YMMV / Sonic the Comic

Sonic itself

• Alternate Self Shipping: Many fans, and even non-fans, ship Super Sonic and Sonic. This is because Super Sonic is a Superpowered Evil Side that later separated from Sonic.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • The more cynical and sardonic writing is a heavy point of contention among the fanbase; for fans who grew up with it, it's considered one of the better adaptations for Sonic for adapting the games in its own unique way while giving some "edge" to a cast that mostly had pretty blank personalities. For fans who discovered this series later on, and therefore grew up with the usual cocksure but friendly take on Sonic, it can be very jarring to see just how unpleasant he is to people here. There's absolutely no doubt that he's still a hero who helps people, but there's a very sharp edge to his heroism compared to his much cleaner and tamer later incarnations. Generally a lot of the other cast are similar, being much more mean edged than they are usually known for, or instead ending up Butt-Monkey to said examples (eg. Chaotix straight up hate Charmy rather than their usual irritated but brotherly dynamic in most incarnations Sonic Heroes onward, while Mighty is pretty much a hot tempered jerk only lower tier from Sonic instead of the good natured Badass Pacifist he would become in later works).
  • The Executive Meddling that led to Amy morphing from girly-girl to tomboy was unpopular with Nigel Kitching and just as unpopular with fans. It wasn't just the idea itself (which makes for the first split between people who liked the new Amy vs people that preferred the old one, who was quite ironically similar to the finalised games characterisation) but also the role model-seeking reasoning behind it as she wasn't allowed to be as flawed as the male characters, thus often making her come off as rather flat and boring. Nigel Kitching was so annoyed with the change in fact that he deliberately stopped using her in his stories until the woman that made the decision (Deborah Tate) was replaced with someone else. The resultant stories by Lew Stringer (who agreed with Tate) where she tours time and space fighting evil is perhaps where the bulk of this opinion comes from as their quality varies from good to awful depending on who you ask. Despite the criticism, many fans love Amy as a headstrong Action Girl and prefer her toned-down personality, especially over her in-itself base breaking characterization from post-Sonic X in the games. It also helps that the change left Amy among the few protagonists who wasn't a Jerkass, as mentioned above.
  • Shortfuse the Cybernik. Some fans find him to be a Flat Character with no real personality or dynamic with other characters (even his short temper rarely coming up in favor of superhero quips), who shows up in every other strip written by his creator Lew Stringer while recapping his backstory as other characters talk about how strong he is. However, there are many, many fans who like him because he's just plain cool.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The entire Pirate STC strip, based on an equally crazy Sega of Europe ad campaign, which somehow managed to make Decap Attack seem sane and logical by comparison.
  • Pirate STC manages to have these moments within what is already a larger moment.
  • The fourth issue's Sonic strip, "Day of the Badniks", depicts Robotnik in a "fancy metal suit" that makes him appear to have dressed as a cyborg circus ringmaster, complete with top hat and cape. It's acknowledged exactly once and doesn't play a part in the story.
  • Sonic No More is a bizarre strip where Robotnik steals Sonic's powers, which somehow turns Robotnik blue and causes him to grow quills in the process. It also features the Freedom Fighter's first base, in the issue right after said base had been destroyed by Robotnik and the Freedom Fighters had gone on the run.
• Complete Monster:
  • Emperor Metallix is the supreme leader of the Brotherhood of Metallix and one of the comic's most significant early villains. Going rogue from his intended purpose as one of Robotnik's drones, Emperor Metallix begins a crusade to wipe out all life from Mobius and replace it all with machinery. To this end, Metallix forcibly duplicates the Omni-viewer, callously ordering his double agent Nack the Weasel killed when he sells out the Chaotix before trying to terminate the Chaotix themselves. Metallix later drives a crusade to roboticize the Miracle Planet—enlisting Grimer's unwilling help and later threatening to kill Grimer before Sonic's eyes—and, succeeding at that, alters history so that Robotnik never comes into being and Emperor Metallix leads a successful assault on Mobius that leads to the death of most of the planet's organic life and the few survivors relegated underground. Emperor Metallix has no compunction brutally killing whatever stands in the way to it and its own victory, and even Dr. Robotnik rightfully fears and dreads what Emperor Metallix is capable of.
