#The Dark Legion

[fyeahsonicthehedgehog]

[gamenburger]

ITS HERE: ISSUE 7 of our catch-up zine for YOUR Archie Sonic Read-along: MOBIUS LOOP!! It's the ultimate companion piece for anyone trying to keep up with over 300 issues of comics and characters. THIS WEEK: KNUCKLES GETS HIS OWN BOOK! The King is rescued, but can the Freedom fighters restore his body?

Dig in for the LAST weekly issue in the first batch! Reading this issue will catch you up so you can read the entire of ENDGAME!!!

Plus: a bonus comic by my good friend AMITY ROSEFIST!! Get it free on Itch (link below) and join in the fun! Submit articles, comics, commentary, panel edits, or just join in the fun! Reach out to me for an invite, and feel free to share with friends! Or just hit my ask box and join in the fun from here! This issue covers Knuckles#1-3, Sonic 45-50, Sonic Super special # 1 and 6. Also, the next issue is going to be a GIANT collaborative issue on tabloid print that will celebrate and document EVERYTHING from SONIC #0 to Sonic #50. I'm taking contributions from EVERYWHERE, so if you love this classic era of the comic or know people who would, PLEASE share this or other issues with people you know. I want to make the ultimate love letter to archie sonic, for all its good AND its bads! Thank you for reading. These things were truly done weekly, and in the coming hiatus I will be trying to get ahead with furthere issues so i never have to work weekly truly every again. lol

[shadowwingtronix]

"Yesterday's" Comic> Knuckles The Echidna #8

BW's "Yesterday's" Comic> Knuckles The Echidna #8

Enerjak spends time with his Chaotix Amiibos. Knuckles #8 Archie Comics Publications (January, 1998) “Dark Vengeance” part 2 WRITER: Ken Penders PENCILER: Manny Galan INKER: Andrew Pepoy COLORIST: Barry Grossman LETTERER: Vickie Williams EDITOR: J. Freddy Gabrie Continue reading Untitled

[robotnik-mun]

I've been thinking more on Ken's Echidna Lore as of late, and I really think that the Knuckles comic might have worked better if Echidnaopolis wasn't as technologically advanced.

I say this for a few reasons. For one I think that Echidnaopolis being not some utopian future world would allow for two things- It gives the Dark Legion more of a motive and it also makes them more of a threat. Think about it. Knuckles finding a whole society of Echidnas who have been sealed away and are now suddenly in the middle of whats now a battleground adds tention and stakes to the plot. Knuckles (and by extention the Chaotix) now have to protect these people from an emposing threat with lots of numbers and weapons.

Which also fixes another issue I took with those stories in how the Dark Legion doesn't really have a motive besides "bad guys". Echidnaopolis already is technologically advanced. If they weren't the DL would actually have an apparent cause.

To conclude with these changes the comic would maybe be less "melodramtic drama with contradicting themes/messages". Have it be about a rag-tag group having to protect a civilization once thought to be lost.

(And thats not getting into characters and how Another easy fix would be to make the Brotherhood be a morally grey third party manipulating things from the shadows, but this is already long enough as it is. )

If you have read this far through my incoherrant ramblings, godspeed.

Yeah, pretty much. It's been observed multiple times that the Guardian-Legion conflict, as presented, comes off as a load of nonsense given that Echidnapolis is a modern city with high technology and all that jazz and as such you'd think the Legion wouldn't really have any reason to keep invading beyond spite at this point. The closet we ever get to the absurdity of it all comes from the observation that Echidnapolis' ruling council decides what pieces of technology can be re-introduced, and the multiple times its been brought up that the Guardians use Forbidden Technologies themselves.

Of course, nothing really comes of any of that, and Penders' emphasis on the idea of this being a war of philosophies just highlights how absurd it all is the longer it goes on. Not because that's the POINT, but because of how sloppy the writing and worldbuilding is. He'd have been better off just leaving it at "They were pissed off at being forced to live in the Twilight Zone and want Revenge."

You're correct that Echidapolis being a less high tech place might've given more incentive to see Knuckles and friends protecting it from harm in a more active way. That said, one approach I've seen with regards to the Legion thing is that it's not Pro-Tech vs Anti-Tech, but more like "Pro-Limitiation vs No-Limitations". Echidnapolis, thanks to the Enerjak incident, now has a very conservative mindset regarding technological progress and how it impacts the Echidna people. The LEgion by contrast would see things as "Progress No Matter What Damn The Consequences"... for them its not a matter of asking "SHOULD we replace our bodies with non-medically neccessary cybernetics" and more a question of "How MUCH of my body can I replace and how soon?", and them basically deciding they're going to force everyone to see how correct they are regardless of what people actually feel about the matter.

