Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)

Sonic the Hedgehog

The cover of Sonic the Hedgehog #275
Publication information
Publisher Archie Comics
Sega of America
Schedule Monthly
Genre Action, Adventure, Science Fantasy, Dramedy, Romance
Publication date November 22, 1992–present
Number of issues 280+
Creative team
Writer(s) Ian Flynn
Penciller(s)

Tracy Yardley
Matt Herms
Steven Butler
Jamal Peppers
Ben Bates
Jennifer Hernandez

Dawn Best
Inker(s)

Jim Amash

Terry Austin
Letterer(s)

John Workman
Teresa Davidson

Phil Felix
Colorist(s) Matt Herms
Editor(s)

Mike Pellerito (Managing Editor)
Paul Kaminski (Asst Editor)

Victor Gorelick (Editor-in-Chief)

Sonic the Hedgehog is an ongoing American comic book series published by Archie Comics, based on Sega's video game franchise, and as well as DiC's 1993 Saturday morning cartoon adaptation of the same name. The comic debuted in the US as a four part mini-series, published between November 22, 1992 and February 1, 1993. The ongoing series began in May 1, 1993. In June 23, 2008, Guinness World Records formally recognized it as the longest running comic series based on a video game.[1] As of September 18, 2015, it is also the longest-running franchise-based comic book series, surpassing Marvel Comics Conan the Barbarian which ran from 1970 to 1993.

The series features a cast of hundreds of characters, drawn from both the games and original creations, and focuses on a crime-fighting organization called the Freedom Fighters (initially consisting of Sonic, Tails, Sally Acorn, Rotor Walrus, Antoine D'Coolette, and Bunnie Rabbot) facing off against villains such as Doctor Eggman (with his assistant Snively) and alternate-world versions of the protagonists. It has encompassed both original storylines and ones based on games such as Sonic Adventure and Sonic Unleashed. The series was shaken by a 2013 lawsuit by former writer Ken Penders against the comics' staff, which led to the entire world of the book being rebooted and altered with hundreds of characters cut.

Spin-off publications from the comic include Sonic Universe, an ongoing series featuring stories centered on different side-characters, reaching its 75th issue as of April 2015; Knuckles the Echidna, featuring Knuckles as the main protagonist with help from his friends the Chaotix, which ran for 32 issues; and Sonic X, a comic based on the Japanese anime of the same name, which lasted 40 issues. The American comic book series of Sonic can switch from lighthearted to serious in a manner very different from the Japanese game series of the same name. The series has also had two crossovers with Archie's Mega Man comic series, based on the Mega Man video games from Capcom.

Synopsis

Premise

The main focus of the comic storyline is the title character and hero, Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic is endowed with super speed, super strength, agile skills, and a love of freedom and justice, which puts him at odds with other evil individuals, including the primary antagonist, Dr. Robotnik. Sonic is depicted as having important ties with his family and comrades, and a deep sense of duty and responsibility as a Freedom Fighter of a government system as opposed to his Japanese counterpart who is portrayed as a vigilante hero. He holds a personal hatred against the Doctor and anybody who hurts the innocent, as he understands his ability as a hero to protect the world from menace and evil.

Sonic is affiliated with the Freedom Fighters, a rebellion group of heroic soldiers that was formed to counter the tyranny of Dr. Ivo Robotnik (later also referred to as "Eggman") and his legion of unquestioning, warlike robots. The basis of the original issues was designed to closely mirror the American animated television series, as well as the names and likenesses of Sonic's comrades in the Freedom Fighters. Since then, the series has integrated many elements from the video games series, which has led to ongoing story arcs involving Shadow the Hedgehog and others.

In addition, many completely new characters and locations were created exclusively for the comic series, to the point that original characters outnumbered those originating in other versions of the franchise. However, following a lawsuit by Ken Penders, a former writer of the comic series, most comic-exclusive characters and elements predating the tenure of current lead writer Ian Flynn were removed, first from appearing in new issues and later from continuity altogether by Sonic's failed attempt to restore his home reality to its original state.

Issues #1–50

The first forty issues of the series consisted mostly of isolated stories rarely with any continuity between issues. The early issues mainly featured simple, one-issue "Sonic versus Robotnik" plots, in which Sonic would constantly foil Robotnik’s plans whether it be to tear down a forest or find the hidden location of Knothole Village. These early issues tended to be more like the lighthearted American slapstick cartoon Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog in story tone than the Saturday Morning cartoon that otherwise formed the basis of its world. The first sign of a major victory for the heroes was when Sonic's beloved Uncle Chuck was able to free himself from Robotnik's roboticization-induced mind control, and joined the team as a robot spy. Eventually though, the issues started to gain a sense of an ongoing story, most notably with the addition of the Mecha Sonic storyline in issue #39, in which Sonic is roboticized and does as Robotnik commands. This would later be concluded in a Sonic Special issue where Knuckles gets roboticized himself in order to defeat Mecha Sonic. Following the defeat of Mecha Sonic, the Freedom Fighters come together in issue #46 to discuss ways to attack and defeat Robotnik once and for all. The loyalty of many of the Freedom Fighters comes into question, particularly notable in a feud between Sonic and Geoffrey St. John, member of the Acorn Secret Service. This continues into the End Game saga which takes place over a four issue span, #47 through #50.

