#pencils: pat spaziante

[shadowwingtronix]

"Yesterday's" Comic> Sonic The Hedgehog #43

BW's "Yesterday's" Comic> Sonic The Hedgehog #43

“Can we talk about this over chili dogs?” Sonic The Hedgehog #43 Archie Comic Publications (February, 1997) “The Dream Zone” WRITER: Ken Penders PENCILER: Manny Galan & Pat Spaziante INKER: Harvo COLORIST: Barry Grossman LETTERER: Jeff Powell EDITOR: J. Freddy Gabrie Continue reading Untitled

[pand1on]

wow Pat Spaziante's pencils is a very welcome change from previous comics. also this is the first issue where Penders is the sole writer credited

[mobius-prime]

138. Sonic Super Special #11 - Girls Rule!

Are you ready? We have not a two, not a three or four, but a five parter this time 'round! This special contains five stories each following a different prominent Archie girl, and to be honest I find all of the stories pretty fascinating. Time to dive in!

Ascension

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Jim Valentino Colors: Josh and Aimee Ray

So I've heard plenty of mixed opinions on this story. In it (it says it takes place just before StH#74, but I feel like it fits better before #73, actually), Sally strips down, and with Elias' blessing watching from the sidelines, wades her way into the Source of All to discover her own destiny.

The controversy comes from the "stripping down" part. Some people feel that this is totally inoffensive, that in the early days of the comic she didn't wear a vest at all and that since she's covered in fur, wearing no clothing is no more inappropriate for her than for Sonic, or Geoffrey, or Dulcy. After all, plenty of other Mobians, both male and female, have been depicted as essentially "naked" barring shoes and sometimes gloves, but it's not like this ever reveals anything objectionable. On the other hand, some people criticize Jim's art for this story, believing it to be too "sexualized," as it does undeniably seem to accentuate her figure with proportions that appear more human than traditionally Mobian, and in future reprints of this story, the artists went back and actually added her vest back in. That move in itself garnered its own criticism, considering the points I addressed before, as well as the fact that they colored her vest blue in all the scenes for some reason despite almost every scene being in sepia tone. Personally, I'm on the side of "it's not a big deal." I won't deny that her "nudity" seems to be emphasized somewhat by the art style, but I honestly don't see that as a problem. It doesn't look "sexualized" to me - instead, how it comes across is that she's being depicted as, well, obviously naked. Nakedness has been a symbol of innocence and vulnerability to us humans for basically as long as our species has existed, across almost every culture throughout our history, and even though taking off her vest and boots hardly exposes anything more than we've already seen on her before, the symbolism is clear - that by taking off her clothing for this venture, she's making herself more vulnerable and open to whatever she may find within the Source of All. Frankly, I think anyone seeing anything sexual within this issue is looking a little too hard, but I'm also of the mindset that nudity in and of itself isn't an inherently sexual thing, so your mileage may vary.

Anyway, as soon as Sally steps into the pool, she finds herself plunged into a series of visions. She first sees herself as a baby, with her mother, safe and healthy, watching over her.

The visions jump forward to her as a small child, walking through the palace gardens with Julayla during the days of the Great War. She asks why wars happen and people fight each other, and Julayla points out a (non-sapient) predator on a tree up ahead, which pounces on a (non-sapient) bird and eats it, the lesson being that in nature, violence is and will always be a part of life, and that right now, the Mobians are the bird and the Overlanders, the predator. Of course, we know that's not quite the case given that the war was deliberately manufactured, but Julayla didn't know that. Sally continues to walk through images from her life, wondering if this is what the Source of All is all about - showing pieces of one's past - but a voice assures her that there is more to it. An image of her father appears, saying that he wishes he could have kept her safe and let her live a happy and peaceful life with her brother and the rest of her family. She questions him why he never told her about Elias, and an image of Elias appears too, assuring her that their father didn't even know he was alive until recently, and that he only kept things from her to spare her any more pain. He notes that the king's actions were all born of love for Sally since she was the only family he had left, and that they should recognize this even if they disagree with his actions, and I think this is very true. I certainly think King Max made some very bad decisions along the way, but you could make the case that he was making those choices for the right reasons. Sally asks if this means he thinks their father is always right, and Elias and the garden melt away, to be replaced with a fantastic array of planets and stars spinning around Sally. An image of her own face, older and crowned with the jewels of a queen, materializes in the sky, informing her that her father, having bonded with the Source in the past, is able to sense the future through that connection. The face thrusts her into the most vivid vision yet - one of horror and destruction.

The vision ends before Sally can see if she and her children escape, or if Sonic survives, and she desperately asks the image of herself as the queen what becomes of them. The apparition tells her that the only way she can find out is if she commits to bonding with the Source - that it's "all or nothing" and if she rejects this chance now, she will have rejected it for good. Sally, upon hearing this, immediately walks away despite the face continuing to warn her of the finality of her decision, saying that she's not willing to know everything that is to come in order to become queen. And thus, she takes control of her own destiny, rejecting her birthright, and emerges from the pool.

I absolutely love this ending. In stark contrast to Knuckles, who is staunchly bound by tradition and his own birthright, Sally instead chooses to reject everything in order to forge her own path through life. It's one of the first times in the comic we've seen a character so entrenched in family tradition and destiny refuse to follow along with it, and I greatly admire her for it. I think this is a story where Penders absolutely did right by this character - it's a hard choice, and a real one, and yet in the end she seized control of her own fate regardless of what her father may think. In addition, this is the beginning of her and Elias really beginning to bond as siblings - after all, it seems like they came down here to the Source of their own volition, without the knowledge of their father - and I love the sibling bond they develop as the comic progresses. They really care for each other and always look after one another, and it's just so sweet. Good on you, Sally girl. You've done well.

Solo

Writer/Pencils: Ken Penders Colors: Josh and Aimee Ray

Hershey and Geoffrey have snuck into Robotropolis on a mission - a mission too delicate for them to carry out together. Geoffrey acts as the lookout and backup as Hershey rappels her way down a wall and into the vent system of Robotnik's headquarters. Her target is a console containing vital information, but as luck would have it, Robotnik is standing directly between her and her objective.

Her words are apparently code for "please set off a gigantic explosion somewhere else in the city," but the plan doesn’t work quite as expected, as Robotnik merely orders some of his troops to go investigate the commotion. Hershey realizes she needs a distraction that's a bit closer, and sets off a small hand grenade through another part of the vents. Robotnik, hearing the noise, finally goes to investigate personally, and Hershey quickly drops down into the room to gather the information she needs from the console.

Well, that's unfortunate, but given that he sacrificed himself to save the others it's not entirely unexpected. Hershey, as revenge, decides to leave a small present behind for Robotnik, the present being an explosive that trips as soon as Robotnik walks back into the room. Take that, asshole!

Lupe and the Wolfpack: Family

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Colleen Doran Colors: Josh and Aimee Ray

Hey, remember this arc? It's been many issues since we saw anything of Lupe and the gang, but they're finally back! They've finally reached the city they once called home, though it's run down and looks abandoned due to the war against Robotnik. It's actually unclear if they're aware of the renewal of the war, or if they've been too far removed from current events due to traveling. Everyone begins to express unease at being in the desolate city, feeling that there may be nothing left for them here, but Lupe insists that if her husband Lobo had had the people abandon the place by choice he would have left her a sign, and wants to search for it before committing to leaving. Before they can discuss the matter further, however, suddenly a gas grenade hits the ground in the middle of the group, and everyone is overcome and passes out. After an indeterminate amount of time, they wake back up, finding themselves imprisoned inside a building. They hear the sound of clanking footsteps down the hall, and initially believe it to be swatbots, but when the source of the noise rounds the corner…

Oh, it gets worse, Lupe! See, the person who captured and roboticized your family is none other than Uncle Chuck, having been enslaved by Robotnik once more. She's so enraged that she leaps forward, screaming at Chuck that he's a traitor and attempting to rip him to shreds, but as her clanmates hold her back Chuck threatens to dismantle her family members if she doesn't comply with hi orders. She reluctantly stops fighting, and is ushered compliantly into a roboticizer, where her own husband pushes the button to finish the deed. However, upon stepping out in her newly-robotic body, Chuck is shocked to see her suddenly rampage once more, smashing the machine and shoving her pack away from their captors, telling them to run. Somehow, she manages to hang on to her own sanity just long enough to save them, but her free will is fading fast, and so the pack has to leave her behind.

