#pencils: andrew pepoy

[rapidhighway]

James Fry - pencils, Andrew Pepoy - ink. Archie sonic #88. I'm really enjoying this art style

[the-gershomite]

Green Lantern Corps Quarterly #8 -March 1994-

DC comics (1-29 of 54)

written by Darwin McPherson

pencils by Howard Porter

inked by Andrew Pepoy

letters by Chris Eliopoulos

colors by Gina Going

[madhattersez]

I finally got my hands on something I've been looking for (for a reasonable price) since I was just a lowly little level 12 hornball - A "Marvel Swimsuit Special!"

This is the second issue in the series (though the third book of its kind), and it was released in 1993 when... times were different.

The coolest thing about them (other than the totally radical '90s hunkeroos and baberinos in general) is the amount of really talented artists that submitted pieces - So many industry-leading folks putting their spin on the self-aware, low-brow, tongue-in-cheek project.

This first image was by Joe Jusko, a super popular cover artist at the time. I remember his Conan covers the most.

I'll eventually scan the whole thing in high quality, but for now, I'll take some preview pics to show you some of my favorite and/or goofiest pages:

Here is Domino, looking like we might need to race her to a Dermatology appointment. She's apparently tacky enough to wear a swimsuit with a domino print on it.

And check out Cable in the back - Sun's out, cyberbun out! He's ready to catch some waves on a totally-worth-the-money-and-production-time rocket-powered machine gun surfboard.

I really appreciate this artist's commitment to all the "Liefeld pouches" here. I hope they're waterproof, or all those Tic Tacs inside 'em are gonna get ruined. :(

Penciling by Chris Batista, ink by Hector Collazo, coloring by Mark McNaab.

Let's kick off the "after the jump" part properly with this glorious image of Pip. Because this is certainly what people bought this book for.

It just so happens that this fuzzy little asshole narrates the entire issue, so he's to blame for the inherently sexist captions on all the pictures.

Jesus Christ, he's got two big toes on each foot.

Pencilking by Darick Robertson, ink by Andrew Pepoy, coloring by Tom Smith.

I love me some Cloak and Dagger.

Tandy looks as gorgeous as ever. Surely she owns stock in boobie tape by now.

Tyrone, however, is getting so much sand stuck to him right now... I don't think he digs being used as a beach blanket. I'm... not even sure he's ever had to wash his cloak before today! Yikes. He's all like:

Penciling by Joe Madureira, ink by Terry Austin, and coloring by Gregory Wright.

I can't stop laughing at how much Thunderstrike looks exactly like the Genetic Freak, Big Poppa Pump Scott Steiner in this picture:

The work is entirely by Lou Harrison. It may not surprise you to learn he's also a Fantasy artist.

I've always had a thing for Silver Sable, and this page is just fantastic.

That being said, my favorite part is Sandman sitting there, looking like a dope, shaped like a sand castle. Which, while it seems silly, was probably the most challenging and detailed thing I've ever seen him do with his powers. Worth it for the shot, I suppose!

Line work and ink by Steven Butler, a favorite of mine. He did penciling for the "Silver Sable and the Wild Pack" series (which got me attached), but he's also known for designing the Scarlet Spider suit. Coloring by Gregory Wright.

If you thought I wasn't going to Morb out on this post, you were undead wrong.

Just look at that ridiculous batpackage. Also... Is he really serving a cape over a leather jacket, but with absolutely no pants? Damn, dude.

Penciling by Gary Barker, ink by Jimmy Palmiotti, coloring by Tom Smith.

I can spot Adam Hughes' work a mile away, wow. I guess I didn't realize he was doing work for Marvel this far back.

A fierce-as-ever, short-haired Natasha who looks like she got slammed so hard against a rocky wall that it cracked, got up, emptied out the rest of her clip, and still had enough time and energy to pose during a reload.

Black Widow, bay-bayyy. ♫

Oh my god, Ghost Rider is just so naughty. Wearing nothing but his birthday bones.

This scene just looks like it smells awful.

Artwork by Tristan Shane.

Shulkie in a metal bikini (function over fashion?), bursting out of the lava from an active volcano. You wanna talk "hot tub?" Sure, this gets a feature.