The saga begins with a mission by the Freedom Fighters and the Wolf Pack, led by Lupe, to attack Robotnik’s base. Princess Sally reveals thoughts of her father, King Acorn, telling her that it would soon become apparent that Sonic is a traitor. The mission proceeds and Sally is in need of help or she may fall to her death. The Freedom Fighters look on in despair when they think they see Sonic and assume that he will rescue the princess. Much to their surprise, Sonic aids Sally in falling to her death. The mission is called to retreat, and the Freedom Fighters move back to Knothole Village. Meanwhile, Sonic is seen battling Robotnik inside the base (when he apparently left Sally for dead). Robotnik escapes and Sonic leaves the base, wondering where the rest of his companions have gone. Sonic returns to Knothole, only to be arrested and spared the death penalty in light of all his services, so instead he is sentenced to life in prison. While Sonic is being transported, Swatbots attack the vessel and it crash lands. Sonic escapes, and King Acorn demands the recapture of Sonic by St. John. Bunnie and Antoine discover that Drago (a member of the Wolf Pack) has been working with Robotnik in order to frame Sonic. Drago tricked his lover, Hershey Cat, into cutting the rope while disguised as Sonic, making her believe that it was really Robotnik's treacherous nephew, Snively, who was dangling from it. This is followed by King Acorn issuing Robotnik as his new Warlord. Robotnik reveals his duplicate of the king by making it self-destruct and the true plan has become evident to all. All this would lead up to Sonic's return to Knothole in issue #50, where Sonic clears his name heads to a final showdown with Robotnik. Sonic is uncharacteristically devoid of humor as he approaches Robotnik, even going so far as to address him as "Julian". In the battle, Robotnik’s Ultimate Annihilator crashes and the room is destined for destruction, but Robotnik and Sonic remain to fight. In the end, Sonic emerges victorious and Robotnik is wiped out. It is revealed by Doctor Quack that the Ultimate Ahnihilator was reprogrammed by Snively to only affect Robotnik's bio-signature, therefore only Robotnik was killed when it exploded. Sonic later revives Sally with a kiss, though, as the doctor later reveals, she never actually died.

Issues #51–100

Storylines continue to follow after the EndGame saga. With the main antagonist, Robotnik, seemingly defeated, Sonic gets bored with calm, daily life, and the reconstruction efforts, and takes off to travel the world with Tails. In this, Ixis Naugus makes his first appearance in issue #53. Although temporarily defeated, he would later return in issues #64 through #66, along with the appearance of Nate Morgan, former advisor of King Acorn, and Naugus would be defeated this time by Ultra Sonic, one of Sonic's transformations. After returning home to Knothole, Issue #71 has Sonic combine his speed with the power of a Super Emerald to stop a time beam that could destroy Mobius. He succeeds, but a side-effect of the Chaos Energy alters his body slightly, giving him green eyes and gold buckles on his shoes.

Issue #75 reveals that a robotized version of Robotnik from another dimension, that Sonic and friends faced in issue #19, known as Robo-Robotnik, survived the last encounter and killed his dimension's version of Sonic, and after learning about the death of the Robotnik Prime in issue #50, decided to fill out the void for both his and Sonic Prime's life by taking Robotnik Prime's place. Sonic and the Freedom Fighters head to space to battle Robo-Robotnik, and although they defeat him, they only destroyed his robot body. It is then revealed that he had many back-up bodies on standby with which to download himself into. Robo-Robotnik went into one shaped differently from the original Robotnik, and became who is now Sonic's familiar arch-enemy, Dr. Eggman (until being transformed back into an organic lifeform by the Bem in issue #118).

Sonic Adventure is readily adapted into the series with the appearance of Chaos, beginning in issue #79. The saga ends with Sonic successfully defeating Perfect Chaos, the final form of Chaos after absorbing all of the Chaos Emeralds, by transforming into Super Sonic in issue #84. Sonic does not actually destroy Chaos, as Chaos returns to his ancient beginnings to live in peace. Sonic Adventure 2 comes into adaptation for one issue featuring Shadow the Hedgehog.

Issues #101–200

Issue #108 heralded the return of the original Dr. Robotnik, who was revived by Eggman in order to steal his memories, and also team up with him to eliminate the Freedom Fighters. Fortunately, Robotnik Prime was too unstable to remain alive for long, and the machine that revived him was destroyed so that he would never return again.

In issue #125, Sonic battles an alien race known as the Xorda, leaves him stranded in space after saving Mobius from these aliens' secret weapon known as the Quantum Dial, a device that would create a black hole that would destroy Mobius. Back on Mobius, he is assumed to be dead. Sonic journeys through space discovers that Tails' parents are still alive on a far off planet. Sonic returns in issue #130 where he reveals to everyone that he is indeed alive and well. Sonic and Sally are approved for marriage by King and Queen Acorn, but when Sonic refuses to rule by Sally's side while her parents are touring Mobius in favor of continuing to fight in the war, their relationship comes to an abrupt end.

In issue #145 features the return of Shadow, who then proceeds to take an active role in the story, frequently battling Sonic in issues #157 through #161.

Sonic was switched with Anti-Sonic (an evil version of himself from a parallel universe first encountered in issue #11) temporarily and got back to find Anti-Sonic ruining his reputation around Knothole by making romantic advances toward his female friends. Sally was about to marry Patch (the evil version of Antoine from the same parallel universe, masquerading as his doppelganger), whose plan was to kill King Acorn upon the end of the ceremony, effectively making him king of the Acorn Kingdom. Although Patch is ultimately successful in marrying Sally, her brother Elias asserts his right to the throne in order to protect his father. Sonic is able to discover Patch's scheme, defeats him, sends him back to Anti-Mobius, and rescues the real Antoine. Elias then annuls Sally's and Patch's marriage. Realizing that it would take a long time before he and Sally could have a healthy relationship, Sonic began dating Fiona Fox (also doing so in order to end Tails' unreasonable infatuation with her).

Issues #160 and #161 feature the creation of Scourge the Hedgehog, Anti-Sonic's green form that resulted from his mutation via the Master Emerald. It is later revealed that Fiona's affections belonged to Scourge rather than Sonic, and she subsequently left the Freedom Fighters to be with him, and later returns with the other "Anti-Freedom Fighters," who have since become the "Suppression Squad". After this revelation, Antoine finally proposes to Bunnie, and the two are wed with all of the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix (sans Espio) as witnesses. The reason that Espio was not present was because he had infiltrated Eggman's base to discover what he was plotting next. Upon learning said plot, he panics and attempts to retreat and warn the other Freedom Fighters and Chaotix, but is ultimately captured.

