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SONIC SUPER SPECIAL #9 (SONIC KIDS 2): ZONEWARD BOUND

TIMELINE: APPROX 3231 (3 YEARS BEFORE SONIC #1)

Well class, it’s time to look at our last Sonic Kids story for the moment. Like the others, this one was written by Mike Gallagher. This time the art was done by Sam Maxwell and Harvey Mercadoocasio. Wow, that name is a mouthful.

Hoo boy. I’m really not a fan of Sam Maxwell’s art. In my personal opinion he draws everyone’s heads too big, not to mention his habit of drawing them with closed mouths when they’re talking. He can also wildly exaggerate facial expressions sometimes, which we’ll see later on.

But enough grumbling about the art, how about the story content? Well, there’s a few important things to note. First of all, THANK GOD, Tails has shoes in this story. Seriously, seeing him with gloves and bare feet in the previous story weirded me out. However this means this story takes place after the other Sonic Kids story we skipped, the one where Sonic is telling a bunch of kids the tale of how he got Tails’ shoes for his birthday. Again, that story was presented as Sonic telling the story to a bunch of kids, so it will be presented later in the timeline.

Art Mawhinney drew the Freedom Fighters looking slightly older there than in any of the other Sonic Kids stories (certainly older than they’ve been drawn in this story), so I’m making a guess that Tails was about six or seven years old by this point. That’s just a rough guess, I could be way off. 

Getting back to Zoneward Bound, the second point I’d like to note about this first page is that Rotor is asking not to be called by his childhood nickname any more, despite him still being called Boomer for like the first seven or so issues of the ongoing series. That’s right, Rotor’s friends literally, “Okay Boomer”-ed him. Between that and the way all four of the other kids are ganging up on Antoine, the only logical conclusion we can come to here is that ALL OF THESE KIDS ARE JERKS.

After Sonic accidentally beans Rosie the nanny in the head with a snowball, she tells the kids to go ice skating. Once again, Sonic takes the opportunity to show off. …this is something he never really grows out of, not even in the future stories where he’s in his forties. :P 

I think I’m going to get a bruise from all this nudging from the editor’s notes. But we’ll actually be seeing this well again soon.

I’m sure this won’t be significant at all. Also, why does Sam Maxwell always draw Antoine looking like he’s half-asleep?

Errrr… what just happened?

Seriously, I don’t know why this ring opened three portals for our heroes to fall into. It’s a weird plot device. I mean, it’s not like the rings will send Sonic rocketing through an otherworldly portal at any other time in the comic.

…okay, maybe one other time. No, actually two other times. But only those two other times! This isn’t normal!

…oh, let’s be honest. There was no normal for this comic back in the 90s. :P 

Remember when I mentioned that Sam Maxwell draws characters with far too exaggerated facial expressions? This is what I’m talking about right here. Sally’s mouth is taking up half her face!

More of what I’m talking about. Yikes, Sam Maxwell.

So what Sally is seeing here is a reference to what is happening to King Max at that time - namely, him being a prisoner in the Zone of Silence and enslaved to Ixis Naugus and his crystal magicks (yes, he has crystal magic as well as the four elements). Either that, or it’s a reference to how he’ll turn to crystal after being rescued from the Zone of Silence. But WHY is Sally seeing this vision, right now? Buggered if I know. 

Okay, did Mike Gallagher drink a 1 gallon milk jug of LSD before writing this story? Because I have no idea what’s going on here. They’re falling through pipes and boxes, and their bodies are being mixed up randomly? Best I can figure is that the Ancient Walkers designed this as a test for their future “Chosen One.” Yes, that’s going to be a thing. Spoiler alert, I guess?

Okay, we’ve finally returned to some semblance of reality. Sonic ended up in a still-under construction Green Hill Zone, apparently. And having already been jerked around by one ring, Sonic immediately decides to start grabbing more. But at least this makes more sense than what happened to the others.

Unfortunately we won’t get to see his adventure with Mighty and Ray for awhile, because that's another story that was told as a flashback in the present day of the comic.

Mmmm, I can hear that classic Sonic 1 boss music in my head. I’ll give Sam Maxwell this, he draws a pretty dang good Robotnik.

Do you think Chuka-Doom is related to Chaka Khan?

