“Troubles by the Dozen” On the RunII - Sonic the Hedgehog #206
Last we left off Sonic and the Freedom Fighters were battling the Iron Dominion over who got to keep Eggman in custody.
The FFs do mange to capture Eggman and hold off most of Regina’a forces but the Iron King proves to be more of a problem.
Which leads to this delightful scene.
I love this scene. It’s not much, but it just reaffirms just how much like siblings Sonic and Antoine really are. Even with their rivalry put to rest they’re still teasing one another like brothers.
Anyways, once everybody is safe behind the city’s shield we get another awesome scene, with Bunnie this time.
Like I said it’s not much. None of this really furthers either of their characters nor does it impact the story. But it does add flavor to the proceedings while also keeping them in the foreground. Reminding the audience that they exist and that they do have a larger part to play as the story carries on.
And we’ll return to that story next week on the retrospective.
“All the Eggs in One Basket” On the RunI - Sonic the Hedgehog #205
So this story concerns an insane Eggman escaping the Iron Dominion and both them and Sonic racing to capture him and bring into their own custody.
But enough of that lets move on to why we’re really here.
Bunnie is safe and sound in the hospital, though Doctor Quack does give us another hint to her physiology.
He claims she had to be pumped up with electrolytes. Electrolytes are chemicals that conduct electricity when mixed with water.They regulate nerve and muscle function, hydrate the body, balance blood acidity and pressure, and help rebuild damaged tissue.
Common causes of electrolyte imbalance are dehydration, over exhaustion, kidney disease, and congestive heart failure. This suggests three things.
First, I think we can safely rule out kidney failure as it’s clearly stated her robotics are her root cause. Also we’re not even sure the extant to which her lower half has been robotized. To suggest that her kidneys have failed her due to her robotics now would also imply other more completed problems with her digestive track that would need more constant attention. Meaning she’d be on deaths door long before this point if this was the case.
This leaves overexertion, leading to dehydration and possible heart failure, as the most plausible outcome. Meaning it’s also possible that her limbs aren’t simply draining her energy or “life force” as Regina put it, but rather she has to use the muscles in her organic body to move her limbs which could lead to exhaustion same as any fully organic person would do if they exercised too hard.
Last off, if my theory about her limbs being directly wired to her nervous system is true then it’s still possible that using them burns up the electrolytes in her nerves. Meaning she may have a lot of Gatorade and water bottles stashed around her house and HQ. However as I’m neither a doctor nor a robotic engineer, I’d take this last theory with a grain of salt.
Moving on, Khan apologizes again and both Bunnie and Antoine forgive him.
Now I buy Antoine sincerely forgiving Monkey Khan this time around, as oppose to last issue, because Bunnie is safe and has had the time to calmly talk Antoine down.
And that’s pretty much it for Ant and Bunnie during this arc as Sonic leaves to take care of the threat of the day.
But they’ll be recurring regularly through out the larger Iron Dominion plot. Even if it’s just a scene here and there, I intend to cover them all. As such we’ll be sticking to the main book for awhile now instead of switching between it and Sonic Universe like I have been. So stay tune for that.
“The Freedom Fighters of the Future” Mobius: 30 Years Later IV - Sonic Universe #8
So did we learn anything new about Belle and/or Jacques in this issue?
Well they both speak French like their father, though Belle tends to speak it most.
Also Melody saves Jacques in a role reversal from last issue.
And from this panel we can infer that she has a crush on him.
And that’s it. They don’t even play much of a part in defeating Chaos. They just distract it during the city’s evacuation.
Well so much for the review…..
Head Canon Time!
Let’s start off on an easy one. They call Antoine “Papa”. So what do they call Bunnie? Cause I don’t think it’s mentioned here. Mama? Ma? Maw? Mère? Mom?
I’m partial to “Ma”, but “Mama” would be both very Southern and very French at the same time.
Speaking of motherhood let’s move on the to the elephant in the room. How could Bunnie have kids, and why would those kids have cybernetics?
Well here’s a list of theories.
Bunnie is fully derobotized in this timeline. With the kids own cybernetics being unrelated to her. Either A.) they choose to get them because it’s no longer a social taboo in the future and there’s obvious advantages to having them or B.) they’re medical replacements either due to an accident or illness like NIDS. NIDS being especially plausible as it effects the nervous system, and as it’s partially inspired by real world HIV, it could be transmitted from mother to child. And we know Buns on anti-mobius has this condition meaning Prime Bunnie could be a carrier.
