Archie Sonic Reboot Wrap Up - Part 2
So I want to recognize that, before we go into this, that not everyone is a fan of the new version of the Freedom Fighters. For some it is their new designs, which for some was too dramatic of a change in the effort of making them appear more-in-line with the current modern Sonic designs. For others it is the change in roles and adherence to SEGA standards, with certain things, like Sonicās romantic relationship with Sally, being gone. And for others, after being invested in the old versions of the cast, simply did not want to see those things altered. I understand all of those mindsets. In regards to the last one, I feel a similar way about the TMNT franchise, where I ultimately want the version of those characters I grew up with, and donāt care as much for the new stuff.Ā
If anyone thinks I truly hate stuff, this is still my current phone background.
All that being saidā¦I think the team deserves a lot of credit for what they were able to do with the Freedom Fighters even under the worst situation imaginable given the Penders lawsuit. It is unfair to compare a comic that lasted only a few years (i.e. reboot) with a story that lasted for nearly 250 issues (preboot). The team simply did not have the time to go as far with certain things as they may have liked (though ASR has given us a taste of what they had in mind for them). Ultimately, I quite liked this version of the Freedom Fighters. These characters were the highlights of the comic for me, and provided the emotional core I needed to be invested in these stories (something I cannot say for the game characters, but we will get there).Ā
The team had so much more leeway with the Freedom Fighters, and they just felt more well-rounded and connected to the setting than the others. They have family members who they love or have lost in this world, they have romantic relationships with one another, and they have more opportunities to grow, effectively dodging many of the annoying SEGA mandates that annoy folks. And to the art teamās credit, every character was instantly recognizable and looked much closer to Sonic game designs, even if there was stuff I personally would have tweaked.Ā
One of the themes that is pervasive throughout the comic, and comes up repeatedly for the Freedom Fighters, is that our heroes often need to be reminded of why they are fighting. Which is a theme some stories often forget. It is important that the audience like the world our heroes are trying to save, and even in the short time they had, the Archie Sonic team did a great job of giving the Freedom Fighters emotional reasons to fight.Ā
Rotor has always been the most difficult Freedom Fighter to place, as is something that Flynn explains well in his podcast. And it is pretty easy to explain why. The role of Sonicās engineer has been taken by Tails, and even the biggest of Rotor fans I have ever seen have never advocated that he would overtake Sonicās little buddy. Now that being said, there is a little more nuance to this whole discussion we wonāt get into here, as Rotor has played some different roles during the Archie preboot comics, and one could argue that an easy fix would just be having Rotor specialize in another area of engineering, but regardless most fans I have talked to agree that Rotor is the toughest Freedom Fighter to justify bringing back, and would likely only make the cut if it was along with the whole team.Ā
That being said, we are here to talk about how he is in Reboot. As Sonic notes when he first sees his old friend, Rotor has gotten swole. Now you might think that because of this he plays the role of being the teamās āmuscle,ā but in practice, that was not the case. We will talk about why that is later on, but letās just say that this role was taken by others, so for the most part we see Tails and Rotor working together when engineering things seem to happen. Once again, Rotor is a hard character to place.Ā
That being said, I actually like Rotorās appearance. It grew on me as I saw different artists give their own interpretation of his base design. Later on, once we see Skelli and Yardley draw Rotor, he eventually gets a softer looking form. He still has broad shoulders, but is certainly not as ātoughā looking as he was originally. Now, one could ask, why canāt we have husky Rotor like we had before? That was more unique, but also not exactly the look of someone youād play in a Sonic game and I recognize why they made the change.Ā
Sonic giving family advice is like a blind man giving fashion advice.
That being said, plot wise Rotorās main plot in the comic involves his father. After losing his mother (a backstory element that many of the Freedom Fighters share), Rotor has an adversarial relationship with his father, one of the Egg bosses, Tundra the Walrus. He is all about strength, a self-described āalphaā male figure, who is at odds with his engineering, world-saving son. It is a dynamic that works well, and still would resonate were it written today, even if we did not see where this story would have gone long term.Ā
Thank goodness Amy is here to break it up.
