A way past cool retro Sonic revisit

Hello everyone!

Finally I have a little pilot, please endure my assets until I can pay a proper artist.

I started this particular tumblr 4 years ago in an attempt to keep all my Sonic screeching to one place.  The plan was just to re-read the entire run and then write a little thing about how I felt about what I read and to recap the story, then a year or two later I had the bright idea to do this in a video format.. despite it sort of being out my set of skills. Over time, the idea grew and grew until it frankly became a little overwhelming but after some pep talks and advice from friends I bit the bullet and worked to put something together. 

I’ve learned so much just from making this playful pilot, like... the importance of using a script and not talking with your hands whist you are recording voice over and.. drawing fingers is hard XD.

A short and sweet one today~

Knuckles #6

Knux springs into action to save the mother he hasn’t seen in years.  At her apartment she and her boyfriend are in the process of being kidnapped by Dingoes.  Knuckles is able to beat up the Dingoes without to much trouble and he is reunited with his mother once more and they try to have another moment to reconnect.. but there are still Dingoes in the city and are being dicks, so Knux had to cut his much needed chat with his mother short.  He may have not seen her in years but that will have to wait..  He has his duties as Guardian.

The tremors are still happening within the city and after Knuckles busts some heads of some Dingoes it becomes clear that people either need to be evacuated or taken to shelters, Dingoes included.  Knuckles tries to speak to the Dingo leader General Striker but Striker isn’t having it.  

Striker and Knuckles have a little dance, Knuckles does come out victorious and he is able to finally convince Striker that all the earthquakes and general fuckness going on ISN’T the fault of the Echidnas.

Sonic #51

It’s a party at Knothole.  Their greatest foe is dead, Princess Sally is alive and Knothole… still exists!

Everyone is telling their stories.  There is a food and merriment and before the night is over Sonic is awarded a Medal of Valor, because..  Well duh!  Sonic’s a hero!

After the party everyone turns in for the night.  

In the middle of the night Sally wakes Sonic and has him follow her to the edge of the Great Forest to brief him on a super secret mission.

Expect she doesn’t.  At Sally’s command, Combots ambush Sonic.  He is able to escape with the aide of Tails, but that turned out to be a trick as well.  Left and right, all of his friends seemed to be willingly robotized and in cahoots with..  Robotnik?  What’s going on?  

Then suddenly Sonic wakes up…

Luckily Uncle Chuck was there.  He explains to Sonic that his medal was boobytraped and implanted an artifical virus into his dreams.  The dream virus would have trapped within his mind forever if he gave into Robotnik and his friends’ whims.  Scary.

Sonic is a little miffed that Robotnik was still causing trouble from beyond the grave.. But his uncle quickly explains that Robotnik had nothing to do with it… But who did?  Double Scary.

Sonic #52 (A personal fav)

Sonic and Tails are patrolling the area around Knothole and oddly they see a suit of all things floating by.  Of course they are confused so Sonic sends Tails to get their friends while he gives chase.  The suit flies into a cave and Sonic follows.

The story progresses into a cool 1930’s film noir type story, complete with Sonic as a sharply dressed vigilante and Sally as a hot fem fatale.  They meet up in the most swinging joint, and Ms. Acorn instructs Sonic to find Nicole.  Sonic assumes that “Nicole” is a lady that has been kidnaped by Robotnik’s badniks.  Well..  he’s completely wrong.

Sonic is able to recover Nicole and give her to Sally.  She explains that she dropped Nicole on a reconnaissance mission and Nicole had some vital information that would mean curtains for the resistance if it fell into the hands of Robotnik.

The end of the story mirrors the end of Casablanca complete with plane and the promise of new adventures.  (We never see this Alternate Reality ever again, unfortunately)

Back in this zone. Sonic escapes from the cave just as some of the other members of the Freedom Fighters find him and Sonic tells them what happens.  They basically give him the “Suuuure, that really happened?” vibe and are totally skeptical about what he has just seen/been through..  Which is kinda dumb if you think about it…  Oh well.

