tiny260

Personally, I'd suggest continuing to read them, but if you've gotten to #76 and aren't interested... yeeeah, I don't think Penders or Bollers are up your alley. I have two suggestions: 1) Jump into Sonic #160. That's the first issue Flynn begins writing, and he's what started the more lighthearted, colorful tone while still keeping a serious edge to the comics. The only downside for that one is that you'll have to do some reading to catch up on the lost continuity. 2) Go for either Sonic #252 or, I would suggest higher, Sonic #257. Post-reboot so you don't have to worry about continuity and it has Flynn's style that it seems you'd be more drawn to.

Upright Death

1 x 8 2 x 4 (3 x 3) - 1

X + 1 = Z Where X = Previous Post's number and Z = This post's number. ...so four, then. I feel like I'd just be cheating if I didn't at least include that.

...I apologize for this rant ahead of time. HEY KIDS! IT'S TIME FOR TRIVIA TIME WITH THE SONIC NERD! YAAAAY! In the wake of Sonic the Hedgehog #50, the company was scrambling to keep together a consistent crew of writers and artists for the book considering, you know, it was SUPPOSED to end at 50 but kept going due to the absurdly high sales. One of the changes brought on from this was the inclusion of one of the writers for Sonic #50, Karl Bollers, as a head-writer for the series to help back up Penders, considering just how much material was going on (remember, this was the same time not only Knuckles the Echidna was getting monthly publications but also the Sonic Super Specials were being regularly churned out. Sonic was POPULAR for awhile). At first, things were alright. But as Penders and Bollers had to work together more and more often in the wake of the Knuckles side-series and the Super Specials coming to an end, it was soon clear the two HATED each other. Like, "I respect this person so little I am going to actively ignore what they're writing and instead focus on my own stories instead" hate. You wonder why "Mobius, 25 Years Later" was a thing for what felt like forever in the comics? This was why - Penders refused to consult with Bollers on anything on the main series, so they essentially drew their line in the room and focused on their own things. Throughout the Home storyline in the wake of Sonic returning from space and the "One Year Later" timeskip, it's revealed that Antoine broke up with Bunnie and adopted a harsh, "the war comes first" attitude to the fight against Eggman. It's important to point out this storyline was written by Bollers - remember, Penders was ONLY focusing on "Mobius, 25 Years Later" while Bollers pretty much took over the main story. According to interviews at the time that I can't find for the life of me, the reason of this was because Bollers wanted to show how war can change people. It wasn't happy, and believe me I was bummed my OTP was broken up, but Bollers was trying to tell a serious story of loss and how the hell of constantly fighting against a megalomaniac dictator can take its toll on someone, transforming Antoine into the hardened, emotionally shut person he became in the One Year Later era. And then when Penders got a hold of the book again he said in Sonic #150-151 that none of THAT was the reason, but instead Antoine was just REPLACED by his evil twin from the alternate Mobius! ... Can you understand why I respectfully disagree with you in how it stands up to logic? Or at the very least why this whole period of time INFURIATES me? (Except the backup story of #151, I'll give you that one. Holo-Nichole was one of the best things they did with the character and opened up so many avenues of stories to tell)

Yeah, post "cleanup" period and pre Sonic #200 had some GREAT stories and ideas from Flynn at display. Personally, my favorite arc from that period was the "House of Cards" storyline, but Mongul rising was a really good one. I'm noticing a lot of people are calling for the STUPID issues as their least favorites, more specifically Gallagher stories in a Post-Endgame Era. While I agree Gallagher shouldn't have continued writing after Sonic #50 as his style just didn't work with the universe Penders was setting up, I'm a little shocked people gravitate towards the stupid rather than the anger-inducing. Lest we forget the dreadful #152 where Sonic apparently NEVER TOLD ANYONE HIS EVIL DOUBLE WAS AT FAULT BACK IN 150 and started a really cringe-y attempt at going after every main girl in the comic. Even at their most emotionally vulnerable, Sonic and Bunnie kissing is SO out of character that it's insulting. I'm not exactly a fan of Sonic #150-159, can ya tell?

