Comic Book / Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW)

New publisher, new universe, same cool hedgehog.^note Characters from top to bottom, left to right: Amy Rose, Knuckles the Echidna, Miles "Tails" Prower, and Sonic the Hedgehog

"A new day brings new adventures! So no more lying around... Time to find out what comes next!"

— Sonic the Hedgehog

In 1993, video game superstar Sonic the Hedgehog scored himself a comic book series by Archie Comics, but after 24 years, a whopping 290 issues, a Soft Reboot, and constant screwings from lawyers from two different writers, the series officially ended on July 19, 2017 when SEGA formally ended its relationship with Archie Comics. Two days later, however, on July 21, IDW Publishing announced that it was far from being all over, as they had successfully obtained the license to publish a new series of Sonic the Hedgehog comics.

The comic is a clean slate Continuity Reboot, and some Archie Sonic alumni have returned to work on the comic, including writer Ian Flynn, who was with the Archie series from its 160th issue until its cancellation. The storylines are divided into "seasons" roughly a year long.

Initially taking place after the events of Sonic Forces, a month has passed since Dr. Eggman tried to raze the world with the power of the Phantom Ruby. But after that battle, the doctor just disappeared, leaving his Badnik army to roam the land, being more of a nuisance than anything else. Sonic is still cleaning up the mess his nemesis did to world, but then the 'bots suddenly start to perform coordinated attacks against the populace, with no signs of Eggman's involvement, meaning that he'll have to work with friends of old and new to stop this threat. However, this mystery turns out to be the prelude for a host of incoming new problems and threats for our heroes. But Sonic is never one to back down from a challenge, and he and his friends continue to fight the good fight to protect their world.

It kicked off on April 4, 2018, with the first 4 issues having weekly installments in April and then monthly updates come May 2018. Thanks to its success, the series has had a few spin-off mini-series as well.

Mini-Series

• Tangle & Whisper: During Wondercon 2019, the staff revealed the first spin-off mini-series starring the titular duo which started in the summer of the same year. The story focuses on the two as they deal with a shapeshifting villain named Mimic who seems to have ties with Whisper. This would be the third time a non-Sega character got their own mini-series within a Sonic comic (Sally had her own mini back in the 90s and Scourge received his own story arc in Sonic Universe).

• Bad Guys: In April 2020, another mini-series was announced, focusing on several of the villains of this comic, with the main focus on Dr. Starline, another new character created for IDW, as he leads said villains to go against Eggman while also plotting something of his own. It was released in October of that year. Flynn headed up this series while Evan Stanley took over writing duties for the main comic during so, with the two alternating beyond the mini-series' run.

• Imposter Syndrome: Announced in the 2021 Free Comic Book Day issue. This mini-series acts as a lead up to the "Battle for the Empire" arc. Starline begins his power play and sets his sights on bringing down Sonic and Eggman with his own creations. It would introduce two new characters to the mix, Surge the Tenrec and Kit the Fennec, and was released starting in November 2021.

• Scrapnik Island: Announced July 2022, this horror-themed mini-series sees Sonic and Tails trapped on a robot island and forced to battle both new foes and forgotten enemies, including the return of Mecha Knuckles from Sonic Advance and Mecha Sonic from Sonic 3 & Knuckles. It is written by Daniel Barnes of The Black Mage fame and was released starting in October 2022.

• Fang the Hunter: Following Fang's return to the mainline games via Sonic Superstars, he was announced to have his own mini-series set in the Classic era, with the first issue releasing on January 17, 2024. This mini-series sees him, accompanied by Bean the Dynamite and Bark the Polar Bear, searching for a rumored eighth Chaos Emerald in order to get rich. Fang's stubbornness however puts him at odds with his other teammates, which cause friction between all three members.

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On September 2020, it was stated that Classic Sonic would get a special of his own as part of Sonic's 30th anniversary. This would eventually kick off a celebratory subseries of comics that took place in the Classic Era.

Classic Era series

• The first comic, the 30th Anniversary Special, was released on June 23, 2021^note June 23rd being the release date of the first Sonic game. An extra story for that comic was released as a separate issue in August 14th on Free Comic Book Day. ^note Normally FCBD would be in May. But due to COVID concerns from 2020 into 2021, it was pushed back to August. Both were re-printed together as part of a hardcover deluxe edition that released in the same year.invoked

• The following year saw a 30th anniversary special revolving around Classic Tails, released on November 16, 2022,^note the same month as the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in celebration of his debut.

• Amy got her own 30th anniversary special released on September 27, 2023^note this date was pretty close to the original Japanese release date of Sonic the Hedgehog CD, September 23, 1993.

• A Knuckles-focused one-shot anniversary special, in celebration of his debut game's 30th anniversary^note Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles released in 1994, was announced to release in 2024.

• Fang got his own mini-series in 2024 (the first issue being released on January 17, 2024) to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his debut game^note Sonic Triple Trouble was released November 11, 1994, which also starred the other two members of his entourage, Bean the Dynamite and Bark the Polar Bear.

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In July 2020, Tangle and Whisper joined the mobile games Sonic Dash and Sonic Forces: Speed Battle as playable characters, with the former appearing in Dash on July 3-9 and in Speed Battle on July 8, and the latter appearing in Dash on July 10-16 and in Speed Battle in July 17, marking the first playable appearance of comic characters in a game. Furthermore, in 2022, Tangle received a direct reference in one of Sonic's idle lines when you wait long enough in one place in Sonic Frontiers. In November 2023, Surge the Tenrec, first introduced in the Imposter Syndrome mini-series, would be added as a playable character in Sonic Prime Dash by Netflix Games, along with the regular Sonic Dash and Sonic Forces: Speed Battle.

On a fandom project related note, see also, Sonic Rebound, which is a fan-made and mostly faithful (with its own twists) collaborated Animated Adaptation of the comics^note Bear with them on updates though, they take awhile to make, as well as Adrenaline Dubs' videos of the comic that adds voices to the characters (sans animation of course).

Now has a Recap Page that needs love.

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Tropes Include:

Main Series

Tropes #-C

• 0% Approval Rating: As usual, Eggman is disliked and feared across the board except by his Badniks (whose loyalty to him is pre-programmed). However, Starline proves to be even more reviled, with none of the heroes or other villains respecting or even fearing him.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: The appearance of Super Sonic and Super Silver at the climax of the Metal Virus Saga.
• Abandoned Laboratory:
  • The derelict bunker Sonic and Tails explore and meet Belle in during the Chao Races and Badnik Bases arc.
  • Egg Base Sigma, Starline's home base in Season 3, becomes this after his death. When Surge and Kit return there at the end of Issue #54, the place is eerily quiet with scant indoor lighting. Kit brings the whole place down two issues later in a failed attempt to kill the game characters, and after a few days, it's become decrepit after their power has run out.
• Action Prologue:
  • The whole comic opens with Sonic and Tails fending off a Badnik assault on a town.
  • Season 4 kicks off with Sonic, Tails, Belle, and Kit fighting their way out of Eggperial City.
• Adapted Out: Zig-Zagged in relation to the events of Forces; despite taking part directly after Forces, only some details of the game seem to have made the jump. For example, Wispons, the general concept of the Avatar, and possibly the Phantom Ruby (through reference to the Phantom Replicas) are mentioned, but Classic Sonic and Infinite are currently not accounted for.
• Adaptation Expansion: The IDW series, acting as a sequel to Sonic Forces, answers some minor questions of the original game.
  • Issue 3 reveals that before Tails disappeared, he gave the Resistance the Wisps communicator. With it, the Resistance got help from the wisps to fight Eggman's army.
  • The reason Eggman used a phantom of Metal Sonic instead of the real deal is due to Metal receiving upgrades, but when he was finished, the war was over.
• Affirmative Action Girl: Tangle was added in order to have a girl who could easily go on cool adventures.
• Airborne Aircraft Carrier: Eggman's Egg Fleet, the Flying Seafood Special-stylized armada from Heroes makes a come back, again commandeered by Neo Metal Sonic.
• Alien Geometries: The tower in "Test Run" constantly moves around the people who enter it, and when Sonic uses his speed to try and outpace the changes, the place warps into an M. C. Esher-style warp.
• All for Nothing:
  • All of Dr. Starline's efforts throughout the series—from restoring Eggman to normal, to trying to salvage the Metal Virus, to Surge and Kit's creation, to trying to conquer the world and regain Eggman's respect—ultimately come to naught, culminating in his Undignified Death in Issue #50.
  • In Issue #28, Sonic discusses that the heroes' attempt to save the world from the Metal Virus via the Chaos Emeralds and Warp Topaz may have failed before. Silver may have been the deciding factor to defy this trope because he arrived to their present to prevent this fate.
  • Except for Jewel, Tangle, and to a lesser degree Whisper, everyone involved in at the end of the Eggman's Legacy Saga emerges from it more or less empty-handed:
    • Sonic and his friends survive Surge and Kit's attempts to kill them and rescue Whisper's Wisps from the former, but Sonic and Tails fail miserably to redeem their imposters. Meanwhile, Belle's actions keep failing/backfiring, while Amy's vacation with the other girls literally goes up in flames.
    • All of Starline's efforts since Bad Guys were already doomed even before Eggman tore them up within minutes, since Surge and Kit had secretly turned on him. Surge herself, after going rogue, undoes her own efforts to overcome Sonic due to her anger and rashness, ultimately blowing all of her and Kit's early advantages before they finally go on the run.
    • Eggman eliminates Starline and his Eggperial City still stands with few casualties sustained in turn. However, Starline is simply replaced by the much more dangerous Surge and Kit, and Eggman fails to reclaim a prototype Surge stole from him. Thanks to Kit, Eggman is also unable to capture Surge or take out Sonic at the latter's most vulnerable.
    • The Chaotix thwart Clutch's smuggling ring while investigating Surge and Kit's vandalism in Central City. However, Clutch escapes with Rough and Tumble in tow and the Chaotix lose Surge and Kit's trail, leaving them with a cold case.
• Alternate Continuity: Zig-Zagged. When it initially started, the series was said to be set in a separate continuity from the previous Sonic comics and other Sonic media, including the games. However, later on in the comic's run, as part of an effort by Sonic Team to streamline and unify the Sonic canon, the comic would be retroactively made part of the games' continuity (in a Loose Canon sense), with Tangle getting name dropped in Sonic Frontiers.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us:
  • Angel Island gets taken over by the Egg Fleet by the end of Issue #8. The next several issues are dedicated to liberating it.
  • In Issue #22, Restoration HQ is overrun with Zombots after an infected monkey slips in with the refugees and transforms, triggering an outbreak that quickly spreads.
  • After Rouge crashes the Faceship in Issue #28, an enraged Zavok goes One-Winged Angel and throws Zombots onto Angel Island while he himself attacks it from below. With their last safe haven compromised, the remaining heroes stage a desperate Last Stand throughout Issue #29, attempting to buy Sonic and Silver time to defeat Zavok and eradicate the Metal Virus for good.
  • In Issues #42, the new Restoration HQ is invaded by the Deadly Six, while Starline sneaks in at the same time and kidnaps Belle. Sonic, Tangle, Whisper, and Tails spend the next issue fending off the attack, while the Chaotix, unable to help due to traffic, go after Starline and Belle.
  • In Imposter Syndrome, Starline usurps Eggman and takes control of Eggperial City. Eggman proceeds to spend most of Issue #50 striking back, while Sonic and Tails duel Surge and Kit and Belle repairs a damaged Metal Sonic so he can lead her to Eggman.
• Ambiguous Situation: By the end of Issue #8, it's still unclear whether Eggman is really suffering from amnesia, or faking it. It's finally confirmed to be true in Issue #11, when Tinker is horrified at the prospect of regaining Eggman's memories.
• Amnesiac Dissonance: Issue #5 reveals that Eggman is suffering from amnesia, having become the kindhearted Mr. Tinker. Then in Issue #11, Dr. Starline abducts him and performs a procedure to restore his memories, which kicks in during the following issue.
• Amnesiac Hero: Issue #31 reveals Sonic has become this, developing a socialite personality and adopting the name "Mr. Needlemouse". This doesn't last long, as midway through Issue #32, Blaze uses the Sol Emeralds to restore Sonic's memories.
• And I Must Scream:
  • Belle in Issue #49 attacks Sonic and Tails under the influence of Starline's control signal, which he sent out to lure the heroes to Surge and Kit. After Tails snaps her out of it, Belle reveals she knew what she was doing but was powerless to stop herself.
  • In Issue #59, Whisper and Lanolin are dissolved alive and imprisoned in an atomized state via Eggman's spatial-displacement traps, with Tangle barely avoiding the same fate via a Leap of Faith.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: The second year of the comic kicks off the Infection arc wherein Dr. Eggman unleashes a metal virus that turns organic creatures into Zombots. After dousing Rough and Tumble, Sonic is infected and tries to run the disease off to mixed results, barely managing to stay alive by the end of it. When the outbreak hits the first named character to succumb is Charmy who tried to help a quarantined woman. As the arc progresses, Cheese, Chocola, Shadow, Vanilla, Vector, Big, Froggy, Jewel, Tangle, and Knuckles all succumb to the virus, while Cream was heavily implied to become a Zombot, but we never see her fully turn. Also, Amy, Tails, and even Eggman himself contract the virus but never fully turn into Zombots, leaving only Espio, Whisper, Silver, Rouge, and the Babylon Rogues the only ones to not be infected at all this whole arc.
• Animation Bump: An example that isn't animated, but while the art in the issues are consistently good, well-detailed, and expressive, there are some issues that are even more detailed and expressive than the others, or on an entirely different level altogether. In issues where there is a lot of focus on action and fighting, they will have bigger page spreads to showcase the action or take on a slightly different art style that can help emphasize it.
• Animesque: No doubt. From the exaggerated facial expressions, to the consistently fluid drawings, to the heavy amount of overall detail, to the sometimes VERY cute-sy look of the characters, to even the dynamic use of speed-lines in some of the fight scenes, to say that quite a lot of the art for the issues are manga-inspired would be an understatement. Some issues are like this even more than others, since it depends on the artist, with Adam Bryce Thomas being the most manga-esque during action heavy issues.
• Appropriated Appellation: Sonic takes to calling people infected with Eggman's robo-virus "zombots" due to being rendered mindless by it. Eggman himself likes the name, and starts using it.
• Arc Hero: Each arc has at least one of Sonic's friends take center stage alongside him.
  • Neo Metal Sonic's Revenge: Knuckles.
  • Metal Virus: Silver and Cream.
  • Eggman's Legacy: Belle, although she fades from prominence after Issue #50.
• Arc Villain: Each arc has its own central antagonist.
  • Neo Metal Sonic's Revenge: Neo Metal Sonic.
  • Metal Virus: Dr. Eggman after he invents and unleashes the Zombot Virus. However, he starts to lose control of it, and in Issue #25, Zavok takes over as the main villain for the rest of the arc. Eggman retakes the Big Bad crown for the epilogue, though.
  • Eggman's Legacy: Dr. Starline, until his death in Issue #50, upon which Surge and Kit become the main villains for the rest of the arc.
• An Arm and a Leg:
  • In Issue #15, Amy accidentally whacks off a Zombot Rough's arm with her hammer. Due to the Zombots' Healing Factor, Rough regenerates, reversing the amputation.
  • In Issue #50, Eggman uses the Egg Emperor's lance to maim Starline's Egg Robo before skewering it.
• Armed Females, Unarmed Males:
  • Like in the games, Amy fights with a hammer, while Sonic, Shadow, and Silver have powers that don't require them to use weapons.
  • Among Team Dark, Shadow has his chaos powers and doesn't use weapons, Omega is a robot and all his weapons are a part of his body, and Rouge uses grenades as well as kicks.
  • Issue #8 has Sonic teaming up with Silver the Hedgehog and Whisper the Wolf. Sonic and Silver are both male and possess Super-Speed and Telekinesis, respectively. Whisper uses a Wisp-powered rifle.
  • Cream, Tangle, Zeena, and Surge are examples of female characters whose powers don't require them to be armed.
    • Likewise, Eggman and Clutch are two male characters who can't fight unarmed, where they both use a Ray Gun and shotgun respectively. Kit, meanwhile, requires his backpack to use his hydrokinesis, and if it runs dry, he has to pause to recharge it, leaving himself open.
  • Lanolin, the leader of the newly formed Diamond Cutters, fights using a Magenta Wisp that can be used in tandem with her bell-shaped Wispon to fire off powerful sound waves.
• Armor-Piercing Response: In Issue #6, Shadow heatedly asks Sonic why he'd be willing to give the seemingly amnesiac Eggman a second chance. Sonic counters by bringing up all the things Shadow did before his own Heel–Face Turn.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: While introducing himself and Knuckles in issue #3, Sonic accuses Rough and Tumble of "theft, extortion, kidnapping and being Grade-A jerks".
• Artifact Title: Applies to stories from which Sonic is absent or makes no more than a cameo. Most of the annuals and first three mini-series in particular focus on characters besides the Blue Blur, and in rare instances (e.g., Issues #46, #48, and #65), he's never even mentioned.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The climax of the Metal Virus arc has the survivors faced with a giant, Chaos-powered Zavok throwing his Zombot army at them.
• Ax-Crazy: The Deadly Six (especially Zazz and Zor), Mimic the Octopus, and Surge the Tenrec all qualify.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Sonic and Tangle at one point during Issue #4.
• Badass Boast:
  • Zavok drops one at the climax of the Metal Virus Saga in Issue #29:
    Zavok: This is your last show of resistance? This is all you can muster? You may have destroyed my means of creating more Metal Virus, but I still command the Zombots! I will have them infect every inch of the globe! I will see your precious world grow sick and perish!
  • Surge introduces herself with one before fighting Sonic in Issue #50:
    Surge: I'm Surge the Tenrec. And your "speed of sound" can't compete with my "speed of light"!
  • Lanolin and Whisper give one to Dr. Eggman right before they save Tangle, Amy, and Tails.
    Lanolin: I believe you met our namesake, the Diamond Cutters. We serve as a small, specialized strike team that assesses danger and offers aid in extreme conditions. But mostly, we intend...
    Whisper: (with her Wispon raised) To be a problem.
• Bad Future: Silver's reasoning for returning in issue #8. He joined the Resistance during Forces because the Eggman Empire took over. However, when he came back, everything was dead. After speculation from the two, Silver believes that Eggman's Metal Virus is to blame, after Eggman explains that the Zombots will disintegrate in a hundred years or so if left unchecked. After the Metal Virus is destroyed, Silver returns to his time and finds it restored to a prosperous state. Silver's story in the 2022 annual worries that something will happen that will cause another one of these, arriving in the past with no idea why he's there.
• Bash Brothers: Sonic and Tails, as demonstrated right off the bat in the first issue.
• Berserk Board Barricade:
  • Vanilla does this in Issue #18 to try and keep Zombots out of her and Cream's house. It doesn't work, forcing Cheese and Chocola to sacrifice themselves while Cream and Vanilla barely escape.
  • In Issue #38, Sonic, Tails, and Amy barricade themselves inside a house in the town area of Eggman's new tower, attempting to keep a Badnik horde outside from getting at them. Eggman sets the house on fire to smoke the trio out.
• Berserk Button:
  • Eggman's Hair-Trigger Temper is as bad as ever, but two things in particular set him off: the mere sight of Sonic, and being called "Baldy McNosehair".
  • For Metal Sonic, being compared unfavorably to the real Sonic.
  • Rough and Tumble become enraged whenever the heroes steal their rhyming shtick, which is Serious Business to them.
    Tumble: (to Vector) Only we get to rhyme! And your metre is trash!
  • Gemerl takes his job as Cream's bodyguard very seriously, and harming her in front of him is good way to incur his wrath.
  • Belle knows she's a Badnik, but doesn't consider herself an "Eggman robot" and furiously lashes out at whoever suggests otherwise.
  • Kit absolutely loses it if Surge is hurt or her business is interfered with.
• Big Bad Ensemble: As usual, Eggman is the overall Big Bad of the setting, albeit not until the end of Year 1 due to his amnesia after the events of Sonic Forces; Metal Sonic substitutes for him until then. Whenever Eggman isn't causing trouble, another villain (or group of them) is, with the Zeti standing out in that regard.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Dr. Starline. He's arguably the comic's Greater-Scope Villain for the first 50 issues, but the entire rest of the cast—good, bad, and neutral—eclipses him by a country mile. Lampshaded by Surge in Imposter Syndrome #3.
  Surge: (facepalming) Being a Mad Scientist wasn't bad enough. He had to be a wannabe influencer, too.
• Big Badass Battle Sequence: Each major arc climaxes with one of these.
  • The climax of the opening saga has all the heroes who debuted before Issue #9 fighting to liberate Angel Island from Neo Metal Sonic's forces, culminating in a battle against Neo's final form, Master Overlord, in Issue #11.
  • The Metal Virus Saga's climax in Issue #29 pits a 99%-infected Sonic and seven of his allies, along with Eggman and Metal Sonic, against a giant Zavok and the heroes who got Zombot-ified. What ensues is a nail-biting, down-to-the-wire Last Stand which culminates in Sonic and Silver going Super, defeating Zavok, and eradicating the Metal Virus once and for all.
  • The third saga's climax is Issue #50's "Battle for the Empire", which consists of three simultaneous duels: Sonic vs. Surge, Tails vs. Kit, and Eggman vs. Starline. In the end, Sonic, Tails, and Eggman triumph over their inexperienced imposters.
• Big Badass Rig: Shadow drives one in Issue #19 for the uninfected citizens of Sunset City to use to escape from the Zombots.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • In Issue #4, Blaze shows up just in time to save Sonic and Tangle from being overwhelmed by badniks.
  • Lampshaded by Vector in Issue #17 when Sonic saves him from a group of Zombots.
    Vector: What is it with you and the dramatic timing?
  • In Issue #20, just as Sonic and Omega are about to be overwhelmed by the Zombots in Sunset City, Silver and Tails show up to rescue and evacuate them.
  • In Issue #32, Eggman is about to finally wipe out the heroes, when Sonic returns from the Sol Dimension and tears Eggman's Party Crusher mech apart.
  • Shadow does this twice in Chao Races and Badnik Bases.
  • In Issue #40, Eggman has Sonic, Tails, and Amy at his mercy, but then Tangle drops in uninvited to rescue the trio.
  • Double-subverted in the Zeti Hunt arc. Sonic intercepts the Zeti before they can storm Restoration HQ's command center, but they overpower him along with Tangle and Whisper. Then Tails shows up with his "Zeti-Zappers" just in time to stop them from killing Sonic.
• In Issue #61, Sonic, Whisper and Lanolin arrive just in time to save Tangle, Amy and Tails from Eggman and Metal Sonic.
• Big Damn Reunion:
  • All of the main, and some minor, characters in Issue #29 form this trope as Super Sonic and Super Silver defeat Zavok and rid the world of the Eggman's Metal Virus, effectively curing the world. The fact that they have all gathered around Angel Island, formerly infected/"Zombot-ified" or otherwise, certainly helps. As the Restoration, Chaotix, Team Dark, Cheese, Chocola, and Big celebrate on the island's surface, Cream and Gemerl arrive on the beach below just in time to reunite with Vanilla.
  • In Issue #32, after Blaze sends Sonic back to his dimension and he chases Eggman off, almost all of his friends rush him in a huge Group Hug to welcome him home.
  • Issue #41 has a villainous example where the Deadly Six reunite after not seeing each other since Issue #25.
• Big Guy, Little Guy: Rough and Tumble fit this mold, with Rough being shorter and less muscular than his brother, Tumble.
• Big "NO!":
  • Neo Metal Sonic howls this in Issue #11, upon being defeated as Master Overlord.
  • In Issue #23, Sonic does this when Starline finds a signal that works on the Zombots and Eggman orders it uploaded to the Faceship.
  • Cream in Issue #27, as Zeena prepares to throw her to the Zombots.
  • Zor in Issue #28 upon losing to Silver and Whisper, though it becomes less genuine when he accepts his fate.
    • In the same issue, Zavok lets out one when Rouge steals the Chaos Emerald powering the Faceship, causing it to crash.
  • Silver yells this in Issue #29 when Sonic and Metal Sonic are flamed before his eyes by Zavok.
  • Shadow exclaims this in Issue #36 when he's denied a rematch with Starline (who fought and defeated him earlier).
  • The 30th Anniversary Special has Classic Sonic and Classic Tails shout this in unison when the Chaos Emerald they fought the Hooligans over falls off a cliff.
  • Starline yells this in Imposter Syndrome #3 when a rebelling Surge and Kit overpower him.
  • Kit and Surge each let one out in Overpowered; the former accusingly, and the latter in panic.
  • Tangle shouts this in Issue #59 when Whisper is atomized alive by Eggman's spatial-displacement traps.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • "Big's Big Adventure" from the 2020 Annual. On one hand, Big has finally managed to find Froggy. On the other hand, Froggy has been infected and turned into a Zombot, with Big not far behind in joining him.
  • All or Nothing, the climax of the Metal Virus Saga, ends with the Metal Virus having been destroyed, the Deadly Six defeated, and everyone restored to normal. But the world is still in tatters after the whole ordeal, and Sonic has gone missing after the Warp Topaz overloaded from Chaos energy and blew up.
  • Test Run and Zeti Hunt end with the heroes victorious, but Belle heartbroken as it's revealed her creator was Eggman's amnesiac self, "Mr. Tinker"—a side of him she concedes is gone forever. The finale to Zeti Hunt also has Starline getting what he wanted out of Belle and escaping before the Chaotix can arrest him.
  • Overpowered, the Eggman's Legacy Saga's Season Finale, ends with Surge defeated, Kit forced to retreat with her in tow, Whisper's Wisps rescued, and Eggman empty-handed yet again. However, the late Dr. Starline's Villainous Legacy prevails through his creations (who refuse to change) and idol (who posthumously gave Starline the recognition he sought), much to Sonic and Tails' dejection. This example would technically be a Downer Ending if not for the heroes' Pyrrhic Victory and survival.
• Book Ends:
  • The first and last stories of the 2020 annual shows how two characters who were converted into Zombots offscreen in the main Metal Virus arc—Big and Jewel—ended up that way.
  • Ian Flynn's uninterrupted run of the comic began with Dr. Eggman getting amnesia and ends with Sonic himself in the same situation.
  • Schedule Slip led to a variation in 2023, in that the first (#56) and last (#67) main series issues released that year saw Surge and Kit Put on a Bus and vice-versa, respectively.invoked
• Both Sides Have a Point:
  • Sonic comes to blows with his allies during the Metal Virus arc over his decision to spare Eggman in his amnesiac state as Mr. Tinker so he can start over and have a second chance at life... which backfires when Eggman regains his memory and goes right back to his evil ways, leading directly to the Metal Virus outbreak. Both sides bring up valid points:
    • Sonic maintains that sparing Eggman was the right thing to do; at least it gave him a chance to do some good for once, even if he wasn't in his right mind. He also insists that nobody could have foreseen someone like Dr. Starline going out of his way to find him and restore his memories, and throws Shadow's own logic back in his face by pointing out Shadow also tried to destroy the world while amnesiac, and if he got a second chance and was forgiven, then there's no reason Eggman shouldn't be given the same courtesy.
    • Shadow and Espio, however, are also correct in their points, both of them wanting Eggman arrested or eliminated at his most vulnerable because, well, let's face it: the doctor is a lunatic. Shadow also points out from his own experiences that just because one loses their memory doesn't make them any less dangerous. One would think Sonic would get the hint based on all of the atrocities Eggman has committed prior to the Metal Virus... but instead, he just accuses them of automatically "assuming the worst about everyone and everything". As things go From Bad to Worse, however, Sonic acknowledges that both of them were right and the entire mess is his fault.
  • In the opening of the Zeti Hunt arc, Sonic and Eggman argue over who's fault it is the Deadly Six are running loose in the world, with Sonic holding Eggman responsible. Eggman points out that Starline went behind his back to get the Zeti involved in the Metal Virus incident, He's not wrong, but Sonic points out that Starline was Eggman's lackey at the time (Eggman didn't fire him until after the fact), so Eggman still bears responsibility. Eggman's much longer List of Transgressions doesn't help his case.
• Break the Cutie:
  • Cream gets a hard dose of this trope during the Metal Virus Saga, with the Zombot plague claiming her two Chao and her own mother right before her eyes. To top it off, she herself gets infected after a physically-abusive scuffle with Zeena. The fact that she's only six years old doesn't help matters one bit.
  • Whisper is The Quiet One as a direct result of this trope. She was once a cheerful and plain-spoken girl, but when Eggman and Mimic wiped out her old team, the Diamond Cutters, she was traumatized for life. She suffers this a second time when Tangle is turned into a Zombot by the Metal Virus and subsequently enslaved by Zavok, who then adds to Whisper's misery by pitting the girls against each other.
  • While Tails loses less to the Metal Virus than Cream, Whisper, Espio, or Rouge do, being screwed out of making a cure hits his confidence hard. By the final battle with Zavok and the Zombots, Tails is barely holding himself together, and when he himself gets infected by Cheese and Chocola, the poor kid is reduced to tearfully begging for his life.
  • Belle suffers this trope in Issues #40 and #44, as Eggman and Starline dash her hopes of ever seeing the former's "Mr. Tinker" persona—under which he created her—again, with both men shamelessly rubbing her tragic past in her face. While Tangle consoles Belle in the first instance, the second breaks her altogether.
    Belle: (to Vector, about Starline) He broke my heart.
  • Kit is strongly implied to have been a happier kid until Starline and Surge's abuse scarred his psyche. Although Sonic and Tails try to help him recover, his mental/emotional state keeps cracking until he finally goes off the deep end in Issue #56, becoming as disillusioned and hostile as Surge herself.
• Break the Haughty:
  • Between his own Pride and his anger at Sonic for sparing Eggman, Shadow ignores his rival's advice to run if he contracts the Metal Virus, becoming a Zombot as a result. After being cured, he isolates himself in disgrace and broods for a while until his next mission.
  • Surge gets this whenever she has a Villainous BSoD.
  • Invoked by Eggman against Starline during their climactic showdown. It works, as Starline's Humiliation Conga during the fight breaks his spirit and leads to his doom.
  • Issue #56 is a real ego-bruiser for Sonic and Tails, what with Surge and Kit's Redemption Rejection, yet another double-cross on Eggman's part, and Starline posthumously getting the last laugh on all of them.
• Breather Episode:
  • Issue #31 comes in between the action-packed climax of the Metal Virus saga in Issues #29-30 and the final epilogue of the saga in Issue #32. While Eggman shows up at the end of the issue for one final attempt to crush the heroes, and other plot threads are laid down, it's mostly about tying up loose ends and giving the heroes a chance to finally take a moment for themselves after the Zombot apocalypse.
  • The entire "Trial By Fire" arc (Issues #45-47) is this, coming between the major action and drama of the "Zeti Hunt" and "Battle For the Empire" arcs and focusing just on some of the girls going on a camping trip.
• Broken Pedestal: Starline and Belle both start out with affections for Eggman—albeit different sides of him—that give way to enmity over time. Eggman thinks nothing of it all and grumbles about them taking his vices so personally.
• The Bus Came Back: This comic brings back several characters from across the series' history, making them a consistent part of the cast, though their appearances regularly rotate depending on the story arc.
  • Issue #8 brings back Metal Sonic, back in his "Neo" form from Heroes, as the arc's Big Bad.
  • The Babylon Rogues (Jet the Hawk, Wave the Swallow, and Storm the Albatross) come back in the 2019 Annual after being completely absent in the Sonic games since Free Riders in 2010.
  • Both Gemerl from Advance 3 (2004) and Chocola from Heroes (2003) return after their one-shot appearance in their respective games. Cream and Cheese (last appearance in Generations, 2011) and Vanilla (last mentioned in Free Riders) likewise return in Issue #18.
  • In Issue #29, Super Silver reappears for the first time since Sonic '06.
  • Marine from Sonic Rush Adventure makes a brief appearance in Blaze's world in the 2022 Annual.
• But Now I Must Go: At the end of the Metal Virus Saga, Silver returns to his own time now that it's been saved.
• Butt-Monkey: Belle, full-stop. Almost every story she's in has at least misfortune happen to her.
  • Cream debuted during the Metal Virus Saga and spent the latter two-thirds of it getting shafted. She loses her hometown, pet Chao, and mother to the Zombot plague, watches her friends cross the Despair Event Horizon, and then finally gets infected herself during a physically-abusive scuffle with Zeena. Definitely nothing a preschool-age girl should experience.
• Call-Back: A new antagonistic force was based on something from one of the older games. It's Metal Sonic, back in his Neo form from Sonic Heroes.
• Call to Agriculture: The 2019 Annual shows that after the Egg Fleet's defeat in the comic's first year, Silver took to gardening as he was interested in how the planet could sustain life in a way his time couldn't. Blaze decides to help as well and though she admits to only knowing some of the basics, she manages to restore the soil and they grow a garden together. This garden would be shown to blossom with a bountiful harvest in the 2022 annual, and is a secret entrance to Restoration's base of operations.
• Car Fu:
  • Shadow in Issue #19 plows his truck through a horde of Zombots. He runs them clean off a bridge into the river below, as Big's 2020 Annual story reveals.
  • In Issue #21, after losing the Metal Virus cure, Tails puts his Cyclone mech in car-mode and drives it through a mass of Zombots, including the infected Cheese and Chocola.
  • In Issue #42, the Deadly Six set a truck on fire and crash it into the guard station at Restoration HQ's entrance.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: As per usual, Sonic and co. don't let being in a battle interfere with their banter.
• Cerebus Syndrome:
  • The series was originally being billed as a Lighter and Softer Continuity Reboot that kept the same writing staff from the Darker and Edgier Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) but set out to have a tone closer to the SEGA video games. And yet, the Metal Virus saga is arguably even darker than the darkest of the older comic's darkest story arcs, as it's basically a slightly less gory Zombie Apocalypse story played completely straight. The reason for this, the writers eventually admitted, is that the storyline was plotted out as a possible highly dramatic endpoint for the Archie comics and the staff kept the story and moved some characters around to extricate Sally, Antoine, Bunnie, Rotor, and Snively for the storyline so they'd be replaced with both game centric characters and new cast members like Whisper and Tangle. This resulted in a high degree of Mood Whiplash as the storyline that was plotted to FINISH decades of continuity for another comic ended up being only the new comic's second arc.
  • The Eggman's Legacy Saga invokes this trope circa Issue #49 and Imposter Syndrome #3, mainly through some really brutal action sequences and the Psychological/Existential Horror surrounding Surge and Kit. It also has the most Bittersweet Ending to a major Story Arc yet in the comic.
• Chromatic Arrangement: Issues #39-40 have Sonic, Amy, Tails, and eventually Tangle fighting a trio of red, blue and green Eggman robots called Egg Vipers.
• Colony Drop: Rouge takes away the Chaos Emerald powering the Faceship and has it crash on top of the legion of Zombots. When questioned, Rouge rationalized that their friends would all be fine, seeing as the Zombots could regenerate.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The characters' text boxes, whenever they're speaking from off-screen. To name a few examples:
  • Blue for Sonic and Kit;
  • Black for Eggman;
  • Gold for Tails;
  • Red for Knuckles and Zavok;
  • Pink for Amy and Rouge;
  • Lavender for Blaze;
  • Silvery-white for Silver;
  • Charcoal-gray for Tangle;
  • Green for Vector and Surge;
  • Burgundy for Starline.
• Continuity Cavalcade: Used to help establish the comic's connection with the games, especially in the first two arcs when the continuity was still rather fresh.
  • Issue #1's first page shows Sonic's battles against the Egg Viper, Egg Emperor, Egg Dragoon, and Mega Death Egg Robot.
  • Issue #5 has Sonic mentioning and recapping past actions of Eggman while mulling over how to deal with his supposedly amnesiac state. This includes Eggman attacking Sonic in the Egg Viper, blowing up parts of the moon as a show of the Ark's power, fighting Sonic with the Time Eater and splitting the planet apart in trying to awaken Dark Gaia.
    • In the same Issue, Sonic tries to catch Eggman in the act by mentioning the Lost Hex, ARK, and Death Egg.
  • Imposter Syndrome Issue #4, features Eggman's unfinished "memorial garage", filled with retired Humongous Mecha from previous games. Among the machines shown are the Super Egg Robot, the Egg Emperor, the Eggrobo, and the Egg Dragoon.
  • Issue #51 features dozens of Badnik models from previous games, Sonic himself even points out "he hasn't bashed some of these models in a while."
  • Issue #63 features Sonic and Blaze visiting a variety of locations from the games, which include a mix of classic and modern places like Mirage Saloon from Sonic Mania, Station Square from the Adventure duology, along with Holoska and Spagonia from Sonic Unleashed.
  • Issue #64's Cover A features Silver in front of a conspiracy board filled with pictures, with each photo derived from a past panel seen from previous issues across the entire series' run up to that point. The entire list of panels can be found here.
  • The 900th Adventure one-shot special features tons of locations from the Sonic games that the blue blur and his friends race through via the Warp Topaz.
• Continuity Cameo:
  • Chao Races and Badnik Bases have Ferox Chao from Sonic Chronicles make surprising appearances in brief scenes.
  • In Trial By Fire, Big can be seen in the crowd shot when the girls arrive at the campsite, fishing as usual, while Lanolin is seen among the people rushing to evacuate the fire-stricken campsite.
  • The "Amy's Hobby" story in the 30th Anniversary FCBD one-shot features a brief non-speaking cameo from Honey the Cat.
  • In Issue #63, the three ghosts from the Sonic: Night of the Werehog short, Lah, Su and Uh, can be seen in the corner during Sonic and Blaze's run through a sewer in Spagonia. Lah still has a crush on the hedgehog, as indicated by the heart when he passes by.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The beginning of the first issue has panels showing Sonic's past battles with Eggman, with the doctor piloting the Egg Viper, Egg Emperor, Egg Dragoon, and the Death Egg Robot from Sonic Forces.
  • Egg Hammers appear in the first issue as Super Badniks. Likewise, the style of Egg Pawns that originated in that game appear as the foot soldiers of Eggman's army, rather than the variety seen in Sonic Forces.
  • In the first issue, Sonic and Tails use their combination rolling attack from Sonic the Hedgehog 4.
  • Tails expresses his concerns over Sonic getting caught off-guard again in the first issue.
  • In Issue #3, Sonic reminds the Wisps of how they helped him in various adventures.
  • In Issue #7, Sonic remembers Neo Metal Sonic from Sonic Heroes and casually remembers that the Metal Sonic he fought in Forces was just a Phantom Ruby copy, explaining why he wasn't in the game.
  • In Issue #12, Orbot tries to get Mr. Tinker to turn back to normal by offering to find a list of eldritch creatures for him to "resurrect and then lose control over", which Eggman has done countless times across the games. ^note  Namely, in Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes, Sonic Battle, Sonic Advance 3, Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, Sonic Generations, Sonic Lost World, and Sonic Mania. You'd think he'd learn.
  • One story from the 2019 annual features Rouge, Rough and Tumble race to loot Eggman's Pyramid Cave lair from Sonic Adventure 2 (which takes place in Sonic '06's Dusty Desert), the latter pair stumbling onto the Egg Golem.
  • After being infected with the techno-organic virus, Sonic reminisces in Issue #16 about previous times a villain has afflicted him with a curse, the flashback showing the Flame Arrow and his Werehog form.
  • The shuttle Tails steals in Issue #51 appears to be the same one the Final Weapon rode in at the end of Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
    • In the same issue, the flying monitor Eggman uses to talk to Sonic is the same one from Shadow the Hedgehog.
  • In Issue #52, while looking for a weapon, Surge finds the gun Eggman used to hold Amy hostage on the ARK.
• Covers Always Lie: Sometimes several characters that were featured on the Retail Incentive covers hadn't debuted in the series yet. Cream the Rabbit, E-123 Omega, and Gemerl were all on covers for the first year's arc and they wouldn't appear until year two. Marine had appeared on covers for Issues #24 and #37, but wouldn't debut in the comic until the 2022 Annual.
• Crush Blush: Amy briefly swoons at Sonic's loner attitude toward the end of Issue #2, but quickly snaps herself out of it.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Neo Metal Sonic lays one down to Sonic in their first encounter in the comics, forcing Sonic to retreat. He does the same later against Sonic and Knuckles once he's powered up by the Master Emerald. It's only thanks to Shadow's intervention that he doesn't beat them both outright.
  • In All or Nothing, Zor is matched against Silver and Whisper and comes up short. The other Zeti traded blows with their foes but Zor is unable to land a hit on Silver. When he finally restrains the hedgehog, Whisper destroys all of his energy clones and dislodges his Chaos Emerald with a single trick shot and Silver sends him crashing into the dirt.
  • In Issue #29, Super Sonic takes down a powered-up Zavok in seconds after an uphill battle to gather all of the Chaos Emeralds, to which Super Silver casually calls it anti-climactic. Zavok tries to continue the fight in the following issue, only to be subdued again in a mere two pages by Sonic's reunited friends, who arrest him on the spot.
  • In Issue #50, the battle between Eggman and Starline progressively becomes one-sided in Eggman's favor, as he knew about Starline's activities since Bad Guys and prepared accordingly. Eventually, Eggman overpowers Starline in CQC and leaves him for dead.
  • In Overpowered, Kit makes short work of Metal Sonic during his truce with Sonic, Tails, and Belle, buying them time to escape. Whisper's duel with Surge in the same arc is equally one-sided, as the latter uses stolen Eggtech to capture the former's Wisps, rendering the Wolf overwhelmed by her power.