So this is where Linkara’s continuity alarm would start going off if he was the one reviewing this, because I’ve got to point out a whoopsie here. As we saw in the first few pages, Tails has his sneakers in this story. Which means that this story has to take place after the story where Sonic gave him those sneakers. But that same story also features a confrontation between Sonic and Robotnik, with the hedgehog already well known to the evil dictator. So either Tails shouldn’t have his shoes yet (please, let’s not go there again!) or else Sonic and Robotnik should recognise each other.

For the purposes of our timeline it really doesn’t matter that much, because the story of Tails getting his sneakers is told as a flashback and thus won’t appear on our timeline until years after this. And for what it’s worth, this minor continuity snarl is probably the least confusing thing to happen in this story. 

And thus the ring was sent back whence it came, to appear in a future story that was published five years earlier. At least some of the timeline has been preserved here. And the lesson we learned today? When a problem comes along, you must NOT whip it. DON’T whip it good!

I like most of the Sonic Kids stories, but this one? Not so much. There’s a lot of nonsensical stuff happening that I’m pretty sure the writer intended to make sense, and I really don’t like the art. If there’s any one Sonic Kids story I think you can skip without missing much, it’s this one.

This isn’t part of the story but it’s on the page right after, so I thought I’d include it here. Back in the day the letters pages included a short gag strip called Off Panel, which mostly featured Sonic characters and the comic’s editor of the time getting into wacky hijinks. Frustratingly this occasionally broke free of the letter pages and took up pages of the comic, something that I feel like exactly ZERO readers were asking for. Anyway, that’s a problem for another day. What’s today’s strip got for us?

…I feel like there’s a joke I could make here about the Epstein Files, but maybe I shouldn’t go there. 

And on that note, we’re done with the Sonic Kids stories (for now, at least)! When we next see Sonic and the gang, they’ll be in their classic era ages and appearances! …well, mostly.

EDS 100 INTRODUCTION: The Nature and Role of Educational and Developmental Psychology

I have always been interested in the field of psychology. Being in this course has given me the opportunity to explore more about the nature and concepts of human behavior. Especially about its corresponding influences on the field of education.

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG MINI SERIES #3

TIMELINE: APPROX 3234 (0 YEARS BEFORE SONIC #1)

Good evening, class! If everyone could please take their seats, please. This is our final session in the Sonic Origins module, so if everyone could please open their textbooks to Sonic mini #3, we can get started!

Haha, this is a fun cover that turns a classic loop-de-loop into a rollercoaster of terror for Sonic. It’s nice to see some classic game elements represented here.

This will be our last Scott Shaw! cover, as it seems he moved on after this issue. We even have a new artist for this issue’s interiors - shall we take a look?

Well well well, this issue is the debut of artist Dave Manak, who would go on to be a regular on the series for a long time. Arguably too long, but we’ll get into that later. For now I think his style works pretty well for the time. It’s quite similar to Scott Shaw!’s, actually.

Is this going to be another one of Mike Gallagher’s acid trips?

That first page is completely unnecessary. After falling off the cliff Sonic goes into a dream state, and then within that dream he starts having a flashback? Why not just go straight into the flashback instead of going all Inception? This thing is confusing enough already - reading it as a kid, I thought this was a true story of Sonic and Robotnik’s childhoods (partly because a later issue would make reference to this). Even the title confuses things - is it a flashback or a What If…? story?

I already knew that Uncle Chuck had invented the power rings from watching SatAM, back when I first read this. But somehow I’d pictured more of a laboratory set up and less… barn workshop.

There’s not many characters that can stop a sonic spin - Knuckles is one of those rare few, but apparently so is Uncle Chuck? He just plucks Sonic out of the air with no effort whatsoever. Not that dissimilar to what Sally did back in mini #1, now that I think about it.

Also, just like in the movies, this weird What If…? scenario has Robotnik as an orphan. If he and Uncle Chuck get into an argument over breastfeeding, I’m outta here.

I bet you never thought you’d see another kid Sonic hated more than Antoine, huh? On the other hand, even as a kid he dresses like an evil little dweeb.

I’ve gotta admit, the little toy robot’s dying words being, “I-hog-hedge-hates…” got a chuckle out of me.

There are a few instances in this story of Sonic’s arms accidentally being coloured blue. The one in the emergency room almost makes it look like he’s wearing a tshirt.

Yikes, where did little Ivo learn to swear like that?

The sad thing is that some of current day Robotnik/Eggman’s monstrosities still look this ridiculous. Clearly he peaked in his youth.

“That armour’s too thick for blasters! Use your harpoons and tow cables!”

