#idw sonic issue 65

[niyana-the-ambiguous-mobian]

I swear, these two are so stinking cute together <3

[rapidhighway]

I'm so obsessed with this issue guess why

[rechicken-and-waffles]

what did you think of that new idw comic with cream and vanilla and the chaotix :DDDDDD

OOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOOHOOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO IT WAS PERFECTION!!!!!

We got: More fun Knuckles and Chaotix interactions, Clutch being great, Cream being great, VANILLA UNLEASHING HER MOM POWERS AGAINST ROUGH AND TUMBLE, a panel that made me cry because of how much I could relate to the struggle of having to do everything perfect to make my family proud, and of course:

VECTILLA AND CHAOTIX SIBLINGS CANON DFGHJKJHGHJKJHGFDFGHGFD

Honestly my new favorite IDW issue, it even managed to surpass issue 48, and while that is also perfection in my eyes, 66 has the added bonus of catering to my very specific tastes so I have to rank it higher XD

[furute]

IDW ISSUE 65 SPOILERS!!!

--

this is basically what issue 66 is gonna be like

[tailsbot98761]

[sonknuxadow]

every time vector calls espio and charmy boys or the boys or something like that im like Omg .... theyre his boys 🥺🥺

[sparkles-rule-4eva]

Remember when Movie!Knuckles asked if ice cream had grapes in it?

[meiloorun-notthefruit]

nothing like resting after a long day by going through every single Adrenaline Dubs IDW Sonic fan-dub. The quality is *chef’s kiss* 👍👍👍👍🫶👌👌👌 and only gets better as time goes on

[tailschannel]

A first look at IDW Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 65

Solicitation

The misadventures continue! It’s Knuckles vs. the Babylon Rogues! They have stolen a relic from Angel Island, so Knuckles enlists the Chaotix to track them down. But the Chaotix have a super important date to keep: dinner with Vanilla and Cream! The pair are busy preparing when they get two very unexpected and stinky visitors…

Cover artwork

Cover A by Natalie Haines

Cover B by Eric Lide

Retailer incentive cover by Nathalie Fourdraine

Attribution

Written by Ian Flynn and Evan Stanley

Illustrated by Mauro Fonseca and Adam Bryce Thomas

[thankskenpenders]

I haven't really been posting about the IDW comics on here recently - the ask box being off means I don't get asked for my Hot Takes every issue. But I am, of course, still keeping up with them. I've been really enjoying this period of shorter stories jumping between a wider variety of characters (including the return of backup stories, finally!!!), as well as the juicy melodrama of Mimic infiltrating the Diamond Cutters. Good stuff with lots of good character moments throughout. And the Amy special was very cute. And the 900th Adventure was fun, even if I did think it was let down a bit by ending on its weakest segment after how creative a lot of the middle segments were.

Unfortunately, despite looking forward to it, I found the new Halloween Special about the Chaotix pretty underwhelming. I'm curious if anyone feels the same way. (read more for spoilers)

It feels very... kiddy-ish? I know Sonic is always for kids, obviously, but the IDW comics have pushed dark and spooky stuff quite a bit between arcs like the Metal Virus and Scrapnik Island, so I guess it stands out that the actual Halloween issue is an extremely low-stakes story about stolen candy without even, like, a cool spooky robot or some ghosts or a haunted house or something. Before long we learn that the villains are just other random kids who came up with a scheme to steal candy. They get a very blunt moral about sharing and not taking things that don't belong to you, really cementing the feeling that it was written for a younger audience than most of the other IDW comics.

The Endless Summer special was also very light in tone and low in stakes, though (even if that issue also had some character development for Jewel that felt like it gave it a bit more meat). Similarly, that special lacked any villains, instead using the Babylon Rogues as a nuisance on the beach and having the heroes make peace with them by the end. So I kind of suspect that these seasonal one-shots are intentionally being written for a younger audience, especially younger kids who might not be following the rest of the comics but might be swayed to buy a one-shot with the words "Sonic" and "Halloween" on the cover. I do feel like new writer Mark Bouchard captured the characters' voices well, though - I really love the exchange between the Chaotix on the very first page - so I'm hoping they can come back and write some more Sonic stuff that lands better for me.

