Archie Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 229

<< Previous issue

—

Sonic the Hedgehog #229

—

Next issue >>

Sonic the Hedgehog #229
Publication details
Issue	229
Date	5 October 2011 (release date) November 2011 (publication date)
Publishing company	Archie Comics
Cover price	$2.99 (US)
ISSN	10705090
Production staff
Writer	Ian Flynn
Cover artist	Patrick Spaziante
Pencils	Tracy Yardley Jonathan Gray
Inks	Terry Austin Gary Martin
Letters	John Workman
Colors	Matt Herms Aleah Baker
Editor	Paul Kaminski
Editor-in-Chief	Victor Gorelick
President	Mike Pellerito
Special thanks	to Cindy Chau and Judy Glibertson at Sega Licensing
Issue chronology
Previous	Archie Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 228
Next	Archie Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 230

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 229 is the two hundred twenty-ninth issue of the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series published by Archie Comics.

Official solicitation

"'Genesis,' Part 4. The 20th-Anniversary Sonic celebration ends with this blockbuster issue! Sonic tackles the treacherous Metropolis Zone alone, while Sally leads her friends through the perils of the Oil Ocean Zone! At the end of the gauntlet lies the Death Egg and an epic battle! Will the world ever be the same again?"

Featured stories

Genesis Part Four: Reset

• Writer: Ian Flynn
• Pencils: Tracy Yardley
• Inks: Terry Austin
• Colors: Matt Herms
• letters: John Workman
• Editor: Paul Kaminski
• Editor-In-Chief: Victor Gorelick
• President: Mike Pellerito
• Special Thanks To: Cindy Chau and Judy Glibertson at Sega Licensing

Tails flies over Metropolis Zone in the Tornado, radioing Sonic. He says that all is quiet above, but Sonic has to fight his way through Badniks on the ground. Sonic figures he can handle things, but as reinforcements arrive, he reflects on how he'd told his new friends -- Sally Acorn, Antoine Depardieu and Boomer Walrus -- to stay behind for their own safety. Now, he admits, he wouldn't mind their company.

Meanwhile, within the Oil Ocean Zone, Sally and the others are far from safe -- they're being pursued by aerial Badniks. Sally leads the way to cover, while Boomer wishes that Sonic had stuck around. Sally admits that she should have tried harder to convince him to stay, adding that she feels that Sonic should be there with her; flustered, she corrects herself, insisting she meant to say with them all, but Boomer doesn't believe her. Annoyed, Antoine mutters that he should save them from the robots so as to get praise; as he's not paying attention, he's nearly struck by laser fire, but Boomer pulls him to safety. However, the three find their path blocked by an odd crushing device covered with spikes; as Boomer wonders what this sort of contraption could possibly be, Sally sees that the Badniks are closing in. As they come under attack, Antoine and Sally both stumble and fall from the walkway; Antoine lands atop another strange device, while Boomer catches Sally by the hand. The shock of the fall suddenly jogs an old memory of a similar event, and Sally suddenly remembers her life before the white wave rewrote reality. However, by the time Boomer pulls her back up, she's already started to forget, as if it was a dream.

Meanwhile, the device Antoine had landed on turns out to be a cannon of sorts; screaming, he's launched into the air, crashing through the Badniks as he goes. When he lands, Boomer is incredibly impressed that he destroyed the pursuers, but Antoine is merely disoriented. Sally picks up one of the small critters that had been freed from the Badniks, a penguin, and asks it if it knows where the area's main valves are. It does, and so the trio sets out to shut the area down.

Elsewhere, Sonic continues to make his way through Eggman's base, cracking jokes and then regretting that there's no one around to hear them. He finally finds Eggman himself, who congratulates him for getting this far, addressing him as "rodent." Sonic begins to make a taunting reply, but he suddenly stops: he remembers that he's been called "rodent" before, by the very man before him. It dawns on him that this conflict has been going on for far longer than the last few days. Eggman, annoyed, remarks that Sonic must be regaining his memory. He deploys numerous replicas of himself within his Egg Mobile and then converges on the hedgehog.

In the Oil Ocean Zone, Boomer and Antoine have just finished shutting down the oil pipelines. Looking over the console, Sally happily announces that they've cut off Eggman's local power supply -- all of his bases should now be without power.

