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“The Best of Times, The Worst of Times” - Sonic Super Special #14

So this story doesn’t feature Antoine nor Bunnie, but it is a prologue to the upcoming story arc that’ll feature them prominently.

Remember, that the Knuckles the Echidna book had been discontinued at the beginning of this era. The Sonic Adventure arc was to serve as a crossover between the two comics, in order to slowly ease Knuckles back into the main series. Well SSS #14 is used as something of a finale to the Knuckles’ series. 

It tries to wrap up many of the books loose ends; The Brotherhood, the Dark Legion, The Dingos vs the Echidna Elite, Knuckles’ family issues, and the Chaotix. All by sending them into another dimension……  >_>

Suddenly issue #245 makes a lot more sense. What comes around goes around I guess. 

It’s mainly done so Penders/Bollers can put the book’s on going plots on hold while they figure out how best to incorporate Knuckles back into the series, because franklySonic Adventure was over stuffed by trying to cram everyone into it. 

Knuckles escapes the blast and is stranded in the middle of the ocean. Setting him up for the upcoming crossover, that isn’t really a crossover anymore because he’ll now stay with the main series, so…..  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I’m not quite through with the story yet though. While I covered the basics that are necessary for you to understand the next couple of issues this retrospective will cover, there’s still a lot I have to say about the Knuckles series and I’ll probably never get another chance to so… here we go….  

This is Knuckles mother, Lara-Le and his step dad, Wynmacher. Wyn is far more than just a good guy. Wyn is everything Locke could never be. He’s a supportive husband, a loving, caring, non-abusive father, and just an all around nice guy who gives respect to everyone. Even if the person in question clearly is not deserving of respect. (glares a Locke) And while he doesn’t possess super powers and goes around defeating bad guys all the time, he does his damnedest to protect those he loves, both psychically and emotionally.  

In short, Wyn, is perhaps the most upstanding character to come out of the Knuckles book and he deserves far more recognition than he gets. Both within the comic itself and fandom. And while I can understand Knuckles’ feelings here, (your parents remarrying can be quite the adjustment for some children) it’s a damn shame that his relationship with Wyn never progresses beyond this. In fact Knuckles never developing a loving father/son relationship with his stepdad is perhaps the biggest missed opportunity of the old continuity. (That and no one ever calling Max out on his bullshit) 

The Brotherhood are beyond pointless. They’ll eventually be fazed out of the comic completely and you’ll never notice their disappearance because they never did anything worth noticing. And here’s the problem, I don’t mind the idea behind them, a group of powerful beings who are ineffectual because their ideas and viewpoints are so out dated and drenched in useless traditions and hypocritical beliefs, but the execution of them suffers in the same way that King Max does. There’s no change. 

There’s no one with in the group actively going, no this is wrong and actively changing their ways. They sometimes are questioned by Locke or Knuckles but no one is actively opposing them save the bad guys. Which just reinforces their good guy “we’re in the right” persona. 

It also annoys me to no end that they are all Knuckles’ grandfathers and are all practically immortal with the exact same power-set as each other. It makes them all redundant and prevents them from standing out as individuals. 

Basically in order to work, the group needed to be paired back down to just a small group of individuals. Keep Locke, Athair, that one that turned out be a traitor, and two more. It doesn’t matter which two, they’re all interchangeable. Give everyone different individual skill sets. Have Athair be the only grandfather Knuckles has, and the rest be like Locke’s cousins and uncle. This keeps the Guardians as family while providing other dynamics besides father/son/grandfather.  All of this would have helped to further distinguish the characters and provide actual internal conflict. 

This is Sir Remington and Harry.

Remi’s ok. He’s got that down to earth attitude back by experience and an actual willingness to help. He’s easily the most competent hero in the Knuckles series next to Knuckles himself and the Chaotix (and yes, for the record I count Julie-Su as a part of the Chaotix)    

Harry is the best fucking character to ever be created by Penders, hands down! 

Harry is us, guys. Harry is you’re average person who just wants to earn his pay, go home, and forget about the shit world he lives in. He’s a good person that cares, but is tired of getting involved in things that he has no real power to change. He watches from the sidelines while all of the big important power players like Knuckles, Sonic, the Brotherhood, The Dark Legion, or even the Freedom Fighters come in guns-a-blazing making decisions that’ll effect him and his life without his say so.  

Harry offers the comic a fresh perspective that no other character can give. Because Harry is human. He’s normal. And he’s also the only Penders’ character that Ian Flynn screwed up rather than improved.   

And… That’s pretty much it. I hold no real strong opinions on Julie-Su, the Dark Legion and it’s cast of villains, or the Dingo vs Echidna war. Just know that I do ship Knux and Julie-Su, and the Dingo conflict is arguably the most interesting thing Penders ever came up with. 

The second story in the issues is yet another Zone Wars story. This time it’s a parody of Judge Dredd and every lawyer show ever made.  

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“The Big Payback” - Sonic the Hedgehog #85

We’re not quite done with Sonic Adventure yet. There’s a still a few loose ends to tie up. 

