Man, I was not sure if I was going to like what I was going to read but so far, I’m glad I’m wrong!  I’ll do a full review of Countdown to Chaos once #256 hits.

Pros:
-Getting the Freedom Fighters back together
-King Acorn’s welcome change in personality
-The merging of the game continuity with the Archieverse
-Sally finally not a Robian (though wished to see original resolution)
-There’s still memories of the old world via Sonic and Nicole
-New characters like Axel the Water Buffalo
-Sky Patrol, the answer to the Death Egg
-Rotor back to being awesome
-Art is great and is fun to read

Cons:
-Rotor not wearing his hat.
-Knothole existing once again which I find pointless due to Mobotropolis still existing
-Mecha Sally, Bunnie Rabbot, Antoine in a coma, and some other plot points being thrown out the window (most i can’t really fault the writer here due to the infamous case)
-Silver Sonic being really easy to defeat though if you played Sonic 2, he’s not that hard.

Overall, I really am enjoying this arc so far!  It has potential to be great and it’s a good starting point for a new reader to jump in.  Sure some things have changed but it’s still the same Spin Dashin fun I enjoy since I first got into the book at #23!  After the Penders/Archie bullcrap, the MegaMan Crossover (which I like but could’ve been better),  The Freedom Fighters are back!
The thing I really hope for is that they do a Sonic Universe or a Super Special Magazine on the original Endangered Species, resolving the Mecha Sally, comatose Antoine, Bunnie’s quest, King Naugus, and Secret Freedom Fighters! 

Despite that, the “reboot” is off to a fresh start though it’s early to predict but it’s the better written stories since #241 and Sonic Universe #46-50!  Even Sonic Universe #55-56 are really outstanding!

Here’s to a different world and looking forward to seeing what’s in store and hoping after the book travels 88MPH, it’ll reach a Good Future!

Hopefully the Penders characters come back to the book soon.  Though I have mild interest in the Lara-Su Chronicles, I feel it’s not going to be the same as having it on Sonic but at the very least glad the designs in his book won’t ever show in the Archie books!  So for the time being, let us say goodbye to these characters that very likely won’t show up in the new Mobius…I mean…Sonic’s world.

Julie-Su, Knux’s kick butt girlfriend.  Probably the best Penders created character!  From Legionare to Chaotix to…a housewife in the future…

The Brotherhood of Guardians -  The old geezers convention.
Spectere -  The most interesting of all the brotherhood.
Thunderhawk - He’s purple and cranky
Sojunior - uh, he has a weird name but his personality, oh boy.
Sabre - Knuckles’ grandfather.  He exists to try and talk some sense into his douche son.

Locke - Father of the year.  Microwaves his son, abandons him in wilderness, trains Knuckles from afar to send killer machines at him, attempts murder on Knux’s bully, makes out with his ex-wife though she is engaged to another man, reunites with his son cause he didn’t run away fast enough, and makes out with someone twice as young as he is. Cl(ass) act!

This picture says the rest:

Dark Legion:
Dimitri -  In the future, Rutan plays golf with his head
Kragok - Went from main villain to lackey to jail to fighting off-panel against Tobor then died in 2 pages after he returned.  Oh how the mighty have “fallen” BWAHAHAHAHA….. *crickets chirping*
Lien-Da - Probably one of the best Penders villain he created.  I thought she was handled very well outside of Penders’ run.
Luger - not the greatest father but at least he didn’t microwave his kids cause of a bad dream.

Moritori Rex - Whatever happened to him since SSS #14?

Remington - One of my favorite non female echidna characters!
Lara-Le
Wyn
Bimmy - Ken, will you make a graphic novel of Weekend at Bimmy’s?
Xenin - annoying cyborg

Aurora - The Goddess of Recap
Gala-Na - never really liked her since the chaos knuckles arc
Yanar - wish he was better used in the chaos knuckles arc but i really like the walker’s disciple.

Elias - fan favorite turned king.  One of the few things Penders did right.
Alicia - She was frozen for 15 years and when woken up, her body works but personality, screw that.
Geoffrey - Known as St. Jerk till he grew a set.  Then became James Skunk
Drago - A character that should have gotten the axe
Sleuth Dog - under utilized character.
Hershey - cat spy
Sgt. Rykor - Sarge for one page.
Gen. Von Stryker

Welcome to the conclusion of the Sonic #162-175 Retrospective.  Today, I’ll be looking at #175 but I’ll say a little bit about Free Comic Book Day 2007.

