Media Essays: A Way Past Cool Retrospective (Archie Sonic Issues 252-284)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 and Part 6 here.

Here we are ladies and gentlemen, the conclusion of A Way Past Cool Retrospective.

After the atrocity that was Mecha Sally, we can only go up from here, right? Sadly...no, no we're not. When it came to the reboot era, I tried to give it a chance, but it just didn't work out for me in the end. The old universe, the one I got into in the first place, was gone and the story I had been invested in was never getting a conclusion, so that jaded my view of the reboot. The plots also felt a lot stupider and less interesting as a result, especially because of how Flynn made no attempt to ease us into the reboot. I'll cover more on that later. I read up til about Issue 284 of the reboot and called it quits, which was just as well because the comic got cancelled shortly after, so it's not like I was going to miss much else. XD

So then, looking back on the reboot for this retrospective, how bad was the reboot actually? Why did it kill my enthusiasm for Archie Sonic and cause me to turn my back on it and never look back until now? Let's do it to it and bring this thing to a close...

Issues 252: Archie Sonic is Rebooted

After a mediocre crossover with Mega Man that saw Mega Man go back to his world business as usual and Sonic's world get screwed over because Dr. Eggman was an idiot, Sonic returns to his world...except not really. Things have been altered now thanks to the Genesis Wave going wrong and now we're in the Archieverse, but with a makeover.

This issue was a really bad way to start off the reboot era. Not only do we have the stigma of the unfinished Mecha Sally arc hanging over this thing right off the bat, but we're thrust into this status quo that's happened for a while except not really because this is our first time seeing this new world and we're just thrown in there with no attempt to ease the readers into the reboot. This was the comic's chance to start off completely fresh and truly have us begin again from square one, but no, we're starting off with a reboot that's not really a reboot because we're not starting all over again. Instead we start off with Sonic and Tails fighting the Tails Doll while Naugus (who now is called Walter or "Wally" for short...don't ask why) has Nicole building him a Super Ring of some kind, but then he touches Nicole (don't take that out of context) and suddenly gets visions of the pre-boot era, gets freaked out and flees for it. Yeah, that's how the Naugus plot that we've had going since Issue 220 finally comes to a close. He gets spooked by visions of another world and runs like hell. Talk about pathetic writing. =P The only thing from the Mecha Sally arc that gets any conclusion here is the Tails Doll subplot, because that was what we cared the most about right? Seeing the Tails Doll get defeated. Glad we wasted so many issues on the Mecha Sally arc just to have only the Tails Doll subplot get any real conclusion (sarcasm). I might sound like I'm being unfair here because the reboot screwed everything over, but Flynn had no excuse to half-ass everything as he did here. An actual talented writer would've tried to find a way to conclude the Mecha Sally arc proper despite there being a reboot at hand.

What this issue SHOULD have done is returned to where Issue 247 left off, but alter the setting a little and change some of the characters. Akhlut can debut again with his redesign but the Arctic Freedom Fighters can be replaced with brand new characters, the Dark Egg Legion can be renamed the Eggman Empire and we can change the location names. We then focus on getting Sally de-roboticized at last and then take a breather so we can slowly re-introduce audiences to the new world we're in. Or better still, start over entirely from scratch and have NO connection to the previous universe at all. The characters getting memories of the old universe doesn't go anywhere anyway, so why bother having it happen? Granted, that was an editorial decision, not Ian Flynn's idea, so I won't blame him for that. Paul Kaminski should've let Flynn commit further to the reboot aspect and not tried to keep any ties to the old universe as that only made the comic more over-complicated and harder to ease readers in to. This is just the worst of both worlds as old fans are alienated their old universe is gone and new readers are alienated because they have no idea what's going on and aren't given a solid jumping on point for the series. It's no wonder this thing didn't catch on...

