Previous set of reviews:
Issue 160:
We start out with Elias explaining to Sonic why his father had approved the Metal Sonic Troopers that were meant to defeat Eggman in Sonic’s absence. Sonic says that “ I’ll buy it. “ I’m HOPING that he’s just JOKING with that because Elias isn’t lying. And he says that his father should’ve known that a doomsday weapon wouldn’t stop him, the doomsday weapon being the Xorda Quantum Dial. REALLY, Sonic? From everyone ELSE’s perspectives you got caught in an EXPLOSION! You should be grateful you’re still alive!
It should’ve been obvious to him why everyone would assume he was dead! What’s the point of making this panel instead of showing us Elias’ explanation to Sonic?! And this Elias explaining stuff could’ve been assumed to have happened offscreen! I mean why would Elias assume that he NEEDED to explain to Sonic, why would Sonic think he requires an explanation for why they would wanna make some sort of substitute for him to fight Eggman? You’d think that’d be obvious! But instead we get the first panel WASTED.
At least it leads into the next one, which has some charming snark from Sonic as he teases, “ Can you promise me that’s the last ‘ brilliant idea ‘ you royals come up with? “ and Elias surprises me by saying, “ Sally and I have just one more left. “ That made me smile. But that WAS a brilliant idea, though! The only reason it even went wrong was because the robots didn’t know what to do when they saw Sonic and because they were programmed to go hurt Hope for some weird reason! Other than that it should’ve been obvious it was a great idea!
For some reason, Sonic wonders if Elias is planning to nix the Great Oak Slide. And Elias tells him his idea is the exact opposite. Yeah even he has standards, he wouldn’t do something as horribly un-Archie-like as that! But it’s harsher in hindsight.
Then we see Sonic being thrown another birthday party, the second one we saw since their return to Mobotropolis with Nate. I’m assuming that was exactly one year ago. And that birthday party is in the ” old base, “ which his friends fixed up. It was broken? I didn’t know that! Was that supposed to be why we didn’t see it in a while? It is now.
We’re supposed to believe this cave is their old base from the old days, but they just WALKED INTO it through a DOOR! What kind of a Knothole underground base is THAT? It was constantly established throughout the series that the only way into this place was the Great Oak Slide. It was even to the point where that was the case when Knothole was in another dimension where it was safer. The only time it was entered in a different way was when the heroes fell through the grass somehow to get to the UNDERGROUND cave when they first found it.
But NOW it’s just some cave with a door on it somehow that, I hope it has retina scanners so that not just anybody can open the door and walk in. That base isn’t exactly well hidden, though it’ll be for good reason. But still, how is this the exact same cave as earlier if it’s clearly not underground and is instead a cave in the SIDE of a mountain? The only thing Knothole base about this place is the brown walls.
And there’s no attempt at a proper explanation for why the heroes stopped USING this base in the FIRST place. Fiona hugs Sonic saying sweetly, “ Happy birthday, handsome! “ while he doesn’t make an effort to hug back for her and just smiles about the base being fixed up. That’s gratitude for you.
And Elias explains that the old base from simpler times was fixed up was, a place for the Freedom Fighters to plan that’s a new focal point for Doctor Robotnik that is away from their families… The first one they can plan in Sally’s castle just fine, but the second one, that’s a very good point! I’d be a lot happier about this base thing if it was made CLEAR to me at ANY POINT that the base had been destroyed earlier!
But it HADN’T BEEN! I remember seeing the king in it when Sally was ranting at him after Mobotropolis was taken over by Eggman, and then it just dropped off the face of the earth. There’s no reason why it was abandoned and I never even noticed its absence.
While Sonic has his arm around her casually, Fiona says with an unsettlingly sly smirk for some weird reason, “ How old are you now? “ that makes it obvious what the writer planned to do with her later since she literally NEVER SMIRKED before. Rotor tries to take his trip into space into account and then Sonic annoys me by saying dismissively, “ Let’s call me a teen from now til forever. “
OK I get that he’s youthful by his very nature and therefore would always want to be a teenager, that’s how I want it too so it’s meta logic, but that’s not going to be the case, we KNOW that he went to space for only six weeks, and he simply went through a wormhole putting him ahead in time. And so I don’t see what the BIG DEAL IS! And WHY Flynn couldn’t just say Sonic’s age already! It would be a year older than his 16th birthday, so 17. It wouldn’t have required much effort from him to look up which age he turned last birthday if he forgot. This panel just confuses me.
Suddenly there’s an explosion, and Bean and Bark show up for what I CAN’T BELIEVE is the FIRST TIME after ALL these issues! With Bean singing because he’s insane, that Eggman hired him to blast Sonic with bombs rather than immediately carrying out his “ nanites infiltrated people “ plan like was foreshadowed last issue. I guess criminals would take money from literally anyone no matter how much they hate him. And plus Bean’s insane and so he wouldn’t care. But couldn’t these guys just threaten to get whatever they want? Why would they need MONEY, then? It’s kinda arbitrary that they’d do this villains or not.
Now if Eggman offered to give them superpowers of even some minor kind like cybernetics, THEN it makes sense that they’d take the job… I’d question how Eggman ALREADY knew where the base was, but it’s been established that he knows everything they do from now on from spying on Nicole and she’s always with Sally’s vest, so whatever. I guess we’re supposed to just assume Eggman’s omniscient like her now.
Now, Bean is a popular comedy relief character, but the reason I can’t find him that funny is because he’s so short that he looks like just a kid, so I EXPECT a kid to act kooky and hyperactive and wacky! He would be a lot funnier if he was clearly an adult because then he’d be acting childish for his age and combine that with him throwing bombs, and he’d be the prime Psychopathic Manchild, but instead it comes off as him being like a six-year-old who’s throwing bombs without knowing how dangerous they are. Rather than an adult who should know better by now.
That’s why he’s such a missed opportunity, because the artist didn’t draw him right. (You should read Flynn’s 3-B fancomic because he was way better in that. And so was Bark because he actually was allowed to talk in that, so he was the deadpan Straight Man to him and it was a great comedy duo, instead of him being a mute purely so Flynn didn’t have to put in the effort of giving him dialogue.)
Sonic starts the fight saying it was sweet of Eggman to remember his birthday and reminding us that Fang is in jail. So good, Sally DIDN’T release Fang just because he agreed to tell her why he tried to kill Mina. So she lied straight to his face to get information out of him. I wish we saw that manipulating side of her more often, it shows us how clever she is! Maybe she was only talking about how she would, keep him separated from his old weasel friends, but still be in jail.
It’s really lame that even Flynn insists on calling Fang “ Nack, “ by the way. I thought he was supposed to be super in-touch with what the fans wanted? Nobody actually likes that name, right? It’s only there for the sake of censorship because “ Fang the Sniper “ was too cool for us.
Bark gets a tree to use as a weapon and Sonic tells him not to damage the Great Oak Slide. If it’s damaged, how are they gonna get out of here? How do they get in? THEY BETTER repair that! What’s the point of having this base rebuilt for nostalgia just to make the nostalgia empty because the base is nothing like the original beyond the art? It’s not the underground base without being underground with the Great Oak Slide connected to it, what’s the point of having Bark destroy it?
Sonic gets knocked away, and Tails is nice enough to catch him while flying even with his love triangle issues with him recently, and Sonic after calling him little bro which I love and he really should say that way more often, says that he thinks he knows why Bean and Bark took the job. WHY?
He then says that Scourge did a lot of stuff under his name. He says that he managed to get the girls to understand – no he DIDN’T! There were SEVERAL issues EARLIER implying that he DIDN’T tell them! So if he corrected them, why’d he wait so long to tell them and offscreen at that? That’ll never be explained. I guess that’s a positive retcon?
Apparently admitting that Sonic took so long to tell the girls because he was taking advantage of them being more affectionate would’ve been too anti-hero of a guy who smirked at Fiona like a sleaze a few panels ago, so we can’t have that. It’s a “ clean-up job “ that’s lazy because it comes out of nowhere with no elaboration on why the mistake it was cleaning up even happened.
He tells Bean that they might just hate him for what Scourge did, coming to the insane conclusion that these guys are attacking because of Scourge when it’s obvious they’re just being bad guys for the normal reasons. Bean of course says he didn’t know of Scourge at all and says, “ Frankly, Cobalt, I don’t give a damn! “ Oh, sorry; I don’t give a “ darn. “ That’s a very awkward and stilted sentence because of the “ darn “ at the end! A criminal would NOT SAY DARN! And that’s one of those phrases like “ payback’s a bitch, “ that just sounds LAME all cleaned up!
The writer shouldn’t have even USED that phrase at ALL! But it’s ALSO weird he said that because he was JUST talking as if he was INTERESTED in Sonic having an evil twin because he commented on it just to say he doesn’t care at all.
Rouge is shown in the Master Emerald’s chamber with Locke not already sitting in front of it because there was a decoy for her. And then she’s suddenly all surprised at seeing Scourge now wearing his trademark leather jacket with the badass fire design on it and cool red and black shoes!
I’m really confused that she’s surprised at seeing him… She was just thinking about how she expected the decoy to distract Locke, so maybe that’s it. This is SO CONFUSING, because she’s saying, “ Evil Sonic?! “ when there was no mention earlier that she knew it was Evil Sonic she was with. Granted, her not knowing it was him who would help her steal the Master Emerald was stupid, but she knows it now so suddenly, so it feels like a contradiction that throws me for a loop, again.
He looks adorably awkward and nervous saying, “ OH, snap. Locke didn’t catch you? “ So he was assuming that Rouge would be caught and he’d take the Emerald for himself. How DID she avoid getting caught? If he apparently only served as the decoy very briefly! I wish I saw more of how they snuck in here instead of Bark destroying the Great Oak Slide! Did Locke get distracted by a butterfly? He’s always guarding the Emerald! I was wondering how she got in here from the minute she was shown!
Also, “ oh, snap! “ Again I don’t BUY that a criminal would say something so tame! Especially not SCOURGE! Is this just his “ he’s like Sonic “ shining through again? Obviously I know the meta reason for them not swearing, but I don’t work on meta logic, and this is the only in-universe explanation.
Oh OK, they’re STILL partners, as Rouge says that they had a deal that naturally Scourge would be the distraction this time, a deal meaning she naturally figured out it was Scourge earlier since he might suck at keeping the secret and she’s clever. Considering she said, “ Evil Sonic? “ when she was surprised at seeing him instead of, “ Hey, what are you doing HERE?! “ it makes sense that I’d get confused.
It’d be less confusing now if when she was flying with Scourge earlier, he had revealed who he really was in front of us and got his leather jacket. Scourge explains that he didn’t see Locke, so he figured he’d gotten to Rouge already.
Locke clears his throat and tells them his patience has worn thin. Why was he being patient to BEGIN with?! I guess this IS the same Locke who stupidly just stood there and tried to reason with robots trying to steal the Emerald, but the LAST time he saw Scourge here, he IMMEDIATELY made him fly out of the chamber! Why didn’t he do THAT instead of saying THIS?!
It would’ve been written more naturally if Scourge had actually knocked him unconscious with his spindash so he’d only get the chance to even SEE Scourge AFTER he already did what he wanted with the Emerald, because as it stands, Locke should be sending him out of the Chamber right away instead of blathering on, and the SAME applies to SCOURGE who should’ve just instantly attacked him taking him seriously since Locke forced him out of the chamber with magic without even talking to him last time!
Instead, Scourge complains, “ Gimme a break, man, it’s my birthday! “ That makes no sense! Why would he expect that? But even if Locke sent him out of the Chamber like he should be doing, Rouge would still be in there to keep Locke in it fighting her so he’d attack him from behind running back into the cave – but wait, not if Locke sent ROUGE out TOO, then he would be FACING the exit to the cave and see Scourge coming and be able to telekinetically send him away on sight. So yeah, this whole plot never should’ve happened.
At the very least, we should’ve seen Scourge tell Rouge to fly over Locke after a while and use sleeping gas on him when he wasn’t looking up, as nobody does. How’d they get sleeping gas? I dunno, Rouge is a spy and a thief, maybe she stole it from Eggman’s bases. Even THAT’S flimsy.
The real question is, why didn’t they just wait until night? What self-respecting jewel thief would try to steal a jewel during the DAY? KNUCKLES never guarded the Emerald at night, he slept in a bed in his cave and when he woke up in the SA1 adaptation the island had already landed, so you’d think they would’ve gotten to the Emerald last night before this Bean and Bark attack, when Locke would be asleep, so they would’ve, well, still slept at night so Scourge would still attack during the day, but it’d be in the MORNING, back when the Metal Sonic Troopers just started attacking, not after them.
So it’s official, then. The whole story never should’ve happened the way it did with Scourge attacking right after Bean and therefore covering their escape that way, because it starts out in the middle of the day presumably on the same day the Metal Sonic Troopers attacked, since Elias is explaining them to Sonic and he wouldn’t have waited a day to do that, and Scourge should’ve powered up the night BEFORE and therefore been in the plot of the previous story arc.
That’s what would have been most likely to happen. This story would’ve been less flimsy if it didn’t start out with that one panel recapping the previous story arc like it just happened, and instead started out a day after the incident.
And, right, he needs to get his scars from Locke. But since Knuckles found out he should go to the Chaos Chamber in Issue 44 because Scourge just being in there caused an earthquake warning him to go there, I would think that Locke would be woken up by it and would be sleeping close to it to go run over there. Even better, Scourge would outright go to LOCKE to get revenge for his previous humiliation, and THAT could be how he got his chest scars. But instead, I think he rushed Scourge turning green, because it would’ve taken longer than that.
Meanwhile, Fiona says looking serious, “ I hope this still works, “ with some keys on a chain, and distracts Bean who is attacking Sonic’s head, by using some shiny keys. I like this moment! So, there’s her being useful! For the second ever time in dozens of issues. So good on you, Fiona, you were helpful! I’m SURE the Freedom Fighters will be INCREDIBLY GRATEFUL and respectful of you for using your knowledge of Bean AGAINST him!
After Sonic says, “ Nice move, Fiona, “ and then asks how she knew to do that, she has my sympathy as she gets all awkward and says, “ Er… Hold that thought, Sonic, “ obviously not wanting to admit that she used to know Bean. I guess she was too nervous at the moment focused on the truth to simply SAY that Bean inconvenienced her in the past and she learned his weakness by accident from being enemies with him. NEVER say that Fiona is a master liar. This all happens while Antoine has Bark backed up against the wall with his sword, taking advantage of Bark not knowing he’s bluffing with it I guess.
She says to Bark angrily with all of the other heroes behind her, “ You’re out-numbered, Bark. You can’t take all of us at once! “ That’s a badass line I guess. It was generous of the writer to give HER that heroic line to give her the spotlight.
Then after Bark sits down with his hands in the air, Fiona says with a triumphant smirk, “ I’m glad you’re still reasonable. “ WHY would you SAY that OUT LOUD?! Aren’t you supposed to be smart enough to be in the Brain Trust group?! She doesn’t want her friends to know she was his friend! Has she given up on them not finding out already?!
But still, she convinces Bark to give up with reason, although that time her usefulness was pretty pointless because the heroes would’ve all won ANYWAYS, it just would’ve TAKEN longer. Maybe all she did was save them a few bruises and wasted time in the process.
Meanwhile, after Bean implies that he’s hearing VOICES from the keys, which is interesting, he asks someone approaching him if he wants to help pummel Sonic. Wait, why the hell is he THAT FAR OUTSIDE the base?! I have a hard time believing Fiona was able to throw the keys THAT FAR, especially since the base is underground!
Or it was SUPPOSED TO BE, I forgot it wasn’t because this is so out of touch with what the base has always been like for a nostalgic reference. So I was used to there being more actual distance between the entrance to the base and the base’s first room because of the Great Oak Slide, so I was asking, did she managed to throw keys outside of the base with a superpower, did Bean run all the way out of the base for no reason just because he had the keys? He wanted to escape the fight to avoid getting hurt while he was talking to it, I guess, but I wouldn’t expect him to have the common sense to DO that!
Meanwhile… I REALLY feel horrible for Fiona here, as Sally has one of the worst Bitch Moments of her entire career, angrily pointing at her saying judgmentally, “ You have a lot of explaining to do!… ” Fiona with her arms crossed and looking away annoyed, says a GREAT line here that makes my heart ache in sympathy even more. “ Sorry for helping out. Go, team. “ OH my GOD, that’s almost a Tear Jerker! Especially since I know what’s coming later! So it’s probably thanks to HER! Sally should be THANKING HER, not being a judgemental bitch!
Besides, isn’t she jumping to the conclusion that Fiona used to work with Bean and Bark WAY too easily? Wouldn’t it be just as logical for her to assume, “ Fiona must have had to deal with these criminals as enemies before! “ since criminals antagonize people a lot?
Even her calling Bark reasonable, her reasoning was just telling him that he’s outnumbered which any hero could’ve done and you can still reason with your ENEMY, she could’ve been referring to her threatening him as an enemy after he tried to steal from her for all Sally knew! Therefore, she’d know how to defeat them, because why would she know how to defeat her ex-FRIENDS?! But no.
This is consistent with Sally’s paranoia, though. Remember how she was paranoid of Geoffrey being evil when she first met him? Even though he wanted to fight Eggman just like she did? Maybe it makes sense that she’d jump to that conclusion since she worries too much and doesn’t trust easily, just like Fiona, who actually has a good reason to be paranoid instead of Sally!
The only thing comforting about this situation is that Rotor had to hold Tails from angrily approaching Sally, proving that Tails would’ve stood up for her! And Elias was being held back by Sonic! But that just irritates me TOO because even with that terrible art decision having Sonic and Rotor actively PREVENT people from defending Fiona and standing up to Sally for once, there’s still no reason they couldn’t have OPENED their MOUTHS and SAID something. ANYTHING, in her defense, just because they’re being held back!
What if things would’ve gone differently because EVERYONE ALL stood up for her?! Instead, silence! This is so forced. And even then, Fiona isn’t benefiting from that because it’s not like she’s looking in their direction, so she doesn’t even KNOW that Tails and Elias wanna go defend her from Sally at ALL! That’s tragic.
Then Sally says, “ That’s not the point, how do you know these two? “ instead of even so much as saying a thank you for helping out earlier, just completely dismissing her contribution and belittling her! Did the writer forget that she was a good person? She’s enough of a people pleaser to tell Mina all about how Sonic is instead of just saying the flaws to discourage her crush, and then this happens when she’s always the one striving to do the right thing, so the right thing would be to say she appreciated her help!
Fiona looks the most sympathetic she EVER WILL be rubbing her arm saying, “ Look, I… I’ve had a checkered past, okay? “ She’s CLEARLY AWKWARD about admitting it and might even be a bit ashamed, but, Sally doesn’t care! She still looks at her like a judgmental bitch anyways. This is her worst moment to me, THIS is ” the slap ” to ME! This makes the slap look trivial!
And again, WHY didn’t Fiona LIE?! “ They were my enemies, they tried to steal from me, “ would’ve been ONE sentence! This is supposed to be someone less moral than Sally, really?! She won’t even lie in the most obvious time for it! Nothing in this scene should’ve even happened!
Fiona says she hasn’t always been a Freedom Fighter, in a nicer way of saying, “ I had a life before I met you, you know. “ Yeah, shouldn’t that have been OBVIOUS, to everyone ever, taken for granted and understood? I mean, did Mighty, a FRIEND of theirs, NEVER tell them about how Fiona was with Nicolette the bounty hunter?
Mighty was with Sonic and Fiona on a mission apparently before Sonic was even tossed in space, so they HAD to have already known that she used to be with Nicolette “ on the fringes, “ and now all of a sudden she’s an outcast for the criminal past they already KNEW about unless Sonic and Mighty just never told Sally about it at all, which would be smart of them.
But either way Bean did a job for Eggman, so maybe she thinks Fiona did jobs for him too, not that she SAYS THIS to drive the point home about why she hates her now. But she’s clearly fighting Eggman NOW so who cares, she clearly doesn’t support him, and more importantly, Robotnik kept her in a prison for two years where she had to painfully claw her way out AND Eggman kept her trapped in a cell for a while AFTER that, those were two separate events apparently since she looked out of her cell at Ray.
So how delusionally paranoid is Sally to think she’d ever work for someone she’d have a personal grudge against? She told Snively that he and Eggman should get better goals in life, wouldn’t Sonic have told her that as basic conversation about how the whole mission went?
Fiona shrugs trying to ease the tension with casualness but it’s obvious she’s still sad from her expression. I think she looks horrible in these two panels, by the way. Thank god at the very least Sonic is sweet enough to say, “ But you’re a welcome part of the team, Fi, “ with his hands on her shoulders to comfort her, and a nervous smile showing that he feels sorry for her, and then he changes the subject, asking if they should go look for Bean. At least Sonic is trying to help her! Sonic is being VERY welcoming right now! Keep that in mind for later! He’s not glaring at her at all!
But still, the idea that Sonic would be the ONLY member of the Freedom Fighters to stand up for Fiona right now, especially right after Bean is brought to them by Shadow so they don’t even have to look for him and stop focusing on Fiona… the sheer idea that these “ GOOD PEOPLE “ wouldn’t immediately all reassure her one after the another is just BRAINLESS. It’s the first instance Flynn has of forced drama.
Shadow then shows up holding a stunned Bean in an amusing way, and snarks, “ Happy birthday, blue hedgehog, I cleaned your yard for you. “ I smiled a lot at that line! It was funny, but I didn’t laugh because that line had already been spoiled for me a long time ago. I hate that there’s squiggly lines drawn for Bean’s eyeballs to represent him being knocked out instead of just having his eyelids get closed! It’s no better than Antoine’s eyes being X’s when he fainted in Issue 1, the comic regressed to that. It was sweet of Shadow to do this for Sonic after he spent an entire arc trying to fight him for no reason.
Meanwhile Rouge flies towards Locke snarking amusingly, “ We have to stop meeting like this, Locke. “ That made me smile a lot more actually! And Scourge revs up the spindash proving that he knows how to use it despite not having a lifetime of fighting robots requiring it.
The ONLY reason Locke dodged the spindash while having yellow light around his hand, was because Locke was given MORE than enough time to react because Evil Sonic wasted time saying, “ Hit him before he uses that wacky voodoo! “ instead of INSTANTLY spindashing at him before Rouge could finish blathering on with her OWN sentence!
Talking is a Free Action is not good writing! Logically, Scourge should’ve EASILY hit Locke with the spindash in seconds and THEN did what he wanted with the Emerald instead of wasting a panel on him being effortlessly humiliated when that made no sense for someone with super speed, who should’ve already mopped the floor with him by now. He lands on his head, which immediately proceeds to give him brain damage and make him unable to NO, of COURSE not! Instead, he’s fine. Not even a headache!
Instead, he seems to instantly teleport to on top of the Master Emerald, without us seeing a blue blur in Rouge and Locke’s panel to see him getting up there. All because the artist was too lazy to draw a background that wasn’t a generic anime background with no indication of their surroundings. Wasn’t this supposed to be the best artist in the comic? Why’s that artist still doing this?! I thought anime art was just a Jon Gray thing!
If Scourge gets to the top of the Emerald so fast ANYWAYS, he should’ve just been written to do that right away instead of trying to spindash at him and somehow failing because the villains wouldn’t shut up. That just wasted two panels.
Rouge asks him to give her a hand, and when he says, “ Sorry, Rouge, but the birthday boy gets dibs on the goods! “ Rouge says, “ You jerk! “ You’re surprised? You should be thankful he’s NICE enough to say “ Sorry, “ at all! Even I can barely do that! It’s a pleasant twist for an evil twin!
I’d ask why he can’t just spindash into Locke at the speed of sound to help and then spindash back to the Emerald a second later, since Locke’s clearly distracted with Rouge, but considering Locke made him miss his spindash even though he should’ve hit him way too quickly for him to react in time, I don’t blame Scourge for thinking he needed the help of a power boost, and since he’ll attack Locke for Rouge after this ANYWAYS, it’s not like it matters that he’s not helping her right NOW.
And he’s not telling HER why he thinks he “ needs “ a power boost, because admitting his insecurity to her would be WAY too embarrassing. I gotta say, this is a charming story due to the art, even if it is REALLY easy to nitpick to death, either because of the dialogue or the contrived writing. Scourge immediately turns green with the power of the Master Emerald, just like Dimitri did with the Emeralds so it’s not too original, although he doesn’t have shades which he’d look way better with, which is weird since the same shop that got him the REST of his clothes you’d think would have shades TOO.
Rouge gloats about Scourge attracting Locke’s attention, calling him a traitor WAY too easily since her whole PLOT was to use him as a delay distraction and she was used as a delay distraction for Locke the last time, so seriously, why is she calling him a traitor? Penders and Gallagher wrote the characters being too quick to assume their friends are betraying them, too.
And Locke attacks Scourge’s chest with his gloves glowing yellow giving him a scar. I can only assume that yellow is from fire. And Scourge goes back to standing up just fine after THAT because I guess the power of the Master Emerald made him immune to pain? Or have way better pain tolerance, but he still gets scars, so it’s not too helpful. That’s arbitrary. You know, why didn’t he just go super with the Emerald, kill Locke, AND go green with it? Or at least try to kill him when Super and Rouge would tell him to stop. Maybe he’s not as evil as he claims since he didn’t even consider doing this.
Fiona’s standing against the wall with her arms crossed looking through the window all depressed, still clearly dwelling on the way she was treated by Sally. Seriously, why has no one not already gone up to her? That’s weird. It’s also weird that there’s a window here in their base, what’s the point of even having a locked door if anyone can just crawl in through a window with no glass? That was inexplicably dumb of the person who “ fixed up “ that base.
WHY are Sonic’s eyelids not blue?
Shadow tells Sonic that he came to thank him for saving Hope. AW, there’s a pretty sweet background moment that I wasn’t expecting at all, where Fiona gets given a drink by Tails since he wanted to make her feel better about her predicament, and she proceeds to ruffle his hair as a reward that he absolutely relishes in, although it’s hampered by the fact that, thanks to the above view camera angle I can’t see her smiling, and Tails’ smile looks REALLY CREEPY because he’s staring off into the distance when his pupils are shrunk! He looks like a serial killer! Wouldn’t his pupils be LARGER since he’d be happy, not scared?
This is a good artist, but never let anyone tell you that the artist never made mistakes and was perfect. This is happening while Sonic is nice enough to shake Shadow’s hand despite the fact that he’s telling him that he’s still working for Eggman because of their shared relationship to Maria. But he doesn’t even MENTION that part!
Sonic is being nice enough to shake hands with a guy who’s working for Eggman for NO REASON, looking on the bright side because “ it’d be boring otherwise, “ and saying, “ Feel free to get a clue and quit Eggman any time, though.” Without actually telling him WHY he should quit. He’s being so good-natured about this! Remember that.
You know what? If Shadow left Eggman’s side HERE, it would’ve been much more natural writing than the excuse he had for leaving later, because yeah, Sonic saved Hope, so he’s a good guy and he owes him, and he had NO reason to work for Eggman in the first place because he already went through the SA2 adaptation which ended with him realizing Maria wanted him to be good and that’s the only reason he went super and saved the world!
And there was never a single mention of Shadow having amnesia before this point, so yeah, since Shadow working for Eggman was forced to begin with, it would’ve been perfectly acceptable to have Shadow leave Eggman right NOW, even if it would be a missed opportunity, because Eggman hasn’t brainwashed him or put bombs in him to make him behave and make the heroes have to get rid of that for him first.
WHY didn’t the heroes just convince Shadow to be a hero by saying how evil Eggman was and how good GUN was in their fight against him? Amy convinced him to be good in SA2 really easily so this would’ve made sense! They don’t even try! ” Eggman turned Hope’s family into statues and he’d do it to her too! ” That’s all they needed to say!
Then Rotor finds out that Bean’s talking to Eggman on a monitor in the Freedom Fighters’ Brain Trust room. So they got him unconscious and they were too stupid to tie him up or put him in handcuffs? More importantly, HOW DID HE CONTACT EGGMAN from the Freedom Fighters’ BASE?! As if the heroes would ever wanna talk to him and keep his Skype number! Wouldn’t Sonic just taunt him over and over with that and get blocked by him?
It’s not like Eggman called them, and if he DID, if this is because he hacked into it somehow – but this place should be totally secure, it’s not the original lab he was spying on the heroes through in issue 159! The nanites shouldn’t be anywhere NEAR this place! WHY aren’t the heroes suspicious and making sure Eggman can’t contact this base anymore?!
If the nanites are why Eggman can be contacted from the base, why don’t the heroes proceed to investigate HOW Bean was able to contact Eggman so casually from HERE?! They JUST ESTABLISHED this base! No way the heroes shouldn’t have noticed how weird this was and questioned it! Instead of Sonic just taunting Eggman as if nothing’s weird about this at all!
This was a case where I was too distracted by one plot hole to notice the other one right in front of me the first time I read. What a well-written story. No way the heroes shouldn’t have noticed how weird this was and questioned it! At least unlike with Penders it’s better at staying charming the whole way through, but that just means it’s better at DISTRACTING you from the fact that it’s just as plot-hole-ridden as ever.
He glumly tells Eggman that he lost. And Fiona makes me smile at how she scolds him like a nagging mother, “ Bean? Go sit with Bark. “ And Bean walks away with his head down, saying, “ Aw… “ Either way, I like seeing this disciplining mother side of her! It’s a shame it’ll be so rare, as well as nearly every other aspect of her.
When even the characters IN THE STORY have smarter assumptions about what’s going to happen in the story than the writer did, isn’t that a bad sign?
Eggman says he’s launching Sonic’s birthday present now as he ends the transmission. And then he activates the nanites – no of course not. That would’ve been following up on Issue 159 right away in a way that made sense. Instead, Rotor says from a computer that the launch is a one-way transport, after Sonic assumes it’s missiles he’s launching which would’ve actually made sense too and been more threatening. Apparently missiles take so long to make and that’s why we’re supposed to believe he didn’t just nuke Knothole and their base already like he tried to do 30 issues ago.
They hear a thud, Sonic comments on how fast it was, and they go up above the base, leaving a metal hatch in the grass instead of a stump, to see the metallic egg that landed. SERIOUSLY THOUGH, they really should be leaving from the stump like in the old days! Wasn’t that the POINT Of bringing the old base back? To bring back the old aesthetic and feel? Them leaving from a very obvious metal circle thing in the grass doesn’t fit the “ they’re on the nature side “ as well!
It turns out what made the thud was a bunch of talking AI that combined themselves into Croctobot. It took several seconds for me to get this was actually Octobot fused with Crocbot, because Octobot looks absolutely NOTHING LIKE what he did the LAST time we saw him! Completely failing as a callback as a result. Again. Octobot just looks like a blue Halloween pumpkin made of metal!
I like that they brought back Crocbot though, since not only was he never properly used as a villain in a competent way, but his remains escaped Sonic when criminals flew away with the biplane with him in it, all the way back when Nate was just rescued, so maybe those remains were sold to Eggman by criminals who wanted money. And Eggman gave them the money instead of roboticizing them as a reward. Or maybe he tried and they got away in time, who knows.
But in the Tommy introduction, they wouldn’t have ever bothered trying to make a deal with Eggman if he tried to roboticize them last time when they were giving him Crocbot, they were talking as if this was the first time they were making a deal with the new Eggman and that Eggman was talking as if he met them for the first time.
This proves that they NEVER GAVE HIM the Crocbot remains because if they hadn’t given him those before the Tommy introduction WAY AFTER they stole Winged Victory, then, they never would’ve because why did they wait so long to make a deal with him when they stole Crocbot’s remains that many issues ago?
WHAT TOOK Eggman so LONG to do something with Crocbot’s remains? Not to mention the remains of Octobot who, the last time we saw him, he was underwater running away from an eel criminal in Mecha Madness.
Apparently he was doing his thing underwater for years and it took quite a while for Eggman to take Octobot and use him for this. That’s fine, not nearly as confusing as him just NOW bringing back Crocbot when we hadn’t seen his remains since before even Issue 75 happened. You’d think Eggman would’ve already gotten back Crocbot’s remains over a year ago, and already used them for something else.
Maybe we were supposed to assume he reconstructed Crocbot to use as the Downunda sub-boss and we just didn’t hear about it, but NO, then why wasn’t Crocbot around in “ Myth-Taken “ where the bunyip was a thing in Issue 104? OK, so if Eggman wasn’t planning on reinstating him as a sub-boss, then you’d think he would’ve just used his metals for regular old robot-building or missile-building or something else. Not kept them around with his AI capable of being reconstructed, somehow with his memories of last time intact. This is way too late for this callback to make sense if you think about it.
And the story ends with Scourge finally being in his famous design, renaming himself in a way that’s more subtle and clever saying, “ But a real Scourge all the same, “ rather than simply saying, “ Call me Scourge now! “ Instead he talks as if he’s not the same person anymore. Also he has shades now when he didn’t the LAST time we saw him. So, what, did they magically poof up AFTER he wasn’t standing on the Master Emerald anymore? That’s why the artist should’ve had him with shades before this point.
And it sure was nice of Scourge not to siphon literally all of the Emerald’s power by the way, or go Super too and kill Locke, although maybe he was planning to and the siphoning process was just going so slow that Locke interrupted it, even though energy moves at light speed.
But yeah, he has sunglasses! And they’re rose-tinted pink, which goes really WELL with his green fur, contrast-wise! Yet another indication he has great fashion sense! That’s amusing to say of him, or any Sonic really! I like to think that the reason he made them tinted pink was as an expression of his individuality, which he’s been literally all about since he started being rebellious. See, pink is a girl’s color, so he chose pink sunglasses as a rebellion against that notion by society, as if to say, “ Screw you guys, I can wear pink-tinted glasses if I want because I’m awesome! “ I admire that attitude!
I used to wear rose-tinted glasses a lot until I had to get real glasses and now I can’t exactly wear them over them. And I got nagged about wearing them a lot because I was too “ old “ for them despite being a girl anyways. But Scourge is so PROUD and individualistic, saying, “ Screw that rule! I’ll wear what I want! “ which is cool!
Anyways, in the next story Blaze the Cat goes to Knothole since she wanted to see the blue hedgehog she saw in her dreams since she’s psychic apparently and was able to dream a vision of someone she never met! Even the game wrote her showing up more naturally because the comic isn’t allowed to ever use Eggman Nega.
She thinks of him as “ mystical, “ makes sense since he’s a magical hedgehog, and she’s surprised that he lives in such a little town. Was she expecting a luxury suite? Well she is a PRINCESS, she’s probably used to better and would expect a hero to be pampered by the people he saves, although I’d think that she would KNOW what his VILLAGE looks like, since how would she think to go to KNOTHOLE to find Sonic if she doesn’t know what Knothole LOOKED like? Why is she surprised that it’s such a little town?!
Does she know he’s a hero? Apparently so if only because her dream told her that Sonic would keep the Sol Emeralds safe from Eggman. Except we never see him ever do that since this story arc ends without him going to her world, so she just had a dumb dream that meant nothing just to come here.
Then Blaze thinks what I was JUST thinking, complaining about how she’ll have to seek out SONIC, when the Sol Emeralds are HER responsibility! But in spite of that she wants to seek them out ANYWAYS, to protect them! This is CERTAINLY a departure from the game, that’s for sure.
I don’t BLAME the SWATbots for thinking she’s a BOY from the back of her head, because she has short hair after all. In fact I love that this happens, lampshading a problem with her design. I can’t help but be disappointed at seeing just REGULAR SWATBOTS instead of the much cooler-looking Shadow SWATbots that were Eggman’s trademark, and made the comic more unique! Instead let’s just use normal SWATbots from now on! You know what I learned after watching SatAM? THEIR SWATBOTS ARE DARK, TOO! Why the fuck change it so that these ones AREN’T dark then when that’s not referencing SatAM anymore?!
The game purists would have no appreciation for the original white SWATbots of the earliest comic which they think is trash because of Penders anyways, so now that I know what the SatAM SWATbots look like, it’s especially baffling that the artist reverted to the lame white design of them that only the comic had. Wouldn’t it be uncharacteristic of Eggman to intentionally make his robots not look as menacing anymore, and not look like his unique Shadow SWATbot trademark?
The SWATbots decide to scan her because she’s spying on Knothole, and realize that they don’t know her, and can’t tell if she’s a friend or foe. Why the hell don’t they just assume EVERYONE not on Eggman’s side is a foe? They decide to use a stealth attack with a stun bolt to interrogate her later, presumably so she can be restrained in a room so she couldn’t flee instead of answering questions.
The comic then INSULTS MY INTELLIGENCE by expecting me to believe that after ALL this time of the SWATbots talking RIGHT BEHIND HER, she never turned around to look at them and attack them! I fucking hate any time fiction does that, it’s SO DUMB! Cats are supposed to have great hearing, and you don’t need superhuman hearing to hear robots talking just behind you!
And yet she was lucky enough to jump over the laser really high, when she didn’t know the laser was about to fire! I’m relieved, I thought she’d get knocked out immediately. Instead she attacks them with karate kicks instead of fire, gets offended at being called a “ he “ and then proceeds to immediately completely incinerate them! Wait, no, that’s not what happened, because BULLSHIT, that’s why!
Instead she gets major Chickification being knocked out from behind with a head blow when she should’ve completely INCINERATED them all, with the fire tornado by now! Shouldn’t she have heard the footsteps of the SWATbot coming up to her from behind on the grass? Instead she’s written just as stupidly as Scourge because she blathered on and on giving her opponent time to react to her!
Rotor tells Sonic that he sees surveillance footage of SWATbots carrying someone away, and then asks him, “ Do you think it’s someone from the village? “ Sonic would save her regardless, wouldn’t he?
Rotor says that the footage was taken almost an hour ago. And no one saw it until just now, that’s unfortunate. Logically Blaze should’ve been killed, had brainwashing chips put in her head like Khan was threatened with, or had bombs put in her to force her to work for Eggman by then, considering how worthless she’s been shown to be thus far, but I’m sure she’ll be just fine! I forgot that Eggman can’t roboticize people anymore at first because that was so stupid and confusing, there’s no explanation of how the Bem did it.
Sonic runs off optimistic because it’s only been an hour, which I like. Why are his spinning feet BLUE? And then we see Blaze unconscious connected to a bunch of wires. A robot says for the sake of exposition to the audience, that he was created along with other robots like him to research and monitor organics, as he has a doctor’s stethoscope on his head, but he’s concerned that his scans might be malfunctioning because her physical data readings are bizarre.
It’s as if she’s from another world. I’m guessing we’ll never know how and in what ways they’re bizarre. WHY WOULD they be bizarre when she looks just like a Mobian anyways? Why even bring it up if it’ll never be explored?
This is supposed to be the lame excuse for why Blaze didn’t have nanobots with bombs in them for example put in her after an HOUR of captivity in Eggman’s base, because apparently they couldn’t do that at the same time that a medic robot was studying her. When SONIC got knocked out with a blow to the head, he wasn’t sent to a medic bot, he was just brought straight to Eggman who planned to roboticize him!
The robot shows that his devices can display her thoughts about the Sol Emeralds by showing a picture on a monitor. Okay, so if Eggman has a literal mind-reading machine, then interrogation should be a snap for him from now on because he has the world’s greatest lie detector! So I’m guessing this will be completely dropped and never referenced again.
Then a robot says that because Blaze’s readings also show impressive strength, they may be able to recruit her for Robotnik. An HOUR LATER, he says this! He says to not be too harsh with he interrogation because of this, probably because they don’t want her to be too injured to be recruited. OK, at least this explains why Blaze wasn’t recruited right away because Eggman would’ve had no way of knowing before he knew Blaze how powerful of an ally she would be to him, everyone thought she was a regular civilian and simply thought about interrogating her to learn about her.
And the whole bombs in people for loyalty idea didn’t come up yet, though I doubt he’d be completely incapable of thinking up that idea early. Still, she’s very lucky he didn’t already know her strength, if she had woken up right away they would’ve known her powers right away and not needed to take an hour before deciding she should be recruited.
After Sonic shows up, Blaze wakes up just now because the plot demands it and starts talking weirdly about someone removing her “ mantle. “ What’s a mantle? “ Layer, blanket, covering, shroud, veil. “ What does any of that have to do with Blaze? I guess she just said this deliriously because she just woke up from a bad dream, but that’s not how people wake up from dreams, they’re just silent because they’re just waking up.
She seems to free herself by igniting her body in flames which I assume don’t hurt her from a protective force field just above her skin. I have a question, if she could do this kind of fire magic so easily why the hell didn’t she just do that to the SWATbots in the FIRST place? We could’ve had her meet Sonic WITHOUT her pulling a Princess Peach and getting kidnapped! She was on her way to meet him ANYWAYS! This only happened to artificially pad out the story to have a story arc! She should’ve just met him right away!
This issue was pretty amusing to me even though I had a LOT to say about it because I can nitpick it to DEATH. The first story was the first one ever written by Ian Flynn, who is actually a Sonic fan, and it was quite a first impression. I’m REALLY confused at them acting like the old base from the early issues had been DESTROYED, when I don’t remember that happening at all! And while I’m happy it’s back, I’m mostly just confused at its apparent destruction being left offscreen.
And Sonic was WAY too CAREFREE about Shadow working for Eggman for seemingly no reason! That was just ridiculous! Eggman is a guy who murdered all of the Overlanders he roboticized by turning them into statues that ended up blown up, and Sonic should’ve pointed out that Eggman wanted to do that to Hope! It would’ve been extremely easy to convince him to just be a hero already even if it would’ve wasted the story potential of him working for Eggman, because that potential never gets used anyways, so why drag it out then?
In general this was a story where Fiona got my absolute sympathy by heartwrenchingly being GLARED at and made to feel like an outcast by a VERY judgemental Sally, because now she used to work with Bean and Bark! Her line are very relatable, I would’ve said the same things! She doesn’t even try to explain WHY she worked with them, and WHY she had a checkered past!
I mean it should be OBVIOUS! She was an orphan who did what she could to get food and water, including steal. She didn’t have any way of getting a job at her age with child labor laws and no resume or education! It’s not FAIR of Sally to judge her! Do homeless shelters even exist on Mobius? Outside of Knothole?! Not to mention she used to work for Nicolette, a bounty hunter! “ On the fringes! “ So it’s not like she suddenly has this checkered past! Why the hell are they surprised that she’s a former criminal when they should KNOW she used to work with Nicolette?! Did Mighty and Ray keep that a secret?
It should be OBVIOUS that she was forced to do what she could to survive! And yet she doesn’t even TRY to defend what she did! I guess she had no hope whatsoever for it being accepted. That shouldn’t stop her from trying to explain her actions!
This is the girl who said to Tails, “ What’s that supposed to mean? I have bad breath or something?! “ when he acted like Sonic dating her was awful. She wouldn’t stay quiet like this like she’s a meek little lamb! Real people JUSTIFY their actions! Fiona should’ve said something like, “ Hey, I needed to EAT! Would you rather if I starved to death when I was a kid? “
And that would’ve been proactive of her standing up for herself to Sally, and maybe if she stood up to her actually lampshading her judgement more obvious, it would’ve made it more of a rivalry between the two instead of just Sally bullying her while she looks all meek and sad.
It would’ve been better foreshadowing to have her and Sally not get along and argue the whole time for several issues later so that it’d be only natural that she’d get sick of Sally. INSTEAD, Sally completely gets away with this without ever being stood up to by anyone, which is totally unrealistic.
You know, I hate her behavior here way more than when she slapped Sonic. She has NO EXCUSE FOR THIS! And yet Bollers gets more crap, at least he didn’t write THIS. THIS is Sally’s worst moment, this is the bad, memorable moment I always first think of when I think of Sally, even though I like her normally. And this is Flynn’s first ever issue! THIS was his excellent first impression! I mean, it probably says something that I remember this before the time she hit Sonic over the head with a stick for saving her!
At the very least Sonic and Tails were welcoming to her. Sonic was VERY nice, remember that, and Tails AND EVEN ELIAS had to be held back from approaching Sally angrily during her little MOMENT, although that doesn’t justify them not saying a WORD in her defense!
It was sweet that Tails gave her a drink when she was feeling like an outcast from moping around, causing her to ruffle his hair having a friendship moment with him for literally the FIRST TIME. They REALLY didn’t give a shit about this character when this is the FIRST TIME she’s DONE this.
You’d think their friendship would be close because Tails would have been constantly giving her hugs to get close to her, so she would’ve done more than just ruffle his hair, and a drink being in her hand was no excuse. She should’ve hugged him and maybe even gave him a kiss to the head or forehead, and that would’ve been better than him just having that creepy smile when she ruffled his hair.
She was also useful for literally the second time, by getting rid of Bean using shiny keys, which was necessary since he was on Sonic’s head and he couldn’t shake him off. It’s such a shame that Sally had such a cruel way of thanking her! And just the fact that she got suspicious of her instead of everyone just assuming Bean and Bark were Fiona’s old enemies! Just that fact alone was a Diabolus ex Machina, arbitrarily making it more annoying for her. Sally’s paranoid at times, but still!
There’s nothing else to say about this story other than there’s lots of charming dialogue and I love that Scourge got the way he did, although logically he should’ve gotten to the Emerald to do his thing FASTER since he has SUPER SPEED. In fact he should’ve turned green from Issue 44 logically since he was at the Emerald twice BEFORE this. My first read, I thought this was an excellent first impression, but that’s because the story was charming enough to distract me and make up for it and I still was able to nitpick it to death.
There were a ton of plot holes in this story, like why was Bean able to contact Eggman at all? Ultimately after the most recent analysis of the story, I found 17 plot holes in a row, a lot of which make the whole premise flimsy, and do you know how many plot holes Penders’ first story had? 8, which incidentally was almost the same number of plot holes I found the first time I tried to count them for this story. Most stories don’t even get up to 9, no matter who wrote them.
And the second story is written and penciled by Tania del Rio. Who, thank god, has changed her art style from the Nicole story to not be alienating this time! And honestly the story? I ended up HATING it because of what it did to BLAZE! She would NOT get knocked out by SWATbots that easily! She would’ve INCINERATED all of them in the time they were blathering on behind her!
And they say SALLY got Chickification! At least Sally doesn’t have fire powers and STILL got this fate with them! At least Blaze broke free with her fire tornado but by then it was too late, and I’m just wondering why she didn’t do all this EARLIER.
What a HUMILIATING first impression! She didn’t need to be captured by Eggman like a helpless princess just for Sonic to meet her! This whole story was padding that didn’t make sense to have happened! Why have her get captured just for nothing to be done with her by Eggman? That’s a missed opportunity when she could’ve just met Sonic somewhere ELSE.
Issue 161:
After some panels are completely wasted on worthless recap, Sonic bursts out laughing, and starts rolling on the floor because he thinks Crocbot and Octobot were the lamest robots ever. And Tails points out that even HE beat the two of them when he was little! That was charming, but Crocbot always had a kind of threatening design which made me expect more out of him and this is just turning them into even more of a joke instead of fixing their actual PROBLEM by making them genuinely dangerous. Tails DOES have to pull Sonic away from an attack while he’s flying, but that’s it.
Rouge seems to immediately smile at Scourge’s new look saying, “ You’ve changed! “ which I like. And Scourge says, “ For the better, babe. No more lame evil twin shtick for me. “ Right, which is why he proceeds to never do another evil thing stereotypically expected of an evil twin again. Like kill a man or take over the world. OH WAIT, THAT doesn’t happen! That’s the interesting thing about Scourge, he’s so preoccupied with not wanting to be a TWIN, that he forgets that if he’s still the “ evil “ part of “ evil twin, “ he hasn’t proven anything. He’s still acting exactly as everyone expects him to.
When Locke approaches him, he proceeds to make the same mistake that Scourge did earlier by talking instead of immediately attacking and telegraphing his next attack as a result. This is the only reason that Scourge didn’t just get attacked or thrown out just as easily. THE ONLY ONE, so this doesn’t prove that he’s stronger now.
He puts his hand up surrounded by blue electricity in black darkness – I REALLY WISH I knew what the hell that was supposed to MEAN! Is it literal? Does it represent him freezing time with Chaos Control because his transformation told him he can do that now? Or is it just an anime background?
He then punches Locke in the face which you’d think he’d have been able to do LAST TIME running at him at the speed of sound without NEEDING to turn green. So I’m not impressed. Why couldn’t Locke have dodged his attack THIS time? I guess Scourge turned around to face him at the speed of sound TOO and attacked him before he could move, but Scourge still stood there like an idiot politely waiting for Locke to finish saying he’ll be thrown out just as easily, so Locke could’ve done that, earlier. It’s not like Scourge interrupted him, which would’ve been more natural.
He effortlessly knocks him out with some basic attacks, probably because they were at sonic speed but no, if he hit him at sonic speed it would’ve killed him. So he was holding back even THEN, even though he had every reason to want revenge. Nothing’s changed!
Theoretically he should’ve been able to do this from the beginning. Ooh, basic punches! I bet he never did those before. The only reason he won was because he attacked earlier and Locke didn’t telekinesis him away WHILE TALKING TO HIM for some reason. It would’ve been good for showing off that he was more powerful if he did something NEW, like shoot lightning for example, but as it stands, he was always an Evil SONIC and Sonic was brutally overpowered as it was, so he was too.
We see Fiona expressing admiration and excitement at seeing Sonic spindashing the chin of Croctobbot, saying, “ Man-o-man! Look at him go! “ But I bet Scourge could do the exact same thing.
Bean walks by all casually saying goodbye to Fiona, and she says angrily, “ You try to blow up my boyfriend and then decide you can just walk out? “ Okay, she can’t just beat the crap of him after this because Bark is there and it’s two against one, so I think even if she decked him for that, which would’ve been really satisfying, Bark would just do the same to her. It would’ve been worth it though, and she’d look sympathetic if she got attacked and had to run away from Bark or something. Girls can get slapstick too, sometimes. But come on, her stopping at saying that, was just WEAK.
I love Bark’s reaction here.
So, the Freedom Fighters NEVER tied these guys up or put handcuffs on them. You know, I’m pretty sure it’s only Sonic and Shadow fighting the Croctobot, so there was literally no excuse for them to go free whatsoever, they should’ve had supervision the whole time. You’re telling me ANTOINE couldn’t have watched them? I know they’re distracted by those robots but STILL! All to force them being in ONE plot later. Them breaking out of prison for that later would’ve made more sense.
Bean asks Fiona if she wants to come along with him like the good old days, causing her to be upset because she’s a Freedom Fighter now. And Bean doesn’t believe that she really is one. Flynn’s not very good at keeping the foreshadowing subtle, is he? I think the Sally Miniseries did a better job and that was by Penders.
Wait, how the hell did Bean know Nicolette when she ditched Fiona before the Chaos Knuckles arc? I guess she was with Bean Bark AND Nic even though Nic wasn’t with Bean and Bark and her in that fighting tournament? So she met Bean and Bark with Nic and THEN Nic left? This is why establishing events in the past after the fact is confusing.
Rogue actively refuses to let Scourge kill anyone around her and surprisingly he simply complies and spares Locke, calling her a spoilsport. Out of Character Moment alert. He didn’t kill Patch! I guess this really proves that he’s JUST as lonely and Desperately Craving Affection as LAST time, since he’s willing to agree to no killing if it means having a girlfriend. I wonder if Fiona could get him to agree to that policy since he’s clearly following it RIGHT AWAY with her, at least when she’s actually there.
But still, you’d think that if his intention all along was to kill Locke, he would’ve done it in his punches by hitting him at sonic speed. So obviously what’s really going on in-universe is that Rouge only ASSUMED that he was about to kill Locke. And for the sake of his bad boy image, he let her THINK that. Maybe he was gonna injure him, but if he wanted to kill him, he would’ve done it already since he’s so fast.
You know, I assumed that he was going to actually DO that to Locke, because I had heard about Locke dying in Flynn’s writing and Locke interacted with Scourge, and you’d think he would’ve killed the guy who scarred his chest for life. But NO, that would’ve required guts and made Evil Sonic too evil when he’ll literally take over his planet later.
This won’t be the only time when I was expecting good writing when I got to certain points I heard about and was disappointed. It’s especially frustrating because if Locke was killed off HERE, it would’ve made actual logical SENSE, AND given Rouge a reason for leaving Scourge that didn’t come out of nowhere.
Rouge then asks him how he plans on getting to Knothole so fast to fight Sonic, while calling him Sonic (instead of Evil Sonic like before for some weird reason) because naturally, if you look at last issue, he didn’t make it too clear that he wants to be called Scourge now. How’d you KNOW he was planning to get to Knothole fast?
All he said was he plans to crush Sonic, he didn’t say it’d happen right after this! Confusingly he DOESN’T IMMEDIATELY tell her to never call him Sonic again and to call him Scourge from now on. Instead he forgives it ‘cause he’s a nice guy like that and says that he’s following his instincts and intuition.
He touches the Master Emerald and warps with Chaos Control. So, again… instinct and intuition. I guess the transformation warped his brain a tiny bit so that he knows that he can do Chaos Control now, to the point of even knowing what it’s called. So did Anti-Knuckles or Shadow use it in front of him? Otherwise, how did he tell the Emerald that he wanted to be able to do Chaos Control if he never heard of it before? And Rouge ALREADY looks sick of him. That’s some foreshadowing. So why doesn’t he Chaos Control warp the Master Emerald home instead of keeping it here? That’s nice of him.
When he goes to Sonic and he learns about what happened, Sonic gets mad at him saying, “ I happen to like Knuckles’ dad! “ And for SOME reason Scourge calls Sonic a PUNK, even though Sonic’s not a criminal at all, if ANYTHING he’d be calling him a dork!
The only explanation I can think of is that most of the time… the people that Scourge’s gang targets to victimize ARE punks, because they’d be more satisfying to beat up and they’d wanna establish dominance as the only gang in the city, and “ punk “ just naturally slips out of him as an insult now. So I love that he says that because it gives some more depths to the evil twins. It’s sad that the only depths they get is unintentional.
