Media Essays: A Way Past Cool Retrospective (Archie Sonic Issues 230-251)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5 here.

Welcome back to A Way Past Cool Retrospective everybody! It's been a wild ride so far, but now we're getting into the most infamous era of the comic. The era that ultimately killed Archie Sonic going forward. What do I mean by that? You'll see as in this part we cover the Mecha Sally saga, the Endangered Species Arc, and the infamous lawsuit that doomed the comic and led to the reboot era.

(sighs heavily) This is going to be painful. Well, let's get to it everybody...

Issues 230-242: The Mecha Sally Arc

After the annoying detour that was Genesis, the comic returned back to the main story with Issue 230 picking up where Issue 225 left off, albeit with a ten second rewind so Sonic is able to save Sally from being shot and Eggman pressing the big button does nothing this time. But Eggman is undeterred for his still has one final ace up his sleeve. The Death Egg has a world roboticizer, meaning he won't just be able to roboticize one person or one civilization, but the whole world. This of course is bad news for Sonic and Sally since everyone they know and love will become robots, but several machines and any mechanical friends they have will be destroyed since if you try to roboticize machines, they explode. Eggman could even potentially destroy all his Legionnaires, and the fat git doesn't give a crap. I love how Sonic actually acknowledges he shouldn't have shown him any shred of mercy. Nah, really Sonic? Only NOW do you acknowledge that? You shouldn't have shown him any mercy at all you dumbass! For a guy who's so fast, he's awfully slow at times like this, isn't he? Anyhow, Sonic has forced to fight Silver Sonic and Metal Sonic while Sally does something about the world roboticizer. The most they can do is direct its activation to her exact position and with a tearful goodbye, Sally does so. This results in the Death Egg suffering huge damage and the world roboticizer being destroyed...

...but at a horrifying cost. Princess Sally Acorn has been roboticized. Sally Acorn is no more. In her place stands Mecha Sally, making what should've been a clean victory a horrifically bittersweet one, leaning more towards bitter. I have to say, what is it with Flynn and having the female FFs turn evil for an arc? First Nicole in Iron Dominion, now Sally! What's next, an arc where Bunnie gets turned evil? Anyhow, this was one hell of a twist that nobody saw coming...

And yet this entire premise falls apart the moment you stop and think about it. I can sum up why this arc doesn't work with two points:

1: NICOLE IS FROM THE FUTURE!!! Remember when I pointed out how stupid it was Nicole got corrupted by the Iron Queen despite being from the future and thus she should be immune to that? This rings true here. Nicole's from the future, so how the hell is she having so much trouble hacking into the Death Egg's systems? She should be so advanced that Eggman's technology is a walk in the park for her! She should've been able to put a stop to this with ease, yet somehow she can't because...this plot needed to happen, that's all I can think of.

2: This panel confuses the hell out of me:

This requires context. You see, in previous issues, the alien race known as the B.E.M. de-roboticized everyone who had been roboticized on Mobius and they made it so Mobius is immune to roboticization, hence why Eggman resorts to legionizing (turning his subordinates into cyborgs) to get around this. He claims with his Cosmic Reset Button that he removed that immunity, but then he says the dialogue you see in the panel above. The world roboticizer was sabotaged so it fired in on itself, destroying Metal and Silver Sonic and damaging the Death Egg. As you can see, Eggman and Sonic are still organic and that's why Eggman laments the old immunity wasn't reset after all. So if the old immunity wasn't reset...

HOW THE HELL DID SALLY GET ROBOTICIZED?!?!

By this comic's own logic, Sally shouldn't have been affected just like how Sonic and Eggman weren't affected! If the old immunity wasn't reset then why did Sally get roboticized but not Sonic and Eggman? And if the old immunity WAS reset, then why weren't Sonic and Eggman roboticized along with Sally? This massive, gaping plot hole completely kills this story dead before it even leaves the starting gate! It's amazing how that one single line completely destroys what could've been an interesting story! I hate to be the one to play comic book editor here, but this is such an easy fix! Make it so the old immunity WAS reset and the only reason Sonic and Eggman weren't affected was because they were too far away from the beam. Seriously, it wasn't that hard!

