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Fractured Mirror - Part Three: Shattered- Sonic Universe #27

This issue is mostly one big fight scene, but one very notable thing happens here that raises a lot of questions.

We start off the fight with the Freedom Fighters defeating the core zombies one by one. Then Enerjak steps in and we learn that his main motivation is that he's just bored and looking for entertainment. He's been toying with the FFs for his amusement, but now that Silver is on on hand he decides that he doesn't need them any more.

Therefore he starts to take them out, starting with this zone's version of Bunnie. 

 

So it's been subtlety hinted through out the arc that this version of Bunnie is in a relationship with this zone's version of Bean the Duck, of all people.

They're seen holding hands and helping each other out in the background of several panels, and here he sacrifices himself to try and save her, while she calls him 'darling'.

Meanwhile this version of Antoine is never shown to really interact with her and doesn't show much reaction to her getting hurt beyond just a general sense of worry for his comrades and the situation.

Of course this just raises thousands of unanswered questions.

If they are alternate timeline versions of our Bunnie and Ant, then why are they not together? Why dump Antoine for fucking Bean? Why wouldn't Antoine have more of reaction to her death, even if they were exes? 

 

It just doesn't make any sense to think of this zone as a divergent timeline from the main story, simply because the characters don't behave in a logical way given the point when the break would have happened.

Antoine and Bunnie were already married by the time Knuckles became Enerjak. They've been through hell and back to find one another again. You're telling me a little o' apocalypse would break them up? You seriously expect me to believe that Bean could woo Bunnie away from Ant?

Bean!?

Yeah, no. I'm not buying it.

Granted, a dedicated fanfic might could do something interesting with that premise, but shoved into the background of a separate arc without any previous set up, it just doesn't work.

 

The other fan theory is that Scarlett and Cutlass are really alternate versions of Belle and Jacques, Bunnie and Antoine's kids from the future.

Which makes a little more sense, as Jani-ca is a major character, and is there's a lot of references to the Mobius XX Years Later arc.

However this idea does beg the question of why doesn't Cutlass have more of a reaction to his sister's death, and who the hell procreated with Bean? 

Which is why I prefer the theory that this is an alternate dimension altogether, more similar to Anti-Moebius than the various future timelines we've come across so far.

In addition to Silver's line above, there are other things to back this theory up. Like everyone having different names, personalities being slightly off (Sally wearing a fancy gown, Bean being sane, ect), and physical differences like Fiona being the cyborg of the group while Bunnie has all of her limbs.

Granted, given the time-skip you could probably come up with headcannons for all of these changes to fit them into the prime-zone timeline, but for me, it's just easier to assume this is a world where Bunnie and Ant never got together and had completely different lives to the ones in the main timeline. (Which means this is yet another AU where I ship Sally & Ant)

Next issue we'll touch upon the origins of the Dark Mobius.

 

 

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Fractured Mirror - Part Two: Warped Reflections - Sonic Universe #26

Guess who's back my bad bitches and reviving this retrospective from the grave!?

I last posted a review way, way back in May of 2019 and now here it is May 2025!!! It's been six years!

I know. I know.

I can't believe I'm still here either. But while I'm here, I would like to actually finish this series before I die so let just jump right on in to the next issue.

Silver has followed the alternate Vector from the previous issue back to his world where he meets the rest of the alternate Chaotix. . 

Those aren't suits though. These Chaotix are hard-light constructs made from removing the very souls from their bodies. So basically they're brainwashed zombies that can't be permanently destroyed. If you kill them they just reform.

I can't decide if this ups the tension or not. On the one hand they're a constant reoccurring threat that can't be gotten rid of easily, but on the other hand the emotional turmoil of fighting your friends and family is somewhat stunted as they can't really be hurt.  

Silver is rescued by Jani-Ca and this world's version of the Freedom Fighters. Which included alternate versions of Bunnie and Antoine.... maybe.

So there's some debate if the characters here are alternate universe versions of the main book's characters, older versions of the main characters in a bad future, or the descendants of the mains in an alternate timeline.

What makes things so hard to parse out is the fact the very comic itself can't decide the difference between an alternate timeline and different dimensions. The rules fluctuate to fit whatever story whichever writer is telling at the time.

Then there's the issue of making Archie Sonic characters actually look older. Like Jani-Ca talks about her trip to the past from issue 106 and says that she was younger then, but how much younger I couldn't tell you as she doesn't really look any different. And that might be an older Fiona Fox over there with graying hair or she could just be her future daughter who happens to be blonde.

