The Antoine and Bunnie Retrospective - 51

The 25 Recap - 2nd era

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.