It was the first FCBD issue and it took place between #165-174.  It starts out with Sonic captured by Eggman and plants a device that allows Eggman to control Sonic’s movements. 

Sonic fights off the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix and pretty much beat him up enough to break the device.

Eggman and Metal Sonic arrive just for Sonic Heroes to spin dash it to oblivion.  The day is won but Eggman has something sinister planned.

NOW THE MAIN EVENT.  I’ll cover #176-177 in the eventual sequel retrospective #176-200.
#175 Cover:
One of Spaz’s greatest covers and perhaps one of the best of all time.

Main Story:

The Freedom Fighters are kicking back at Freedom HQ.  Out of nowhere, Snivelly in a giant mech crashes thru the place.  He vaporizes Rotor right after he saves Tails from the cave in.  Snivelly procides with zapping Julie-Su, Rouge, Sally, Antoine, Saffron, Charmy, Ray, and Bunnie.  Mighty gives it his all by ripping the arm of the mech but gets vaporized in the process.  Snivelly then takes off saying the diversion is over.

Tails, Amy, and Knux stay behind at the damaged Freedom HQ as Sonic checks Knothole.  Sonic sees the Egg Fleet bombarding the City.  The hedgehog sees Freedom HQ standing as he races to it hoping reinforcements and citizens are in but explodes as Eggman’s battle mech The Egg Beater appears.

Eggman states that everyone is captured and sent to the Egg Grapes and told Snivelly to leave Sonic to him.  The armor outmatches Sonic in every way and Eggman gets in Sonic head talking about the times he failed, how Eggman played games in the past, and states that he pushed Sonic to the limit.

Sonic then runs at the fastest speed he ever ran and went to the east coast in seconds and arrives to knock Eggman down however, Sonic’s best wasn’t enough as the only damage he did to the robot was a dent in the sheild.  Despite Sonic giving it his all, Eggman majorly defeats Sonic and leaves him alone in the ruins thinking his spirit will be broken and then Eggman departs to activate the Egg Grapes.

Well, Amy, Tails, Knux are still in Knothole and Sonic may have been defeated but the war is not over!

THOUGHTS:
I remember the buzz around the Bumbleking forums when this was announced.  We all knew something big was going to happen.  For those that read the previews of the following issues still didn’t know what was going down.

I knew Knothole would be destroyed, I knew the SegaSonic characters would live, and I knew this would be a dark story.  What we got here, it exceeded my expectations and they were already high.  I loved the unpredictability in this arc.  How will Sonic defeat Eggman, Who will live and who will die?  Did the rest of the world turn their back on Sonic?  Will the universe be the same again?  Welcome to the new golden age of the comic!

Story: 5 out of 5
Art:  5 out of 5

Hope you enjoyed the retrospectives of #160-175!  Maybe I’ll do more of the previous years but right now, the focus is on the future!

#172:  Nice cover by Spaz!

2nd story was Julie-Su training with Amy Rose.  It had decent art and was cool seeing them interact.

Main story once again was great.  The truth is out.  Fiona was dating Scourge around #170-172 (maybe earlier.)  Fiona thought she had the same attraction to Sonic so she went back to Scourge since he’s not a hero.  It was cool seeing Sonic trusting his friends about Fiona over her and still played it cool getting her to tell the truth.  It was very heartbreaking to see Tails get slapped by Fiona. 

It was nice to see Scourge get more character development as well.  He’s not dating Fiona just to mess with Sonic’s mind, he actually likes her for who she is.  Another thing to note is Scourge said one bad day can make Sonic like him.  Sonic said being selfless and good would make Scourge like him.  Will these words affect either hog?

Story: 5
Art:  5

#173 Cover:

It’s not bad, just generic.

#174 Cover:

Really great cover here but is ruined by the question mark.  Wish there is a version without that.

#173-174 back up stories:

This was actually Ian and Tracy’s first story that was suppose to be in #155-156 but didn’t for some reason.  Not much to be said, it was a fun story about Chao.

