u/ItsTheGov

Pictured: Everyone's first Sonic OC

This issue only contains a single story, much like Miniseries #3, and it's called Night of 1000 Sonics, and from the cover alone, get ready to see a whole bunch of Sonic.

I just noticed there's special thanks to Stephen Penders. We'll be seeing him soon.

We open up with Sonic meeting a cyborg sonic, who says he comes from a dimension where Robotnik made everyone cyborgs, only to find out this actually made them stronger. In an attempt to gain an advantage, Robotnik robotized himself and becoming more powerful, and Cyborg Sonic had fled onto the cosmic interstate to find more allies.

I hate Buff Sonic.

Sonic starts to make a speech about what everyone is doing here, but then the alternate universe Robotnik, otherwise known as Robo-Robotnik, shows up with a bunch of shadowbots. However, the actual Robotnik had been watching, and had swatbots to take on the shadowbots.

After driving him off, Robotnik realizes that Robo-Robotnik will come back, so he teams up with Sonic, revealing that in order to beat him, they need to get the giant's hand in the neutral zone. However, while the Sonics go to get it, Robotnik plans on using it himself to take over the world. Meanwhile, Robo-Robotnik has decided to recruit Anti-Sonic for some reason.

They get the hand but then Anti-Sonic comes by to fight, but it turns out his use is pointless because Robo-Robotnik just teleports the hand to him and uses it to become Giant Borg. After Sally has to break up a fight when the Sonics blame each other, she suggests that they work together to take on the Giant Borg.

I kinda like this frame.

In the end, the Sonics beat the borg and normal Robotnik tries to do a betrayal, but he gets jumped to prevent it. To make sure the bot cant be brought back, Sonic has every Sonic take a piece of the bot.

I didn't like this story at all. It was really grating, and most of all, it was just kinda nonsensical and not even in a funny way. I didn't like any of the Sonics, I don’t get why Anti-Sonic is teaming with Robo-Robotnik, and perhaps most jarring is that there isn't anything that funny.

You’d expect that with all these Sonics having different gimmicks, they’d do something a little different with them. For example, why not have the Cowboy Sonic make wild west puns? Or have Skiing Sonic make skiing puns? Or Batman Sonic talk about his dead parents? Anything at all, but absolutely nothing is done with that save for the buff Sonic, and even then he barely has a personality in the first place.

At the end of the day, it’s just Sonic in different costumes by this point. Yes, there’s a fun idea there, and I could imagine someone else writing it would have a better execution of the story, but once the novelty of there being multiple Sonics wear off, you better have a good story to tell, and this one has no good story.

Night of 1000 Sonics - 2/10

Issue #19 - 2/10

I think I saw this game on Roblox before...

Hello, sorry for the wait to get back to these! Been busy a lot!

Sonic the Hedgehog: In Your Face, is the first of eight specials, and yes, I say specials and not Super Specials. These specials and Super Specials are considered two different things, remember that.

Anyways, these specials are unique in that unlike the mainline comics, they are extra length, having 48 pages instead of 24 on average. These specials were also released every couple of months, starting from December of 1994 to March 1997, so these specials will be popping up a lot. Also interesting to note is that out of these eight issues, only half of these involve any game tie-ins, like Sonic and Knuckles, 3D Blast, and Knuckles Chaotix. The others are more experimental and don’t really tie into any game, and this is one such example, featuring three original stories that don't reference any games.

I hate how form fitting Sally's outfit is...

Our first story is known as The Quest, is the finale to the Sally story we talked about in issues #17-#18. After doing some sparring with Sonic, Sally is eventually called away by Rosie, as her mentor Julayla had left things to Sally in her will. Among said items is the iconic vest that Sally wears for a large chunk of the series, even though issue 16 said she had it earlier. Additionally she finds a map that she wants to investigate, and plans to do so tomorrow.

Later that night however, the orb that fell out of the sky in Issue #17 wakes up Sally and opens up, revealing that inside the orb is a little PDA thing known as NICOLE.