Rotorās other big trait, perhaps one inherited from his father, is that he is the one most focused on the mission. Several times throughout the story, we see Rotor remind the team that the Freedom Fighters are trying to save the world, and focusing on other things is a waste of time. A fair point, even if Rotor often needs to be reminded about why they are fighting to save the world. This was an element I actually liked and introduced some minor conflict within the team.Ā
For those of you who havenāt read my thoughts on Sonic SATAM, a reminder that I absolutely hate that version of Antoine. By far the most insufferable aspect of that show, he is an annoyance throughout, a detriment to the team he is on, and gets an annoying amount of time compared to the other Freedom Fighters. Considering how much I love SATAM, this version of Antoine may be my least favorite Sonic character of all time.Ā
Flynn completely changed my opinion on him in Reboot. First, he made Antoine a contributing member of the team, fighting alongside the others with his swords. They gave him the comicās only confirmed couple, with him and Bunnie being a very fun pair throughout. Antoine became one of my favorite characters after his Origin story, and we see him go through loss, turn from a coward into a knight, and how he learned to be strong after being inspired by his wifeās struggles. It is all so impeccably well done.Ā
Unfortunately, one of the best comics in the reboot, Archie Sonic Universe 95, which elaborates a lot on Antoineās backstory, was not officially released. But the fact that they managed to tie Antoine to elements from Sonic and the goddamn Black Knight is freaking brilliant, giving him a quest to find magic swords, a proper foil in Cortez, and a medieval land he hails from is all absolutely brilliant.Ā
He also still gets to be a foil for Sonic, often mocking our hero behind his back, retaining his cocky Frenchman bit, while still being able to not be a hindrance on the stories he is in. The fact that comics were able to do so much more with his character compared to SATAM just makes his presence in the show all the more infuriating.Ā
I recognize that not everyone is a fan of Antoineās design, and of the entire squad, I agree. I like his face, but I dislike his outfit. It feels like he is missing something. Not necessarily his full uniform from his early designs, but even something like his new cape introduced in 95 would have gone a long way towards helping him to stand out.Ā
Antoine has a lot of emotional moments in this comic, between the loss of his parents (revealed in one of the darkest images throughout the story), and his connection with Bunnie, the two work together so well, and their presence is so welcome given how there really is not all that much romance in the comics (for better or worse, more on that later).Ā
Anyway, enough about Bunnieās husband. Letās talk about his boss.Ā
Bunnie has, even since back in SATAM, the character who has more potential than she is generally allowed to reach. On paper, she seems like the Freedom Fighter who should be involved in the most fights given her abilities, but even as far back as SATAM, you may be surprised by how little time she actually gets. And unfortunately, while it is not quite to the same extent, Bunnie also feels a bit overlooked in reboot. That is not to say that she gets no time, but she was definitely the Freedom Fighter I wanted to see more of. That being said, that problem was also partially rectified by an unreleased issue eventually completed by the Archie Sonic Restored (ASR) team.Ā
Bunnie also had quite a few changes. First off, Bunnieās origin is quite different, where she is initially displayed in her origin as an orphan taken in by Rosie and Uncle Chuck before she lost her limbs in an explosion. As such, she was not roboticized by Eggman, but instead by Chuck for its intended purpose, as a medical device.Ā
The other change was always planned, but never released in a completed issue, that she was going to be from Blazeās Sol Dimension. A change that I understand threw some people off, but I thought it was quite interesting and gives more connections for Blaze to work with. We shall see where the ASR team can take it. But once again, one of the best stories for the character was never officially completed, pretty much the same plan as it was for Antoine. A damn shame.Ā
That being said, what we do get from Bunnie is nice, particularly her dynamic with Antoine, with her inspiring Antoine to be brave, and Antoine making her feel comfortable with her cybernetic body. We also got a nice story with Homesick where Bunnie shares her history in the hopes of inspiring someone else to accept change. That being said, there were a lot of times where I wish we got to see more of Bunnie. I would love to see her take part in the tournament from Champions. Was she there in the game? Of course not. Still woulda been cool.