  • Dr. Zachary, Knuckles's Arch-Enemy, is introduced as a seemingly harmless old man and one of the last of the echidnas. Zachary tricked Knuckles into leading him into the Emerald Chamber, whereupon he shattered the Master Emerald and used the Chaos Emeralds to empower a reprogrammed machine of his. Zachary gleefully allowed the inhabited floating island to fall onto Mobius as a "monument to his genius", intending to butcher the population of the planet Mobius for his own amusement before seeking revenge on Knuckles's people. In his second appearance, rebuilt as a cyborg, Zachary leads Robotnik to the location of the floating island's villagers so Robotnik could use them as components in a biological computer, which would consequentially kill them, a process which Zachary happily watched over. Possessed of a vindictive streak matched by few, Zachary manages to outshine most of the comic's other antagonists despite his relatively minor running as a villain.
  • Chaos, the primary villain of the final arc, undergoes significant Adaptational Villainy from his game counterpart. Once a Drakon Prosecutor who fought for the glory of his cruel empire, Chaos was forcibly mutated into a beast made of Chaos Energy when he was exposed to the Chaos Emeralds. Sealed for a time, Chaos immediately goes on a destructive rampage once released by the careless exploit of Grimer, savagely killing Johnny Lightfoot during his confrontation with the Freedom Fighters. Once Chaos comes into contact with the Chaos Emeralds again, Chaos attempts to drain them—uncaring this will cause the populated island they support to collapse into the ocean—and later successfully manages to achieve his Perfect Chaos form upon absorbing them in Robotnik's fortress, announcing his intent to reshape the entire planet and purge everything not part of his destructive image. Online expands further on his villainy, where he's revealed to have constantly tortured the teenage Tikal for eight millennia while sealed away with her.
• Crosses the Line Twice: A lot of the jokes, unsurprizing given Sonic's drastic personality change, but he's not the only one providing this:

Chicio: It's-a not working, boss, what-a you want me to do?

Grouchio: Well, the next time you cross the road, don't look each way!

• Cult Classic: It has fallen into obscurity (compared to other adaptations) post-cancelation, due to being region specific and having no rereleases, however it still has a devoted fanbase.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Super Sonic is the most well-known character from this comic, and is the one to get the most love. While people often play up his craziness, also expect to see it toned down often.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • One-off character Turbo, who was essentially an alien version of Sonic.
  • The comic's version of Super Sonic, portrayed as an Ax-Crazy Superpowered Evil Side more dangerous then the villains he's summoned to fight, is by far the most famous and beloved aspect of it in the franchise's larger fandom, with many seeing it as the one quality where the comic surpasses the game lore.
• Evil Is Cool: As mentioned above, the comic's version of Super Sonic has become the most popular character from the comic due to having a distinctive, Ax-Crazy personality and appearance from regular Sonic (Rather than simply having Sonic in a super form) and being genuinely threatening. He's so popular that it isn't a stretch to say he is more well known than the comic itself.
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception:
  • You shouldn't mix this comic with Archie's Sonic around fans of either series if you want to keep your head.
  • Due to the series being surprisingly obscure, the Canon Foreigner characters like Johnny Lightfoot, Tekno, Shorty, and Morian often get mistaken for fan-characters. Referring to them as such severely irks fans.
  • A common one is taking panels of Sonic being rude out of context and portraying him as an uncaring bully as a result, despite the series going out of its way to show his friends as willing to call him out on it, and Sonic himself being perfectly willing to admit he's wrong and show respect.
  • Referring to Sonic the Comic as "Fleetway Sonic" has become this, as even though it technically matches the "Archie Sonic" name for the concurrent American series, it completely ignores that Sonic the Comic actually had its own name and identity.
    • Similarly, some fans take issue with STC being brushed off as "that weird, obscure UK thing" by the larger Sonic fanbase, feeling that it downplays the popularity it enjoyed during its run far too heavily in comparison to the more internationally well-known Archie comics.
• Fanon Discontinuity: STC had its fair amount of bad strips that fans would rather forget, such as "Sonic No More", "Bravehog", "The Trickster", and "Amy's Secret Past". Ironically, "Bravehog" and "Amy's Secret Past" also contradicted each other: Amy's Secret Past was an attempt to explain why she has similar slicked-together spikes as Sonic despite not having superspeed (him having obtained them during the accident which gave him this) while Bravehog showed all the hedgehogs in the past looking like Sonic.