Meet NICOLE, aka, Sally's personal Tamagotchi.

Nicole is another SatAM adaption character, being an AI inside a little computer device that serves as Sally’s companion, often helping out the fighters with her vast knowledge, hacking abilities, and various sensors. As such, she serves as one of the most valuable and important members of the Freedom Fighters in spite of not having a body. Speaking of which, while we are a long time away, Nicole eventually does gain a lot more of a characterization, and even a body, resulting in her becoming one of the most popular non-canon characters in the franchise and a popular shipping option for one character in particular.

After the others walk in on Sally, Sonic ends up shaking Nicole and getting shocked for his efforts, kind of like how he does in the actual show. It’s a cute little reference. 

The map then reveals that Sally needs to go to the forbidden zone and she plans to go alone, but then everyone decides to come along even though I honestly don't know what they can contribute. The group (sans Rotor, who is just dropping them off) eventually wind up being dropped near the forbidden zone, and I know that this place is apparently not meant to be owned by Robotnik, but the contents inside made me think that way.

They make it past the border control (literally what its called), and they encounter a cyclops for some reason and they win by Sonic realizing that they have to stand still. Then they have to face a griffin, and they win by having Tails pull a sword out, which breaks the circuit.

The last challenge is a Polysaurus Rex, and Sally winds up outsmarting it and they make it to the end, only for it to be another scroll that the current Sally can’t figure out, but the one from twenty years later can. As it turns out, it's oneness of the soul/the faith in one self with a random Hamlet reference.

Twenty years later also sees a number of changes, most notable of which being Sonally becoming canon and having kids, King Max is returning, and apparently Nicole dying in the final battle. Fortunately, Rotor had rebuilt her, and not only that, sent her back in time to aid the others, and it’s also how she knows so much. This ends up creating a stable time loop, and that seems fine, right?

Except that this future is explicitly stated to not necessarily be the prime timeline’s future, just one of many possible futures. Which only raises about a billion more questions about where NICOLE came from.

The story was fine, but I definitely would say it’s the weakest of the Sally stories so far. It’s the closest in tone to SatAM entirely, thanks to Art Mawhinney changing up his artstyle a bit, and while it’s easy to see the cyclops, griffin, and polysaurus rex as unfitting, SatAM did have a dinosaur character, so I’d say it’s not too outside of the realm of possibility. 

I think my main issue with this story is that Sally doesn’t really do much despite the quest being for her. She does help get the group into the forbidden zone, and she also does trick the polysaurus rex, but that’s really it for her. Sonic is the one who figures out the cyclops trick, Tails is the one who pulls the sword from the mantle, and even Sally needs to rely on NICOLE to figure out some of the challenges.

Additionally, I do not think Bunnie and Antoine were needed in this story at all. The two of them, despite going on the mission, barely did anything aside from stand around and gawp at the action scenes before them. I think this story would've flowed a bit better had it just focused on Sally and Sonic, since it would've given us more of a chance to see how they work together in a more serious story,

And look, I’m not asking for Sally to be this uber competent protagonist who can do no wrong, and I know at the end of the day this is a Sonic the Hedgehog story, so naturally he’s gonna get a lot of focus, but I’d like to see Sally’s wits and abilities be put to use more often. As a whole, fine enough story.

Ladies and gentlemen, the hardest to read story in the series.

Next story is The Mirror Zone, and this short story is unique for two things. The first is that it has a mirror gimmick where in order to read the story, you have to mirror the words. Sounds simple enough, save for the fact that I'm reading this on my computer, so trying to decipher it was a bit of a hassle.

The second is that this is actually the first story drawn by a man many Archie Sonic fans know as Patrick Spazinate, otherwise known as "Spaz". Spaz is known for being the longest running artist for the entire series, contributing various cover arts to the series and even drawing a few stories. In fact, the guy still occasionally works with the franchise to this day, haven done work on a few coloring books, and even contributing a cover to the IDW comics for the 30th anniversary special.