In the side story for issue 52 Sally is trying to warn all the other Freedom Fighters, the Chaotix and other teams the dangers about the aftermath Ultimate Annihilator.  She tells them that the zones and alternate realities that are cropping up my not be the safest and to use caution--  

Caption this.

(This part was supposed to happen BEFORE Knuckles issue 4 So my bad.. )

Sonic 49 & 50 (technically, the Issue 50 Director’s Cut Super Sonic Special # 6)

St. John fires on Sonic and with no more choices left for him Sonic jumps.  He’s exhausted and stressed, but with some quick thinking and some maguffiny ability he is able to create a small land bridge with the dirt collected in his shoes because, you know…  comic book logic.  He's doing everything he can to try to get back to Knothole and prove his innocence, but St. John will not give up.

Things back at Knothole are not faring any better. The King has just reinstated Robotnik as warlord, and now the freedom fighters are standing face to face with their worst enemy in their home... Betrayed by friend and now their king…?!

But wait.  As Robotnik taunts our heroes he simply presses the back of the King's head and he explodes, it was a trick! A robot double of King Acorn.

The real King is still comatose and his body crystalline.

We see that Doctor Quack was blackmailed into flubbing Sally's death record.  

With his wife and children in danger Dr. Quack has no choice but to keep his mouth shut and do whatever Robotnik and Snively command.

Back with Sonic, running out of options and running out of time he lets out a high pitched whistle to summon his friend Dulcy the dragon, and with her help he is able to escape St. John… for now.. but not for long since he is being tracked by him.

Draco the Wolf’s girlfriend Hershey the Cat is a citizen of Knothole and she has just heard the terrible news of Sally's death and Draco strikes her and tells her that she is the one responsible.  Like the reader, Hershey is confused so Draco explains the nefarious plan.  He tosses out the Sonic suit that she did wear on that fateful day.  With some comic book logic that made total sense to 11 year old g2gfastreads, and somewhat sense to me now… (tirade time! I do not think that the technology used in the sonic suit or even the sonic suit itself is out of the realm of possibility for the universe that they live in. Robotnik was able to create a robot double of King Acorn that was able to fool his own daughter.. so come on. End rant)

Hershey with the head of the Sonic suit gazes into a mirror, and instead of seeing the Sonic mask, she sees Snively…  uh oh…

Distraught by her involvement in Princess Sally’s assassination Hershey breaks down and weeps. Her lover is not who she thought he was and as far as well all know, Sally is gone because of it.

Waaaaay over in Downunda we see that this is where Bunnie and Antoine were taken for their imprisonment.  Bunnie is rigged up to an explosive set to go off if she uses her robotic limbs to try to fight or escape.  They are thrown into a cell with the Downunda Freedom Fighters who were ambushed and captured by orders from Crocbot… which was, if you don't remember,  the main antagonist from Tails’ miniseries.

After he was blown up, he had enough power to try to salvage nearby scrap to rebuild himself and he swore vengeance against the DFF and Tails.

Up above it all Sonic and Dulcy approach the Floating Island and with everything that has been going on lately Knuckles attacks first and does not bother to question why Sonic or the Dragon have come. Knux’s sucker punch knocks Dulcy our cold. Of course, this means Sonic and Knuckles get into yet another scuffle.  They do not get to duke it out for long because Geoffrey St. John has been hot on Sonic’s tail this entire time.

50

The issue opens with a dream, a flashback to around more than a decade ago when Doctor Julian Ivo, joined forces with the Mobians.  Jules and Charles Hedgehog were surprised to see Overlanders (Humans) pursuing and attacking their own kind.  So Instead of killing him right there, or leaving him, the brothers took him back to the King.  The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?

The dream showed how Robotnik gave up Overlander secrets and became War Lord.