I remember when I first read this issue, I was so excited to see the return of Lupe, as I'd grown to like her as a character, and was just thinking to myself about how cool she was when this happened. Immediate devastation upon seeing the tombstone. Because, for all intents and purposes, being roboticized is a kind of death. There's only one known cure - a dedicated deroboticizer - and to be fair, those were only ever included in previous issues to further the immediate plot with no real regard for such a device's effect on the larger storyline. I highly doubt that the new Robotnik would keep such a device lying around considering how easily it could be used to topple his regime, and even if he did it would be under such tight guard there would be no way to access it anyway. So, for now, we say sayonara to poor Lupe - it's small comfort that in the end, in a sense, she was able to be with her family once more.

Upgrade

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: FRY Colors: Josh and Aimee Ray

So Bunnie is having some unexpected problems. One day, she's lifting heavy objects with her cybernetic arm as per usual when she abruptly becomes dizzy and collapses.

She's rushed to Dr. Quack, who in turn immediately preps her for surgery to determine what's wrong. She comes to later in the hospital with her friends surrounding her, worried for her wellbeing, but Dr. Quack enters and makes everyone clear out so he can have a private discussion with Bunnie. He has some very bad news - it turns out that her central nervous system is beginning to reject her cybernetic parts, and that if something isn't done about the situation, said parts could become toxic to her organic body, slowly killing her. He says that he's surprised nothing has gone wrong sooner, and honestly, I'm inclined to agree with him - after all, unlike other characters with cybernetic parts such as Julie-Su, hers weren't even meant to be attached to an organic body in the first place, since she's the fairly unique product of a roboticization process that was interrupted halfway through. Bunnie, horrified at this news, asks Dr. Quack what her options are, and he lays it out for her.

She could simply disconnect her bionic limbs, essentially becoming a triple amputee. She could get a hardware upgrade with custom parts, which would eliminate the risk to her health but make it impossible to ever be deroboticized in the future. Or, she could chance a deroboticization process right now (likely with the same machine used in the Mecha Madness special way back when), but her chances of survival in such a case would be low due to all the modifications that have already been made to her bionic parts. She asks tearfully to be left for a while to consider her options, sobbing quietly in the dark once the doctor leaves her be, and soon Antoine walks in to check on her. She simply asks him if he could continue to love her if she stayed half-cybernetic forever, and he reassures her that he will continue to love her no matter what she looks like or what she's made of, prompting her to tearfully hug him and tell him he's the best friend she's ever had. It's very sweet, especially as we've seen these two grow closer and closer over time, going from mere teammates, to friends, and eventually to lovers. The upgrade begins a few days later, with Nate in charge of the proceedings, and soon she's standing and testing out her new gear.

I have to say, this redesign was sorely needed. Her new limbs look sleeker and more modern, and overall compliment her looks far more than the old bulky design ever did. As she says - she's better than ever, and I'm excited to see how she puts her new getup to use in the future!

Shadows

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Patrick Spaziante Colors: Josh and Aimee Ray

This is perhaps the least exciting of the five stories, but it gives some crucial backstory to Julie-Su and some other prominent echidnas. Apparently, something has been bothering Julie-Su for some time now, and she's finally decided to head out and get some answers. And so, she heads back to her old home - the fortress that had been hidden underground where she first saw Knuckles escaping while she was still a member of the Legion. She wanders the derelict halls, lost in memories of her old routines there, including how Kragok and the Kommissar always seemed to be keeping an extra close eye on her. In the midst of reminiscing, she suddenly hears noises as though someone is also exploring the ruins. She creeps over to where the noises are from, and soon finds herself training her gun on an elderly echidna made more out of cybernetic parts and wrinkles than ordinary flesh and blood. To her shock, he immediately recognizes her, introducing himself as Simon and claiming that he and his wife Floren-Ca raised her as their own daughter and he'd been looking for her for a long time.

In case it isn't clear, Lien-Da is the Kommissar that we've seen before, and one of my favorite villains in the comic. We get into some meaty backstory here which I'll try to summarize as best I can. Essentially, when Kragok and Lien-Da were eight, the Dark Legion hopped through the portal from the Twilight Zone back into Mobius Prime, but doing so quickly made Merin-Da sick, and despite Luger's attempts to restore her to health by taking the Legion back through the portal, she died of her illness. Luger took a couple of years to recover, but eventually remarried to another woman, Mari-Su, with whom he had another child - Julie-Su. Kragok and Lien-Da, now seventeen, were intensely jealous, viewing their father's new wife and child as a threat to their own ambitions. They arranged for Mari-Su to meet her end in a tragic accident, and a despondent Luger handed Julie-Su off to Floren-Ca to raise.

Well, that's messed up. Julie-Su asks why she doesn't remember any of this and Simon says he suspects that after a while, when she was old enough to join the Legion's ranks directly, they performed another mind wipe on her. After the Legion opened the portal a second time, he took Floren-Ca through and they settled on the Floating Island, away from the Legion. However, now that he's found Julie-Su, he wants to take her back to see Floren-Ca once again, and Julie-Su eagerly agrees. Strangely enough, however, this encounter is never explored in subsequent issues, and in fact Simon and Floren-Ca aren't even brought up again until much later. It's a bit bizarre given how this is kind of built up to be a big reveal about Julie-Su's until-recently-unknown past, so unknown in fact that even she herself didn't know anything about it, but all we can assume is that she just went with Simon and met up with Floren-Ca and they had a nice happy reunion and then she went back to her normal business afterwards, because no one really mentions it again. Ah well!

[comicbookcovers]

Sonic Universe #75, June 2015, Pencils: Pat Spaziante

[browsethestacks]

Comic - Sonic The Hedgehog #059

Pencils: Pat Spaziante Inks: ? Archie (June1998)

[waltkneeland]

The '90s Revisited: TMNT Adventures: The Year of the Turtle #3

The ’90s Revisited: TMNT Adventures: The Year of the Turtle #3

Year of the Turtle Chapter Three: Story’s End!

Writer: Dan Slott Penciler: Hugh Haynes Inker: Elman Brown, Phil Sheehy Colorist: Chia-Chi Wang Letterer: Jeff Powell Cover Artists: Ron Lim, Elman Brown, Heroic Age Interior Separations: Graphic Colour Works Production Manager: Caryn Antoniuk Production: Joe Pepitone, Pat Spaziante, Frank Gagliardo Editor:Freddy Mendez

[shadowwingtronix]

"Yesterday's" Comic> Sonic & Knuckles: Mecha Madness

BW's "Yesterday's" Comic> Sonic & Knuckles: Mecha Madness

What Sonic did on his summer vacation. Sonic & Knuckles: Mecha Madness Special Archie Comics Publications (1998) COLORIST: Kyle Hunter EDITOR: Freddy Mendez-Gabrie “Mecha Madness” WRITER: Michael Gallagher PENCILER: Pat Spaziante INKER: Harvey Mercadoocasio LETTERER: Jeff Powell The Chaotix: “Don’t Let The Island Hit You On The Way Down” WRITER: Kent Taylor ARTIST: Harvey Mercadoocasio LETTERER:…

[shadowwingtronix]

"Yesterday's" Comic> Sonic The Hedgehog #39

BW's "Yesterday's" Comic> Sonic The Hedgehog #39

This isn’t what they mean by AI art. Sonic The Hedgehog #39 Archie Comics (October, 1996) “Rage Against The Machine” WRITER: Mike Gallagher PENCILER: Pat Spaziante INKER: Brian Thomas COLORIST: Barry Grossman LETTERER: Vickie Williams EDITOR: Freddy Mendez-Gabrie (more…) “”

[shadowwingtronix]

"Yesterday's" Comic> Tails #3

BW's "Yesterday's" Comic> Tails #3

This looks so much cooler than it does in the comic. Tails #3 FINAL ISSUE Archie Comics Publications (February, 1996) “Southern Crossover” part 3 WRITER/”TAILS TO ASTONISH” PENCILS: Mike Gallagher PENCILER: Dave Manak INKER: Harvo COLORIST: Barry Grossman COVER ART: Pat Spaziante & Harvo COVER COLORING: Heroic Age LETTERER: Mindy Eisman EDITOR: Scott Fulop (more…)

[mobius-prime]

78. Sonic the Hedgehog #50/Sonic Super Special #6 - Director’s Cut

Previous / Table of Contents / Next

Endgame Part 4 of 4 (For Whom the Bell Tolls!)

