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scruffyplayssonic · 1 year

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Are the ArchieSonic comics actually an 80's/90's syndicated cartoon? Episode 39: Babysitting hijinks

Welcome back to my look at the ArchieSonic comic series, and how it shared a lot of the same story tropes as a typical ‘80s or ‘90s syndicated cartoon! I’ve got a nice, short category for you today:

Episode 39: Babysitting hijinks

For this one we need to go back to the early days of the Sonic comics.

Sonic #22 featured a story called “Tails’ Knighttime Story,” where Sally is trying to put Tails to bed but he’s too hyped up on raspberry soda or something and wants to run around pretending to be Sonic. Hey, we’ve all been there, right? I know I used to run around like that when I was a kid. xD

Since Sally didn’t have a copy of, “Go the F**k to Sleep,” on hand, she tried to calm Tails down with a story that would demonstrate that being a hero is a lot harder than it looks. In Sally’s story there was a knight called Sir Runalot who was beloved throughout the land for his heroism. Sir Runalot had an assistant, Mortail, who would follow him and do odd jobs like polishing his armour.

One day Sir Runalot decided to go on vacation, and Mortail seized the opportunity to try on his armour and pretend to be his hero. Unfortunately for him, an enemy knight from Robotannia came looking for trouble at the same time, and since everyone thought the armoured Mortail was actually Sir Runalot, Mortail had to try and fight him.

Sir Knightmare easily defeated him in combat, but luckily Sir Runalot showed up in the nick of time to save him. Mortail returned to his own life, realising he wasn’t ready to be a hero yet. Unfortunately Tails took the wrong lesson from this story, and borrowed Sonic’s shoes for an incomplete Sonic cosplay.

This was a fun little story. I particularly enjoyed this joke at Antoine’s expense:

There was also a story in Sonic #159 where Rosie was telling a fairy tale to some orphans, but I don’t think it really qualifies as “hijinks.”

This story also doesn’t have the charm that the Tails one did, somehow. Probably because of the writer. Who wrote this thing again?

"Romy Chacon"? ...like I said, who wrote this thing?

Were there any other babysitting shenanigans we saw in ArchieSonic that I missed? Maybe I missed something, so be sure to let me know if I have! Come back next time for “the one episode that’s unique to the show’s premise and characters”!

#archiesonic syndicated

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fyeahsonicthehedgehog · 2 years

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Thoughts on Archie writers not named Penders or Flynn?

Karl Bollers aka “Benny Lee” - I liked most of his stuff, especially Return to Angel Island. Dan Slott - He introduced Zonic, who was cool. Most of his stuff was just the random crossovers like Sally Moon so that's just "eh, whatever". Danny Fingeroth - Only wrote two issues but those were the Heart of the Hedgehog story, which would eventually lead to Shard near the end of the preboot's run. Kinda wish he wrote more than just that one story for Sonic.

Michael Gallagher - His stuff was pretty hit or miss, that's all I got to say on him. Angelo DeCesare - He gave us the first Mecha Sally; otherwise his stuff was just there.

Tracy Yardley - Liked the Babylon Rogues SU arc, didn't really care for Pirate Plunder Panic. Mike Kanterovich - Never did strictly his own work, instead just worked with Penders during his time on Archie so I can't tell what was his and what was Penders.

Jay Oliveras - Wrote Ghost Busted in SSS #8 and Cry of the Wolf in #113, both of which were just adaptations of SatAM episodes.

Joey Esposito - Wrote a single story in #264 and that was it. Aleah Baker - She wrote the story that introduced Clove and Cassia. Other than that I don't really remember what else she wrote. Evan Stanley - Wrote the Silver Age SU arc; didn't really care for the comic version of Von Schlemmer but I liked what little we got of Gold the Tenrec. Frank Strom - Introduced Monkey Khan and his side cast; never cared for his stuff. Scott Fulop - He was...there, usually under the pen name Kent Taylor. Scott Shaw - Wrote Tails' Tallest Tale from the Sonic In Your Face special which was a pretty typical story at that point in the comic's history. Paul Castiglia - Wrote two stories, one in #30 which was just slapstick involving Coconuts and Bunnie, and one in #70 which had Sonic reflecting on the fate of Sandblast City after he and Tails fled. I liked both of them. Tom Rolston - wrote that random Discovery Zone story in #52 as a homage to Casablanca. Also wrote The Map from SSS #1 which had Antoine being awesome and wrote Stop... Sonic Time! in the first Sonic Kids special (SSS #5), which was about Sonic giving Tails his shoes as a present while Dr. Robotnik tried to freeze time itself. Overall, just weird.

Romy Chacon - Introduced Tommy Turtle, ‘nuff said.

#archie sonic #anon

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mobius-prime · 4 years

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234. Sonic the Hedgehog #166

DON'T. PANIC. I know. It's back. Don't worry too much though - it only lasts for two issues, so even if you detest this AU with all your heart and soul you only have to deal with it for a couple days. To be perfectly honest, I don't actually find the plot of this installment of Mobius 25 Years Later to be that much more interesting than the previous one. I find everyone to be a little too out of character, for one thing. However, it does at the very least provide a bit of closure to a story that was left wiiide open previously, so there's that.

Mobius 25 Years Later (Part One): Tempus Fugit

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Tracy Yardley Colors: Jason Jensen

Last time on Mobius 25 Years Later, we left off with the timeline seeming to dissolve and rip itself apart while Sonic went back in time to fix the temporal and spatial instabilities of Mobius. Well, he fixed the threat of time coming to an end all right, but in the process somehow caused the timeline to skew wildly from how it was previously. In this new future, Shadow is a brutal and ruthless dictator, worship of Maria as an angelic guardian figure is officially sanctioned by his government, the Chaotix patrol the streets headed by King Shadow's chief enforcer Knuckles, and perhaps most bizarrely of all, Sally is married to Shadow as his queen. I have to note here that no explanation is given at all for how the timeline could have gotten messed up so badly - like, it doesn't really say anything about Sonic destabilizing specific events in the past, he just did something apparently, and stuff got messed up as a result. I'm personally not a fan at all of the idea of Shadow becoming so brutal like this, because it's just so out of character for who he's shown to become in the games (and in the comics coming up in a few issues), but at the very least there's the potential excuse of oh, well, this is a timeline where he didn't discover his true purpose in life and thus got led astray by darker influences or whatever. Regardless, things are very bad, and now Tails is on the scene, trying to figure out a way to fix it.

You see, he actually is able to remember the old timeline due to some kind of protective armband, and knows that this one isn't right. So he decides to go about recruiting some of his old allies to fix things, first starting with Knuckles. He walks in as Knuckles is instructing Lara-Su in her Guardian abilities, and Knuckles, once he realizes why Tails is here, ushers his daughter out grimly so they can talk alone. Tails tries to get Knuckles to listen to him, explaining that he took measures to protect himself, his wife Mina (remember? They got married in this timeline) and their kids from the time shift, and that he knows that everyone who was near the time machine when it freaked out still has memories of the other timeline. This merely pisses Knuckles off for some reason, and he yells at Tails to get out before he arrests him. Tails leaves the room dejectedly, but Lara-Su cheekily tries to cheer him up outside the door, clearly having overheard everything.

I already like this version of Lara-Su way better than the old one. The old one was weirdly whiny and selfish, while this one is immediately more assertive and ready to jump into action. As this is going on, we move to the dungeons beneath "Castle Mobius," where King Shadow is currently carrying out a rather… rough interrogation of Rotor, who's chained up to a wall. Shadow curtly acknowledges Rotor's strength of will in not "cracking" yet (it's not explained what information exactly he's trying to get out of him, but we can assume it relates to the timeline shift), and tells him he knows he will break eventually and leaves - and who is outside the cell to greet him but Lien-Da? She's apparently the one who captured Rotor for him, and she too remembers the old timeline, thanks to Cobar - we finally find out what she did when she confronted Rotor and Cobar back then!