When he awakes from his slumber his Swatbots inform him of a prisoner, not a mobian, but an unfortunate Overlander.  Robotnik uses the poor to test out something that he is sure will ensure his complete and utter dominance over the world.  Snively, though, has other plans.

Back on the Floating Island, Sonic now has to deal with both St. John AND Knuckles but luckily Dulcy has come too and with a mighty shout and a stomp, she is able to get everyone’s attention.

Apparently, Dragons cannot tell lies, so since Dulcy believes Sonic about being framed, that’s good enough for everyone else. So now that Sonic is not public enemy #1 St. John, his men, Knuckles, and Sonic regroup and head back to Knothole.

Meanwhile! At Knothole, Combots, and Swatbots have all the citizens of Knothole lined up and being marched to robotization.  Tails and Rotor go underground to try to escape but even the tunnels are compromised!  Drago captures them and is going to have them set to the prison camp in Downunda like Bunnie and Antoine.

Speaking of Bunnie and Ant.  Bunnie slips her organic arm out her restraints and with the help of Barbie’s claws they are able to get free.  Bunnie detonates the exploding collar, fooling the combot guard into thinking that they’ve blown themselves up.

Now that they have the element of surprise, they free the other members of the DFF and Bunnie and Antoine stole away onto a plane that was flying back to Robotropolis to deliver ore.  The ore that is the lynchpin for the Ultimate Annihilator.  The UA is Robotnik's magnum opus, with this device, not only would destroy Knothole, he would wipe it from existence, all zones, not even a memory. And that’s of course, really bad.

As Draco marched Tails and Rotor, an unexpected plane flies overhead. Sonic, Knuckles and St. John rain down from above and Draco, now outnumbered retreats.

I'm not really sure how Draco was able to get away from Sonic without being overtaken immediately but, we wouldn't have one of the more memorable scenes in the comic.  

Hershey offers to help Draco hide but then once his guard is down she pretty much kicks his ass and almost kills him!  Sonic came by just in time to see the aftermath and as she weeps she explains everything.

Sonic rushes to Robotropolis to bring the fight back to Robotnik.  Snively uses an armored suit to try to stop Sonic but he is defeated quickly. Before Sonic can look for Robotnik, he quite literally runs into Bunnie and Antoine.

Bunnie and Ant want to try to blow the weapon up so Robotnik will not be able to use it, and Sonic is going to try to make a distraction to buy them some time but… it’s already too late. As Sonic goes to confront Robotnik, Bunnie and Antoine watch in horror as the structure opens and the device activates.  It’s do or die now. Even though it’s too late to stop it from firing, they can however make sure that it never works again after that.

Swatbots swarm Sonic and Robotnik takes the opportunity to fire the UA.

Knothole is gone.

...Well, at least Bunnie and Antione’s sabotage seemed to work, the UA is overloading, alarms are blaring, this thing is going to blow.  

Sonic, with the destruction of Knothole has nothing to lose, and Robotnik who has finally destroyed Knothole, seems to be pleased with that and seems to be willing to die.

So they fought, how sweet would it be to die, knowing he took down Sonic with him.

The Ultimate Annihilator explodes

Sonic for a moment is bliped out of existence

Robotnik is destroyed.

Hours later Sonic wakes up in Knothole med bay, and he is understandably confused. He saw his home destroyed, what happened?!

I’ll let Rotor explain because I don’t get it either~

Okay, but why did Robotnik die and Sonic was fine? Take it away Doctor Quack.

So everything is right as rain, right?  No, what about Sally? Dr. Quack explains that while that fall didn’t kill her, it did injure her and now she’s in a coma.  And there is no telling when she will come out of it.  Sonic doesn’t care, and he rushes out to Sally’s ‘memorial’.

He kisses her cheek, and quietly pleads for her to come back and he loves her. And because it’s a comic book, and Sonic just so happens to have perfect timing this time.  Her eyes flutter open and she’s like “What did you say?”  He scoops her up in his arms and they share a passionate kiss…  But he wimps out and just says he was happy to see her instead of his confession.

