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ARCHIE COMICS AND SEGA PRESENT... SONIC THE HEDGEHOG!"
The US comic book based on the Sonic the Hedgehog video game franchise, published monthly by Archie Comics from July 1993 to December 2016. It is not to be confused with the similarly long-running Sonic the Comic from the UK.
The comic debuted in November 1992: A four issue mini-series were commissioned to test the waters, after which a monthly publication run began in July 1993. Originally, the book was a tie-in for Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), though mixed with goofier elements from the other animated Sonic show at the time; Robotnik had already taken over the idyllic Kingdom of Acorn, establishing his headquarters in the former capital Mobotropolis, now renamed Robotropolis, from where he waged his campaign to take over the world by turning all organic creatures into robots. He was opposed by the Freedom Fighters, a motley crew who operated out of their secret base of Knothole within the Great Forest.
In the beginning, the book was a lighthearted, gag-centric affair. Each issue would feature a few silly stories of the Freedom Fighters thwarting Robotnik's dastardly, ridiculous plans while making sure to tell as many terrible (usually pun-based) jokes as possible and Breaking the Fourth Wall left and right. This being a comic tie-in, there were frequent jabs at Silver Age DC Comics, such as the Mirror Universe Robotnik turning out to be a kindly veterinarian and being harried by the "Anti-Freedom Fighters" (Ã la Earth-3 Luthor and Ultraman), and a Crisis on Infinite Earths-style plot in which an army of Sonics teamed up to beat a colossus.
Over time, the book began to develop distinct mythology — along with the occasional video game tie-ins, such as the "platinum" Sonic CD issue, the one-shot Knuckles Chaotix special, and a three-part miniseries which was (very) loosely based on Tails Adventure. The book moved from one-off gags to multi-issue arcs and drama as early as issue #17's "Princess Sally's Crusade," which took a somber tone and was the first time one of the Freedom Fighters died (on-panel, no less). This phase was arguably closest in tone to the SatAM series.
The book surpassed the cartoon in grittiness at around issue #39, after Sonic was caught and temporarily roboticized, leading to his gleeful prosecution by Antoine (still a jerk at this juncture) and banishment from Knothole as punishment for the havoc he caused. In the lead-up to issue #50, Sonic's Love Interest Sally was betrayed by a spy and killed off... until someone higher-up decided they didn't like it, so she was instead put in a coma. Meanwhile, Knuckles got his own short-lived spinoff series which dealt with the mostly-original lore surrounding his island's Lost World. In another side-reference, Knuckles' tribe were preserved in a high-tech city on the island, but in a pocket dimension; Knuckles sought to restore them much like Superman's Kandor or New Krypton. It introduced a big ensemble of characters across its 32-issue life, most of whom made the jump into the main series once his book got axed.
The late-nineties had a drought of mainline Sonic games, so the book was momentarily allowed to have its own identity. Robotnik went away for a while (later to return as "Eggman"), and the stories that followed were more soap-operatic, with Sally's royal angst, love triangles, politics, and long lost relatives coming out of the woodwork. The artwork got a lot more detailed and moodier, too; although there were glimpses of the original spirit of SatAM, such as Sonic being mistaken for a green hedgehog who fought a robotic "High Sheriff" with slings and arrows.
The release of Sonic Adventure in '99 retooled many of Sonic's canonical elements, such as Sonic living among human society, and Archie had to bend into twisters trying to keep up. In 2013, the book underwent a Continuity Reboot, discarding many of the previous characters and stories due to a heated legal battle with previous writers. While most of the core cast remained intact, the book was essentially overhauled to more accurately reflect the video games, both old and new. This ended up undoing years of storylines and character development, but it provided a jumping-on point for new readers without having to worry about continuity. In 2013, it crossed over with Archie's Mega Man title in Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide, which was used to justify the aforementioned reboot, followed by another crossover titled Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Unite, in 2015.
The comic suddenly ceased being published after the release of issue #290 in December 2016. Archie's only real statement on the subject was that the comic was on an indefinite hiatus, but as the "hiatus" stretched into the summer of 2017, with Archie only making very sporadic and vague comments referring to some sort of ongoing negotiations with SEGA, and the comic's creative staff having quietly moved on to other projects, readers saw the writing on the wall. Indeed, after 24 years of partnership with Archie, SEGA officially announced the cancellation of the series in July 2017 via the official Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter page. SEGA insisted in the same statement that Sonic comics would continue, albeit not in the same form and with a different publisher. Two days later, at San Diego Comic-Con 2017, it was revealed that IDW Publishing would start publishing a new series of Sonic comics from April 4, 2018.
A number of companion books spawned from the series over the years, including several miniseries, the previously mentioned Knuckles comic, several one-shot "special" issues, a tie-in book for Sonic X, a quarterly magazine, and a second comic series running sidestories alongside the main book called Sonic Universe, which focused on the activities of Freedom Fighters other than Sonic — and their villains, too. The two series took place at the same time and occasionally made references to each other.
In 2011, Ken Penders, a writer for the comic who won ownership and reprinting rights to the stories and characters he created in the aforementioned lawsuit that Archie filed against him back in late 2010, announced the Lara-Su Chronicles, a loose continuation of the "Mobius: 25 Years Later" storyline that was featured through Issue 131 to Issue 144. It is set in an altered reality and all characters and concepts related to the Sonic franchise either no longer exist or have been heavily changed to make them legally distinct. After over a decade of development, the first volume is due to release in July 2024.
Fan-continuations of the original, non-rebooted universe also exist, such as Sonic Retold and Archie Sonic Online (which also includes a fan restoration of the intended post-retcon Sonic Universe story that was meant to follow #94).
Tropes applicable to both continuities:
- Action Girl: Every major female character, even the pre-school aged kids. It would actually be easier to name the girls who aren't this to some degree.
- Adaptation Expansion: Quite notable in that the comic has actually the most fleshed-out universe of all Sonic media, including the original games. Even after the Cosmic Retcon, much of the mythos of Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) remains intact from the old universe.
- Adaptation Name Change: Several names were changed from the SatAM show on which the comic was based:
- Antoine Depardieu became Antoine D'Coolette. Worth noting, however, that his name originally was D'Coolette in the earliest issues, before SatAM even aired. The surname in fact originated from early concept notes for the show, which was changed in the final cartoon; Sally's unmentioned surname "Acorn" also derived said notes.
