Board 8 > ITT I read every Archie Sonic comic ever [Sonic] [Bellis]

(+) Yeah! (+)

Wow, this is an ambitious project. I hope you can make it through the whole series. I've enjoyed your write ups so far. I'll be following this

doesn't surprise me.

not promising any updates until monday. My sister is leaving for a long while so I want to make the next few days count. Sorry that all this busy stuff has been happening all at once but I'll bring some consistency soon

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HBJ Dubs
~Project 1000~

You should, it's really good!

Like I said she's been alright but I never cared for Sally unless Sonic was involved. This mini-series made me give a **** about her as an independent character, but then again that could be clouded by the fact that GEOFFREY ST. JOHN rules.

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HBJ Dubs
~Project 1000~

Geoffrey is one of my favs, too. Like I said earlier, though, Ian takes him in a questionable direction.

Although that kinda spoils the fact that he's still alive. Just wait until you start meeting characters that are going to die!

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TheRock ~ Slow dramatic zoom-pan. Doesn't phase the hooded man.
"You have issues." - MWC. Pot. Kettle.

Princess Sally Mini-Series Issue #3
June 1995



Time to close out "Deadliest Of The Species" folks! Fake Sally and crew are in the middle of their assault on Robotropolis. Fake Sally saves Hamlin from getting shot to death for some reason. Anyway they barge into a room where Robotnik and GEOFFREY ST. JOHN are waiting. Hamlin (who turned out to be correct in his suspicions) jumps him but Fake Sally forces him off. Robotnik then reveals that she is a fake, using the substation ploy to give him time to complete and test the model out. Proven successful, we see other Freedom Fighter duplicates in construction (this would be a cool issue if it happens). Robotnik starts the roboticization process on the real Sally, but it short-circuits. Turns out that Fake Sally was actually Real Sally the WHOLE TIME, so the machine shorted out because the Sally in the pod was the fake. Also this meant that GEOFFREY ST. JOHN has reached Revolver Ocelot level of double-crossing as he was on Sally's side.

Robotnik pulls out Plan B, which consists of Stealthbots emerging to take out the crew. However GEOFFREY ST. JOHN signals for his fellow rebels, who appeared from underground to launch an assault (Arlo and Penelope are part of this group, telling us they are okay. Damn it). Sally kicks Robotnik in the nuts. One last trump card for Robotnik: he sets the fortress to self-destruct in 30 seconds and escapes in some tube. Luckily, and conveniently, the entire gang find some air cars that allow them to escape just before the fortress blows up. This means all the robot duplicates of the FF went down as well. Sally promotes the trainees to full-fledged Freedom Fighters as I punch myself a few times. Then we're told about Sally and GEOFFREY ST. JOHN's plan: turns out that the substation missions from the first two issues were actually led by Fake Sally, so the switcheroo at the end of the last issue reawakened the real Sally, who pretended to be the duplicate in order to fool Robotnik.

Sally wants GEOFFREY ST. JOHN to join the FF at Knothole, but he turns it down saying the rebel underground needs him. Before he takes off though, he grabs Sally and MAKES OUT WITH HER HARDCORE!!! What a stud. Seriously if you want to learn how to be an alpha, be like GEOFFREY ST. JOHN.

The issue ends with a brilliant line from Sally as she is walking back to Knothole, "And what of my heart? Where once there was one...now there are two." OH **** things are about to heat up!

A 14 year old kid asks Sally to be his girlfriend. He loves her pretty eyes and beautiful red hair. I wish I was making this up. Would you have any idea what the term "furry" meant if you were asked in 1995?


That wraps up the mini-series. I was surprised to find how good it was, I definitely like Sally a lot more than I ever had (I always thought she was alright but nothing too special until this point). Also I just want to say this one more time since I might be able to for awhile: GEOFFREY ST. JOHN! Totally made the series. I really really hope there's a fight scene between him and Sonic somewhere down the line.