Of course, all of that would rely on a degree of insight and nuance that Penders couldn't manage if his life depended on it. Whatever merits his ideas have, they're always going to be hampered by Penders himself.

[grimweaver]

"ICECREAM!"

"Searching for something else, found this and remembered I was going to give this a PS makeover. Can't expect you to be able to read it, because I can't even read my own scribbles lol.

So Enerjak (reformed) is inside with the Guardians figuring out how to work together to save something (I don't remember, probably the world) Kragok is waiting outside with other Legionnaires, refusing to have anything to do with the former sworn enemies ("hypocritical technophobes"). It's super hot outside, they're wearing black... not comfortable.

So he's like "Follow that icecream truck!!" and the dude driving the truck is freaking out because, you know, Dark Legionnaires. But they don't want to hurt him, they just want ice cream!

Absolute nonsense

[silencedminstrel]

SHAIRA ESARSI @ THE SILENT TRAVELER TRYING TO CONVINCE ONE OF THE DARK LEGION'S MOST LOYAL COMMANDING OFFICERS TO RENOUNCE HIS ANCIENT ALLEGIANCE AND SERVE A NEW CAUSE

Hail Great Emperor Shaik The Fallen One! I always knew that you'd come back, my Lord! So how may I serve you? I need you and your detachment to renounce your allegiance, General Mieskopf...! The Shudwa Dumanta Legion is but no more...! But...but--no! You are an impostor! The Mad Wolf would never abandon his ambitions so easily! Prepare to

Die, imp--Please, my friend! I've known you too well...but it's high time you stop holding on to those blasphemous dreams of mine and help me--Enough! I don't know who you are but you are not our leader! The Prolmaph Detachment will forever serve His Imperial Majesty's cause even if he never returns! You are but an enemy of the Dark Legion! (Gasp)

Now you die! Sweet Mother Matrix, we gotta to do something fast before he summons all the others, Shaira! I'd saved you from slavery because I know you are bound for greatness, Mieskopf! All I'm asking is that you continue being that--Enough talk! DIE! He's not gonna listen to you, man! Charge up your converter Bradford, but only enough as to--Look out!

He's going to--You will either leave Planet Kesgorth right now...or I will destroy you! Please Mieskopf, give in to reason! Cease this futile struggle of yours! I need you to fend off against a much darker threat that this univ--Silence! Forsooth I am and forever will be...a Shudwa Dumanta Legionnaire...! Then it's time we say goodbye, old friend...!

Tasmanian Devil by Alexey Egorov

[wrenhavenriver]

The poor wretched souls...Be they lord or legend, the curse shows no mercy. What a sham.

[fanofspooky]

Scream King - Kevin Durand

Requested by @nemmet

[wh40kartwork]

Lord Of Ultramar

by Chi Huei Chen

[silencedminstrel]

RETURN TO THE APOCALYPTIC CITY - THE SILENT TRAVELER GOING BACK TO THE FORMER HIDEOUT OF THE DARK LEGION

Kuvradanti Alakma City, once my home for eons...! And also the infamous bastion of the Shudwa Dumanta Legion...! But...isn't that "Moon" supposed to be red or--Burgundy...!

But it will take ages to explain it...! Okay, so is this where the missing Xerian Portal is also located? No wonder The Dark Legion have easy access to everywhere in the universe...!

That's true, Bradford! And here we are today in this awful place to release an entire Coven from incarceration--The Order Of The Silent Herald! You mean the one that just vanished

During The Warring Period? Yes--or else my Time Warp Spell (that used to bind XNROE) will never work! And since only they have the means to stop The Elemental Lords' attack, I must...earn...their...forgiveness first...! (Sigh)

Future 4 by AndrejZT

[nellasbookplanet]

Book recs: Queer science fiction, part 1

There is a lot of queer sf out there, and I read a lot of sf. When I started working on this list, I quickly realized it was impossible to include all that I've read and enjoyed in one single rec post. Thus, this is the first of so far three queer sci-fi book rec posts.