Writers: Ken Penders, Michael Gallagher, Karl Bollers, and Kent Taylor Pencils: Patrick Spaziante, Manny Galan, Nelson Ortega, Sam Maxwell, Dave Manak, Ken Penders, and Art Mawhinney Colors: Karl Bollers

Oh, yeah! I told you this was a landmark issue! Not only was it the big 5-0, but this issue was in fact rewritten and touched up some time later by Penders himself, into a "Director's Cut" printed in one of the series' Super Special issues! Hence why two issues are listed in this slot, and two covers shown. They got absolutely everyone on board for this one, because remember, they were uncertain if this would be the comic's final issue, so makes sense to go out with a bang, right? I consider the revised version to be "true" canon, since it fixes some issues to align with later continuity as well as expanding on some things that were poorly explained in the original, but for the sake of the analysis I decided to read both side by side and comment on the differences. Some changes are simply minor dialogue alterations and recoloring of certain panels, while others are massive additions and rewrites of entire sections. Let's do it to it!

The original's intro page is once again a recap of previous events, while the Director's Cut contains an opening statement from Penders expressing his excitement to be able to go back and perfect the original story. Say what you will, but I agree, the revision is far better, and I have to give him credit and recognize that yeah, him getting to do something like this for one of his stories really is a treat, both for the writer and for any fans reading it.

We open with a flashback. Julian (referred to as "son of Ivo" in the original and "of the house of Ivo" in the Director's Cut) is running through a swampy landscape, attempting to escape his pursuers, an indistinct bunch of shadows firing lasers at him. He falls into water and passes out, with his pursuers losing track of him… and two spiny figures find him facedown in the mud.

That’s right, Sonic's uncle and father were the ones originally responsible for finding ol' Julian and bringing him back to the king. Jules' kind heart wins out over Charles' more suspicious tendencies, noting that "his kind" - Overlanders, as he calls them - have apparently done some pretty awful things in the past. Well this is all very interesting stuff, isn't it? After all, the comics never went into Robotnik and Snively's species before now. The entire planet has always been shown to be populated with anthropomorphic animals, and yet these two random humans stick out like a sore thumb. Guess we're finally getting some information on how exactly that came to be.

The king gives Julian shelter after Julian reveals how much he knows about his own people, and thus quickly finds himself appointed King Acorn's warlord, commanding his troops in a battle against the Overlanders. How fascinating! Apparently the kingdom, shortly before Julian's coup, was locked in a different war, the Great War (which I think has been mentioned once or twice before now but never elaborated on), which is how Julian rose to power so quickly.

Anyway, all of this turns out to be a dream that Robotnik is experiencing while he sleeps in some kind of weird upright pod. I guess he's just too crazy for normal beds. In the original, swatbots merely wake him up to go about his day, but the Director's Cut elaborates on what exactly his morning entails. Apparently, the swatbots have captured an Overlander for him, and the poor victim's awaiting some "tests."

So wherever these Overlanders are residing (considering we've only ever seen Mobians so far), they knew Julian, but believed him to be dead, and they're familiar with the terrifying figure of "Robotnik." Robotnik is merely mildly amused at the Overlander's confusion and terror, and tests some kind of beam on him, causing him to disintegrate and disappear… oh, boy.

Back on the Floating Island, things begin to break into a fight again, only for Dulcy to get fed up and break things up.

Oh, so now not only can dragons sense truth, but they can't even lie themselves? Again with the eleventh hour superpowers, Kenders! With Dulcy's testimony, Geoffrey is finally convinced of Sonic's innocence, having really no choice, and together they make haste back to Knothole, where the situation has gotten dire. Everyone has been rounded up by swatbots and are being shuffled along to be roboticized. Tails and Rotor make an attempt to sneak away, but no dice with Drago overseeing operations.

In the original, we get a quick cutaway for one page where Crocbot is called by Robotnik and reports that he's dealing with a sudden prison uprising, but the Director's Cut gives us a lot more detail. Somehow, Bunnie and Antoine have gotten free of their collars and detonated Antoine's from a safe distance, making their guard think they've all been obliterated. (How this all went down is actually explained in a future issue - none of these escape from Downunda sequences were included in the original, so a later issue actually went out of its way to explain the whole thing. As a result, even though some detail is revealed here in the Director's Cut about the escape, there are still some blanks waiting to be filled in further on.) The freed prisoners soon find the other three members of the Downunda Freedom Fighters, and they head to the loading docks where Crocbot is overseeing the transport of the ore to Robotropolis. The Downunda Freedom Fighters cause a distraction, ready to get some much-needed payback on Crocbot, while Bunnie and Antoine make their way onto one of the shipping airbuses headed back to their own continent.

Meanwhile, Sonic, Knuckles, and Geoffrey and all his troops have arrived at Knothole, and well, cheers love, the cavalry's here!

While Drago attempts to make his getaway, the Director's Cut cuts away for one page to show Bunnie and Antoine stumbling upon a very interesting video log on board their airbus, in which Robotnik happily rambles on about his new "Ultimate Annihilator, " with which he intends to erase Knothole from existence entirely, followed by conquering the rest of the world unopposed.

Sonic pursues Drago, and in the original, he's knocked out not very far from the commotion by a rock thrown by an angry Hershey. However, the Director's Cut goes a little further. She lures him in by flirting, telling him that "What girl wouldn't want a winner…"

She basically straight up attempts to murder his ass in a screaming rage, which honestly, I don't blame her for one bit. She does indeed end up knocking him out with the rock, at which point Sonic arrives to observe the scene. She sobs and reveals her part in Sally's supposed death, to which Sonic merely replies that she shouldn't blame herself, because "we were all duped." While by now Bunnie and Antoine have arrived on scene (and thus so has the ore Robotnik needs to complete his Ultimate Annihilator), Sonic races toward his final destination - Robotnik himself.

He barely even stops to kick Snively out of his way, with Snively apparently quite determined to stop him from reaching his destination. Hey, what's up Snively? Didn't you want your uncle's plans to fail?

From here, I'll basically just be using the Director's Cut, since the ending sequence was so drastically changed for the better that the original isn't even worth our time. Sonic runs into Antoine and Bunnie in the halls, where they inform him of their plan to attempt to detonate Robotnik's weapon before it can fire. Sonic races to buy them time, but as the pair reach the cannon…

There's still a chance! That was only the initial activation! Come on Sonic, you can get there in time! He races into Robotnik's room with seconds on the clock…

Unfortunately, sometimes, even Sonic's speed isn't enough.

I feel like if there was any moment that Sonic would have let out a precision F-bomb, it would be now. First this kid lost his girlfriend, then everyone he ever loved was wiped out in an instant. Damn, dude…

Things aren't over, though. Bunnie and Antoine plant their bomb anyway, and as Sonic races for Robotnik, an alert announces a catastrophic system crash, with the Annihilator set to explode and hit the war room directly - right where Sonic and Robotnik are standing. Both stand facing each other. Surprisingly, Robotnik isn't even angry. He merely states that he's gotten to see his plans finally come to fruition, and that the only thing he wants now before he dies is to finally kill his most hated nemesis.

And so, as the Annihilator fires, they fight - and the explosion hits them.

We get a full blank white page after this. Just empty nothingness.

Then, a hand shattering through. A torso. Somehow, incredibly, Sonic is alive, and has broken back through oblivion to collapse in the rubble of the war room. As he loses consciousness, voices call out, noticing him and racing to get him immediate medical attention.

He wakes up several hours later in bed, and to his shock, Dr. Quack is there - as well as Rotor. He's in Knothole. Knothole! The Ultimate Annihilator did indeed hit the village, but it didn't destroy it as monitors seemed to indicate - rather, strangely, it catapulted the place three hours into the future, in its own little pocket zone. New zones have begun to emerge all over Mobius as a result of the Annihilator's explosion, in fact. Dr. Quack explains how this happened - as it turns out, Snively was indeed plotting his treachery from the beginning of this adventure, and Robotnik was so caught up in his success that he had no idea. Dr. Quack had watched, as he looked after the crystallized king in captivity, as Snively had made his own little "adjustments" to the Annihilator - causing it to target only the organic matter of Robotnik himself, leaving the rest of the inhabitants of the world unharmed.

And, oh, right, almost forgot. Sally's alive.

Sonic races out of the medical ward to see her, finding her memorial "coffin" in a field, lying undisturbed. He opens it and kisses her cheek, quietly begging her to come back, admitting that he loves her. And her eyes open. The original merely moves on to the final page from here, but in the Director's Cut, we finally get what we shippers have been waiting for this whole time - the Big Damn Kiss.

*wipes tear from eye* And that's it! We've reached the end of Endgame, and thus the end of the comic! Well it's been a wild ride, everyone, but I guess we're - wait, what? There's more? 289 issues more, you say? Well, I guess it's a relief the comic didn’t end here after all! There're so many more loose ends to tie up and explore, new worlds to see… and a new era of the comic to enter!