Issues 253-284: A Mediocre Reboot Brings Archie Sonic to an end for me

After that terrible beginning to the reboot, we follow up with a four-parter titled "Countdown to Chaos" in where we get a very repetitive and formulaic story that sees Sonic and Tails going around the world to catch up with the Freedom Fighters again and have them touch Nicole so they can get their memories of the previous universe again, not that any of it matters since as I mentioned earlier this plot point goes nowhere and nobody ever brings up the original universe again after this is over. Oh and after this story concludes, we immediately go into a big crisis caused by Eggman's idiocy and we run into what's essentially a Sonic Unleashed adaptation. So yeah, before we've even had a chance to get used to this new status quo, it's already being shaken up and we're immediately thrown into this high-stakes adventure story when we're still trying to recover from the crossover and how it's rebooted the universe. Once again, Flynn forgoes easing readers into this new status quo and expects us to just run with it despite the fact we've been given next to no time to get used to this new universe or get a proper introduction to it. I just don't understand this level of thinking. You. Are. Rebooting. The. Comic! Start over from scratch and make it so we're experiencing everything again for the first time! Don't just rush in like this and immediately start shaking up the status quo before it's even been established! Why obfuscate the comic to this degree and make it so damn inaccessible to anybody? I will comment how in Part 3, Cubot says that Sally's not a robot anymore, and all before Eggman could do anything interesting with her. You know it's sad when even the writer admits they screwed up royally and is voicing that through their characters. XD But he absolutely doesn't get any points in his favour for this nothing bit of tension. In Part 3, Nicole says she might only have enough Genesis Wave energy left in her to restore either Sally or Amy's memories, thus meaning we might have a dilemma on who's memories should be restored over the other. The solution? Both Sally and Amy touch Nicole and get their memories restored. Why even have tension if there's no actual tension to the situation?

Oh and I'll quick go over the redesigns of the FFs too. I like Sally's new outfit and how she has actual weapons to work with now, though she looks a bit weird without her cheek fur to me. Bunnie and Nicole look great, Rotor's a beefcake now for some reason and Antoine's running around naked...because boys in the Sonic universe only wear clothes on their hands and feet or something, I don't know.

Issue 257 is probably the only issue of the reboot I ever actually enjoyed due to it being an exciting and intense rescue mission story about the Freedom Fighters rescuing citizens as the city collapses all around them. It's cool superhero stuff that's always fun to read, no complaints there.

Oh and fellow comic reviewer and YouTube personnel Linkara has a cameo in that issue. Yes really. Not sure why he's gone grey here though, he's not THAT old yet. XD What's even funnier is that Linkara even acknowledged it in one of his videos, which also featured Evan Stanley (the artist of the comic) herself. Seems fitting she gave him a cameo in this comic and he gave her a cameo in one of his videos, eh?

Issues 258 and 259 are a two-parter that sees the Freedom Fighters chase down an Eggman train in order to rescue Uncle Chuck and Professor Pickle. It's a fine two-parter I guess, nothing special but nothing really wrong with it either. The most noteworthy thing about it for me is that we get a steampunk E-100 robot in this issue, which is awesome. Oh and Issue 259 was part of a special "After The Credits" month event in where it and Sonic Universe Issue 62 had an extra page at the end of the comic and depending which variant of the issue you bought, you got a different ending. The only thing I can guess is that this strange idea for an event was to cash in on the Marvel Cinematic Universe as it popularized the "after credits scene" thing. Not that it helped this comic at all...

Next up is a four-part story titled "Waves of Change", which sees our heroes visit the underwater world of Meropis in search of a Gaia Temple. They make new friends with Razor the Shark and Coral the Betta and deal with politics in Meropis and underwater Gaia creatures. This four parter is aggravating to read for a few reasons, the main ones being that the conflict is caused by the royals being complete morons (how typical, things go wrong because of idiots in positions of power) and making things worse for Coral the Betta while somehow doubting Sonic's story about the world being shattered and Amy learning the mystic melody off-panel. No, I'm serious. Amy learns a new ability. OFF. PANEL! We never see her learning how to use the mystic melody, we never see anyone teaching her how to do it! She just...somehow learns it despite us never seeing it and we're supposed to just run with it. The best we get is "Later still...", implying some time has passed, but I doubt that much time has passed, so we're just supposed to accept that Amy learned the mystic melody overnight or something, which is even lazier writing. If Amy learning that ability was so important to the story, why wasn't any time in the story devoted to it? Amy learning the mystic melody should've been a subplot in the story, not something she quickly learns off panel right in the last part of the story! It'd be like if Pokémon Horizons had Liko learn how to use Mega Evolution, but the story never once showed her learning how to use it at any point and Roy just reveals through dialogue that Liko can Mega Evolve her Pokémon now, it's just lazy and shoddy writing that makes the story feel like it was being made-up on the fly. This entire reboot gives off impressions like that for me, that most of it was being made-up as they went with no real solid plan for what to actually do.

