The Antoine and Bunnie Retrospective: October 2016

Friday, October 21, 2016

The Antoine and Bunnie Retrospective - 100

Thank Yous, Dedications, and Announcements

So I’ve made to the 100th issue of Sonic the Hedgehog and any sequential comics published there in for this marathon, and I have to be honest I never once thought I’d get this far. I’ve done long running marathons before but I’ve never finished them for one reason or other. Mainly because of lack of motivation or from getting fandom burnout. But this retrospective is still going strong and I have plans of quitting now.

And all this is thanks to you my loyal readers. I want to give a big thank you to everyone who has ever read, commented, liked, reblogged, lurked around my blogs, or followed me for my reviews. Your support matters a lot to me and helps to keep me going. And if you’re just now joining me, welcome. :D

Hear is a shout out some of my regulars…

I apologize in advance if I missed anybody. There’s just so many of you guys. It utterly blows my mind that so many people give crap about what I have to say about fictional characters! You guys are awesome!

Now for a special dedication.

I want to give an extra special shout out to @shewhowantsmouseears

A few months ago, and by a few I mean like half a year ago, I stumbled upon a great in depth breakdown of Antoine D’Coolette’s character development over the coarse of the comic. Her “Antoine D’Coolette Master Post” is what inspired me to reread through the comics again and to look back at both Bunnie’s and Antoine’s development with a more analytical eye. She’s the one responsible for the long ass marathon we’re going through today. So be sure to check her out. And you can find and read her master post here….

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Now for the announcements part. I’ll be taking a short hiatus from the retrospective for a few weeks. I have some really stuff I need to do and I want to focus on my other marathon that I’m co-currently running this month. I’m hoping to finish my Month of Scooby-Doo review series by November the 2nd so I’m going to buckle down on it instead for awhile. So ya guys later.

Thursday, October 20, 2016

The Antoine and Bunnie Retrospective - 99

The 25 Recap - 4th Era

We’ve past yet another 25th milestone, so you know what that means dear readers….

The 4th era includes…

Sonic the Hedgehog 76-100
Knuckles the Echidna 29-32
Sonic Super Specials 10-15

“The more things change the more they stay the same” seems to be indicative of this era. Eggman/Robotnik returns, the Freedom Fighters are back in action, and the comic is compressed back down to one single book as it originally started out. Yet the era remains distinct from others due to it’s larger cast, more serious drama, and longer story arcs that bleed into each other.

Major events of the era are….

Mina Mongoose is introduced - StH 76
Bunnie gets new limbs - SSS 11
The Freedom Fighters are officially reinstated - StH 78
First appearance of Chaos - StH 79
Amy Rose is magically aged up due to wishing on the Ring of Acorns -StH 79 & 80
Introduction of Big the Cat, Froggy, Gamma, the hidden City of the Ancients (aka Station Square), and the mysterious Cat People StH 80
Meet Tikal - StH 82
Finale battle with Chaos - StH 84
The return of Metal Sonic Mark 1 (aka Shard) -StH 86
King Max is inured and paralyzed and Queen Alicia is revived - StH 88 & 89
The Floating Island is sent to another dimension - SSS 14
The Sword of Acorns is stolen - StH 90 & 91
Green Knuckles is born and Antoine is reunited with his father - StH 90
The Overlanders return and Hope is first shown - StH 92
Elias is appointed king, and Geoffrey shows his true colors - StH 93
Sonic goes to school - StH 94
The origins of Finitevus - StH 94
Tails is hinted at not being the “real” Tails - StH 97
Introduction of Shadow the Hedgehog and first appearance of Rouge the Bat - StH 98
Green Knuckles travels back through time to save the floating island - StH 99
The love triangle between Mina, Sally, and Sonic kicks off - StH 99
The Sword of Acorns is recovered and the Robians are freed - StH 100
The deaths of Kudos, Uma Arachnis, and Nate Morgan - StH 100

Favorite thing about the era: Bunnie and Antoine are made predominate again

As much as I loved the precious era, it gave very little focus to Antoine and Bunnie as characters. This era however brings them to the foreground, makes they actively participate in the adventures, and gives them individual stories. If it wasn’t for this era they very well might have faded in the background forever.