After Croctobot grabs all three hedgehogs he tells Shadow that he’s doing nothing to help, since he naturally instinctively doesn’t want to help Eggman against Sonic when he saved Hope. SHADOW saved her with Chaos Control, but whatever. And when he threatens to report him as a traitor to Eggman, Shadow just deadpans, “ No. You won’t. “ Sonic asks Scourge casually for a quick truce to finish off the robot and Scourge says, “ Works for me. “ Naturally, anything to let him destroy stuff. Hey, I think of it as menacing-looking at least.
Too bad for the robot that the hedgehogs have magical bullshit bullshit powers where they can just spindash despite being held in the grips of tentacles, which SHOULD prevent them from spinning in their spindash and getting the tentacles buzzsawed! If Sonic leaned forwards with his shoes in front of him here, that wouldn’t MATTER, he’d still need to move so that the sharp spines that are BEHIND HIS HEAD nowhere NEAR the tentacle holding him would break them when he spins vertically, which he shouldn’t be able to do.
Sonic and Scourge’s epic fight scene. Can’t you see it?
After the robot is dealt with, a fight begins with Sonic calling Scourge’s quick first hit a cheap shot because he wasn’t ready. They run all over the place in blurs, and at the end, he kicks Sonic, saying, “ AT LAST! Eat turf, blue! “ from winning a fight with him for the first time. But, that wasn’t a fight scene. They just ran around for no reason and then he kicked him once. Thrilling.
The whole arc was building up to this! And no, if they were punching each other in those blurs, wouldn’t they just trip, what would be the point of running while doing that, wouldn’t they run into stuff because they wouldn’t be looking where they were going? It’s not satisfying because we don’t actually SEE them landing hits after the first one.
He then is eager to start a fight with Shadow afterwards when he says, “ Enough, “ just because he’s there, a natural extension of Sonic who’s ALSO like that to a lesser extent. So when Shadow grabs him by the arm, rather than letting him ask a question, Scourge starts a fight with Shadow by flipping him. Um, how’d he do that?
He was grabbed from behind. I could understand him elbowing him or kicking him to get free, but not really this, now all of a sudden he’s FACING Shadow when he wasn’t before. I’d like to know what Shadow’s question was, if it was just “ who are you? “ he should’ve just said that to begin with.
And again, the only reason Scourge is being so competent here is because he’s thinking to attack interrupting the person when they’re talking. Wouldn’t he have done that when he was blue anyways? We’re just expected to believe being green was mandatory for this, and while it obviously gave him a confidence boost, he’s been fighting all his life, that shouldn’t have been required.
I like that Shadow said angrily, “ Grave mistake, “ in Tranquil Fury before attacking. To his surprise, and mine, he gets spindashed at by all of the hedgehogs at once and looks all nervous despite trying to talk tough with bravado like he won, another very Sonic-like thing of him. I like that. He’s still being humiliated so it’s actually showing for once that he’s not an invincible Villain Sue, which he never was because it’s all made logical sense so far.
No wonder he prefers Fiona, SHE doesn’t boss him around all the time.
Tails gets a lucky hit punching him in the head from behind and he grabs Tails by the neck but CLEARLY taking it easy on him with the grip since Tails isn’t acting at all like he can’t breathe since his expression isn’t showing it, and merely looks mad at him. Rouge tells Scourge with Fiona nearby that he’s had his fun and they need to get out of there since all the Freedom Fighters are ganging up on him, led by Fiona telling them, “ We’ve stood by long enough! “
So instead of immediately running in circles creating a tornado to carry them all away, like I’d imagine, Scourge doesn’t think of that, due to a lack of combat skills compared to Sonic I guess, as he might not know he can do that and didn’t think to tell the Emerald to give him that ability. Maybe it’s just that after he got humiliated when he thought he was winning so quickly, he lost his confidence and cowardly ran away because things spiralled out of control. I mean, he IS being outnumbered and ganged up on, but one tornado move would let him win, that shouldn’t MATTER.
So why DIDN’T he go steal the Emerald after this? Was that what she was expecting? Logically you’d think with Locke injured, he’d go shatter the Emerald to steal some of its pieces. Instead he gets distracted and NEVER ever does that! You’d think with all his experience causing mischief, he would’ve created tornadoes with running in circles tons of times just to cause havoc, like to get a beach all to himself. Rouge holds his hand to keep up with him and he tells her they need a Chaos Emerald to warp back to Angel Island.
Sonic then thanks Fiona for being useful for the fourth time with the cavalry charge, touching his hair affectionately while having an evil-looking smirk on his face. And Fiona says, “ Better late than never, “ using Self-Deprecating Humor acknowledging that they were really late…
Naturally, Shadow’s still angry enough to keep chasing Scourge who complains, “ Maybe if I didn’t have the dead-weight to tow! “ which makes sense but then doesn’t because he’s clearly running fast, his feet are all spinning, so why would towing Rouge make him any slower? Maybe by a little bit, but he still looks like he’s running at the speed of sound, the amount of drag would be negligible by that point, if he had to run at a normal pace for her safety he wouldn’t have outran Shadow, and yet she’s still slowing him down?
We’re supposed to believe he’s more powerful, so he should be faster than Shadow who’s as fast as Sonic anyways, faster than him to the point where he should’ve left him in the dust by now, but instead he’s talking like they’re equally-matched in speed and therefore Rouge slowing him down would be the deciding factor in making him lose. He must really want someone to kiss when he wants or he’d have let her go by now. Also Rouge FINALLY gets that he wants to be called Scourge now.
After a giant Ring portal appears Scourge of course acts all confused asking where that came from, and Rogue tells him to just jump inside and be thankful instead of questioning it. If this was the early comic this Ring would’ve led him to an alternate zone like it did Sonic in the Al and Cal issue.
With Fiona holding Sonic’s hand looking sad with puppy-dog-eyes showing compassion, for the 8th time now, Elias complains, “ So much for your new base of operations, “ when HE HIMSELF SAID “ a focal point “ to draw Eggman’s attention away from “ our homes and families. “ So why shouldn’t he realize the base did its job?
Rotor promises Sonic they’ll have a better defense system online soon. LIAR! Even by the end of the comic, there’s no security system guarding Freedom HQ, no giant robot by Rotor, not even better walls that can’t just be blasted apart by Bean when he feels like it. No force field generator whatsoever, when you’d think Sandblast City and Sonic’s tales about it would’ve given him the idea that, hey, maybe I should protect our base and Knothole with a force field! Why is Rotor so useless at this point in the comic?
As I expected, Sonic doesn’t consider his birthday ruined because the fight was fun, although his exact reasoning was that the base drew all of Eggman’s fire away from Knothole and their families, and says that he LIVES for this stuff!
Dr Finitevus reveals that he had warped Scourge to him so that he’d join him on his ambitions. So did he think to spy on him with an invisible flying camera NOT NEAR ANGEL ISLAND or a crystal ball when he’s not psychic so that he’d know where and when to send that magical portal? How’d he even know Scourge existed?! Oh wait, maybe Locke told him. I forgot they were on speaking terms. Okay, and he predicted Scourge would go fight Sonic near Freedom HQ.
But wait, how the fuck did he know they were using Freedom HQ again and STILL, how’d he know exactly which part of the woods Scourge was running through to send the Warp Ring? You’d think his cameras that would be dedicated to looking for Scourge, would only catch a glimpse of him running in a blur for a second, and already he’d be gone.
I guess he had a camera see him run forwards – maybe it was actually him looking through the other end of a Warp Ring that wasn’t activated on the other side and thus visible yet, just like how the zone-link generator let Scourge see Antoine from another zone – so he predicted where Scourge would run ahead to and sent the Warp Ring far ahead of him in advance?
Must have been pretty far ahead considering how fast he was running, which is 1 mile every 4 seconds with sonic speed. You’d think he would’ve just left it in the dust by the time he created it behind him and Shadow would jump into it instead.
” PATIENCE?! Who do ya think I am?! ” -Scourge acting realistically.
Either way, Scourge agrees right away at the prospect of inconveniencing Sonic, because apparently Finitevus now wants to inconvenience SONIC and not just KNUCKLES who he was jealous of last time. This is the same guy whose only crime last time was liberating echidnas from dingo slave camps and then being angry at those echidnas liking Knuckles more than him. Real monster. And apparently he doesn’t plan to bother Sonic’s friends right AWAY and they need to lay low for a time. WHY?
The story ends before we could see Scourge question this. Wouldn’t he be the type to hate following ANYONE’S orders, and want to just do whatever he wants? Wouldn’t he be the type of rebel to just say, “ Screw you, I’m going to fight him as much as I want! “ and just go try to beat him up every couple of hours? He’s on the planet after all.
I guess he’s so damn curious about Finitevus’ plan that he’ll force himself to obey him to see it through, but Finitevus isn’t telling him what his whole plan is right away to make him have an informed decision here. Scourge could “ make Sonic and his buddies miserable, “ HIMSELF and Finitevus is just going to DELAY him and make him do things he wouldn’t care as much about.
I picture him as having the attitude of a rebellious child having the independence streak ramped up to 11 to the point of parody his whole life, thanks to his father probably, so I ALWAYS thought it was stupid and forced that he worked for other people, whether it was Finitevus or Robo-Robotnik. Just because he did it before doesn’t mean it’s not stupid NOW, too.
Even back in Issue 19 by Penders, I was immediately questioning why, if Scourge was being expected to work out of power hunger, he didn’t just immediately kill him himself to get even more power instead of being ordered around for even two seconds. But apparently Scourge has SO MUCH RESPECT and VALUE for the plan of some random guy he just met, more so than any plan HE would come up with when he’s supposed to be arrogant.
In the next story it starts out with me hating it right away as despite Blaze CLEARLY SAYING that Sonic was protecting the Sol Emeralds in her dream, she starts a fight with him ANYWAYS! This is such bullshit. It would be fine if she didn’t have that dream telling her he’s a hero, but of course that dream was the whole reason she came to this dimension, so you remove it and she wouldn’t be here at all!
It would’ve made sense if she was here from following Eggman Nega like in the GAME, and therefore wouldn’t KNOW that he’s a hero, but since that character is arbitrarily banned from the comic by Sega’s draconian policies like Cream the Rabbit, they had to awkwardly finagle ANOTHER excuse for her to come here, which was much more clumsy as you were seeing. Sonic could’ve had a fight with a Blaze infiltrator robot instead and we could’ve had a good version of this story as a result.
After Sonic lures her to a place where he can actually USE his speed and then notices she’s enjoying this SOMEHOW when she’s not smiling at all, he gets the clever idea to create a tornado around Blaze, thinking that the vortex will run out of oxygen if he does so.
This causes Blaze to complain that she can’t maintain the flame, and she collapses from being unable to breath right away. That was fast! She can’t hold her breath for very long at ALL, CAN she? It’s not like we saw a text blurb saying, “ a minute later! “ Sonic asks for at least a temporary truce for some introductions so he can know who he’s fighting.
Out of nowhere, Blaze says that she will now haunt HIS dreams like he haunted hers, and somehow she’s able to warp back to the Sol Dimension while saying she doesn’t have need of him right NOW. Does she have a Sol Emerald to warp her with? Why the hell didn’t the robots FIND it while she was unconscious?! She went from fighting him thinking he was evil enough to deserve that to suddenly believing he’s a hero again, and saying she’ll need his help later. What kind of writing is that?!
The first story was by Ian Flynn and has Scourge, after sparing Locke because he wants to keep having Rouge as a girlfriend, fight Sonic and Shadow after they SOMEHOW escape the grips of a tentacle bot, and spindash it apart. It was so pointless that they were grabbed by them because it was just one panel, so they could’ve easily not had it drawn and had it make sense!
Scourge’s fight is underwhelmingly short-lived, as all Scourge does in the fight with Sonic is run pointlessly and then kick him once, and then Rouge retreats because of Fiona leading a cavalry lampshading that the other heroes have done nothing for way too long. And Scourge goes with Rouge to keep having a girlfriend. You’d think the whole appeal of this story would’ve been to have a satisfying fight between Scourge and Sonic finally because he’s more powerful, but NOPE. Barely lasted a few panels.
Also Fiona sees Bean try to invite her to come hang out with him again, and she’s stunned at being asked that when she’s a Freedom Fighter. Flynn didn’t bother to actually explain WHY she left Bean and Bark in the first place, that was annoying! I assume it was because Bean’s personality annoyed her. But it’s pretty lazy to establish she was working with Bean and then not establish why she even left him. Either way it introduces the concept of quitting to her.
And at the end, Scourge is employed by Finitevus because he somehow knew about what Scourge was doing! I dunno, maybe the Dark Legion had camera footage for him, and he wants to have an evil plan to inconvenience SONIC. I don’t understand WHY, he wasn’t really a villain the LAST time we saw him!
The last thing he did was the HORRIBLE CRIME of saving echidnas from prison camps and allowing Lien-Da to stage Locke’s rescue! OOH! EVIL! I hope his motivation against Sonic won’t feel like it came completely out of NOWHERE. I get his resentment of KNUCKLES since he took too long to get back to Angel Island when Eggman was there but SONIC never did anything to him!
Tania del Rio wrote the second story and it was a mess. Simply put. This was on the level of Super Sonic vs Hyper Knuckles in terms of “ let’s arbitrarily have two heroic characters fight for worthless fanservice! Maybe if Blaze was somehow brainwashed I could UNDERSTAND, like Eggman put three brainwashing chips in her since she was in his base after all. Of course then you’d have to write a way to get those chips OUT of her!
The story’s ruined by the giant plot hole of Blaze fighting Sonic when the WHOLE reason she CAME here was from a dream where he was a hero! And she shows she remembers that dream later ON after he decided not to suffocate her! That power of his was the only cool thing ABOUT this.
A fight between two powerful characters who should be on the same side isn’t good, unless it’s JUSTIFIED! This was just clumsily handled. If it was a literal dream, this still wouldn’t have been fun, because either way the two are still supposed to be allies! Maybe if it was an evil twin of Blaze, THAT would’ve worked! But then we wouldn’t have the appeal of the ACTUAL Blaze, because seeing Blaze and Sonic make idiots of themselves fighting each other is appealing to the fans apparently! Not a good way to end the issue.
Issue 162:
We start out with some narration talking about how the new villain Anonymous plans to dispose of NOT ONLY all sorts of evil villains who DESERVE IT – they won’t be killed at all by the way and he won’t even mention that this part of his plan failed – but also Sonic and his friends for no reason, making him evil when he was SO CLOSE to being a HERO because he was disposing of VILLAINS!
The narration says that he decided to use Knothole. For what? He doesn’t say. He just says that Elias is seeking to revive the old ways as he’s trying to dress up like a king with a crown and stuff – he looks ridiculous, I’m sorry, he looks WAY BETTER as a PRINCE WITHOUT the crown. I guess it’s because he looks too young for it.
He says that he wants to return Sonic’s knighthood for obvious reasons, and Sonic says that while he appreciates it he didn’t need a title to keep him cool. I think it’s redundant, too. He’s ALREADY the hero of the world. Or rather “ hero of everything “ as he more clumsily puts it. But SINCE WHEN did Sonic LOSE HIS KNIGHTHOOD?! In fact, he was even called a gentleman-of-arms in Issue 159!
So I have a question. If we’re supposed to just ASSUME that the point at which he lost his knighthood was when he was confined to Knothole, well, that punishment eventually got lifted offscreen with no fanfare. So I would’ve ASSUMED that he got his knighthood back THEN, why wouldn’t he? This actually makes LESS sense, because you’d think he would’ve gotten it back as soon as that punishment ended, before even the Cater-Killer Train’s rampage happened, a YEAR ago!
Elias explains that he needs a new Court of Acorns, as his father was always relying on his old one apparently and Elias is insecure. WHAT Court of Acorns? I never saw THAT in the Tales of the Great War! So did the Court of Acorn approve his plan to dismantle the military?! I couldn’t imagine more than one person actually thinking that’s a good idea, that’s the kind of thing only a dictator would be permitted to do. Then Elias says, “ starting with anyone who remains from the old court. “ Is this the villain talking or Elias?… Probably Elias.
Out of nowhere, Tails is approached in the lab by Merlin, and after Tails is stunned and not sure what to say, Merlin FINALLY says, “ I’m sorry I’ve been kept away from you for so long. “ So, it wasn’t his choice?… He was kept away from him? WHY? Is there actually gonna be a reason he didn’t train him to fully realize his magical potential as a kitsune?… No? That’s not gonna be addressed, that question won’t be the FIRST thing out of Tails’ mouth? Well THAT was lazy.
Completely brushing that plot hole under the rug, they have an adorable hug as Merlin shows he cares about his nephew and promises to help rebuild their family, although the hug would look a lot better if Tails’ mouth didn’t somehow extend below his actual CHIN. It’s cringeworthy, not to mention that his eyes transformed into U shaped black lines just because they were closed. This isn’t an anime. And people hated the art of Return to Angel Island for being too anime.
He wipes away some tears of joy, and Merlin says he wishes they had some more time which is good, but he has to speak with the king right away. Tails says that it’s okay as long as he promises to stay. Also there’s some stern-looking guy in chain mail behind them that I don’t trust one bit.
Merlin explains that the king – it’s WEIRD calling ELIAS THAT – somehow holds part of the key to saving the Ancient Walkers, and to keeping Mogul safely trapped. He says this as we see him holding the Chaos Emerald that Mogul’s safely trapped in, that Mogul once had in his chest. I have a question, logically speaking, what took Merlin so long to try to save the Ancient Walkers from somehow dying? I hope I get an answer.
Meanwhile ADAM tells Eggman that his Egg Grapes of captured echidnas are nearly complete. Eggman brags that once the erasures are complete he’ll be able to syphon power from the Zone of Silence apparently, purifying it through the Egg Grapes, giving him the raw energy of an entire dimension. HUH? Purifying it? Why wouldn’t he just say destroying it? Why would he feel the need to use a euphemism?… When was it even implied that this was his plan with the Egg Grapes? Why does he NEED to WAIT for the erasures to COMPLETE?!
Does he still have the portal to the Zone of Silence in his base, the one Ixis came out of in Issue 54? I guess since it was never technically destroyed – WAIT A MINUTE, IT WAS IN ROBOTROPOLIS! That place was nuked and trapped in a force field over a year ago!
So, uh, um, apparently we’re supposed to believe that Eggman, made a new portal to the Zone of Silence in Megaopolis for draining the zone with the Egg Grapes, when it was only implied that Ixis could create such a portal. I can understand a psychopath like Eggman wanting to drain a universe of power because he had no problem turning tons of Overlanders into statues for apparently no personal benefit. But this comes out of nowhere.
Lemme look up the last times we saw the Egg Grapes, because all I remember of them was that there were echidnas in mind-erasing pods. Nope, no mention of draining the Zone of Silence, naturally because he’d have no possible way of doing that with them, literally ALL that was mentioned about them after they were introduced was that it was too early for the people in the Egg Grapes to interact with anything outside of their immediate environment.
This was implying that they were, I guess being brainwashed with the mind erasing, and ADAM couldn’t let them out early because they didn’t lose all their memories yet. After all, what would be the point of the art labeling the Egg Grapes mind erasers if they were about COMPLETELY draining them entirely, and NEVER doing anything with their minds AFTERWARDS wouldn’t the mind eraser part be redundant and “ no duh, “ then?
M, showing hesitation I guess, asks, “ Why drain the Mobians? “ and asks if Eggman could reach his vision in a quicker way. And Eggman explains that he’s doing it so that their empty husks, will act as a kind of filter somehow. What does he mean by filter?
I thought he was going to brainwash the echidnas in the Egg Grapes and experiment on them to be his super soldiers. Sure, he never said that, but it would’ve been a more natural extension of roboticization because either way, it’s removing free will and using people to benefit him as workers. He can get electricity for his city any way he WANTS, why waste potential workers this way?
This is such a needlessly grim, dark plan for him out of nowhere that he didn’t even need to do because he was getting electricity for his city just fine before, however he even did it, it was that much of a non-issue for him. Also, this is how they should’ve handled ADAM and M having them both being in the same scene together all the time, because this way I wouldn’t have been so confused by M looking like a man, and ADAM being able to possess robots and talk through them. This way I know who the two are.
After Eggman justifies that he’s just sadistic and so he’d like this electricity generation plan better, M seems to agree with him when she and ADAM were just asking if there was a better way earlier. You know, people would make terrible batteries. It would take more energy to keep them alive with nutrients and so on than the amount you’d get from them, and even then I can’t imagine how he’d get any energy from them at ALL. You get energy from burning stuff for fuel like water to make steam or coal, and he’s not doing THAT when that would be sadistic TOO. So I don’t even know how he’s able to DO this.
The Sword of Acorns is established to be a super-conductor that can syphon magical energy and stuff, you’d think he would’ve stolen the Sword and that could’ve made this plan a bit easier to swallow. But again, if he could make three brainwashing chips for Monkey Khan, why not do that to the echidnas instead of putting them in Egg Grapes?
ADAM apologizes that he can’t identify the Anonymous individual, the same one who had roboticized those criminals who had memories of them as organics planning to make a deal with Anonymous after Eggman’s. Eggman arbitrarily complains that “ stealing “ his roboticization technique is unforgivable even though he got gifts from it, which is frustratingly possessive of him and that’s never a good trait for anyone to have.
He reveals that Anonymous had set his nanites to spreading, when he was saving them for a special occasion. So the nanites spreading in Issue 152, which we saw was ADAM’s decision, was blamed by ADAM on Anonymous. That’s odd, because I had assumed whenever I was reading that issue that ADAM had permission to do that, to independently figure out which plan to carry out for Eggman. But apparently he lied that someone else did it after his plan to impress Eggman only made him mad. Why bother ever doing it, then?
Also I don’t really buy that Eggman would just sit on nanites and not use them until, what would he even consider to BE a special occasion? When ISN’T a good time to use nanites that turn organic stuff he hates into METAL? Him saying that as an excuse for hating Anonymous just makes it all the more confusing that he’d have a problem with it at ALL instead of using the nanites as soon as possible.
After we see some spider-ninjas, the narration says that he’s had to take into account divine intervention, as we see Athair and Aurora. Why would he ever take THEM seriously when they NEVER DID ANYTHING? But he thinks the god-like Ancient Walkers are SOMEHOW easy enough to deal with! Somehow…
Athair tells the Ancient Walkers that Merlin is on his way and one of the Walkers says that their preservation is no longer under “ our control. “ HOW?! If these guys are super powerful how the hell are they being so badly inconvenienced instead of just using their magic to fix their problem effortlessly? It’s an interesting idea but it makes no sense!
An Ancient Walker says that since the coming of the Chaos Emeralds they’ve acted to preserve the world. Except they did NOTHING against the multiverse-threatening world-dominating Mammoth Mogul and Robotnik, and Sonic had to take it upon himself to save the world, when the whole temporal beam destruction thing was happening, and when the Xorda threatened the world, but let’s ignore that! NOW though for their “ diligence, “ they’ve suffered a mortal blow offscreen and their power is failing. This is so confusing. And not self-aware at all of the writing because these guys are so useless!
Therefore they’ve selected Aurora, Athair, someone else and Merlin, to maintain the balance of the chaos force and protect the world in their steed as they’re dying. Why the hell weren’t Athair and Aurora doing that already?! What were they DOING, bowling all day?! When the Xorda were attacking? Why would anyone need to maintain the balance in the chaos force, I mean, these Walkers didn’t lift a finger against Mammoth Mogul when he took control of all of the Chaos Force, did they?
With a panel showing Mammoth Mogul in an Emerald one of the Walkers says that something really bad is going to happen. What’s with all the storm references? Unless it’s an ACTUAL storm, it’s getting redundant, and pretentious. The heroes have fought plenty of villains before!… Meanwhile Tails is introduced to someone with Merlin who’s named Sir Connery, a former knight to the king. Wait, is that the paladin that KNUCKLES met?…
Tails naturally asks why the hell he left, and yet won’t ask HIS UNCLE that, and he explains that once he was done with his previous job, the Ancient Walkers sent him to guard Merlin from the Destructix, which is the name of those criminals like the traitor dog who escaped from the Gulag. And they just show up deroboticized just like THAT!… It… it’s a good thing that he explains this later…
After Merlin gets jumped on and held down to the ground because the idea of using magic to protect himself would be TOO SMART for a guy who created tangible illusions of monsters to fight Knuckles, he tells Tails to focus on getting the Chaos Emerald from the lynx.
The paladin gets knocked down and tripped ridiculously pathetically, and Merlin the WIZARD is ALSO insultingly easily dealt with as Flying Frog says that he can’t cast a spell if he can’t catch a breath. So does he need to talk to use spells? Even though plenty of other characters in this comic with magical powers don’t need to talk to use them? If he was talking to cast his spells, Knuckles would’ve heard him when he was sending illusions after him, wouldn’t he have? Because the minute the illusions went away he was already in front of Merlin.
I mean Sonic doesn’t have to say “ go go super speed “ every time he runs! This is a disgrace to Merlin’s character. The heroes are getting beaten WAY too easily here, I’m remembering the time Nate got kidnapped all OVER again. So the Destructix are being written just as horribly as THAT time, I mean while it’s good for villains to be competent, at some point they just feel like Villain Sues when they’re winning against a freaking WIZARD.
And then Sonic shows up in a spindash out of complete nowhere, as well as Fiona, Bunnie and Knuckles. Sonic says that they heard they were called the Destructix in Furville, offscreen, and it’s explained that they’re the Destructix now because they can’t stay the Fearsome Foursome when there’s six of them. OH, RIGHT, I remember making fun of that name of theirs, I can’t believe I forgot it!
Then there’s a quick panel of the heroes all fighting different targets, including Fiona fighting Drago, although I’m sure the fight would’ve been won without her just as easily. And already they’re defeated. You know, this isn’t satisfying at ALL because literally the entire fight with the Destructix was constrained to one panel after Sonic showed up.
Meanwhile we had way too many panels of the Destructix overpowering a wizard who could’ve summoned tons of monsters from storybooks at them and reminded everyone why he was so awesome. This isn’t representing the character properly at all. I can’t get invested in a fight that’s only one panel. Did the Destructix even contribute anything to the plot? I think what they DID contribute was wasting the heroes’ time instead of them getting to the king earlier, which will really suck. I guess they wanted the Emerald for money or power?
Knuckles tells Merlin to go to Elias immediately while him and the Chaotix will clean up the mess. Hopefully by arresting them. The paladin recaps his dark magic-purging goal to Elias. And with his duty somehow finished, I guess by murdering everyone who used magic evilly, he was guarding Merlin and his captive Mammoth Mogul. REALLY? I never saw him with Merlin before this point.
And now it’s unnecessary Voodoo Shark time; Merlin explains that Mogul had fell into a trap set by the Ancient Walkers long ago who foresaw Mogul to be a threat thousands of years ago, because psychic visions I guess.
While they refused to combat destiny because they’re selfish assholes who didn’t ever want to prevent people from being inconvenienced by him, they still cursed the Emerald that Mogul was fated to obtain rather than keeping the Emerald from him. The Emerald always led Mogul to a key misjudgement. Yeah, it totally wasn’t MOGUL’S fault, can’t have him making those mistakes on his OWN, it’s not like he’s got a flawed personality or anything.
This curse is so unnecessary. It’s pretending the Walkers were trying to help and just making me question why they didn’t do more then! Why couldn’t they have cursed the Emerald to trap him much EARLIER if they were going to alter destiny with the curse ANYWAYS?! ANYTHING they did would alter destiny! Why respect it for HIM?! Couldn’t the Emerald have led him to a FATAL misjudgment? Wouldn’t THAT have made sense? They knew he’d be a threat ahead of time and didn’t do enough to deal with him, like send him to another dimension where there’d be less people to harm!
It’s explained that once he was free of the Master Emerald (in Issue 79), Mogul used the last of his strength, to wound he Ancient Walkers and caused them to start dying. Really? I just remember him appearing on the ground saying he was free, and then having to go drain Tails of his energy the next time we saw him, because he apparently was weak enough to need to do that.
But wait a minute, they had been dying BEFORE Tails went Turbo and got cloned, so that was BEFORE Mogul had even started draining Tails of his magic in the FIRST place to get energy. Somehow he wounded them even in a state where he was weakened enough to feel like kidnapping and using Tails for his magic was necessary to him instead of just doing what he was doing BEFORE he was sealed in the Emerald.
So he was strong enough to WOUND them with the last of his strength, but not strong enough to kill them in any way. What kind of a wound takes THAT LONG for them all to DIE from?! It’s been over a YEAR since that was even mentioned, and by that point, if they didn’t die, you’d think they would’ve long since gotten medical treatment at the Ancient Walker Hospital!
Why the hell can’t they heal their wounds with their super powerful magic? Hell, Merlin used a healing potion on Tails and he planned to do it again after Fake Tails was hurt, so why didn’t he just use healing potions on the Walkers? Since when do his powers have limits?
Even if them dying was explained as them dying from a sickness, which is what I assumed was ALWAYS the case since I have common sense, even then there’d be no justification to them dying for so long without getting cured by now. This plot thread could’ve been resolved naturally and without needing to go the direction it was taken.
If Mogul wounded the Walkers with the last of his strength, OFFSCREEN by the way, then why did he have the strength afterwards to psychically spy on Athair to know to create an almost PERFECT duplicate of Tails and warp Tails to his cave while he’s unconscious and syphon his energy keeping him in a stasis force field? Sounds like that’d require a lot of magic to me!
Also, what took him so long? You’d think he would’ve destroyed the Ancient Walkers when he was all-powerful with over a dozen Chaos Emeralds in him, if he cared that much about getting rid of them! He even mentioned them when Athair showed up to him! This wasn’t thought all the way through. So it comes off as lazy.
When the Walkers die, their charm over the Emerald will break and Mogul will be free. THEIR CHARM? Um, wait a minute, wasn’t it Titan Tails who took control of the Chaos Force and wished Mogul would be trapped in the Emerald? All that the Ancient Walkers’ charm DID was lead Mogul to a key misjudgement every time he used it. There was never any implication that Mogul was being trapped in the Emerald by a spell of the Ancient Walkers! Titan Tails had the “ power to shake the cosmos, “ remember? THE WALKERS WERE NEVER MENTIONED in that ISSUE!
But now apparently this was the Ancient Walkers’ charm, purely to justify the stakes of the story because them dying will magically make Mogul go free, rather than him staying put because they need to tell magic to stop a spell and undo it, which would make actual sense for magic rules.
Why would the magic decide to independently undo the spell just because its user died, which the magic around that Emerald would psychically know about? Wow, there is SO many continuity errors I didn’t notice my first two times with this issue, there’s a reason the deluxe script has so much more to say! I don’t feel like this is a natural continuation of the comic!
Sonic then asks what they can do. I’m guessing find someone with strong enough magic to recreate the charm, create a better one OVER the Emerald? But then the charm would have to keep being cast over and over by different people throughout history to be maintained.
Why can’t SHADOW, create the charm, I mean, HE’S super powerful! He destroyed an army of Metal Sonic Troopers just by raising his hand! Why can’t Knuckles create the charm with his Deus ex Machina guardian powers? Better yet, why can’t MERLIN? Why didn’t he do it?
I have a question, why can’t they just throw the Emerald into a volcano and destroy Mogul along with it? Okay, I guess the destruction of the Emerald would release Mogul, but WHY would Mogul be released OUTSIDE OF THE LAVA? What determines where Mogul will spawn when he’s released from an Emerald? It was already arbitrary that when the Master Emerald shattered, he didn’t spawn where it once was but instead away from it.
Elias says that he’s guessing he can help somehow looking like a clueless idiot for not already understanding their intention, and is told that the Crown and Sword of Acorns are essential to saving the Ancient Walkers. SOMEHOW, Elias asks, “ What’s so special about it and the Sword? “ DESPITE the fact that he was in the same room as the Source of All when Sally went into it!
And that’s the point where she decided NOT to fuse with the Source of All and that’s what caused that whole story arc about the Clingy McGuffin in the first place, so if Flynn’s trying to retcon THAT story then it’ll make the rest of the arc started by Sally’s rejection of the Source have no origin! “ Sally rejected the source, but it hasn’t rejected her! “ How would Elias think there’s nothing special about the Sword?! He was THERE when Sally used it to restore free will to Antoine’s father!
As Fiona looks happy with sad-looking eyes at holding Sonic’s hand since they’re both lonely, Sally gives a pointless recap on the Source of All, explaining that the Sword and Crown can channel and produce a lot of magic. Well, DUH, they’re magical artifacts. They’d be pretty pathetic magical artifacts if they couldn’t even do THAT!
And they were made from the substance that is the base material for EVERYTHING. You mean like that bullshit ancient scientific theory that water was the basis for everything? That’s not how physics work! Everything IS made of PARTICLES, but they’re made of different elements and types of particles regardless! So how does THAT make sense? Everything’s made of atoms, I guess, but only when it comes to matter, not energy. That’s not a substance, though!
After some more worthless recap wasting panels of the comic, Elias says that he’ll give them the Crown of Acorns to protect his people from a future threat and give them hope. Good, he looks better without it! While some narration hopes that Arachnis’ kids hadn’t done anything stupid with the Sword, we see them looking over Eggman and M. And then they killed them with the Sword – no of course not, that’d make SENSE.
After ADAM says the biofield deletion of the people in the Egg Grapes is complete, I guess that means deleting their AURAS, which requires killing them, so there should be no one left in the Egg Grapes and therefore no more power to give Eggman and he won’t reference that at all, then the spider-kids attack.
And some narration talks about the villain going to strike. Eggman asks why the Egg Grapes are powering up and not acting the way they were programmed. Yeah, why ARE they “ powering up? “ How do you even DEFINE “ powering up “ for life-draining egg pods? What, are they draining MORE life? But the biofield deletion was COMPLETED already! So what would be the point of THAT?
M uses some eye lasers and then carries Eggman away with super strength for such a thin body, as ADAM is told to lock down the Egg Grape chamber. You know, couldn’t Anonymous have been a computer virus SNIVELY MADE?! Then we could keep having ADAM the humorous Literal-Minded AI who likes to play games for the rest of the comic.
The narrator says that the “ act of loyalty “ by the spider kids, has “ set off the chain of events that I have desired. “ And a harsh dimensional breach is caused for no reason, which sucks Aurora and Athair into a portal – oh wait that’s not what happens, because killing the creator of the universe would be kinda ridiculous! Instead he IGNORES Aurora and Athair COMPLETELY, and destroys the Ancient Walkers. Well, him or the spider kids.
So all 3 of them?… I was wondering this EARLIER in the issue, but does this mean there are only 3 of the whole SPECIES left?! I mean, we only saw a laser hit 3 of the Walkers, but I saw PLENTY of them messing with Sonic when he got his billionth Ring! The ones that were standing in front of Knuckles in the Triple Trouble Special and Tails in the Tails Miniseries weren’t these floating heads, and THEY weren’t hit by this laser.
So either the laser magically hit every single Walker at the same time teleporting to them from another dimension as well, or all of the Walkers other than these 3 died of their “ wound “ or illness before this point offscreen. And I guess these 3 were the longest to survive because they were the most powerful.
More importantly, WHY DID THE SPIDER KIDS DO THIS? What POSSIBLE BENEFIT could it give them?! It can’t be following genetic memory because Uma never showed any hint of wanting to do this to the Ancient Walkers! Uma had never shown any indication of wanting to destroy the Walkers, though she never did say much. It’s kinda unfair to put words in her mouth by randomly now pretending that she had always wanted to do this and her kids were apparently following her will, which isn’t even stated to be what’s happening in this issue.
I get why Ixis would wanna destroy the threat to him, even though they clearly WEREN’T a threat to him because they never did jack shit against him BEFORE and you’d think he’d be arrogant enough to not consider them a threat at all because of that, not plan against them.
But Uma never struck me as actually wanting to stick with Ixis, she just was forced to work for him as a Knight of Chronos to not go insane in the Zone of Silence, and she made no effort to reunite with him when she uncrystallised and never mentioned him at all after that. But again, she never really said anything. So there was room for misinterpretation there, maybe she did support Ixis.
But you would THINK that if Uma wanted to destroy the Walkers with the Sword, she would’ve used the Sword for that purpose the second she STOLE IT! She stole it from Kodos because he decided that he didn’t need her, but you’d think she would’ve used the Sword for that purpose the second she took it from Eggman, if that was her plan all along with it, which it had to be for the plan to be passed down to her kids through genetic memory for them to actually want to support it, because why would they support Ixis? HE’S not their MOTHER!
Uma hadn’t been working for Ixis for a long time after he got sealed away in the Zone of Silence. She uncrystallised a while after that, and after that must have been when she laid those eggs. So there would be NO GENETIC MEMORY OF HER WORKING FOR IXI, at least unless the memory goes back to contain ALL her memories and not just her memories starting with when she became pregnant, which would be encoded into them over time.
So the spider-kids should have no reason to feel attachment to Ixis and work for him, whatsoever. Just like how if Uma wanted to hurt the Walkers she would’ve already done so when she had this Sword, if Mogul wanted to hurt the Walkers he would’ve already destroyed them when he got it the first time all the way back in the pre-50s!
Literally the only reason that Mammoth Mogul burst out of the Chaos Emerald knocking Merlin out was because all of that padding with the Destructix and Elias somehow needing recap on the Source of All wasted too much of the heroes’ time.
You’d think that if Knuckles was with them, which he should’ve been instead of cleaning up the already defeated Destructix when the other Chaotix were already doing that so he’d be redundant, you’d think Knux would’ve had the power to make a new charm just fine. None of this should’ve happened.
WHY was this part of Anonymous’ plan, wasn’t his whole plan to DISPOSE OF the bad guys? NOT to FREE Mammoth Mogul? Why would that be considered worth it? How could Anonymous have POSSIBLY predicted that the spider kids would’ve destroyed the Ancient Walkers who did nothing to them?
In the next story Snively’s approached by Eggman in a hologram and is given the chance to join him in his biggest strike against Knothole yet, somehow bigger than the missile strike when Sonic first got home from space, which would’ve nuked the place. Excuse me, but in Issue 159, the last he mentioned of Snively was that he was a treacherous weasel for betraying him for Sonic! Among other things. What’s he need with SNIVELY?!
He was doing JUST FINE WITHOUT him, that’s gotta be the reason why he ditched Snively for M and ADAM in the first place. But all of a sudden he wants to get Snively back on his side instead of wanting to make him pay, which would INCLUDE Snively being the victim of a strike against Knothole!
What would he need Snively for? He can just make a robot like a Metal Snively and get the exact same result. The ONLY reason this is happening is the lazy uninspired meta logic of “ Snively worked for Eggman in SatAM therefore make him work for Eggman again, “ even though he hated working for him and was scheming against him. So him going back to Eggman would be a step backwards, from the very beginning he’s had that character arc of turning on Eggman. There’s no thought put into this at all, it’s just meta logic!
Granted, we barely saw him contribute to the Freedom Fighters and because he’s just ANOTHER engineer, he’s completely redundant and pointless. But he doesn’t need to be a Rotor clone and he wasn’t always that, provided that you assume HE’S the one who set the Metal Sonic Troopers free! And even then, he sent M after Eggman, we know he did THAT!
I thought he was working great against Eggman as an extremist lone agent by making the Metal Sonic Troopers go after Eggman, and making M go try to kill him. THAT was great, too, and unique for him. Eggman doesn’t NEED Snively at all, he can get other people to do his jobs. Why get rid of something that was original about the comic? ” You’ve served me the longest and the best ” HE BETRAYED YOU FOR SONIC! And he MURDERED ROBOTNIK! Why hire him again?! What an Idiot!
For some reason Snively hesitates and wants to have a minute to consider whether he wants to be with him again, without implying that it’s just because he remembers what a terrible boss Eggman was, which would be the selfish motivation for not returning to him that would make sense.
It felt condescending to me that we had this panel because it’s pretending that the comic would actually have Snively stay with the good guys when he’s always been one of the villains of SatAM! If they went back to the old SWATbot designs for no reason it’s OBVIOUS what they’re gonna do with Snively later, even though it doesn’t make much sense because he knows what a Bad Boss Eggman and Robotnik were and HATES THEM!
I mean, even if Snively did keep fighting Eggman, which would fit in better with him since he’s always been scheming against him ANYWAYS, I still couldn’t picture the Freedom Fighters wanting to keep him around even if this didn’t happen. Eventually they’d get sick of him either from old grudges and mistrust or from him being an extremist wild card as they’d discover his personal schemes against Eggman.
Remember how they lectured him and Robotnik that real Freedom Fighters don’t take lives? He would be a lone agent eventually and that’d be fine with me. HE CAME OFF as such in the Metal Sonic Troopers arc. It helps that he once told Amy he doesn’t care about the Freedom Fighters and just wants revenge on ADAM.
So yeah, I’m not saying he likes them, but he doesn’t have to team up with Eggman, the worst boss ever, when he should remember how ineffectual his scheming against him was for the most part, which is to say, he never did ANY, but he was actually good at scheming against Robotnik since he even killed him.
It would be perfectly logical, him going back to him, if he explained in his thoughts that the ONLY reason he’s joining Eggman is to scheme against him from the inside as a double agent like he did with Robotnik. And in that case, couldn’t he tell the heroes that? AND warn them about Knothole being in danger so they finally build a force field already? I mean, they’re his best bet against Eggman! Shouldn’t he want them to keep existing so they could take him down – no? He thinks he can do it himself?
He goes to Hope who says that she’s working on building her own plane as a project from Uncle Chuck. Well, that came out of nowhere, but it’s a reimagining of an old character that I agree with, it’s better than her just being a normal little girl. He tells Hope that the plane could take her far away from here. I love how awkward he is about going to talk to Hope and awkwardly deciding to start a conversaiton with her more naturally, it’s so relatable! I miss THIS Snively, A HUMAN BEING, not a cartoon villain.
He tells her that she might benefit from going to be with her own people, which she can do since she has a plane and there’s more human cities than just Station Square all of a sudden, as the Overlanders have expanded cities all over the regions. It makes sense that the humans would expand, especially since a United Federation was mentioned in Shadow the Hedgehog.
After Snively calls himself Hope’s big brother out of NOWHERE, when he’s too old to qualify and she SHOULD have a harder time forgiving someone who HAPPILY assisted in her father’s DEATH, the two of them hug and hold hands as Hope says she’ll think about traveling the world and going to a human city, with no mention of any excuse for leaving like ” I always felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb here anyways! ” Logically, the future would bring Eggman firing Snively because he said ” no more henchmen nonsense. “
You know, it would’ve been better writing if Snively HAD agreed to go with Hope. Especially since she’ll be able to fight Robotnik there just fine from all the way over there, so maybe he could too. But no, that’d be creative. Hope really is the most idealistic person on the face of the earth to hug and hold hands with someone who was happy when her father was murdered. Of course, his true goal was to make sure Hope would be out of Knothole where she’d be safe from Eggman’s strike against it, since she’s family and all.
Unsurprisingly, predictably, Snively agrees to join Eggman because he’s a predictable one-dimensional villain who wants to rule the world so badly, and he’s all smug and unrepentant about how many times he’s been treacherous. Predictable plot is predictable. It sure is creative that this was literally the first thing Flynn did with this character the second he got a hold of him. I never would’ve imagined he’d do that!
By the way, he thanks the Mobians in his thoughts for taking him in when he needed them, so if Flynn thought to make him do this, why the fuck did he make him betray them then? Does he remember he has a soft side or NOT? He loves Hope, but he doesn’t care about the heroes, but he thanks the heroes! It would’ve been sweet if we saw him thank them to their FACES, but NO!
This issue was written by Ian Flynn. (And there were so many continuity errors that I was overwhelmed by counting them all when I was retyping this. Good god, this was a mess!) The first story was about Merlin coming back promising Tails he’ll help rebuild their family, and then after some talk using the Crown to find the Sword of Acorns, the heroes’ plans aren’t even able to take off, because the spider-kids get the Ancient Walkers killed with the Sword of Acorns and that makes Mogul break free.
And Anonymous is talking like this was all his plan when he should’ve had no way of knowing any of this would happen. So the Walkers were destroyed by the spider-kids as he apparently predicted. WHY? Just for the Evulz?…
Also, how did ADAM find out about the Ancient Walkers to BEGIN WITH? Let alone their spell keeping Mogul in the Emerald! Did Eggman ever even SEE them? Mogul was only kept in the Emerald because of an event that was written out of time and space involving Titan Tails so only Merlin and Athair knew anything about it! And the Walkers now knew too, APPARENTLY!
Since it’s the beginning of an arc, it’s hard for me to get invested since I don’t know the reason behind the plan of the villain! I don’t know his whole motivation! We should’ve learned about it from the START! I’m hoping it’ll be explained instead of him being insanely evil for no reason.
Spoiler alert, this is the same guy who decided not to send Tails into the ocean and turned off the robots threatening Tails’ friends and stopped the launching of nukes just because he had fun playing riddles with Tails, who decided not to spread his mechanizing nanites all over the world and make Bunnie become one with a computer purely because Sonic convinced him not to. And somehow he did all this, he FREED MOGUL and Ixis for NO REASON!
This story wasn’t that appealing to me even on the first read, but by THIS point, now I’m just overwhelmed by the massive amount of continuity errors and plot holes it has, the Character Derailment of ADAM as an insane psychopath, and Merlin being disgraced as a character, instead of using his magic to give the Destructix the humiliation they deserved.
This story has 21 plot holes in a row, making it the 5th most sloppily written story in the comic, and I’m ashamed that I only caught 8 of them the first time I counted, because wow, how did I miss all of this? This ADAM plan was just ridiculous! So much of this story is on shaky foundation to begin with.
And the second story was just about Snively going back to Eggman because that’s how it was from the beginning and since SatAM, and because he’s evil and knows he doesn’t belong with the heroes. At the very least, the INCREDIBLE predictability, is accompanied by him doing something good and considerate as he tells Hope, since she’s family, to leave Knothole in a desire to protect her.
But in retrospect, they took the lazy route with Snively, and Eggman had NO REASON to go ask him to join him again. I could take or leave Hope leaving to live in Station Square. I think she had to do that EVENTUALLY if she ever wanted to have children anyways, but really all this did was make her show up less as a character by kicking her out of Knothole JUST when she became an engineer. Didn’t she say it was the most beautiful place she’d ever seen? So much for that defining moment of her character. Let’s just ignore that character arc completely, then!
Issue 163:
We start out with narration by the villain saying that he wants to ensure that the most powerful threats to Sonic will remain so that HE will destroy them… WHY? Why does, why can’t SONIC just destroy them for him? Wouldn’t that just be HARDER for HIM? Unless he had Mogul released specifically to fight Sonic and friends who he spared in the “ Home “ arc by the way, why would he ever release Mogul just to have him be destroyed instead of keeping him in the Emerald where he’d never be a threat to either of them?
Sonic taunts Mogul about him using a force field to protect himself, saying that this somehow proves he’s not as powerful anymore rather than proving that he’s playing it smart. And the paladin insists that the Ancient Walkers are the noblest beings EVER to walk the earth, even though they did nothing to take down Eggman or Ixis or Kodos, or any of the other evil villains out there, hoarding their magical powers to themselves!
If anything, they’re neutral at best! Plus, why the fuck would he accuse Mogul of killing the Walkers when obviously Mogul couldn’t have done ANYTHING when trapped in that Emerald? It’s obvious that someone ELSE released him!
Mogul knocks everyone out with a wave of chaos energy instead of KILLING them like would be SMART because I guess he doesn’t WANT to win. What even WAS that chaos energy, physically? Couldn’t have been electricity or it would’ve went through their hearts and killed them all, and they don’t look burned.
And he takes the Crown of Acorns just like that. That Crown is so useless, it could’ve protected Elias with a force field, made him intangible, sent him into the Source of All to protect him, but it’s never done anything like that and never will.
ADAM tells Eggman that while the Egg Grape Chamber has cooled down he doesn’t think he should return just yet. While a textbox on the left of the panel feels intrusive as it continues on recapping stuff saying nothing that’s obviously related to what’s at hand, Eggman says dismissively to ADAM that ADAM doesn’t think, he analyzes and processes. As if that’s different! ADAM has NO reason to do anything for Eggman anymore when it’s obvious he’ll never get the respect he really wants.
ADAM opens the door and the narration explains that the dimensional breach, had released Ixis from the Zone of Silence, even though the Zone of Silence and the “ zone “ where Athair and Aurora were, have nothing to DO with each other! This is SO lazy!
By THAT logic, shouldn’t a lot MORE people from all sorts of other zones be here as well Ixis? Why not MULTIPLE Ixises from MULTIPLE Zones of Silence while we’re at it? Moebius has a Zone of Silence! Where’s Evil King Max? Was the dimensional breach in ALL dimensions? And yet only Ixis went through it. If Ixis had been sealed away by the Ancient Walkers’ charm like Mogul was, this would’ve made sense.
M’s eye lasers somehow do NOTHING to hurt Ixis even though they’re going RIGHT THROUGH his BODY and should fatally damage his vital organs, with only a flimsy justification of, he’s a Master of the Elements! He could’ve actually said that he’s a spirit inhabiting what only LOOKS like a physical body with working vital organs like a ghost, and that’s why it doesn’t matter, but even then, those lasers would’ve created holes in his body. Even then why doesn’t his body rot if it’s dead and just being haunted?
We didn’t need to have her shoot lasers at him and somehow fail, we could’ve just cut immediately to him dealing with her to look Genre Savvy without raising further questions. Did you know that this laser-survival concept was done in the Other M comic before this? So he tried to make this concept canon to the official comic when it never made sense for Masters of the Elements to begin with. Avatar Aang couldn’t do this!)
He freezes M’s lubricants making her into a statue of ice, which isn’t really… like, he has power over water, fire, earth and air, but… this isn’t Avatar the Last Airbender where waterbenders can also create ice! So why is he able to freeze literally anything ever even if it’s not water?!
I consider control over the cold an element by itself, but it wouldn’t fall under the 4 elements, at that point he’s going by a wider elemental power structure, but it was established from the beginning that the Order of Ixis was made of just 4 people mastering 4 basic elements. Why doesn’t he freeze Eggman too, by the way?
He says that he’s not back for vengeance just yet because Eggman wouldn’t be in the comic anymore if he was – sorry, let’s try that again. He says that he’s not back for vengeance just yet because he’s looking for the mate to the Sword of Acorns. So, the Sword being held by a spider-kid who’s willing working for some reason… I assumed from that, that this WASN’T the Sword of Acorns even though it looks just like it.
Why does Ixis want revenge against Eggman, again? Isn’t this literally the first time they’ve ever spoken? Actually it IS because he’s never spoken to THIS Robotnik before, and Robotnik Prime never did anything to Ixis as far as we know. In SatAM he trapped him in the Void, but that was SatAM, Flynn must have gotten confused.
Then Ixis teleports away because that totally falls within the domain of the 4 elements! I mean, I guess his body has water in it, but it’s also made of other stuff like skin, so… THAT wouldn’t GO! This is literally the first time he’s ever teleported. Eggman hopes that M will thaw out on her own. HOW?! There doesn’t seem to be a reheater in this hallway!
After Fang taunts the Destructix about being thrown in the cell across from him, apparently knowing they’re called the Destructix now when he’s been in prison since Issue 154 and the Destructix just told Sonic their new names for the first time, he wonders what that light is, and is shocked at seeing Mammoth Mogul enable the Destructix’s prison break, as he uses telekinesis to create a hole in the wall with green light around it. Since when can he do that? Granted, I give Mogul way more leeway with magical abilities than Ixis who should be restricted to just elemental powers.
And to be fair, maybe due to the prison’s walls being made of an earthy substance like metal, he’s earthbending to create this hole, so even if he was a master of the elements, this would still count. The force field thing certainly wouldn’t though, well not unless he was doing it by controlling air to make it solid, but then why doesn’t it visibly fall to the ground after he’s done with it, does the force field melt into gaseous air again when he’s done with it without being boiling liquid first?
Not to mention he’s teleported and absorbed magic in “ Twice Told Tails “ and what’s that got to do with elements? Well, at the very least, he’s got a Chaos Emerald in his chest to justify his omnipotence all the time.
So I guess Fang really SHOULD’VE stuck with the Destructix, but didn’t because he was more comfortable working without them. WAIT a minute, why the fuck were all of the Destructix in the SAME prison cell?! Since when does that happen?! Were we supposed to believe that there was a severe cell shortage, when no criminals are there to react to Fang’s escape later on? Logically, Mogul should’ve had to create MULTIPLE holes.
Not to mention, oh well I guess he used his psychic powers to know where the Destructix were, that’s why he knew exactly where to make that hole, never mind. Turns out it’s really easy to fill in this kind of plot hole with a theoretically omniscient psychic villain. Mogul says that the Destructix’s new name for themselves is charming, either that or old-fashioned, whatever definition of quaint he’s using. I hate that word!
He tells them he wants the Sword of Acorns, and JUST THEN Ixis and his ninjas warps directly TO him! I guess Ixis had magical Crown sensing powers! Wasn’t it supposed to lead people to the Sword? Well it HAD turned out that rather than the Sword of Acorns showing the way to the Crown, giving it to the monarch would make the Crown appear on his head because of his fusion with the Source of All earlier. Well, Ixis never fused with it, so maybe that’s why the Crown didn’t come to him, plus the Crown wasn’t in The Hall of Limbo.
But, um, you would think that, unless the Source of All was a well-kept royal secret – that the king told Dr Quack about no problem – Ixis in all his time working in the castle would’ve discovered the Source of All and fused with it by now if he could teleport just fine.