A note: queer here does not necessarily mean "guarantee of an f/f or m/m ship with a happy ending", but rather simply a significant presence of queerness. Some of the books feature no romance but has a same gender attracted/trans/a-spectrum lead, or features an m/f relationship with bisexual, trans or aro/ace characters, or simply features a world-building which is heavily queer inclusive in ways that don't always compare to our own ideas of sexuality and gender. I have however disqualified works where the only queer presence is along the lines of "gay best friend" or a blink and you'll miss it confirmation that never comes up again.

Previous book rec posts:

Really cool fantasy worldbuilding, really cool sci-fi worldbuilding, dark sapphic romances, mermaid books, vampire books, many worlds: portal fantasies, many worlds: alternate timelines, robots and artificial intelligences, post- and transhumanism, alien intelligences

For more details on the books, continue under the readmore. Titles marked with * are my personal favorites. And as always, feel free to share your own recs in the notes!

The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley*

Dietz is a soldier in the war between Earth and Mars - to travel to the battle front, she and her fellow soldiers are broken down into light to be able to quickly travel across space. But something keeps going wrong with Dietz's travels; her memories don't match up with the mission briefs, as she experiences time itself turning in on itself. Is she going mad? Or are the things she's learning skipping through time the truth - and the war that's stealing her life the lie? A mindfuck of a book that's scathing in its critique of fascism and war. Features a sapphic lead but no romance.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk and Robot duology) by Becky Chambers

Novella. Long ago, robots, upon gaining sentience, simply laid down their work and walked into the wilderness. Long after, a tea monk looking for purpose follows after them into the wilds, where they come across one of the robots seeking its own sort of answers. While not plotless, this story focuses more on character and vibes over plot. Also has a nonbinary main character and features conversations on gender between human and robot.

Meet Me In Another Life by Catriona Silvey*

Thora and Santi are strangers, brought together by a coincidence and torn apart just as abruptly when tragedy strikes. But this is neither the first nor the last time they meet - again and again they encounter each other, as friends, lovers, enemies, family, every time recognizing in each other a familiarity no one else carries. But with every new life, a mysterious danger grows ever closer, forcing them to find out the truth of their connection. This is a puzzle-box of a story that goes some entirely unexpected places in a very wild ride, featuring a bisexual co-lead.

The Archive Undying (The Downworld Sequence) by Emma Mieko Candon

In a world where AI gods sometimes lose their minds and take entire populations down with them, Sunai was the only survivor when his god went down. In the 17 years since, he has wandered on his own, unable to either die or age, drowning his sorrows in drink and men. But his attempts to flee his past comes to a stop as he is forced back into the struggle between man and machine. Featuring some pretty wild world building and narrative techniques, this book will definitely confuse you, but it is worth the experience.

The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart

January Cole works security at the Paradox Hotel, last stop for tourists heading for the timeport, which allows them to travel to and witness any moment in time. But years of proximity to the timeport has left its damage on January, making her unstuck in time, letting her relive memories of her dead lover even as her sanity slips away bit by bit. As she starts witnessing proof of a horrible crime in the hotel that no one else can see, January must race against her own mind, a killer, and time itself to solve it before it's too late.

A Fractured Infinity by Nathan Tavares

Hayes Figueiredo is a struggling film-maker who wants to finish his documentary, whose life gets turned upside down when handsome physicist Yusuf Hassan enters his life, claiming an alternate version of him is a great inventor who’s sent a mysterious device to their universe. As Hayes gets drawn deeper into the conspiracy - and his feelings for Yusuf intensify - he has to decide just how far he’s prepared to go to win the life and the love he wants. Featuring a very gay and very morally dubious lead, this is a creative and strange read.

Bridge by Lauren Beukes

When she was little, Bridge and her mother Jo used to play a game - one where they traveled to other worlds, inhabiting the bodies of their other selves. Now Jo is dead, and as Bridge is cleaning out her apartment she finds a strange device: a dreamworm, the very thing that supposedly makes inter-dimensional travel possible. Suddenly faced with the possibility that multiverse travel is real, Bridge is struck by a different question: could her mother still be alive? Scifi spiced with a healthy dose of body horror and some absolutely wild twists, Bridge also features a bisexual lead (however this is a blink and you’ll miss it moment) and a nonbinary co-narrator.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers series) by Becky Chambers

Rosemary Harper just got a job on the motley crew of the Wayfarer, a spaceship that works with tunneling new wormholes through space. With a past she wants to leave behind, Rosemary is happy to travel the far reaches of the universe with the chaotic crew, but when they land the job of a life time, things suddenly get a lot more dangerous. A bit of a tumblr classic in its day, this is a cozy space opera with an episodic feel and vividly realized characters and cultures. While pretty light on romance and focusing found family, there is a main f/f relationship.