Another aggravating thing about this four-parter is that we have ANOTHER four-part story running concurrently with the main one. This one is notorious for being the first time Ian Flynn's wife, Aleah Baker, wrote a story for Archie Sonic. Like husband, like wife, she delivers a terrible first impression. The story is stretched out to four parts when it could've easily been over with in two or three parts and we have the classic example of characters making dumb decisions because a story needs to happen. In this case, Sally, Antoine, Tails and Nicole find a Chaos Emerald in a mine full of gems. Sally then gets the idiotic idea to let Eggman know they've found a Chaos Emerald with the flimsy excuse of "We can't let Eggman destroy something as beautiful as this place". Yeah, cause risking jeopardizing your mission was worth it to protect a natural wonder that exists underground and thus barely anyone will ever see it, am I right? (sarcasm) Mabel Tanaka from Pixar's Hoppers wouldn't be that stupid, and we all know how much she loves the environment! And guess what, this act of idiocy bites Sally in the arse in a later issue! I'll cover that when we get to it, but the point is that later events could've been avoided if Sally wasn't such a tree hugger and prioritized preserving a diamond mine over sneaking away under Eggman's nose with a Chaos Emerald! In the words of Gene Wilder:

The only good thing about this story is that we got the debut of Cassia and Clove, a pair of pronghorn sisters who are by far some of the best new characters we got in the reboot, but that's it. However, we get a confusing moment where the sisters review the security footage and Cassia asks "Who are those clowns?" So what, she's an Egg Boss but she DOESN'T know who the Freedom Fighters are when she sees them? She's part of the Eggman Empire! The Eggman Empire fights the Freedom Fighters on a daily basis! How can she not know who they are? This just further makes the reboot confusing because what timeline is this? Is this early in the world's history where the FFs aren't as well known, or has it been a while now? If it's the former, then I can understand Cassia's ignorance, but the story has mostly implied it's the latter since we have quite a long history that's clearly occurred with the characters remembering past events and the Eggman Empire is established to the point we have several chapters around the world each with their own Egg Boss. So again, how does Cassia not know who the Freedom Fighters are? She should recognize them instantly!

This cover is amazing, I love it. :D

Anyhow, Issues 264 and 265 are a two-parter that sees Sonic become the Werehog at last. I did say this was a loose adaptation of Sonic Unleashed after all. This two-parter sees the return of Mighty and Ray and the debut of a new character named Moss the Sloth, who teaches Mighty how to control his incredible strength. After a close call with Egg Boss Thunderbolt the Chinchilla (or as I like to call her, Mobian Pikachu), Sonic becomes the Werehog for the first time after getting infected by the Dark Gaia power back in Countdown to Chaos and he's so shaken by the experience that he elects to stay behind with Moss so he can control this power. It literally takes him the next two issues and he's over the corruption already. This comic just has no sense of pacing to it I swear...