Seriously though guys, let's hear it for this arc. I know some people who dislike it, but I honestly love it - I think it's one of the most epic, pulse-pounding, action-packed stories so far, and it's really the arc that finally took the comic from still hanging onto its goofy, episodic roots into something really special. Next issue, we enter the third era of the comics, where we get to see everyone explore a freed world, and an end to the war that's plagued them for eleven years. Our Brave New World awaits!

[mobius-prime]

166. Sonic the Hedgehog #98

Sonic Adventure 2

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: Patrick "Spaz" Spaziante Colors: Patrick Spaziante and Nelson Ribeiro

Welcome to Sonic Adventure 2, everyone! Now, you would be excused for thinking that the comic would want to handle such a highly anticipated and ultimately successful game in the same manner as it did the first one, but you would be wrong! I'm going to spoil it for you right now - we only get part of the story in the comics. This one issue used to cover the entirety of the game, and as we'll see this presents some serious problems. But let's dive in, I'll save my rants for after we go over everything.

So our story doesn't actually begin where the previous issue left off. Instead, it begins three months ago, right on the tail end of the previous Sonic Adventure, in fact. The comics never really did address exactly what happened to Eggman in between being chased out of Station Square by Silver Sonic, and returning to Robotropolis. Well, as it turns out, he ended up being chased, somehow, all the way to one Prison Island, where Silver Sonic cornered him and blasted the ground out from under him, causing him to fall down a dark hole. Satisfied that it had killed him, Silver Sonic returned to Station Square to resume its defensive protocol there, but in actuality he had fallen into a secret lab with something very interesting hidden inside…

Now fast forward to a mere week ago. In the dead of night within Station Square, a mysterious figure broke into a top-security vault to steal the city's last remaining Chaos Emerald. Silver Sonic tried to prevent the theft, but…

News of the theft soon reached the desk of the city's president, who mistook the figure as the hero who had defended Station Square from Chaos mere months ago, because apparently in every Sonic canon, no one can ever tell Sonic and Shadow apart, not even Sonic's best goddamn friends. Seriously, at least in the anime it's explained as being a deliberate set-up by GUN to cover their own asses regarding the Project Shadow disaster years ago. I know I've joked before about Sonic being an extremely average-looking Mobian hedgehog which is why he's so easily mistaken for other people, but seriously, Shadow and Sonic's profiles and quill style don't even look alike, let alone their fur color.

That is a very bizarre-looking Rouge. For whatever reason, they decided to draw her a lot in this era with like… claw hands, and I don't even understand where they got that from. In the game itself one of her upgrades is called "Pick Nails" and I guess you could extrapolate that to mean razor-sharp nails under her gloves that don't show up on her low-poly 3D model or something, but all her 2D art depicts her with normal-looking rounded fingertips, so I don't even know. Anyway, the comic goes on about how the president put together an elite task force to track Sonic down and arrest him for his supposed crimes, and now they've finally found him just outside Knothole. Man, if some randos from Station Square could find where Knothole was, how the hell has Eggman not figured it out yet? They pull out actual, deadly rifles and start firing wildly at him, and he dances around cheekily, stealing their guns and taunting them. This ends when they shoot an electrified net onto him, and soon he's handcuffed in the back of their helicopter, being taken to the hidden city. Of course, we know how this goes from here - he breaks free inside the 'copter and bursts out its side, peeling off a strip of metal to use as his makeshift skateboard, because even though this isn't the 90s anymore, it's still the 90s.

We're then treated to a short montage of Spaz's interpretation of City Escape - landing on the streets, surfing down sloped roads, soaping on walkway rails and leaping over any obstacles in his way. Honestly, the action is a bit hard to follow - Spaz is certainly a talented artist in many respects, but I think his decision here to move on from his somewhat simpler designs from before hurts rather than helps, as the action and lines become so chaotic that you have to really concentrate to follow what's going on. There's just a bit too much happening, so that your eyes are drawn all over the place without really focusing on a specific focal point of each image. But anyway, we all know how City Escape ends - with the iconic GUN truck chase!

And that's… it! No, seriously, that's all we get for the actual story of SA2. The final text box invites us to play the game itself to see how it all ends, but there's a number of problems with that, the foremost being that the game takes place in an entirely different canon. We've got completely different circumstances that led up to these events. We've got characters missing - Tails still hasn't been returned to Knothole yet, Knuckles is off somewhere else struggling with his newfound powers, and humans aren't even the dominant species on the planet like they are in the game. This would leave any comic fan with a bitter taste in their mouth, as there's no actual resolution provided and no explanation for how the story will play out with so many of the original players out of commission. Many issues from now, Ian Flynn actually addressed this exact problem and gave a condensed version of events to explain exactly what we're missing, so at least we have that to look forward to in the future. There is one more story after this, and I have additional problems with that one, but let's cover the rest of the issue before I give my final opinions.

As the Shadow Awakes!

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Ron Lim Colors: Frank Gagliardo

So this story actually jumps us back fifty years to see Shadow's beginnings. Professor Gerald, Eggman's grandfather on his mother's side, has been working for a long time on his latest project, which he hopes will see the end of disease and untimely death and even be able to cure his granddaughter Maria's unspecified terminal illness. This project is, of course, Shadow the Hedgehog, who, as an excited and astonished Gerald watches, begins to move inside his pod. The inexplicably-brunette Maria suddenly calls him at his lab, telling him that she can see a military spaceship flying toward the ARK, their space station, and Gerald, in a panic, orders her to come to him. He knows that the military is here to take possession of his project, and believing them to be too simple-minded to understand his intentions for the project, wants to evacuate immediately. He's immediately proven right, as the military men who board the station scoff at the idea that an "old scientist and his crippled granddaughter" could pose any trouble to them as they intend to take the professor's project by force. Gerald sends Maria and Shadow, the latter now out of his pod, to evacuate in an escape pod, but of course, we know how this ends…

I think this is the only Sonic media I can think of that actually directly shows Maria dying. In both the game and the anime, the shot happens offscreen, and Shadow is ejected before Maria actually takes her last breath. I do have a problem with how the scene is portrayed here, however, as a big conflict that Shadow goes through during SA2 is his vast misinterpretation of her last request to him, whereas here she seems to just die immediately without saying another word. The military takes Gerald into custody, and shortly thereafter recovers Shadow from the escape pod, taking them both to Prison Island where they force Gerald to continue his work under their supervision. Gerald, however, is devastated at Maria's death, and thus plans out his revenge in secret under the guise of continuing his work as demanded.

The military eventually caught on to his nefarious plans, and had Gerald executed and Shadow sealed away in suspended animation on Prison Island, where it remained undisturbed and forgotten for the next fifty years. Of course, this is what Eggman found on the island, and now he's poised to use his grandfather's own work to conquer the world. My biggest problem with this story, ultimately, is that it essentially acts as one huge spoiler for the game. Everyone now, almost twenty years on, probably knows the general gist of the story, but this comic was published when it was still very new, and this entire story basically spoils the biggest twist in the game right off the bat. Furthermore, in this story, Shadow literally wakes up, goes straight to the pod, watches Maria - who he knows nothing about - die, and then gets sealed away in his stasis pod for fifty years. There's literally no time for him to even develop a personality, let alone a relationship with Maria, which is the single most important thing in his backstory. I believe this was later retconned, but this is still a huge thing to overlook in an adaption of this game.

But anyway, yeah, that's it. That's all we get for the time being. A few brief glimpses of Shadow, and one whole cameo from Rouge. It will be a while yet before Shadow gets to make his reappearance, since like in the game, at the end of their adventure he falls from space and is subsequently believed to be dead. Honestly, the entire thing kind of gives off the impression that they felt like they had to make some kind of comic tie-in to the game, but didn't feel like interrupting what they already had going with the whole "Sonic goes to high school" thing, which is clearly far more interesting of a story. So they basically went "yeah, something like this happened, but now let's just get back to the real story." It's honestly very weird, so weird that, again, they needed a later fix-it issue to explain everything, but for now, we'll just have to move on.

[mobius-prime]

58. Special - Sonic and Knuckles Mecha Madness

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Mecha Madness

Writer: Michael Gallagher Pencils: Pat Spaziante Colors: Kyle Hunter

Oh boy, time to see what "Operation Last Resort" is! Turns out, it involves a portable roboticizer - the same one, in fact, that partially roboticized Bunnie all the way back in StH#3. Apparently they actually took it with them when they rescued Bunnie, and Sally's been having Rotor fix it up this whole time in case of such an emergency. It even has a built-in neuro-overrider to let the person inside keep… their… okay, hang on. I'm calling BS. You're telling me that this entire time they've had a portable roboticizer which functions normally, lets the person keep their mind, and as revealed later in the issue even comes with a reverse function that can deroboticize any 'bot that it's created? Can you say plot holes? First of all, since this is Bunnie's roboticizer, it should be the simplest matter ever to stick her in it and give her her organic body back. I guess you could fudge around and say, well, there's too many risks since her process was interrupted and whatnot, but the other problem comes with the fact that two different issues now have had this same drama about someone being roboticized and not having kept their normal mind. How different would literally the last issue have gone if Sally, in response to Sonic's request, had said "Well sure Sonic, we have a nearly-risk-free option right here in Knothole Village. With your consent we'll throw you in it and have Robotnik defeated and in prison by lunchtime"? There would be absolutely no risk of him losing his mind and becoming a slave of Robotnik's! Sure it would come with physical risks, but since when has Sonic ever balked at a risk of death or injury before?

