a singing mongoose, and ADAM amusingly asks, “ While singing, Father? Or while NOT singing? “ (laughs) with Eggman remarking, “ I forgot how you like GAMES. “ I guess it would be easier WHILE she’s singing because she’d be distracted.
It makes perfect sense of ADAM to like these games because he’s recently made and a favorite past-time of children is, “ would you rather, “ games where they think in that kind of “ rhetorical hypothetical situation “ brainstorming thought experiments much like the one ADAM just mentioned. I’m glad that just two issues after ADAM was derailed as a monstrous virus trying to mechanize the world and Bunnie out of nowhere, Bollers immediately tries to do damage control by reverting him back to his humorous fantastic self again.
Then for forced comedy relief, Eggman ironically admits that Mina’s first album had something TO it. That doesn’t make any sense, why would he ever like her singing to begin with or go out of his way to hear her first album just to confirm that he doesn’t like it? Why did he ever give MINA’s singing a chance when she was a good guy?
Wasn’t it that the whole reason he hated her singing was that not only were the lyrics saccharine, but she’s also a hero? Singing about Sonic? So did her lyrics get MORE saccharine after the first album, therefore being less appealing to a cold-hearted villain? I mean it makes sense that she could run out of ideas singing about the same guy over and over.
After Eggman gives up about killing Mina for now, he thinks about how his organic body is weak and breakable and somehow that gives him an idea based on that. Even by Issue 160, I had no idea what that idea WAS. I’ll never know.
In the next story the team intellectuals of the Freedom Fighters analyse the nanites. Surprisingly that includes Fiona as WELL as Snively!… As they all have goggles on, Tommy says like a mad scientist, “ Let’s see how you’d react with 50,000 volts running through YOUR system! “ YOUR? HE wasn’t ever electrocuted. And there’s no way Fiona and Bunnie got that many volts or they would’ve died!
Uncle Chuck says that electricity is like chili dogs to them, and despite that, the nanites are killed from it. Shouldn’t it have been obvious to them from the start that giving them this much voltage all at once would’ve killed them? What kind of engineers would do this and be surprised at the result? You know, having this many engineers at once is really redundant, Tails and Rotor are already redundant with each other as it IS.
Uncle Chuck surprisingly AND SNIVELY say that nanites aren’t alive just because they’re made of metal. First off, Chuck is supposed to be a good person, and yet he’s agreeing with Snively about this. Why would Chuck say this, when his brother is a robot?! He still thinks he’s alive, doesn’t he?!
Second, Snively said that the nanites could become the dominant LIFEFORM on the planet in 152. Apparently, he wasn’t being literal. Third, they’re saying this unnecessarily even though they can reproduce like living things and can eat like living things, so how are they not living things by that scientific definition? Fourth, SWATbots talk like people do a lot. Therefore they have at least as much free will as Orbot.
This only happens for the sake of causing a philosophical argument over whether nanites are alive or not, that barely even qualifies as an argument because their only argument piece is, “ they’re made of metal, so they aren’t alive because I said so. “ EXCUSE ME, Jules would like to disagree with that! I wish we got his and Nicole’s perspectives on this! That would’ve been NICE instead of the only one with any sense being TOMMY!
That’s right, TOMMY, because for some reason, Tails agrees with Snively on this which is QUITE out of character for him! I’d expect him to be the softie on this side! In fact I’m willing to bet that if Tommy never existed, TAILS would’ve been the one on the “ alive “ side!
Then Tommy sees something rising out of the nanite goop and cheers that they really are alive, only to get tackled by them and go into his shell. Then Uncle Chuck finds out that the nanites stuck to him to let him grow wings, I guess as a reward for him sticking up for them by nanites who somehow know English. That got me excited, at least… at least he’ll finally get to be more useful than just a Rotor clone now! Problem is, Tails is a genius who can fly too. So. And the wings look bad.
Chuck says that his whole shell is now composed entirely of nanites despite clearly looking organic. Good thing they were nice enough to stop there! Tommy says it’s more symbiotic than parasitic explaining that the electrical charge plus his cowardly tears, made them make a connection with his nervous system, providing the critical mass they needed to grow and thrive.
Uncle Chuck asks how you could benefit from having wings, when (laughs) I thought he was supposed to be smart! I wish Chuck SAID that the reason he’s saying this is that Bunnie and Tails can fly as it is, and they’re always the ones sent into dangerous situations instead of him, so he would indeed never benefit from flying. Obviously this would make him better at actual field missions instead of just being an engineer in the lab. But Tommy simply says “ That remains to be seen, “ as if it’s not obvious! He wonders if he has control or they do.
Then it’s revealed that Tommy can also THINK to create a jet-pack instead of wings. This immediately makes him go around the sky and the nanites make him write a reassuring message about a test drive with the steam. So Chuck changes his mind because of it. The story ends with the textbox saying, “ definitely not the end, “ even though it IS.
The first story was by Karl Bollers and has Mina get saved from an army of Bombs by the Freedom Fighters, only to decide that Ash saving her unnecessarily from ONE BOMB, is enough to make her choose him over Sonic, before ever giving the much more compatible boyfriend a CHANCE. She even goes as far as saying that she doesn’t love Sonic! WHERE the HELL did THAT come from?
It wouldn’t be insulting if AT LEAST we got to see Mina date Sonic for a couple of issues! And then there’d be a legitimate reason for the relationship failing. But I can’t think of one, which is why this had to happen so that Sally wouldn’t lose Sonic to someone else! It’s SO arbitrary and insulting!
I can only think of their relationship failing from, either Mina thinking that Sonic’s cheating on her which would be dumb and frustrating and weaksauce making her look like she has no faith in him, or, someone ruins their relationship out of spite with lies or something, which would also just be frustrating. I mean, you could’ve, like, you could’ve had him go date Mina for dozens of issues or she gets killed off or sent to another dimension but no, they don’t even TRY! They NEVER try, they never CARED!
They never cared about Sonic being with anybody ELSE and yet people still think there’s too much shipping and romance, when there’s barely any effort put into it to begin with, because no other ship is ever given a chance to take off, because the writer is biased and scared that the ship would just be better. It’s like, the bitch who picks a fight with Sonic over not going to the girls’ dressing room, WON! And so did Ash the douchebag. Great message!
No, let’s just give the jealous douchebag what he wants, that’s satisfying writing. We totally had a good reason to root for him! Who is this supposed to APPEAL to? I can’t even imagine that people who’d hate Mina and Sonic together would think this was logical writing because even those people should at least want her to be with someone GOOD!
And NO, Ash saving Mina doesn’t make him feel like any less of a douchebag. So he saved his girlfriend unnecessarily. He still treated Sonic, the hero of the world, like crap! Does he have any idea how much he owes him? Literally the entire world’s existence actually! So there’s no excuse for him hating her over a petty grudge!
Ash didn’t earn Mina just because of this and I’m frustrated that the writing’s trying to manipulate me into thinking otherwise and just assuming that I will. When there’s no reason at all to root for this guy. This is why bowing to the status quo can be a bad thing.
And the second story by Ken Penders, has Tommy get the impressive ability to fly, by growing wings and a jet-pack thanks to helpful nanites, who I can only assume are rewarding him for sticking up for them being alive. They must know what he was saying because they wrote a message in English in the sky. So yeah, I’m glad he got to be more useful, along the line of Bunnie and Tails! The problem is, Bunnie and Tails. THAT’S REDUNDANT TOO. Tails can ALSO be a mechanical genius who can fly!
No matter what, they can’t justify this character as necessary. Tommy is just Tails, except not a cute and adorable little kid and instead, he’s just great at organizing for like ONE issue! Lame. I can only hope that he’ll be able to benefit the heroes with his flight in situations where Bunnie and Tails are so busy that only HE could’ve been around to help them with it. That’d be just basic good writing.
Also why is Fiona part of the intellectual group? She’s an intellectual of course, but she’s not an engineer!… She’s not a mechanic!… One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn’t belong! I like that she’s at least acknowledged as intelligent, but that’s never been useful as far as I’m aware and I don’t think it EVER WILL. So it doesn’t change the fact that the only reason she’s on the team is to create a pointless love triangle between Sonic, Tails and Fiona that only serves to make Tails not close friends with Sonic anymore like he should be. Why write that?
That’s a problem, we can’t be really expected to feel like she belongs for that unnecessary subplot alone. If the character was actually just ” the brainless beauty just there to be a pretty face for Tails “ that fans took her for, an oversimplification of who she is, then honestly all of the plots would’ve been exactly the same aside from a few dialogue changes. Even the electrocution thing earlier, someone else could’ve caused that.
She needs more to justify her existence because this love triangle is literally all she’s necessary for and the fundamental problem is that NOTHING could make her necessary, because there’s always been too many Freedom Fighters as it IS and all of the original ones already have all the bases covered with the skills they have.
We already had an engineer, two characters that could fly, Bunnie and Sonic could fight robots well, you had Nicole for even MORE technology powers that the engineer could’ve done anyways, and a leader for strategic plans. And I bet all of them know First Aid, since even Bunnie does, so that’s out for Fiona too.
So I can’t think of anything that only she would ever be able to do, aside from not be a goody-two shoes and get nagged at for it – even then she never argues BACK in response to it! I love her role in the group as the Only Sane Man fish out of water who’s a relatable more normal person compared to, a bunch of self-righteous idiots who refuse to use weapons against ROBOTS.
She’s a fish out of water who says cruel things like “ whoever did the wiring in this place should be strung up by their thumbs! “ because of her troubled past making her get used to talking like that. That’s something that only she can do, THAT’S her niche, and I love that niche, but it’s only brought up twice so far and is barely the focus.
And as long as she’s around, Tails will be pointlessly pining after her – but even then, even that’s barely ever brought up anyways, he’s not like that 24/7, so it won’t actually matter until he’ll start getting mad at Sonic for dating her, and that would’ve been temporary no matter what ANYWAYS because Sally and Sonic are forced to be the Official Couple.
So Fiona would’ve been forced to break up with Sonic anyways from meta logic even if Bollers had wrote the whole comic instead. It just would’ve been less stupid, arbitrary drama for just the shock value than how it’ll be handled later. She’d break up with him for no reason and then Tails would get over it and she’d stop being necessary entirely because that subplot would be over.
Issue 155:
We see Patch casually sucking up to the king saying he brought him his evening night cap, and asking if things went over well with another king we don’t know about and will never meet, making it look like he cares when he doesn’t. Does he? Is he at least curious? I wish we knew, he got no depths at all. So, there’s another king? I thought the only other king was the Iron King!
The king explains that he’s have a hard time anyone “ over here “ wherever “ here “ IS to join the fight against Eggman because they’re all cowards. And Patch says that’s not surprising, because Eggman’s had little interest in “ Z “ this section of Mobius. And I guess this conclusion is based on, if they DID fight Eggman, then he WOULD have an interest in them, so it’s smarter to not provoke him. He then thinks happily about how the king’s drinking the poison all down.
He immediately gets tired and needs to rest because it’s a very FAST-acting one. After Patch thinks to himself that one day he’ll rule over the Kingdom of Acorn because he somehow doesn’t understand how royal succession works, Tails expresses disappointment at seeing Fiona, acting all panicked, and his line of “ Not again! “ is apparently referencing a similar awkward moment in Issue 150.