Penciling and ink by cover artist Steve Geiger, coloring by Paul... Mounts.

Deezamn, Bishop. Never seen guy looking so buff before.

Instead of just Bishop, this looks like Hank McCoy and Bishop had a child together. Does he have any other mode than "arm vein p-pop?"

Penciling by Dwayne Turner, ink by Mark Farmer, coloring by Gregory Wright.

Ah, one of the more famous '90s Psylocke images that wasn't done by Jim Lee.

This centerfold was used in lots of comic store ads for several years after this issue came out. I remember seeing posters in the shops themselves. Trading cards of this picture are one of the most costly to collect.

It's beautiful, and the colors/lighting/shading are all fantastic.

Penciling and ink by the wonderful Art Thibert, creator of the Raft max security prison and inker of some of the most iconic X-title covers.

Coloring by Paul Mounts, who did the coloring in hundreds and hundreds of just Marvel comics alone - I didn't mention that earlier because I was snickering at his name earlier in the She-Hulk feature. My bad.

Well, this wouldn't be Tumblr without a cat picture, yeah? Or a catgirl picture, I suppose.

This is the most adorable scene in the book. Just Tigra innocently taking a cuddle nap with some... um... wow, I don't know what the fuck those things are. Snuggle up anyway!

Penciling and ink by Amanda Conner, coloring by Gregory Wright.

Huh. Of all the characters in this book, I really didn't expect to see Dr. Cooper... Either which way, the swimsuit under the detective get-up is pretty choice, honestly.

This is, of course, another Adam Hughes line art joint. Ink by Mark Farmer, coloring by Gregory Wright (who did a lot of these, huh?).

What's this? A parody ad that you'd more expect to see in an issue of "What The--?!" that only '80s kids will understand? Yup, totally.

This was in the back of the book and doesn't fit the theme at all, but it gets a mention because of the weird inclusion and also to stall time until I had the final image ready, because I needed time to prepare...

THIS.

This is the one.

How could I not end this little "show and tell" without this beauty right here?

Here, we have remorseless killer Frank Castle flexing his best end-of-catwalk pose in front of a... wrestling match between a bunch of lady demon dinosaurs battling... for his affection? To tip him American cash? Or maybe all those hearts come from their love of beating each other up? I'm not here to judge.

And then there's a sign for 75 cent hotdogs, but it's been covered with another sign for... $20 tooth brushes? What in the shit is going on here?

There is one thing I do know, though. The artist wants you to think that The Punisher has at least $2.75 worth of hotdog under that massive crotch skull.

[thenhc]

from "Murder, He Wrote" in The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror #14, script by Ian Boothby, pencils by Nina Matsumoto, inks by Andrew Pepoy, letters by Karen Bates

[julie-su]

In Archie sonic, why and how are fire ants basically omniscient?

Originally, it was that there was just that many of them, and they were so small, that they could communicate amongst eachother telepathically (a common trait for insects in media to have); we can see this in play in KTE #25, where the fire ants help Steppenwolf to defend against a threat. It is assumed onwards that this is how the fire ants operate; we start to see less of the Fire Ants other than Archimedes, Semper Fidelis, and Deo Volente.

(Knuckles the Echidna #25; Childhood's End. Written by Ken Penders, Pencilled by Manny Galan, Inked by Andrew Pepoy, Coloured by Mark Bernardo, Lettered by Vickie Williams.)

You'd have to use a bit of suspended belief, but 'telepathy' and 'electromagnetic communication' is a common trope for insects in all kinds of comics and cartoons - especially for something that the average person might think of as a 'hivemind species' - so, there it is. There are very many of them, and they can link up to tell the others what's up, which in turn informs the echidnas! A symbiotic relationship that seems to be time-honoured in their society.

Well, that's the basics, at least... This goes a little off the rails as time goes on, but at the very least, we can extrapolate all future events to do with the omniescence of the fire ants over the lifespan of the comic from here.