Nicole is a character who is relatively new to me, going from being Sallyās plot device to a valued member of the team. Nicole, for me, was a highlight of the comic, from her story from Spark of Life (one of the best parts of the whole series), to her and Sallyās moments from Light in the Dark, I enjoyed almost every scene we got with her in it. She also, of all the Freedom Fighters, has my favorite reboot design. I know some folks liked her more āmysticalā outfit, but I love her more superhero inspired costume.Ā
I also feel that the artists really like Nicole, as every artist seems to be able to make her look great during every appearance, but that is just my opinion.Ā
Nicole also got a super form! Not in the āsuper Sonicā sense where she uses the power of the chaos emeralds, but using red rings to become her āoverclockedā form in a pretty awesome moment from Spark of Life, and returning during Panic in the Sky. Pure hype. That being said, we canāt talk about Nicole without talking about her relationship with the leader of the Freedom Fightersā¦
This may be a hot take, but I really donāt care. Having read all of the reboot comics and going back through them several times for the purposes of this blog, in the confines of the rebootā¦she remains the most well-rounded and complete feeling character. She is the one who feels the most human, the one who experiences the most emotional turmoil, and the one whose role has changed the most in controversial fashion.Ā
She is the only one who gets mileage out of the memories returning.
Letās address the elephant in the room. Sally was initially introduced, in part, as a love interest for Sonic. I am not going to get into the whole shipping war debate, but it is a fact that in terms of romancing the blue blur, she was able to go further than any other character is likely to do in the future. If you enjoy romance and shipping as part of this story, fine, if you donāt, also fine. Obviously, I was a fan of the pairing when it was well presented.Ā
However, my interest in the character was not dependent on her being paired with Sonic. I was more interested in her as the tactician who was capable of matching wits with Eggman, the leader who does everything she can to protect the team, the Princess who knows she will have to fix the world if Sonic is able to save it, and the woman who fights alongside the heroes bravely even though she has no powers of her own. Sally was never dependent on being a love interest for Sonic to remain interesting.Ā
So when you take that away, I found that it actually hurt the characterization of Sonic, not Sally, making his character feel less attached to the rest of the cast, taking away storytelling opportunities, and making him feel more flat, while Sally was free to pursue other interesting storylines. We will return to Sonic later, and I am well aware a lot of folks wonāt like what I got to say, but it hasnāt stopped me before.Ā
Anyway, Sallicole, whatever brief hints we got, between longing glances, emotional moments, and panels of handholding, was great. Obviously, with the reboot being cut short, and because Nicole is a far less important character than Sonic, their dynamic is not as key a part of the story, but what we got was great. I was sold on this pairing after the Light in the Dark storyline, where Sally reminds Nicole that sometimes logic has to take a backseat to defend the world you love. The two compliment each other well, with Sally showing Nicole how to be Mobian and love the world you fight to defend, while Nicole is the one who sees the emotional turmoil Sally goes through as the leader of the squad.Ā
But what really makes Sally stand out is that she is the one who gets to show the most emotion. From the beginning, in Countdown to Chaos, the only character who has a remotely appropriate response to her memories returning is Sally whose last moments in the previous world had her being roboticized and fighting her friends. A feeling of anguish over what she had done that carries over to Damage Control, with Nicole being there to keep her focused.Ā
And later on, who is it that puts all of the responsibility on herself when her team was nearly killed in Ambushed? Sally Acorn. Who is the one who shows Rotor that is important to help their world beyond just saving it in Special Occasion? Sally Acorn. Who is the one who gives Sonic that hopeful look as he fights Dark Gaia? Sally Acorn. Who, along with Amy, is able to talk Sonic out of going berserk when she first turns into the werehog? Sally Acorn. Who is the one that a multiverse of heroes all have to listen to because among the many Sega and Capcom franchises represented in Worlds Unite, is the best suited for the role of the leader? Princess Goddamn Sally Acorn.Ā
It was abundantly clear to me that Flynn viewed Sallyās reboot as an opportunity to reset the character, leaving a lot of the baggage behind from preboot, and go back to the traits he valued from her appearances in SATAM. While she was not a love interest for Sonic, her struggles remain the emotional core of the story as, fundamentally, Sonic is still fighting to save her world.Ā
And because she is no longer the love interest for Sonic, the writers no longer sexualized her to try to appeal to male fans. She gets to wear clothes. She isnāt drawn provocatively, and instead gets to be a cute, silly goober, who loves cake and videogames. Adorably, she even gets stage fright. It's a different take on the character, but if this is how she was presented in modern Sonic media, I would be satisfied. It also helps that of all the Freedom Fighters, Sally gets the most time. She may not be Sonicās love interest, but she is pretty much always by his side.Ā