The guy is a true legend within Sonic’s history, and I’m glad to get to him.

Unfortunately, outside of this being the first story of Spaz and the backwards gimmick, this story is not that interesting. All that happens is that Sonic and Tails beat up some swat bots and get a backwards message that’s just Robotnik calling Sonic dumb. It's a forgettable story, but it’s brought up by the art, even if the hands are a little wonky.

https://preview.redd.it/czusst40ub2h1.jpg?width=700&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=93188577c9026cf1d26006d495e9ccaabc9b861e

https://preview.redd.it/jzin6kksub2h1.jpg?width=701&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fceda45d0b77f1fadb16716f86b242db90f45a8e

Before we go onto the final story of this issue, I'd actually like talk about the Sonic-Grams here, because this is actually the first time I’ve actually read them. The Sonic-Grams are essentially the letters page, where fans can ask questions, make comments, or talk about their theories. This particular Sonic-Grams doesn’t have too much to note save for a few things.

• This Sonic-Grams confirms Sally Acorn as being fifteen years old. Knowing who's going to be coming up soon, I'd like you to keep that in mind.
• Someone had asked about punctuation and where Bunnie came from, and the Grams responded to this question (as well as all other comments), in character as Sonic. Aside from the image of some little kid asking Sonic about punctuation being really funny, I also can’t help but point out, that Sonic never actually says where Bunnie came from.
• Someone submitted their own Sonic OC, a pirate dog who's an ace shooter. I believe that might even be Manak who drew a design for him. Kinda neat, but I'm not a fan of the bushy chest.
• Finally, someone admits that they have a crush on Robotnik, and straight up sends a picture of themselves. This prompts Sonic to say that's gross, and offer to hook them up with random archie staff members.

Lies, he's already had his own solo story.

The final story is apparently Tails’ first solo story even though this actually isn’t his first solo because he had one all the way back in issue #4. Also, if this art style looks familiar, it’s actually because Scott Shaw, the same guy who did the art for most of the miniseries, return for one last story.

In Tails’ Tallest Tale, Tails goes to Sonic-Con and meets his fanbase, among which is a girl he quickly becomes infatuated with called Posey Possum. After being made to give a speech, Tails makes up a story about a massive badnik he battled to impress the others, only to be interrupted by Robotnik attacking. Tails gets his ass beat, but then he makes Robotnik dizzy while singing beach boys, and he saves the day and wooes Posey.

Kind of meh story, but it’s brought up a fair amount by Shaw’s artwork, and it just bums me out that he didn’t contribute anymore, even if I understand the circumstances behind it.

As explained by Scott, he had felt his work was being exploited for advertising and he wasn’t being paid properly, which was especially egregious as back then, he received $10,000 for drawing single ads as opposed to $200 per page on the comics. While he was fine with this at first since Sonic was a side job, when the issues were being printed in far larger numbers than expected and some of them were being used as free giveaways without his permission on top of receiving no royalties for them, he wound up souring on the whole thing. The only reason why he wound up not doing a lawsuit is because he had just gone through two difficult lawsuits and wasn’t gearing up for a third, and it took decades later that he reclaimed the rights to his artwork with the help of Penders.

For as much as people do hate Ken, I'll admit I'm not that surprised to hear Scott getting screwed over, since Archie has had a history with dicking around with comics for a long time. From one of the co-founders of Archie trying to enact heavy censorship on comic books with the comics code authority, to how they screwed Dan DeCarlo out of the rights to his characters, Archie’s been kind of scummy for a long time. I'm just glad Shaw has the rights to his work back, even though I do think the reprints are weird art-wise.

Anyways this issue was alright. The stories weren’t anything too special, but the solid art was what brought it up for me.

The Quest - 4/10

The Mirror Zone - 3/10

Tails’ Tallest Tale - 4/10

In Your Face Special - 5/10