In issues #175-#177, Eggman initiates the operation that Espio had failed to prevent. Snively catches the Freedom Fighters off guard and vaporizes all of them except Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Sonic. Sonic races off to save everyone else in Knothole while Knuckles, Tails, and Amy are trapped in the ruins of the base. Sonic finds Knothole in ruins as the Egg Fleet burns it too the ground. Sonic, in panic, rushes to Castle Acorn to save Elias and the castles inhabitants, when Eggman, in a new battle armor, destroys the castle before Sonic's eyes. Eggman reveals that Snively did not actually kill Sonic's friends, but rather teleported them to Eggman's Egg Grapes in order to convert their life-force into energy to power his Eggman Empire. Eggman and Sonic battle, but Eggman easily defeats Sonic using his Egg Beater, robotic armor specifically designed to outclass Sonic in every possible way. Eggman leaves Sonic broken and defeated, believing that his pride is too shattered to ever again raise a hand against him, and returns to his Egg Grapes. Sonic returns to his friends and they discover that NICOLE the supercomputer has survived the attack with a plan to defeat Eggman. They break all the citizens of Knothole out of the Egg Grapes and Nicole reprograms Eggman's computer as Eggman and Snively run to their armor. As all the escapees flee the Egg Vineyard, Eggman tries to teleport everyone into his reserve Egg Grapes, but the reprogrammed armor, instead, sends them all to New Mobotropolis, a city created entirely out of Nanites by NICOLE.

After the Freedom Fighters defeat the Egg Beater, Sonic faces new hardships. Eventually, the Suppression Squad invades Mobius and forces the Freedom Fighters out of their old hideout. After Sonic disobeys the Council of Acorn in an attempt to retake it, he is sent on a mission to counter-invade "Moebius", the Anti-Mobius, as punishment. It is then that the Suppression Squad betrays Scourge and leaves him and Sonic stranded on Moebius. Their fight is interrupted by a psychic hedgehog named Silver, who came from Mobius' future to stop a "traitor" to the Freedom Fighters who would doom the world, believing it to be Sonic. Sonic manages to convince Silver to help him defeat Scourge first, so Scourge uses his stash of "Anarchy Beryl", Moebius' equivalent to Chaos Emeralds, to transform into Super Scourge, and easily defeats them. Sonic is eventually able to defeat Super Scourge by manipulating his ego, and Silver decides to return to the future to get more evidence about who the traitor is. After Sonic sends Scourge to Zone Jail, he decides that it's time to end the war with the Eggman Empire once and for all.

In Issues #198 and #199, the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix proceed to storm Eggman's Egg Dome. In #200, Sonic again beats Eggman, who unexpectedly goes completely insane as a result from his previous defeats, leaving Sonic at a total loss. Snively and the Dark Egg Legion, meanwhile, have been planning to have Eggman defeated so they can have a new ruler of the Eggman Empire; namely, Snively's lover, the Iron Queen.

Issues #201–247

After witnessing Eggman have a mental breakdown in front of him, Sonic becomes depressed and blames himself for his foe's current pitiful state, but is cheered up by Sally in order to enjoy the celebration of finally defeating Eggman. However, the party is crashed when Monkey Khan appears in a rage. He reveals that the Egg Empire has a new ruler; with Eggman incapacitated, Snively has given control to the Iron Queen, who controls the four ninja clans of the Dragon Kingdom. Meanwhile, Eggman escapes his cell in Robotropolis only to be taken prisoner in New Mobotropolis.

While frustrated with Eggman’s escape and inability to capture New Mobotropolis, Snively realizes and theorizes that the Iron Queen’s technomagic can control Nicole and the nanites that the city is composed of. Using this information, the duo take over Nicole and use her to take control of the city and trap the inhabitants, however Sonic, Tails, Sally and Khan manage to escape. Outside, Sonic and Sally manage to break the Queen's hold on Nicole, but Nicole warns them about the alliance of the four clans in the Dragon Kingdom and the danger it poses. The four head to the Dragon Kingdom while Nicole keeps an eye on the city and one by one they break the Queen's alliance with the ninja clans. With her forces now depleted, they defeat and capture the Iron Queen. In the process, Snively escapes with Eggman, who has regained his sanity.

After the confusion, Sonic, Sally, and Big work with the Wolf Pack to reclaim an ancient onyx and help forge a peace treaty between the Wolf Pack Nation and the Felidae. Back in New Mobotropolis, Rotor and Penelope are reorganizing the city's constitution until Hamlin barges in and informs Rotor that his family is being mind-controlled by the Dark Egg Legion. When he returns, Sonic hears the news and urges Rotor to go, but Rotor insists on staying with the council. Sonic heads to the Northern Tundra alone and teams up with the Arctic Freedom Fighters.

Back at New Mobotropolis, Rotor works in secret on a suit design when NICOLE appears next to him. He asks her to build the suit for him and she recycles some nearby nanites to instantly build the suit. Rotor then flies off to aid Sonic in his mission behind the council’s back. Rotor is ambushed by Silver who believes that Rotor is the traitor. Silver nearly finishes off Rotor, when Rotor manages to express the importance of his mission, and Silver agrees to help him. They head to the base where Sonic and the Arctic Freedom Fighters are fighting the walrus herd and the Dark Egg Legion. Taking advantage of the mind control device, Silver cripples the Dark Egg Legion, removes the mind control and permanently sets the walrus's minds so that they will never be mind-controlled again while Rotor sets the base to self-destruct. Later in Icebourogh, Sonic hears about and is highly amused by Silver’s erroneous theory, which was the confusion over Rotor’s real name and his nickname, Boomer. Thoroughly embarrassed by the ordeal, Silver returns to his future after the failed mission to speak with his master, revealed to be Mammoth Mogul.