[gamesception]

Sception Reads Cass Cain #34

Robin (1993) #88 - May 2001 Story: Chuck Dixon & Scott Beatty Pencils: Pete Woods, Ink: Andrew Pepoy Letters: Willie Schubert, Colors: Noelle Giddings

Guest appearance again this week. A bit more of a notable one because as far as I know this is officially the first time Cass Cain and Stephanie Brown meet. Kind of more significant in retrospect than in the moment, as they don't exactly hit it off right away, but still.

So the basic setup is that Bruce has decided Stephanie isn't going to just go away and stop doing Spoiler stuff so he might as well take her on officially and train her, a decision spurred on by Tim working more and more on his own & not answering Bruce's calls. When Tim disappeared from the country completely without telling Bruce where he went Bruce turned to Stephanie to check up on him, in the process telling Steph Tim's secret identity, which iirc (my Robin knowledge is limited, I could have this wrong) previously Tim had used as the reason they couldn't be in a relationship. Like "I can't date you, you don't even know who I am, and I can't tell you that even though I want to because it might give away Batman's identity, which isn't my secret to share. Also my life is super dangerous, and Batman doesn't think you're ready, and as much as I like you I have to respect his professional opinion on this"

On the one hand it's dicky of Bruce to not respect Tim's privacy the way Tim respected his, but on the other hand Tim blowing up about it kind of implies that all those things he told steph were excuses, and the real reason he didn't want to date her was that he just wasn't that into her. Or maybe he was, but got mad at her for getting pregnant by someone else after he rejected her and now doesn't want to date her because of that? Did that happen already, or after this? Again, I don't know the details of Robin Lore, but reading just this issue and the previous one for background, Tim is absolutely the one who comes off as worse here between him and Bruce.

So anyway that's what's going on. Cass shows up in all of this when Bruce takes Stephanie to one of his training caves and has Cass demonstrate a training routine that Steph is struggling with.

Which, yeah, I guess this is pretty badass or whatever,

But if this were a real life situation, Cass would have just decapitated like seven dudes. 100% fatality rate for the criminal dummies. You'd think Bruce would be a little less glowing in his praise over that, considering how much of his shitty behavior towards Cass started when he found out she might have (definitely did, but denial is a powerful drug) killed somebody.

Cass gives Steph the cold shoulder. Giving Dixon & Beatty the benefit of the doubt for a moment, this does fit very much into the recent evolution of Cass's character, becoming harder and harsher as she gets more isolated. She also may be picking up on and echoing Batman's lowish opinion of Stephanie as a vigilante / person, even if it has softened enough for the moment that he's willing to train her.

And it sets up for future interactions where Stephanie basically puts in the work to break through Cass's walls, despite her initial frosty attitude, to become the friend Cass needed when when she didn't have any others. The whole arc is honestly pretty touching and really speaks to Stephanie's character, and it isn't possible without this initial attitude from Cass.

....

On the other hand, this plays into an obnoxious trend of the entire bat family being written as incredibly rude and dickish towards Stephanie, in ways that very often feel completely out of character. Even (especially) Tim, her supposed love interest. Even Alfred!

Yes, calling Alfred 'the Butler' is rude, but Alfred was uncharacteristically rude and dismissive to her first in this scene.

And since it so often feels out of character, you get the impression that the people who actually hate Stephanie aren't the characters themselves, but rather the writers and editors at DC. That is eventually undeniably the case, once DiDio is in charge and War Games is happening.

But that's still 3 years away! I had to check, because the way the narrative is treating Stephanie right now, the way all the characters we're supposed to think are in the right here are treating her (Alfred, Tim, not Bruce), feels very much like the build up to War Games, with Stephanie finally getting a chance to shine and getting some respect from bruce, but with the overall narrative implying that's a bad thing somehow and that she isn't worthy, that despite all her work and earnest commitment she's somehow only coasting on hubris and setting herself up fro a fall, one that we as the audience are supposed to find, like, cathartic, or maybe at best tragic but in a cosmically justified sense that she brought on herself.

And it all kind of sucks, because no, she really doesn't deserve any of it. Or rather she hasn't been written to deserve any of it. The differences between her and Bruce's other sundry teen sidekicks and hangers on have overwhelmingly been in how others have been written as treating her, not the things she's been written as doing or in her personality or whatever.