For some reason Tails immediately talks as if Sonic was dating Fiona, when he didn’t spot them KISSING! And we got barely any build-up to Sonic dating Fiona! When’d THAT happen? (The Other M comic did this way better.) I would’ve liked to see Fiona bring that idea up! Instead, it comes out of nowhere!
After he acts all betrayed and Fiona, calling him junior, naturally gets all offended that he was talking as if she was the worst person ever to date by ANYONE, she snarks humorously, “ What’s THAT supposed to MEAN? I have BAD BREATH or something? “
She then tells Tails that he’s been acting strange ever since she met him, and she only JUST NOW wants to put the effort into finding out WHY. Tails recaps his history with the robot double as I wonder how the hell Fiona didn’t already learn about this a LONG TIME ago! You’d think he would’ve told her this the minute he first met her! Did everyone just agree to keep it a secret from her behind her back?
Fiona naturally points out that the robot duplicate was more Tails’ age, because it was made when she was Tails’ age and apparently infiltrators don’t age despite their organic outsides, and Fiona is a teenager. And at the very LEAST, she’s nice enough to not be COMPLETELY blunt about it and is nice enough to not say outright, “ I can’t date you! I’m a TEENAGER! You’re a CHILD! It’s CREEPY, and illegal! “ For the same reason Sonic never told Amy that, I suppose.
At the very LEAST, Tails is hoping that SOMEDAY she could be with him rather than adamantly insisting on it right NOW. Fiona tells Tails sincerely that she thinks he’s sweet and really likes him but not in a romantic way, and explains that she obviously would prefer to date guys her own age like Sonic.
I thought that when I’d read all the issues leading up to this point, that this moment would make SENSE! But instead she just starts dating him out of complete nowhere! I mean I know the actual reason behind her dating him.
But that wasn’t foreshadowed at all because of what we got arbitrarily cheated out of seeing! Right now we have no way of knowing why she chose to date Sonic! I thought when I’d see this scene, it would be the moment Tails first met the real Fiona because he says, “ Not again! “ and then he explains his history with the fake Fiona, but NOOOO! I had more writing sense, apparently!
After Tails goes from heartbroken to enraged and lashing out at Sonic from feeling betrayed that he’d date someone he wouldn’t have a chance with ANYWAYS and being unfair to him, he runs away crying being drawn terribly, and Fiona is the level-headed one telling Sonic to just let him go because there’s nothing he could do or say that would make him feel any better.
Meanwhile, Patch in an airship tells the queen that he’s already left word for the doctor on standby for the king. For some reason Dr Quack feels the need to remind him in annoyance how many times he’s saved the king’s life, and he then tells Patch to make sure the king takes one of the pills with each meal, causing Patch to think, “ Does life get any easier than this? “
A few hours later Sally asks Patch in annoyance if this is really necessary whatever THAT is, because this is Knothole, not an unfriendly territory. And Patch explains that Eggman is dangerous and he’s pledged his life in defense of the royal family. What, does she just hate seeing him and is complaining about him even being here? Why not just SAY that? If the point is to make him speak French with having the adjective after the noun, then why not make the word family be famille, too? You were almost, you were almost THERE!
Either way, he tells Sally that her parents await, with me still not knowing what Sally was talking about for sure, and after Sally kisses her king’s head, he tells her that because of his health, he’ll have to step down, and make Sally become the queen.
However because of bullshit tradition, being the queen requires Sally to marry someone. I have a question, why can’t she just be made the acting ruler again, since apparently the king’s health is expected to get better from the pills?
Logically there’s no reason he should be telling her to get married when she could just be acting ruler just fine BEFORE, but apparently we’re supposed to just assume that the poison is messing with his mind to get rid of the restraint in him that keeps him from doing this. She’s expected to marry someone, and that someone is forced to be Patch because she pushed away Sonic, and Patch sucked up to the king.
Sally cathartically complains, “ What is this?! THE DARK AGES?! Don’t I have any say in the matter? “ the last sentence being like Knuckles and Julie said, which I love. The queen reassures that while her arranged marriage with the king wasn’t love at first sight, it’s been love ever since.
The king asks Sally if he needs to remind her what happens when she lets her heart be her judge, and says he’s glad it all ended before she would end up marrying Sonic, who he uncharacteristically calls a commoner. Poisoned or not, that was rude of him and OOC. But I guess this is the poison bringing out his true self by keeping his restraints unchecked?
Sally runs away feeling betrayed as Patch smirks at the outcome, and then as Sonic’s playing the guitar, he thinks about how his mother’s taste in music is outdated. Then Bunnie shows up looking so sad that I actually felt sorry for her, and tells Sonic while crying in a panic, that Sally’s gonna have to marry Patch this weekend.
Also, Sonic says “ babe, “ like Scourge would. He’s like, “ What brings you to my crib, babe? “ I like that, ‘cause AGAIN, he talks like Scourge would because they’re the same person, it makes more sense that way.
Sonic rushes at super speed to the castle, naturally considering Sally marrying Patch without telling him to be the breaking point that’s just not right, after everything else that’s happened. When Patch tells him to stop and asks like Geoffrey if he has an appointment to meet with anyone inside, Sonic angrily tells him, “ Oh, stuff it, ‘Twan! Since when do I need one? “ I love this!
Patch threatens him that if he takes one more step, it’ll be his last, and somehow manages to luck out winning the fight, as his sword snags the top of Sonic’s glove and he kicks him off a wooden banister, into a pool that fortunately for Sonic was very shallow, and like, right next to him. WORST MOAT EVER! That doesn’t exactly keep out intruders!
Patch tells him that he could’ve gutted him as a threat to the throne, but decided not to finish him off because I guess he doesn’t WANT to win. He leaves saying that next time he won’t be so generous and knocks on a door asking “ mon princess “ if he can come in. This mistake happens more than once and I’m surprised it even DOES!
First off, princess is obviously going to be a feminine word so mon wouldn’t be right, it’d be ma, and Antoine say ma cherie so it’s not like he’s intentionally saying the male possessive adjective, to make English speakers understand! And second, if you’re going to put it in French, then the princess would have an “ e “ at the end!
Either way he confronts Sally who complains that she didn’t give him permission to come in, and Sally asks resentfully, “ Why are YOU doing this? To get back at Sonic? “ which would make sense since Sonic bullied Antoine as a kid. And then she asks if he’s just misguided and thinks they’d actually live happily ever after.
While Antoine and Bunnie were happy together, Sally and Antoine definitely would’ve been more compatible because at least their personalities are similar! They’re both cautious realists! I guess Sally thinks Patch is doing this blaming him because she assumes Patch told the king to make her marry him.
Patch then calls her mon Cherie – great so he says mon instead of ma when they did it right EARLIER in the comic! Patch lies to manipulate her, that he doesn’t want to marry her any more than she wants to marry him! Well that is technically true in the long-term, he doesn’t wanna STAY with her! At least not if he thinks he can’t have the power all to himself with her alive, I mean the QUEEN has never been allowed to make the decisions, the king just skipped straight to Elias, so maybe he WOULD have Sally stick around?
Patch manipulates her, badly, by simply SAYING the words, “ duty, honor, obligation to one’s king, “ and says that he thought SHE of all PEOPLE would UNDERSTAND that. Somehow, Sally DOES get manipulated by all this saying that she had just been hoping for the fairy tale as in true love. So she’s giving up already?!… The stubborn, determined Sally?! If only that lasted.
Dr Quack checks the king’s pulse the next morning and angrily asks Patch if he’s been taking his medicine. Patch lies and with Sally showing up in a morning, Dr Quack explains that the king’s in a coma! Where does he GET his poison and the sugar pills he probably masqueraded as the ones the king needed, anyways? That’s a plot hole, he just gets them out of thin air! I mean, if Antoine asked for those things, wouldn’t he get in trouble and news would spread of what he asked for, how would he get them without asking, how would Patch know where to get them from?
This causes Sally to agree to the wedding out of compassion to try to humor her father, honouring his last wish, purely because she thinks it’s the right thing to do being self-sacrificial. While Sally has an independence streak, it’s mostly in the early comic, her goodness is stronger than it. Alicia being such a rebel makes perfect sense now; no Lawful Stupid in her holding that independence streak back.
It’s one of the defining moments of her character honestly, that she thinks being self-sacrificial means being good. And it’s one of the few defining moments that are positive! Normally I just think of her glaring at Fiona later or her hitting Sonic with a stick or 134, or stupidly kicking a robot gorilla’s foot, even though I like Sally. But those moments are RARE. THIS, is who she REALLY IS.
After Sonic runs out of the house saying he’ll tell his parents what he’s doing later, causing Jules to reassure Bernadette that they can’t be TOO overprotective of their superpowered son – no DUH – Sonic wonders if he could play it smart and see if the one person who could help would be willing to.
Sally in the wedding veil reassures herself in her thoughts that she’s following her destiny, as if that’s a good thing to her when she’s always had an independence streak, especially regarding the Source of All with the destiny thing, and thinks, “ It’s not like I’d be marrying an ogre! Antoine has a lot of positive aspects a girl could love! “ Yeah, ANTOINE. But in all the time we’ve seen Patch the comic’s been too LAZY and uninspired in the writing department to show any positive traits for the evil TWINS, not even him ruffling Tails’ hair!
He IS a brave proactive Freedom Fighter at least and those are positive traits so it really is a SHAME that he was STUPID enough to throw it all away like this! If only he died before the whole poisoning plan started! He would’ve been remembered as a hero, and maybe made up for a lot! Maybe not enough to avoid goin’ to hell because he wasn’t really being sincere.
Patch didn’t have to do this plan if they wanted to make room for Antoine coming back without being redundant with him, he could’ve just been killed off while Antoine would snag the zone-link generator, but I like seeing this a lot better because I think it’s awesome getting to see some villain OTHER than EGGMAN have a big epic plan moment in the sun, and an EVIL TWIN, too!
It’s such a refreshing change of pace and they’re FINALLY doing something unique with this character! The story’s not free of plot holes, but how many stories are that aren’t really short? The story ends with Sally agreeing to marry Patch to the minister after thinking that Sonic had his chance.
In the second story, Sally gives Dulcy a surprise pep rally to celebrate all her help – I guess this story takes place BEFORE the main story – and Dulcy flies away crying for some reason, unable to ignite the bonfire.
Sonic then points out that actually they haven’t seen Dulcy breathe fire in a very long time. Yeah, not since she destroyed those robots after Eggman appeared. And she thinks, “ How can I expect them to understand what I went through? Or to know the shame of being an outcast dragon? “ I love that Dulcy’s gonna get a backstory to make her feel more like a fleshed-out character, at least.
It’s explained that in her childhood, her colony lived in the sky for generations until they lost their fear of the surface creatures which Dulcy regards as a foolish mistake, that came out of nowhere since SWATbots ambushed all of them, except her since she was out picking berries that day.
I have a question, how did DRAGONS ever have a fear of NON-DRAGONS in the first place? Normally it’s the other way around! And it’s especially confusing considering their destructive warring history, everyone should be afraid of THEM!
The dragons being hit with portable roboticizer lasers kinda makes sense at least because they were far away from the SWATbots unable to know they were there, because they were ON THE GROUND instead of in the air on a direct flight path to somewhere else. Naturally, the only way dragons could ever lose to SWATbots would be if they were caught by surprise.