Tropes D-G

• Darker and Edgier: The Metal Virus Saga enforced this for 16 issues (#13-#29 with the virus itself in play), 17 counting the 2020 Annual special. Many of the main cast (old and new, good and bad) are turned into zombots, with Sonic fighting off the infection, the remaining characters are effected emotionally and mentally, losses are made at a global scale, almost every solution to eliminate the virus fail, and even Eggman loses control of the situation, and that's even before the Deadly Six become involved. It takes Sonic and Silver's use of the Chaos Emeralds and the Warp Topaz to end this trope.
• Darkest Hour: Issues 24 and 25 mark the low-point for the heroes during the Metal Virus Saga. The virus has now engulfed the whole world, almost all the heroes have become Zombots, Sonic's ability to run off his own infection has begun to wane, and Starline has called in the Zeti to control the Zombots. And there's still worse to come, as the Zeti usurp control of the Zombots from Eggman: being Technopaths, they can control the Zombots easily, and empowering themselves with the Chaos Emeralds lets them control thousands of Zombots at once. Zavok himself, commandeering the Faceship, quickly enslaves all of Sonic's Zombot-ified allies and sets out to finish the survivors off once and for all.
  Preview for Issue 25: "The world has fallen to the Metal Virus. Heroes, villains, and civilians have become Zombots. There's only one place left to hide and the few survivors—good and bad alike—find themselves up against a new threat commanding the Zombot hordes. Who will Sonic turn to for help in his most desperate hour?"
  • The climax of "All or Nothing" is the "do or die" moment. While the survivors have gathered all but one Chaos Emerald, their numbers have been reduced to only ten (including Eggman and Metal Sonic), they've got nowhere left to run or hide, and Sonic, his Super-Speed now useless against his infection, is only minutes away from becoming a Zombot. Even worse, the survivors find themselves up against their Zombot-ified friends and a giant Zavok; Knuckles also becomes a Zombot in the ensuing battle. Zavok very nearly triumphs before Sonic and Silver finally get the last Chaos Emerald and go Super; only then does the tide decisively turn in the heroes' favor.
• Day of the Jackboot: After Angel Island is conquered by the Egg Fleet, it's quickly converted into a fortress, with a statue of Eggman being built atop the Master Emerald's chamber.
• Death Glare:
  • The Stoic characters give off some very menacing stares when angered. It can be Played for Laughs at times, but some are borderline nightmarish; Whisper's stares, for example, scare even Sonic and Tangle, who are otherwise bold and brave. Shadow, Espio, and Kit are other notable examples.
  • Starline gives off one at the end of Issue 24, as he presents Eggman with the Deadly Six. Shadow, Espio, and Kit are other notable examples.
  • Eggman, Starline, and Metal Sonic get an epic manga-esque one from Amy in Issue 25.
  • Sonic in Issue 42 gives off one as he hurries to Restoration HQ, which is under attack from the Zeti.
  • Sonic and Tails give off one to Eggman at the conclusion of Issue #56, with Sonic getting an Extreme Close-Up to show how pissed he is to boot.
• Debut Queue: The first four issues feature Sonic teaming with Tails, Amy, Knuckles and Blaze respectively. The third issue also features the debut of the new villains Rough and Tumble, with Tangle the Ring-tailed Lemur and Dr. Eggman following in Issue #4, the Chaotix in Issue #5, and Shadow and Rouge in Issue #6. Issue #7 features the return of Neo Metal Sonic, and the 8th issue has both the return of Silver and the debut of another new character, Whisper the Wolf.
  • Likewise, Cream and her family debut in Issue #18, E-123 Omega in Issue #19, and the Deadly Six in Issues #20-21.
• Decapitated Army: Eggman's disappearance after the events of Sonic Forces left his Badnik army aimless and attacking locals randomly. However, by the time events of the first issue, they've had become much more organized. This leads Tails and Sonic to determine that something is controlling the army. Later issues confirm it's not bad ol' Doc (who probably suffers from amnesia) that's back, but Neo Metal Sonic, who commands Eggman's forces until his creator returns.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: A whole Deconstructor Fleet of cases.
  • All-Loving Hero:
    • Sonic's Thou Shall Not Kill aspect gets put through the ringer multiple times, with many people accusing him that his inability to just take care of Eggman permanently is what causes the Vicious Cycle he and Eggman are seemingly trapped in, which leads to more and more innocent bystanders getting hurt in the process. Espio personally blames Sonic for the Metal Virus arc even happening in the first place, and Surge blames him as the root cause of her ending up like she has, saying if he had just offed Eggman, Starline would have never done what he did to her.
    • Based on his initial encounters with Knuckles, Shadow, and the like, Sonic thinks Defeat Means Friendship, but much to his disappointment, this is often not the case: Eggman decides he prefers his loftier ambitions to living in peace; Metal Sonic goes straight back to Eggman upon being fixed and restores him to normal; Surge angrily rejects Sonic's sympathic overtures; and Kit concludes that Sonic wants to reform his enemies only to prove his own point, just like Eggman and Starline. Mecha Sonic Mark II is thus far the only erstwhile foe Sonic has managed to reform, and even he had to first be reprogrammed before starting down that path.
    • Furthermore, despite his morals and princles, Sonic's sense of forgiveness does have its limits. It's best shown by how he coldly brushes off Starline's firing, as well as his death when told about it—and that's even before he learns what Starline did to Surge and Kit.
  • Evil Counterpart: Unlike most of Sonic's and Tails' doppelgängers across the franchise, Surge and Kit were forced into this role by Starline based on his shallow understanding of the heroes. The comic makes a point of showing what such abusive conditioning can do to people's psyches: rather than the Superior Successors Starline meant them to be, Surge's Irrational Hatred of Sonic (which even she doesn't understand), Kit's slavish devotion to her, and the inexperience of both degrade their combat performance while Starline's cruel experiments and gaslighting break the duo down mentally and emotionally. Sonic and Tails themselves are aghast to learn how Surge and Kit came to be.
  • Invincible Hero: Zig-zagged. For all their Plot Armor, we are reminded more than once that Sonic and his friends are still mortal and vulnerable, with Sonic exhausting himself almost to death during the Metal Virus Saga being only one example among many. Their movesets rely heavily on certain limbs or items (Sonic's legs, Tails' and Tangle's tails, Amy's hammer, Whisper's gun, etc.), without which they are still combat-capable, but much weaker. Furthermore, while they can't outright lose to Eggman's machinations, they are not immune from scoring a Pyrrhic Victory, which in-universe is treated as a defeat.
• Deer in the Headlights:
  • Cream, when she finds Zombots attacking Vanilla and their Chao in Issue #18.
  • In Issue #29, Whisper tearfully hesitates to fight back against a Zombot Tangle, leaving herself open to attack. Fortunately, Tangle is cured before she can pass her infection to Whisper.
  • Amy and Jewel at the beginning of Issue #32, when Eggman comes to crash the heroes' party. Whisper defers to them for orders, but Amy is indecisive since she handed leadership of the Restoration over to Jewel, who cowers and points out her forte is organization managment, not combat leadership. Command ends up falling to Vector during the battle.
    • Eggman himself suffers the trope in the same issue when Sonic returns from the Sol Dimension and lands in front of him—much sooner than he anticipated. Eggman is so horrified that he freezes dead in his tracks and drops his guard, making no attempt to attack the heroes further or even defend himself when Sonic moves to free Omega from his machine, disabling it.
  • Belle freezes in Issue #38 when she falls down in front of an Egg Pawn squad, and again in Issue #45 when a random Motobug gives her a Jump Scare.
  • In Imposter Syndrome #3, one of Dr. Starline's vlogs shows Kit frozen in fear during his and Surge's Training from Hell.
• Detail-Hogging Cover: Evan Stanley's painted covers are very realistic compared to the interior art.
• Devoured by the Horde: Charmy, Shadow, Vanilla, Zeena, Zomom, Zor, and Master Zik become Zombots after others swarm them. Shadow and Zeena at least go down fighting, while Zor willingly submits and the rest never stood a chance. Sonic himself almost meets the same fate several times, eventually worsening his infection to the point where he can barely stand up or talk.
• Didn't See That Coming: Oh, Dr. Eggman expected Dr. Starline to return, all right. But by crawling on his belly begging for a second chance, not by trying to usurp him with his own army. Likewise, Starline never expected Eggman to take precautions against him, causing his whole Evil Plan, which was based on that assumption, to go up in smoke.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • In Issue 18: Sonic comes across two villagers who opt to burn down the forest around Cream's village to prevent the Metal Virus from spreading. Sonic furiously calls them out on this, pointing out that though it'll stop them from getting infected and prevent the virus from spreading, they'll just get consumed by the forest fire instead; the villagers in question can only stammer in response, having failed to consider that.
    Sonic: Cream gets to hang out with me because she's got some sense!
  • Orbot reveals to Dr. Starline that this is one of the main reasons Eggman always loses: he has big ideas and big executions but often rushes things without thinking long-term and devolves into his hatred of Sonic, which costs him every time. No better is this displayed than in the Metal Virus. While Starline wanted to conduct more tests to realize the extent of its capabilities, Eggman decides to use it the moment it appears to work, reasoning that he can fix any bugs later as they crop up. This leads to the Zombots slowly getting out of control, to the point they begin to disregard Eggman's vocal commands.
  • Dr. Starline himself falls into this when he gets sick of Eggman's shortsightedness regarding the Metal Virus and elects to take matters into his own hands. Starline's solution is to bring in the Deadly Six to control the Zombots, using the Cacophonous Conch to keep them under his control. However, Starline finds out too late that the conch only works as long as his lungs last, effectively making it useless once he needs to catch his breath, and he didn't have a backup plan in the event he lost it; the minute he lets his guard down, the Deadly Six snatch the conch right out of his hands and hijack the Zombots for their own purposes. With Starline failing to consider these factors, Starline ends up making the situation even worse, to which Zavok even lampshades.
    Zavok: What was that about a "lack of foresight"?
  • In Issue 26: Apparently no one thought that sending Gemerl (a robot) up against a Zeti (who can control machines) was a bad idea. Likewise Cream's insistence on coming and jumping into the portal against his wishes ended up putting her in danger as she didn't have much of a plan other than trying to shame Zeena into giving up.
• Disability Immunity: Because he was already infected by the Metal Virus, with his speed keeping it in check, Sonic is the only one who can fight Zombots directly without spreading the contagion. Contact with them causes his own infection to jumpstart, though, so he can't fight for long periods of time. After his speed loses its ability to counteract the virus, Sonic can no longer fight the Zombots with turning too fast, so he keeps his distance until the final battle with them and Zavok.
• Discard and Draw:
  • The Metal Virus does this to Rough and Tumble. In addition to losing their free will, they lose their speed, spin attack, and durability. However they gain a Healing Factor to compensate for their fragile forms and they become virus carriers. Shadow likewise loses some of his abilities after he turns but remains more skilled than an average Zombot, as well as durable enough to tank a brutal No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from Knuckles.
  • In the Bad Guys mini-series, Starline creates a specialized Power Core called the Tricore, which replaces the Warp Topaz as his main draw after he lost the latter gemstone in Issue #25.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Starline is the main villain of the Eggman's Legacy Saga until he dies fighting Eggman in Issue #50. Surge and Kit subsequently take over as the main threat, eventually fighting Sonic, Metal Sonic, and Tails as a Dual Boss in Issue #56.
• Divide and Conquer: Two, both self-inflicted:
  • In All or Nothing, the Deadly Six split up after taking control of the Zombots, with Zavok commandeering the Faceship while the other five take over a town/city. This leaves them outnumbered when challenged for their Chaos Emeralds, save for Zavok (who had the Zombot-ified named characters at his command) and Zazz (who only had Espio to contend with).
  • In Issue #50, Surge and Kit try this on Sonic and Tails, only to end up inflicting it on themselves due to Surge's inexperience and Kit's over-dependence on her.
• The Dog Bites Back:
  • A village ended up being taken over by Rough and Tumble, stealing away their Wisps and Wispons. Sonic reminds the Wisps of the good they've done helping him, in turn getting them to turn against the bullies. When Rough and Tumble try going back there after the Metal Virus saga, they end up losing and placed in prison at the beginning of the Bad Guys mini-series.
  • After becoming Zombots prior, Cheese, Tangle, Vector, and Charmy spend All or Nothing enslaved by Zavok, who pits the latter three against Whisper and Espio. As soon as the Metal Virus is destroyed, all six of those characters beat the snot out of Zavok as payback, allowing Silver to arrest him.
  • Rouge is more than eager to beat up Starline with Amy after she got hypnotized into helping him attempt to kidnap Tails earlier in Chao Races and Badnik Bases.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Dr Starline's obsession with Belle's body, which culminates in him kidnapping her and strapping her to a table to force something he wants (data) out of her, is framed much like an abduction and rape. His excitement during the whole process doesn't help.
• Downer Ending:
  • The Last Minute involves four of these in a row.
  • "The Catalyst" in the 2020 Annual, which takes place parallel to The Last Minute. The entire story is just one big setup for the events in Issue 24.
  • Issue 30 ends with Sonic trapped in the Sol Dimension with amnesia; his friends downtrodden over his disappearance; the Deadly Six, except for Zavok, on the loose; Eggman escaping after Metal Sonic skewers Gemerl and fends off Shadow; and the world still in shambles in the Metal Virus' wake.
  • Issue #51 ends with Belle, Tails, and a crippled Sonic trapped deep in Eggperial City with Kit (whom they saved after his fight with Tails). Eggman, on the other hand, is back in charge and stronger than ever after Starline's death, while Surge survives to fight another day.
• Drill Tank:
  • Issue #15 has Rough and Tumble attack Sonic and Amy with one built by Eggman.
  • Eggman himself fights Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles with one of these in the FCBD 2022 special issue.
• Dwindling Party: From Issues 17-29, the heroes' numbers gradually but inexorably decline as they turn into Zombots one after another. The villains also suffer this trope starting in Issue 25. By halfway through Issue 29, every named character is infected or otherwise out of commission except Silver, Rouge, Espio, Whisper, and Zavok. Of those, Rouge gives up and lounges on the Master Emerald; Whisper and Espio are boxed in; and Zavok gets his ass kicked after Silver purges Sonic's infection and they go Super. Ultimately, Super Sonic and Super Silver are last ones standing before the Metal Virus is destroyed.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: "Out of the Blue" ends with Knuckles back to guarding his homeland in peace, Silver finally getting a good future, the world well on its way to recovery from the eradicated Zombot plague, Sonic's friends happy to have him back after Blaze sends him home, and Sonic himself off with a smile towards his next adventure. Downplayed with Shadow, who's ashamed over getting Zombot-ified due to his own foolishness but at least seems to have learned his lesson, and the Babylon Rogues, who fail at robbing Jewel again thanks to Rouge but avoid getting caught in the act. Overall, despite Eggman crashing the victory celebration in a last-ditch attempt to avert this trope, one of the darkest storylines in the history of the Sonic franchise ends with a well-earned and deserved happy ending for the heroes.
• Ecocidal Antagonist: The second arc of the comic has Dr. Eggman unleashing the Metal Virus, which turns all organic matter to machines and spreads via contact, turning the infected into zombie robots (aka. Zombots). The infection got so bad that in Silver's Bad Future, the only thing that's left on the planet is ruined cities and metallic plants, with not even a hint of life around. After that is destroyed, he makes a self-rebuilding and ever expanding city that hollows out the ground below it for resources. Surge and Kitsunami introduce themselves by starting a massive forest fire, Clutch the Opossum cleans up the messes left behind by Eggman, though amasses his own collection of weapons that consist of dangerous materials so he can sell them back to Eggman or anyone looking to buy.
• Elaborate Underground Base: The Restoration's post-Metal Virus headquarters, introduced in Issue #37, is a large complex with (at least) a command center, a mechanics shop, and a central area that looks like a mall.
• Electrified Bathtub: In issue #56, Sonic narrowly avoids being electrocuted by Surge while in a puddle thanks to Eggman. However, he isn't so lucky later on, where he gets shocked by Surge's full power until the Dynamo Cage breaks, causing the Tenrec to pass out before she can finish the job.
• Enemy Mine:
  • In All or Nothing, the Restoration, the Babylon Rogues, Eggman, and Metal Sonic are forced to work together after the Zeti appropriate the Metal Virus thanks to Starline. Starline himself refuses to cooperate and is fired as a result.
  • While separated from Surge between Issues 50-54, Kit is forced to cooperate with Sonic, Tails, and Belle to get out of Eggperial City.
  • The climax of Overpowered in Issues 55-56 has Sonic, Tails, Eggman, and Metal Sonic cooperating to defeat Surge and Kit, who've set a trap for them as part of a Last Villain Stand. Surge herself realizes a truce is imminent before it's even gone into force.
• Epic Fail:
  • Eggman not only losing control of the Zombots to the Deadly Six, but also contracting his own Metal Virus from none other than Froggy.
    Eggman: Get to their shuttle! Get out of here and—! (trips on Froggy and gets infected) NO! NOT LIKE THIS!
  • In Issue #37, Belle's Failure Montage while working in Restoration HQ's machine shop culminates in one of these. Tangle quickly stops the Disaster Dominoes and relieves Belle before the angry foreman can berate her further.
  • Zazz' attempt at fishing in Issue #41.
  • "Operation: Remaster", Starline's post-Metal Virus master-plan, was doomed from the start no matter how it turned out. He never stood a chance against Eggman or the heroes, Surge and Kit had secretly turned on him earlier, and his arch-rival Metal Sonic is soon repaired by Belle. After Eggman renders him Out-Gambitted and soundly defeats him with his bare hands, Starline dies a broken shell of a man, loathed and ridiculed by heroes and villains alike.
• Episode of the Dead: Actually, 18 episodes/issues of Zombots. The cover of Issue #20 even provides the image for this trope's page.
• Even Evil Has Standards: In the 2019 Annual, the Babylon Rogues rob a museum full of Gems, and Storm accidentally grabs the curator, mistaking her shiny shell armor for a diamond. Upon finding her, Wave demands they return her as they're thieves, not kidnappers. Storm tosses her out of their ship and accidentally damages her wing, sending her falling, which makes Jet and Wave angrier because they didn't want her getting hurt.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: And vice-versa. Sonic's Rogues Gallery can't understand his way of thinking, nor can he understand why they'd pass up an opportunity to reform. This dynamic is a key source of conflict throughout the comic.
• Evil Is Hammy: Some of Eggman's dialogue is written in such a way that you can practically hear Mike Pollock's voice going off in your head. Zavok, Starline, and Surge also get this.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Surprisingly enough, this trope has thus far befallen Eggman only once (specifically his losing control of the Metal Virus). The less-experienced Starline, however, suffers hard from this trope, repeatedly dealing with veteran heroes or villains far above his league, including his own creations, Surge and Kit.
• Evil Is Not Well-Lit: Used a lot, especially when Adam Bryce Thomas is on penciling duty.
  • In general, the interiors of Eggman's bases are often poorly-lit, especially the abandoned one seen in Chao Races and Badnik Bases.
  • Neo Metal Sonic begins his Metal Overlord transformation amid some dim, blood-red lighting.
  • With some exceptions, the Metal Virus' named victims spend almost their entire time as Zombots partially or wholly wreathed in shadows.
  • Zavok looms over Cream in this manner in Issue #30, and again over Zazz in Issue #41.
  • Eggman and his "Giga Omega" are presented as such at the end of Issue #31.
  • Surge and Kit are almost fully-silhouetted during their Early-Bird Cameo in Issue #46.
  • An apparently corrupted Belle is shown half-draped in shadows on the main cover of Issue #49.
• Evil Overlooker:
  • The cover◊ for Issue #10 features Neo Metal Sonic looking down at Sonic and friends.
  • Two of Issue #29's covers feature Sonic, Metal Sonic, Silver, and a giant Zavok, with the latter glaring down at the former three.
• Explosive Overclocking:
  • In Issue #29, Super Sonic and Super Silver use the power of the Chaos Emeralds and the Warp Topaz to remove the Metal Virus and send it into the sun. Dr. Starline had warned them earlier that pumping the Chaos Emeralds' power into the Topaz can cause instability. He is proven correct as the Warp Topaz overloads on energy, causing a giant explosion that sends Silver plummeting to the ground and sending Sonic to Blaze's World.
  • In Issue #56, Surge's Dynamo Cage has stolen so much power that once she has Sonic dead-to-rights, the device overloads itself from all the energy it has absorbed. It ends up destroying itself before she could completely kill Sonic.
  • Dr. Eggman's fake Chaos Emerald crystals utilized in the Urban Warfare arc prove to be extremely volatile, as they grow to sizes that ravage Eggman's city and Shadow's consistent usage of Chaos Control overloading them too. By the end of the arc, the city explodes in the sky after its limiters have been removed.
• Extremely Short Timespan:
  • Issues #21-30, plus the concurrent 2020 Annual stories "Big's Big Adventure" and "The Catalyst", all take place over the course of about two days. Justified, since the heroes' Darkest Hour occurs on Day 1, and on Day 2, they soon find themselves in a Race Against the Clock to stop the Zeti and save Sonic from total infection.
  • All but the end of the Trial By Fire arc takes place within a day and a half.
  • Issues #49-52, plus the last issue of Imposter Syndrome, happen almost entirely in one night; Issues of #53-56 immediately pick up from there and take place over the course of the following day.
  • Issues #57-61 (barring the flashback in #57 and the picnic scene at the end of #61) plays out over the course of a few hours, making Urban Warfare one of the comic's shortest arcs In-Universe.
• Face Plant: A minor Running Gag involves Tangle doing this. The third time it happens has her and Belle face-planting after getting bucked off a friendly Motobug.
• Faceship: Quite literally, for Eggman's production and distribution method for the Metal Virus.
• Family-Friendly Firearms: Wispons, which civilians in the series sometimes use to defend their towns from Eggman's Badniks. Whisper's former team, the Diamond Cutters, also used these before their demise and she herself uses a "Variable Wispon", which utilizes multiple different Wisp powers instead of just one.
  • Eggman is known to possess a laser handgun, which he pulls on the Restoration and Surge while battling them in Issue #32 and #55 respectively.
  • Exaggerated with Fang the Sniper's gun in the 30th Anniversary Special. Whereas in Archie Sonic it was an actual handgun, here it's just a cork-shooting popgun. While Fang can still hurt people with it, it's predictably useless against Mighty.
• Family-Unfriendly Violence: A lot of it, for an all-ages comic. Some characters, such as Zazz and Surge, even live for this trope.
  • In the 2019 Annual, Jewel's wing is cracked when Storm throws her out of the Babylon Rogues' airship.
  • Metal Sonic ringing Rough's and Starline's necks and skewering Gemerl from behind.
  • Tangle's and Knuckles' graphic Zombot transformations in Issues #24 and #29, respectively.
  • In Issue #27, Zeena kicks Cream and holds her by the ears in front of several Zombots, one of whom scratches Cream's arm and infects her.
  • In the third Bad Guys issue, Mimic prepares to stab Starline to death in his sleep before Zavok stops him. He later holds a knife to Starline's throat after the latter tries Mimic's patience for the last time.
  • The battle with the Deadly Six in Issue #43. Sonic, Tails, and Tangle get beaten half to death; Whisper gets electrocuted by her own gadgetry; and the Zeti themselves end up getting barbequed by their own EM powers via Tails' Zeti Zappers.
  • Starline getting crushed to death by falling rubble after his final defeat in Issue #50.
  • Surge in the Overpowered arc deals a vicious Curb-Stomp Battle to Whisper, tries to bite off Eggman's fingers and knock his teeth in, and electrocutes Sonic almost to death while holding him down in a puddle.
• The Farmer and the Viper: Sonic and the leader of Windmill Village want the amnesiac Eggman to remain free, believing he could do more good as Mr. Tinker than he would in a cell. When Eggman regains his memories he creates the Metal Virus to turn the world into his slaves, with Windmill Village being turned into ground zero for the virus' launch.
  • Eggman does it again at the climax of the Metal Virus story arc, after Amy saves him from an infected Big, into whom Eggman kicks her, getting her infected, before hightailing it. Luckily, he trips over an also-infected Froggy before he can escape and contracts his own virus.
• Fastball Special:
  • At one point in Issue #2, Sonic had Amy hit him with her hammer, firing him off like a croquet ball.
  • During the climax of the fight in Issue 4, Tangle uses her tail as a slingshot to launch Sonic and Blaze into the carrier dropping Badniks onto Tangle's hometown.
  • Sonic with Silver does an highly effective crowd-control version of this in Issue #8.
  • Issue 28 ends with a supersized Zavok throwing handfuls of Zombots onto Angel Island. In his first handful are Shadow, Vector, Charmy, Tangle, Big, Cheese, and Chocola (whom he previously enslaved), much to Sonic and the other survivors' horror.
    • Zavok chucks another mass of Zombots at Sonic and Metal Sonic in Issue 29, as they rush to get the final Chaos Emerald from him. Metal Sonic flies Sonic straight through the handful, impressively dodging every Zombot in it along the way.
  • At the climax Imposter Syndrome, Surge tosses Kit into some Badniks as a combo attack, with Kit twirling as Surge throws him to create a buzzsaw effect.
  • Issue #61 features an elaborate one that required almost every hero on the battlefield. Blaze tosses Sonic, then Amy (carried by Tails) uses her mallet to propel him further, then Whisper and Tangle rocket in on Whisper's wispon and Tangle uses her tail to chuck Sonic directly towards Eggman and his mecha.
• The Fellowship Has Ended: After putting down Neo Metal Sonic, Knuckles decides to disband the Resistance so he can get back to guarding the Master Emerald. Amy doesn't take that lightly.
• Fire, Water, Wind: Issues #39-40 have Sonic, Amy and Tails fighting a trio of red, blue and green Eggman robots called Egg Vipers. The red Viper is armed with flame throwers, the blue is armed with water cannons and the uses wind turbines.
• Foreshadowing
  • In Issue #12, Orbot brings up Eggman having a very bad track record with keeping a handle on the various evil forces he's harnessed over the years. True to form, his very next scheme—the Zombots—escapes his control remarkably fast.
  • After returning to the future following Sonic Forces, Silver states in issue #8 that there was nothing left in the future but ruin and scarce metallic plant life, with no people to be found. This is what will ultimately become of the world if the Metal Virus consumes it all; every living thing converted by the virus will eventually disintegrate into nothing after a few hundred years.
• From Bad to Worse: The Metal Virus Saga in a nutshell. The To Be Continued text at the end of Issue #24 even lampshades this.
• Genre Shift: While overall faithful to the sci-fi action-adventure tone of the games, the comic takes a sharp turn into horror several times. The Metal Virus Saga and Scrapnik Island mini-series are both Episodes of the Dead, with the former arc amounting to "Resident Evil with Sonic characters". Surge and Kit's character arc, meanwhile, is an Existential Horror story peppered with Frankenstein references, most notably in how the duo themselves came to be.
• Girl's Night Out Episode: The "Trial By Fire" arc focuses on Amy, Tangle, Jewel, and Belle going on a camping trip and getting waylaid by a forest fire.
• Girls with Guns: Or rather, with Wispons. Some female civilians and random soldiers are shown using them, while Whisper uses a unique "Variable Wispon" as her weapon.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom:
  • Most Badniks' eyes glow in the dark, including Metal Sonic and the Zombots.
  • Surge's and Kit's eyes glow blue and red, respectively, whenever they use their powers.
• Godzilla Threshold:
  • Blaze notes that using all the Sol Emeralds to enter her Super Mode is extremely risky, but decides that liberating Angel Island is worth that risk.
  • The Metal Virus survivors' plan in "All or Nothing" is chalk-loaded with risks—especially Sonic and co.'s Enemy Mine with Eggman and Metal Sonic—but as Cream points out to Whisper, it's all worthwhile if it means restoring their Zombot-ified loved ones to normal and saving the world. Even Whisper (who hates Eggman even more than Cream claims to know) can't deny that logic.
    • Another significant risk, as noted by Starline, is the Warp Topaz overloading from exposure to the Chaos Emeralds' power, with catastrophic results. The other survivors disregard his warnings, but Super Sonic and Super Silver eventually find out Starline was right when they notice the Warp Topaz overreacting to their powers. Since they're out of time and options, they carry on, destroying the Metal Virus, but thereafter the Warp Topaz explodes from the overload. The results aren't as bad as Starline feared, but Sonic vanishes without a trace.
• Gondor Calls for Aid:
  • Issue #9 opens with the Resistance gathering every heroic character introduced over the previous eight issues in order to liberate Angel Island.
  • Issue #25 has Amy call in the Babylon Rogues as they are the only other thieves besides Rouge that can help steal the Chaos Emeralds back from the Zeti.
  • In Issue #58, Sonic finds himself overwhelmed while tackling Eggperial City's defenses. He requests backup, resulting in Tails, Amy, Blaze, and Silver arriving to help. Team Dark also arrives, albeit for their own reasons.
• The Good Guys Always Win: As usual, due to Sega-imposed mandates, Sonic and co. always defeat Eggman or any other villain in the end, no exceptions. Even if Eggman does get the upper hand for a short period, Sonic and/or his friends have to overcome him in a subsequent issue. They can suffer pyrrhic victories, however, which are framed as de facto defeats.
• Gory Discretion Shot:
  • Every time a major character gets infected during the Metal Virus saga, the scene cuts away before they succumb. Except for Tangle, whose Zombot conversion happens 100% on-page and in greater detail than the other transformations.
  • Just before Starline dies in Issue #50, the scene cuts to show rubble falling and the onlooking Belle's horrified reaction.
• Gratuitous Spanish: In Issue #7, after Sonic is put on the ropes, he notes that it's time to bail now that "señor Starfish-Head (AKA Neo Metal Sonic)'' entered the picture.
• Green and Mean: Jet the Hawk, Surge the Tenrec, and Deadly Six member Zeena fit this trope to a T. Mirroring Sonic's Blue Blur title, Surge is even called the "Mean Green" in the Roll Call section of each Imposter Syndrome issue.