Issue 50 was another big milestone in the Archie, Sonic run and reading it for the first time when I was young was pretty awesome.  Every few pages where penciled by different artists who worked on the series.

Knuckles 4 & 5 (Part 1 & 2 of Lost Paradise)

Issue 4 starts with Vector chilling and having himself a little swim when he notices something amiss.  There is a random Dark Legionnaire just out and about so, Vector tries to get the drop on them and… is promptly embarrassed by the hooded figure. The figure is on a mission to find a very important echidna.  Spoilers: it's Knuckles.  

Lucky for our would be villain, Knuckles is nearby practicing mediation with Archimedes.

The hooded hood jumps Knux, but Archi and Knuckles were ready. A short fight ensues, and well… Knuckles sees that his assailant is a lady echidna, and that distracts him just enough for her to get the upper hand.  Unfortunately for her, she didn't take Archimedes into account.

Now that she's disarmed, they start their impromptu investigation.

So after The Chaotix and Knuckles routed the DL, Julie-su had a choice: find and rejoin the DL or seek the echidna who disrupted them.

Vector is back with the rest of the Chaotix and he's kinda pissed that Julie-su made quick work of him. Now that he has his crew backing him up, he wants to fight.  Everyone else seems oddly chill about this.

What they are not chill about though, is the random earthquakes that are rocking the Floating Island….  Yeah.  Think about that. The Floating Island getting earthquakes...  So people are rightly upset/worried about it.  So Knuckles is going to investigate this and Julie-su demands to come along because she wants to know what's up.

In the shadows, Knuckles’ father Locke is apprehensive about Knux paling around with this DL member, but what else is he going to do but watch?

Knuckles, Julie-su, and Archimedes walk about for hours looking for any kind of clue or anything…  Unfortunately, the only thing they turn up nothing until they are jolted from their feet with another quick and violent earthquake.

But it's different this time.

After bringing themselves to their feet they are alarmed. They look around and the lush jungle they were exploring is now a great city before them. Before they can even figure out what's going on, an excited echidna woman runs up to to Knuckles, to happy to see her son  after so long.

Knuckles is confused; very confused.  As far as he knew, his mother was just gone. Now here she is, in a city that just appeared, filled with his kind when he thought for so long he was the only one…

With another tremor, the city seems to fade, leaving Knuckles with more questions. Questions that are not getting answered-- and a certain fire ant doesn't seem to be willing to share.

Another earthquake brings the city back into view, this time the people are in a panic. People believe that the tremors are a sign of the end of days and whatever is going on Knuckles and Julie-su need to figure out what is happening… and fast!  But…  

They kinda get arrested…  

Okay, okay they don't actually get arrested but the Echidna Security Team (Basically Echidnapolis’ police force) strongly suggests that Julie-su and Knuckles follow them into their station.  The waiting room they were placed in is kinda a trap and Knuckles is dumped into a secret base way underground where he is met by his ….Um Great x8 Grandfather Hawking.  

Hawking gives Knuckles a history lesson about how the Dingoes use of Echidna technology nearly devastated the Floating Island.

In one of the old bunkers used to house the technology that was seized from the citizens, there were also nukes..  Nukes!  And the Dingoes were going to do whatever it took to get them.  And if they couldn't have them....

With the nuclear weapons that the Dingoes already had, they launched a strike on the remaining technology filled bunker.

Hawking didn't have time to try to evacuate Echidnapolis; nor could he, even if he managed to, the whole Island was at risk of suffering from nuclear fallout.

Using the very same tech his family and people were supposed to be turning away from, Hawking used a device called the Hyper Zone Projector. It could be used to transfer large swathes of land, people, etc into another, very similar zone. (Assumedly, a temporary dimension outside of their own.) He could use this so the citizens of the Floating Island could live peacefully and free of nuclear waste while the Island proper could be cleaned and repair.