When Sonic returns to New Mobotropolis, he is given a new mission: to rendezvous with the Freedom Fighter group in Sand Blast City. Bunnie D'Coolette accompanies Sonic on the mission, but is shot by a metal detecting cannon made by the Sand Blast Freedom Fighters. Sonic attempts to rescue her, but is stopped by the Sand Blaster Freedom Fighters, who tell him about the oil rig Eggman had built. When Bunnie wakes up, she finds herself in Dark Egg Legion territory and is reunited with her uncle (nicknamed "The Baron") who initially believed she was part of the Dark Egg Legion due to her bionics. She discovers that he is part of the misunderstood group known as the "Del" and that the Sand Blasters are attempting to take the oil rig that the “Del” is guarding. The Freedom Fighters attempt to ambush the "Del", but Bunnie stops them in order to protect The Baron, causing Sonic to misunderstand her intentions and forcing the two to fight. While fighting and yelling at each other about what they know, the two realize that if THEY destroy the oil rig, no one could blame the Sand Blasters or the “Del” for the destruction, thus fulfilling their intentions to keep the rig out of both sides’ hands and protect the “Del”. After Bunnie sets things right with The Baron, Sonic and Bunnie head back to Mobotropolis.

In issue #219, Sonic and Geoffrey St. John go to the Special Zone to retrieve one of the seven Chaos Emeralds from the god, Feist. Sonic found the emerald, but Geoffrey betrays Sonic by stunning Sonic and sneaks off to give the emerald to Mammoth Mogul. Mogul is not fazed until St. John mentioned the revival of the true king, who according to him is Ixis Naugus. Geffory uses the emerald to restore Naugus's sanity (which he had lost after being sent to Eggman's Egg Grapes). Naugus then makes plans to seize the throne of Acorn with Geoffrey's help, who is revealed to have been Naugus's apprentice the entire time.

Naugus uses his magic to cause the people to become increasingly paranoid of NICOLE's power. Sonic and Sally go on a date at a free concert when Ixis Naugus and Geoffrey attack. The Freedom Fighters (minus Sonic) are overwhelmed by Geoffrey, who is revealed to be an Ixis Wizard (though he only has some limited control over wind magic), so they instead convince him to stop fighting them and let justice take its course. Naugus, who claims the kingdom was sworn to him by Max Acorn long ago, fights with Sonic in the council's room, but the latter is forced to stop when the wizard's magic affects the council and turns most of them against Sonic. Eggman, however, has been rebuilding the Death Egg (now known as the Death Egg Mark II) and finally obtains a Chaos Emerald to power it. The Death Egg Mark II is launched, forcing Naugus and Sonic to start a truce. Sonic and Sally break into the new Death Egg, but Sonic is distracted by a rebuilt Silver Sonic. Frustrated, Sally proceeds alone to find Eggman, but is seemingly killed by a turret. Hearing the shots and seeing Sally's broken goggles lying on the ground, a distressed Sonic tries to reach Sally. Eggman then activates "Operation: Clean Sweep" and the entire world goes white.

The universe is "reset" to an alternate world more similar to the Sega video games, the effects known as "Genesis", where nobody remembers the events that occurred in the comic series. Eggman and Snively still have the Death Egg in orbit and plan to use the power of the Chaos Emeralds to power their "world roboticizer." Meanwhile, Sonic re-meets some of the current Freedom Fighters (Sally, Antoine, and Rotor are re-met, but Sonic already knows Tails), and together they shut down Eggman's facilities. After a series of mysterious earthquakes occurs, Snively starts to realize that the universe seems to be trying to turn itself back to normal and Sonic and Sally slowly start to remember parts of their previous lives. Sonic eventually decides to go face-to-face with Eggman himself instead of just shutting down more of Eggman's facilities. Tails joins with him and they invade the Metropolis Zone while Sally, Rotor, and Antoine shut down the last of Eggman's plants. After Metropolis loses power, Eggman escapes to the Death Egg, and Sonic follows him with help from Tails and the Tornado. Sonic boards the Death Egg and fights Eggman one-on-one, but is overpowered. Seeing victory near at hand, Eggman gloats about how the Death Egg is powered by the seven Chaos Emeralds and that he will make the reset permanent through his “world roboticizer”. Hearing this, Sonic takes a nearby cable broken during the fight and uses the energy to become Super Sonic, promptly defeating Eggman.

Sonic grabs more broken cables to get enough energy and uses Chaos Control to dispel the effects of the "Genesis Wave." He also rewinds time by ten seconds which allows Sonic to save Sally from being killed, though the Death Egg and the "world roboticizer" are still intact. While Sonic fights Eggman, Silver Sonic, and the latest version of Metal Sonic, Sally is able to sneak under the floor and uses NICOLE to hack into the "world roboticizer". Snively activates the machine, unaware that Sally had changed the area of effect to be a small radius around NICOLE, causing NICOLE’s original body, Silver Sonic, Metal Sonic, and part of the Death Egg to explode. However, Sally is roboticized in the process much to Eggman’s glee, but horrifies Sonic. Unwilling to attack Mecha Sally, Sonic is thrown out of the Death Egg and Eggman decides to launch two other attacks as a distraction. He launches Titan Metal Sonic and “Deadly Cuddles,” also known as Tails Doll.