Tropes H-K

• Heist Clash:
  • The 2019 Annual story "Curse of the Pyramid" has Rough and Tumble planning to loot one of Eggman's abandoned bases. They run into Rouge who is interested in the treasure hidden in the base and naturally compete with her for who gets to rob the place. Rouge uses the rumors of a curse upon the base to scare the brothers away in order to protect some animals that have taken refuge within the base and is rewarded with the treasures she was seeking.
  • Issue #25 reveals that Rouge had infiltrated Eggman's ship and discovered he was using the Chaos Emeralds to power it. Rouge planned on stealing the Emeralds herself before the Deadly Six arrived and took them after gaining control of the ship from Eggman and Starline.
  • Rough and Tumble's story in the 2022 Annual has them deciding to pursue their criminal careers independent of each other after an argument. Unfortunately, they decide to break into the Mineral Museum with their respective new partners, Tangle and Rouge (who are each only pretending to work with one of the brothers to take them down), to steal a Chaos Emerald on the exact same night.
• Heroic Sacrifice: How most of the Metal Virus' named heroic victims are eliminated, though as mandated by Sega, all examples of this trope in the comic are non-fatal.
  • Cheese and Chocola defend Cream and Vanilla from a Zombot, stalling it just long enough for Sonic to come to the rescue.
  • Vector and Tangle each put up a Last Stand to cover the Restoration's retreat.
  • Cream voluntarily drops out after getting infected, not wanting to pose a risk to her remaining friends once she succumbs.
  • After the Babylon Rogues defeat Master Zik, Jet finds out Wave and Storm lost their Extreme Gear to the Zombots. While he could've escaped, since his own airboard is still working, Jet maroons himself on purpose to stay with his teammates, sending only his airboard back with Zik's Chaos Emerald. The trio ultimately avoid getting infected, but Jet's act still counts as this trope.
  • During the final battle, Knuckles takes on Zombot!Shadow, condemning himself to the same fate in the process, to help buy Sonic and Silver time to defeat Zavok and destroy the Metal Virus.
• Hero-Worshipper:
  • The villagers Sonic saves in the first issue are thrilled and awestruck to be in his presence, with one saying that the attack is worth it just to be able to say he winked at them.
  • Tangle becomes this for Blaze after first seeing her in action.
    Tangle: You. Are. Amazing!
  • Silver gets excited when it appears that the Resistance’s "Guardian Angel" (Whisper the Wolf) is in the same Eggman base as them.
• Hope Spot:
  • In Issue #21, Tails manages to find the cure for the Zombots and goes to upload to Restoration HQ. Only for the Zombot-ified Cheese and Chocola to destroy his Wi-Fi and a Zombot that breaks into his workshop knocks the Server Blade carrying the information out of his hand. He's forced to flee before he make another copy. Not that it matters anyway; the HQ already fell due to another outbreak from within.
  • In Issue #36, Sonic and Shadow try to stop an avalanche by felling trees into its path. It seems to work, but the barrier gives way after a few seconds, much to both hedgehogs' horror.
• Hurl It into the Sun: The ultimate fate of the Metal Virus, courtesy of Super Sonic, Super Silver, and the Warp Topaz.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Cream subverts this with Gemerl in Issue 27. When Zeena takes control of Gemerl with her Zeti powers and forces him to attack Cream, the rabbit doesn't actually fight him. Instead, she talks him into freeing himself and manages to get through to him. Zeena then uses a Chaos Emerald-powered means to physically control him like a puppet on a string, but Cream and Gemerl eventually turn it against her.
• Idiosyncratic Cover Art: The covers of the first four issues form a larger picture. From Issues 27-32, there's three more examples spanning two covers each.
  • A unique one that goes between the main book and the Bad Guys mini-series. The RE cover of Bad Guys Issue #1 can be combined with the RE cover of Issue #33 of the main book forms an image where Sonic and his friends face off against Starline's team from Bad Guys.
• Ignored Epiphany: In Issue #23, Sonic makes a more impassioned than usual appeal to anything that remains of Eggman's humanity. He skips the banter and asks him straight up what was so wrong with being like Mr. Tinker; why he chose to immediately return to evil when his memories returned now that he'd had a taste of a peaceful, fulfilling life. Eggman, already frustrated with his Zombots evolving beyond his control and looking around at the destruction they've wrought, seems to seriously consider it and realises how satisfying being a helpful, kindly repairman actually was. It doesn't stick, however, and he remains as evil as ever.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
  • In the first issue, an Egg Hammer hit by Sonic ends up falling onto the handle of its own mallet and skewering itself.
  • In Issue #30, Metal Sonic plunges his hand through Gemerl's chest from behind to rescue Orbot and Cubot, as well as ensure Eggman's escape. While he remains functional and mobile, Gemerl (who was already damaged by the Zombots and Zeena earlier) doesn't fully recover from the hit until the end of Issue #36.
  • In Issue #50, at the climax of their mech duel, Eggman disables Starline's Egg Robo by impaling it with the Egg Emperor's lance. This forces Starline to use a Death or Glory Attack that exhausts his Tricore, just as Eggman planned.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: Tails, Belle, and Whisper all have these, though the latter's are rarely seen since her eyes are usually closed.
• Just Eat Gilligan: Espio and Shadow wanted the amnesiac Eggman to be imprisoned or killed respectively while Sonic managed to convince them to let him remain free and give him a chance to do good as Mr. Tinker. After Eggman regained his memories and released the Metal Virus, the two blamed Sonic for not allowing them to arrest or take out the doctor when they had the chance.
• Keystone Superpower: After losing access to the Warp Topaz, Dr. Starline gets ahold of several Power Cores, objects that can grant the user temporary use of either Flight, Super-Strength, or Super-Speed. Starline proceeds to merge several cores together into a glove-mounted device called a Tricore, which enables him to use any of those abilities at will.
• Kick the Dog: Every villain in Sonic's Rogues Gallery loves doing this.
  • Where does Eggman conduct a mass test of the Metal Virus? The same village that took him in as the amnesiac Mr. Tinker.
  • Eggman specifically targets Vanilla and Cream's hometown just to hurt Sonic by way of hurting his friends.
  • In Issue #26, while Sonic is trying to burn off the infection on a treadmill, Eggman and he get to talking with Eggman claiming Sonic spread most of the infection to the grass and trees during all his running around. Sonic doesn't believe it, but Eggman neither denies or refutes that claim, stating he purposefully put the thought into his mind. Considering Sonic's current state at that point, Sonic can't doubt it either, much to his annoyance.
  • Zeena figuratively and literally does this to Cream during their fight in Issue #27. Gemerl is not happy, and punishes the Zeti near the end as a result.
    Gemerl: You. Hurt. Cream.
  • While his fellow Zeti just take control of random Zombots, Zavok picks out all of Sonic's Zombot-ified friends to be his personal horde's vanguard. In Issues #28-29, he sends eight of them—Shadow, Tangle, Vector, Charmy, Big, Cheese, Chocola, and Froggy—to face the Sonic and the other survivors on Angel Island. The infected and healthy heroes do battle, and the danger of infection aside, it pains the survivors to fight their loved ones. Zavok's dialogue in Issue #28 implies this was precisely what he was going for: forcing Sonic to face his turned friends just to add to the blue blur's misery.
    Zavok: Can you see them from your hiding spot, Sonic? The faces of all the friends you've failed?
• King Mook: Eggman obtains Omega's disembodied head in Issue #30 and rebuilds his body, then builds a heavily-armed Humongous Mecha version of Omega around that and sics it on the Restoration. Omega is built into the mecha's core like a figurehead, which backfires on Eggman when removing him cripples it.
• Knight of Cerebus:
  • The Deadly Six, anytime they're on-page.
  • Until Sonic and Silver eradicate it, the Metal Virus definitely qualifies.
  • Zig-Zagged with Dr. Starline. His Establishing Character Moment arguably marks where the series enters Darker and Edgier territory, but for the most part, he's a nigh-luckless No-Respect Guy and, overall, a pathetically ineffective villain. On the other hand, he commits some of the evilest acts any villain yet has in the comic, which, along with his Villainous Legacy, play this trope straight.