Yeah, really don't like this version of Shadow. The juxtaposition of worshipping Maria as a gentle protective goddess, and Shadow's use of brutal torture tactics and authoritarianism is kind of… bizarre. A Legion mook runs up with information that Lara-Su has joined up with Tails, and Shadow orders Lien-Da to contact Knuckles to conduct an arrest of the two. Meanwhile, the two in question have managed to find Sonic, bedraggled and sitting next to a bunch of trash in a back alley, looking pretty awful. He, of course, is the same Sonic from the old timeline who went back to "fix" everything, and is horrified at how everything has turned out in this version of the future. It's once again worth noting that he sheds a few tears here, especially because this is around the time Sega started interfering more in the comics to make sure things were portrayed to their liking. There's a sketch version of the below page floating around somewhere showing Sonic crying substantially more than he is in the final product, which honestly, I don't know why Sega felt they had to force the artists to tone it back here, because I think if there's any circumstance where a normally cheerful and stoic person might truly lose it, it's losing their two children forever to the abyss of time.

Lara-Su urges the others to get up so they can go defeat King Shadow and save the day, but a sudden blinding light engulfs them. Sure enough, it's Knuckles, backed by what looks like half of Portal's police force, telling the three of them to surrender immediately as they're under arrest for treason…

The Chaotix Connection

Writer: R. Chacon and Ian Flynn Pencils: J. Axer Colors: Jason Jensen

This story is a bit bizarre - for one, it opens with a shot of Knuckles tied up and apparently coming to after being knocked out, only to immediately pull back a full day to show us what led up to this moment. That's a perfectly legitimate storytelling tactic, but it has to be done right for it to work, dammit, and the execution here is mostly just awkward and confusing. And for another, though someone is listed as the letterer for this story, very little of it is actually hand-lettered - the vast majority of it is machine-lettered. Seriously, out of the dozens and dozens of speech bubbles in this one story, which takes up half the issue's page span, only seven are hand-lettered (yes, I counted). I'm really not sure why this would be, nor why they bothered actually having someone letter only seven speech bubbles in the entire story when a computer was apparently doing that job perfectly well, but oh well. Anyway, here's the rundown - yesterday in Station Square, Rouge (sporting her Heroes getup) was snooping around for any juicy information when she got her hands on a nice little tidbit - namely, that Renfield T. Rodent is back. Remember him?

Aw, it's nice to see Sally and Sonic actually joking around with and teasing each other a bit. Things have been so frosty between them for so long, I forgot how nice it is to just see them being sweet and silly. The next day, Renfield's foreman oversees a delivery of slot machines to the new casino while Renfield himself watches from behind a screen, still sporting his capitalist tycoon grin and definitely seeming very shady as he talks to himself about putting on a grand show with this new scheme. The Chaotix and Rouge all arrive at the venue, and Rouge and Julie-Su nearly come to blows when Rouge insinuates that her only reason for coming is to show Knuckles that she's "gone legit." Knuckles breaks up the fight before it begins, and the group is let in early when they bluff to the guards that Renfield is expecting a meeting with them. They agree to split up and search for anything suspicious, checking in every few minutes to make sure none of them goes missing. Knuckles heads off on his own, and soon discovers an elevator that takes him to a secure room where the foreman is discussing the shipment with the help. When he hears Eggman's name mentioned, Knuckles knows this operation is rigged, so he leaps into action and begins to fight everyone present… alone. Seriously, man, couldn't have waited one whole minute to call in your backup? Speaking of the backup, Mighty in particular has decided it's prudent to check the food given what happened last time, while several of the others go for the slot machines as customers begin to file in.

Gotta love Mighty - no time to test anything scientifically, let's just shove potentially poisoned food into our mouths and see if we pass out! Knuckles, upstairs, finishes punching out the mooks and goes for the foreman, but when his fist makes a clanging noise against his nose he realizes that he's one of Eggman's auto-automatons. Things only get worse when said auto-automaton punches back, knocking him clean out. While the foreman ties him up and calls Renfield, Rouge, Vector, and Espio all check the slots, noticing that people seem to be acting weird while playing them. Sure enough, one glance at a screen later, the three of them are hypnotized as well. Knuckles wakes up with Renfield gloating over him, and naturally the rat immediately launches into a villainous monologue about how Eggman is paying him to use his fake slot machines to scan the brains of the patrons, allowing him to turn that data into a blueprint for what basically amounts to a Terminator. In fact, the whole casino is built on top of a factory that will start spitting out robots the moment the scans upload! Suddenly, the writers realize in horror that they only have two more pages to wrap this plot up, and so they go into overdrive figuring out a way to solve it in this limited amount of space.

I love the idea that Mighty just casually crunched up a whole factory and carried it around with him just to prove a point here. The police show up out of nowhere to arrest a fuming Renfield, and Julie-Su and Mighty explain that they knew something was wrong when Knuckles didn't check in, and even more hilariously, apparently on their way up here they just randomly passed the factory and Mighty was like "Yo, that doesn't fit the décor," hence him crunching it up. The president pops in out of the ether to congratulate the Chaotix on a job well done, and as Julie-Su and Rouge bicker some more, the curtain falls on one of the weirdest and most out of place stories we've experienced in some time. Bravo, Romy and Ian, we've officially learned that when you two collaborate, crap gets bizarre!

#nala reads archie sonic preboot #archie sonic #archie sonic preboot #sonic the hedgehog #sth 166 #writer: ian flynn #writer: romy chacon #pencils: tracy yardley #pencils: jeff axer #colors: jason jensen

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themattress · 2 years

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Eras of a Franchise:

1993 - 1997: The Classic Era - Following the success of the “pilot” miniseries, a full comic series based on Sonic the Hedgehog that combined elements from the games and the two cartoon shows currently on the air is produced. It starts off incredibly silly and episodic, but gradually becomes more serious with an overarching storyline and character development. This era concludes with the “Endgame” story arc, where Sonic and the Freedom Fighters defeat Dr. Robotnik once and for all in what was initially conceived as the series finale. Writers: Michael Gallagher, Angelo Decesare, Ken Penders, Mike Kanterovich, Kent Taylor

1997 - 2000: The Adventuring Era - Continuing on past “Endgame”, the comic almost completely dropped its comedy aspects and became a full-on adventure series, first going through the Ixis Naugus arc (aka the Mobius World Tour arc), then the Return of Robotnik arc, and then appropriately enough the Sonic Adventure adaptation arc. During this era, the Knuckles the Echidna series ran in its entirety, lasting 32 issues before its cancellation. Writers: Karl Bollers, Ken Penders, Michael Gallagher, Kent Taylor

2000 - 2003: The Declining Era - When Sonic and friends returned to Knothole village following the Sonic Adventure adaptation arc, the series began a sharp decline in quality and fan reception. Sonic entered a love triangle with Princess Sally and Mina Mongoose that dragged on for issues on end, Knuckles turned green and obtained ultimate power that he proceeded to do jack shit with until his temporary death reversed the effect, and at one point there was such a lack of direction for the comic that its covers began being patterned after tabloids as a gimmick to grab reader interest. The era managed to finish strong with the “Sonic Adventure 2.5″ two-parter, but the optimism this caused proved to be premature. Writers: Karl Bollers, Ken Penders, Michael Gallagher, Romy Chacon