A lot of people still say a bunch of crap about how Sally, and the other Freedom Fighters, could not work in modern Sonic media, but overall, reboot managed to keep the character recognizable while also tweaking their designs and roles to fit around SEGAās mandates. While I share fan frustrations with a lot of them, Sally shows that the core of the character still works well, and there has never been (and likely will never be) anyone in the leadership role as well suited to the task as she was.Ā
Alright, here is one of the sections that is likely going to annoy some fans. Itās time to talk about the other members of the team. And when I say āTeam Sonic,ā I am referring to Sonic himself, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy. Aka, the main crew from the games who have been present for decades. They are some of the primary characters from the franchise and are present for most storylines in some variety.Ā
As part of the genesis wave, the version of the characters from preboot, with strange backstories that were unique to the comic, was removed. Knuckles does not have all of the Penders storylines and other Echidna characters. Tails no longer has his family or his super form of Titan Tails. Amyā¦is in about the same spot but without the strange part of her story where she ages up from her classic design to her modern one. And Sonic no longer has his family, was not a childhood friend of the Freedom Fighters, and really has no personal connection to the team.Ā
Andā¦I was very dissatisfied with how they were portrayed. I will defer to someone who plays more of the games to say if this interpretation of the characters is reflective of their game forms. I simply do not play enough of the modern games to comment one way or the other. But in the context of a comic, with an ongoing and semi-serious storyline, these characters were often present but not pursuing any plots of their own, felt disconnected from the setting, or had arcs that could only end in the status quo being retained. I recognize that SEGA has kept the status quo for some time and keeps their characters pretty flat. Heck, with the exception of Amy (more on her later), the others really have not changed since I first played the Sonic Adventure games.Ā
For some, I recognize that they may prefer that. They want to be able to see the characters as they are in the games without any major changes occurring. But compared to the Freedom Fighters, who do have more development, are embedded into the setting, and are allowed to show more emotion...I found them to be far less appealing.Ā
That is not to say that every character from the games is portrayed poorly. I am quite a big fan of how Flynn writes Big and Omega, both of whom were not characters who interested me before. Shadow has an interesting plot involving his ābrotherā Eclipse the Darkling, and because you see much less of him, the fact that his character is also restricted does not stand out as much of an issue.Ā
This is going to be a hot take, but I found myself preferring the other versions of these characters I have seen. Whether that is the classic versions from Sonic Mega Drive, or even the cast of Sonic Boom. Yes, these are the āsillierā versions of the characters, and yet I found Boom Amy was more consistent and interesting, and Boom Tails was even allowed to have a girlfriend. Strange that the silly and absurd world of Boom was allowed more leeway with the characters.Ā
Obviously, a big part of this whole discussion is the unwritten but suspected SEGA mandates, with SEGA putting restrictions on how these characters are used. But that is a separate topic that warrants its own section, so for now, letās focus on the characters themselves in order of those I have the least to discuss.Ā
Tails really does not get any real storylines in all of reboot. I do not know if Flynn simply did not have anything in mind for him or if he had ideas that were shot down, but of all the Team Sonic characters, Tails is the one who just feels like he is there. Thatās not to say that he doesnāt have good lines. Thatās not to say he canāt be entertaining. But in terms of how his character is portrayed, his biggest contribution is being the second engineer next to Rotor, with the two often working together on the same projects. Tails does not have any Sonic Universe storylines. He has no personal arc.Ā
Now obviously, compared to SATAM, part of the change is that Tails is portrayed as he is in the games. As such, he is no longer the young member of the team who slowly gets to grow. That role now goes to Cream (more on her later). However, compared to Rotor, who built the Sky Patrol (the flying base of the Freedom Fighters), Tails often felt secondary.Ā
The closest thing that Tails has to a storyline comes from the Champions storyline, where he is eliminated early, and is frustrated with himself. He talks about living in Sonics shadow (pun intended) and wants to prove that he can be a hero on his own. A pretty logical arc for him, with the obvious solution being to give him a Sonic Universe storyline thatā¦does not happen. Instead, this storyline is revolved by the end of Champions, where Tails (and every other tournament participant, including Honey) take down Metal Sonic, and I guess that was supposed to satisfy him?