Now add in the fact that everyone goes by different names (even though code names wouldn't serve any functional point in this instance) and the slight behavioral differences from certain characters and yeah... I've no idea.

I personally favor the 'it's a different dimension idea' and will present my evidence for this as we go along, but the comic heavily implies an alternate timeline with the idea that the split happened when Knuckles became Enerjak. 

 

Speaking of whom, Enerjak's kind of boring as villain isn't he?

I mean we care cause he's Knuckles underneath, but otherwise he's pretty generic. Making grand speeches about his power and showing off but not having any real goals to work towards.

Like yeah you subjugated the planet, but why? What did that gain you? What is even the point of fighting anymore? What are you trying to keep beyond power for power's sake? 

 Anyways we'll do more of deep dive into fan theories and head cannons in the next issue. See ya then.

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Fractured Mirror - Part One: Through the Looking Glass - Sonic Universe #25

Sometime ago I decided to cover all of the alternate versions of Bunnie and Antoine that appear through out the series. We get some possible alternate versions in this story arc, (sorta, its not made very clear) but they don’t appear in this particular issue. However I feel like I need to cover the initial set up for the arc before we move on. 

In the future Silver is training with Mogul when they sense a strange presence. 

Well which is it? An alternate timeline or another dimension? The comic has always been a bit shaky on the differences between the two despite the fact that they’re treated as two completely separate things. And this story line does not make anything clearer. I’ll talk about this as we go further along, but the story keeps hinting that we’re dealing with an alternate future but a lot of little details undermine that idea. 

Anyways the intruder is revealed to be an alternate Vector. He picks a fight with Sliver and the Guardian Edmund. We also get confirmation that Edmund is Lara-Su and Argyle’s son. Tying Silver’s future to Mobius Years Later once again. 

The Vector double escapes back to where he came from and Silver follows. There he fights more alternate Chaotix as a mysterious figure watches in the shadows and we get the big reveal. 

Yeah so this is Kunckles as Enerjak. This is the Dark Future that Jani-ca (StH 106) is from. One where Knuckles stayed evil. According to the Sonic wiki this is meant to be a divergent timeline, that everything was the same as the main comic up until the end of The Green Knuckles arc. However, I don’t fully buy that theory as there’s just too many things that are, well,“off” for that to add up. 

My first piece of evidence that this is really an alternate zone, like Anti-Mobius, is Sally up there wearing a formal gown. That doesn’t look like something our Sally would wear. Certainly not when there’s an on going threat of a mad man like Enerjak running around. 

And we’ll see even bigger incongruences as the story goes on. 

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“In Service to the King” Parts I & II - Sonic the Hedgehog #219 & #220

So while these issues don’t feature our two leads, I can’t really skip over them as this story is far too important to upcoming character developments for the both of them. 

Here lately Geoffrey St. John has been the center of some controversy within the Archie Sonic fandom. I’m not here to talk about that, but it’s nothing new concerning this particular character.  

Geoffrey has always straddled the line between jerky-hero and shady antagonist. Swinging between being a rival and a comrade in arms. However, unlike say Knuckles or even Shadow, Geoffrey would never really cement a friendship with any of the main cast. Nor would he warm to fans of the book. He has his supporters, but how much of that is due to Flynn’s take on the character is up in the air. 

For you see this is the story where Geoffrey becomes a full blown villain. 

No-Longer-”King” Max has completely lost his marbles and orders Geoffrey and Sonic to help him regain the throne. Geoffrey suggests getting a chaos emerald from the special zone to humor the former monarch and to keep a powerful MacGuffin handy.   

With Sonic’s help they do succeed in obtaining the the stone, only for Geoffrey to seal it and shoot Sonic in the back while at it. He then delivers the jewel to Ixis Naugus, calling him “master” and restoring his powers. 

I’ve seen both praise and criticism for this plot twist, and I can see it both ways. I mostly enjoy the concept but there are a few lapses in logic and presentation that somewhat undermine it. But I’ll get into that more as we discuss the upcoming story arcs dealing with the fall out. 

In the mean time enjoy these Antoine and Bunnie cameos. 

Antoine is not happy when he hears of his rival’s latest shenanigans. He’s probably telling everyone “I told you so!”right now. 