I guess that's a free writer tip for you. If you want the reader to not like a character, write that character as doing or saying or thinking unlikable things, or acting for distasteful motives. Or give that character things they don't deserve or appreciate without having to work for them. Don't make them sweet and put-upon and have them try hard to do the right thing despite coming from a bad place and struggle to earn respect that others get for free only to have it denied to them anyway and then have all your main characters shit on them constantly for no reason or even explicitly for doing things that they all do and get rewarded for.

If you do all that, your readers will end up identifying with the character you want them to dislike and disliking the characters you want them to identify with.

EDIT: oh, I almost forgot, we do get this one cute 'proud papa' moment from Bruce:

Always nice to see those, especially amid all the less positive stuff going on with him and Cass right now.

[citystompers1]

"A great physeter"

Godzilla King of the Monsters #9 (1996) Written by Alex Cox Pencils by Brandon McKinney Ink by Andrew Pepoy Colors by Perry McNamee

[shadowwingtronix]

"Yesterday's" Comic> Knuckles The Echidna #8

BW's "Yesterday's" Comic> Knuckles The Echidna #8

Enerjak spends time with his Chaotix Amiibos. Knuckles #8 Archie Comics Publications (January, 1998) “Dark Vengeance” part 2 WRITER: Ken Penders PENCILER: Manny Galan INKER: Andrew Pepoy COLORIST: Barry Grossman LETTERER: Vickie Williams EDITOR: J. Freddy Gabrie Continue reading Untitled

[ramblingsonic]

For those who have seen this image and are wondering: Archie's "Knuckles The Echidna" issue #28, part 3/3 of the storyline "The First Date" titled "It Could Be Love (I Should Have Known Better)," released September 1999, with art credits being: Pencils by Chris Allan, Inks by Andrew Pepoy, and Colours by Frank Gagliardo.

[sonicpanels]

Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Ongoing) #110: "One For All: A Tale of Princess Sally"

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: J. Axer Inks: Andrew Pepoy or Pam Eklund Letters: Jeff Powell Colors: Josh & Aimee Ray

Editor/Art Director: Justin Gabrie Managing Editor: Victor Gorelick

[onedegreeofsoniccomics]

Transformers (vol. 2) #48: Subscription Cover

Pencils/Inks: Andrew Pepoy

Colors: Jason Millet

[the-gershomite]

Green Lantern Corps Quarterly #8 -March 1994-

DC comics (30-54 of 54)

written by Darwin McPherson

pencils by Howard Porter

inked by Andrew Pepoy

letters by Chris Eliopoulos

colors by Gina Going

[marvelman901]

Starjammers vol 1 3 (1995)

Collapsar

Written by Warren Ellis

Penciled by Carlos Pacheco

Inked by Cam Smith, Mike Christian and Andrew Pepoy

Colors by Ariane Lenshoek and Malibu Color

Lettered by Richard Starkings and Comicraft

Edited by Suzanne Gaffney

The Starjammers gathered information on the Uncreated while they were repairing their ship...

[dirtyriver]

Archie Showcase Digest #8: New Kids Off the Wall, cover by Dan Parent and Rich Koslowski

Kevin Keller was introduced in Veronica #202, November 2010, just before this arc originally published as a giant event crossover in Archie & Friends #148, Archie #614, Betty and Veronica #250, Archie & Friends #149, Betty #189, Veronica #204, December 2010-February 2011, written by Alex Simmons, art by Dan Parent (pencils) and Rich Koslowski (inks on all chapters but the last one where Andrew Pepoy and Bob Smith stepped in)

Seems like only Shrill and maybe Sheila Wu have gained a little bit of traction. Would love to see some of the other girls get another chance, but there's not much new material published each month to give them a bit of spotlight.