Sonic’s flashback ends but we don’t see him come out of the dream that generated the flashback. Sonic, you’re still asleep! Check your totem, Sonic!

In a first for the series, this issue skips the usual one page gag comics we’ve come to expect and launches straight into the second story. What’s Boomer up to over there, I wonder?

This is the least convincing robot cosplay I’ve ever seen, and yet it works on Sonic. I guess it’s a testament to how basic robots looked back in 1993.

So Sally’s plan is to… give the orphaned child even more trauma? Also, it’s wild to see the word “kill” used in this early issue. A lot of media with a younger audience in mind use terms like “destroy” instead, Sonic comics included. And yet the word “crap” is perfectly fine to use in a modern Sonic comic, apparently! How the times have changed…

Stealing newspapers from children? Buzzbomber is truly the most despicable of Robotnik’s badniks…

Wait, was Sonic disguised as a robot-maker, or was the robot-maker disguised as a robot-maker? Either way, it’s an incredibly flimsy excuse. Matches the incredibly flimsy disguise, I guess.

Sonic is able to maintain his cover just barely when Sally and Antoine set off a perimeter alarm as a distraction. Lucky for him, but…

Not so lucky for Antoine. Ouch. The poor guy just can’t catch a break.

It’s our first time seeing Uncle Chuck again since his roboticization, and… well, he still doesn’t actually look like a robot. Even Sonic’s disguise is more robotic, what with that big metal jaw.

What makes this more confusing is that Muttski is back for a return appearance too, and unlike Uncle Chuck, he clearly has been turned into a robot.

Wait, a coffee break? I’m even more confused now. Is Uncle Chuck supposed to be robotic or not?! Or is this just another one of Sonic’s incredibly flimsy excuses that somehow works?

Haha, it’s funny because Robotnik’s getting bitten on the butt.

You know what would be darkly hilarious? If it turned out that the roboticized relatives of one of the other Freedom Fighters had been working in the buzzbomber factory when Sonic bombed it.

Anyway, that was the final issue of the Sonic mini series - an interesting combination of a very much non-canon story (even before this kind of stuff started getting retconned), followed by a story that surprisingly did get confirmed as canon by a later issue (although they made it clear that Uncle Chuck was in fact supposed to be robotic here).

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG MINI SERIES #2

TIMELINE: APPROX 3234 (0 YEARS BEFORE SONIC #1)

Welcome back to ArchieSonic 101, where these early issues are in constant danger of being retconned in the future. Today’s issue is a first for the series - one long story that takes up almost the entire issue! Let’s just dive in, shall we? Everyone please open your text books to Sonic mini #2!

This is a very dynamic cover, although incredibly misleading. At no point in this issue will Sonic get chased by ze missiles.

That’s a neat trick, even if he’s only doing it to show off.

They’re being cute again, somebody make it stop!

The whatcha-whats?!

H’okay, that’s a lot to unpack. If these so-called Freedom Emeralds are supposed to be keeping Robotnik at bay I think they’re doing a pretty crappy job, considering he’s taken over most of the planet at this point. And if they are so butt-kickingly powerful, then how was Robotnik able to defeat King Acorn in the first place?

Not that any of this really matters, because this story was nuked with a vengeance by retcons later in the series. King Acorn’s crown would still end up being very significant later in the series, but it was infused by a completely different magical macguffin. The Freedom Emeralds would never be seen again after this issue.

This is our first instance of Robotnik creating a robot infiltrator that looks like a real person. This plot point, as well as Robotnik’s inability to waterproof them, will come back again in later issues.

The robot supposedly having passed the location of Knothole to Robotnik will not actually come up at all. So why even mention it in the first place? It’s brought up here like this will be a problem should Knothole not be destroyed, but no, Robotnik still has no idea where the Freedom Fighters hide out after this.

Sonic is perfectly fine, btw. Big surprise, right?

I dunno, I kinda feel like letting a robot explode in the middle of the Great Forest would result in…

…yeaaaaah.

Wait, college days? Where did he attend, University of Knothole? Even assuming there were any higher education options available to him, isn’t Antoine a little young to have attended college? I’m pretty sure Word of God says that Antoine is only a couple of years older than Sonic and Sally, which would put him around 17 or 18 here.

So it turns out that trying to investigate an enemy blimp that’s surrounded by angry, armed robots while you are in an unarmed air balloon is a really, really bad idea.

That Swatbot would have been fine if only he’d had his tray table up and his seat back in the full upright position. Especially if he’d been flying to Alberqueque.