Wouldn’t he have been curious about where they got the Sword and Crown and wanna go searching the castle? You know, it would’ve made more sense if Mogul teleported to Ixis INSTEAD, because he’s a psychic who would know where to teleport. Ixis would have no possible way of knowing where to go next, and he should be restrained more in his powers than this!
Oh, by mate to the Sword, I thought he meant friend to the Sword, the one CARRYING the Sword, not the Crown! That makes a lot more sense. I was confused by his overly formal speech. So Ixis was holding the Sword of Acorns and Mogul was holding the Crown.
So Ixis must have been the one with the spider-kids the whole time and not the villain doing the narration. I was confused at first because the villain was talking in the narration as if HIS plan was being achieved when Ixis destroyed the Walkers and the spider-kids did their thing, when he wasn’t doing anything and should’ve had no way of knowing this would turn out well for him with no exposure to any knowledge of the Walkers and them.
On the bright side, it is epic that this confrontation is happening between the two. Ixis says he’s fused the Void with the Zone of Silence offscreen earlier. Huh? I thought the Void was always the Zone of Silence because they were ALWAYS referred to interchangeably. After Ixis says that he’s the last great lord of the “ Order of… Isis… “ a pretty cringeworthy and inexcusable misspelling there, the Freedom Fighters and the Chaotix show up before the two of them could start to fight.
Fang squeezes between the bars of his cell EASILY escaping it, WAIT, WHAT?! I mean that DOES explain how he could escape the FIRST Knothole Prison but if he can do THAT, then why didn’t he do it the minute he COULD?! What kinda criminal would happily stay in a cell if he didn’t HAVE to?! And if the logic is he’s skinny, well SNIVELY’S skinny, too! But of course the guards in the Devil’s Gulag would’ve just beat him up if he did that and got caught by them. He’d have to do it at night. That would’ve been a better explanation for him escaping.
But yeah, if Fang can escape so easy, that makes all the time he spent in this cell and Knothole Prison before Issue 40 forced. I mean, while his body IS skinny, his head is still way too wide to believably fit through the bars, and it’s obvious, just looking at him escaping that cell, it looks like he must have had his head PHASE THROUGH the bars to get past them!
He decides to hit the kitchen on the way out, and leave his former gang bunnies – gang buddies a gift, probably as a punishment for hating him. AS I wonder why they would make a cell SO POORLY MADE that a criminal would be able to squeeze through the bars, in a world with Rotor and advanced metals in it, I also have to wonder how Flynn’s idea from an interview of “ he left a bomb behind for his gang “ could ever be possible when Fang was just in a prison, which confiscates all your stuff, so he shouldn’t have a bomb or access to materials to make one early enough that he’s saying this right now.
I guess we have to assume that the bomb was in his hat all along, but they would check his hat obviously, and why didn’t he just use the bomb way earlier then, on a gang that probably was bullying him here?
In fact, Fang even still having his trademark hat and belt and stuff is forced because he should just be in a prison uniform. ALL of the Destructix in the Devil’s Gulag should’ve had prison uniforms, in retrospect, so they only looked the same from dumb meta logic of “ don’t change their designs or the viewers might forget who they are! “ And this rule actually being followed in Scourge Lockdown just makes THIS all the more confusing.
We cut back to a huge fight involving so many characters in one panel that it took several tedious seconds for me to look at all of them! Again, you can’t get invested in a fight scene drawn like this confined to just ONE panel, because it doesn’t have enough panels to tell a story. We see Fiona still punching Drago.
Eggman is told by ADAM that only the occupied Egg Grapes were “ lost to the Zone of Silence “ because that happened apparently, OFFSCREEN. I have a question, what reason did Ixis HAVE to send Eggman’s occupied Egg Grapes to the Zone of Silence he’ll never return to where of course they wouldn’t be able to keep doing their thing from being disconnected? Especially since we were told “ biofield deletion complete, “ so everyone in the occupied Egg Grapes is gone regardless, right?
What would Ixis do with them and their energy, when he never plans on ever returning to that place ANYWAYS? It’s not like he was trying to heroically save the people in the Egg Grapes way too late because the Egg Grapes went WITH them. It feels like this happened out of nowhere just to make Eggman lose his “ power to the city “ generators rather than the heroes destroying the Egg Grapes for a satisfying victory.
And Ixis said that he’ll get his vengeance LATER and FIRST he wants to find the Crown of Acorns, so he didn’t do it for revenge. ADAM says the non-occupied Egg Grapes are still here. Eggman naturally complains that this doesn’t do him any good, which is amusing.
M then shows up back to normal because I guess she went into a reheater that we saw no hint of? He said that he hoped she would thaw herself, so how? How much TIME has passed?! Seconds? I guess we’re supposed to assume there was a big time skip! ADAM explains that he’s determined how the spider-ninjas infiltrated this area because he’s found who orchestrated this with Anonymous.
He said Anonymous did it with the help of Mecha. Mecha is naturally shocked at being accused of conspiring in all of this! And if it’s true, it’ll, ESPECIALLY be confusing since when she heard about Eggman’s draining-people plan she said “ very good, “ in response to his sadism, even though it was her who was also uncomfortable with it asking why it was necessary.
ADAM is asked for proof and makes them watch as M was told by a villain that he’s organized the spider-kids, who are still honor-bound to serve Ixis because their mother did a while ago. SO MUCH a while ago that she only ever laid those eggs AFTER HE WAS SEALED AWAY, because that happened before she uncrystallised! So huh?!
And how the hell does Eggman not instantly recognize ADAM’s voice from Anonymous’ speech in this video? M doesn’t tell Eggman that Anonymous’ voice is different in the video when that would’ve been the perfect chance for her to get ADAM in trouble for revenge. Seriously, WHY doesn’t she get ADAM in trouble?!
M agrees that she’ll remotely trigger the Egg Grapes at the right time and then she and Anonymous can rule together. Seeing this just makes it all the more obvious that this SHOULD’VE been a genuine deal between the two and we didn’t need to have ADAM randomly betray M like this for no apparent benefit. She did nothing to him, Eggman never once said he liked M better, They NEVER had a sibling rivalry, they never even INTERACTED!
This REALLY comes out of nowhere! With her “ how could you forget your darling daughter moment, “ that makes sense, but THAT was just Snively scrambling her brain. But THIS, this is just “ the robot turns on its master for no reason, “ cliché! Assuming that the video is true, at least Penders ave Heavy and Bomb free will-giving Power Gems to explain why THEY turned on their masters!
It’s like, the writer’s really arbitrarily trying to find a reason to get rid of M. Did fans hate her or something? ADAM then apologizes that he couldn’t record who Anonymous was because he somehow used a field to corrupt his data regarding him and yet didn’t corrupt M’s data.
Eggman then immediately tells M to initiate self-destruct now, and tells ADAM to delete all back-ups on M’s data, which ADAM says he’ll do without hesitation. This is pretty awkward considering he kept calling M his daughter, and ADAM and M are siblings! This could’ve been done in a far less lazy, more climatic way if Ixis had crystallized M and taken control of her to attack Eggman, so M would have to self-terminate to save Eggman or at least would get destroyed by a missile of Eggman’s mecha or something like that.
Then Eggman says to annihilate Project Metal Snively from Issues 140 and 141, who we arbitrarily haven’t seen since and who he didn’t think was a perfectly fine replacement for Snively. Also, I don’t remember even seeing him in the Return to Angel Island arc to begin with, I just remember him from the Tommy infiltrator arc!
He says, “ No more of this henchman nonsense. Hunter couldn’t bother to survive a drop into the ocean. My own daughter betrays me. No more of it. “ What about SNIVELY? He falls under the same category, and we see him later! So the only reason he’s still with Eggman rather than Metal Snively, the obviously more loyal robot, is because of meta logic. Snively was his most treacherous henchman, he literally killed the first Robotnik! You would think that this would lead to Snively being rejected!
Eggman complains that because he wants to prevent Ixis from becoming more powerful, he has to reluctantly help Sonic against him and prevent him from gaining the Crown of Acorns. After Eggman is told that his spy satellites, which somehow hadn’t detected where Knothole was when he needed to know that, show Ixis fighting Mogul and every major target, Eggman says he just came up with a back-up plan.
Ixis complains about, err, SOMETHING, happened, saying that he perfected the “ crystalline magicks! “ Magicks?! That’s not a word! My spellchecker just underlined it. But yeah, Ixis’ other arm is covered in crystal now and there’s green gas below him. Mogul points out he’s relied too heavily on his Zone of Silence which he’s more powerful in.
Despite Ixis clearly being at a disadvantage, Ixis tells Mogul that he’d make a fine pawn when properly possessed, which is a pretty gutsy thing to tell him! At a time like this! To be fair, an arrogant villain WOULD brag to him instead of just DOING IT ALREADY. You’d think he’d do it and win immediately! Why does he think he can possess him if he hasn’t made a contract with him, when apparently he needs one to do that?
And Mogul does, uh, SOMETHING, surrounding himself with green light while there’s eyes in front of him for no reason. It’s not really clear, I just see green fire and wonder why Ixis didn’t die from it! This isn’t a satisfying fight between them! We’ve barely seen them fight so far and what we HAVE seen is way too vague, so this isn’t worth all the plot holes required to get them together so far.
Merlin says that Mogul’s just toying with him and which is thankfully said to explain why he didn’t teleport Ixis apart with his teleportation power, and maybe Ixis was just having fun toying with him too to explain why he didn’t do that, or freeze him inside out, as HE could also easily win the fight instantly instead of them just doing fancy light shows at each other.
With the complete lack of logic in their fighting strategy, he somehow knows where this is going. So they should all get one of the artifacts while they can. The horsehead knight tells him to go for the Sword of Acorns with him preotecting him. A WIZARD NEEDS PROTECTION, NOW! A wizard who can summon tangible illusions of a million different monsters, needs protection!
Of course, they both get in trouble immediately because neither of these characters are allowed to be competent anymore. They both INSTANTLY get grabbed by telekinesis! I guess Ixis and Mogul heard what they were planning. They DO have big ears.
Sonic and Knuckles rescue them with Sonic saying heartwarmingly, “ Would you mind not dying? Tails is fond of having a family again! “ Yeah he IS, Merlin.
Rather than Ixis immediately possessing Mogul proving that having that power should’ve let him win over anyone effortlessly, logic takes a backseat. Ixis says to someone I’m guessing is Mogul that he has a mastery of the Ixis Magicks, despite the fact that only Ixis can possess people. So Ixis is clearly the more powerful one, but this “ arrogant “ guy who was arrogant enough to just brag instead of immediately possessing just acts humble and admits inferiority way too easily. Ixis references that Mogul had called it HIS Order, and asks if it could really be him.
Mogul wastes a few panels of the comic with worthless recap of how he used to rule the world, and then he reveals that he was the one who formed the Order of Ixis. Oh NOW it’s “ Ixis… “ It makes sense since he’s magical too. But I thought it was only called the Order of Ixis because it was named after Ixis Naugus.
What, did Ixis’ parents name him after Ixis Mogul of the Order of Ixis while hoping he’ll become a wizard as great as him? I guess so even though Mogul should’ve been quite hated! And ANCIENT! But somehow, some way, his bid for world domination was crushed by MORTALS during a somehow forgotten war with the Albion Knights of Aurora.
Seriously how is a war that significant against a WORLD RULER just forgotten about THAT EASILY?! How could he have lost the war when he’s so magical?! We saw him lose world dominance because of someone who looked like a blue hedgehog, an echidna, and Mobie the caveman, NOT any Albion knights although the echidna would’ve had to have been from Albion, but he clearly was another caveman, not a knight. At least when he was overthrown by a blue hedgehog, we could’ve assumed he had the special power of speed, so it made more sense!
He tells Ixis that he was once known as Ixis Mogul. Good to know that his parents didn’t literally name him Mammoth. THAT would’ve been lame! Lazy of them! I guess after all those centuries, it makes sense that he’d see “ mammoth “ as special enough to be a name because mammoths are probably extinct by now and thus more special.
Mammoth Mogul’s name actually being mammoth also would make no sense since the English word “ mammoth “ wouldn’t have existed back in the caveman days for Mogul to use. Predictably because the two have a connection, they’re going to join forces and reform the Ancient Order of Ixis after thousands of years.
Elias says that Geoffrey’s rallying the palace guard, as Fiona’s expressing compassion asking if Sonic is okay, and Sonic asks the same about her, causing her to say the charming response, “ Peachy! “ She even TALKS like him! And Sally shows her jealous side being resentful from it.
The story ends with the narration of the villain SOMEHOW not being surprised at this turn of events because he says, “ Phase 2 complete! “ as if he knew that Ixis would serve Mogul! You know there’s such a thing as a villain being TOO effective. Knowing things he shouldn’t? Being capable of too much? It’s called being a “ Villain Sue. “
Well I’d rather a villain be a legitimate threat you’d want to be defeated so I’ll actually care, but it’s really RIDICULOUS that he expected EVEN THIS. And it’s not “ all or nothing, “ because you can have a villain be a LEGITIMATE threat without being an out-and-out Villain Sue Creator’s Pet.
In the next story, Jet the Hawk gets captured by a giant robot from being knocked off his air board in a futuristic city that would ONLY FIT if it was in an alternate zone from the Prime one. Is he in a human city that the Overlanders spread out to? There’s a page missing. Let’s just say that after this, Eggman loses all of his brain cells and Jet doesn’t know who Sonic is.
Then Sonic says to give exposition to the audience that Nicole’s magic sensors told him where the intruder was, a few MILES from Freedom HQ and she still picked it up as an intruder, and then he immediately gets taunted by Jet and his friends.
Didn’t Jet JUST get captured by a robot? I’m starting to think all these short game adaptations are horribly written, which makes sense since they only exist to shill a game, and there’s something fundamentally impure and insincere about that lack of originality. Oh, okay, it’s explained that Jet was recruited by Eggman and THAT’S why he was captured, and not roboticized afterwards. Can you tell that the roboticization being made impossible concept was impossibly illogical? Because this is the second time I forgot all about it happening during a game adaptation.
He still could’ve tried putting nanobots in Jet like he did with Geoffrey and threatening to do what he did to Geoffrey if Jet didn’t comply, and that would’ve made Jet’s agreeing to threaten Knothole when he’s a mere thief and not a monster a lot less forced.
Jet taunts that he’ll move onto Knothole after Sonic’s defeated, because he’s a one-dimensional villain with NO reason for doing ANYTHING in this comic, and therefore would have no problem with threatening it! Normally he’s all about money, so I could understand him stealing, but that’s IT. Remember, Jet and his friends helped Sonic fight Eggman in Zero Gravity.
They all attack Sonic and oh the story’s over. That was IT? We just had them each attack Sonic and remind us that one of them’s a Power Type, and Jet’s a Speed Type when he’s only speedy with his airboard that the others have TOO. And that wasted page was supposed to be cool apparently and not irritating from heartless bad guys easily humiliating Sonic. The Riders adaptation WILL continue next issue but that felt very empty!
This issue was written by Ian Flynn and the first story had M SOMEHOW AGREE to self-terminating after being caught betraying Eggman and tattled on for it for no apparent reason. You’d think if she was a traitor she would’ve REFUSED to self-terminate and ran off on her own, since she had the free will to betray him in the first place! If she cared so much about what Eggman thinks of her that she would agree to self-terminating because he SAID SO out of GUILT, then why did, why did she, try to betray him in the FIRST place?
And wouldn’t M agreeing to self-termination so easily have proven her loyalty to Eggman and thus proven that the video was faked, immediately getting Eggman to turn on ADAM instead? Instead M is killed off way too easily to give ADAM an easy victory when it could’ve been written more naturally with Ixis crystallizing and taking control of her.
This just comes out of nowhere as a lame excuse to get rid of M. Did the fans hate her because she wasn’t in SatAM, and they did it to please the fans? Is that why they killed off the Ancient Walkers too? Apparently Flynn was forced to kill M because the executives butted in and forced him to for no reason. Or at least that’s what he SAID. I never liked M anyways, and I heard Flynn did, but if he was forced to do this, he could’ve done it more naturally.
Also Mammoth Mogul and Ixis team up because it turns out Mogul formed the Order of Ixis in the first place – oh, sorry, “ Order of Isis, “ and somehow the major villain of this arc had predicted this turn of events because bullshit. I HIGHLY DOUBT he knew this plot twist. So how would HE know they’d team up?!
Wouldn’t Ixis possessing Mogul be the much more logical outcome? I think that even a kindergartner playing “ who would beat who in a fight “ would have Ixis winning immediately because Ixis can possess people, which automatically ends any fight! In fact, he should’ve done that to Sonic and won his fight earlier.
It was epic, though, lots of tension. At least in THEORY due to them fighting with the Sword and Crown after some build-up, because in PRACTICE, the villains’ fight scene was way too vague with no indication of what their green light was supposed to be and with barely any panels dedicated to it. So I wasn’t invested. Even the tension wasn’t real because come on, if Mogul didn’t kill the heroes when they were knocked out, he’ll never do it.
Then when ADAM inexplicably gets M in trouble as a traitor, Eggman tells M to self-terminate. But I was really surprised at him doing that to his so-called daughter! Eggman was the LAST PERSON I’d have expected to kill M! And that’s not good writing! I thought he’d be begging the person attacking her to stop in a dramatic scene!
I knew M would die because I remembered reading that it happened on TV Tropes, but I thought SONIC would be the one to do it! It’d make more SENSE to have the main character of the franchise earn a major victory over M, but Archie stops at nothing to cheat the heroes out of permanent long-standing victories. In fact, maybe I should make a list of them later, but the only thing stopping me is that I’m not sure I’ll be able to remember every single time.
Even EVE I would’ve expected to have killed M more; she’d be a huge dangerous threat easily capable of doing that, back then I hadn’t understood properly that EVE had killed herself by going into the nearest star because that wasn’t dwelt on properly and kinda came out of nowhere for a remorseless killer robot, and EVE wanted to kill Eggman earlier, so her instead returning to try to kill Eggman again and killing M instead would’ve made more sense as a way to kill off M.
There’s lots of ways M could’ve been killed off more naturally, like Ixis could’ve crystallized her to be his slave and Eggman would tell her or ADAM to have M self-terminated out of fear, or M could’ve run off instead of self-terminating and eventually gotten killed by missiles or by Snively using her against Eggman to fatal results. Instead, M being killed off was incredibly rushed and uninspired.
And the second story is really hollow and basic. Literally all that happens is, Jet gets captured by a robot while going around a futuristic city totally out of place in Mobius Prime with no development on it to explain how it exists on Archie Mobius, which is weird for a comic to not do, and he’s inexplicably RECRUITED by Eggman and he agreed to his evil plan with no regrets.
WHY are these guys villains?! Why are they helping Eggman? Why wouldn’t they hate him just as much as everyone ELSE does?! I know they’re thieves, but they’re JUST thieves, I expect better from a comic! Comics are supposed to explain things better because they’re more dedicated to story! Some fans actually complain about this comic explaining too much as if it’s a bad thing that the writers put care and passion into their writing by thinking about it more than they have to. So what happened to that? There’s no explanations here, stuff just happens!
It’s especially glaring since in the ACTUAL Riders games, they fight Eggman alongside Sonic when the time comes! It’s good to have originality, as long as it’s EXPLAINED, and it’s never explained why Archie Jet is the kind of monster who would seriously threaten Knothole with no remorse. When he’s just about money.
This story doesn’t make any sense, I don’t see how it’s supposed to promote the game when its plot is absolutely nothing like it, and yet its plot is so basic with so little happening in it, and none of it makes SENSE, so I don’t see its being original as making it worth anything! It’s just there to shill the game!
The game adaptations used to be the most awesome part of the comic, with so much care put into them! Sonic Blast the 3D blast adaptation may have some stilted dialogue, but it was still amazing compared to this, with tons of originality and creativity, and even SA1’s samey adaptation was still more creative and well-written than these two.
I’m guessing they only do them because the writer was forced to adapt them when the main comic is in its own little story arc with no room to fit a game adaptation at the moment, but it’s weird that Sega started forcing these adaptations again now when they didn’t care enough to force adaptations of Heroes and Shadow and 06, because it really feels like they’re just here out of obligation!
Issue 164:
We start out with the heroes being attacked by Ixis and Mogul’s forces, with Fiona complaining that this is getting tiresome. And Sonic, after saying he never disappoints the ladies, actually jokes around that he did disappoint Sally instead of not being self-aware of his own faults. That kinda surprised me! Elias gets shocked and knocked out by the Crown of Acorns because the Source of All was permanently changed to be on Mogul’s side, and he took until now to think to do this somehow. This is an interesting concept.
Just for the sake of making me wonder why the Walkers didn’t tell Connery to go after MOGUL the BIGGEST THREAT before he was ever sealed away, the paladin says that he thought he had finished getting rid of all dark magic when he had slain, “ Domoleces the Elder, “ – Don’t you mean “ Damocles?! “ How could he misspell that so badly?!
It’s also weird to think that he only very recently killed Damocles when Knuckles met him the story after he met Connery. So, yeah, you’d think Connery would’ve been told by the omniscient Ancient Walkers to go with Knuckles and find Damocles, kill two birds in one sword, because I forgot who Damocles was and thought it was the enchantress’ boyfriend, at first I thought this line was a continuity error, but no, we never actually saw him meet Damocles.
Sonic gets trapped in a rock complaining that it’s not fair, and the paladin goes to fight Mogul with the Sword of Light, and says that he has to destroy the Source of All since it’s been corrupted, and he’s already despairing enough to think there’s no other way. So did the fans HATE the Source of All and so Flynn’s destroying it out of FANSERVICE? And the Source of All is supposed to be the source of everything. Maybe even the substance that’s the basis of everything! So wouldn’t it being destroyed radically affect the universe?
Apparently NOT, as the paladin Sir Connery gives his very life to destroy the corrupted Source. I guess that means the, magical artifacts the Sword of Acorns, AND the CROWN, were written out of the comic unceremoniously. That’s a shame, they could’ve been used by the comic a LITTLE more, couldn’t they have? (It could’ve restored Mecha Sally’s free will. I’d rather have that depressing plot point end early.)
It’s just then when Eggman tells his airships to fire at will, hitting plenty of villains like the criminals and Mogul with lasers to send them to his Egg Grapes. Well, while this did rob the heroes of a potential victory against them putting them in Knothole Prison, the heroes would’ve been outnumbered here and would’ve probably had a surprisingly hard time actually getting them in prison, especially Ixis and Mogul. So they needed Eggman’s help here, but I hate having to say that.
Eggman tells Sonic that he’s not after him today. This idiot could’ve blasted the HEROES with these Egg Grapes teleportation lasers, but NOPE. He talks about what a threat the villains were to justify his action, and says that he’s lost a lot today because of them, showing M. But M didn’t die because of Ixis and Mogul! Did he forget or what?! And Eggman isn’t gonna cry in remorse for M, like I always assumed he would, so when I was expecting it to have emotional impact, it didn’t.
Sonic points out that “ you just blasted them? You usually aren’t that clean-cut. “ You’re damn right he’s not. That’s why he didn’t win a long time ago. Eggman then reveals he really IS that stupid because instead of just killing them, his lasers just teleported them away using the technology he wasted on the Hunter, making them his captives now.
Also, why the hell would he TELL SONIC he did this and risk him going to rescue them from a death trap, like actual heroes would do instead of sitting on their asses and NEVER thinking to save them? Because he’s an idiot. Wouldn’t that be an obvious mission for the heroes to do? Are they really that pragmatic that ” saving their lives ” doesn’t ever cross t heir minds as the right thing to do? That’s OOC for Sally. They don’t go on missions nearly enough, sometimes it feels like they’re surprisingly passive because they just wait for Eggman to bother THEM.
The Egg Fleet flies away because Eggman arbitrarily decides not to use it against Knothole now, even though Eggman has every reason to be in a bad enough mood now to destroy Knothole. This is painfully obvious meta logic as it only happened because Flynn must have wanted that story to happen later, but instead, it takes 10 more issues to happen! 10! I could understand a few, but not 10! ” Because I’m an idiot. ” I don’t remember him being this stupid BEFORE Issue 160.
We cut Elias, at Connery’s grave, who lampshades sadly, “ I wanted to take back so much of the old kingdom, and so much was taken away in one day. “ EXACTLY. Blame Flynn for that, Elias. Well at least now the kingdom can modernize easier!
Elias asks how he can reform a court when one life is too much to ask for his kingdom, and Sonic says, “ Do you think we’re just going to cut out the hero stuff just because we lost someone, “ with no question mark after the text! I thought after Penders left we’d be free of spelling and grammar mistakes in the text. Also, why does Sonic even think that he’s talking about cutting out the hero stuff ANYWAYS? Reforming a court for no reason doesn’t have to do with that at all! That’s just a king thing! It’s a Non-Sequiter! Gah! Why is Sonic’s mouth extending so far below his chin?!
Elias is encouraged by Sonic not to give up, and he decides to pass down the Sword of Light down the Acorn bloodline. Sonic compliments his speech-making skills for someone who avoided the crown for so long which is charming! And Elias says that there’s no rest for the king, but he promises to sit down for a minute at least! Like brother, like sister!
Sonic has the line, “ OK, so we’ve lost the Ancient Walkers. NOW who do we turn to for a Deus ex Machina? “ I HATED that LINE because it broke the fourth wall and completely took me out of the scene! This is worse fourth-wall-breaking than anything in the pre-50s! And just when I mentioned “ unprofessional, “ too.
Sonic wouldn’t say, “ Deus ex Machina, “ in-universe when referring to things that happen to him in his life! I refuse to believe he’d even know what the term MEANT! He’s not a literature critic! He’s not a reviewer! It’s true that they could qualify, but it feels not only jarring and immersion-breaking, but also MEANSPIRITED!
It’s like, I get it, he killed them off for FANSERVICE, but he’s probably gonna keep using Deus ex Machinas anyways that WEREN’T previously established as a long-standing part of the lore like the magical Walkers were and thus make even less sense! It’s bragging that the comic will be better written when that’s presumptuous because every writer has Deus ex Machinas eventually.
Sonic shouldn’t be saying this, he’s less like himself this way and more like the writer possessed him to talk to the audience! Also I’d like to point out that, the Ancient Walkers were, a RARE Deus ex Machina, compared to, NICOLE with her, technology hacking bullshit powers that made even LESS sense, or compared to, Sonic getting brand new bullshit powers that make no sense!
At least the Walkers were MAGICAL! They were the LEAST terrible Deus ex Machina, they were the ones that made the most sense! This won’t make the comic more logical, it’ll make it LESS because now the Deus ex Machinas will be even more contrived.
Merlin reassures Tails that he still has a few connections. And he’s gonna make me wish he never had them. ADAM tells Eggman that Mogul is protecting him and the Destructix in the Egg Grapes from biofield deletion, and Eggman sadistically says to let them struggle.
And while he has lost a few THOUSAND Mobians apparently, sheesh I expected way smaller numbers – he has some top quality catches now! After all, Mogul and Ixis are powerful so there’s tons of energy to drain, and the Destructix are evil.
Then he says, “ And now that the Void has been fused with the Zone of Silence- “ WAIT a minute! I THOUGHT those were the same thing! We heard the king was sent into “ The Void “ AS WELL as the Zone of Silence! Why fuse them if they’re the same thing?! What’s the point?! Is it good writing to write stuff that only confuses long-time fans instead of rewarding them, while the newbies won’t know any better and will get the better experience? I’d think the long-time fans should be appealed to more, honestly.
Remember the issue where Snively replaced Eggman and sent Sonic into ” The Void? ” That machine he used was the same machine that was used against the KING! Anyways since THAT thing happened apparently, the power he obtains will be far more stable and thus useful. WHY? Don’t know!….
I’m not sure who’s talking in the last panel. The text is green like ADAM’s but it mentions both ADAM and Anonymous by NAME! So wouldn’t it mean there’s a third party instead? After all, there’s CLEARLY a Robotnik-shaped body on that screen, like Bollers intended, and yet this foreshadowing from the pre-Flynn days is showcased just to be contradicted.
I wouldn’t expect ADAM to mention himself in the third person. How is he talking through the screen? We see a screen showing a silhouetted ROBOTNIK and the text, probably belonging to the villain Anonymous, brags about his plan and says that ADAM, determines Anonymous’ movements.
And he plans to have both Sonic and Eggman destroyed! I get Eggman, but why Sonic?! I wondered at this point, is this ADAM, or is ADAM taken over and reprogrammed by Finitevus? Or better yet, Snively? Where’s the motives for any of these villains here? Yeah, it WOULD’VE been better if ADAM was just taken over by Snively. After all, we SAW HIM join EGGMAN! And he’s NOT WITH him! Like the writer forgot!
Speaking of forgot, next issue we’ll learn something that makes him wanting to destroy Eggman just confusing. He says “ Soon you and Sonic will be destroyed as well. “ But then he says, “ You will love me best, Father, “ but how does he expect that when he plans to destroy him, how can he want both at the same time?!
In the next story we continue with the Riders story where Sonic goes home to a rocky cave that is gray instead of a distinctive brown like the one in his base, to the point where I wondered if the story even took place in the same universe. Sonic complains about having a headache, and I feel pretty bad for him as he tells him, “ Tone it down on the volume and the macho, Knux, “ and Tails is really worried about him while Knux is protective!
I like that Sonic’s pride is wounded by not being as fast as the Babylon Rogues on their boards! But I really have to wonder how they could possibly be faster than him to begin with, considering that this is the same guy who ran around an entire planet in multiple occasions in a really short amount of time, which would be even faster than sonic speed would let him do! The Babylon Rogues didn’t do that!
I really like that Tails actually gives an explanation for why he was making airboards! Sonic lampshades, “ And you were making airboards, why? “ And Tails explains that it’s so the rest of his friends can keep up with Sonic on missions. That’s a great explanation and I’m glad he said it! The problem is, I feel like these boards will be ignored outside of the Riders adaptation, because they’ll be seen as just a Riders thing, and they’ll worry that fans would whine about it otherwise.
I’m getting this feeling because this story feels so pointless to the main comic that I don’t trust it to take place in the same UNIVERSE, and the airboards still constantly being used after this seems too good to be true. And indeed, we don’t see every hero besides Sonic always using these to justify not slowing Sonic down on every mission anymore.
After some pages are wasted, Jet actually thinks Sonic won’t be coming when he said he was going to attack Knothole. “ We are attacking his home after all. “ What the hell does that have to do with THEFT?! We didn’t SEE Eggman tell Jet that he’d pay him a lot of money, so what’s his motivation?!
And when Sonic DOES show up he calls him a poser, spelled the French way with a different meaning for no reason, and says that he’ll trash Knothole out of PRINCIPLE for it! It’s official, Flynn turned him into a monster, and with no Freudian Excuse to explain WHY. It wouldn’t be so off-putting if he didn’t look exactly like the real Jet the Hawk. He cares so much about making things too much like the games and then he deviates from the games for no reason, falling into an Uncanny Valley as a result.
Why does Storm just assume Knuckles is as strong as him when he doesn’t look muscular at all! Does Storm already know about Knuckles? There’s a fight between the heroes and the villains where I really enjoyed Wave and Tails’ interaction! Tails is all bashful thanking Wave for complimenting him on his flying, and then she tells him his airboard is a piece of junk just to insult him!
And Tails immediately gets really mad at her! I wish they did that in the actual GAME instead of everyone being totally silent from it! I did like that quiet moment where Tails looked really sad before looking furious in the game, but it wasn’t nearly as good as it could’ve been because he could’ve cried and Sonic could’ve hugged him, making it actually worth him being sad.
The story ends THERE with text saying that you have to play Sonic Riders to find out how the rest of the plot went! Pulling a Sonic Shuffle adaptation and Sonic Adventure 2 on us! Just like PENDERS and BOLLERS did! And here it makes the least amount of sense, because, NOW the plot is that the Babylon Rogues were employed by Eggman to destroy Knothole, but that wasn’t the case at all in Sonic RIDERS! So we’ll NEVER know how this arc ended!
At least the character interaction and characterization was great but nothing happened! Oh yeah, and the text also mentions a Sonic X Comic? I’ll review that WAY later down the line! I’m focusing on the actual comic right now.
This issue was written by Ian Flynn. And in the first story, when Mogul reveals that he corrupted the Source of All, it now electrocutes anyone other than him that tries to use it, Sir Connery sacrifices his life to destroy it with the dark-magic-purging Sword of Light. I have a question, how does the Sword of Light know what’s good magic and what’s dark magic? How does it KNOW the user of the spell was doing it for evil reasons? Anyways, Eggman then defeats Ixis and Mogul by teleporting them into his Egg Grapes with airship lasers. That was anticlimactic. But does make SENSE.
And Anonymous, thinking in the narration that his plan worked perfectly aside from Sonic to ADAM, then reveals a connection to ADAM that wasn’t made clear. That was confusing. Maybe the reason I didn’t get it right away was because this was such a derailment from the ADAM I knew that I was giving the writing the benefit of the doubt. ADAM was a much more humorous character under Bollers, and under Flynn there was no humor to be had, he was unrecognizable even by this point. At least I didn’t hate the issue.
And the second story, well nothing really happened in it! Sonic and his friends go on airboards and fight the Babylon Rogues. The end! Plots like THIS are what I’m afraid of! I heard IDW was that basic and I’d take “ deep plots “ with effort and layers in it ANY day!
What elevates it a LITTLE is the character interaction and dialogue. I loved how Sonic was characterized here, I felt sorry for him having such a headache and, Tails was all concerned about him while Knuckles was protective. They acted exactly as I expected they would, although that’s really faint praise, they SHOULD act that way REGARDLESS, and, there’s no excuse for not having a better story. But I’m so used to the games, so, having good characterization for Knuckles is nice.
I like that Tails explained why he made these airboards. And I really liked Wave and Tails’ interaction, specifically how Tails showed off his personality in it. He got all bashful and humble being complimented on his flight by a girl, and then immediately got all furious at his OTHER unique skill of engineering being trashed. It’s better than in the game because he immediately stands up for himself, although the game does it in its own good way making him sympathetically sad, shocked and feeling helpless at it instead. But the problem is that the story doesn’t hold up because there’s not much story TO it!
A story that’s mostly just the characters interacting as people is fine for FANFICTION. After all, that’s my bread and butter. That’s not really about the plot, sometimes fanfiction is just an excuse to have conversations between characters and have them interact in a certain way. Sometimes the plot is just an annoyance that the writer has to write, to have an excuse for the conversation. And that’s fine! Not everyone’s a writer of complicated, intricate stories that take forever to think up!
But this is a professionally made comic that has its actual plot synopsis, take one short sentence! This plot is too basic with too little for me to care about it at all. When the entire plot can be summarized just fine in just one short sentence, it feels incredibly LAZY! Rushed, not enough to it! That may not be the writer’s fault though as it’s a short back-up story, but I’m sure it could’ve EASILY gotten the space it needed to resolve properly.
We could’ve had the Rogues put in Knothole Prison at the end of this story, giving the heroes a VICTORY! It was just a game adaptation that didn’t even do THAT because it ended with an advertisement that you’ll need to play the game to see what happened next! So it was more a fanfiction prologue that’s incompatible with the game, than an actual fully-fledged story! And again I expect a COMIC to elaborate more on why they’d actually be VILLAINS, but it doesn’t even do THAT! It’s just Sonic complains and then goes to fight the bad guys. The end.
Issue 165:
We start out with Knuckles, Vector, Julie and Rouge at a table, with Rouge being irritated and asked to take it from the top. Why isn’t she with Scourge? Their relationship crapped out THAT FAST? I really can’t wait to learn why she dumps him.
Although in retrospect, it was foreshadowed by the fact that she looked annoyed when Scourge said he was relying on his instincts before warping to fight Sonic and she told him to stop fighting Sonic and Tails really quickly; logically, Rouge only cares about doing evil for the sake of getting herself jewels, so it does make sense as an inevitability that she’d leave Scourge, who does more evil things she’d disapprove of. The Rouge we know isn’t villainous enough for him.
But something as major as her leaving Scourge when Penders established her joining with him earlier as a big thing, should’ve been shown onscreen, not lazily left to offscreen when it’s the resolution of a plot thread. Rouge asks resentfully if that’s how Vector treats EVERYONE who comes in looking for help and is told, “ Only those with a reputation like yours. “
I then giggled at the interaction between Knuckles and Rouge. Rouge asks Knuckles, “ I’m sure you could make all this go away, “ and Knuckles deadpans, “ Not likely. “ Vector explains that according to Sonic and Tails, she popped out of a Warp Ring right outside Freedom HQ. Without Scourge? Why?
Rouge explains that a girl has to get around SOMEHOW because Fang wouldn’t loan her his Marvelous Queen vehicle. Julie asks how she got a hold of Warp Ring technology because it’s exclusive to Angel Island. She asks why she should tell them, and Knuckles reminds her that she came to them for protection, and they can’t do anything until they know what they’re up against.
Why did she come here for PROTECTION as if she actually thought she needed it? Did she really not wanna help Dr Finitevus? Her thinking she’d ever need protection is Out of Character. IN FACT, she LIED to Locke that she wanted protection, that was her whole plan! It’d make more sense if she was brought here to be interrogated on the Warp Ring, instead, as I assumed.
Rouge is told that people have already told him that someone stepped in with the dirt on her, and we see Mighty and Ray with Ray ready to take notes and Mighty says that they really appreciate this and they’ll keep this all confidential.
I like how Fiona’s all awkward and nervous, saying, “ Sure. Sonic, I… “ probably wanting to ask him to leave the room. And Sonic reassures her with a smirk and his hand on her shoulder, “ I don’t exactly have a stellar past, either. It’s cool, Fiona. “ That’s nice, but HOW?! HOW doesn’t the hero of the world have a stellar past?! What’d he do WRONG aside from Sandblast City?! And he was forced to do that to its force field to ESCAPE it! So that doesn’t count!
This line would’ve been remotely natural if he either mentioned that city, or said that him going to Eggman’s satellite was the whole reason Mobotropolis got taken over by Eggman’s Shadow SWATbots! He also could’ve mentioned that he lost the Sword of Acorns once and got confined to Knothole, or best of all, said that a world got destroyed by EVE when he was in space because his spaceship was too late to save it! But he doesn’t mention any of this.
So it’s confusing to the first-time reader, at first I only thought of the Sandblast thing as a possible excuse. Fiona could’ve convinced herself later that he LIED to humor her because he’s giving no specific examples, so he’d come off as condescending by humoring her. But even THEN, these stains on his record are NOTHING because he’s still such a hero that he never should’ve logically said this and meant it! Isn’t Sonic supposed to be PROUD? He saved the world TWICE!
Then it’s finally made clear to me why Fiona is here. She used her past to give them information on what she learned about Rouge since they were both criminals. She calls her the best of the best. She had beaten Rouge in an illegal fighting tournament involving Bean and Bark. Wait, they JUST SAID that everything they’re told remains confidential and then Vector tells Rouge that FIONA was the one who told them about this! And nobody calls him out on this!
Then it’s explained that Rouge beat Rouge out of EVERY treasure, both ancient, and illegal… Wouldn’t the ancient ALSO be illegal? And in the latter panel, she’s seen without Nicolette.
Rouge, after being told that she’s wanted, says she’ll fill them in from when she was last here. But instead of us cutting to a genuine flashback making the rest of the story about showing us what Rouge did with Scourge from her point of view, the REST of this STORY will be nothing but her recapping her time with him, with one panel each dedicated to SUMMARIZING the events. This is about as exciting as watching PAINT dry.
Instead of the gigantic filler beginning of Rouge in the interrogation room and Fiona getting dirt on her, which we didn’t need since we already knew her history with Bean and Nicolette existed, we could’ve had those panels dedicated to showing us an actual story with her and Scourge with actual DIALOGUE, which could’ve at the very least shown us how he felt about the irony that he’d save the lives of people for Finitevus. I feel like I was cheated out of a proper story in this issue.
In fact, that’s doubly the case because shockingly, instead of this issue being about ADAM or Eggman activating the nanites in Bunnie and so on, which Issue 159 was building up to so you’d think it would’ve happened way earlier, instead that big plan of Eggman’s will actually be postponed for not just this issue but SEVERAL issues because there’s a pointless filler story arc after this! Even early on when he was doing his rush job at resolving plot threads, Flynn had a problem with padding.
I like how, while Rouge explains Dr Finitevus, we see Scourge looking JUST AS wary and suspicious of him as ROUGE is. So really NEITHER of them wanted to see his plan succeed! It’s ALMOST as if it isn’t in Scourge’s NATURE to work for Finitevus! If only because he’d want to be his OWN boss. Again, it would’ve been a lot more ENGAGING if we saw a scene where Rouge was trying to talk Scourge out of staying with Finitevus, where he acknowledged that he hated Finitevus too and tried to justify that he wanted to see his big plan annoy Sonic.
” the Master. ” You mean,” THEIR master. “
Rouge explains that she and Scourge had helped Finitevus break into Eggman’s Egg Vineyard. I wish I got to see HOW THE FUCK they DID that! This is why this story’s structure sucks. I dunno maybe it was literally as boringly easy as ” they used Warp Rings to get here. ” But how the fuck did Finitevus even FIND OUT about this place to get here? HOW did he KNOW the Destructix were even PUT THERE?! He doesn’t work for Eggman!
It turns out that Eggman had a lot of Knuckles’ enemies captured, and we’re expected to believe half of them were already dead and I can only assume she means the spider-ninjas. But Finitevus had rescued what was left of the Destructix. Are they going to tell us which Destructix died or is it like, they were killed off unceremoniously? She can’t mean Mogul since she knows he deserted the Destructix. Again, I wish we got to see Scourge’s thoughts on how he was helping SAVE people!
I’m confused that Mammoth Mogul deserted them, since he was protecting them as well as himself, probably for the sake of having a personal army still, and he has to have protected them for a while, or they would’ve died by now.
Later on it turns out ADAM freed him, which completely flew in the face of his plan to dispose of Sonic’s most threatening enemies, but there’s no logical reason why Rouge and the Destructix would think Mogul intentionally DESERTED them, when he was freed by someone else and he had no control over whether or not ADAM would free his army, too.
The rescued Destructix joined Rouge, including Lynx, the bird, the dog, Flying Frog, Drago and Sergeant Simian. These guys all have interesting character designs, but they literally all have the same personality copied and pasted over and over again; generic bad guy, thug. The end.
Finitevus brought them back to a base guarded by Isaac rather than a base in Angel Island where him and his Dark Legion actually reside. How the fuck would he even KNOW, about Isaac’s base, too?! It’s nowhere near Angel Island and he was never told about it! He’s such a Villain Sue this issue! He wanted to steal all of Isaac’s data. But most of it was either corrupt or erroneous for some reason. So was Isaac killed off unceremoniously with NOTHING else done with his character? I hope not, that would be a waste.
Then Rouge says, “ I mean, it was guarding a frozen corpse. Can a robot go insane? “ Was it REALLY a corpse? Why’d he want to steal his data aside from being REALLY CURIOUS? And how’d the data get corrupt aside from like oldness? WHY wasn’t Isaac working well enough to STOP him like he was dead? Well, logically Finitevus must have shot him with a Legion laser to kill him, and that’s something we could’ve seen if this was a proper STORY and not boring recap.
But yeah, maybe Rouge is just ASSUMING it was guarding a frozen corpse. How’d she know for sure? Considering Mobie was perfectly alive after being thawed out really quickly from ice, not to mention Sally’s mother survived the cryogenic chamber, I hope we’re not supposed to actually buy that Isaac’s master is a frozen corpse just because he’s frozen NOW, changing the rules to being realistic NOW, when Isaac CLEARLY said that his master went for walks outside of his tube before. So this is a retcon if we’re supposed to agree with her.
And I learned later that the only reason Flynn had it stated that Isaac’s data was corrupt was to try to make the history of Mobius more mysterious. That’s really pointless because Bollers already had us told about the Xorda thing and we already knew so much about its history anyways, so this wouldn’t matter. I have much more respect for writers caring enough to do historybuilding. Why the sudden disdain for something every comic book with its own unique world needs to have?
Finitevus was looking to control dozens of ancient missiles because he’s a bad guy. It would make SENSE if he was only going to use them against EGGMAN his old enemy he’d been fighting for a year with the Legion on Angel Island, it’d be a more natural development of his echidna-liberating Knuckles-envying character from back then to become a Well-intentioned Extremist against Eggman.
Naturally, Rouge ruined all of the nukes to stop his plan. He didn’t like that. So that’s why she stopped being with Scourge. Scourge chose Finitevus over her. She probably wanted to stop the nukes because their fallout would hurt more than just Eggman and his city.
She had to escape from Finitevus, so she stole one of his Warp Rings and came here. I SURE would like to know HOW Rouge ruined all those missiles! You’d think wrecking a nuke would be like defusing a bomb and it’d blow up in her face if she just did it carelessly like by firing a laser at it. I can only assume she destroyed them with GUN technology, but again, lasers would just release their radiation in her face, right? This is a sloppy way of wrapping up that plot thread, just SAYING that she ruined all of them without showing us how and her even finding them was contrived.
I really wish we could’ve SEEN Finitevus’ plan being carried out in an actual story instead of being narration. But at least THIS way it’s explained really quickly in short panels. But considering that what we get comic space saved for is nothing but pointless interrogation room panels, it wasn’t worth not getting an engaging story. Julie looks really angry for some reason as Knuckles asks her if she was followed.
She says she probably was, and then we see Fiona looking sympathetically depressed, and Sonic reassures her with his hand on her shoulder, “ Cheer up, Fi. You did good back there! “
Fiona asks Sonic, “ You forgave Bunnie and the others for mistaking Scourge for you, right? “ WHY the HELL is she talking as if that’s something that NEEDS to be FORGIVEN?! It’s an honest mistake! They looked exactly the same! Somehow, even though Sonic got his green eyes in a special, unique way. How did SCOURGE get them. But yeah, it’s pretty obvious that Fiona’s feeling guilty. Let it never be said that post-Ian Flynn Fiona could never feel guilt. As Tails is nervously hiding behind a tree, Fiona says awkwardly, “ Well, it’s just that… “
AW, GREAT! For better or worse, she gets interrupted from possibly admitting something really important, when, I would’ve liked to see the result of that! Either she would’ve gotten in huge trouble, or, a potential problem would be nipped in the bud! We might not have had that huge drama later because she would’ve been honest with him HERE!
And it would’ve made more sense if she HAD gotten the chance to admit this instead of taking an eternity to start talking about all this during her entire walk home with Sonic from the Chaotix’s place. Since WHEN does Sonic take slow walks? Logically, he would’ve run home in a flash carrying her and the rest of this plot never would’ve happened!
INSTEAD, Sonic notices TAILS, and Tails apologizes saying scared that, “ They just snuck up and… “ while Fiona’s holding Sonic’s hand. And then we see Sleuth Dog holding Tails hostage at gunpoint from behind a bush, holding his tails together by the end. I don’t think we’ve seen realistic guns in this comic since Penders wrote that story arc where Ebony Hare tried to get all of Echidnapolis high and Charmy’s friend died of a drug overdose.
Sonic pointlessly wastes time threatening Sleuth, when you’d think someone as fast-acting and thinking and impulsive as HIM would attack him IMMEDIATELY! But INSTEAD his hesitation from Sally’s bad influence gets him attacked by Scourge.
While we see some blurs rush at each other, Fiona looks at Sleuth resentfully as he says, “ I told him to hold back. “ Why would he think Scourge WOULD, is he that much of a softie? And hold back against who, Sonic? Well he DID never snap his neck!
Just look at that epic fight scene! It’s all we wanted from them, isn’t it? Just them running? It’s not like Sonic can do other things!
Fiona says, “ You can let go of the kid. What do you want? “ And Sleuth explains that he’s here for Rouge, though he doesn’t say her name. After he calls her a traitor, Fiona snarks, “ This coming from the guy who sold the Freedom Fighters out to Robotnik. “ Honestly, I’d say that’s something she would NEVER do. No matter what, she HATES Robotnik because of her past, so that’s hardly hypocritical of her. In fact I’d think she’d wanna say that remark even long after this issue. She would be the worst traitor to them ever if she did the same thing Snively did, so at least the writer won’t do that!
Sleuth asks her if he should tell Sonic why it’s so ironic for her to call him a traitor. But this is implying that Fiona already knows him and Scourge when literally SECONDS after Rouge left Scourge through the Warp Ring, Fiona was brought to Mighty to get dirt on her and she was with Sonic the whole time! But apparently Scourge must have started kissing her again SECONDS after Rouge ruined those missiles by glaring at them, AND he left before Sonic could see him with Fiona when he was going to get her to talk to Ray and Mighty!
Either that, or he was dating her when he already had Rouge to kiss, explaining why he had no problem with ditching Rouge because he had Fiona. But since Rouge was never affectionate with him anyways, it makes sense she wouldn’t fulfill his needs and he’d start running away from Finitevus’ base at sonic speed to get to Fiona in seconds and kiss her too when he felt like it. But WHERE is Finitevus’ base when he first meets Scourge, Angel Island?
And Rouge said, “ back “ when she says he took them back to the base where Isaac was found. So I guess apparently we were supposed to believe that Finitevus’ base since we met him under Flynn was Isaac’s building, when no part of it ever looked like the place Finitevus was in when he met Scourge which looked more like it was of Legion décor.
Oh, well Scourge would have the Warp Ring to get to Fiona no matter where he was. So actually it’s not that convoluted that he could go visit Fiona whenever he wanted, Rouge and Finitevus or not, provided that he started kissing her again only after he got that Warp Ring. It’s just that this should’ve been explained.
We should’ve SEEN when he first started dating her instead of this whole plot point coming out of NOWHERE, the whole time-frame of when he started doing it is confusing since this is literally just after Rouge left him and already it’s implying that Fiona was with Scourge for LONG enough that Sleuth was talking as if he was already FAMILIAR with her to the point of telling Scourge to hold back against Sonic for her!
Because of all the telling instead of showing, the revelation feels like an arbitrary Diabolus ex Machina that was executed in a lazy way instead of the writer having the passion and excitement to show us when the outlaw couple actually started dating and show us WHY Fiona would ever give him a chance, especially when she already has Sonic! It’s not like he broke up with her from her telling the truth like she was clearly about to do anyways!
Scourge reveals he came back because he wanted to see his girlfriend again, and he taunts Sonic that he loves how she plays it like the two are for real. THIS FAST? I really wish I got to actually SEE that, instead of his somehow convincing Fiona to date him being OFFSCREEN! Like the writer didn’t even care! About an idea that half the fans of Fiona prefer for her and even the writer didn’t care about it! Why establish this new ship just to not show when it started?! Penders showed when ships started; Bunnie and Antoine, Sonic and Sally, Knuckles and Julie-Su.
Also for some reason… I was already familiar with this issue before I read it for the review. For some reason I remembered Scourge saying here instead, “ She’s a REAL FOX! “ I guess that would’ve made things too obvious, but he knows what he’s saying anyways!…
Fiona tells Sonic that she told Sleuth the Chaotix were questioning Rouge. And she says that if they take back the Warp Ring from her they’ll leave. Sonic brings them the Warp Ring in a blue blur as the comic actually remembers to take advantage of her super speed, but DOESN’T remember to do that with him running around creating a tornado to throw all of them up in the air humiliating them, and breaking the Warp Ring on them so they couldn’t keep bothering them to try to get it!
I HATE these guys so much, HOW do they keep getting these easy victories against SONIC?! First Nate’s kidnapping, they curb-stomped Merlin, and now this! And it’s gonna get worse! And Scourge gets Tails all mad by casually saying to Fiona, “ Later, sweet thing! “ not even trying to hide it making her worried, and going into the Warp Ring. I guess he’s mad ‘cause he thinks that he’s not respecting her by complimenting her?
Tails has two mouths, people demonize the art of the PREVIOUS WRITERS! This was the worst art mistake ever.
Tails apologizes to Sonic for being used as a hostage. After Fiona says, “ Whatever he told you it’s a lie, “ Sonic really worries me because while he SAYS, “ It’s cool, Fiona, “ his expression is nothing but cold hatred and suspicion. I mean it MAKES SENSE! She blew it right then and there! How would she know that Scourge told him that?
How would she assume that Scourge taunted him like that so easily, and why would she be VAGUE instead of specific, if she wasn’t already cheating on him? Or at least was friends with him enough to KNOW him enough to assume he’d do that to mess with Sonic. Never say Fiona’s a master liar, because if she was she would’ve just kept quiet!
By the way it’s clear that the Scourge thing has sowed the seeds of distrust in Sonic, and honestly I don’t think Scourge even realized it! He had no way of knowing Fiona would prove him right! After honestly saying he wanted to see Fiona again, he was just saying stuff to taunt Sonic regardless of whether or not he’d believe him! I don’t buy that Scourge is the “ planning that far ahead “ type like Mammoth Mogul, because every time his evil plan backfires, it’s because he didn’t think about it enough, like when he trusted Robotnik, or Robo-Robotnik. He never thinks ahead, that’s his whole PROBLEM in life.
Even though Sonic was nothing but trusting and nice to Fiona earlier to a borderline ridiculous extent even as recently as THIS issue, ultimately the reason him flip-flopping like this is natural and forgivable is because she BLEW IT THERE, he had every reason to become bitter, so I take it back, he’s not the jerk here.
But logically, if he KNOWS that she’s lying and THAT’S why he’s looking suspicious at all, logically THIS is when he should’ve broken up with her! So, again, it’s bullshit that her break-up took so long and had to make a big melodramatic scene out of it when it DID happen, it should’ve happened HERE without Scourge around!
And it makes sense that Tails wouldn’t tell Sonic that Fiona was cheating on him, because, maybe he was just being a Nice Guy and hoping that the problem would eventually go away. If she was kicked out of the Freedom Fighters, then he’d NEVER get to date her. He was hoping it would go away and she’d stay long enough for him to turn 13. Also, why does Tails have two MOUTHS in this panel? Not even Penders’ stories had art mistakes this bizarre.
