Well, the legendary Sonic Saga Series continues with this electrifying volume! To be frank, this volume wasn’t quite as exciting as the last few, but it was still pretty fun for the most part. I definitely preferred the first half, but the cliffhanger definitely hints at cool things, which are to come. We will see if Sonic has what it takes or if he will be quicklu defeated by this threat.

The first half concludes the big Eggman event. Eggman has followed Sonic and his pals to their new home. After Sonic was casually crushed in their first encounter…does he really stand a chance!? He hasn’t gotten any stronger after all and he’s still pretty fatigued from their last bout. Luckily, Sonic has a plan, which may turn the tides against Eggman and his army. It’s going to have to be a doozy at this rate!

The second half is mostly an arc to help you pick which side you’re on. Team Sonic or Team Tails. It’s a clear choice right from the get go as far as I am concerned. Tails looks pretty bad for the entire volume, but more on that later. Tails’ (shady) parents have decided that the place needs a new ruler and they want the King to step down so they create a mob and attack the castle. The King arrests the parents, but Tails helps them to bust free. While the parents go to dispose of the King, Tails stays behind to take Sonic down. Sonic is going to have to choose between the country’s safety and his friendship with the kid in this big climax. How did it come to this!?

Sonic is the main character and that’s how it should be in a Sonic collection. He does pretty well throughout and it reminds me why I’ve always been a fan. One part that I didn’t care for was Sonic’s resolution against Eggman. In the end, Sonic basically admitted that he couldn’t win. He did get wrecked during their first battle, but I like to think that Sonic would find a way to use his speed to his advantage and secure a win. Let’s face it, if it is to be it’s up to me Sonic will always be able to crush Eggman’s robots when the going gets tough. The other part would be the ending to his battle with Tails. He’s being nice to Tails of course, but the stakes were decently high so I’m not sure how great that was. If something had happened…well, it would have been very dicey for Sonic. The whole issue wasn’t really his fault at that point. Nontheless, Sonic definitely did well in these issues and I look forward to seeing how he’s going to deal with the next threat. The Sonic comics definitely wouldn’t be the same without him since Sonic provides most of the laughs.

Well, Tails definitely goes through a lot of character regression in this volume. They’ve been hinting at it for a while now so it’s not like the issue came out of left field. Unfortunately, everything finally blows to the surface in the comic as Tails has his big fight with Sonic. Now, Tails is doing all of this to break his father out of prison, but the guy deserved to go there. He organized a mob and basically made everyone crazy. Tails has to realize that justice must come over his personal feelings at times. Sonic naturally arrives to stop Tails from making this mistake and the fight begins. It should be noted that Sonic is trying not to fight Tails, while Tails is getting in every cheap shot that he can muster.

It’s definitely not a very effective way of accomplishing things. We also find out that Tails is mostly mad at Sonic because of the whole Fiona incident. Tails should have spoken up about it sooner and it’s not quite as serious as he makes it out to be. Romance should never come before justice and teamwork. Tails talks tough to the end, but I can’t say that I liked him at all in this volume. Hopefully, he will put this behind him and become a better Freedom Fighter for the next collection.

Eggman returns after his big victory in the last volume. He continues to explain how he has been toying with all of the heroes up til now. Even as he leaves, he explains that the heroes are basically doomed when he comes back to get them. He doesn’t really get to have a rematch with Sonic in this volume since a few others decided to jump in. It was short, but Eggman’s big run is already over. The collection ends with him making a truce with the Freedom Fighters so that they can combat the next menace. Eggman still makes for a solid villain and he’s much better than how he looks in the video games. At least, the newer ones. He was pretty decent in Sonic DX and Adventure 2 Battle. I would argue that he went downhill from there with the exception of Shadow The Hedgehog.

Scourge and Fiona only get a small cameo. They’re mostly just here to show us how powerful the new villain is. Hopefully Scourge has another fight with Sonic coming up and Fiona will likely toy with the heroes’ emotions for a while. It’s what she does best after all. Again, the next volume sounds pretty intense!

I personally blame Snively the most for the fact that Eggman didn’t win this round. He had an army at the ready so blowing up the forcefield should have been extremely easy. Not accomplishing this feat was pretty embarrassing at best. I’ve never really cared for Snively no matter how emotional they try to make him. He’s still more of a two bit villain and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

The very ending of the collection was definitely pretty intense though. Knuckles is finally going back to his island, but we see that things have definitely changed since last time. Is he already too late? Moreover, one of Sonic’s deadliest foes is about to return and that’s not good for the unsuspecting heroes. It may be time to call in the mighty Shadow The Hedgehog! (He is seen on the cover of the next volume so this guess may be validated…..)

It should also be noted that there is a mini comic at the end about how Sonic met Tails’ parents. They were a lot nicer back then and they didn’t have so many hidden agendas. The times have changed them as they have changed many of Sonic’s friends. Luckily, Sonic’s held himself together all these years…that’s why he’s known as one of the greatest heroes of Mobius! This story was all right, but nothing really noteworthy happens in it.

The artwork in the collection is as solid as always. We don’t get any real dramatic moments like the last volume and things aren’t quite as serious. This means that we can’t test the artwork as much as we may have wanted too, but it still looks solid for the characters and action scenes. Archie definitely knows how to stay consistent.

One big criticism that I had with the first part was that Eggman’s army probably should have won. Sonic and Knuckles were the only two heavy hitters left and Eggman proved to be more than a match for Sonic. With the power of friendship, the heroes manages to prevail, but it was still a little hard to really believe. Snively not being able to penetrate the barrier with all of his warheads was also hard to swallow. No matter how you slice it….Eggman should have won this battle. He came in with the better plan and the better tech. Better luck next time I suppose.

The resolution to the other part was also a little suspect. Tails’ parents were completely unreasonable, but the comic tries to show that they were at least partially in the right. They agree to a reasonable compromise of having a committee for the residents to help in important decisions. They could have merely asked for something like that instead of demanding it. The current King is very reasonable and he would have had no suggestions. I don’t like the way that they went about it so I can safely say that I’m not a fan of those two characters.

Overall, This was a solid Sonic collection. The second half definitely has a lot of weak points, but it was still good overall. The first part was definitely a lot more exciting. The collection is a little lacking in the action department, but I’m confident that the next collection will change that. It’s time for the next big villain after all! I definitely recommend this collection to all Sonic fans. Their is a lot of dialogue, but it’s all pretty interesting since the writing is very good. I may not agree with the things that some of the characters say, but it’s not the fault of the writer’s. Some characters have to be the fall guy once in a while. At least we can be confident in the fact that Sonic will always be a solid character.

Overall 7/10