Speaking of, these next two issues are among the worst the reboot has to offer. Not only is Sonic's arc of mastering the Werehog power incredibly rushed, but we have a subplot of Sally and the other FFs finding another Chaos Emerald only for it to be a trap set by Eggman. That subplot is without a doubt the crowning moment of idiocy from the characters. Sally, Bunnie and Antoine spend the entire subplot being the most ineffective idiots known to Mobian kind. The trio keep acknowledging how this looks like an obvious trap, yet they still fall for it and they put up a pretty embarrassing display when the trap is sprung. Somehow three E-100 robots are able to give them a problem despite Sally essentially having lightsabers on her wrists, Bunnie being super strong and Antoine being able to spin-dash in this universe, yet they struggle and barely put up a fight against the robots and mostly stand around or hide. Then at one point, Sally dashes towards the Chaos Emerald and very stupidly runs through one of the bars surrounding the emerald and triggers an alarm despite her and the others acknowledging beforehand it was a possible alarm system! Why the hell did she do that instead of using her wrist blades to slice the thing to pieces before making a grab for the emerald?! This act or idiocy causes the emerald's capsule to activate and fly away as a result! And then when they get back on the Sky Patrol, not once does Sally tell Nicole to shoot down the capsule so they can get the emerald back, they just flee and let it get away! And all this because Sally was a dumbass and told her team to let Eggman know they found the Chaos Emerald in the diamond mine! Her stupidity caused Eggman to realize Sally had stolen information from him and gave him the idea to use that to his advantage and what led to him setting up this entire trap! If Sally had stuck to being stealthy and making off with the emerald without Eggman noticing, this entire subplot could've been avoided! Reboot Sally, where would you like me to stick your "Moron Of The Year" award? =P

Oh and another stupid thing that happens here? Somehow Eggman is able to get the Tails Doll onboard the Sky Patrol during the scuffle and somehow Nicole never once detects it the whole time its onboard, nor does any of the Sky Patrol's onboard security systems. Nicole, the HIGHLY ADVANCED AI who is able to go toe-to-toe with Eggman and his technological expertise...somehow...DOES NOT...detect the Tails Doll...the entire time...it's on...the Sky Patrol!!!

"YOUR INCOMPETENCE IS STAGGERING!!!"

Yeah, what he said! And what's this incompetence in aid of? Just so this asinine story can happen, what else were we expecting? (rolls eyes)

The incompetence of the Freedom Fighters doesn't stop there. We get another lame four-parter with Champions, a dumb story that's all about Sonic and friends competing in a fighting tournament. So what idiotic thing do our incompetent heroes do this time? Play along with Breezie the Hedgehog's little tournament instead of just stealing the damn Chaos Emerald. And don't you dare tell me "They can't do that, they're heroes!", THE FATE OF THE WORLD IS AT STAKE!!! I'm not exactly going to shed a tear that the good guys commit theft if it means saving the flippin' planet, y'know? It's like that idiotic thing where some dumb viewers of Pokémon Horizons criticized Liko for breaking the rules of the Terastal Training course when she was totally in the right for doing so. Screw the rules and screw playing fair! Saving the world and prioritizing that above everything else should take precedent over playing some criminal queenpin's game! The worst part is that Rotor points this out and he's...treated as in the wrong for suggesting it. No, the others are in the wrong for objecting to Rotor's extremely valid claims, plain and simple. What makes this even worse is that Knuckles and Chip steal a Master Emerald shard (long story) from a woman who's watching the tournament and they're NOT treated as wrong for doing so! So the FFs can't steal a Chaos Emerald because it's wrong, but Knuckles stealing from some civilian is perfectly fine? God, the stupidity is making my head hurt again...

And if that wasn't enough, during the fighting tournament itself, we have more levels of incompetence from our heroes. Espio somehow gets defeated by Bean the Dynamite despite Bean not being a devious or cunning character in the slightest and Espio wouldn't lose his cool like that and Tails gets defeated because Honey the Cat cheats. Why did that make Tails look like an idiot? Because Honey warns him of a rogue wave incoming, even though the arena is holographic and thus a rogue wave wouldn't be of any trouble to him. And somehow despite that blatant act of cheating, Honey isn't disqualified for this and gets to humiliate Tails some more by making him wear a big bowtie. I want to cry foul here...but in real life, many people commit blatant acts of cheating in sports and somehow get away with it, so this is depressingly realistic unfortunately. Still, damn it Ian, even in the reboot you can't resist screwing Tails over, can you? (sighs irritably) The story doesn't get any better from here as it's just four issues of boring fight scenes and dumb plot points that make for a gruelling read.