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HBJ Dubs
~Project 1000~

I would have never believed that GEOFFREY ST. JOHN died if you told me that. He's a ****in' BOSS

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HBJ Dubs
~Project 1000~

My sis is leaving for a long while on Monday. I'll try to get Part 3 in tomorrow but no guarantee. I can promise that things will speed up immensely in the next few days

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HBJ Dubs
~Project 1000~

Personally, I like the heavier focus on SegaSonic characters mainly because Ian has done such a great job with most of them.

Really, 90% of the Archie creations were some sort of echidna.

Also, the crying thing: Sonic has welled up a couple times, but flat-out bawling has been banned. There was an image of the original version vs. a "toned down" version and I can safely say the toned down version was much, much, much, much better.

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TheRock ~ Slow dramatic zoom-pan. Doesn't phase the hooded man.
"You have issues." - MWC. Pot. Kettle.

And by the way, not a fan of Sally at all. Never bothered reading her mini-series to be honest.

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TheRock ~ Slow dramatic zoom-pan. Doesn't phase the hooded man.
"You have issues." - MWC. Pot. Kettle.

That's a shame really considering that this mini-series produced one of the best characters in the comic, someone who never appeared in any game of TV show.

I'm sure when I get there I'll have more to say, but going off what you said I believe that Archie has probably forgotten that established characters don't necessarily mean automatic buys. I'm just one person, but this mini-series would have totally convinced me to not skip any Sally-centric issue because she was handled extremely well here. Sure, those trainees were fodder, but guess what...the one character they bothered to give some development for (Hamlin) turned out to be the only one I liked. Coincidence? I think not.

All I want is an identity, and I think that can apply to the general audience. Archie shouldn't be afraid to use non-Sega characters if they have a decent story arc for them, something that will make us either love or hate them (and I mean hate in a good way, like you'll buy an issue hoping they get there comeuppance).

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HBJ Dubs
~Project 1000~

And I absolutely agree on Ken Penders, based on the point I'm at now as well as the issues I'm already acquainted with. After the exchange with Julayla, Sally became a totally different person, someone who could actually be capable of leading the Freedom Fighters instead of just relying on Plan lolsonicwinseverything.

I've always liked the Sonic x Sally dynamic because Sally HAD to be levelheaded in order to prevent or bail out Sonic when he did something stupid. His hotheadedness, along with his "leap before you look" mindset, didn't factor a whole lot in all these issues so far, but as the comic gets more serious that mentality has to bite him in the ass at some point. As I said before, I like when Sonic doesn't save the day by soloing everyone; he has to have some weakness, and Sally is a great character to keep him from succumbing to it.


(To digress I just love that I wanted to correct "there" to "their" in the previous post but LameFAQS won't give me the option to edit.)

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HBJ Dubs
~Project 1000~

Ed Bellis posted...

Ken Penders takes a lot of flak for his writing in the series (most of it deserving!), but I honestly felt like he had a pretty good handle on Sally most of the time. This is really where she makes the jump from dim-witted team leader (remember when she hatched that brilliant plan to get herself roboticized and then everyone else ruined it because she didn't tell any of them?) to full-fledged, fully competent tactician, and that's basically all Ken. Different writers have different takes on her character, and Ken's changed over time, but right now this is where she's at.

Yeah, the old Ken Penders was awesome. But he got too full of himself as time went on, and also somehow got this inane idea into his head that he had skill as an artist.

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SuperNiceDog is about 20% cooler then the other gurus.

As horrible as I felt about it, I had to toss out all my old comics. Not enough time (I had to move in like 5 days) to get something done with them with a million things going on.

It sucked, but I had no choice.

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TheRock ~ Slow dramatic zoom-pan. Doesn't phase the hooded man.
"You have issues." - MWC. Pot. Kettle.

someone needs to loan me more issues!

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HBJ Dubs
~Project 1000~

Nice. I'll definitely check that out. I like reading educated reviews of the Sonic Comics. I've always enjoyed reading Dan Drazen's reviews and I like hearing other takes on them too

Wow, a lot of St. John fans here. He was always the sort of character that I loved to hate. I respect him as a character - he's got personality and he's plenty competent - he just always rubbed me the wrong way.