• Fandom Rivalry: With Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics). The two contradicting canons have a lot of fans debating which is the "better" comic.
• Fan Nickname: The versions of Sonic and friends seen here (in particular Super Sonic) would be called "Fleetway" by fans to differentiate them from the other versions, although some fans prefer using the abbreviation STC, due to Sonic the Comic already having a distinctive title that didn't really require a publisher prefix, unlike the Archie and later IDW comic books.
• Fan-Preferred Couple:
  • Both Tekno and Johnny are more common love interests for Amy than Sonic.
  • Amy likewise for Tekno, who is supposed to be paired with Shorty.
  • Shipping Ebony and Super Sonic is a popular Beta Couple.
• First Installment Wins: Very few of the other comics are remembered. Then again Sonic was the basis of the pun in the title, the magazine mostly revolved around him, and his story got all the plot development. One exception is with Decap Attack, which ran far longer than the other non-Sonic strips and is very fondly regarded by readers.
• Growing the Beard: The original issues were mainly crude one-shots with little continuity and often horrid artwork. It was also more comical then later issues. At issue 8 is when they decided to gain an actual plot, though even then it took a few issues to fully grow its beard.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Despite being such a relatively obscure adaptation, Sonic the Comic introduced many concepts and aspects that were eventually used by later adaptations and even the games, some by coincidence and others due to the comic serving as inspiration for later Sonic incarnations:
  • It characterized Tails as a Captain Obvious.
  • It introduced its own version of Metal Knuckles before Sonic R came out.
  • Similarly, it portrayed the Chaotix similarly to their later characterizations in Sonic Heroes onwards: Vector was the leader and The Smart Guy. Espio was the Only Sane Man. Charmy was a Cloudcuckoolander who gets on his teammates' nerves. For extra points, the character whose temper he boils the most tends to be Vector in both depictions (even if the games dynamic isn't quite as contemptuous). Charmy in this comic was also a prince, just like in Archie years later.
  • It did an evil Super Sonic waaay before Sonic X and Archie. This character is also similar to Sonic.exe.
  • While the designs differ greatly, it was the first piece of Sonic media to have Super Sonic's eye colour be red.
  • It also showed Metal Sonic betraying Robotnik prior to Sonic Heroes. Not only that, in his introduction, Metallix (Metal Sonic) declares "I was created to destroy you Sonic. It is my only purpose and I will never stop", which sounds like a paraphrasing of Metal Sonic's line in Heroes; "Sonic... I was created for the sole purpose of destroying you".
  • It had a Death Egg II before Sonic the Fighters and Sonic the Hedgehog 4 came out. Though this one was mostly identical to the original one, and was created due to the original Death Egg being shown getting destroyed prior to the Sonic 3 & Knuckles adaptation, thus necessitating the introduction of a second one.
  • It depicted Knuckles' ancestors as a highly advanced lost civilization years before Archie. It even had a villainous cyborg echidna in Dr. Zachary, predating Archie's Dark Legion. Dr. Zachary would also serve as the inspiration for Doctor Finitevus from the Archie comics, sharing many similarities to him in terms of appearance, character and history.
  • Sonic's aloof and Jerkass personality contrasts so heavily with his game personality, as canonized after Sonic Adventure, that it's funny. Sonic is heavily associated with friendship to the point where it's a core element of games like Sonic Heroes and Sonic Forces.
  • The comic had its own arc titled "Worlds Collide" way before Archie Comics did.
  • In the final arc, Knuckles anguishes as the Floating Island falls to Mobius and tells his friends to leave without him. His suicidal angst at failing to protect the Chaos Emeralds emulates a scene in Sonic and the Black Knight where Sir Gawain is so humiliated after losing to Sonic that he tries to commit seppuku.
  • A Villain of the Week faced by the Chaotix is a snake wearing a mechanical suit that allows him to use mechanical arms. Both the Archie comics and Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric would later feature villains with the exact same gimmick, Mordred Hood for the former, Lyric for the latter.
  • It also preceded Sonic X in depicting Sonic's world and the Earth as two separate planets existing in the same continuity with travel between the two being possible.
  • It depicted Amy as an Action Girl before the games did it. Executives trashed the comics' initial characterization of Amy and insisted on making her a more positive role model, as said original characterization was downright uncanny to how the official games series would later depict her. Amy's post-change personality and fangirling of Sonic being heavily toned down is also similar to her Sonic Boom personality (which the games themselves started taking influence from starting with Sonic Forces).