Oh and Chip shows up here because Sonic Unleashed adaptation and because this is yet another story that is too big for its own good, we have important plot details happening over in Sonic Universe instead of the main series. In this case, Chip debuts in a Sonic Universe arc focused on Knuckles and the Chaotix when he should've been debuting in the main comic itself. Again, the spin-off comic should be just that, a spin-off! Important plot details shouldn't be happening in spin-off titles like that! You shouldn't need supplementary material in order to get important details for your story like that!

This story sucks and I don't want to talk about it any longer. Let's move on...

Issue 272 was an issue I forgot even existed and upon rereading it, it has nothing worth talking about, and the next three issues are devoted to Sonic & Mega Man: Worlds Unite, which is an even worse crossover than Worlds Collide, so I ain't recapping them either. You want me to talk about Worlds Unite? Make a pledge over on my Patreon page and commission me to review it, I'm not reviewing it for free.

After Worlds Unite came and went like a fart in the wind, Issues 276 and 277 are standalone stories focusing on Sonic and the FFs dealing with the Artika Egg Boss, who is Rotor's tech-hating father Tundra the Walrus, and a reintroduction to Lupe and the Wolf Pack. Lupe, like the other SatAM characters, has gotten a redesign too to make her look more like a character from the games and it's a good look for her. Those two issues are pretty meh. Nothing bad but nothing that interesting either. Issues 278 and 279 are more interesting as those introduce the Shamar Freedom Fighters and Nephthys the Vulture, another Egg Boss. The notorious thing about this two-parter as that we have an Egg Boss who isn't entirely evil and is part of the Eggman Empire in the hopes of settling the conflict since Nephthys thinks battling Eggman only makes things worse, which is a pretty interesting moral dilemma. Also we have a surprising twist in where it turns out the Shamar Freedom Fighters are in cahoots with Nephthys. We actually have a morally grey FF team again, and unlike the Sand Blasters from the old universe where they're just assholes for the sake of being assholes and aren't worthy of the Freedom Fighter name, the Shamar FFs are a classic example of good people in a bad situation who are just trying to do what they think is best. It's just a pity that puts them on opposing sides, but not that Sonic knows that. I would've been interested to see what the FFs would've had to say if they ever found out they were working with the Eggman Empire the whole time...

We also get a three part story focusing on Sally and Bunnie looking for a Chaos Emerald and dealing with Cassia and Clove. It's a decent story and pretty heart-breaking when we find out that Cassia's condition isn't actually cured despite her cybernetic upgrades and Clove has to live with that guilt since she thought turning to Eggman would save her sister. Moments like this are rare gems in this reboot and it's such a pity we didn't get more stories like this.

Issue 280 is another stand alone issue that sees Sonic distracting the Efrika Egg Boss Axel the Water Buffalo and his forces while Tails and Chip get their hands on a Gaia Key and Issues 281 and 282 are a two-parter that introduces us to the Chun-Nan Freedom Fighters and re-introduces Dulcy the Dragon, another SatAM character who gets a redesign that's pretty good looking. These issues are a breath of fresh air compared to most of the reboot. Why? Because the Freedom Fighters aren't incompetent idiots for once! On the contrary THEY get to outwit the enemy and play THEM for fools for a change! Tails and Chip succeed in getting the Gaia Key and Sonic makes Axel think he's retreating, thus leaving them none the wiser that they just stole a Gaia Key from right under their nose, and unlike Sally's idiotic decision in the diamond mine, there's no case of needing to let Eggman know about it because "gotta protect the environment" this time. As for the two-parter in Chun-Nan, the Freedom Fighters lay a trap for Conquering Storm and her forces and it works. Instead of stumbling into an obvious trap, instead THEY lay the trap and get the drop on Eggman's forces for once. I know right, Flynn writing a story where the heroes don't act like dumbasses? What a strange anomaly! But don't celebrate yet folks, because this momentary restoration of the character's brains is painfully short-lived.