@Ed Bellis - I'm enjoying your somewhat behind-the-scenes commentary to go along with sontet1's issue reactions. I agree with you that Penders has a good handle on Sally here. I think she's pretty darn close to her SatAM incarnation at this point in the series

Was that Spaz's first issue where he did full book artwork?

I've always been a huge Spaz fan, though he kinda went crazy with Sonic's spines for a while there (much better nowadays).

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TheRock ~ Slow dramatic zoom-pan. Doesn't phase the hooded man.
"You have issues." - MWC. Pot. Kettle.

back to the main series!

Sonic The Hedgehog Issue #21
April 1995



"3 Phases Of E.V.E." is our story. Robotnik unleashes his latest weapon E.V.E. (Exceptionally Versatile Evolvanoids) to take out Sonic. This bot can learn and adapt to any type of situation and act accordingly. It uses data Robotnik conjured up on Sonic's attack methods to determine the best method of eliminating him. It can definitely pass for a Robot Master (or perhaps more accurately a Maverick). Sonic quickly takes out the machine by moving out of the way just as it fires at him, hitting a tree and falling on top of it. Turns out that was just the next step in Robotnik's plan. The second phase now forms, integrating Robotnik's intelligence with Sonic's body cells to become a much more formidable foe. E.V.E. 2 takes the form of a bee, and is much faster than Phase 1. Sonic wins out again by running up a cliff, with the bot slamming right into it. Sonic rushes to Robotnik's location for an encounter. However, E.V.E. regenerates into Phase 3, taking on the form of a giant cobra (think Jafar at the end of Aladdin). It wraps up Sonic in a coil, but Sonic escapes from that via Sonic Spinning all over the place, which causes E.V.E. to wrap itself up in its own coil.

However, we get swerved as E.V.E. now goes into a FOURTH phase, which is a really creepy looking thing that can now talk. Unfortunately for Robotnik, the tables now turn on him, as E.V.E. can now think for itself, and it realizes that Robotnik has evil intentions, so it decides to no longer be his servant. It fires some lasers at Robotnik, which DISINTEGRATES HIM. WTF!!! Afterwards it tries to fulfill his programming to destroy Sonic, but Sonic sweet-talks him in saying that he's only limited by his programming and that by destroying him it can never achieve independence. E.V.E. determines that his theory is a good one, spares his life, and takes off into space to live free. Snively loses his **** and demands Sonic just leave, and he actually decides to leave him alone to grieve. On the way home Sonic and Tails get the feeling that Robotnik isn't really gone, but we'll get to that next issue.

Reader Mail: Someone wants to know when Sonic 5 is coming out. ***** we just got Sonic 4! Also, this is the issue with the guy praising Dave Manak for his artwork. I highly disagree, but to each his own.


Pretty solid issue. I knew of E.V.E.'s existence so I had an idea that it wasn't going to get destroyed here. We'll see if it (he? she?) pops up again in the future. Also we have a KNOTHOLE REVEALED track here. During the entire fight with E.V.E., Robotnik was tracking Sonic on a monitor, so one would think Robotnik could have just waited to see where the hideout is, especially because at the end of Phase 1 Sonic and Tails said they were heading back to Knothole. Too bad Robotnik was so wrapped up in his new creation.

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HBJ Dubs
~Project 1000~

To be fair, Modern Spaz is a lot closer to Old School Spaz.

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TheRock ~ Slow dramatic zoom-pan. Doesn't phase the hooded man.
"You have issues." - MWC. Pot. Kettle.

And his work on Genesis, though Yardley eventually took over (still Spaz's layouts, though).

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TheRock ~ Slow dramatic zoom-pan. Doesn't phase the hooded man.
"You have issues." - MWC. Pot. Kettle.

All I know...

Is that you better all read Super Sonic Special #15. It's the biggest slap in the face to a Sonic fan ever.

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TheRock ~ Slow dramatic zoom-pan. Doesn't phase the hooded man.
"You have issues." - MWC. Pot. Kettle.

TheRock1525 posted...

All I know...

Is that you better all read Super Sonic Special #15. It's the biggest slap in the face to a Sonic fan ever.