Man, the only way we'll be able to get through this issue is if we just pretend there's no plot holes, so I'll stop my yapping and move on. Knuckles comes to, and after deliriously trying to punch several of the Freedom Fighters present Sally kicks him in the back, which makes him recognize her, because I guess she's the only one who's ever kicked him in the back like that. Healthy relationship, guys! They get a bit gaga over each other for a little while, reminiscing on their past together - apparently Sally's father used to vacation on the Floating Island when Knuckles' father was still guardian and before Robotnik's takeover. Really, this issue makes it seem like they have a residual crush on each other, with Sally in particular still being affected by it. Man, Sally, how many crushes can you have at once? I still insist she's polyamorous. Things would be so much easier for her if she could just date multiple people at once. After a bit more discussion, Sally tells him the plan, and apparently Knuckles just cannot wait to scoot his booty into the 'botmaker and get roboticized.

Everyone actually acts quite terrified by using this option, with Rotor even questioning Sally if this makes them "no better than Robotnik." While it's played for laughs with Sally's response of "Et tu, Rotor?" honestly all this makes me think is that these literal kids (none of them is over 18 at this point) are definitely traumatized by all the crap they've gone through in this war. For basically their entire lives, getting roboticized has been synonymous with psychological warfare and death, with only a handful of examples otherwise (such as Uncle Chuck and the people he rescued a few issues ago, but even then that's an incredibly recent occurrence). It's clear they're having a hard time getting over this association in their minds, apart from Sally, who's the pragmatist of the group, and Knuckles, who… well, has spent most of his time away from the war anyway, and thus doesn't have the same fear.

As all this is going on, Tails is the last to evacuate Knothole himself while Mecha Sonic lays waste to all its buildings, and as such is spotted and targeted. He tries to fly away to safety, but it's hopeless. He's still within reach of Mecha Sonic's blasters, and Mecha Sonic locks on… and…

…hesitates! Sonic, you still in there buddy? He seems to be fighting back somehow, even though Robotnik's apparently upgraded his roboticizers since Sally's old attempts to thwart them. Not a problem for Robotnik though, since he has nuclear bombs, apparently! Jeez, man, he's really serious about taking these guys out for good. After a little while, Mecha Knuckles emerges from the roboticizer, and engages Mecha Sonic in battle, conveniently right before Mecha Sonic can tell Robotnik the coordinates of Knothole. They duke it out midair for a little while, until Mecha Sonic eventually hits Mecha Knuckles hard enough to knock him back straight toward Robotropolis, on a direct course for wherever Robotnik stores his nuclear warheads. Mecha Knuckles, determined to take out Mecha Sonic no matter what, grabs him with a magnetic pull, and together, they hit the stockpile.

Oh, boy.

Everyone back home is in tears. Certainly, as confirmed by Nicole, there's no way they could have survived a nuclear blast like that, not even with upgraded robotic bodies. Sally has to take a few moments away from the group to hide her tears. It's pretty damn bleak.

So, turns out that the blast just straight up ripped a hole in the middle of Robotnik's city, vaporizing basically every building in its path and irradiating the crater. This is some serious damage. No mention of the fact that this probably just killed untold numbers of roboticized Mobians who were stuck inside that section of the city, however, because Robotnik then emerges from an underground shelter, straight into the radiation - how messed up is this guy, dude? He drinks motor oil like it's a nice glass of wine, never exercises, and already lives in a city made out of pollution, and now he can just walk right out into the site of a nuclear bomb explosion with no issue? Anyway, he then happens to find Mecha Sonic's mangled body, somehow still barely alive, though heavily malfunctioning. Oh, and Mecha Knuckles is alive, too, so Robotnik gets punched in the head.

Mecha Knuckles isn't doing so hot, but incredibly, he recounts how just before the impact Mecha Sonic switched their places so he would take most of the brunt of the blast instead. Mecha Knuckles heads back to the Freedom Fighters with Mecha Sonic in tow, to Sally's immense relief, and they get ready to deroboticize Knuckles.

Aww, poor Sonic. Literally, he thinks he doesn't deserve to be saved after what he did, despite it not even being his fault. That's some seriously heavy stuff for a fifteen year old, man. Of course, Sally isn't about to take that. Nicole is able to run some tests and confirm that somehow, back when Sonic collected his one billionth ring and went on that crazy drug trip with the Ancient Walkers, it gave him a magical protection around his "life force," which allowed him to keep some of his personality even while roboticized. I don't know how the hell all that is supposed to work, but essentially, she's certain she'll be able to use that life force protection to deroboticize him even without the help of any machinery, since all of Rotor's equipment was destroyed in the attack on Knothole.

Miraculously, it works, and after a few moments, Sonic is back to normal, although suffering from one hell of a migraine and unable to remember anything from his time as Mecha Sonic. At first everyone is quite happy to have him back, but then he sasses Knuckles right out of the roboticizer, who glides away in a huff, and from there things start to turn sour.

Yeah, you didn't think everyone forgot about his supposed disobedience of a direct order, did you? He's handcuffed and marched away in preparation for a court-martial, as he's now suspected of treason! Remember, from Sonic's point of view, this is all he remembers: got denied his proposition, walked away and passed out, woke up in very brief agony before everything going blank, and then woke up again on the floor with a migraine. He has no idea what has even happened these past two issues, and now he's suddenly being dragged away in cuffs. Can you imagine? This poor guy.

Don't Let the Island Hit You on the Way Down!

Writer: Kent Taylor Pencils: Harvey Mercadoocasio Colors: Kyle Hunter

Well, we couldn't have an epic issue like this without a couple of silly "nothing" stories following it, so time to see what the Chaotix were doing while Knuckles was away being a robot and everything. Turns out they're under attack from the "Fearsome Foursome," a random group of Mobians who are apparently just interested in kicking some ass. The Chaotix get slapped around for a little while before regrouping and fighting back.

It goes on for a weirdly long amount of time considering nothing even happens in this story until like, six pages in. All they do is punch each other around. Suddenly, a mysterious figure emerges onto the scene: Mammoth Mogul, a gigantic mammoth with delusions of grandeur. Apparently, he was actually born in prehistoric times, but a chance encounter with a Chaos Emerald granted him mysterious powers and immortality, and as such he declared himself ruler of Mobius while sitting on a throne wearing a loincloth that leaves almost nothing to the imagination. People eventually couldn't take his manspreading on the throne any longer and ousted him as their leader, and so he just bided his time for millennia until the modern day, where he assembled this really weird ragtag team and is now intending to take the Floating Island's Chaos Emerald for his own, since apparently there are absolutely no other Chaos Emeralds for him to choose from on the planet right now.

The Chaotix respond by punching him in the face in unison, and he immediately retreats, insisting he'll be back at a better time. He literally just jumps into a hovercar straight out of the punch and zooms away at top speed while essentially doing the stereotypical villain thing of shaking his fist and yelling "I'll be back, mark my words!" C'mon, man, you're apparently this immortal god-being from prehistoric times and four random dudes slapping you is enough to drive you back? What a wuss.

Eel of Fortune

Writer: Michael Gallagher Pencils: Dave Manak Colors: Kyle Hunter

This story pretty much only exists because Michael has overestimated how much people might care about the Forty Fathoms Freedom Fighters. P.B. Jellyfish encounters Octobot swimming at top speed and tries to stop and fight him, but turns out Octobot, no longer a big bad boss of the ocean, is himself running away from someone even more terrifying - Eel Capone! Yeah, this guy is basically just a big mob boss joke, even getting his own "hired mussel" (geddit? geddit?) to beat the crap out of P.B. His other friends in the F.F.F.F. find him unconscious, and Bottlenose decides to take things into his own hands by beating up Eel Capone in ninja getup, while simultaneously murdering all his lackeys! Wait, what?!

