Oh crap! Would you look at that! Sally's finally gone through her final metamorphosis of the preboot, and has attained her most recognizable color scheme! Gotta say, I'm excited to finally get here. This is absolutely my favorite Sally design, and I was starting to get a little tired of that older, weird design with the black hair and purplish-brown fur.
Sonic Under Glass!
Writers: Kanterovich and Penders
Pencils: Dave Manak
Colors: Barry Grossman
For whatever reason, the writers decided not to use their first names this time around. Not sure why, but doesn't really matter.
Anyway, holy crap, it's over! The war has been won! Everyone is celebrating Robotnik's demise, and everything is really looking up! Wow, I didn't expect the comic to be over so soon. And, even more surprisingly…
Sonic and Sally are getting married!
Of course, not everything is quite as it seems. Turns out Robotnik has simply captured the Freedom Fighters with sleeping gas, and put them in their own little virtual reality simulation, so that they're out of the picture while he continues with his plans for world domination. Shoulda known all this was too good to be true.
Now this issue is actually pretty interesting for several reasons. For one, since the simulation is supposed to feed them their wildest desires, this means that secretly, Sonic and Sally are indeed apparently interested in marrying each other. Keep in mind that at this point they're both like, 15, so that's a pretty strong bond we're seeing already despite their age. This issue also makes explicit for the first time that Antoine is also interested in Sally - it's something that's been vaguely hinted at here and there, but this is the first issue that shows it directly. And since Sonic and Antoine's wishes are in direct conflict, virtual reality starts to fall apart a little bit.
Luckily, a virtual reality Uncle Chuck shows up to give Sonic a few answers. Once Sonic realizes what's going on, he realizes he has to stop it and break everyone out, and, hey look, we've got a cameo from two familiar faces!
Sonic, from within the simulation, takes control of Robotnik's war machines and threatens him into letting the Freedom Fighters go. Free from the simulation, they make their escape, but as they do, the real Uncle Chuck - still roboticized - and Muttski show up to clean up the mess, reminding Sonic once again that he has a rescue to perform - sooner or later.
The Man from H.E.D.G.E.H.O.G.
Writers: Kanterovich and Penders
Pencils: Dave Manak
Colors: Barry Grossman
Robotnik has a new theory - his plans aren't failing because literally all of them suck, but because there's a mole inside his organization! So he instructs Snively and Crabmeat to find this mole, and what do you know, they find a literal mole!
Well, the mole doesn't really seem to have a lot to say. So one bizarre and brief interrogation scene later, Robotnik decides on a new plan of action - use the random spin of a wheel with various dastardly plans on it to decide what to do next! There's just one problem - every random plan he puts into action is still being foiled by the Freedom Fighters, and even more mysteriously, notes have started popping up at the scene of each battle. Who could these be from?
Anyway, Sonic and Sally need a night off, so they go to the safest place imaginable - Robotnik's own casino. Way to go, guys! To the surprise of absolutely no one, Sonic is captured and strapped to Robotnik's own wheel of doom, ready to be darted to death, but luckily, someone shows up to rescue him - and reveals in the process a camera that was hidden behind the wheel the whole time! Looks like someone was spying on Robotnik's plans after all! But who was it?
Say hello to another eventually-recurring character, everyone - Harvey Who, the owl! He's apparently the head of the Freedom Fighters' secret intelligence agency, and he's been helping them foil Robotnik's plans time and again. Be interesting to see where else he pokes his beak into in the future, huh?