Bunnie does have her robotics but is still able to have children in spite of them, but not without complications during the pregnancy which lead to the need for prosthetics for the kids.
Test tube babies. Though why not just adopt in that case? Unless some nefarious villain was like trying to clone the FFs or something.
Jacques mentions an Elemental War to Sonic, though being erased from the timeline means that he no longer remembers it.
However both Jacques, Lara-Su, and presumably Belle and Argyle do have memories of the war. We aren’t given specific info on when this happened or what ages the children were during it or even their ages now. Lara-su seems to be more of a young adult here rather then a teen with the twins being friends of Argyle’s suggesting they’re close in age. It’s possible that Belle and Jacques fought in this new war to some degree. Given that they have weapon attachments to their robotics further aligns to that. Could be they choose to receive cybernetics to fight with (thanks Uncle Bo) or were injured in the war. Also it was a magical war so magic could be involved as well.
Of course this is all assuming that the “Ixis Resurgence” wasn’t what Flynn was building up to with Naugus’s take over before the reboot.
Which leads me to the last set of fan theories…How do alternate timelines work in the Archie Sonic universe and how are they different from alternate universes?
One of the things I found frustrating about it was that it stated that alternate universes are in fact alternate timelines. Following the theory that if you change the past, you’ll just wind up in an alternate universe while your previous timeline carries on without you.
This is a theory not supported within the comic itself. For starters, anyone can come and go between alternate worlds at anytime and those worlds still exist regardless of their actions. However only a few people can travel through time and time can be changed. Events and people can be erased or reshaped. Special equipment is needed to keep you within the world if you become out of sync with time.
To summarize Silver wouldn’t need to time travel to change his past if he could just zone hop to a world where a good future has already happened. As infinite possibilities create infinite worlds, meaning a good timeline already exists and doesn’t need to be saved or made.
So I therefore maintain that alternate worlds are not the same thing as future timelines. Different worlds are concrete. The future is not. It is in flux and follows the Back to the Future theory of time travel. If you screw up and erase yourself then it’s game over.
Which begs the question, “How did Sonic come back from being “erased”?
The event that forced him to go back in time didn’t just threaten Mobius prime it threaten the whole multi-verse. Kind of like another certain event that threatened the whole multi-verse…
Yeah, I believe that the 30 years later arc, the second half of it anyways, is actually the future of the reboot.
Think about it, Antoine is still alive, Bunnie is able to have kids which in the reboot is more plausible due to her different origins, Sally is queen and Elias is no where to be found nor even mentioned, Shadows development from the original continuity didn’t happen, and Archie exclusive characters from the old continuity must wear special devices or be erased from existence.
Sonic wasn’t erased from time he was displaced into a recreated world. There’s two Sonics, present sonic that caused the reboot and future Sonic that traveled through the genesis wave into the altered timeline. Present Sonic as some point disappeared either by dying or was erased due to the paradox of having to Sonics leaving only future Sonic. Add in the fact that reboot messed with everyone memories and you can see how that paradox could effect them again.
The only niggle in this head cannon is Lara-Su and Julie-Su. It’s never stated if they have those devices or not. But it’s not hard to assume that if Lien-da and Tails could access them then so could Knuckles for his family.
So yeah there’s my long ass list of head cannons for this series. Feel fee to reply with your own.
Next week we’ll go back to the main timeline again.
Antoine is way out of his league. Monkey Khan is probably on the same level as Bunnie at least, if not more so since he can fight off both Mighty and Vector in this powered state. Yet despite this, he still holds his own with nothing but a sword. Antoine is bad-ass!
Second it highlights a lot of his development as a character. Not just his bravery, which we’ve known about for years now, but also his more vengeful side. We’ve seen hints of it since his return from Anti-Mobius but this is him really acting upon it for the first time. And it’s telling that it took Bunnie getting hurt for him to go off the deep end, as she was the only one reeling him in before.
And as Bunnie was the only one to notice Antoine’s change in behavior, it’s nice to see Sonic and Sally shocked by this outburst. Sadly they never comment upon it again though.
Last off, Antoine is 100% right and completely justified in his anger. Khan was the one ridiculing everyone else for not taking the Iron Queen as a threat seriously but is also the one who failed to inform everyone what she was capable of. Had Bunnie actually died and not simply been injured than there’s so no doubt in my mind that Khan would be dead right now. Powers or no.
Shame no one else seems to agree with Twan.