That is cold-blooded, man! No one even makes mention of the fact that Bottlenose just brutally killed like, a hundred sentient beings. They just drag Eel Capone off to "Aquatraz," and then sing a silly, pun-filled song about the battle. Guys, I can't stress this enough, but your friend is now a literal murderer. Just because he was dressed in a ninja disguise while he was doing the murdering doesn't make him any less of a killer. These weren't even roboticized mussels or anything, they were literally just some living individuals who made bad life decisions. What kind of a Freedom Fighter keeps the head honcho alive but murders all the lackeys who were just following orders? Jesus christ.

[mobius-prime]

65. Special - Sonic Live!

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The Last Game Cartridge Hero

Writer/Pencils: Ken Penders Colors: Karl Bollers

*deep breath* …oh boy.

So this issue is kind of infamous for being, well, terrible. At least, this first story is. Even I, usually being willing to put up with a lot of crap from Penders, think this story is just a royal mess. You'll see what I mean in a second.

Anyway, the customary intro page of this issue makes some kind of allusion to Sonic being about to enter some strange other zone that's unlike anything he's ever experienced before. Indeed, the beginning shows Sonic rushing to try to rescue Sally, who's been captured by Robotnik, only to be blasted by energy bolts from behind - which, as we all know from when this exact thing happened to Robotnik in StH#21, just means he'll be catapulted into another reality instead of killed. Which reality is that, you ask?

Ha. Haaaaaa.

Oh yeah. That's right, folks. It's one of these. Kenders actually recruited both his real life son and niece to be photographed and placed into the story of the Sonic comics as actual characters. Luckily this only lasts for this one issue, and they weren't made recurring characters or something, but like, damn. These children are grown-ass adults right now. I wonder what they think of this? What they think of their father/uncle respectively? If they cringe looking back at this, or look back on fondly as a cool thing they got to experience as kids? Side note as well, as I've mentioned before Ken had never played a Sonic game while he worked on the comics, nor did he own a Sega console. That's why, when Steve "dies" in the game the screen simply appears to turn off, and, if you look closely, he's not holding a game controller, but rather holding a regular TV remote sideways. Oh, Ken. Why this? Why?

Well, anyway, Sonic finds himself floating in a strange void seemingly unable to move or see anything, until the faces of these kids start looming in his face and talk about seeing him in the TV as they try to turn on their game. Sonic, worried they're going to try to turn off the TV and I guess strand him in there for longer, somehow reaches out and pulls them in instead.

Great going, Sonic! Now these two kids who have no superpowers of their own are stuck in a dangerous war zone with you. Indeed, this goes as well as you might expect. He and the two kids are able to breach back into Sonic's home zone, where Robotnik has captured the rest of the Freedom Fighters and is planning to launch missiles into space to create… some kind of doomsday device? It's not really explained well beyond "killer satellites," but either way, Sonic doesn't like the idea of this, and so he starts beating up the swatbots in his way. This stops briefly when Robotnik decides to take his villainy to the next level and threaten to shoot the two random innocent kids just because they happen to be with Sonic.

Of course, the swatbots aren't as fast as Sonic, which begs the question of how they even managed to blast him at the beginning of this story in the first place, and he beats the rest of them up and escapes with the kids. He takes them to the control center to shut down the missile launch, which has begun its countdown due to Sonic accidentally knocking Robotnik down onto his launch remote. Great job, buddy!

They manage to shut down the missiles, but just as they do, Robotnik, Snively, Sonic, and the two kids are all pulled into a strange beam of light. Once Sonic and the kids get their bearings, Robotnik begins gloating, since apparently, during the split second between when he entered and when Sonic entered, he contacted a bunch of alternate universe copies of himself and got them to build him a big mech suit shaped like himself. Apparently, they're in yet another strange zone, and Robotnik realizes he can conquer the whole multiverse from here, not just his own version of Mobius. At least… I think that's what he's implying. Honestly, it's so unclear and all the dialogue so scattered, it's hard to even properly tell. Anyway, Robotnik throws Sonic and the kids in a prison cell with several other… humans?

While Robotnik suddenly finds himself threatened by the other versions of himself, not content to be used for slave labor, Sonic has a chat with these people. Apparently, this isn't just any old zone - it's the kids' home zone, AKA, Earth! Now, this definitely isn't our Earth. These guys claim to be the designers of the Sonic games, but for one, they're decidedly not Japanese, and two, there's no mention of Sega at all. Apparently, the concept art for Sonic the Hedgehog in this world was created when they received strange interdimensional transmissions showing images of him, and they decided to make a game out of it. Not only that, but now these video game designers slash scientists have apparently created a weird prototype device that was responsible for sucking Sonic and co. into this world through a strange dimensional link. Yyyyyeah. Go ahead and try to make any sense out of this crap.

Well, anyway, Sonic and the kids notice Robotnik and Snively about to be vaporized by the angry other-Robotniks, and decide to step in and save them from certain death, or maybe just another instance of zone-hopping. Come on Sonic, this is what, the third or fourth time you had an opportunity to let this guy die and have all your problems be solved? How many other people have died in this war because you refuse to let Robotnik be killed by his own hubris? Of course, the swatbots and other Robotniks don’t like this, and so to save themselves, Sonic and the kids need to shut down the prototype linking them to this world. Turns out the way they do this… is through Sonic game cheat codes!

The code recited by little Steve here is actually a real code, something I'm mildly surprised about given Ken's weird disdain for the Sonic video games. It's the level select code for the original Sonic the Hedgehog game on Genesis (non-Japanese version). If you've got a Genesis and a copy of the first game, try it yourself and see. In this world, however, it's apparently the shutdown code for the swatbots, and thus everyone is saved. The game designer scientist guys use the prototype's dimensional link to send Sonic, Robotnik and Snively back to their own zone, and Sonic has a happy reunion with his friends, who have been mysteriously freed from captivity in the meantime.

Oh, boy. Someone needs to tell Kenders that the Sonic games don't actually depict Sonic from the comics. These kids aren't gonna have any idea what the Sonic they were traveling with is up to, because all they'll be doing is playing as a different, more turquoise-colored Sonic, battling some weird dude called "Eggman" and collecting seven multicolored Chaos Emeralds to save a planet that definitely isn't called Mobius. Shame.

The Substitute Freedom Fighters

Writer: Rich Koslowski Pencils: Art Mawhinney Colors: Karl Bollers

So you may be wondering. How exactly did the Freedom Fighters even get captured in the first place, and how did they escape while Sonic and the others were stuck in the "real world"? This story is here to answer our questions! Apparently, while Sonic is just off derping around somewhere else, the others are watching Rotor create a new micro-cam that he can attach to his bandolier, working kind of like a body cam so they can review footage of battles after the fact and learn from them. Fortunately for them, some swatbots immediately show up to let them test out their new invention. Unfortunately for them, they get overwhelmed and dragged back to Robotnik.

Hey, look who it is! Larry Lynx has made his comeback, and he's noticed everyone's disappearance… as well as the ongoing live feed from Rotor's micro-cam. Realizing everyone is in danger, he rallies the first people he sees training - Cyril Eagle, and Sally's old recruits. They team up and fight their way into Robotropolis, Larry using his famous bad luck to make sure the swatbots lose every time, and they're able to eventually find the captured Freedom Fighters and liberate them. After finding Sonic as well, they head back to Knothole, where Sally forms the six of them into a new team, the Substitute Legion of Freedom Fighters, as a backup squad that can continue the fight against Robotnik if the Freedom Fighters are unable to.

This is cute, but it does bring up an interesting point. Clearly, the Freedom Fighters are not always able to win their battles, and it's dire enough that Sally's started forming backup teams. It's not said directly that it's in case the main team dies or is roboticized or something, but we know that's a very real possibility in this war. Makes you wonder how this war was even fought when they were all tiny kids, and if something like this has ever happened before…

Knuckles Quest 2

Writer: Kent Taylor Pencils/Colors: Pat Spaziante

Well, no need to worry about that. Knuckles is at it again! This time, he's found his way to a strange cottage in the forest, and is set upon by a bunch of vicious mythical creatures, most of which he names off and mentions hearing in fairy tales. It's interesting, because as far as I'm aware, none of these are real-life mythical creatures, which means we're getting a tiny bit of lore and worldbuilding regarding the kinds of mythical creatures Mobian children are told about in this world.

Anyway, Knuckles is totally confused about why he's fighting all these creatures that are supposed to not even exist, but eventually reasons that they indeed can't be real, and are magical projections. Once he announces this, they dissipate and he finds himself talking to an old fox wizard, who directs him to continue his search elsewhere. He then reveals that he used to serve the king in his youth, and that his name is…

…Merlin Prower? Any Sonic fan worth their salt knows that Tails' real name is Miles Prower and that "Tails" is just a nickname, indicating that this strange wizard may be somehow related to Tails. Hmm, wonder if we'll ever hear any more of him…?