Least favorite thing about the era: The cracks in the facade are beginning to show

“The devil is in the details”, is a favorite saying of my former sequential art teacher. Never is that more true than here. While there is a lot to recommend about the era, there’s also a lot of real nitpicky annoyances scattered throughout as well; continuity plot holes, redundant characters and ideas, inability to keep track of magical mcgiffins, forced drama through miscommunication, and ever increasingly compressed story telling that ruins the pacing. Things that on their own wouldn’t be so bad, but together add up to make the book a chore to read at times. Basically the rot’s starting to set in it it shows.

Favorite Antoine Story: Negative Relations StH 88 - StH 90 by Ken Penders

While this story didn’t focus on Antoine as much as I would have liked, it did push his story forward and gave him more development in way that we haven’t seen since the late 40s. And the scenes that do focus on him and his father are phenomenal.

Favorite Bunnie Story: “Upgrade” SSS 11 by Ken Penders

Arguably the single most important story involving Bunnie and her character development. I would be sorely remissed to not give it this spot.

Favorite Buntwan Story or Moment: Antoine promises to be there for Bunnie no matter what, “Upgrade” SSS 11 by Ken Penders

When handing out these awards I don’t normally like to repeat stories, but this scene is just too important to ignore. This is the point in the comics they where go from just being a couple to being soulmates.

Favorite Single Story:“Changes” StH 79 by Karl Bollers

Like “A Brave Ne World” before it, “Changes” is a reflective episode that takes the time to focus on the characters, their personal dilemmas, and lay out the new arcs that’ll happen in this era. I really enjoy stories like this and while it’s perhaps a little shorter than I would like its still a very fun read.

(To be honest “Upgrades” came very close to taking this spot as well, but I felt three awards would be unfair. I gotta spread the love ya know?)

Favorite Story Arc: Sonic Adventure StH 79-82, SSS 13, StH 83-85 by Karl Bollers, Ken Penders, and Justin Freddy Mendez-Gabrie

It was a toss up between this and Negative Relations. Both story arcs have their pros and cons and both suffer from too many characters and side plots. However, clocking in at six issues plus an epilogue, Sonic Adventure just has more room to breathe as a story and it never loses sight of where its emotional focus should be.

Favorite Artist: James Fry

Fry has a lot of fluidity in his movement and dynamic staging to his action, even when the characters are just sitting/standing still. Especially when he’s paired with an inker who has a good grasp on line weight. While stylistically the shift to more a anime-esk design isn’t to my personal tastes, I can recognize good work when I see it. Also Fry arguably draws the prettiest Bunnie.

So that’s it for this recap. Stay tuned for a special 100th episode coming up.

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

The Antoine and Bunnie Retrospective - 98

“Reunion” - Sonic the Hedgehog #100

So issue 100 is a little different from the other event issues I’ve covered so far. Most milestone issues either are a special one shot story or the conclusion of some grand story arc. “Reunion” and the backup story are neither of these things. Rather they are the very middle of their respective arcs. This story is the climax, while the resolution for the arc will appear in the next issue kicking off the next era.

Therefore what makes issue 100 an event and not just because it’s number 100? Well the sword of acorns is finally recovered, the robians are freed, and four people die. Three of which are named recurring characters.

First there’s some random dude that Eggman kills while experimenting on him. It’s a pretty intense scene.

For some reason the robotization process on Overlanders renders them completely immobile and fully brain dead so they’re statues of corpses in essence.

The second to die is Uma Arachnis. She had apparently been poisoned by the toxic air in Robotropolis. Which is why she had stolen the sword in the first place, because it’s known to have healing properties.