So yeah, this arc has barely started and already it completely falls apart. But this is pretty small potatoes to the rest of the story. I'm going to walk through step-by-step why the Mecha Sally arc is top-to-bottom an absolute disaster of a story...

Issue 231 follows up with a pretty chaotic battle (and gorgeously drawn by Ben Bates) that sees the Freedom Fighters crippled, Eggman barely managing to escape despite also being crippled, the Tails Doll ending up in Cream's posession (cause we really needed the Tails Doll to be included in this story for some reason) and Naugus looking like a hero to the citizens of New Mobotropolis due to stopping Titan Metal Sonic. Naugus himself is also hearing voices in his head due to the Genesis Wave reawakening the spirits of the three wizards that formed together to make him (long story). So yeah, this ain't Sonic's day and it's pretty harrowing to see the Freedom Fighters be dealt such a heavy blow. Up next we have Issue 232, which to me is top-to-bottom the worst issue of the arc and possibly Flynn's worst script he's written for the comic before the reboot and IDW Sonic came about. Why do I think that? Several reasons. This is a comic that gives the characters the Idiot Ball and lets them run with it, and also has things happen with no rhyme or reason.

First of all, Naugus crystallized Bunnie in the previous issue and in an effort to make himself look good to the public, he heals her. This...somehow restores her organic limbs and has her no longer a cyborg. This doesn't make a lick of sense. Since when did Naugus' magic do anything like this, especially when de-crystallizing anyone? And don't you dare tell me "the Chaos Emerald did it", because I'm not accepting such lazy writing. The Chaos Emeralds are magical and powerful, yes, but that doesn't mean they can do literally anything you want. The fact Naugus is as confused as we are doesn't help matters at all. This is also yet again Flynn ignoring past continuity just so this story can happen. You see, Archie Sonic Super Special Issue 11 had a story in where Bunnie had to undergo upgrades to her cybernetic limbs since they weren't working in tandem with her nervous system anymore. This came at the cost of her never being able to be de-roboticized. Yet somehow, Naugus was able to de-roboticize her because...magic? I have no idea.

Oh and want to know something even dumber about all this? This plot point was spoiled by Part 3 of the Babylon Rising saga over in Sonic Universe. You see, that issue came out before this did, so Bunnie being de-roboticized was spoiled before we got to that part in the main series. The incompetence of these comics are staggering...

But the crowning moment of dumb, the most idiotic moment of the entire saga occurs when Sonic goes to Angel Island in order to ask Knuckles for a warp ring. Knuckles refuses, somehow thinking it's a bad idea when it absolutely isn't. Seriously, how is Sonic using a warp ring to get on the Death Egg a bad idea? All he has to do is use it, get on the ship, kick Eggman's ass and save Mecha Sally. Sonic's been on the Death Egg so he knows what to do and can visualize it easily. Knuckles is being unhelpful because this story needs to happen. Another stupid thing about this plot point is it never once occurs to Sonic to ask Espio for help. Espio is a chameleon who can turn invisible, he's a trained ninja and a skilled spy. Sonic knows this...yet it never once crosses his mind to say "Hey Knuckles, can I ask a favour of Espio? Naugus has taken over the kingdom and I could do with his ninja spy skills to keep an eye on him". While one might say "But Espio is with Vector and Charmy looking for Mighty and Ray", no, this issue happens BEFORE that Sonic Universe arc does.

Charmy himself is literally with Knuckles and Julie-Su the entire time Sonic is on Angel Island, so Espio is clearly still available to help, so what was stopping Sonic from asking him to spy on Naugus, or Knuckles or Julie-Su from suggesting that idea to Sonic?

But that's not the dumbest thing about all this. No, the actual dumbest moment in this entire saga is what you see in the panel above. Yeah, you notice something? That big green thing right there on the island? You see it, yeah, you do? It's called the Master Emerald. It's like a Chaos Emerald but bigger and more powerful. And what can Sonic do with it? Become Super Sonic. Yeah, remember that? He even did so during Enerjak Reborn...