[mobius-prime]

43. Sonic the Hedgehog #30

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The Return of Uncle Chuck

Writer: Angelo DeCesare Pencils: Art Mawhinney Colors: Barry Grossman

We've spent an entire era with Uncle Chuck being an occasionally-referenced background character at most, but now the comic is finally ready to bring him into play for real. Turns out, Sonic's actually quite self-aware of just how long he's taken to make good on his promise to rescue his uncle, blaming himself for procrastinating and chickening out.

However, turns out something very interesting is happening back over at Robotropolis as he and Sally speak. Robotnik has been repairing the "transdimensional transporter," the same device he used to exile Sally's father into the Zone of Silence at the beginning of the war. He plans to test it out on Uncle Chuck, but due to a mishap, he ends up being sent into the void himself. When he demands Snively bring him back, Snively triumphantly declares his independence, and his intentions to do better than Robotnik and bring the Freedom Fighters' rebellion down on his own, leaving Robotnik trapped in the void. Wonder how long that arrangement will last?

Both of them are so caught up in their own issues that neither of them notice Uncle Chuck on the ground after the mishap, disoriented and confused… and calling Sonic's name!

When Sonic visits the ruins of his uncle's old chili dog stand inside Robotropolis for a little nostalgia and reflection, he's shocked to be offered a chili dog by his uncle himself. Turns out, exposure to the strange, exotic environment of the void during the test let him regain his free will despite still being a robot, and now he's ready to be a perfect spy for the resistance, pretending to still be a slave. Their first order of business is to stop Snively from doing whatever he's doing, because despite his confidence, he's so alarmingly incompetent that even one of his evil plans would be capable of destroying the entire planet. And Antoine's allergic to total planetary destruction, so they have to do something.

Back in Robotropolis, Robotnik, watching and heckling from a monitor, is pissed that Snively has taken to wearing a miniature version of his own exceedingly ugly outfit. Sonic rushes in armed with knowledge from Uncle Chuck's spying, only to be zapped from behind into the void as well. From there, he's helpless to watch as Snively demonstrates his plans on a hapless forest, intending to take a rather horrific scorched earth approach into forcing the Freedom Fighters to surrender. Seriously, who knows how many innocent people were down there in that forest when he pulled the trigger?

Luckily, Uncle Chuck isn't content to be sitting pretty, and fires on Snively's ship from behind in a ship of his own, disabling the thrusters with the help of Sonic, who distracts Snively by eating chili dogs extremely loudly. As a last resort, Snively tries to blow up the plane, intending to send everyone into the void while leaving himself a return ticket, only for Robotnik to drop out of nowhere directly onto his head. Turns out Uncle Chuck freed him from the void knowing he would be intimidating enough to stop Snively, and was therefore currently the lesser of two evils. Sonic is pulled out by Chuck as well, and they return to Knothole while Robotnik beats the stuffing out of Snively for his insubordinations. Another day saved, and Uncle Chuck is finally safe and sound with them once again.

Who Keeps Stealing My Chaos Emeralds?!

Writer: Paul Castiglia Pencils: Pat Spaziante Colors: Barry Grossman

This entire story is rather stupid, honestly. It makes for a poor first impression for Paul, with it being (as far as I'm aware) his first time in the writer's seat and all. Robotnik is pissed that someone is stealing his emeralds, because apparently he just has an entire stash of them somewhere tucked away that we didn't know about? He's seen the perpetrator on his security cameras, but only in silhouette, and thus tasks Coconuts with finding out whodunit.

Coconuts, unfortunately, has been taking lessons from a "certain coyote" - not Antoine, coyote though he may be, but implied to be referring to Wile E Coyote from Looney Tunes, judging by the goofy nature of all his death traps. Predictably, each one backfires and injures Coconuts more and more each time, with the thief continuing to get away. Eventually Coconuts is too messed up to continue, and so he gets sent back to Robotnik in pieces, having not even managed to catch a glimpse of the thief, who turns out to be…

…Bunnie, of all people. Apparently she's just been stealing the emeralds to make literal jewelry out of them for a dance. Bunnie, seriously, what the heck? You do realize how powerful those things are, right? I mean at the very least you better be dismantling those rings and necklaces afterward to use in some Robotnik-defeating technology or something.

This issue ends with a single-page sneak peak of the upcoming Knuckles Chaotix special issue, which isn't even long enough to warrant a spot as a real "story" in this issue, so I'll just show the full thing. It depicts Robotnik staring at a bunch of monitors and basically naming off all the individuals shown on them, rambling about some kind of plan he has all set up. Guess we'll find out what that is soon enough, huh?

[mobius-prime]

66. Sonic the Hedgehog #43

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The Dream Zone

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Manny Galan and Pat Spaziante Colors: Barry Grossman

Are you ready? This issue gives us a lot of extra backstory on the characters and world that we never had before, mostly through flashbacks. We're introduced to Dr. Quack, a duck (as you might have expected) who's here to help find a cure for King Acorn's mysterious crystallization illness. Apparently, the royal family has a history with this guy, as he mentions having delivered Sally at her birth. He acts, well, a bit eccentric, sucking on a lollipop through the entire issue, leading to Sonic humorously questioning if he's "living up to his name" at one point. Apparently, he and Rotor have a plan for the king involving some kind of cellular regenerator, and so with Sally and Sonic there to watch, he fires it up.

Unfortunately, the treatment has no effect, and Sally opts to stay with her father while Dr. Quack leaves to formulate a new plan of action. Rotor and Sonic begin to argue over Sonic's skeptical view of the doctor, and suddenly, the argument fades into a different one, this time between Sonic and… a young Sally?

So here's where, through flashbacks that the king experiences in his delusional state, we get some serious backstory that hasn't been revealed yet. Turns out Ivo Robotnik's real name used to be Julian, and he held the title of warlord under the king. We already knew that he had betrayed the king in some capacity before, but this is our first inkling that he actually held a position of high esteem in the king's court, commanding his military, as well as being promoted to a position as Minister of Science. Of course, he'd only held this position in order to gain control of the kingdom, and with a quick order to Snively to ready his forces, he assumes control of the entire kingdom using his hidden army of swatbots. Sonic and Sally witness this, but being so young, they don't know what to do and run for help from Julayla, who escorts them away to safety. Sonic also makes a comment about it being "like the war is starting up again," which hints at even more yet-unrevealed backstory - what war is he referring to? This issue, as you might have realized by now, also has the effect of rendering issue #0 of the Sonic miniseries noncanon, as in that issue Sonic is depicted as having met Sally after the war against Robotnik had already begun, while here he's shown to have been a friend of hers as a small child, even hanging out in the palace with her.

Anyway, in the present, Geoffrey arrives on scene to find Sally fretting over her father, seemingly able to sense that something is deeply troubling him as he lies comatose on the table. We dive into another one of his flashbacks, where Julian reveals the Zone of Silence to him - apparently, it wasn't just some random zone discovered by him, but rather invented by his mentor Kodos, who was apparently the former warlord before Julian.

With one last evil speech, Julian has King Acorn shoved into the portal, stranding him in the Zone of Silence. As you can imagine, the king is not too pleased with this turn of events.

Poor King Acorn. Luckily, Dr. Quack has returned with a possible fix-it. Apparently he has a device called the Dream Watcher, which allows one person to enter another's dreams in an attempt to communicate with them. Sonic and Geoffrey both volunteer immediately, and putting it up to a flip of a coin, Sonic wins, because this is his comic, we didn't come here to watch Geoffrey hog all the action! Sonic's hooked up to the machine, warned that if something goes wrong he might never wake up again, and plunged into the king's memories. The king, floating in a strange colorful void, immediately notices him and recognizes him as "Sir Charles' nephew," meaning that Uncle Chuck's real name is Charles and he's apparently been knighted in the past. Man, all sorts of juicy tidbits in this issue!

Hey, we finally get to see what Kodos looks like! Some big muscly lion guy who apparently has it out for the king, of course. Despite this simply being a recreation of a memory, Sonic tries to jump in to help, only to be blasted aside by a blow from Feist, a gigantic evil panda who apparently also likes attacking random people and claims to be the overlord of the zone. Man, there's a lot going on in here right now…

Sonic tries to convince the king that this isn't real, just a memory, and he's in no real danger. While it takes a few minutes to convince him, eventually the characters from the memory fade, and Sonic explains everything that has happened in the real world since the king's exile. However, as he explains, the memory begins to dissolve, and Sonic finds himself coming to on the table.

Hooray! Apparently it worked, and the king's mental state is marginally more stable now that he's no longer stuck reliving past nightmares. His crystallization isn't cured, but it has stopped spreading - another victory… for now.