Then Dulcy realized that a small colony had escaped roboticization, which makes way more sense than ALL of them getting that fate, but STILL, why would a bunch of DRAGONS cowardly retreat to hide instead of using their powers to fight Eggman? SatAM made more sense.
Dulcy joined the colony, led by an elder, who said the time had come to part ways with the surface world. He vowed to lead them to the great, ancient Draconian city of Vesuvio, a gigantic cave under the planet’s largest volcano where the dragons’ ancestors lived. Wasn’t the largest volcano the same one that Tails had been threatened with?
The Ancient Walkers had forged the magic golden Rings in Vesuvio, on the banks of lava lake. GOOD, so Nate wasn’t the ONLY one who could do that, go figure! It’s a shame this is such a forgettable text blurb because it really tries to make up for that dumb plot point, by implying that the heroes were all wrong and it really was the Ancient Walkers who forged most of the Rings on the planet, as was implied in the billionth Ring’s introduction story.
The Ancient Walkers are magical beings with mysterious powers and history, and Nate was just some mortal. Of course they made all the Rings. But there’s not enough focus on this to make it memorable enough to make up for that problem.
Unfortunately for Dulcy, her leaving the dragon city to enjoy flying in the sky arbitrarily caused her to be permanently banished from it, since I guess they had to have SOME kind of deterrent from leaving and risking roboticization!
And this was pretty mandatory in a meta sense for explaining why Dulcy kept showing up after she found this place instead of always remaining there. But the banishment was for the best since it led to her saving Sally and Sonic from SWATbots with fire breath and becoming a Freedom Fighter. And she found the whole thing thrilling and rewarding!
However when she was discovered, I guess by a dragon seeing her leave from the colony or noticing she was missing, she received the ultimate punishment for a dragon because banishment clearly wasn’t enough. Dulcy’s black singe Ring from her nose was replaced with a gold magic Ring which inhibited her ability to breathe fire instead of enhancing it like Rings ALWAYS DO with abilities for some reason. They enhance Sonic’s speed and Antoine could slice robots with one, but THIS one works in reverse somehow!
For years the Freedom Fighters somehow never noticed or commented on her not using her fire breath. This is like if someone went MONTHS without talking and none of his friends noticed! And even THAT would be more believable because they could each assume he talked to other people without them seeing.
As a Hand Wave since this wasn’t always intended to be the case, Dulcy says that she felt so bad about the curse that she painted her gold Ring black to look like the old Ring, but for some reason the paint would fade and she’d always feel foolish afterwards. Makes sense that she’d do that.
The text blurb says cleverly that she’s referring to the cover of Issue 49 – uh, it’s a cover, those aren’t canon anyways because title pages lie to you. That was unnecessary. And the cover and Page 4 of Brave New World SSS2 happened before Dulcy was exiled.
I’m impressed, they really covered almost all their bases for the continuity errors here, except for the one where she BREATHED FIRE IN ISSUE 68 and the one where the Ring inhibited her instead of enhancing her powers for some reason. In fact there’s 3 continuity errors in this story, a huge number. But otherwise it’s kind of commendable getting to make a story out of an illogical art mistake from issues way earlier.
Out of complete NOWHERE, she decides that because she’s done living a lie, she’s going to… go ask for a pardon from the dragon city and be useless to the Freedom Fighters there, rather than simply telling her friends what happened there like she should’ve. Why would she ever expect to be pardoned? Idiot Plot in a nutshell.
The story ends with Dulcy being attacked by inexplicable mecha-dragons, who after all that time of monitoring her, have been led by the dragon city by her at last. So, she made a really stupid mistake here. HOW were they not deroboticized by the Bem?! Every other Robian WAS! Yeah, this is obviously the worst story of the issue. Nothing but continuity errors to justify the plot.
The first story, by Ken Penders, is about Patch carrying out his stupid plan to get a hold of the throne, by poisoning the king, and getting himself married to Sally. Well the plan would mainly be stupid if he plans to kill her because the thing about royal succession is, it only goes to someone with royal blood. He’d only stay power as long as he kept Sally alive! Elias and his family exist, so the throne would go to them without her.
I guess his idea is that if he wipes out the entirety of the royal family, they’ll have no choice but to settle for him. OK, I guess that could make sense, it’s a pretty tiny family. But why does he CARE?! I guess I just don’t understand the power-hungry mindset. Wouldn’t he be BORED by all the paperwork and meetings involved with running a country?
And I remember him insisting on going on missions with the Freedom Fighters that involved him fighting robots! Does he really think he can juggle THAT, which he MUST ENJOY or he wouldn’t have insisted on it over staying in the plane, with the responsibilities of being a king over a country he doesn’t even CARE about? He clearly hasn’t thought this through!
It is clever though, and I love that someone other than Eggman had a big epic plan for once, which is ultimately why I enjoyed this arc, but what a shame, he was SO CLOSE! If only he had never made a plan like this, he could’ve stayed as a hero for the rest of his life!
Also, this is the issue where Tails finds out that Fiona started dating Sonic and the problem I have with THAT, is that we don’t actually SEE the moment where they decide to start dating! It just comes out of nowhere, almost like the writer didn’t give a shit because he wanted Sonic to be with SALLY, but come on, you don’t start a main character’s relationship that lazily OFFSCREEN, it’s a significant event! And Tails immediately knows it’s happening and gets all upset about it, even though they weren’t kissing, and never were, so that’s why I didn’t even know they were dating until THIS issue!
I actually don’t mind the concept of Tails getting all mad at Sonic for this because you know what? Tails always blindly liking Sonic and them never getting into ANY arguments AT ALL, is BLAND, BORING, UNREALISTIC and got stale, because yes, while he is a good friend, REAL friendships don’t go that long with no big fights, or arguments! And SIBLING relationships CERTAINLY don’t! Real friendships still have resentment and disagreements from time to time!
Having Tails get into a disagreement with Sonic and finally showing that he CAN in fact have a problem with their friendship is more realistic and believable. Didn’t people say that they loved their interaction in Colors because Tails was always ragging on Sonic? And I hated it THERE because it was unjustified and he was just an arrogant dick.
Here, it’s way more justified and believable! I can understand why this is seen as jarring though, since they’ve literally never had a major bump in the road before. But just because it’s never been done before doesn’t make it a terrible idea, that would make EVERY original idea a bad one! Color me intrigued!
It helps that unlike in Colors I completely understand Tails’ reaction here so it’s not like in Lost World where he’s just a crybaby dick having a massive overreaction. It makes more sense HERE that he’d feel cheated and heartbroken and betrayed, than in Lost World where he’s like, “ You trust Eggman more! Eggman, you bite! “ and I just wonder how old he’s supposed to be.
And the second story was by Mike Gallagher, and involved introducing the concept that Dulcy in fact ISN’T ridiculously lucky and convenient enough to be the only dragon left who was not roboticized, and not only does it make more sense with that, but it also explains why there’s more dragons when we never saw them before. There’s a hidden colony, so I guess her abusive boyfriend Zan met her because he left that colony.
And it’s explained why Dulcy hasn’t used fire breath or had a black ring in a very long time. Something I’m astonished and impressed that they cared enough to explain at all! I didn’t even notice it! But here they are wrapping up a loose plot thread that I didn’t even know about! It’s basically a story that’s trying to be dedicated to filling in the plot holes of the earlier issues, which is commendable and ahead of its time, so it’s a shame it’s plagued by continuity errors and plot holes just to justify the story.
At the end, Dulcy gets a somewhat understandable mistake because she’s idealistic enough to think she can get forgiven by the dragon colony, but it’s stupid that she doesn’t just tell her friends about her curse. And it turns out Eggman was tracking her with mecha-dragons. Wait a minute, how did he even know there was a colony of surviving dragons so he could make his robots try to search for it?! That’s a big plot hole!
And what took him so long?! If he can scan the memories of Robians, WHY didn’t he discover the colony’s location from scanning a mecha-dragon’s mind? The colony was on Mobius and it’s not protected by a security system, you’d think Robotnik’s flying camera drones and robots would’ve found this place by now in 11 years!
Penders did this better because at least the echidnas were sent to a separate DIMENSION, and Albion is established to have a security system later. Either way I liked the concepts in this story. It’s just hard to stay engaged when it’s mostly narration with no dialogue! And logically none of it should’ve even happened.
Issue 156:
After a few panels are wasted reiterating what we already know, Sonic is naturally angry at how a guy wouldn’t help him at ALL. ” Beats me what Knux thinks he’s such a stand-up guy… ” Why did he ever think Knuckles would help him to begin with, let ALONE be the most reliable one?! Sonic should’ve just been written to go to Elias from the start instead of wasting our time with filler first.
If Sonic did go to Elias first, then OBVIOUSLY Elias would’ve gone with him in the FIRST PLACE and it’s confusing that when we see Elias later, he makes NO MENTION of Sonic going to him for help. This dialogue SUCKS. Sonic should refer to ” this jerk ” by NAME, because the last jerk we saw Sonic deal with was PATCH, nobody ELSE.
It’s not made clear who exactly Sonic’s talking about since he’s not saying names other than Knuckles’, but obviously he should be referring to Antoine as the wuss here, becasue who the fuck else would he call a wuss, Elias?! Since when has Elias been that and since when would Sonic call him that? That’d be OOC! This fits his character and dynamic with Antoine better.
Sadly, idiotic writing will happen because later Sonic says to Elias that Elias said he shouldn’t get involved in this. In one easy to miss panel, too. If Sonic was SOMEHOW referring to ELIAS as a wuss, it would’ve been less confusing if he said, I dunno, HIS NAME!
While Sonic stares sadly at the banquet hall thinking selfishly that Sally should be with him, so he’s obviously just using Fiona, the guards go after Sonic because Patch instructed them to keep him out of the way, and somehow they decided to follow Patch’s orders instead of respecting the hero of the world they all owe their LIVES to. All because Patch is suddenly becoming the new king! Lawful Stupidity is a powerful thing! Thank goodness he’s written to say, “ I’m sorry, Sonic! “
After Sally has a kind of cold-hearted-looking moment where she sides with Patch over Sonic, which makes sense because of her obsession with honor and duty making her support her husband just because, that lapse of logic and gratitude on her part is followed by someone on a horse with a blue cloak being led in by the guards.
We then hear Patch being called out, “ And since WHEN does a commander outrank a member of the royal family? Open the cell door at once! “ Oh, Elias! He showed up in a Big Damn Heroes Moment because his wife pointed out that nothing was more dangerous than the transference of power. I don’t know why Sonic couldn’t have been the reason Elias came here from the first page of the issue. That was a confusing beginning that only existed for PADDING!
Despite Sonic somehow thinking “ Antoine “ would never be disloyal when he just threatened to gut him, Elias says that the only way to be certain of a good outcome is for HIM to claim the crown, changing his mind about his simple country life because he cares more about doing the right thing. And because this is the original writer of the character again so he’s doing some rare Character Rerailment to get him back on track, like Bollers had to do with ADAM in Songoose. This is why I admire Elias! He’s doing the right thing even though he gave up the throne earlier.
He approaches Patch, who still has a needle of poison and was about to use it on the king. When Elias reveals that he’s going to assume the throne later on, Patch looks REALLY MENACING thinking of Elias as a blemish on Mobius, deciding that he has to be dealt with first!