As for Fiona looking so sad I think that she DOES value her relationship with Sonic here because of that, and if she’s cheating on him she just can’t CHOOSE right now! There’s nothing inherently EVIL about it, aside from, like obviously the party cheated on wouldn’t be happy about it, but, she’s not really sure what she wants right now.
She’s just testing the waters with Scourge out of curiosity. So she would want to preserve BOTH relationships to preserve both potential futures of love and support! That means she’d naturally be scared of losing Sonic too early because she doesn’t wanna go back to being single, at the VERY least.
She doesn’t have any real friends, there’s nobody else having friendship moments with her other than occasionally Tails, so when it comes to Sonic’s side, she needs Sonic. She’s LONELY. I never got the impression that she loved him but she DOES value what they HAVE for the time being or she would’ve ended the relationship a while ago!
But yeah, logically there’s no reason Sonic would’ve not broken up with her right here if he knows something’s up. He has plenty of female adoring fans he could hook up with. But instead, he goes right to holding her hand again right after he glared at her suspiciously and lied to her that he trusted her.
Meanwhile after Knuckles says the interrogation was somehow a waste of time when they at least got info on Finitevus, Julie reveals why she hates Rouge so much. She’s jealous. It’s nice to see her being jealous for once, it makes perfect sense with her sassy short-tempered personality, and it injects some life into the ideal relationship for the first time in ages by showing her jealous side. She says that she saw the way she was looking at Knuckles and stands up to her in a passionate rant.
I love that this whole conflict was actually addressed, Knuckles and Rouge is a pretty popular ship after all, although nowadays I don’t see how it makes sense anymore when Rouge is an evil jewel thief. Kinda incompatible with KNUCKLES, a heroic jewel GUARDIAN. She’s just as much his exact opposite as Sonic and Sally are. The only reason I used to and other people still do ship them is because they were shipped once in SA2 and it’s easy to just go with supporting the Official Couple, instead of thinking independently about why it wouldn’t actually work out.
She says, “ He’s the only person to make me feel like something other than a soldier. He is my soulmate and my equal. But if you try to take away someone that precious to me, I’ll show you how good a soldier I can be! “
Rouge is condescending seeming to grab her wrists, and I hoped she wouldn’t injure them from that. The reason I hoped that was because I saw yellow lights around them that are usually drawn to represent an attack in this comic because censorship, so it implied that her impact with them was rough.
She says she specializes in stealing precious things, and taunts her while holding her wrists still. Julie is interrupted from calling her a bitch. It makes perfect sense that she’d say that since she’s sassy and a former villainess from the Dark Legion! And that’s why I like her!
The story ends with Rouge attacking her and taunting her that she looks forward to their next visit. And then Julie promptly told Knuckles everything about this so he’d never trust-no of course not, that’d make SENSE. Where’d her crush on Knuckles even COME FROM?! Looks?! She can get literally any guy whenever she wants, why Knuckles who WON’T? Oh, because meta logic, because SA2? I need more than THAT!
She’s just doing this to spite her out of NOWHERE. This is really out of left field bitchy for Rouge. Sure, Penders wrote her as a jewel thief, but that was just starting from Issue 150 and that was literally the first time she was written as a villain aside from ONE filler story where she fought Bunnie from a misunderstanding, so this is not a natural continuation of her character, a JEWEL THIEF.
In the next story, Knuckles says to Rotor that he was told his father called, and Rotor says he’s on the main screen but he’s not sure how because there’s no signal. There’s an energy signature but nothing of any frequency he recognizes. Knuckles simply explains that the chaos energies are hard to explain.
And then I promptly start giggling at Knuckles’ response to Locke. “ I didn’t know we were allowed to use the Master Emerald to make long-distance calls. “ (giggles) That was pretty funny! But why wouldn’t he be? And logically speaking, since Lara-Le called Knuckles from Angel Island no problem even though Eggman had somehow taken it over at that point, it’s arbitrary that Locke decided to call him with the Master Emerald, rather than calling him the same way Lara-Le did.
Locke pressures him and the Chaotix to come home. Knuckles arbitrarily refuses to tell the Chaotix to come help Locke, saying that they aren’t his to send and they aren’t his soldiers and came with him because they wanted to. Okay, this would’ve felt less like an arbitrary excuse to make Locke mad at him and have the rest of the story happen if we actually SAW all of the Chaotix with Knuckles now, and they actually SAID that, yeah, they wanna stay with Knuckles because they’re his pals and they wanna fight Eggman, not help Locke.
But instead I’m left wondering why Knuckles’ FRIENDS would refuse to do something he ordered them to and give Locke some much-needed help doing the RIGHT THING and I’m left wondering why Knuckles had so little faith in their loyalty that he’s just assuming the Chaotix would refuse to do this for him.
He doesn’t have to send Julie with the Chaotix, she would obviously stay, but the rest aren’t really doing anything here, other than fighting the Destructix a few times. Knuckles says they aren’t his to send and they’re not his soldiers, but it’s weird to read that coming from him when he’s the leader of the Chaotix and was ordering them around as early as Sonic’s Quest, I saw him as a strong leader type who wouldn’t just say, “ They aren’t mine to send. “ This plot could’ve easily gone differently. “ Then send the Chaotix. “ “ Alright! “ The end.
Locke explains that General Kage and his army are still threatening Angel Island, and that NOW the Dark Legion is caught up in their OWN civil war. Lien-Da commands the FLAME Legion, which I guess makes sense since she has red hair and flames are reddish, while a SOMEHOW unknown echidna, is now grandmaster of the Frost Legion.
Remember, this was ONLY brought up in the first place as a lame excuse for why Locke can’t just get some Legionnaires’ help looking for the Brotherhood or something, not that he’d ever have the first clue where to look other than, why didn’t he just assume it was the Twilight Cage, why didn’t he ask the Legion to help him make a portal to it? Logically he should’ve rescued them way sooner since the conclusion of where they’d disappear to is so obvious considering echidna history…
Steppenwolf made a portal to the Twilight Cage just fine, so why doesn’t Locke do that and get the Brotherhood back, why was HE so much more powerful than Locke that only he could do that when he did that like a WEEK after he first became a guardian?
Flame and Frost Legion? Where the hell did THAT come from? Their names are stupid unless they literally HAVE flame and frost powers! Does the Flame Legion have the only people with flame swords in it, does the Frost Legion have only people with frost swords in it? However there even could BE a “ frost sword, “ how would the ice not melt, and why MAKE an ice sword instead of a sharper actual sword? If the names DO mean something I’ll like it more, but, this sounds silly!
I mean even the Dark legion is stupid as a name because it doesn’t make any sense as a name for, a nation of people that was born out of people hating a technology ban! I mean, if you think about it… a city is full of technology right? So that means it has lights all around it.
So wouldn’t the Dark Legion be supportive of LIGHT INSTEAD since it comes from the electricity from technology? If a place is all DARK that means there’s NO technology to create all that light in the night sky! So you’d think a DARK Legion would be AGAINST technology considering that kind of name! So it’s stupid! It’s just there to make them sound villainous generically.
Knuckles is NATURALLY surprised that Locke doesn’t know who runs the Frost Legion, and fortunately it’s actually EXPLAINED, as he’s too busy to investigate when the Master Emerald needs protection. That doesn’t explain why OTHER people don’t know who the LEADER of the Frost Legion is! I guess he leads from the shadows and not riskily leading from the front-lines.
Locke explains that he spent his whole time looking for the Brotherhood, which Knuckles figures out without needing to be told why. How did he know to SAY that when Locke said the Master Emerald needs protecting? Knuckles asks him if he plans on looking for Charmy’s family just as hard, and Locke answers yes as if they’re not dead. Locke arbitrarily says he can’t find anyone without Knuckles’ help. I hope he’s lying, because come on.
Surprisingly since this could go either way, Knuckles grits his teeth and reluctantly says that he won’t help Locke, because the problems on Angel Island all stem from the same source, Dr Robotnik. “ You taught me to never approach the problem head-on. You taught me to look at all sides of the situation. I have and I’ve found the best route to saving Angel Island and everyone else, is to defeat Dr Robotnik. “
But that IS approaching the situation “ head-on “ because it’s attacking the root of the problem. That has NOTHING to do with getting the Brotherhood found, but, whatever man. You could’ve sent Locke SOME of the Chaotix instead of the rest of this story happening, and STILL fought Robotnik just as fine.
When Locke tells him that he can’t guarantee the safety of his mother because he’s too busy guarding the Emerald, he makes a HUGE uncharacteristic mistake because he sounds like he’s threatening her on purpose. I assume this is unintentional and he wasn’t suddenly written to be a complete monster.
And this gets Knuckles so enraged at him that he punches and destroys the screen. I LOVE seeing Knuckles get that angry! And it’s always so rare in the comic because there’s more to his character in the comic than a rage-fueled idiot.
He self-awarely says, “ Sorry about your screen. “ I like that Tommy is intimidated by him stuttering that he’ll fix it! Goes to show you how apathetic Flynn was to Tommy though because this is literally the first time he’s written him. I’m sure that merely breaking the screen wouldn’t hang up the call, Locke should still be able to hear everything they’re saying after this, so he should try to apologize and clarify himself.
But I guess he just hung up himself from cowardice, instead, thinking there was no way to ever make Knuckles forgive him? It doesn’t matter, he should still apologize regardless! Turning off your computer monitor doesn’t hang up a Skype call, so how does this make sense?
And after he annoys me saying, “ Not now, Tails, “ fortunately Tails says what he wants anyways. “ What you did was right. “ It was kinda funny that he mumbles, “ maybe not breaking the screen “ with no comma after the mumbling. (giggles) In the same textbox! That’s so Tails!
This issue was written by Ian Flynn. The first story told us about how Finitevus and Scourge, freed all the Destructix from the Egg Grapes SOMEHOW – I guess with magic? And he inexplicably planned on using some ancient missiles after inexplicably finding Isaac. So Rouge stopped him from doing that and left him. And Scourge stayed with him in the meanwhile because he’d rather spite Sonic, and we never saw them act as anything other than partners who happened to hold hands anyways. STILL it’s so anticlimactic of a break-up!
It would’ve been NICE to actually SEE the STORY of Scourge carrying out that mission of his! A mission that really wasn’t evil at all! I mean he freed some criminals to be part of a gang of his that didn’t really deserve to be freed. In fact they should’ve been killed! But I could understand if the Freedom Fighters did the exact same thing freeing THEM if they could because they’d be saving them for the sake of it.
So again, Scourge’s not that different from Sonic! Sonic would’ve saved them too! He’s just saving them for selfish reasons, but it’s the action that counts! And it’s interesting to see him in a hero position with a “ selfish motive “ to be just enough to contrast Sonic. Wish I saw more of that.
But yeah, the biggest problem with this story is that it was just boring after-the-fact recap of stories we SHOULD’VE actually SEEN progress with dialogue to keep you engaged in them, but instead, because of this lazy format, we got cheated out of seeing exactly HOW the Destructix were freed from the Egg Grapes and HOW Rouge ruined the missiles and WHY Isaac was broken and HOW Finitevus discovered Isaac’s base! It’s especially offensive to have this be just recap when it leads to major gaping plot holes just being left there!
We could’ve cut out all of the pointless interrogation room panels and probably had enough comic space for actual stories, about not only Rouge and Scourge, but Fiona’s stories could be fleshed out too. I would’ve liked to see how Rouge could POSSIBLY WIN against both the bomb-throwing Bean AND the BIG HEFTY Bark! How did she win outnumbered 3 to one?! Just because she’s a game character?! What a Villain Sue! She’s way too competent!
We get an interesting look into how Fiona did things in the past, with her once participating in a fighting tournament with Bean and Bark, um, I guess, for the sake of making money, and her resenting Rouge because she kept taking the treasure she was hunting with her flight. It makes perfect sense that the two would become old rivals. Well, provided that Rouge was living in the same area Fiona was, when Rouge was associated with Station Square since we met her.
And the last of Sonic’s trust in Fiona is shattered, as while he could handle Fiona being a former criminal, Scourge implying that Fiona was cheating on her with him crossed the line. So it was his fault Sonic’s trust started to waver! Was Scourge smart enough to plan this or did it just coincidentally turn out this way for him? There’s never any planned manipulation behind SONIC’S taunts, so why would it be different for his twin, who’d be equally “ intelligent? “
And ironically I STILL feel sorry for Fiona here! I mean she’s cheating, but at this point she’s at the phase of cheater where, she values BOTH relationships and still needs time to CHOOSE! She sees potential futures in BOTH and doesn’t want to lose either! She might even think she loves both of them, which makes sense since they both have almost the exact same personality! The only difference is Sonic grew up a hero because of Robotnik.
Her fatal mistake here was saying, “ Whatever he told you it was a lie, “ because she should’ve had no way of knowing or assuming so easily that Scourge was going to get her in trouble, unless she was already doing something wrong. She’s not exactly good at this…
The second story has Knuckles saying no to being with Locke to find the Brotherhood, because he’s too busy fighting Eggman. Even though we barely see him doing actual fighting at ALL, he literally only fought the Destructix under Flynn so far, but whatever. There’s only so much comic space to show his fighting Eggman, I guess.
The real stinger is that Locke told him he can’t guarantee his mother’s survival. Since he’s in love with Lara-Le, it’s obvious he wouldn’t let her get killed and just had a moment where his social skills were just as bad as Knuckles’. At least I HOPE NOT! Otherwise that’d be a HUGE Out of Character moment! I know he’s been tortured, and that would mess ANYONE up, but not enough to make him like THIS! There’s also a few lines from Knuckles and Tails that made me giggle, which is good.
Issue 166:
So this issue continues the story of 25 Years Later, which came as a really shocking pleasant surprise because I thought for sure that would just be a Penders thing, and that once it got put on hiatus, it would NEVER get a proper conclusion! Turns out I was wrong here but you can’t blame me in that assumption.
We start out with narration explaining that Sonic had sent back in time and SOMEHOW closed the temporal wounds, saving all of existence from the planet blowing up. He DID? You know, common sense would dictate that we’d get a story about what he did in the PAST and not this story that no one asked for, but apparently the writer wasn’t creative enough to think of answers to our actual questions.
When he saved the past, SOMEHOW, by just being sent back in time to get data, he realized that the future had been irrevocably changed. Irrevocably?… Couldn’t they just go back in time again? Nobody seems to realize this when they have time machines!
We see Angel Island’s “ Portal “ city with an angel statue of Maria that people are worshiping, unnecessarily which seems unrealistic. I doubt she’d be comfortable with that but THAT’S how much her death hurt Shadow! And more confusingly there’s a sign on a tall building saying that the Chaotix are watching, like it’s a dictatorship using a scare tactic for potential criminals. I mean, they were heroes so it makes sense they would wanna go after any villains left, which would be criminals. It’s force of habit really…
Tails then flies around and thinks while wearing a pilot’s goggles and belt like he’s Boom Tails not that I’m complaining, that this isn’t right, and he has to round up the old “ Triple Threat “ to do damage control. “ Triple Threat? “ The only Triple Threat I can think of would be Metal Sonic, Fang and Robotnik or Shadow, Isaac and Metal Sonic! Triple Threat sounds too menacing for Sonic, Knuckles and Tails!
And why does Tails know that this isn’t right instead of being affected by the future being changed so that he thinks it’s normal? Thankfully this DOES get explained but other than THIS, there’s so many plot holes and we’re already only in the FIRST PANEL! So I’m excited!
We start off seeing Lara-Su at Guardian Tower making some pebbles levitate, surrounded by a blue light, and Knuckles compliments her because he wasn’t NEARLY as good at HER age. I have a question, why did she disappear like we saw her DOING last time? I’m glad she’s OKAY, but is he gonna fucking EXPLAIN that?
She heartwarmingly hugs her father calling him the best teacher ever, and Tails shows up with stress lines under his eyes, saying that it’s been a long time. This tells Knuckles to tell Lara to go wash up and he’ll meet her back at home, not telling her anything else. At least he acknowledges that he’s being just like Locke here, because he actually says, “ Please, “ afterwards looking like he feels guilty.
Then Tails tells him to not even START, saying that he KNOWS he wasn’t always King Shadow’s chief enforcer, has memories of a different past, and was near the Tachyon Chamber back then. Knuckles naturally lampshades that he seems to know a lot for someone who wasn’t there.
Tails, rather than explaining how he knew EXACTLY what happened at the Tachyon Chamber complete with knowing who was there, instead Hand Waves that he knew there was a problem somehow so he took some precautions. He kept himself and his family safe from the adjustment in space-time somehow. Everyone near the Tachyon Chamber carried over memories of the other-present, HOW’D he KNOW any of this?!
HOW’d he KNOW there was a problem, HOW’d he KNOW to keep his family safe, from, the time machine event he couldn’t have POSSIBLY KNOWN HAPPENED?! Did Rotor call him and tell him about it OFFSCREEN?! It’s like he thought he could get away with this because he thought most people didn’t READ the issues before him!
He says that Cobor is missing for his connection to all this. I thought his name was Cobar! Why would Lien-Da deprive herself of such a top scientist? And they have to find Sonic and act. Knuckles simply says, “ Get out, Miles, before I place you under arrest. “ Good to see his morality hasn’t fallen!
He’s even cold enough to not call him by his affectionate nickname of Tails! I mean Knuckles was always a neutral character not fighting Robotnik for Angel Island’s sake so I guess that’s what he’s going with? But Tails was called Tails his whole life, so I don’t buy that he would want to be called anything else, it would just feel weird to him.
Lara reveals to Tails that she had learned to listen in and knew about their conversation. She then explains that she doesn’t know what happened then, implying that unfortunately even SHE doesn’t know what the vanishing thing was about. Why was it just HER?!
And yet she still has a vague feeling that her life has changed, an unfamiliarity, even though her entire past had been rewritten and therefore her brain shouldn’t be structured to find this unfamiliar. I don’t care whether they’ve been near the Tachyon Chamber or not, it still makes no sense that they’d remember the past timeline! It’s nothing but meta logic – because the audience remembers, so do they.
Under the Castle Mobius, Shadow says that lesser Mobians would’ve cracked by now to Rotor, implying that he respects him because he doesn’t think he’s lesser, and yet DOESN’T respect him enough not to TORTURE and INTERROGATE him… So, what exactly are they, interrogating Rotor for again?
He thanks Lien-Da for turning him in saying that she’s proven herself once again as she smirks. Shadow was a villain in SA2 so I don’t ENTIRELY mind seeing him as one here. It makes sense. But it’s still weird that he’d become a KING and stuff! It’s actually an alternate dimension, though, which is the only reason why one of his many hero-to-villain Character Derailments is tolerable, as it’s not affecting the main comic for once, so it doesn’t actually count.
Lien-Da says to thank Cobar because he designed it for her, when she caught him and Rotor conspiring in the other timeline… They weren’t, conspiring though, they were conspiring to SAVE the WORLD, that’s not, conspiring at all!… What’s “ it, “ anyways, what did Cobar design?… Also Shadow knows about the other TIMELINE? But he wasn’t THERE! He wasn’t anywhere NEAR the time machine! It’s like he only KNOWS because he’s one of the main characters! Why establish a rule that only people who were in the chamber remember and then break it two seconds later?!
He says that he had been nice enough to thank Cobor 47 times, “ about the “ head and shoulders… And then he says it was a true pleasure as Lien-Da giggles. What does that even mean? I was confused because he said, “ about “ and not “ on. “ Like a normal person would say.
Shadow says that he cannot lose this world because he’s done too much good for it to be stopped now. See, THIS is good writing; there’s at least an attempt at establishing that he’s a Well-Intentioned Extremist who naturally believes that he’s a good ruler and should keep running the world. That’s easier to buy. It’s still bizarre that he’s turned into a monster, though.
A Dark Legion goon says that the Dark Eyes which I can only assume are spies for her, have thought that she’d like to see this and hands her a device showing her a screen showing that Lara-Su is, ” running around with the wrong crowd. ”
Shadow tells her to contact his “ legitimate “ chief enforcer to handle this as if there’s an illegitimate one… So does that mean other than KNUCKLES?… It’s hard to understand this issue, I feel like I’m missing out on basic information!
Surprisingly Tails finds Sonic and feels really sorry for him and puts his arm around him as Sonic fakes a smile in a street alley, looking like a broken man. I love that he still to this day calls Tails kiddo! It really goes to show you how much he cares about him as a little brother! He says depressed that he asks himself if he even still IS Sonic. Naturally since he hasn’t been a hero of the world, his whole identity, in 25 years.
And he fakes a smile trying to hide how devastated he is as he tries to joke around about his situation, that’s so in-character for Sonic to do! I really love how he’s written to react to his depressing situation! He says, “ One day you’re king of the world. Then you go dimension-fix all space-time, and boom! You’re on the street without anything but the sneakers on your feet. “ Was that all really all of space-time though? Even NOW with this being confirmed as just Light Mobius? I thought this would just be “ his dimension. “ It’s really interesting to see Sonic so broken like this, like he can actually FEEL, being more real than just a deliverer of one-liners.
Tails tells him that he had protected Mina and the kids along with himself, as the two hold hands showing that they still care about each other. And they fake smile the best that they can, with Sonic trying to look on the bright side saying, “ Good. That’s very good. “ Again I love this! It makes sense that he knows Tails is from the old “ future “ because he didn’t immediately question why he said he was the king! But he shouldn’t have been written to say “ future “ when he should’ve thought of it as the present instead. That’s meta.
Then Sonic starts to tear up saying, “ Not Sonia and Manik, though. They’re gone forever. And Sally is married to Shadow. WHY?! “ Because they’re actually compatible? Both being serious cautious people and all. Well, maybe Shadow’s too arrogant to be cautious himself, he’d just tell others to be. It’s amazing how literally every other option for Sally is more compatible with her than him!
Still this is a pretty heart-wrenching scene as Tails hugs him protectively with tears in his eyes, and Sonic is upset enough to only partially hug back. And Lara’s horrified at the prospect of it! That really is a shame, I hope those two will be brought back, or at least Manik with his interesting personality.
So, um, is the justification for Sonic not speaking to Tails in years supposed to be that Tails kept his distance because he SOMEHOW knew this timeline changing would happen? No, because, they’re acting like these years of neglect never happened and Tails still loves Sonic just as much! Shouldn’t he ADDRESS this?! It’s weird that Sonic says, “ Sweet Maria have mercy. “ You’d think he’d rebelliously refuse to use that kind of phrase! And yet he sat around doing NOTHING for 25 years instead of taking down Shadow HIMSELF. This whole plot never would’ve happened!
And again, “ Maria help me. “ Why would he start saying it? Tails shows pragmatism saying with his arm around him that he can’t risk turning back time again, because you never know what might happen the next time. And he hates that Sonic had to pay such a huge price for saving everyone. Sonic then reveals what a hero he really is by saying that he’d do it all again.
FINALLY it’s KIND of addressed a LITTLE the years of neglect, as Tails and Sonic put their hands on each other’s arms and Sonic says desperately, “ At least I can fix us! I’m sorry I let things get so bad between… “ Unfortunately I don’t get to hear HOW it could’ve possibly gotten so bad, as Tails effortlessly forgives him heartwarmingly saying, “ You just had to ask. “ That’s lazy.
What’s the point of writing a continuation to 25 Years that wraps up literally NONE of the dangling plot threads at all? Wasn’t that supposed to be why people liked Flynn? This isn’t acceptable. Was he really not creative enough to think of an explanation for why they’d stop being friends? “ Tails was jealous that he was spending all his time with Sally and they grew apart. “ THERE! That wasn’t hard. AND A FANFICTION wrote that! He hugs Tails for forgiving him, thanking him, as Lara smiles, with her arms crossed.
Sonic suddenly goes back to his super optimistic self all of a sudden, as Lara says that all they have to do is break into Castle Mobius, beat King Shadow and get Queen Sally to marry Sonic. And somehow, literally ALL of them are completely positive that this plan would work!… Even though ONE, Shadow’s WAY more powerful than Sonic – remember he destroyed an entire ARMY of Metal Sonic Troopers just by raising his hand, and two, what if Sally wouldn’t just up and marry Sonic so easily if she married Shadow?
Unless she never fell out of love with him and just married Shadow to have a husband while she thought Sonic was dead! That makes sense… it’s predictable enough to. The story ends with Knuckles telling the condescendingly smug heroes that they’re all under arrest for treason, even his own daughter.
In the next story, we start out with someone telling a dazed Knuckles that he won’t ruin his life THIS time, and then we cut to yesterday at Station Square City. Why not just call it Station SQUARE, that’s needlessly long! It was never called that! Apparently the mayor changed its name.
We see a human kid advertising a newspaper about the Casinopolis grand opening tomorrow. So is Mobius so behind in the times that its kids still sell newspapers in the streets like it’s the 20s? They don’t have the Internet, I guess!….
Rouge learns from a paper that Renfield is back… as in the mouse guy that betrayed the heroes in the Knuckles Chaotix Special. Rouge says there’s probably more than just free chips for the first hundred in the door.
Knuckles says to the president and Rouge over a transmission that with Eggman in control of Angel Island he probably set Renfield free from jail just out of spite. So did Renfield get thrown in jail OFFSCREEN? I mean he wasn’t in it the LAST time we saw him! I guess we’re just left to assume that he broke the law again offscreen to get put in jail, but that’s an assumption we have to make, it’s still contradicting earlier canon. Again.
Sally says that the Chaotix have the greatest connection to the case, I guess because they dealt with Renfield before – “ dealt “ as in got poisoned by him, so not really – so she’s leaving it up to their team. Then she has a bitch moment where she says that she’d send Bunnie instead of the much more capable Sonic to bail them out, purely to spite Sonic. This directly reminded me of when Bollers was writing her as his bitchy ex-girlfriend getting mad at him for going on missions because they were dangerous, and the fact that she was drawn really weird here doesn’t help.
A trucker tells a dingo that he has his slot machines. The dingo complains that it’s about time and it wasn’t like this when Stryker was in charge. It sure was nice of the echidnas to let some dingoes live in their city again after they sold them out to Eggman. And he tells him to open the back driveway for the new machines.
Someone asks what took them so long because they open in a few hours, and he’s told to take it up with General Kage, and sign here to unload. Renfield says that he can bet that with this, he can pay for his early parole – he’s not in jail, so that’s not necessary – and he says he couldn’t be faulted for the poor saps going out with a smile, before smirking saying that he always puts on a good show. This guy really is insane. So I guess THAT’S why he said early parole when he’s already free?
It’s lampshaded that Rouge isn’t part of the Chaotix, and Rouge lies that she’s just proving she’s gone legit, and tries to get Knuckles to stick up for her, causing Julie to get really mad at her and Knuckles to have to be the mediator to break the faith up.
At first, Knuckles is told that the casino isn’t officially open yet. But he’s let in when he says he has business with Renfield. Knuckles points out once he’s in, that of course since Renfield’s only hired Mobians, the Chaotix can pass themselves off as part of the work force in there.
Mighty wonders that if it’s like last time they’ll have to look anywhere where food is sold, to avoid another food poisoning incident. Knuckles compliments Mighty on that insight and orders everyone to split up and check in every few minutes. Did I mention that I love Knuckles as their leader? I’ll say it again! ‘Cause I certainly can’t take VECTOR seriously as that, and Espio’s Not so Above it All because he’s still a “ ninja, “ which is weird by itself.
Then Knuckles makes some progress through some automatically closing doors and wonders if he should get some answers out of the foreman. When the foreman says to contact Eggman, Knuckles immediately gets angry and starts a fight.
After Mighty stupidly eats a chili dog without having any way of knowing that it’s not poisoned, proving that he doesn’t learn his lesson, Julie reasons that Renfield wouldn’t try the same thing twice, and because Knuckles is late checking in, they’ll have to drop the gentle approach.
Knuckles realizes from hearing a clang sound at punching the foreman and seeing metal below the skin, that he’s one of Eggman’s “ auto-automatons. “ He could just say robot! Or “ infiltrators, “ which was the ACTUAL name for them!
Unfortunately he’s hit with a fist launched at him and is knocked out, causing the foreman to call Renfield saying that he will prepare him for him… Rouge asks if the machines are safe and when Vector looks like he’s in a trance, Rouge wonders if it’s the screens and then she and Espio go into a trance too.
We then cut to Knuckles who’s told that he won’t ruin his life next time, and he’s been a victim of circumstance. I can understand why he’d think that. He says that his friends’ minds have been scanned by the screens so their data will be used to program some infiltrator robots BASED on them.
The slot machines are there for a creative way of making new robots for Eggman. If he can’t roboticize, he can at least do some sort of equivalent, although I can’t see how that would be as satisfying as he should just be able to build robots WITHOUT that, and the people will still have free will.
Renfield explains that once Station Square’s been turned into Eggman’s army he’ll be free to go, and it’s just business. Then Julie and Mighty fortunately show up acting as Chekhov’s Guns as they hadn’t gone into the trance. And Julie explains that the data can’t be transferred since she pulled the plug. When Renfield says in fear that Eggman will be furious that he failed, Julie says in a sassy way, “ Not my problem. “
Renfield says that even without the data the factory will still make mindless killer robots for him. Then Mighty carrying a ball of twisted metal, explains that there’s no factory anymore, and the robot army was never created.
The panel to the left of the president of Station Square really annoys me because there’s some people in silhouettes that I don’t know who they are, and they mostly just have textboxes with mere PICTURES in them, with one of them saying he was led into a trap of Eggman’s, and there’s a skull and crossbones in a textbox, just like Mace had in the infamously drawn The Return to Angel Island. What’s even going on?!…
The president says that GUN will make sure ALL of Eggman’s devices are destroyed, while Renfield will stand trial. And aside from a bit of vertigo none of the patrons seem to be harmed by the scanning devices.
I’m really glad this story conclusively concluded in one issue! I thought for sure it’d be a story arc! For some reason I found the story tedious to read. And I really don’t know why because I love the concepts! Maybe it was the format with the small panels all in boring squares? I’d hate to think I was impatient with it for such a petty reason. Well, it was also paced badly, I mean, we only had something important actually HAPPEN when Knuckles met the infiltrator and the scanning started.
This issue was by Ian Flynn. And in the first story, I was really pleasantly surprised that he tried to continue the 25 Years Later in a different dimension story arc! I ASSUMED, NATURALLY, that it’d never be continued because it was Penders’ thing. I’m still mad about the Lara-Su disappearing cliffhanger because we’ll NEVER KNOW what the original writer’s full intentions were about what that would lead to! But I kinda liked Ian Flynn’s interpretation. Even if it did leave some glaring plot holes instead of resolving any of the dangling plot threads! Like, HOW the hell the apocalypse was averted in the first place?
King Shadow being a Well-Intentioned Extremist who made his subjects and even Sonic treat Maria as as a sort of religious figure, makes sense considering the sheer amount of damage Maria’s death did to him. It makes perfect sense that he would carry his psychological baggage over as a king, and that he’d think he’s done too much good to lose the kingdom now because he’s delusional, although we should’ve probably SEEN what he MEANT, and overall the HEROIC SHADOW who fought Eggman with Rouge and Omega, wouldn’t have taken over the world like this and disappointed Hope Kintobor so badly.
I love how Sonic and Tails make up with Sonic being totally devastated trying to smile through the fact that he’s lost everything. My problem with the story is related to the fact that we’re lacking basic information! I don’t understand how Sonic being sent back in time not only fixed the bullshit “ world’s gonna end “ problem but also caused this whole alternate timeline in the FIRST place! And I hate how we weren’t told what it was that made things get so bad between Sonic and TAILS! The whole time, I was wondering “ WHY? “ But I loved the CONCEPTS.
It’s just that there’s really no point in writing this story arc at all instead of just going to the nanites story if NOTHING will actually be resolved about the earlier arc. At that point, it’s as relevant as fanfiction. And I don’t like the “ Tempest Fugit “ name that the story has. It’s pretentious to have Latin we don’t know as the name of a Sonic the Hedgehog story, and you’d expect that out of Penders.
In the second story, by Romy Chacon, I loved the concepts too, with the scanning slot machine creating infiltrators, Renfield wanting revenge for Knuckles ruining his life so much, I hate to say I found it tedious from the panel format alone. The panels were either tiny boxes covering the pages or horizontal boxes covering the page. I don’t know, I guess the art wasn’t good enough to get me invested at all. But it was mostly a good story, no huge plot holes. But it was ultimately just okay because it takes a while to actually get GOING.
Issue 167:
After Lien-Da brags to Dimitri 25 years later about her evening she says that she had a hand in bringing down the line of Edmund. HOW? That would require bringing down Knuckles which she didn’t do. She got Lara arrested, but not Knuckles!
Dimitri shows that even in the alternate timeline he’s had a Heel Face Turn saying, “ You are despicable, Lien-Da! I have not been this ashamed of my bloodline since I worked with Doctor Finitevus, “ which he did apparently… So spoilers! And since when is Finitevus related to Dimitri? Wasn’t he just some random guy with no connection to… I guess it’s because in this dimension they ARE related. He really loves her to stay with her even in spite of this, what a great grandfather!
Being overheard by a sad-looking Rutan which made me think that he was going to do something in the plot somehow, she brags that the only three who could change how things are now are locked away. Naturally, Rotor says to the overly optimistic Sonic and Tails, “ How can you all joke at a time like this?! “ Good because they were REALLY annoying me with their unrealistically optimistic behavior!
Then Knuckles actually frees them, out of nowhere, implying that the reason they were all optimistic was because they had faith that Knuckles would do this. Even Lara when she was complaining that her mom was gonna flip at Knuckles. He’s surprised at Lara saying that he couldn’t be prouder, and he never really arrested them for real. This is nice, but still surprising!
Tails says that he’ll hack into the castle system and make sure he and Knuckles have a clear path. Wait what system? Security system? Anyways Tails says that “ he “ I guess that means Knuckles, will get Sally to safety so the monarchy remains somewhat stable. Why did he specify that when he doesn’t have to, it’s obvious he’d save her for more than just THAT! And that leaves Shadow for Sonic! Knuckles is pleased that, as he was hoping, Lara was listening. But she was right there the whole TIME, wouldn’t it be obvious she could hear what Tails was saying?
Lara’s disappointed when her task is merely to get Rotor to the hospital instead of taking part in the action, since she’s a tomboy and, a powerful guardian. And Knuckles reassures her that the role of a guardian is to protect people, not just fight. Again, she reminds me of Korra! Korra had to learn that lesson too, she was all ABOUT fighting! This is what makes Lara a good character, after all Korra is. Rotor then points out when she carries him that she has her father’s super strength, and she says, “ Good thing too! “
Knuckles says, “ I’m turning against my own forces. I can’t help but feel guilty, “ which is GOOD establishing what a conscience he really has, and Sonic snarks, “ Somehow I don’t think they’ll hold it against you. “ Because he’s an admired guardian no matter what or because they hate King Shadow? I wish we got to see for sure that Sonic was right, seeing his forces salute him afterwards.
Sally walks over to Knuckles after being asked to, surprised that he knows about the other timeline. How would SHE know about it when she wasn’t near the Tachyon Chamber when it was used? You could say Shadow told her but HE has just as little reason to know about it! Not even Lien-Da was near it! Or Cobor, so why did he think to make devices to keep people from being erased by the timeline change?
Shadow then reminds everyone that with Chaos Control he’s the master of time and space. This obviously means he wipes the floor with Sonic, while cruelly insulting him for aging when HE NEVER ages. Then Lara-Su shows up to fight Shadow as well, at least getting an extra number in there. This makes sense as long as she got Rotor to the hospital, but maybe she just put him down outside the castle hidden somewhere and planned to get to him later, because there’s no way the hospital is THAT CLOSE by and I doubt she has super speed to get there and back to HERE that fast.
Even a character IN the STORY pointed out how stupid the writing was!
She taunts Shadow about not effortlessly beating her by now which he should’ve logically done by just freezing time. Really that ability of his in the first place makes it ridiculous that he doesn’t win every fight instantly. He JUST SAID he was the master of time and space!
Lara brags that she has green fire chaos powers too. Sure, we only saw her floating pebbles before, but I can’t imagine that imagining that you have green fire around YOUR hands TOO would be hard to do after she just saw Shadow do it, so this is believable.
And then she uses Chaos Control to freeze Shadow in place, which she DIDN’T see him do! Then she says, “ I don’t think my great-great-great-great grandkids will have to worry. “ Well THAT was really easy!… I wish I knew how long she’s been training at her magical powers because while I’m really glad she’s so good at them now, making her really useful, it comes completely out of complete NOWHERE, when she wasn’t using them at ALL until recently!
The only guardian power she showed BEFORE this point was her, floating pebbles! And she and Knuckles were even impressed by THAT, although there was foreshadowing because Knuckles says she was already better at magic than him when he was her age, and HE had never floated pebbles like that even as Chaos Knuckles, so it was obvious she was a child prodigy, and personally since she’s a girl I find it easier to believe she’d be more gifted at magic over just having a focus on pure strength like Knuckles.
On the bright side, I can’t imagine it would be hard to just visualize Shadow frozen in time, so the only reason it’s confusing that she knows how to do this is that she knew the Chaos Energy chant from SA1, and we’re supposed to just assume she was taught about that in her guardian training I guess. But Shadow never says it before he does Chaos Control, at least not in the games. Why arbitrarily change it now?
She reassures her worried father that all she has is a burned shoulder, and Knuckles says that while her mother’s gonna flip from worry, she’ll be so proud, and he adorably hugs while she says, “ Thanks Daddy! “ Looking at panels like this makes me wonder, “ What kind of a ‘ fan ‘ would think Knuckles having a kid was unacceptable NOW? This is so sweet! “
Meanwhile Sally says she’s happy to be back with Sonic again, and Knuckles explained everything to her. And she knew something was wrong for all those years but was never sure what. THAT doesn’t make sense, either she’d remember the old timeline or she wouldn’t. And she SHOULDN’T!
Naturally she says that she never loved Shadow and she married him to bring stability to Mobius and try to tame him somewhat. But because Shadow was turned into a crazed cartoon villain with only “ telling us “ that he had good intentions and never showing us, OF COURSE she couldn’t tame him.
The story ends with Sonic lampshading that he sounds forward at how he’s immediately asking Sally to have kids to get Sonia and Manic back… I’m surprised this King Shadow story was finished so damn fast! I thought it’d be a whole story arc! But I wasn’t counting on Lara-Su being able to beat Shadow in the first confrontation with him! It’s nice that it didn’t drag out, it’s just surprising that it ended so fast.
I’m STILL left with the glaring unanswered question of why simply sending Sonic back in time at all caused the world not to end from core instability from events he couldn’t have PREVENTED to good effect! Not to mention how the hell Sonic either got back, or, no he must have gone back from some other time machine because he’d look WAY OLDER if he went back in time and had to wait 25 years again to get to this point! He doesn’t have obvious wrinkles!
Not to mention he’d obviously not just sit there and hide all that time instead of being a hero, so he’d logically have been known for being there and had a reputation by himself, while his past self would have his own reputation and life too unless he died, so the future Sonic could marry Sally. Yeah obviously him not just going back to the present through a time machine would be too convoluted to make sense. And what caused things to get so bad between Sonic and Tails?
Those gaping plot holes were just LEFT as the impending apocalypse was swept under the rug! So it’s like, the writer didn’t really properly transition from, Penders’ 25 Years Later to, Ian Flynn’s! It doesn’t really feel properly connected to it! I really hope I’m wrong in assuming this and the writer actually will at least explain that LAST thing, which would take just ONE SENTENCE of effort. ‘Cause right now it feels like he left some pretty obvious dangling plot threads. So, I guess that’s my summary right there! It was written by Ian Flynn, and it was good enough. Just rushed!
Oh yeah, there’s also a back-up story by Romy Chacon, I almost forgot about it. Basically… the problem it has is that it’s too repetitive because it’s about Sonic having a recurring dream where he goes to a, bonus ceremony about his birthday, wait, so… was it that he had ANOTHER birthday?…
Is this a flash-forward to his 18th birthday? Because, he only got one birthday celebrated after he came back from being in space. Or is this REALLY a bonus birthday celebration where he gets his 17th birthday celebrated AGAIN in one year? Obviously yes, because Issue 160 was his 17th birthday. He came back to Mobotropolis from the Ixis Chase on the 16th birthday.
But anyways, it’s, it’s repetitive because, it literally repeats the SAME TEXT from the, person talking on Sonic’s radio, over and over and over again! It makes sense, at least. But it even has the same artwork repeated too! I get it because it’s supposed to be about Sonic constantly having a dream that he ends up in the HOSPITAL, after he sleeps in and, misses his own ceremony. But, it just, it’s just boring and repetitive because of all that… repetition.
I, at the very least he does seem to learn his lesson as after all that recurring dream stuff, wait, WAS any of that “ landing in the hospital “ stuff CANON? Or was it ALL just a DREAM? A dream within a dream within a dream? Ugh…
These are the kinds of pointless back-up stories like Playing Around and the Tommy angsting one that I’d expect from the 150s and 140s. And you know, if this didn’t waste comic space, maybe we could’ve had a proper conclusion to the main story instead of it feeling so RUSHED. Maybe Sonic could’ve actually done something instead of being a wimp and helped out just as much as Lara-Su did, instead of Lara just beating Shadow in one move in the lamest action scene ever.
Issue 168:
At first I thought Sonic was saying that Tommy not only borrowed his guitar for SOME reason that’s never explained, but he ALSO borrowed his “ jet. “ But then I realized he was using “ jet “ as slang for “ run off. “ Tails complains that Tommy wrecked his latest project. And Rotor says that he washed the “ dirty “ petri dishes, destroying any nanite research he had going on. Why aren’t they just jumping to the conclusion that Tommy was replaced by an infiltrator again, after LAST time? It’s not like him to be THAT incompetent!
Sonic complains that ever since he got nanites in his shell, Tommy’s been acting up, which we never saw any hint of before by the way. Did those nanites get in his BRAIN? What could they POSSIBLY have to gain in mangling his character like this? What actual incentive would ADAM have to make Tommy do this, when this is the same guy who spared Tails’ life and the lives of his friends just because he had fun playing riddles with Tails – when his friends were totally unrelated to the riddle game at that?
And Rotor says that Tommy’s constantly in trouble ANYWAY. No he isn’t. They saved him when he was kidnapped in the infiltrator factory, and he’s LITERALLY NEVER gotten in trouble since. It’s not like he’s SatAM Antoine! The only reason you’d think this is if you’re STILL confused into thinking Sonic met the actual Tommy in that bar and then thought Tommy got kidnapped and replaced by the drilling infiltrator.
It turned out that Flynn always hated Tommy Turtle and this is the only explanation for why Rotor would say this OOC line about his own FRIEND. Meta logic. It’s the writer being spiteful enough to make a good guy spiteful and try to retcon Tommy as always being a nuisance, which is not professional.
Meanwhile, Eggman says that he’s got a lesson to teach Anonymous, and ADAM asks him SURPRISINGLY CALMLY, “ May I ask why you are deleting me, Father? “ (laughs) It’s times like this where I really wish that the comic had voice-acting so I could tell if he actually emoted that or not! It’s WORTH not having bad voices and acting all the time, though. It’s why I won’t watch the TV shows yet. Of course, Eggman figured out that ADAM must have been Anonymous. I would ask what the fuck took him so long, but it actually took me forever to figure it out the first time too.
Wait, what does he mean “ I knew the robots were cheap replicas then? “ No he DIDN’T. Otherwise he would’ve SAID SO, because he didn’t suspect ADAM of being a traitor back then, so he’d have no reason not to tell ADAM he suspected that. Eggman might be lying to save face rather than admit he was ever fooled, but then he says that he DIDN’T REALIZE the video was fake so if he can admit he was wrong about ONE thing, then that means Flynn’s expecting us to think he’s actually telling the truth, when he’s not. HOW DID HE EVER THINK that the video was FAKE? How DID he realize it?
The video HAD TO BE FAKE IF THEY WERE FAKE! So I guess that explains it! They were never reroboticized at all! But how did he find out the video included in them was fake? Did he scan their memory banks himself, and find out that they didn’t have the Destructix’s memories? But HOW? How could they have a memory of the Destructix all sitting together with only the person who remembered it not included in the video? Were the Destructix told to act out a scene for ADAM to make that fake video?
That “ scene “ was where they were all talking about how they were hoping Anonymous wouldn’t betray them like Eggman did, so they were talking as if Anonymous wasn’t even in the ROOM with them to talk about as if they hadn’t made the deal with him.
And it was being recorded from the point of view of one of the Destructix, and I doubt ADAM could’ve put a flying invisible camera right in front of the member of the Destructix to record the scene. Well I guess he could? I guess it’s not that ridiculous, he could’ve just paid them to act out a fake memory and record it for him. But it sounds SO silly and convoluted just thinking about how this video could’ve been faked! It would’ve been simpler if it WAS just a memory, and was just what it looked like!
The Destructix would’ve needed to be THERE to say what he wanted on camera and why would they do that, what benefit would that have to them? Wouldn’t Eggman notice if he lost tons of money? Will we ever learn what ADAM actually DID FOR THEM? And why they aren’t working for him now? I guess they only didn’t work for him after that because all he did was make robot replicas of them after making a video of them?
You’d think that if ADAM had been the one who made those “ replicas “ of what would be roboticized Destructix, then he would’ve TOLD EGGMAN what he did immediately to get appreciation for helping him instead of staying secretive about it, and then Eggman would’ve yelled at him for acting independently, and that’s the best case scenario.
The worst case is that this would get his hopes up that ADAM learned how to reroboticize when he actually faked it and when expected to replicate his success, he would have to keep faking it and Eggman would see the non-roboticized people EVENTUALLY, and get mad at him for lying to him!
This is why it makes no sense for ADAM to have the motivation of impressing him and not give up on it eventually if he’s a free-willed AI, like he HAS TO BE to act independently, because trying to impress someone who’s such a control freak that he hates whenever you act independently is just futile, and if he really was doing everything to impress him, why didn’t Anonymous TELL him he was doing that from the start? He can’t be impressed if he doesn’t KNOW!
It honestly doesn’t make sense that Anonymous is ADAM, even if they both start with A, because there’s no reason for secrecy. If he KNEW that Eggman would disapprove of him doing all this and that’s why he kept it secret, what was the point of doing it all for the sake of impressing him then? It’d make way more sense for Anonymous to be secretive from Eggman if he wasn’t working for Eggman at all, not even in secret, and thus would have nothing to gain from telling him he gave him robots for a potential reward.
Eggman says that the Metal Destructix were only there to get Tommy’s infiltrator closer to Sonic. I was really hoping at this point that the “ Bunnie was a sleeper agent “ plot point would be picked up. Logically speaking, you’d think that the whole nanite attack business would’ve happened at the very start of this issue and not given us that pointless filler scene with the heroes where they do nothing but complain about pointless evil stuff being done to them.
After some more panels are wasted on recapping what we ALREADY KNOW about what Anonymous did, Eggman tells him, “ Because I just watched you STEAL his Chaos Emerald and release both him and Ixis Naugus! “ What STILTED dialogue. So… THAT’S how Mogul and Ixis got free from the Egg Grapes, then. They were freed by someone who had no reason to help them. That was anticlimactic.
ADAM says, “ You’ve been spying on me, Father? That is NOT VERY nice! “ I’m wondering why ADAM wouldn’t just DELETE that camera footage of him betraying Eggman, since he should know that Eggman would disapprove of that.
He’s doing everything to help him and get him impressed, right? So why betray Eggman by releasing Mogul, instead of just using the nanites on the heroes at the start and disposing of one of the biggest threats to him like he clearly said he was planning to do at Issue 162’s start? He can’t even remember his OWN writing!
Then comes some MORE waste-of-time recap wasting comic space, which expects us to buy that all of a sudden NOW it was ADAM who always sent the Metal Sonic Troopers after Eggman when I always assumed it was Snively. But since the Troopers did go after Hope, who he likes, it makes more sense that it WASN’T him, but Snively was literally IN KNOTHOLE, so OF COURSE I assumed it was him and not ADAM!
How the hell would ADAM have ever gotten access to the Metal Sonic Troopers and freed them from Knothole in the first place, and KNOW about the SECRET project from way earlier at all? Am I supposed to believe he took over Tommy’s body with the nanites and controlled him to do that? Okay, but how the hell would Tommy not remember that happening?
Lemme dissect this for a second here. The only way he could take control of Tommy and not have him remember what was happening to him which would lead to him telling the heroes and imprisoning himself for their protection, is if he mechanized him with the nanites’ “ turn organic stuff into metal “ power seen in Issue 152 so that he’d have a different brain that wouldn’t have the same memories as his organic one. And then, uh, here’s the problem, at no point was it ever shown that the nanites could turn metal BACK INTO organic stuff. At that point, why not just deroboticize Jules with nanites?
You could only PARTIALLY deroboticize him and keep the old wounded part of him from earlier roboticized! Why the hell didn’t the Bem think of THAT? If nanites were capable of deroboticization just so Tommy could go back to serving as a double agent for ADAM instead of just keeping him mechanized, you’d think Nicole would’ve discovered this factoid of them later on and used it to, I dunno, deroboticize Metal Sally?
So that can’t be it, so how would Tommy not remember he was being controlled by ADAM? And it can’t be that ADAM controlled a robot and sent it to release the Metal Sonic Troopers, the more simple explanation in line with what he’s actually done before, because I’m pretty sure Knothole would be heavily guarded and the second any robot would be spotted, the Knothole emergency alarm would go off and send Sonic and friends after the robot to destroy it!
But let’s say he only ever mechanized Tommy later, as would be the simpler assumption. If he doesn’t remember because he was made to do that while asleep, I’m pretty sure that him being forced to walk and do stuff by nanites would wake him up eventually, and I can’t imagine ADAM would be able to SEE when Tommy would have his eyes closed from sleep, so he wouldn’t be able to navigate Tommy’s body to where he’d want him to go, even IF we’re to assume the nanites were in his brain to tell ADAM about the Metal Sonic Troopers!
He’d pretty much have to either have Tommy awake for it or have the eyes mechanized so they’d be open for him and let him see through them, at which point wouldn’t they STAY mechanized? I refuse to buy this stupid retcon, I ALWAYS assumed it was Snively, but by not correcting Eggman on this assumption, he’s implying we’re supposed to take this at face value! The sheer FACT that I wrote PARAGRAPHS just trying to MAKE SENSE OF IT and FAILED, PROVES how stupid this is!
And after Eggman briefly complains about deleting ADAM, ADAM approaches him from BEHIND saying that he managed to download himself to one last place, and Eggman gets grabbed by what looks like a robotic turtle. He says stiltedly, “ You remember Tommy Turtle, don’t you, Father? He unknowingly has helped me spread MY nanites. “ So did he roboticize and possess Tommy or what? Wait a minute, didn’t the Bem make roboticization impossible? HOW IS THIS NOT ROBOTICIZATION?! Tommy’s entirely made of metal here!
At this point why did he need to make robot fakes of the Destructix instead of just doing THIS to them with nanites? Or is Tommy just surrounded by metal he’s trapped in, and somehow isn’t screaming for help and pounding on it, like he’s unaware of it? If he was, we’d know. Way to get off on a technicality!
He’s made of metal, his mind isn’t working as he’s apparently unable to do much to react to all this, but apparently it’s not roboticization if it’s an ADAM robot head instead of a Tommy robot head – and I only know this because I’m speaking after-the-fact and therefore know we see Tommy’s head later on in the metal body.
So apparently, mechanizing MOST of a person can still work just fine, just as long as you don’t roboticize their HEAD, THEN the Bem’s magic spell kicks in and you can’t do it, which would be why legionization still works, and why he didn’t do this to make the Destructix robots like they DESERVE as they couldn’t have their brains mechanized.
I guess that makes sense? What makes roboticization bad is the loss of free will from roboticizing the brain, so the Bem only prevented THAT, only counting that as roboticization, as that’s the only inherently evil thing about roboticization on its own.
Preventing the mechanizing of EVERY part of the body would mean you couldn’t save someone’s life by roboticizing their limbs or get them cyborg eyes easier or something, which could be bad, Jules would’ve been screwed if the Bem cast their spell before he had to be roboticized and it didn’t let his war wounds get roboticized and healed.
Nicole tells Sonic in a panic that she’s got a nanite infection and then FINALLY Bunnie actually DOES get her sleeper agent plot point used, as her robotic limbs force her to be a problem, punching wildly.
However it’s IMMEDIATELY dropped, as she gets held down and reluctantly agrees to Rotor disengaging her robotic limbs with a screwdriver until she’s cured to keep her from hurting anyone. That was disappointing. So, she doesn’t really… nothing real-nothing’s really DONE with this, at ALL! It’s just REALLY quick.
SO quick that it felt so pointless and I didn’t get why it was even DONE, because she wouldn’t have done anything against ADAM that was useful ANYWAYS. Well, she could fly and shoot lasers at him from the sky I guess, but he could probably take her and she’s such a frequent victim of The Worf Effect that he’d just knock her out of the sky, even WITH her force field power.
He probably did this to try to get her to eliminate Sonic for him, as a threat to his rule of the Eggman Empire, but WHY would he CARE about ruling its empire?! What does he have to GAIN from it? I don’t understand him anymore! If he cared about eliminating threats to the Eggman Empire, he would’ve let the nukes hit Knothole and Station Square instead of stopping the missile launch long enough to let Bunnie destroy the missile submarine.
You know, the reason Bunnie was stopped so quick was because she was so close to her friends who could pin her down and Rotor could unscrew her limbs right in the lab. You’d think if ADAM knew where they were at all times thanks to Nicole he would’ve taken control of Bunnie’s limbs when she was alone on a mission or at least with friends who could do nothing to stop her so quick, like Tails, and she’d be forced to fly away and run off to fight Sonic, causing an action scene since it’s an action series, but instead nothing of the sort HAPPENS.