Kudos, after getting his butt kicked by Bunnie and Antoine…. (the only worth while thing they’ll contribute to this issue. Their important scenes in this story arc are during the next issue, which is why they’re here now)

Battle couples are the best!

As I was saying, after Kudos gets his ass handed to him, Sally straight up murders him! Well, a possessed Sally does anyways.

Yeah, it’s heavily implied that the sword is controlling her to some degree. However it’s not all the time and she’s back to her usual self by the next panel. The way she slips in and out of her possessed state makes it harder for her friends to catch on. Like, she’s been acting weird and all secluded from everyone for weeks now, so they don’t know whats going on.

The last person to die is Nate Morgan. When everyone heads to the city to free the Robians he nobly stays behind to let down the force field that’s trapping them but in doing so allows Eggman to put the robotic Midas touch on him.

It’s for the best really. I’m one of the few that’s fairly ambivalent towards Nate. I don’t hate him, but it was obvious from the get go that he was a redundant character, only there to replace Rotor and Uncle Chuck as the smart guy, as they went missing for much of this era. (Even though Tails by this time had been established as the “smart guy” in the games and this could have been the opportunity to introduce that element into the comic, oh well…) But they’re both back now and it’s high past time Nate left. Having him be a heroic sacrifice helps, for me at least, to be little more accepting of his previous existence.

The back up story features Green Knuckles joining the “dark side” in order to save the ones he loves. Once again it’s far less exciting than it sounds.

We will continue with this arc after my usual 25 recap, and a special 100th issue of my own, so stay tuned, folks.

Saturday, October 15, 2016

The Antoine and Bunnie Retrospective - 97

“Blow by Blow” - Sonic the Hedgehog #99

So here we have the final lead up to the 100th issue. The last stones fall into place and our heroes come together to take down Eggman,…. sort of.

You see the Freedom Fighters have been split into two teams for this arc. Not cause it makes any sort of sense to do so strategy wise, but because of, you guessed it, unnecessary love triangle bullshit!

Sally has finally snuck out of the castle to see Sonic. Who just so happens to be training Mina at that time and, she just happens to choose that time to make her move on him.

This is all so stupid, I swear! You can’t make everyone likable by making them all oblivious non-communicative jackasses. When writing a triangle someone either has to be a deliberate asshole or needs to be an unrequited love. There is no in between here. At least one, if not all, parties involved need to be aware of each other and their established feelings/previous relationships, otherwise everyone winds up looking like a idiot.

Case in point. Mina is an idiot for trying to kiss someone without ever indicating her affections to them before hand nor asking their permission to be kissed. I don’t care how unsexy, unromantic, or awkward it maybe; don’t ever kiss someone that you aren’t in an established relationship with without asking them first or at the very least telling them outright that you have feelings for them. I am so sick and tired of seeing female characters get away with non-consensual sexual behavior all because they are female. If you drag Locke or Geoffrey for this bullshit then don’t you dare give Mina a pass for it either.

Sonic is an idiot for not talking things out with neither Mina nor Sally. All he had to say was, “Sorry I’m already in a relationship, but we can still be friends if you want.” It’s as easy as that. He also should have run over and explained to Sally what happened. And don’t give me “she was in disguise” bit. It was a dumbass disguise that barely hid who she was, and even then, Sonic should have told her what happened as soon as he was free and able to do so. Even if he didn’t know she was there to see it happen. It’s called being honest with your partner.

Sally’s an idiot for not confronting both of them over what happened, right then and there. She and Sonic have been officially dating for over a year now. Seeing him kissing another girl, after not seeing him for two months, is enough to for her to be concerned. But not enough for her hang her head and cry and not go kick his ass. I can’t believe that take charge Sally, meditating peacemaker Sally, take no shit from anyone Sally would just stand there and not do anything about what’s going on. Oh wait, I do believe it, cause Sally has become a martyr of her own making. A person who refuses to just talk about her problems and must regally suffer in silence. *gag* I blame Max.

