The 25 Recap - 5th Era
How appropriate to end out this year with this wrap up.
The 5th era includes….
- Sonic the Hedgehog 101-125
This era felt like it was everything at once and yet nothing at all. We returned to the short and silly sand alone stories of old, but still had serious arcs and continuity mixed in. Half the book felt like it was still the Knuckles series and we had left overs from the previous eras sprinkled through out. The tone veered wildly from over the top parody to dark “edgy” tragedy, often within the very same issue. All in all this era was the very definition of “a mixed bag.”
Major events of the era are….
- Antoine is reunited with his dad - StH 102
- Elias runs away from home - StH 102
- Eggman kills his brother Colin - StH 105
- Snively is robotized - StH 105
- The Overlanders are finally rescued by Sonic and Company - StH 105
- Station Square agrees to provide a home to the Overlanders - StH 106
- Chaos Knuckles brings everyone back from the dark dimension - StH 106
- First appearance of “Jani-Ca” - StH 106
- Ducly’s abusive boyfriend dies - StH 107
- Chaos Knuckles teams up with Dimitri and tries to bring peace to the two Echidna groups - StH 107
- Hope Kintobor becomes a resident of Knothole - StH 108
- Rotor frees his family - StH 109
- Robotropolis is destroyed and the Source of All along with it - StH 110
- Sally gives up the Sword of Acorns, the last link to the Source of All - StH 111
- Scourge escapes into prison, but gets beaten by Antoine - StH 112
- Mammoth Mogul returns - StH 113
- Mammoth Mogul holds Dimitri hostage to get to Knuckles - StH 114
- Introduction of Tommy Turtle - StH 117
- Eggman and Snively are permanently deroboticized by the Bem - StH 118
- Geoffrey and Hershey become a couple - StH 118
- Knuckles seemingly dies - StH 118
- Bunnie meets her arch-nemesis Jack Rabbit - StH 119
- Elias is found, married to Meg and with a child on the way - StH 121
- Knuckles is finds he’s not dead but in an alternate reality crated by the chaos emeralds and he meets the echidna “god” Aurora - StH 121
- Mina becomes a singer - StH 121
- Vector and Julie-Su “bury the hatchet” - StH 122
- Love triangle comes to an end and Sally and Sonic become a couple again - StH 123
- All of the Robians, save Jules, are derobotized - StH 123
- Shadow returns - StH 124
- The Xorda attack and Mobius is revealed to be Earth - StH 124
- Knuckles “comes back to life” but loses his powers - StH 125
- Sonic “dies” to save the world but finds himself lost in space instead - StH 125
Favorite thing about the era: The character interaction
There was a lot of attempt to bring characters together that you normally would not see. Some of it was wasted potential, like the Bunnie, Tails, and Ducly team up, Bunnie vs Rouge, or any of Sonic’s interactions with his “love interests”.
Some of it was poorly executed like Sonic’s and Tails’s conversion about girls, Jules’s emotional journey when confronted with being a robot forever, or Twan realizing he doesn’t need to be hero for his father to love him.
But when they got it right, it was very much appreciated. Nicole and Rotor just hanging out and chatting about code, Mina and Sally talking out their issues together, Rob befriending Armand, Lupe helping Chuck to forgive himself, and Vector and Julie-Su finally letting bygones be bygones. These are the highlights of the era.
Least favorite thing about the era: It’s boring.
Outside of the few good moments I mentioned and a few really awful instants of writing/art, most of the era is forgettable. I just finished reading through the whole thing and I still struggled to remembered what “major events” even did happen. I had pull out the wiki to make that list on top.
A lot of it just feels inconsequential even if it isn’t. “The Last Robian” is such a non-story even though it changes the complete course of the comic, Rouge’s true introduction to the series barely has any plot or characterization, and all of the Green Knuckles arc just blends together after while.
I’ve debated this several times before, but I would rather read/watch something that is flawed yet interesting over something that’s competently made but boring. This not even competent and it’s still dull. That’s why I consider this era to be the worst era of the entire comic. Yes, you could make the argument that the upcoming eras are objectively worse in terms of writing, but they’re at least memorable in their awfulness. And good things did manage to come out of those terrible stories, but the with exception of like five issues, most of what’s covered in this era is ignored forever afterward. There’s nothing to be gleaned here and I won’t becoming back to any of it outside of a marathon like this.
Favorite Antoine Story: “Mistaken Identity Crisis!” StH 112 by Benny Lee (a.k.a. Karl Bollers apparently)
Like with 3rd era for Bunnie, this is the only story in the 5th era to give Antoine any focus. It therefore kind of wins by default. But make no mistake this is an important story, one that will have major repercussions for years to come. If only the ending was little stronger. *sigh*
Favorite Bunnie Story: “Dust Bunnie” StH 119 by Karl Bollers
Bunnie got a lot more to do this era than her significant other did. In fact she possibly got more screen time than any other FF outside of Sonic himself. Unfortunately very little of it furthered her character, except for this story. In her third and final solo adventure Bunnie sets up future events that will come to haunt her later.
Favorite Buntwan Story or Moment: Antoine reunites with his father, “Family Dysfunction” StH 102 by Karl Bollers
A bit of a cheat, I know, but there are no further developments for Bunnie and Antoine’s relationship this era. They’re just together, often in the background holding hands, looking cute together and what not, but that’s it. There’s no growth as a couple. In fact they are rarely even paired together on missions during this era, which is odd but refreshing.
However, Armand regaining his free will and reuniting with his son is a major
development in Antoine’s life and an important event that will effect his relationship with Bunnie later on down the line. So I thought it fair to include it here.
Favorite Single Story:“I’ll Shoot the Sheriff” StH 111 by Karl Bollers
This is by far and away the best story in this entire era, no contest. It takes the greatest strength this era has to offer, unique character driven fluff pieces, and then allows the story to just simply be that.
Far too often stories in this era that had this potential would either be rushed or have action beats shoehorned in. If you want to tell a story about Ducly overcoming abuse, do so, don’t shove GUN in there just for the explosions. If you want to explore Jules’s life as the only robian left, then do so, don’t waste time narrating Sonic’s conflict instead.
Basically “I’ll Shoot the Sheriff” is a simple piece of character development that’s given the room it needs to breath without having to accommodate extraneous plot points while at it.
Favorite Story Arc: Sonic Adventure 2.5 StH 124-125 by Karl Bollers (He’s not credited for it but I’d bet money that Ken Penders wrote all of the Knuckles scenes)
Epic, tense, with real stakes and lasting consequences, this story feels like it has everything that this era was missing as a whole. There’s also something very satisfying in seeing everyone both on panel and behind the scenes coming together to accomplish something grand; hero and villain alike.
It’s also one of the few story arcs this era that doesn’t feel like leftovers from another one.
Favorite Artist: J. Axer
Despite some of the atrocious art in this era, there were actually quite a few contenders for this category. Jim Valentino, an artist who’s Sonic work has been sketchy in the past, improved greatly this era. Unfortunately he only got to shine in the shitty Guardians of the Galaxy parody. I quite liked Dawn Best’s art but she was regulated to Knuckles’s stories and rarely got the chance to draw our main heroes out side of the stupid GotG parody as well. In the end J. Axer won out because I think he draws the best Antoine.
Few people seem to get Twan’s muzzle right. Axer’s one of the few to find a nice compromise between the SatAM upturned nose and the more compressed and stander Sega muzzle.
And so we end this shitpost of a year with the shittiest era of all, but much like 2016 itself behind all the bad we managed to find glimmers of good. I wish all of my followers and loyal readers a wonderful New Year and I pray that 2017 will be better for us all.
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