So after the victory party, Sonic is given a medal by his friends and then has a nightmare where all of his friends become robots and turn on him.
Turns out its more than just a nightmare though. He’s mind is trapped in a virtually reality similar to the one in issue 16. But this time it’s his worse fears coming to life rather than his dearest wishes.
Fortunately Uncle Chuck builds a machine to reach his subconscious and rescue him.
And then we get this exchange.
Antoine was worried about him and said so! Guys, just a few months ago Ant was willing to throw Sonic in jail. He was vindictive and jealous. Even when worried for his safety back in issue 38 , he would immediately go back to resenting him afterwards.
But here, after the all of the humiliation, coming to terms with his insecurities, and finally finding where he belongs on the team, Antoine finally considers Sonic to be friend not a rival. And more immortally he lets Sonic know that he cares.
The story ends with an ominous prediction over who set the trap for Sonic.
I can’t remember if the comic ever answers this question outright, but my bet is that it was Snively.
“Down and Out In Downunda” - Sonic Super Special #4
So once again I’m going out of order for this retrospective. I don’t know what it is about the Endgame story arc but for some reason a lot of story material was published way later after the story was officially over.
Well, ok, I actually do know why. Apparently Penders originally wrote the story for a 48 page special only to have the executives at Archie/Sega cut the final issue down to 27 pages. Eventually, Penders finally got his original wish with a director’s cut years later.
One of the major edits in the original was to cut Bunnie and Antoine’s role in the story down. They were haphazardly re-edited back in SSS #6, with some good expansions and some others that were not so good. One plot point that was still skipped over, was where they got the bomb to blow up Robotnik’s weapon.
And I have a feeling it was skimmed over again in the director’s cut because of this story. In between the original edit and the special remastered version, Micheal Gallagher wrote a flashback story to cover over the missing plot points in issue #50.
It’s really weird.Not the story itself per-say but how this story came into being. Apparently, Penders didn’t write all of Endgame himself. In addition to his usual collaborators, Bollers and Taylor, Gallgher was brought on broad to write as well.
The reason for this is twofold. First, as is with the various artists in the book, issue 50 was meant to be a last final hurrah. Everyone who was active in the book at the time got a chance to contribute and Gallgher was a pivotal writer for the series for years.
The second is because of Pender’s obsessive hang-ups with sharing characters. Even before the copyrights and trials, Penders expressed the view that he hated people writing for his original characters and working with other’s OCs in kind. Since Gallgher created Crocbot and the D.F.F. he was tasked to write those parts of the story and this story.
He continued stating that he avoided using characters “beyond the core characters established in the original games and animated DiC series in the early 90’s, as well as the settings of Robotropolis and Knothole Village, and a character or two like Lupe and Amy Rose” and “didn’t hesitate to push for killing off Robotnik and fighting to keep him dead.” Later he would add “I don’t consider anything Karl or Ian or any other writer do with the character [Locke] to be official. They didn’t create him, and they didn’t do the heavy lifting of establishing him as a pivotal character to the Knuckles saga
He would later state that “neither Ian [Flynn] or [editor] Mike [Pellerito] know what to do with the characters, which isn’t surprising as I was the only one who really had any idea how everything fit in the total narrative that I was constructing”. He also clarified that he only used new characters from the games when he was ordered to do so, and did not use other writers’ “creations except in rare times when circumstances demanded it,” such as a transition from someone else’s story to his own
While I let you ponder over over the hypocrisy of of those statements, made by someone who’s only known work is with previously created licensed characters in a collaborative medium where he constantly worked with co-writers and co-creators….. I will now review a story that was (for some unknown reason ) published months after it was relevant. In the interests of presenting a clearer version of our main characters’ development.
So we open with the victory celebration at Knothole, where everyone is recounting their personal version of the endgame events.
I spy with my little eye, a Star Wars reference
Bunnie and Twan tell their side of the story, recapping most of the events in StH 50 and SSS #6. But with little expansions here and there.
We get a more detailed account of how Bunnie and Ant escaped the cell. Along with some cute dialogue between the two.
We also see them free the rest of the D.F.F.
Sadly though, we don’t get anymore development for their characters. They are here just to serve the functions of the plot and little more.
We also, finally, finally, get en explanation for where the bomb comes from.
We also see how Bunnie and Ant find out about the bomb’s existence.