SO WHAT THE FLYING MONKEYS IS STOPPING SONIC FROM DOING SO AGAIN HERE?!?!

The Master Emerald. Is. Right. There! Why doesn't Sonic just leap on the damn thing, turn super and fly after Eggman so he can destroy the Death Egg?! Literally nothing is stopping him!!! This entire arc is so badly thought out that it could've been over in five minutes if the characters weren't being the biggest morons known to mankind! This is yet again another easy fix! Make it so Sonic goes to Angel Island, plans to use the Master Emerald to turn super, but by the time he gets there, the Death Egg has beat him to the punch and Eggman steals the Master Emerald so Sonic can't go super! How is this obvious to me, the reader of the comic, but not the man who wrote the comic itself?

And then after Sonic returns back, Tails reveals to him that Antoine arrested Geoffrey for treason. Oh. That's nice...

SO WHY DIDN'T HE DO THAT SOONER?!?!

What the hell was stopping Antoine from just arresting Geoffrey before if it was that bloody easy?! Why did Antoine pick NOW of all times to arrest him?!

Ow...all the stupid is giving me a headache. X(

Issue 233 follows on from this with the trial of Geoffrey St. John. This issue accomplishes absolutely nothing. While it's nice we got Geoffrey's full backstory and an explanation for his motivations and all, it ultimately feels like filler in the grand scheme of things. Nothing is accomplished since Naugus uses his new power as king to pardon Geoffrey of the charges, so despite him being declared guilty, he isn't arrested and everything proceeds as normal. Again, FILLER. We didn't need a filler issue in what's already a bloated arc. It's pretty sad when the second story feels more important as the second story brings back another obscure character, Harvey Who, and paves way the Secret Freedom Fighters arc that we get over in Sonic Universe. But this just brings up another issue with this arc. It's way too big for its own good and thus parts of it start spilling over into Sonic Universe, thus meaning we need supplementary material to get the fully story. Again, Sonic Universe is a spin-off title. I'm not saying it can't have any ties to the main story whatsoever, but it shouldn't be used as a convenient crutch to prop up a story that's too big to be contained in the main pages of Archie Sonic itself. Flynn should've trimmed the fat and not had so many ideas for this story and thus it would've been easier to contain in the main comic itself. If your story is too big to contain in the pages of the main comic, then don't make it so big!

Oh fun fact: the original draft of Issue 237 was going to have it turn out Hershey was alive this whole time and once she found out about Geoffrey's betrayal, she would've ditched him, thus meaning he betrayed everybody for nothing and this issue would've been even more worthless since Hershey wouldn't have actually been dead and Geoffrey's emotional testimony would've meant nothing since she wasn't actually dead. As morbid as it sounds, not going with this was the right idea in the end as having Hershey turn out to be alive would've caused more problems with this arc.

Up next is Issue 234, probably the most controversial or infamous issue of the arc. This is yet another issue full of bottomless stupidity and shock value for the sake of shock value. The story sees Sonic and the FFs carry out a convoy mission to get Elias and Megan Acorn safely away from New Mobotropolis to Feral Forest. But Eggman was made privy to the plan thanks to Naugus spilling the beans (which we find out in the second story). So what stupid things happen here then? First of all, Bunnie is part of the convoy and is not given a single weapon to use, not even a gun. Since she's no longer a cyborg, you'd think she'd be given a weapon of some kind to use. What was stopping Nicole from say, making her an arm cannon to blast robots with? Or Antoine giving her another sword to use?

Speaking of Antoine, why the hell doesn't he take the Sword of Light with him? The sword wasn't destroyed during the fight with Naugus or anything. In this panel from Issue 241, Naugus is literally using the sword to swear in Isabella Mongoose when she replaces Rotor as a member of the Council of Acorn! The sword is still available for them to use, so what the hell?! Instead of taking a normal sword with him, he could've gone with a more powerful sword, or at least Bunnie could've taken it so she has a weapon to use. Why the hell did this convoy go with the FFs so underequipped? Because this story needed to happen, that's why...