Prior to the attack and directly after the Genesis Wave, Ixis Naugus wakes up on the ground only to discover that the three ghosts of the original mages that created his body had awoken. Naugus becomes highly distressed, but when he sees the city under attack, he rushes to protect it, despite the ghosts’ taunts about how he is ruling a shell. Partially driven mad, Naugus is able to use his magic to crystallize Titan Metal Sonic and control him with his powers. Bunnie, who originally decided to fight the robot, is hit by Naugus' blast also, crystallizing her robotic parts. Cream is able to rescue Bunnie and Vanilla and Big rush Bunnie to Dr. Quack. While Cream looks for Bunnie's crystallized hat, she finds the Tails Doll among the wreck of the city and takes it with her. The citizens eventually praise Naugus as king after he successfully defends the city from two attacks from the Death Egg Mark II, though Naugus is still haunted by the spirits who are disgusted by him for ruling a ‘fake’. In a publicity stunt, Naugus uses his magic to reverse the crystallization on Bunnie in the hospital, and, by accident, he turns Bunnie's robotic parts into flesh and blood again.

After the Babylon Rogues and the Battle Bird Armada are defeated by Sonic and the others, Geoffrey is arrested for treason by Antoine. Geoffrey is found guilty in his trial, but since Naugus is now king, he pardons Geoffrey and lets him go free. Elias seeks out Harvey Who, one of his father's old advisers, and begins plans for a group of Freedom Fighters that will work behind the King and council’s backs. Naugus contacts Eggman and tells him that the Freedom Fighters plan to evacuate former king Elias and his family from the city. The doctor attacks the Freedom Fighters with both a repaired Metal Sonic and a heavily-weaponized Mecha Sally. Due to the loss of Bunnie's robotic limbs and the group's overall reluctance to fight Sally, the Freedom Fighters are left at a severe disadvantage. Eventually, Metal Sonic self-destructs on Antoine, leaving him in a coma. With the remainder of their spirits crushed, the Freedom Fighters are left at Eggman's mercy, but are spared in order to prolong their suffering. Furious, Snively finally decides to usurp his uncle and rescue the Iron Queen, but is ultimately defeated and imprisoned by Eggman.

Bunnie, wracked with guilt over her husband's condition, states that she knows what she has to do to make everything right and leaves the Freedom Fighters. In the future, Silver finds evidence of his actions in the past and, after reading damaged sections of Antoine’s diary, decides that Antoine is the traitor. Silver presents the information to Mongul, and Mongul reluctantly gives Silver permission to go back in time on the condition that Silver leaves the Kronos Stone to prevent him from abusing it. After teleporting into Mobotropolis, Silver is found by a disgruntled Sonic, to who Silver eagerly tells the current theory. Enraged at the accusation, Sonic attacks Silver and drags him to Antoine's deathbed in the hospital. Realizing that he has again jumped to conclusions, Silver seeks more solid evidence by joining Harvey Who's Secret Freedom Fighters.

With Sally roboticized, Antoine in a coma and Bunnie missing in action, the remnants of the Freedom Fighters decide to officially disbanded. Sonic ultimately refuses to give up and decides that they just need to come up with something even better. As a result, the remaining Freedom Fighters along with the re-instatement of Rotor and some newcomers, are instead split into two groups: Team Freedom, composed of Rotor as the leader, Big, Cream, and renegade Eggman robots Heavy and Bomb, who protect Mobotropolis from any danger that befalls it, and Team Fighters, consisting of Sonic as the leader, Tails and Amy, who follow the Death Egg Mark II and foil Eggman's worldwide conquest in order to spread hope amongst the people of Mobius, as well as eventually capture and de-roboticize Sally.

After narrowly succeeding in preventing a war between the Wolf Pack and the Felidae brought on by Mecha Sally's actions, Team Fighters continues to harass the weakening Death Egg. Eggman attempts to slow them down by having Mecha Sally attack her own brother, forcing Elias to flee with the newly formed Secret Freedom Fighters. Mecha Sally and a new Silver Sonic III are ultimately defeated and forced to retreat with the arrival of Team Fighters which instills courage in the people and causes an uprising.

With Team Fighters distracted, Eggman mounts a second attack on New Mobotropolis, using the Tails Doll to disable the force field surrounding the city. With some unseen help from the Secret Freedom Fighters, consisting of Silver, a repaired and reformed Metal Sonic (now dubbed "Shard"), Larry Lynx, Wolf Pack twins Lyco and Leeta, and former king Elias, Team Freedom succeeds in driving the Death Egg away from the city. At this point, Eggman is infuriated that he isn't winning as easily as initially thought, especially since Sonic wasn't even involved in the fight, and shows signs of madness again. He is left no time to repair his destroyed robots, as Team Fighters is still hot on his tail. After discovering a sprig of the Krudzu Hybrid Hydra, a Badnik that very nearly killed Sonic not too long ago (ironically, Eggman himself destroyed the Hydra because he was determined to end Sonic's life on his own terms), he desperately launches an incomplete Titan Metal Sonic merged with the Hydra in an attempt to stall his pursuers. Although the Hydra was ultimately defeated by Team Fighters, it was able to delay them long enough for Eggman to achieve his goal of destroying Albion, much to Sonic’s horror.

After the battle, Naugus realizes he is losing his grip on the people of New Mobotropolis, especially after being saved by Team Freedom during Eggman's attack on the city when the constant bickering of Naugus' inner spirits causes him painful mutations. Because of recent failings of the nanites, the Council of Acorn motions to overturn NICOLE's exile from the city to help protect and rebuild the city. Realizing that his body is falling apart, Naugus desperately attempts to trick someone to enter into a magical contract with him so he can possess their body. However all of his attempts fail, and when Geoffrey tries to convince his master to abandon his evil intentions and ask for help with his condition, Naugus decides to possess Geoffrey. Naugus (in Geoffrey's body) then informs the council that the king is "dying" and enlists their help to save him, obviously hiding more sinister plans.