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Life on the lower decks of the generation ship HSS Matilda is hard for Aster, an outcast even among outcasts, trying to survive in a system not dissimilar to the old antebellum South. The ship's leaders have imposed harsh restrictions on their darker skinned people, using them as an oppressed work force as they travel toward their supposed Promised Land. But as Aster finds a link between the death of the ship's sovereign and the suicide of her own mother, she realizes there may be a way off the ship.

Ninefox Gambit (The Machineries of Empire trilogy) by Yoon Ha Lee*

Military space opera where belief and culture shape the laws of reality, causing all kinds of atrocities as empires do everything in their power to force as many people as possible to conform to their way of life to strengthen their technology and weapons. It’s also very queer, with gay, lesbian and trans major characters, albeit little to no romance.

The Left Hand of Darkness (Hainish Cycle) by Ursula K. Le Guin

1969 classic. Genly Ai is an emissary sent to the planet of Winter, meant to help facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But he's unprepared for Winter's citizens, who spend much of their time genderless or switching between genders, making for a culture wildly different from that Genly is used to.

Too Like the Lightning (Terra Ignota series) by Ada Palmer*

Centuries in the future, humanity has deliberatly engineered society to be as utopian as possible, politically, socially, sexually, religiously. Written in an enlightenment style and featuring questions of human nature and whether it’s possible to change it, and what price we’re prepared to pay for peace, this book is simultaneously very heavy and very funny, and written in a very unique style. While still human, the society presented often feels starkly alien.

The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley

This book fucked me up when I read it. It’s weird, it’s gross, there’s So Much Viscera, there are literally no men, it has living spaceships and biotech but in the most horrific way imaginable. Had I to categorize it I would call it grimdark military sf. It’s an experience but not necessarily a pleasant one.

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling*

Possibly one of the most unsettling books I’ve ever read, and definitely the most claustrophobic. Gyre, a caver on an alien planet, ventures into the dark and dangerous underground, guided only by a woman who has no compunctions on using and manipulating Gyre as she sees fit to obtain her secretive goals down in the caves.

Escaping Exodus (Escaping Exodus series) by Nicky Drayden

While my feelings on Escaping Exodus were mixed, it cannot be denied that the dynamic between the two leads and the way they go from childhood best friends to enemies on different sides of a class and power struggle is very delicious. It also features some really cool worldbuilding of living, alien generation spaceships and the human culture that has developed inside them.

The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky*

The Doors of Eden is something of an experiment in speculative biology, featuring versions of Earth in which various different species were the one to rise to sentience, from dinosaurs to neanderthals. Now, something is threatening the existence of all timelines, dragging multiple different people and species into the struggle, among those a pair of cryptid hunting girlfriends and a transgender scientist.

Ascension by Jacqueline Koyanagi

Ascension follows Alana Quick, an expert Sky Surgeon who stows away on a spaceship in hopes of landing herself a job. But the ship and its crew are in deeper waters than she expected, facing threats emerging from a whole other universe, all of them searching for the same person: Alana’s spiritually enlightened sister. Undeniably a bit of an odd read, Ascension is also very creative and features polyamorous lesbian relationship.

Contagion (Contagion duology) by Erin Bowman*

Young adult. After receiving an SOS, a small crew is sent on a standard search-and-rescue mission. But what they find are not survivors awaiting help, but an abandoned site, full of dead bodies and crawling with something... monstrous. No romance, but features one sapphic co-lead and one who can easily be read as demisexual (however this doesn't show up until book two, which has more romance).

A Memory Called Empire (Texicalaan duology) by Arkady Martine

Mahit Dzmare is an ambassador sent to the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire, where she discovers that her predecessor has died. Trying to protect her home, an independent mining station, from being taken over by the empire, Mahit struggles to find out the truth of her predecessor's death while carrying the voice of his ghost in her head, guiding her as best he can. Light on the romance but does feature a sapphic relationship.