First the Freedom Fighters, plus Big, get a celebration send-off ceremony hosted by Station Square as a big thank you.  

But that’s interrupted by Metal Sonic.

Oh sorry, Silver Sonic II, cause this era doesn’t know how to continuity right. 

Turns out Eggman escaped during the battle with Chaos and Metal was his backup plan for conquering the city. Sonic easily defeats him of course, and Nate Morgan reprograms the bot to be a guardian for the town. Oh, and Big leaves. 

So our heroes are finally ready to depart for home. 

This has nothing to do with anything, I just thought it was cute exchange. 

But turns out the plane was sabotaged by Eggman. 

Alright, so they forget that Bunnie is a super strong flying cyborg who could have helped defeat Metal Sonic, but they bother to give her Antoine’s job? 

>_>

I kid, this honestly just supports my theory that Antoine taught her how to fly a planeand she’s taken over piloting duties while he’s injured.  (though I’m pretty sure you don’t use your legs to pilot a plane, could be wrong) 

The backup story for this issue finally follows up on Rotor and his family. About time really. 

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“Perfect Chaos” Sonic Adventure VII - Sonic the Hedgehog #84

So we finally get to the point for why Bunnie and Antoine were present in this particular adaptation of Sonic Adventure. 

Yup, they were here just so Ant could be the noble casualty. Sound familiar? I swear Antoine exists solely to be the woobie of the Sonic franchise. If life needs to crap on someone, it will be him. 

I mean he’s already lost his mother, was separated from his father, for years believing him dead only to find out he is now a brainwashed villain, was picked on and bullied by his friends for years, was a constant fuck up/failure for years, even after bettering himself, he started to beat himself up for those past failures so he now suffers from constant self-deprecation and low self-esteem, and now he has a broken leg.

Oh, and it’s only going to get much, much worse for him from this point onwards folks. Bunnie really is the only sunshine in his life. And that is both precisely why we love him, and why Buntwan is the greatest ship ever! 

But there is still yet one other reason for why this is happening. To give Knuckles something heroic to do. 

Ya see, by this point the Knuckles the Echidna book had ended its run. The Sonic Adventure arc was meant to be a crossover between the two series in order to ease Knuckles and his world back into the main comic proper. As such, both he and Sonic needed to be on equal footing in terms of plot importance. So while Sonic gets to go Super and fight Chaos just like in the game, Knuckles gets to take center stage and handle everything else. 

Even though any of the other FF could have saved Antoine just as easily, Knuckles gets to be the one to do it. All the while speaking generic “action hero” quips. 

Except there is there is quite literally seven other heroes present. Only one has been incapacitated so far and two, arguably three, have super strength same as you. Also Sonic’s the only one shown to be busy at the moment so….. yeah you’re only making your life harder for absolutely no real reason at all. 

Look, I’m not hating on Knuckles. I understand that as a Sega original and as a popular figure head of the franchise, he takes precedence over the Archie cast. But that “nobody else” line up there really grates on the nerves because it’s so obviously false. 

Just image how much better this scene would have been if Knuckles had led a small team of heroes to do this instead. You could have given both Big and Bunnie something do instead of just standing around and shown off how awesome/important Knuckles is at the same time. 

I’ll go into further depth about the greater over all effects of the demise of the Knuckles series later in the retrospective. But for now, Chaos is defeated by both Sonic and Knuckles, and we get a second story that wraps up the Chaotix’s part in this adaptation. 

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“Menace to Society” Sonic Adventure VI - Sonic the Hedgehog #83 

So while touring Station Square, the Mayor takes the gang to the power station to show off how the artificial city works.     

Still not sure what makes the super emeralds different from regular chaos emeralds. Also weren’t there only suppose to be six of them, and yet there’s six here and we saw four others else where….. You know what? Fuck it! The writers clearly have. 

Anyways, while there, Chaos gets into the power supply and become a huge monster that floods the city. 

Does this make the last five issues and all that business with the broken master emerald and the super emerald hunt all pointless? Yes. Yes it does. 

The FFs leap into hero mode and start to save the local citizenry. 

This is a little better than last issue. They are actively contributing to the events this time but, Sonic (or rather Super Sonic), Knuckles, Eggman, and Tikal get the bulk of the plot. Oh and Big is there too, for some reason…. This is mainly just to set up for the real reason why they’re here, which will be revealed next time on the retrospective.

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“Sonic Adventure” Sonic Adventure V - Sonic Super Special #13

Hi! So here’s a handy dandy little recap to help you catch up on the issues we skipped… 

Got it? Good. Now on with the retrospective…..

Like with the Unleashed adaptation currently running in the new continuity, Archie’s adaptation of Sonic Adventure was an epically long arc that covered nearly half of the fourth era. 

However Unleashed is super long because it’s being used as an excuse to set up a whole new continuity and world. Sonic Adventure is long because it has to accommodate a previously established continuity and world. 

It has to provide extended story/plot points in order to incorporate the comic’s extended cast and some of the extra Sega characters. (Namely the Chaotix who have nothing to do with the game but are never the less present in the adaptation because they were more important in the comics at that time.) It also has to introduce new characters like Gamma and Big. But mainly it has to change/alter things from the game to fit into the comic. 