- Naugus became Ixis Naugus. With the Super Genesis Wave, his named was changed to Walter "Wally" Naugus.
- All Deaths Final: The comic adheres to this rule to a remarkable degree for a kids comic. Pretty much anyone who dies is guaranteed to stay dead. For example, the original Dr. Robotnik stayed dead completely and the character was brought back by having an alternate universe version take his place rather than being revived. In most cases, however, non-SEGA characters have a greater chance of dying for good.
- Alternate Universe: Universes are known as "Zones". Beginning with the Mirror Universe with Scourge the Hedgehog, and continuing with Blaze the Cat and her "Sol Zone". In one "zone", Sonic is a cop who patrols between zones.
- Alternative-Self Name-Change: The Suppression Squad eventually took names that separated themselves from their good counterparts after growing tired of being called the "Anti-" versions. Anti-Sonic renamed himself Scourge, Anti-Tails refers to himself by his real name of Miles rather than his nickname, Anti-Sally calls herself by her middle name Alicia, and so on.
- American Accents: Bunnie has a Dixie accent, despite there being no U.S. South.
- And I Must Scream: This was a big part of the reason roboticization was supposed to be so horrifying. Either you're oblivious to the world around you, or you're fully aware of what your controlled body is doing and are helpless to do anything about it.
- Geoffrey was subjected to this after Naugus possesses his body. Played for Laughs in an Off-Panel strip where he finds out that all Naugus' inner selves do while imprisoned inside him is play poker.
- Animesque: Depending on the Artist, some issues would go into this.
- Anti-Hero: Shadow varies a bit on what type he is. Discussed Trope with Eggman in issue #133.Eggman: Shadow? What do you want?
Shadow: Your death, Eggman. I'm going to snap you like a twig, then use you for kindling.
Eggman: Not if I avoid you like the... devil? Wait a second! Good guys don't kill! Isn't there a hedgehog moral code?
Shadow: Sonic holds such beliefs. Then again, he's a hero, I'm not. - Arch-Enemy: Sonic has Eggman, naturally. Scourge at least thinks he's this to Sonic. Knuckles originally had Dimitri, though Finitevus eventually took the position after the former's shift into Anti-Villain territory and eventual Heel–Face Turn.
- Julie-Su and Lien-Da
- Tails got one in Speedy.
- Arm Cannon: Bunnie has one. Which makes her faint when overused. The Iron Queen tried to kill her this way in issue 203.
- Art Evolution: The comic's "standard" style has changed many times. At first, the art mimicked Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM). Around the time Sonic Adventure was released, the comic redesigned Sonic, Tails, and Amy to reflect their game counterparts and the book took on an Animesque style. The style of the book gradually shifted to the look of the modern video games, and eventually the older Archie characters were redesigned again for the Continuity Reboot.
- Art Shift: Some stories switched artists halfway through, such as "Night of 1000 Sonics" in issue #19, the "End Game" story arc, and issue #125. Issue #50 switched artists and writers between different pages, and #152 had three artists with a single writer.
- The Tails Doll
◊ being an Eldritch Abomination draws from very popular Creepypasta.
- The Tails Doll
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Bean, typically — Fiona manages to ditch him by throwing a set of shiny keys out the window, knowing he'll dive after them.
- Badass Normal:
- The closest thing Amy Rose has to a power is her Piko Piko Hammer. She is also the only one capable of going toe-to-toe with the Nigh-Invulnerable Iron King.
- Sally, Post-Development Antoine, and Rotor. They have no fantastic powers, but have their own expertise.
- Bald of Evil: Dr. Robotnik/Eggman and his nephew Snively, though Snively doesn't think of himself as bald. Having about six hairs doesn't really count as a "full head of hair", but he's vain and deluded enough to think it does.
- Barefoot Cartoon Animal: A few examples, such as Nicole in her lynx form, Rosemary Prower (Tails's mother), the alien Ceneca-9009, and Bunnie Rabbot (after she regained her flesh-and-blood limbs, at least).
- Pretty much everyone who regularly went barefoot was retooled to wear shoes after the second Genesis Wave (including Nicole and Bunnie - the latter regaining her robotic limbs, but having her feet look more like white, pink-striped boots). However, another barefooter was later introduced during the Sonic Unleashed adaptation with the priestess Coral the Betta.
- Betty and Veronica: Unsurprising for an Archie Comic, Sonic and Sally tend to flip flop around over who is the Archie and who is the Betty, but boy is there a long conga line of Veronicas.
- Bickering Couple, Peaceful Couple: Sonic and Sally clash pretty much constantly,
even years after they get married. Bunnie and Antoine are complete sweethearts to each other.
- Big Bad: Dr. Robotnik/Eggman has always been the overall Big Bad of the series, but occasionally the series has had other villains being the driving force behind events:
- The Iron Queen was Big Bad of the "Iron Dominion" arc (while Eggman was incapacitated by a Villainous Breakdown.)
- Dr. Finitevus, for the "Enerjak Reborn" arc.
- Sonic's Evil Twin Scourge, a long-time Big Bad Wannabe, finally earned Big Bad status during the "Bold New Moebius" arc.
- King Shadow acts as Big Bad for the X Years Later stories.
- Ixis Naugus and
Mammoth Mogul have had their turns at being Big Bad several times over the course of the series, and Snively got his turn for a little while, after the original Robotnik died but before Eggman replaced him.
- Meanwhile, Dimitri - the original Enerjak - was more or less the Big Bad of Knuckles' spin-off series.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Eggman has always been the overall Big Bad of the series, but there have always been villains who are independent of him who are major threats on their own (i.e. Finitevus, Scourge, Naugus, Mogul, the Iron Queen etc.). This is most apparent after the Genesis arc, where Naugus becomes equal to Eggman in terms of the threat he presents to the heroes, and his effect on the central plot. Black Doom and Eggman Nega would also be major threats, but the former is a bit busy being dead, and the latter is fooling around in the shadows. As of the Post-Super Genesis Wave, we can add Dark Gaia to this list.
- Big Damn Heroes: Almost every heroic character has done this at least once. A notable example is in the ongoing Fractured World arc, where Sonic and Rotor are saved from drowning and Dark Gaia's Dark Guardian by Chaos.