When Elias arrives at the coronation of Sally, Sonic gets suspicious of Patch because he looks cool as a cucumber, and realizes that he has to have something planned. It’s revealed that Elias’ STEP-CHILD, is ineligible in the line of succession because only the royal blood may sit on the throne. STEPCHILD? Since when? So his wife was pregnant when he met her? He’s not really a father? There was no indication of that.
Elias SAID ” my child, ” when Meg’s first issue happened. But he could’ve been talking about, as of this retcon, a prospective potential child he’d have after Meg would give birth. And he would apparently think of Meg’s kid as his own. No one bothered to correct Eggman when he thought Meg’s kid was the future heir! But that’s probably because they hate him, so they want him to stay wrong.
Elias holds Sally’s hands explaining heartwarmingly, “ I abandoned the crown because of love, and now it’s because of love that I must accept it! “ And both times the love was sibling love, for a sibling he only recently met! That’s sweet of him!
Alicia says, “ My son… you have no idea how much I’ve longed for you to take your rightful place! “ and makes him the king of the kingdom. That’s pretty cool of a moment. Wait, wasn’t Sally having issues with not being in charge at all earlier? At the very least there is hope that Elias would stay out of the Freedom Fighters’ BUSINESS instead of trying to veto their plans with no explanation while he does nothing to help them. I trust him a lot more to not be an Obstructive Bureaucrat, probably because of his young age.
It’s kinda epic, that panel, even if I’d rather the adult King Max be running the kingdom myself, but Elias wouldn’t butt in trying to tell the heroes what to do, so maybe this should’ve happened before Eggman rose to power instead. And Elias wouldn’t keep secrets from Sally, which was her real problem with the king.
Patch considers disposing of Elias’ wife and child later on, considering them to be more likely candidates for the new royal family than HIM, even though they’re just as not royalty and Antoine is a Freedom Fighter so he’s really paranoid. And he decides that a simple handshake with a needle in his sleeve will be what gets rid of Elias-the thing is, though, wouldn’t Elias notice a prick in his arm from that and immediately Patch would get in trouble?
He really wasn’t thinking this through! He’s that desperate, I guess! It’s like he’s a know-nothing know-it-all because he thinks his plan is brilliant when it’s really not, and I guess that makes sense for a counterpart of Antoine, who’s supposed to be comedy relief anyways.
After Sally and Elias adorably hug, Sonic is fortunately keen enough to spot the needle in Patch’s sleeve since it was shiny, and tackles him enraged revealing the needle as Patch is for some reason under the delusion that he has any power over him after that! He somehow thinks people will think of SONIC as the traitor and not HIM!
He punches him in the chest which is sadly the ONLY time we see him get a direct HIT on him after everything he did, and fortunately out of complete NOWHERE considering that Sonic was oblivious enough that he said he didn’t buy Antoine as being disloyal, Sonic figures out that Patch is actually Patch, not only because he’s a better fighter, and lacked the killer instinct as Sonic oddly put it, but because as Sonic awesomely put it, “ But y’know what the REAL CLINCHER was? When NO ONE, NOT EVEN BUNNIE, could EXPLAIN how you got that SCAR! “ That was awesome! He says this while punching him a place I can’t tell since we didn’t see the impact of the fist, so it’s not satisfying that he sent him flying.
Then he pulls out the teleporter device of Boomer that he conveniently had with him at the moment, I guess he ran away from Elias and picked it up on the way HERE right after he said he couldn’t buy Antoine as disloyal. Was he an oblivious idiot or NOT? I guess he thought of how Antoine supposedly threatened to kill him and figured out he should do this offscreen, and if we actually saw that, it’d kind of ruin the surprise of Sonic awesomely figuring out who Patch really is.
But it still comes out of nowhere that he’d still have this Chekhov’s Gun hidden in his spines. He says that he’s sending him back where he belongs. Knothole Prison? NO, of COURSE not! The idiots didn’t send the evil twins to prison after they impersonated them, after all, so instead Sonic will make sure Patch can keep causing trouble for everyone as long as he lives. Great plan!
Sonic then shows up at Patch’s old room where Antoine is sleeping in a bed looking all sympathetic and relatable because he’s in some pajamas. Sadly, we NEVER get to SEE what the entirety of his room on Anti-Mobius looks like, as it’s all dark with his bed and him being inexplicably well-lit so there’s no excuse for it!
Once again, we get no depths to these characters even when it’s the perfect opportunity! What’s that thing on his nightstand? What does it spell out? I guess we’ll never know! He expresses surprise and relief that Sonic truly is his friend, which means a LOT, I wonder if he was doubting that Sonic was his friend at all?
And while showing how much he cares about Antoine with his hand on his shoulder, Sonic DOESN’T tell him everything about Patch’s plan and what he did right away, because that would ruin the happy moment, to put it lightly. I hate the cartoonish X’s over Patch’s eyes, it takes me out of it! Couldn’t Sonic use the zone-link generator to summon a portal below Robotnik and trap him in the Zone of Silence or a prison?
Sally’s relieved at getting her annulment so quickly because it’s like the wedding never happened! And Bunnie gets Antoine back, kissing him IMMEDIATELY full of relief since she never stopped loving him… I’d like to point out that this is literally the third time they’ve ever kissed onscreen. And this is the most “ romantic “ that any couple gets in this comic! The fact that people actually call Archie a romance drama when it’s so PATHETICALLY TAME is embarrassing, and shows how ignorant of it they really are. Mina never had a CHANCE and it was always obvious, and even Antoine and Bunnie BARELY kiss at ALL!
Anyways Sonic says he wasn’t surprised that Bunnie took Antoine back so easily because she never fell out of love with him. Fiona says that she saw her putting the moves on him not so long ago – which she DIDN’T there was no HINT of that and you’d think she would’ve just been mad at Sonic for “ cheating “ on her and revealed herself to Bunnie right away. And gotten Sonic/Scourge in trouble because of it.
And for SOME reason instead of Sonic explaining immediately that “ That was Anti-Sonic! “ to who KNOWS what result, he IDIOTICALLY DOESN’T clarify that, and instead says that Bunnie was just trying to get ‘Twan jealous when he wasn’t even there to see it! I understand Fiona’s charming suspicion here. “ Riiiight! “
Bunnie REALLY ENJOYED that time with Scourge, not because she liked Scourge, but because she missed Antoine and was desperate for the amount of affection he was giving her and the hope it brought her. In fact, I don’t think trying to make Antoine jealous was even a thought that crossed her mind! She was just saying she was happy someone was interested in her again and we never saw any thought bubbles from her about that.
She even spent HOURS cuddling with Scourge! Was that supposed to be just because they were FRIENDS and it was just a FRIEND thing? But at least this explanation makes sense. So I can buy it. But I doubt it was always planned.
I’d like to point out that this was literally the second time we’ve gotten to see Fiona having a good chemistry friendship moment with one of the Freedom Fighters, aside from her saying, “ Let’s party! “ with them that one time. Sure, she’s BEEN with them, doing NOTHING, but this is the first time she’s ever had anything like this, in DOZENS of issues!… They really didn’t CARE about this character did they?
The story ends with Sonic saying about their relationship honestly, “ We’re young and there’s no rush! “ And Fiona lampshades amusingly, “ You really know how to sweet-talk a girl off her feet! “ without having a huge problem with it being accepting of how Sonic is, as the two of them are holding hands, showing more chemistry in this ONE SCENE, than Sonic and Sally have had in the ENTIRETY of their existence together. What a shame! Seriously, fuck meta logic and everything it stands for…
Sonic then amusingly shows lack of self-awareness by assuming she WASN’T being sarcastic, and Tails is crying while this is all happening. It’s hard for me to be sympathetic though if only because his tears, are so glaringly miscolored as being outright blue, when I find tears a lot easier to buy and thus emotionally swaying when they’re colored more realistically. Like if they were colored mostly white, clear, or a very light blue. Most of the time, tears are colored outright blue in the comic like they’re crying dye, so it’s hard for me to find them sympathetic like intended because it just takes me out of it.
In the next story, the mecha-dragons chase all the dragons in the city, and after Dulcy wakes up in a daze apologizing to her ex that it was all her fault, she saves a young dragon that doesn’t recognize her, probably because when she was exiled he was too young to form permanent memories. He doesn’t look THAT young though, he’s just a head shorter than HER! He tells her that the defenders are about to lay down a suppressing fire, yeah that’s NOT something a 4-year-old would say.
But then Dulcy immediately gets treated like a traitor and threatened with EXECUTION by the other dragons with the elder having NO gratitude for the fact that she SAVED SOMEONE’S LIFE! Dulcy’s told that she’ll be dealt with later, while all chained up! It just goes to show you that I really don’t outright hate this character because even though this is happening to HER, I’m still pissed at this, because she’s just too nice of a person to deserve this.
She notices that the dragons couldn’t maintain the flame wall somehow and a lot of them are getting roboticized because apparently those mecha-dragons have portable deroboticizer breath. That makes sense.
So why wasn’t everyone in the Dragon Kingdom and the Sandblast City and Downunda Freedom Fighters hit with roboticizing beams in the 11 years the mecha-dragons have been roaming the planet? Soon a mecha-dragon crashes into her from the sky, immediately crushing her to death to die a horrible tragic death, explaining why she never appears in the issues after this.
NAH, just kidding! Instead, logic takes a backseat and she’s not even injured! In fact, after she throws the dragon off her, she notices that her Ring inhibitor is gone allowing her to breathe fire again! HOW could a mere collision have knocked a PIERCING OUT of someone?! I guess the magic Ring in her nose made her invincible to protect her, and it used up its energy from that.
But it can’t be that the Ring simply disappeared, it had to have been knocked out of her, because her nose HURT afterwards and she was wounded. So it lost the energy to stay in her nose, apparently? I at least like the fact that the writer thought to make her cauterize the wound with fire breath from her nostrils, rather than pretending a piercing being smacked out wouldn’t cause any damage. That was a nice touch! But explaining that she didn’t get injured because of the gold Ring’s protection would’ve been a nice touch too.
Dulcy then self-awarely says that she’s going to take out years of frustration and anger out on the mecha-dragons. How would she know this, has she been to a therapist? And somehow I’m expected to believe that DULCY ALONE turned the tide of the battle even though she’s just ONE PERSON and there’s PLENTY of other dragons around! SOMEHOW, the elder is now the grateful type, when he wasn’t BEFORE, ESPECIALLY arbitrary since I don’t buy that she was even NECESSSARY!
OH, right, they, actually mention the fact that when all those mecha-dragons got melted, it KILLED innocent Robians, causing Dulcy to cry because she melted her ENTIRE FAMILY and ruined the chances of ever getting them back. I wouldn’t appreciate the excess baggage of her having nagging parents around, honestly. But again, logically she should’ve already gotten them back the second the Bem deroboticized everybody, so clearly Gallagher wasn’t paying attention to that story.
Dulcy is told that instead of pasing away when they’re melted, a dragon spirit returns to the ” primal fire ” whatever that is, and will be reborn in an upcoming generation, so all of her family will be back. THAT was convenient. Why aren’t they just reborn right away?