Oh wait no the actual worst thing about the Halloween special is that everyone else gets to have a fun costume (Tails gets an absolutely incredible line about his that I won't spoil)... but Sonic doesn't! No costume for Sonic! He doesn't even get a line about him "going as himself" or anything to acknowledge it or turn it into a joke. I can only assume corporate interfered here.

The main series issue that dropped simultaneously (#65) was very good, though. Many, many incredible Knuckles faces courtesy of Mauro. So it's hard to stay disappointed.

[niyana-the-ambiguous-mobian]

IS HE ACTUALLY EATING ICE CREAM WITH GRAPES??

Holy crap, that is so funny that they included this detail. Man loves his dang grapes.

[bumpsyp1ains]

(slight sonic idw 65 spoilers)

good issue

[scruffyplayssonic]

Are the ArchieSonic comics actually an 80’s/90’s syndicated cartoon? Episode 66: Summary (part one)

Welcome back to my investigation of whether Archie Comics’ Sonic the Hedgehog series was actually a syndicated cartoon from the 80’s and 90’s! Well friends, I finally finished it. My previous post covered the final two issues of what is in my opinion, the quintessential final finale of the ArchieSonic series. I’ve now gone through all 65 episodes of this theoretical syndicated cartoon that ArchieSonic is supposed to be and covered all of them. So at this point you may justifiably be wondering, “Why is this guy still talking? What’s left?” Well you see, a long time has passed since I started this series. My first post exploring episodes 1 - 5 was posted in December 2022, over 19 months ago! Are you able to remember all the stuff I’ve talked about since then? I know I sure can’t! On top of that, this blog has evolved a lot from what I originally planned. I was expecting most posts to just be short write-ups, showing examples of the comics that fit what the relevant cartoon episode was supposed to be, but over time I branched out into regularly doing reviews of full issues. It took me 13 posts to fully explore all of the various ArchieSonic finales, I had that much to say about them! 

If you would like to go back and have a look at any of the previous episodes again, I’ve made up a full table of contents for that. But I thought it was only appropriate to do one final summary, going over every episode of the cartoon and seeing which, if any, ArchieSonic comic issues fit the bill. Due to Tumblr image limits I’m going to have split this into two parts again, but you can find part two here. 

Okay, let’s get started!

Episodes 1 - 5: Origin story. Make it a week-long event. Can sell it later on VHS as The Movie.

Well obviously every story has a starting point. …okay, maybe not every story. IDWSonic’s first issue picks up quite a ways into the Sonic lore, after the end of Sonic Forces. But we’re talking about ArchieSonic, not IDW. I noticed that ArchieSonic both started and ended with part of Sonic’s origin story, as Sonic mini #0 gave us a story showing how Robotnik took over the planet and Sonic joined the Freedom Fighters, and Sonic #290 was part of the Genesis of a Hero arc, adapting the original Sonic games. So for this category I’m picking the original Sonic mini-series, numbered issues 0 - 3, even though it was only four issues instead of five.

Episode 6: Body swap

There were a few body swap stories, some good, some extremely forgettable. I’m picking the one that had the biggest impact on the series, which was “Circuit Me” in Sonic #146. In this story an accident sent Sally’s mind into Nicole’s hand-held, and Nicole’s mind into Sally’s body. Though this didn’t last very long, this issue marked the beginning of an important character arc for Nicole, who would in later issues go on to develop her own body and personality.

Episode 7: Everybody shrinks

There were a few different stories involving shrinking, but only one where “everybody” shrinks. That would be “A Little Sonic Goes a Long Way!” from Sonic #8.

Episode 8: Now they’re giant!

There were also a number of stories involving giants, but I think the one that best fits this category is “Zone Wars: Giant Robotno,” from Sonic Super Special #12.

Episode 9: Fall in love at first sight! Oh wait, turns out she’s evil.

Yup, we definitely got this one. Sonic #28 and #29 featured a story called “Growing Pains,” in which Tails fell in love with a character named Fiona Fox. The catch was that “Fiona” was actually a robot built by Robotnik to lure Tails into a trap.

Episode 10: Uh-oh, someone has the hiccups!

Actually… no. We never saw anyone in ArchieSonic get the hiccups, as far as I can remember. The closest we ever got was this nonsense from Sonic #93.

Episode 11: Parody “A Christmas Carol”

Yup, and in one of the earliest issues too. Shout out to “Sonic’s Christmas Carol,” from Sonic #6.