- The Big Damn Kiss: In Issue 50, Sonic learns that Sally did not die earlier and is in fact in a coma. He goes to her and awakens her with a peck on the cheek. However, in Sonic Super Special 6, a retelling of Issue 50, after Sally wakes up, Sonic and Sally share a big damn kiss in a panel that takes up an entire page.
- Blessed with Suck:
- Bunnie had her share of angst about being part Robian, but she mostly came to terms with it and used her abilities to help in the fight against Robotnik. Then she found out that her robot parts were literally killing her, and was forced to upgrade.
- Even more so with Sonic's Uncle Chuck and father Jules. After getting his mind freed from Robotnik's control, Chuck would use his status to spy on the mad doctor's revelation. Jules, however, has gotten the worst of it - every other Robian has been restored to their original form but him, isolating him from his family and everyone else around him. Jules gets better about this, though, especially once it was revealed that the very reason for his roboticization in the first place (a wound he suffered in the Great War that would have killed him) would mean his death if he was ever deroboticized.
- The Bus Came Back: Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts returned in Issue #187 after a hundred and thirty issues of absence, now employed by Mammoth Mogul at the Casino Night Zone.
- The Badniks have returned in the post-reboot issues, many of them as part of Hordes led by a Super-Badnik Commander.
- Butt-Monkey:
- On the villains' side, Drago. The fans hated him so much, he is punched in the nose once every appearance.
- But That I Would Believe: In issue #152, Snively wants Amy Rose's help to set up an EMP to stop the nano-robots who would otherwise dominate life on the planet. Amy doesn't trust him, but accepts his explanation that he's doing it for Revenge and doesn't care about her at all.
- Cannot Kill Their Loved Ones: When Snively is confronted by his niece, Hope, he is unable to order his forces to attack her.
- Canon Discontinuity / Continuity Reboot: Invoked; due to the Cosmic Retcon, which rewrote their entire universe on a molecular and timeline level (which not only completely wiped characters like Robotnik Prime out of existence, but ensured he never existed in the first place) none of the original 251 stories technically happened, and the existing cast only has faint memories of the original timeline that will eventually fade away. Ironically, this makes the Sonic Encyclopedia, released just before the reboot, a near-perfect compilation of the original universe, barring "Endangered Species", "Chaotix Quest", Sonic Universe #50 and Sonic the Hedgehog #247.
- Card-Carrying Villain: The series hasn't been entirely consistent about which of its antagonists openly identify as evil, but Robotnik and Anti-Sonic/Scourge definitely do.
- In the very first issue, there is a sign on Robotnik's desk which reads "Dr. Robotnik: Supreme Dictator, Industrial Polluter, Megalomaniac, Corrupt Politician, Underhanded Reprobate, Rain Forest Ravager, Puppy Kicker, Oil Spill Coordinator, Holiday Hater, Insurance Salesman. Rights violated while U wait!"
- As does Drago. When he and Razorklaw captured Sally in issue 214, the latter suggested just killing her, which led to Drago scolding him for not messing with her first and calling Razorklaw a lousy villain.
- Catching the Speedster: Non-lethal example, but the climactic final battle of the "End Game" saga sees Sonic and Dr. Robotnik go one on one in the Annihilator's control room. The small size of the room and Robotnik's own girth negate the advantage of Sonic's speed, and the Doctor is able to deliver quite a few hits by simply grabbing Sonic and slamming him into the wall. It's telling that the battle only ended because the Annihilator went off but had been sabotaged, causing it to only target Robotnik. Had things gone without that hitch, Robotnik would have won.
- Characterization Marches On:
- Robotnik (the first one) was more like his Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog self in early comics, even though he looked like his Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) counterpart. Starting with issue 25, a more dangerous, psychotic side started to show, and while he never quite reached the level of nightmarish evil of the SatAM Robotnik, he was pretty close to it by Endgame. His current Eggman persona is something of a Composite Character of this and his more comedic games counterpart.
- This applies to the whole original cast for the most part, who were portrayed as much wackier and bumbling in the original comics, Sally in particular was a far more brattish and prissy character compared to current persona, which is arguably the nearest to a "normal" character in the comics.
- Cliffhanger: Naturally, they abound, as is the norm for a comic series.
- In reaction to Fiona's Face–Heel Turn and her running off with Scourge, issue 172 ends with Antoine storming off, saying he's going to do something he should've done long ago. Issue 173 begins with him asking Bunnie to marry him.
- The Silver Age arc ends with Silver and friends falling into a Genesis portal that opened up.
- The Comedy Drop: In Sonic Mega Drive: The Next Level, Sonic catches Amy in his arms, where he then asks if she's okay. She sheepishly admits that if she says yes, he'll just put her down, looking to take advantage of the moment. Sonic quickly drops her with an unamused expression
◊.
- Cosmic Retcon:
- Happens in the stories set in the Mobius: X Years Later reality - Sonic goes back in time to fix damage to the timeline that threatens to destroy reality. Unfortunately, this creates an Alternate Timeline where instead of being a Utopia ruled by King Sonic, Mobius is a totalitarian state ruled by King Shadow. Fortunately, Sonic and many of his friends remember how things are supposed to be and manage to overthrow Shadow.
- Shades of this appear in a few of the Silver stories as well. Apparently, every time Silver goes back in time, some changes are made to the timeline. Unfortunately, none of these changes undo the Bad Future he lives in.
- Following Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide, the entire Sonic comic series is subject to a complete and total reset; several characters were abandoned, all ongoing stories were dropped, most of the cast was redesigned (either in appearance or personality), several terms and names were changed, most of the franchise's core games were considered canon to the new backstory, and the previous continuity was left as nothing more than lingering memories among the core cast which would eventually fade away. The series's world also no longer has a name, thanks to Sega's mandate preventing the use of the word "Mobius".
- Cowardly Lion: Antoine is usually a coward in most situations but can be realizable when it really matters. He later gets Character Development, to the point of even throwing himself into danger willingly to carry out his duty.
- A Day in the Limelight: Usually the point of the story arcs in Sonic Universe, both to keep the main story moving in the regular comic and give supporting characters a chance to shine as well as tell some alternate tales (Such as Mobius X Years Later which originally took up the 2nd half of the comic in earlier issuses). Sonic's only made around 10 appearances in the series, aside from covers.
