#from what he was telling me about the plot. there is a very noteworthy overlap lmao

[grassbreads]

my friend recommended me a manga, and I was getting a little annoyed because the only scanlation I could find was kinda low quality and hard to read (and really hard to appreciate the good art), but I looked it up and it was only 11 usd to buy physical copies of the official tl of the first two volumes✌️

[mobius-prime]

1. Sonic Miniseries #0

Table of Contents / Next

Don’t Cry for Me, Mobius!

Writer: Michael Gallagher Pencils: Scott Shaw! Colors: Barry Grossman

Ah, the very first story, in the very first issue, of the very first era. This is where it all began, folks. And it’s as generic as it can possibly be. I mean, the comics weren’t intended at this point to become the dramatic, emotional journey through the longest running video game comic ever that they ended up being – this was just the initial miniseries after all – so it’s not exactly unexpected. They did need a stage-setter beginning episode, after all. That said, boy is this the most 90s thing I’ve ever seen.

So, a few important things to note first. I'm listing the writer, penciller, and colorist for each story in each issue, because I find all to be particularly significant. You can clearly see the direction of the comics' storylines change drastically as time goes on depending on who the main writer is, and as for the pencils and colors, the art style of the comics also went through very significant changes as well as some pretty clearly defined "eras" over time, and since I find the different art styles interesting to note, we'll be noting who the main artists are. Here, we begin with Michael Gallagher, who was the head writer at the beginning of the comics' run; our penciller is the apparently very excited Scott Shaw!; and finally, Barry Grossman is our colorist, and remains so for a long time in the early eras.

Anyway, we begin with a very typical encounter between Sonic and Robotnik at the beginning of this story. Robotnik chases Sonic, Sonic throws weapons-grade 90s sass like none other, we get some establishing dialogue that tells us a little bit about what the current situation between them is, meet a villainous goon… the works. Robotnik is using the Mega Muck that made its first appearance in SatAM, which I’m sure has inspired absolutely zero fetishists to do any weird Sonic art in the back corners of DeviantArt. They also do that thing that comics do where the characters just kind of explain exactly what’s happening on panel as it happens:

It should also be noted that in this first issue, Robotnik has normal human eyes. That wouldn’t really be noteworthy on its own until you see what he starts looking like later. *shudder*

We see the beginning of Antoine and Sonic’s rivalry in this first, rather silly story. Sonic also likes to break the fourth wall quite a bit in these early issues, speaking directly to the reader and often encouraging them to interact with the panels by placing their finger here or there. Pretty cute for a kids’ comic, but they dropped that gimmick early.

As this is the first issue, many characters’ designs aren’t finalized. Rotor is called “Boomer” in the early issues, Antoine is missing his trademark French accent, and Tails and Sally look almost unrecognizable from who they became over the course of the comics:

The plotline of this first story is very simple and pretty much a stage-setter for how the issues are going to go down. The Freedom Fighters discover a leak in their base, which comes from the trees crying because Robotnik bulldozed a lot of them. (Weeping willows, is the joke.) They go up to investigate, Robotnik attacks, Sonic defeats him with the power of a magic ring, and they save the day. Doesn’t have much impact on the overarching story of the entire run of the preboot, but I include these early issues for a very specific and important reason which I’ll be getting into much later in the story.

Oh No – Robo! No Mo’ Mobo!

Writer: Michael Gallagher Pencils: Scott Shaw! Colors: Barry Grossman

First of all, can I say that that title is absolutely hilarious. I don’t care how cheesy it is – that’s genuinely clever and funny.

So, this is where the comic lays out the backstory of everything it’s shown so far. A lot of this actually ended up getting retconned, but it still offers a lot of insight, especially into how Sonic himself viewed Robotnik’s takeover. He and his Uncle Chuck ran a chili dog delivery stand, until Robotnik staged his takeover of the world. Interestingly, there is no grand moment of takeover shown – rather, it makes it seem like Robotnik had been spreading his sphere of influence for a while, until it finally overlapped with where Sonic and his uncle lived. Uncle Chuck and Sonic’s dog Muttski were captured and roboticized, and Sonic met Sally for the first time as he tried to stage a rescue. From there – well, I’ll let the final few panels do the talking for me:

Again, a lot of this was retconned in later issues, but I will still include it all in the analysis as though it’s canon, for reasons that will eventually be explained.

A few more interesting things to note: first of all, we learn that Sonic’s middle name is Maurice. This is obviously very important because it’s hilarious. It wasn’t even retconned either, this is canon information about Archie Sonic.

Second of all, we get our very first hint at something very important to the plot of later issues. When Robotnik shows up to capture Chuck, Chuck clearly recognizes him. This isn’t elaborated on, yet. Emphasis on yet.

And finally, in this very first issue we get our first look at Sonic shedding tears. This might not seem significant, especially given the goofy nature of all the events surrounding it, but Sonic as a character has almost never, in any canon he’s been in, cried. He cries I think only once in the anime, which a great deal of emphasis is put on as a shocking and unusual event, and never cries, to my knowledge, in any of the games. He’s meant to be an incredibly strong of heart character, who never gives into despair, and yet here he is, crying over the loss of his uncle. This is something SEGA put strict limits on in much later issues, when they started taking more interest in keeping the plot and characters of the comics in line with their vision, so it’s pretty significant to note, I think.

As a side note, I decided for funsies to check how much money Uncle Chuck and Sonic were charging for their chili dogs. They made 200 of them and Sonic wants $300 in payment, which means on Mobius, a freshly made and instantaneously delivered chili dog costs a whopping $1.50. Can you freaking imagine? Every person on the planet would be subsisting on those things for that price. World hunger would be solved. At least for those who are willing to eat intestine-wrapped processed junk meat. (I kind of hate hot dogs, sue me.)

Well, so marks the end of the very first issue of the entire Sonic Archie preboot. While there wasn’t much plot to speak of, there were some interesting little tidbits in there. Writer Ian Flynn in particular, in the later years of the comic, loved to bring back ancient characters and concepts from the very first few issues to star in new and improved, and much more serious, roles, so we still have a lot of ground to cover here.