Original image for Firestar was drawn by NatameSecrea. The link to the image is below.
http://natamesecrea.deviantart.com/art/Warriors-Firestar-144212178
It’s time for another Sonic review and this time he’s finally back to being the main character! This is the first volume of the Sonic Saga Series and I can definitely say that it’s off to a solid start. A lot of plot lines are being introduced the cast is very large. This definitely gets me hyped for a new Sonic video game or TV show, but the comics will have to fill that void for now.
The plot is all over the place here as many plot points are quickly formed. The main plot deals with the fact that Ixis Naugus and Mammoth Mogul have both escaped from their confinements and Eggman has hatched a brand new scheme. A new villain who is currently sticking to the shadows as Anonymous has started to talk about how he will be the greatest threat that our heroes have ever faced. The Destructix is back to face off with the heroes as well as Scourge. Sonic will have to deal with all of these threats and protect his friends at the same time.
There is also an issue about Knuckles and the Chaotix group as they have to Renfield. They don’t know what his current plan is so they will have to tread very carefully if they want to achieve success. There is also a small comic about Sonic as he keeps reliving the same day over and over again for some reason. He’ll have to find a way out of the cycle before it drives him mad!
Sonic is back and he’s definitely as fast as ever! It was nice to see him speed right through the battles and his big challenge to Ixis Naugus and Master Mogul was pretty intense. Sonic definitely doesn’t beat around the bush and if he wants to do something, then he does it! Sonic looks more impressive than the other heroes and while he didn’t get to see a whole lot of action just yet; Sonic will definitely be making some waves. In all of the fight scenes that Sonic does partake in, he tends to come out as the victor. Whether it’s Scourge or Ixis Naugus, Sonic never backs down from a fight.
After his big roles in the last two Sonic collections, Tails doesn’t really accomplish all that much in this one. He is taken hostage by one of the villains and Sonic is forced to relinquish one of the travel rings as a result. It’s not a huge tragedy, but you can bet that Sonic would have taken them down otherwise. I will assume that Tails was too shocked when the villains took out the gun to retaliate because his speed should be sufficient to get away. I will expect Tails to look more like his current self in future issues.
Eggman is finally back as one of the big villains in this collection. He may seem rather weak compared to some of the other villains in the collection, but one should definitely not underestimate his cunning genius. Eggman has some pretty big plans at his disposal and they’re pretty good so far. We don” know the full scope of them at the moment, but these “grapes” seem to pack a lot of power and are very potent. Sonic will need to bring his A game with him to stop his plans once and for all.
I have seen Mammoth Mogul a whole lot in the last few collections. He is supposed to be one of the strongest Sonic characters of all time, but I can’t say that he is terribly impressive. His spells and elemental attacks are definitely impressive, but I’d say Sonic’s speed over that any day. Mogul definitely has a high opinion of himself and I do respect the fact that he never backs down from a fight. He makes for a decent villain.
Ixis Naugus is one of the most popular enemies from the Archieverse and he is definitely supposed to be tough. Unfortunately, he is a little out of his depth in this collection because he went up against Mammoth Mogul. Naugus has powerful spells of his own, but none of them are potent enough to overcome Mogul. He can still last a while and make it a close fight at the very least. I didn’t care for Ixis Naugus here, but he definitely has time to improve.
Snively was having a good ole time helping out the heroes when Eggman pays him a visit and he has to choose between working for Eggman and staying with the heroes. Let’s just say that he made the choice that I was expecting him to make. I can’t say that he’s ever been a really likable villain, but he was pretty intense in the original Sonic TV show at times. He just isn’t that much of a threat at the moment since Sonic and his friends have grown to be so powerful.
Knuckles is one of the major players in the Sonic universe so it’s always good to see him around. There is some drama between him and his father, which is very similar to Thor and Odin’s debate throughout the Marvel comics. Knuckles wants to stay and protect the Earth alongside his friends instead of leaving. Both options had their pros and cons so it definitely wasn’t a win-win situation. Knuckles looks decent in his comic at the end, but definitely not great as he was defeated rather easily. It’s all right because he took out a lot of enemies during the other comics, but I’m expecting him to pull his weight when the going gets tough.