At Albion, Team Fighters is attacked by Metal Knuckles, and their plane crash lands into Albion. There they encounter the Dark Egg Legion, led by Lien-Da, who has captured Knuckles' mother. Knuckles hears the distress call and warps to Albion, only to find the Dark Egg Legion and all of the other echidnas nowhere in sight. After joining up with Team Fighters, Knuckles discovers that the echidnas, including Knuckle's mother and girlfriend, have all been transported away to lands unknown by Thrash the Devil, who has a vendetta against the echidnas for using his people in their experiments. Knuckles defeats Thrash, but ultimately fail to prevent him from escaping, and thus lost his chance to bring his people back. Meanwhile, the Krudzu Hybrid Hydra is revealed to have survived and takes control of the damaged Metal Knuckles to battle Team Fighters. Weakened from their early fights, Team Fighters and Knuckles are unable to fend off the Krudzu Hybrid. From the sidelines Shard (the original Metal Sonic who had been rebuilt and reformed and had joined the Secret Freedom Fighters to make amends to his past deeds) grew increasingly worried about the course of the battle and eventually intervened, despite his orders to follow and report on Team Fighters. Together with Thrash's herd of devil dogs, the Hydra is defeated and captured, with Shard taking the last sprig in hopes it can be modified to de-roboticize Sally.

Finally free from any more distractions, Team Fighters joins up with the Arctic Freedom Fighters in the Northern Tundra in order to capture Mecha Sally, but are interrupted by Silver. Silver reveals that the traitor he has been searching for is definitely Sally, but since she wasn't a traitor of her own free will as he initially believed, he decides to help save her rather than destroy her. As the team storms Eggman's base, they are ambushed and nearly killed by Mecha Sally herself. While this is happening, back in Mobotropolis, NICOLE has decided to save Naugus by working on a machine meant to reverse his condition. Cream also notices that the Tails Doll disappearances are connected to the nanites failing in the city. Team Freedom concludes that the Tails Doll has been sabotaging the city's defenses, but just as they confront it, it mutates into a hideous, formidable monster. Back in the Northern Tundra, Silver manages to deactivate Mecha Sally and thus prevent the team's death as was the case in his future, but before anything else can happen, Eggman releases his Genesis Wave, this time not only resetting Mobius, but another world as well...

Worlds Collide

After Sally sacrificed herself to destroy the World Roboticizer, the Chaos Emerald that Eggman was using to power the Death Egg Mark II mysteriously vanished. The gem was not destroyed in the explosion, but rather sent into an alternate universe where it was found by another evil scientist known as Dr. Wily. Wily has his own nemesis in the form of "Mega Man", a heroic blue robot boy created by Wily's benevolent former colleague, Dr. Light, who has forced Wily into hiding after his most recent defeat. Wily, in an attempt to analyze the emerald's power, accidentally came into contact with Eggman, and after a bit of arguing, the two realized that they had a great deal in common and decided to team up. Eggman explains the power of the Chaos Emeralds to Wily, and they use their combined geniuses to create a pocket dimension between their two worlds called the "Skull Egg Zone", where they are finally able to meet in person. The two then combine their forces to build a new, more powerful flying fortress, christened the "Wily Egg".

The duo release the Genesis Wave on both of their worlds, altering Eggman's world into a state more like its depiction in the video game series, and shifting Wily's world forward in time to after the events of Mega Man 10. After realizing that beings from one universe cannot travel to the other without being accompanied by a native of the other, they decide to make a new army by combining Eggman's roboticization process with Wily's robot designs. They send Metal Sonic, Wily's enforcer Bass, and Copy Robot (an evil duplicate of Mega Man) to kidnap and roboticize Sonic's friends, as well as steal the remaining Chaos Emeralds. When Copy Robot and Metal Sonic make themselves known to Sonic and Mega Man respectively, the duplicates trick the originals into fighting one another, leading to a fierce duel between Sonic and Mega Man that spans across both of their worlds. When the battle proves to be too evenly matched for either side to land a decisive blow, a roboticized Tails is sent in to finish them off. The two form a truce, and manage to turn Tails back to normal. They then realized that they had been duped by the doctors, and decide to team up to take them on.

They go back to Mega Man's house, where they witness Dr. Light being kidnapped by Metal Sonic and Bass. Joined by Mega Man's older brother Proto Man, the four manage to infiltrate the Skull Egg Zone, where they find and defeat Copy Robot. They are then attacked by the two evil scientists, who demonstrate the powers of their "Roboticized Masters", including Amy, Knuckles, the Chaotix, Shadow, Blaze and Silver. Meanwhile, Dr. Light is rescued by Rouge the Bat, who decided to help fight the doctors after they took Shadow. After a series of battle, the Roboticized Masters are all returned to normal, and they team up with Sonic and Mega Man to prepare an all-out assault on the Wily Egg. While Sonic's friends deal with all of Wily's previous "Robot Masters", Sonic and Mega Man storm the flying fortress, where they manage to defeat Metal Sonic and Bass. However, they are then captured by the mad doctors, who reveal that they plan to use their "Super Genesis Wave" to rewrite their universes entirely to their liking, including wiping the blue heroes from existence.

Fortunately, Knuckles and Proto Man arrive to save the duo and distract the doctors long enough for Sonic and Mega Man to escape and use the Chaos Emeralds to achieve their Super forms. Using Chaos Control, Super Mega Man is able to safely return his world to normal, but Super Sonic is not so lucky, having his own attempt interrupted by Eggman, who refuses to accept defeat, leading to disastrous results...