And there’s no excuse for it, because that would’ve been actually exciting writing and ADAM could’ve done this at ANY TIME, so why did he wait until the last moment and pick the worst possible time to do this to Bunnie? This is yet another reason why it makes no sense that ADAM or Eggman waited THIS LONG after Issue 159 to execute this plan.
Then Jules gets forced by the nanites in him to grab Tails, saying that he can’t control anything but his thoughts and it’s a struggle to even speak to him right now. Sonic follows Jules who warns him that he might be leading him into a trap, and Jules is not able to say where he’s leading him thanks to the nanites, but he’s been there before.
Some narration says, “ the nanite city, “ which is APPARENTLY where EGGMAN is when I THOUGHT that Eggman only had his base in Old Megaopolis. If he has a base HERE, then that’ll be pretty confusing considering LATER, was his base taken down and replaced? I guess with nanites that’d be an easy feat. Regardless, Eggman’s never been here before, so him being here as if it’s no big deal to Shadow is stupid.
Shadow’s explaining to give exposition to the audience that he had been sent to hunt down Mammoth Mogul and Ixis for him, just to be told to come meet him, and he complains that he has to make up his mind. That was pretty amusing. Turns out it was ADAM who called him here because he was still holding Eggman hostage. So, I guess THAT’S why Eggman’s at the nanite city? Because ADAM has some business here.
ADAM attacks Shadow, who magically assumes right away that he’s using a Mobian rather than assuming he’s possessing a ROBOT like he has only ever done with no indication that he could possess Mobians too.
He says saying that a gullible friend of Sonic’s, has been the perfect hiding place, and NOW he has made Tommy more powerful than the Ultimate Lifeform. That, sounds pretty RIDICULOUS to me, I’m sorry. This is the guy who destroyed an entire army of Neo Metal Sonics by just raising his hand! And yet I’m expected to believe he mopped the floor with him to the point of having him unconscious dangling from him with barely a fight in just a few panels. Even ignoring that hand-raising power, this is the same guy who can use CHAOS CONTROL to FREEZE TIME, and TELEPORT, so he’d effortlessly escape this situation!
Again, this is an ACTION SERIES. And yet there’s no real action scene and instead Shadow is beaten effortlessly without getting the chance to fight back, somehow, going through temporary Wimpification Worf Effect just to make this guy look competent, and force the rest of this arc to happen!
He easily puts Shadow as a pod as he wastes time in-universe telling Eggman his plan when Eggman hates him now. He tells him that with his technology he somehow discovered that there are seven colored varieties of Chaos Emeralds throughout the cosmos. How?… Did he get a telescope with an extremely good zoom lens? Did he get a spaceship that moved fast enough to get to those planets and BACK in no time? How did Eggman not go get those Emeralds with spaceships with robots in them by now if he even could find out that at all?
Even SONIC didn’t know there were outright SEVEN varieties of Emeralds, because he only saw the RED ones! It would’ve made sense for ADAM to only discover this fact AFTER using the Emerald Spire, but instead he’s as omniscient as Nicole is which has been the case since he was written by Flynn purely to make him able to make those convoluted evil plans. True, if Nicole was evil, she’d use her knowing-stuff-inexplicably power in the same way, and I said he was like Eggman’s Nicole, but it’s bad writing for Nicole to be omniscient and it’s bad writing for ADAM to be, parallel or not.
For his plan to work, he needs Super Shadow for his super powerful Chaos Control. How is he going to… get a machine to FORCE Super Shadow to use Chaos Control for him?… Brainwash him? And then, he gets unbrainwashed afterwards, to not benefit him? Rather than staying controlled by him to fight Sonic?
If he can just brainwash anyone he wants with nanites, which he must have done to Tommy as the only explanation for how ADAM could unleash the Metal Sonic Troopers, well brainwashing is a very overpowered tool for a villain, why didn’t he just release nanites ON EVERYBODY, including EGGMAN so that Eggman would give him the approval he wants?
Logically this plot could’ve had literally everyone in the nearby area forced by nanites to fight Sonic if apparently they can brainwash AND mechanize people. And, okay, apparently ADAM managed to get around the “ no roboticizing brains “ rule the Bem put into place, because he can still use nanites to brainwash people, and the Bem didn’t think of that, alright then. Why won’t Eggman just do that?
The point is, did we really NEED ADAM to NEED Shadow to make his Emerald Spire work? No. Sure, he needs to make Shadow use Chaos Control, I GUESS by sending nanites into his brain and forcing him to use it. But apparently he also needs Tails, so if Tails is so magical, can’t ADAM just get Chaos Control to happen from HIM instead?
Tails has enough magic in him that Mammoth Mogul thought it was worthwhile to spend months draining magic from him to regain his power. I’m pretty sure he could do Chaos Control, especially since he’s blood-related to a freaking WIZARD!
But the only reason he states for kidnapping Tails is because he’s the Chosen One. How’d Eggman know about his “ title “ when he wasn’t there for ANY of that stuff? He must have known, or ADAM wouldn’t have access to information about that through a database, which is where he gets all his information.
At THAT point, why doesn’t Eggman ever just use nanites to mechanize people for the most part like was done to Tommy and then put nanites in their brains to do the rest? It’d be very easy to bring roboticization as a concept back in a roundabout way like that where he does it without it TECHNICALLY qualifying as the kind of roboticization the Bem made impossible, if apparently you can get so close with what happened to Tommy! At that point, THIS would’ve made way more sense as a way to bring back roboticization than the freaking Genesis Wave doing it!
Fortunately he explains such a plot hole right away, as he HAD Mogul tell him all about his destiny to bring about a Great Harmony… HOW WOULD HE KNOW to HAVE MOGUL TELL HIM something that he couldn’t possibly know about? What, did he free Mogul and then decide to have a chat with him to find out everything about his dealings with the heroes? Yeah, Mogul the powerful mage just volunteered that information. He didn’t use his Ixis elemental powers on him to freeze him in a second, really? Although ADAM took his Chaos Emerald, so I guess he was powerless. But come on.
Yeah, because Mogul just generously gave ADAM that information, he was just so nice that he helped ADAM from the bottom of his heart despite him having nothing to gain by telling him about his personal business with Tails earlier. Was ADAM threatening him at gunpoint? We won’t see anything like that. How would he ever think that ADAM would use Tails’ being the Chosen One against Tails and do it to spite him? ADAM would only think to do that if Mogul told him about Tails being the Chosen One in the first place and why would he?
These are all such Hand Wavey explanations for how ADAM knew to do this evil plan! He had NO REASON TO KNOW about the seven colored Emeralds when even we only knew about TWO varieties and he had NO REASON to know about Tails being the Chosen One! Why would he ever think Tails was NECESSARY instead of just thinking he needed Shadow’s Chaos Control to send the Emeralds to him and that’s all he needed? Why would Tails be necessary, wouldn’t it be SHADOW’S Chaos Control who sent the Emeralds all to one place?
Shadow will do just as much in bringing about the Great Harmony and yet there was never any mention of SHADOW in Tails’ prophecies, when he was absolutely NECESSARY in it happening! He was like half the Chosen One right THERE, the Emeralds wouldn’t be near him to be put in the Special Zone if it weren’t for HIM!
He says he built the nanite city to hide this Focusing Spire, as he puts Tails in a pod. I’m pretty sure the nanite city of Issue 152 wasn’t written into existence with this intention in mind. He says he had freed Mogul and Ixis to keep Shadow busy until he needed him. Wait, WHY? Why wouldn’t he just ask for him to come to the nanite city and go up to him as the mechanized Tommy right away?
So really, that part of the plan was entirely pointless and was only written to make Ixis and Mogul exist as villains for longer rather than the Egg Grapes destroying them, it was only written because of meta logic. He used Tommy to weaken the Freedom Fighters and obtain Tails. Okay, so he made Bunnie knock out Tails so Jules could kidnap him. That was apparently the purpose, but it was hard to tell since Bunnie was so useless to him otherwise. You would think that JULES COULD DO IT HIMSELF! Without NEEDING BUNNIE! But fine, she was his DISTRACTION.
Eggman snarks that his plan is “ more like convoluted if you ask me. “ THANK YOU! ADAM explains that he knows through Jules, I guess from scanning his memory banks, that Sonic is in the nanite city, being cautious of a trap that doesn’t exist. He also says that while he knows Eggman remotely summoned his Egg Fleet, but they will arrive too late. So is the whole “ Tommy can fly “ thing EVER gonna be taken advantage of to help the Freedom Fighters? What a clueless way to write Tommy Turtle, completely IGNORING that useful ability of his when it comes to HELPING the Fredom Fighters!
Shadow and Tails wake up screaming in the pod, as a green laser charges up above them. I guess it was siphoning their magical power. Why would that make them wake up screaming, though? It didn’t wake up Tails when Mogul was draining his energy, he was asleep for months, although I guess Mogul was keeping him asleep with his spell and that’s the only reason why. Still, if this process was hurting them enough to make them scream, why isn’t it killing them?
And ADAM explains that with a shortcut through space-time and a beacon for the gems, he’ll obtain ALL the Chaos Emeralds in the UNIVERSE… and it just ends right there. Okay, um, you’d think that if a device like this could be made thanks to Shadow’s Chaos Control, Eggman would’ve thought to do this HIMSELF, a LONG time ago.
There’s no explanation for why HE couldn’t have built this beacon, what’s so special about ADAM that only he and his nanites could do it? You’d think that “ use the guy on my side who can use Chaos Control for getting me all the Chaos Emeralds “ would’ve been the FIRST thing Eggman would think of for a guy with teleportation powers!
Instead Shadow wasn’t taken advantage of at ALL as being on Eggman’s side, he literally never did anything against Sonic, when Eggman had the ultimate freaking lifeform on his side! That’s uncharacteristic of him! Wasn’t the whole reason he joined him to fight against GUN as a common enemy? Why didn’t Shadow leave a long time ago then if he wasn’t fighting GUN and he was getting impatient, why didn’t he just go fight GUN HIMSELF, which would’ve made more sense?
In the next story, HEY, he’s actually TALKING! He’s actually being an actual CHARACTER again! Is it just me, or has he not been given ANY DIALOGUE since he returned to Mobius? What, did being on Anti-Mobius make him really SHY? And I barely noticed until now! He complains looking depressed that Patch had destroyed all that was valuable to him. The art does a piss poor job of – well, everything, this art is shit, but it also does a bad job of showing what Antoine means, because all I’m seeing is books on the floor. He’s not even describing the valuables he had that Patch destroyed.
Actually, you’d think that if Patch DID destroy Antoine’s valuables, he would’ve long since thrown them in the garbage and they’d be long gone by now. And Antoine isn’t saying that his valuables are MISSING, just destroyed, as if he’s seeing them first-hand, which makes no sense.
Even if Patch did keep the destroyed valuables in his house to be smug about being reminded of what he did to Antoine every day, you’d think that one, he’d still wanna hide them somewhere because someone could get suspicious of him if they saw he did that to his own stuff in a world where robot infiltrators exist, and two, those possessions would still be stuff he could’ve benefited from and can’t now that they’re destroyed and they’ll always remind him that he made that mistake, provided they aren’t just useless trinkets for sentimental value.
Antoine isn’t looking in a closet of hidden destroyed stuff, he’s just looking at a room. And when Bunnie shows up, again there’s ANOTHER ridiculous flub of the French language! Amour would not have an “ e “ at the end! And for the m’ part? It’s either mon and ma, that’s it! It would’ve been mon here because amour starts with a vowel! Mobian French sure is weird! But this is wrong even for Mobian French, because usually it at least shows us that it gets mon and ma right!
What the hell is with their LONG NECKS, I thought we got PAST this kind of horrible art! Anyways, Bunnie confuses me by asking, “ Why go tuh all that trouble? Was destroyin’ all you loved a thrill? “ He didn’t do that. Patch did. “ You destroyed all that was valuable to me. “ Why didn’t he correct her? Instead, he says “ oui, “ and says his evil twin left his mark. Bunnie just says that Antoine destroyed his own stuff for, no apparent reason, and Patch made his MARK, in some ambiguous WAY that HE would’ve had to SUFFER through himself. He wouldn’t have known Antoine was coming back to know to spite him!
Then there’s some interesting dialogue where Antoine explains that honestly, the evil twins were not so much MEAN as they were SAD! He admits that he feels sorry for them! Naturally since their lives are meaningless, boring and empty when they have no major villains to fight. So they lash out at Kintobor out of stress and boredom! They’re wasted potential!
I mean you could even SEE it with, Scourge being all bitter and apathetic about everything before he got his newfound confidence from his newfound green transformation. Before that, he was all moody and never really smiled at all, being more of a UNIQUE CHARACTER instead of just copying Sonic’s cocky personality. Flynn made him even LESS original with his personality AND GOALS and no one noticed because he was original with his DESIGN. It makes sense that all the other evil twins would also be that sad, look at Alicia!
Sadly he doesn’t explain that part, keeping the development on his months with the evil twins to an absolute LAZY minimum! But at least we get SOMETHING! But come on, it’s unacceptable that we don’t see the background of this panel show us what Antoine MEANT by this, instead gracing us with the presence of a horrible-looking Bunnie.
He says that while the evil twins have his pity, they don’t have his forgiveness, and he looks resentful, with his face in the shadow, and Bunnie lampshades that he’s starting to sound more like Patch, having gotten more bitter from the experience. Antoine apologizes that he’s just mad at living in squalor. But why would Patch have been living in squalor to begin with? I understand inconveniencing Antoine, but he was living THERE and had no reason to think Antoine would be coming home really soon and prepare the house for him! I don’t buy that this was retroactively always how Patch lived disguised as Antoine.
He tells her that while he could go live with HER, chivalry demands that at first, he proposes. Really? Boyfriends and girlfriends live together all the TIME, and in fact, it’s so normal that I ALWAYS assumed that Bunnie and Antoine lived together since they started dating! But apparently he’s just too “ honorable “ to be nice enough to live with his girlfriend early, when this is the same guy who court-martialed Sonic from revenge and jealousy. Huh? Honorable guy! Then Sonic gives Antoine the news that he’d better go see his father quick.
He asks Bunnie sadly to come with him because he needs her, although he’s reluctant to admit the needing her for support part, as he trails off. Also, s’il vous plait would’ve had a quotation mark ‘ before the s and the il. Also, why is he addressing his girlfriend with vous? The formal “ you? “ Wouldn’t he be saying “ te “ instead?
Dr Quack says that out of complete nowhere retroactively, Patch had used a poison no one’s ever seen before, and it may be unique to his dimension. BULLSHIT, considering that he was sent to Mobius with ANTOINE’S CLOTHES!
So he would’ve had NO fucking reason to HAVE that poison with him when he GOT there! If THAT’S SUPPOSED to be the explanation for why they couldn’t cure him that’s a pretty PATHETIC ASS PULL of an excuse! There was NO WAY Patch could’ve got ANYTHING from his dimension to here! Not to mention Anti-Mobius is a parallel world, I would think it would have the exact same kinds of poisons from similar plant life, but WHATEVER.
And of course I have to question, why they can’t just wish on Rings or the Chaos Emeralds to cure the king and Antoine’s father! Not to MENTION the existence of healing stasis tubes that brought Sally back from near-death, and healed the queen’s injuries, and the existence of Rotor’s nanobots and stasis tubes that healed Geoffrey from damage done from nanites in his bloodstream!
There’s such advanced technology out there and you’re telling me there’s no hope? Bullshit! Dr Quack explains that he can hardly find traces of the poison now, even though it’s still being a huge problem for him so that makes no sense.
Antoine’s father says, “ Hello my valued son, “ Antoine says hi my dad, and Antoine cries holding his hand while apologizing for being a coward and saying, “ I let my jealousy divide my team in the past! I’ve been a FAILURE to the name D’Coolette! “ Yes you have Antoine! But that’s what made you ENGAGING! That’s the biggest problem with the way his “ Character Development “ went!
First he had all these captivating personality traits because he was a stuck-up snob who thought of Sonic as a commoner and he was Sonic’s rival, AND he was also a coward. Then he lost the jerk part, so he was less interesting, because I couldn’t hate him anymore. So I couldn’t feel ANY strong feelings about him anymore! It’s just like with Sally, she’s way more interesting when she’s a bitch.
And when he returned from Anti-Mobius, APPARENTLY he loses the coward part TOO! SOMEHOW! I’ve read on TV Tropes that it was supposed to be like him toughening up in prison because he was with the evil twins, but, wouldn’t that just make him even MORE afraid and stressed out? You know, paranoid that they were gonna kill him or hurt him for the slightest slight?
Antoine couldn’t take prison, that’s ridiculous, why would that make him BRAVER? Maybe if one of the evil twins was giving him ADVICE on how to act brave DESPITE the fear! Like Miles, who’s theorized to act tough when he’s at heart just a scared little boy.
My point is, now that he’s lost the, the French Jerk coward part, because they wanted to make him less of a stereotype, he has NOTHING LEFT! What’s his personality now?! Nice, brave? So are all the OTHER Freedom Fighters. It says something that he’s said practically NOTHING since he got home, like even the writers knew he had no personality and couldn’t think of a good reason to give him dialogue because of it.
This whole “ aftermath of the evil twins “ thing is the only interesting thing going on with him anymore and Flynn’s resolving it here! By trying to make him a more sympathetic character, and less stereotypical, they made him stop BEING a character and now he’s just a generic guy with a French Accent! Past this evil twin stuff I’m not gonna care ONE BIT about him anymore than I do with the Substitute Freedom Fighters!
He was a jerk and a coward and now he’s got nothing left! It’s so frustrating to see an engaging character wasted like that! You don’t fix him by making him bland, you fix him by making him deep and more competent. Geoffrey’s a jerk and he’s still competent. I like that he actually admits that he was an unlikable jerk who let his jealousy get the best of him in the past, but STILL!
It’s ” n’est-ce pas ” goddammit! That’s where the ” s ” sound comes from!
Antoine’s father tells him that he’s very proud of him and Bunnie, and Bunnie says that she really WAS just using Scourge to make Antoine jealous even though that wasn’t foreshadowed at ALL, because Patch wasn’t even in FRONT of her so what was the point of her letting Scourge kiss her? I guess her plan was to make sure he’d actually see it EVENTUALLY, but he didn’t, so she did a terrible job!
Like, Fiona said she might be doing it to do that, but in the actual issue where she was kissing Scourge it didn’t look like she was doing it just to make someone jealous who wasn’t there! If she was doing it for that reason, then why’d we never see her tell Patch she kissed Scourge?
And the story ends there with Antoine losing his father and being comforted by it by Bunnie. And since he died way too easily considering the sci-fi fantasy universe of healing stuff Sonic lives in, this is just as nonsensical as when Penders killed off Locke from cancer.
I learned after reading this issue that the passing of Flynn’s grandmother was the entire reason why he wrote this story. So there’s a parallel he has with Penders here, because Penders wrote Locke’s death based off his father’s, and both times, it’s unacceptable to kill off a character in an extremely contrived way just because of a death in real life, just because of pure meta logic. That’s letting real life cloud your judgment and color how you write and it feels unprofessional to me.
This issue was by Ian Flynn. The first story has ADAM discovered as Anonymous, which I guess should’ve been obvious to me because it was the predictable answer since they both share the same letter in their names. But the fact that ADAM referred to ADAM and Anonymous, like in the third person instead of saying, “ I “ at any point in that one textbox in the end of Darkest Storm, kinda threw me off a little.
In retrospect I probably didn’t believe it was ADAM until now because it was too ridiculously Out of Character for him considering his Establishing Character Moment with Tails making him a humorous lighthearted character, so I was thinking with enough common sense to give the comic the benefit of the doubt and assume it wouldn’t be ADAM mangled into THIS thing.
ADAM carries out his plan to use Shadow and Tails’ magic to give him all the Chaos Emeralds in the universe, having already used his nanites to force Bunnie to get Tails knocked out and kidnapped for him, and infect Nicole, force Jules back into Eggman’s clutches, and I guess he took over Tommy’s body roboticizing him past the Bem stuff. That was confusing.
It feels cruel to say Tommy being killed off this way could be a good thing because it removes redundant excess baggage, that steals dialogue and screentime from Rotor, Tails and Uncle Chuck, but it’s true. He wasn’t unique in any way, just bland! We didn’t even need more than one engineer. I mean, he had an organizing skill but that was only in one issue! And while he can fly, so can Bunnie and Tails.
The story was interesting although all the planning did was convoluted. Even on my first read, it was surprising that he was being SO EVIL because he spared Tails because he was having fun with him doing riddles! So, I was picturing him to be the lesser evil to Eggman, they were kind of building up to something like that! There’s too much recap in this issue. But otherwise it was exciting. Well, as exciting as an issue can be when it has Shadow knocked out extremely quickly with no action scene fight and has Bunnie almost immediately get subdued. Shadow’d have killed ADAM with Chaos Control instantly.
And the second story has Antoine complain that his evil twin destroyed everything dear to him, which actually makes no sense since he LIVED in Antoine’s house and so why would he live in a house like that? And he loses his father after admitting what an annoying character Antoine used to be.
And the only good part of the story, has him actually give some depths to the evil twins by saying that they weren’t really MEAN to him! Just saddening! If ONLY we got to SEE that! If only we got to see WHY he felt sorry for them, because if you just leave it at that, then someone might think he’s just having Stockholm Syndrome and then it’s not actually depth! If the artist knew what he was doing he would’ve drawn panels showing what Antoine MEANT, instead of showing a horrible-looking Bunnie.
Another part that really frustrated me, is that AGAIN OF COURSE Antoine was once a jerk and I used to really hate him, but at least when he was more of an antagonistic hero he was INTERESTING! Now he might as well not EXIST! He doesn’t have any personality traits LEFT! He’s just generic hero guy! Bunnie’s boyfriend!
It’s such a shame that they’ve made him SO BORING! He barely has any dialogue anymore! I think this is the first time he’s spoken in a really long time and that makes perfect sense because, he doesn’t have anything really interesting ABOUT him! So why not let the actual interesting characters talk instead? This story just frustrated me. And the long necks and tall proportions didn’t help, I thought that kinda art was a thing of the past!
But by far, the arbitrariness of Antoine’s father dying was the worst part of the entire story. In a world with magical wish-granting Rings, Emeralds and healing stasis tubes and nanobots, there was no way in hell he was doomed to die from poison that somehow Patch smuggled from another zone that he got kicked out of wearing ANTOINE’S clothes.
The story could’ve been about developing the evil twins based on Antoine’s lines about them, but instead it was derailed into a story that was a dumb excuse to kill off Antoine’s father just because Flynn’s grandmother died, which is no better meta logic-justified contrived writing than Locke dying in 25 Years Later. This is not how you handle a character from the previous issues correctly. At least his personality was intact, which is more than I can say for other characters, but was this really the intention with him? Sure, he was more poisoned, but that’s what healing stasis tubes are for.
I don’t care if he was seen as excess baggage just because he was a parent of a main character. Technically he was a General, so wasn’t that good enough? At least he was DOING SOMETHING, which is way more worthwhile than Jules and Bernadette, who just waste space making me wonder how they pay their house’s rent when they have no jobs to support themselves! I can only assume they pay their rent with Sally’s family fortune, just like I have to assume all the teenage Freedom Fighters with no careers do.
Issue 169:
Jules tells Sonic that ADAM is fortunately done with him now that he gave him Tails but then says that he told him to go somewhere to self-destruct. Is he just assuming he’s gonna do that without trying to make him do it, because he’s saying, “ No worries! “ Why’d he trust him to carry that out, that was REALLY stupid of him! Like he just handed the villain the Idiot Ball!
He reassures Sonic that he wasn’t given a deadline and will live just as long as he was planning to. This was very convenient. Jules warns him that ADAM has taken control of Tommy as he lies down on the floor for some reason.
ADAM brags happily that his device is summoning every Chaos Emerald on Mobius, as well as the Cyan Emeralds from the planet of that alien who put Sonic in that giant ant farm – I’m glad that was referenced – and the blue Emeralds from the Xorda planet. So there’s two blue Chaos Emeralds?
It makes me sad that while the red Emeralds got to have their own unique gimmick, summoning a separate Super Sonic, none of the other Emeralds will get a different creative gimmick for them! (And we might have gotten to SEE that if we got to see Bollers’ idea where Tails flew the Tornado through space to find his parents, but nope.) This is a complete waste of a concept! It’s so lazy to never establish what their unique gimmicks are! At the very least you could’ve given them each elemental powers!
Then ADAM explains that the reason he knows this, is because the Emeralds are nice enough to tell him, as he’s bound to the Summoning Spire. Wait, how though? Why do the Emeralds think he’s worthy? He’s not tied to it., how is he bound?
The purple Emeralds come from the remains of Teragosa 6, which Sonic found destroyed and I guess we’ll never know WHAT destroyed it! So much for wrapping up a dangling plot thread! “ which Sonic found destroyed by the Xorda, “ would’ve been ONE sentence!
And ADAM explains that the star that consumed EVE… really? Odd, I don’t remember that happening! I mean, I vaguely remember her heading for a star but I didn’t think she was going to that star to kill herself, because Sonic never tried to talk her out of it!… And how’d he ever know EVE went into it? He magically detected her remains too apparently! But yeah that star is going dark as its fuel, the yellow Chaos Emeralds, are being pulled away. I love that it’s the yellow Emeralds that are that fuel because yellow is for stars.
And the gray Chaos Emeralds are leaving the resting places on Argentum. I thought it was spelled Argentium! (It is, read Issue 129. Typos are nothing new for Flynn.) The Bem planet, as in. It is really awesome that we have all these references to the alien planets implied to exist earlier, not only in Tossed in Space, but even as far back as the first alien we ever saw! I’d say it was brilliant, but it’d be stupid if the Emeralds DIDN’T reference those previously established parts of space, where else would they come from?
How the hell did Flynn, Locke, AND Finitevus both get that chant so wrong?! ” Seventh chaos ” REALLY?! How did the chant still work then?! It’s real forgiving!
After that, he points out that he’s missing the Master Emerald which is technically a bunch of Chaos Emeralds. Why didn’t it summon it too? Well apparently it’s because both Locke and Finitevus were protecting it, reciting the SA1 Chaos Chant. Well that was awful nice of him! Makes sense Finitevus would wanna stop ADAM from making the island crash into the ocean. And I guess the Master Emerald warned them ahead of time that they’d have to do this. Finitevus then thinks that he’s only doing this because he needs the Master Emerald for his OWN plans that came out of nowhere, because of course he does…
Sonic complains as he finally shows up to ADAM, “ Yeah, that’s what I get for taking it slow and cautious for once. “ Then he actually points out that ADAM said “ we “ instead of, “ I, “ and he’s given the needlessly dark news that Tommy is still alive and conscious as he’s under his control. What would ADAM possibly have to GAIN in keeping him CONSCIOUS? Alive in the host makes Sonic hold back, but conscious and able to resist him? This is one of those things that was SO stupid that I actually FORGOT about it until I retyped this review, because it was too illogical to really sink in.
If Tommy was conscious, well, it looks like his head was replaced with a robot head of ADAM’s anyways, so where the hell is Tommy’s head and therefore consciousness if it looked like his head was roboticized and taken over by ADAM all along?
What possible benefit would there be to ADAM to keeping his head normal and ABLE TO FIGHT BACK inside his shell? And most importantly, what was taking him so long to get control back then? I don’t see why it would’ve been hard for him. Either it’d be impossible to regain control, or it would be really easy, I don’t see how it could be possible but hard. Only ADAM should logically be able to control the robotic body HE roboticized.
ADAM insists that he’s fulfilling his function because he’s doing all this to make Eggman proud of him. And THIS is why Anonymous being ADAM crumbles apart in logic. ADAM trying to make Eggman proud of him by acting independently was always a futile effort doomed from the start because Eggman’s too much of a control freak to appreciate ADAM doing things to help him on his own, and ADAM must have known that or he wouldn’t have keep those things a secret, and at that point it would’ve been far more logical and realistic for a LOGICAL AI by the way to GIVE UP on a clearly doomed effort of impressing Eggman, and turn against the guy who wanted to kill his riddle-playing buddy.
No it can’t be ADAM, because Eggman never said anything like that to you before he killed M!
When Eggman naturally yells at him and wants him destroyed, proving that his whole motive is pointless because it’s not ever gonna work, ADAM symbolizes his Character Derailment by saying delusionally, “ You will love me best, Father! “ And Sonic actually lampshades, “ Shadow isn’t this angsty! “ He’s not really angsty, because, ADAM never shows any emotion! At least he has a Freudian Excuse.
After he sees Tommy’s head looking scared, he apologizes to him, and ADAM takes full advantage of it to attack Sonic. Eggman tells Sonic to keep him busy for a few more minutes because his Egg Fleet’s on his way. Sonic insists that he’s not losing Tommy, and ADAM decides on more drastic measures.
Sonic runs up the green wall, and then immediately Sonic turns Super with it without any sort of explanation for it! I mean I guess he WAS running up a wall full of Chaos Emeralds and they let him transform? But that doesn’t explain why Shadow can go super so easily without being trapped in a pod! I mean, I guess the whole point of him being in the pod was for Super Shadow’s Chaos Control so he’d get those Emeralds. So yeah.
That does make sense but why would he keep being super even after being out of the pod, when you’d think his power would’ve all been exhausted by now? This feels so convenient, like the heroes are just going super so easily, without even touching the Emeralds!
Sonic says that he’ll get rid of all the nanites from ADAM, and Eggman frees Super Shadow and a dazed Tails. Oh, it’s Turbo Tails. I didn’t even notice until I saw his cape! That’s why they should’ve made him orange like the FIRST time! This is the issue where Turbo Tails fought Knuckles all over again!
Why is Tails trying to talk all formal and, adult all of a sudden? What, just because he’s in a super form? NEWS FLASH, all the other times that he was Turbo Tails, he talked EXACTLY THE SAME! He says that this much power “ cannot exist here. “ So they have to send it to a safe place.
Then Tails contradicts himself with a nonsensical textbox as first he asks Shadow if he can open a portal to the nearest zone but THEN he says not another dimension entirely. Uh, HELLLO? Other zones ARE other dimensions! They’re other UNIVERSES!
And Shadow gets the idea to summon the Zone of Silence specifically, instead of the Special Zone from the Universalamander story, causing Tails to complain about how many times it shows up. Yeah especially with almost no development to the actual contents of its universe. Shadow did MOST of the WORK in the Great Harmony here, HE’S the one who summoned that portal, and yet he wasn’t mentioned in the prophecy at all!
How is this the fulfillment of the prophecy that was foreshadowed, then? It could’ve been Tails who opened the portal because he was in his super form anyways, and I don’t really see what Chaos Control, which is about teleportation and time freezing, would ever have to do with opening an interdimensional portal! Not to mention it was ADAM who made the Emerald attraction machine and made Tails go in there, so wouldn’t this make ADAM the great harmonizer of the prophecy? Why didn’t it predict that
And Shadow complains looking strained that this isn’t easy, even though he’s in a super form, and Tails says that they have to fulfil the prophecy. But then he randomly gets the idea that what he was expected to do all along, was unify all the Chaos Emeralds.
So if Tails can telekinetically move the Emeralds just fine, why the fuck did we need SHADOW for bringing them all to Mobius again? That’s Chaos Control too! While Tails is drawn to look overly serious, Shadow wonders what will happen with all that energy in such an unstable zone.
ADAM brings that in a super form he’s invincible, and then Tommy pops out apologizing/lampshading that he took SO LONG to win back control. You know, since the Chaos Emeralds were just put in the Zone of Silence, wouldn’t it have been a lot less confusing that he regained control if it was explained that the reason he could win back control was that he lost connection to the Chaos Emeralds, so he became weaker? But he’s still in a super form and he wasn’t super for that long, so again, logically Tommy should’ve won back control WAY sooner.
And the entire reason he’s able to apologize is because he won back control contrivedly and confusingly. He apologizes for all the trouble he dragged him into, and then apologizes for letting ADAM do this. He’s acting like he caused more trouble than he actually DID. Somehow I feel sorry for him here, about apologizing unnecessarily.
Then Tommy says that ADAM will win back control eventually and he won’t get it back, so he has to get ADAM destroyed so that everyone will be cured of their nanite infections. Wait so the nanites wouldn’t just continue causing problems on their own? I guess they’re only acting out because ADAM was hacking them to control them, remotely. Well, at least Tommy got to die with dignity.
So Tommy sacrifices himself, causing Sonic to stop being super because he’s too upset and yet he doesn’t immediately fall screaming to the ground and continues to fly for some reason. And then the Egg Fleet destroyed Knothole because it was already up in the sky anyways no of course not. Natural writing is overrated, we gotta pad things out so they can happen LATER. Because meta logic, even though Eggman has no reason at all to wait if he had the Egg Fleet around this long. What an idiot.
I wish Shadow would just comfort Tails already!
As Tails cries and Shadow looks like he’s trying WAY too HARD to frown, Eggman calls family a colossal waste of time. Well anyone twisted enough to wanna be a part of his family, OF COURSE they’d turn on him all evil-like! And then Eggman decided not to let Snively join him again – no don’t be silly, that would’ve been good writing, even though Snively did literally nothing since he was shown joining him, so it feels like it could’ve not been written and we’d lose nothing. Snively wasn’t even needed for anything that a robot couldn’t do.
Also, Eggman acknowledged SHADOW as a member of his family when convincing him to join him, and yet he doesn’t ditch Shadow and vice versa. Eggman’s trying to show this theme of giving up on henchmen and yet he’s still sticking around with Shadow and Snively PURELY for meta logic’s sake! That doesn’t make any sense!
Eggman tells Sonic that he’s had too long a day to deal with him and so he’s letting him go. That’s the lamest, most pathetically lazy excuse for him not telling the Egg Fleet to go after Knothole right now EVER. Is Eggman really too much of a couch potato sloth to hit some buttons bringing the Egg Fleet to Knothole? If this guy wasn’t hard-working, he would’ve given up on fighting Sonic and being evil a long time ago just to laze about! And yet apparently the only reason he doesn’t try all his threatening plans right away is because of a lack of motivation?! Give me a break!
And Sonic sadly comes up to Tails, holding what’s left of Tommy, in a moment that reminds me of when Sonic brought Tails what was left of Cosmo in Sonic X. He tells Tails that Tommy turned out to be the bravest Freedom Fighter of them all. The story ends with Sonic saying to Tails comfortingly, “ C’mon, bro. We need to get my dad home. “
In the next story the Chaotix all contact each other about where they are, and we see Espio going to Goldenhive Castle which is now a gray base for Eggman. And he stays invisible the whole-no WHY WOULD he be remotely smart with that power, this is ESPIO we’re talking about! Surprisingly he intimidates an Egg Pawn into telling him where the main computer is when you’d think a mindless robot would be programmed to never give information to the enemy!
Espio gets past some Egg Pawns who show personality by playing cards on the computer which they shouldn’t be programmed to waste time doing instead of actually doing their JOBS. HE shows personality by giving the robot advice for no reason, and then he uses Nicole to hack the system.
As he stands over the destroyed remains of robots he finally asks WHY Eggman would program his robots to pointlessly show fear. Yeah especially since it made one of them BETRAY him! It’s just gonna be a detriment to him!…
Nicole shows her cleverness by figuring out that it’s because Eggman is a sadist, and fills the void in his life with robots. Espio asks her if talking about this is slowing down her hacking, and Nicole replies wittily, “ Yes, but it’s a moot point. I’m in. “ I really like her when she’s being witty and clever! It makes her more interesting!
It’s revealed why they came here, to find out what happened to Charmy’s family and kingdom which were never fleshed out or elaborated on because Eggman took it over, without us ever seeing much of it. Nicole explains that there’s no records on numbers captured or otherwise but she’s found video and image files of the invasion.
She says that anyone who wasn’t captured fled, and the Goldenhive Colony has been completely converted to serve Eggman. When he’s told that the kingdom is gone, Espio says the great line, ” Then Eggman won’t have it either. ” He then leaves with a great big explosion making me think he can create smoke bombs, since there was no indication he had any bombs with him great enough to destroy Goldenhive Castle. And he reveals how much he truly cares about Charmy, as he says, “ Dr. Robotnik hurt Charmy, I hurt him back. “ Why can’t he do that to Eggman’s main base? What an idiot.
This issue was written by Ian Flynn. The first story starts out with some really big conveniences that I found pretty implausible! Jules was released from ADAM’s control by ADAM himself, and ADAM just trusted that he’d self-destruct on his own! So Sonic gets his father back really easily!
And then Sonic and Shadow go super although it makes sense because there’s so many Chaos Emeralds near them, and the whole point of Shadow and Tails being super was to force the Emeralds to come here. But, still, like, they go super just like that without the heroes earning collecting all those Emeralds. I like that it’s explained why the Master Emerald stayed on Angel Island. Locke and Finitevus teamed up to keep it there! I guess the Emerald warned Locke to.
I like that Tails and Shadow sealed the Emeralds in the Zone of Silence to keep them away from ADAM but I don’t understand what about all the CHAOS Emeralds being in one place is a Great Harmony. Wouldn’t it be the opposite because it’d be chaotic from magic overflow? You’d think Tails alone would’ve gathered the Emeralds in the Special Zone, since that was the prophecy!
The writer was too gutless to have Tails use Chao Control to gather all of the Emeralds himself, purely because he doesn’t have that power in the games, even though that was how the prophecy was. He was not the right writer to write this kind of story! We needed a writer that wasn’t too obsessed with the games to write a story that clearly wasn’t planning on being like the games.
I like them being in the Zone of Silence though because it’s always been a place where magic was so out of control powerful that it made Ixis a god and makes people lose their minds, the latter of which makes me question how any living beings were able to live and evolve there, like the frogs who were the king’s subjects.
And Tommy sacrifices himself to stop the nanite infections. When you compare this to Johnny’s death in the Fleetway Comic, at least Tommy sacrificed himself for the greater good and went out with a bang, instead of simply being killed out of nowhere.
If he has to kill off a Freedom Fighter to remove excess baggage, at least he went out doing something useful, and for literally the second time at that! Sure he stopped an electrocution but Tails could’ve done the same thing! Only Tommy could’ve stopped this. It feels like such a gigantic waste of a character that, this is literally the first time he’s been necessary, and it kills him…
But again it’s because of ANOTHER implausible convenience, ranging on Deus ex Machina territory, as SOMEHOW ADAM loses control of Tommy so he can do this in the FIRST place! Not to mention that if ADAM could send nanites into anybody to make ’em do what he wanted, why didn’t he do this to WAY more people? Why didn’t he do this to get Eggman’s respect and mechanize way more people?
The arc could’ve been darker with more long-term consequences but for no logical reason, he barely used the nanites at all compared to how he could’ve. It was an epic story I guess, but it was too convenient and easy to be that believable. I’m really glad Jules got out okay though, I thought he’d be recaptured by Eggman!
And the second story has Espio go on a mission with Nicole to find out what happened to Charmy’s people. Espio and Nicole don’t get enough screentime together! I like that Nicole started having a lynx icon on the computer to interact with people! It really helps add personality, and that’s exactly her intent. It’s baffling that it took THIS LONG for her to do this!
Really the story was pointless aside from showing that Espio, cool ninja or not, still cares about Charmy and would do anything for a friend, but has the overly convenient plot hole of a robot telling Espio where the main computer is, when he shouldn’t have the free will to betray Eggman. If every robot was able to do that to try to save themselves, his empire might have been crushed by now! So that’s the end of the issue. And I really wonder how he could top this because this is a really significant-feeling storyline, but not on an issue that’s a round number.
Issue 170:
At first we start out with some narration wasting a bunch of text telling us stuff we already know and then FINALLY getting to the POINT. The device Uncle Chuck and Dr Quack built might get the king out of the coma, but it would need a Chaos Emerald to work. I really like that the writer actually thought to use something as magical as a Chaos Emerald to wake him up. I’m surprised it took them that long though. And why can’t they just use a magic Ring to wish him out of the coma at that point?
In fact, Merlin’s here and he uses healing potions on Tails at one point, so you’d think a much more natural way to wake up the king would be to have Merlin cure him with the same healing potions that healed Tails when rubble fell on him knocking him out AND that healed the fake Tails when Chaos Knuckles punched him a whole bunch into concrete. (AND it wouldn’t have what Bunnie implies to be a nasty side-effect of the device on the king’s brain, like the device had to have!)
Sonic reassures Sally who looks all haggard with stress lines from worrying, that Rotor and Tails rigged up something to make Emerald-grabbing easier. If they can just do THAT, then why didn’t they just make an Emerald locater a long time ago? The closest they had to that was a device that would conveniently tell them when energy spikes happened that could be a Chaos Emerald, but it clearly wasn’t an outright Emerald locater because if so, the heroes would’ve already had Sonic find a ton of Chaos Emeralds and stash them, for a lot longer than just that one Universalamander story.
Tails, using the hologram projecting his parents, relates to Sally about losing his family, and then Sonic sees Rotor’s new starposts, which will get them to wherever they need to be.
So these convenient star posts bring them to the Zone of Silence. Also the text blurb reminds us that this is a pocket dimension and not a whole dimension by itself, but it’s just saying, “ zone a pocket dimension, “ as if it’s pretending that ALL zones aren’t entire dimensions unto themselves, when it’s really just the Zone of Silence that’s a pocket dimension within a universe.
Also, the text blurb actually thinks the audience is stupid enough to not know how to pronounce “ zone. “ Even the fans only familiar with the games would know how to pronounce zone! Talk about dumbing things down! I think even in FRENCH zone is pronounced the same.
Sonic says the place is just as crazy as ever but he’s not running through a special stage, actually EARNING his Emerald instead of the whole plot being rushed and confusing. The real Special Zone is way crazier than this boring nothingness.
Somehow Tails thinks the Zone of Silence is more colourful than before when it ALWAYS looked psychedelic. Then Sonic says it looks more trippy. What is he TALKING about? What, the slide and bridge in front of him? If anything, it’s more NORMAL because the heroes were doing nothing but FLOATING in the Zone of Silence! At least HERE they can stand on a solid surface!
Then after Tails lampshades that Knuckles would’ve been able to sense the Emerald for them if only they thought to bring him along, they get approached to be judged by Feist the giant panda, who finally reappears. Is he gonna explain why Kodos was fine after being blasted by a laser in front of the king earlier? Nope! Fuck dangling plot threads…
Feist then judges in FAVOR of Sonic fortunately, explaining that he saw him combat his former master Ixis way more than once apparently and he approved of that instead of being mad at him – Ixis was his MASTER?… It looks like it’d be the other way AROUND, if anything! He’s huge! Wouldn’t he be MAD at them for beating his ” master ” Ixis Naugus? And he had seen TAILS send the Chaos Emeralds into the zone, giving him his power. How did he see ANY of that from ANOTHER ZONE? Is he psychic enough to see visions across dimensions? THAT’S convenient for him!
Somehow Feist thinks ” two ” is equal to ” many. ” Sonic only fought Ixis twice. Also, “ my power. “ I don’t see a difference, he HAD to have had power BEFORE because that’s what let him teleport Kodos to Ixis with a laser! Why is he making a big deal out of this?
Then Feist explains that he shaped the Chaos Emeralds’ power whatever that’s even supposed to mean and gave them form, and now there’s seven Emeralds each of a different color, just like in the games. This ANNOYS ME because the ONLY REASON Feist arbitrarily made it this way was because of a META REASON; that the writer wanted to make the comic more like the games because the games are sacred cows.
There’s NO attempt at an explanation by Feist for why he did this in-universe, no implication that these new Emeralds are super powerful because they come from all the hundreds of Emeralds from earlier smooshed into one – which would logically be way larger than and way more powerful than the Master Emerald formed of just 14 Emeralds by the way. If the Emeralds WERE formed of all the emeralds of the same color, then you’d think these new Emeralds would get guardians of their own eventually because they’d obviously be way more powerful than the Master Emerald.
At least by Feist not establishing that he made these Emeralds that way, by fusing Emeralds together, we narrowly avoid the huge Continuity Error caused by the rules not working the same way they did when the Master Emerald was formed by 14 Emeralds and looked noticeably bigger and stronger.
The shockingly jarring total lack of an attempt at trying to make sense of this in-universe makes this very DISTRACTING when you try to be invested in the story. I would’ve LOVED this idea if EVERY SPECIFIC Emerald had SPECIFIC powers to it, like elemental powers (AoStH and SatAM did that!) but instead, they all have the same undefined overly omnipotent powers to them, so it’s completely pointless to establish that there’s only a specific amount of them that the writer and artist now have to keep track of!
It was working perfectly FINE with hundreds of Emeralds all over the place! I was shocked how little they used Chaos Emeralds even in spite of that! The only problem I had was that, was that the Emeralds were always just one color, which was really BORING. I can understand Feist making the Emeralds different colors for aesthetic reasons, it looks prettier that way, but why the hell would he make it so that there’s only SEVEN of them?!
Either he fused a bunch of Emeralds together to make only seven and then each individual Chaos Emerald would have to be MUCH more powerful than any other Emerald would ever BE, which you’d think would come up, especially since it would make the Super Emeralds redundant and way less powerful in comparison, OR he just deprived himself of a HUGE amount of power by breaking all but (laughs) 7 of them! WHY?!
We already HAD THE SUPER EMERALDS to fulfill the purpose of Chaos Emeralds! That’s the whole reason they were introduced as being in Station Square for the SA1 adaptation, to have 7 differently colored Chaos Emeralds. He didn’t need to convolute a convoluted story arc to make the Chaos Emeralds like the Super Emeralds we already had. Especially since Station Square lost its mountain hiding it, so it’s not like we needed to have the Super Emeralds there. They could’ve been stored in the Special Zone by someone to serve the purpose of the Chaos Emeralds won from Special Stages.
Bottom line is there’s absolutely no reason for him to have done this in-universe! So it breaks the Willing Suspension of Disbelief! Anyways Feist plans to shape and reshape the Zone of Silence to his will with the Emeralds. You mean he didn’t already do that? Then Sonic and Tails politely but at least nervously ask him for a Chaos Emerald. At least they explain WHY!
Fortunately Feist is reasonable enough, to at least grant them the favor for free as a reward for their past efforts. Him being so reasonable comes out of nowhere though, I thought he was pure evil! Especially since he was saying it granted him POWER, like he wanted that! This is the same guy who said about the king, “ Now to get rid of the OTHER gnat! “ So why the fuck would the evil Feist grant Sonic and Tails an Emerald for free for being heroes?
In retrospect this was only for an obvious meta logic reason; the plot was rushed, there’s a story after this and they wouldn’t have the comic space to have the story be about THAT, in an issue with a back-up story, if Feist actually did challenge them. So he had to just HAND THEM the Emerald that would SAVE Sally’s FATHER, way to earn your victory there guys, because otherwise there wouldn’t be comic space for resolving another dangling plot thread in this same issue – WHO CARES, just do it in the NEXT one!
Or don’t have the back-up story for this issue then! Have it be LATER! Priorities! Wouldn’t it feel a lot better to see them do a special stage, and EARN the major victory with the king waking up? No? I guess with this story, ” streamlined ” is the Flynn fanboy’s way of sugarcoating ” rushed. “
He says as Tails cutely thanks him for the second time in a row, that he won’t grant them another Emerald so easily, and the next time they will be challenged as he sees fit, like it’s a Special Zone or something, even though we already SAW the “ Special Zone “ in the “ Sonic fights a giant lizard robot and goes Super, “ issue.
So where’d that Special Zone go? Couldn’t we just use THAT zone instead of the Zone of Silence? Well it doesn’t have Feist in it to make the challenges actually logical, but still, he forgot all about that, and nobody in the comic ever mentions the Special Zone from the Universalamander story again.
Then we see the king. I like that Sally’s mother has been just as worried as her with stress lines just as worried as her, but at the same time I feel sorry for her. I really miss the old her. They kinda stopped showing her after the king went into a coma because I guess she was at his side doing nothing the whole time, and was too unhappy to go hang around with Sally.
Of course the king wakes up, and all he cares about is how stands the kingdom, like a good king should! Who the hell’s talking saying that they’re with Freedom HQ “ now? “ I can’t tell because the text bubbles aren’t connected to anyone on the actual panel! And the only characters I see are Sonic tapping Tails’ shoulder and winking for no reason. I don’t know what that means! The king says “ little bean, “ so that must be Sally’s nickname, but why is she talking as if she’s only just now with Freedom HQ? Sure the BASE is newly renovated, apparently, but she’s ALWAYS been a Freedom Fighter!
Sally then rushes up to them as they’re leaving sheepishly apologizing for almost forgetting something. I like seeing her like that, it’s all sympathetic! She says that Merlin wanted Tails to have the Chaos Emerald once they were done with it, and for some reason Tails questions why. Sally still smiling nervously, says she’s just returning the favour instead of explaining any further. Why does Tails look worried instead of being grateful?
Merlin invites Tails with his Emerald to Freedom HQ, a rocky cave with a boring wooden door. I don’t like the DESIGN, why can’t they just go in through the Great Oak Slide? That was one of the most charming iconic set-pieces of the comic! And Knuckles who was also invited, asks what he needs the Guiding Star Gem for. Obviously Merlin is doing this to bring Tails’ parents back, which he didn’t do the minute he came back to reunite their family for some reason when it would’ve taken just a few seconds for Sonic to run around the whole planet and stumble into an Emerald.
On the one hand I’m happy for Tails! But on the other having SONIC is good ENOUGH for a parent and they’re just gonna be excess BAGGAGE taking up comic space nagging him to be more careful and doing little else! I totally get the comic having “ returning main characters’ parents “ as major goals though. But if they’re just gonna be HANDED their parents with no effort on their part literally every time, then what’s the point? It’s just going to make him spend less time with Sonic! It’s kinda untrue to the franchise.
Sonic then complains that he wishes he knew where Fiona was because she might have enjoyed watching this! I’m sure she would’ve been happy for Tails, if jealous. But being conflicted between two morally opposed boyfriends takes a lot of time out of your schedule. She’s being a really neglectful poor girlfriend by this point. But at least HERE it’s got an EXPLANATION! While with SALLY, she has no excuse not to so much as CALL Sonic for a couple days and make Sonic think she still hated him for her dad being injured! I expected better from Sally!
After they teleport to Argentium, they have a MAJOR Oh Crap Moment because Sonic says, “ Holy, this is NOT how I left this place! “ Then we see the Xorda spaceship shooting lasers, and Sonic asks, “ Who are they fighting, though? Those aren’t the local Bems’ ships. “ How would YOU know? Just because he was here ONCE doesn’t mean he’d know what every single MODEL of Bem spaceship looks like!
Fortunately Tails’ parents are right HERE conveniently enough. ” Again, streamlined ” is the Flynn fanboy’s way of sugarcoating ” rushed. ” Sure, maybe the Guiding Star Gem guided them directly to them, but you’d think that if that was the case, they would’ve teleported right in front of them immediately instead of taking a few panels for them to walk up to them and discover where they even WERE. And I guess it was SONIC who did the imagining for this gem because only HE knew what Argentium looked like to warp to it.
They’re also alive and well even MORE coneniently, despite the condition the planet is in. I don’t really like them randomly getting an art shift to having brown fur because now they don’t even look like they’re related to Tails at ALL! If you saw them with him, you’d assume he was ADOPTED! I can forgive the FATHER looking that way but not the MOTHER! Or vice versa. At least have ONE of them look like Tails!
Amadeus, I THINK that’s the one talking, explains that for no reason the Xorda started fighting with the Black Arms months ago, and they’ll never stop. Sonic quickly rushes to get Merlin reunited with them while saying a strangely mean-spirited line with a smile, saying to Tails, “ See what you missed, ya spaz? “ THAT came out of nowhere.
Merlin gets hugged from behind by Rosemary who looks like a duck with the way her body’s bent forwards, and Amadeus shakes his hand saying that he knew he’d come for them in time. Sonic cheerfully teases lightly pushing Tails’ back, “ Go on, ya doof, “ and Tails timidly approaches his parents reuniting with them in an almost tearjerkingly sweet moment as they both start crying tears of joy.
Rosemary lightly touches the top of his hair saying already he’s so big and handsome, and Tails stutters a whole bunch nervously that everybody calls him Tails. Then both his parents hug him at once with Amadeus ruffling his hair, with Tails saying, “ I’m never letting go of you again! “
They all warp back to Knothole, with Amadeus and Rosemary meeting with Elias who has that crown on, that he still doesn’t look good in, I prefer his prince design. He has huge eyebrows here! The meeting is polite with Amadeus saying, “ The pleasure is ours, your Majesty, “ and he tells Elias that Knothole has become such a “ prosperous place since you have become king. “
Elias offers Tails’ father right away a place in the Court of Acorn. He accepts of course saying that his time abroad has exposed him to new wonderful ideas that I hope I’ll get to see ‘cause that sounds interesting. And his wife looks worried.
And in retrospect, this scene is very creepy. Was Amadeus LYING to his face, sucking up to him? Because if he’s scheming against the royalty now, then why is he doing nothing but complimenting Elias and his job with the kingdom? Maybe all the animosity is against King Max. He did hire the guy who roboticized Amadeus after all.
Sonic is disappointed that it wasn’t Fiona who showed up at the graveyard but Knuckles. But hedgehogs have great senses of smell! Also, has Fiona only been missing for SONIC? You’d THINK so because you’d think if she was missing a whole bunch to EVERYONE, they would’ve sent in a missing persons’ report by now! The SAME question could be asked of SNIVELY! I thought he would’ve been seen at Eggman’s side as his henchman again when he JOINED him, but instead he just disappears and none of the Freedom Fighters seem to notice! You’d think they would’ve monitored him!