Am I two again? Okay, uh... oh! Got it! 00000010

I like it! But for future reference, you can always click "choose files" at the bottom of the reply box to embed the image directly in your post rather than providing a link. Like so:

November. Y'know, because it's the 11th month in the... year... They can't all be winners.

See, I feel like Sonic #200 had a good IDEA for an epic "conclusion" between Sonic and Robotnik, but it fell kind of... flat towards the end, especially how it IMMEDIATELY jumped into a new threat in the very next issue. Compare that with the entire "Brave New World" era between Sonic #50 and Sonic #75 where the whole theme was "What now?" in the wake of Robotnik's defeat and the rebuilding of the Acorn Empire. New antagonists EVENTUALLY rose up to face them, but the story took its time in exploring the stories available to them and built up the return of Eggman to make Sonic #75 EPIC in scale. True, all the right things lined up to make the Brave New World era what it was, but it still makes Sonic #200 and the followup issues lesser in comparison. I'll agree though the elements of Sonic regretting defeating Eggman and not knowing what to do with himself and Eggman COMPLETELY snapping were beautiful story elements to explore, and Robotnik's insane reasoning to bring himself out of his insanity is some of the best, most chilling writing in the series. As for the Forty Fathom Freedom Fighters... yeeeeah, while I don't think they're the WORST, I'll defend you in that there's nothing interesting about them. I feel like when they were created Gallagher saw the world building Penders was doing with all these different factions and people and said "Hey guys, look! I can be cool too! Here's my backup team with their own mythos! Guys! ...guys?"

I'll admit, Geoffrey's betrayal in the Flynn Era DID catch me by surprise and I think they did an excellent job at being nuanced about it. Geoffrey's reasons for turning on the Freedom Fighters are complex and in a way perfectly understandable, and later issues where he tries to act as the an influence of good on Naugus while still remaining loyal to him was very satisfying to read. Yeah, I can see where you're coming from with 252, but in the book's defense it was very well-balanced and surprisingly nuanced in the reboot. Heck, one could make the argument that the entirety of the Countdown to Chaos arc was as gentle of a transition as the writers could afford to bridge the two continuities, gradually dropping the old one off as it introduced elements of the new continuity. That's just me, though; I can TOTALLY understand why one would still not like it.

Gallagher. It was Gallagher's idea, he was the one who took up writing those two particular issues. It actually makes sense that he's the one who did so, as before he was a writer for the Sonic series he wrote the Guardians of the Galaxy book for Marvel. No, not the one you're thinking of, the one the Freedom Fighters were styled after. Those are nice choices! I'll agree seeing Robotnik triumphant was a nice gut-punch to the reader, even if I think they could have improved the whole "shield withstanding Sonic running at Mach 10" part. And while I'm not a big fan of Gallagher stories myself, I gotta say I'm a little surprised you picked that as your most detested. For me, even the cheesiest of Gallagher's stories (COUGH Sonic Super Special #10 COUGH) pale in comparison to the potential awkwardness of Bollers' worst stories or the offensively awful nature of some of Penders' worst stories.

I... don't think the site ever had the Sonic Manga. As far as I'm aware, it was only Archie and Fleetway. Am I misremembering?

Really? You don't have an issue that made you the angriest out of all you've read?

Granted! Only... uh-oh. Looks like that bar was being held by the hulking biker dude in the corner there. Aaaand he's looking at you all... oooh dear he's grabbing a tire iron and heading your way... I wish I had the ability to lucid dream and control over it to do whatever I wanted in my dreams.

Okay, even I'll admit this is an obtuse way of saying the number.

Bonus points if Dark Future Sonic still has bandages on his arms and wears a scarf.

The name of a Canadian television show made by the same people who made the Total Drama series.

As cool of an idea as that would be, Chaos, I highly doubt the Freedom Fighters will be included in the new game. I think I've read somewhere that Sega's actually kind of sick of the fan demand for Freedom Fighters in the games, but take my word with a grain of salt.

The square root of 169.

The base of scientific notation, one of the most potent and most easily versatile numbers within our numeral system utilized to keep track of and record either incredibly large or incredibly small numbers. Also part of the name of a children's television series. 10.

The smallest positive integer which is neither a square nor a prime number. ...six. The number is six.

Bob. Just Bob.