[julie-su]

(Knuckles the Echidna issue 26 - written by Ken Penders, pencils by Chris Allan, inks by Andrew Pepoy, colours by Frank Gagliardo, letters by Vickie Williams)

This was such a disservice to Julie-Su. This whole second leg of KTE was so painful. We could have gotten 'How is Julie-Su, as an ex-solidier, fitting into society?' but instead, ...? Oh, sorry, she's just the love interest now, and boy, if she's just Not Like The Other Girls, because WOMEN SUCK! - if this wasn't an 8-12 demographic, I'd bet our Julie-Su would have been written in saying a not-so-family-friendly derogatory term.. Though 'Ditzes' is already toeing the line - it gets the message across... Though, I wish it wouldn't. It screams 'man writing women'. There is, for sure, a way to write a character who is of the 'not like the other girls' mindset - but this is not it. "See, Julie-Su is cool, because she's NOT like the average woman-- cough, I mean, the vain, shallow ditzes!" - it's presented that we're meant to go 'yer, I hate how most women are like that!" - it's just steeped in a whole heap of 'I don't want to touch THAT with a bargepole!' -- and yet here I am, dear reader, touching that with a bargepole. Nay, dipping my hands in to the armpit!

I never did like the Soul Touch in the first place - it removed so much agency from Julie-Su. "Oh, actually, she chose to leave the Legion because she fell immediately in love with Knuckles so bad that she followed him like a lost puppy!" -- BOOO! It's not like there aren't things to work with otherwise, to change course at the drop of a hat - when she initially 'rejoins', we see that she's been consistently put down and kicked around by just about everybody she interacts with, through Rykor. We're shown that she had every reason to leave. Even in later issues - 'oh, Lien-Da chose every point she could to pick on her, even though Julie-Su had no idea why!' - you couldn't give her that, you couldn't give her the autonomy and agency to make that choice for herself?

What's wrong with her seeing a glance of hope in the guardian, and following him because maybe, just maybe, he'd grant her freedom? Letting her make a calculated choice - that if she wanted to return, she could plead innocence - "see, the guardian kidnapped me!" - Kragok comes to this conclusion when initially reaccepting her, that she hadn't left, but had, indeed, been taken. But, no, we're not going that angle - up to the end of Penders' time writing for Archie Sonic, we get multiple hints throughout the series, callbacks, 'it was the soul touch all along!' -- Aren't you glad, dear readers, that Julie-Su has no right to her own feelings, that it's some higher biological innate calling that makes her act?!? Phew, for a second there I was scared that women could think for themselves!

See, Julie-Su has no personal autonomy, she left the legion because she fell in love with a man! -- Disrespectful. Boring. Cliché, to boot. And don't get me started on M25YL, which takes place in the future! Julie-Su -- EX-SOLDIER Julie-Su, settling down in a fancy apartment with a housemaid, making dinnerplans and having girl talk with her half-sister! Hang on, her half-sister? The one who killed both her parents, erased her mind, abused her relentlessly as soon as poor J-S had her memory return enough to remember just what Lien-Da had done to her.. THAT half-sister? ... I'm not buying. No, no, I won't get into it further... But it grates. IT GRATES.

Even if I close my eyes, and repeat, 'oh, but it's the 90's!' - that's no excuse for how long this carried on! Hell, we barely get to see anything interesting happen between Lien-Da and Julie-Su until Karl Bollers steps up to the plate in issue 138, published in 2004... (And boy, is there a lot to be said about that!) - Try as I might to come up with a rhyme or reason otherwise, (who ever wants the answer to be 'this could happen today, too'?!) - this is just poor writing, and a lack of respect.

Now, faithful readers, I must bind my hands... Before I write pages and pages. Yes, I do love a lot of KTE, and yes, I love Julie-Su... I even love working with the world of M25YL. But let it be known... There are parts even I can't stomach (oh, many, many parts!) and sometimes, it grates on my mind just enough for it to escape. I don't like to write negative blog posts, I feel there is more than enough negativity out there - but some things... Some things have to be discussed, or else they rattle around in my brain doing chip damage. The euphoria of discussing it with those who understand just what I'm saying, who had the same qualms reading!

I must sign this off now... See you all later.