[mobius-prime]

84. Sonic Super Special #2 - Brave New World

Brave New World

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Ken Penders and Pat Spaziante Colors: Barry Grossman

We're in for a long one, guys! I don't think a single special issue so far has contained only one story within, but this issue is a bit special. It doesn't necessarily contain one cohesive story, but rather serves as a stage-setter for the comic's upcoming issues, addressing many smaller plot points and chronicling the first foray made back into Robotropolis after Robotnik's death.

The beginning already gives us a juicy tidbit even though it's merely a recap of Mobius' history - for the first time, we hear about Queen Acorn, Sally's mother! We don't know much about her yet, only that she's considered a casualty of war in the Great War against the Overlanders before Robotnik's takeover. After the recap finishes, we see what's happening in the present - the celebrations are over, and now the Freedom Fighters and all their affiliates are faced with the enormous task of attempting to restore Robotropolis back into its former glory as Mobotropolis.

Woof, that looks bad. Remember this place isn't just polluted with all sorts of nasty industrial contaminants, but actual radioactive fallout as well (from when the bombs went off in the Mecha Madness special, if you recall). They decide to start with the former palace at the center of the city, but are quickly attacked by a Dynamac robot of the same kind as the one in StH #31.

The robot grabs Hershey, Antoine, Bunnie, and Tails in its weird mechanical tentacles, but Sonic confuses it by running fast enough to create multiple images of himself, making it drop its prisoners. While the fight is going on, Rotor discovers Snively hiding behind a curtain and definitely not doing anything evil to control the robot. With Bunnie's help, they take down the robot and snag Snively in a net before he can get away.

With the threat neutralized, Sally heads upstairs to see what her old home has become, having not seen it since she was only five years old. The shock of seeing her home in such a state is clearly overwhelming to her.

The comic interrupts itself here unexpectedly to show us a map of Mobius - yes, the entire thing - but we're going to hold off on exploring that until the end so as not to interrupt the flow of the story. Sally begins divvying up various tasks to her Freedom Fighters to focus on the restoration of the city - things like running water, power, etc. - but Geoffrey is nowhere to be found. Turns out he's on a call with King Acorn, whose condition has apparently improved enough that despite his crystallization, he can speak and even give orders. It doesn't seem like his mental state is really in the best of shape, however…

See, this is the trouble with monarchy, guys. I feel like if he was anyone other than The Almighty King, his words would be dismissed as delusional and bordering on fearmongering, but because he is the king and Geoffrey is sworn to his service, Geoffrey actually appears to take his words seriously, even as Dr. Quack encourages the king to lie back down and rest.

Well, since Chuck is such a radical, let's check on what he's doing right now, shall we? As it turns out, the blast from the Ultimate Annihilator restored the free will of every roboticized Mobian when it wiped out their slavemaster. While the others have been taking care of business up above, Chuck has been looking after all the newly-freed roboticized folk. Now that they can think for themselves once again, however, they have a new problem - they all, of course, want their organic forms back, but Chuck has to break the news to them that that's not possible.

Hey, who are those two blue hedgehog-looking dudes at the bottom of those panels? Jules and Bernie, Chuck calls them…

Meanwhile, Sonic and Tails are out on patrol, making sure the city is free of any more surprises like the Dynamac. They encounter a line of swatbots transporting materials into factories like usual, but they complete ignore the pair, causing them to speculate this is another contingency Robotnik had set up to continue without him in the case of his death. They're interrupted by a sudden cry for help, which they follow to its source.

Sonic attempts to help Penelope get Arlo out of his pickle, but isn't quite strong enough, until suddenly one of the roboticized Mobians, a polar bear that Sonic and Tails recognize as Rudyard, arrives to lift the rubble off Arlo. Uncle Chuck shows up with more of the roboticized people, and then… introduces some familiar faces to him.

Ouch.

Sonic races off in blind fury and grief, despite Jules attempting to explain to Sonic that they had asked Chuck to keep the secret from him, and Bernie sends Tails off after him to hopefully calm him down. Chuck in the meantime takes his entourage to speak to Sally, who happily welcomes them back to sentience, though they seem doubtful that things can't go back to being the way they were before.

On a cliff overlooking the city, Sonic rages as Tails arrives, furious that Uncle Chuck would keep such an important fact from his as his parents being alive. Apparently, he had told Sonic right at the beginning of the war that they were "casualties of war," something which I suppose technically rings true, though it was clearly interpreted to mean "dead" by Sonic. (Hey, is anyone else noticing a weird parallel between Sonic and Knuckles' family situations right now?) Tails reasons with him that even if he had known his parents were alive, that wouldn't have necessarily made things easier for him to bear, as Sally knew her father was alive and it ate her up inside. This cheers Sonic somewhat, the thought that Uncle Chuck only did what he did to protect Sonic because he cares for him, and together they head back into the city.

That evening, Sally is sitting and watching over the work her people are doing and remarking to Nicole that it would perhaps be easier to abandon the city and rebuild elsewhere, and as Nicole reassures her who shows up to agree with the computer but Geoffrey? He sits next to her to chat, but Sally notices his attitude and finally speaks up about their potentially blossoming relationship.

At least he takes it well! And at least Sally is finally moving on to someone more her age… Of course, at that moment Sonic shows up, and all he sees is Geoffrey acting like he's about to kiss Sally, so naturally he tackles him to the ground and they each begin attempting to tear the other to shreds in a jealous rage. Sally is for some reason not happy with this turn of events at all, so she gets Bunnie and Antoine to hose them down with a high-powered fire hose, and forces them to shake hands while they glare at each other and whisper through clenched teeth a promise of a later rematch. These two have a really healthy relationship, I feel!

That night, Sally uses Nicole as a sort of video call portal to her father, and we find out that apparently, she's not the one really issuing all the orders here - instead, her father is relaying commands to her that she then carries out under the guise of her own leadership. She's incredibly uncertain about the ethics of lying to her friends about the situation, even though Nicole reminds her it isn't the first time she kept secrets (referring to her secret about Knuckles), and she falls asleep alone and lonely.

The next day, Uncle Chuck hits her with some rather shocking news about the roboticized citizens.

It seems maybe they aren't ready to rejoin society yet after all, unfortunately. The issue ends with one last note on Snively - he's been sent to the Devil's Gulag, which is apparently being run in the same way that Winterhold runs its prison system, with prisoners stranded in their cells on the island and guards only coming to check on them and provide food and water once a week. Geez, man, aren't the people running this thing supposed to be the good guys? That seems incredibly inhumane… Snively isn't pleased with his new living situation at all, and vows quietly from within his own cell to strike back when the time is right. On a side note, we actually see the exact same sign that I pointed out all the way back in StH#18, the one at the entrance to Robotropolis. It's been changed for the new situation, with the "R" in Robotropolis crossed out in favor of an "M", the population of evil doctors changed to 0, and the "0 living beings" changed to "many living beings," which is honestly a really cute way for them to take back their own land. The bit mentioning how many robots there are is unchanged however, which means we really are dealing with over four million roboticized citizens recently having regained their minds and wills. Guess we'll see how that plays out in the future…

Okay, time to take a look at this map of Mobius we've been provided!

I always found it rather funny when fictional planets have to set themselves up to look vaguely like Earth. The Sonic games did it, Steven Universe did it, it's a strangely common trope. I went ahead and checked the scale provided, and my earlier statements about Mobius as a planet being comparable to Earth hold true; it's about the same size as our own planet. As you can see, almost everything relevant takes place in Not-North-America, with Mobotropolis and Knothole being situated in a general area analogous to Texas or perhaps Oklahoma. A lot of the noted areas in the legend are just references to old issues, but some are quite interesting. For example, the Floating Island apparently takes a sinusoidal orbit around the planet - it probably looks a bit less dramatic than that considering this appears to be a Mercator projection map (which means that the size of landmasses further from the equator are inflated), so the path is probably much less curved than it appears here. Quite interestingly, there's a section on the east coast of Not-North-America labeled "Overlander Territory" - we knew already about the Great War between the Mobians and the Overlanders, but now we actually get to see where they've apparently been residing this entire time. There's a few locations labeled for places we haven't seen yet (I'm not sure if this is because they were planning ahead for future issues, or if it's because this issue, despite chronologically taking place now, was published later), such as the Mysterious Cat Country and the Kingdom of Mercia, but the one that stands out most to me is the "lethal radioactive zone" located in the equivalent of modern-day Mongolia. There's no note yet on what exactly caused this area to be lethally radioactive, and I genuinely can't remember if it's addressed specifically in future issues, so I guess we'll just have to see!