Ok two things here. First, Antoine is willing to give up his life to save others. He’s grown so much guys! Look how far we’ve come, from someone who would be the first to jump out of the way of danger to someone who’d knowingly lay his life on the line.
Second, this scene is so much better presented here than it is the SSS #6. Yeah there’s still a big info dump, but it’s relegated to one panel and only provides the need to know stuff. That Robonik has a big bad weapon to wipe out Knothole with. That is all the audience and the heroes need to know. The rest of the page is spent establishing important plot points and character development.
So Antoine and Bunnie set a trap for the combot that has the bomb on him.
Sassy Twan is best Twan!
And then the story just kind of stops….
While it’s nice to see Bunnie and Ant receive recognition for how awesome they are, I’m sad the story didn’t go on to show the rest of their adventure in Robopolis.
Remember this was publish before the director’s cut, so assuming the audience knows what happened to Buns and Ant in issue 50 is terribly misleading cause we never got to see them use the bomb in the original.
We end with a message from the Downunda Freddom Fighters telling of their victory over Crocbot off screen.
The rest of the comic features “The Return of the King” an important story for the Nagus/Robians vs Mobians/King Max’s restoration arcs. Arcs that we haven’t started yet. But since the story doesn’t feature Bunnie or Antoine we won’t be coming back to it. Such is the hazards of going out of order. Something I hope to avoid from now on.
So it’s that time again. We’ve passed another 25 milestone and now I list my favorite things and some not favorite things about the era.
The 2nd era of the comic includes
Sonic the Hedgehog 26-50
Sonic & Knuckles
Sonic Triple Trouble
Tails Miniseries 1-3
Knuckles’ Chaotix
Super Sonic Vs Hyper Knuckles
Knuckles Miniseries 1-3
Sonic & Knuckles: Mecha Madness
Sonic Quest 1-3
Sonic Live
Sonic Blast
Sonic Super Special 1 (& 6)
Major events in this era are…
First new international FF team - StH 26
Introduction of both Nack the Weasel and Vector the Crocodile - Sonic Triple Trouble
First appearance of Fiona Fox - StH 28
Dulcy’s first story - StH 29
Crocbot, the Downunda FFs, and the Walkers are introduced - Tails Miniseries
Uncle Chuck regains his free will - StH 30
The Chaotix is formed - Knuckles Chaotix
The origins of the Floating Island are revealed - StH 34
The 1,000,000 ring is collected - StH 35
The introduction of Enerjak/ Dimitri - StH 35
Archimedes and Locke come forward - Knuckles Miniseries
Mecha Sonic arc - StH 39 ; Mecha Madness; and StH 40
Mammoth Mogul and the Destructix intro - Mecha Madness
The return of King Acorn - StH 41
The Death Egg arc - Sonic Quest
How Robotnik came into power is explained - StH 43
Bunnie and Antoine confess their love - StH 46
The first appearance of the Wolf Pack - StH 46
Geoffrey is first hinted at being a traitor - StH 46
The Sword of Acorn is found - SSS 1
Hershey’s first appearance - StH 47
Robotnik’s death - StH 50 (or SSS 6)
The second era of the book sees a shift from comedic stories to more action oriented ones. All while expanding upon the comic’s mythology and placing greater focus on continuity and story arcs. A wave a new characters are introduced and an effort is made to give old characters more individual focus. Unfortunately, the balance between the old and new isn’t always even and smooth.
Favorite thing about the era: World-building
Say what you want about Archie’s take on the blue blur, but the old continuity had one of the most expansive mythologies and fleshed out worlds that the hedgehog has ever inhabited. Nearly all of the ground work for that is set down here in this era.
Least favorite thing about the era: Less camaraderie between the core FFs
As more characters are introduced and as more plot heavy arcs take precedence; so then the original FFs must sometimes take the back seat. They’re still there and active, but there’s no longer any focus given to their group dynamic. It’s all either stories focusing on only one or two characters at a time.Or everybody is there doing action/plot stuff but no longer interacting as a group of close friends.
Favorite Antoine Story:“The Map” SSS 1 by Tom Rolston
The only story to ever feature Antoine on a solo mission. It’s a thing to be treasured actually. It also highlights the character development he’s gone through in this era.
Favorite Bunnie Story:“Bunnie’s Worst Nightmare”StH 37 by Rich Koslowski
The first story to really address Bunnie’s flaws as a character and to set up her character development for the rest of the book.
