#sth 210

[rotorscreens]

21 issues without Rotor, it was a tough battle but here he is. drawn with crows feet because being a young adult is hard.

[mobius-prime]

295. Sonic the Hedgehog #210

Home Invasion (Part One): Breaking and Entering

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Steven Butler Colors: Matt Herms

So two things before we get started. First of all, this is the first issue in a very long time to have a genuine intro page! Remember how Kenders loved those so much? (That's not a dig against him, by the way, he just genuinely liked putting them in his issues.) A few issues here and there lately have had… "pseudo intro pages," I guess, which were more just simple recaps at the start of an issue with a few images to show us what was going on. This one is a true intro page, though its function is identical, merely reminding us what the situation is in New Mobotropolis. That leads me into my second point: weirdly enough, due to the nature of the Sonic Universe spinoff, this issue actually came out before most of the ones we just covered, and considering that this is the issue of Sonic and co's epic heroic return to save the day, it definitely seems odd to cover everything that went down in the Dragon Kingdom after said everything went down. I mean, I can't fault Ian or anything, they did need to have one issue of each series come out per month, and dragging out the Iron Dominion arc longer than it needed to be just to make sure everything was presented in chronological order certainly would have been the wrong move, but even so, reading this in the order we have definitely makes more sense.

On to the actual story, we find Amy and Antoine beating a hasty retreat from a squad of Dark Legionnaires within the city, which is still tightly sealed by the metal dome overhead. They find themselves cornered when a bunch of Yagyu join in the fun, only for a bunch of darts to fly in and save their hides, fired by none other than Geoffrey St. John, back from a mission outside the city! Man, been a while since we've seen him around! He covers their retreat with a flashbang, remarking that things weren't even this bad under the first Robotnik, and joins them in their retreat into a base hidden inside an old hollowed-out tree stump - you know, for old times' sake. Bunnie's been guiltily hiding out there this entire time, upset that she's more of a liability than a help due to the nature of their foe. When Nicole appears Geoffrey is initially hostile before they explain that she's a spy and built this base for them, but the mood quickly turns tense when she reveals why she's here - the Iron Queen is about to hold a public "legionizing" in the New Mobotropolis coliseum, something which horrifies everyone present.

You know, when Geoffrey made the comment about things being bad, he was really freaking right. I mean, Robotnik may have also been a big fan of turning people into brainwashed slaves, but at least he did it in the privacy of his own base, and not live in front of an entire stadium full of traumatized civilians. Everyone files out to stop this from happening immediately, while the Iron Dominion leaders organize the "event." Snively, however, is a little less interested in the proceedings than everyone else…

Can someone say "terrifying"? Turns out Eggman, somehow, has managed to reason his way back into sanity, and not only that, he's figured out the one true reason why he always loses to Sonic no matter what he does. Turns out it's the fault of the eternal unchanging truth of this universe - chaos, or more specifically, Chaos energy. Sonic has absorbed more Chaos energy than pretty much anyone in this universe (well, probably aside from Knuckles, but Knuckles isn't the one who always thwarts Eggman's plans), and thus he's become the literal embodiment of chaos, totally unpredictable - and given that Eggman's plans always hinged on predicting what Sonic would try to do to stop him, naturally, he tended to lose all the time. Eggman demands Snively let him out of his cell so he can get back to conquering the world with this new revelation in mind, but Snively laughs in his face, telling him that he's never been more happy, that he's enjoying being free of Eggman's influence for once, and that, most importantly, he's in love with Regina and he's not about to give that up. Of course, Eggman takes this about as well as you might expect.

See… every time I talk about Snively deserving a redemption arc, it's this kind of stuff that's exactly what I'm getting at. I'm not gonna deny that Snively isn't a good person, but a lot of that comes from the fact that he's never had a good influence in his life. His father never paid much attention to him - we don't know the full details of why he hated his father so much that he was enthusiastic about the prospect of outright killing him, but it had to have been bad to provoke a reaction like that. And his uncle, the single most powerful influence in his life, is a crazy, megalomaniacal world-conqueror who basically tortures small animals for fun at this point. My point is that he's never really had a proper chance to be a good person - even the few times where he's ended up working with the heroes have gone poorly, simply because he always feels that pull right back to his uncle. I've pointed out before how they're basically in an abusive relationship - Snively hates Eggman, and resists working with him when he's stuck with him, but every time he gains his freedom, sooner or later he goes running right back, and I think it's because he just doesn't know how to live without Eggman bossing him around anymore. And now, he thinks he's finally found love, a genuine caring relationship with another human being, and Eggman laughs at him for it, planting insidious seeds of doubt in his head about how real their relationship even is. And to be clear, it's not like Eggman doesn't have a bit of a point - everything so far really has been pointing to Regina taking advantage of Snively, especially with her overbearing attitude when things don't go exactly her way, and Snively clearly does see her as a stepping stone of sorts to his gaining power of his own - but I do think that Snively did and does have genuine feelings for her, if only because she's the first person to really treat him with care, as a respected subordinate instead of a mere lackey. Only now, with Eggman getting into his head, he finds himself doubting even his own thoughts. Classic gaslighting at its finest. Poor Snively, man. He never stood a chance.

Anyway, once Snively goes back to the coliseum, the public legionizing is ready to begin. The Iron King, sitting in the stands with Regina, is grumpy, thinking all this pomp and circumstance is a waste of time, but then Regina explains her true reasons behind such a spectacle - she's noticed the suspicious precision of the resistance's strikes against her troops, and intends to use this event to draw out their spy, since it's so big they can't ignore it. Snively calls for the Legionnaires to bring out their first "volunteer," Rotor, to be legionized. Rotor immediately demonstrates the ridiculousness of their decision to bring him in without restraints by beginning a beatdown of all legionnaires in the vicinity.

I actually deeply appreciate Ian sticking to his guns on this one and making Rotor permanently disabled. I feel like a lot of writers would want to just throw in some magical fix-it that would bring him totally back to normal, but Rotor was injured in a battle, and now the aftereffects are something he's gonna be dealing with for the rest of his life. As the legionnaires grab him to take him to the operating table, Amy, Antoine, and Geoffrey, who had been watching from the shadows, burst in to rescue him. Antoine heads straight for the prison-pod-thingy to release the other captives and give them a chance to escape, while Amy and Geoffrey handle the soldiers. Geoffrey is at first amused at how weak they are, but quickly takes a bad blow from the Iron King, who's all too happy to join the fray. Amy jumps in to save him and orders him to go help Antoine while she handles the Iron King. I really do love that the comics play up Amy's super-strong side instead of her crushing on Sonic side - I feel like too much Sonic media, both official and fan-made, focuses so much on her romantic nature that they forget she's a badass in her own right whom Sonic himself fears the wrath of.

The Iron Queen triumphantly reminds everyone that she controls the nanites that make up the entire city, and for a moment, Geoffrey is actually worried they might lose… but then an explosion from the ceiling alerts everyone to the fact that Sonic and his friends have arrived back from their trip to save the day. Perfect timing coming back from your trip, guys!

[fyeahsonicthehedgehog]

[fyeahsonicthehedgehog]

[fyeahsonicthehedgehog]