Tropes L-O

• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • In Issue #25, Eggman confiscates the Warp Topaz from Starline, fires him, and has Metal Sonic throw him off Angel Island to parts unknown via Starline's own portal. It serves him right, since him restoring Eggman to villainy was the catalyst for the Zombot Apocalypse, and by getting the Zeti involved, he made things worse than ever for heroes and villains alike.
  • The Zeti gleefully use the Chaos Emeralds to take control of the Zombots and use them to attack people. So it's fitting that when the heroes steal the Emeralds back from them, they're left to be infected by the Zombots that are now free of their control.
  • In Issue #29, Eggman shoves Amy into a Zombot Big, infecting her, and tries to escape in the Restoration airship. Just seconds later, Eggman trips on an also-Zombot Froggy and contracts his own Metal Virus.
  • In Issue #31, Tails and Tangle rescue Rough and Tumble from the mining pit they were trapped in as Zombots. The skunk brothers laugh off the heroes' offer of redemption and run off to cause more trouble, only to immediately get lost in the mines.
    • Later, in the Bad Guys mini-series, Starline finds Rough and Tumble back in jail. As it turns out, the duo returned to the same town they took over earlier in the series, but this time, the townspeople were ready for them. Rough openly admits it was a bad idea.
  • At the climax of Chao Races and Badnik Bases, Starline triggers an avalanche in White Park to distract Sonic and Shadow while he makes off with a kidnapped Tails and Rouge. In the end, only Starline himself gets hurt by said avalanche.
• La Résistance: The Resistance from Sonic Forces is back and still active, since cleaning up after the war is no overnight matter, plus the Badnik army becoming more competent necessities their continuing operation. Amy tries to convince Sonic to join back with them in Issue #7, but he declines on the grounds that belonging to an organization is simply not his thing. That said, he does join back up with the others after learning that Neo Metal Sonic is the one in control of the Badniks. After Metal was defeated, Knuckles unofficially disbands the group, leading Amy to rebrand it into The Restoration.
• Left for Dead:
  • Eggman leaves Starline in the dust after besting him in Issue #50. Starline is crushed to death under rubble moments later, too broken to save himself.
  • After Surge is defeated in Issue #56, Kit retreats with her in tow, but not before collapsing Starline's base onto Sonic, Tails, Eggman, and Metal Sonic, leaving the latter four to their fates.
  • In Issue #61, Sonic, fed up with Eggman and his Badniks, coldly leaves them to their Uncertain Doom as Shadow warps the doctor's Eggperial City into space and it blows up.
• Let No Crisis Go to Waste:
  • The Test Run arc turns out to be a case of this. Sonic and company investigate what they think was an Eggman plot at a tower with odd spatial properties but instead it's actually a testing ground for new Badniks. Orbot and Cubot panic over Dr. Eggman's reaction to the discovery of the tower, but Eggman decides to roll with it and unleash all the Badnik prototypes and mechs in training onto the intruders.
  • In Zeti Hunt, the Zeti invade Restoration HQ at the same time Starline sneaks in, looking for Belle. Starline uses the ensuing chaos as cover and kidnaps Belle while Sonic and co. are preoccupied with the Zeti.
  • In Battle for the Empire, Sonic, Tails, and Belle are brought to Eggperial City due to Starline's "Operation Remaster" taking place. Eggman, after utterly destroying Starline in their big battle and regaining control of his Badniks, takes the opportunity to sic his robots on the unsuspecting heroes.
• Let's You and Him Fight:
  • Issue #6 is all about a fight between Sonic and Shadow concerning what to do about Mr. Tinker, the amnesiac Eggman...which was set up by Rouge - she planned that a brawl with the blue blur would clear Shadow's head enough to consider not to outright murder the Doctor.
  • Issue #18 has Gemerl and Sonic fighting for a brief period as Sonic is infected with the virus and Gemerl has been ordered to fight back any of the Zombots. Though Gemerl knows Sonic isn't fully infected he won't allow Sonic to remain in the area because he's too much of a risk while Sonic won't leave because too many people are in danger. Cream makes Gemerl apologize later.
  • Issue #34 has a downplayed example when Sonic and Tails meet Belle for the first time. Sonic tries to fight her, but all she does is dodge until he steps on her tail, causing her to involuntarily back-kick him in the face. She apologizes and begs for mercy before Tails intervenes and tells Sonic to back off.
• Limited Wardrobe: As usual, the game characters are limited solely to wearing their standard attire and nothing more, and are not allowed to change them regardless of context, per Sega imposed guidelines. On a more peculiar note, male characters (sans Eggman) aren't allowed to wear pants.
• Logical Weakness:
  • Along with his inability to swim, Sonic can lose his speed if one or both of his legs is injured.
  • Tangle needs ample space to use her powers properly, so her Claustrophobia adds up. Furthermore, her tail can be used against her if grabbed; Mimic and Zavok exploit this to knock her out.
  • Whisper is first and foremost a sniper and so relies on her mask scope and her Wispon. Without either, she's still a tough melee combatant, but still weaker than normal. She can also be electrocuted if her gadgets are shorted out.
  • As Belle's casing is all wooden, she's constantly at risk of being burned to the bone (or metal endoskeleton, in her case). Appropriately, she's very afraid of fire.
  • Metal Sonic and Kit are both vulnerable to electric shocks, the former being a robot and the latter a hydromancer. Kit's backpack is also a glaring weakpoint, as running it dry or disabling it renders him powerless.
• Make Way for the New Villains:
  • Eggman spends most of Issues #25-56 sidelined in favor of newer villains (mainly Starline and the Deadly Six) or otherwise Out of Focus as he rebuilds after the Zombot Apocalypse.
  • Surge and Kit, upon their debut, overtake Starline as the foremost non-Eggman threat and replace him in Sonic's Rogues Gallery after his death.
• Male Gaze: Among the female cast, Rouge, Whisper, Lanolin, and Zeena are particularly curvy, up and down; Amy's chest is also accentuated in some panels to go with her open-backed dress.
  • Notably averted with Tangle, whose coloration, smaller bust/hips/eyelashes, casual attire, and Boyish Short Hair mark her as by far the most masculine-looking girl in the cast. Ditto Surge, especially compared to Kit and Starline.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!":
  • In Issue #28, the remaining Metal Virus survivors get one when they're faced with an army of Zombots, including their infected friends, being thrown towards Angel Island by a now-giant Zavok.
  • In Issue #35, Amy, Cream, Belle, Gemerl, and Cheese get this when a shady merchant, whom Shadow KO'd earlier, recovers and sics his collection of Badniks on them.
  • Happens twice in Zeti Hunt: first when the heroes learn the Zeti are attacking Restoration HQ, and then after the fight when they learn Belle was kidnapped by Starline.
• Moment Killer: A recurring Running Gag in the series, played for both drama and laughs.
  • In Issue #5, Sonic's decided to leave the amnesiac Eggman in peace when Shadow and Rouge show up, the former seeking the doctor's destruction.
  • Issue #30 has two instances of this trope:
    • Cream and Gemerl's reunion with Vanilla amid dozens of cheering people is rudely interrupted by Zavok.
    • Wave comments on Jet's noble act of sticking with her and Storm back in Issue #28, rather than save himself when he had the chance.^note Jet's airboard was still working after the fight with Zik, but Wave and Storm lost their boards to Zik's Zombot horde, leaving them stranded. This prompts Jet to brag about how heroic and noble he was, ruining the moment.
  • In Issues #31-32, everyone is celebrating the Metal Virus' demise when Eggman suddenly crashes the party in a giant battle mech, announcing his presence with what might as well be a comic book version of Chewing the Scenery.
    Eggman: TREMBLE IN FEAR, FOOLS! I AM DR. EGGMAN—GREATEST OF PARTY CRASHERS IN THE FIERCEST OF PARTY CRUSHERS!
• Motive Rant:
  • Starline gives one upon meeting Sonic and Silver in Issue #14, desiring to see if the former lives up to the hype of being Eggman's nemesis. They're unimpressed, viewing him as creepy and crazy.
  • Surge combines one with a "The Reason You Suck" Speech when she ambushes Sonic in Issue #50. It falls flat and just confuses him, so she gives a Badass Boast and cuts to the chase.
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Knuckles senses that something is wrong with the Master Emerald. It’s revealed that Neo Metal Sonic is using it as his throne.
• Mythology Gag: Has its own page here.
• Near-Villain Victory:
  • After losing control of the Metal Virus, Eggman, content with just making Sonic's life a living hell, plans on evacuating to another planet, leaving everyone else to die. He'd have gone through with it, too, if Starline hadn't screwed them both over by getting the Zeti involved.
  • Zavok in Issue #29 comes within a split second of absolute victory before Sonic and Silver go Super and turn the tables.
  • In Issue #32, Eggman crashes the heroes' victory celebration and puts them on the backfoot before Sonic returns to stop him. Downplayed, as Sonic's friends were holding their own even before he arrived.
  • Sonic, Tails, and Amy spend the vast majority of the Test Run arc stuck in an Eggman base where Reality Is Out to Lunch. Eggman discovers their intrusion before they can escape and, after getting them on the ropes, prepares to kill them until Tangle comes to the rescue.
  • In Issue #43, Zavok easily defeats Tangle and Whisper and almost kills Sonic and Tails before finally going down.
  • Surge comes extremely close to killing Sonic via electrocution in Issue #56. She only fails because she overloads the Eggtech she was using, causing it to blow up and incapacitate her.
• Never Recycle Your Schemes:
  • After catching up on everything that happened while he was amnesiac, Eggman decides against repeating Neo Metal Sonic's recently defeated plan, even when Starline points out it could be tweaked to succeed. Instead, he moves on to something new.
  • Starline learns this the hard way when he recycles Eggman's old scheme of controlling the Deadly Six. And just like Eggman, the six quickly overpower him and take control of his new plan.
• Never Say "Die": Zig-Zagged. This trope is mostly played straight, but Amy and Zazz have used the word "dead", and Kit at one point uses the word "kill" in past tense (albeit in a non-threatening way).
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Shadow pulling a Big Damn Heroes to save Sonic and Knuckles from Neo Metal Sonic winds up giving him the biodata required to go One-Winged Angel.
  • After the climactic battle, Sonic decides to try and bury the hatchet with Metal Sonic and start a truce between them, telling Metal Sonic he can live however he wants. Metal Sonic rejects it and flies back to headquarters where Dr. Starline was (unsuccessfully) trying to brainwash Mr. Tinker into his old self again. One look at the damaged robotic doppelgänger gives him the mental and emotional shock necessary to snap him back to normal.
  • During the Metal Virus outbreak, Tails gives Sonic a biometric reader to track enough data for a possible cure. Unfortunately, his heated battle against Eggman, Starline, and a legion of Zombots, breaks it.
• Nightmare Face: Many, especially when Evan Stanley or Adam Bryce Thomas is on penciling duty.
  • Mimic excels at this trope, due in part to his Black Eyes of Evil and the Skeleton Motif he uses to make himself look scarier. He plays it straightest when he shows his true form's eyes and mouth while still disguised as someone else.
  • Neo Metal Sonic gives off one in Issue #10 as he starts to transform into Master Overlord.
  • In Issue #24, Whisper makes one as she flips out over Tangle's Metal Virus infection, and the same issue's final shot has each of the Zeti wearing one, too (due to the glow of Starline's Warp Topaz).
  • Issue #25 ends with the silhouettes of Sonic's Zombot-ified allies facing the reader with twisted, borderline demonic expressions.
  • Zavok's face takes on a warped, hellish look in his One-Winged Angel form.
  • Kit sports some demented facial expressions in his more violent moments, with special mention to a flashback of him and Surge in Issue #46.
  • Surge gives off two in the Overpowered arc.
• Nobody Can Die: Per Sega mandates, most characters, mainly the game ones, are equipped with max.-level Plot Armor by default and cannot be killed off. Unfortunately, this means they can be subjected to a Fate Worse than Death if the plot demands it, such as becoming Zombots (zombies with robot characteristics) with the Metal Virus. Furthermore, the comic characters are not as protected by this trope as the game characters, with the Diamond Cutters and Dr. Starline being confirmed dead.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished:
  • Sonic rebuilds Metal Sonic after their battle at Angel Island as an act of compassion. Metal escapes Tails's workshop and ends up being what restores Mr. Tinker's memories of being Dr. Eggman.
    • Sonic saving Tinker from Shadow also qualifies.
  • Referred to by name by Eggman when he "rewards" the village that took him in as Mr. Tinker by making them ground zero of the Metal Virus plague.
  • Much later, Amy defends Eggman from a Zombot Big. She quickly pays for it as Eggman kicks her into Big, infecting her.
  • Belle repeats Sonic's above-mentioned mistake when she fixes Metal Sonic after his defeat to Surge and Kit in Imposter Syndrome (without even de-weaponizing him as Tails did). This backfires hard, as Eggman sends Metal after her and her friends once he's regained control of his HQ from Starline, and her final attempt to talk Metal down gets her slapped aside.
  • After Kit's defeat in Issue #50, Tails repeatedly risks his own life to try and help him, holding back even after Kit rejoins Surge once their tragic past becomes known to the heroes. However, Kit refuses to listen and tries to murder the heroes anyhow, seeing his counterpart as no more than Sonic's pawn just like Kit himself is Surge's.
• No Honor Among Thieves: One of the main reasons Sonic always wins is because members of his Rogues Gallery keep screwing each other over, often at the worst possible times. Almost every Villain Team-Up or Enemy Mine in the comic ends with this trope in play.
• No Hugging, No Kissing: Per Sega mandates, none of the game characters in the comic can have a steady relationship, and Amy cannot like anyone but Sonic, and Sonic and Amy cannot date at all as they would lose their dynamic.
• Non-Standard Character Design: If you look close enough at Tumble, you'll see that he has no gloves on. Aside from the animal friends (Flickies and the like), all animal-based characters in the Sonic games are depicted wearing gloves. In the same vein Tangle has finger-less gloves.^note This wasn't the case in the pre-reboot Archie Sonic comics, but those didn't tend to follow the same design rules. Lanolin the Sheep, who goes gloveless altogether until Issue #24, wears fingerless gloves herself from then on.
• No Name Given: "Sonic's planet"/"this planet". In order to move away from the Archie continuity, the writers can no longer name the planet "Mobius" by SEGA's executive order. Just like in Sonic X, Sonic's world is unnamed and the writers have to use oddly long euphemisms whenever they talk about Sonic's homeworld, such as the Zeti awkwardly referring to the world as "The planet that Sonic and Eggman fight over." Issue #58 has Sonic refer to Eggman's latest scheme as "strip-mining the Earth below," but it's not full confirmation whether he's just referring to the process or the planet is indeed Earth.
• No-Sell:
  • Subverted with the Zombots. They're basically indestructible and some characters who get infected (especially Big) take no damage whatsoever, but they'll all crumble to dust within two centuries, as described by Eggman and Silver.
    • Likewise, robotic characters are immune to the Metal Virus, which cannot convert inorganic matter. However, Zavok (while in his giant form) is able to grab whole handfuls of Zombots without getting infected.
  • In All or Nothing, Amy is matched against Zomom and later a Zombot Big, both of whom defeat her hammer attacks using Kevlard. Her classic self gets the same results while hammering at Bark the Polar Bear in the 30th Anniversary Special.
  • In Issue #28, Zazz shrugs off a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from Espio, Zavok having given him worse before. Much to Zazz' fury, Espio makes off with his Chaos Emerald anyhow.
  • Mighty in the 30th Anniversary Special no-sells Fang's cork gun, a claw-swipe from Metal Sonic, and an energy blast from Heavy King using his shell.
  • In Issue #50, Eggman more or less brushes off everything Starline throws at him, all without breaking a sweat.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • In Issue #23, Eggman paraphrases the lyrics of "Open Your Heart" to justify his Chronic Villainy.
  • Zavok at the climax of Bad Guys declares Starline is just like Eggman and thus unworthy of being the latter's Superior Successor. Considering Starline ends up being bested by Eggman in no time at all, Zavok ended up being right in the end.
  • After Eggman defeats Starline in Issue #50, Belle comes to say goodbye to him to give herself closure. Eggman compares her fixation with his Mr. Tinker persona to Starline's own obsession with his normal self, dismissing both of them as "clingy" for taking his past vices so personally.
  • Kit, as part of his "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Sonic in Issue #56, accuses the Blue Blur of being a halfhearted, self-righteous opportunist akin to Eggman and Starline.
    Kit: You're all the same. You don't need me or Surge. You want us. At that matters is what we can do, how you can change us. So you can prove that your way is right.
  • Starline remarks that Tails "takes after Dr. Eggman in surprising ways" after he sees that Tails' house looks exactly like his head.
• Oh, Crap!: Happens at least Once Per Story Arc. Silver, Rough, and Surge even literally say "crap" in Issues #8, #15, and #53, respectively. Belle's variation (replacing "crap" with "sawdust") is one of her catchphrases.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • In the first issue, after defeating the Badniks that attack the town, Tails notes that, since the attack was more coordinated, this doesn't reek of Eggman since he always likes to make a showing of his attacks. The lack of fanfare's a bit spooky. It's also a hint that it's not Eggman leading the Empire at the moment, but Neo Metal Sonic.
  • Sonic and pretty much all his friends go through this during the Metal Virus saga. After Zombots overrun Restoration HQ, Tails' labs, and Spiral Hill Village with Vanilla, Vector, and Tangle being assimilated into the hordes, all of Sonic and co.'s morale goes out the window. During the climax arc, "All or Nothing", not only are all the comic-relief characters Zombots, but the survivors are too depressed, demoralized, and desperate to be upbeat about diddlysquat.
• One-Winged Angel:
  • Issue #10 ends with Neo Metal Sonic using the Master Emerald's power to become Master Overlord, as whom he fights the Resistance in Issue #11.
  • At the end of Issue 28, Zavok changes into his giant form from Sonic Lost World, setting the stage for the climax of the entire Metal Virus arc in Issue 29.
• Our Zombies Are Different: Anyone succumbing to the Metal Virus don't actually die and become undead in order to become "Zombots". They are instead "programmed" to act like zombies while encased in a super contagious liquid metal coating, forcing them to infect anyone around them. Compared to classic Zombies, who bite other victims, Zombots only need to touch someone for the infection to spread, making them far more dangerous. To make matters worse, the infection accelerates when fighting another Zombot while infected.
• Out-Gambitted: Starline suffers this trope twice:
  • The Zeti plan on taking control of the Zombots to take revenge on Eggman and Sonic, but Starline sees this coming and is prepared to seizing control of them in turn. Unfortunately, he didn't take into account the Restraining Bolt getting stolen by the Zeti.
  • Thorough as he was in planning to usurp Eggman, Starline didn't count on him having enough foresight to beat him. Come Issue #50, Eggman proves him dead-wrong with a successful Batman Gambit.
• Overly-Nervous Flop Sweat:
  • In Issue #36, Cream excitedly tells her mother about her dangerous adventure in White Park. Amy and Rouge, who kept Vanilla in the dark about the true nature of the trip, start sweating as they realize they've been busted.
  • In Issue #55, Eggman tries to escape from Surge during their fight in Starline's base, only to find out Starline changed the access codes. Eggman immediately sweats bullets as he realizes Surge now has him cornered.
  • In Issue #57, Tangle hastily nominates Whisper's old team name without her consent, then sweats profusely when she sees Whisper's reaction.