- Don't Celebrate Just Yet: Bunnie and Antoine's post-wedding party is interrupted by Snively firebombing Knothole. Robotnik's defeat in #200 is interrupted by a pissed-off Monkey Khan. When the balloons go up, shit goes down.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: Zig-Zagged. Most times, Sonic is the deciding factor against various enemies. If he's absent, expect his friends or allies to face an uphill battle. On the other hand, many characters have their own stories that don't involve the Blue Blur at all, and they can handle themselves just fine.
- The Empire: The Eggman Empire, to be precise. Eggman starts off with nothing but a legion of robots (and his nephew/lackey Snivley). As the series continues, more organic minions join the Empire due to thirst for power, desperation or coercion.
- End of an Age: Out of universe, with the comic canceled and the confirmation that none of the characters from the Archie series will be returning for the next comic series, it would seem whatever remnants of the characters and concepts started by Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) have finally come to a close.
- Evil Learns of Outside Context: The crossovers "Worlds Collide" and "Worlds Unite" begin with the respective main antagonists learning about worlds other than their own. In the former case, Dr. Wily and Dr. Eggman join forces to eliminate their hated foes while secretly planning to double-cross the other, while Sigma forces both doctors to help him take over the multiverse and become a god in the process.
- Footnote Fever: Almost every single time the comic references a previous event, there's a footnote helpfully telling you exactly what issue it took place in. In particularly referential issues, the phenomenon is lampshaded frequently.
- Formerly Sapient Species: Pre-Genesis Wave, the Tasmanian Devils used to be sapient alongside the other Mobian races but were subjected to genetic engineering by the Echidnas in ancient times, turning them bestial. By the present day, Thrash the Devil is the last of the sapient tasmanians and seeks to make the Echidnas pay for what they did to his kind.
- Four-Fingered Hands: Inconsistent for years, given the conflicting source material — the cartoons gives everyone four fingers (usually), while the games give almost every one of their characters five. Depending on the Artist, sometimes every character has five fingers, and others the Sega characters have five and everybody else has four. Earlier issues established that the main difference between "Overlanders" and proper humans was the number of fingers: four and five, respectively. Both the finger-debacle and the distinction between the two types of humans were quietly phased out.
- Fourth-Wall Mail Slot: Characters have occasionally answered fan mail "directly" through Sonic-Grams, the online blogs, and during a "novelty question month" on Ian Flynn's messageboard.
- Funny Schizophrenia: Bean. Take Daffy Duck, cross him with Deadpool (albeit a G-rated Deadpool). You have something slightly less crazy than Bean.Bean: That was awesome! How do your glutes feel?
Sonic: Shut. Up. Bean. - Genius Serum: A VERY early issue had Tails eat a fruit from Rotor's Tree of Knowledge, instantly gaining a mega-genius intellect. It lasted long enough for him to get a swollen ego and try to take on Robotnik himself. According to
Word of God, however, while the boost in knowledge was temporary, the fruit did permanently unlock Tails's own enhanced intelligence, explaining his at the time rather childish depiction suddenly falling into line with the technical genius he was depicted in in the games.
- Grand Finale: Panic in the Sky is pretty much the technical finale of the comic as it does end with the heroes stopping Eggman and saving the world. The following comics were meant to celebrate the game series 25th anniversary before leading into a new arc, but the comic was cancelled before that could happen.
- Grapes of Luxury: Knuckles embarks on a quest to retrieve the Sword of Acorns. At one point he falls under the spell of the Enchantress, who enslaves his body and forces him to serve her peeled grapes.
- Gratuitous Princess: There's more princesses in Sonic's world than you can shake a stick at.
- The Good Guys Always Win: One of the comic's mandates in fact outright states that Sonic can not lose in a story (at least in a manner that is not negated in the quick run). There is no mandate however stating how clean a victory it must be, as many outcomes show.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Lots of bowdlerized profanities.
- Actually subverted with Antoine, who frequently says mon dieu. In issue 172 he says "Zut alors!", which means "Damn them!"
- Scourge the Hedgehog and Nack the Weasel both actually do swear, though censored, since this IS a kid's comic.
- Hero of Another Story: Many over the course of the comic, ranging from the Arctic Freedom Fighters all the way to the G.U.N. special forces.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Because Eggman was so hasty in trying to stop Super Sonic's Reset Button attempt, most of his victories have been rendered nulled - Knothole and Mobotropolis stand, Sally's no longer Mecha Sally and the Freedom Fighters are still active.
- Human Subspecies: The Overlanders and Mobians, thanks to the first Xorda attack causing most lifeforms to degrade into a genetic muck and then reform. For the longest time, it was thought that they were what's left of humanity. Then Sonic Adventure came out, and was adapted into an arc. Baseline humanity managed to survive in hidden cities that survived the Xorda.
- Indignant Slap: Sally asks Sonic to finally stay with her, but he turns this down because he still has to defeat Eggman. Sally becomes positively furious and slaps him across the face, accusing him of being more concerned about beating Eggman up than about her.
- Killed Offscreen: Nate Morgan was in Robotropolis when Station Square nuked it.
- Left Hanging: The original continuity was this by virtue of a Cosmic Retcon that erased nearly everything and left many unresolved plotlines before the reboot. The book's cancellation in 2017 caused reboot itself to become this.
- LEGO Genetics: Sally Acorn is the most prominent example, being half squirrel and half chipmunk without any problems. This is probably the most reasonable example, since squirrels and chipmunks are at least from the same family of rodents.
- Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!: The comic kinda flip flops on this. In the old verse, there were two types of humanoid species, regular humans and Overlanders (of which Robotnik and Eggman belong to) who were mutated humans after an alien race changed the planet with gene bombs (though Meta-wise, it was just a way to explain why most of the human looking characters look different then others). There doesn't really seem to be much difference save for Overlanders having four fingers, special abilities and supposed increased aggression though there are a few good Overlanders. For the most part, Overlanders and humans live in their own colonies separate from the humanoid animals and are very rarely seen with the most prominent being Robotnik, Eggman, Snively, Hope, Nate Morgan (up till his death), and Regina a.k.a Iron Queen. In the new verse, it seems it just regular humans and anthromophic animals living side by side with no mutation involved.
