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.
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