Tropes P-T

• Pantsless Males, Fully-Dressed Females: In typical Sonic fashion, the males go pantsless or almost naked while females wear full clothing without exception. This is one of the many, many mandates issued by SEGA. There are occasional exceptions, however, as in Issue #42, a female Restoration soldier is pantsless like the male soldiers.
• Phlebotinum-Proof Robot: Gemerl and Omega are both immune to the Metal Virus, allowing them to fight the Zombots head-on without risking getting infected.
• Plot Armor: Sonic's speed was the only thing that kept him from becoming a full Zombot, and even this was implied to deteriorate, as pointed out by Gemerl. Luckily, the plan to use the Warp Topaz and Chaos Emeralds helped eliminate the Metal Virus before it completely overtook him.
• Post-Final Boss:
  • After Zavok's defeat in Issue #29 and subsequent arrest in Issue #30, Eggman goes on to become the last challenge of the overall Metal Virus Saga.
  • In the final quarter of Zeti Hunt, Starline has a brief final confrontation with the Chaotix after the Deadly Six are defeated by Sonic and Tails. Starline escapes, and continues to be the de facto Big Bad for the overall Eggman's Legacy Saga.
• Power Crystal:
  • The comics introduce a new one courtesy of Dr. Starline, the Warp Topaz - a gemstone that can manipulate space and create portals to other places. Starline loses the gemstone after being fired during the Metal Virus arc, with the gemstone's fate uncertain after Super Sonic and Super Silver use it to throw the Metal Virus into the sun. The Chaos Emeralds, Master Emerald, and Sol Emeralds make appearances as well.
  • Eggman's Eggperial City in Urban Warfare is revealed to be making these enmasse, creating several fake Chaos Emerald crystals that consume the planet's resources. They have the same wavelength and properties of the regular emeralds, but have much less power.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner:
  • After Neo Metal Sonic uses the Master Emerald to go Super, Knuckles accuses him of cheating while Sonic insists they'll defeat him regardless. Neo responds with this line before handing his opponents' asses to them on a platter:
    Neo Metal Sonic: Such a disappointing choice of last words.
  • Tangle gives one before her Last Stand against the Zombots while her infection spreads, allowing it to overtake her while her friends escape.
    Tangle: Let's go, then! You might as well turn back! You used to be my neighbors! You know I won't let you past!
  • Gemerl's line before he throws Zeena to her own Zombots:
    Gemerl: You. Hurt. Cream.
  • Jet gives one to Master Zik before blasting him:
    Jet: We're the Babylon Rogues. We don't beg. We don't give up. AND WE DON'T LOSE!
  • Omega drops one in Issue #32, right before obliterating the Humongous Mecha Eggman used him to power:
    Omega: Unleashing stockpiled wrath!
  • Two from Tails in Issue #43, both directed at Zavok:
    Zavok: You're out of tricks, boy. Now what?
    Tails: I use the skills Sonic taught me, that's what! (Spin-Dashes Zavok)
    Zavok: (pins Tails down after two hits) And now your skills have failed you.
    Tails: Guess I'll just go back to tricks, then! (subdues Zavok with a Zeti-Zapper)
  • In Issue #50, Eggman gives one to Starline (who's sitting on Eggman's throne after usurping it) before attacking him with the Egg Emperor.
    Eggman: Excuse me, Doctor...you're in my seat.
  • The climax of Issue #61 has Shadow the Hedgehog, in full control of Eggman's fake emeralds, deliver one right before he sets Eggman up for the final blow from Sonic and his friends.
    Shadow: This city is a true monument to your hubris, doctor. I'll show you the monster you've made! Chaos Control!
• Precision F-Strike: Issue #8 sees Silver drop an "Oh, Crap!" when he and Sonic learn about the situation with Angel Island.
• Prepare to Die:
  • Zavok's line to Sonic at the end of Issue #42:
    Zavok: No party, hedgehog. But you're just in time for your funeral.
  • Kit's line when facing Tails in Issue #50 also counts:
    Kit: It takes approximately 118 milliliters of liquid and 40 seconds to drown. (Extreme Close-Up on his grinning, glowy-eyed face) This shouldn't take long.
• Pushed at the Monster: In the climax of the Metal Virus arc, the heroes are beset by Zombots on Angel Island and have to hold out till Sonic and Silver can enact their plan to reverse the virus. Amy tries to save Eggman from a Zombot!Big but her hammer does nothing to him. However, Eggman uses the opportunity to kick her into Big and try and flee via a shuttle. He doesn't get far, as he slips on a likewise Zombot!Froggy and gets the virus on him anyway.
• Rapid-Fire "No!":
  • Charmy's "Oh, Crap!" reaction in Issue #17 right before the Zombots seize and infect him.
  • In Issue #32, Eggman yells this just before Sonic frees Omega from the doctor's Humongous Mecha.
  • Kit does this in Issue #50 after running out of water to fight Tails with, causing him to have a Freak Out.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: According to Evan Stanley in the Sonic Letters Squad page for Issue #47, "Trial by Fire" was inspired by both a personal story of hers where her family had to escape a wildfire in Oregon through whitewater rafting when she was 15, as well as the redwood fires in California that started in 2020.
• Redemption Rejection:
  • After defeating Metal Sonic, Sonic offers him a truce. Metal responds by slapping Sonic's hand away and fleeing. Sonic brushes it off at first, but after the Zombot plague is unleashed, he expresses genuine disappointment that Metal returned to Eggman's side, helping turn his master back to his old self in the process.
    Sonic: You just had to go back to him, didn't you? You couldn't be like Gemerl or Omega. You just had to be a one-note jerk.
  • Eggman embraces this trope in a way, by returning to villainy after his amnesia was cured and having an Ignored Epiphany moment in Issue #23.
  • After the Metal Virus is destroyed, Tails and Tangle rescue Rough and Tumble and offer them a chance at redemption for their past crimes, since they were tricked by Eggman into Zombot-ifying themselves. The skunk brothers just laugh it off and run away.
  • Sonic and Tails try several times to reason with Surge and Kit upon first meeting them, especially after learning what Starline has done to them. Unfortunately, Starline's neural conditioning is too severe for the duo to overcome, even though he himself is now dead: Surge insists she'll never be free as long as Sonic lives, while Kit declares his place is with Surge and that Sonic is no different than Starline or Eggman.
• The Reveal:
  • Issue #5 reveals Eggman has amnesia after his latest defeat and has taken up a much kinder identity as "Mr. Tinker".
  • Issue #7 reveals the mysterious figure controlling Eggman's army is Neo Metal Sonic as he attempts to find Eggman while taking over the world in his stead. And at the end of the issue, we find out he's conquered Angel Island.
  • Issue #11 reveals Mr. Tinker really is an amnesiac Dr. Eggman. He is kidnapped by Dr. Starline, a mad scientist that forcefully re-implants his memories.
  • Issue #30 reveals Sonic ended up in Blaze's world after he and Silver destroyed the Metal Virus.
  • Issue #35 reveals identity of the hooded figure, who has been stalking the heroes in White Park, to be Dr. Starline himself.
    Hooded Figure: (to Tails) A-A-Ah, sidekick...I'll handle the dramatic reveal, thank-you-very-much!
  • Issue #40 reveals the identity of Belle's long-lost creator: Eggman himself, while he was "Mr. Tinker".
  • Issue #44 reveals Belle's Dark and Troubled Past in full detail, from shortly after her creation all the way up to when she first met Sonic and Tails.
• Restricted Expanded Universe: Being Truer to the Text (and now canon to the videogames), SEGA keeps a close watch on the comic, and all stories need to be approved by them. A full list of speculated mandates can be found here, but most ensure the status quo of game-canon characters doesn't change ^ExamplesDr. Eggman turned good due to amnesia temporarily, but this was reversed after a few issues. Silver briefly joined an Original Generation team, but was kicked out by the end of the arc and teamed-up with his game ally Blaze instead, and none can die. Original Generation characters, on the other hand, are far less restricted.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Tails, Cream, Charmy, Jewel, the Chao species, and Depending on the Artist, Tangle.
  • Whisper is an on-and-off example, ranging from frightening when she's angry to downright adorable when she's happy.
  • The classic era characters in general are this, with special mention to Tails, Amy, and Ray, taking inspiration from the Genesis games to give them the impression of how they're younger in this period.
  • Benevolently-programmed Motobugs, such as the one Belle and Tangle meet in Trial by Fire, can be this.
    Amy: A friendly Motobug? There's a first for everything. They're kinda cute when they're not trying to run you over.
• Rings of Activation: Starline's glove can hypnotize people, a process which involves generating ring-shaped waves.
• Robotic Undead: The Metal Virus Saga has Dr. Eggman create and unleash a nanomachine-based virus on the world. The goal was to transform everyone into robotic slaves under Eggman's control but it mutated beyond his control and turned those infected into mindless, robotic monstrosities. Sonic dubbed the infected "Zombots," to which Eggman uses himself, finding the name catchy.
• Say My Name:
  • In Issue #24, Whisper tearfully screams out Tangle's name after learning she contracted the Metal Virus.
  • In Issue #36, Rouge flees when Cream unwittingly busts her and Amy by telling Vanilla about the White Park incident. Thus left to face Vanilla by herself, Amy screams Rouge's name in fury.
  • When Surge takes a near-lethal hit from an Egg Breaker in Imposter Syndrome #2, an onlooking Kit screams her name before going ballistic at their attacker.
• Scenery Porn: Plenty. To name but a few locations:
  • Angel Island (of course).
  • Spiral Hill Village (Tangle and Jewel's hometown) and the surrounding areas.
  • Silver's "Good Future" after the destruction of the Metal Virus.
  • Blaze's palace in the Sol Dimension.
  • Winterburg, the snowy town where Master Zik fights the Babylon Rogues over a Chaos Emerald and later observes a fight between Sonic and Eggman.
• Shapes of Disappearance: After Cream tells her mother the dangerous adventure she went on during the Chao Races and Badnik Bases arc, Amy tries telling Vanilla it was Rouge's idea, only for her outline to remain as she books it.
• Ship Tease: There's a decent amount for a comic with a mandate against romance. Sonic/Amy, Sonic/Blaze, Silver/Blaze and Tangle/Whisper tend to be the most teased pairs.
  • The ending of the Metal Virus saga gets two teases (or possibly three) for the price of one as Rouge says she wanted to spend the end of the world with the ones she loves with both Knuckles and Shadow on-panel. Considering she was sitting on top of the Master Emerald when she declared this though, it's likely the one she was referring to was more likely the giant gemstone.
  • Amy is, naturally, the first to hug Sonic when he returns in the Out Of the Blue arc. After his initial surprise, Sonic hugs her back while smiling, and looks a little disappointed when Tails joins in and makes it a group hug.
  • Issue 64 has Sonic telling Silver and Blaze they're "great together" after they have a heart-to-heart.
• Shoo Out the Clowns:
  • By All or Nothing, every hero that served as comic relief, including resident Plucky Comic Relief Tangle, has become a Zombot. Sonic's own comical traits have receded due to his trauma and fatigue. Due to those characters' infections sidelining them, said arc's Played for Laughs moments are largely limited to Knuckles' Skewed Priorities, Rouge's antics, and Eggman's comeuppance by Zombot!Froggy.
  • Tangle and the Chaotix leave the main plot of the Eggman's Legacy just before Starline launches his ill-fated coup against Eggman. Tangle is still tied up elsewhere during Surge and Kit's subsequent rampage and wouldn't return until the saga's Distant Finale, Urban Warfare.
• Shoot the Dog: When pushed into a risky Quarantine situation with the Zombots, Team Chaotix end up prioritizing healthy people over the partially infected whom they leave behind hoping that they can come back with a cure later. Charmy takes issue with it and tries to go back, only to become infected as well. In the end, Espio drags Vector onto the escape ship before he can go back and attempt a rescue.
• Shout-Out:
  • Several of the new characters reference other franchises:
    • Whisper's old team, the Diamond Cutters, are an obvious homage to Metal Gear Solid.
    • Belle is clearly inspired by Pinocchio with her lifelike A.I. and marionette-like appearance. By extension, her creator, Mr. Tinker (Eggman's amnesiac persona), references Geppeto.
    • Kitsunami bears a strong resemblance to the King of Sorrow from the Klonoa series, and has a somewhat similar personality.
  • At the end of Issue 21 among the survivors seen are a ladybug and a cat that look similar to Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste as anthropomorphic characters.
  • The leader of the Sonic Fan Club is always seen wearing◊ a bright-pink shirt with a yellow star, just like the titular Steven Universe.
  • One of the girls in the Fan Club looks like Dot Warner (albeit with butterfly wings).
  • One of the Chao on the main cover for issue 35◊ is wearing a rock over its head and is donning a number 8. This is a reference to Rocky from The Great Snail Race from SpongeBob SquarePants.
  • Issue 32 has Eggman wield a Gravitational Beam Emitter.
  • Issue 33 has a cameo of Bobby Schroeder of ThanksKenPenders fame, via her fursona Sonic-fied. She can be seen when Cream and Rouge try to sign up for the Chao races. She also has an army of Ferox Chao, which is a nod to her playthrough of Sonic Chronicles, where she used them for every character.
  • Issue 34 has a Lawyer-Friendly Cameo of Flick as a background character.
  • Eggman's rant in Issue 41 over being called "Baldy McNosehair" again contains one to Dragon Ball Z Abridged.
    Eggman: That's not funny! It's never been funny! It's never going be funny!
  • In Issue 42, when Starline sees that the Deadly Six are alive and endangering his plans, he calms himself by reminding himself that "Fear is the Mind-Killer": a quote from Dune (1984), as well as a song in the Sega shoot-em-up Rez.
  • In Issue 44, when studying Belle, Starline tells her that she's "more than meets the eye", and the Matrix can be seen on the shelf behind him.
  • A Mettaton figurine can be spotted on Tail's bookshelf in Issue 49.
  • In Issue 53, Surge utters "groovy" upon discovering the Dynamo Cage can steal power.
  • Cubot apparently has a 10-inch figure of an idol character known as Cyber Singer Mika.
  • Surge's battle pose in issue 55 is a direct imitation of Vegeta's during the Saiyan Saga.
  • In "Imposter Syndrome #1", Dr. Starline lays out a plan for breaking what he calls "The Sonic Cycle". While he is addressing the cycle of battle between Sonic and Eggman, the name comes from a commonplace meme in the Sonic fandom.^note The meme references the Sonic fandom's typical reactions to newly announced Sonic games of excitement, then trepidation, and finally, disappointment, repeated ad infinitum.
  • Cover A of issue #64 has Silver in front of a conspiracy board with a specific pose evocative of the Pepe Silvia Meme from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
  • The Winter Jam one-shot shows Eggman watching holiday-centric versions of Hole in the Wall and American Ninja Warrior.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!:
  • In Issue #11, Master Overlord is ranting about his superiority to Sonic, only for Whisper to shoot him in the face.
    Sonic: Nice shot, Whisper! Ten points for dramatic timing!
  • In Issue #30, Zavok refuses to concede defeat as he fends off Tangle, Whisper, and the Chaotix, only to be restrained by Silver and captured.
    Zavok: I...will...not...fall!
    Silver: Then you'll be crushed!
• Silence Is Golden: Metal Sonic's short story in the 2020 Annual, Reflections follows the non-speaking robot. There's no speaking until the end where Dr. Starline shows up and scolds him.
• Simultaneous Arcs:
  • Issues 21-23 (during the Last Minute Arc) take place at the same time. #21 from Tails perspective after Amy called him (while trying to create a cure for the Metal Virus). #22 showing what happened on Amy's end after she made the call (before the fall of Restoration HQ) and #23 showing what Sonic was doing as events happened in the former two issues (facing Eggman after his amnesia).
  • Issues 26-28 (during the All or Nothing Arc) has Sonic's friends travel to separate parts of the world to take 5 Chaos Emeralds back from five of the Deadly Six at the same time. Justified as they had to prevent them from warning each other. Near the end of 28, everyone makes it back with 5 of the Emeralds. Well, almost everyone… ^note Cream the Rabbit is infected by the virus, so Gemerl sends the Chaos Emerald to the portal of the rendezvous point, choosing to stay with Cream until the crisis is over. Jet the Hawk does the same to stay with his fellow Babylon Rogues in a Last Stand against a Zombot horde.
  • Issues 45-49 (the Trial By Fire Arc, including standalone episodes Hit the Pavement and Wound Up) occur parallel to the Imposter Syndrome mini-series before both subplots merge in Issue #50.
• Sinister Silhouettes: Starting in Issue #25, villains are occasionally presented in this manner (usually with the obligatory pupilless Glowing Eyes of Doom). If a silhouetted villain's mouth is visible, a Nightmare Face often results.
  • All of Sonic's friends who become Zombots appear this way at the end of Issue #25 and early in Issue #29. This includes Knuckles after he gets infected in the latter issue.
  • Zavok is silhouetted on Issue #29's B-Cover. He is also shown looming over Cream in this manner in Issue #30, and again over Zazz in Issue #41.
  • Eggman, and the Humongous Mecha he intergrated Omega into, are presented in this manner at the end of Issue #31, with all but the mech's claws being draped in shadow. Doubles as The Darkness Gazes Back.
  • One panel in Issue #42 has Starline in silhouette as he approaches Belle.
  • Surge and Kit briefly appear in silhouette near Belle in Issue #46. As said issue was released before Kit and Surge properly debuted in the Imposter Syndrome mini-series, this example marks their first on-page appearances in the comic.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Frozen Peak, Winterburg, and White Park.
• Sole Survivor:
  • During the Metal Virus Saga, Espio, Rouge, and Gemerl are the only members of Team Chaotix, Team Dark, and the Rabbit Family, respectively, who never get infected or otherwise incapacitated.
  • Zigzagged with Tangle. Out of the (then-unformed) Neo Diamond Cutters, she's the only one who gets Zombot-ified during the Metal Virus Saga, while Whisper and Lanolin survive the entire plague uninfected. Conversely, Tangle becomes the trio's lone survivor halfway through the Urban Warfare arc, while Whisper and Lanolin are imprisoned in an atomized state by Eggman.
• Spoiler Cover: Happens a lot, but so far the "All or Nothing" and "Out of the Blue" arcs take the cake.
  • Certain covers for Issues 25 and 27 do a damn fine job spoiling which characters survive and/or get infected.^note Issue 25's RI-B cover depicts the Zombot heroes separate from the healthy ones, but Tangle is hidden so well that her fate in the previous issue is kept ambiguous until later; Cream's infection, on the other hand, is spoiled outright by Issue 27's main cover.
  • A convention-exclusive cover for Issue 29 big time spoiled the appearance of Super Silver a whole issue before he actually appears. The RI Cover of Issue 30 does the same thing.
  • The Idiosyncratic Cover Art for Issues 31-32 spoil where the heroes celebrate the demise of the Metal Virus^note The bell tower in the background is a landmark building in Spiral Hill Village, Tangle's hometown, as well as Eggman's attack on them using Omega and how Sonic returns to stop him.^note Namely, dropping out of the sky on fire after Blaze sends him home.
  • A hooded figure stalks the heroes for much of the "Chao Races and Badnik Bases" arc. For those following the Bad Guys mini-series along with the main series, Issue 35's RI-B cover spoils who this hooded figure is: Dr. Starline.
  • A released cover of Issue #67 around the time of Issue #63's release shows that Mimic is clearly still working undercover as Duo, meaning that his cover wouldn't be blown in the Misadventures arc.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Belle and Starline gained a rep for overexposure during the Eggman's Legacy Saga. In general, both have the same problem of having a Broken Pedestal towards Eggman and trying to deal with it in some form, so the storyline ends up dedicating quite a load of screentime for both characters.
• The Starscream: Dr. Starline attempts this several times, but to no avail. First, he defies Eggman to recruit the Zeti while planning to double-cross the latter, only for the Zeti to out-betray him and appropriate the Metal Virus. His second attempt in Bad Guys also backfires, as Zavok upstages him again before Mimic screws them both over and leaves them to die. Then, after learning the Awful Truth in Imposter Syndrome, Surge and Kit decide to hijack Starline's Evil Plan, feigning loyalty and helping him usurp Eggman while planning to kill both doctors, Sonic, and Tails.
• Status Quo Is God:
  • Per mandates imposed by Sega, none of the game characters can have character development unless approved, and SEGA Characters cannot be changed in any way unless approved, so don't expect any major or long-lasting shakeups in the series.
  • Admit it, from the moment you saw Mr. Tinker, you knew that he would go back to being Eggman again before the first year wrapped up. Though, it's still quite impressive SEGA even let it last for a year at ALL, given how strict they are on this comic. It certainly lasted longer than Sonic's amnesia, which came and went in the span of two issues.
    • Discussed in Issue #26. Sonic calls Eggman and Metal Sonic out on their Redemption Rejection and reminds Eggman of the good he could do as Mr. Tinker. However, Eggman smugly declares he is who he is and that's just the way he likes it, before making a Kick the Dog speech. With that, Sonic gives up and bitterly concedes to this trope, telling his two main nemeses they'll go back to being enemies once the Metal Virus is no more; Eggman reponds that they never stopped being enemies in the first place. Later, after Eggman's defeat in Issue #32, Sonic laments they'll keep fighting for a long time and hopes, in vain, that the doctor will come around someday.
• Story Arc: The comic's story pans out in multiple smaller arcs that are tied together by an overarching narrative.
  • The first arc, running from Issues #1-12, features the Sonic characters rebuilding after the events of Forces, dealing with Eggman's army as it comes under the control of Neo Metal Sonic, and trying to figure out the mystery of where Eggman himself disappeared to.
  • The second arc, running from Issues #13-32 (plus the 2020 Annual), has the newly-returned Eggman unleashing the Metal Virus and turning heroes and villains alike into Zombots. When the Deadly Six hijack the plague, the remaining survivors—good, bad, and neutral—must team up to stop both threats from destroying the world.
  • The third arc, running from Issues #33-61 (plus the Bad Guys, Imposter Syndrome, and Scrapnik Island mini-series), has the heroes tying up loose ends from the Zombot Apocalypse while Starline plots to overthrow Eggman and conquer the world himself, creating Surge and Kit to that end. Eggman eliminates Starline in Issue #50, but Sonic and Tails must still contend with their new doppelgängers.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Both Sonic and Eggman take to calling those infected by the Metal Virus "Zombots".
• Suddenly Shouting:
  • Whisper does this whenever she breaks character and raises her voice.
  • Silver's Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap! moment in Issue #8.
  • Neo Metal Sonic's Jump Scare moment in Issue #10 as he begins to go One-Winged Angel, announcing the last pieces of his plan are in place.
  • Jet's above-mentioned Pre Ass Kicking One Liner in Issue #28.
  • Knuckles to Sonic in Issue #29, while facing down their infected allies:
    Sonic: Yeah, it looks bleak, but I've got a plan. Trust me.
    Knuckles: You better... (punches Zombot!Shadow and infects himself) OR I'M SO GOING TO HAUNT YOU!
  • Amy's above-mentioned Say My Name moment in Issue #36.
  • Played for Laughs in Issue #39, when Tangle tricks Orbot and Cubot into giving her a lead on where Sonic, Tails, and Amy are trapped.
  • Momentarily in Issue #50, Kit explodes in rage while telling Tails about what Starline did to him.
    Kit: [Starline] repeatedly [hurt me]. Made me forget. Made me happy it happened. I HATE HIM!!!
  • Surge's final rant to Sonic in Issue #56, before she burns herself out and falls into a coma while trying to electrocute him to death:
    Surge: You don't get it! I was built to live in your shadow! It's in my blood, my bones, my brain. There is no freedom for me...NOT WHILE YOU'RE STILL ALIVE!
• Suicidal Overconfidence:
  • As usual, this is one of Eggman's biggest flaws and one of the main reasons he always loses. His mismanagement of the Metal Virus, for example, not only results in the Zombots escaping his control, but also he himself getting infected before Sonic and Silver save the day.
  • Shadow is convinced that being the Ultimate Lifeform will protect him from the Metal Virus. He's wrong, and gets infected after coming into contact with one.
• Super Mode: Super Sonic is mentioned several times, although he doesn't appear until the climax of the Metal Virus saga in Issue #29. There's also Burning Blaze, Super Silver, and Super Neo Metal Sonic.
• Synchronous Episodes: Issues #21-23 and the 2020 Annual stories "Big's Big Adventure" and "The Catalyst" all take place at the same time, although the beginning and end of "Big's Big Adventure" may or may not have taken place after Issue #24.
• Take That!:
  • Eggman rushing production of his Metal Virus but dismissing the mutation as something to fix later is essentially a dig at gaming companies who tend to release buggy and unfinished games and having to fix it in DLC patches^note Which Sega is likewise guilty of (i.e Sonic Boom).
  • In Issue #41, after Sonic calls him "Baldy McNosehair" (again), Eggman angrily retorts that said nickname isn't funny. Doubling as a Shout-Out to Dragon Ball Z Abridged above, it is also a nod to how a lot of fans feel about the perceived overuse of such dialogue in the games, especially throughout The New '10s.
• Tarot Troubles: While camping Amy tries to give a tarot reading to Jewel, Tangle, and Belle. She refuses to show Belle her card and accidentally drops it in the campfire. Later a wildfire starts and Belle believes her lighter tool caused it.
• Team Mercy vs. Team Murder: In issues #5-6, Sonic, Shadow, and the Chaotix find themselves at odds over the amnesiac Dr. Eggman, who was convinced he was a kindly handyman named "Mr. Tinker". While Vector and Espio want to arrest Mr. Tinker for Dr. Eggman's crimes, Sonic and Charmy consider letting him go upon seeing his apparent change of heart. Meanwhile, Shadow wants Eggman dead, and attacks Sonic when he jumps in to protect Mr. Tinker. Eventually, the group decides to let Mr. Tinker go. This comes to bite Sonic later when Dr. Eggman regains his memories and unleashes the Metal Virus. Vector, Espio, and Shadow all call Sonic out for his misplaced mercy.
• Team Rocket Wins: Starline's winning streak throughout Season 3. He escapes using his Tricore each time rival villains or the heroes corner him, while Surge and Kit spare him for their own ends after initially rebelling. His luck, however, hits a dead end once he crosses Eggman for the last time.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Issue #17 starts with the Chaotix being informed of the Metal Virus. While they heed the warning, Vector assures Charmy it shouldn't be coming through their door anytime soon. Not a second later, the door is kicked in and Zombots start coming into their office. The trio make their way outside only to see Eggman attacking the city with the virus.
  • In Issue #23, after losing the data for a Metal Virus cure and hearing about the concurrent mishaps on his friends' side, Sonic tiredly remarks that at least things can't get any worse—which, in the next two issues, they do.
  • At the end of Issue #31, Tangle tells Whisper she doesn't want more fighting in her hometown so soon after the Zombot Apocalypse. Eggman shows up a moment later to crash the heroes' victory celebration.
  • In Issue #50, Starline, having taken over the Eggman Empire and lured Sonic, Tails, and Belle into a trap, gloats about his success and that he can soon rule with Eggman at his side. In the next instant, a vengeful Eggman appears in the Egg Emperor, ready to take his treacherous Fanboy down.
• That Man Is Dead: Eggman says as much about his "Mr. Tinker" persona after dropping it. Sonic and Belle have a hard time accepting this, and Eggman has to tell them several times before they finally concede.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: When Starline attempts to kill Sonic with a bombing, Eggman is furious, both because he views Sonic as his to defeat, and because he sees a mere bomb as a barbaric and unsophisticated means of victory.
  • E-123 Omega believes only he has the right to destroy Eggman, asserting so when he and Cream stop an embittered Whisper from killing the evil doctor.
• The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Eggman's password is always a variation of "Hate That Hedgehog". In the case of the base visited by Sonic and Amy in Issue 15, it's H4T3TH4TH3DGEH0G
• There Can Be Only One: As usual, Eggman refutes the idea of sharing power, least of all with the likes of Starline or the Zeti. He'll go as far as teaming up with the heroes or blowing his own infrastructure off the map just to ensure the right to rule the world remains his.
  Eggman: I don't share! If you really understood me, you'd know I won't settle for less! It's All or Nothing! And you are nothing before me!
• This Cannot Be!:
  • Shadow is dumbfounded when he's infected by the Metal Virus, as he had thought that him being the Ultimate Lifeform would prevent that.
  • Espio's "Oh, Crap!" reaction when he tries to steal Zazz' Chaos Emerald and is caught when Zazz sniffs him out.
  • Surge has this reaction when she first hallucinates the late Starline. Ditto Sonic when learns she survived falling down a garbage chute during their first encounter.
• Time Skip: As it carries on from Sonic Forces, it's set one month after the ending of that game. The Resistance, who disbanded after the events of the war against Eggman, have regrouped due to both realizing restoration efforts are going to take much longer than expected and that some of Eggman's Badniks are still running amok and causing chaos.
  • Each minor Story Arc is separated by one of these, with the elapsed time ranging from days to weeks. The transition from "The Last Minute" and "All or Nothing" is arguably an exception, as the Restoration's flight from Spiral Hill Village to Angel Island couldn't have taken more than a few hours.
• Trash the Set: Virtually all stories set in an Eggman base conclude with said base's destruction.
• Truer to the Text: Sonic and his friends skew much closer to their video game selves than the previous continuity. The biggest change is Sonic, whose portrayal dumps the 24+ year idea of being the team player and a slight womanizer with the Totally Radical attitude in favor of the gold-hearted loner who cares for his friends but hates the idea of being anchored down in one spot, preferring to run off to his next adventure.