2003 - 2006: The Miserable Era - After being lost in space for a few issues, Sonic returned to Earth and everything promptly went to Hell. Sally broke up with him via the most infamous slap prior to Will Smith’s at the Oscars, the much reviled Tommy Turtle became a mainstay character, the origin of the Freedom Fighters was retconned, characters swung wildly in and out of character, the furry romantic drama made famous by the preceding era reached an apex of insufferability, the notorious “Mobius: 25 Years Later” storyline transpired, and of course we got THIS. At this point, many fans wondered why this series was still running. Writers: Karl Bollers, Ken Penders, Michael Gallagher, Romy Chacon

2006 - 2009: The Renewal Era - Following a clean sweep of the comic’s writers, things got more or less back on track, with many long-hanging story threads finally being wrapped up, characters mostly acting like themselves again, and the sense of genuine forward momentum finally returning. Highlights include A.D.A.M’s rebellion which resulted in Tommy Turtle’s death, the Enerjak Reborn arc which resulted in Locke’s death, and Dr. Robotnik reasserting himself as the primary threat by finally destroying Knothole and delivering a brutal beatdown to Sonic. Lowlights include the misguided continuation of “Mobius: 25 Years Later”, the utterly asinine “House of Cards” two-parter, and almost everything involving Scourge the Hedgehog. Writers: Ian Flynn

2009 - 2013: The Burdened Era - Cracks began to show in Ian Flynn’s run following the 200th issue, with the unpopular Iron Dominion story arc dragging on for over a year. The following King Naugus and Mecha Sally story arcs were also controversial, and it seemed like the rampant OOC syndrome from the Miserable Era had returned with a vengeance. Adding to the problems the comic was having was one of its own former writers, Ken Penders, whose legal battles with Archie over the ownership of his characters resulted in a full-on cosmic reboot for the series’ continuity at the conclusion of the “Worlds Collide” crossover event with the Mega Man comic, which remains a sore spot for fans of the series to this day. Writers: Ian Flynn

2013 - 2017: The Reboot Era - The majority of the reboot ended up dedicated to a single storyline: the Shattered World Crisis which very loosely adapted the plot of Sonic Unleashed. This particular arc dragged on and on for years, not helped by another crossover with Mega Man, “Worlds Unite”, interrupting it in the middle. Following the Shattered World Crisis’ conclusion, the Archie comic series was officially cancelled, having lasted for a full 24 years. Writers: Ian Flynn

#Eras of a Franchise #Sonic the Hedgehog #Analysis

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thankskenpenders · 4 years

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I'm looking through some old comics. I think Jay Oliveras is the infamous Many Hands penciller. Not only did he write the infamous #113, he drew the fourth story of Super Special #8 in nearly the exact same awful style.

This has actually come up before, but it’s fun to speculate, so it’s worth talking about again. There’s definitely a strong resemblance to the Many Hands style there

Given the pseudonym it’s possible it was Oliveras and at least one other artist. It’s been suggested that Gabrie was involved given the look of his art on the Off Panel, so it’s possible it was a tag team of those two rushing to fill page space. It’s also worth noting that both this and issue #113 are adaptations of random SatAM episodes printed as filler

However, here’s where things get complicated: Jay Oliveras? He might not actually exist

I can’t find evidence that this mysterious backup inker worked on any comics aside from Sonic issues #45 and #113, Sonic Super Special #8, the Sonic Quest miniseries, and, oddly, Archie’s Street Sharks miniseries from 1996. I actually can’t find anything about this guy aside from this list of credits. Where was he before and after this? Comic artists don’t just appear out of thin air, right?

But there’s one thread connecting all of the issues he worked on across Sonic and Street Sharks. Every single one was edited by our old nemesis, Justin Gabrie. And it’s been suggested before that Jay Oliveras is just a pseudonym for Gabrie. So, in other words, this is just more evidence towards the theory that Gabrie was at least partially responsible for the Many Hands art. (This also wouldn’t be the first time that a Sonic editor used a pseudonym to get away with filling other roles. Former editor Scott Fulop infamously published his own stories under the name Kent Taylor, giving us characters like Mammoth Mogul, the Fearsome Foursome, Sir Connery, and Merlin Prower.)

It’s also interesting to note that Gabrie is believed by many fans to be the real identity of mysterious writer and Tommy Turtle creator Romy Chacon. That’s three different pseudonyms for one editor! And, sure enough, there’s no overlap between the periods where “Jay Oliveras” and “Romy Chacon” worked on the series, with Chacon first appearing four issues after the final Oliveras issue. It’s quite possible that Gabrie just switched pseudonyms. It’s also possible that this is all completely wrong and is just a crazy conspiracy theory about an old licensed comic series for children, but it does make some amount of sense. Pretty much all of these stories from Many Hands, Oliveras, and Chacon were either rushed issues or obvious filler, or both. Oliveras gave us random SatAM adaptations to hastily fill page space, and Chacon gave us inventory stories that could’ve easily been slotted in anywhere. It’s quite possible that this was all just the result of an editor struggling to manage his creative team and needing to find some other way to fill page space

#tkp post #shaddytheguyislazy #ask

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nuttyrabbit · 5 years

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Why were Chacon stories like that? Like most of them seemed like random filler episodes.

Because it was part of his scam.

Seeing as Chacon was Gabrie, the idea was that he'd write a bunch of stories and submit them to himseld under the guise of Romy Chacon.

Then, acting as Gabrie, he'd "buy" them from himself, not only giving himself more money, but also making "Chacon" look like a legit writer, therefore getting himself two paychecks.

At least that was the gist of it to my knowledge

#asks #archie sonic

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greenyvertekins · 6 years

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Who do you think did the best job at writing Sally?

Romy Chacon AKA Justin Gabrie (Supposedly)

Though in general, Sal’s writers tend to be wildly inconsistent regarding their writing quality of her in particular.

#Verte's Asks #opinion #Archie Sonic #Sally Acorn

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rachelbethhines · 7 years

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The Antoine and Bunnie Retrospective - 132

The 25 Recap - 6th Era

So this might be the most decisive of eras yet...

The 6th era includes….

Sonic the Hedgehog 126-150

“Two steps forward one step back” is the phrase that comes to mind when discussing this era. A lot of effort went in to reexamining what went wrong in previous eras and improving upon those problems, while also setting up a whole host of new bullshit to work through. And then there are many instances where the writers prove they didn’t learn a damn thing.

Major events of the era are….

Sonic figures out the Bem cured Robians and meets Tails’s parents while traveling through space - StH 129

Sonic returns home and finds he’s been gone for a year - StH 130

Mecha and Adam are introduced - StH 130

Mobuis Years Later series begins - StH 131

Bunnie’s and “Antoine’s” breakup is revealed - StH 133

Sally breaks up with Sonic in the infamous slap moment - StH 134

“Antoine” becomes King Max’s personal bodyguard - StH 134

Tommy Turtle joins the FFs - StH 137

Finitevus and Knuckle’s baby brother Mace is introduced - StH 139

Angel Island is rescued from Eggman - StH 141

The Egg Grapes are first seen - StH 141

Amy officially becomes a Freedom Fighter - StH 142

M25YL ends - StH 144

Shadow meets Hope - StH 145

Nicole and Sally swap bodies temporally - StH 146

The Chosen One Arc finally comes to an end - StH 149 & 150

Scourge replaces Sonic and reveals that “Antoine” was Patch all along and the real Twan is held captured on anti-mobius - StH 150

Favorite thing about the era: Consequences

My biggest complaint about the previous era is that nothing felt like it mattered. Individual stories had little impact with those around them and even important ones were handled with little gravitas. Here though, there’s more of an effort to have interconnected stories and a fully fleshed out world. Actual story arcs return, Knuckles and the Chaotix are part of the main cast and not off doing their own thing, events that were previously seen as insignificant or were ignored for a long time come back to bite the characters in the ass, and most importantly events during this era set up important developments for later on.