And with that, Dulcy is pardoned for being ONE dragon in an entire ARMY of them already DOING stuff, and in ANOTHER leap of overly convenientness, she’s made the official ambassador to the dragons, and her black singe ring is redundantly restored even though she proved she didn’t need it earlier just to make her feel better. This ending is so INSULTINGLY sweet and saccharine, it would’ve made much more sense if she had just remained an outcast! It doesn’t… it doesn’t gel well at all with the depressing events leading UP to it.
We never see Dulcy again despite her becoming an ambassador, so it would’ve made a lot more sense if she DID die in this story, but then it would’ve been an even worse story because the entire arc was thoroughly contrived to begin with making her death way too arbitrary to be respectable writing, as none of it should’ve even happened.
The first story was by Ken Penders and is about Patch’s plan being stopped by Sonic noticing the needle in his sleeve because it was shiny and he was already suspicious of him. Patch really wasn’t thinking ahead here if he honestly thought Elias wouldn’t notice the prick in his arm from the needle, and realize in front of EVERYONE that something was wrong! And he was especially delusional thinking that he still had power over Sonic and could actually get HIM called a traitor, when his needle was exposed in front of EVERYONE!
He just couldn’t accept the idea that his plan had crumbled apart from a factor he couldn’t predict, which was the Big Damn Heroes Moment of Elias returning for Sally’s sake after he left for Sally’s sake. It felt forced to me that Sonic figured out he was Patch when he was an idiot before, but it does make sense, he made it really obvious.
Antoine comes back, and Sonic, despite thinking earlier that Sally should be with him, goes on with his new relationship with Fiona that came out of nowhere purely to make Tails upset with no build-up and effort whatsoever. They REALLY didn’t care about shipping him with anyone else, did they? I’m glad they at least WROTE IT, though! But even with Friends, they had Ross and Rachel with other people after their break-up!
It’s a shame too because, ignoring what happens later you gotta ADMIT that they have better chemistry than his total opposite Sally did with HIM! Fiona’s cautious, sure, but no more cautious and level-headed than most of the others like Mina or Rotor, and she can be optimistic, she’s snarky and witty like Sonic which I love, she’s open-minded like Sonic, and she responds to him saying he’s just having a good time with her in a happy way which implies that she’s accepting him for who he is!
Already that’s better than Sally who will never accept him for who he is! With them going into a casual relationship so quickly, Sonic’s obviously not in love with Fiona, and Fiona’s not showing any signs of loving him either.
They just interact like close friends on the rare occasion they have a friendship moment, but that’s still better than Sonic and Sally where Sally does NOTHING but lecture him about being more careful instead of himself and telling him to follow the rules. Ultimately I wouldn’t say I’d outright ship them, they’re more like like-minded friends than Antoine and Bunnie who actually do love each other, and have had a little bit of build-up to it. These guys are just trying to have a good time, and I completely get that! They’re both lonely at this point, why wouldn’t they?
And the second story is by Mike Gallagher and was really clumsily written trying to force the mostly predictable happy ending on us. This is a light-hearted tone gone wrong. We were given EVERY indication that Dulcy would always be an outcast from her dragon society, with her saving a child not being given any gratitude, as she was immediately sentenced to be EXECUTED!
And then after she’s inexplicably NOT crushed to death by a dragon somehow still roboticized at this point, through a Deus ex Machina she managed to get her fire breath back, because a nose Ring was somehow taken out of her from that! And I could’ve accepted that a little better if Dulcy was the only one able to save the day, but no! She joins an entire army of dragons who seem equally as competent as her despite them TRYING to have us believe with dialogue alone that she’s turning the tide of the battle! She’s just ONE PERSON!
And yet somehow that completely useless pitching-in, convinces a dragon once incapable of gratitude, to not only seeing her as a traitor for simply wanting to IMMIGRATE, but also causes him to make her the ambassador of his kind, which is totally POINTLESS since she could’ve just narrowly escaped punishment flying out of the colony while still being an outcast, and it wouldn’t have affected anything, because Flynn never uses her ambassador status because he apparently hates her too much to ever use her, or at least the fans do and he just kowtows to them instead of doing what he wants.
At least the other writers had guts and followed their heart, instead of writing like people pleasers. Also her entire family being torched was needlessly dark! We could’ve EASILY not had those specific mecha-dragons being the ones who fought in the army there!… And you know what I realized the day after this review?
WHY didn’t the Bem deroboticize Dulcy’s family like they did with every other Robian?! What, were they too big for the spaceships?! So the story had NO reason to EXIST! The whole story was just clumsily written not leading into the happy ending well at all and it rested entirely on a Deus ex Machina! Once again the story in an issue that was by Ken Penders ended up being better-written.
Issue 157:
After weeks of gathering information, by following a trail Shadow shows up at Prison Island, breaks into the compound and hears the voice of Dr Gerald on a video ahead of him with a Metal Sonic with no red eyes activated nearby.
The message from Gerald explains that the military is seeking to use his creations but because of what happened to Maria, he wants to use his creations against them. Shadow sees that Gerald thinks his purpose in life is vengeance. Didn’t he already get talked OUT of this?
After he gets punched by a Metal Sonic he sees the pragmatic approach of using a weapon to beat the robot instantly, but then arbitrarily discards it because he thinks that dragging out the fight by not using a weapon is more fun, just when I thought he’d subvert that “ no weapons “ bullshit that the Shadow game’s reception probably forced on the writers.
Well at least it makes sense in-universe, kind of. But it made sense in the Shadow game that Shadow was smart and pragmatic enough to actually USE weapons, when Shadow isn’t using powerful chaos energy powers against Metal Sonic as an alternative to the weapon so that’s not the better idea.
Then the Metal Sonic says that his sensors magically tell him a pipeline near him contains liquid nitrogen. In real life, it’s harmless. There’s a video of someone throwing it in his face. Shadow finds some insulation-covered high voltage lines, though, meaning that he’s safe, but his enemy isn’t.
He electrocutes it, but somehow that still doesn’t kill it and Metal goes to pick up a weapon, while Gerald’s message shows him being told that he’ll be executed because he’s a threat. So I guess the military left this camera footage behind, based on what they recorded from their suspicions of Gerald, not intentionally to manipulate Shadow as that was Eggman’s doing, but instead they left it here to warn people about Gerald.
It’s still confusing that they even bothered recording him being told he’d be executed at ALL. What benefit would that possibly serve them? After the two of them knock each other out, because Shadow throws something hard into Metal Sonic’s shooter weapon and an explosion’s caused when he shoots it, Mecha shows up, calling Metal Sonic a moron for potentially damaging the data files that they came for.
Some narration says that the normal mechanical sounds heard in the night in the nerve center of a base, is pierced with the klaxom alarm sounding. And not long ago, the response would’ve been immediate, but that was BEFORE Eggman was forced to become human.
He complains that he can’t get a good sleep in his base, being in pajama robes to humanize him, and he says that if he stays human for much longer he’ll go mad. Foreshadowing? I have a question, why doesn’t he get a mecha-dragon to shoot a beam at him to roboticize him? I guess he genuinely doesn’t think that would work because why would he EVER think that would after the Bem made roboticization impossible?
So maybe the mecha-dragons were functioning independently so they could search properly and they never told Eggman they were roboticizing. Maybe the last of the mecha-draogns were beaten by Dulcy, but how, when there’s so FEW of them? I wish a mecha-dragon roboticized him by surprise. Wouldn’t that be a great karmatic end for him?
After saying some drastic measures are necessary, a computer in front of him with the alarm still going off displays that (laughs) now Eggman will undergo a System Shutdown, causing Eggman to say, “ I didn’t mean THIS drastic! “ So somehow, ADAM thought Eggman would rather kill himself than continue wreaking havoc in his biological form.
Eggman panics asking where they came from, and orders ADAM to report any data relevant to the current incoming transmission. ADAM says that the message is coming from multiple different locations at once, so he can’t tell where it’s from. That sounds interesting, doesn’t it? Okay, so this whole system shutdown thing WASN’T from ADAM, as he says he doesn’t KNOW the message’s origin.
While Sonic plays the guitar and sings about how for some reason he STILL hasn’t gotten over Sally, and his parents hear this and discuss whether or not they should try to help and get involved, causing Bernie to tell him NOT to have a talk with Sonic and Jules to say he should focus on something besides fighting Eggman.
When Eggman’s trying to figure out who sent a message threatening him, ADAM clearly says here that Snively is the likeliest candidate when it comes to someone who would try to threaten Eggman. So I assume HE’S the culprit, and nothing in this arc will disprove that.
Eggman is advised by ADAM to take a bold pre-emptive action to draw out his would-be enemy from hiding, giving him equal footing against his foe. Why would ADAM give Eggman vital advice for survival if HE was always meant to be the one threatening him in this issue?
Rosie and Hope are about to have a picnic after doing laundry when something blots out the sun, and doesn’t make the entire SKY go dark SOMEHOW. Everyone in Knothole nervously watches the Robotnik ship land instead of running away from fear, because curiosity killed the cat. He could’ve put a bomb in that thing, but no.
After Rotor idiotically suggests doing NOTHING unless Eggman either makes trouble or they hear from the king, Tails naturally says, “ ROTOR! But, but, we’re the Freedom Fighters! “ After Rotor says that they should treat a regular visitor until he commits a hostile action, being extremely uncharacteristically nice and patient with Eggman, Tails says, “ Are you NUTS?! You think Sonic would agree with that game plan?! “
If the writer knew this was stupid enough to have the character point it out, why’d he write it happening at all? Those panels didn’t need to exist, we could’ve had Tails and Rotor still be in the lab not knowing this was happening at all.
Sonic’s mother insists on giving Sonic breakfast first before he’d leave, when for all she knows the landed egg shuttle had a bomb that needed defusing. I love that it’s actual breakfast, pancakes, and she’s not just unrealistically spoiling him with chili dogs for breakfast again and he has something NEW to eat for a change. Not that he gets to eat it onscreen, as Sonic gasps at seeing Eggman at his door.
Sonic rushes at Eggman, but through the power of bullshit, Eggman slaps Sonic despite the fact that he was running at him at the speed of sound! Unless he held back so that the sheer force of him running into him at the speed of sound wouldn’t murder him, but he had NO PROBLEM with getting him blown up in Robotropolis!
Somehow Eggman flips him over, EGGMAN, and sends him away during a spindash that could’ve completely cut him apart, reacting way too quickly to be remotely believable because he’s Sega’s darling Creator’s Pet. I think I’d rather see Eggman humiliated than see forced moments like THIS just for him being competent! He deserves the former more!
I’d be more fine with this if Eggman was still a robot at this point, I suppose, because then it’d immediately make sense and be earned. Sonic’s had Wimpification since he came back from space and this proves it. There’s no way Eggman would ever have a chance in a fight against Sonic one-to-one, he’s got no special powers at all!
And OH! Eggman explains that Sonic’s trashed his 3D holographic solidifer with a lucky kick. So it was his hologram that was fighting him. Still doesn’t really explain how it was fast enough to react to him though.
He continues that he wants to discuss his own survival. Jules says, “ Do you realize how absurd you sound?! “ not understanding that Sonic’s such a goody-two-shoes that Eggman knows he’ll help prevent someone from trying to kill him.
Even though he’s going to rely on Sonic’s help, Egggman still pushes his luck annoying Sonic because he’s an idiot; he briefly taunts Jules over Chuck’s guilt and then hopes Sonic will make life miserable for whoever’s after him, because I guess he assumes that Sonic’s so idealistic as a hero that he’d try to fight the person, who’s heroically trying to stop Eggman once and for all because he doesn’t have the guts to kill Eggman himself.