This turns out to be true as the lights suddenly cut out on Sonic and Eggman. Irritated, Eggman insists that it's of no matter -- the Death Egg is still ready to attack. He flees, and Sonic avoids the decoys to pursue. He radios Tails, telling him he's heading out a window and will need a pick-up in "about a ten-minute run" from where they parted ways. Sonic clarifies that that's a ten-minute run by his speed, and as he bursts from the window, he still hasn't heard a reply. However, Tails swoops in just in time, catching Sonic on the wings of the Tornado. Sonic congratulates him on the dramatic timing, and Tails playfully scolds that Sonic needs to give him more warning next time. Suddenly, an intense earthquake shakes the region; Tails notes that they've been getting steadily worse. With all the bases shut down, he wonders if this means that Dr. Eggman wasn't the cause of the earthquakes, or if they're simply too late to stop him. Sonic replies that he's sure Eggman is the cause and that it's never too late. Just as he adds that they need to find Eggman, a huge airship emerges from the clouds; Sonic remarks that that was easy. Tails begins to approach the deck, but Sonic stops him, saying that the ship isn't their target; as a shuttle begins to launch, Sonic reasons that Eggman is instead heading for the Death Egg itself. Tails doesn't know what Sonic's talking about; then, to his shock, Sonic leaps from the Tornado and catches the edge of the shuttle.

As the shuttle lands within the Death Egg in the upper atmosphere, Sonic jumps down, gasping for air and remarking that that wasn't one of his smartest ideas. He catches sight of the planet below and looks on in shock at the swirling clouds and odd distortions; it's not just earthquakes. The planet appears to be tearing itself apart. Behind him, Eggman agrees. He claims that the planet is struggling to return itself to what it "once was." However, he adds, once he activates the Death Egg, the shift in reality will cement, and every being on the planet will become his robotic slave. His words shock Sonic; his memories begin flooding back. Realizing that there had been another reality, he vows to restore it while there's still time. Eggman says that he himself changed reality to prime it for his conquest; as he climbs into the Egg Destroyer Battlesuit, he tells Sonic that he's too late.

Within the robotic battlesuit, Eggman begins to viciously attack Sonic, forcing him to dodge and damage the room. He admits that while he doesn't remember everything about the former reality, he does remember that Sonic always showed up at the last minute to ruin his plans. For this reason, he decided to reshape reality itself; however, as he angrily points out, Sonic is still here and still interfering. Using the robots's claws, Eggman grabs the shuttle and flings it at Sonic; it explodes, sending Sonic flying and further damaging the room.

As fires burn off to the side and Sonic tries to regain his composure, Eggman taunts his foe. He points out that with his Death Egg, powered by the Chaos Emeralds, he is unstoppable. Sonic catches sight of a nearby broken cable that's spurting multicolored energy... powered by the Chaos Emeralds...

Eggman lifts a robotic foot, ready to crush the hedgehog, and coldly bids him good-bye. As the foot lowers, Sonic reaches for the cable... suddenly, a bright light emerges, and the foot is pushed back. Super Sonic stands, holding the robot's foot back with one hand and holding the cable to his chest. Smirking, he tells Eggman that sometimes, he makes this too easy. As Super Sonic throws the machine back, Eggman screams in protest, insisting that the energy from the cable should have killed him. Super Sonic taunts him, saying that he was the one who pointed out what kind of energy was flowing through the cable. Eggman becomes more and more enraged as they battle.

In another section of the Death Egg, Snively Robotnik attempts to contact Eggman. Near panic, he explains that the dimensional stability is decreasing at a much faster rate, and that he does nt think the Death Egg will be able to stabilize it as they had thought. He adds that whatever is going on in his section of the Death Egg seems to be contributing to the problem; as the control panels begin to malfunction, he cries out that the planet is tearing itself apart and they cannot stop it from happening. Hearing this, Super Sonic realizes that he better hurry up and save the planet while he has the chance. He quickly shoves the mech away, crushing it against a wall while Eggman curses at him.