Second, they find out that Mecha Sally got an upgrade so now she has a new body and weapons. That's not the stupid part though. The stupid part is that YET AGAIN, this shocking twist got spoiled by Sonic Universe. Look at the picture, there's even an editor's note having to clarify that this issue takes place before Sonic Universe Issue 37, so even before they released the final product, they KNEW they were showing things out of order and had to clarify for the readers! Why even bother having shocking moments if the flipping spin-off comic's going to keep spoiling them before the main comic gets to the big reveals?

Anyhow, we get a moment where Mecha Sally flies towards Tails and Amy and the two stand there like idiots and let her destroy the Tornado instead of just shooting her or walloping her with Amy's hammer. Yes, I get it, that's their friend, but she's been turned into a robot and is now the enemy. They can't just not take her down and let their feelings get in the way here. They should incapacitate her so they can try and save her later!

All this poor planning and idiocy from the Freedom Fighters leads to...this infamous moment. Metal Sonic tries to attack the convoy, but Antoine grabs hold of him and carries him away. Eggman orders Metal Sonic to self-destruct and thus Antoine is given a face full of explosion. I'm honestly amazed they got away with that. While it was pretty awesome seeing Antoine pull off such a sacrifice, it's completely undermined by how easily this could've been avoided if the FFs weren't constantly acting like they've been taking stupid pills this arc. The worst part about all this is that Flynn actually intended for Antoine to die, like straight-up be killed off for real here. What a horrible way this would've been for Antoine to go out: killed because his team were dumbasses. But the fan backlash forced Flynn to change it so Antoine was put in a coma, which to me felt like him chickening out and not committing to what should've been the Freedom Fighter's lowest moment. Legit killing off one of them would've truly raised the stakes and made the story feel bigger than ever before. By having Antoine not die, it just cheapens this moment and thus it just feels like shock value for the sake of shock value.

Oh and the idiocy of this story doesn't stop there. After Eggman blows up Antoine, he just...leaves. Yeah, he stops the attack and just leaves. Snively even points out how stupid that is but Eggman doesn't care. This leads to Snively plotting against Eggman, but naturally we don't get it in this comic, we need a frigging Sonic Universe arc to tell that story for us. That arc ends with Snively's plan failing and getting locked up by Eggman, thus for those who are only reading the main comic, we literally have Snively just disappearing off-panel and you need supplementary material in order to find out what happened. I...I can't even with this story. We're only five parts in and I've got several more still left to go. I don't know if my brain can take much more of this...

Issue 235 is a breather issue (at last, lord knows we've needed one after so much has been piled on at once) that deals with the fallout of Issue 234. Antoine is in a coma, everybody's emotional about it, Bunnie leaves to get new cybernetics from her uncle Beauregard, the Council of Acorn vote to exile Nicole (because of course they do), Rotor resigns out of protest because he's one of the only characters in this arc who still has a brain it seems, Silver mistakenly thinks Antoine is the traitor, Sonic tells him to sod off and then Harvey Who recruits Silver into the Secret Freedom Fighters. Issue 235 is probably the only good issue of this entire arc because we finally get a break from all the crap that's happening, we finally have a story that doesn't require the characters to be idiots in order for it to happen (except the Council of Acorn, but we expect them to be idiots at this point) and seeing the emotional fallout of everything made for a pretty sombre and touching read. It's nice that the plot can slow down and let these characters have a moment to breathe and get their feelings on the matter. But this issue is a spoonful of sugar in an ocean of medicine...

