Editor-in-Chief: Richard Goldwater; Managing Editor: Victor Gorelick; Editor: Scott Fulop.
Ah, issue sixteen. Now, we’re getting somewhere…
Penciled by Dave Manak, inked by Jon D’Agostino.
Just what Robotnik’s always wanted: "Hedgehog Under Glass!" Cute. But who’s this beside Sonic?! It looks like SatAM Sally! But, Archie’s Sally is pink, I tell you! …And this "Sally" is even wearing the vest SatAM Sally wore in the second season. What’s going on?!
--I’ll tell you what: It seems SatAM turned out to be more popular than Adventures of Sonic. (Gasp!) As a result, the bigwigs decided to start phasing in more of the SatAM version of things. Changing Boomer’s name to Rotor, and introducing Snively were all well and good, but now for some big changes. First up: Sally’s color change. Then, starting next issue, some more serious stories, the introduction of Nicole, and more! But first…
Written by Mike Kanterovich & Ken Penders, penciled by Dave Manak, inked by Jon D’Agostino, lettered by Dan Nakrosis, and colored by Barry Grossman.
Quoting Sally (whose colors have inexplicably changed to match the show); "Sonic the Hedgehog has won the war against Robotnik!"
Did we miss something?
Well, yes, but not as much as it seems. On page three, we discover this is all a virtual reality illusion created by Robotnik. But first let’s backtrack and cover the first two pages…
On page one, the gang gathers for a photo-shoot, with a burning Robotropolis in the background. Then, on page two, we skip ahead six months ("or so it seems") from December to June. (Pointless Trivia: By combining this with the assumption that Sonic’s birthday in issue 11 was his 15th, the date of the coup established in SatAM –3224--; and the fact that Endgame takes place in 3235, we can place the events of this issue in December of 3234. Nifty, no?)
Sonic and Sally have decided to tie the knot (at fifteen or sixteen? A bit young, don’t you think?), and Rotor reads the sermon to the lovers, the Best Man (Tails), the Maid of Honor (Bunnie) and the only guest, Antoine. Guess they never rescued the King or deroboticized anyone… How odd…
Well, as we contemplate this, we switch over to Robotnik and his Badniks, who can see everything the Freedom Fighters are up to (the voyeur!).
Switching into pointless exposition mode, he explains how he captured the Freedom Fighters, and, instead of killing or roboticizing them, stuck them in his new virtual reality device. He claims this is more evil than killing them—then mentions that since the VR apparently isn’t really all that hard to escape from, he has to have the computer fulfil their greatest fantasies to keep them from wanting to escape. Force-feeding them their greatest dreams—oh, how scary!
Still, while the Freedom Fighters live out their fantasies, Robotnik will be busy completing his conquest of the world they swore to protect…
(Miscellaneous thought: This story, while for the most part off-the wall, does manage to show what I consider to be the most important characterization of Robotnik in the series. First of all, he knows he’s what most would call "evil", and is proud of it. Second, he often fails because his evil tendencies overpower his genius intellect at times. Thirdly, we learn WHY he does the things he does. To quote page five, panel four: "…And my dream of a perfect, ordered society shall come to pass…" It is not that Robotnik seeks to cause pain, or gain power –though he enjoys them—it is that he wishes to eliminate chaos. This is interesting, as chaos is sometimes defined as "evil"—but when it comes down to it, order taken to the extreme is just as bad.)
…Back in pseudo-Knothole, Sonic and Sally are just about to say, "I do", when Antoine manages to gain control of the fantasy, putting Sonic "in his place"—as a janitor at the wedding between Antoine and Sally!
As a result of this, the reality of Virtual Reality becomes… well, a lot less real! The world becomes an abstract painting, and a deroboticized Uncle Chuck and Muttski stop by to offer Sonic their congratulations on his marriage to Sally (guess no one told him it was called off).
Now we cut to the beach, where Punchy is water-skiing—wait, Punchy isn’t a Sonic character—this is an ad! (It’s also a multi-page comic strip, drawn and colored in a very similar style to the early Sonic stories.)