  • Prior to Shadow's introduction in the games, the franchise already had a stoic rival to Sonic who suffers from amnesia and is obsessed with learning about his past in the form of this continuity's Knuckles. Said portrayal also precedes Sonic Adventure, the OVA, Sonic X and Archie in depicting Knuckles with a serious and tough personality.
  • The saga with the Metal Sonic army in the Archie comics was a reference to the Brotherhood of Metallix in StC, which was based on the same idea.
  • Another storyline it did before Archie was Robotnik snapping and losing his sanity after too many defeats. However, Robotnik's imprisonment was made different in both continuities (if one counts [StC] - Online). In the continuation, Robotnik is locked away for the safety of Mobius, only for Dr. Zachary to free him. In the Archie comic, Snively locks Robotnik away for his own sanity and to heal his insanity, only for Robotnik to break out himself by accident, and be reimprisoned later on.
  • It had a badnik who switched sides and decided to oppose Robotnik in Shortfuse the Cybernik, who preceded Gamma from Sonic Adventure.
  • The Shanazar arc had Sonic visiting an Arabian setting before Sonic and the Secret Rings came out.
  • In this continuity, Robotnik successfully takes over the world by having Sonic be sent six months into the future, allowing him to conquer Mobius in Sonic's absence. Come Sonic Forces in 2017 where the plot involves Eggman capturing Sonic and imprisoning him for six months, allowing him to successfully take over the world in his absence.
  • The comic features a cybernetic Tails that heavily resembles the one later used in Sonic Lost World.
  • In this comic, Chaos' backstory was changed to being a member of the Drakon Empire, an alien race who created the Chaos Emeralds out of emeralds stolen from the Echidnas. In Sonic Frontiers, it turns out that Chaos is related to an alien race who originally had the Chaos Emeralds, and in the process of fleeing from their destroyed homeworld, settled on Sonic's world when the Emeralds were drawn to the Master Emerald. This comic's version of the character ends up being simultaneously prophetic and completely off the mark.
  • Also, Chaos was depicted as the mutant form of another species before Sonic Channel, the franchise's Japanese website, officially declared that the Chaos of the games was a mutated chao.
  • The comic came up with the "Fang uses fake names in order to cover his criminal activities" lore to explain Fang's inconsistent name in the games' western localizations decades before Sonic Superstars did the same.
• Just Here for Godzilla: A lot of non-British fans look into the comic just to see if the talk about its unique take on Super Sonic as a Superpowered Evil Side and Sonic's depiction as a snide, unlikable Jerkass is true.
• I Am Not Shazam: Super Sonic is the most popular thing to come out of the comic. Many people who have never read the comic incorrectly call him "Fleetway", which is the publishers name.
• Les Yay: Quite common between Tekno and Amy. The two are always traveling as a duo and are quite close. In 2018, they were given Word of Gay per Word of Dante (Nigel Kitching, one of the original comic's main writers).
• LGBT Fanbase: Tenko and Amy are a popular same-sex couple, to the point of being a Fan-Preferred Couple.
• My Real Daddy: While the comic originally started out being written by Alan McKenzie and Mark Miller, it is universally agreed by fans that Nigel Kitching and Lew Stringer, who were brought into the comic beginning with issues #4 and #30, respectively, are the true masterminds of the series and are the ones who gave it a truly distinctive voice from other incarnations of Sonic the Hedgehog and caused it to grow the beard.
• Narm:
  • Shortfuse's aforementioned habit of explaining his origin in every single appearance gets this way after a while.
  • There were several examples in the non-Sonic stories as well. From the Eternal Champions strips there was Xavier's frequent battle cries warning his foes to fear "the power of magick!" only for it to very rarely work.
  • From the character guide included in the Eternal Champions special issue each character has a profile which links their greatest fear to the cause of their death, so Trident (who was crushed by a pillar) gets "unnatural fear of pillars" while Larsen (who was killed by his boss, Mr. Tagliani) has "an unusual dislike of tagliatelle".
  • Robotnik's random pop-culture references in "Robofox" and "Hidden Danger".
