User blog comment:Ultrasonic9000/The Shattered World Crisis has concluded/@comment-5487126-20161015043332

For a guy who's not really that into comics, I LOVED this story arc! Overall, a fantastic introduction to the post-reboot comics, if I do say so myself.

CAST:

To start off with, the Freedom Fighters are better than ever; Sally's no longer 90% naked and has lightsaber bracelets, Rotor's now a combo of Knuckles' strength and Tails' mechanical expertise, Bunnie's cuter and has a nice wit, and Antoine is not only handsomer, but funnier too. The most improved one, however, has to be Nicole; she can now project her beautiful lynx form (which also looks better) anywhere in the real world, she's developed her own tomboy side, and her powers are increased, complete with a F***ING SUPER FORM (granted, she can't maintain it for too long - "Panic in the Sky" shows why - but it's awesome regardless). Plus, Cream, Cheese, and Big have joined the team (along with Sonic, Tails, and Amy), making it feel even MORE complete. The Sky Patrol is also a cool addition; it's like the Freedom Fighters' own Millennium Falcon somewhat.

Now on to the villains. The main ones by far are Dr. Eggman, Orbot, Cubot, Metal Sonic, Walter Naugus, and newcomer Eclipse the Darkling. For secondaries, there's the Egg Bosses, the Witchcarters, the Hooligans, the Tails Doll. Tertiaries include the shady Breezie and the terrifying-as-hell Phage. All of them are unique in their own way, but the Nephthys, the Pronghorn sisters, and Wendy Naugus stand out among the rest.

For supporting characters, we've got Knuckles, Silver, Team Dark, the Chaotix, Blaze, Marine, Tikal, Uncle Chuck, Mighty, Ray, Muttski, King Acorn, several new Freedom Fighter groups (including an also new-and-improved Dulcy and Lupe), Moss the Sloth, Relic the Pika, and Honey the Cat (fans wanted her in for years).

WORLD & THEMES:

The reboot basically made the Archieverse more like the games, but in general the set pieces are cool. Some drama remains, but the series' tone is much lighter than before the reboot; action and adventure, shocks and laughs, a few touching moments, all in one. Ian Flynn is such a good writer; Aleah Baker, too.

The art is great for the most part: penciler-extraordinares Tracey Yardley, Jamal Peppers, and Ben Bates (who mostly does covers now) return from before. I think Jim Amash left, while Matt Herms and Gabriel Casella do most of the coloring. Newcomer pencilers include Evan Stanley (who made her debut just before Worlds Collide), Ryan Jampole, Lamar Wells, Jennifer Hernandez, Tyson Hesse, Diana Skelly, and most recently Adam Bryce Tomas. Tyson's and Adam's art is by far the least appealing visually, but I can't say it's bad. Evan's art style, which carries over from her own personal webcomic, "Ghosts of the Future", is appealing, but has a somewhat atmospheric feel to it; STH #247's rather disturbing last page showcased that pretty nicely. Jennifer and Ryan have a nice, cartoonish style akin to Tracey's, Jamal's, and Ben's, while Diana's style is pure comedy gold. Dan Schoening and Luis Delgado are two other newcomer artists; their art style provides a lot of visual detail. Finally, there's Rafa Knight with her totally mind-blowing CGI cover art.

HIGH & LOW POINTS:

My favorite arcs in this saga are Countdown to Chaos, Champions, Hidden Costs, The Silver Age, Eggman's Dozen, and Panic in the Sky. The low points were Waves of Change the Gaia Temple/Key/Guardian fetch-quest between Champions and Panic in the Sky; he former were all a bunch of ten-page montages of the heroes winning everything and the villains failing constantly (even screwing themselves over at some points). Perhaps the biggest let-down, however, was the Worlds Unite crossover. Besides the TERRIBLE artwork in the second act, it just felt rushed overall. Overall, the developers just crammed too much into too few issues.

CONCLUSION:

Admittedly, I, too, was disappointed by the reboot at first. However, I now think the new universe is better than the old universe, hands-down. Disregarding Worlds Unite, I give this saga a perfect 10/10 score.

The big question now is: where do we go from here? Only time will tell.