Least favorite thing about the era: Character Assassination

Or should I say attempted character assassination. Fortunately other writers would come in and fix or better yet build off of the OOC writing that was rampant during this era. Creating arguably stronger stories and better character development out of the mistakes of this era. That is perhaps why I don’t hate the 6th era as much as most. I knew before going into it that most of the out of place character moments would right themselves out. (Well that and there are some genuinely damn good arcs here)

However, I don’t blame a single person for despising the writers for what happened during this era. Characters like Rotor becoming cheap mouth pieces for the creators’ political beliefs despite not fitting the character’s previous seen actions. Sally being deliberately written as unlikable just to jump start yet another forced love triangle. Antoine being written as a villain, undoing years of character growth, all for sake of contrived drama. Ugh!

Favorite Antoine Story: “Hero to Zero In No Time At All” Sink or Spin I - StH 150 by Ken Penders

I would include the whole arc here, but half of it is in the next era, so... meh. This story technically wins by default as this is the only story to feature the real Antoine in the era. Outside of the pointless flash back in “One Part Ooh-La-La and Two Parts Treachery!” it’s really Patch on screen. That said this is still a major, major development for Twan. One that will come to shape his character from now on.

Favorite Bunnie Story: “Finale” Home IV - StH 133 by Karl Bollers

Bunnie has more of a presence during this era than her significant other, but she still winds up taking the back seat a lot to the other power players of the book. (ie. the game characters) Home is the only story where she gets to physically take part in the proceedings and one of the few times she’s saved the day since the 2nd era. It also has the added bonus of furthering her development by introducing the break up. And regardless of how poorly that plot point would develop later; it’s effective and well handled here.

Favorite Buntwan Story or Moment: Bunnie missing Antoine in “Love and Loss” - StH 144 by Romy Chacon and Jon Gray (uncredited)

So the only time we see Bunnie and the real Ant together is during the flashback in StH 137. Unfortunately that story A. shit and B. completely redundant as it tells us nothing new about the characters or their relationship.

However “Love and Loss” makes the absence of their romance the focus. Reaffirming why they’re such a great couple while also revealing new insights into their flaws as characters and how that effects their romance together.

If the comic took more time for introspective stuff like this instead of the “oh he loves me; he loves me not” bullshit, I would probably be a bit more favorable towards it’s romantic drama. It of course becomes all the more frustrating when you realize that Romy Chacon wrote both this and “One Part Ooh-La-La and Two Parts Treachery!”. Which means the writers are capable of doing more, they’re just too fucking lazy or too self adsorbed do so.

Favorite Single Story: "Circuit Me" - StH 146 by Romy Cahcon

While I’ll praise some of the arcs during this era, the one off stories were a mite on the weaker side of things. "Circuit Me" stands out because it happens to have some emotional heart to it. Nicole finally learns about human emotion as she and Sally switch places. This also becomes a starting point for both Nicole’s character development and some major plot points in the future.

Favorite Story Arc: Return to Angel Island - StH 138 - 141 by Karl Bollers

While Home is still one of my favorite arcs its held down somewhat by Bollers more annoying excesses *cough* the slap *cough* . However, Return to Angel Island, is near perfect. Showcasing just how good Penders’ concepts and ideas could be in the hands of other writers. And while the relationship drama is still present it’s handled much more maturely and shown to have real consequences on the characters’ behaviors and outlooks outside of just will they/won’t they triangle BS.

Favorite Artist: Jon Gray

I was a fan of Jonathan Gray’s work long before I started reading Sonic. He’s done a lot of work for various Disney comics and I find his unique style very appealing. There’s a lot of flow, energy, and movement to his action. Even in more subtle scenes, like the one above, he has a clear way of presenting emotion through a character’s body language. He’s also fantastic at large group scenes, giving everybody, no matter how minor, a story of their own in the background. His world just feels alive.

I know that he’s not everyone’s tastes, but I often point to his work when I’m trying to describe the difference between personal style and actual bad art. Like Spaz or Sam Maxwell, Gray’s art can be off model and exaggerated but there’s an intended purpose behind that. These artists have control and can reel in the excesses when needed and unleash their zany action upon the page to give the illusion of movement. Unlike say, Ron Lim or Jerry Gaylord who also frequently go off model due to personal style, but lack energy or focus. Making their subtle scenes stiff and their action scenes poorly laid out and confusing.

Yeah, I still maintain that this isn’t the absolute worse era, but it’s still pretty damn close. Fortunately there’s a light at the end of the tunnel folks. So tune in next week when we start on the 7th era and the end of the Bollers/Penders run.

#Antoine D'Coolette #Bunnie Rabbot #sonic the hedgehog #archie sonic #archie comics

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robotnikholmescomicblog · 7 years

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Hoo boy, after all that happened the last few issues, I guess writer Romy Chacon decided its story-time now. But who the hell are these people? Read on to find out!

#RHSB post #StH142 #I thought Sonic was having another crossover with Image Comics or some crazy shit but nope #Sonic #Archie #comics #Hope

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mobius-prime · 4 years

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235. Sonic the Hedgehog #167

Mobius 25 Years Later (Part Two): Tempus Aeternus

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Tracy Yardley Colors: Jason Jensen

Lien-Da is incredibly happy with herself on this fine evening, sipping a glass of wine and bragging about how she and King Shadow orchestrated the arrests of Tails, Lara-Su and Sonic, and how as a result she's had a hand in "bringing down the line of Edmund." Rutan watches silently from the nearby stairs, looking conflicted and upset, while Dimitri (still confined to being a head in a bubble) coldly remarks at how ashamed he is to be related to her due to her behavior, even more ashamed than when he in the past worked with Dr. Finitevus. Wait, what?! That hasn't happened yet! A hint of what is to come in the main comic, perhaps…? After all, though Lien-Da implied that Dimitri was dead during the Return to Angel Island arc, we know he can't actually be if he appears in this future. In the dungeons beneath the castle, Sonic, Tails, and Lara-Su have been chained up next to a despondent Rotor. He is frustrated that the three of them don't seem to be taking their position seriously, as the first two mostly joke around about this "bringing back memories" while Lara-Su complains that Rutan will make fun of her for all this. At that moment, Knuckles walks in, looking very stern.

What, did you think Knuckles was gonna be the villain of this piece? Nah, he has way too heroic of a spirit to end up like that! (I mean, so does Shadow, but we already saw how that's being ignored in this arc, so.) Apparently, he was even counting on Lara-Su to overhear his conversation with Tails, precisely so that she would rebel and allow him to set up a coup like this without Shadow realizing that his head enforcer wasn't loyal. Tails says that he'll hack the castle's security systems to allow the others to get a clear path to the throne room, and Knuckles says he'll keep Queen Sally safe while Sonic battles Shadow. Lara-Su wants to come along, but Knuckles convinces her that now the best way for her to help is to get the injured Rotor to a hospital, which she reluctantly agrees to. Sonic and Knuckles race along the hallways to the throne room, where Sally quickly follows Knuckles to safety. Apparently, she too seems to know about the other timeline, surprised that her husband does as well. With Sally safe, Sonic tries to attack Shadow, but his punch has barely any force behind it.