Rouge joins the cast as she gets interrogated by the Chaotic before helping them out on a mission to gain their trust. It’s debatable as to how much this plan actually works since all of them seem very skeptical about trusting her. They do have good reasons since you can never be too sure with a government agent. Rouge definitely hasn’t lost her hand to hand training as she makes short work of Julie Su and proves why she is the better character/fighter at the moment.
Renfield Rodent is a villain who gets involved towards the end of the comic in what feels like a filler arc/issue. He can’t fight and he has to rely on technology and gimmicks to win his battles. Luckily Sonic isn’t around so Renfield only has to deal with Knuckles and the Chaotic. However, even this may prove to be too much for the rodent and he’ll have to gracefully accept defeat. He wasn’t a bad villain, but he was definitely as generic as they come.
Fiona is one of Sonic’s new pals and it’s definitely hard to trust her since there can be a lot of drama in the Sonic universe. I’m not a fan of her at the moment and she seems to be included for drama purposes. I’m afraid that real character development will defeat drama every time. As far as I can tell, she isn’t even much of a fighter. That’s no good….
Julie Su is one of the supporting characters as she’s on Knuckles’ group of fighters. Unfortunately, she’s not a great character at the moment and she’s busy picking fights with Rouge. At least Julie Su can fight and that’s always a plus in this universe or really any franchise. Hopefully she gets a solid fight in the next volume.
Scourge gets a small appearance in this volume, but it’s pretty epic for the most part. His banter with Sonic is always fun and he’s definitely a skilled fighter. His mild flirting is a little sad and drops him down the character ranks. Hopefully he will remember to put more focus on fighting next time instead of getting distracted. Sonic had the upper hand in their fight so Scourge is going to need his power up.
Sir Connery is one of the heroes and I have to say that I couldn’t really take him seriously. He’s powerful to be sure, but he just seems out of place here. He has a lot of power, but no real speed to back it up. Leaving the fighting to Sonic sounds like a good idea at this point. Maybe he will be around for the next volume.
Mecha Robotnik is a character that I’m not familiar with, but he was a good villain. He’s not the strongest robot that we’ve seen in the Sonic comics, but he can definitely hold his own when the going gets tough. He didn’t last too long, but I’d be open to seeing him appear in the video games and getting some action. Robots always have the potential for epicness.
Anonymous is a pretty big villain, but we haven’t seen what he can do just yet. So far he seems to be watching from the shadows as he manipulates the other heroes and villains to fight for him. He sounds like a really powerful villain, but I’m not going to get my hopes up too high just in case. Either way, he’s a pretty good villain so far and it’ll be interesting to see where he goes from here.
The Destructix are a group of small time villains who trouble the heroes from time to time. None of them are really that interesting and I was surprised to see them giving the heroes a tough time. (Until Sonic and Knuckles showed up) Tails was getting defeated by the speed member and then Sonic arrived with a timely spin dash. Having the blue blur back is certainly great for the heroes. I don’t mind if the Destructix appear again, but I hope that they’ll get more character or a nice power up.
Once again, the art is very good for these Sonic issues. The action scenes are well done and every scene is very colorful. There aren’t any big inconsistencies for the characters and the backgrounds were drawn nicely as well. Archie has definitely found a format that works for their Sonic comics and I definitely hope that they don’t decide to change it anytime soon.
Overall, This collection was a very good way to start off the Sonic Saga Series. The backup issues with Knuckles teaming up with the Chaotix and Sonic having to escape the cycle were pretty fun. That being said, the real action was at the beginning when the all out war between the Freedom Fighters, Ixis Naugus, and Mammoth Mogul occurred. That was pretty epic and I hope for more big battle scenes like that one. Sonic continues to have a pretty happy atmosphere while allowing for some serious battle plots to make the whole thing very exciting. I highly recommend checking out this volume as it’s Sonic The Hedgehog at his best. The cover for the next comic has Super Shadow on it so you can consider my interest to be piqued.
Overall 8/10
Tails is definitely on a roll as this Sonic collection brings another arc where he is the main protagonist. It’s good to read this one after Sonic Select Volume 8 since you will get the references a lot quicker. It’s always a little sad to see that Sonic won’t be around, but the supporting characters do need their time to shine and this is easily one of Tails’ best appearances in the Sonic comics. His adventure is pretty solid and a fun read.