But before we go back to being negative, I just wanted to quick add that this panel cracks me up. I just love Jian the Tiger's expression here. It's as if "WTF" had a face. XD

But fun time's over. Next up is the story that finally killed the reboot for me...

Issue 283 is pretty much a prologue to set-up the four-part finale to the Shattered World Arc, Panic in the Sky. The first story of the issue is ENTIRELY devoted to Princess Sally explaining the plan the Freedom Fighters have to all the FF groups of the world. This...this isn't story-telling, this is explaining the plot to the audience. This is such a bad way to set up a finale, an entire story's worth of exposition just to set up the pieces on the board and move them in place for the main story itself. And given the "story" is devoted to just telling everybody, including the audience, what the plan is, we instantly know it's going to go wrong because they explained it out loud. This is a basic rule of storytelling: if the plan is explained out loud, then it'll fail, go wrong or hit some snags along the way because then the plan becomes a spoiler if all goes well. If the plan is NOT explained out loud, it's likelier to succeed. So yeah, we're in the prologue that sets up this story and already we know things will go wrong because they explained the plan out loud, thus we pretty much have a spoiler ruining the story before it even begins. And as a reminder, somehow the Tails Doll has remained on the Sky Patrol this entire time and has still gone unnoticed. I...I can't even at this point. Nicole should've detected that stupid doll by now, especially since before this issue, it's been sitting around not doing anything. No seriously, in Issue 267 it gets snuck onboard the Sky Patrol and since then, it's not been doing anything! It hasn't leaked any of the FF's plans to Eggman, it hasn't sabotaged them and it hasn't done any infiltration work! This issue is when that stupid doll FINALLY gets involved with the plot! So what has it been doing this whole time? Just sitting there? If so, then the fact it was undetected makes even less sense! This leads to Panic in the Sky and the first part was so bad and so horrifically dumb that I quit the comic and refused to read the rest of it. Yeah, the story was that bad that I didn't want to finish it. So what was so dumb about Issue 284 that I called it quits here and then? Several reasons:

1: The Freedom Fighters have Gemerl on their side. Gemerl is basically Emerl but even stronger. He is a Gizoid, a robot that is highly advanced and able to copy abilities and fighting styles. Somehow, SOMEHOW...he can't handle Metal Sonic and Team Hooligan. Somebody as powerful as that should walk right through these jokers! Metal Sonic putting up a fight makes sense, but everyone else? Gemerl should beat them all in five seconds!

2: You're seriously expecting me to believe the Freedom Fighters are that short-sighted, that incomprehensibly stupid that they think just Gemerl and King Nigel Acorn are all they need to guard the royal vault and protect the Chaos Emeralds and Gaia Keys? You're SERIOUSLY expecting me to believe they wouldn't have contingencies in case Eggman decided to attack? They have other allies they can rely on so why not have any of them protect the vault as well?

3: Once again, despite having essentially lightsabers on her wrists, Sally poses no actual threat to Speedy Battlekuku and gets her ass kicked. Why even give her such powerful weapons if she's going to be such a damn push over?! She has freaking energy blades! Sally should be practically invincible with those damn things, but for some reason she's constantly looking like an amateur whenever she's in action and those weapons don't do her any favours at all! Reboot Sally is the Liko of this reboot: constantly getting screwed over and looking lame in a fight despite the fact she should be holding her own and kicking ass!

4: Sally puts Chip in a cell so the villains can't get him. Chip proceeds to immediately undermine that plan and fly out through the bars in a fit of rage and gets himself caught because this is an Ian Flynn penned story, characters in his stories are too stupid to think. Not only does the plan make Sally look even dumber for thinking a cell he can so easily fly out of would protect him, but it makes Chip look like a moron for letting himself get caught so easily.