Favorite Buntwan Story or Moment: Bunnie confesses her love for Antoine in “Countdown to Armageddon” StH 46 by Ken Penders & Kent Taylor
And thus the greatest ship that has ever existed sets sail.
Favorite Single Story: “The Day Robotropolis Fell “ StH 37 by Angelo DeCesare
I didn’t want to just choose “The Map” again. Therefore it was hard to narrow down to just one story. But “The Day Robotropolis Fell “ is just a very well constructed story that has great tension, real stakes, and near perfect pacing. It’s also one of the best stories to feature Sonic and Sally as a couple for those of you that ship them.
Favorite Story Arc: Sonic the Hedgehog Goes Hog Wild StH 27 & StH 28 by Ken Penders
Sorry Mecha Madness fans, but the ending of that story just was too much of an anti-climatic let down to give it the award. Even though they both share a similar “main hero betrays the team” theme. In the end Sonic the Hedgehog Goes Hog Wild does a better job of juggling the various characters and presenting them all as intelligent, capable, and respected beings. No jumping to conclusions and holding kangaroo trails based off of flimsy circumstantial evidence here folks.
Favorite Artist: Rich Koslowski
While Mawhinney is still my all time fav on the book right now; I want to take this opportunity to highlight a different artist in each era.
Koslowski is mainly an inker on the book, but his pencils on “Bunnie’s Nightmare”impressed me so much that I had to give it to him. In fact I almost mistook him for Mawhinney at first, that’s how good he is. Sometimes it’s the quality someone produces not the quantity.
And that wraps up this wrap up. Be sure to come back next time when we start in on the next era.
“For Whom the Bell Tolls”Endgame IV (Director’s Cut) - Sonic Super Special #6
Up til now I’ve been going pretty much in order of release. However the sixth issue of the Sonic Super Special series is just a retelling of StH #50. Therefore, it made the most sense to cover it now instead of later.
As an extended cut; SSS #6 attempts to add back in missing subplots, flesh out some scenes, and explain some of the more confusing plot points. Including, giving Bunnie and Antoine’s story line more coverage.
For starters, we actually see how they escaped from Downunda and how they got to Robotnik’s headquarters this time.
We also get more of an explanation as to what Robotnik’s ultimate weapon is and what it’s capable of doing.
However, this scene highlights one of the major faults behind this remastered addition. Too much wordy exposition and not enough showing the actual events. For all its faults, the original had great pacing and momentum. While this version does better at explaining some of the more confusing plot points of the original; it doesn’t know how to pace these explanations out and show us the essentials.
For example, this scene didn’t need to be three panels of info dump. In another added scene we saw the actual weapon in action. We the audience already know what it does. So therefore, Bunnie and Ant just needed a quick one or two panel recap. Have them turn on the video of the test footage. Cut to their horrified faces and then bam! Your done.
That is all you need to get the information across. And it would have freed up more page space to show the events that still get skipped over in this version. Like how they know where to get that bomb they use.
It also makes showing this page again unnecessary.
So, later we get an extended version of the scene where our fav couple runs into Sonic.
Just to reiterate, they already have the bomb with little explanation of how they came by it. For all of this issue’s re-edits and expansions; it still has plot holes!
Then we get this scene which is completely unnecessary but uber cute! So I give it a pass.
*Squee!!!* They’ve started to call each other pet names! (Granted that might be because Penders is going back and rewriting their dialogue after having written them as a couple for so long…. but I don’t care! It makes me happy!)
We then getanew version of the final battle. This time, one that features Antoine and Bunnie.
To be honest, I like this version of the fight better than the original. Not just because it features my fav characters but, because it’s simply less confusing. Like the original might have had better pacing, but you understood little of the actual details behind Sonic and Robotnik’s battle. All you knew was that they were out to kill one another. Here there’s more reason for them to try and kill one another.
Also, since we now see Bunnie and Ant set the bomb off this time around, the white out effect of the annihilator going off now makes more sense.
This is just a cool image and I really like it. That’s all.
So Endgame ends with Dr. Quack giving a long exposition dump, Sally being revived, Robotnik being dead and gone for good, and our heroes celebrating their long awaited victory.
If that kiss on the cheek don’t melt your heart; I don’t know what will.
We’re still not fully done with this story; but we’ll come back to it after my next 25 recap.