IT’S A MACGUFFIN HUNT LET’S GOOOOOOOO

This list is a little amusing to look back on so many years later. They may not have included trading cards with Sonic comics, but they did package them with action figures, not to mention certain shiny covers (#25 and #50 come to mind), as well as eventually branching out into multiple variant covers per issue. They also had numerous crossover events with guest characters, although sadly not with the Ninja Turtles (well, aside from a sneaky cameo one other time). Maybe IDWSonic will get there one day.

Also, spoofing the Death of Superman is rather amusing considering how many times Sonic himself would later come down with a sudden case of “comic book death”. Knuckles too. And Sally. And Antoine. And- YOU GET THE IDEA.

Why does everyone have to announce Sonic’s full name in logo form at the beginning of every chapter in these early comic days? Do they think we don’t know whose comic book we’re reading? The big blue hedgehog on the cover is kinda hard to miss.

I told you Jaws would return. Let’s hope he doesn’t get launched into space with his pigtailed robot girlfriend.

It is incredibly convenient that the second Freedom Emerald is in the exact same underwater cave from the last issue. These things should be called the Convenience Emeralds instead. Seriously though, wasn’t the plan to scatter the emeralds to the four corners of Mobius? Assuming Mobius has a similar amount of ocean water to Earth, you’d think they’d try to get it a bit further away than a river near Sonic’s home base. Robotnik ought to have tossed this thing into the middle of the Pacific Ocean and had a cozy night in watching Sonic try to get it back from there. He could have made popcorn!

One panel that was left on the cutting room floor for this scene was Sonic saying, “Meep meep!” and running away while Jaws dialled the ACME hotline to buy more traps.

Man, what I wouldn’t have given to have had a wrist gauntlet with a Game Gear installed on it back in 1993.

Once again, I would like to point out that the plan was supposed to be to scatter these emeralds to the four corners of Mobius. One of them was in a river near Sonic’s home, one was on the shore of that river, and one was in an underground tunnel right underneath the last one! C’mon Robotnik, you can do better than this.

On top of failing to get the Freedom Emeralds far away from Sonic, Robotnik also had them very poorly defended. The one in the blimp was at least being escorted by a legion of flying badniks, but the other three only had one robot guard apiece. Maybe Robotnik knew how useless these Freedom Emeralds actually were and decided they weren’t worth the effort.

I feel like Boomer’s crown repair shop probably doesn’t get a lot of business.

I’m WaAaAaAaAaAiTiNg…

Buddy. You want a bigger role? Get a better evil scheme, because this one was weaksauce.

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG MINI SERIES #1

TIMELINE: APPROX 3234 (0 YEARS BEFORE SONIC #1)

Welcome back to ArchieSonic 101, my students! Today we’ll be looking at Sonic the Hedgehog #1!

No, not that Sonic #1.

No, not that one either.

DEFINITELY not that one. No, we’re still in the original ArchieSonic mini series.

Wow. they didn’t keep Sally as a blonde for long, did they? Only a single issue! She now looks pretty similar to her appearance in the pilot episode of SatAM, Heads or Tails. 

Shall we get into the issue and see what Sally and her new darker hair are up to today?

Ha, this matches up with AoStH Sonic - so easily distracted by a pretty girl. Why are there rings on the trees though? What’s that all about?

Sally’s in a bad mood, and Sonic for no reason whatsoever assumes that Antoine is the cause. What did this guy do to make everyone hate him so much?!

Sally is calling a parlay with Robotnik? Well this should be interesting.

I absolutely love this. Sally just yoinks Sonic out of the air and smashes him into the ground. Brilliant, 10/10, chef’s kiss!

Honestly? I feel like they could just squeeze between those bars and escape.

Robotnik immediately turns on Sally, because, duh, villain. But the interesting thing is that Sally seems unhappy that her being thrown into the roboticiser is about to be interrupted. What’s she up to?

Also, we get our first look at the original roboticiser design in this issue - or “robo-machine,” as it’s called in these early issues - and it is very different to the machine we saw back in Sonic Kids, which follows the SatAM design. Ahhh, early installment weirdness. What would we do without you?

So it turns out Antoine is a pickpocket. An unexpected skillset for him… one that I don’t believe ever comes up again in this series either.

Antoine holding Robotnik at gunpoint is very funny to me.

