The Antoine and Bunnie Retrospective - 175

“The Finale” Trouble in Paradise IV - Sonic Universe #20

So first off sorry about this being late. I know I made some promises regarding posting dates for this series but some real life stuff got in the way that had to be taken care of first. Most notably my nephew was in the hospital for a few days last week. He’s out now and doing better but I had to re-juggle my work schedule and babysit his siblings.  

But enough excuses, here’s the finale part for the best arc ever. 

If you remember where we left off last time Tails, Bunnie, and Antoine were fighting a giant mech. 

We get some action scenes and a few quips but soon Tails takes charges and gives our heroes a plan. 

I joked last time about Tails taking center stage because he’s the Sega owned game character, and from a meta stand point that is true, but from a story perspective it works as a character beat in his development. Tails whole deal through out the comics has been his need to be recognized as an equal by his peers. He’s been slowly gaining more responsibilities and trust from his fellow freedom fighters but this is the first time they’ve readily coincided leadership to him.  

And keep in mind both Bunnie and Ant are experienced soldiers. The earlier half of the comic served to remind us that they are special operatives that out class the regular goons. Capable of making plans and thinking on their feet. Antoine himself has lead field missions before and is commander of the royal guard.   

Them following Tails isn’t the secondary comic relief characters playing second fiddle to the main protagonist. This is two highly intelligent and able bodied heroes acknowledging that their friend is more adept at navigating this particular challenge.This is them placing trust in their friend and his skills. 

The plan is fairly simple though. Tails dismantles the mech using his tech knowledge while Bunnie and Ant sabotage the base. 

It goes off without a hitch, Tails confronts his rival Speedy, and they all make their escape. 

However this exchange is very nice to see cause even though they trust Tails he’s still the youngest and the least experienced (next to Amy) of the group, and while he’s a tech expert he’s still not a field leader, yet. One could argue that this whole arc was a rite of passage for him even more so than they Tails miniseries. 

Originally posted by nickelodeon

We have some verbal approve for Tails just to confirm the above points that a I made. And after some foreshadowing for some feature arcs we close out on some more cuteness. 

Thus concludes the best Buntwan arc ever. Sure it’s not as important in the grand scheme of things as say Endgame or Union. It doesn’t add anything in terms of character development nor furthers their personal stories. It’s just a really well constructed story. Well paced, even focused, fun dialogue and character interactions, ect. There’s really nothing wrong with it. Nothing to nitpick. Nothing to annoy. It’s cute sweet and simple story with characters we know and love and that’s all it needs to be. 

Though the question does remain; did Bunnie and Ant ever get their sexy alone time? Cause their tent kind of burned down and I think that’s just a one room cabin they’re sharing with Tails. Kind of puts a damper on the whole honeymoon thing. :P 

Oh well I guess that’s another question we’ll have to answer on the next special NSFW addition of the  Antoine and Bunnie Retrospective! 

The Antoine and Bunnie Retrospective - 174

“Trouble in Paradise” Trouble in Paradise III - Sonic Universe #19

Best. Cover. Ever. 

So we pick up right where we left off….

Antoine swan diving off a cliff, scaring the wits out of his wife, all for the sake of making a grand theatrical spectacle. 

Fortunately the comic spares both us and Bunnie the unnecessary agony of a forced “cliff-hanger”. (forgive the pun) 

Unfortunately even her brief freak out is enough to get Speedy suspicious of her. 

So how did Antoine survive? Well remember Tails was out in his sub trying to rescue them last issue…

What follows is several pages of just Tails and Antoine interacting and it’s glorious. Simply too fun to cut, so enjoy.

Now this is the type of interaction I hoping for back in issue 210. Sadly in that issue we were over swamped with exposition; here though we have just enough to keep the plot going while the rest of the page space lets the characters breathe. 

Antoine functions as the big brother of the Freedom Fighters. Sometimes annoying and a little bit prone to lecturing because he’s the oldest, but mostly he’s looking out for everybody, handing out snippets of wisdom from his experience, and being genuinely proud of his friends accomplishments. While also good naturedly teasing them from time to time.  

And this is really important to the book to show off his relationships with other characters besides just his wife and Sonic. It fleshes out the world, makes the characters feel more alive, and gives certain future issues more emotional impact. 

In fact I’m kind of sad that Ant didn’t get any alone time neither Sally, Nicole, nor Rotor before the events of 234. 