- Make Room for the New Plot: This would come to characterize Ian Flynn's first year as the head writer on the comic, as most of his immediate order of business was quickly tying up most of the lingering plots left behind by Ken Penders and Karl Bollers (Tails being The Chosen One; the identity of "Anonymous"), reworking some of the comic exclusive elements (turning Evil Sonic into Scourge), writing some out contentious characters and plot elements (the Mystics Walkers, the Source of All, Tommy Turtle), and trying to bring the comic's world more in line with the game series' mythos (reducing the comic's hundreds of Chaos Emeralds into the seven found in the games; turning "The Zone of Silence" into "The Special Zone").
- Mind Screw: After Genesis Wave II, NICOLE has been used to restore old world memories for the Freedom Fighters. The reaction has been depicted as this...save for Bunnie, who undergoes a Despair Event Horizon due to changes in history in the new realityspoiler , and Sally, who undergoes a similar Despair Event Horizon after very suddenly remembering everything she did as Mecha Sally.
- Mr. Exposition: Being a comic this is often required and many characters switch off exposition duties, though there are a lot of backstory references and Mythology Gag one liners frequently used, with varying ranges of clunkiness. Nate Morgan was the most blatant expository device.
- The Multiverse: Very early on, the comic parodied the DC multiverse with a literal "superhighway" connecting the various worlds. In a "Bizarro" universe, Dr. Eggman is a kindly veterinarian, while Sonic and his cohorts are evil hooligans in biker outfits. In another, Dr. Eggman was nearly defeated by the Freedom Fighters, but turned himself into a robot as a last resort (and he's even more kill-crazy than the original).
- Another is a whole prison dimension called the "No Zone" where many of the characters have a "Z" in their names (Zonic, Zobotnik, etc) and are policemen keeping tabs on the world criminals of the multiverse or are said criminals themselves. Oh yeah and gravity is screwy to keep criminals off balance and prevent them from escaping.
- Every Sonic game and television show is canon to the comic, except that most exist in multiple universes, or 'Zones'. This includes: The 'Prime' Universe, the Sol Dimension, the Sonic Underground Universe, the (inevitable) Sabrina the Teenage Witch crossover, and a Sailor Moon-inspired universe where Knuckles wears a tuxedo. Go figure. The "real" world is yet another universe, and features lawyer-friendly versions of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, hot on the trail of a giant blue talking hedgehog. (Sonic Live)
- The Cosmic Retcon following Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide caused the entire multiverse to collapse on itself and be reborn. Unfortunately, Ken Penders has claimed he owns the idea of a Sonic multiverse, so Archie was extremely unlikely to do anything of the sort in the reboot aside from Blaze's dimension (which originated in the video games). The whole concept died completely when the Archie comics were cancelled in 2017.
- However, there is an obvious loophole that was taken in Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Unite - There's no more multiverse of Sonics - there's the Sega multiverse and the Capcom multiverse.
- My Greatest Failure: Uncle Chuck feels terrible for creating the Roboticizer that led to Robotnik forming his army.
- Mythology Gag: Now with its own page.
- No Ending: The comic sadly never had a real proper ending thanks to the cancellation. Even before the reboot, the current story arcs (Sonic, Tails and Amy chasing after a robotized Sally, the matter with Naugus ruling New Mobotopolis and him having possessed Geoffrey. On the Universe side of things, Finitevus plotting something and Scourge set to make a comeback) were never concluded thanks to the lawsuit between Archie and Ken being settled and the writers using the crossover with Mega Man (Archie Comics) to preform a Cosmic Retcon to change the whole world of the series. The closest the comic got in recent times was the end of the Shattered World arc which had Sonic and the Freedom Fighters saving the world from Dark Gaia. But Eggman still got away at the end with it implied he was going to the Lost Hex to find a different power source for the Death Egg, among other supposed threats he had in store (such as a new roboticizer). The following issues afterward were one issue compressed re-tellings of Sonic's past games (1, 2 and CD) which likewise just ended on cliffhangers and telling the readers to play the games to find out what happened. Had the series continued, we would've gotten one more issue featuring Sonic 3 & Knuckles before heading into a new story arc proper. Likewise the final Sonic Universe arc ended on a simple story with the Chaotix and that left a cliffhanger with the Setting Dawn Pirates stranded on an island with a supposedly dangerous weapon they had found in a temple. Again, had things continued, a new story arc would've followed.
- Noodle People: Several; almost everyone is drawn with noodle limbs, but Ash Mongoose is particularly egregious in this regard.
- One World Order: The United Federation is one of these, but only for humans. Mobians have their own political bodies.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Tails, for Miles.
- Passed in Their Sleep: In the "Mobius: 25 Years Later" comic arc, Knuckles mentions that this trope is how his father, Locke, died, while he was admitted to hospital.
- Poor Communication Kills: Occurs a few times, often with a case of Right Hand Vs Left Hand.
- As early as the first issue of the comic, the Freedom Fighters "rescue" Sally from the Robotociser, only for an angry Sally to reveal she had been implanted with a device made by Rotor to decode how the machine works and allow for an opportunity to reverse its effects. This misunderstanding itself was caused by Sally refusing to tell Sonic her plan earlier out of spite.
- Silver's crusade to find a Freedom Fighter that will doom the future ultimately leaves him a pariah with the group due to curtly accusing or attacking any member he comes to the conclusion may be a suspect. He finally discovers the true pivot was Sally, unwillingly while robotised, though Tails still has to prevent a livid Sonic from attacking him after he awkwardly words this as Sally being a traitor.
- Product Placement:
- Stories that really serve no purpose other than to serve as a five-page advertisement for whatever the newest Sonic game is. Word of God has declared the "another time, another place" stories were non-canon in the comic's continuity, although some elements from the games themselves may seep in.
- Sometimes the "Editor Notes" will include something along the lines "Find out more in this other issue, Available Now!" Often lampshaded in the Sonic-Grams letters page, where if a graphic novel is mentioned they would follow it by a "PlugPlugPlug."
- Punny Name:
- As elsewhere in the franchise, Tails' full name is Miles Prower. Miles-Per-Hour.
- The comic tended to like a lot of puns for a while, and originated many of its own. A particularly cringeworthy example would be "Sleuth Dawggy-Dawg," who actually turned into a fairly regular Recurring Character they mercifully took to referring to only as "Sleuth Dawg".
- Reversible Roboticizing: Eventually a way to reverse roboticization was discovered, though Bunnie didn't get her organic limbs back until an encounter with Naugus even later as she needed to replace the roboticized limbs with prosthetics before the discovery.