Anyways, Kudos escapes the hospital he was imprisoned in. Presumably to hunt down Uma and the sword of acorns. Sally recruits Tails and Rotor to help track both down.

Sure, Sally, sure…you just keep telling yourself that.

Meanwhile, Nate Morgan, asks Sonic’s help with freeing the Overlanders from Robopolis. Turns out the air over there is toxic and they could all die even if Eggman doesn’t kill them outright. Sonic in turn goes off to recruit Antoine and Bunnie for the job. Where we find out what Ant’s been up to this whole time.

First things first, Oh thank goodness Bunnie’s out of that stupid ass outfit! Her hair is still in that mid length style, but the artist manages to make it work, so I’m ok with it.

Secondly, poor Twan, all his friends are off at school have adventures and all he can to is helplessly watch his sick papa behind bars all day long. He must be so lonely and distraught.

The story ends with everyone setting off to accomplish their tasks and a cliffhanger where Kudos is about to attack Sally, more on that next on the retrospective.

The second story has Green Knuckles travel through time to stop the Dark Legion from sending the floating island into another dimension. It sounds more exciting than it actually is.

The Antoine and Bunnie Retrospective - 96

“The Messenger” - Sonic the Hedgehog #96

So this story does have Bunnie in it, and she does help out plot wise, but its very minimal because this is actually yet more build up to the event issue that they have every 25 issues. But since we will be covering that story arc, I thought it pertinent to cover its prelude.

So a bot attacks the school. Sonic tries to get everyone to safety while Bunnie fights it.

But as it turns out, said shadowbot was reprogrammed by Uncle Chuck in order for him to communicate with Sonic.

Chuck informs Sonic of what we the audience has known all along, the sword of acorns does indeed restore robians’ minds and the fact that Eggman no longer has the sword in his possession because Arachnis stole it.

But Geoffrey comes in, shoots the robot before it can finish delivering the message, and then proceeds to tell Sonic to keep his own nose out of the investigation.

Geoffrey has been becoming more and more dickish through the latter half of this era. So much so, that it’s implied that it’s secretly him that’s keeping Sally isolated from her friends.

One has to question why though. It can’t be because of jealousy, because he and Sally ended their relationship long ago and on good terms. Plus Hershey is now being set up as his love interest. It also can’t be out of petty spite neither. Geoffrey and Sonic aren’t the best of friends or anything, but they did bury the hatchet just a few months back and at least respect one another now.

No, I suspect it’s due to his political motivations. Without giving too much away, I hope, Geoffrey is a double agent who actively hates the monarchy. He’s working from within to bring them down. My guess is he’s trying to bring a wedge between Sally and her brother, by further exacerbating their dysfunctional family.

Max is obviously abusive, and for a time, Elias and Sally only had each other to turn to for help. By keeping them separate, by tricking Elias into continuing Sally’s abuse, and by playing upon Sally’s own desires to rule, he is no doubt hoping to start a power struggle between them.

It won’t work though because he’s misjudged their priorities, but it’s an explanation for all this evil bullshit.

Anyways Sonic’s all bummed out cause he still’s “grounded” and isn’t allowed to be a hero. His friends come over to cheer him up, and….and…

… and I’m sorry but I just can’t ignore this stupid design any more. Who the fuck thought this was a good idea? It’s so fucking unbalanced, too busy, with such a clashing color palette, and based off an age old hillbilly stereotype. Ugh! And that hair style is not flattering in the least.

And it’s never more obvious than when someone other than Fry is drawing it. Today’s artist is Nelson Ribeiro, and he’s not bad, not by any means. He has a few wired quirks, like how he draws lips sometimes, but it’s not bad. But he can’t rescue this design. No one can, save perhaps Fry, and even then his take on it isn’t as good as his other renditions of Bunnie’s previous designs.