Ultimately, Tailsās role is what it always was, he is Sonicās number two. And ultimately, all Flynn or any writer is allowed to do is ask questions. What if Tails wanted to prove himself on his own? Well, SEGA does not want that and seems unlikely to ever take a chance on him being in his own game or even his own comic, so Tails has to be satisfied being Sonicās little buddy for eternity.Ā
Alright, I will be upfront and just say, the character of Amy Rose does very little for me. The pink girly-girl with her random hammer that looks like it would break her arms with every swing never did a lot for me. And thatās okay, not every character has to be my favorite. However, I found myself frustrated with how inconsistently Amy was portrayed. She often seems to play a different role between storylines.Ā
In Pirate Plunder Panic? Amy is the āstraight (wo)manā for the stronger personalities of Blaze, Marine, and Cream. In the Heist? She plays the more familiar role of Sonic Adventure where she fawns over Sonic who ultimately ignores her interest. In Waves of Change and Shattered? She plays the role of cheerleader, providing emotional support to friends like Coral the Beta and Knuckles who are more connected to the plot than she is. Much like Tails, she often feels like she is just there, with no real character development or personal plots to speak of.Ā
I got the sense that, much like with Tails, Flynn just did not have much for Amy. And I think the problems he has is kinda reflective of problems she has in the brand. She is supposed to be a potential love interest for Sonic, but for decades this has been portrayed as completely one-sided which, in my opinion unrealistically, she is portrayed as perfectly content with. She is a Freedom Fighter, but like the other game characters, does not really call Mobius her home and mostly just seems to fight because her friends are doing so as well.Ā
Flynn tries to make her presence matter with her ability to detect the chaos emeralds, acquired somewhere along the way from Coral (though they did not explain when or how this was done), but even this is quickly made irrelevant by Knuckles who has the same ability and whose shattering the Master Emerald makes her power less useful because she cannot discriminate between the two.Ā
Oh and she can play the flute now.
Now to address the elephant in the roomā¦yup, I said earlier that Sally was the best character in the reboot, and I do not like Amy. Am I just a bitter Sonally shipper? Maybe, I wonāt deny that I just find Sally to be a better character all around. But honestly, I genuinely do not care who is paired up with modern Sonic. I honestly would be happier and more interested in their dynamic if Sonic did reciprocate at some point. But what we got, this male fantasy relationship where a woman loves him and he doesnāt have to do a damn thing to earn it? Pass.Ā
But letās say you were a fan of Sonamy? Would you be satisfied by reboot? Outside of small moments like in the Chase, Knuckles teasing the werehog, a side hug, and her working with Sally to talk down Sonic in Control, there really was not much to go on. And Sally was trying AI dating, and you canāt even blame her for being the problem here. Compare this to Boom Amy, who does get to fluster Sonic, or Classic Amy who still fawns for the blue blur but gets teased for it, and it feels like there is not much they can safely do with modern Amy.Ā
Canāt make the main female from the franchise obsessed like she was in Sonic Adventure, as that would not play well with modern audiences. Canāt criticize Sonic for not making a move, he is the hero. Canāt have her show interest in anyone else, that is her role, and we aināt doing more love triangles. And soā¦she is stuck as she is, a pretty bland character whose personality seems to vary in each portrayal.Ā
Oh boy, where do we begin? Knuckles actually gets quite a bit of time from reboot, with three Sonic Universe arcs focused on him. His whole plot is centered around the Master Emerald, which he chooses to break when he feels that Eclipse, Snively, or someone else may try to steal it from him.Ā
Letās talk about modern Knuckles. He is the guardian of the Master Emerald, meaning that he is solely responsible for the security system of āone dudeā protecting one of the most powerful forces in the universe. This security system can be undone with ease by two or more people attacking him at the same time, as we saw when Knuckles and Shadow brawling allowed Eclipse to take the emerald. Knuckles has Relic, but she is not a fighter.Ā
So letās be clear here. Knuckles is, as a character, tethered to an object that he alone cannot conceivably protect on his own if someone really wants it. This was not as big of a problem in Archie as Knuckles had the Chaotix, so he was not solely responsible for its protection. But the Chaotix are now detectives disconnected from Knuckles (something that he makes very clear when he is a dick to Vector in Sonic Universe 64). The logical thing, from my perspective, is that Knuckles should get other people to help him, but because his life of standing around a rock all day kinda sucks, he refuses to do so.Ā
And so, Knuckles is trapped in a logical quandary. He canāt protect the emerald on his own, but he is so stubborn and that he won't find anyone else to help. Eggman has not even shown interest in the Emerald despite how easy it would be for him to take it. And the only solution to all this is that, when challenged, Knuckles breaks the Emerald, which is the equivalent of a bank blowing itself up as it is being robbed and planning to collect the money before anyone else does as it floats through the air.Ā
Now remember, part of the reason that Knuckles is in this mess is because he does not want to burden anyone else with the role of guardian. But breaking the emerald requires help to put it back together, and Amy, one of the stronger member of the Freedom Fighters, joins him to help clean up his mess. It's fine though, its not like they are busy saving the world or anything.
