“Hedgehog Havoc - Part One” Hedgehog Havoc I - Sonic the Hedgehog #195
I read through both issues of Hedgehog Havoc and while this issue doesn’t have a lot to discuss, I felt like I had enough material in the second to flesh out a full review and combining the two would make things too long.
So here’s the low down. Every vaguely hedgehog type character in the comic comes together to fight. This is, Sonic, Amy, Scourge, Rosy, Shadow, Metal Sonic, Silver, and even Rob O’Hedge.
Which means we now have to say goodbye to Buns just because she’s not a hedgie… :(
That’s perhaps the biggest criticism of this particular story arc. It introduces many potential new ideas and characters, only to shove them aside for giant fight scenes with other completely different extraneous characters.
However what we do get is such unadulterated purely stupid fun, that I can’t get mad at it.
Scourge is like an evil Daffy Duck, that one arrogant loser that you love seeing get shat on by the universe.
Now for some interesting plot tit-bits you may want to store away for later readers.
First Silver is here to find a traitor among the Freedom Fighters.
This is Silver’s prime motivation through out the entire pre-reboot era. Right now he thinks it’s Sonic, but all of the FFs will eventually come under suspicion. Including our favorite coyote, and oh boy is that a doozy of an issue….
“Cross World Conflict!” Otherside II - Sonic the Hedgehog #194
There’s not much in the way of character development to talk about here. Really this issue is mainly just fights and important plot stuff.
Here’s the run down of what you need to know.
The FFs and the Anti’s finally team up to take down Scourge and a big fight ensues.
All save for Fiona that is.
This is the only character beat we really get so appreciate it.
In the confusion Miles takes the opportunity to trap Scourge, Sonic, and Amy back on Anti-Mobius along with Rosy and Buns.
Oh and Rob and Silver show up.
Which will lead into the next arc Hedgehog Havoc.
In the meanwhile Snively’s made a new friend.
Isn’t that nice.
Really this is all just setting up the pieces for future stories. As for the next arc, seeing as it’s the overall conclusion to the Anti-Mobius stuff, I will cover it briefly but will probably condense it down to a single review as Bunnie and Ant really have nothing to do with it.
It’s been physically and emotionally draining, but I’ve finally achieved my life goal of being fully independent by 30. No roommates, no abusive family, just me and hopefully my own cat soon. (I have to get an ESA letter first)
As such, I’ve been busy moving the past few days so I’m going to try to make this entry real quick.
Sally plans to send Sonic and Amy to Anti-Mobius in the hopes of finding a way to defeat Scourge.
Now you may ask yourself, “Why Amy? Wouldn’t Antoine be a better fit since he lived there for six months?” Well yes and no. Ant would indeed have vital knowledge about that world and their current foes, but It’s also the place where he was exposed to long term trauma. He may not be able to cope with going back there and I doubt his friends would ask him to risk it. I just hope they asked for his input about this plan off panel because he does have important intel.
While in the Anti world Sonic and Amy meet up with the good Dr. Kintobor and “Buns” the Anti-Bunnie. We’ve only seen her once before, back in the Sink or Spin arc.
She’s now defected to good guys since developing a critical illness and is now trapped in a body suit in order to live.
I like this revelation for multiple reasons.
For starters Buns was a very late addition to the Suppression Squad. By making her an outsider to the group it helps to show that she was never a real part of the team and her previous absences now make more sense.
She now has an identity other then just an Evil Bunnie. She stands out more from the rest of the antis and along with Anti-Knuckles (a.k.a. O'Nux) * further proving that opposites don’t always mean evil.
Buns and Bunnie are still very much opposites even if their trauma has similar overtones. Buns’ robotics are a cure not a curse. She had a measure of consent in obtaining them, bunnie did not. But she has more limited mobility and freedom then Bunnie. She lost most of her support group, save the Dr., while Bunnie gained a large caring family. While she doesn’t have a unconditional loving soulmate like bunnie, she did gain a level of self reliance that our Bunnie sadly never will.
Buns is also now the Anti-Omega/Gamma which adds to feeling of this being an actual alternate universe with different rules and timelines and not just a simple mirror of the prime universe. Which IMHO is a good thing. It fleshes the world out more.