[mobius-prime]

143. Sonic Super Special #12 - Sonic & Knuckles

Turnabout Heroes

Writers: Ken Penders and Karl Bollers Pencils: James Fry and Andrew Pepoy Colors: Josh and Aimee Ray

So this issue is a bit strange. As you can see, Zonic is up there being all sideways and whatnot, and while he doesn't actually appear in the first story, nonetheless we're invited by him to turn the book sideways to read it, as it's all rotated clockwise. We open to Sonic waking up confused in the hospital, with Dr. Quack and his friends standing over him. They ask him if he remembers anything, and he proceeds to give them a quick rundown of his life story, which seems like a strange thing to do until they hold a mirror in front of him - and, shockingly, he sees Knuckles' face! Meanwhile in Echidnaopolis a similar situation is happening with Knuckles, waking up to Julie-Su and his father and describing himself only to see Sonic's face in the mirror. Now what could have caused such a bizarre thing to occur?

Now I know what you're thinking. What the hell is original Robotnik doing up there? Well, essentially, this story exists in a really bizarre gray area in the timeline. Depending on where you look for the answer, it takes place anywhere in between StH#71 to KtE#29, which as you might have noticed, is a huge timeframe. No matter where you try to fit it in that gap, it doesn't make sense for a variety of reasons, ranging from Julie-Su's location during the plot, to Knuckles even having reunited with his father in the first place, to Sonic's growing knowledge of the new Robotnik's plans. Once Ian Flynn took over later in the comic, his opinion was that this issue couldn't have even taken place at all due to the discrepancies, but regardless, we'll be covering it and just pretending that somehow it makes sense.

The two body-swapped heroes decide they need to go to each other's homes and try to work out what has happened, so Sonic, in Knuckles' body, hops aboard a shuttle to the Floating Island with the other Freedom Fighters, while Knuckles, in Sonic's body, hops aboard a shuttle of his own with Julie-Su to Mobotropolis. However, before either of them get far, they're both shot down, Sonic's shuttle by a legion of swatbots (which look significantly upgraded from regular swatbots, but not quite like shadow-bots, though no one acknowledges their new intimidating design), and Knuckles' by the Dark Legion. Knuckles, climbing out of his downed shuttle and seeing Sonic's going down, realizes he can't glide as normal due to the body-swap, and  instead picks up Julie-Su and uses Sonic's speed to race to Sonic's rescue. Everyone groups up just in time to face the combined threat of two evil fighting forces.

WhaaAAaaAAaat? You mean to say ROBOTNIK is BACK? Come on, Sonic, you've seen several different false comebacks by now, you shouldn't even be fazed at this point. Robotnik and Dimitri give the group an ultimatum - Sonic and Knuckles must surrender immediately, or else they will never swap their minds back into the proper bodies, and they'll also kill all their friends. Well that's a choice all right! Sonic and Knuckles allow themselves to be teleported to… uh… whatever facility their enemies happen to be in. Honestly, my assumption would have been that it was the orbital platform from Robotnik's comeback or something, but Sonic didn't give any indication that he'd ever seen it before when he and the others went up there to investigate the Robians' disappearance, so who knows where they actually are right now.

Sonic and Knuckles are forced to agree to go along for the moment, and are quickly teleported into the island's Chaos Chamber, with the Master Emerald (still containing a frozen Mammoth Mogul) inside. Knuckles is loathe to hand over the emerald since removing it will cause the island to fall, whilst Sonic is mostly just irritated at the idea of Knuckles getting to be in his totally awesome body forever. Robotnik and Dimitri watch a video feed of the two from their base, but just as Sonic and Knuckles touch the emerald the screen goes to static. Robotnik and Dimitri, suspecting treachery, immediately hit the button to bring the two back, and are surprised to see them holding the emerald after all. They gleefully instruct them to insert it into their Chaos-Cannon, and activate it for a test run on the Great Forest…

Who knows how the hell they faked such a large gemstone on such short notice - hell, maybe the Brotherhood made a fake copy for just such an occasion and hid it within the chamber somewhere - but the two heroes get to work beating their enemies up. Knuckles goes for Dimitri, who vanishes in a puff of smoke, and Sonic punches Robotnik only for Robotnik to explode violently, revealing himself to be a robotic duplicate. Gee, I'm sure that means that he was just a fake, and not a literal robot version of Robotnik himself, right? Sonic and Knuckles cheerfully walk out upon their victory, amiably arguing over whether it's cooler to be a hedgehog or echidna.