We then get Issue 236 and we finally get to see our heroes making a comeback. Sonic and Rotor suggest splitting the Freedom Fighters into two teams with Team Fighters (Sonic, Tails and Amy) being the "Away" team while Team Freedom (Rotor, Heavy, Bomb, Cream and Big) being the "Home" team. While the names are unimaginative, it is a pretty good idea to split the teams up like this so they can deal with Eggman on the move and Eggman at home at the same time. The only problem this issue has for me is that Sonic is snapped out of his funk way too easily. Seriously, all it takes is Amy yelling at him to get a grip and that's enough for Sonic. It should've taken way more than that given all the crap Sonic's been through lately. Also we have a moment where Sonic sneers at Mecha Sally that "he was the better looking robot", referring to when he got roboticized too. Like...come on Sonic, that's just borderline tasteless of you to make such a joke. I know he can be a snarky sod sometimes, but he's not usually this tactless. Also this issue introduces what becomes a very, very, VERY annoying and repetitive pattern to the next few issues. Our heroes chase after Eggman, they end up in a location of the day, they deal with Eggman forces, they try to rescue Sally, she gets away and the chase continues. It gets very boring very fast and just makes the arc feel padded as all hell.

The fact Mecha Sally proves to be pretty useless doesn't help either. She's been weaponized and made more combat efficient, and yet she keeps needing annoying contrivances out there to keep the heroes from defeating her and bringing this stupid arc to an end already. She barely even does any actual planning or strategizing. She literally only comes up with ONE plan for Eggman, which is divide and conquer, in Issue 238, which leads to Issues 239 & 240. That's it. Any other time, she's just Eggman's loyal attack dog or playing mind games with the heroes, mind games that don't work by the way. A roboticized Sally Acorn should be the most formidable villain Sonic and friends have ever faced outside of Dr. Eggman, but here she's basically no less formidable than any generic Eggman goon and it's pretty pathetic honestly. It just makes you wonder why even roboticize Sally in the first place if you're not going to take advantage of the concept. The sad part about all this is that the Sonic Prime series executed the "friend-turned-Eggman minion" better with Rusty Rose. Me and The Wandering Fox had a talk about that and yeah, Rusty Rose is Mecha Sally done right in a sense. She's way more formidable as an antagonist, keeps Sonic on her toes all the time, isn't constantly running away, has more of a personality and actually has an arc to her. It was poorly executed yes, but she still had an arc. Mecha Sally? Nothing. She was roboticized for shock value and shock value alone. It wasn't done to develop Sally's character or anything, it was done to give Sonic motivation to stop Eggman and give him another Eggman goon to face. I can't believe I'm in a position where I actually get to say these words, but Sonic Prime did it better! How embarrassing is your lack of writing skills when you make SONIC PRIME of all shows look good by comparison?

And if that wasn't bad enough, Issue 242 was taken up entirely by a random stand alone issue that served as a tie-in to Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games. I...why SEGA?! Why did you force them to waste an issue on a f***ing tie-in issue? It's bad enough the Genesis arc took us on a weird detour, we don't need another one! At least it was only one issue so we didn't have to wait long to get back to the main story.

As we return to the main story, we now reach...

(long heavy sigh)

...the moment where the comic began to truly fall apart. Ladies and gentlemen, it's finally time to cover...THAT moment.

Issues 243-246: The Endangered Species Arc

It's time to cover the Endangered Species arc.

Issues 243-246 were a four part story focusing on Team Fighters joining forces with Knuckles as they deal with Lien-Da and her forces and also the return of Thrash the Tasmanian Devil, a character who debuted in the Echoes of the Past saga from Sonic Universe. Great, more supplementary material needed to explain what's going on and who these characters are. (rolls eyes). As everyone knows, this story got changed quite heavily thanks to the lawsuit between Ken Penders and Archie Comics at the time. Because so many of Ken's characters were featured in this story, they had to be abruptly written out of the comic after Part 1 released. Using a super-charged warp ring, Thrash got rid of all the echidnas and battled with Knuckles while Sonic, Tails and Amy had to deal with the Krudzu Hybrid Hydra. With the echidna characters being so abruptly kicked out of the comic thanks to the lawsuit, the arc's story is just gone after Part 1 and thus the next three parts really do feel like padding until the story's over. Flynn has revealed in recent years that the arc was supposed to have a happy ending and it wasn't supposed to turn out the way it did.