That’s a pretty sneaky plan, but there’s a number of things that Sally clearly didn’t take into account, even beyond Sonic, Tails and Antoine interfering in the plan. First of all, if Sally had been thrown into the robo-machine, sure, they would have gotten the plans, but wouldn’t Sally have still been turned into a robot? Maybe not - Boomer did say there were jammers in the boots, so it’s possible that they would have been able to stop the roboticisation effects. But what then? What would have happened if Sally emerged from the robo-machine completely unscathed? I highly doubt that Robotnik would have let her just walk out of there. That’s why this plan failing isn’t actually Sonic and the others’ fault - they should have been involved from the start! Not only would they have known not to interfere in the plan, but they also would have been ready to back Sally up and get her out of there once she had the intel they needed! Granted I’m probably thinking too hard about this - this is a funny jokey comic that really didn’t take itself seriously in those days.

Would you believe me if I told you that this would not be the last time that Sally would try to sabotage a roboticiser by being fed into it? This instance actually turned out to have better results for our heroes than the next time she’d try it, so honestly they ought to see this one as a win.

Remember back in Sonic Kids how I said that Sonic never really grew out of showing off? Yeaaaahhhh.

Oh, this is interesting - it’s our first look at Bunnie! She has a slightly different design here - not only are her arm and the lower half of her body roboticised, but her chest is too. This would be changed before her first in-canon appearance, which isn’t actually in this mini series. I’m sure kids reading this back when it first released were all wondering who she was and why she was included here when she wouldn’t be seen in an actual story for months after this issue was released.

Our second story for today features Sonic facing off against one of the classic badniks from the first Sonic game, Jaws. Yes, Sonicteam really decided to call it that. Maybe Robotnik just really liked that shark movie. …or that spy movie.

This underwater slide looks like it could be from the Labyrinth Zone, but the rest of the story is just in a generic underwater cave. Kind of a shame, but we will eventually see a fully realised Labyrinth Zone in this comic.

It’s weird to see Sonic swimming in these early issues, let alone not freaking out about being underwater. Also, if Robotnik can waterproof his robot maker, why doesn’t he do it for all of them? You never know when Robotropolis might get hit with a freak rainstorm and the ceiling might start leaking. Or the Freedom Fighters might attack with a giant garden hose.

…no really, Sonic actually will suggest this as a plan in an upcoming issue.

This is the first appearance of Boomer’s bathysphere. It would show up again a surprising number of times throughout the series!

I can hear that drowning jingle in my head. I’m fine. This is fine. HRRRNNNGGGH.

*Wah-wahp!* (or whatever that sound effect is that Sonic makes when he inhales an air bubble)

Jaws will return in: Moonraker! …or the next issue, probably.

We get it, Gallagher! Sonic is fast! Enough already! (also, if he was playing doubles then there should have been four Sonics on the court)

So that was issue “one.” Not bad but nothing special, and I really don’t see why Sally wouldn’t have told everyone her plan. I mean, obviously from a storywriting perspective it’s to allow for the funny-whoopsie ending, but in-universe Sally is smarter than that.

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG MINI SERIES #0

TIMELINE: APPROX 3234 (0 YEARS BEFORE SONIC #1)

Hi-ho class, Scruffymatt thee Professor here. Well, would you look at that! Look at that big, round, beautiful zero on our timeline counter! We are so close to the starting point of the ongoing series now, but we still have a few more comics to look at before we get there.

In November of 1992 Archie Comics published the first of a four issue Sonic the Hedgehog mini series. I don’t know the exact circumstances behind its creation, but one would assume it was to assess how much demand there was for a Sonic the Hedgehog comic book before they committed to a regular ongoing series. So today we’re going to look at the first of these four issues, issue #0!

Just one note - from this point going forward I’ll be covering full issues in each session, so long as it doesn’t go against the timeline. If one story is continued in another issue, for instance, then I’ll only be focusing on that one story rather than the entire issue, if that makes sense.

I really like this cover. It’s not as cool and flashy as the covers we get on modern Sonic comics these days, but I feel like this one is iconic. We see Sonic literally coming out of a TV to star in the paper product in your hands - it’s very effective. I wasn’t aware of this prior to researching this issue, but apparently this very issue came out on the same day that Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was released on the SEGA Genesis in North America. I imagine the comic sold pretty well as a result - everyone had Sonic on the brain on that famous “Sonic 2sday.” That’s probably why Robotnik is being shown in his game design on this cover rather than in his Archie/SatAM design.