Ouch. I mean, yeah, saw it coming, but ouch. Things are looking bad, until suddenly Lara-Su bursts in, ready to continue the fight on her own terms. Shadow becomes irritated at her smack-talk, and reminds her that he wields Chaos powers, only for her fist to glow as she smugly invites him to "join the club." Shadow tries to fire off some Chaos Spears in her direction, but she merely dodges them while reciting Tikal's prayer (you know, the "Chaos is power enriched by the heart" one) and performs a Chaos Control, freezing Shadow in place.

Bit of an ignoble ending to Shadow's story, don't you think? I said it last issue, but again, I'm really not okay with how this AU just wants to turn Shadow into this brutal villain. I mean, especially considering his whole character arc in the games - the only times he ever acts truly violent and uncaring of others' wellbeing is when he's being manipulated by an actual villain or otherwise brainwashed, and once he discovers who he truly is he's never anything less than a goddamn hero. I just think that turning Shadow the Hedgehog into Shadow the Evil Dictator is doing a huge disservice to him as a character, and not even bothering to try to work in an ending where he realizes the error of his ways is at this point just spitting in his face.

Meh, whatever. Knuckles comes running back in, concerned, but Lara-Su just excitedly informs him of how she defeated Shadow. She then says a seemingly nonsensical line about how she "already took care of him" that only makes sense if you assume that Knuckles asked her something along the lines of "But I thought you were taking Rotor to the hospital," so I can only guess that they forgot to include that dialogue bubble. Sally and Sonic walk into the next room, and she tells Sonic how Knuckles explained all the timeline shenaningans to her, and how she always felt that something wasn't right all these years. She then awkwardly explains that she never married Shadow for love, but only to try to bring stability to her kingdom. Frankly, I find that to be a pile of crap. Sally Acorn, the lifelong ringleader of the rebellion against not one but two different Robotniks, passively married an evil autocrat who likes to use torture on his enemies? Not fricking likely. Sally would have been at the head of the resistance against Shadow from the very start. It seems that even under a different writer, Mobius 25 Years Later is doomed to have every member of its cast acting completely out of character.

Wow, it's that easy to get back together after twenty-five years apart? *sigh* Look, I think the reason this two-part arc fails is because it's ultimately working off an already-flawed base. I understand that some closure needed to be brought to the tangled mess that Kenders set up at the beginning of this era, but hell, I think it could have been done a lot better. Some people do like the whole King Shadow and dystopian future thing, but personally, I think it's just as inexplicable and out of character as everything in Kenders' version of events. I'm just glad to be done with it, as next issue we actually get to go back to the normal, interesting stuff.

Hedgehog Day

Writer: R. Chacon Pencils: Dave Manak Colors: Josh Ray

Well, we do have this little story before that happens. Apparently everyone in Knothole has decided to put together a second birthday celebration for Sonic several days after the previous one, the one Scourge crashed. Sonic wakes up at 10am on the morning of the make-up party, and begins his morning routine as his alarm clock informs him that Mina's latest hit "Soldier Boy" has just finished playing (note that this issue came out one year before "Soulja Boy" was released, so it's not a reference), that it's going to be in the mid-70s (Fahrenheit) today, and that many important people will be at the celebration such as the king and queen and Mina herself. However, the announcer on the radio then says that everyone is wondering where Sonic is as the party has already started, which wakes Sonic up out of his sleepy daze. He realizes that he accidentally set his alarm for the time the party was to start rather than when he actually wanted to wake up, and rushes to get ready, racing out the door and nearly barreling into a bunch of reporters looking for him.

Ouch! Well, at least there's always tomorrow, right? The next morning, Sonic wakes up at 10am on the morning of the make-up party, and begins his morning routine as his alarm clock informs him that Mina's latest hit "Soldier Boy" has just finished playing, that it's going to be in the mid-70s today, and that many important people will be at the celebration such as the king and queen and Mina herself. However, the announcer on the radio then says that everyone is wondering where Sonic is as the party has already started, which wakes Sonic up out of his sleepy daze. He realizes that he accidentally set his alarm for the time the party was to start rather than when he actually wanted to wake up, and rushes to get ready. However, he hesitates before he races out the front door, struck by a strange suspicion that there's reporters outside waiting for him.

Hmm, something's a bit fishy here… The next next morning, Sonic wakes up and shuts off his alarm, a bit disappointed that he didn't wake up in time to listen to "Soldier Boy." He asks the alarm clock if it's going to be in the 70s for his party today, and the announcer dutifully reports that it will be, repeating the same spiel from the past two mornings.

I mean, maybe if you walked instead of ran, you might make it there in one piece, bro. But then again, this is Sonic we're talking about. He buries himself back under the covers to avoid the prying eyes of reporters looking in through his windows, but that doesn't stop them. They start looking for another entrance, ultimately climbing on top of his roof, which buckles and collapses under their weight. This time, Sonic isn't the only one stuck in the hospital, as all the reporters are injured from their fall as well. Finally, the next next next morning, Sonic has had enough and wakes up three hours before his celebration, making his way there and sitting in one of the folding chairs as everyone sets up around him, confident that now, there's no way he can miss the party!

Though the title of the story is a parody on the movie Groundhog Day, I do find it kind of funny that despite this clearly seeming like another fantastical and silly plot device, stuff like this actually does happen to people. They're called false awakenings, and consist of dreaming that you wake up and perform your morning routine, only to then "wake up" into another similar dream, and this repeats until you finally do regain consciousness for real. They can also be paired with stress dreams, meaning that you might wake up in a panic that you're late for school or work, only to wake up into the same situation again and again in a bizarre loop. So, in a way, this story is actually one of the most realistic in the entire comic! I'm sure that wasn't the intention, but the point still stands!

#nala reads archie sonic preboot #archie sonic #archie sonic preboot #sonic the hedgehog #sth 167 #writer: ian flynn #writer: romy chacon #pencils: tracy yardley #pencils: dave manak #colors: jason jensen #colors: joshua d ray

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189. Sonic the Hedgehog #121

The Prince & the Revolution

Writer: Benny Lee Pencils: Ron Lim Colors: Jensen

Geoffrey and Hershey have managed to track down a lead on Elias' location, and the king asks Sonic and Sally to meet the two in Feral Forest to find him and bring him home. Geoffrey and Hershey, both sporting new superspy looks complete with cool black sunglasses and fancy suits, are flying above said forest when an attack by some of Eggman's drones brings their plane down, attracting the attention of the various denizens of the area, who are astonished to see a plane crash in the vicinity of their homes. One of the people who goes to investigate is the father of a young pregnant woman named Megan, who decides to go find her husband to let him know what's going on.

E-Elias? You're married?

So actually, I feel I should point out that while this issue seems to want to imply that Meg's baby is his, later issues retcon that into Meg having already been pregnant by a different man who had died by the time she and Elias met. There's just no way, given a similar gestational period to humans, that Elias could have left home, found a nice place to settle, fallen in love with a local woman, and gotten her pregnant nine whole months ago in the period of time he's been gone.