Moving right along, Sonic tells his Uncle how confused he is by all this. Since the computer is programmed to fulfil desires, and Sonic desires an answer, Uncle Chuck explains everything. Summoning a control terminal, Sonic peeps back into reality to discover Robotnik unleashing his War Machines upon the world.
Sonic now faces a moral dilemma: the Freedom Fighters all seem so happy (even Sally, who apparently is now married to Antoine!) and Sonic can’t stand the thought of leaving Uncle Chuck and Muttski behind, even if they are only Virtual facsimiles. Just then, Hal and Cal stop by for a one-panel cameo, as the Virtual Chuck tells Sonic to do the right thing.
With the help of the VR program, Sonic takes control of the War Machines, and changes their target to Robotropolis. However, Sonic isn’t yet prepared to unleash such mass destruction, so he offers Robotnik a bargain: release the Freedom Fighters, and Sonic will stop the War Machines.
Robotnik agrees, and Tails, Sally, Rotor and Antoine are released from their tubes (even though Bunnie appeared in the VR, apparently she was never captured). Sonic sets the War Machines to destroy themselves; then he smashes out of the computer screen, trashes some Badniks, and rendezvous with the FF outside the city.
While the real Chuck and Muttski clean up the mess in Robotnik’s HQ, Sonic vows to get them back some day.
…A lot going on in that one! It’s too bad they chose to play it for humor, ‘cause that would have made an awesome action/adventure story.
I wish they had played the deception to the max—told the tale of the Freedom Fighters defeating Robotnik, and not revealed what’s really going on until Sonic found out. I also think it would have made more sense for Robotnik to give the FF their worst nightmares instead of their fantasies.
More importantly, why did Sally look so happy with Antoine?! And if they actually got married in the VR… well, technically it wouldn’t be official on the real Mobius, but you’d think it would still affect Sally and Antoine’s relationship… Possibly, the machine started giving them all separate fantasies at that point; or maybe when they all woke up, it felt so much like a dream that it had about as much effect on their lives as similar dreams would have…
Still, a TON of untapped potential here… but considering where the comic was at back at this point, it’s hard to blame them for not finding that potential.
Tails by Amanda Eisensmith, Sonic and Tails by Emily Brundige, the Freedom Fighters by Marsha Dort, and a Swat-bot by Nick Bryant.
Robotnik’s plans have failed once too often, and Robotnik suspects the Freedom Fighters have a spy… or even an entire Spy Agency! When he is unable to flush out the spy, he gets a "Wheel of Misfortune" so he can choose his plots randomly, thus getting a step ahead of the spy. It doesn’t work, though, since the Spy Agency provided the Wheel in the first place!
Pointless Trivia #2: This story marks the second appearance of the Casino Night Zone, and reveals that the Freedom Fighters occasionally go there to do some recreational gambling! (I like the dress Sally wears when she and Sonic visit it in this story.)
Pointless Trivia #3: This story also establishes the Knothole Secret Intelligence Agency, headed by an owl by the name of Harvey Who. What became of Who and his agency is unknown, but they are obviously precursors to the Spy Network later headed by Sir Charles…
With no more mistakes to report, Scott can finally tell Paul to scram! Thus ends the first saga of our tale of office humor…
…Moving on to the letters:
Ben Fraser asks Sonic’s age (--fifteen--), and how to turn Sonic into Super Sonic in Sonic 3. Rhionna Widener asks what kind of animal Sally is (--a squirrel--), why Antoine only has a stump of a tail (--He "gave it to Tails so he could have two to fly"--), how Bunnie got roboticized, and why Sally was colored pink in the early issues (--"When Archie Comics first published Sonic’s comic book adventures, there was very little design material available on the Freedom Fighters"--). Jabari House asks if Sonic and Knuckles will ever stop fighting (Scott says, essentially, "I don’t know"). And Venus Nguyen tells us how much she’s into Sonic, as well as the fact that she once punched a boy, is nicknamed Sonic, and can do the 100 meter dash in thirteen seconds (Scott suggests a better nickname would have been Knuckles).
We’re back in historic territory, here. Almost all of the next few issues have some sort of Sonic "first" in it. Yet, in spite of all the changes being made, the series still remained quite a fun read. To me, this issue marks the beginning of the golden age of Genesis/SatAM based stories.