What's the subject anyway I'm literally and quite openly a lana stan
so yesterday I made a post ab lana and one of my mutuals was all "I love lana!!!!!" ab it <3 I sent them an ask today and was like I'm a fake fan I was never into lana ❌❌ I only listened 2 her bc of this girl I liked, and ya that's that 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Tracy Yardley!
Colors: Jason Jensen
So it appears that despite this being the morning of the final battle against his arch-nemesis, Eggman has suddenly become very preoccupied with the fact that Gamma rebelled against him over a year ago. We've not heard anything from Gamma in all this time, but apparently ever since it left the Egg Carrier during the Sonic Adventure arc it's been traveling the world, fulfilling its mission from the game to "rescue" (read: murder) all of its brothers, and expanding out from there into attacking various bases belonging to Eggman. Commander Tower back at the GUN base explains all this to Shadow and Rouge, requesting that Shadow track it down and find a way to ally with it, as it's so far refused to actually ally itself with any of the global Freedom Fighter chapters despite sharing a similar goal. At the same time, we finally see who Eggman is explaining his side of the story to: Omega, of course! It seems that Omega was built not long after Gamma was, but has been stuck in storage ever since, and is not very happy about it.
Oh, come on Shadow! That iteration of Metal Sonic existed for a grand total of like, three hours! Even a robot isn't about to change its mind about the purpose of life in such a short amount of time. As Shadow boards the helicopter that will take him to his destination, Eggman watches Omega depart while Snively informs him that the Dark Egg Legion is ready to begin the final battle against the Freedom Fighters. A few hours later, they're over the drop zone, and Shadow straight up leaps out of the helicopter without a parachute like an absolute madlad, because apparently if you're the ultimate lifeform you don't need silly things such as life-saving safety equipment. He notices tracks in the snow, and soon finds himself face to face with Gamma, who is uncertain about his presence here.
This is honestly fascinating and great, because in no other canon do these two ever actually meet. It's interesting to see how they interact with each other, given their histories and past affiliations. However, no sooner have they agreed to work together than Gamma detects another robotic presence, this one broadcasting Eggman's signal. Sure enough, Omega bursts out of the treeline behind them, guns blazing and ready to murder them both. It's excited about the chance to face off against Shadow, which it considers an even greater test of its abilities than Sonic, and is perfectly happy to annihilate Gamma as well while it's at it. Shadow tries to cover Gamma's retreat to the extraction point, but Omega isn't having any of that.
I don't know why, but the mental image of Shadow wedging himself into Omega's gun arm with a loud "THOOMP" sound effect is incredibly amusing to me, more than any other sound effect in this entire comic so far. Gamma hides from Omega while Omega does its best attempt at a villain monologue, going on about how outdated and poorly-maintained Gamma is and how its firepower can't match up to Omega's own. Gamma retorts from cover that Omega is unwieldy with its size and weight, that it's very loud and can't cover ground as easily as Gamma can, and this is because ultimately, Omega is a walking arsenal while Gamma is an assassin, proving its point by sniping Omega with several potshots. Omega concedes the point, but Gamma, as it turns out, actually isn't looking to win this fight at all.
Fun fact, by the way - in this issue Omega is portrayed as being massive, far taller and larger than Gamma, and yet it's exactly the opposite in the games. The difference between their official heights in the games is actually hilariously dramatic - Gamma is a whopping 7'1" or 215cm, while Omega is a paltry 4'11" or 150cm. This seems absolutely absurd, but if you look at their character models when compared to other characters in their respective games, it's totally accurate - Gamma stands taller than Eggman, who is already 6'1" or 185cm, while Omega is shown to be not actually that much taller than Shadow or Rouge when standing next to them. That said, Omega actually weighs far more, so Gamma's assessment of its abilities is pretty accurate in this issue.
Anyway, Omega unleashes a deadly barrage of ammo on Gamma, just as Gamma announces that it's completed an "upload." All that's left of Gamma after the blast is a smoking crater, with the Flicky bird that's served as its soul all this time flying away happily, finally free of its metal prison. Shadow arrives just in time to see it all happen, and is horrified at his failure to protect Gamma, but then Omega starts freaking the hell out, yelling about a virus in its systems. The voice of Gamma speaks through Omega's body, revealing that it uploaded the portions of its code pertaining to free will into Omega. Their two personalities merge into a new being, a fully sentient one that's capable of feeling emotions, though it's still largely based on Omega's original personality. Omega is confused, not knowing how to handle suddenly going from an "it" to a "he" with a personality and feelings, so Shadow offers him the same deal he offered to Gamma before.
Omega, much like Blaze, has a pretty different personality from his counterpart in the games. Not completely unrelated, of course, but compared to game Omega's fairly composed personality, focusing more on consistent barrages of firepower and occasionally bragging about its abilities but also having the capacity for deeper, more emotional thought (such as its chat with Rouge at the end of the Team Dark story in Heroes), comic Omega is a bloodthirsty, murder-happy killing machine who practically worships fire and death. It's also worth noting that Ian has actually been wanting to introduce Omega into the world of the comics for years before this point, with Sega shooting him down for whatever reason several times. While I do love Omega from the games, Omega in the comics is known for how absolutely hilariously over the top he is, and truth be told it's probably my preferred characterization for him. Case in point, after Omega helps Shadow construct a small grave marker out of stones for Gamma, he threatens Shadow with maiming and death if he ever tells anyone else about his moment of emotional weakness. Once they get back to GUN's headquarters, Hope enthuses about her discoveries about Omega's construction while Rouge listens attentively and Shadow mopes. He blames himself for not being able to save another living weapon, even though he… kind of did? I mean, after all, while Gamma as a fully actualized personality no longer exists, the parts of it that made it sentient still do, and it willingly accepted its fate, so it's not like Shadow is some giant failure here. Hope then informs Shadow and Rouge of their next assignment, which cheers him up somewhat - she's finished recalibrating her teleporter, meaning they're about to take a trip into the Special Zone in search of another Chaos Emerald!