Zone Wars: Giant Robotno

Writers: Dan Slott and Karl Bollers Pencils: James Fry and Nelson Ribeiro Colors: Josh and Aimee Ray

We're back to the present now, with a story that actually fits into the timeline. Sonic is taking a day off to relax and get away from freedom fighting, fishing in a pond in the forest, when suddenly a shuttle emerges from an energy portal in front of him. A strangely-dressed being within informs him that she is Sally from another zone and needs his help, but Zonic then arrives and warns Sonic that this version of Sally, called Sallactor, is evil and trying to deceive him. He calls in the rest of her zone's Freedom Fighters, the Sonicaman: Chaos Ninja Team, who are basically dressed like Super Sentai heroes (fittingly, they're from the Sentai-Zone). Zonic is surprised to see Sonic sigh and walk away from the action, as the others defeat Sallactor and drag her back to their own zone, and Sonic says he's getting sick of all this inter-zone action, that he has a hard enough time keeping track of his own zone's shenanigans. He challenges Zonic, asking how he keeps track of it all and accusing him of using others to get what he wants.

Manipulative little bastard. Sonic goes along reluctantly, and finds himself in a city full of panicking Overlanders all running away from a gigantic, mutated Bunnie, fittingly called Rabbot-zilla. Of course, as soon as Sonic tries to turn around for answers, Zonic pops out of existence.

Sonic uses his super-speed to melt the asphalt under Rabbot-zilla's feet, gluing her to the ground, and this zone's version of Robotnik, who is of course just named Julian Kintobor and wears a white coat instead of red, runs up to thank him. He explains that he tried to stop her from rampaging with a robo-virus, presumably explaining her half-roboticized state, and points to a frozen, robotic Uncle Chuck looming over a different part of the city to show its prior effectiveness. He guiltily continues to recount how he had a hand in this entire disaster…

So to be clear, Knothole Island was clearly inhabited by sapient Mobians. Those aren't ordinary animals being mutated - they're wearing gloves and shoes the same as any other Mobian from Mobius Prime. This guy knowingly detonated an atomic bomb on an inhabited island, and he's trying to pretend like it was all an accident? Sorry, Kintobor, but I don't believe you one bit. He then built giant juggernauts which basically attempted to reenact Pacific Rim against the mutated creatures, but there just wasn't enough energy to power them, as the two halves of the split Chaos Emerald used in the experiment were left on the island inhabited by the mutants. Sonic decides to go along with his plan, using his own speed on a treadmill installed in one of the doctor's Jaegers, the Giant Robotno, a name which pretty much describes how I feel about this whole thing. Clearly Sonic isn't too thrilled about working with him, however.

He blasts off, using the robot's rocket feet to fly to Knothole Island, where he encounters all his friends as mutated monsters. He has no choice but to fight them in order to search for the emeralds, and happens to spot this zone's version of himself, mutated as well, with one of the emerald halves affixed to his chest. However, at that moment he's attacked by his mutated father, also with an emerald half in his chest, and tries to shove him away and block himself from being hit at the same time, clenching his fist as he does so.

Horrified, Sonic flies away from his dead father, as the mutant Sonic approaches and cries in grief. That's right! Sonic was accidentally forced to kill an alternate zone version of his own father to save everyone. That is brutal. Later that night, Sonic stands quietly and sadly next to Kintobor as he celebrates the acquisition of the emerald, saying he can finally protect his city properly, when Zonic shows back up to check on Sonic.

Zonic congratulates Sonic on a job well done as he drops him off back in his home zone, but Sonic angrily confronts him about having known all along that he would have had to kill his own father (albeit from a different zone) to save everyone, accusing him of not understanding how it feels to him right now. In response, Zonic simply takes off his helmet.

Is anyone surprised? Anyone? Did anyone not see it coming that the hedgehog-sized being named Zonic who constantly involves himself with, well, himself, was an alternate version of Sonic? He vanishes, leaving Sonic with even more questions, but alas, we'll have to delay those for now, as it's time to jump into the comic's adaptation of Sonic Adventure!