Tropes U-Z

• Unfinished, Untested, Used Anyway: Downplayed with the Metal Virus. Eggman does spend a few issues testing its limits but Starline feels that he ended up pushing the project out too quickly with only a basic amount of data gathered on it. So of course, problems soon start occurring, with Eggman's control over the Zombots starts slipping, and he doesn't seem to care as long as it affects Sonic. The worst part, he never bothered to produce a cure in the off-chance he ends up infected himself. His attitude changes when Starline entrusts the Deadly Six to deal with the crisis.
• Unwitting Pawn: In Issue #15, Eggman sends Rough and Tumble to fight Sonic, counting on them losing and exposing themselves to his metal virus in the process.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • Neo Metal Sonic has one as Master Overlord in Issue #11. First he gets Drunk on the Dark Side, and then Sonic presses his Berserk Button before the Resistance attacks and drives him completely nuts.
  • Zeena has a short, but significant one in Issue #27, near the end of her fight with Cream and Gemerl.
  • Zavok loses it in Issue #28 after Rouge crashes the Faceship, going One-Winged Angel and barraging Angel Island with fireballs and handfuls Zombots (including Sonic's infected friends).
  • Eggman has a brief one in Issue #32 when Sonic returns and disables his Humongous Mecha, allowing Omega to destroy it. When Sonic skips the formalities thereafter, Eggman's initial fury turns to fear and he retreats, opting to settle for crashing the heroes' party rather than push his luck.
  • In Issue #50, Starline comes down hard after Eggman thoroughly shreds his "Operation: Remaster" scheme. Granted, he had shown signs of this trope well prior, even before his falling-out with Eggman over the Metal Virus incident.
  • Eggman has one of these in Issue #61 after losing all his advantages and realizing he's finally pushed Sonic too far. His Last Villain Stand fails, making him resort to begging for mercy (to no avail).
• Villain Respect: After being captured by Sonic and Tails, Zavok doesn't understand why their punishment is only to be banished back to Lost Hex. When he swears Sonic's mercy will come back to bite him, Sonic's only reply after remembering what happened when he spared Eggman is that he refuses to sacrifice his principles out of fear. Zavok can only begrudgingly acknowledge his respect for Sonic's reply.
• Villain Team-Up:
  • Starline recruits Rough and Tumble to help him find Eggman and restore his memories. Afterwards, they enter Eggman's service. It doesn't last very long.
  • After laying low for several story arcs, Clutch and Mimic re-emerge from the shadows, with the former recruiting the latter to infiltrate the newly formed Restoration Diamond Cutters and act as The Mole for the opossum.
• The Virus: The Metal Virus, Eggman's robotizing bioweapon that he spreads world during second major arc of the comic. Sonic is able to resist it by running, but it mutates to bypass that defense and, eventually, to the point where even Eggman loses control of it. Because the Metal Virus cannot convert inorganic matter (metal, stone, processed wood, etc.), robotic characters such as Metal Sonic and Gemerl are immune to it.
• Walking the Earth: The first four issues have Sonic traveling to different towns and saving them from Badniks and villains.
• War Is Hell: Though the main war was concluded in Sonic Forces, the first few arcs deal with wartime fallout. Infrastructure needs to be rebuilt, lives were lost, repeated bombings have made large areas infertile, and an army without its head is still dangerous.
• Wingding Eyes: A Running Gag in the series has Tangle getting starry-eyed whenever she's excited. Some one-off examples also happen:
  • In Issue #26, while Tails and Eggman are building a portal device with the Warp Topaz so the heroes can confront the Zeti all at once, Silver watches from the background with stars in his eyes.
  • Storm gets starry-eyed before slugging Master Zik in Issue #28.
  • Whisper, of all characters, does this in Issue #29 upon seeing a Zombot-ified Tangle go back to normal right in front of her. This and the big, tackling hug she gives Tangle afterward show how far Whisper has come since they first met, what with her showing two of Tangle's signature traits in one scene.
  • Cream gets starry-eyed in Issue #35 when Belle volunteers to help free some imprisoned Chao.
  • In Issue #38, Tails geeks out with stars in his eyes over the spatial-warping Eggman base he's in.
  • Played for Horror in Issue #56, where Surge is shown starry-eyed as she attacks Eggman to fake-out Metal Sonic.
• Wham Episode:
  • Issue #7: We find out the "Eggman" who's been running things is really Metal Sonic, upgraded to his "Neo Metal Sonic" form from Sonic Heroes.
  • Issue #12: The real Eggman regains his memories after seeing the damaged Metal Sonic and goes right back to villainy.
  • The Metal Virus Saga is basically made of these:
    • In Issue #15, The villainous skunk brothers Rough and Tumble are used as subjects for a field test of the Metal Virus, and while Sonic and Amy manage to defeat them, Sonic ends up infected with the virus as a result.
    • Issue #16: The village that took Eggman in as an amnesiac is chosen as ground zero for the start of the Metal Virus plague. Meanwhile, Sonic learns that running can keep his infection at bay, but not cure it.
    • In "Crisis City", Eggman attacks several towns and cities with the Metal Virus. While the Chaotix evacuate their city, Charmy ends up infected trying to save a civilian who got some of the virus on her. Cream's village is hit next, and while Vanilla and she manage to escape, Cheese and Chocola are infected protecting them and break out of the jars Sonic tried to ground them in. Then, Shadow gets infected when he refuses to listen to the advice of his comrades and fights barehanded against the Zombots. Omega's body is destroyed while trying to fight against the newly Zombot-ified Shadow, Tails barely managing to grab his head that houses his CPU so he isn't completely demolished and can be rebuilt later. At the same time Starline finds out about the Zeti and their robot controlling powers, hitting upon an idea to use them to control the Zombots.
    • In Issue #22: Restoration HQ falls when a Zombie Infectee gets into the base and fully changes, with Vanilla and Vector getting infected in the ensuing chaos.
    • Issue #24: This issue is Despair Event Horizon personified. The remainder of Amy's team are all emotionally drained with each shred of hope leaving them (Restoration HQ, Tails' lab, and the data reader needed to find a cure to the Metal Virus all having been lost). Cream is completely devoid of her optimism due to losing Cheese, Chocola, and her mom. Espio blames the loss of his team on Sonic due to letting Eggman run free (during his "Mr. Tinker" phase). Sonic is especially tired after a combination of endless running and only being able to sleep for a few minutes at a time, and he slowly loses his ability to drive back the virus affecting him, as informed by Gemerl. Whisper is distraught after learning Tangle is infected and staying behind to help them all escape. And to top it all off, the issue ends with a Wham Shot of Starline finally enacting his Deadly Six plan.
    • Issue #25, true to its story title, marks "a sudden shift" indeed. After Starline's attempt to control them backfires, the Zeti take over Eggman's plans, steal the Chaos Emeralds, and set out to conquer and terrorize the world. Eggman and Metal Sonic, forced to team up with the remaining heroes and the Babylon Rogues, fire Starline and confiscate the Warp Topaz. Meanwhile, Zavok commandeers the Faceship and enslaves Sonic's Zombot-ified allies to hunt down the survivors.
    • Issue #27: Zeena has the upper hand as she easily controls Gemerl, leaving Cream to rescue him. Even after beating Zeena and getting the Chaos Emerald, Cream ends up infected, forcing Gemerl to send the gem to their allies and keep her company. It's unknown if she fully became a Zombot anytime before the end of the saga.
    • Issue #28: The heroes have successfully recovered the Chaos Emeralds, but then the issue ends with a Wham Shot cliffhanger as Zavok attacks Angel Island with the Zombot forms of most of their friends and loved ones.
    • Issue #29: Knuckles becomes a Zombot, while Tails, Amy, Eggman, and Sonic almost the same fate before the latter and Silver get the last Chaos Emerald and go Super. Super Sonic and Super Silver manage to use the Chaos Emeralds and Warp Topaz to destroy the Metal Virus for good, but the Topaz overloads and explodes, with Sonic disappearing afterwards.
    • Issue #30: Zavok recovers from his defeat, with it being revealed that the other Zeti have likewise recovered from the Metal Virus and escaped. Meanwhile, Eggman and his minions escape, with Metal Sonic stabbing Gemerl through the chest in the process; Orbot and Cubot also manage to steal Omega's head in the process, with Eggman planning to make use of it. And in the final scene, it's revealed that a banged up Sonic crash-landed in Blaze's dimension.
    • Issue #31 The good news? Sonic is already back up on his feet again in the Sol Dimension. The bad news? His mind has been warped and has lost his memories. Meanwhile, Starline now plans to regain Eggman's respect by conquering the world himself then making the both of them work together, and Eggman takes Omega and integrates him into a giant mech which he then uses to assault the heroes during Tangle’s celebration party.
  • Issue #35: Clutch recovers from being knocked out by Shadow and escapes, though not before siccing his Badnik collection on Amy, Cream, Cheese, Gemerl, and Belle. Meanwhile, Starline kidnaps Rouge and Tails and triggers an avalanche, forcing Sonic and Shadow to choose between saving their friends or the people of White Park Chateau.
  • Issue #40: Eggman almost kills Sonic, Tails, and Amy before Tangle comes to their rescue, and it turns out he created Belle while under his Mr. Tinker persona.
  • Issue #44: The good news? The Zeti are sent back to the Lost Hex in defeat. The bad news? Starline, who kidnapped Belle for research, gets what he wanted out of her and escapes, also preventing the heroes from finding out about his broader schemes.
  • Issue #50: Starline's "Operation: Remaster" fails miserably and he himself is killed, while Surge goes missing and Kit, unconscious, is salvaged by the heroes.
• Wham Line:
  • In Issue #7, after Sonic reveals to the second Eggman that he's already met the real one.
    "Dr. Eggman": Of course you'd even ruin my feint, my loathsome copy.
  • In Issue #10, Rough and Tumble show up to capture Mr. Tinker, mentioning that "the Doc" told them he'd be a little "off". Neo Metal Sonic was unaware of Tinker's amnesia or his current location, hinting that this isn't the robot's machinations at work. Sure enough, it turns out to be the work of an all-new villain, Dr. Starline.
  • Issue #21 ends with Amy informing Tails that Restoration HQ fell to the Zombots, along with almost everyone inside including Vanilla and Vector.
  • In Issue #24, Tangle gives one when she reveals her infection to Sonic. His reaction speaks for itself.
    • And at the end of the same issue, when Starline tells Eggman he's got an idea of how to get the Zombots under control and Eggman tells him to stop bugging him about it. Starline's response?
      Dr. Starline: No, sir. (Summons the Zeti) I insist.
  • Cream revealing her Metal Virus infection to Gemerl after their fight against Zeena in Issue #27:
    Cream: I got sick.
  • At the beginning of Issue #31, after Blaze describes Sonic to someone...
    Mr. Needlemouse!Sonic: He sounds very impressive. I'd like to meet him one day.
  • Tangle announcing her resignation from the Restoration in Issue #47 (which she does a little too bluntly).
• What Would X Do?: Starline says that for much of his life, he'd ask himself "what would Eggman do?" whenever he's had a problem with something.
• Who's on First?: When Sonic and Silver first meet Whisper the Wolf and names are exchanged.
  Whisper: Whisper.
  Sonic: Cool.
  Silver: (whispering) Okay. But... why?
  Sonic: No, genius. Whisper is her name.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: In Issue #14, Eggman explains to Dr. Starline why he never just hunts down Sonic and does this.
  "I could carpet bomb him any day! That's not enough - that's not the point! I have to beat him! I have to prove I'm superior!"
• Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: Happens whenever the characters are in Freak Out mode. Best shown in the issues drawn by Evan Stanley, whose art style makes heavy use of this trope.
• World of Snark: With the exception of the younger, more innocent characters such as Cream or Charmy, just about every major character seems to have their moments of sarcasm. A significant amount of the comic’s humor just consists of characters having some sort of wise-crack to say. Whether it be just the characters reacting to something, or the characters reacting to each other.
• Worth It: In issue #25, Tails asks Sonic if he was okay with Eggman taking Starline's Warp Topaz and having Metal Sonic chuck himthrough a portal to an unknown location. Seeing as Starline played a big part in bringing Eggman back, and they were stuck in the mess they were in now... yeah, he's okay with it.
• Wrong Context Magic:
  • The question arises in issue #8 if the Master Emerald — which can control the Chaos Emeralds — can also control the Sol Emeralds from Blaze's dimension, as Neo Metal Sonic is in possession of it and Blaze using them against him might be unwise. Knuckles believes it can't, based on a hunch and his own connection to the gemstone, but the group decides the situation is too dangerous to risk it.
  • Eggman abstains from exploring the powers of Starline's Warp Topaz for this reason; after his last plan, he's had his fill of "strange new magic stones".
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: By Issue #24, Sonic is hitting the Despair Event Horizon over the Metal Virus, especially since he's started to blame himself for everything by not dealing with the amnesiac Eggman when he had the chance. Tangle counters this by telling him that this is all on Eggman and Starline; he's not responsible for anyone's actions but his own.
• You Are in Command Now:
  • After Vector is infected by a Zombot Charmy in Issue #22, he names Espio acting team leader of the Chaotix. Espio remains in this position until his teammates are cured, at which point Vector resumes leadership.
    Vector: (salutes) Hey, Espio. You're lead detective now.
  • In Issue #31, Jewel inherits the role of leader of the Restoration from Amy.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: Starline gets away with a lot before Eggman finally does him in for good. While the Restoration is aware he's up to no good and fend him off when he attacks them, they mostly ignore his activities, considering him a minor threat compared to Eggman or the Deadly Six. Only when Surge and Kit are introduced do the heroes finally take Starline seriously, by which point it's too late to undo his Villainous Legacy.
• Zombie Apocalypse: The second major story arc of the book involves Eggman starting one through a Metal Virus he created to be spread through the touch of others and become his slaves, with Sonic even calling them "Zombots" (a name which Eggman even approves of). Of course, since he rushed production of said virus, that doesn't bode well for how long he can control it, and even worse, he never cared to make a cure; this comes back to haunt Eggman when the Zeti usurp control of the Zombots. Meanwhile, Sonic and the other survivors repeatedly try and fail to manage the crisis as the virus picks them off one by one, driving the survivors to the Despair Event Horizon. In the end, only eleven organic characters^note Silver, Rouge, Espio, Whisper, Blaze, Zavok, Zazz, Starline, and the Babylon Rogues, plus The Immune robotic characters, avoid infection altogether. Interestingly, the term "Zombot Apocalypse" is only used twice in-universe (first by Vector in the 2020 Annual, and then by Knuckles in Issue #30).
• Zombie Infectee:
  • In Issue #22, a monkey infected with the Metal Virus arrives at Restoration HQ with the other refugees, not wanting to be alone when the change comes. This causes an outbreak that consumes the base.
  • Sonic has been infected with the Metal Virus since Issue #15, and is using his Super-Speed to keep it in check. He and the rest of the world are finally cured cured Issue #29.