5: Nicole has her equivalent of a super form, Overclocked Nicole. Tails puts a Red Star Ring in her handheld form and activates it so she can put up a fight against Phage. Somehow, she isn't able to and thus powering her up ends up being a waste in the end. This just boggles the mind. Nicole is in her super form! Phage should've been deleted within seconds, so how the hell did that not stop her? Using Overclocked Nicole gave her the strength to kick Phage out of Ellidy's computer systems with ease, so how does activating Overclocked Nicole not do anything to Phage this time? If we're following the logic of Sonic Universe's Spark of Life story, the moment Nicole turned super should've been game over for Phage and the conflict over with! This is yet again Flynn ignoring the power levels of the characters just so the villains can win.

And finally, Flynn continues this annoying trend of his where ever since he became writer for the comics, he keeps trying to convince us the Battle Bird Armada is a serious threat. Flynn, these guys got their asses kicked by Tails...BY HIMSELF! With no help from Sonic whatsoever! The Battle Bird Armada are not a threat and never will be, no matter how competent you write them as. You're blatantly ignoring previous continuity yet again just so you can tell the story you want to tell. The Battle Bird Armada are such ineffectual losers that pre-character development Tails kicked their asses, so I'm not buying for one bleeding second they're any threat to the Freedom Fighters. Once again, this is Flynn making his villains much stronger than they should be in a pathetic attempt to make them seem badass and threatening and it doesn't work. This isn't professional story-telling, this is bad fanfic writing.

And thus with a story this mind-numbingly dumb and a climax this badly set-up, I no longer cared for the rest of the story and didn't want to stick around for the conclusion, which no doubt would've been underwhelming. Besides, the story had such a predictable outcome I pretty much guessed how it went and when I looked it up, I was right, so why bother reading the rest of the arc when I had it figured out? After this awful issue, I dropped the comic and never returned. The comic got cancelled after Issue 291 released, so even if I had stuck around it wouldn't have been for much longer.

And...that's it for my retrospective. That's how my Archie Sonic the Hedgehog story concludes, with a mediocre reboot I wasn't enjoying and a story I didn't want to finish. Talk about finishing on a low note...

While Mecha Sally was Flynn's worst story he wrote for the pre-boot era, the Shattered World Crisis arc is the worst story he's written for the reboot era and his worst story he's written for Archie Sonic PERIOD. The arc contains all of his usual writing issues: bad pacing, lack of character development, lack of characterization, bad fan-service, stories that only happen because the characters are morons and underwhelming payoffs. This reboot was a chance for a fresh start and instead of starting off small and working his way up, he immediately thrust us into this big crisis story before we've even had a chance to get used to the new status quo and thus we get a comic that fails to be engaging because it's mostly non-stop action with few breather moments in-between and poor characterization among the cast. The Freedom Fighters all feel like downgrades character wise as they lack the depth they once had and feel like lesser, more idiotic versions of themselves since they're more prone to making dumb decisions so a plot can happen and any attempts at developing their characters feel weak and surface level. Chip especially is very poorly handled here. This is an adaptation of Sonic Unleashed and yet they managed to make him feel less significant a player than he was in the game. He barely has any actual chemistry with the Freedom Fighters and barely any time is spent on him and his thoughts and feelings about the world. As a result, I don't feel like he has any real bond with the team and it makes his arc feel like a lesser version of his arc from the game. With Shattered World Crisis, I'm just thinking "Why should I read this comic when I can just play Sonic Unleashed instead?" That game had a significantly better story with much better pacing, better developed characters, a smaller cast to work with and also wasn't reliant on the characters being idiots in order to work.

With a reboot that failed to live up to the original, gave us inferior stories to what came before, gave us a shoddy adaptation of Sonic Unleashed that was too big for its own good and gives us an inferior version of the game's story to the point you're better off just playing the game again, on top of the comic getting interrupted YET AGAIN for another pointless crossover with Mega Man it's no wonder the reboot was an utter failure. There's nothing here to latch on to. It's an inferior version of the comic that came before, it's an inferior version of Sonic Unleashed, it's a comic that's become inaccessible to anyone outside the Sonic fandom, it's alienating to fans of the pre-boot era who wanted a proper conclusion to their comic and it's alienating to anyone wanting to get into the comic. This reboot was dead on arrival and is the biggest waste of everyone's time. Everyone who worked on it, everyone who read it and everyone who tried to keep it going until its end. What a miserable ending to a comic that had entertained and inspired so many...

