The Antoine and Bunnie Retrospective - 88

“Family Matters” - Sonic the Hedgehog #88

So our heroes finally return home from the Sonic Adventure arc and the first thing they find is King Max raging open warfare on Eggman and Robopolis. 

OK, so this stupid for many reasons. First off, if the mobians had the resources and man power to openly confront and overthrow Eggman, don’t you think they would have tried by now? There was a reason why the various FFs used guerrilla tactics to fight the original Robotnik. And specking of the Freedom Fighters, it’s also stupid to launch a full scale attack without your most experienced and powerful soldiers present. 

But as we’ll discover Max isn’t thinking rationally here because of his concern for his son. Turns out Elias was kidnapped, and the best plan Max could think of to save him was to attack the super advanced city of robots with swords, staffs, and torches. 

Originally posted by helinaanileh

See, I told you nothing has changed since issue #77.  

Anyways, it turns out that the forward attack is to be a distraction for the Secret Service; who is to infiltrate, find, and rescue Elias. (I still think its a dumb idea, but at least there’s now a rational behind it) Sonic and Tails are to join them while Sally stays with her dying mother. Amy’s deemed too inexperienced to fight and as for Antoine and Bunnie…  

This is a perfect showcase of his character development guys. The man who would have looked for any excuse to avoid danger is now begging to join the fight and help others. A fight he can’t attend only because he’s already injured himself while saving others. 

That said though, it makes little sense for Bunnie to voluntarily stay out of combat. She’s the only one with super strength here and would be a major asset to the up coming battle. I understand why she’s not joining from both a story and character standpoint (she wants to be there for Ant in the same way he was for her when she was sick), but it still feels a bit shortsighted. 

 But all this is leading into the crossover story with Knuckles. While everyone else is off rescuing Elias, Antoine asks a favor of Sally. 

1. We’re finally, finally going to follow up on Antoine’s dad, guys! And I know that it feels like forever since we’ve discovered he was still alive, for Antoine it’s only been a few weeks. A little over a month at most and that month has been packed full of shit that’s he’s had to deal with first. 
2. Amy is coming along, because she hasn’t heard from her cousin Rob in awhile. I’m excited because you don’t get to see Amy interact with the other FFs one on one very often. Allowing her to do so helps to integrate her more into the team. (I also kind of find her relationship with Antoine fascinating. You don’t see it touched upon often, but they kind of give off a big brother/little sister vibe.) 
3. Of course Sally waits until nearly everybody has left to have her emotional break down. Because she can’t just open up and tell others that something is wrong, and that she’s not doing well. She knows that her friends are going off to do important things, but I feel like it wouldn’t be too much to ask Ant and Bunnie to stay through her mom’s surgery and lend her some emotional support. I mean it would have only delayed their trip by a few hours and they weren’t under any schedule. And both care deeply for Sally, and had she let them know about all the stress she was under, they would have gladly stayed. Sally’s a martyr of her own making really. 
4. At least Rosie is there, and I sincerely hope that Sally talked to her about everything that’s been going on in her home as of late. Probably not, but Rosie is easily a better parent than Max could ever be.  

Meanwhile Sonic, Tails, King Max, and the rest of the Secret Service find Elias but have to confront a brainwashed Uncle Chuck. Chuck temporarily overcomes his reprogramming only to be whisked away by Eggman before he can fully recover, Sonic goes ballistic, and Max is injured by a swatbot in the confusion. But, hey at least Elias is ok. 

The second story in this issue is the crossover with Knuckles, and because it’s such an important part in Antoine’s character arc, I’m going to cover it in it’s own post. So stay tune for the next episode in the retrospective.