This cover and the issue interiors were all done by Scott Shaw! I like his art - it’s maybe not as dynamic as modern day Sonic artists, but this was perfectly fine for the early 90s. As it turns out, Scott Shaw! did the covers for the entire mini series (as well as the interiors for minis 0 - 2), and Mike Gallagher was the writer for all four issues.

This first page almost feels like a continuation of the cover, except that Robotnik has traded in his checker ball for a mega muck-shooter, as well as his game design for his regular comic appearance. We also have a cast of characters on either side of the page, showing our heroes and villains. Probably a good idea considering that this would be readers’ first introduction to many of these characters, as SatAM was still in development at this point. That said, I’m not sure that we really needed an introduction to the badniks - they’re all pretty one-dimensional hench-robots.

GUH-SPLOK.

“Your needle’s stuck, chubby.” I had to look up what this means, because I never understood it any of the times I read this comic in the last 30-something years. Apparently it’s a reference to a vinyl record’s needle getting stuck, causing the music to skip and repeat over and over. Okay, so now that I understand what the hell he’s talking about, does early 90s Sonic strike you as the type who listens to vinyl?

As you may remember in one of the Sonic Kids stories, Tails and the other Freedom Fighters discovered an underground cavern hidden beneath a tree stump. This is where Knothole is established for these early issues of the series.

Here we have our first official introduction to the Freedom Fighters. There’s a lot of early installment weirdness here, again, due to SatAM still being in development at the time. As noted in the cast list on the first page, Rotor is still being called Boomer (despite him asking Sally years ago to stop calling him that), and Sally is blonde. That will change pretty quickly though. Tails at least is consistent - his hero worship of Sonic definitely fits the character circa 1992.

Aww, these two are adorable. I wonder how long they’ve been crushing on each other at this point?

Here’s our first look at Antoine. I did admittedly giggle at his laundry problems.

Robotnik has a very impressive resume. How much does being a puppy kicker pay, I wonder?

The abuse of Antoine continues. At least here he kind of deserves it, unlike our last story where the other four ganged up on him in that snowball fight. One has to wonder if years of bullying at the hands of his friends has made him into a bit of a jerk.

Also, haha, weeping willows. It’s a pun. Do you get it?

Hey, did you hear the joke about the three holes? Well, well well! Thank you, thank you.

So here’s the pay off from that last Sonic Kids story we looked at. Man, that story was such an acid trip.

More early installment weirdness here. Rings did some strange things in the first few years of this comic.

Womp-womp. Back in the day they filled a lot of the pages between stories with short gag comics or entire page pin-ups like this one. I won’t be sharing all of them, but I thought that Sonic’s Six* Speed Settings was worth a mention.

Oh man, there’s a lot of early installment weirdness here. Not only do we see Sonic swimming, but the comics apparently didn’t know that Super Sonic was going to be a whole different thing (let alone Hyper Sonic, but that wouldn’t be for another two years). Also, this one page of a non-canon 1992 comic book confirms that Sonic the Hedgehog is transgender!

The second story in this issue is presented as a flashback to Robotnik’s takeover and is very much not canon to the rest of this series. Later issues of the series would retcon Robotnik’s takeover to be pretty similar to how it was portrayed in SatAM. As we saw in the Sonic Kids story Eve of Destruction, Robotnik weaselled his way into the King’s inner circle and helped him win the Great War before overthrowing him, back when Sonic was still a little kid. But it’s still interesting to see this alternate take.

So here’s our first look at Sonic’s loved ones - his Uncle Chuck and pet dog Muttski. Uncle Chuck is established here as running a chilli dog stand - no doubt where Sonic’s love for his favourite snack comes from - but shows that he is also a very capable inventor and handyman. This will be very important later on. And Muttski is… a dog. It feels a little odd to have domestic pet dogs in the same world where anthropomorphic dog people are also a thing, but Flickies also exist alongside the Babylon Rogues, so…

I wonder how much longer it’ll be before America’s current regime makes smiling an arrestable offense? We can’t be far off from it.

Sonic does not question why a robotic chicken would want 200 chilli dogs. He’s not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, is he?

Good to see Sonic’s got his priorities sorted out. Spoiler alert - he would never get paid for the chilli dogs. :( 

So this is the original version of how Sonic and Sally first met in this series. Once again I need to stress that this got retconned to Sonic and Sally being friends since they were children. This is a strong introduction for Sally though.

We’ll come back to this. …unfortunately.