- Shout-Out: Tons, for just about every fiction franchise on Earth. Most of these can be found in a group shot of AU Tails. Check out the page for a few notable examples.
- Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: The comic started off as something of a pastiche of the very silly Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and the mostly-serious Saturday-morning Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM). In the beginning, it was more like "AoStH with the SatAM characters", but Cerebus Syndrome pushed it further and further towards SatAM's darker style. Even so, while the comic has never really regained the level of goofiness present in the earliest issues, there has been a fair amount of fluctuation all over the scale depending on the era and the writer. Where it should fall, optimally, is one of the many things the fanbase can never agree on.
- Super Mode: Among others, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Blaze, and Scourge can become Super or an equivalent with the Chaos Emeralds/Sol Emeralds/Anarchy Beryls/ect.
- Totally Radical: The series consistently billed itself as "The World's Most Way Past Cool Comic!" for twenty years.
- Unanthropomorphic Transformation: The sad fate of Mobius's Tasmanian Devil species, courtesy of the Echidnas who weren't keen on competition for space. To add insult the injuries, the newly christened "devil dogs" were then employed by the Echidnas as guard dogs, work beasts, and experimental animals. Thrash, the last unaltered Tasmanian Devil, is understandably upset by this and enacts a scheme to even the score by eliminating all but one of the Echidna (as well as Charmy's fiance Saffron for some reason).
- Unwilling Roboticisation: Robotnik turing everyone into robots was a very real and menacing threat for nearly 15 years, before an alien race changed the roboticized citizens back to normal, with the exceptions of Sonic's dad, whose life depended on the installed robotics, and Bunnie, a cyborg, and eliminating the ability to roboticize someone in the first place. Thanks to the events of the Genesis arc, Roboticization came back, although the only people vulnerable to it are those who had never been deroboticized by the Bem. Unfortunately, this included Sally, who became its first victim. After the Super Genesis Wave changed everything, Sally was never changed, and it's unclear just what kind of threat roboticization actually poses.
- Universe Compendium: The Complete Sonic Comic Encyclopedia. While having minor flaws, the Encyclopedia is likely the best way to get acquainted with the comic's setting and history. Not surprisingly for a comic going over 200 issues, the Encyclopedia is dense with information.
- Vague Age: The planet itself, believe it or not, with the time between the Xorda attack on Earth and the current strips ranging from anywhere between 3,200 years to 15,000 years.
- Virtual Sidekick: NICOLE is an A.I program that slowly gained sentience over time till eventually she managed to conjure enough power to make a anthropomorphic avatar to interact with and help the Freedom Fighters. While she interacts with near all the cast, she's especially close to Sally who was there on the night she took her new hologram form for a test drive (in both the old and rebooted timelines). Sally even goes out of her way to load her mind into a computer to help Nicole fight a virus in the rebooted continuity, refusing to let NICOLE be deleted when the opinion was brought up.
- The Voiceless: Bark the Polar Bear, Bean's partner in crime, never speaks.
- Wham Episode: Things generally shake up
virturally every twenty-fifth issue.
- Issue 25: Not much of a Wham, unless you count introducing Amy and Metal Sonic. Although the Cerebus Syndrome started settling in after this point.
- Issue 50: The conclusion of the "EndGame" arc and the death of the original Robotnik.
- Issue 75: An alternate dimenional version of Julian, named "Robo-Robotnik", reveals himself to the Freedom Fighters and is destroyed, only to come back in his Eggman form. He proceeds to take control of most of the roboticized citizens and take back Mobotropolis.
- Issue 100: Eggman gains the ability to roboticize by touch and uses it on Nate Morgan; Kodos, Arachnis, Tobor and Kragok are all Killed Off for Real; and the Robians are freed from Eggman's control.
- Issue 125: The conclusion of Xorda arc; Sonic makes a Heroic Sacrifice to save Mobius, only to be sent into space, which allows for the one-year Time Skip when he gets back.
- Issue 150: It's revealed to the readers that Sonic and Antonie have been replaced by their Evil Twins from Moebius. The B-story has Tails stopping Mammoth Mogul from destroying the multiverse.
- Issue 175: Eggman pulls out all of the stops and, together with Snively, launches a massive fleet to capture everyone in Knothole and wipes it off of the map. Eggman then faces Sonic and, for the first time in forever, completely defeats the hero. He and everyone else get better in the next issue, fight back and gain a new kingdom after.
- Issue 200: Sonic and the Freedom Fighters take the fight to Eggman at his most vulnerable. Sonic pulls off his biggest win against the doctor. So big, in fact, Eggman suffers a Villainous Breakdown. It seems that things are finally looking up for the heroes. Then Snively forms a Villain Team-Up with the Iron Queen.
- Issue 225: Eggman launches a new Death Egg to attacks New Mobotropolis, and Sally seemingly is gunned down.
- Issue 250: The start of the final act of the Sonic/Mega Man crossover. Though a true wham would be 251, the final issue of the crossover, where Eggman disrupts Sonic's Chaos Control as he attempts to restore the world, causing some significant changes, and 252, the issue immediately following the crossover, showing the ramifications of Eggman's disrupted Cosmic Retcon.
- Wham Episodes not on the 25-issue mark include 160 (Anti-Sonic becomes Scourge), 172 (Fiona Fox reveals her Face–Heel Turn), the entire "Enerjak Reborn" arc (180-184), and 219 (Geoffrey pulls a Face–Heel Turn).
- Also offsetting the 25-issue mark are issue 230 (which follows up on the events of 225 as Sally survives... only to be roboticized.), issue 234 (wherein Antoine is nearly Killed Off for Real, and issue 252 which shows Sonic back home after Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide, and quickly wraps up numerous subplots in mere pages.).
- Issue 256: The aftershock of the Super Genesis Wave has caused Sonic's planet to explode and the entire multiverse to collapse on itself.
- Wham Line:
- Issue 179, when Sonic and Tails are fighting, Tails reveals his reasons for being angry with Sonic:Tails: So you hooked up with Fiona to help me!?
- Issue 252, after Sonic crash lands back in his reality and sees Tails fighting a giant robot, asks why they aren't on the Death Egg trying to rescue Sally:Tails: Rescue Sally? We came here to follow-up on Nicole and save King Acorn! This thing was already attacking when we arrived!**See STH#... Wait a minute...