Episode 12: Parody “It’s a Wonderful Life”

Ehhh… debatable, but I’m going to ultimately say no. The closest we got was Knuckles’ “Afterlife,” story in Sonic #121 - 124, after he died and the goddess Aurora treated him to his own personal, “This is Your Life” episode.

Episode 13: Do a standard adventure, but the hero’s also dealing with a cold

I’m going to say no to this one too. Sonic #38’s “Bedtime Tails,” did feature Sonic with a cold, but he was bedridden rather than going on a standard adventure.

Episode 14: Evil twin

Another yes. Sonic #11’s story, “The Good, the Bad, and the Hedgehog” introduced Evil Sonic, who would become a recurring pain in the butt in the series and later undergo a makeover to become Scourge the Hedgehog.

Episode 15: Robot duplicate

Well, obviously. I’m choosing Sonic #25 for this one, which was the first appearance of Metal Sonic (although he was misnamed as Mecha Sonic at the time).

Episodes 16 - 20: MacGuffin chase! Another week-long, VHS-friendly event

There’s one MacGuffin that dominates all of Sonic media, and that’s the Chaos Emeralds. The characters were chasing after those gems on multiple instances in the comics, including almost the entire length of the post-reboot era, when the Freedom Fighters were trying to restore the shattered world.

Episode 21: Love interest returns. Maybe she’s good now?

Fiona Fox again. Only this time it’s the real Fiona, not a robot duplicate. This one was just as inclined to be violent to Tails as the robot model though.

Episode 22: Explosive case of amnesia and Episode 23: Hero is brainwashed to be evil

Two in one for this story - in Sonic #27 and #28, Sonic lost his memory when he got conked on the head, and was tricked by Robotnik into turning on the Freedom Fighters.

Episode 24: Villain forced to be good

Well there was Sonic #108, when Robotnik came back from the dead and after being hunted down by Eggman, sought asylum with the Freedom Fighters. But I think the better example is from the Sonic X comics, during the instances that Dr Eggman decided to take on the persona of a luchador called El Gran Gordo.

Episode 25: Hero and villain reluctantly team up against a greater foe

Yup, this happened a few times, with Robotnik/Eggman having ulterior motives, of course. Both Robo-Robotnik and Enerjak were considered big enough threats that the Freedom Fighters and Robotnik’s forces briefly put aside their differences to cooperate.

Episode 26: Hero and villain glued/chained/otherwise stuck together and begrudgingly cooperate to gain their autonomy

This happened a couple of times too. Sonic and Robotnik were locked up together by the alien collector Car-Heem, and Knuckles and Monk were hunted for sport by… err, Hunter the Hunter. They were forced to wear collars that shocked them if they were too far apart.

Episode 27: Gain super speed

Obviously Sonic had super speed from day one, but there were a couple of other characters over the course of the series who also gained super speed at one point, either temporarily or permanently. The most prominent case was Mina Moongoose, who suddenly found she could run real fast one day for reasons she (at the time) could not explain.

Episode 28: Stuck in slow motion

This one didn’t exactly happen, but considering that from Sonic’s perspective that being without his super speed is in his mind being stuck in slow motion, I’m going to allow this one. And Sonic temporarily lost his speed in Sonic #38.

Episode 29: Time travel to dinosaur times

Yes, in Sonic #12. It was painful.

Episode 30: Time travel to medieval times

Not exactly time travel, but there was a partial adaptation of Sonic and the Black Knight in Sonic #197. Close enough.

Episode 31: Time travel to the distant year of 2000

Travelling to the future came up a few times, mostly involving Silver the Hedgehog.

Episode 32: Almost halfway through. Time for a clip show!

Sonic #57 served as the mid-series clip show, showing flashbacks to most of the previous issues.

Episode 33: Animal character(s) become human or vice/versa

After the universe got rebooted in Sonic #252, Muttski was changed from Sonic’s pet dog to a sentient Mobian. It was… weird.

Episode 34: Idiot comic relief character becomes a genius

Tails was never exactly an idiot, but in the early issues he was treated a lot more like an incompetent little kid whose inexperience and naivety led to mishaps from time to time. In Sonic #14 he ate a fruit from the Mobius Tree of Wisdom and briefly became a super-genius. While this did wear off, this was later retconned to be the cause of Tails becoming a mechanical genius to rival Eggman.

Episode 35: We’re in space now!