After putting the power ring on, Ken regains his consciousness and Regina and Snively retreats. Then his happens.
Look I don’t hate Monkey Khan. I get that he’s a tragic character with a messed up past and that he screws up a lot and is trying to fix his mistakes. But trying is the operative word here. In order for him to grow he needs to be held accountable for his actions and Antoine is the only one doing so. And even then Antoine forgives him way too easily all because of a saccharine speech these kids make.
Yeah I have a hard time buying it. I truly believe Antoine is still mad, he’s just too decent of a guy to shout obscenities in front of children.
Sonic timely reminds Ant of his own past mistakes, which does help sell the scene better. But I believe it should have come before the apology not after.
They’re totally brothers guys.
Anyways Antoine leaves to check up on Bunnie and we end this story with Snively taunting his now insane uncle. Who manages to escape despite his mental faculties.
Which we’ll get back too in two weeks, but first we’re heading back to the future come next review.
“What’s Old, Is New Again” Sonic: 30 Years Later III - Sonic Universe #7
This is our first foray into the Sonic Universe title, and outside of a few brief mentions, this is also our first time touching upon the Mobius XX Years Later plot. As such here’s a quick run down of the story thus far.
25 years into the future Knuckles’ and Julie-Su’s daughter, Lara-Su, wants to become a guardian. Knuckles eventually agrees to train her but things soon go haywire when King Sonic and Queen Sally come to visit. Rotor and his partner, a member of the Dark Legion, discover a space time anomaly that threatens to destroy all of reality. It’s agreed that Sonic must travel back in time to advert the disaster. Unbeknownst to all of the adults however Lara-Su sneaks along.
Sonic does go back in time and prevents the universe from ending but alters the timeline; erasing himself from existence. Now only those who were near Sonic when he went back in time remembers the original reality, including Lara-Su, Rotor, his partner, Knuckles, Tails, and Lien-da the leader of the Dark Legion.
Since then Shadow has become dictator of the whole world after defeating Eggman himself. Sally married him to try and regain peace. Sonic and those who remember, fight to over throw Shadow and convinces Sally that Sonic was someone she really once knew and loved.
Flash forward another 5 years and Sally and Sonic are married with kids, Lara-Su has become a guardian, and Lien-da is trying to assassinate the royal family and place Shadow back upon the throne.
One such assassination is thwarted by Silver who is still trying to prevent his timeline from becoming a reality. However Lien-da uses subterfuge to kidnap Tails and his wife Mina, sending Sally, Silver, and the kids into hiding, and forcing Sonic to flee with Lara-Su and recruit help from a bunch of former Freedom Fighter’s children.
No? Well never fear as next to none of it is really relevant to what I’ll be discussing today.
Which is Bunnie’s and Antoine’s kids!
What about them?
Well they…uh… exist…
Yeah, there’s not much to them as individual characters. Outside of both having cybernetics and briefly flirting with other members, they get next to nothing to do and zero panel time to establish or develop their personalities.
(Well that, and we now know for sure that Ant is still alive in this timeline.)
In fact the most interesting thing about them is a coloring error.
In the above panel they’re colored the same as Bunnie and Ant, but in the next issue and reprints their color palettes switch.
In fact here is the same picture above from the trade that I own for comparison.
Yeah my phone is crap. So here’s a recolored version I personally did because the inconstancy bugs me.
Oh and while I was at it, I gave Melody black hair cause I think it looks better and helps to distinguish her from her mother.
So outside of wasting hours of recoloring digital copies so I can make AMVs, what else is there to talk about?
Well, Jacques does manage to save Melody when Chaos attacks. Which leads into the next issue.
Oh sorry “Tikhaos” because apparently Ian ran out of interesting villains.
Look, I actually enjoy the various XXYL arcs, warts and all, but even I’ll admit that King Shadow is perhaps the dumbest idea Flynn ever had.
For starters making Shadow the big bad of the story undermines all of the character development he’s gone through both within the comic and in the games. Unless this is an outright alternate universe where Shadow’s story didn’t happen then none of his actions make sense.
Now add in the fact that instead of a multidimensional anti-villain, with complex moral ambiguity, he’s written as any other generic would-be conquering asshole.
In fact he kills off the actual interesting and multifaceted anti-villain of the Years Later series, Lien-Da.
Once done with that he releases a fusion of Tikal and Chaos, (who behaves just like Perfect Chaos anyways so what was even the point) only to fuck off afterwards without doing anything himself.