- Issue 179, when Sonic and Tails are fighting, Tails reveals his reasons for being angry with Sonic:
- Yank the Dog's Chain: This happened to Bunnie across the Cosmic Retcon. Just prior, her de-roboticization opened up the possibility of having children with Antoine. It was shortly after this that Antoine was gravely injured in a Heroic Sacrifice. After the Genesis Wave II, when the new reality's Bunnie had her old reality memories restored, she got the memories of being de-roboticized. Just one problem: in the new reality, her robotic parts weren't the result of roboticization, but were limbs built due to injuries. So she came to the realization that having natural children with Antoine was never going to be possible, and had arguably the worst Heroic B So D of the Freedom Fighters who had their memories restored.
Tropes applicable to the new continuity:
- Aborted Arc: With the cancellation of the comic, many storylines that were set to be followed up on will now never be. To wit:
- Breezie and Honey's deal.
- Wendy looking into finding another conch shell.
- Snively and whatever ulterior motives he had in GUN.
- Where Eclipse and his Dark Arms ended up as they were last seen fleeing Angel Island and crashing into an unknown area.
- Where Silver, Gold and Von Schlemmer wound up after defeating the Second Devourer. As this story was a prequel before Silver meeting Sonic in the new universe was shown, that meeting will never be revealed.
- Some plotlines with a few of the Egg Bosses such as Tundra, Akhlut, Conquering Storm, Maw and Cassia and Clove.
- The Setting Dawn Pirates returning and whatever was in that temple they had found with the Chaotix, Echo and Princess Undina.
- And Eggman trying to re-power his Death Egg with the implication he was going to go to the Lost Hex to acquire energy for it (which likewise in turn would lead to an another encounter with the Deadly Six, the first one was in the World Unite crossover but that was erased at the end of the event) and the threat of a new robotizicer.
- Adaptational Badass: One of the most striking differences is that the new universe is more full of heroic figures, and both sides are more competent as a whole.
- Apocalypse How: The multiverse has collapsed. Any alternate universe that existed before the new continuity (except for Blaze's dimension and Mega Man's dimension) has ceased to exist.
- Later, the multiverse gets constituted. However, instead of being a limitless number of variations of Mobius Prime, it is now a multiverse of Sega and Capcom properties.
- Breather Episode: The search for the Gaia Temple Keys usually involves exploration and fighting Eggman's forces, but a handful of them are already in relatively safe hands, the the only thing the Freedom Fighters need to do is solve a personal problem, like helping an elderly man reconnect with his family or arranging a birthday dinner.
- Book Ends: For the Shattered World a.k.a Sonic Unleashed adaptation concerning the covers which were pieces of a bigger artwork. The first four issues (Countdown to Chaos) were like this
and the final four issues of the storyline (Panic in the Sky) ended with this.
- In a rather odd meta-twist, the first Sonic Universe story in the rebooted universe started off with one about pirates (In this case set in Blaze's world along with Amy and Cream) and, due to the cancellation, ended with a story about pirates (This one focusing on the Chaotix). When asked by a fan on Twitter, Ian stated it was just a rather bizarre coincidence.
- Broad Strokes: After the Super Genesis Wave, most of the video games and at least some of the original timeline happened in the new timeline, but in slightly different ways.
- Company Cross References: The G.U.N. troopers that accompany Team Dark in "Shadow Fall" all share their last names with major characters from Archie Comics.
- Cool Gate: The Genesis Portals, holes in reality formed from when Eggman botched Super Sonic's Chaos control attempt to restore their world in crossover World's Collide. They can lead to different universes and different time periods.
- God of Evil: There are two Dark Gods, Ixis and Dark Gaia. Their domains are so ill-defined that their own worshippers can have trouble telling them apart.
- Gotta Catch Them All: It reaches rather ridiculous extents in Unleashed. Seven Emeralds, seven gate keys, seven temples, Knuckles' Master Emerald shards...
- Hope Spot: The final arc of the Sonic Unleashed adaptation, Panic in Sky, starts with the Freedom Fighters having gotten all the Chaos Emeralds and Gaia Keys, sent them on ahead back to the Acorn Kingdom for safe keeping before informing their allies of their success and even thinking they have the element of surprise over Eggman as they get ready to to fix the world. Which they did... except a newly rebuilt Tails Doll managed to slip into Sky Patrol early into their escapade and monitor their actions while hiding in a vent. It reports back to Eggman who quickly organizes a coordinated sneak attack on both the Sky Patrol and Acorn Kingdom, ending with him getting the keys and emeralds, Chip getting kidnapped and the Sky Patrol shot down. Well crap!
- In Medias Res: At the beginning of the reboot, every game with the exception of Unleashed, Lost World and Sonic the Fighters has already taken place.
- La Résistance: The Freedom Fighters once again, as well is the myriad new teams that protect their own countries.
- Lighter and Softer: While the comic still has a more mature running, the world it takes place in is much more bright and hopeful compared to its original counterpart. As well, many of the characters still existing have changed for the better.
- Meaningful Background Event: When Eggman is explaining to Clove how exactly she's been played while she had initially believed she was playing Eggman, he gets an encoded message reading CNYFLTHSNSHNDSTBRGHTNPYRDY. CaN You FeeL THe SuNSHiNe DoeS iT BRiGHTeN uP YouR DaY
- Measuring the Marigolds: At one point, Sally and Nicole, the later a computer program, enter a vast cave filled with crystals. After taking a chaos emerld from the cave, the reason they came in the first place, Sally then tries to convince Nicole that the cave's beauty must be protected from Eggman's forces. At first, Nicole, though able to analyse the crystals thoroughly, cannot comprehend why this is important, as it makes no sense tactically, but Sally eventually gets Nicole to manifest as a hologram an actually "see" the cave, convincing her that the cave is worth defending.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Because Sonic crashed the Egg Carrier in Sonic Adventure, the underwater city's waters spiked in pollution, threatening the lives of the people who live there.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: After the Worlds Collide crossover, pretty much everything about the series changed thanks to Eggman interfering with Sonic's attempt to fix their universe with Chaos Control. The result is a Cosmic Retcon that overhauls the entire universe from old to new. Many, many, many characters and zones (alternate dimensions) are erased while the rest, along with a vast majority of [the planet formerly known as] Mobius itself, are revamped to fit into the new universe's story. It's easier to make a list of what hasn't changed, and who is left that aren't affected by Archie Comics' legal issues.