So you may be thinking "It's all Ken's fault! He started this lawsuit, he got in the comic's way and sabotaged the story!" Actually, I think the real answer isn't so cut and dry. You see, the real people to blame are Archie Comics themselves. Why do I think that? Because of one simple reason: their ego and how they were so damn sure they had the lawsuit in the bag is what cost them dearly. They were too confident in thinking they had it won and it blew up in their faces. To put in perspective, they apparently didn't have an actual copy of the contract Ken Penders signed with the company during his tenure as writer and they were handling the situation SO badly that they fired their legal team and got a new one! The judge was even reported to have said "Well this is one fine mess!" during the opening proceedings at one point later in the lawsuit. What Archie should've done is not had a story that was so reliant on Ken's characters at the time this lawsuit was happening. They should've played it smarter and told a different story with different characters so that there was no risk of the lawsuit sabotaging the comic. But no, they got too cocky and this was the result: a story that got changed at the last minute and we're left with the skeleton of what would've been the story we should've had.

Even without the lawsuit, Endangered Species is just a weird anomaly in the Mecha Sally arc. Why did we need to bring the Mecha Sally plot to a halt just to tell this story about fighting Lien-Da's forces and Thrash the Devil? It once again brings back how padded this arc is. This story should've been its own standalone four parter unrelated to the Mecha Sally arc, not part of it!

Oh and in Part 4 of the arc, Shard suggests using the Krudzu Hybrid Hydra to cure Mecha Sally, because that makes sense am I right? A weed that can take over machinery and control it can somehow de-roboticize Sally. Flynn really didn't have an actual solution in mind and was just making this up as he went, wasn't he?

So yeah, Endangered Species was the beginning of the end for this comic. The ending truly came in the next issue...

Issues 247-251: A Crossover With Mega Man Changes Everything

This is it everyone, the end of Archie Sonic as we knew it. After that, the reboot occurred, but that's another story. So how did the old continuity come to an end? Very underwhelmingly.

Issue 247 is mostly just exposition as Silver finally figures out who the traitor he's hunting for is. It's Sally and it all adds up since she was roboticized and all, but Silver acknowledges that in the end, his mistake as the motive. Sally wasn't WILLINGLY a traitor, so his mission isn't to destroy her, it's to save her. Silver joins Sonic and the Arctic Freedom Fighters as they infiltrate Eggman's base and try to save Sally. Unfortunately, another Genesis Wave occurs and we yet again put the story on hold so we can have that terrible crossover with Mega Man. We also have a subplot involving Team Freedom finally putting the pieces together that the Tails Doll is causing problems with the nanites and the Tails Doll becomes some weird monster because we really needed a stupid reference to the Tails Doll creepypasta stories. Considering the Tails Doll stopped being a meme at the time the comic came out, that felt especially outdated and Flynn just trying too hard to pander to the fanbase.

So yeah, that's how the original continuity comes to an end. It gets interrupted by a crossover and then because of the botched lawsuit with Ken Penders, they had to reboot the whole thing and thus this overly bloated, terribly thought out, asinine story didn't even get a proper conclusion. I don't know why Flynn felt the need to reboot everything. Couldn't they have just given us the comic as is minus all of Ken's characters? We didn't need to go in such a drastic new direction.

Oh and before you ask, no, I'm not wasting my precious time recapping Sonic & Mega Man: Worlds Collide because f*** that crossover. I'm just so tired after so much stupid and I want a break. If you really want me to talk about Sonic & Mega Man: Worlds Collide, then consider making a pledge on my Patreon page of about £100/$100 or more, cause I'm not doing it for free.

