#AN IMPROVEMENT ON LAST YEAR! I RELEASED STH BEFORE YEAR'S END!

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[mobius-prime]

230. Sonic the Hedgehog #162

The Darkest Storm (Part One): Gathering the Tempest

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: James Fry Colors: Jason Jensen

This three-part arc is a great example of how Ian is using his early time with the comic to sort of clean up and consolidate a lot of loose ends into something a little more coherent. For example, it's about time we learned a little more about Anonymous. Apparently, whoever it is has decided that the time has come to eliminate several key players in Mobius' eternal struggle for power, in pursuit of some unknown ultimate goal. Strangely enough, whoever it is seems to be interested in destroying Sonic as well - perhaps due to Sonic's tendency to stop any attempts to take over the world - but doesn't seem to want to undermine Eggman. After all, remember that the very first thing Anonymous ever did was send Eggman a "gift" of re-roboticized Mobians. Anonymous has decided to use Knothole as a staging ground for whatever they're planning next, and begins the process of setting their plan in motion…

In Knothole, King Elias attempts to restore Sonic's knighthood as thanks for everything he's done for the kingdom. However, Sonic refuses, saying he's not too concerned with titles and that there's already a knight in the family, in the form of Uncle Chuck. However, Elias says that as a new king, he's trying to restore the Court of Acorn to advise him, including calling on some old members… two of which have just showed up to visit Tails.

Oh man, remember Sir Connery from StH#45? The incredibly forgettable and random horse knight guy who works for the Ancient Walkers and hates "dark magicks" and whatnot? Yeah, I guess nowadays he just follows Merlin around to protect him from anything bad that comes at him. In New Megaopolis, Eggman is thrilled that the "biofield deletion" has nearly completed on all his Mobian captives in the Egg Grapes. Apparently, once they're drained of all their life energy, he can use the husks of their bodies to kind of "filter" the energy from the Zone of Silence into something stable and usable, which just once again reminds us of how utterly terrifying this iteration of Eggman is compared to his counterpart in the games and anime. Like, Jesus Christ, dude, at least games Eggman doesn't casually torture thousands of people just because he can! He even admits to M that there's probably a more efficient way to accomplish his goals, but it just wouldn't be as fun. He asks A.D.A.M. if there's been any luck identifying Anonymous yet, but A.D.A.M. replies that he still hasn't found anything, which frustrates Eggman even more. Weirdly enough, he seems to think that Anonymous is the one who released his nanites several issues ago, even though we know that it was just A.D.A.M. interpreting his orders a little too liberally.

Also, it's time to resurrect a dropped plot thread from some time ago. Remember how the Ancient Walkers were supposed to be dying and all? Well despite the fact that we haven't heard anything on that in some time, apparently they are totally still dying, and despite Athair and Aurora in the afterlife trying to reassure them that they'll find a way to save them with Merlin's help, they seem to have accepted their impending death, naming Aurora, Athair, and Merlin as their successors who must keep the world in balance once they're gone. Wow, Aurora may already be a deity in her own right, but the other two are about to get an exciting upgrade on life! And they're gonna need to start using it too, because back in Knothole, right as Merlin, Sir Connery, and Tails are heading to the castle to meet with the king, they're set upon by some familiar faces.

Ah, so these guys have picked a new name, huh? It's just as well, the "Fearsome Foursome" would hardly work anymore with there being six of… wait… hang on a second. Weren't these guys supposed to be roboticized by Anonymous? Not only that, but Sonic and the fake Tommy destroyed those roboticized forms a while back… so how are they still here, alive and well? Sonic doesn't even appear to notice the discrepancy once he rushes in to help along with the rest of the Freedom Fighters (including Sally!), merely mocking their new name before he and his friends knock them all out. Knuckles and his team stay behind to make sure they don't get away, while the Freedom Fighters lead the guests to the castle. Sir Connery explains that his sword is the Sword of Light, given to him by the Ancient Walkers, which has the power to purge evil magic, and he's been guarding Merlin for the express purpose of making sure that Mammoth Mogul, stuck in his Chaos Emerald, can't ever escape again. Interestingly enough, thousands of years ago the Ancient Walkers actually saw what Mogul would become in the future, and decided that while they weren't gonna bother actually stopping him, they would at least put a curse on his emerald so that his plans would always eventually fail. Of course, however, things can't just be that easy.