And you’d think Fiona would be monitored closely by order of Sally for the same REASONS, they’re both under suspicion! I have a hard time believing their absence would be so shrugged off! Sally would have them both with ankle monitors making sure they always know where they are! If Fiona was treated like THAT, it would be obvious that such paranoia and suspicion would be why she’d leave the heroes because she’d get sick of being treated like a criminal by them. Instead they don’t even do THAT.
After Sonic snarks looking worried that being disappointed by him is what he’s come to expect of Knuckles, Knuckles shows that they really are friends by not getting angry or annoyed at it, and instead he snarks, “ I can see why. This is a terrible spot for a date. “ Then Sonic jokes, “ Oh yeah? Seems right up Julie-Su’s alley. “ Because she’s a former villain or because she dresses like a goth? Where’d he get that idea? Knuckles jokes to leave his girlfriend out of this having another friendship moment because again, he’s not really mad at him.
Then it’s naturally lampshaded why Sonic would be morbid enough to be at a graveyard, and he explains that he’s still hurting over Sir Connery and Tommy because the Freedom Fighters don’t normally lose so many of their own that fast. Well, blame the writer change.
Knuckles relates to that because the Brotherhood went missing in Issue 139 and Sonic complains that with the rise in the villain count, things might get even worse. Yes they will. So with Ixis and Mammoth Mogul released from the Egg Grapes, why haven’t they fought Sonic and Tails and kept doing that until they would beat him? I forgot that Mogul lost his Chaos Emerald, and Ixis at least is with him for training, but he can’t train him with no powers, so logically Ixis should’ve just left him to go be evil somewhere else, right?
Sonic and Knuckles then joke around some more with Sonic calling Knuckles weak and Knuckles calling him a slowpoke, being good friends again by not getting offended by the ribbing from each other, and Sonic is worried about Shadow because while he’s with Eggman in New Megaopolis, he’s not really one of he bad guys. He says, “ I think he’s confused. “
The story ends with Shadow approaching Eggman AND SNIVELY because the writer finally remembered Snively exists again, and he threatens them with green fire saying they’ve kept Professor Gerald’s diary a secret from him since SA2, and he wants the answers from it NOW. How did he find out that they had the diary?… And we’ll never know.
It seems like it’s just arbitrarily coming out of nowhere as a lame excuse for him to stop working for Eggman! If he wants to read his diary, why can’t Eggman just let him read it and be done with it? Shadow said he wanted to get revenge on GUN with him, why would he think reading Gerald’s diary would make him stop if he’s gotten vengeful again? He’s a villain, he’d be too cynical to think a diary would convince him to turn good.
In the next story Sonic goes on his first day-off in a long time annoyingly talking to the audience like the start of the comic, and then promptly falls through the ground for his trouble. He falls into a base that he calls a vintage Robotnik “ spy-der hole, “ set up so that his robots could monitor and attack.
He notices some old-school plans from Robotropolis and then he realizes Robotnik’s had a hidden offshore island where he set up a homing device for the badniks. If the badniks were defeated in battle they had programming in them to journey there to be repaired and/or retired. I like that concept, it makes a lot of sense, except how the hell did the Badnik Hobo Jungle exist if they all had programming to go to this island?
And how did the badniks who can’t fly go to this island? Especially when they needed repairs! Was there a badnik repair squad in this comic to take them there? I hope that’s the case and that they took the badniks they arbitrarily decided not to retire OFF the island, and maybe that’s why there’ s a hobo jungle? The badniks who were retired would be sent THERE from the island?
Naturally Sonic decides to go there using the island coordinates from the map he conveniently found, and notices that the sand on the island is made of solid steel and he already jumps to the conclusion that there isn’t a living thing ON the island. Wait, an artificial island?
Lemme guess we’re NOT going to see the duplicate Fiona robot, even though this is an issue full of references to Gallagher’s early issues, because that’d be too nice to Tails and interesting! That would’ve prevented him being so sad about Fiona leaving because he’d have the Fiona he actually wanted right there with him. INSTEAD we’ll never see her again for no reason and the plot thread will be forever dropped.
Sonic gets knocked out by a thrown spikeball to the head and when he wakes up he somehow WASN’T KILLED by that point by the spikeball or the badiks, because I guess they wanted him awake to know they defeated him as revenge, but Robotnik shouldn’t have programmed the lowest of his robots to BE like that, or to stay on the island when they’re defeated in battle and not be used by him anymore!
If they’re all here and not in the Robo Hobo Jungle, well, was that place populated by badniks from this island who just decided to go there for no reason? I guess so! This island concept is really redundant. Sonic wakes up chained to a wooden board as I wonder how ANY of those animal-like badniks were all to PUT him there without any opposable thumbs to lift him up or ANYTHING.
Then Sonic uses a Deus ex Machina to bullshit break free of the chains by vibrating at super sonic speed. First off, how would that break them with mere vibrations? And second it shouldn’t be super sonic because he’s not Super Sonic! This is back to the really early issues in terms of “ give Sonic a bullshit power. “
You can tell the story’s by Mike Gallagher, although it’s pleasant that he’s still writing at this point! If only he wrote stories a lot more, stories that actually mattered. I’d take his trademark writing problem of “ Sonic escapes from sticky situations with creative powers, “ any day over the problems of other writers.
This feels like some nice throwback fanservice to the good old days, complete with Pseudo-Sonic ARBITRARILY being rebuilt to be here and not EVER being sent back to Knothole to be destroyed afterwards! HOW, HOW did he GET HERE when he was destroyed by Tails’ electricity-generating tails?!
Wouldn’t his remains have been gotten rid of and used as scrap metal by Rotor?! This is so insulting! This is the perfect example of fanservice callbacks gone wrong because it makes no sense in-universe to happen! Just that alone makes it look like it’s gonna be the big black mark of the story! He was last seen being wheeled into Rotor’s workshop to be analyzed, and, sure, he was in a trash can after that, but only to talk to the audience, and Rotor would’ve taken him back into his lab after realizing how stupid it’d be to leave perfectly good scrap metal in the trash can.
And what’s the absolute worst of all is that an ENTIRE PAGE is completely wasted on pointlessly recapping an ENTIRE ISSUE’s worth of Pseudo-Sonic! We didn’t NEED people who didn’t know his origin story to remember it! Because the story could’ve worked just as well without knowing who he is! He’s probably only gonna be in one story anyways so why bother?!
Also how the hell did Pseudo-Sonic KNOW that Sonic was disabled by poison sumac at that time?! And I hate how the blur from Tails running around in a circle is inexplicably blue instead of the yellow that would match Tails’ fur color. It doesn’t make any sense! Oh yeah, a “ brief recap. “ That’s SO self-aware of you, text blurb! ¾ of a page is brief now!
Pseudo-Sonic sends an extended punch at Sonic, and says that he heard he had a friend named Knuckles which one of the badniks here MUST have told him because he never met him, and then after the badniks complain way too quickly that the two are equally matched, the bat says that they should settle it with a bighorn challenge. An Orbonaut says to them, “ You know the rules… “ and then explains the rules to them ANYWAYS. They have to run at each other at full speed and butt heads until the survivor wins.
Sonic gets knocked into the ocean and fortunately doesn’t proceed to sink right away to his death, like would ACTUALLY happen. I guess this sea is extremely salty like the Dead Sea from magical chaos energy? And he sees the island is vibrating like mad from the impact with their collision. Even though they only collided with EACH OTHER in the AIR and not with the island itself, so why is that affected?
And Sonic lampshades the convenience of the fact that his “ boogie board “ floated out here because he could never swim. Another Deus ex Machina, Mike Gallagher’s specialty! Aside from charming lightheartedness, and puns like “ spy-der hole. “ Then the whole island collapses and submerges from it, sinking like a stone and taking all the badniks with it. UH, that wasn’t the same island the Fiona duplicate was on, WAS IT? Yikes. I guess we’ll never know.
Then we see the Crabmeat say that their survival submersion sequence is complete and the Caterkiller brags that Sonic thinks they all sank! An air bubble is created around the island like Anti-Angel Island as a badnik compliments Robotnik on actually thinking ahead enough to make that a thing. I guess the robots aren’t waterproof enough so they need the air bubble. Even if they were, the water pressure of the bottom of the sea should crush them.
As Pseudo-Sonic is being repaired, with annoying X’s being suddenly on his eyes which take me out of it just like with Patch when he was returned home, the badniks then plan against Sonic. The story ends with a text blurb “ definitely not the end. “
The first story was by Ian Flynn and involved the king being woken up by a Chaos Emerald-powered DEVICE, and then the Emerald just handed to them by Feist and the Guiding Star Gem are used by Merlin and Knuckles to rescue Tails’ parents at last, and just in time too because the Bem planet that kept them from Tails for so long got what it deserved, for prosecuting the hero who deroboticized Mobius!
The Xorda and Black Arms are fighting near IT, a planet completely unrelated to both their species, so that was rude of them! And we don’t see a single Bem around! So it SURE is convenient that Tails’ parents are JUST FINE!
And it ALSO sure is convenient that Feist was reasonable enough to just reward Sonic and Tails for being heroes with a Chaos Emeralds! When I thought he was pure evil! And the story ends with Sonic still hurting over Tommy and Sir Connery the latter of whom he had no reason to be as attached to, visiting their graves, and then Sonic and Knuckles have a great friendship moment, while not at all questioning Fiona’s constant absence.
Even though you’d think they’d either be questioning her loyalty due to her past and Scourge suspicion or wondering if she got captured or killed by Eggman by now! Somehow neither her NOR Snively have been noticed to have disappeared in Knothole, and that really seems implausible to me! Both of them are members of the Brain Trust, you’d think their friends would’ve noticed they were absent from meetings right away!
The next story still had that Mike Gallagher kooky lighthearted charm, but everything went downhill the moment Pseudo-Sonic showed up. It’s nice that we get to see him used again when he was a wasted concept, but the idea that he made it here instead of his remains being used for scrap metal by Rotor is just laughable! It’s really ill-thought-out fanservice nostalgia! Ignoring that though I love it!
But of course it’s also wracked with Gallagher’s specialty, which is giving Sonic a Deus ex Machina, as he vibrates his wrists to bullshit his way out of an unwinnable situation, as I wonder why him vibrating like that doesn’t turn him intangible because that’s how he activates that OTHER nonsense power, and then Sonic magically gets his boogie board back to avoid sinking into the water. Good thing that board was nice enough to float on the surface of the ocean just like Sonic was! Logically he should’ve just needed to use Tails’ Sea Fox to get here.
Also the artificial island concept has a huge missed opportunity by not being the same one Fiona’s duplicate robot was on! It would’ve been interesting if they found it and reprogrammed it to be good! But that’d be too nice to Tails!
I do like that the island sinks but has an air bubble around it. But how did the badniks get to their base and avoid the water when the island fell apart so quickly? T-The plot falls apart if you sneeze at it, which is a shame because it’s got great concepts! And they were wasted on one story. Considering how Flynn came to write Tails’ parents, they should’ve never left Argentium. Merlin makes a much better family figure for Tails. And he wasted him.
Issue 171:
We start out with Shadow trying to get Gerald’s diary from Eggman and Snively and for the sake of having conflict, Eggman selfishly insists that it’s his and he can’t have it, even though he doesn’t need it anymore! In fact it’s so long after the SA2 adaptation, it’s surprising he still has his diary after Robotropolis was nuked, which should’ve destroyed everything in it, which means this whole plot never should’ve happened because the diary shouldn’t have existed anymore.
I guess this is when Shadow stops working for Eggman and that’ll be a shame because the writer hasn’t done anything with the concept! He barely did anything at all! SA2 did it better than this and that was one of the games! It makes sense Snively panics at Shadow grabbing what little of his hair is left since he doesn’t wanna lose it. He kinda would look weird completely bald.
He tells him the diary is in Eggman’s private study, and then Shadow has a dick move taking his hair anyways for wasting his time, instead of not doing it to reward him for telling it like a decent person. At that point, why doesn’t he just kill him, too? Shadow literally planned to kill Eggman at one point, and now he’s NOT gonna do it when he has the perfect chance even though he’s quitting on him for holding out on him! It’s very forced meta logic because at this point he’s not close friends with some people who would nag him for freeing the world, as in Rouge.
Also, Snively just betrayed Eggman by giving Shadow information, so you’d think if Eggman was done with all the henchmen nonsense to the point of having even Metal Snively destroyed, he would’ve taken this as proof that he can’t trust Snively anymore either at this point because he’s gotten that paranoid after M died. But nope, meta logic kicks in to force him to keep Snively around some more just for the ” fans’ ” sake, although Snively DOES deserve whatever’s coming to him, he kinda looks weird without the hair because, it looks like his design is just too basic.
Shadow smiles in relief at getting Gerald’s diary saying that now all the secrets and confusion is over. Oh so the diary is a DISC that is placed inside of a book! I love that they solved that minor plot hole, where Eggman was holding a book in the SA2 adaptation that was also called a disc. The problem is, in the SA2 adaptation, the way Eggman was holding the book, the disc would’ve slipped and fallen forwards and out if there was a disc inside of it.
So it doesn’t really work with the way the art was back then. Shadow then says he can’t safely investigate the disc HERE – I guess because he got in trouble – and so he needs comparable technology in a place where he can trust. It’s clever of him to think that! As Tails looks scared and shadowed as if he’s hiding something terrible Sonic asks where Fiona is, saying that this is getting ridiculous. So was Tails HIDING the fact that Sleuth the dog called Fiona a traitor, purely because he’s NICE like that?
Tails runs away looking sad after Sonic asks him if he’s seen her lately, and Sonic complains that if this disappearing keeps up, he can have her. Not like he’d be able to have her anyways since, she’s a TEENAGER and he’s a kid! Also I love the fact that Knuckles is using an air board from Sonic Riders, and even has the pointless goggles on. It’s like the writer actually remembered for one time that, he had the concept of characters other than Sonic catching up with him with air boards!
Then Tails comes back, but to Sonic’s disappointment, it’s to warn him that Shadow’s showing up and he’s under attack by those flying robots from Sonic Heroes. It’s really charming that we get to see robots from the games rather than the same SWATbots over and over again! Because it means that we get to see more varied-looking designs of robots! Colorful and silly-looking, even if it is unoriginal ‘cause we already saw those from the games. How FAST are those GODDAMN ROBOTS that they aren’t left in the dust by Shadow?!
Shadow saves the day, and Shadow complains, “ You couldn’t show up 10 seconds earlier! “ since the disc he had got burnt. YEAH, that IS a good point! With Sonic’s speed, it’s absolutely RIDICULOUS that Sonic would ever be late for ANYTHING. Logically the disc never would’ve gotten burned at all! Not to MENTION that SHADOW is way faster than this too! Shouldn’t he be way faster than those slow-ass robots from Heroes?
There’s a sweet moment where Shadow actually looks sad and apologizes for not looking more grateful, as Sonic says stunned, “ You do? “ a good Audience Surrogate moment. Shadow looks sad and sympathetic again saying that Sonic’s the only one he can turn to. He sadly says that he needs to know who he is as Tails smiles sadly looking sweet.
Again, at LITERALLY NO POINT EVER did Shadow say he had amnesia or think that he lost his memories. In fact he clearly remembered being in Gerald’s tube and remembered that Maria was his friend, AND how she died, in greater detail than in the games!
But apparently we’re supposed to believe he lost them when he fell to earth in Issue 125, all to have this story happen, even though right after he fell to earth he said he thought he was STILL under attack proving that he remembered what happened to him up in space, where he was remembering his ENTIRE PAST. And they say that in the GAMES, the amnesia was stupid!
And we cut to Shadow frowning at the lab which he should’ve reached with TELEPORTATION A SECOND after threatening Eggman, amusingly being told by Tails that the data’s so old and damaged, that a lot of the information is corrupted, and if they tried to dig into what’s left it might corrupt the whole thing SOMEHOW. Shadow refuses to give up.
Nicole says that if Shadow physically interfaced with the data, he could find out what he needed to, and she could do that with only a FEW MINUTES of preparation, not even HOURS. OF COURSE she can do that, Shadow, she can do literally anything! I wouldn’t be surprised if she made a time machine!
But even then, I made fun of her scanning power throughout the comic, but even THAT makes way more sense than her creating an entire pocket dimension universe in just minutes based off a disc, that’s something she never did before and will never do again. It’s completely silly and ridiculous that she can do this, without even using a Chaos Emerald to do it!
Shadow smiles agreeing to do that and Sonic wants to help out in the fun. I love how Shadow’s so much more expressive in the comic, he has so many more expressions than just frowning! It makes him more sympathetic than ever, seeing him be sad and smile!
They all warp inside of Gerald’s diary, appearing at the ARK, and we see Nicole’s lynx form in an actually good art style for the first ever time! As she says, “ Our very presence is accelerating the degradation. We need to be quick. “ Nicole then gets all bashful at Sonic complimenting her look, which is really charming! And it’s also a good thing she says that she ran into some difficulties with corporeal life as a project, so, she didn’t just do this THAT easily, although I really would like to know what those difficulties actually WERE. Like the trial and error process? But I guess not. That’s lazy.
Shadow’s welcomed back and an alarm goes off with Maria onscreen, and there’s an attack on Freedom HQ, and Tails says that it’s Snively. He’s detecting some kind of data-transfer, and they’ve got a beacon here in the base. Unless he has some kind of, technology sensing powers how does he KNOW this?! And why is nobody questioning this? This is such confusing dialogue! How does rushing at the base with a mecha count as “ data-transfer, “ and what about beacons? I mean I’m guessing he’s looking at a SCREEN that is detecting the transfer? But he’s saying “ I’m detecting, “ as if HE’S detecting it with his own power!
He sees Snively’s hairs there and looks creeped out and Knuckles says, “ He’s Eggman’s nephew. They’re all insane! Snively shows up in a giant red mecha demanding his hair back. Why did Shadow leave his hair HERE?! Why didn’t he just drop his hair immediately from disgust and leave it behind! Because meta logic! “ We need a pointless subplot with Snively. “ Does Snively think he can put the hair back on his head and keep it there? HOW?! Did Shadow somehow know this, on his short time on earth?!
Knuckles relates to Shadow that he knows what it’s like to be lost without a past. No he doesn’t. He never had amnesia! While he didn’t know how he got all his powers until a while ago or what happened to his mother and father, that’s not comparable! He still knew his identity as a guardian, he still knew his life after showing up on Angel Island! He just forgot about Echidnapolis! It’s not like with Shadow in the ARK!
Shadow holds hands with “ Maria “ looking relieved, and says to her that he thought he lost her forever. WHY is he saying this when it’s fucking obvious this isn’t the real Maria?! Maria is somehow able to communicate with him like a real person despite her and Gerald just being AI representations of the people giving info on the disc. I guess Nicole made it that way so that Shadow could have a conversation with them, so Maria knows what Shadow’s talking about with losing her forever since she’s not questioning it.
Maria reassures Shadow that as long as he always holds her in his heart and thoughts they’ll never be apart. It’s not really good advice if you phrase it like that it’s like saying, “ always staying fixated on the one you lost and never moving on, is good! “ Also, the way Shadow’s origin was written originally, Maria died just a minute after Shadow left the pod. The minute he started life, already the ARK was being invaded, it was that rushed. But that’s been retconned a while ago so Shadow could have an attachment to Maria.
Shadow is confused when Maria refers to Sonic as his friend. Shadow then says to Maria that he’s been in captivity for 50 years and has forgotten his purpose somehow. Even though he got a message telling him it was vengeance by Gerald so shouldn’t he STILL be on that? It’s not like Eggman did or ordered something horrible in front of him to make him have a Heel Face Realization, like ordering Shadow to Chaos Control people to the Egg Grapes, which would’ve been way more natural instead of rushed like this is.
And somehow while Nicole remembered to make Maria not confused about learning Shadow lost her forever, Nicole DIDN’T fill Maria in on the 50 years in captivity, as she gasps and says that they have to speak with Gerald right away. Why didn’t Nicole have it so Gerald was right there in the room with Maria for convenience’s sake? For padding out the story, that’s the meta logic reason why!
Nicole explains the data is fragmenting fast. I like that Sonic asks for the abridged version since they’re short on time, because the fans already know this info, meaning the info isn’t interesting at all. If the writers cared enough to give Shadow more of a different origin story for the comic to be original, it’d be interesting. Instead, I’m skimming over this.
He’s the ultimate protector of life on Mobius, and while Gerald wanted Shadow to be a cure for Maria there were barriers he couldn’t break. So he created Shadow with Black Doom and that’s how Shadow has Chaos Control. It’s weird that despite Shadow the Hedgehog’s infamy as a game Flynn chose to keep this part of the backstory that fans all complain about, instead of just having Shadow be created with a Super Emerald instead! THAT would’ve explained his magic just as well!
And, he still doesn’t bother to explain why Shadow has similar powers to Sonic! And why he’s a hedgehog just like him, though it WAS explained in his origin story why he chose hedgehogs as a species, but that’s not the point, he’d still need the DNA from somebody. Somebody who can spindash! It’s obvious to me that he was created from an ancestor of Sonic’s DNA so that he’s a hedgehog AND he have super speed and stuff, but they don’t even bother to say that!
This is NOT the plot hole we needed filling in, it’s committing the same crime as in Shadow the Hedgehog! Wh-What about him being related to the Black Arms makes him a hedgehog who can spindash?! It’s sad when even a random fan can easily come up with a better origin than Shadow was given. Wasn’t Flynn’s whole appeal that HE was a Sonic fan, too?
Gerald explains that the Black Arms plan to return to Mobius in 50 years. Nicole then looks scared since that means the present, and they should be here by now. WOULDN’T YOU KNOW THIS?! YOU created this pocket universe with Gerald as an AI in it, you should already know EVERYTHING he’s going to say! It’d be part of the code! This combined with Maria being surprised by Shadow’s years in captivity, makes it look like the writer kept forgetting the exact context when these characters were talking to each other, and wrote them like they WEREN’T AI that Nicole made.
And Sonic explains that since the Black Arms are busy fighting the Xorda on the Bem planet, and the Xorda will hopefully annihilate them, they won’t be coming to the comic at all! Thank you Flynn! This is something that only a Sonic fan would think to write! The other writers wouldn’t even know that they SHOULD get the Black Arms away from the comic. Now I hope for his sake that he was FORCED by meddling executives to make that Shadow adaptation in the reboot because if it was his idea, he completely went back on this lesson he learned.
The floor vanishes below them and Nicole says while alarmed that the digital matrix is collapsing so they need to get out. She makes a way out creating a portal which they don’t bother to explain as being because she’s master of this domain since she’s made it as it is, and Shadow reluctantly leaves sadly leaving Maria.
Does this mean he’d be happier if he could hang out with even an AI simulation of Maria? I mean that wasn’t the real HER, but he didn’t care one bit! He was still just as attached to her! SO, why couldn’t they just make an android Maria and he’d be just as happy with her?
Logically, they’d have every reason to do this, but they can’t because meta logic; Maria died in a game so god forbid we have her come back, even if it’s not really her and just an AI that looks like her, because that’d be different from the games, even though fans bitch about Shadow being angsty about Maria and he’d have NO reason to be and get over it if he had a replacement for her like that.
Shadow then defeats the Egg Lobster so pathetically easily that having it in the plot was totally pointless if it was only there for a few panels where he and Knuckles owned it no problem. It didn’t seem to create a real action scene, so who cares?
And Shadow gives back his hair for no reason instead of destroying it with chaos fire out of spite like would be in-character for him after he stole his hair in the first place. He makes a hamfisted ” This is Who I AM ” speech about being a hero. I couldn’t help but roll my EYES at him saying he was made in the name of love though, I guess he’s too new to the world to realize how pathetically CHEESY that sounds and get embarrassed. You’d think he would be about being dignified and cool as usual, not being hamfisted.
Knuckles jokes that he’s a show-off which is charming. And Sonic jokes that Shadow will be just as moody and brooding as ever. WHEN does Shadow brood?! Seriously! He NEVER TALKS about his feelings, so when does he angst which by definition requires that? It’s a joke that only works on meta logic because the fans think he’s way whinier than he actually is.
As Tails looks unhappy Sonic gets determined to find out why Fiona has been disappearing lately. We won’t get any panels explicitly showing us EXACTLY what she’s been doing since she was disappearing, though, which REALLY SUCKS, it’s such a wasted opportunity!
In the next story, we see dingo soldiers attacking Echidnapolis, and then Locke wonders why the Destructix are heroically rescuing Echidnapolis. It’s probably just because they were ordered to but I’ll still commend heroism when I see it since it’s the action that REALLY counts.
Still though, these guys should be dead logically because Finitevus had no reason to KNOW they were in the Egg Grapes OR that the Egg Grapes even existed at all! Finitevus then warps in explaining that he told the Destructix to do this. Of course, he doesn’t like the dingoes either… Also it SURE is CONVENIENT that he heard what Locke said before he even teleported here!
Finitevus calls himself a FORMER technomage of the Dark Legion. It makes sense the mage part would exist since guardians have magical powers, and so why not other echidnas too? And in that case it’d make sense that the Legionnaires would ALSO have magical powers to take advantage of! Him being a technomage is excellent fusion of magic and technology proving that the two AREN’T mutually exclusive Harry Potter!
Sure, the guardians get magic from the Emerald. But maybe the Twilight Cage had Emeralds of its own, or at least wizards who have magic for no reason, like Merlin, so Finitevus could be one of them just fine. He doesn’t NEED an explanation for his powers. Finitevus explains that he uses the Destructix for good deeds, which makes me question the MISSILES THEN! Unless he was gonna use them against Eggman… He sure is good at lying!
Dimitri then shows up in a floating bubble as nothing but a head, explaining that Finitevus saved what was left of him after the Dark Legion split into two. Finitevus acts sympathetic once again when he says, “ Sadly I could not find any of the Brotherhood to convince you. I’m sure you can relate. “ Relate to what? When I was first reading this, I saw him as being a Well-Intentioned Extremist. Maybe he has some stupid plan only a one-dimensional villain would have because “ villain, “ but right now he comes off as more well-written of a person. I doubt I’ll know what his childhood was like though.
Finitevus says that everyone believes the Brotherhood gave their lives defending the island, and Locke knows better, naturally since the idea of those powerful magical echidnas all dying so easily in battle is pretty stupid. He asks Locke to let him and the Destructix keep his island the Master Emerald safe. I don’t trust him, it seems too easy.
He tells Locke to take one of his Warp Rings and find his forefathers to bring stability to their homeland. And then he promptly went to the Twilight Cage two seconds later, found them and brought them home. NO OF COURSE NOT, that would be logical! Granted maybe the Twilight Cage is too big to find them that fast but still, there’s no way he wouldn’t have thought to go there right away and found them eventually.
The only reason he won’t is because of meta logic; fans hate the Brotherhood, so they’re gone for good. Good riddance. Why would, getting the Brotherhood back bring stability to their homeland, isn’t it stable already? Technically “ our homeland “ is Albion, but I guess the writer forgot about that.
Finitevus then manipulates him into saying yes for sure by saying that if he wants, he could summon Knuckles instead. Locke then plays it smart by saying that while he’s using the Warp Ring, he will return frequently to check on him. Except he WON’T because PLOT! ACTUALLY playing it smart would be if he did what he did LAST TIME, and ordered Archimedes to spy on the Emerald at all times.
Instead, we’re breaking the rules established the last time this thing happened, because instead of Archy immediately warping Finitevus away from the Emerald when he reveals he has an evil plan, an entire forced story arc will happen for no reason. All because Locke lost 600 IQ points grabbing the Idiot Ball. It’s sad when even the Return to Angel Island arc and Issue 150 by Penders were written better than this story was! At least then Archy was used right as a character!
Dimitri then says, “ There, I lied to him, you monster. Now fulfil your end of the bargain! “ Dimitri is told he’ll do it later, and then remarks when they warp to the Emerald, “ That’s what you said when you took me apart, bit by bit! This indignity cannot go on! Neither can my life! “ I wish the second to last sentence wasn’t so stilted.
Finitevus reassures him, “ Calm down Dimitri, I know what I’m doing! The dingo regime will be crushed, the Legion will be unified, “ and then he explains that “ the power and name of Enerjak will be known once more. “ What does he have to gain from that exactly? Will Enerjak crush the dingo regime? But how would that ever unify the Legion? How does he expect to actually control Enerjak? Is he planning to use that to take down Eggman and other villains? Like an actual person in the actual universe would DO?
I guess this is where that “ generic one-dimensional villain with Take Over the World nonsense ” comes in. He’s SO CLOSE to being a hero other than that though, protecting Echidnapolis and the Emerald! What a shame! He still looks like a Well-Intentioned Extremist though.
This issue was written by Ian Flynn. Eggman refuses to let Shadow read Gerald’s diary and now I know why! It says that Gerald wanted him to be the savior of the world. That would mean fighting againsggman, unless Eggman can somehow convince him that HE’S the good guy. But wasn’t that what Shadow knew anyways? Why wasn’t that disc destroyed in Robotropolis when it was nuked? Eggman’s a sociopath who never MET Gerald, why would he keep this useless disc so long? What story by Flynn isn’t forced?
Then after the disc somehow gets damaged because Sonic and Shadow weren’t fast enough, Nicole somehow creates a tangibly interactable pocket universe of the disc for them to have a conversation with AI versions of Gerald and Maria in just like that – this is so convolutedly silly. And that raises the question of why Maria wasn’t with Gerald to begin with to save them some time, and why Nicole didn’t program the fake Maria to know Shadow had been captured for 50 years!
Oh yeah and Snively gets all mad using a mecha because Shadow took the last of his hair to the base for no reason. But it’s not important. He doesn’t hit anyone with the lasers, so it was just padding. And it ends with Shadow learning he’s meant to be a hero, and Sonic deciding to go question Fiona about her disappearances the next time he’ll see her.
I gotta say she made a pretty risky dumb mistake doing this when she was already on thin ice with the trust after Sally learned her checkered past. I can only conclude that she’s given up because she assumes she’s on the way out ANYWAYS! ESPECIALLY since Sonic gave her that suspicious look!
But she must be pretty paranoid to just ASSUME they’ll kick her out like that when this is the same group that took in Snively with no monitoring of him no problem, because Sonic and Tails have been nothing but supportive of her in spite of that, and it was only her taking the risk of cheating that caused his trust to crumble for her!
Even an intellectual can make ill-thought-out decisions, although if she doesn’t even know if she wants to stay with the Freedom Fighters, it wouldn’t seem like a mistake risking that to HER. She’s conflicted, going through the same thing SHADOW has, wanting to know who she should be! And that’s especially logical as she’s a teenager, and that’s what teenagers go through! Even to the point of a rebellious phase! And who would she ever want to rebel against? Sally.
And the next story has Finitevus send the Destructix to protect Echidnapolis from the dingo regime, and way too easily he convinces Locke to trust him with the Master Emerald, giving him a Warp Ring to go look for the Brotherhood. This would all be great if the technomage didn’t plan on reviving Enerjak, despite Dimitri saying he doesn’t want his life to go on. So maybe he wants to force Enerjak to work for him to take down Eggman and other villains and rule the world like a generic villain and stuff.
It’s like he would be a hero, he’s so close, but then he tacks this villainous plot on him after ALL the times he liberated echidnas from dingo slave camps, although it’s excellent writing for a villain by SONIC standards to have him defend the city and rescue people from the Egg Grapes, because it’s better than him never doing anything good at all!
Another enjoyable issue for the first read, especially since I got to see Nicole in her lynx form for the first PROPER time, and I already know that I’m gonna like it. But unfortunately the issue is yet another one where literally the entire plot was contrived. There’s no way Locke wouldn’t tell Archimedes to guard the Emerald for him from Finitevus like in The Return to Angel Island. And when that horrible story arc had better writing for something than THIS story, that’s a PROBLEM! Locke is not this stupid. And he wouldn’t take that long to find the Brotherhood when he has an interdimensional Warp Ring.
Issue 172:
We start out right away with Amy attacking Fiona calling her a cheater. She’s literally never gotten to have a friendship moment with Amy aside from one group hand thing by the way. They REALLY didn’t care about this character! This would be a lot more emotionally impactful if Amy ever showed ANY indication that they were friends before and there was a genuine friendship that’s been destroyed by this!… Instead she’s always felt like, a stranger who just happens to be with the Freedom Fighters. And they wonder why she’ll leave!
Fiona plays dumb after fortunately Amy somehow missed with her hammer, and Amy explains that she was looking for Sonic and found Tails instead. She asked if he knew where Sonic was, and that’s when Tails couldn’t stand it anymore and told her what Sleuth blackmailed Fiona with. First off, he didn’t blackmail her with! He didn’t get her to do anything! He just snarked that she was a traitor too! That’s it!
And second, Tails won’t tell his best friend who he wants to stop dating Fiona about this, but he’ll tell AMY of all people? And third, I guess THAT provides an explanation for why Fiona would have anything against Tails besides his awkward crush on her. Keep that in mind. She would view him as betraying her trust by letting out that secret. She’ll probably view him as a traitor for this, all the more proof that you can’t rely on the Freedom Fighters, and the way he’s drawn here certainly makes him look like one. Of course, he should certainly be more loyal to Amy than Fiona, but still.
What if things went by differently because he didn’t wreck Amy’s trust in her like this and made Amy push her away for good? It was already bad enough SALLY lost trust in her and then Sonic got suspicious of all the disappearances! I just wish Fiona would call Tails OUT on betraying her, that would’ve been much better writing than what she’ll be written to do to him instead.
When Amy says she knows the truth, that Fiona has been dating Scourge, Fiona says, “ It’s not like Sonic and I were seriously going out! “ She’s right! I pointed it out earlier, but as Sonic said, “ We’re young! There’s no rush! “ It was just a casual relationship, the two were lonely and wanted to have a good time!.
The writer even made it pretty clear that Sonic was still pining for Sally even singing about her with a guitar! He was just using Fiona to distract himself from her! You could tell because he was kinda drawn like a sleazy Casanova with her with the smirks and all. So Sonic never loved her anyways! And what if she found out about that? Like from Scourge?
It’d be a lot worse if she DID break Sonic’s heart and he cried over this or something, but that’s not the case, so there’s not as much harm done as there could be. And with this revelation combined with the fact that she only dated Sonic AFTER Scourge flirted with her with the other girls, it makes sense that she got interested in Scourge, not Sonic!
She naturally wanted to go with Sonic instead because she was with the Freedom Fighters and didn’t wanna lose her only supportive group of friends, and because he’s very similar to him already. But Scourge was the one she was REALLY interested in. So is the comic gonna show me how that interest first appeared?! NOPE! Because THAT would be interesting! And that’s why this issue SUCKS!
Fiona then tells her resentful of her behavior towards her that even if Amy got all of Knothole to testify against her, Sonic would never believe her. She’s pretty overconfident and stupid AND out of character here because she should’ve logically KNOWN that her disappearances made him suspicious, and that would’ve been what motivated her to give up and start doing them. If she had kept her disappearances to night, fine, but, Scourge isn’t exactly nocturnal. I can only assume she’s just lying to her to keep looking cool, instead of being honest.
Then right after Fiona says this, Sonic says having listened in, “ That’s not saying much. I take everything Amy says with a shaker of salt. “ This panel really highlights a derailment in how Amy and Sonic’s dynamic was. Remember when Sonic really liked Amy? He was calling her his biggest fan and even sat beside her telling her stories about his past adventures! But ever since she got her Modern design he’s ignored her and NOW he has no respect for her whatsoever!
You’d think it’d be the exact opposite since now she’s somewhat competent and should’ve actually earned his respect, but instead no because we gotta have it be exactly like the games! I guess their unique dynamic from the games has some value, but it’s not original!
I’d rather have them be best friends like they used to be, that WOULD be a genuine dynamic while also finally changing things up from the blandness Amy had going on before, WHICH IS THE ONLY merit this derailment of Amy has. She was never like the games Amy before this point. The old Amy would never go after a person with a hammer like a violent psychopath.
As Fiona walks away with her eyes closed, Sonic reassures Amy with his hand on her shoulder that he’s been meaning to talk to Fiona anyways, and thanks her for looking out for him. He doesn’t even try to learn about what Amy’s trying to say, which is especially WEIRD since she was clearly gonna tell him about what TAILS told her!
We see Amy looking lovestruck at the way she was treated, literally the first time she’s ever acted this way in the comic, and Tails looks worried noticing them as he was once again spying on and stalking them during their walks together. And no one’s calling him out on this? It’s kinda creepy.
Sonic then says to Fiona, “ You’ve been disappearing a lot lately. With your sketchy past that kinda makes me wonder, y’know? “ And while he’s accidentally right, saying this was the straw that broke the camel’s back for her, as he’s literally never talked like this to her before. Guess he can’t be relied on for that after all.
He should’ve phrased it a lot better and instead told her about where it really came from, Scourge, saying she was cheating on him with him! Instead, out of context it just seems like he’s being judgmental of her for being a former criminal, which is exactly the kind of thing that is BEGGING to turn a former outcast like her against heroes like him! It completely contradicts his earlier accepting behavior of her!
Although now that I’ve read the comic up to this point, I know that this was foreshadowed as when she said Scourge was lying to him earlier without being provoked, he looked very suspicious afterwards. And there’s no way an outcast like Fiona didn’t CATCH THAT! No matter HOW she was talking to Amy. She figured she was on her way out anyways, might as well give up.
Even though Fiona IS dating a criminal, logically she’d still be offended at her friends just assuming that so easily when he as accepting of her before. She says, “ You said you were cool with my past! “ And Sonic then says a really dickheaded line that really stands out to me as Out of Character. “ I’m not cool with how it might be affecting the now! “ He looks punchable in this panel!
I mean he starts out saying, “ I am. “ Blatant Lie there, either that or he’s so arrogant that he’s kidding himself. His expression is probably being interpreted as high and mighty and condescending, which doesn’t make the hero Sonic look particularly enticing to her as an option. And yes, the past IS affecting the now in the sense that it made her go hang out with Scourge, because being a criminal was already familiar to her. But it’s possible she would’ve done that anyways as an experiment.
Fiona angrily reminds Sonic when she helped stop Bean and Bark on his birthday, and then when she gave up everything she knew on Rouge. Sonic acknowledges that she has helped him out. Less than 10 times as far as we know, but still!
And then Sonic tells her suspiciously that she hasn’t shown any interest in him until AFTER Scourge impersonated him – OFFSCREEN. And Fiona has an expression that implies she’s learning about this for the first time, looking away from him like it’s a genuine reaction on her part!
It’s possible that she didn’t even know about this detail at first and genuinely thought up until now that she was interested in Sonic too, which explains why she stayed with him up until now to preserve BOTH possible futures. It makes sense, Sonic and Scourge looked exactly alike back then, so her brain would get the wires crossed pretty easily and make her react to Sonic with the same attraction she originally got from his lookalike.
Sonic tells her as Tails flies overheard looking worried that he trusts Amy and Tails. Fiona solidly is changed to be unlikable at this point as she tries to discredit them as just kids, who shouldn’t be trusted over her. It’s at this point where she’s written as a full-on one-dimensional villain, which is a shame because she was written the best she ever was BEFORE this point under Flynn when she was a hero. This HAS to be a desperate last resort trying to postpone admitting he’s right, because she should KNOW this isn’t gonna work and is just making herself look bad!
Remember when Fiona used to be smart? She told Sonic what an EMP was and she said nanites creating stuff from air was “ fascinating “ and asked what the ecological damage from the nanites would be AND she was with the Brain Trust group.
Sonic says, “ I WANT to trust you, too, Fi! I just need you to clear this up for me! “ This is officially when Fiona gives up since it’s obvious she can’t. Well she could LIE, say that Scourge was just her EX or something, but this so-called bad girl doesn’t even TRY to lie, NOT ONCE! I like that he said this at least! It reminds us that he IS in the right here, he’s just not the most articulate at conveying it without looking judgmental.
Fiona then says out of complete nowhere, “ I tried the hero thing Sonic. I really did. I stuck to it for you. I thought we could maybe find some middle ground. “ Even though she was a hero BEFORE she dated Sonic just fine but let’s ignore actual continuity for a while, because we have a plot to write! So she wavered, but stuck to it for him. Wavered when Scourge flirted with her?
So did she find out Scourge wasn’t Sonic right away and kept his secret? I sure wish I got to see that! We’re not shown her side of the story at ALL, not even some interesting showing of her adventures with Scourge, seeing them get to know each other and get closer together! It’s BORING! It just feels like the writer’s forcing it because there’s nothing to actually SHOW!
FINALLY Scourge shows up saying, “ She means she wishes you had a backbone, moron. “ I LOVE that line now that I’ve fully experienced Fleetway Sonic as a character. Archie Sonic’s way too nice and unrealistically so compared to him, even if Flynn made him more of a snarky egomaniac. If ONLY Fiona got to elaborate MORE to intelligently articulate her real problem with him better!
It sounded like she was just lying because it was all complete nonsense though. I mean, “ backbone, “ doesn’t immediately translate to, “ not a hero! “ And she should know that, Knuckles clearly has one! Sonic hasn’t just killed Eggman and freed the world of him already, which would be much more effective heroism-wise, AND he’d be doing the right thing.
If only she was written to just say THAT as an explanation for why she can’t take him seriously anymore, saying that, “ The Freedom Fighters will never take down Robotnik because to do that they’d have to grow a backbone and just ice him already. What’s the point of wasting time like THIS instead? “
If he’s worried about people knowing it was him and being uncomfortable, he could kill him when no one’s there to witness it! Instead he sticks to trying to fight a Complete Monster the purely right pure good way, which obviously doesn’t work. But is she ALLOWED to EXPLAIN this by the writer? NO!
Instead she looks like a cardboard villain when she was given NO INDICATION of hating heroism in general! Why didn’t she give up before Sonic ever dated her, then? She even furiously showed hatred of Robotnik wasting his life with villainy at one point! “ Maybe Robotnik should set up some OTHER goals in life, as should you! “ We never got to see her thoughts on heroism. She just started to disappear right after Sonic looked suspicious of her!
All for the sake of a “ wow, bam, plot twist! “ It’s shock value writing. Melodrama for the sake of the shock value, without making any effort to make sense. I’M making sense of it from the continuity earlier, but even then it’s only from FLYNN’S continuity. There was no foreshadowing to this before him. It’s almost no better than Merlina becoming a villain in Black Knight! The argument’s so one-sided! And for a villain that’s not good writing! It’s not as interesting as better explaining her actual MOTIVE!
Instead to the less astute reader who doesn’t read between the lines and make Fanon, this betrayal comes out of nowhere because she had gotten OVER her past and become a Freedom Fighter! And then suddenly Scourge! I do like how she says, “ Hey, sweetie! “ It’s SWEET that Scourge lets her call him that in public instead of getting embarrassed and angry because he wants to look like a bad boy instead of a softie! Scourge calls her an affectionate term right back saying, “ Hey, babe! “ and confirms that Fiona DID fall for him first…
Scourge then says that after Fiona tried to find the same attraction in Sonic, as he puts it, “ I told her it was a waste of time. Any guy after me is gonna be bland. “ So one, this reveals she told him about this decision to date Sonic because he came back to come and flirt with her later (during the time when he was supposed to be flying around with Rouge, so apparently he must have ran over to her at sonic speed in seconds and then ran back to Rouge), as opposed to him flirting with any OTHER girls.
Even back THEN Rouge wasn’t satisfying him. Even though she wasn’t his girlfriend at the time and only started after Scourge. And Scourge, unless she let it slip out SOMEHOW that she used to be a criminal – or more like BOUNTY HUNTER which is technically a legal job hunting DOWN CRIMINALS like him, although she was a THIEF too – Scourge had no way of knowing she was the most likely to join in on his criminal activity, and he couldn’t have come back for her specifically because she was Sonic’s girlfriend either because she hadn’t started being it yet! She was just another one of the single girls!
And he couldn’t have possibly known she used to be a thief! Why would she tell him that?! She’d be trying to act like more of a good person than him because she was a Freedom Fighter and he wasn’t! She did it with Bark! And why would she tell him her past when she FIRST met him and thought he was Sonic? She would’ve assumed he already knew, so why mention it?
So the only logical explanation is that he sincerely found Fiona the most appealing out of all the available choices, enough to go start dating her when he already had Rouge and Fiona was FAR AWAY from them! Mina was his first choice, but she chose Ash over him. It wasn’t an act! There was no plan to spite Sonic! Because he didn’t even KNOW he’d be spiting Sonic until Fiona TOLD HIM, that she would start dating Sonic! And second it makes sense that Scourge would say that any guy after him is gonna be bland because I’m sure Sonic would say the same thing with his confident act.
Now the next panel’s confusing. As Fiona hugs Scourge from the side and he hugs back, Scourge says, “ You couldn’t win over my girl, and Amy… “ What about AMY? It’s ANNOYING that he doesn’t finish that sentence!
Logically, you’d think someone as desperate for affection as HE was to the point of dating multiple girls at once would LOVE Amy’s clinginess because it would mean LOVE and LOYALTY to him as opposed to Alicia who was quick to ditch him! So that can’t be what he’s referring to unless this is yet another Out of Character Moment, when before Flynn they were really rare. He taunts him about his love life, which he must have found out from Fiona.
You’d think that when he taunted Sonic about his bad luck with the girls last time, Sonic would’ve immediately figured out that Fiona told him about that, because how else would HE know?! That was just another thing to add to his suspicion. So then WHY DIDN’T HE BREAK UP WITH HER? This plot still would’ve happened in that she’d still leave with Scourge, but logically, she should’ve left with him way EARLIER, and it wouldn’t be AROUND SONIC!
So yeah, this plot SHOULDN’T have happened, because Sonic logically would’ve broken up with her on two different parts of the same issue, and the plot wouldn’t have happened if Sonic and Tails weren’t right here to witness this for the sake of DRAMA.
And Fiona says, “ I was hoping you’d be just as much fun but you’re all hung up on the whole ‘ virtuous hero ‘ thing. “ Again, this line is pretty poorly written because she doesn’t EXPLAIN ANYTHING! It comes out of nowhere! Taken at face value, it could mean, ” You NEGLECT ME by doing nothing but that. ” We never SEE her having any fun with Scourge, not even in a flashback BEFORE this panel! And we never SEE HER having any sort of problems with being a hero where she was fighting a man in the SAME evil position, as the one who locked her away in a CELL for two years!
Logically she’d hate Eggman and Robotnik with even more of a fiery bitter personal grudge than SONIC WOULD because of what Robotnik did to her! If Sally kicked her out recently because she pushed the argument of “ why don’t we just kill him already?! “ on her, that would’ve been a lot more in-character for her as a reason for her to turn bitter and made her leaving with Scourge a lot more logical and foreshadowed!
She’d have already lost her future with them instead of just abandoning it because she assumes she already did. Plus, maybe Scourge could promise to kill Eggman for her eventually and that would convince her to join him?
So really, she can’t be opposed to fighting Eggman! She HATES HIM! So what would she be opposed to about the heroic lifestyle then? Backbone thing? He was accepting of her past until he was given a reason to be suspicious of her!
Logically I have to question why she doesn’t just tell Scourge to warp to Eggman and murder him if she can, but that’s meta logic restraints for you, as there’s literally no reason for her NOT to ask him this. It’s just really annoying because he wants it to be a plot twist so badly that it comes off as a Diabolus ex Machina! Even the “ cheating “ idea came out of nowhere because it was introduced in literally the same issue where Rouge left Scourge with no foreshadowing beforehand. I get it she’s a former thief, but, that never mattered until NOW!
Then Tails rushes in crying while Scourge and Fiona look JUST AS surprised and alarmed as Sonic rather than smirking, (Beneath the Mask?) and he begs her not to go with Scourge showing faith in her idealistically, just because he’s in love with her. Scourge’s expression implies he’s just stressed out in general, like he’s afraid Tails will actually convince her to remember what her actual character was, and maybe some of that stress is even frustration at himself for any sort of pity he could be suppressing for him, because he is a Tails who’s crying after all, Miles or not.
I don’t think she “ had to “ try a little harder. She was doing perfectly fine until Scourge came along and almost all of the same traits she loved about Sonic were in him. I can only ASSUME! That’s literally this whole crappy issue summed up; “ I can only assume. “ And this is when Fiona is written to cross the Moral Event Horizon. (Never Turn Back starts playing)
” That’ll teach YOU to make me UNCOMFORTABLE with your crush! ” What she would say if there was ANY explanation to ANYTHING in this story.
She says that he can’t count on anybody, and then she slaps him. Since she already said that line instead of saying it while doing the action, the action was clearly just for emphasis, but it was entirely unnecessary, although I don’t know if she thought it was unnecessary at the time, since she’s trying to teach him a lesson SHE learned and get him to grow up, not to mention this is CERTAINLY necessary to DETACH HIM from her so he won’t MISS her and try to convince her to come back anymore.
Think about this from her point of view. She’s making a HUGE life-changing decision for her future that could have big consequences, good or bad! That’s gonna cause ANYONE SOME STRESS!
She clearly looked like she was feeling guilty in the issue where the cheating was first introduced. And that stress would involve her worrying, since she’s shown herself to be the cautious type. That stress would involve her worrying that taking such a risk would be a big mistake!
She doesn’t want ANYONE telling her THAT right now because in her mind, for all SHE knows, not leaving with Scourge would ALSO be a big mistake! He’s her only easy way out of a terrible situation with her friends! She couldn’t possibly go back NOW, could she?… Even if she chose not to go with Scourge when she almost did, the Freedom Fighters’ trust in her would still be shattered and she’d be treated like an outcast!
She’d lose her relationship with the closest person she has to Scourge so there goes that. Amy hates her. Sally hates her. And Sonic hates her. They’re not gonna keep her doing something like this a secret when she doesn’t really deserve it.
So she doesn’t wanna go back to the heroes NOW and have to deal with all that judgment, which she would view as just a HUGE PUNISHMENT for doing the right thing when she could avoid, even MORE outcast treatment, and go with someone who LIKES HER for her PAST! Something she would INFINITELY appreciate as almost too good to be true after the way she was treated like SCUM by Sally!
She’s under a LOT of PRESSURE making a scary decision, and took it out on Tails because she just wanted him to leave her alone! And he wouldn’t do that through her reasoning with him, obviously! He wouldn’t just give up, though her being written to reason with him and explain why she’s ACTUALLY doing this would’ve been much better writing, even if it had the same eventual result. But simply put, she didn’t want to cry and argue while Scourge stands there bored for hours. It’d take too long to explain herself and they’d never agree with her anyways.
Through Fiona’s paranoid, trust and abandonment issues filled mindset, Scourge is the open-minded free-thinking contrast to the judgmental heroes who accepts her for who she is! That means EVERYTHING to an outcast!
And even though for the longest time Sally was the only person who technically TALKED to her and GLARED at her like she didn’t trust her anymore, to an outcast’s mind she was echoing the sentiments of everyone else in the room, especially considering that Sally was the LEADER of the Freedom Fighters! Sonic standing up for her was the EXCEPTION. It would’ve been different if literally everyone stood up for her, like logic would actually dictate, so there’s another reason this whole plot falls apart.
But instead, there was silence from them, which was more than enough for the mind of an outcast to think they all agreed with Sally! Who would wanna stay in a group of people where they don’t feel like they belong in, when there’s another person she could stay with who DOESN’T make her feel that way?
But again, Show Don’t Tell, we barely SEE anyone interacting with Fiona like she’s not to be trusted AFTER Issue 160 and before this! It’s not like we saw most of Knothole hating her, like Amy implied she would do! RIGHT THERE, it should’ve been obvious that the break-up should’ve happened AFTER Amy would get to do that, instead of a potential plot thread being dropped in favour of rushing her joining Scourge as fast as humanly possible. Even then, NOT as fast since she could’ve joined him in Issue 165 just fine! At least have the Amy scene in the previous issue and cut out the Snively and Knuckles filler!
This comes completely out of nowhere if you don’t look between the lines! Because yes, while she USED to be a criminal, she had Character Development PAST that and this is the definition of the “ destruction of character arcs “ that Flynn did with characters like Snively and Scourge as well, reverting them back to the way they started instead of having a natural continuation.
Remove Sonic from this picture, and THAT’S what she’d GET if she did what Tails wanted!
This whole thing about her feeling like she doesn’t belong and isn’t really accepted with the heroes, would be much better foreshadowed if we got to actually SEE Sally interact with her more to further emphasize that point! She mistreated Tails with the justification that she wanted to give him the lesson SHE learned. She thought she could count on the Freedom Fighters to make her feel loved and supported, but Sally proved they can’t actually like her for who she WAS.
Her trust issues went from bubbling at the surface with resentment there to exploding out of her as she tries to justify her actions, by claiming to be a Well-intentioned Extremist doing it for Tails’ own good because he was too naïve. Chances are, from the way Sally and Sonic were treating her, Fiona thought she was on her way out ANYWAYS, and if she didn’t leave on her own, she’d be abandoned and kicked out by the Freedom Fighters regardless, and she’d be abandoned and betrayed by the last group of loved ones she has left! And obviously as someone with abandonment issues, she can’t handle that again.
So she got into the mentality of “ ditch ‘em before they ditch me “ and went with Scourge as a pre-emptive strike. But is she gonna explain any of that? NO! That’d be interesting, and give her depth! Instead she makes it all vague giving a message of how she has trust issues and thinks Tails should learn not to be so idealistic for his own good! If the excuse was that she’d cry if she actually explained herself and got all worked up and she refused to look weak in front of Scourge, then they should’ve explained that in a thought bubble from her!
Maybe a part of her was trying to help him with that message, feeling ashamed and saying, “ You shouldn’t trust ME anymore. “ She’s trying to detach him from her completely, so he’d stop trying to get her back tempting her like that, and so at the very least he might stop making her uncomfortable with his precocious crush.
Bottom line, not only is she trying WAY too desperately hard to impress Scourge here, but she thinks she’s doing the harsh but justified thing by finally getting Tails to give up on her, but she’ll probably regret it the night after. She’s caught between a rock and a hard place and either way, part of her will feel like she’s made a big mistake, so she wants to get the decision officially made as soon as possible to get it over with, and all of that stress exploded out of her with no proper way to release it.