Anyways, Sonic mopes around a bit before deciding to get off his ass and find Uncle Chuck and the Sword of Acorns on his own. This leads into two other stories that I won’t be covering but here’s a brief summery…

Issue #97 - Sonic becomes “The Streak”, and unnecessary superhero identity for someone who’s arguably already a superhero.

Issue #98 - A brief one issue adaptation of Sonic Adventure 2. I’m sure why we got half an era’s worth of Sonic Adventure 1 that incorporated the entire comic’s cast and then only half an issue’s worth of recap of it’s sequel with only Sonic and Shadow present, but there ya go.

The second story this issue is the continued fight between Green Knuckles and Turbo Tails. It’s alright.

Saturday, October 8, 2016

The Antoine and Bunnie Retrospective - 95

“Enemy Mine” - Sonic the Hedgehog #95

This issue is mainly set ups for later stories; Snivley returns, Tails goes missing, and Sonic and Bunnie team up on a solo mission for the first time since what seems like forever.

I usually love Sonic and Bunnie’s team ups. I think they complement each other really well and it’s always nice to see her interact with someone other than Antoine on occasion. Unfortunately this particular outing has a few problems.

First there is, for some unknown reason, a heave focus on narration text from Sonic. It’s really unnecessary and quite distracting after awhile.

The audience already knows all this shit, or at least can infer it from what we see on the page. I guess I should be grateful; at least said narration is written coherently and isn’t a Frank Miller knock off. *shudders*

The second problem is the fact that neither party accomplishes anything. They both leave the city without further investigating why Eggman hasn’t killed or robotize everyone, nor do they attempt to convince anyone to leave with them.

Once outside Robopolis, they stumble upon Kudos and Uma Arachnis fighting each other. They join the fray only to get their asses handed to them both.

I…I don’t know weather to laugh or cry? The dialogue acts like this is something super serious, yet the way Bunnie gets hurt is so cartoonishly over the top. And it’s all made worse by Sonic’s overreaction to the event afterwards.

Jeesh, this is bad. For one thing, Bunnie wouldn’t just blindly follow Sonic’s orders. She would stay and help him out weather he wants it or not. The other problem is that this doesn’t really show off you’re hero in a good light.

I understand what Bollers was going for; Sonic’s been under a lot of stress lately and blames a lot of the bad things going on currently as being his fault, so he’s being over protective here. It’s the execution that’s all wrong. No one stops to talk about the problem, no one communicates effectively, no one sets Sonic straight, and worse of all Sonic goes and fucks it all up yet again shortly afterwards all because he couldn’t just say, “hey I’m worried about you.”

The only way I can accept this scene is if Bunnie is storming off, rightly pissed at him, going “fuck you” under her breath and giving him the finger as she walks off screen.

Also, not only is this redesign bad, but they can’t even keep it consistent anymore. She somehow lost her shorts during the battle and regained her organic arm. :P

After Bunnie leaves, Sonic tries to fight Kudos on his own, gets beat up and has to be rescued by none other than Arachnis.

So just to reinrate, neither Bunnie nor Sonic accomplish anything heroic, nor do they progress the plot forward. They were only here so Arachnis could save one of them in order to set up her redemption arc that comes later. And even then both of them apparently wasn’t needed at all.

The second story this issue is the further adventures of Green Knuckles. Only this time it involves Tails and, going against received wisdom, it’s pretty good. There’s a least actual stakes and emotional consequences that the cover story lacks.

I can believe it Knuckles, and so can most of the audience. Shame you’ll never learn from this experience.

Thursday, October 6, 2016

The Antoine and Bunnie Retrospective - 94

“New Order” - Sonic the Hedgehog #94

So we’ve time skipped ahead two months now and many things have changed. Knothole has been expanded into an actual full blown city, while the Overlanders are living in Robopolis. Eggman has lead them to believe that the great war is still going on and that the Mobians are dangerous to them. But the biggest change, regarding the on going story, is that a new school has been built and Sonic and company are expected to go.