After learning this and seeing that the zones are now becoming a bit unstable Hawking explains that Knuckles is a very special Guardian but all that does is confuse Knuckles even more.  He pleads with his ancestor to tell him more! And it looks like that he is about to when they are shaken by yet another violent tremor.  

General Striker, the military leader of the Dingoes is convinced that the tremors and fuckness going on in their home is being caused by the Echidnas, and he is going to get to the bottom of this and stop this foolishness.

(Sorry for the long hiatus guys)

In my haste to get to Issue number 50, I completely forgot about my bro Knuckles who around this time got his own series that ran alongside the main Sonic series. So I think my next two parts are going to focus on the first

3 issues of the Knuckles series.  At one point they start to mingle storywise but I’ll worry about that when the time comes.

Knuckles 1-3 The Dark Legion Arc.

So while all this crap is going on with Sonic and crew, where’s Knuckles and the Chaotix? Well the simple answer is on the Floating Island minding their own business as per normal.

Things seem to be going right as rain until Knuckles’ elusive father sees the Dark Legion showing up with guns a blazing as they charge through the forest of the Floating Island.  He warns Archimedes telepathically.

We are then treated to more flashbacks to Knuckles’ ancestors.  A quick retelling of The fall of Enerjax and his tower, and then his son Menniker mourning his loss.  So as we remember the echidnas as a society decided that they were going to return to a simpler time and sort of give up on high technology.  Most of the citizens were cool with it…  but the ones who weren't, banded together in the shadows.

The Dark Legion is born.

here we also see the fire ants decide that they were going to start working with the Echidnas (Well at least the Guardians) Edmond’s son Steppenwolf was getting close to discovering the movers and shakers involved in the DL so Edmond rushed into action to help his son…  but unfortunately he met his end ((Shooting death # 1))  

 Steppenwolf finds his father…  dead in the alley and he starts to disappear and give up hope, until Christopheles the fire ant reveals himself to him, and gives him a little pep talk.

Sooo Steppenwolf begins training with Chirstoples and that relationship between fire ant and Guardian is forged. The DL attacks Echidnapolis one day and Steppenwolf, as guardian steps up to the plate to try to reason with the cult of technology to see if they could come to some sort of impasse. Steppenwolf walks right up to the leader of the DL to speak face to face…  There it is revealed that his own cousin Menneker, son of Dimitri is the leader of the DL.  He blames Edmund for the death of his father and changing the Echidna way of life… and it seem like he has gone a bit off the deep end.

Steppenwolf, not seeing a clear end to the conflict, banishes the entire cult to the Zone of Silence.. where they stayed… until….

Back to the modern day.  The chaotix has been captured by the DL, this of course is a little confusing to Knuckles because he thought his race was rare, the only other Echidnas he’s seen have been his ever elusive great-grandfather and his father who disappeared into a wall of fire when he was young.  Members of the DL are Echidnas…  heavily altered with cybernetic enhancements..  but they are echidnas. (The comics don’t really focus on that at this moment though.)

Kragok, the current leader if the Dark Legion does the whole ‘Join me’ song and dance for Knuckles, but out our Knux is not buying any of that so there is a bit of a conflict between the distance cousins….  Wait, are they still even considered cousins at this point?

Knuckles and the Chaotix are able to defeat and escape their captors and begin to wreak havoc onto the members of this techno cult. Mostly by causing a diversion.

Things don't look to favorable for long though, the DL regroups and starts setting fire to the woods causing a major panic to the citizens of the Floating Island.  Knuckles and co divert the citizens from harm and with some very “creative” comic logic,  Vector’s walkman works as a supersonic ghettoblaster to extinguish the flames.

With more DL members knocked out, the Chaotix steal their robes and go to infiltrate the DL to see what the heck they are even up to.

No good, that's what they were up to, no good.

Knuckles and the Chaotix work on trying to get them to halt their nefarious schemes and things work out well for them… like extremely well, what's going on?

Locke once again from the shadows is working double time to make sure that his son is safe and evil is vanquished.