Super Sonic grabs more severed sections of cable, thinking that he'll need all the Chaos energy he can get. He briefly remarks to himself that using Chaos energy like this is usually someone else's thing, unable to quite remember who. Closing his eyes, he muses that he might be able to set things right... even go back far enough to save "her." If Chaos energy caused this situation, then it should be able to reverse it. Almost out of time and without any other options, Sonic channels the cables' energy and shouts, "Chaos Control!"

A wave of energy explodes from the Death Egg, visible to everyone down below. As it passes, the angry clouds and distortion above the planet vanish. On the Death Egg, Super Sonic looks at the planet through the window and remarks that it's done, and he'll just have to wait and see what happens. With his finger, he traces "Hi Sal" on the window's glass.

On the planet, Boomer rushes to Sally, panicked; everything seems to be fading away. Smiling, Sally is sure that everything will be fine. "It's okay, Rotor. Sonic has everything under control." This statement, as well as being called "Rotor", baffles Boomer, but Sally tells him to trust her. As a white wave envelopes the world, Sally reaches her hand out towards the sky. "See you, Sonic..."

Super Sonic smiles and says, "...on the other side, Sally."

Off Panel

• Script: Ian Flynn
• Pencils: Jonathan Gray
• Inks: Gary Martin
• Colors: Aleah Baker

Off Panel

Knuckles is excited that since they have finished Sonic 2 in Genesis that his story arc will be coming next. Amy interjects that it won't happen and that she will have the chance to spend some time with Sonic. Sonic appears and tells both of them that they are going back to the regular story while pointing towards a sign reading "old continooity" and Ixis Naugus sticking his tongue out at them. Both Knuckles and Amy look enraged by this decision.

Quotes

Boomer: That was awesome!

Antoine: Non. Awesome is not moving. Make the world stop moving, s'il vous plait.

Eggman: Bravo! You've gone to a lot of effort to get to me, rodent.

Sonic: At least you're man enough to face me... ..."rodent...?" You've called me that before. ...We've been doing this for a lot longer than just a few days...

Eggman: So you've finally begun to remember, have you? Well, we can't have that.

Eggman: Hate you! Hate you! All of my hate! DIE! DIE! DIE!

Super Sonic: "Maybe... I can set things right. Maybe even go back far enough to save her. If Chaos got us here, Chaos can get us back and I can't bother with second guesses. I'm out of time and of options. So..... here goes. CHAOS CONTROL!"

Sally: See you Sonic...

Sonic: ...on the other side Sally.

Jazwares comic book pack

Like Sonic the Hedgehog #226 and Sonic Universe #1, the toy company Jazwares included this issue in their exclusive action figure/comic book pack, with 3.75" figures of Classic Sonic and Classic Amy. Another pack was released featuring 3.75" figures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat.

Classic Sonic and Classic Amy

Blaze and Sonic

Trivia

• This is the only issue of the Genesis arc that does not have a cover based on a past Sonic game.
• Sally Acorn's vision shows Sonic cutting the rope in Sonic the Hedgehog #47, Sonic bringing Sally back to life in Sonic the Hedgehog #50, Sally seeing Sonic's return during time and space travel in Sonic the Hedgehog #130, Sonic and Sally dating in Sonic the Hedgehog #222, and Sally beginning to get shot in Sonic the Hedgehog #225.
• Sonic's vision shows him: defeating Dr. Robotnik in Sonic the Hedgehog #50, being attacked by the Egg Beater in Sonic the Hedgehog #175, and facing the Egg Tarantula in Sonic the Hedgehog #200.
• The convention exclusive variant cover for this issue, which was available at New York Comic Con 2011, is a sketched version of the normal cover.
• Unlike the other covers in this arc, the cover for this issue does not represent any specific box art from the game series, though the red-striped border was common among later games for the Sega Genesis console.
• In France, this issue was printed in Delcourt Sonic Les Origines: 2/2.
• In Germany, this issue was printed in Panini Sonic the Hedgehog #2.

Gallery

Concept artwork

Thumbnail for the main cover of Sonic the Hedgehog #229.

Cover artwork

Regular cover, raw.

Variant cover, raw.

Preview pages

Gallery
Page one Page two Page three Page four Page five

Miscellaneous

Off Panel, inked.

Off Panel, raw.

External links

• Archie Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 229 at Mobius Encyclopaedia, the Archie Sonic wiki.

Archie Comics issues