Also Eggman says, ” At least with me, you know the devil you’re getting! ” and lies that he could get Jules out of that tin can meaning deroboticize him as a reward. That at least convinces Sonic and Rotor to go in the airship, and Rotor reasons that if there’s a force that even Eggman’s scared of to reckon with, they should deal with it.
With Sonic and Rotor at Eggman’s base, Eggman says, “ Make yourselves comfortable while I access the electronic logs for our dear Rotor! “ Naturally since they’re both engineers, so he respects Rotor for that. I like Sonic’s response to that too, where he snarks, “ ‘ Dear Rotor? ‘ He knows something I don’t? “ and Rotor says with a completely blank facial expression unfortunately, “ I refuse to dignify that with a response! “ I like it because it was an interesting moment, but logically Sonic should trust Rotor enough not to accuse him of working for Eggman.
This looks a lot more like it’d be a plot where ADAM was threatened with System Shutdown because HE HAS A SYSTEM to SHUT DOWN, and that might have made more sense, he’d get infected with a virus himself.
Eggman wonders if the system shutdown is a demonstration of technology he didn’t believe possible anymore. How would any tech not be possible anymore? At least Sonic saying ” this is like pulling teeth! ” explains why Eggman’s taking forever to explain things, because he’s intentionally wasting Sonic’s time.
S-So, so wait, how does he expect the system shutdown of himself to occur? He’s not a robot anymore. If the city’s gonna blow up he can just leave it. If the base will blow up, same thing. So the only logical explanation for this being an actual threat would be that there’s an electronic chip in a part of his body that would cause too much trouble trying to remove, like in his brain, which would blow up later on. Maybe it was put in him by ADAM with nanobots?
With a sound happening a bit closer, Sonic naturally wonders if Eggman’s sucked him into a trap, and then M crashes through the door shouting awesomely, “ Why Father, how on Mobius could you have forgotten your darling daughter?! “ So she’s angry that Eggman didn’t even try to find her in the sewers. And it looks like she won’t listen to reason either. But wait, she was in this story with Metal working for Eggman earlier, what’s going on? This was foreshadowed well, wasn’t it?
She sends Rotor away as I wonder just now, “ didn’t he retire from field missions? I guess Penders realized how stupid that was when Flynn won’t. “ Sonic dodges her lasers, ties her up with a convenient cord only to get swung around in a circle and tell Rotor to look out as he crashes into him.
Then M tells Eggman, “ Time to pay for your CRIMES against the Kingdom of Acorn! “ So now she’s on THAT kingdom’s side? That’s good. But it’s so sudden! Why is Eggman just NOW saying she’s betraying him? She was here for seconds before this and yelled at him for “ forgetting her. “
She then asks stiltedly, “ Why don’t you query ADAM regarding the 12 hour delay broadcasting the transmission? “ revealing that it is indeed time, as she says surrounding him with Neo Metal Sonics, that her master is now in control.
So ADAM sympathized with M and betrayed him too? Good, but what took him so long? I say this because he didn’t tell Eggman about the 12 hour delay earlier. He spared Tails and stopped the nuke launch dozens of issues ago! Either that or he’s being controlled too, which is what’s revealed in the next issue.
This issue was written by Ken Penders. At the start, Shadow sees a broadcast from Gerald made by the military warning people about Gerald by showing Gerald’s vengeful message, and Mecha complains that Metal Sonic might have gotten the files collected for her damaged by Shadow. I’m so confused, why is she doing this? What is M collecting data files for? It was surprising when M showed up to attack Eggman. I loved seeing her show up with a dramatic entrance with that line!
I can commend the story for trying to have some good incentive for Sonic to try to save Eggman from M; Eggman’s offering to deroboticize Jules as a reward, and Rotor’s saying that they should deal with whatever villain’s able to threaten even EGGMAN because he’ll be the bigger threat to them afterwards. Why are they just assuming it’s a villain and not a hero wanting to take down Eggman? It’s not threatening the HEROES!
M later on, says that he’s, says that she’s punishing Eggman for his crimes against the Kingdom of Acorn. So she’s suddenly on the good side now. So unless she continues trying to kill Sonic later purely because he’s trying to waste time fighting her, she shouldn’t be regarded as anything but a hero for this! It’s frustrating that the heroes are being so ungrateful for this well-intentioned plan.
Her motivation makes sense, she felt betrayed that Eggman didn’t love her enough to be desperate enough to try to find her in the sewers again. Obviously she lost her memories because he DID find her again as the start of the issue showed. I agree with Sonic though, how did she survive that? Didn’t falling into the water electrocute her and make her sink?
Issue 158:
After Eggman tries and fails to order ADAM around he says that the programming in him and her must have been scrambled by Snively. Good! He somehow manages to AVOID a Neo Metal Sonic while complimenting it despite the fact that it should be moving at the speed of sound trying to kill him! He shouldn’t have survived this! I could understand Eggman being this competent and non-inept in a fight with things way deadlier than him if he was STILL AN ANDROID, but he’s NOT! So this is just arbitrary. But it gets worse.
He says, “ And there! My phase inverter should even the odds! “ and gives M a headache with the press of a button with a device he had CONVENIENTLY ON him! Fuck that! Where’d that come from?! He never EXPECTED that he’d need it!
She’s confused because she last remembers that she was with Metal Sonic and Shadow, and Eggman says that apparently her circuits were a bit jammed up, and complains that unfortunately the superior designed Neo Metal Sonics aren’t so easily controlled, as M destroys one of them way too easily and inexplicably. What did she DO? It looks like it blew up for no reason!
As Eggman and ADAM… as Eggman and M run away with M ALREADY not being against him anymore so that was underwhelming, he says to M that her mission gave them Shadow, and reminds her that ADAM is not responding to his signals. As Sonic wonders relatably, “ Like, what was I THINKING in coming here? “ he sees a whole army of Metal Sonics and says, “ I may like the design, but I can’t let you guys run wild! “
I like that he likes their design, it’s one of his SUBTLE showcases of his ego. A Metal Sonic prevents another one from hurting Sonic because ” you are addressing model one! ” and they run away from him. It sure would be nice if that LASTED. That would make SENSE. I already hate the arc as it is because it involves Sonic trying to save Eggman!
And Rotor says to Sonic that he doesn’t know what that robot’s talking about. Rotor even asks who could build them other than Robotnik, and even thinks, ” Like that’s a long list. ” It’s like the writer changed his mind about Rotor not knowing who made the robots later on in the story because Rotor looks sincerely clueless here.
After the robots start trashing the place, Sonic and Rotor run out of the base towards the egg ship wondering who could’ve built them. Sonic somehow thinks that none of the suspects he can come up with for a creator of the robots makes sense, even though the robots REFUSED to hurt HIM. That’d be a BIG CLUE.
And the robots decide not to give chase because their MAGIC SENSORS detect neither their objective nor his creations in the pod. How? Convenient. They decide to continue searching for Eggman, as ordered by royal decree. Elias?
M tells Eggman that the files are downloaded, and with Shadow near them, Eggman says to M, “ MECHA! This is no way to treat family! “ After M questions this, Eggman reminds them all that Shadow is created by his grandfather and shows Shadow the military footage of Gerald on the ARK which conveniently also recorded what happened to ” his half-sister ” Maria when he was a baby!
I’m very confused at being expected to believe Maria is his half-sister, because his family always lived in Overland, and Gerald Robotnik worked on the ARK for the people of Station Square, which is a city that Overland doesn’t know about. But APPARENTLY, one of Eggman’s parents had a kid in Station Square, having no reason to go there, and then came back. I suppose if Nate could’ve accidentally stumbled into Station Square, Eggman’s father could’ve, just as easily.
Of course, despite him crying, Eggman says that he was only an infant when the whole thing happened. So why the hell is he upset enough to cry about that? He’s good at faking tears! I guess he thought about something that made him really sad, like him still not beating Sonic.
Eggman relates to Shadow about Maria’s death making him sad which Shadow is naïve enough to buy not realizing that he would’ve roboticized her given the chance, when he CALLED EGGMAN EVIL when he was up in space, before he fell from it in Issue 124, by the way!
After this, Shadow says, “ You and I appear to share common enemies! “ somehow even though this happened in SA2 already. THIS IS SO STUPID, the SA2 ADAPTATION HAPPENED ALREADY! Wouldn’t Eggman have already done this with Shadow in the SA2 adaptation we didn’t get to see? What reason did he have to not tell Shadow all of this on the first meeting? I can understand Shadow trying to fight GUN for Maria, but not him allying with Eggman after SA2. That’s CLEARLY not the intended new direction for his character after he sacrificied himself in an attempt to save the world.
Shadow went to the place where Isaac was to find out more about his past. At no point did Shadow ever SAY or THINK that he got amnesia from falling to the earth before the Xorda attack. In fact, he said he thought he was ” STILL ” under attack, proving that he remembered being under attack right before that instead of having amnesia, and just an issue before he met Isaac trying to learn more about his past, he remembered Gerald and Maria!
Eggman offers to fight GUN together, except their common enemy, the Station Square military, is just ONE ENEMY, not “ ENEMIES. “ I could only understand him fighting alongside him against that one particular target! Well at least this is pretty interesting.
Like, he actually talked Shadow into working for him by taking advantage of his naivety from being pretty young, too young to know that he used to roboticize everyone, rather than just brainwashing him like he tried to do with Khan, although BRAINWASHING him would’ve been SMARTER. And it WOULD’VE MADE SENSE!
I wish I realized how stupid this was on the first read but I didn’t because the SA2 adaptation was so skimmed over with just a “ oh, play the game to see the rest of the story, “ and a prologue, that it didn’t dawn on me that SA2 was canon to the comic, making all of this completely nonsensical. You know, Eggman could’ve just built a Shadow Android with Shadow’s DNA, and THAT would’ve served the purpose of us seeing Shadow work for Eggman PERFECTLY FINE!
After he says he wants to learn who created the Metal Sonics we see Elias walking down the stairs to Chuck since he was told that he needed him, and Chuck thinks to himself that his worst fears have been realized. He’s scared after being found in the sealed-up portion of the castle thinking uncharacteristically, “ What do I say, the truth that would horrify him, or a lie to cover this up? “
If Elias really would get mad at Uncle Chuck for trying to beat Eggman once and for all he’s hopeless. I for one completely support that plan, and hopefully it’s Character Development of him from his bullshit, “ literally all life is sacred including Robotnik’s, “ philosophy.
He says nervously that a special project conceived before Elias came to power has been activated apparently, and is out of control. Sonic and Rotor go down to the dungeon, and after Elias asks if either of them were involved with Chuck’s project, Chuck says that this was started by Jules and him and it’s about time the two were brought up to speed. He had sent them here because it concerns kingdom security.
Chuck explains that back when the kingdom’s greatest warrior had vanished without a trace the consensus was that it would require, uh sorry, “ it would required, “ a special defense force to replace him. And so a Metal Sonic was built, more streamlined to make it unable to be confused with the ones of Eggman’s, except by everyone unaware of the project which would be everyone.