Numerous times. There was even a whole arc of Sonic being “Tossed in Space” and trying to get home to Mobius.

Episode 36: New love interest! They get together, yet she never shows up again

There were a few cases of this. The most memorable is the swan lady Vector was trying to charm in “The First Date,” spanning across Knuckles #26 - 28, because of the horrible art and how obnoxiously sexist Vector was in that arc.

Episode 37: Sidekick is kidnapped

Poor Tails got kidnapped or held hostage so many times during the series. Arguably the most memorable case was in Sonic #86 when Metal Sonic grabbed him and left him tied above a volcano that was about to erupt.

Episode 38: Hero is kidnapped (sidekick gets to shine) 

Yup, this happened a few times in the series. In post-reboot, Sonic was kidnapped by the Naugus twins after rescuing Tails from the events of Sonic 2 (8-bit). Tails allegedly returned the favour and saved Sonic that time, but we never actually got to see the rescue. So let’s go with Sonic #188, when Sally and Amy saved Sonic after he was abducted by a bunch of villains teaming up.

Episode 39: Babysitting hijinks

This happened a couple of times. The most memorable one is from Sonic #22, when Sally was trying to get Tails to settle down and go to bed. Unfortunately, she didn’t have a copy of “Go the F*** to Sleep,” available.

As I mentioned earlier, I have to split this summary into two seperate parts. You can find the conclusion here!

[beevean]

(Silver in IDW-anon again! ^^) So Duo (aka concealed Mimic) is on the cover of issue 67... Not to be pessimistic, but any and all worries I had about Silver not being taken seriously by the Diamond Cutters just got a tenfold worse. Of course, covers always lie and what-not, but I cannot recall any prominent instances that IDW actively lied with their covers about what characters would be in a story. Can't wait for Silver to get mocked and sent away because how dare he accuse the newest well-meaning member of their team of any evil-doing, probably with a smug "It's no use😏" from Duo thrown in there (at least one "It's no use" in either issue 63 or 64. I am calling it, so hard.), presumably also after completely blowing their training by getting all in Whisper's face despite being far more powerful than she could ever hope to be with a Wispon, and with some fake apology to follow up on it all that paints Silver as the bad guy for not talking constructively about his misgivings or whatever.

Yay.

(hello! nice to see you again :D)

Lmao they already wasted their "It's no use" quota in 60, from Shadow. Will they use it again so sof course they will.

But yeah, didn't the blurbs of #63 and #64 already spoil that Silver will make a total fool of himself?

Stuck in the past with no clear directive, Silver decides to spend some time with the Diamond Cutters and their new member. But he’s too busy being star-struck over Whisper to notice that he’s interrupting their training! Elsewhere, Sonic takes Blaze sightseeing so she can enjoy her vacation.

This issue is all about Silver the Hedgehog! First, he's incredibly suspicious of the Diamond Cutters' new member and he jumps to a conclusion that leads him to some hasty accusations. Awkwardness ensues. Then, Blaze comforts Silver as they bond over being away from home and in Sonic's world.

(love the advertising. Yay, it's all about your favorite blorbo Silver! 🥰 Being used as a vehicle for cringe comedy! 🥰 literally, "awkwardness ensues" please my soul is already leaving my body at the thought)

#65 will be about Knuckles and the Babylon Rogues, we still don't know anything about #66, so I wonder how they're going to stretch the Duo arc for so long. I'm inclined to believe that yes, we'll get a whole issue of Silver being seen as a paranoid idiot and being sent off, then Mimic will do his Mimic thing while Surge and Kit try to complete their character arc. Then Silver will have his emotional moment, a Silvaze ship tease moment will ensue, and the day will be saved.

I'm betting money. Who's with me?

[cursed-sonic-opinions]

Unlike the other silvaze shippers, I hated and felt my blood boil at every panel of silvaze ship bait in idw Sonic #64 & #65

In fact, never before I felt so offended by ship bait as I felt in these issues, even considering ships I hate, my fav was used as a cheap distraction to the glaring flaws of that issue just to become an even more glaring flaw at my eyes, I'D RATHER THEM STAYING OUT THE COMICS FOR THE NEXT 60 ISSUES OVER THIS

.

[checkdapinnedplease]

Sonic IDW issue 65 spoilers

DAMN THEY LOOK BADASS HERE (in my opinion).