Mini-series

Tangle & Whisper

• Arc Villain: Mimic, an octopus with shapeshifting abilities whom Whisper has a beef with.
• Call-Back: During the "Battle of Angel Island" arc in the main comic, Whisper was clearly uncomfortable around Shadow. We find out here that that's because the Shadow Androids killed her team.
• The Cameo: A horse and a porcupine based on Charley Parkhearse and Sequoia Loganberry from Tangle & Whisper penciler/inker Evan Stanley's planned original story, Ensouled, show up on the first page of issue #1.
• Continuity Cameo: Chumley, the baby walrus from Sonic Boom, appears in issue 1 of the mini-series in one of the photos of Mimic's Poke the Poodle misdeeds, in which Mimic is stealing candy from him. Chumley is the focus of (and was named in) the episode "Three Men and My Baby!", written by the penciller and inker of the mini-series, Evan Stanley.
• Continuity Nod:
  • In the first issue, Tangle is hanging out with Jewel when they hear commotion outside her jewelry shop. Jewel commenting on if the Babylon Rogues had returned, referencing them attacking her shop in the 2019 Annual.
  • In the third, a flashback shows the Shadow Androids from Shadow the Hedgehog being kept in reserve, in the same capsules they (and the real Shadow) were contained inside back in Sonic Heroes. Said androids were responsible for the murders of the Diamond Cutters.
• A Day in the Limelight: Focuses on the first two new heroes of the series.
• Death Faked for You: Mimic uses his own mask and Whisper's discarded Wispon to fake the murder of Whisper and try to show Eggman he killed the rest of the Diamond Cutters.
• Epic Fail: The mini-series starts out with Tangle crashing upside-down into a chili dog vendor's cart while she fools around in town.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: All of the Diamond Cutters, except for Whisper, were killed by Eggman after Mimic sold them out. This is a children's comic, by the way.
• Foregone Conclusion: As Issue #21 in the main comic shows the two girls working together and the caption stating as such when Tangle mentions their previous adventure together. The two will make it out fine in this mini-series and grow closer as friends. The main question is if they end up stopping Mimic or not.
• Foreshadowing: Whisper is seen gazing into her Blue Wisp rather painfully. It turns out it was Mimic's Wisp.
• Gory Discretion Shot: The last moments of Slinger, Smithy, and Claire seen by the reader are them trying their best to fend against the Shadow Androids before dying to the horde.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Eggman only shows up in flashbacks and contacting Mimic remotely, being otherwise not directly involved in the story.
• Idiosyncratic Cover Art: Similar to the main comic, the four issue's covers form a larger image, except the last half is flipped upside-down.
• If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: When Whisper gets her very chance to shoot and kill Mimic, she refuses and spares him, not wanting to live with doing what Mimic had done to her friends. Tangle also suggests Mimic could suffer A Fate Worse Than Death for failing Eggman.
• Interquel: The mini-series takes place between the Infection and Crisis City arcs of the main comic.
• Name and Name: The title of the mini-series is Tangle & Whisper, who are the titular characters.
• Nightmare Face: Happens any time Mimic shows his true form's eyes and mouth while still in someone else's form.
• Oh, Crap!: Tangle gets one in Tangle & Whisper #2 when she realizes Mimic is about to lock her in an airtight safe, and several more when Eggman's constructs appear unexpectedly in front of her.
• Origins Episode: Issue #3 of the mini-series tells Whisper's backstory in a series of flashbacks presented as video logs, and how the Diamond Cutters were killed.
• Rapid-Fire "No!": Tangle does this in the mini-series' second issue when she gets locked in a safe, triggering her Claustrophobia.
• The Reveal: Mimic was part of and betrayed the Diamond Cutters, Tangle's former group, where her teammates were all killed by Eggman's Shadow Androids.
• Spared, but Not Forgiven: What Whisper ultimately does to Mimic for If You Kill Him You Will Just Be Like Him reasons, but doesn't forgive him for what he has done to the Diamond Cutters.
• Super Prototype: Whisper's weapon, the Variable Wispon, is revealed as this. The Diamond Cutters all used standard single Wispons, but Smithy engineered a weapon that could incorporate all of them. Only one prototype was made before his death, and due to being the only Diamond Cutter that was still alive, Whisper took it.
• A Taste of Their Own Medicine: Tangle's plan to defeat Mimic involves giving him a dose of this trope. Mimic calls out Tangle for her sneak attacking him, which she states the trope word-for-word.
• Wham Line: Whisper's outburst near the end of Issue #2—the first time we ever hear her speak in a regular voice. There's a reason this moment is the the Tear Jerker section's page image.
  Whisper: I won't lose another friend! I can't!
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: As often as she smiles in the face of danger, even Tangle isn't 100% fearless. Issue #2 reveals she is claustrophobic and afraid of suffocating, much like how Sonic is scared of water and drowning. When Mimic locks her in a safe, Tangle loses it and looks about ready to pass out when Whisper comes to the rescue. Even merely wearing Whisper's Cool Mask makes Tangle feel uneasy.
• You Have Failed Me: Discussed after Tangle and Whisper capture Mimic in Issue #4. This doesn't stop him from toying with Whisper further, but as Tangle points out, failing his mission and wasting a crapton of Badniks in the process means he'll likely suffer Eggman's wrath if he escapes confinement. With that, Mimic finally shuts his trap.

Bad Guys

• The Bad Guy Wins: When the conflict is Evil vs. Evil, it's inevitable that a bad guy will win. Eggman is unable to stop the team and Zavok is the clear loser, being beaten so badly he can only slink away. Rough and Tumble gain nothing from the ordeal but their freedom from prison. The only winners are Mimic, who successfully deletes himself from the Eggnet, and Starline, who finally captures the base he was aiming for and amasses his own army.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience:
  • Starline has a couple of Badniks serving under him and they've been changed from their distinct colorings into a uniform purple, matching his outfit.
  • When Starline creates the Tricore and tests it, he gains a certain power depending on the color. Blue is speed, yellow is flight and red is strength. For fans of the Sonic series, that might look familiar.
• Discard and Draw: With the loss of his Warp Topaz, Starline opts to use other weapons. His heel spurs act as a multi-tool weapon, firing electricity and toxin, along with his new creation, the Tricore, replacing the Warp Topaz on his gauntlet.
• Evil Versus Evil:
  • The main point of the series. Starline is still a bit bitter about being "fired" from Eggman's employ and is cooking up a new plan involving some creations of his own, but lacks the necessary materials to make them and his access to other Eggman bases has been revoked. As such, he's forced to break out and ally with a few other former Eggman subordinates (Zavok, the Skunk Brothers and Mimic) to get what he needs which will no doubt cause the group to come into contact with Dr. Eggman. While Starline hopes to curry back favor with Eggman, Zavok has his own agenda. So there's an internal conflict in the group as well.
  • By the end of the mini-series, Starline has abandoned his plan to win back Eggman's favor, and is now an outright rival to him.
• Foregone Conclusion: Issue #35 of the main comic came out in-between issues #3 and #4 of this mini-series, and thus gave away that Starline would survive the others turning on him and get away with the tri-core.
• Great Escape: Most of issue #1 consists of this, with Starline breaking Zavok, Rough, Tumble, and Mimic out of prison.
• Hero Antagonist: The prison warden and guards in the first issue.
• Hypno Ray: Starline uses one on his glove to get into the maximum security wing of the Everhold Prison by hypnotizing the warden into thinking he’s applied for a position there, as well as using it to entrance the guard outside the warden’s office. He also later uses it to put the warden and another guard to sleep.
• Hypocrisy Nod: Dr. Starline acknowledges that while he is displaying the same unearned arrogance that he criticized his idol Dr. Eggman for, he strives to be better than him about this.
• Idiosyncratic Cover Art: Two variants:
  • The B-Covers of all four issues form a bigger image that show the characters all hanging out together at a dining table.
  • The RE cover of Issue #1 can be combined with the RE cover of Issue #33 from the main book to form an image where Sonic and his friends face off against Starline's team from this mini-series.
• Interquel: According to Ian Flynn, the mini-series takes place between issues #32 (the end of the Metal Virus saga) and 33 (the start of "Chao Races and Badnik Bases").invoked
• The Man in Front of the Man: Dr. Starline, while assembling his Legion of Doom, pretends to pledge himself to Zavok, planning to act out this role towards him.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Starline eventually comes to the conclusion that for all he hates Eggman's faults, he's fallen victim to them too due to modeling himself on him. This eventually leads to an epiphany on Starline's part, and he decides to fully branch out on his own rather than try to win back Eggman's approval.
• Prison Riot: Starline stirs up one at the Everhold Prison when he accepts Zavok's suggestion to open all cells and scramble the communication system, as a cover-up for their Great Escape. Cue all of the prisoners beating up on the prison guards and the prison being partially destroyed in the process.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Zavok gives Starline one in Issue 4, telling him how short-sighted and stupid his planning was. Which also counts as one towards Eggman in absentia, as he notes that Starline's methods make him no better than him.
• Sequel Hook: The mini-series ends with several dangling threads that are clearly going to followed up on in the main series: Zavok is wounded but intending to reunite with the other Zeti, Rough and Tumble are striking out on their own, Mimic is planning to hunt down Whisper to take revenge, and Starline has now decided to become an outright rival to Eggman.
• Spotting the Thread: In Issue 2, the team manage to successfully raid one of Eggman's bases and make it look like Sonic did it. However, when Eggman surveys the damage, he notices that some security footage is missing, that "Sonic" is acting unusual (why mock him on camera but then try to cover his tracks?) and, when the suggestion that Tails might've been involved, Eggman notes Tails isn't that sloppy, correctly surmising someone else is to blame.
• The Starscream: Starline positions himself as Zavok's second in command when he frees the Zeti. He intends to betray Zavok from the start and Zavok in turn plans to do the same. In the end, Mimic pulls off his own Starscream gambit — after deleting himself from the Eggnet, he rats the group out to Eggman, leaving them all to get killed.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: A core part of the series' conflict is that the team all hate each other and only ally out of necessity. Rough and Tumble hate Starline for manipulating them and getting them infected; they only agree to work for the chance at new weapons. Zavok hates Starline for attempting to enslave him and the other Zeti while Starline blames Zavok for his falling out with Eggman; both scheme against one another. Zavok further hates the Skunk Brothers and considers them useless when they prove to be ineffective at a critical juncture of his plan. Mimic is the odd one out as he has no personal enmity with any of them, but he's only with the team because Starline promised to delete him off the Eggnet and cares not for any of their plans. Once they all start working together, only Rough and Tumble actually try building camaraderie with their fellow villains, even including them in their rhyming intro and spoiler:following along with Zavok's orders when Starline's treachery is revealed.
• Villain Episode: Focusing on Dr. Starline as he assembles a Legion of Doom to help him carry out a plot.
• Villain Team-Up: Starline builds his own villain team by recruiting Zavok, Mimic, Rough, and Tumble.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Zavok, of all people, tells this to Starline in Issue #2, admitting that his plan to try and control the Metal Virus and the Zeti actually wasn't bad and he at least has the focus to see his plans through, unlike Eggman, who gets blinded easily when fighting Sonic. Starline starts to ponder if he's actually better off without his idol.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Starline admits early on that this is what his intentions for the team are. They're useful to complete his plan, but Zavok is too dangerous to keep around, while Mimic and the Skunk Brothers pose potentially dangerous loose ends if let go. This gets turned on him in the third issue as Zavok's no fool, and Mimic, already not trusting him, hacks into Starline's computer and finds the video log of Starline admitting it. Once the group raid the Eggnet base, Mimic and Zavok make their move and get the Skunk Bros. on their side by revealing Starline's treachery. At the end of the issue, Zavok quotes the trope name itself, as Starline is dead-to-rights in the eyes of his former allies.

Imposter Syndrome

• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: A villain on villain example: having already discretely taken control of one of Eggman's bases in Bad Guys to use as his own HQ, Starline is now planning to take control of others the same way in order usurp the Doctor's empire out from under him.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Surge and Kit don't know why they're working with Starline, why Surge wants to destroy Sonic so much, or why Kit is so dedicated to Surge. And Starline aims to keep it that way, repeatedly hypnotizing them when they start to defy or question him.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: It's clear that Starline only has a surface level understanding of why Sonic and Tails are so beloved as heroes. He only sees Sonic as an impulsive hero with attitude and sees Tails as his fawning sidekick without realizing their noble and independent qualities. To this end, he chooses Surge, a violent delinquent with a Hair-Trigger Temper, to be his version of Sonic and Kit, a shy and submissive doormat, to be his version of Tails.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Starline finds out the hard way that creating Nigh-Invulnerable fighters with short tempers is a bad idea when they break free of your control.
• Gaslighting: Starline supplements his brainwashing of Surge and Kit with careful manipulations to make them think that his commands for them are their own decisions. They later return the favor when they learn what he's been doing, using his own hypno glove to make him forget their angry reactions and convincing him to go along with the plan they're intending to hijack.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: When Surge and Kit learn the truth, they overpower Starline with his own hypno glove, and then decide to go along with his plan to take out Sonic and the heroes, only modifying it to eliminate Starline and Eggman too.
• Hydro-Electro Combo: Surge and Kit are an electrokinetic tenrec and a hydrokinetic fennec fox, respectively.
• I've Come Too Far: Upon realizing that Surge and Kit are much more mentally unstable than he had anticipated and are becoming more resistant to his hypnotic control, Starline remarks that he's invested too much in them to start over and decides to continue on with his plan with the hopes that their personalities even out as his plan goes forward.
• Idiosyncratic Cover Art: When put together, the four issues (specifically the Cover A variants) form an image that show a battle between Sonic, Tails, Surge, Kit, Metal Sonic, Eggman, and Starline. However, this confrontation doesn't happen in the mini-series, as it is to set up for the 50th issue, where it actually takes place.
• Operation: [Blank]: Starline's master plan is called "Operation: Remaster".
• Put Them All Out of My Misery: After finding out that Starline has wiped her memory and all record of her past, Surge decides to kill him, Eggman, and all the heroes, on the ground that "if we don't have a past, they don't get a future".
• Running Both Sides: Starline wants to take control of the "hero-versus-villain" narrative by replacing Eggman with himself and by replacing Sonic and Tails with his own lackeys, Surge and Kit, in order to influence and reshape the world to his liking.
• Shout-Out: Before attacking Central City, Surge states "I aim to misbehave".
• Spotting the Thread: After Surge survives being smashed into a building without a scratch, she and Kit realize that they don't actually know what Starline did to them, so they decide to quietly start investigating him.
• Tough Spikes and Studs:
  • Surge the Tenrec is a vicious Blood Knight. Her gloves have black cuffs with six metal studs on each wrist and her shoes have metal plates embedded with studs.
  • While timid and submissive, Kit the Fennec also wears gloves also have studded cuffs and is quite powerful in his own right.
• Villain Episode: Once again focusing on Dr. Starline, with his two new soldiers Surge and Kit.

Scrapnik Island

• The Bus Came Back: The mini-series features a number of older robots who appeared throughout the franchise:
  • Mecha Knuckles, the boss of Angel Island Zone is back from Sonic Advance, where he has been stationed as the Guardian of Scrapnik Island and the Scrambled Egg Carrier.
  • Mecha Sonic from Sonic 3 & Knuckles also returns, after only being namedropped in the 30th Anniversary Special.
  • Aside from a number of mish-mashed Classic Badniks, some Egg Robos from the same game assist Tails in repairing the Tornado.
• Caring Gardener: Mecha Sonic has taken to caring for a Sunflower that he holds in a capsule. Sigma notes he hopes to plant it in actual soil when they return to the mainland.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Mecha Sonic initially resigns himself to be incinerated while lamenting his failures, but Sonic gives him a rousing You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech that convinces the robotic double to continue living, the first time Sonic succeeds at redeeming a foe. Tails and the other Scrapniks arrive in the nick of time, pulling the both of them out of the fire, where Mecha Sonic is forgiven and Tails is able to remove Eggman's hostility protocols from both Mecha Sonic and Mecha Knuckles. Sonic and Tails part the island on good terms, with the mini-series closing out on Mecha Sonic vowing to put the past behind him and look to the future with hope, symbolized by the last panel focusing on his sunflower.
• Evil Is Not Well-Lit: When Sonic awakens on Scrapnik Island, the areas he finds himself in are covered in shadows and barely have any light — with the Miles Electric being his only light source. It aims to provide a tense atmosphere with him believing the Scrapniks are hostile, up until Tails and Sigma clear the air and show that they're friendly. Once they list their noble intentions, the area and stormy weather that they dealt with before is gone, the sun now shining down on them as Sigma shows off their home.
• Interquel: According to Daniel Barnes, the events of this mini-series occurs between the main comic's Overpowered and Urban Warfare arcs (between issues #56 and #57).invoked
• Grand Theft Me: Mecha Sonic's Evil Plan, where he intends to download his own mind into Sonic's body by utilizing an old piece of Eggman tech known as the Egg Noggin and Tails' Miles Electric, where he will then cross the seas in Sonic's body and exact revenge on Eggman for abandoning him. His plan is quickly foiled by the friendly Scrapniks, but it manages to establish a Psychic Link between Sonic and Mecha Sonic.
• Psychic Link: After Mecha Sonic's plan goes up in flames, Sonic and Mecha Sonic are able to share each other's thoughts and feelings, with Mecha's voice occasionally appearing in his head. This link even allows Sonic to cry Tears of Joy for Mecha Sonic after everything was resolved.
• Shared Family Quirks: Well, more like "Shared Creator Quirks" but Sigma exclaims "gears and starters" once he is shocked to see Mecha Knuckles attacking, much like Belle, who is a creation of Dr. Eggman's alter ego Mr. Tinker.
• Shout-Out: After his Grand Theft Me plan is foiled, Mecha Sonic angrily declares, "I'LL CRUSH YOU!!!", all but confirmed as this by one of the writers.
• You Wake Up on a Beach: How Sigma found himself on the titular Scrapnik Island. He began repairing the various scrapped Badniks that also wash ashore.

Fang the Hunter

• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Bean lists some of the Hooligans' past misdeeds, which include working with Eggman, twice, and stealing a pie from Amy Rose, who left it on the windowsill to cool. This act apparently distresses Bean, as they had absolutely no reason to steal it, with Bark in the flashback panel being nervous about this being a line-crosser. When Fang remembers how they ended up being chased by Amy and her hammer, he admits that one was his fault.
• A Day in the Limelight: Focused on Fang the Hunter and his two compatriots, getting the spotlight over Sonic himself.
• Discontinuity Nod: Sonic the Fighters had eight stages/opponents for the player to fight through, who were all guarding a Chaos Emerald. All of the emeralds were required in order to power Tails' one-seater rocket. The number of Chaos Emeralds and their colors would then become consistent after Sonic Adventure. This comic nods to this inconsistency by having Fang searching for the "rumored" eighth emerald from Fighters, with Sonic himself even saying they're chasing a fairy tale as there are only seven.
• Hero Antagonist: On the virtue of the miniseries being from the perspective of Fang the Hunter, the heroic characters like Sonic and Knuckles are their antagonistic forces.
• Idiosyncratic Cover Art: The mini-series has three RI covers that, when put together, form one image where the Hooligans are fending off Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Dr. Eggman while riding in the Marvelous Queen.
• Interquel: According to Ian Flynn, this mini-series takes place after the events of Sonic the Fighters and before Eggman hires Fang in Sonic Superstars, and the comic taking place after "Seasons of Chaos" from the 30th Anniversary Special.
• Villain Episode: This miniseries is focused on Fang the Hunter and his relationship with his two cohorts, Bean and Bark, with all three being silly villains that Sonic and his friends have contended with in the past. This series has them searching for a rumored eighth Chaos Emerald together in order to make a lot of money quickly.

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Amy: Wait, where's Sonic?
Tails: Oh, he ran off. You know how he is.
Amy: WHAT?! DANG IT, SONIC!

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