“Friendly Rogues and Foul Villains” - Sonic the Hedgehog #58
Things we missed out on since last review….
- The Dark Legion
- The rediscovery of Echidnaopolis , along with the brotherhood and Knuckles’ mom
- Dimitri returns but looses his power
- Mammoth Mogul is defeated by Super Sonic, Hyper Knuckles, and Titian Tails and is then encased in the new master emerald
- The real sword of acorn is returned
- Ixis Naugus possess the King and causes riots between the Robians and Mobians
- The real sword of acorn restores the King both mentally and psychically
- A clip show
- Sonic and Tails decide to travel the world and hunt down Naugus
- Knuckles helps his grandfather Athair and the Ancient Walkers (they’re kind of like Mobian gods) with getting a lost tribe of Echidnas home.
Now that that you’re all caught up, this issue picks up on Knuckles’, Sonic’s and Tail’s world quest. While it doesn’t directly involve Antoine. It still impacts his on going story in a big way.
Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and the lost tribe all arrive in the land of Merica. The kingdom is a proxy for north western Europe. Mainly Anglo-Saxon culture but with some Celtic, Gaelic, Brythonic, Roman, French, and even Norse mixed in. Not unlike the real UK.
Sonic, Tails, and the tribe are captured by rouge robots left behind by Robotnik as soon as they arrive. Knuckles, along with another echidna named Mari-An, evade capture and team up with Rob O’ the Hedge. Rob is a very clear parody of Robin Hood and is Amy Rose’s cousin.( He looks just like Sonic only a lighter shade of blue. Which makes Amy’s crush on Sonic all the more creepy IMO.)
Tails is brought to the torture chamber for questioning and Sonic escapes to rescue him. Discovering a very unsettling truth.
I wonder if robotiztion took away his french accent?
That’s right, Antoine’s dad was alive all along. Only robotized by Robotnik and made into his sub-boss for this region.
We get a bit more background info on both Armand and Antoine and a rare look at Ant’s mother, Marie.
According to Sonic, Armand fought in the resistance against Robotnik in the very early days of the war. (which is why Antoine thought that map might mean something important to the cause) Meaning, unlike most of the other Freedom Fighters, Antoine manged to escape to Knothole with his entire family. Only to have his father go MIA on a mission. For years everyone, including Ant, thought Armand dead.
Now to really break your hearts. According to The Complete Sonic Comic Encyclopedia, Marie died for real from an illness not too long afterwards. Leaving Antoine, for all intends and purposes, an orphan.
“Big deal! All of the FFs were effectively orphans in Rosie’s care. And turns out none of the them had truly lost all of their family, not even Antoine. Right?”
Wrong. While true, many of the FFs had little to no contact with their family during the war, (and many would also have long lost parents suddenly show up) they at least all knew that that they had family out there.Rotor had his mom and little brother. He couldn’t visit them often but still had a means of communicating with them. Sally knew her dad was still alive somewhere and always looked for him. Sonic had his Uncle Chuck, though robotized, always knew his whereabouts and had the hope of saving him someday. Bunnie had her Uncle Bo, who she was fortunate enough to grow up with. Who she also left on her own terms. The only exception to this was Tails, who didn’t remember his folks and always considered the FFs and Rosie to be his family anyways.
So unlike the rest of his friends, Antoine had no hope of ever seeing any of his family ever again. He had no one to fight for. No one personal he hoped to save. The only ones close to him were his friends and Rosie. They were his reasons for fighting. The hope that no other little kid would have to go through what did, was his reason for continuing on. Perhaps, more so than any other FF, Antoine had the smallest personal stakes in the conflict at hand and yet the biggest motivation of all.
And while we on the subject of family, Rosie does not get enough love. Not in the comic and not with in fandom itself. She was essentially everyone’s foster parent for ten years. And in Antoine’s case, the closest thing to a mother he has left.
Sonic frees Tails and tries to reason with Armand.
So, unlike the rest of the Robians, Armand doesn’t remember his past life. Did he sustain damage? Did the effects of U.A. not reach this far? Or is there something more sinister at work here? Hmmm……and it’s not just him either, but a whole horde of his lackeys as well.
Tails temperately defeats the general and both make their escape. On the way out they run into Rob, Knuckles, and Mari-An. Though before they can leave Armand orders the execution of one of the tribes leaders. Leading this story into a cliffhanger for our next review.
The rest of book has a big old exposition dump made by King Max explaining the origins of the sword and crown of acorns and we get our first mention of the Source of All.
You know I’m fine with Sword of Acorns being this magic MacGuffin that can heal anything and is a super powerful weapon. But I’ve always felt that the Source of All was an unnecessary, ill defined, and confusing addition to the comic’s mythos. A plot point that never really went any where. But more on that later viewers, much later.
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