But upon Sonic’s return the project was deemed UNNECESSARY and abandoned and Chuck is shown being inexplicably relieved as he shuts down the Metal Sonics. WHY would he be relieved when this would TAKE DOWN EGGMAN once and for all?! If anything, they should’ve released them ANYWAYS because they had NO REASON to ever think it would go wrong purely to make them an antagonistic force against Sonic! Instead they delayed their victory by several years just because!
Several fail-safes were installed as a precaution to keep the powerful robots from being unleashed to beat Eggman. The latest in fiber-optic technology was used to allow for tracking and visual monitoring, and in the event of a loss of control, the means to abort their operation is here.
He thinks unhappily that they’re not receiving the signal though, asks if there’s something wrong with the transmission, as I wish I was told HOW this happened when only Rotor and Chuck KNEW about this project, and Eggman says that he rates the chances of survival of ANYONE within that structure to be slim to none.
Shadow then races to Knothole to try to save the VERY inexplicably-threatened Hope, saying the corny line, “ As long as Hope lives, hope will endure! “ while thinking, “ Not again! Not this time! “ while Sonic’s line is much lamer.
As Sonic shows up in a blue blur, Shadow panics at seeing Neo Metal Sonics fight saying, “ Not this time! “ and asks, “ How did I do that? “ What did he do? I couldn’t tell because this is a series of still images and there’s no motion involved, and the light surrounding those destroyed Metal Sonic was a harmless-looking blue instead of RED like a Chaos Blast.
One of the robots crashes into Shadow causing Shadow to throw it, and he thinks lampshading the plot hole, “ So why didn’t the force shield happen a second time? Was it a one-shot deal? “ Maybe he ran out of Chaos Blast energy in his meter. It’s unclear because that didn’t look like Chaos Blast at all. It was blue, not red.
Sonic thinks that he could’ve sworn he saw Shadow go into Rosie’s hut, so Hope is living with Rosie, and one of the Neo Metal Sonics says, “ You two deal with this one while we continue to execute the prime directive! “
Sonic sees the robots around the hut and talks all informally about fighting them. He jumps so that the two robots would crash into each other. I guess they stupidly have the free will to decide NOT to never hurt ” Model One ” because he’s interfering with their plan. You’d think they’d be programmed to never wanna hurt any Freedom Fighter, but THAT would be BELIEVABLE.
Meanwhile as Sonic thinks, “ I’ve gotta find my Unc a hobby to keep him outside his lab, “ which is very demeaning of his uncle’s worth as an engineer as he doesn’t usually make inventions that backfire, and already he’s thinking of him as someone who shouldn’t be engineering, Sonic’s mother says, “ What kind of parents are we, Jules, letting our son go off with that horrible man?! “ Are all of their private scenes together gonna be comic-space-wasting filler?!
Jules says that he’s been asking himself that too and says that their son has more experience with fighting Robotnik than they had, remember they fought in the war. WE KNOW THIS ALREADY! Bernadette says, “ It’s different now! He has us again! And as his parents, it’s our job to protect him! “ What are you, SALLY? It makes sense that his mother would be more overprotective, I really like this dynamic, how it’s not BOTH of them but just the mother who’s like that. I never thought I’d miss Jules having black eyes instead of white and red ones.
The Knothole emergency warning system goes off and Bernadette gets worried from the alarm saying that Sonic’s in trouble. Jules saves some of Rosie’s babysat kids from a blue blur that would’ve had no reason to hurt them. He needs to do this more often instead of their scenes always being a waste of time.
Sonic’s mother says that they need to get the kids to safety, and Jules says that there’s others who need them right now, and they’ll head into the palace. Elias tells Sally to gather everyone into the great hall and says that if Knothole falls, she should prepare to let them into the Southlands. Is that where Furville is? Otherwise it makes no sense that he’d think they were safer.
As I wonder why the hell the Neo Metal Sonics are here threatening Hope like this, both Sonic AND Shadow fend them off with her hugging Rosie. You’d think Shadow would’ve thought to TELEPORT THEM TO SAFETY IMMEDIATELY because he does that in SA2, which happened in the comic’s canon.
And after one of the robots hits Hope in the face, Shadow panics, assumes that she got killed from that because of what happened to Maria, and instead of just attacking and destroying the Metal Sonic that hurt her, he says to Sonic, “ If that girl dies, Sonic, then so will you! “ His reaction does make some sense here, since he probably has PTSD and REALLY doesn’t want to lose Hope, but WHY is he BLAMING SONIC and not just being mad at the ROBOTS? And himself?!
The only real story of this issue was by Ken Penders, the rest of it has precious comic space wasted on Mike Gallagher’s Off-Panel Universe. And I really like the concept of it, how, rather than being a more predictable “ robot of Eggman’s turns on him “ although that should’ve been gone with TOO and M was way more enjoyable when against him, instead the Metal Sonic army was made by Uncle Chuck to fight Eggman, and then he stupidly shut them down earlier because Sonic came back and he didn’t wanna kill Eggman since they’re softies.
So now what I ASSUME is SNIVELY activated them again. Very dumb that it’s never explained how they got activated, by the way. It’s a cool concept, although M is made to immediately go back to Eggman’s side with a convenient Deus ex Machina while ADAM’s still following his orders. It’s underwhelming that even after M made such an impression being against Eggman even calling out his crimes on the Kingdom of Acorn, she got brainwashed to be on his side again so easily! And I don’t understand why all these robots ended up threatening Hope! Why would they be programmed to do this?! It’s so arbitrary!
Go here for my review of the much better second story.
Issue 159:
Shadow and Sonic start to fight because Hope got hurt but fortunately it’s not wasting TOO much comic space because Rosie after a couple of panel says, “ In case you two fools hadn’t noticed, there’s a little girl here lying INJURED, and most certainly in need of medical attention! “ I wish she didn’t say “ most certainly “ because it sounds stilted, but otherwise I love that she stood up to them.
She’s right, if Sonic cared enough about her and Hope to pick each of them up and run away and put them in a safe place one by one, and THEN fought the robots, they wouldn’t be in this situation, but it IS in-character for Sonic to think he can destroy the robots and assume that he doesn’t need to get them to safety first, because he’s SO fast and tough.
AND he has Shadow there to help him. It’s a good thing it’s explained that Shadow isn’t fully aware of his abilities, because that’s the only justification, no matter how thin, for why he didn’t think to use Chaos Control and effortlessly save them, just freeze time – which he never did in the story of SA2 – or warp the robots apart. He’s been an idiot since he fell from space. That’s apparently his character now.
This causes Sonic to try to carry Hope to the doctor’s and causes Shadow to run after him saying, “ Not with ME! “ It should REALLY be SHADOW carrying Hope. Meanwhile, for the sake of padding out the story with filler, it’s pointless exposition time, as Uncle Chuck tells us that the hardware of the Troopers WOULD be state-of-the-art “ were it not for the nanites. “ WHY would the NANITES make their hardware WORSE? If anything, they should make them BETTER.
Wasn’t there a REASON that Eggman used nanites to reconstruct Metal Sonic? He says that exactly 100 of, uh, Troopers apparently, were built to protect the kingdom. 100? There’s no kill like overkill! Is he explaining this to anyone who wouldn’t already KNOW this? I guess he means that they’d be nothing but great robots for beating Robotnik, if it weren’t for the nanites that apparently took over them, when nobody with nanites anywhere near them KNEW about the SECRET PROJECT enough to get nanites in the SEALED OFF Metal Sonic Troopers in the first place.
He starts crying saying that he somehow made a mistake making those Eggman robots, when they’re only a mistake because he SOMEHOW didn’t program them to exclude Hope and Sonic as a target and instead programmed them to go after anyone with Robotnik as a last name. Seriously, that was so dumb.
If their sole purpose was to beat Eggman, they wouldn’t ever be programmed for anything else, and one of them even SAID “ Ivo Robotnik, “ which would NOT BE Hope! He should be written to say that, ” If they killed Sonic because of me, I’d never forgive myself, ” because that would get my sympathy. Instead I’m just frustrated! He asks what he was thinking. You were THINKING ” We should take down Eggman. ” That’s NOT insanity!
Rotor reassures him because it wasn’t his idea initially apparently, when I’d think it WAS, and says, “ You have nothing at all to be ashamed of! “ Other than the faulty programming that was uncharacteristic of Chuck to make.
Thankfully Chuck says, ” But we created them, ” showing that this didn’t magically make him stop being remorseful and blaming himself. After Eggman says in the middle of boring complaining that the Metal Sonics have destroyed his command center – this better have long-term consequences – and compromised his system safeguards, Shadow wonders what his purpose is when HE KNOWS what his purpose is!
With that recap padding out of the way, Shadow reflects on how there have been only TWO sentient beings who have expressed compassion for him, which we already know, and he uses Chaos Control to try to save Hope. Gee, wouldn’t it have been nice, if Shadow had summoned that portal for Hope BEFORE she got hit by the robots?!
Elias asks five minutes ago if there’s any sign of the invaders while Geoffrey tells people to go to their stations. With Sonic showing up through a portal along with Shadow and Hope, Elias wonders how he could explain to Sonic that the king had meant well in ordering those robots to be created for defeating Eggman.
Oh I see! She was brought here because the medics were here, gathered at the castle along with everyone else. I was wondering why they didn’t bring her to the hospital!… Wait, so with the medics being here at the castle… does that mean that the medics brought all the medicine and medical supplies WITH them? ‘Cause otherwise it would be pointless bringing her here if they can’t do anything to help! And how did Shadow know to create a portal HERE? How’d he know not to go to the hospital and find it empty?
I always hated when characters in the comic said stuff like, ” Thank the Source, ” or used Aurora as an interjection. After Sonic argues with Elias about the project, saying that the heroes’ geniuses should’ve considered that someone could breach their cyber-security measures, such as Eggman, and he thinks unusually that “ This hero jazz can be a pain at times! Just once, I’d like to see someone else lead the charge! “ THAT was Out of Character!
He then faces some more Neo Metal Sonics just to get hit with a laser. At least I can understand why Penders used Shadow and Metal Sonic so much; fans kept requesting them to come back in Sonic Grams, and one response was, ” I guess everybody likes Shadow then, ” so maybe he was doing this to try to make the fans happy, like people keep saying Flynn tried to do. Apparently only he’s allowed to do fanservice.
One of them says that they’re programmed to attack anyone who threatens the kingdom’s existence. And they for SOME reason think SONIC should be attacked, PURELY so they can be destroyed by the good guys instead of just taking down Eggman already! This plot only exists because of meta logic “ we can’t ever get rid of Eggman! “ I mean, they weren’t programmed to trust him, I guess…
One of them while trying to fire an eye laser says that their programming is immune to tampering, causing Sonic to run around a bunch of them in a circle at the speed of sound to catch them in a tornado. Some MORE of the robots attack him, and Shadow, after deciding to help Sonic when he’s done NOTHING but inexplicably fight with him recently, proves that he’s just as if not MORE omnipotent than Knuckles was at times, since all he does is raise his hand and now all of the robots are demolished. 3
And they say SONIC X Shadow was overpowered! That was anticlimactic! Knuckles, who had been in Knothole earlier and just now showed up apparently while not fighting the robots at all, tells him that he did it with Chaos Control. But Knuckles was never told what Chaos Control was even called!…
And with Sonic complaining about a headache from being caught in the middle of it all, he responds to Shadow cruelly with “ Shut up faker, “ and then, “ Thanks for the save, Shadow, I owe you nothing! “ THAT was rude! He just SAVED your ass! Why is he being such a douche in this issue?