“The Big Goodbye”Endgame IV - Sonic the Hedgehog #50
So the last issue of Endgame has like a million and one plot points to resolve but not enough page space to solve them in. So a lot of subplots have gotten heavily edited down and it shows.
And possibly the biggest cuts were made to Bunnie and Antoine’s part of the plot.
We hear about an uprising on Downunda off screen….
and, then next thing you know, they’re both in Robotnik’s lair overhearing his grand scheme for world domination.
Only thing is, due to the cuts, we never get a clear idea of exactly what it is he’s planing. It’s something about destroying the world, but we don’t know how he’s going to do it.
Just know it’s big bad weapon and leave it at that.
Bunnie and Ant decide to sabotage the “weapon” with a bomb but, we never get to see them follow through with that idea. Instead the book goes on to depict an awesome, if slightly confusing, final epic fight sequence between Sonic and Robotinik.
Then they just so happen to all be back in Knothole, with little explanation.
In this version of the story, Bunnie and Ant come across as little more than an after thought; with little to no bearing on the plot. In this version, anyways. We will be looking at two other retellings of their story in the near future.
In the meanwhile, issue 50 isn’t a complete bust. For a straight up action adventure story it’s well paced and, even though the subplots get sideline, it keeps the focus where it should be. Which is the final showdown between the main hero and his arch nemesis.
In addition, this last issue of the arc does something really neat and unique with the art. Every known artist at the time got to work on a couple of pages of the story. It really highlights the variety of different styles the book had at the time and the strengths of the respective artists. Even Penders manages to bring up his game and give us some half decent art.
If you have a copy I highly recommend just flipping through it see how many artists you can spot.
Crocbot threatens them all for a bit and then leaves our heroes to worry about their fate.
All in all there’s not much to talk about here. It’s just all set up for the next issue.
However I do have a couple of things to say about the general on going story.
First, Sonic escapes Geoffrey with the help of Dulcy. Dulcy claims to believe Sonic’s innocence because she can magically tell when people are lying. Which is in of itself a lie. Cause if you remember Battle Royale Dulcy wasn’t able to see through the Mammoth Mogul’s lies.
Secondly, Hershey is revealed to be Sally’s true murderer and it’s a convoluted and and unnecessary plot point.
Look, I like Hershey. I like the idea of a well meaning person being duped by the bad guys to do their dirty work. I like this timid person who learns from her mistakes and becomes a strong ass kicking woman. I like her relationship with Geoffrey and the good she brings out in him.
But here, her entire reason of existence is pointless. Draco/Robotnik tricked her into wearing a Sonic costume that has electronic eyes that make everyone look like Snivley. While I’ll accept the the wonky science behind that, I don’t accept that she’d knowingly put on a Sonic costume without questioning why.
Not to mention, all of this could have been carried out by a robo-duplicate of Sonic instead. Robotnik had already successfully replaced the King with one and it’s technology that has already been established for some time now. There was no need for Hershey to be involved in any of this in any way.
“Sonic the Fugitive”Endgame II - Sonic the Hedgehog #48
After the arrest and trail from last issue; Sonic has been banished for being a “traitor.”
Will ant’s plane make it out alive? Keep reading to find out….
Meanwhile, back at Knothole, everyone tries to come to terms with what has just happened.
Remember Antoine did see the the events unfold and,while he doesn’t doubt his own eyes,he’s still hesitant to fully accept what’s going on. Bunnie’s resigned her self to the situation and supports Antoine’s evidence even if he himself doesn’t fully believe it.
While they talk, Sonic’s plane crashes and he escapes.
Well, Ant’s going to be pissed.
Draco, from the Wolf Pack, of all people, is the one to inform the King of Sonic’s escape. Which arouses Antoine’s suspicion.
So keep in mine, Ant’s been in doubt about Sonic’s guilt since the beginning. Despite being an eye witness to Sally’s death, Twan has learned from the events of Mecha Madness that things aren’t always what the seem to be.
For those who don’t know, Draco’s lady friend here is Hershey the Cat. She’s more important to Geoffrey’s development than Twan’s. But since old Geoff and Ant are rivals, she’s still someone to take note of.
So Ant and Bunnie tail him to see what’s up, but then this happens….
Ah, look at her all concerned for her man ;_;
So while Sonic and Geoffrey kick the shit out of each other and, Ant and Bunnie are carted off to who knows where…. Robotnik invades Knothole.