#173 main story kicked off well with Antoine proposing to Bunnie.  The story moved pretty fast with them capturing the villains all in one issue.  Mogul and Ixis were defeated way too easily and the heart to heart moments didn’t last as long as it needed to.

#174 was a better main story.  It was nice seeing some cameos, characters interacting with others for the first time, if not, in a long time (ie. Antoine and Chaotix.) 

Some foreshadowing of Ameadus Prower, friendship between Sonic and Tails, and the SonSal relationship.  Espio is out on a mission to find out what Eggman is up to.  He discovers his plans but his captured by Eggman.  The biggest moment of course is the marriage of Antoine and Bunnie!  It was a wonderful moment but up next, you thought the Darkest Storm was several issues ago, well get ready next post cause The Unthinkable will happen!

Benny approves of Super Sonic Special Magazine #4!  Especially #166-167

Covers: 

#170 is my least favorite of Yardley’s.  The plain white background is jarring and the cover’s cluttered.  Below is a preview cover with a different background that looks a tad better.

#171’s however was pretty good.  If Sonic wasn’t on the cover, it’d be like pg1 was the cover and pg1 was pg2.

Side Stories:  #170’s was a classic Gallagher/Manak story from the old days.  Sonic finds an island with all the classic badniks and fights Pseudo Sonic.  The first robotic copy of Sonic in the Archieverse.  Not much to be said.  A fun throwback story.  Wish the same can be said in #185

Story: 3.5 out of 5
Art:  3 out of 5

#171’s side story was great.  Echidnaopolis, reduced to being a hut village in Mushroom Hill Zone, was being attacked by the Dingo Regime with Locke alone defending it.  From out of nowhere, the Destructix comes to his aid and win the battle. 

Doc Finn shows up and reveals that he hired them.  He and Dimitri (now in a bubble like in M25YL) presudes Locke to find the Brotherhood with his warp ring while he and the Destructix guard the Emerald.  He thinks about it at first and Finn suggest sending Knuckles.  Locke still bitter from #165 declines and heads off to parts unknown.

Finn reveals that this was a plan to unleash Enerjak once again.  Oh man, it’s been 8 years since we last saw Enerjak!  The hype was unreal at the fourms for this one.  Someday, I’ll take a look into the character of Enerjak and #180-184 that features him.

Story:  5 out of 5
Art:  5 out of 5

#170 Main Story:

Quick notes for now:

.-Sonic and Tails enter the Zone of Silence and find it changed into the Special Zone by Feist (last seen in #43 and mentioned in #64-66.)  Feist formed all the emeralds into 7 differnet colored ones.  Cause of Sonic’s victories against Ixis, Feist gives him a Grey Emerald.

-They use Emerald to restore King Max.

-Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Merlin uses Emerald to transport them to the planet Tails’ parents are on.  They found it in ruins and witnessing the Xorda and Black Arms fighting in space.  They found Tails’ parents and they all go home.

It was great to see Tails’ parents return and was nice that we got a happier story than the last one.

Story: 5 out of 5 (as you can see, I’m a fan of the early days of Ian’s run.)
Art:  5 out of 5

#171 Main Story:

Again, quick notes for now.
-Shadow found Professer Gerald’s diary and looking to find the answer. 

-Sonic is still looking for Fiona and Tails is still upset that she’s still with Sonic.  Shadow arrives to meet with Sonic w/ Eggman’s badniks following him.

NIcole sends the hogs in the digital world in the diary data and encounter Neo-Nicole.  Gerald tells Shadow’s origins and Shadow gets the closure he seeked with Maria. 

At Freedom HQ, Snivelly’s battling Knuckles with his Egg Lobster trying to get back his 6 hairs Shadow pulled from him.  Shadow destroys the robot and gives Snivelly his hair back.

This was a 5 star story.  Revelaed Shadows origins without the complexity of the games.  Nicole showing more of her mobian self, the comedy of Snively’s hair, and the closure of Shadow and Maria made this a great gem.

Story:  5 out of 5

Art:  5 out of 5

(Will update this post more details later on the main story.  Gotta juice)

Order of Chaos

The Covers:  Tracy’s earliest covers aren’t that impressive.  #169’s is a bit better than #168 but still not above average.