Conclusion

Thus we come to the end of this long retrospective. So, reflecting back on the Archie Sonic comics I used to read, what have I learned from this lookback to the comics I once enjoyed? Namely that Ian Flynn wasn't the great writer I once thought he was and that these comics aren't anywhere near the great comics I once viewed them as. There are definitely issues I still consider good and I still have a soft spot for Archie Sonic in spite of its flaws, but I am in no mood to defend them like I used to do. This retrospective has taught me a valuable lesson in that you shouldn't view any media, even those that you love, as untouchable masterpieces. Even stuff you once loved can have flaws as well. It's also taught me that I shouldn't just dismiss people who criticize what I like, especially as their criticisms might be justified. So yeah, this has been quite a learning experience for me.

Oh and before you ask, no I'm not doing an IDW Sonic retrospective. I didn't read enough of that comic to do a full on retrospective. If you want me to at least do a review of the Zombot arc, then make a pledge on my Patreon page. Once again, I won't be reviewing it for free, you'll have to commission me to do so. Now a Sonic Universe retrospective? That's definitely something I'd like to do in the future, and no you don't have to commission me for that one (but please do, I'd appreciate the extra money). XD

Upon reflection, what would I say are the best comics of Ian Flynn's era and which are the worst? What would I also say are his best and worst traits as a writer? I'd probably summarize it as so:

Best Arc: Enerjak Reborn

Worst Arc: Mecha Sally (pre-boot) and Shattered World Crisis (reboot)

Best Milestone Issue: Issue 175

Worst Milestone Issue: Issue 275

Best Single Issue: Issue 222 (pre-boot) and Issue 257 (reboot)

Worst Single Issue: Issue 232 (pre-boot) and Issue 283 (reboot)

Best Event: N/A

Worst Event: Sonic & Mega Man: Worlds Unite

Flynn's Strongest Writing Trait: Taking old obscure characters and reinventing them

Flynn's Weakest Writing Trait: Satisfying conclusions to long running arcs

Flynn's Most Admirable Trait: His ability to give any character, no matter how C-list, a personality and make them memorable

Flynn's Most Annoying Trait: Constant character assassination, ignorance to prior continuity and lowering the character's intelligence in order to make his stories happen

Flynn's Best Contribution To The Comic: Clearing up the mess previous writers left behind and making the comic much closer to the games and also making it feel more like an actual Sonic the Hedgehog property

Flynn's Worst Contribution To The Comic: Failing to deliver a reboot that could satisfy everybody and also butchering the Sonic SatAM cast at the expense of the video game characters.

And with that, I draw this retrospective to a close. It's such a shame that the comics I once enjoyed aren't as great as I remembered. I've even come to feel that Ian Flynn was just never good and I was too blinded by admiration and enjoyment to see the cracks on the wall, metaphorically speaking. He definitely made the comic better than what Penders and Bollers before him were doing, but he still wasn't any good.

And considering this kind of crap he's been writing lately in where we're getting terrible crossovers with the DC Universe that shows he has no understanding of the DC Universe characters whatsoever and all the terrible writing that has been plaguing the IDW Sonic comics, I don't think Flynn will ever improve...

Yet I clearly found something to enjoy about his comics back then. Whatever it was, it's not there anymore and now I can only look back on these comics as a sad reminder that not everything I grew up with will hold up years later and not everything I once enjoyed was great. These comics did give me joy back in the 2010's and for that, I still appreciate them in some aspect. As is, this way past cool comic is, sad to say, not as cool as I once thought...

And that's the end of this retrospective. I hope you enjoyed it and feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below. Are you a fan of Archie Sonic? What memories of the comics do you have? Which issues do you like and dislike? Do tell me.

For my next post, this retrospective has inspired me. Come back next time when me and The Wandering Fox deliver an essay in where we give the Mecha Sally arc a full-on rewrite...

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