Meanwhile Speedy is onto our fav rabbit and teams up with some mad scientist or other. 

Now back to our regularly scheduled cuteness. 

Ya know maybe Bunnie wasn’t too far off the mark when describing Tails as a ‘psychotic weapons expert child soldier’ last issue. Cause he’s awfully excited about blowing stuff up. ;) 

Bunnie looks really pretty here. I think the ponytail suits her. At least when it’s drawn right. 

Ya know nothing is better then seeing someone you care about get excited over their interests. Antoine squeeing over a sword is the best thing in this entire arc and that’s really saying something given how outstanding this story is. 

So outstanding that I’m now just posting practically the whole comic with running commentary because A. It’s good stuff and B. I’m tired and it’s my review series so I’ll be as lazy as I want to be, kay.  

Pfff…Ant’s still POed about getting cocked-blocked. Way to keep you’re priorities straight my little revengeful ball of fluff.  

Originally posted by rejected-on-a-cosmic-level

What follows is an action sequence. It’s fun so I’m going to post it, I don’t know if there’s anything really you could to add to it. 

Things to say… things to say… oh..uh

• Tails takes charge of everything because he’s the Sega game char– er, I mean cause he’s the one with plan. riiight. that it. 
• Yardly’s work is wonderful to behold as always
• Dr. Foo is a hoot (pun intended) 
• Bunnie, baby, you really need to learn not to overexert yourself. You’re starting to give your hubby heart attacks. 
• Also finally more evidence that Ant is secretly a fuzzy murder machine that must be saved from himself. 

And we end everything on cliff hanger. So be sure to tune in next week for the collusion of the arc and the week after that will be the special NSFW review. 

The Antoine and Bunnie Retrospective - 173

“The Honeymoon’s Over” Trouble in Paradise II - Sonic Universe #18

So if you remember from last week’s review Bunnie and Antoine were captured by the bad guys. Of course they don’t remain so for long though. 

I know it was just a ruse to steal the key card, but I’m still adding this my “Antoine is a revengeful ball of rage” evidence pile. 

Turns out said bad guys believe Bunnie to be a legionnaire due to her robotics. She uses this to her advantage to glean information out of them and buy Antoine sometime. 

We also get the down-low of just who these guys are and their place in the world of Archie Sonic. 

In real life they’re just the bad guys from Tails Adventure but in the archie comics there’s a little more to them. Not much, but a little. 

However the real entertaining thing about this scene is watching Bunnie get to play the villain and use her smarts rather than her fists for once.  

I often call this era in the comics (post 200 till the reboot) Bunnie’s era because she really comes into her own here. With all of Antoine’s character development wrapped up and out of the way, along with all the relationship drama put to rest, Flynn introduces a lot of new stuff for her to grapple with. Putting new spins on her age old conflict with self acceptance and giving her new scenarios to play around with. Her conflict with the Iron Queen being the kick off for that and a whole lot more to come down the road. 

Also her description of Tails isn’t entirely inaccurate. I think part of what makes her scheming so fun is how she infuses the truth into her lies. She even tells them straight out that she’s married to Antoine rather then having to cover it up later. 

And speaking of Antoine, while Bunnie is the VIP here he’s not left out of the fun entirely. 

Antoine may be a more static character now but that doesn’t make him any less entertaining. Also that call back to SatAM was both hilarious and confirmed many a head-cannon about Antoine’s cooking skills. Bless you Flynn.  

Sorry if it feels like I’m just posting the comic whole sale with running commentary rather then reviews but it’s all just too good to cut and frankly the quality of the work speaks for itself I think. 

P.S. kudos to the villains for giving Ant the respect he deserves. 

Because you’re a beautiful disaster, baby. That’s why we love you. 

You’re also an over dramatic little shit who scares the bejeezus out your wife. 

If this was any other story I might complain about the writer creating false tension for a cheap drama, buuuuut as we’ve known both these characters for so long we can spot Antoine’s over acting a mile away which turns a potentially aggravating scene into something really fun. 

But I still feel sorry for Bunnie here, she looks genuinely scared. 

Meanwhile, as all this juicy drama unfolds, Tails is off doing his own thing. Fighting the Armada and trying to rescue them.  

Not super important during this issue but will come into play later. 

Thus concludes this week’s review. Be sure to turn in next week to see how Antoine survives throwing himself off cliff like the drama queen he is.

Also frenidly reminder the NSFW episode comes out in three weeks if you want to contribute.