Sonic immediately puts his hands on Tails’ shoulders saying, “ Tails? Buddy? “ showing compassion for him, with Scourge being nice enough to not punch him and Tails when they’re distracted like this.
And then he runs at her angrily, somehow not instantly reaching her with his sonic speed and hitting her seconds later. Somehow she has the time to say, “ You’re my prime example. Or did you forget you left me imprisoned? “ Her prime example of how she can’t count on anybody, not even Ray, Mighty and Sonic, because she couldn’t count on him to go find her and save her. It does make sense that she’d take that being let down as an example of why she can only count on herself.
Never mind the fact that she’s clearly counting on Scourge to be supportive and open-minded of her as her new fun-loving boyfriend, but she’s too proud trying to follow and preach a message of independence as her justification to admit that she sucks at following her own advice. Because it’s advice she doesn’t fully believe in. That independence praising AND hypocrisy is something Scourge and her have in common.
She probably sees Scourge as a free spirit who inspiringly does what he wants and no one else! But Fiona should’ve been written to say in addition to this that, “ You could’ve easily had Rotor get my DNA and make a Fiona detector and find where I was. But you weren’t dedicated enough to do that! Some hero you are! “ Nothing about this issue is made clear until you read really deeply into it and that’s the problem. He’s committing the exact same crime that Sally’s slap issue did where unless you know the context, you’ll be confused as hell. How is Flynn better than Bollers, again?
Scourge naturally attacks Sonic trying to prevent him from crashing into Fiona at the speed of sound and potentially murdering her! And then he proves himself even MORE by explaining, “ Don’t get me wrong, wuss. As much as I like messin’ with you, I think I actually LIKE Fiona. “ Just like I said earlier, and again, he couldn’t have started this just to mess with Sonic because she wasn’t DATING him yet!
And honestly, I don’t think Scourge is the type to lie to Sonic about something like THIS, because this is admitting to his enemy that he has a soft side by actually LIKING someone, and why would a bad boy like Scourge lie about that and embarrass himself if it’s not true? The fact that he’s not embarrassed just shows how much he likes her because he’s actually proud of it, instead of self-conscious.
It would take a lot MORE EFFORT for him to run away from Rouge periodically to go ALL THE WAY to Fiona to date her as well as Rouge, and why would he go through all that unnecessary effort for her running back and forth if he hadn’t gotten a little crush on Fiona, or even LIKED her? When he already had a girlfriend there to use for making out with him?
He then says stupidly that all the girls in his home dimension are evil from the get go. Somehow I doubt that. I mean if every single female in the human race was born a psychopath civilized society wouldn’t be able to show up. Like that’s half the population. They wouldn’t try to be good mothers for one. How cynical is he? I wish it was explained that his mother sucked and everyone always hated him and THAT’S why he’s paranoid enough of women to think that outlandish thing.
Not to mention he’s implying that every girl on Mobius is good as the reverse of that! When it’d make more sense for most people to be neutral, selfish without being outright evil, meaning that their reverse morality counterparts would be basically the same.
So I doubt they were literally born evil, ALL of them. That’s psychologically impossible especially on such a grand scale! Psychopathy can’t be THAT common, unless Anti-Mobius brainwashed them into it with magical brainwashing waves and that was the case, Scourge would have nothing to be proud of with his bad boy reputation if he’s only like that from being brainwashed! Instead the people there are more likely to have just had a harsh upbringing making them jerks. That line clearly wasn’t thought through at all.
Then he explains that Fiona “ chooses to be. And that is hot! “ Again, he doesn’t actually elaborate on this, although it can be forgiven with him because he’s in the middle of a heated fight and he’s not exactly the most articulate speaker, and explaining more about why he loves Fiona would just make him look like a softie, which would be uncharacteristic of him. I think it’s more that she’s a nice person to HIM who isn’t afraid to join in on the fun. She’s good AND open-minded! The perfect combination to him!
While Alicia outright attacked him once just to have a challenging fight! Fiona’s the perfect woman to him because he can have his cake and eat it too, she’s one of the normal nice girls who would normally never date him, and she DOES! When any other girl twisted enough to wanna be with him would either be a jerk in general making him call her a “ pain, “ or leave him like Rouge because even they have standards! She’s one girl he can TRUST.
Then after Scourge merely quick-steps to dodge Sonic’s spindash, a spindash that logically should’ve sliced him apart but whatever, he explains while most of him is ridiculously dark from the sun behind him, that one bad day and Sonic would be just like him, ripping off The Joker’s dialogue to Batman. One, he’s cynical, so it makes perfect sense that he’d assume the worst in Sonic. If he WASN’T cynical, he wouldn’t be evil. So why does he trust Finitevus, again? More bad writing!
And two he’s kinda RIGHT! Sonic COULD snap if something got him mad enough! Remember when Sonic almost murdered a soldier with the Sword of Acorns when he thought that guy killed his Uncle Chuck?! What if he actually did and that led him down a slippery slope because he got his first time out of the way?!
I mean based on how all his friends are heroes who would make him ashamed and he grew up around heroes, it’s more likely he’d feel crushed with guilt and shunned instead, especially since that soldier was merely brainwashed and didn’t deserve it. But what if getting that out of the way would make him more likely to justify doing that AGAIN because his targets would actually deserve it more than him?
He has a fragile ego so he’d want to feel better about himself and stop hating himself for his only kill being unjustified after all, and people treating him with discomfort and thus being pushed away by his friends might get him detached from and resentful of them, wanting to rebel against them more.
Of course it’d be WAY more LIKELY that Sonic would never do it again though, thanks to his FRIENDS, but Scourge doesn’t know that because he doesn’t understand the sheer impact that being in a hero-filled environment has on Sonic’s life! And the sheer influence of his conscience as a result. He doesn’t get that Sonic can’t snap or he’d lose the support of all his loved ones, because HE never HAD the kind of loved ones who WOULD stop supporting him for being evil.
Sonic trips Scourge, another bit of karma for when Scourge tripped him, and then smirks looking unlikably smug while explaining the REAL reason for why he disapproves of Scourge. He says, “ It’s because all it would take is a bit of selflessness, a little bit of decency, and you’d be just like me. “ And THAT REACTION from Scourge PROVES that he has depths! Instead of laughing him off, or getting annoyed and offended, like the cliché evil twin he’s always been, HOW does he react?
By looking SCARED, and stunned, saying, “ I… “ This is NOT the reaction of someone who’s never done anything good before. OTHERWISE he’d never be able to perceive the idea that he WOULD do something nice, and would never believe that could happen!
This is the reaction of someone who HAS shown selflessness, in fact a LOT of selflessness, since even one time alone wouldn’t be enough to make him terrified that even his bad boy reputation wouldn’t make him unique from Sonic! And the only person I can imagine he’d show decency and selflessness to, would be MILES!
Miles is Tails’ equivalent and therefore Scourge’s own version of Sonic’s little brother and best friend, and he was especially surprised and disappointed in him in particular leaving him, because he considered him to be his sidekick! Why WOULD he think he was his sidekick if he bullied him and thus would have no reason to have faith in his loyalty?! He had the closest bond with HIM out of ANYONE else! There HAD to be a REASON that Miles and him became best friends! Instead of Miles just avoiding him like the plague!
You’d think if Scourge was literally the exact opposite to Sonic evil in every way, he would’ve bullied Miles for having two tails, as the contrast to Sonic accepting Tails for it, which would only lead to Miles being his ENEMY. But instead he MUST have been JUST as accepting of what made him special to convince him to trust him in the FIRST place. And Miles would be just as cynical as he was, because he’s an evil twin too, so it’d take a lot to get Miles to trust you instead of leaving you or trying to kill you.
But is Flynn going to elaborate on the kinds of nice things Scourge did? Show a panel or two of him ruffling Miles’ hair, and tell him that he liked him for who he was? NO, of COURSE not! Because that would be good writing, and add depths to his character! Instead, we HAVE to keep everything strictly from SONIC’S point of view, which means everything’s a mystery… Translation: plot holes and missed opportunities up the ass! What Sonic said is going to haunt him, but we’ll never know exactly WHY!
Scourge has based his whole sense of worth, after meeting Sonic, on being the most unique Sonic of all! Since he’s the only one who’s evil, and that’s the only way he can add actual VALUE to his bad boy reputation besides just “ it’s good because I’m rebelling against my parents for ignoring me! “ which isn’t something he can brag about without being TEASED for it.
So he can’t be proud of just that. But NOW it’s been made obvious that even with a new look, his personality is still similar to him, and he’ll do everything he can to try to prove Sonic wrong. Let it never be said Sonic doesn’t make mistakes.
Fiona attacks Sonic before Scourge would say ANYTHING INTERESTING when it would’ve been better to see what would happen after that, although he would probably just lie to deny it all stubborn-like, that obviously lying Tsundere kind of reaction would’ve been much better to see than her kicking Sonic because DRAMA!
She then tells Sonic that the way Sonic holds back, makes him weak, and it’s all about survival of the fittest. So a really badly-phrased “ make her look evil “ version of, “ Just kill Eggman already, “ then. Honestly she‘s got a great point, it would even fit in with her hatred of Robotnik from childhood!
In her mindset if Sonic was REALLY not weak, and could be counted on, he would’ve killed Robotnik and Eggman both and freed the world much more effectively, and that’s what would’ve happened if Sonic was the way Scourge was. That’s the only logical reason why she’d ever want him to be like Scourge.
He could be way more effective than he is! Instead he holds back, and is a lot less effective as a hero because he postpones his victory by who knows how long! Her argument isn’t an argument against heroism. It’s against holding back, which Scourge does all the time by the way.
Remember how many times I said Scourge held back in Sonic Super Special 10? For example, when Patch threw a knife at him he didn’t kill him immediately. If only Scourge had a thought bubble showing embarrassment over the fact that HE holds back TOO, saying like, “ I wish I didn’t hold back with Patch. Just replacing him with Antoine got way too depressing with his constant whining and complaining. “ He held back against Locke, too, even though he doesn’t even LIKE Rouge. And I’m sure he’s been face-to-face with Kintobor a LOT and still never killed him.
Amy shows up furious with Fiona, because she was still nearby apparently, and Tails says, “ I-I can’t hurt you, Fiona. But I don’t care about you, Scourge! “ I wish I knew how Scourge really felt about that. This IS an alternate version of MILES he’s hearing this from!
Scourge instead decides acting all casual that he’s had his fun, rather than trying to fight them like the Evil Sonic he is. Huh? Remember “ holding back? “ Well that’s exactly what he’s doing because he could kill them all right here. And Fiona agrees to go with him into the Warp Ring saying, “ Let’s, “ not pointing out that he’s holding back because come on, that’s not really all she cares about. In fact, him holding back is the only thing that’s gonna keep her with him.
I think if he did completely psychopathic things in front of her, it’d be wildly Out of Character for her to stay with him instead of holding him back like Rouge did at the very least but this IS the ruined Fiona we’re talking about. Flynn would probably make her smirk at the destruction of a city.
Logically though, Scourge could just create a tornado around all of these guys and ricochet off them with spindashes and EASILY knock them all down, instead of holding back on the violence just to take off immediately. This is what makes him a great character, that even an evil twin like him doesn’t take every opportunity to be a dick.
This causes Amy to insult her bodysuit which looked perfectly fine! It was better than her going around with no clothes on! Was that supposed to echo what the FANS thought? It feels like meta logic because it comes so out of NOWHERE. Sonic asks Tails as they all stand in a green void because the artist got lazy AGAIN this issue, “ How are you holdin’ up, bud? “ And Tails has another great line saying sadly, “ I… I feel awful, “ rubbing his cheek.
Tails then says that Fiona was wrong because he knows he can always count on the Freedom Fighters. Yeah HE CAN! If only she had EXPLAINED HERSELF MORE that she was just talking about HERSELF!
Tails says sadly with a forced smile that he wants to go see his mother for comfort, and after Antoine’s told what Fiona did, he says that he’s going to do something he should’ve done a long time ago, while looking angry and menacing. I doubt this will lead to anything badass because he’s not competent enough to be allowed to be.
So is the next story going to elaborate on what Scourge’s “ secret date “ was like?! NO, of COURSE NOT! Instead it’s about Julie-Su! Talk about distracted! Julie wakes up Amy telling her that she should be used to getting up this early by now when there was no indication of this all earlier and reminds her for the sake of the audience that Amy came to her for personal training. Offscreen, because actually showing that would not be lazy and Flynn’s too lazy to even show us how Fiona and Scourge MET.
Then there’s more stilted dialogue where she says just for the sake of the audience that the usual, is to walk all the way around Knothole and then back to Freedom HQ. And this is supposed to make her more competent HOW exactly? These two have literally never exchanged a single word together, at least as far as I can remember! And they won’t be best friends the rest of the comic or something, this is their only scene alone together, so WHO CARES?! WHY WRITE THIS?!
Amy sleepily heads for the river and falls in and fortunately she doesn’t drown but instead is immediately helped up by Julie. It’s nice that the two have a story together being friends, especially fitting since they both have pink hair! Amy complains about not being allowed to change clothes first and Julie says, “ Do you think Robotnik would let you change your wardrobe? “
The two balance on top of long wooden poles and do combat practice. Then I’m promptly BORED as Amy looks predictable like a fanfiction saying that she wants to be the best Freedom Fighter, FOR SONIC. And this whole story feels like a waste of time!
This issue was by Ian Flynn. And the main story was dedicated to Fiona OFFICIALLY leaving with Scourge! I’d like to point out that in the Other M fancomic that Ian Flynn made, he portrayed Fiona as an awesome ass-kicking badass, AND one of the heroes! AND DATING SONIC! As a GREAT GIRLFRIEND! So he CLEARLY likes the character! And used to know how to write her! So why did he turn her into THIS?
Well the answer is the fans. He knew the fans thought Fiona was just some dumb brainless beauty who didn’t deserve to be with the Freedom Fighters, so to please the FANS, he sacrificed her by making her much more interesting by being Scourge’s girlfriend. He needs someone to love him, so honestly I wish this happened way earlier. Just like Sally said to Nicole, ” Everyone needs a friend. ” But it would’ve made sense if it happened BEFORE she became a Freedom Fighter! It’s TOO LATE NOW! So much of this comic is just written from META logic now!
Honestly, I prefer her this way! The PROBLEM is how it was HANDLED was full of missed opportunities and SHALLOW characterization! All for the sake of having it be a cheap plot twist! He could’ve had Fiona elaborate a LOT MORE on why she’s making this decision and feeling justified in it! Instead of looking like she was replaced with an evil DOPPELGANGER for all the resemblance she shares to the old her! REAL PEOPLE JUSTIFY their actions!
And Scourge proves he HAS shown decency and selflessness by reacting with FEAR and INSECURITY to Sonic letting it get to him! But in the biggest missed opportunity of all, we don’t get to see what those good things he did WERE! We could’ve removed the worthless back-up story ENTIRELY, and had MORE than enough comic space to make the ACTUAL STORY not feel so CONFUSING and RUSHED!
We could’ve seen panels of FLASHBACKS showing Scourge being brotherly with Miles and beating up his bullies way more viciously than Sonic ever would! And we could’ve seen Fiona explain how Sally made her feel like she didn’t belong in the Freedom Fighters anymore!
Instead the two villains aren’t given enough depths, and Fiona’s actions, criminal past or not which was forever ago, seem really JARRING! You’d think someone who hates Eggman wouldn’t choose to stop trying to spite him and dedicating her life to making him miserable, which someone evil could do TOO out of SADISM! Logically, wouldn’t she just try to convince Scourge to make Eggman miserable with her? Wouldn’t that have made sense? But NO, then he’d be like Sonic, unless he killed him and then meta logic kicks in.
As a Freedom Fighter, Fiona wasn’t that useful from what little we got to see of her being one, because she’s a MORTAL. She doesn’t have any special powers! Even Antoine had a SWORD! Let’s see, she gave Sonic medical attention which anyone even Bunnie could’ve done, distracted Bean to get him off Sonic’s head, talked Bark out of trying to win a fight he would’ve lost anyways to save her friends some bruises, charged in with Bunnie and Tails to get Scourge and Rouge away, fought Drago, and gave up what she learned about Rouge to get her to talk about her time with Finitevus.
Aside from the Bean part, nothing she did was NECESSARY! It looks like they would’ve been FINE if she had never been born! Better off, even, which shows how poorly written she was as a character! Of course that’s not fair to assume because we never got to know the exact nature of her contribution to the heroes!
Even BEFORE Sonic was sent to space, she mentions she went on a mission with Ray as a Freedom Fighter! Why do that if she’s not a Freedom Fighter? We can’t know everything she did to help! And in fact the vast majority of it is unknown! I thought I’d at least get to see a short story about when she decided to join the Freedom Fighters and learn when exactly she joined, which would’ve been much more worthwhile than the waste of space back-up story, but I DIDN’T!
And I didn’t get to see her have friendship moments making her feel like she’s actually PART OF that close-knit group of friends, which would’ve gotten more fans to support her! They REALLY didn’t give a shit about this character. And I feel bad for her because of that because aside from like 8 issues with Flynn, NOBODY wrote her well for more than two seconds!
It feels like they just put her into the Freedom Fighters on a whim because, “ HEY, wouldn’t it be interesting if that girl Sonic left behind was on a few missions with him? “ She doesn’t even have any original skills!… She does WIRING stuff like Rotor would! She’s an, she’s an intellectual, which is NEVER helpful. For the most part ANYONE could’ve done the things we saw her do!
Well except for two times anyways. Half of the time she was necessary, but would anyone have died or had to go to the hospital WITHOUT her? We’ll never know! What I do is, she’s more interesting and unique as Scourge’s girlfriend, because now she fills a unique role no one else has and can fill, as the one girl who actually LOVES him.
The problem NOW is that she’s unlikable, because we don’t get to see any of the good and interesting traits she had BEFORE him. Do we? Her nice side, her compassionate side, how much she, how much does she look SAD or show her intellectual side around him? She used to be more of a deeper character than that. Is she just gonna be a a paper-thin villainess whose only trait is manipulatingness and trust issues now? If so, it’s ruining the point of making it Fiona the Freedom Fighter in particular who dated him.
With the way she’ll be characterized, he could have dated some random evil girl and had the exact same personality and dialogue from her for the most part, AND it’d make more sense! It would be GREAT if we saw her being the same person but with SCOURGE, showing HIM compassion and caution and her intelligent side, and being optimistic and fun-loving around him!
I prefer her being with him as a couple. At least the two have similar personalities, which is more than can be said for Sonic and Sally! But Flynn could’ve done this whole thing a LOT BETTER. If he had them be a genuinely sweet couple where Scourge was constantly proving he loved her and admired her for her gutsiness and intellect AS WELL as beauty, if they were showing affection to each other a lot with Scourge kissing her on the forehead and hugging, then there would be an actual POINT to Flynn writing them as “ dating “ because he’d actually be writing them as DATING, and NOT just as allies who CLAIM to be dating!
At least in 150, he was affectionate, and that story was by Penders! This concept would be brilliant in theory, but he doesn’t care enough to write it as a sweet romance between two kindred spirit criminals and instead left the fans with the assumption that Scourge was just using her! Don’t write a couple getting together if you won’t give a shit about writing them as being together. He writes Antoine and Bunnie as a couple properly, so I don’t know what was stopping him.
As for the second story there’s really NOTHING worthwhile about it! It’s nice that Julie’s training Amy all of a sudden but not much comes out of it for them friend-wise, and it just serves to solidify Amy’s transformation into the one-dimensional Sonic-obsessed character she was in the games when she was never like that before Ian Flynn showed up! Who was this supposed to APPEAL to?! Who LIKES when Amy’s portrayed like this?! I’ve only ever heard fans hating her for it!
Granted she used to be a lot more bland and forgettable being treated just like any other girl! But NOW Sonic has no respect for her at all! And I can see why! It’s like her Character Development into a competent character under Bollers has been completely undermined!
Really this story would’ve served better as extra comic space for the MAIN story actually ELABORATING on things! Or better yet it should’ve been a story about how Fiona’s actual time with Scourge was like! “ Scourge’s secret date; The Real Story! “ Instead of us ONLY seeing SONIC’S perspective, and missing out on more than HALF the STORY!
Ultimately this was the first issue of Flynn that I hated even on the very first read. The lack of elaboration on Fiona’s reasoning and motives made it feel clumsily handled coming out of nowhere just for the sake of being a Merlina-esque crazy plot twist. For all the hatred Bollers got for The Slap, Flynn did the exact same crimes AGAIN, but because it was with Fiona, he got away with it completely, even though Sally’s motive of being scared that Sonic would die was way more sympathetic than “ I’m sick of being a hero out of nowhere! “
Even if she did have a criminal past, it didn’t MATTER anymore for a while. She WAS a fish out of water compared to the pure righteous goody-two-shoes, not being allowed to use a rifle against robots for example, but foreshadowing isn’t just the issue, a lack of a sympathetic motive and proper ELABORATION on the foreshadowing IS. Because if the foreshadowing isn’t pointed out in the story, like in the Battle Royale issue or the Sally Miniseries, then in an issue like this it’s just gonna make fans worry that they’re reading too much into things from just trying to see how Fiona MAKES SENSE!
In REAL LIFE people TALK to each other to explain WHY they think and act the way they do to try to make themselves look in the right! But instead everything’s too VAGUE, when you’d think Fiona with all her repressed resentment would be EAGER to start an angry rant about SALLY making her go down the slippery slope from feeling like an outcast who doesn’t belong! Unless she was SCARED deep down that if she actually EXPLAINED her motive, she’d get talked out of it. Maybe she would! We don’t know!
But ultimately to my surprise, no, it wasn’t just Sally’s fault she left. IT WAS SCOURGE! Everything would’ve been fine if Scourge hadn’t convinced her to start cheating with him, because that’s what made Sonic and Amy stop trusting her. Again, we never actually SEE, Sally being judgemental of her after that one time. Because that was too much effort. Good god, this was mishandled!
This issue is the biggest proof that Flynn is the laziest writer. Some “ fans “ actually complain that the comic used to explain too much, but an issue like this completely shits all over the legitimacy of that complaint, because I would gladly take too much explaining for THIS! Hell, I’d take four stories’ worth of explaining for this! I think this story needs it!
Issue 173:
We start out right away with Antoine proposing to Bunnie, which was surprising to me because I thought it’d be a few more panels, which means this was handled lazily rather than the writer bothering to come up with dialogue leading up to the actual proposal, because yeah, even when I first read this I had the common sense to assume he’d be given more lines before the proposal to build up to it properly, you don’t just cut to that so easily. Look at how Monica proposed to Chandler Bing!
But maybe Antoine was just that nervous and skipped to it awkwardly, but that’s not lampshaded. I mean, this isn’t the kind of problem that I would be able to tolerate when I’m writing a story, as the whole reason I don’t write stories I have in my head is often because I’d have to write build-up to the scenes I’ve got planned, you can’t just skip straight to the middle.
The reason Antoine did this was because their enemies keep growing in numbers, and he wants to get married before it’s too late. And let’s just say that’ll turn out to be a wise decision. I like that Sonic puts his arm around Antoine AS WELL as Bunnie, and, Antoine’s smiling all bashfully as he congratulates the two. It’s a rare friendship moment for them all!
It turns out it took Antoine WEEKS to muster up the courage to propose! So I like that he still has SOME trace of the old Antoine who’s a relatable nervous coward in him. It’s a shame that it’s so heavily downplayed now though! Ever since he got home from Anti-Mobius he’s just been quiet and serious instead, and honestly, it makes him seem no different from how Patch used to act as a Freedom Fighter before his evil plan, quiet and serious, with the exception that ANTOINE isn’t complaining at Bunnie all the time.
Meanwhile Sally’s communicating with Knuckles over the Skype monitor and says that she felt a lot more reassured sending the Chaotix with Mina to be her bodyguards on her world tour. Knuckles says that Vector got wind of something, and asks if she’s seen Rouge lately as Julie looks all jealous. Knuckles then says the bombshell, that the rumor is that Rouge has stolen the Master Emerald and is selling it to the highest bidder. I have a hard time believing that especially with Finitevus guarding it for his own purposes! Has Angel Island crashed into the ocean?! If NOT, why’s he buying this rumor?!
The whole reason it’s always made a big deal of when the Master Emerald leaves its pedestal is that the island will crash and “ all will perish, “ the city gets flooded and everyone’s trying to cope with the disaster, so you’d think his reaction would be of PANIC instead of just looking annoyed, AND that Sally would just take TWO SECONDS to look at Angel Island on google maps like she did to know he needed help in Issue 44, tell Knuckles that no his island’s still in the sky, and the ENTIRE PLOT wouldn’t have happened!
Even a character in-universe lampshades the gullibility of the heroes here in taking this rumor remotely seriously! Rotor points out that this doesn’t make any sense, but for a third reason I didn’t come up with, that Rouge has only ever wanted the Emerald for herself and wouldn’t wanna sell it!… But Sally wants to err on the safe side. More like the insanely paranoid side. It’s NOT LANDED in the OCEAN! Hello?! Don’t you wanna CHECK?
Knuckles ends off the transmission briefly interrupting himself to tell Vector to stop laughing at Julie. It’d be funnier if I actually knew what he was laughing at her for instead of the writer being too lazy to come up with anything. Was she having a temper tantrum from jealousy? It’s not like Knuckles himself is going to Rouge! Before Knuckles could end the transmission, Sally asks him for Rouge’s rough location, and then orders him to stay with the Chaotix.
Then in the marshlands that night Sonic complains about how right after Antoine told Sally he was getting married she sent him with Sonic on a sting mission. A few panels are wasted on the two of them discussing Sally when we already KNOW about the pressure she used to deal with, and the reason it’s pointless is that he doesn’t say THIS is why she broke up with Sonic from the stress of it all. So it’s just pointless recap.
And then Sonic says, “ Since when were you the voice of reason, ‘Twan? “ He replies that it comes with time as if it was the result of the Character Development that had taken place entirely OFFSCREEN on Anti-Mobius, but I assumed he was ALWAYS sort of the voice of reason beyond his own ego because he was the CAUTIOUS type, and therefore less risk-taking.
Then Sally confesses to Bunnie, that she knows her being on the mission, and making the team like this with her separate from Antoine, was selfish of her. At least she’s self-aware of it. She admits that she hasn’t really been a part of the Freedom Fighters for a long time, which is kinda true considering she kept being told by her parents to stay out of the action!
Not that she could’ve done anything with no special powers, but there was no excuse for her not being Mission Control giving orders to Sonic through his wrist-phone, she could still be part of a mission without being in danger. She says she was jealous of Bunnie getting married because Sonic and her have been so distant.
Then they spot Fang who says he was just hired for searching the perimeter for tonight but NOW he’s hoping to get his revenge on Sally for when she attacked him a while ago. Bunnie punches him to make him fall over, and then he jumps supernaturally high and Sally pushes Bunnie out of the way of a laser, apparently his rifle is a laser-shooter now when he and his weasels shot bullets earlier.
Then Sonic sees Bean and Bark show up on air boards, making me really wonder why the air boards aren’t used more to make Sonic’s friends keep up with him but are perfectly fine for the villains! Who, how the, how they’d even get a hold of them ANYWAYS, how, who did they steal it from? Bean says that him having an air board is one of the perks of deserting the Armada. What Armada?…
I mean I guess, bir-I guess Bean is a type of bird, so it makes sense that he’d be part of the Tails Adventure armada, but Bark isn’t part of the armada. So Bean SURE WAS thinking ahead, uncharacteristically so, to think to steal TWO air boards, before he even MET Bark! Bean says that their boss told them to scope out the Master Emerald. And a fight begins with Sonic getting his revenge on Bean for attacking his head, which is good.
Then we see Sally fortunately perfectly fine with Fang ALREADY knocked out beside her, sitting on the Marvellous Queen. I kinda like the amusing exchange between Sonic and Sally where he says, “ Hey, it’s the Marvelous Queen! “ and she responds, “ I’m still just a princess, but thanks. “ And Sonic says, “ I let you have that one. “
With the thugs rounded up and ROPE will get tied around them HOPEFULLY, the heroes plan to go after Rouge, who was wondering why there were no takers for the Master Emerald she offered on, what, ebay? Wouldn’t she just get into legal trouble if she did that? EVERYONE would know it didn’t belong to her! And she says she’s just doing this for attention, so, I guess (laughs) she’s really DESPERATE! (giggles) But that still doesn’t explain why she’d do THIS instead of keeping the Emerald, and how she even got it!
Fortunately this is explained. Then Ixis and Mammoth Mogul suddenly show up much to Rouge’s chagrin, because somehow EVEN MAMMOTH MOGUL FELL FOR THIS instead of questioning why the island was still FLOATING, and Mogul explains that “ Doctor Eggman has indeed incinerated my minions and me within his Egg Grapes. “ Wait, that doesn’t make sense because if he INCINERATED him, how is he still ALIVE?! That could’ve been written better!
Mogul would’ve killed ADAM with his powers before he would have taken his Emerald. Or at least WARPED AWAY!
Mogul explains that he had to use Ixis Naugus to protect himself from the effects of the Egg Grapes until they were rescued. Wait, how did he ever possibly communicate with Ixis from separate Egg Grapes? Oh wait, he’s a telepathic psychic, never mind. I thought it was MOGUL who was protecting HIMSELF! Eggman even SAID SO and said to just let them struggle! But I guess it does make sense that he might come to the wrong conclusion.
More importantly, what could Ixis Naugus POSSIBLY DO to PROTECT them all when he’s an elemental wizard with NO FORCE FIELD power?! It actually made MORE SENSE with EGGMAN’S assumption, because I could’ve more easily bought that Mogul would’ve protected himself from the Egg Grapes with a force field of some kind.
It’s sad when even the characters in the story have smarter conclusions about how things would go than the writer did, and that’s not the only time this is gonna happen with this writer either! Notice that I was far less cynical with my reviews of the Knuckles Comic.
ADAM had stolen Mogul’s power to limit his power, and the experience left Ixis as little more than animal as he does nothing but hiss like a snake! THAT was REALLY WEIRD. I mean I’d expect that from the bad art issues like Return to Angel Island. It really feels like a “ bad fanfiction idea, “ it comes out of nowhere! Especially since MOGUL isn’t this way! So if it’s supposed to be that Ixis got his mind drained, why the hell didn’t Mogul get that fate too?
So that can’t be it! Did ADAM curse Ixis with the Emerald? Why the hell didn’t he do that to Mogul then?! It’s absolutely POINTLESS to make Ixis this way! He’ll do what Mogul says as his servant regardless and all this does is make him not talk anymore.
OK, so the point is that it’s an excuse to limit him as a villain later, BUT WHY DO THAT?! Haven’t we had ENOUGH of EGGMAN at this point? We NEED villains other than him as the focus, and even the freaking Mecha Sally Arc got that right when Ixis snapped out of this! If you wanna put him out of commission as a villain, can’t you have the heroes seal him away like last two times, like had actual basis in the continuity before? Can’t they use the Master Emerald to do it? It’s right here on the island!
Mogul then boasts that with the Master Emerald, his power will be enhanced, inching towards a sheet that looks like it’s covering the emerald, but now I’m wondering if it’s actually covering a fake as part of a scam because that’d be the predictable twist. By the way, HE’S PSYCHIC, so HOW is he not reading Rouge’s mind to realize this is a scam? Why’d he even come here?
You’d think a guy who was smart enough to have a whole Batman Gambit predicting Sally and Archy would figure out his illusions ahead of time so he could make off with the real Sword of Acorns fooling the heroes, you’d think that guy who thinks so far ahead would be smart enough to check Rouge to see if she was scamming him with his PSYCHIC powers! He’s usually kinda omniscient! AND he said he had an affinity for the Chaos Emeralds, but I guess if he literally had an Emerald radar in him, he would’ve increased his power a thousandfold way earlier than his first appearance, so fine.
The heroes then show up, and Mogul claims that while Ixis may have randomly lost his mind AND his elemental magic for, no reason whatsoever, he has SOMEHOW INDEED gained the power to shadow meld appearing anywhere before they can react to it- WOW, this issue is REALLY poorly-written! This is just plot hole central! People say SALLY had a strange direction taken with her character! But Ixis takes the CAKE!
What does shadow-melding even have to DO with fire, water, wind and earth? I could kinda understand if he had it all along, but him just gaining it makes even LESS SENSE, because why would him being inexplicably robbed of his magic lead to him getting a NEW power?
But they use REAL currency, dollars and coins, and Rings are rare, in Archie! This meta joke doesn’t work.
Charmingly enough the heroes are Genre Savvy enough to ASSUME that Ixis would appear right behind them, causing Bunnie to look bored and punch him behind her. It was THAT PREDICTABLE.
Fortunately Bunnie says Antoine was indeed given a plan to tie up the thugs with Sally, so at least they had a plan to actually RESTRAIN Bean and Bark this time! Mogul brags that he still possesses the full range of his Ixis magic when Ixis doesn’t for no reason, so he officially had NO reason to tell ADAM about Tails being the Chosen One when he could’ve just killed him by freezing or burning him.
And it’s just THEN when Sally drives into his head with the Marvelous Queen. How? Did she drive over a hill really fast, can it FLY? These villains are being defeated pathetically easily! This is Mammoth Mogul we’re talking about, and even without his Chaos Emerald, he just said he had elemental powers! LET HIM USE THEM!
He would’ve just attacked right away, not bragged until she’d do this! What’s wrong with writing a worthwhile action scene?! Flynn did remember this was an ACTION SERIES, RIGHT?! As if it wasn’t bad enough that ADAM beat Shadow effortlessly and Bunnie just spent like one panel as a sleeper agent where she did something?
Sally has enough Mary Sue accusations WITHOUT Flynn making her knock out Mammoth Mogul in one hit before he gets a chance to DO ANYTHING! Can you say Creator’s Pet? This is somehow even WORSE than the fight with Mogul in Twice Told Tails, one of the worst issues ever, because at least there, he did stuff and the heroes got to do some stuff with Tails flying into him, so they at least kind of earned their victory when he easily teleported away, compared to THIS! Where they just got a lucky break!
Was this really what the fans were looking forward to? This is the issue where he’s trying to clean up the plot thread he just created of Mogul being free and ” oops, I forgot to write an action scene with him, let’s have even Fang the Sniper be more of a threat! ” I don’t even remember how Bean and Bark got taken down, and I don’t remember seeing Fang get defeated either. What kind of an action series has the villains of the plot all get beaten offscreen?! That’s like, that’s like if a kid’s show had bad censorship instead of showing a fight!
And a powerful wizard like Mogul get knocked out in one hit?! Maybe if he didn’t waste comic space earlier, maybe if we didn’t have a back-up story, we could’ve had an actual fight scene with this guy instead of making the issue feel like filler when it wasn’t, purely because his defeat was too anticlimactic. Just like how Bollers wrote it, but somehow even worse.
And then Rouge predictably reveals that she had NEVER stolen the Master Emerald, showing that under the sheet was just a table with a green lamp under it! Hmm, a green lamp, but sadly it’s not a lava lamp. She explains that it was just a sting operation to lure some of the villains to her.
Sally naturally questions why she didn’t TELL HER about her plan in the FIRST place, Rouge insists for some reason that she works best alone, and THEN SAYS she didn’t do this for them at all! She did it to manipulate Knuckles into thinking she’s a good guy!
She says that she thinks Knuckles won’t be mad, for making him think that she stole the Master Emerald, because it got a bunch of villains arrested pathetically easily, and she thinks Knuckles is the type of guy who thinks the ends justify the means. And since we never see him scream at Rouge for this, I guess she’s right!
But still, you’d think he’d be a lot more apprehensive about it when he called Sally since he was the GUARDIAN of the Master Emerald! Rouge IS clever after all, so it makes sense that she could come to the right conclusion, but I think she just got lucky when she DID because that was uncharacteristically lenient of the guardian!
And as Antoine and Bunnie are adorably hugging, they ask Sonic and Sally to be the best man and maid of honor for their wedding as if that wouldn’t be painfully obvious already. And while Antoine’s saying, “ ma princess “ was grammatically correct, the word princess should’ve had an e at the end if he was using French anyways.
Sally adorably hugs Bunnie saying that she’s LONG overdue in congratulating her, and Bunnie forgives her because she knows they’ve had a lot on her mind lately. LATELY? By the way I love Bunnie’s design with the cowboy hat and stuff. It makes it more obvious that she’s Texan to take advantage of that and more importantly makes her design DISTINCT and MEMORABLE.
With her old design there were times where I couldn’t even remember offhand what her shirt LOOKED LIKE! At least with long hair she looks more like a girl! And the cowboy design makes her memorable! They’re gonna completely drop this in the reboot aren’t they?
Then we see Snively, wearing a smaller version of Eggman’s clothes that just isn’t his look as he’s less distinct-looking now, I-I dunno, maybe his green clothes were, destroyed? OK, I guess while Robotnik Prime had an identical past to Robo-Robotnik up to a certain point, that certain point was BEFORE the time that Robotnik yelled at Snively, “ how dare you wear the same uniform as me? Red’s not even your color! “ when he was trapped in the Void. Because HERE, Eggman is perfectly fine with Snively suddenly dressed up like him, when he was wearing green earlier so that made no sense.
He’s saying that Bean, Bark and Fang have probably been captured. Why isn’t Ian Flynn just calling Nack “ Fang, “ already? He’s a fan himself, he should know by now that nobody wants him to be called by that stupid, censored Western name!
Eggman explains that he was smart enough to assume that Master Emerald ploy was a trick, and hired them just to be certain, and yet he’s perfectly fine with putting minions to WASTE from sending them into a trap apparently! REALLY? He couldn’t SEND ROBOTS INSTEAD?! What a lame excuse to get Fang, Bean and Bark rounded up in one place so the heroes could arrest them faster!
If Bean and Bark’s contribution to the plot will be THAT forgettable that I don’t even remember what they DID, or how they were beaten, then there was literally no point to letting them walk scot-free in Issue 161 just to have them arrested HERE.
Eggman had no reason to buy Rouge’s scam, so he had no reason to send them, couldn’t they have been rounded up while doing a plan OTHER THAN THIS? What a rushed way to solve dangling plot threads. You don’t have to kill two birds in one stone if it doesn’t make sense! And why isn’t Snively calling Eggman out on wasting minions like an idiot?
Instead, Snively explains that the production of the Egg Fleet has been finished, and his project will be done right on time. The story ends with… uh, are those the underwater Freedom Fighters roboticized and flying through the sky or just airships that look like them? Because one of them looks like a metal version of the stingray that talked to Tails in the Tails Miniseries. It’s probably the latter.
If this is supposed to be the Egg Fleet it REALLY doesn’t LOOK LIKE IT, defeating the point of calling it that just for the purpose of a nostalgic reference! So really, it’s more like Flynn was too lazy to think up an entirely original name for the Egg Fleet here, although I do like it being called that.
With the main story finally over the next story has it turn out that a chao followed Sonic home, and his parents for some reason don’t know what a chao IS. Sonic explains to his parents that the other day, Rotor had picked up readings of magic around where the old Magic Ring Grotto used to be, even though that place had been sucked dry by Robotnik.
Tails, Sonic and Knuckles went there to check it out getting there with the Tornado-2, and they managed to find a Chao Garden in the process! Now I’ve got the horrible realization of, how many Chao Gardens do you think Robotnik stumbled upon and roboticized? They’re LUCKY that they weren’t found by anyone dangerous especially since they’re so weak that they pretty much HAVE to be pets to survive! How did these little creatures survive in the wild? Do they multiply like bunnies so it doesn’t MATTER that so many of them die to predators?
Tails says that these chao explain the high level of mystical energy since they’re all magical, after all Chaos was a mutated chao. I love that the characters think the chao are cute and wanna stay with them, showing a soft side.
You know what’s really lazy about this?! ALL the CHAO are drawn EXACTLY the fucking same! Why not have a Run Chao, Power Chao, Flying Chao, chao of different alignments?! Instead they all look exactly the same! That doesn’t come off as a true love letter to the chao system by Ian Flynn then! It could’ve been done a little bit as fanservice. Instead the chao make the chao system of Sonic World look good! Because at least in Sonic World you could have chao who weren’t just Neutral, even if they all look the same otherwise!
Oh we do see that the chao gain the traits of the one they’re exposed to the MOST, so Sonic’s chao becomes fast and spiny, and Tails’ chao starts flying. I guess instead of arbitrary Chaos Drives that are never seen again they just syphon magical power off their users. The problem is, what’s the point if they don’t look anything like the Run, Fly and Power Chao in the games when this is all just a game reference? And they don’t even have different color schemes! Just a different shape! And the Power Chao looks exactly like a normal chao when it’s clinging to Knuckles here!
Then we see the chao evolve, and again, it’s a Neutral Chao! So THAT makes no fucking SENSE! Because they spent all this time around HEROES! Unless it’s going off the SA1 chao system! Where you arbitrarily need arbitrary Hero and Dark Fruit to get Hero and Dark Chao! But that makes even LESS sense for the comic universe to go off of, nobody PREFERRED the SA1 chao system, so why go off THAT? I doubt Sonic, Tails and Knuckles are neutral in alignment!
It’s like the writer was TRYING to detail a harmless little short story where the heroes actually experience the Chao Garden, but because the artist didn’t BOTHER to look anything up on Google for five seconds, it FAILED at what it was trying to do! I mean, the chao don’t necessarily HAVE to look exactly like they did in the games. I’m FINE with that, as LONG as they at LEAST HAVE different varying color schemes for different types of chao! But they DON’T!
The story ends with Eggman showing up, making me wonder why he didn’t discover this place earlier, and it ends just as something interesting happened!
This issue was by Ian Flynn. The first story, well, didn’t draw me in as well as I expected. The villains were defeated really easily and not just the ones facing Sonic, which would’ve made sense! You know it’s bad when freaking Mammoth MOGUL gets knocked out in a single hit by Sally running into him with Fang’s vehicle! I mean, it does make sense, I guess, he’s just as vulnerable to being hit in the head as everyone ELSE is, but… it’s the principle of the matter! At least it tries to make up for Sally being knocked out from behind a few times. But it fails because of how insultingly anticlimactic the fight with Mogul was.
Ixis was turned into this insane rattlesnake man who doesn’t talk anymore, SOMEHOW LOST his elemental powers, and yet replaced them with the ability to turn into a shadow and use Shadow Sneak! But, uh… that Ass Pull ability was completely put to WASTE without ever taken advantage of! Well maybe it will be later, but, I have no reason to believe that now when every time he’s shown up under Flynn he’s just gotten a brand new power he only used once.
Sheesh and they say SALLY’s character got ruined! Did the fans really hate Ixis Naugus and this was done to him as karma by the writer?! I mean, he IS a one-dimensional generic bad guy jerk, but this is not how you write a badass wizard villain!
At the end of the Ixis Chase, we see him transform into every different element, and it was way cooler than this. But I guess Flynn thought it was okay to pull new powers out of his ass because Ixis already used every power we expect! But again, didn’t Superman have a problem with brand new powers as the plot demands? Wasn’t that why at one point nobody took him seriously? It’s not good with Ixis either!
It wouldn’t be so off-putting if he was turned INTO the snake he’s acting like, and it wouldn’t be so confusing if this happened to Mogul too! MOGUL lost his Chaos Emerald from his chest! Shouldn’t this be happening to him instead? There’s no proper explanation to why he’s like this! But even if they said ADAM cursed him with a Chaos Emerald of Mogul, that wouldn’t explain why he didn’t apply the same curse to Mogul!
The heroes lost a few IQ points easily buying that Rouge stole the Master Emerald, when I’m sure it wouldn’t be hard to just go to Angel Island and check to see if it’s crashed into the ocean! Wouldn’t they have received a transmission about it by now?! It was also BORING! But it was really the Ixis thing that REALLY made me think it was poorly written! It wouldn’t have been out of place in the so-called Dark Age of the comic!
I say it was so-called because I thought it was decent ENOUGH. Aside from the occasional bad art and when Penders replaced Bollers. At least it was written more logically than this! Post-Tossed in Space had a lot of bad stories and barely any great ones, but at least it didn’t make me nearly as angry.
And I was expecting a LOT more to come out of Fang wanting revenge on Sally in this issue! Mainly since I already heard about the future plot point where he tried to shoot Sally again AND I heard about the future plot point where Sally died and Sonic went back in time to save her. So I assumed the two happened at the same time naturally because Fang shoots her. But he just gets knocked out by Bunnie and Sally!
This was the laziest way to wrap up a bunch of plot threads and doing that just for the sake of it ISN’T GOOD if it’s done in a DISAPPOINTING WAY! And that’s the biggest problem with Flynn’s earliest writing, because this happens all the time. Only like 1 of the plot threads was resolved by Flynn well. It says something about the quality of this issue that I even hated it when I first read it, when I thought almost all the issues before it were alright.
The next story feels like a fanfiction about Sonic, Tails and Knuckles going to the Chao Garden, a generic and boring story that ANY fan could write, AND BETTER because the fan would write about them raising particular chao with particular names to go win Chao Races and Karate! And I mean it’s boring because all it’s really about is, here’s the chao life cycle! Let’s conveniently skip ahead really quick because in the actual game it takes HOURS in real life of waiting around in the Chao Garden for the chao to do ANY sort of AGING! Yeah we know about how chao work already.
The artist is what ruined this really, because he didn’t even take the extra two seconds on Google to find out what Run, Power and Flying Chao look like, and instead made all the chao colored exactly the same! And most insultingly of all they were all Neutral Chao! HOW?! You’d think a SONIC FAN, like Ian Flynn, would KNOW that they evolve into Hero Chao because Sonic, Tails and Knuckles are HEROES!
So it’s official, literally any other fan would do this story better!… Also… WHY don’t Sonic’s parents already know what a chao IS when they live on Mobius?! You’d think they’d be famous, although, maybe in Archie chao are just stuck on a very small part of the world? A-And why’d it take Eggman so long to find a Chao Garden?
This story is predictable, and BORING, and FAILS as a love letter to the Chao System because the art portrays the chao not only just inaccurately, but also as too indistinct from each other! I wouldn’t mind wrong color schemes if the Run, Fly and Power chao at least HAD different color schemes! But they don’t! And it ENDS just when we get to the interesting part!
Issue 174:
We start out with Uncle Chuck getting Sonic ready to be Antoine’s best man, and Sonic’s mother nags her son not to run because that could get his tuxedo all dusty, I guess from kicking up dust from the speed.
Sonic asks Tails if his OWN parents are that naggy, and Tails says, “ Worse! And that’s why I love ‘em! “ It makes sense that he’d appreciate it as a novelty if anything as he just GOT parents and sees their nagging as them showing how much they care about him and want what’s best for him. He’s not at the point where he’s tired of it yet. But since we barely see Tails’ parents at all, it kinda feels totally pointless to have them back if they’re not gonna regularly be hugging Tails and telling him they love him just as much as Sonic’s parents do.
After Sonic and Tails have brief joking interaction where Tails is complimented on how he looks in a tuxedo and Tails wishes he could’ve married Fiona in that tuxedo, we then see Antoine and the Chaotix naturally having pre-wedding day jiggers, I mean jitters.
Sonic is surprised that VECTOR is the one giving advice, whether Antoine wants it or not, and Knuckles says that Espio went on a mission alone since he’s arrogant, and will be back in time for the ceremony. This story’s feeling SO MUNDANE SO FAR! Like the Penders 25 Years Later arc! Thank god the Egg Fleet’s coming to make things interesting! Heh, I sound like Scourge, don’t it? “ It’s too peaceful, where’s the KA-BOOM and chaos? “ But it’s true, we need conflict in an action series!
We see Espio taking advantage of his invisibility (for two seconds) and climbing skills to sneak through Eggman’s city, and go through a ventilation shaft. Sonic really wants something to do, naturally being the type to get BORED EASY especially at a wedding, and after Rosie tells him to convince Julie-Su she looks good in a dress Sonic says, “ Let’s not ask for miracles here, “ probably because she’s a tomboy who hates ANY dress. I like having a character-establishing line like that for her again, like the “ she might like a date at a graveyard, “ joke.
Then Rosie decides to release Amy on him as a cruel joke wanting to keep the flower girl entertained before the ceremony. I like that they actually point out, “ Aw, Rosie, that was cruel! “ as Bunnie and Sally laugh. I thought Sally was Alicia Acorn at first because she’s wearing the beautiful tiara and that pretty dress and necklace, plus she has long hair, so the two basically look the same.
It’s actually lampshaded how, when Bunnie first showed up, SHE wanted to be SALLY’S hairstylist, and now Sally’s being a hairstylist to HER. Aw. They’ve come full circle! Sally and Bunnie have a sweet hug which they endearingly seem to enjoy and Rosie tells the two girls that she’s proud of them both, and Sally gets teased that she isn’t perfectly happy with being single.
After Espio finds some battle armor in Eggman’s base, it cuts away from the actually interesting thing happening to go back to more of the wedding. Well at least Espio was alone, so there would’ve been no interesting dialogue anyways.
WOW, Julie really DOESN’T look good in that dress, because it’s not a good color! The thing below her hips doesn’t look like a dress at all, more like she’s wearing a shirt and pants! Julie immediately says she doesn’t plan on getting married because that’d require her to dress up even MORE. You can tell she’s just a teenager.
And then she has an interesting revelation about the Dark Legion culture for once by revealing that the Dark Legion never HAD wedding ceremonies, which sounds like bullshit to me! And it IS, because why did Julie’s father say, “ I do, “ when marrying her mother in Sonic Super Special 11, then? And there’s no text blurb revealing that she’s just lying.
It’s nice to see Sonic and Sally bickering from the fact that they’re nothing alike. This doesn’t happen nearly enough. Sally doesn’t appreciate Sonic because he waited until the last second and calls him “ indolent, “ which FORCED me to look it up, and find out it means lazy. SONIC, LAZY?! Since WHEN?! And Sonic satisfyingly calls her out on being, and I quote, an “ obsessive compulsive worrywart. “ I’m IMPRESSED he actually SAID that and recognizes it! Why did these two ever get together again? They have nothing in common!
And then Sonic calls her a prude. OKAY! I’m sure that’s TRUE! She’s an uptight honor-bound princess and all, which is why I don’t see why people call her a tomboy because she doesn’t go NEARLY far ENOUGH with that, she always seemed really princess-like to ME. But the word prude?! It’s kinda, surprising to hear that in a Sonic comic.
With the king in a wheelchair because of the poison’s lingering effects, he and his wife talk about how they used to tease each other like that. And when Sally says they’re not teasing, Sonic naturally says, “ Well I am. It’s borderline treason otherwise. “ Good point! She IS ROYALTY after all! Elias says that the crown thankfully recognizes Sonic’s service, and he’s almost like family to them!
Then Tails’ parents show up with Rosemary BOWING to Elias and Elias thanking Amadeus for leading the honor guard for the ceremony, and Amadeus thanking Elias before the wedding.
And despite Rosemary’s bowing and the fact that Amadeus was nothing but HAPPY TO SEE Elias for the first time and complimented how he ran Knothole, after Elias walks away Amadeus promptly CONCERNS ME by saying, “ Soon you won’t have much more power than that, anyway, “ and Tails is rightfully creeped out. Even in the context of Flynn’s stuff, where did this COME FROM?
While I get what he’s GOING FOR, as absolute monarchy is a stupid dated concept just asking for corrupt rulers, and the king did give stupid orders like trust Geoffrey more than Sonic disbanding the Freedom Fighters, but Elias is FINE, he doesn’t DESERVE to have his powers usurped, and Amadeus being all resentful plotting against him comes out of complete nowhere!
Tails gives his mother an updated attendance list, is given a vague explanation by his dad that’s all sugar-coated about what he meant by that comment, and says that Espio’s the one guy missing from the attendance list.
Espio learns the truth of Eggman’s plan, and despite his training he panics and gets spotted, WHY didn’t he have his invisibility on?! Does it, like, cost so much energy that he CAN’T use it for too long?! ‘Cause, I never had a limit on it in Sonic Heroes! And since Flynn wants things to be exactly like the games, this just makes it even MORE confusing!
Besides, I think if he showed up at Knothole and warned people, they wouldn’t have time anyway because the Egg Fleet was already on its way! Sure, people would be evacuated, so the stakes wouldn’t be nearly as high, but Rotor wouldn’t have time to build a force field generator already and save Knothole from being destroyed. Like an actually competent engineer would’ve long since done by this point after Sonic discovered Sandblast City!
We cut away from that to see Bunnie and Antoine boringly getting married with generic dialogue from Elias as Sally looks depressed at not getting married herself. Espio runs from some lasers and, wait did he just phase through a wall?! He’s supposed to have invisibility, not intangibility! At least it’s much more acceptable HIM having it than SONIC!
But there’s NO EXCUSE for him turning off his invisibility right after he phases through that wall! This is supposed to be a STEALTH MISSION! I’d think that a chameleon would do much better than this! WORST CHAMELEON EVER! All of his problems here are forced!
And after Bunnie and Antoine get married, Espio looks sympathetically afraid of Eggman and says that the heroes will come and rescue him from the fate he should’ve avoided effortlessly by phasing through everything in the base with his intangibility power to escape just fine.
And he’s taunted as he’s sprayed with green goop that he hadn’t read the report clearly, and the story ends with Eggman with a green-looking metallic arm, reminding me of when he was an android and therefore more of an actual threat for more than just one issue even WITHOUT hiding behind his machines! WHY doesn’t he just make himself a CYBORG if he hates his weak human body so much? Even Robotnik Prime had a cyborg arm and cyborg ears!