Everyone save Antoine that is, who is now considered a legal adult. Issue #90 stated his age was 19 in the fan letters, meaning he must have had a birthday very recently if he was still 18 during Sonic’s 16th birthday.

Sonic is complaining about this cause he has no chill. I can just imagine the argument this would cause between him and Ant. He’d berate Sonic for being ungrateful, a normal school life is something he missed out on due to the war. Sonic in turn would be jealous of Twan’s freedom and be all confused as to why high school and boring homework would be such a big deal to him.

Also losing his knighthood apparently stripped him of his status as Freedom Fighter and solider all together and he now no longer is allowed to leave knothole at all. Do I smell a stinking skunk some where around here?

Also Bunnie playing video games with Rotor is so cute. He really needs to interact with the other members of FFs more often.

First day of school rolls around and we get the first major redesign for Bunnie since her new limbs; “Daisy Dukes Bunnie.”

I can’t say I’m a fan. The style was already a dated southern stereotype back in the early 2000s when this was released, and there’s a lot wrong with it in pure design terms; from the unbalanced color scheme to the covering up of her more unique character features. The artist Fry here , is one of the few people working on the book who manages to make it look half way decent. But I’ll be doing a more comprehensive break down of all of the Freedom Fighters various character designs over the years later in the retrospective.

Also who thought it was a good idea to have hip-hop Rotor here?

Jeez, Bunnie, who pissed in your cornflakes this morning? Mina has done nothing to you nor Sonic. And you can’t even claim that its because she’s Sally rival, because she hasn’t said anything to Sonic nor anybody else about her feelings, and Sonic in turn doesn’t treat her any differently than any other friend.

Love Triangles; making people dumber since the dawn of literature. Even those who are not directly involved and should probably just mind their own business.

The comic ends with the reveal that Sally won’t be tending high school with her friends. The same Sally who hasn’t been seen in six weeks and hasn’t been allowed to go out of her house and join missions. Restricting your access to outside influences and relationships is yet another sign of abuse. Good gosh, why has no one tried to help this poor child yet? Why comic?

The back story this issue is yet more misadventures with Green Knuckles.

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

The Antoine and Bunnie Retrospective - 93

“Crime ‘n Punishment” - Sonic the Hedgehog #93

Bunnie and Antoine are back, with Armand in tow.

And still no mention of where Amy Rose is or how she’s to get back.

Sonic and Nate fills them in on what they missed out on while gone.

Sonic stole the Sword of Acorns from the king, which got stolen by Eggman. Unbeknownst to Sonic, it gets stolen from Eggman by Uma Arachnis who gives it to Kudos. Only to steal it back from him in today’s issue.

Said sword can cure Robians of their brainwashing and Uncle Chuck now has his mind back and is working as a double agent again.

King Max the Douche is paralyzed from the waist down. He decides to appoint an unwilling Elias as acting king. Everyone thinks this is a bad idea and believes Sally should be in charge cause she has the most experience. They even say as much, but only behind the king’s back. The only person who goes along with all this bullshit is Alicia, who, having just awoken from a coma, is pretty oblivious to what’s going on and how her children really feel.

The Overlanders who fought during the great war are back from space and they fall for Eggman’s obvious trap. Due in part to their prejudices of Mobians and because Monkey Khan is kind of an idiot. The only thing you need to take away from this is that Snively’s sister, Hope, is with them.

Oh and Geoffrey starts to show his true colors….

This all culminates to Sonic losing his knighthood. Which honestly doesn’t mean a damn thing in the grand scheme of things. Makes you kind of wonder why that was ever a plot point to begin with.

The second story this issue is the continuing misadventures of Green Knuckles. Complete with some really shitty art work.

Everything about this image is so wrong on so many levels that it boggles the mind. The story itself is a mixed bag when it comes to the art work with some images being half way decent, so I can’t claim that this story is the worst the comic has even seen. Not by a long shot. But this is a strong contender for the worst individual panel ever.