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“Thicker than Water” Part Two - Sonic the  Hedgehog #218

I had a hard time reviewing this one. I think I talked about everything I wanted to talk about in the first part already. From here on I’m just summarizing. 

We pick back up where we left off last issue. Sonic and Bunnie fighting. But because Ian is actually smart and respects the characters, there’s no long drawn out melodrama. 

They’re already discussing the problem while throwing punches and they come up with a solution together fairly quickly. 

An awesome solution that plays up their characters and team dynamic. Sonic and Bunnie is a really under used and under appreciated team. 

Unfortunately both the Sandblasters and Uncle Bo cotton on to what really going on and move into fight. 

Just more evidence that Bo disproves of Antoine. A plot point that’ll sadly go no where but can be useful to all ya’ll fanfic writers out there. 

Bunnie and Sonic then team up to fight the Sandblasters. 

And did I mention how awesome a team they are? 

Or how great a villain the Sandblasters make? 

I love this dynamic where the “heroes” are the real villains and the “bad guys” are the ones who are noble. It’s a great dichotomy that really shakes up the book.  Also Jack is just the right amount of nasty and petty to be a great rival, not a big bad, but a personal thorn in the heroes sides.

Well I say Uncle Bo isn’t one of the abusive parents in the book, and he isn’t, but he isn’t above verbal insults when angry either. As I said he’s complex. He’s not evil but neither is he a paragon of virtue. 

Take special note of how he uses Bunnie’s married name as an insult. He’s not just expressing his disapproval of the D’Coolette’s and the Acorns here.  He’s actively belittling the person who Bunnie has chosen to be.

Bunnie has struggled her whole life with accepting herself. She’s ashamed of her past. She feels awkward in her own “skin”. She’s afraid of becoming the living weapon that Robotnik originally designed her to be.  ect. That name she choose to share is attached to the one person who has helped her the most in combating these insecurities.

 And there in lies the core of the Antoine/Bunnie/Uncle Bo conflict. It’s not just political. It’s Bunnie having to choose between the man who accepts her, loves her, and supports her for who she truly is and the man who raised her, who loves her like a daughter, but can’t move past the fact that she has a mind and identity of her own now and isn’t simply his “little girl” anymore. 

And it’s true. Bunnie still hasn’t “chosen” a side yet. Sadly she’ll never will due to the reboot. But it’s a fascinating conflict that adds a lot of depth to her character. And just to show that, while flawed, he isn’t Max levels of dickery, Bo calls her by her new last name when saying good bye as a way of apology. Acknowledging who she is now while still not fully supporting her decision.  

And speaking of Max, the story ends on this bit of foreshadowing. 

Looks like we’ve now got to deal with Antoine’s rival coming back. Goody. 

PS. Do you think Bunnie ever told anyone about how her parents died? I would think she’d at least tell her husband but who knows. 

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“Thicker than Water” Part One - Sonic the  Hedgehog #217

Finished KH3 and now I’m back with one of the best Bunnie stories ever written.

The story opens up with Sonic and Bunnie throwing down. 

This is of course a bit of opening action to get the readers intrigued as we flashback to the events that led to this moment.

Turns out the Sandblast Freedom Fighters sent out a call for help and, due to their past run-ins with them, Bunnie and Sonic were chosen to go. Though Bunnie’s not happy about it, as well she should be. 

If you recall back in issue 119, Bunnie was captured by Jack Rabbit, the leader of the Sandblasters, and forced to fight a bunch of Robians to the death. The events there and in this issue pretty much makes Jack the closest thing to a arch-rival she has in the pre-reboot.

Soon Buunie and Sonic are separated when the Sandblasters “mistakenly” attacks them. 

This leads to Bunnie being “captured” by the local Dark Egg Legion chapter. And Sonic agrees to help the Sandblasters fight them in order to get her back. 

Meanwhile back with Bunnie we meet …..

Uncle Beauregard! 

Her uncle was first mentioned way back during the Mecha Sonic arc. It was at first just an off-color joke about the American Civil War, which Flynn has decided to turn into a bit of mythos for the comic. 

So according to the The Complete Sonic Comic Encyclopedia, The Southern Baronies were a colony of the Kingdom of Acorn and most there-in resented the rule of the monarchy. There’s no details about how the Acorns treated the Baronies but given that Bo calls them “the oppressors” and the fact that King Max is a Grade-A-Jackass, one can assume that they wren’t always treated fairly.