The comic starts off with Tails driving Antoine and Bunnie over to a deserted island so that they can hang out while he goes over to his workshop to have fun tinkering. Things are going smoothly until they are attacked by the Battle Armada with Bunnie and Antoine being kidnapped. Bunnie decides to pretend that she is with the villains while Tails gets his second wind and decides to take the villains down for the count. The heroes are certainly outnumbered, but Tails has learned a lot from watching Sonic fight and he’s finally ready to step into the main character role.
Tails is at least 100% better than he was in the Select comic and he was already cool there. This time, Tails plays the part of the seasoned veteran and he’s easily the best fighter from the three main characters. He gets to show off his super speed a lot more in this comic and he is able to keep up with Speedy. His plans are more well thought out and he takes control of the situation. Now he can even take on a big mech without any backup whatsoever. The heroes have given him a chance to prove himself and Tails did just that.
Antoine isn’t a bad supporting character and he’s a good actor, but he can still show glimpses of his former self. Reminding Tails of the good ole days may not be the best way to motivate him. Antoine has to rely on hand to hand combat for the majority of the collection since he didn’t bring his sword along for the ride. That being said, he still does pretty well and he manages to take out a lot of fighters. Once again, Archie has improved him a lot since the original Sonic days.
I’ve always thought that Bunnie was a solid supporting character and she’s always been a fighter. That doesn’t change in this collection and her barrier comes in handy against most of the fighters. It’s definitely not something that should be spammed and Bunnie finds this out the hard way, but it certainly helps to get them out of some sticky situations. I would have preferred for her to take a more direct role in defeating the enemies as opposed to playing along with their plan, but either way she got the job done.
Speedy is the best villain of the collection, but his design is definitely very similar to other characters like Jet and Bean. I dare say that he is stronger than Bean and possibly a match for Jet. His speed is pretty impressive and he’s around as fast as Tails. He seems like a nice guy even if his loyalty is in the wrong place. His no nonsense attitude helps the reader to take him seriously despite the colorful character design. It would definitely be good to see him appear more in the future and maybe he could be Tails’ big speed rival like Metal Sonic/Shadow is to Sonic.
The Battle Kukkku is the main villain of the comic, but I will admit that it’s hard not to mix him up with the Doctor. Both of them don’t have a whole lot of character development and they weren’t as interesting as Speedy. The Battle Kukku isn’t the most intelligent villain and he is definitely susceptible to enemy mind games and traps. The worst part is that he can’t really fight and we already have Eggman for noncombatant enemies.
One of the gimmicks for the Doctor is that nobody can pronounce his name the right way. The problem is that this results in the reader forgetting what his name is as well. I could look it up, but he’s relatively minor anyway so it’s not a really big deal. He can build robots and he’s fairly smart so he can be a threat, but definitely a mild one at best.
Archie never disappoints with the art in the Sonic comics. It fits perfectly for the fight scenes as you can really see the speed at which Tails and Speedy were fighting. Everyone looks good and the detail is nicely done. There aren’t too many details for the characters, but certainly enough so that everyone looks in character. There aren’t many comics that have consistently great art like the Sonic series.
Overall, This was another great Sonic comic to read. It’s the first volume that I’ve checked out of Sonic Universe, but I already like the concept. Getting to see the supporting characters in action is a nice twist and Tails can always use a few more comics. The villains were pretty unimaginative for the most part, but I did like Speedy. A few villains make a guest star cameo at the end of the collection, but they aren’t the coolest characters around so it’s only all right. It does set up more plot lines for the future which is always a good thing and it would be interesting to see this leader take on Speedy. We’ll see who really is the fastest! I highly recommend this comic to all Sonic fans and all comic readers. It has a nice blend of action and humor and I can’t really say that it has any negatives. It’s just a really fun comic to blast through. The only thing holding it back from an 8 is that it needed a few more fights or big characters like Sonic and Shadow. The collection is very short, but that’s not so much of a negative as it just could have been a positive with more issues. Enjoy the Adventure!
Overall 7/10
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