Anyway, Elias leaves his backyard to investigate, finding Geoffrey and Hershey giving the citizenry of the forest a pep talk about banding together and defeating Eggman as he tries to invade their homes. While everyone else is pumped up by the talk, Elias is less than pleased, and stomps back home to start packing his bags, leaving a confused Meg to wonder if all this has something to do with his past that he's always refused to tell her about - yeah, she lost the biological father of her baby, and then immediately jumped into marrying a mystery man who won't tell her anything about himself. I gotta say, Meg, you got lucky this time that you happened to marry someone as nice as Elias, but that stinks of bad decision-making skills…

Geoffrey tries to reason with Elias as he furiously packs his bags, but Elias lashes out in anger, insisting that he'll never again listen to another word Geoffrey has to say. However, at that moment a bunch of E-105 bots burst in through the wall and round up the four occupants, bringing them before Eggman, who has personally arrived to oversee operations. He's delighted to have captured not just two high-level Knothole agents, and not just the prince himself, but also his unborn child (again, clearly unaware that there's no way it's Elias' biological kid). Of course, at that moment Sonic and Sally show up - along with every other inhabitant of the forest, who are itching for a fight after their pep talk from earlier.

Honestly, this is a way better life for Elias than a life as a prince. The poor guy was just never cut out to live as royalty, and now he has a loving wife and a chance at raising his own happy family away from all the political drama that he hates so much. Good for you, Elias!

Afterlife (Part One)

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Art Mawhinney Colors: J. Jensen

It is a sad day. Today is the day… of Knuckles' funeral. His body is laid out on a table, arranged with flowers, for all attending to see as a Mitre presides over the event and gives a stock "this guy died" speech for him. All his friends and family mourn, crying over the loss of their loved one and saying things like "I can't believe he's gone" and all that… but someone else is in attendance that no one probably suspected.

It's time for Knuckles to learn about what the title mentions - the Mobian afterlife! While he tries to wrap his head around the concept of being a ghost, all the dead Guardians from ages past - Moonwatcher, Tobor (the real one), Harlan, and so on - explain that when a Guardian dies they don't just pass on like other Mobians. Instead, they just sort of hang around the planet in spirit form until Aurora comes to summon them into the Chaos Force. Hey, remember the occasional references to Aurora here and there throughout basically everything Penders put his hands on? Yeah, turns out she's basically God, and oh, yeah, she's here for Knuckles now!

This golden light, unseen to all the living attendees but blinding to the dead, engulfs Knuckles' body in a blaze of luminosity, and the, uh, "heralds" that just look like dark chao beckon him into the sky…

Song Bird

Writer: Romy Chacon Pencils: Steven Butler Colors: Jensen

Sonic has managed to talk Mina into her most terrifying venture yet - singing on stage in front of a crowd. She sweats nervously in front of her waiting audience, none of whom know what she's about to do. Tails notes that she appears downright terrified, but Sonic is quietly confident, watching from the back.

Oho, look at that sudden confidence! Mina begins to sing, and the crowd gets into it, pleasantly surprised at how good of a singer she is. After a few lines, her nervousness disappears and she starts tearing up the stage, captivating everyone listening to her. Even Sally, who is in the castle working on some paperwork with Nicole, overhears the music and goes to the window to listen, amazed to see that the source of the music is Mina. As her song concludes, the crowd goes wild, and her confidence in herself is restored as she takes a bow.

Ooh, Sally, is that some jealousy I see? Well, we don't need to worry too much about it, methinks. She's shown herself to be very mature about these things before now, but it's still sad to see her feeling insecure like this.

#nala reads archie sonic preboot #archie sonic #archie sonic preboot #sonic the hedgehog #sth 121 #writer: benny lee #writer: ken penders #writer: romy chacon #pencils: ron lim #pencils: art mawhinney #pencils: steven butler #colors: jason jensen

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203. Sonic the Hedgehog #135

The Tommy Trilogy (Part One): Agents of K.N.O.T.H.O.L.E.

Writer: Romy Chacon Pencils: Ron Lim Colors: Jason Jensen

Well, the title of this story kind of gives away the mystery of the cover image, huh? Sonic finds himself once again traveling to the Forbidden Zone in search of a undercover contact who just so happens to be a turtle. Interestingly, his narration as he makes his way into the bar that they're supposed to meet in notes that though the Forbidden Zone is apparently under Eggman's control, the Mobians that live there have refused to defect to the side of Knothole, instead keeping their heads down and hoping to not get involved. This is the first inkling we've ever gotten of a population besides Angel Island trying to stay neutral in the war, and since Eggman has more important things to focus on than the residents of a small out of the way town in the middle of nowhere they've been largely successful so far.

As this is going on, in some undisclosed location, Eggman and Snively talk about a mysterious project of theirs. Whatever they're creating, apparently the first hundred models of it failed, but their hundred-and-first is operational. Sounds suspicious… Back in the bar, Sonic slides into a booth across from a similarly hooded figure, reciting some code words, and who pops out of his cloak but Tommy Turtle! Yeah, turns out he survived the explosion at the factory a year ago, and only recently managed to message Sally and Sonic about his continued existence.

Now that's interesting. It seems Ceneca-9009 thought of everything, and tried to make sure that a Mobian once deroboticized can't be reroboticized, but somehow Eggman has found a way around that. Sonic and Tommy's conversation is then interrupted by none other than the same "friends" Tommy was hanging around last time we saw him - Sleuth Dawg, Drago, and the Fearsome Foursome, all roboticized once more! What a conveniently relevant conversation there, guys! The roboticized goons try to place the two friends under arrest, but Sonic easily dodges their attacks and begins kicking their metal butts with ease. He even gets his chance to throw in some sass here and there - but Tommy isn't doing as well as he is, being a noncombatant.

Sonic decides to hurry things along, finishing off his own opponents and rushing to Tommy's aid. However, he's startled to find that somehow, Drago and Sleuth have both disappeared from the scene, with Tommy looking perfectly unharmed. Tommy explains that he was able to hotwire the two of them and reprogram them to go throw themselves into the nearest lake, and that's good enough for Sonic. Together, the two leave the messed-up bar behind, with Sonic glad to have Tommy back and alive once more…

Anonymous

Writer: Romy Chacon Pencils: Art Mawhinney Colors: Jason Jensen

So what exactly is the deal with the roboticization thing, anyway? Time to find out in a story that clearly takes place before the previous one. A.D.A.M. gets Eggman's attention in his base and directs him into a room where stand the six villains of the story prior, all roboticized and awaiting commands. The twist? Eggman didn't do it. He's just as surprised as we are to see them standing there roboticized once more. Eggman is of course eager to find out who has managed to reverse the anti-roboticization effects on them, and has A.D.A.M. run diagnostics on their memory banks to find any useful information.

Several hours later, A.D.A.M. rouses Eggman from his nap only to give him the bad news - their memory banks are totally locked down from accessing information about who retransformed them. The only thing he was able to find was a brief image of their benefactor, which has been similarly censored out, leaving only the impression of someone Eggman-sized behind. The final piece of information A.D.A.M. is able to retrieve is that the person behind it has signed their work merely as "Anonymous," which only frustrates Eggman more, as he has no idea if this person is friend or foe. Hmm, so the famous hacker group is behind this, eh? Watch yourself then Eggman, they tend to not like fascists.

Mobius 25 Years Later: Dealing With the Devil

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Steven Butler Colors: Jason Jensen

It's time for another riveting piece of teen drama! Lien-Da, after dropping Salma off at home, is ready to interrogate Rutan about where he was last night. Rutan isn't looking forward to the repercussions of his actions, but is grateful when Dimitri steps in to give his two cents.

This sucks in so many ways. Like, how can you make me cringe so much from just a few lines of dialogue? Yes, teenagers often want to sneak off to make out with their crushes. Lien-Da should know this, especially as she appears to be a single mother with no father in sight, indicating Rutan is perhaps the result of a one night stand. But then Penders has to go and make it all weird and have Lien-Da get like, bizarrely feminist on Dimitri, and not the reasonable kind of "I just want equality" feminist, more the "rabid social justice warrior who takes offense at everything" kind of strawman feminist. When has any of this ever been established as part of Lien-Da's personality? Why did we need this weird "man, boys and girls are sooooo different" tangent? It's just… so weird and out of place.