After Sonic comes back to the castle and gets awarded with a medal by Elias getting the full credit when Shadow was the one who defeated the robots, it’s then explains that Chuck’s video logs show a complete record of his actions. So why isn’t SHADOW being given the medal then?
Chuck sure faked the video FAST to make it look like Sonic spindashed them all apart, at least that’s what I have to ASSUME happened anyways! Then Sonic gets assigned the rank of “ gentleman-at-arms “ – is ANYTHING gonna change from this? Wasn’t he already knighted? Is he gonna be immune to meddling idiots telling him he’s not allowed to go be a hero?
The story ends with Sonic actually being NICE to Shadow saying, “ Don’t be a stranger! “ That’s a jarring shift from being cruel like earlier! I guess he felt guilty. Also I like that he said that when, Scourge said the same thing, although he meant something completely different. I love that Shadow smiles back.
And Chuck turns off a screen saying, “ You have your secrets, Shadow, and we have ours! Better they should stay that way! “ It would’ve made a lot more sense if the reason he faked the footage was simply to get his nephew an award, we didn’t NEED this stupid “ he’s not gonna let people know Shadow’s that powerful “ plot point.
In the next story ADAM says to cheer Eggman up that his research is continuing and his lieutenants are continuing with maintaining his infrastructure. I don’t get why he’s still bothering to work for this guy. Why can’t he just LEAVE?
Eggman calls his lieutenants potential traitors, which was true of Crocbot so it makes sense. This builds up to nothing. He effortlessly forgives him after this, somehow! Why would he have lieutenants that CAN betray him instead of just using robots with the one limitation that they can’t betray him? It worked for the roboticized version of Antoine’s father, Chuck, and Valdez. Him not using robots for his sub-bosses is Out of Character.
ADAM says that he should make an example out of someone and Eggman complains that the one he desires to see the WORST punishment is currently beyond his reach. ADAM explains that the evidence suggests otherwise and perhaps a visual log of an experiment will refresh his memory. Eggman says he didn’t realize recreating Metal Sonic could get out of hand and Eggman finds out that now the heroes are using his nanites for themselves… but how can they see camera footage of the heroes?
ADAM says that a video stream was received when the nanites were transmitting to their own kind, despite whatever distance of separation between them. Then Eggman asks since when could nanites defy gravity, as we see the steam of Tommy flying with his jetpack shell.
Then it’s explained that when Tommy put his palm on a scanner while looking into a camera, ADAM transmitted a signal, triggering a growth spurt in the nanites. The computer console being a natural source of raw materials… and yet the entire… and yet the entire console isn’t already EATEN or at least mostly eaten for some reason… enabled the nanites to multiply and grow, while not visibly damaging it somehow.
That’s when Eggman said that ADAM must be able to manipulate the nanites to do his bidding. Jules says that he could’ve sworn the calibration on something was a bit off on the retina scan, but he arbitrarily thinks he was WRONG, and Chuck BUYS it and says that’s a relief when he’s SUPPOSED TO BE SMART! and this causes Eggman to somehow figure out from that, that the nanites have infiltrated Jules’ system. So I guess the nanites brainwashed him to think he was mistaken.
Jules tells Bunnie to place her palm face down on the glass plate, and she asks if the new security system will really provide protection against their enemies. Why are they even doing this again?
After ADAM interprets Eggman’s sarcasm literally, Eggman tells ADAM that Bunnie will make a wonderful agent when the time is right. Why doesn’t he just do it already then?! The fact that this took so long is forced!
ADAM is asked if he’s deleting their supply of nanites by doing this, and ADAM says that the microchips and electrical charges from the main console provide MORE than enough substenance for the nanites. I’M SO BORED RIGHT NOW! NOTHING but characters TALKING giving EXPOSITION DUMPS for me! Can more ACTUAL STUFF happen please?! I’m sick of just writing down what the characters are saying!
Bunnie gets woozy which makes Eggman threaten ADAM, but fortunately for Eggman, that intriguing plot point of Bunnie becoming a sleeper agent might just work out after all, since somehow RIGHT AFTER JULES was worried about something, BUNNIE GETTING WOOZY doesn’t get the heroes to decide to investigate either! All because she insists that she’ll be alright, not even that she IS alright! Wait since WHEN does she call him Sir Charles and not Chuck?!
It’s explained that because bullshit, the chemical composition of the turtle shell is compatible with the nanites when it was originally organic, when the OTHER organic stuff, like Sonic, is INCOMPATIBLE. ODD, the nanites had NO PROBLEM transforming organic matter into inorganic matter when it felt like it! Why can’t it do that to Sonic?! (Plus a lot more than Tommy’s shell can be mechanized by those nanites! Only his head is actually immune. So another contradiction!)
Then ADAM explains that their NEXT subject MORE than meets the minimum required standards, with Eggman saying that the princess relies heavily on Nicole. Eggman then brags that having hacked into Nicole from a distance, Eggman is able to know EVERYTHING the heroes do and say, and when they least expect it, that’s when he’ll strike, except he was already spying on them with camera footage ANYWAYS… but I guess now he’s gonna be able to spy on them EVEN MORE? I mean, Nicole is in far more places than just this lab. Why doesn’t he strike RIGHT NOW?! THAT’S when they’d least suspect it! THAT’D be IN-CHARACTER! What an idiot!
Both stories of the issue were written by Ken Penders and the first one involves Hope being gotten to the medics, and then Shadow defeating all of the Neo Metal Sonics just by RAISING his HAND! Knuckles’ level of omnipotence at times is just like this! And Uncle Chuck decides to give Sonic all the credit for it because I guess he’s worried Shadow will be feared for his power otherwise. The whole first story can just be summarized as “ the robots died, so everyone’s safe. “
The story was too basic, so there were lots of pointless filler scenes there trying to disguise the fact that it’s too small of a story to fill half of one issue, there’s a reason they were so forgettable. I’m glad Sonic and Shadow made up although it came out of NOWHERE since Sonic was talking to him in such an uncharacteristically cruel way earlier, not to mention the whole “ him complaining about being a hero “ thing was ALSO pretty uncharacteristic.
It was an underwhelming conclusion that still hasn’t explained why the hell the Neo Metal Sonics, who were built to protect the kingdom and know this, were programmed to go attack Hope! What does SHE have to do with anything? I can’t imagine Snively would ever reprogram them to do that, he’d have nothing to gain! He just released them to spite Eggman, that’s all.
And the second story was incredibly BORING because it was just Eggman and ADAM dumping exposition on me about the nanites, with some interesting plot points being introduced, as now Bunnie is a sleeper agent for Eggman and Nicole has been hacked into, but this’ll only be used to let Eggman know everything the heroes will be up to.
But again, WHY doesn’t Eggman use the nanites on Jules, Bunnie, Tommy and Nicole RIGHT AWAY? Why is he POSTPONING it instead of doing it right away?! Maybe he was, maybe it was meant to happen in the very next issue and it didn’t, which only makes things make less sense. Eggman is just a little too overpowered here. It makes sense, but STILL!
SO, that was the last story ever written by Penders. I didn’t like 44 stories by him, 8 for the green Knuckles arc. But, I did like most of the Knuckles Comic, it was funny and charming and had interesting plotlines and worldbuilding. It was way better than I thought it would be, and honestly it’s one of the only parts of the comic that’s consistently good, aside from the Benny Lee Golden Age and Sonic Universe later.
I didn’t like a ton of his stories, he’s EASILY by a large margin the writer with the largest quantity of stories that I didn’t like. Only Karl Bollers comes close, and then there’s Gallagher. And Karl Bollers wrote a LOT, I’d say the so-called dark age after Tossed in Space was HIS fault, not Penders, because he’s the one who wrote most of that. Penders was probably misblamed for his stories a lot when he just wrote the Knuckles stories until recently.
I hated Wrath of Khan and the story arc after that, and in fact when Bollers wrote badly he made me angrier than most of Penders’ bad writing EVER DID! But by Issue 99, that worst part of Bollers’ writing was already over and until Tossed in Space ended, Bollers brought the comic into a golden age of consistently great stories!
And most of his work was alright. The same could be said for Penders, like 101 of his 191 stories were perfectly fine by me. There’s 23 great stories by the name Bollers, and when he was writing under the name Benny Lee, he actually had more greats than bads which no other writer with more than like 2 stories can say in this comic!
Because of THIS, and because I love the Knuckles Comic so much, I irrationally feel like he’s overhated as a bad writer. He IS the worst one at this point in the comic, I just proved it quantifiably, but not ALWAYS bad and CERTAINLY not comic-ruining! Normally the worst Penders did was confuse and underwhelm me, that’s all. It’s not like his bad stories made me angry every time.
So it annoys me that I can’t hate him as much as everyone else because of the good he wrote. The Knuckles Comic was SO charming and funny, that even though most of his stories were forced at the foundation and he was usually a bad writer, I ended up feeling like his writing was underrated because my standards were at rock bottom to begin with.
Because the Knuckles Comic was so good, it annoys me that game purists use him as an excuse to completely dismiss, the issues, BEFORE Ian, before Penders got fired, as just totally worthless. MOST of the COMIC was those issues, you know! Not literally every story that he wrote was terrible! Most of it was alright! 101/191 in fact, which last time I checked was basically half. If anything he was more of a mixed bag than consistently awful because he wrote generally the same amount of bad stories as great ones. To me, there’s 45 bad stories and 28 great ones.
His writing can be basically summed up as; great creative ideas, poor execution with LOTS of plot holes. So… yeah. And that’s, usually the case for the other writers too, but it’s kind of his style, because he feels to me like the eccentric writer and therefore the most creative one, sometimes at the expense of keeping things simple and logical.
For example, instead of it being a Sonic infiltrator who got Sonic framed in Issue 47, it was Hershey in a Sonic costume that made her see Sally as Snively, and while I questioned why she’d ever put on that suit to begin with, I was really impressed that with all the different possible outcomes, he still came up with a brand new idea!
Sometimes it means the writing’s confusing BECAUSE it’s not going the way it’s expected, and that’s because he doesn’t always go the lazy, uninspired and predictable route, unless it’s with the evil twins because none of the writers ever cared about developing their characters and lives in a deep enough way. Even then, Scourge had more depths than he appears on the surface just like Sonic does, like he’s not as evil as you’d expect since he never even killed anyone with his super speed as far as we know!
I really LIKED stories like, most of the evil twin stuff was interesting, I liked Patch having his epic plan. The evil twins were really fascinating what-if scenarios proving the heroes weren’t totally destined to be pure and righteous, so I’ll always love that he introduced the idea of them. There were stories of his that I really enjoyed!
And even with the echidna stuff, there were tons of great characters, who had good personalities and even their designs were very much distinguishable from Knuckles. Remember, I loved Sabre, Locke, Remington, Julie-Su when she’s written to be sassy and actually doing something in the plot.
But, now we’re going to see Ian Flynn!… Let’s see whether he’s the perfect writer everyone claims he is… I mean I’m looking forward to him, but… Is he the greatest thing since sliced bread? Is the pre-Ian Flynn comic really worthless? Is he all he’s cracked up to be? I’ll be the judge of that! (NO! He has no creativity! )
CrystalMaiden77 