Featuring the one artist(s?) in the history of the comic that drew Sonic & Co. worse than Ron Lim. (not an easy feat)
...and who were apparently so ashamed of the work, he/she/they/it didn't even use a real f***ing name.

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My, what big ears you have! :3
http://img.imgcake.com/PrinceKaro/fennecjpgab.jpg

I'm reading through all the Archie Sonic comics as well. I read through all of Knuckles and now I'm on issue 86 of StH. It's been close to unreadable since they started with all the Sonic Adventure crap. Please someone tell me it not continuously terrible until Ian takes over. That's in like 75 issues and I can't handle much more of these ****** storylines with terrible dialogue.

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I use antlers in ALL of my decorating.

Sonic The Hedgehog Issue #22
May 1995



Two stories for this issue, starting with "The Return." Sally and Sonic are chillin' with their kids when suddenly a huge surge of energy blasts through the area and out comes Robotnik! Let me address the whole kids thing first: I'm guessing this is a glimpse into a possible future for Mobius where Sonic and Sally are married with children (Sonic is referred to as King Sonic here). Anyway, just as quickly as he appeared, Robotnik disappears again, so it was just some weird vision caused by the energy surge. Turns out there's a spacecraft orbiting Mobius that harnessed the energy. Robotnik reappears in the spacecraft (so I guess he is the real thing), wondering how he got there. Then, a figure speaks to him revealing that he is the one controlling the space station, and then we see that it's Robo-Robotnik! We learn that this is, in fact, an alternate universe from the Mobius we all know (so EVE didn't actually kill him), but I don't think it's the same Robo-Robotnik. He says that this is a possible future for Robotnik, where he roboticized himself in order to defeat Sonic, but when he failed he uploaded his core memory to this space station (his creation). However, since the station was not completed, he is only able to operate the station until his systems shut down for good.

Robotnik obviously doesn't want this to happen. Fortunately for him, Robo-Robotnik is able to transport him back to his own universe, where he sends a message to the FF declaring (in a prerecorded message) that an army of swatbots is going to flat out destroy Mobius. Operation Wasteland begins with a full on assault, and even the FF realize that there are way too many swatbots to take on. Not even Robotropolis and Snively are safe, as the swatbots try to eliminate him as well. Robotnik shows up just in time to save him, blasting the swatbot away (since it was also targeting him) and turns out that if someone says "Sonic has finally won it all" (which Snively did say) then the operation automatically commences. Robotnik shuts down the operation and then speaks to Sonic, gloating at the irony that his life was saved by his greatest enemy. He lets the FF go for now, but the war will continue. End story.

"Tails' Knighttime Story" is next. I'm not going to detail this one, it's just Sally telling Tails a medieval-based fable to teach Tails that he can't be like his hero Sonic until he becomes strong enough to handle things on his own.

Some kid in the mail asks if Knuckles is Jamaican or Australian, and we get an official ruling on Tails' age (he's five).


I'll admit I was confused at the beginning of the first story, it just seemed too discombobulated until Robo-Robotnik reveals his story. It got real good after Robotnik returned to his world though so everything worked out. Then we got a pointless side-story just to fill up some pages. One more thing: the artwork in this was all over the place (I think Pat Spaziante did this one). Like, Sally looked good, but good god Rotor looked terrible, worse than anything Manak has done so far. Anyway, that wraps up this issue.

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HBJ Dubs
~Project 1000~

There's an occasional flash of goodness between where you are and when Ian comes in. Looking back, I remember the "hearts held hostage" arc as being pretty good, there's the odd good individual story, a few inoffensive "pure action" stories. But the majority... yeah you're entering the bad years of the comic, my friend. Brace yourself

Thanks but I'm just gonna trudge through. I'm unemployed right now so what do I have better to do? Back in the day I dropped the comic somewhere in the 60's and only picked it back up around the Iron Dominion so I'm reading most of this for the first time. Christ, glad I dropped it when I did .

I have all of Sonic X too. They worth checking out/pertain to the StH storyline at all?

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I use antlers in ALL of my decorating.