Also according to Flynn, Bunnie first ran away from home when Bo told her about how her parents died. Fighting for the Overlanders against the Acorns during the Great War. This actually revels a lot about Bunnie as a character.

First her tendency to just run away from her problems is yet again reinforced.

Second it explains why she was living by herself back in issue 3.

And last off it kind of explains her reason for dreaming to be Sally’s hairdresser specifically and why she’s so loyal to the Acorns despite being raised otherwise. She’s ashamed of her family’s past and wants to at least distance herself from it.

Which is why not having her and Antoine present during the Prower’s uprising was such a missed opportunity. Does she fully agree with her husband on the Acorn’s rule or is she able to see the other side’s point of view given where she grew up?

Also while the dynamic between The Baron and Antoine could be potentially interesting, both caring for the same woman but being on opposite sides of a conflict,  I’m more interested in where Bunnie stands. We don’t ever really her thoughts on the matter. She dismisses the argument here and we never get back to it, which is a shame. 

Regardless though, Beauregard proves to be one of the most interesting and complex parental figures with in the comic. He’s not abusive nor manipulative, like Max, Locke, or Rosemary. Neither is he the wise heroic father figure like Jules, Armand, and Wynmacher. He’s flawed. He’s fighting on “the wrong side”. He has his prejudices and his fair share of mistakes. But he’s also kind, caring, considerate, and is at least tryingto do what is right by those he protects. 

I would have love to see where this character progressed as the comic went along but sadly the reboot and Penders stole him from us. 

Originally posted by tellsatanyoulovehim

Anyways Bunnie agrees to help out her uncle and this leads back into the fight we saw at the beginning of the story. 

Which naturally ends in a cliffhanger.

The back up story introduces Vanilla and Cream though, so they’re now officially in the comic. 

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Family Matters and Future Tense - Sonic the Hedgehog #215 & #216

So here just a quick run down of a few events that’ll become more relevant as time goes on. 

“Family Matters Part 1″ StH #215

Rotor’s herd is brainwashed again and he comes out of retirement to save them. It’s the first time we see the ‘Iron Rotor’ suit. 

Nicole builds a exoskeleton suit for Rotor to fight in, allowing a work around his injured back. Make note; it will appear again. 

“Future Tense Part 1″ StH #215

Meanwhile, Silver is still hunting for the traitor in the far future. He hits upon the idea that it might be Rotor while researching in an old library. But the big take away is that Silver’s future is indeed connected to Mobius XX years later as we see images of the Future Freedom Fighters everywhere.  

Did they have a hand in fighting whatever destroyed Mobius? Was it even after their time? What did Lara-Su do to earn a statue of herself? Like, not even Sonic or Knuckles have one of those lying around in any of the futures we’ve seen so far.  If the apocalypse is post Mobius XX Years Later than why bother going all the way back to Sonic’s time fighting Eggman? What would the traitor have to do set those events in motion decades after their initial betrayal? Especially since things seemed to be fine and dandy, all thing considered, when we last saw the Future FFs. 

Look, I know we never got to see The Traitor arc play out like Fylnn wanted. and we’ll never see the answers to a lot of those questions; but like there’s a real disconnect between the Years Later series and what eventually happened in the main story. So much so that I’m struggling to see how they were ever meant to fit together. 

Also the library here is important. Remember it. 

“Family Matters Part 2″ StH #216 

Anyways long story short, Silver comes around to Rotor and helps him free his herd. Also Sonic and the Arctic FFs are there for some reason. They don’t really do anything useful. They’re only there because Sega demands Sonic’s presence.

However the part we’ll be focusing on is at the end of the story when we get a prologue for the next arc we’ll be covering in the retrospective.

(I really like Bunnie and Twan’s outfits here.)

  “Future Tense Part 2″ StH #216

And to finish everything off we get an epilogue with Silver where we meet the guardian Edmund. 

He says he’s over a hundred years old giving us a hit of a time frame. But as I hate the idea that the Guardians are near immortal with every fiber of my being, I’m going to choose to believe that he’s exaggerating.   

Also the Ark from Sonic Adventure 2 is here. I guess that was meant to tie together with the traitor arc somehow. 

Originally posted by proceleon

And then we see that Silver has another teacher and it’s…..

DUN, DUN, DUUUNNN!!!

Not that this plot point will amount to anything… because Fuck Penders! 

Anyways be sure to tune in next time when we start in on a Bunnie centric arc. Whoo Hoo!