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Archie Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 51 is the fifty-first issue of the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series published by Archie Comics.
Official solicitation
Reality Bytes
- You are cordially invited to the celebration of a lifetime- The Knothole Victory Party! The victory celebration begins! Let the festivities get underway! Now that Robotnik has been defeated, everyone can feel safe and secure... or can they? Sonic doesn't seem to think so when everyone he knows and loves and is near and dear to him gets roboticized by a hidden enemy. What does this mean? Who's behind this latest attack? Is Dr. Robotnik really gone or has someone else taken over?
Featured stories
Reality Bytes
- Writer & Colors: Karl Bollers
- Pencils: Sam Maxwell
- Inks: Andrew Pepoy
- Letters: Jeff Powell
- Editor: Justin Freddy Gabrie
- Managing editor: Victor Gorelick
- Editor-in-Chief: Richard Goldwater
Part 1
The Freedom Fighters celebrate their recent triumph over Robotnik and Sonic is awarded a medal. Later in the night, Sonic is awoken by Sally and Nicole for a secret mission. When the three of them head off, Sonic finds out that he was duped by Sally, who appears more mechanical, and is ambushed by Com-Bots. Mecha Sally tells Sonic to warn everyone that Dr. Robotnik will soon take over Knothole. Confused, Sonic tries to escape.
Part 2
Tails appears and saves Sonic from the ambush. Sonic informs Tails that someone has taken Robotnik's place and is targeting Knothole. He suddenly gets a vision of Uncle Chuck. They are attacked in the air by Mutant Dragonflies and Tails suddenly drops Sonic to fend for himself against a Crabmeat while looking as mechanical as Sally was previously. Sonic makes a giant crater when he lands on the ground and disappears. He is seen digging underground while having another vision of his uncle and tries to target the hot springs.
Part 3
Sonic makes it to the hot springs, meeting Bunnie there. She appears to be having trouble with her right leg and tells Sonic that a holographic image of Uncle Chuck appeared and shot lasers at her. Sonic realises that he saw the same image a while ago and realized that Bunnie was not on his side either. He then dodges an attack from her "damaged" leg and runs to the lake to find a power ring but is unable to pull it out. He evades Bunnie nonetheless and makes it to Knothole. While climbing down the secret exit, he sees yet another vision of Uncle Chuck but he speaks in a language that Sonic could not understand.
Part 4
After trying to understand Uncle Chuck's apparent warning, Sonic runs back into the open but meets Robotnik, the reverted Sally, Tails, Bunnie and a bunch of Robotnik's robots. Robotnik forces Sonic to give up and join him but remembers all the good times he had with his friends, realizing that the situation he was in was not real. Sonic woke up to find himself attached to a machine of his uncle's and is greeted by his fellow Freedom Fighters. Uncle Chuck explained that Sonic was infected by a virus which caused him to have a virtual reality nightmare and if he had given in, he would have been lost forever. However Robotnik was revealed not to be behind the act, leaving the Freedom Fighters to wonder who did.
Quotes
- Sonic: "Hey, slow down! No habla gibberish!"
Key Events
- Sonic is awarded a medal of bravery.
- Sonic is nearly trapped in a virtual nightmare, as the medal was booby-trapped.
- Uncle Chuck manages to reach through to Sonic and help him escape.
Trivia
- The production staff for this issue was not featured due to an oversight. It is featured in Sonic the Hedgehog #52 instead.
- The origin of the "artificial virus" in Sonic's medal was never directly addressed in the series. It was stated in the letters page of Sonic the Hedgehog #82 that the virtual reality medal was provided by Robo-Robotnik.
- Bean and Bark makes a cameo appearance on the cover. This is their second cameo appearance the first one being Sonic the Hedgehog #50 before their official debut in Sonic the Hedgehog #160.
- This is the last issue to have the Sonic X-treme themed order form while issue #44 (which also features a Sonic X-treme related question on its Sonic Grams page) is the first.