For a moment, we actually take a turn into something mildly interesting - that is, the matter of how exactly Lien-Da and Dimitri got to be where they are today. Apparently, at some unspecified time in the past, when Eggman's empire was on the verge of crumbling, he captured Dimitri with the intention of using him to somehow fix everything. When Dimitri refused, Eggman took his revenge… somehow, which resulted in Dimitri becoming the disembodied head that he is today. Lien-Da thinks that he holds a grudge against her for not saving him from his fate, but he retorts that he's only angry because once he was incapacitated (and decapitated), she drove the Legion forward in her own self interest instead of following his vision… which we're not even sure what it was supposed to be in the first place. Again, all of this is extremely vague - seriously, this entire story arc seems to want to gloss over everything that could actually be interesting in favor of the awkward domestic dealings of heroes past their prime and their annoying, bratty offspring. Lien-Da cuts the budding argument off at this point to go right back to the clearly most pressing question of the evening - namely, what exactly Rutan was doing with his girlfriend last night.

I love how this entire thing comes across as though Penders thinks he's danced around the issue of teenagers boning oh so carefully, when really it's done with all the finesse of a drunk baby deer trying to navigate its way through a room full of glass figurines. Like, who do you think you're fooling, dude? A five year old could read this and know you're talking about sex. Furthermore I'm trying to decide if the shocking part is that Rutan was trying to get it on with his girlfriend at all, or if his mother's life lesson was merely not to lose his virginity in a park specifically. Either way, he's able to deflect her anger by relating what he overheard of the conversation between Knuckles and Rotor, which granted, isn't much. However, it's enough to catch Lien-Da off guard, and after thinking for a moment, she suddenly gets unnervingly sweet, saying that she believes him and sending him off with a firm "just don't do it again" to his room. Rutan catches the chill from her sudden attitude shift and leaves gratefully, and when Dimitri tries to talk to her, she brushes him off, clearly calculating her next move. Next thing we know, Julie-Su, chopping vegetables for dinner, finds herself getting a video call from Lien-Da asking to talk…

Again, though, I just have to point out that nothing we're seeing makes any sense here. Everyone is so scared of Lien-Da finding out anything important, but if she's so dangerous, then why hasn't she been arrested and incarcerated for her former crimes yet? Either she's a dangerous terrorist who should pay for her transgressions against echidnakind, or she's a reformed and upstanding member of society. You can't have it both ways, guys! And now, with the new information gleaned from her son, she's all ready to scheme and plot her way to… what, exactly? The only thing she knows as of now is that Knuckles and a friend of his met in a park at night so that the latter could make a request of the former. How does she know it's anything important at all? Remember, Rutan didn't overhear anything about spacetime breaking down, so for all Lien-Da knows, Rotor just wanted to ask Knuckles if he could borrow his hairdryer. There's nothing here to even begin to be suspicious about! This entire arc is held together with duct tape and Penders' tears, and there's so many weird plot holes that rely on us essentially just taking Penders' word for it that this person is bad, and that person is totally in character, and this other person is at all interesting. And I hate to say it, but we haven't even seen the worst yet! We've yet to see King Sonic and Queen Sally enter the picture, and once they do things only get weirder…

#nala reads archie sonic preboot #archie sonic #archie sonic preboot #sonic the hedgehog #sth 135 #writer: romy chacon #writer: ken penders #pencils: ron lim #pencils: art mawhinney #pencils: steven butler #colors: jason jensen

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221. Sonic the Hedgehog #153

Oh god, is Sonic, like… okay? Is he all right up there? What horrific manner of trouble did he get himself into this time to have his face become deformed like that? Also, I like how this cover implies that Sonic is being hunted down by someone shooting lasers or something, when literally nothing even close to the sort happens within the issue. I know it's perhaps getting a bit stale to point out every time the cover art doesn't reflect the stories inside, but dammit, it makes me laugh so I'm gonna keep doing it.

Songoose (Part 1 of 2)

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: Ron Lim Colors: Jason Jensen

Eggman has a new agenda to enact. He's offered Nack the Weasel a large sum of money in exchange for assassinating someone very important within Knothole, and despite Nack's apparent reservations about waltzing into a place where he's wanted for quite a few crimes, he seems pretty jazzed to accept the offer nonetheless. Within Knothole, Sally has arranged a mock battle training exercise between the Freedom Fighters and the Chaotix to strengthen team bonding and combat skills, and oversees the training along with General D'Coolette, discussing the various combatants' strengths and weaknesses.

Uh oh, that doesn't sound good. In fact, at that moment they get a call from the king and queen, still halfway around the world, and apparently the king is also exhibiting similar symptoms to the general, prompting Sally to muse on whether their illnesses are related. She wonders if they should cut their trip short and return home, something which the king is against but the queen tentatively supports, but the conversation is interrupted when suddenly, the general seizes up and then collapses onto the ground. That's… probably not a good sign. Worse still, "Antoine" doesn't even seem to care, though of course we know why.

So this is actually a plot point that's kept up throughout a lot of subsequent issues - apparently, Tails' crush on Fiona is still going strong, despite the fact that he literally "fell in love" with a robot duplicate of her which had nothing in common with the real her. It's honestly a very weird detail to seize upon, as while Fiona being a real person and a unique character in her own right is interesting, and the fact that she's joined the Freedom Fighters even more so, Tails trying to like… flirt with her and become her boyfriend is just a bizarre place to take it, especially considering the age difference. I mean, don't get me wrong, I know it's not uncommon for a kid to end up with a crush on an older teenager, but multiple writers from here on out write Tails as being actually infatuated with her and unable to "let her go" after her robot duplicate broke his heart. It just doesn't feel like Tails to me and it's frustrating, to say the least. But anyway, moving on, everyone agrees it's a good idea to go to Mina's concert tonight and disperse. Sonic catches up to Fiona and tries to explain that Tails looks up to her, but she just makes a snarky comment about Sonic being one to talk about respect given how he acted the other day towards her - yeah, apparently he still hasn't told everyone that it was his evil double flirting with all the girls. Also, we never actually saw Evil Sonic come on to Fiona before, but I guess it just happened offscreen. She then admits to him that she hated him for a long time for leaving her behind in Robotnik's prison camp all those years ago, but changed her mind after seeing him sacrifice himself for the planet during the Xorda invasion, making her realize that he never left her behind on purpose. Aww, that's actually nice! Fiona has the potential to be a really interesting and complex character, and, well, honestly she's one of my favorites of the later comics, so I'm glad to see her getting more screentime.