Oh lord, not the Sword of Acorns again. Sally recaps how she got rid of the thing because it was getting entirely too possessive of her (literally), giving it to Uma Arachnis' children for safekeeping. However, this turns out to have been a terrifically bad idea, as while Sonic confidently assures everyone that they can get it back and save the Ancient Walkers, said children of Arachnis are all busy swarming into Eggman's base. Just as the biofield deletion completes on the captured Mobians, killing them all for good, the ninjas strike, at the same time that the Egg Grapes suddenly and mysteriously power back on. M carries her father to safety, and the ninjas hold up the sword, which tears a hole between dimensions, causing a number of effects. For one, the void fuses permanently with the Zone of Silence, stabilizing it and increasing its raw power. For another, all Eggman's soulless Mobian husks are sucked into the void to facilitate this process, meaning he just lost all his precious work. And finally…

Welp! Goodbye, Ancient Walkers! I honestly can't say I'll miss you, you weird plot devices you. Back in Knothole, in the middle of a short speech about working together to create a better future, the emerald in Merlin's hand suddenly shatters, and when the light fades everyone is horrified to see Mogul standing in front of them, ready to go about conquering the world once more…

Ties That Bind

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Tracy Yardley! Colors: J&A Ray

This story actually isn't separate from the one above, but takes place concurrently - presumably either right before what we saw above, or directly during, after M evacuated Eggman from the Egg Grape Chamber. Snively is working in one of Knothole's labs, but it's with a distinct lack of enthusiasm, feeling like he doesn't really know why he's here, as he's always been aligned with villains, never heroes. He finds himself comparing himself to his half-sister Hope, who has easily settled into life amongst Mobians despite her species. However, his ruminations don't last long, as someone has decided to come and visit him personally.

Man, Eggman, when did you gain the ability to just teleport into Knothole whenever you want? Seems like you'd be using that a lot more to sabotage stuff behind everyone's backs. Snively asks for a moment to himself before going back, which Eggman surprisingly grants him, and he rushes outside to find Hope. He tries making some awkward small talk with her, complimenting her on the plane she's building and casually mentioning that it could take her very far away from here, which only makes her wonder what the heck he's getting at.

I really love this. Snively was already an interesting character, and under Ian's writing he's quickly becoming a truly complex and fascinating one. Despite hating his uncle, he's always held some amount of loyalty to him, and now we see that he seems to truly care about Hope's wellbeing, recognizing that she's an innocent in all this and not wanting her to die in Eggman's planned attack on the village. That said, he's still selfish, and ultimately betrays the Mobians once again to go back to his uncle's side, even thinking to himself, standing inside one of Eggman's Egg Fleet ships, how ironic it is given how much betraying he's already done of both sides, in both wars. He asks Eggman why he's even bothering to trust him, knowing of his traitorous nature, and Eggman says that he fully knows Snively intends to try to betray him again in the future, and will be happily awaiting his attempt so he can thwart it, prompting Snively to remark it's "just like old times." What an interesting and strange relationship these two have. And what an interesting outlook Eggman has, not being particularly concerned with his minions wishing to betray him and even seeing it as all some kind of twisted game. Honestly, if there's any character that I think was universally improved by Ian with no drawbacks whatsoever, it's Snively, and we'll get to see even more of that improvement and depth in the future.

[hannobehrens]

Sabiri is definitely a talented footballer, but he has the maturity of a 6 year-old. Apparently Wagner (who's so far been quite successful with 2. Bundesliga-players at Huddersfield, thankyouverymuch) just hinted an interested in Sabiri, at which point Sabiri completely lost it. Bornemann said they couldn't take HTAFC's offer seriously (apparently it was realllly low), at which point Sabiri started throwing the biggest temper tantrums. He headbutted Kevin Möhwald in training, giving him a black

