Archie Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 18


 * This issue's second story continues in Archie Sonic the Hedgehog In Your Face!

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 18 is the eighteenth issue of the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series published by Archie Comics.

Wedding Bell Blues

 * Robotnik has gotten word of Sonic and Sally's impending wedding in a barn outside of the Great Forest and plans an attack! But there's more to this "wedding" than meets the eye…

Cover Corner Box
Rotor holds up a piece of cake of from a wedding cake and says "Taste's Great, Less Filling!"

Wedding Bell Blues
The Knothole Freedom Fighters are preparing an old barn for the wedding of Sally Acorn and Sonic the Hedgehog, who is working at fast speed to get the old structure into a fashionable state. Despite all the fun everyone else is having, Antoine gets caught on a rope and thrown to the ceiling, giving everybody a laugh. Sonic gives in and helps Antoine onto some scaffolding, which makes Bunnie Rabbot think that they aren't taking this wedding seriously. Sally just retorts that they're only animals. The two girls go aside to prepare Sally's gown, while Sally is obviously stressed since she wants everything perfect. Nearby, a Motobug spies on the girls and hears about the wedding. It speeds out and returns to Robotropolis to tell Robotnik the news.

Robotnik is throwing darts at a dartboard with Sonic's face when Crabmeat arrives with the news from Motobug, stating that it is urgent. Believing that everything to Motobug is urgent, he asks the news on the paper to be thrown away along with Motobug itself. Crabmeat insists, so Robotnik decides to read it anyway. He reads about the wedding and angrily crumples the paper while thinking that it is an error. Crabmeat then shows him a paper that explicitly states the wedding. Despite the two pieces of proof, Robotnik is still skeptical of the wedding and sends Bat Brain to check out the wedding.

Back at the barn, Sonic and Sally discuss the wedding. Sonic is pessimistic on whether Sally wants to go through with the wedding, but Sally is quite sure and states that Sonic was the one who came up with the idea in the first place. Sonic retorts that it was Sally's idea, which makes her realize he is not taking the wedding seriously. He then tells her he had a case of cold feet, but will be fine for the wedding the next day. Right before he finishes up, a large bat silhouette appears on the stage. They looks up to see that Batbrain had been eavesdropping on their conversation and is now leaving to tell Robotnik the news.

Now that Robotnik has received three reports of the wedding, he is fully assured that his informants are correct. He calls together his Badniks and tells them that they are going to crash the Sonic and Sally wedding. With many defeats in the past, Robotnik informs his troops that this will be the day that they will triumph and destroy them, even though many of the Badniks themselves could be lost in the battle. He orders them to march on forth, but they all crash into each other on the way out.

The wedding has started, with the priest Willis asking if there are any objections to the wedding. From the back, an objection is shouted. Everybody looks back to see a whole horde of SWATbots and Badniks invading the barn. They start firing lasers at Sonic and Sally. Sonic grabs Sally and throws her aside, and barely misses the lasers. Willis shouts out to Robotnik's troops that they are intruding on a holy sanctuary, but they completely ignore him. Sonic has to pull him to the ground when lasers nearly hit him. Robotnik arrives on the scene in a flying vehicle and demands the barn perimeter be secure. Before he arrives, he sees a seagull and scares it with some lasers. By now the barn has been secured and is fully surrounded by Robotnik's troops, including Snively. Inside the barn, Sonic is spin dashing and hitting many of the SWATbots and Badniks, but there are too many and many lasers are being fired all over the place. With a great risk of somebody getting hurt, he grabs Sally and heads out of the barn. He runs into Snively and some SWATbots, so he decides to try his chances back in the barn and leaves them in the dust.

Antoine is still in the barn, and is cornered by a SWATbot. Before it fires its laser, a sandbag falls on it. Antoine looks up to see Sonic on the scaffolding, holding onto the sandbag rope. He uses the rope and swings into the barn and uses one SWATbot's arm to hit many others. He then takes the arm and throws it at another group of Badniks and destroys them. Robotnik decides to take matters into his own hands and walks into the barn onto the stage. He notices that Sonic is still standing, despite his major efforts. From the scaffolding, Sally calls out Robotnik and cuts the rope to the curtain. Since it is too late to react, the heavy curtain falls on Robotnik and knocks him to the ground. The other Freedom Fighters gather at the stage and applaud Sonic, who is surrounded by robotic parts and a fallen Robotnik, who asks why they are applauding. Sonic goes over to Robotnik with the newspaper from earlier and shows him the fine print of the wedding article, which states the wedding is part of the Freedom Fighters Players production of "Our Wedding".

The next day, while cleaning up the barn of debris and robotic parts, Antoine reads the review of their play in the newspaper, which came out positive. Sonic asks Sally if whether or not they are cut out for showbiz. She sits beside him, puts her arm around him, and tells him she still thinks the barn would be perfect for their wedding, which leaves Sonic wide-eyed. In a split second, he disappears, leaving Sally baffled. Although he has nothing against marriage, she has to catch him first.

Sally's Crusade - Part Two: In The Still of the Night
Rotor, Tails, Sonic and Sally are investigating the mysterious crystal orb they found that night. Rotor has run every test he knows on it, and has tried to use a torch to open it, but cannot get any information out of it. The resident Knothole nanny, Rosie, arrives and asks to talk to Sally for a moment. While she is talking to Rosie, Rotor tells Sonic that there is a forcefield surrounding the orb that he cannot penetrate, and is masking the true nature of it. Sonic goes to ask Sally what she thinks, but she runs past him in shock, completely ignoring him. He goes to follow her, but Rosie stops him, telling him that what she is doing, she must deal with on her own. Sally runs through Knothole and arrives at a room where the old resident Julayla rests. She asks Sally to come to her bedside to talk. Although Sally tries to ask her how she is, Julayla interrupts her to tell her what's on her mind. She reminds her of when she was a child, about how she holds the mantle of leadership and that, despite wanting to follow a different path than what she wanted, the duties of royalty on her part could not be denied. Julayla, being Sally's teacher and mentor, recalls her times as a child, trying new challenges and learning new things. She recalls one challenge where she held a walnut in her hand for Sally to get. She went to snatch it, thought she had it, but when she opened her hand, it was not there. Julayla opened her hand, revealing she still had it: the ceremonial acorn, which, once Sally can obtain it, she would learn the most important discipline of all. Despite it occurring long ago, Sally remembers it, and all the other things she taught. Julayla then recalls Sally's commencement ball (where she danced with Sonic), and the day Elias Acorn was taken away. Despite growing up, she wants to know how much Sally has learned. She holds out the ceremonial acorn again for Sally to grab. Sally thinks about it for a second, remembering the tricks Julayla pulled before so she could not get it. This time, Sally kicks the back end of Julayla's hand, throwing the acorn into the air, and snatching it. With her task done, she tells Sally she is ready to lead, and offers her farewell as she dies. Later on, at night, Sally is sitting outside alone. Sonic arrives and asks Sally how she's doing. With the death of Julayla, her teacher, she feels a little lonelier that night. Sonic then tells her that that night would soon be yesterday, and that there are many days ahead.

Key Events

 * Sally obtains the Royal Signet ring from the acorn Julayla guarded. This won't be revealed for at least another 100 issues.

Posters
A one-page poster featuring Sonic the Hedgehog.

Trivia

 * According to the Robotropolis sign, there are 4,286,720 robots in Robotropolis and rising as of this issue.
 * The sign also states that Robotnik is the only living resident of Robotropolis. That is incorrect as Snively also resides there.