That night, Sonic and the others show up backstage at the venue to give Mina a friendly pep talk before her show. She hugs Sonic, thanking him for the encouragement, and Ash immediately becomes very jealous and butts in to remind everyone that he's Mina's boyfriend and band manager and that she needs to go to the stage now, prompting a clueless Sonic to wonder what his problem is. However, Mina's performance actually kind of reveals that Ash has a good reason to be suspicious of her interactions with Sonic, as the sappy, lovey-dovey lyrics of her songs all reference the color blue in various ways, and are clearly influenced by her previous infatuation with Sonic. But things aren't as happy and peaceful as they seem, as a suspicious figure lurks in the crowd…

So Mina was Eggman's target, huh? Strangely enough, Nack, with a totally clear shot to the stage, misses and hits a tree several feet above and to the side of Mina. Like, it's not even played off as "oh, he was trying to make the tree fall on her, or someone bumped his elbow" or something - he just straight up misses for no reason, sets the tree on fire with the blast, and then tries to make a run for it. Some assassin you are, especially considering your alternate name is Fang the Sniper! Sonic, Bunnie, and Ash immediately race onstage to check on the startled but unharmed Mina, and Bunnie focuses on putting the fire out while Sonic races after Nack, catching and knocking him out easily. Nack wakes up hours later in Knothole's jail, where Sally and Sonic attempts to question him on his motives, and he decides to be all flippant and act like it's no big deal that he was caught, as he'd rather spend some time in prison than ruin his "cred" by giving up the name of his employer. I'm sorry, Nack, but what freaking cred are you even talking about? Like what, are you gonna go around telling prospective employers that your skill set includes missing a target forty feet away, setting a random tree on fire, and then immediately getting arrested? Sally merely points to the cell across from him, where he's quite perturbed to see the three other weasel associates who helped him kidnap her a year ago, and she invites him to go ahead and spend his time in jail sharing space with them after he knowingly left them to take the fall for his failed plan. Of course, he spills the beans on Eggman immediately.

Well… I suppose that's not even out of character for Eggman, considering his original counterpart also hated music. Sally decides to assign Sonic as Mina's personal bodyguard for now, while the other Freedom Fighters keep an eye out at the next night's concert to make sure nothing comes near Mina. Ash isn't pleased at all with Sonic being close to his girl, and stomps off, with a bemused Sonic commenting to Mina that he's pretty sure her boyfriend doesn't like him. Gee, what gave you that idea, Sonic? Sally's caution is warranted, however, as back in New Megaopolis we see Eggman preparing his next plan of attack in the wake of Nack's abysmal failure - he's rebuilt Heavy and Bomb, and is ready to sic them on Mina! Man, it's been a while since we saw those guys, huh? Now that I think about it, after they got reprogrammed by Eggman before, Sonic just kind of straight up killed them when they tried to attack the royal family, and no one seemed upset about it at all. Well, maybe with them back, they'll get a chance to be freed and find redemption… or maybe the writers still don't care and they'll get fridged again. Guess we just gotta wait and see!

Fairy Tale (or the Adventures of Pirate Sally)

Writer: Romy Chacon Pencils: Art Mawhinney Colors: Josh Ray

Wow, it's been quite some time since we last had a "telling a bedtime story based on real events in the storyline to kids" episode, huh? Apparently, Rosie's three young charges have caught a bad cold, and as she brings them medicine to try to help them sleep they all start begging for her to tell them a story. She's reluctant, claiming she's not good at stories, but relents when they persist in asking. She invents a magical world of pirates and wizards, where the "Elfen Fox" falls onto "Pirate Sally" and "B-Bot's" ship, having had one of his two magical tails stolen by the "Rogue Assassin," who doesn't really live up to her name if all she's doing is going around stealing things. Man, what is it with wildly ineffective assassins this issue? Pirate Sally and B-Bot decide to help out the fox, and along the way meet their new allies Ant the Foole and the Blue Knight, who help them defeat various baddies based on the main villains of the comic's storyline. Finally, they make it to the Evil Wizard Kintobor's lair, whom they fight against as a team and help the Elfen Fox take back his missing tail.

I actually love this story, entirely because of the way the kids just start roasting Rosie's storytelling skills as soon as the whole thing is over. Hey, look on the bright side Rosie - now that they're preoccupied with coming up with a way to fix your terrible story, they won't be pestering you for more anytime soon!

#nala reads archie sonic preboot #archie sonic #archie sonic preboot #sonic the hedgehog #sth 153 #writer: karl bollers #writer: romy chacon #pencils: ron lim #pencils: art mawhinney #colors: jason jensen #colors: joshua d ray

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mobius-prime · 4 years

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215. Sonic the Hedgehog #147

The Good, the Bad & the Unknown (Part Two): Ignition

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Steven Butler Colors: Jason Jensen

As Metal Sonic makes his way to the underground facility and Bunnie rushes off in search of Sonic, Tails and Tommy continue to explore alone, unnerved that they don’t know where any of their friends are. They serendipitously stumble upon a room full of monitors showing various video feeds throughout the facility, and see Bunnie meeting up with Rotor and Sonic, where Bunnie helps to treat Sonic's wounds. They search some of the other monitors to try to find out what could have injured Sonic, and sure enough, find Shadow and Isaac conversing in another room. Meanwhile, Fiona fails at her attempts to hack a console, and reports in to Rotor in frustration to reconvene, as the entire facility is booby trapped to hell and back and things could be getting ugly fast. Sonic begins to lead them down the corridors to try to find her, but Tails and Tommy quickly contact them over a speaker, telling them the correct direction to head.

Oh boy, with Metal Sonic on the scene, things are sure to get even more chaotic. It quickly finds Shadow and Isaac, and orders them to identify themselves in a hostile tone. This of course merely prompts Shadow to get defensive and aggressive, and the two begin battling it out fiercely, destroying almost all the machinery around them in the process. Tails and Tommy relay this info to Sonic, who despite the warnings of his peers, immediately races out to go take on all three of the combatants at once. Sonic, I know "never tell me the odds" worked well enough for Han Solo, but considering you just came back from the dead not too long ago you probably shouldn't be pushing it… Sonic shows up in the middle of Shadow and Metal's fight, and Isaac is the first to target him as a threat. Shadow soon joins in, which like… again, why? I know this series is no stranger to contrived fights, but I literally do not see a reason for Shadow to be attacking Sonic here. In the games, their rivalry throughout Heroes and Shadow's titular game makes sense, as Shadow doesn't remember their past together, but here Shadow is just kind of beating up on Sonic for no reason other than because he happened to be nearby. This is why, in my opinion, removing the whole amnesia plot point from Shadow's character development just doesn't work in the comics' case - it's the reason that all his motivations make sense, and trying to take that away but still maintain his enmity with Sonic just makes him look violent for no reason. But anyway, with Isaac and Shadow already on the offensive, Metal then decides to add its own spin to things, making it a three-on-one battle.

Eggman, watching from his own series of monitors, is delighted, thinking that he's finally going to get a front row seat to watch his prized creation murder his worst enemy. Tails and Tommy, however, are not so happy, realizing that they have to do something before Sonic is overwhelmed. In addition, apparently the others are just being electrocuted now for some reason! Seriously, it's not explained at all, they're just getting zapped now I guess.

Good thinking, Tails! Unfortunately, that red button turns out to control a trapdoor beneath Sonic and his three foes, sending them tumbling down into an unknown abyss…

Fox and the Hound

Writer: Romy Chacon Pencils: Al Bigley Colors: Jason Jensen

Back to some feel-good silly fare for now! We haven't really explored the whole "Sonic can understand animal language now" thing for a while, but it's still in effect. One bright morning Sonic is on his way to a mission, when Muttski approaches him looking for some playtime.

Tails, upon seeing Muttski's disappointment, decides to spend some quality time with him, wishing that he could understand Muttski's speech like Sonic but confident that he can make friends with him even without it. They play some standard doggy games like fetch and swim, and later that afternoon Tails suggests a game of hide and seek. Muttski stays behind to count in a vaguely Scooby-Doo-esque manner while Tails hides, but soon enough, Muttski is able to easily track him down by scent. Tails laughs and admits defeat, only to become nervous when Muttski refuses to let him up and starts growling…

Ah, all's well that ends well, right?

#nala reads archie sonic preboot #archie sonic #archie sonic preboot #sonic the hedgehog #sth 147 #writer: ken penders #writer: romy chacon #pencils: steven butler #pencils: al bigley #colors: jason jensen

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