eye (widely visible at the season opening/Gladbach game) - this is a very harmonious team, known for their teamspirit, they’re all quite close (Kerk and Leibold even live together), so Sabiri, who then pathetically started unfollowing his teammates on social media, stood out like a sore thumb. There was also some disrespect against Köllner, who apparently took it quite well, even kind of defending him as still a young lad & saying things like, “he’s training well, he’ll get a grip” orsth like that. When the reporter was all “Surely you won’t let that pass?”, Köllner said, “We’ll see - he needs to do his work during the week, I’ll do mine on the weekend”, but Sabiri did *not* improve, and was consequently not in the squad for any of FCN’s competitive games this season. When in further press conferences Köllner was asked about him, he said “enough has been said about Sabiri” & praised Erras’ hard work trying to come back instead, as well as Fuchs and some other young'uns. Forthe 2nd matchday, Sabiri was supposed to play for FCN’s 2nd team (where he’d come from in the winter break), and he flat out refused, as the club announced. Köllner was asked how that could’ve possibly been Sabiri’s decision & has his employer, couldn’t they make him, and Köllner replied “I definitely won’t punish the U21 with an unwilling player, they deserve better”. Things turned quite ugly, the fans were really *not nice* to Sabiri on insta & he continued to do everything to be more hated,posting provocative statements in (rather bad) English, then deleting them again, started following and commenting on Huddersfield accounts (and Demeblé’s, haha). FCN officials (who I have to say - I love them! Meeske, Bornemann, Köllner - all done so much great work since taking over) stated that fortunately for the first time in ages, the Club was in a position where they didn’t *have* to sell players if they didn’t want to (see Schöpf et al., also hinting again at the very little money HTAFC had offered). Bornemann said sth along the lines of, as of now, this is the FCN squad 2017. In a newspaper interview, Köllner said that he “loved Sabiri”, that he was a great player and actually a good guy, too, but currently very badly advised, and that he hoped they could get beyond all this. And then… Sabiri didn’t show up on the Club’s premises anymore, handing in a doctor’s note of gastroenteritis, from which he apparently suffered for weeeeeks. There was again a lot of anger (sometimesquite ugly) from the fans. Köllner wouldn’t comment on Sabiri anymore. The team did reeeeally well against Kaiserslautern, against Regensburg and also in the Pokal, so all seemed well & nobody really cared that Sabiri was AWOL. Then, ominously, last week Sabiri posted on Facebook that he would “release a statement on Friday” which he “owed to the Clubfans”. There were many responses online, mostly mocking (because, wtf?! Everything had quieted down, then this?!). People claimed to be waitingwith bated breath, then The Day Of The Announcement came and… nothing. Nothing happend. All quiet on the Facebook front. A few minutes before midnight, Sabiri posted something along the lines of “Dear fans, unfortunately I have to tell you that at this point I cannot comment on my situation.” That was it. And everybody laughed. At this point it just seemed a matter of Huddersfield - or any other club, really - making a good enough offer to finally end this tragicomedy, and thankfully, that’swhat happened. HTAFC greatly improved on their offer, and Bornemann even managed to get a few boni (and those 15%, which, well - this is England! Transfer fees are c-r-a-z-y - FCN got more money for Gündogan transferring from BVB to ManCity than for Burgstaller from FCN to Schalke!). The announcement came and, in the words of Monty Python, there was much rejoicing! I think it was all really, really well handled by Köllner, Bornemann et al. Ofc it’s sad to discover such a talent & then for it toend like this, but… you know. FCN can still do well with the money. Also, around the same time Patrick Erras - who’s been hunted by BuLi clubs for years, who is another really great talent, praised for extraordinary tactical and playing intelligence and maturity & who’s also really quick considering his height! (I can’t wait for him to come back!!!) - extended his contract, after very short negotiations, saying he was so thankful FCN always supported him through his long time of injuries, attimes quite severe, so - Sabiri looked even worse by comparison;). At the presser for the Aue game, a reporter started “on the subject of Sabiri-” and Köllner said “oh, we’ve sold that subject, another club’s got it now” HAHAHA. Also, the team doesn’t seem to miss him… there’s a lot of talk about Kerk, very little of Sabiri… (Also there’s a short video by Tobi Werner, saying he was very happy and proud to be at FCN now, that his teammates had welcomed him warmly & he’s looking forward tothe season with them, which…

a VERY interesting read (in that last ask you’ve sent me, i was about to comment on how expensive the transfer fees in England is, but i was afraid that there might be backlash…)‘oh, we’ve sold that subject’ is such a mood, releasing a statement saying ‘unfortunately i cannot comment on my situation’ is also such a mood…i really hate it when players decide that they have /nothing/ to do with the club when some random offers come by, or if they just really want out… the whole thing was definitely handled pretty well by Köllner and his staff!Sabiri is the past, Kerk’s the present… he’s been playing so well in the first few games and it’s so sad to see him down! hopefully he’ll get back really soon… :’) (plus he’s got everyone’s support; he’ll be okay!)(i haven’t seen Erras play but i’ve heard people saying how much potential he has and i cannot wait for him to get back??) (also i like Köllner a lot already…)

also,