The Outside (The Outside trilogy) by Ada Hoffman*

AKA the book the put me in an existenial crisis. Souls are real, and they are used to feed AI gods in this lovecraftian inspired scifi where reality is warped and artifical gods stand against real, unfathomable ones. Autistic scientist Yasira is accused of heresy and, to save her eternal soul, is recruited by post-human cybernetic ‘angels’ to help hunt down her own former mentor, who is threatening to tear reality itself apart. Sapphic main character.

Dawn (Xenogenesis trilogy) by Octavia E. Butler*

After a devestating war leaves humanity on the brink of extinction, survivor Lilith finds herself waking up naked and alone in a strange room. She’s been rescued by the Oankali, who have arrived just in time to save the human race. But there’s a price to survival, and it might be humanity itself. Absolutely fucked up I love it I once had to drop the book mid read to stare at the ceiling and exclaim in horror at what was going on. Queer in the sense that the Oankali doesn't follow human ideas of gender and relationships, which is mirrored in their romantic relationships with humans. It is, however, pretty dark, with examinations of agency and consent, so enter with caution.

Remnant by Kate Genet

One day, Cass wakes up and finds everyone else is gone. Not dead, just gone, leaving her in a world which nature starts taking back with a dangerous, unnatural speed. But as she tries to survive this new normal, Cass realizes she may not be alone after all - but who else is out there, and are they a threat?

The Scorpion Rules (Prisoners of Peace duology) by Erin Bow*

Young Adult. Featuring a dystopian future in which an AI forcibly keeps world peace by holding the children of world leaders hostage. If anyone attempts to start a war, their child will be executed. Greta is one of these children, kept in a school with others like her. But things start to change one day when a new, less obedient hostage arrives. A unique, slowburn take on the YA dystopian craze, also featuring a bisexual love triangle.

Iron Widow (Iron Widow series) by Xiran Jay Zhao

Young adult. Zetian is a citizen of Huaxia, where mecha aliens are constantly trying to breach the Great Wall. To keep them at bay, couples of men and women pilot so called Chrysalises, giant transforming robots. But the pilots are not equal - the women almost always die, sucked dry by their co-pilots. When Zetian sets herself up to become a concubine-pilot, she does so with the plan to assassinate the male pilot who caused her sister's death. Features a polyamorous main relationship.

Bonus AKA I haven't read these yet but they seem really cool:

Survival Instincts by May Dawney

Lynn Tanner has been surviving the post-apocalypse alone with only her dog for a long time, trusting no one. But when she's forced to travel the dangerous remains of New York City alongside another woman, her priorities are challenged. Is staying alone really the best way to stay alive?

These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs

When con-artist Jun Ironway gets her hands on possible proof of the powerful Nightfoot family, controllers of interplanetary travel, committing genocide, she has in her hands a chance of taking them and their monopoly down. But the family and their allies won't go down easily, and sends two brutal clerics to stop her.

Everfair by Nisi Shawl

A neo-victorian alternate history, in which a part of Congo was kept safe from colonisation, becoming Everfair, a safe haven for both the people of Congo and former slaves returning from America. Here they must struggle to keep this home safe for them all.

[eobe]

Hardcase appreciation! The first time he suggested to sneak instead of blowing up everything 😂 He is absolutely on my underrated clones list! I think he is even underrated and not really taken seriously by his own brothers.

I think he is quite smart and just having his issues with impulsivity and his own limitless energy – or maybe he has not and just let it out and enjoys secretly that everybody thinks he can‘t do otherwise 😀

By the way, I saw a Hardcase sneaking in here @hardcase-ct-yolo 🫶🏼 You‘ve got timing! 😎👍🏼

[shadowwingtronix]

"Yesterday's" Comic> Knuckles The Echidna #9

BW's "Yesterday's" Comic> Knuckles The Echidna #9

“This guy has surprisingly sweaty hands.” Knuckles The Echidna #9 Archie Comics Publication (February, 1998) “Dark Vengeance” finale WRITER: Ken Penders PENCILER: Manny Galan INKER: Andrew Pepoy COLORIST: Barry Grossman LETTERER: Vickie Williams EDITOR: J. Freddy Gabrie Also, here’s all three covers from issues #7-9 collected into one image. I don’t mind when these poster covers happen over…

[fangirlforeversthings]

-Watch the clone wars they said...it will be fun they said-

[voxbelicosa]

Traitor war council - some portrait sketches done for an upcoming local Horus Heresy campaign

[tagedeszorns]

All of them.

They are available as stickers/shirts/on mugs/whatever in my Redbubble-shop.