Some of these changes are interesting and bring new story elements into the world that can be expanded upon later. Like, the mysterious cat people, the hidden city of the ancients and its friendly humans to counteract the enemy Overlanders, Amy dealing with her new maturity. ect. ect.

Heck, some things are even improved from the game such as Gamma gaining free will and a consciousness all on his own through his experiences rather than just being a brainwashed bird in a metal suit or Big actually being smart.

 But then you get stupid shit like the “super emeralds” and the broken master emerald being interchangeable form some unknown reason. Like if the master emerald can do the same thing as the “super emeralds” than why need both?Why smash the master emerald at all? Why even bother with introducing the “super emeralds”? Why can’t regular chaos emeralds, which have already been established as being everywhere with unlimited power, just be used?

Basically the story really needed a good editor who could keep the various magic macguffins in the comic straight, is what I’m saying. 

Anyways, the point behind this long dissection of this particular adaptation is to explain what exactly Bunnie and Antoine are doing here. See, everyone in the comic gets something to do but it’s often minimal and off to the side, even main characters from the game like Tails and Big. Because the book is juggling so many characters and plots.

As a consequence of this, thus far the only note worthy thing Bunnie and Ant have done is search for a missing Amy Rose together. 

It’s cute, and it starts the trend of Bunnie carrying around her man, but it’s filler. It’s really only here to remind the audience that they exist. Hopefully this story arc will give them something more meaningful to do later. 

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“Turnabout Heroes” - Super Sonic Special #12

So this story is one of those mind swap tales. Eggman and Dimitri team up and switch around Sonic’s and Kunckles’ minds.Overall it’s not a bad story but it is pretty “by the numbers” as this types of stories goes.  

Anyways I’m only pointing it out because we get to see Antoine in the pilot seat again. 

While it has been awhile since we last saw him fly, this isn’t any new information. Save the fact that Bunnie is now in the co-pilot seat. 

She’ll take on this role from time to time in the future and while it’s never stated outright that she knows how to pilot on her own, it a pretty safe bet to assume Antoine taught her how to fly a plane. Same as its implied that she helped Ant out and trained him in some hand to hand fighting techniques. 

It’s just cute to think that they teach each other new things and share their areas of expertise with one another. 

Also the time placement for this story is weird. It obviously takes place before Eggman’s return, yet Eggman is in it…… >_> 

The other story in the comic is another entry into the Zone Wars arc. Sonic goes to an alternate dimension where all of the mobians have been mutated into giant monsters. 

Why would a Godzilla type monster wear eye-shadow and mascara? 

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“Changes” - Sonic the Hedgehog #78

Like with “A Brave New World” before it, “Changes” focuses on setting up the new character dynamics and story arcs for the upcoming era.

We open up with King Max giving Sonic a medal of honor and knighting him Sir Sonic. He also reinstates the Freedom Fighters officially to help combat Eggman.

And oh my gosh, Bunnie’s wearing a bowtie!!! Gah, it’s the cutest fucking thing ever!!!!!  

Unfortunately we don’t ever get to see the rest of her outfit so I doodled up a quickhalf-assed concept.

Sloppy-coloring is sloppy. I legit did this with a mouse like ten minutes ago cause I didn’t want to take the time to hook up my tablet……

Next Antoine confines in Bunnie what he found out about his father a couple of weeks ago.

Ok a quick couple of things about this scene. First Bunnie is sporting her new design, meaning this takes place after “Upgrades”. Second this is setting up a future story-line later on down the road, between Ant and his dad. And last but not least baby Twan and his papa is still the greatest thing ever!

We also get an update on Sonic and Antione’s relationship.

Twan is now actively proud of his friend’s accomplishments and heroics. We’ve come a long way since his days of bitter jealousy.  

But he’s still not putting up with any of Sonic’s bullshit. Good for him. I love the fact that Ant is that one friend in Sonic’s life that actively stands up to him and tells him off when he needs it, without going into dick mode to do it.

Other things that happen in this story are…

• Sonic has a heart to heart with his parents and Nate movies into Uncle Chucks old room
• Unbeknownst to everybody Queen Alicia reacts to being near the chaos emerald that Nate happens to just have ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
• Space ships are heading towards Mobius    
• Mina is placed in charge of the orphans helping Rosie out. (It kinda makes me wish she and Rosie were shown developing a mentor relationship. But then again I’m always wishing for more Rosie)  
• Geoffrey and Sonic finally bury the hatchet. Both the FF and the Secret Service will be working together more often now.  
• Elias sulks around while looking pretty. He also overhears Doctor Quack tell his dad that his mom will die in a week. How much you wanna a bet that Max won’t tell his kids about it?
• Eggman starts planning for Sonic Adventure.

The other story in the comic is yet another part in the on going Tales of the Great Wararc.

You know it’s poetic really, having Antoine sitting in on this story, considering that’ll he’ll go through a similar experience later in his life. One can’t help but wonder that if the reboot hadn’t happened, just how much would history have repeated itself. hmmmm…….