Olivia's Sonic the Comic Readthrough

Hi there! I'm reading and analyzing StC!

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A true gamer

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So far, it seems Johnny is the braincell of the group. He's the one who figures out the time-dilation-situation after Omni-Viewer leaves them without an explanation. IDK if that's a consistent characteristic, or if the writers randomly chose which of the sidekicks would do exposition this time.

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There is one thing that bothers me about Elson's (Mobian) art: the tiny pinched faces.

Tails' eyes are too small and the bottom of his head, right above his cheeks, pinches in too far. He's less cute than Sonic! And the forehead wrinkles do not help.

I know the artists in the 90s often didn't understand the Sonic art style, but usually that was only a problem for comic/show original characters. Game characters usually looked fine, as Sonic does here!

I also think it's strange how Elson draws Sonic from behind. Why does he give Sonic so many quills there when he gives Sonic a mohawk from a side-view?

But that at least is funny, IMO.

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Sonic the Comic #9

Sonic and friends are back! Last time, Robotnik hijacked the sent them into the Omni-Viewer to send them into the future, when it would be too late for them to stop his rise to power. The Omni-Viewer technically obeys, but only sends Sonic and co forward by six months, so they're not too too late. Let's see what the future has for them.

They are immediately attacked by badniks.

Sonic taunts them until they shoot each other!

Tails notes that he's never seen badniks like these before, and yep, those are certainly not a model seen in the games! I always wondered why STC badniks looked... like that. I guess it's to make it clear than these are tougher than the cute little animal-oids you see in the games. These are Robotnik's designs with six months of no interference.

Robotnik has taken over Emerald Hill Village! In fact, he's conquered the whole planet!!

(This whole issue really is just Sonic Forces 24 years early... And it'll probably tell a better story.)

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Some cute Speedlines submissions

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Metal Sonic mention!! He's made out of Mega Drive parts :)

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Bubsy got an 88%

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Another important character appears! The Omni-viewer! I'm not entirely sure what is powers are, but here he shows Sonic and friends visions of the past.

If you don't already know Sonic and Robotnik's backstory in this continuity, here's the recap.

Robotnik used to be Dr Ovi Kintobor. Sonic used to look... like that. (Wait where are his ears?) Kintobor has the chaos emeralds in a machine called the ROCC (Retro-Orbital Chaos Compressor), which is supposed to transfer all the evil on the planet into the emeralds. Sounds great, right! I'm sure there's no way for evil to leak back out of the emeralds once it's all in! Anyway, the machine is unstable without the seventh emerald, so Kintobor employs Sonic to find it. As payment, Kintobor helps Sonic train to become even faster and gives him his iconic power sneakers. The sneakers are so effective that Sonic breaks the sound barrier and becomes blue. (This story is in accordance with the original Sonic Bible, and StC is the only long-running continuity to adhere to the bible!)

Things are great for Sonic and Kintobor for a while, until Kintobor picks up a rotten egg, immediately trips on a cable, and crashes into the ROCC. You know, the machine with the evil emeralds in it. Heeeere's Robotnik!

As Sonic and Omni-viewer finish telling the story in the present, Robotnik takes control of Omni-viewer to send Sonic and friends to six months in the future. The End of this issue!

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First off, I LOVE the art here. The wind in the first panel. The closeup of Sonic in the second. Look how much variation there is in the tones of Sonic's blue! This is a huge improvement over the first couple issues.

Now go back to issue #7. The art is just as good there, but it didn't really strike me until now. Issue #7 was the first drawn by Richard Elson. #8 is his second. Like Nigel Kitching, Elson is one of the masters of StC. They worked together closely from here to the end of the series.

Wiki here.

Secondly, this is the first time that Porker Lewis and Johnny Lightfoot are introduced as a part of Sonic's team! Porker first appeared, and was named, in issue #1, as someone Sonic rescued. A unnamed gray rabbit appeared in #5, as someone following Sonic. Here, Tails calls out both their names as if they are important characters that will stick around a while. And that they will!

So what can we learn about them from this first appearance? Well, Johnny is eager to see something new while Porker is nervous. Tails is acting as the supportive force for both of them. Tails knows what's going on.

Lastly, we are told how the Special Zone works! It is accessed by jumping into a star post with super speed. Right now, the Special Zone looks identical to the ones from Sonic 2, except there are no chaos emeralds because Sonic already collected them all. (He put them somewhere safe.)

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Sonic the Comic #8

It's time for Sonic's backstory!

I have quite a lot to say about this issue, but I'm not going to post many panels.

Also, you should totally check out the ReIllustrated version of this issue!

[smugbugunderarug]

Aight so this dude right here

this guy

his name is Red

it’s on his jumpsuit

Well he looked a tad bit familiar for a second. I wasn’t able to see it until I came across these panels:

this dude is just firefighter Bob Ross.

srry i just thought that was neat.

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Is this real?

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But then...

I'm not going to post every panel, but here he is!

After destroying the badnik, Super goes to attack the rabbit that was inside it. Tails heroically stands in the way and talks him down!

All's well and Sonic continues putting out fires. The end.

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Oil Ocean Zone is on fire, and Sonic puts it out with science ✨

In this continuity, Oil Ocean is actually in use as a rig, maintained by mobians. I would assume Robotnik doesn't control it, at least at this point.

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Sonic the Comic #7

:)