We get just a little more explanation as to what N.I.D.S. is and how it effects people. Before it was just a mysterious illness used to make Maria an ever bigger woobie then she already was. Now it’s something with actual symptoms. It effects the immune system, similar to AIDS, but also has the add effect of attacking to the nervous system itself. Which can cause crippling and presumably other dangerous neurologic diseases like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s.
I just like the idea that there’s a world where Bunnie and Robotnik are BFFs.
Meanwhile back on Mobius Prime, Miles comes to the FFs with a truce and plan to defeat Scourge.
Tying back into the events of the previous issue and setting up next issues conclusion.
Buns takes Amy and Sonic to “recruit” the Anti-Amy, Rosy the Rascal, and I like this little exchange they have in the castle.
This whole issue is mainly just little character exchanges like this one, and exposition about the anti-world. It brings just a little bit of insight into these characters and their dynamics. Like Kintobor fussing over everyone, or amy fawning over Sonic as he carries her.
What makes the castle debate interesting is that it shows that this version of Bunnie doesn’t care about appearances that much and is more comfortable being where ever she at the moment then our bunnie. Another opposite. She also places a lot of value on personal freedom. Makes you wonder what her life was like before the joining the Suppression Squad. Perhaps Anti-Bo was a bit of an overprotective control freak or something.
Anyways the issue ends with them confronting Rosy, who is super creepy and super fun.
That’s it for this week. Be sure to come back for the thrilling conclusion.
* I didn’t cover the issue that O’Nux appears in; StH #44. But it’s canonically the first time Antoine visits Anti-Mobius. Only all he does is fly the plane there and never joins in the actual adventure so I skipped over it.
Metal and Mettle II & “Father and Son" - Sonic the Hedgehog #192
Today we have two stories, one issue, and a continuation of the plot threads started in the last arc.
In Metal and Mettle the Suppression Squad plot behind Scourge’s back while he’s busy fighting both Sonic and Metal Sonic.
We get an official confirmation that Scourge did indeed remove Patch’s eye.
He’s also now wearing a green outfit. I like it. It’s a good look for him.
And we learn that Miles is the real brains of the team and not just in a scientific way. He’s the true strategic leader and we see the ground work laid out for Scourge’s eventual betrayal.
Outside of setting up some future internal conflicts, Metal and Mettle doesn’t add much to the ongoing plot. I even skipped over the first part because it mainly was just a big fight scene with some cut away to Knuckles’s story. Sometimes this book is hampered by it’s insistence that little 12 year old boys only care about about action.
However the back up story offers up a little more meat. In "Father and Son” Scourge sneaks into Sonic’s house to kill him but is confronted by Jules. With the death of Armand and sidelining of Wynn, Jules has become the only competent father figure in this comic I swear.
We glean some important information about Anti-Mobius.
The anti world use to be a pretty decant place to live. At least on the surface of things. It’s hinted here that many of the suppression squad had neglectful or even outright abusive parents. Well I say many but mainly Scourge and Ali. Though it’s not a stretch to assume others on the team had horrible upbringings.
Which once again brings up the nurture vs nature dynamic of Anti-Mobius AU. Is Scourge a by-product of his upbringing or his selfish choices? Much like in real life it’s probably a combination of both. Neglect and resentment could be motivators for his attention seeking actions but in the end he was the one to make the choice to kill his own father and others.
But we’re here for Antoine not Scrooge. So what upbringing could Patch have had given this context?
Well my theory is that if everything is opposite then Anti-Armand must have been horrid. The real Armand is a sweetheart, a father to everyone, and super loyal to those he cares about. It makes sense that Anti-Armand would have been abusive and a backstabbing opportunist. What if everything Patch knows about manipulating, lying, and fighting came from him. What if Anti-Armand pushed his son to become a bloodthirsty and opportunistic assassin. Teaching him to view compassion as a weakness. Hoping all the while that he could use his own son a means of gaining the throne for himself.
Only for it to backfire.
I head cannon Patch’s past to be similar to someone’s like Gormora’s, Nebula’s, or Natasha’s. A child who was twisted into a monster. Only one who succeeded in killing his father and going on to follow in his footsteps rather then overcoming his abuse and becoming good.
But I digress. I could spend ages talking about potential backstories for all of the Antis. The only thing to really take away here is that all of the FFs were raised by Rosie.Therefore she’s the real reason why Mobius Prime isn’t utter complete shit.