GOOD, it’s FINALLY over! At least the character interactions are unique to the characters themselves with their unique histories with them reminiscing about their pasts, but you could LITERALLY replace the entire cast with generic nobodies with the same chemistry and have the exact same plot for the wedding, and it still feels WAY too MUNDANE to the point of reminding me very heavily of the 25 Years Later Penders arc, where Julie and Lien-Da were generic moms.
And Espio’s escapades are too vague with no real dialogue for me to make up for that, we just cut away and then cut back to him so it’s hard to really follow. I guess that’s my summary right now! This is an action series you guys! I’m glad Antoine got married! There were heartwarming moments, but it was still boring! It was about as exciting as you’d expect a wedding to be!
In the next story which actually has me INTERESTED, Eggman is very disappointed to learn that there’s no Rings here for him to drill through, and he just found a Chao Garden. But he doesn’t proceed to kidnap the chao to use them for their chaos energy thanks to his Egg Grapes, because that’d be smart and creative writing. Making even Sonic Rivals 2 look better-written here.
Of course he tries to settle for pointless destruction instead since he’s a one-dimensional psycho and the heroes fight his machine off, with Tails throwing Sonic in spindash form at the machine, and then Knuckles and the chao toss the machine. Tails flies up to the machine and opens it up conveniently, and uses his technology wiring skills. Wait what did he do with it exactly?
After he gets the signal, Sonic spindashes off the cliff and Knuckles makes him ricochet off the machine he was holding up. That’s actually a pretty creative way of taking down the villain! But that has nothing to do with what Tails’ work with it was building up. It just looks like Sonic’s spindash killed the airship.
OH, GOD, what TERRIBLE DIALOGUE! Just look at this panel!… Why are Sonic and Knuckles calling each other “ bad “ as a compliment anyways?! They’re talking like GANGSTERS! And I wouldn’t even expect this kind of shit dialogue from their evil TWINS because their evil twins would know how LAME this sounds! This is forced comedy dialogue I’d expect from Sonic Boom! This took me out of it just as much! It’s possibly the most cringeworthy dialogue in the comic! I hope the reboot and IDW isn’t full of this! I heard the reboot was nothing but bad jokes.
Tails is spared the INDIGNITY of all this and simply points out as The Only Sane Man that the Chao Garden still got destroyed, causing Sonic to relocate all of the chao who fortunately managed to survive Eggman’s attack, to the Lake of Rings. It would make a good Chao Garden! W-Wait a minute… nothing, nothing’s gonna happen to the Lake of Rings to DESTROY IT and everything in it before Nicole could find these chao, right? RIGHT?…
The story ends with Jules spending a little too much time attached to an Omochao because it was roboticized just like he was, making me wonder why it’s not working for Eggman, and why the Bem didn’t deroboticize it! If that’s supposed to be the first appearance of Omochao then one, why aren’t his eyes orange, and two, where’s the origin story for why he was built? It makes sense only at a surface level from meta logic!
So that was the second story. This was much more interesting than the first one in the arc. If only because of how creatively all three characters worked together to beat Eggman’s airship, and how the Chao Garden STILL got DESTROYED in a twist that still managed a happy ending! Well… is it always gonna be happy?
It’s sad when the pointless backup story is more interesting and enjoyable than the pointless mundanity of the main story! Where Espio gets kidnapped way too easily. You know, Espio finding out about it would’ve been more impactful if we weren’t constantly told about the Egg Fleet plan against Knothole BEFOREHAND. The horrible dialogue in one panel is the only stand-out bad part to me.
Free Comic Book Day Issue 1:
We start out with Sonic as a captive of Eggman, shackled in every way possible, but to IMMEDIATELY destroy half the tension Sonic’s smug being confident that he’ll be out of here in no time because he’s been caught by him before. Granted it’s realistic for someone to get overconfident after ALL the times he’s fought Eggman and his robots and hasn’t even had to go to the hospital for it. So it makes sense in-universe but it kinda hurts the tension to have him not take serious situations seriously, just because he’s a little too Genre Savvy!
He’s SO Genre Savvy that, the idea that Eggman would kill him, doesn’t even cross his mind, because, since when has Eggman been smart enough to just try to kill him, when he’s completely at his mercy? He would’ve won by now if he was like that. That’s ANOTHER way that Eggman’s being an idiot here! Apparently Eggman thinks it would be too easy and unsatisfying even though he still earned capturing Sonic.
Sonic then belittles Eggman’s victory as he points out that Metal Sonic did all the work in capturing him. So maybe THAT’S why Eggman won’t find just shooting him satisfying. It makes sense that the one thing that could capture Sonic would be something as fast as Metal Sonic. It’d sneak up on him and grab him and fly away. So it was explained the best it could be. Eggman holds a tiny wrench and says that if Sonic disapproves of him using a robot he’ll use the real thing instead. Is he talking about Sonic?
Sally has her long hair still, which is good. Tracy Yardley didn’t do nearly as good of a job at drawing her with long hair as the OTHER artists did, though. It didn’t, it didn’t do the long-haired Sally justice. It’s just something that I’ve noticed. It’s a shame it turned game purists against the idea because I prefer her that way. Her normal hairstyle, I can NEVER REMEMBER what it looks like, and that’s a problem.
She tells her friends that they still have time to mount a rescue mission for Sonic. She’s reminding me of when Sonic turned intangible from an antimatter machine and she organized a disastrous mission to try to avenge him, making her look flawed. This would probably go WELL though, unless Sonic breaks out by himself for no logical reason, because how ELSE would Sonic escape?
She orders Rotor to take Nicole and monitor her during the mission. Why do they BOTH need to do it?… This is a job for just one person! Most of the times Rotor was useful it was thanks to his inventions. To the point where it was shocking just how useful he WAS! I’m talking over 60 times here! And it was very rare that he was actually useful on field missions being physically active…
So it’s not really a problem that Flynn made him stick to retiring from field missions because the difference is barely even noticeable. Not helping out with his inventions or making any would be another thing ENTIRELY… So Sally saddles Rotor and Nicole with the useless jobs, because they can’t fight on the field missions well no matter HOW big Rotor looks. That’s smart of her to do! She’s being subtle by… by not not using them at all and annoying them, but still assigning them to the pointless stuff.
Then she tells Antoine and Bunnie that they’ll be providing offensive support. I can understand putting Bunnie on the job but why ANTOINE? And he just says yes looking like he’s in a bad mood. He’s been quiet and in a bad mood ever since he came back from Anti Mobius.
Tails looks insecure wondering if he’ll be asked to help, and Sally says that she and him will break into Eggman’s lab because Sonic – oh for FUCK’S SAKE, why did he break out?! That makes the entire last page WORTHLESS FILLER THEN because Sally never got to carry out her plan! Isn’t it better to have a whole bunch of characters useful instead of just one?
Oh thank god! Eggman saying he was going to use the real thing and showing a wrench to Sonic, that actually WAS FORESHADOWING because, it looks like a Sonic infiltrator was made because Sonic immediately goes to spindash at all of his friends. OK, Phew! Good writing for a change! It’s not like Sonic is just allowed to break out on his OWN… Let’s just say I already have experience with Sonic breaking free on his own way too easily!
The Sonic infiltrator apologizes to Sally for some reason while smirking confusingly, and says that his next target is the king, I-I wonder if he’s apologizing to her sarcastically to be ironic. Wait, why is he ONLY APOLOGIZING TO SALLY?! Why not TAILS, TOO? That’s kinda Creator’s Pet for her! That’s the third time Flynn! Y’know, at least under Bollers I found her interesting and sympathetic. With Flynn, I don’t feel she has much presence and she’s all resentful of Fiona.
And Sally says that she’ll need the one guy who could stop him. I’m glad none of Sonic’s friends are saying that he’s being a traitor. They’re not acting all betrayed and gullible after ALL of the experience they’ve had with infiltrator robots… They’re not gonna do THAT are they? Because trust me this kind of plot can get depressing for Sonic VERY QUICK.
Eggman tells Sonic that he’s under HIS control now, so there’s no more giving away his plans like telling Sally he’s going to the king. Wait WHAT?! It’s NOT an Eggman robot?! So instead of having the remotely logical explanation that had actual basis in the comic continuity BEFORE Flynn, instead it’s Sonic HIMSELF! And he can be controlled with a Genesis controller for no reason at all. Just because he has a thing in his ear! All while he’s conscious. So he was able to warn the heroes he was going to the king but WASN’T able to explain to them what was really going on right away! HUH?…
I get that this is a reference to the fact that you can control Sonic with the controller in the games, which is why I kinda love this idea, but “ because video games “ doesn’t make this make more sense than, a Sonic infiltrator would!… He has Sonic captured in his base, or at least he DID! He has his DNA! And I don’t buy that he wouldn’t know how to make an infiltrator robot, because Robotnik already did! He had a whole infiltrator factory because of Tommy! And Sonic’s robot was in it! WHY would he stop making those just because OTHER infiltrators were destroyed?!
This is, so convoluted! And I BET that Flynn only thought it was simply a BRILLIANT IDEA because it wasn’t what you’d EXPECT. And I can understand that mentality, but SERIOUSLY! “ Keep it simple, stupid! “ That’s a phrase for a reason!… It just makes Eggman look like an idiot, again!
Did Eggman use a magic wand to brainwash his body, cast a spell on him to use a curse to forcibly control him?! He could be controlling him AFTER that WITH the controller! Remember the enchantress who controlled Knuckles’ body and not his mind? That would’ve made more senses and use a different villain, the story could take place BEFORE Connery killed her!
THIS would make more sense if there was both science and magic, because taking over someone’s body with a controller without them being roboticized at all without them even having a roboticized BRAIN?! That’s not, something that could logically be achieved with science!…
But sadly Flynn MADE UP the idea that Eggman hates magic and would refuse to use it, even though he loves using Chaos Emeralds to power his machines!… AoStH literally has Robotnik say, “ Science, bah! Magic is where it’s at! “ And that made more sense because of how USEFUL magic WAS to him! He was literally transforming buildings with his wand!… Not liking magic is objectively stupid of him!
Sonic says he’ll do everything he can to stop Eggman when he has no control over his body at all aside from the ability to talk, and Vector who’s with the rest of the Chaotix, says that they’ll do everything they can to stop him, fortunately saying that all as a response to what Sonic said. I was taken out of it for a minute there because I thought he only echoed Sonic’s line back to him out of coincidence as a meta joke…
So does this mean the Chaotix know what’s going on with Sonic?… They better, because they heard what he said, because otherwise they would be acting like they’ve turned against him completely and this panel immediately gave me an STC Online flashback!
Sonic tells them all that while they’re strong, they’re not stronger than the Freedom Fighters. I was thinking that this issue was just an excuse to give Sonic a fun fight scene with his friends but sadly it’s being handled in the LAMEST way POSSIBLE, making it completely pointless.
Sonic’s just effortlessly beating them with just a SPINDASH and PUNCHES without even TRYING! Or rather Eggman is while controlling him, same thing really. And ALL THEY’RE doing is trying to punch HIM instead of using cool attacks! At least Julie has a ray gun she’s firing, and he kicks it away to fight in a more interesting way for a change.
The, the point is, these guys aren’t showing off how capable they can be in a fight, which destroys the whole appeal of the fight! Very recently at this point, I had uploaded the issue of Fleetway where Knuckles fought the Chaotix…. And that fight was handled much better, because each member of the Chaotix got to do their own unique thing and show off!… They’re not just punching bags, who punch!…
Sonic apologizes to them as I seriously wonder why the fuck Eggman’s letting Sonic talk at ALL, instead of controlling his MOUTH while he’s at it!… I was WAITING for a serious problem with the story! And I finally ran into one! Eggman might have been able to use this to ruin Sonic’s reputation by forcing him to talk as if he was betraying his friends!
It makes him look like an IDIOT that he didn’t do that, and it’s bad enough he was stupid enough to wait an eternity to use the Egg Fleet on Knothole! But of course THAT would have long-term consequences past this issue, and that wouldn’t be remotely fair to the people who didn’t get to read this issue because nobody BOTHERED to upload it to Youtube!
Sonic says that Knuckles was apparently the only one who can stop him, and Knuckles asks, “ You were expecting maybe Shadow? “ but he says it like he’s being SNARKY with it! That kinda pisses me off because he’s exactly what I was EXPECTING, because not only is Shadow a hedgehog too and thus he comes to mind a lot faster as a rival contrast to Sonic, not only is HE actually fast enough to keep up with Sonic and thus fight him, but Shadow’s WAY more powerful than KNUCKLES!
He has Chaos CONTROL! He could just freeze him in place like Silver and win IMMEDIATELY, which is actually why it’s a good thing that he’s not in this story because it’d make the fight scene even LAMER than it already WAS, it’d be way too easy!
Even if he DIDN’T use Chaos Control, for some stupid reason, he’d still just spindash and attack him, like Sonic was made to attack the Chaotix, because Chaos Blast would be too dangerous to Sonic’s well-being… So while it is more balanced to have Sonic fight Knuckles instead of Shadow, and I get that it calls back to all the times they’ve fought in the GAMES, I really hate that line of his because it’s making fun of me for logically assuming that it wouldn’t be HIM! Sure, he was just fighting the Chaotix, but that doesn’t mean Shadow can’t be here too!
There’s a serious Continuity Error, what a surprise, because Knuckles asks Sonic if he forgot about ” all the times ” he kicked him off Angel Island… which add up to literally zero!… I CERTAINLY can’t think of any time he did that LITERALLY, that would KILL him! I think he would just force him to go back to the Tornado! And I don’t remember ANY times he forced Sonic to leave his island against his will!
From what I remember, any time Sonic left he was already done doing what he was doing there! I mean, there WAS one time where he asked Knuckles for his Emerald and he said no, and Sonic left him. But Knuckles didn’t literally force him to leave his island by kicking him off it or throwing him at the plane! And I recently rewatched all of my reviews up to Issue 59 at least the parts that involved the Freedom Fighters other than Sonic so I could type down all the times they were useful for a blog post, so I kind of have Archie’s continuity fresh in my mind at this point!
I’m STILL wondering if I’m forgetting something, but yeah, either Knuckles is just referencing something that happened OFFSCREEN a lot, which is sloppy of a comic book to do since they’re so famous for continuity and it’s just gonna CONFUSE people, OR even SLOPPIER, Flynn flat-out forgot that this kinda thing never happened onscreen! “ Did you forget the retcon I’m making just now? I always wrote the comic, don’t ‘cha know? “
Sonic tells Knuckles that Eggman’s controlling him with an ear piece. For fuck’s sake, Eggman! The MINUTE he said that line, “ Don’t you dare tell him! “ his credibility just fell apart here! Not that he had any to begin with at this point since he could’ve sent the Egg Fleet against Knothole as late as Issue 167 and didn’t. And he could’ve activated the nanites in Issue 160 and he didn’t.
Again, why the hell did he let Sonic KEEP the ability to TALK?! And WHY did he make it possible to hear Eggman’s voice through that thing and immediately give the fame away? He could’ve RUINED Sonic’s reputation! He was ALMOST THERE!
Knuckles and Sonic fight basically the way you’d expect. But without Knuckles using his drilling into the earth power or throwing Thunder Arrows at him. Eh, I’ve seen better. In Sonic Underground of all things. I like that Sonic throws Knux while spinning in a tiny tornado, at least. But this is a comic book, so action scenes can’t be as good as they could be without motion anyways…
Eggman complains that the controls for Sonic are horrendous and he should’ve spent more in time in development. As usual, I think of in-universe logic FIRST, and the first thing I THOUGHT, was that Eggman had NO PROBLEM controlling Sonic up to this point! Sonic’s fighting really well, except for the part where he’s not creating a giant tornado with his super speed, to send his opponents away from him, which would’ve won the fight with Knuckles.
AND he’s not turning intangible or invisible either. Then I realized it was JUST a META joke based on the fact that the controls for the Modern Sonic games suck. But in-universe, the joke falls apart! Eggman’s CLEARLY not having any trouble controlling his body aside from mouth movements!
Snively’s really being antagonistic to him here! It’s really JARRING for me to SEE, because he’s NEVER been like this to him before! Compare HIM to Eggman’s other lackeys throughout the franchise and NONE of them are this openly, “ just begging him to kill them or imprison them or, beat them up! “ He has the gall to nag Eggman that he should’ve spent more time building robots and making a REAL plan. WHAT? Waste more time building Mooks that’ll die in two seconds?… And this clearly IS a real plan! For ONCE at that!
He does have a point in that Eggman’s been extremely inactive recently, especially compared to Robotnik who used to have a plan like every story. He should’ve said building GIANT robots to create the impression that they were tougher than badniks. He’s taking control of an overpowered sonic speed hedgehog, to use his abilities against people! What about that plan, isn’t, how is that not a real plan?!…
Eggman naturally points this out to Snively, but if the writer knew this he shouldn’t have written this into the comic in the first place because Snively has no reason to think his plan is stupid at all! H-He’s not just playing games!…
He nags Eggman about wasting his time for no particular reason! I get that he’s actually just stressed out because he hates working for Eggman after the times he used to and he’s really sick of it by now, so he’s just taking any excuse to lash out at him! But he’s totally wrong here! And logically Eggman should be punishing him for this! This is totally unrealistic of Eggman! Not to mention that in Issue 173, JUST TWO ISSUES AGO, he was fine with him and didn’t call him an idiot at the perfect opportunity!
Snively complains about always being blamed when Eggman’s plans fail, even when it’s not his fault, and decides to make a move trying to take over the empire, by taking control of Metal Sonic. He’s arrogant to think that he’d get away with that. Eggman’s alive after this issue, so it’s a foregone conclusion that he’s not gonna use Metal Sonic to kill him. Like would be the remotely smart thing to do that’s the first thing that comes to mind, if he’s able to completely take control of Metal Sonic that easily.
Sadly, instead of the plot being made more exciting and interesting, instead Metal Sonic grabs Snively and intimidates him and Eggman reminds him that all of the robots he has are programmed to be loyal to EGGMAN. So Reality Ensues there. Even though Snively wanted to reprogram it, the robot realized what he was doing and tried to stop him…
It’s a SHAME, I would’ve preferred if Snively SUCCEEDED with this, even if he’s not a likable character in the SLIGHTEST – as if Archie Eggman IS. Archie Eggman is just not a character I’ve been endeared to at ALL, ESPECIALLY after the Mecha Sally Arc!… He’s not nearly as entertaining as he could be, and I’m just TIRED of him! Remember how people hated 06 Eggman? It wasn’t just his design, it was also how serious and lifeless he could be and this is the same problem! Only worse because he’s an IDIOT, TOO!
At least it’s sweet of him to pet Metal Sonic when he doesn’t have to. It turns out Eggman’s been aware of Snively’s overwriting programming… He doesn’t reveal HOW he knows about that, though! Did CAMERAS catch him? Did he find the computer files in Snively’s private account?! He just knows stuff for no reason!
I think I get how he thought he could reprogram Metal without having him plugged into a computer; he had the DEVICE in his hand have overwriting code in it like a VIRUS. That’s gotta be how Nicole does stuff like activate self-destruct programs when plugged into stuff, or hack…
He tells Snively to pull the plug on all his treasonous projects and he says that he sent Sonic to auto-brawl, because the situation might need his personal touch. Aw, I feel awful for him, this is oddly relatable! Why’d he ever have to get CAUGHT?! So maybe THAT’S why Snively was written to go join Eggman again despite CLEARLY HATING WORKING for him, because his whole plan was to overthrow Eggman for HIMSELF so working for him would only happen for a LITTLE WHILE. And then Eggman thought ahead and kept him from doing that.
So he got stuck with Eggman, as far as HE THINKS, because he already left Knothole to go be with him, and Knuckles already fought him in the mecha, so the Brain Trust might not want him back. I would think that they’d forgive him if he warned them about Eggman’s latest plan against Knothole, which he could actually do if he called them like Eggman called Freedom HQ in Issue 161 just fine, and then Rotor could make a force field generator to protect Knothole afterwards.
Okay, but him going back to Eggman was still EXTREMELY PREDICTABLE and the LAZY route compared to what BOLLERS had in store for him! It’s kinda tragic or at least it would be tragic, if Snively had actually become a HERO in alignment, and was only joining him to overthrow him easier. Like the HEROES wanna overthrow him! Why WOULDN’T Snively think this was the right thing to do?!
The only PROBLEM is that Snively wants the power for HIMSELF, and that’s the only thing that separates him from the Freedom Fighters and means he can’t really be one. And you know, I don’t think this is the kind of thing about Snively that should’ve been constrained to a Free Comic Book Day Special that not everyone’s guaranteed to READ, that nobody bothered to upload to Youtube! I mean, I’m sure the people following the comic at the time had this issue just fine, but still, this is not an important enough issue that this explanation for Snively’s Derailment belongs in it.
Sonic tells Knuckles to stop him so Rotor can fish the thing out of his ear, and he also tells him to get Tails to build a jamming system. But Knuckles doesn’t care about taking his suggestions and would RATHER continue the FIGHT because he’s a violent hothead now… because he’s a violent hothead now… Thanks Flynn. Sure, let’s just reverse his Character Development COMPLETELY!
It’s not like even Penders wrote him as being calm and reasonable more often than not or anything. In the comic, he only treated Sonic like this when he first KNEW HIM. But by the time of Issue 50, he eased up on him, and they were actually pretty good friends!…
But NOW Knuckles wants to beat him up all of a sudden when he did nothing to deserve it! Remember, Sonic once said under Bollers that he was weak as a kitten and good for nothing, and Knuckles didn’t start a fight with him over THAT!
Tails bursts through the wall, or flies through a convenient hole in the wall, and kicks Sonic while apologizing to him. But he looks serious instead of apologetic. The art is TERRIBLE because it doesn’t have the GUTS to show his foot colliding with his head! Instead it just shows a stupid yellow light bouncing OFF his head which is really LAME-looking! They had no problem showing Sonic spindashing into people which should’ve cut them from the sharp spines and injured them by the way.
Knuckles punches him so he flies up into the air and crashes into the carpet and Sally calls him out on how he nearly took his head off from that, which is just what Penders made Sonic say he nearly did to Sally one time. But it turns out Knuckles’ plan worked! KNUCKLES’ plan for a change! That’s at least a nice change of pace, because the fight with Sonic broke the controlling device in his ear! They shake hands with Sonic calling his plan brilliant and thanking him.
Then Eggman threatens the heroes with Metal Sonic, saying that he plans to take control of them all with his ear piece devices, which wouldn’t be a perfect replacement for roboticization of people because he’d only be able to control a few people at a time. He could still put them on auto-brawl, but REALLY, if he wants the best result, he’d pretty much have to assign people to control the OTHER controllers.
But yeah, but, auto-brawl, that IS a helpful thing for him to have. Eggman says that he thinks they’re all battle-weary, which Sonic clearly showed he was because of how bad a headache he has at this point and how dazed he was standing up!
But despite that, the predictable happens, because instead of the comic having the guts to have the heroes have a REAL CHALLENGE against Metal Sonic, instead they all spindash Metal Sonic to death in one panel with no effort at all… They must have run out of comic space! But if Flynn had just cut out the part where Eggman and Snively were interacting, or at least cut out the first page of it which was worthless filler, they would’ve had MORE than enough space to have a satisfying fight scene!
And sadly this isn’t the only time Metal Sonic will fail to deliver on an awesome ending or anything, which would’ve been a proper climatic ending to an action story, rather than just, Sonic get free from one punch. I know that Sonic’s outnumbering Metal Sonic and he’s fast, but still, Metal should be made of tougher metal than that.
Eggman takes off, Tails apologizes to Sonic for being rough on him with a smile and Sonic ruffles his hair forgiving him. And yet they viciously fight later on. Sonic thanks his friends in an overly saccharine attempt at a heartwarming moment that really doesn’t suit him as a character.
He’s SUPPOSED to be an ANTI-HERO, he wouldn’t be the TYPE to talk like such a SOFTIE! Gimme a BUCKET! I probably got too used to OTHERS versions of Sonic that actually have a BACKBONE! Like Fleetway’s. Here, Sonic might as well end up saying, “ ‘Cause WE’RE Sonic heroes! “ This is the bland Nice Guy Archie Sonic we’re talking about! No edge involved!
Sonic lampshades that Knuckles was enjoying fighting with him TOO much… Maybe from jealousy of Sonic, or he’s just tired of his ego. You would think TAILS would be the better suit for that role at this point in the comic because he’s still mad at him for dating Fiona, and all Knuckles ever did was merely punch Sonic, so Tails could’ve done that just as well without reversing Knuckles’ Character Development on their friendship. This is VERY Out of Character for Knuckles! Just LOOK AT HIM! Since when would he deny this?!
Eggman ends the issue by planning to send the Egg Fleet to Knothole with a button press to burn it down. And Snively looks unhappy and STAMMERS at the idea when he CLEARLY ENJOYS attacking the base later on! This is a convenient way to tell me EXACTLY when the story is taking place so I know where to put it in my playlist. It’s right before Issue 175.
This issue was by Ian Flynn, and had the convoluted idea that rather than Sonic being held in Eggman’s base and replaced with an infiltrator, instead, Eggman starts controlling him with a controller thanks to an ear piece he put in his ear, which is at least close to his brain so whatever, probably sending some overriding electricity signals to him. Eggman really missed the perfect opportunity!
He also let Sonic TALK so he could try to EXPLAIN HIMSELF!… though for no reason at ALL, he only tried to explain himself properly to KNUCKLES. So it’s super convenient that we didn’t have to see his friends calling him a traitor for hurting them when they had no way of knowing what was going on, though Sonic explaining himself would be pointless because Knuckles could’ve freed him from the ear piece ANYWAYS just by attacking them.
It was a twist that his plan actually WORKED, considering that Sonic made OTHER suggestions. But no, can’t let Rotor be useful! TAILS WAS useful though because he kicked Sonic and stunned him so that Knuckles would have the time to give him the final blow.
While it was a menacing plan of Eggman’s and there’s no logical reason he shouldn’t make MORE of these EAR PIECES and keep on trying to use them, Eggman really missed the perfect opportunity to ruin Sonic’s reputation because he carried out entirely the wrong plan! Snively didn’t point this out! He just, arbitrarily called his plan stupid with no explanation for it! And all he did when he was yelling at Eggman was make me wonder how he was getting away with it! If Eggman’s being shown as intimidating HERE, then what’s stopping him from PUNCHING Snively? Fleetway Robotnik does that no problem!
I like that we see that Snively wanted to take control of Eggman’s robots to take control of his empire. It explains why he joined him again when he hates him and is clearly fed up with him already. But it would’ve been a lot better if, well first of all he succeeded, but it would’ve been better if it was always clear that his plan to overthrow him this way was the ONLY REASON he joined Eggman again despite remembering what a bad boss he was. I mean why did he wait so long to join Eggman with this plan that Eggman had to go up to him HIMSELF to talk him INTO it?
He HAD to have been staying away from him on PURPOSE, if he didn’t go back to him right away! Maybe it was that he had every reason to think Eggman just wanted to punish him, because that’s how it WAS before Flynn showed up. Eggman just said he wanted Snively to suffer. Sure, being with Eggman is also a punishment, but Eggman could do much worse, like killing him.
Ultimately the fight scenes were just disappointing. It does make sense that Sonic would just spindash and win since he’s so fast and powerful after all and they’d have NO CHANCE in the SLIGHTEST against him. But then what’s the point of having the Chaotix try to fight Sonic, if the fight scene’s gonna be so LAME?! The only one who got a proper fight scene with him was KNUCKLES! Who isn’t nearly as fast as Sonic by the way!
And, that was IT, because once Metal Sonic showed up, instead of there being a proper action scene where he was a big threat, the heroes just spindash at him all at once and blow him up in one panel! And this is supposed to be a super intimidating robot?! Snively’s scared of THIS?! If the last few pages weren’t wasted on PADDED JUNK, we could’ve had a proper climatic ending to the STORY! Something that the Sonic X comic does better than this! Instead of Tails and Knuckles saving Sonic in just one attack each!
The story was alright, I did love the idea that Eggman was controlling Sonic as a video game character in an attempt to assassinate the king. Remember THAT was his plan, Snively. It just got horribly sidetracked because Sonic’s friends came to stop him. But since Eggman had Sonic IN HIS BASE, HIM not using his DNA to make an infiltrator robot was REALLY STUPID! He could’ve made a WHOLE SERIES’ worth of them, which goes to show how overpowered the infiltrator concept is and thus how stupid the villains are to not use it as much as they can! And it’s not just an idea for Archie, either!
And since Flynn turned the king into a senile fool who wanted to arrest the city and then he got really sad and stuff, maybe it’d be better if he WAS killed off by a controlled Sonic here. At least that would’ve spared him the Character Derailment, AND it would’ve spared us the royalty being overthrown with the excuse that Elias was just a puppet for him. And the king did make some huge mistakes earlier, so it’s not like it would’ve been something he didn’t deserve at all.
Issue 175:
We start out with Vector and Mighty playing video games, as someone expresses concern that they should go look for Espio, with Julie saying that Espio would be mad at him if they DID go looking because he’d feel insulted. Also she randomly has blue hair at the top of her head now, which is weird, but some of it goes in front of her eyes like bangs, which I don’t like. It looks out of place, she should just have a hat.
Rouge says manipulatively that she won’t doubt a guardian’s intuition and she and him could go look for Espio, getting Julie all jealous. This love triangle is so pointless. Hey, how is this forgivable but not Sonic, Mina and Sally? Then Sally and Sonic talk about how much better the heroes’ whole situation is than it was in, say, the beginning of the comic, obviously going for some irony since we KNOW Eggman’s planning something big.
As Sonic wonders if Tails is keeping something from him, as if it isn’t bad enough that he did it BEFORE keeping Fiona’s secret, Tails asks Nicole if she’s alright because she’s running slow, and Nicole decides to run a diagnostic believing she’s fine somehow. Tails says that’s a good idea because Snively might have sabotaged her before leaving just to be a dick– he’d have to wipe her memory of that event TOO to keep her from knowing about it though, and then I’d have to question why the fuck he didn’t wipe ALL her memories if he had access to her memory banks though. So that was dumb.
Rotor says that it’s been a rough couple weeks for him, and says that Tails and Sonic have been kind of at odds AFTER the Fiona and Tommy thing. AFTER? You’d think that would’ve been completely RESOLVED, he’s not dating Fiona anymore! And he already said, “ I hate you, “ when he first started dating her. And if Sonic DID betray him by doing that, then Tails evened it out because HE kinda betrayed SONIC by not telling him Fiona was cheating on him the minute he found out, and getting him to break up with her before Issue 172! So they’re even! Tails should be feeling guilty and so they could be even.
Tails briefly shows insecurity and then Nicole warns them that the system’s compromised and they’re under attack, and RIGHT AWAY the rooftop of the base gets DESTROYED by a mecha piloted by Snively! If the base was actually HIDDEN underground below a stump like it SHOULD BE, this wouldn’t have happened so easily! If only they had just locked Snively up in prison or killed him! Then he would’ve NEVER gone back to Eggman and never done any of this!
Oh, I heard about this, this was when Flynn officially started his excuse to not let Rotor be useful anymore. Rotor pushes Tails out of the way of some falling boulders from the roof’s destruction getting injured.
And it looks like a bunch of heroes including Rouge and Julie were vaporized but OBVIOUSLY that’s not gonna be true, they HAVE to be teleported, like with the Egg Grapes’ lasers. Bunnie is ordered by Sally to get Snively away from the base and as some other friends aside from Mighty and Sonic get seemingly vaporized, Antoine who’s one of them says, “ Let her go, monster! “ What’s with the quotation mark before elle? Also, he would say “ le “ before monstre, or espèce de, because he’s insulting him.
Mighty attacks Snively’s mecha in a rage for what he did to Ray, his Big Brother protectiveness kicking in, one of the few stand-out personality traits about him, which I really like. It doesn’t show up enough! And Snively leaves an explosion behind saying that he was only the distraction, as I wonder why the hell he didn’t even TRY to supposedly vaporize SONIC, and instead went for everything BUT the most COMPETENT one!
So another reason the next issue never should’ve happened the way it did. With Amy, Tails, Sonic and Knuckles all fine, I guess because only the GAME CHARACTERS are allowed that kind of privilege, Tails panics that Eggman must be attacking Knothole.
Sonic shows up too late, seeing a burning Knothole, the Lake of Rings being destroyed – uh, I guess that means the Chao Garden was destroyed too, unless Nicole found and relocated those chao really fast when she didn’t know what was coming. And even Uncle Chuck’s diner and his house is gone, and he hopes that Elias at least got everyone to the castle in time.
Then the castle explodes. Wow, Flynn’s really trying to destroy EVERYTHING about the setting of the original comic. But I’m sure it’ll all get rebuilt, which is the only reason I’m calm about this. THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, ROTOR, for not building a force field generator to protect the city! Sandblast City had no problem making one, WHAT’S YOUR EXCUSE?! So this whole story never should’ve happened.
Sonic says he lost everyone he loved when NO, TAILS, Knuckles and Amy are still alive, unless you don’t care for THEM, so that was bad dialogue. Eggman corrects Sonic that everyone he loves was merely captured, teleported away like Mammoth Mogul and his crowd was, because Eggman is an IDIOT who doesn’t WANT TO WIN! A THIRD reason the entirety of the next issue wouldn’t have happened because if he let Sonic think his friends were already dead, he never would’ve gone to save them! YOU IDIOT!
Why are there so many Idiot Balls in Flynn’s work?! Espio didn’t go invisible or intangible enough so he got captured, Mogul came to Angel Island thinking the Emerald was stolen when it was still floating, Eggman didn’t activate the nanites right away so ADAM had to do it, and eventually it’s gonna get a lot worse! Granted the Egg Grapes they were transported to WILL be a death trap, but he’s really just prolonging their deaths like a James Bond villain just begging them to be saved!
And THEN Eggman said that he told Snively to spare Sonic to leave him for HIM, when he doesn’t plan to actually kill him, which is a FIFTH reason why the next issue wouldn’t have happened because Eggman could’ve WON! He started out with a complete idiot moment and yet the entire issue is supposed to be taking him SERIOUSLY! This is supposed to be his epic climax!
After dodging some missiles, Eggman says while trying to break Sonic by talking that he’s surprised Sonic retains his confidence after so many failures. Instead of insulting Sonic for the fact that Mobotropolis was taken over and eventually nuked specifically because Sonic went up into Eggman’s satellites falling for his trap, Flynn completely wasted that prime opportunity to actually call Sonic out on his BIGGEST FAILURE.
So not even the “ taunting “ part of his speech was done as well it could’ve been, because COME ON, that was so obvious! He tried to get his parents back and lost Mobotropolis because he wasn’t there to defend it! Instead of doing that, of course Flynn only wants to reference HIS WORK. So Eggman starts by talking about the deaths of Tommy and Sir Connery.
Wait, HOW’D HE KNOW ABOUT THAT? He WASN’T THERE!
He also reminds Sonic that it wasn’t HIM who got to deroboticize his friends or family. That’s RIGHT, some other people stole that victory on him! And his father is still a robot. So? He even taunts Sonic about how unlucky he’s been with the girls, very surprising for someone who’s supposed to be COOL like SONIC, ALMOST as if it was completely forced on him by the writers because they’re obsessed with shipping him with ONLY SALLY! It’s not bad enough that Sally only dated Geoffrey before him and never dated anyone else afterwards in ALL THIS TIME?
And again, Eggman’s taunting Sonic only about stuff that had NOTHING TO DO with Eggman so far. Well, Tommy was killed by Eggman’s Egg Fleet, but that was his choice to stop ADAM, and Sir Connery’s death had nothing to do with Eggman at all. Eggman’s missing a very obvious burn with the loss of Mobotropolis! And this is supposed to be an issue about him being nothing but epic and awesome.
Eggman then amusingly points out how lame Sonic’s “ shut up! “ (laughs) comeback was in response to all that. He’s a real teenager! But it does make sense to show how angry Sonic is and how he’s taking the situation seriously, so it actually works for the seriousness of the situation that Sonic’s not being all cocky and witty right now for once.
Eggman then says that the world fell to him so quickly that he was left with nothing to do, and he just allowed the Freedom Fighters to exist to entertain himself. Yeah that explains why he teleported them to his Egg Grapes death traps so easily! That explains why, right after he found out where Knothole was, he sent a giant robot after Knothole and sent a Cater-Killer train to try to destroy it all in a short time-span from each other, and when Sonic came back from space, he was trying to nuke the place, because he allowed them to exist.
Naturally Sonic calls him a liar, but he’s not allowed to point out what I just did because I guess Flynn hates referencing what’s not his own work, or forgot about it entirely, or he’s just THAT DEDICATED to making Eggman the only one who’s having good dialogue here to make him the big presence, when Eggman’s Genre Blind stupidity already shot some of his credibility to hell. So he just keeps Sonic from standing up to Eggman properly instead.
Eggman says that the king’s attempt to rally support failed because the rest of the world knows he controls them. It makes sense that they’d be too scared of Eggman to bother. Sonic says that they would’ve called them for help if, they got threatened by Eggman, I guess. He tells Sonic that they knew he was powerless – well he could’ve killed Eggman a LONG TIME AGO with his super speed powers ALONE. But he just holds back, that’s what GETS HIM! That’s what kinda makes him powerless, but in theory he’s really overpowered!
After Sonic gets hit by a ball and chain he’s merely stunned because I guess he has some protective Rings he collected off-screen, and then he gets hit by it again, while fortunately it’s explained why Sonic didn’t get away from him with his speed as he’s told that Eggman’s battle-suit is specifically designed to match and outclass his speed and strength. Saying match was redundant then.
I like that in addition to filling in THAT potential plot hole, Eggman was actually written to point out why Sonic can take so much punishment. It’s because of all the Rings he’s absorbed into his aura. And Eggman looks on the bright side that this means he gets to keep toying with him for longer.
He taunts Sonic that he’s reached his limit, and in a way he was right but not the way he expected! As Sonic runs off ENRAGED, and, Eggman panics asking Snively to track Sonic via the Egg Spy Satellites. Snively, finally back to wearing green, points out that Sonic’s moving a lot faster than he should be, unless he went Super I’m calling Deus ex Machina, because Eggman JUST SAID that his battle-suit was specifically designed to be faster than he normally is, and then Sonic promptly went and ruined the filling of that plot hole by speeding off anyways.
Because of THAT ridiculousness, Sonic’s already on the east coast, and he looks absolutely DEMENTED while running from an ocean saying, “ I’ve got your ‘ limit ‘ right here! “ This is pretty badass!
Then Sonic runs into the shield of Eggman’s battle-suit super fast as I wonder what the point was of him running to the East Coast, unless he ran away to get some Super Emerald. Sonic does a lot of stuttering from all the stress he’s under which proves his normal bravado dialogue was just an act, bragging to hide how stressed out he really was. I really LOVE seeing Sonic like this, it’s refreshing! It shows some depths to him that he can actually be pushed to his limit just like any other person! He’s more than just a mascot Creator’s Pet spouting cocky one-liners all the time.
Somehow Eggman is JUST FINE, coming out of the DUST and complaining that Sonic just dented his shield. BULLSHIT. But I expected that since he blocked the attack from his shield. That must be ONE well-made shield to withstand the force of speed he wasn’t even expecting to get! That was convenient for him.
I think if Eggman had just been killed off from Sonic’s over-the-top attack instead, while it would’ve been dark, Sonic was stressed out enough that it might have made sense for it to happen since he wasn’t holding back at ALL, and it would’ve made sense for it to happen HERE right at the climax of his threateningness, and he would’ve DESERVED it. And maybe he could’ve survived and just gone into a coma or been injured instead, getting at least SOME KARMATIC comeuppance during this! We can get BETTER VILLAINS!
He attacks Sonic a lot and grabs him with his battlesuit telling him that he’s going to use everyone he loves as fuel for his ghost town city just to spite him, and he’s going to let Sonic live and run around the world failing to start another Freedom Fighter group, just to be sadistic. Again, WHAT AN IDIOT. This is the reason he FAILS!
After he briefly looks defeated, Tails shows up, they put their arms around each other affectionately as they sit down and Tails says that Eggman’s won, and Sonic gets up saying that he’s not giving up. He plans to get his remaining friends and him over to Eggman’s place for a last-second rescue. And this was the issue!
This issue was written by Ian Flynn and was pretty dark, but it’s fine because it didn’t come out of nowhere, since we were already TOLD that Eggman had this big plan against Knothole. To the point where Snively told Hope to leave it for her own good, and Espio somehow got captured learning about it, and if it had come out of nowhere, it would’ve been a lot more annoying.
But again, Espio shouldn’t have ever gotten captured instead of just escaping the city with his intangibility power and giving Knothole advance warning, and Rotor should’ve had no problem making a force field for this city, so there’s absolutely no reason this issue should’ve happened.
This is easily the most menacing Eggman’s ever been, I felt pretty sorry for Sonic by the end of it, as Eggman just went on and on with his breaking speech to him and curb-stomped him with his battlesuit. Wait why didn’t Sonic just run around it to create a tornado that would lift it up and render it helpless? Aside from it being faster than him, I guess, and it could still shoot lasers from the air.
There were at least some strategies to try, he could’ve used his ridiculous intangibility power to get inside the battlesuit and attack Eggman himself! That’s an established part of the comic’s previous lore, so like it or not, ignoring it causes a plot hole. It’s sad that if Mike Gallagher wrote this, it would’ve been a little better, because that would’ve been karmatic comeuppance to Eggman letting Sonic punch him personally as a punishment after all of that, and it could’ve been justified if Sonic was holding a Chaos Emerald.
If Flynn’s not gonna use that power anymore because it’s bullshit, then he needs to explain that he lost it! It’s just like how, he doesn’t explain why people don’t use Rings more to grant wishes. It’s ignoring the elephant in the room! He should either explain that the rings that grant wishes are actually super powerful, or explain that, you CAN’T use them to grant wishes anymore because someone made it impossible.
The biggest problem with this story other than its contrivedness is the random Deus ex Machina of Sonic moving much faster than he ever did before just because he’s mad, without any kind of Chaos Emerald to justify it! And it ended up being pointless going to the East Coast for no reason, which he should’ve been able to get to that fast ANYWAYS with his super speed when he ran across a planet a lot of times.
I’m not sure why Snively made a big deal out of it, although it did serve a literary purpose as it showed how Sonic is so enraged and stressed out by Knothole City’s destruction, that he ran all over the world pointlessly and ran into Eggman’s shield, stuttering while doing his usual gloating to show something is very off. I love seeing him actually hit realistic limits! It’s refreshing and relatable and humanizes him as a character, which Sonic needs more than anybody. You’d never see a reaction like this in the mere GAMES!
But again, all of this served to nothing because Eggman was FINE, all it did was make Eggman look a little more bit invincible. To the point of looking like he was being shown favouritism, ironic since the writer was dedicated to making him just sit around and do nothing and be an idiot until now, and even THEN he was an idiot here.
It really was a Wham Moment this story with the only saving grace from how bleak it is, being that Eggman merely captured everyone in a slow-moving death trap. He let his sadism and arrogance be his downfall because he could’ve easily captured Sonic, or used actual lasers. And it could’ve easily been a story where they actually WERE vaporized and Sonic would find the Time Stones in the next issue to undo it.
Issue 176:
This is why Sally’s a better leader than Sonic.
After a few panels are wasted on Sonic recapping the situation of Knothole to Amy, Sonic explains bitterly to Knuckles about the Egg Grapes. “ They’re prison pods that turn life force into fuel or something. I was kinda busy being beaten up to catch all of Eggman’s ranting. “ He should’ve written “ too busy, “ instead. Sonic tells his friends to start fixing up the base while he’s going to the lab alone, much to Tails’ chagrin.
Tails snaps at Sonic from the tress that if Sonic was REALLY capable enough to go free his friends alone, Knothole wouldn’t have gotten the fate it DID. Even though it’s not really SONIC’S fault, I mean the Egg Fleet came and destroyed Knothole, Sonic can’t exactly fly and destroy all those Egg Fleet airships HIMSELF! Plus he didn’t know what was coming!
It’s awful hypocritical of Tails to blame SONIC for what happened. Somebody should’ve pointed out that it’s Tails and Rotor who are to blame because they didn’t build a force field generator to protect Knothole! Sonic missed the perfect opportunity for a comeback here just to stay quiet! Granted I think Tails would’ve cried if he HAD gotten that comeback, because yeah, Knothole’s destruction is his fault, so it wouldn’t be worth it and just waste precious time. The two glare at each other briefly, and Nicole says that she has a plan.
Tails works on a UFO while Sonic is sitting in it with his arms crossed all sour about it since he’s so mad at Eggman that he wants to rush at him and let all his anger out at him right away by himself. The UFO starts heading for Eggman’s and as Eggman wastes a bunch of panels pointlessly bragging like a predictable villain, at one point Elias is called the weakest king EVER. I can only assume it’s because he’s so young, that’s IT.
And his wife expects us to believe that she married him for his strength and bravery in the first place. How’d she learn about that? This would’ve had some impact if we actually got to see how they got together. Instead I’m not sure how he showed her those traits of his! I loved the few times when he was like an action hero like when he went on a mission with Sonic and Geoffrey, and when he sent cold liquid to freeze SWATbots, but even then, he didn’t show strength and bravery, even though, seeing Sally’s prince brother be a brave hero in his own right would’ve been cool!
Eggman activates the Egg Grapes with Snively and Sonic panics at the possibility that he’s too late again, even though if the Egg Grapes worked right away on people to kill them instantly, the Destructix wouldn’t have had the time to be rescued from them after being in them for a while, and same goes for Remington as we’ll learn later, unless these are NEW Egg Grapes that work much faster. Sonic’s really jumping to conclusions to just assume, and somehow be correct, that these Egg Grapes activate much faster than the old ones.
We could’ve had him activate them earlier and brag throughout while they were trying to work, and been consistent with the rules established for the Egg Grapes before this, instead of suddenly changing it that now they work instantly and making Eggman’s bragging singlehandedly what buys the heroes time to stop him. This changing of the rules just makes him look like a complete idiot as a result.
And Nicole reads a port access up top and says she should be plugged in there. Everyone gets busted out as Sonic, Amy, Tails and Knuckles, destroy the Egg Grapes PATHETICALLY easily, which is really implausible since I’d expect the Egg Grapes to be made of much harder material than that, glass appearance or not, because they’re so important to Eggman and he already had to deal with the Destructix getting broken free of them!
Also for some reason Charmy’s hurt or something, I’m not sure why. I don’t think the panels showed it off very well, did he get Eggman to activate only HIS Egg Grape? All we saw was Snively pressing a button. Eggman runs away yelling at Snively for missing 3 people with his teleporting lasers, even though he specifically said he told Snively to leave Sonic for him so he should just be yelling for missing 2 people, and Snively says, “ Three of how many hundred?! “
Then Tails rips off a part of something technology-like with Nicole near him because he’s that strong I guess, and Nicole says that without ADAM, Eggman’s systems are wide open for her to damage, because Eggman never bothered to FIX that issue APPARENTLY, even 8 ISSUES LATER! What a moron.
Dr Quack says he doesn’t have any of his tools to help Charmy just as Mammoth Mogul and Fang show up. I guess they were captured by Eggman from Knothole TOO since they’re standing around here like it’s nothing. But he says Charmy’s at least stable, and Nicole says she’s gonna finish preparations at home. This confuses Tails and she says there’s no time to explain and orders Tails to stay with the group. He reluctantly leaves hoping her plan will work.
Sally wonders if they could put as many people as they could on flying saucers, while the heroes will hold off any intruders. Sonic then says no, having a demented smirk from stress for two panels due to his eye being twitchy again, and Sally nags him that running away is not ALWAYS a good plan, and then she’s baffled at learning that NICOLE is the one who MADE their plan! Why’s she so SURPRISED?
Either way this convinces Sally of its legitimacy because she respects Nicole’s intelligence and she tells everyone to stick together, as Sonic and Tails look ashamed and regretful, trying to apologize to each other at their earlier outburst at each other. It was a high-stress situation, if Tails hadn’t stopped Sonic he wouldn’t have really saved everyone because he wouldn’t have brought NICOLE with him, unless he was smart enough to destroy even the reserve grapes, but he didn’t even do that WITH PEOPLE there.
Then Eggman shows up in his battlesuit, telling everyone to get back into those Egg Grapes, which seems pretty stupid of him to say since I thought they were all DESTROYED. He SAW it HAPPEN! I see a few people get teleported away with lasers recapturing some people nearby and Sonic tells everyone where to run. Eggman says to Snively that he’s recaptured most of the people and the rest are trapped at a dead end. Snively isn’t allowed to finish his train of thought about the teleporting beam. (laughs)
After Sonic decides not to tell Sally his plan because it’ll ruin the surprise for Eggman, getting her all panicked, he lets himself and his friends get teleported away while amusingly joking about going to oblivion, calling him a loser, and Snively yells at Eggman that he’s been trying to tell him the entire time, that the teleportation frequency was tampered with, and there’s nobody in the reserve Egg Grapes.
OH, RESERVE Egg Grapes! So THAT’S how Eggman still expected to have Egg Grapes left! He was talking as if he meant “ get back in the same ones you were just in! “ He wouldn’t have said, “ Get back in those Egg Grapes, “ if, bad dialogue is bad…
Eggman angrily says that he’s remote-launching the Egg Fleet now and orders Snively to track down the frequency and tell him where the heroes are. (SA1 It Doesn’t Matter plays) It turns out everyone’s been teleported to the nanite city, which by the way, looks like a kinda golden utopia like Sky Sanctuary with a golden circular wall and everything! I really love what Nicole’s done with the place! Well I assume it’s Nicole. It’s good that this concept was just taken advantage of after just SITTING THERE for so long!
Somehow Nicole even rebuilt the Lake of Rings, and it’s naturally asked if it actually WILL be able to produce Rings like the old one. I’ve read all the way up to, almost Sonic Universe 1 by this recording and I still don’t KNOW if the Lake of Rings can do that! Talk about distracted! I mean, what’s so hard about one sentence right now saying that she replicated Nate’s ring producer?
As Bunnie’s hugging Antoine, Antoine and her rejoice about how all their homes have been perfectly replicated in the nanite city, or as he puts it, “ have been rebuilted! “ I fully understand why he’d make that mistake as “ rebuilt “ seems like an irregular past participle that would naturally annoy a French speaker. For ONCE, this is a mistake with English that makes SENSE. I wish he made more mistakes like THIS with English, it would better take advantage of the fact that he’s got a French accent, and would at least make him a LITTLE interesting!
Even the Castle Acorn’s here, and it looks just like how it was back in Mobotropolis! Nicole then shows up in her lynx form pretty epically considering how everyone turns to face her! And she even has a normal textbox instead of a green one implying that she actually has a regular organic person’s voice! NOT a creepy AI voice, Sonic World!
And I wouldn’t say this nanite city reset button is too far-fetched because Fiona already said nanites were manufacturing stuff out of air molecules and so maybe they could manufacture ANYTHING, including grass, from anything. She repurposed the gray metal of the nanite city into buildings and probably put gold paint on them. And besides, it makes perfect sense that she’d be smart enough to make a back-up just in case. Hopefully she’ll think to make a back-up of the back-up!
And Nicole explains with a smile that this place is called New Mobotropolis, and Eggman had forced her to reveal it before it was fully finished. Also it makes perfect sense that she’d go barefoot as part of her organic form because she’d want to fully experience life that way, and that would include getting to feel the ground beneath her feet.
Sally hugs her saying overjoyed that she didn’t think she could maintain that form, and Nicole, looking adorably happy with a hug, takes her hand to join in, and says that she couldn’t maintain her form until she could find something robust enough to maintain her. She built enough holographic matrixes to give her full use of the city. Does that mean her organic “ hologram “ body is restricted to New Mobotropolis? Goddammit, why does it HAVE to be a HOLOGRAM? A tangible one with a force field I guess.
By the way I’m annoyed at how long the name of the damn city is, it’s already almost impossible to pronounce! I’m probably just gonna call it the nanite city. Everyone’s naturally full of questions, and I hope Nicole’s gonna answer all of them soon, like how she has enough power to DO this. I stil don’t know that! And you’d think Rotor and Tails WOULD KNOW since you’d think she would NEED THEIR HELP as people with bodies to use for making inventions for her, like energy syphons.
And there IS a good reason for her not explaining everything right away, since the story ends with Eggman showing up with his Egg Fleet, but it’s not enough to diminish the happy ending! I’m sure the writer wouldn’t bother writing this city if it was just gonna get destroyed next issue, so.
The only story of this issue was by Ian Flynn. Pretty simple conclusion to everyone being trapped in Egg Grapes! Sonic and his friends just destroy them ridiculously easily when I’d expect them to be made of better materials than that! Gee, good thing Snively SOMEHOW didn’t destroy the base where the UFO that Tails worked on was made. That would’ve destroyed Nicole and anything Tails could use in the base.
And then Nicole reprograms the teleporting beam to send everyone to a nanite city back-up of Knothole, New Mobotropolis. EASILY her most CROWNING achievement! I especially like the look of the place! I expected a nanite city to look all alienatingly technological like the nanite city used to but instead it looks exactly like Knothole! Great job Nicole! I’M SURE the people of this city will be forever GRATEFUL to you and always respect you as a person!
It’s also great that she can just walk around looking organic wherever she WANTS now, at least in the city. That’s her second crowning achievement! She’s definitely at her best at THIS point! She’s got such an interesting desire to experience things organics take for granted, and learn everything about being that way. It’s very interesting seeing like, a fish out of water, like, all this is new to her, which is why her just being a HOLOGRAM is incredibly LAME, because she WON’T get that when I assumed it WOULD happen.
It was a happy ending! And EVEN the Egg Fleet arriving was just there to tell us that more action was to come! It also makes sense that Eggman was too arrogant to let Snively warn him not to use the teleporting beams, since it looked like it was working and he wanted to enjoy the moment!
CrystalMaiden77 