More early installment weirdness: in this original issue, roboticisation was presented as the victims only being brainwashed rather than fully transformed into metallic drones. Maybe they weren’t sure what it would look like back then, or thought it might be too scary for a kids’ comic? Hard to say.

Sonic’s powers got a bit over the top back in these early issues. But then again, maybe this was a precursor to his Sonic Wind attack in Sonic Adventure 2? Either way, I enjoy the Wizard of Oz reference.

“Sonic, please meet my crack team that I personally hand-picked to battle the dictator who has overthrown our kingdom: a handyman, a stuffy Frenchman who’s afraid of his own shadow, and a literal child!”

So that was Sonic mini #0, and as you can see, the comics were a very different beast back then. There was a much bigger emphasis on gags and fourth wall-breaks, as well as dedicating a number of single pages for even more jokes between the bigger stories. It’s safe to say that the target demographic of the comics back in those days was a bit younger than it is today. Not that the current comics are completely devoid of humour - far from it. The main character is a wise-cracking speedster, after all. But it would be awhile before this one-off, humorous form of storytelling would change to more of an ongoing and serious narrative.

SONIC SUPER SPECIAL #5 (SONIC KIDS): WHEN YOU AND I WERE YOUNG, SALLY

TIMELINE: APPROX 3228 (6 YEARS BEFORE SONIC #1)

Welcome back to ArchieSonic 101, where we’re once again looking at those meddling kids back when they were still… meddling …kids. …hmmm.

…okay! So let’s have a look at our text book for today!

Well this cover is 90s AF. We’ve got rollerblades, tamagotchis and - Oh GAWD. Patrick Spaziante, what did you do to Tails’ feet?! Was this level of detail really necessary?

Ahhhhhhh. Much better. Alright, let’s go look at the actual story, shall we? This one was written by Mike Gallagher and pencilled by Manny Galan.

So this issue came out 11 months before Sonic Kids 2 did, and I think the art reflects that a little. Don’t get me wrong, I think Manny Galan’s pencils are fine here, but I feel like his Sally and Knuckles story in Sonic Kids 2 the following year was a bit more polished. One important thing you may notice here is that Sally has a much more humble outfit compared to her princess garb in the previous two stories we looked at. Obviously this is because we’re now a few years into Robotnik’s takeover, and the kids have been living in the hidden village of Knothole since then. Judging by Tails’ appearance, I’m guessing he’s about four, maybe five years old at this point, which would put Sonic and Sally at around 9 or 10? This is only a rough guess, of course.

...ooooh?

Poor Antoine, he just never gets any respect. And at this stage we haven’t really seen him do anything to have earned that disrespect.

It’s Tails’ first flight! But as you’d expect for any kind of new skill you’re learning for the first time, it doesn’t exactly go that great. Practice makes perfect, right?

Also, seeing Tails without shoes yet still wearing gloves is just… weird.

Haha, cartoon physics are funny. Also, our first Nicole name-drop! Well almost, anyway. Nicole’s origins are a little complicated, and that will be further muddled by a certain story which may or may not be canon, but we’ll get into that when it comes up.

Well well, this is interesting. As we will see in upcoming stories, the Freedom Fighters were living underground in the early issues of the series. This appears to be their first discovery of those caverns.

So aside from Sally, it looks like the other kids don’t really know much about the Robotnik takeover? Just that they had had to move into the forest, I guess. Makes sense that the surviving adults wouldn’t want to burden the young children with the horrors of what’s been happening.

It would later be retconned that there was an adult group of Freedom Fighters that had preceded our five heroes, but that’s not something we really need to worry about right now.

Looks like Tails already has a handle on his new skill. Now would someone please get that kid some shoes?!

Actually, the next story in this issue does tell the tale of how Tails got his shoes. But we won’t be looking at the rest of this Sonic Kids issue for awhile, because the next story is told in the form of a flashback and thus takes place much, much later down the timeline. And the third story from this issue isn’t even a Sonic Kids story - it features Sonic, Sally and Antoine at their regular ages! I wonder if the writers ran out of ideas for what to do with these characters as children, but then when the issue came out and they saw how popular it was they immediately got to work on thinking up more? Just a theory.

SONIC SUPER SPECIAL #9 (SONIC KIDS 2): EVE OF DESTRUCTION

TIMELINE: 3224 (10 YEARS BEFORE SONIC #1)

We’re still checking out Sonic Kids 2, and oh boy folks, have we ever got a story to look at today. Out of all the stories told in the Sonic Kids comics, I think this one is the most important. Let’s just jump right into it!