Conclusion

And that concludes this part of A Way Past Cool Retrospective. The Mecha Sally arc is hands down the worst story I've had to cover in the pre-reboot era of Archie Sonic. This is a story that is so poorly thought out and so flawed in its premise that it instantly falls apart the moment you think about it, the characters continuously make utterly baffling decisions that make you wonder if the cast are all suffering brain damage and the bad pacing does no favours. The first six issues pile on way too much stuff at once so we barely have any time to catch our breath and keep up with the story and then from 236 onwards, it's padded to hell and gets very repetitive real fast. We even get stories taking up space that should be going towards Mecha Sally itself like Endangered Species or the Olympic tie-in issue. And then there's the fact the story didn't even get a proper conclusion. It just stops and after a terrible crossover with Mega Man, we get the reboot era and thus we never got to see how this arc was going to end. Granted, the ending likely wouldn't have been satisfying anyway, but an ending would've been preferable than just leaving the story unfinished.

Then there's the fact this arc is so bad in terms of characters and their arcs. In Issue 236, Sonic has thoughts about Scourge's "One bad day and you'll be just like me" speech from issue 172, thus suggesting he might have a crisis of faith and he worries about losing himself. But no, it goes utterly nowhere. It's just a random panel that doesn't mean anything, especially since Amy gives him a single pep talk and that snaps him out of his funk. Tails and Amy don't have anything resembling an arc either. They're just Sonic's buddies who are trying to rescue Sally, that's it. The arc doesn't have any kind of growth for them, the story isn't about them so there's nothing for them to latch on to and like Sonic, they get over the fall of the Freedom Fighters pretty quickly, so there's nothing emotionally engaging for the duo. They're just extras for Sonic to interact with and Eggman's forces to do battle with. Granted, Amy does have a pretty awesome moment where Mecha Sally taunts her how she'll be free to "court Sonic" if she destroys her and Amy calls her out on her crap, saying "How petty do you think I am?! I'm here to help my friend!". It was an awesome showcase of character growth for Amy, showing a more mature side to her and how she can put her crush on Sonic aside if it means saving a friend. But that was like one page and that was it. Amy doesn't get anything else after that. And how about the Freedom Fighters? This arc puts them through the wringer, and what's it in aid of? An overly elaborate means to explain their planned redesigns, or at least that's what it comes off as.

Sally got roboticized and later weaponized so that when she got de-roboticized (which was planned to happen in Issue 250) she would look different, Antoine got face full of explosion and rendered comatose so that likely would've been just to justify his redesign and Bunnie went off to get legionized, which would've explained her redesign. None of this is in aid of developing their characters or anything. Antoine's grand sacrifice wasn't to pay off some kind of character arc or previous development and Bunnie losing her cybernetics only to go and get them back isn't character development or progression, it's going in circles and recycling past developments. Bunnie should've used this as a learning experience of adjusting to life as an organic again and getting around her loss of cybernetics, not just go back to square one. And then there's Nicole's exile. What did that accomplish and how did that develop her character in anyway? All it did was provide a convenient excuse for her to conspire behind Naugus' back, which could've been done without exiling her! It lasts all of six issues before her exile is overturned and Nicole is completely unchanged by the experience. This whole thing meant nothing in the grand scheme of things. Now granted, Sally being roboticized could've provided meaningful development for her character, but the reboot destroyed those chances. The only FF who kinda gets any meaningful development is Rotor as he goes from retired Freedom Fighter-turned-councillor back to Freedom Fighter again, but that's about it. This arc is a dead end character wise.

Mecha Sally is a story that is a combination of many things that come together to make what is easily the worst arc that Ian Flynn has written since taking over as head writer. With an arc mired by idiotic decisions made by the characters, moronic plot-points, tasteless shock value, an over-bloated story that requires supplementary material to get the whole picture, blatant padding that stretches the arc past its breaking point, wasted potential, characters that don't have arcs and a lawsuit that got in the way of the story-telling, we're left with a punishingly unentertaining story that feels more aggravating to read than anything and it's all in service for a conclusion that was never to be thanks to Archie Comics completely bungling their lawsuit with Ken Penders. In conclusion, with a story as badly told as this with no real ending to satisfy reader investment and engagement, I sincerely cannot think of a bigger waste of everyone's time...

And that's it for this part. Sadly, we must now leave the old continuity behind. The Archie Sonic Retrospective continues as we enter the reboot era...

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