Wednesday, January 8, 2014
10:34 AM
Well, some folks have been asking me to put my thoughts/review on Sonic issue 256 and the overall Countdown To Chaos 4 part soft retcon/reboot arc in writing. Well, as the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it. And that is exactly what is about to happen.
Now let's start with issue 256. Basically we start off this issue with Amy and Cream successfully arriving back in the prime universe. Now of course their happy to be back, and of course Amy hopes that Sonic missed her as much as she missed him, and Cream can't wait to tell her mother about their adventures in Blaze's world. However that gets interrupted by Sally returning to the city in the escape pod that she stole from the Death Egg, while at the same time being pursued by Metal Sonic.
After a brief exchange with Amy, both Sally and Amy start to take the fight to Metal Sonic, and it seems that Metal Sonic is getting the upper hand on both ladies. Even the newly redesigned Secret Service is no match for Metal Sonic. True they try to fight Metal Sonic to protect Sally, even though she told them to get the people to safety. Now throughout all this, Sally wonders why Amy didn't bring back up with her, of course Amy goes onto explain where she and Cream had been the entire time. Which makes Sally realize that it's just them against Metal Sonic. But of course when Amy ask about the distress signal that Sally sent out, and Sally goes on to explain where she sent it to, that's just about the time that the backup she was hoping for arrives in the form of Sonic.
Which basically leads into a classic Metal Sonic versus Sonic race, that lures Metal Sonic away from the city. Amy of course is a bit annoyed, because she and Sally did most of the work and now here comes Sonic to hog all the glory, yet Sally explains that although that's true, the primary goal is to get the people to safety first then have glory last.
Sonic along with Tails do manage to defeat Metal Sonic and this allows Sonic to go back to the city and embrace Sally in a tight hug, and complement her on how she looks and how much he missed her, and then of course to cover all the bases, he tells Amy he missed her too and wonders where she went off to.
So basically with the entire freedom fighter team reunited back on sky patrol, which I guess is going to be the home away from home. Sonic finally decides to tell Sally and Amy what's going on, basically bring them up-to-date as to not only why he and everybody else is acting so strangely, but to explain why they are and why the planet is acting the way it is. Long story short, after the explanations are given, Sally and Amy both agree to touch Nicole's portable console, even though everyone had try to talk them out of it, they touch together and together have their memories of the old timeline/world restored to them. And of course, Sally starts to tear up at the memories that had been restored to her and what she had seen in her previous life. She of course apologizes for her actions, as Bunnie is comforting her, and as many predicted, Bunnie, I guess representing them all, tells Sally that what she did in her robot form was not her. So yeah, pretty much a majority of fans predicted that that was exactly what was going to happen, and even though it was just Bunnie that said it, it did
And we end the issue with Nicole not only materializing to her full anamorphic form, but she goes on to explain simultaneously at the same time the Dr. is explaining to his henchmen (Cubot and Orbot), that because of the fact that every facet of reality fell in on itself it was then re-created, and that the excess energy from the Dr.'s more recent attempt to rewrite and re-create reality in his image has been applied to the planet which is too fragile to contain all that energy and thus is causing itself to tear apart, which both Nicole and the Dr. basically say simultaneously at the same time, that it's too late to fix it or stop it.
We then get a 2 part splash page of the planet breaking apart. And thus ends and concludes issue 256 and the Countdown to Chaos arc.
Overall 256 was a nice little issue, and a decent conclusion to the soft reboot/retcon of the comic.
I did like seeing the fact, that Sally now has a way of fighting, besides using her martial arts and fists. I liked how both her and Amy were portrayed as being able to handle their own against the likes of Metal Sonic. And I will give them credit, by having the other freedom fighters try to explain to Sally and Amy that if they go through with restoring their memories of the previous lives that it was not going to be in easy trip/trek and that it might be wiser for them not to. So I will give the creative team credit on that.
All in all, a decent conclusion to a nice decent arc.
11:16am
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11:18 AM, 1/8/14
Countdown To Chaos, overall was a decent 4 part story arc. True it did come about because of what was going on behind the scenes at Archie comics from a legal standpoint. But, in my opinion for a story arc that was put together on the fly, I have to say it did a decent job.
True, not many are going to agree on how it came about, and even those that had a disdain for the previous arc, would've rather preferred a decent conclusion to that over this, which I agree we should at least of had a decent conclusion in some way/form or fashion, but again due to the legal issues behind-the-scenes that did not occur.
The silver lining if you will, is that whether you like Ian Flynn on not, he is at least willing for free, going to try and give you an inside look on what he had originally planned for the previous arc, which would've ran all the way up to either issue 275 or issue 300. And another silver lining, is you also have some fans that are willing to come together and create a web comic similar to that of the Sonic Season 3 comic, but this time focusing on what originally would have been in the previous story arc. Heck, you even have one fan that is rewriting previous issues including this one to coincide with what Ian Flynn had originally planned. So there are those silver linings to look at and possibly appreciate.
Now, as I said at the beginning, Countdown To Chaos was a decent 4 part story arc and in a sense a decent soft reboot.
I give it credit for presenting the non-game characters, like Sally, Antoine and Bunnie as if they were from the games, by giving them special powers/abilities. Sally with energy blades coming out of her blue ring bracelets, Antoine with his sword spindash, and Bunnie with what I believe is her new shield or something like that. Overall good presentation of the nongame characters as if they were from the games. Which of course was the point of them been redesigned in this matter, whether any of us liked it or not.
The setup for this arc, was good. It definitely played into the aftermath of not just World's Collide but of Eggman's meddling with both the original Genesis wave and the Super Genesis wave, and it's effect overall on all of their multi-verse and all of reality. This definitely helps set up the next few issues, quite possibly the next 19 issues or so of story.
Again credit where credit is due, they said the characters would remain who they are and they did, personality wise that is. I did like the premise on how the old continuity/world/timeline was brought into play, by having Nicole (who I along with a few others called and said would be the key) restoring the freedom fighters memories, and by having her be the one that I guess was non-affected by the shift in the timeline and reality, the way I see it. But again I did like the premise, because it does acknowledge that the old continuity/timeline/world still counts in some shape or fashion, it's still counts.
Now the way the freedom fighters were presented in each issue, that was pretty good as well. Because overall the way they were presented here, and in any future issues will be presented were more as a action team. Sort of along the lines if you will, as crazy as this sounds, but almost along the lines of the Justice League and X-Men and maybe the Avengers. That's the way I see them being presented not just in this arc but in future issues as well.
Overall, for a soft reboot story arc of 4 issues, that in my opinion was done on the fly, I have to say it was a decent and a recommendable read.
I give it an 8/10.
And that's all I'm going to say.
God bless and take care, comments are welcomed.