Back up stories:  #168’s story has Antoine’s father on his deathbed with Antoine and Bunnie by his side.  Armand’s final words were words were of his approval of the relationship of Antoine and Bunnie and him being proud of his son.  Other than the art, this is a really great gem!  A very sad story with alot of heart.  This story was dedicated to Ian Flynn’s grandmother.

#169’s story had Espio infiltrate Eggman’s newest sub base, the Golden Hive Colony and try to find out what happened to Charmy’s family.  Espio finds out that the royal family fled to an unknown location and Espio blows up the base.  This was a pretty good story showcasing Espio’s skills and this story is note worthy of him and Nicole’s friendship starting here.

Another interesting note is that due to Eggman’s loss of ADAM and Mecha, he added some personality to the badniks as Nicole explains below.

The art is very well done and is also the last story Ken Penders was apart of but this time as an inker.

#168 Story: 5 out of 5
#168 Art: 2 out of 5 (not Al Biggy bad or Ron Lim’s worst)
#169 Story:  4 out of 5 (maybe a bit high since I’m an Espio fan)
#169:  5 out of 5

Main Story:

This 2 parter helps tie the loose ends from the dark ages era (#134-159) of the book.  Eggman comes to a realization that ADAM is Anonymous.  Eggman tried deleting him but ADAM transfered all of his data to the nanites in Tommy Turtle’s shell transforming him into a powerful nanite armored mobian and captures Eggman.

At Knothole, Sonic Tails, and Rotor noted that the nanite data is missing as they complained about Tommy being a pain like most of us readers did since his death cheat in #135-137. 

All of the sudden, Nicole starts going haywire, Bunnie’s bionics forced her to attack the FFs, and Jules kidnaps Tails and brings him to the nanite city from #152.  All thanks to ADAM controlling the nanites.

At the nanite city, Shadow’s fighting off ADAM to try and save Eggman and ADAM easily defeats him and throws him and the captured Tails into the pods of the summoning sphere. 

The device, with the help of Shadow’s Chaos Control and Tails’ Chosen One prophecy, draws in all of the Chaos Emeralds across the universe including the freed Mogul’s emerald but thanks to Locke and Doc Finn’s Chaos Energies, the Master Emerald is safe.

Sonic arrives and fights ADAM as they both race to the emeralds’ energy and both are turned Super. 

Super Sonic holds back cause Tommy is still in ADAM.  Eggman frees Shadow and and Tails.  Thanks to the Emeralds’ energies from the sphere, they are both in Super Forms.  The Super Duo aid Sonic by using Chaos Control to send all of the emeralds to the Zone of Silence.

After that, Tommy starts to gain control as the super form starts fading away.  He apologizes for how he was acting up and him being a pain (and to us readers, cheating death and wasting our time.)  Tommy thanks Sonic for given him a second chance in life and goes off to fly towards the Egg Fleet which fires upon him killing Tommy and ADAM. 

Main Story thoughts:
Tommy was once again a hero.  As is the team of Flynn/Yardley!  Ian managed to tie up the loose ends of the Anoymous story, Great Harmony, the nanites stuff, and even throwing some obscure references to the early days of the comic and Tossed in Space.  Add that with great storytelling and art, you got yourself an excellent two parter.  My only thing I criticized about this story was that the fight between Super ADAM and Super Sonic should have been a bit longer.

Tommy was originally going to die in #175 by Omega and ADAM was suppose to possess the last Metal Sonic Tropper and become the Metal Overlord.  Plans have changed and for the better.  When Ian came on board, he wanted to put closer on some plot points that were left hanging for a very long time, unleash Bean and Bark, and to kill off Tommy Turtle,

Tommy could have easily just been a background character in Ian’s run doing nothing, walk upstairs with a basketball and disappear from the world to meet Chuck Cunningham and Aunt Harriet in an alternative dimension, or die off panel or quickly on panel and I would have not cared.  What we got instead was an awesome ADAM/Tommy form, return of the Super Forms, great back up stories to compliment the main event, and a redemption of a character.

Story: 5 out of 5
Art:  5 out of 5