Issues #252–272

The Genesis Wave successfully returned Sonic his home planet (now unnamed, no longer being called Mobius), but significant changes had occurred to fabric of reality, changing many current and previous events, removing many individuals from existence and creating many new ones. Sonic battled the giant Tails Doll, which was attacking the city, but was hampered by distress from the conflicting memories he was experiencing. Naugus, who had lost his powers, regained his memories of the old world after touching NICOLE and subsequently fled the city. After he and Tails defeated the monster, he learned that all his friends were across the globe on different missions. Sonic, Nicole and Tails decide to find each of them and restore their memories, as it would also fix Nicole's corrupted data. They locate Rotor working on the new mobile base Sky Patrol (named for the game Tails' Skypatrol) and restore his memories, and leave him with Big the Cat to assist him. They then find Antoine protecting Uncle Chuck as the Hedgehog doctor is studying strange tremors, aided by his assistant Muttski-Sonic's dog before the Super Genesis Wave, now a Mobian. A tremor results in Sonic being exposed to a strange gas from deep below ground, and Antoine's memories are restored. During this time, Eggman-who also retains his memories of the old world-begins making his way back to the Death Egg, and determines that the planet has become dangerously unstable. Sonic and Tails find Bunnie and restore her memories as well, before returning to Mobotropolis to rendezvous with Amy, Cream the Rabbit, and Sally-the former pair returning from Blaze the Cat's world, the other restored to her organic form. Amy and Sally's memories are restored, and NICOLE and Eggman then discover that the planet is cracking and the multiverse collapsing in upon itself due to the massive energy of the Genesis Wave. Contrary to both sides believing there might be a way to stop the cataclysm, NICOLE and Eggman already deem it too late, just before it breaks into several fragments, beginning an adaptation of events from the game Sonic Unleashed.

A quest soon begins to restore the fractured world through collecting the seven Chaos Emeralds and bringing them to the Gaia Temples; along the way the Freedom Fighters run into new allies and enemies. The effects of Sonic's exposure to the gas eventually lead to him transforming into the monstrous Werehog at night, though he soon masters his new form. After a number of the Emeralds have been collected, Sonic and his allies are forced to take part in a fighting tournament-loosely modeled after Sonic the Fighters-organized by Breezie the Hedgehog. After a series of matches against such foes as the Hooligans-Sega characters Nack, Bark, and Bean-and Honey the Cat, the final round comes down to Sonic vs. Knuckles, with Metal Sonic flying to the tournament site on Dr. Eggman's orders. The heroes manage to secure the Emerald, and then learn of the Gaia Gate in Apotos and its ability to transport them to each temple through the use of the Gaia Keys. They also become aware of a strange phenomenon known as the Genesis Portals, which link various realities together and are a byproduct of the conclusion of Worlds Collide. Knuckles and Chip, the Light Gaia, join the group as well, though Knuckles is also on a quest to recover the fragments of the Master Emerald after being forced to shatter it during the Sonic Universe arc "Total Eclipse."

Worlds Unite

In October 2014 it was announced that a second crossover between the Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man comics would take place, with the tagline "no universe will be safe." In addition to the casts of the main Sonic and Mega Man books, the crossover will also spotlight characters from the Sonic Boom and Mega Man X universes, as well as feature appearances from several other Capcom and Sega franchises such as Street Fighter, Nights into Dreams..., Viewtiful Joe, Panzer Dragoon, Okami, Golden Axe, Monster Hunter, Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, Breath of Fire, Alex Kidd, Ghosts 'n Goblins, and Skies of Arcadia.[2] While Sonic, Eggman, Orbot, and Cubot remember Worlds Collide, Mega Man's Chaos Control erased all memory of it among the inhabitants of his world, including himself.

The crossover begins in 21XX, between the events of Mega Man X7 and Mega Man X8, where Mega Man X leads an attack on Sigma's fortress. When confronted by X, Sigma escapes through a Genesis Portal to the Lost Hex, where he enslaves the Deadly Six (from Sonic Lost World) along with Eggman and Wily. Sigma plans to become a god by installing Unity Engines–machines capable of merging alternate universes–on different worlds to absorb their power. Eggman and Wily reconcile upon their reunion and begin plotting to take over Sigma's plans. At their suggestion, Sigma has the Deadly Six capture Sonic and Mega Man, whom the doctors transform into villainous versions of themselves, known as Sonic Man and M'egga Man; they secretly program the corrupted heroes to revert each other back to normal so they can set them on Sigma. Sonic Man and M'egga Man are then sent to each other's home worlds to terrorize their inhabitants and install a Unity Engine, easily defeating the Freedom Fighters and Mega Man's fellow heroic Robot Masters along the way. The Unity Engines are activated, causing Sonic's and Mega Man's worlds to merge into one.

Meanwhile, after dispatching Sigma's lieutenant, Vile, with help from Silver, X, Zero, and Axl accidentally travel to the Sonic Boom world while pursuing the Maverick leader. There, they meet Sticks the Badger, who joins them on their quest. They arrive as Sonic's and Mega Man's worlds finish merging. The corrupted Sonic and Mega Man revert each other back to normal and, upon learning of Sigma, they rally the other heroes to form a Unified Army against him. On the Lost Hex, Eggman and Wily, on the run after Sigma discovered their treachery, are rescued by Xander Payne (a comic-exclusive Mega Man villain), who, via his newfound ability to create Genesis Portals of his own, teleports them aboard the Sky Patrol. After the doctors reveal Sigma's plan, the heroes head for the Lost Hex; Sigma sends his Mechaniloids and the Deadly Six to deal with them. During the battle, Sticks falls through a Genesis Portal and into the Street Fighter universe. The Deadly Six eventually force the robotic heroes to fight the Freedom Fighters, but are thwarted by the doctors and captured. Sigma himself then confronts the group as a giant, godlike being, accompanied by a horde of Mavericks. While the Mavericks are sent to install more Unity Engines, Sticks arrives with Street Fighter protagonists Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, and Guile to save their allies.