  • Due to the Launch Base Zone's final boss going unnamed until 2011, its appearance in the Sonic 3 adaptation names it... "The Robotnik Squeeze-Tag Machine".
• Narm Charm: Robotnik's early egg puns, including "Eggsactly!" and "I shell return!"
• Never Live It Down: For better or for worse, one of the main things this particular take on Sonic is remembered for is it's rude and standoffish portrayal of the Blue Blur himself and it's generally more cynical, mean-spirited take on the characters and world.
• One True Threesome: Both Sonic/Amy/Tekno and Amy/Tekno/Shorty get thrown around by those who think Tekno and Amy would be a good couple, but also like them with the boys they're given Ship Tease with.
• Popular with Furries:
  • Being an incarnation of Sonic, Super Sonic was destined for this from the get go. His villainous personality makes him popular with furry Sonic fans, most who haven't even read the comic.
  • Amy's portrayal as level-headed Action Girl has made her popular, even amongst her detractors from the games.
  • Johnny Lightfoot is a rabbit who has a fair amount of furry fans.
  • Tekno's cute design and gadgeteer personality makes her popular amongst bird fans. She's the most popular Canon Foreigner from the comic.
  • Ebony is a cat character who has an amount of popularity amongst furries.
  • The series introduced an entire Zone full of foxes. Morian is the most popular for her Action Girl personality.
• Ron the Death Eater: Sonic himself is prone to this treatment by fans. While he is undeniably more of a Jerkass compared to most incarnations of him, he is still very much a hero who cares about his friends deep down and in spite of his behavior, will do what is right. Many fans though, especially those who aren't familiar with the comics, tend to only focus on Sonic's Jerkass qualities and overlook his good qualities.
• Signature Scene: Sonic chewing Porker out and calling him "soft" when he leaves the Freedom Fighters in issue 76. To those who don't like STC Sonic, it's the clearest example of what a jerkass he is; to fans, it's the best embodiment of the depth of Sonic's character and his inability to properly express affection.
• Tear Jerker:
  • For some fans, the Christmas story which sees Robotnik visited by Father Christmas, who warns him that his downfall is approaching and encourages him to change his evil ways, reminding him that he hasn't really benefited personally from his rulership of Mobius. Robotnik orders him to leave before coming to realize that Father Christmas was right, with the doctor looking genuinely lonely and crushed as he does.
    Robotnik: Keep your advice, old man! I like being evil and I don't need presents! I'm in charge! I've got power! I've got... I've got... I've got no friends on Christmas Day...◊
    Caption Box: ...and for the first time, Robotnik realizes the true cost of his ways.
  • Johnny's death. It still haunts many fans to this day.
    • The very next issue shows Sonic being haunted by nightmares about it, and briefly retiring because he can't escape the idea that it was his fault.
  • The kind-hearted alternate Super Sonic sacrificing his sanity and separate life to stop Perfect Chaos.
  • The final time Dr. Kintobor reverts back to Dr. Robonik in issue #151. The Good Doctor worked so hard to try and stave off his evil side, only for it to end up futile…
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: The meaner more cynical takes on the Sonic universe can cause this for some. It's very hard to root for Sonic sometimes, and only a handful of the supporting heroes are exceptionally nicer.
• Unpopular Popular Character: Tails. His vocal fanbase led to his solo adventures in the Nameless Zone and as 'Zonerunner' in the Chemical Plant Zone, even though he was as hapless as ever and usually triumphed by accident.
• Values Dissonance: Much of the dislike for Fleetway's characterization of Sonic comes from America, which prefers flawed yet still largely clean-cut heroes.
  • British fans have noted that Sonic's portrayal runs on a very British sense of humour that may be lost in translation. Alternatively it can be seen as the other way round and a British perception of the American "attitude era" that inspired Sonic.

Other comics

• Complete Monster: In the Streets of Rage comic's "Skate's Story" & "The Only Game in Town!" arcs, Mr. X is a power-hungry crime lord who's taken control over a majority of the city, responsible for all the crime and corruption within the city and its police force. To further extend his control, Mr. X attempts to have an entire cruise ship of hundreds attending a charity ball blown up in order to kill a few politicians onboard, hoping to replace them with his men. After his activities are leaked to the public, Mr. X later creates a massive betting pool where people can bet on the possibility of Axel and his crew making it through to the other side of the city, sending an army of gangsters to try and kill them.

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