This plot only works because Knuckles is an idiot.Ā
Similar to Tails, at most, all Flynn can do is ask questions. Rouge asks him if he is happy in his role as the guardian. A fair question, but we all know that regardless, the status quo, illogical as it is, will be preserved. In Shattered, Amy tries to salvage it, by saying the world needs stubborn idiots like Knuckles, but it falls flat and comes across as too little too late.
Knucklesās decision to break the Emerald introduced so many problems. It did nothing to prevent bad guys from getting their hands on it, including Naugus who uses it to restore his magic powers. Because Amy and others cannot distinguish between shards and emeralds with their powers to seek them out, the world was put in danger by them having a harder time finding them. And without the Emerald, if our heroes defeated Dark Gaia before the Emerald was restored, Angel Island would crash to the ocean and we all know how that would go.Ā
And where does all of this storyline end? With Knuckles making duplicate emeralds to confuse enemies. Which would work if we didnāt know Knuckles was going to be standing right in front of the real one the next day. It did not stop the problem. At most, it potentially slowed people down. Besides, not like he has that in the games.Ā
Knuckles was, as a kid, my favorite character. Mostly from the games, but also from the Sonic OVA. But this modern version of him? It sucks.Ā
I miss SATAM Sonic. Not every aspect of him. Sonic looks better in his modern form than as the little chubby blue guy he once was. He does not need his catchphrases or other nineties tropes. Nor do I miss his Jaleel White voice. But there are a lot of elements of the character I found myself missing. I miss his connection to the setting and characters like Uncle Chuck, where we got to see in SATAM a more humanized version of the character frustrated by his inability to save his family. In reboot? Sonic just sort of appears. He did not grow up with the Freedom Fighters, but came along one day and said he was just going to fight Eggman.Ā
I miss the Sonic who actually was allowed to show interest in others, be it Sally, Amy, or whoever you prefer. Yes, there are absolutely times that the focus on romance went too far, but it feels so limiting that Sonic keeps everyone in the friend zone. As a scholar of our time Bakugo once told Deku, if everyone is special, no one is (My Hero Academia reference for yāall).Ā
I hate his lines here so much.
I miss the Sonic who was allowed to lose and show more emotion because of it. It is very notable that, conveniently, Sonic is the only member of the team not present for the fight during Ambush, the only time where the Freedom Fighters come close to losing, which sends the message that Sonic is the only super important member of the team. Hell, even the loss of his entire reality leads to Sonic only looking a bit sad as he talks to Tails.Ā
I have heard a lot of people argue that Sonic does not need these things. He does not need a girlfriend. He does not need a family. He does not need to lose. He does not need to show a lot of emotion. But a comic is not a videogame, and when he is not playing the role of a videogame avatar, the character who is omnipresent throughout the series feels like he needs more to draw me in. The more you carve away, the less storyline opportunities you have.Ā
The closest this version of Sonic came to being interesting to me as a character was during the Control storyline, where Sonic first transforms into the Werehog, and comes close to crossing a line he feared and potentially hurting his friends. It is over far too fast, but it was the closest Sonic came to drawing me in as a character in the context of reboot. Outside of that? I get cool art of him running around and breaking robots, but that is about it.Ā
Now, I have heard some people argue that I may have too high standards for a Sonic comic. Itās a childrenās franchise and we should not ask for or expect more than we get. But that always felt like a lame argument. First off, I have seen versions of these characters where these problems did not exist, where we did get less flat/static versions of these characters, and it worked. And I am familiar with many franchises with a similar target audience to Sonic that are allowed to do more with their characters. Itās just another bullshit argument Sonic fans use to defend this franchise they would use for few others.Ā
Ultimately, where this all leaves us is that, in the confines of a comic, the āmainā characters of the franchise did not draw me in. It is cool to see them, and there are funny moments, good action scenes, and great art, but they ultimately lack the emotional core that would keep me interested in an ongoing comic book series.Ā
Anyway, we still have more to go. I don't think any of my takes will be as hot as not liking the main characters of the franchise, but who knows. Want to read part one or future parts? You can find a list of my posts here.