Sticks' excursion inspires the Unified Army to recruit other heroes from different Sega and Capcom universes, including Alex Kidd, NiGHTS, Amaterasu (from Ōkami), the Blue Rogues (from Skies of Arcadia), Billy Hatcher, and Viewtiful Joe. Although Sigma destroys the Sky Patrol, all of the characters join together and launch a full-scale assault. When Sigma reemerges in an even stronger form, Sonic and Mega Man transform into Super Sonic and Super Armor Mega Man, as whom they destroy Sigma. However, it turns out that Sigma's abuse of the Genesis Portals has severely compromised the fabric of reality, causing it to fall apart. Meanwhile, Eggman and Wily, having infiltrated the Lost Hex, are betrayed by Xander, who opens a Genesis Portal to the moment where Sigma escaped to the Lost Hex and blasts him through the portal with a raygun, thus preventing the events of the crossover from happening. Despite this, Sonic, Mega Man, Sticks, and the doctors retain their memories of the experience, and of each other.

Issue #276–present

Following Worlds Unite, Sonic, now joined by Chip, resumes the task of restoring his shattered planet to normal, seeking out the Gaia Keys that will enable access to the Gaia Temples. Simultaneously, Knuckles sets out with Amy to find the remaining Master Emerald shards. Along the way, they reunite with Dulcy the Dragon (another character from the TV series), meet other Freedom Fighter groups, and face off against the Egg Army's various divisions. With all seven Chaos Emeralds in the Freedom Fighters' possession at this point, Dr. Eggman eventually launches a large-scale offensive in an attempt to stop them.

Spin-offs and other related series

The series was originally published as a four issue mini-series, with the first issue labeled as "issue 0". At the end of the fourth issue of the series, it was announced that Sonic would return in a regular series, and the next issue was published as "issue 1" of the regular series.

Alongside the main Sonic series, Archie Comics published various special issues. Longer than typical issues of the comic, these specials feature stories involving Sonic and other related characters. Several miniseries have also been published, featuring characters such as Sally, Tails and Knuckles.

Because of the popularity of the specials and Miniseries featuring Knuckles, in 1997, Knuckles the Echidna became an ongoing series. Knuckles' stories featured its own cast of characters, including the Chaotix. In 1999, the series was canceled, but the stories were continued in the pages of Sonic the Hedgehog until it was phased out completely by Sonic issue 125. In this form, a typical issue of Sonic included a Sonic story and a second, shorter Knuckles story afterwards, though eventually this phased out as well.

In order to allow for stories that focused more on side characters than primarily on Sonic-most notably the other characters featured in the Sega games-the Sonic Universe comic line was introduced. This series has included a wide range of characters previously introduced in other comic issues, as well as allowing for the introduction of additional characters to the comic cast. Typically, the series is broken up into four-issue long story arcs focusing on a select character or group of characters, though one-issue stories have also been released.

Archie has also produced two Sonic series based on other branches of the Sonic franchise, namely the Sonic X anime and the Sonic Boom cartoon. The Sonic X series began in September 2005, and ended after forty issues, the last of which featured a crossover story with the main Sonic the Hedgehog series that served as a prequel to the first Sonic Universe issue. The Sonic Boom line began in October 2014, and was later incorporated into Worlds Unite before concluding with its eleventh issue in September 2015.

The Archie Sonic series has also produced several Free Comic Book Day issues, which typically feature either reprints of older issues or new stories that fit into the series continuity. Since 2013 these issues have served as a combination free comic special with the Mega Man series; a free Sonic issue serving as a prequel to Sonic: Lost World was also released in 2013 for Halloween Comic Fest. Various compilations have also been put together, such as the Sonic Saga Series, Sonic Archives and Knuckles Archives, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Universe and standalone graphic novels, Sonic Legacy, Best of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Super Digest and Sonic Super Special Magazine. Following Worlds Collide the latter two series and the Free Comic Book Day issues began featuring stories in a series entitled "Sonic Comic Origins", which detailed the histories of various characters in the post-reboot continuity.

A short, three panel comic strip similar to those found in a newspaper at the end of some issues called Off-Panel. It was originally found in the main series of comics, and was later continued in the spinoff series Sonic Universe. Earlier strips involved fictional version of staff interacting with comic characters, while later strips removed this element, it always retains elements of comical gags relating to the issues main story, often containing fourth wall breaking.

Adaptations

The Sonic the Hedgehog comic typically runs original storylines based around characters from various Sonic media, but it has also made a number of adaptations. For instance, it has adapted a couple episodes of Sonic the Hedgehog, as well as complete or partial adaptations of the following video games:

*denotes a self-contained comic story which directly adapts the video game and is not retrofitted into the unique ongoing continuity of Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comic series.

Sonic the Hedgehog (TV series) Episodes:

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog Episodes:

Others:

Characters

See List of Sonic the Hedgehog characters for info on recurring video game characters who appear in the series, Sonic the Hedgehog (TV series)#Characters for more info on characters carried over from that series.

Sega cast

Game protagonists

Game antagonists

Game organizations and ethnicity

Characters from animated series

Protagonists

Antagonists

Comics-exclusive heroes

Freedom Fighters

Relatives

Other protagonists

Comics-exclusive antagonists

Teams

Organizations

Series and reissues

Reception

Destructoid praised the comic series, especially the earlier issues during the 1990s, for adding more backstory and character interaction than was presented in the Sonic video games for the Sega Genesis.[3] The comic series is being watched by Sega Of America for Archie to not using badly salled games for the comics.

See also

Notes

    References

    1. ↑ "Sonic the Hedgehog enter Book of World Records". Archie Comic. 2008-07-07. Archived from the original on September 12, 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-13.
    2. ↑ http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/02/23/capcom-and-sega-join-forces-for-worlds-unite-comic-book-crossover
    3. ↑ "Expanded Universes: Sonic the Hedgehog comics and cartoon". Destructoid.

    External links

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