Look, it’s the guy! Four stories in, and we finally get our first look at…

Yes, that guy. Also here are the other original Freedom Fighters - Sally, Antoine, and Boomer (which is a childhood nickname for Rotor). And some fox dude with an eyepatch who looks suspiciously like Tails is also here.

Even at a young age, Antoine is well established as the designated butt-monkey of the team. Don’t worry though, he’ll grow and become what I believe the kids today call a “giga-chad.”

There’s a lot of exposition here, but it helps to establish the current status quo. It’s currently a time of peace in Mobotropolis after the end of the Great War, and we see that the man who would one day be known as Robotnik is living among them without suspicion.

Yes, exactly. 

Also worth nothing is that Sonic has been adopted by his Uncle Chuck after being accidentally orphaned. All of these things will be further elaborated on later in a series of stories retelling the days of the Great War, but these are the main bullet points.

Well that last panel isn’t filled with ominous fore-shadowing at all…

…you know, I’ve had this comic book for years and only just now am I getting the joke Snively is making. “Acorn-ball.” A cornball. Hoo boy, definitely not his best material. Maybe he’s using all his brain power to keep his hair from falling out. As Sonic said in SatAM’s Blast to the Past: “Enjoy it while it lasts.” 

The roboticiser is one of the things that makes this version of Robotnik one of the most sinister across all Sonic universes. There’s a whole body horror element of being transformed and becoming a mindless drone that makes it so much more chilling than getting crammed into a robot shell and forced to be its power source, in my opinion. While a big part of the appeal for Robotnik is obviously in creating a mindless army to do his bidding, I feel like he also particularly enjoys the cruelty of the process.

I don’t think Amadeus confronting the villains by himself was terribly bright - even if Robotnik didn’t have other hidden defenses (which he clearly did), the roboticised beaver still could have attacked him. I don’t think that ”overlander weapon” would have had much effect on its shiny metal hide. Surely the more sensible thing to do would be to call for backup? But in his defense it’s easy to see how surprised and outraged he would have been by “Julian”’s sudden unexpected turn and may not have been thinking straight. There’s also no guarantee that anyone would have been available to help, considering that the military was being dismantled. Which, you know. Also not a bright idea, considering they only just recently survived a war. Great job on that one, King Max.

While Amadeus is screaming across the city, his wife is screaming at the exact same moment. I hear that synchronised screaming is going to be the hot new sport at the next Olympics. Hey, it can’t possibly go any worse than the breakdancing at the last Olympics. :P

Also, I think I would prefer if “Faster” was Sonic’s middle name. But let’s not open that whole can of worms yet - we’ll get to it soon enough.

Sooo… is it normal for the King to just casually drop by every time a new child is born in his kingdom? How much of his time is taken up with new baby births? Or is he just there to pick up his daughter? These are the important questions we may never get the answers to. 

We also get to see regular appearing character Dr. Quack here for the first time. That name is a pun on so many levels and I’m not even mad. :P

Interestingly, Tails is born with a second tail, and everyone is mostly just okay with this. I’m also okay with this - I feel like some things like Sonic’s speed and Tails’ extra tail don’t really need an explanation or origin story. This will be in direct contrast with Knuckles’ birth and the explanation for Amy’s powers, both of which will get an origin story in this comic. Sigh.

My partner and I recently watched through the entire series of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog again, and in that show it was pretty much a daily occurrence for the heroes or villains (mostly the villains) to get fooled by silly disguises. This mostly feels believable enough in this case though - Robotnik plays it very subtly to make sure his new robot doesn’t do anything that might give the game away. Although I do wonder how no one noticed that Amadeus’ uncovered tail is made of metal now.

So not only does Tails lose his father in this story, but later that same night Robotnik will overthrow the government and begin his reign of terror. Man, that’s going to be a bummer of a birthday to celebrate every year.

And thus one of the most enduring friendships in the Sonic mythos was born! …as was Tails himself. As I mentioned earlier, this is definitely my favourite Sonic Kids story. Having what should be a joyful event in the birth of Tails juxtaposed with the tragedy of what happens to his father - and what is about to befall the entire kingdom - is really interesting to me. And the art is great in this one - Art Mawhinney is probably my favourite artist for the classic Sonic era. Fun fact - he happens to have been a storyboard artist on the SatAM cartoon, so his style of art feels very authentic to these characters and settings. You can very easily picture this being adapted to animation for the cartoon.