- The Nth Doctor: Many character designs were changed in the reboot to fit better with the current game designs. Most notable examples are Sally, Antoine, Rotor and Muttski. Justified in-universe, because of Eggman interfering Super Sonic's world restoration.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: After Sonic inhaled some of Dark Gaia's energy, he becomes a werewolf version of himself, just like its source, Sonic Unleashed.
- Papa Wolf: Eclipse has a...unique personality, including a fierce protectiveness towards the Dark Arms.Eclipse: What?! They were in the nursery?! I'll hunt them down and rip—
Black Death: The Dark Arms are unharmed.
Eclipse: [expression of relief] - Portal Crossroad World: It is foreshadowed by Sticks at the end of Worlds Unite where that the all worlds and Genesis portals might be connected by a nexus at the center. The final page shows a mysterious world in space surrounded by Genesis portals and geometric moons/planetoids (slightly hard to tell).
- Red Herring: The people who made the Gaia Temples also made many decoy temples so they don't find the actual temples so easily. Only the Gaia Key Guardians know where the real temples are located
- Regained Memories Sequence:
- After the first Genesis Wave reboots the universe, Sonic has a sense something is off. When he grabs Nicole, for whom the effect was different, his mind is flooded with memories of the way things were before the wave hit, including Sally being trapped in the World Roboticizer before it went off. Whenever he touches any of his friends in the end universe, they get treated to the same flood of old memories. This becomes a problem when they all realize that succeeding in their mission to restore their world means they might not like the world they're left with.
- Happens again after the second Genesis Wave hits, but as this one was company mandated by Sega, the old memories fade and are replaced by ones more in keeping with the new universe.
- Retool: The stories following the Mega Man crossover are being created as semi-sequels to games, possibly to ease the new status quo in, as the first major storyline is set to utilize plot points from Sonic Unleashed, and the first two storylines in "Sonic Universe" are using elements from Sonic Rush Adventure and Shadow the Hedgehog.
- Ripple-Proof Memory: In the first few storylines in the new universe, Both Sonic and Eggman remember the past world and Sonic is able to give his friends the memories of their past lives. However, these memories faded over time as it was rewritten with memories of the new universe and, as seen with Naugus in the "Shattered" storyline, even the memories of them remembering their past world have disappeared, though Sonic at least remembers the events of Worlds Collide.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Naugus gets so freaked out over the visions of the original universe that he throws himself out of a window and races into a forest, telling Sonic and Tails they can have Castle Acorn back.
- Shark Fin of Doom: Razor the Shark does tbis in his debut issue, but only on the cover.
- Status Quo Is God: Despite the Cosmic Retcon, or because of it, Eggman no longer has any major advantage like in the old universe, allowing the Freedom Fighters and their friends to continue their battle against the Eggman Empire like before.
- Story Breadcrumbs: While Ian Flynn has the entire post-Super Genesis Wave timeline mapped out from the very first issue,
he can't reveal the entire thing in the comics, so he'll drop bits and pieces of it as the years go on.
- Strictly Formula: After getting the Chaos Emeralds during the Sonic Unleashed adaptation, the search for the Gaia Temples and keys became pretty routine. The Freedom Fighters visit an area, have to confront an Egg Boss in some fashion, find the Temple Guardian and help them out in some way (save them from incarceration, help with a family situation, get them out of a dangerous situation, etc), get the Keys needed, move on. Even some of the opening shots of the issues look similar to each other.
- Tagalong Kid: Cream, pre-Genesis Wave was a standard member of Team Freedom. Here, she's a junior member frustrated by her exclusion from tougher missions.
- Tournament Arc: Champions, which functions as an adaptation of Sonic the Fighters, featuring most of the characters from that game. It can also be considered a Breather Episode, where much of the arc is comedy and only a Chaos Emerald is on the line.
- Traintop Battle: The Chase features this.
- Underwater City: Introduced in "Waves of Change,'' the city of Meropis.
- Villain Episode: Eggman's Dozen has Eggaman and his Egg Bosses face off against Wally and Wendy Naugus and their cohorts, the Witchcarters, for control of Eggmanland and the Dark Gaia energy. Sonic and other heroes are completely absent.
- World Tour: A large part of the Unleashed story arc is to establish the new or reintroduced characters and countries that exist, most of which are borrowed from Sonic Unleashed.
- World-Wrecking Wave: After many Universe-Rewriting-Waves, the planet accumulated enough energy to shatter itself, freeing Dark Gaia monsters from the center of the Earth.
- You Are Too Late: How issue 256 ends. Robotnik and NICOLE separately realize the world is doomed.Sonic: Whoa—hold on, NICOLE. We save the world all the time!
Tails: Right! What do we do to stop it?
Orbot: Ha! Ha-ha! Good one, Sir. You had me going there, boss. You have a plan, yes?
Cubot: You're a genius! You can fix this, right?
NICOLE: Stop it?
Robotnik: Fix it?
NICOLE and Robotnik: IT'S TOO LATE!
Tropes applicable to the old continuity:
- Aborted Arc:
- Everything left behind after the reboot. The whole legal trouble with Ken Penders caused Archie to apparently jettison everyone created by former writers out, thus grinding stories to a halt.
- Locke's motives for exposing Knuckles to Chaos energy right after his birth and forcefully railroading him into the life of a Guardian was because he had what he believed to be a prophetic dream about Knuckles needing to be strong enough to face an incredibly fearsome adversary. The foe in question would have been Dr. Droid from Ken Penders The Lost Ones series piloting an giant Robotnik mecha and Knuckles would have faced him in a Super Sonic Special story called "Knuckles: Twenty Years Later". The story in question was never published.
- In Issue 157, Dr. Eggman visits Knothole to recruit Sonic to help protect himself against Anonymous and Rotor is oddly insistent on treating the tyrant as a respected guest, with the dialogue implying that Eggman is possibly blackmailing Rotor with something. This issue was part of Ken Penders' final story arc on the comic and the plot point wasn't followed up on after he left the book.
- Abusive Parents: Locke, sometimes, though he meant well.
- Action Mom: Lupe, who has two kids, Maria and Marcos, and two more when she adopts Overlanders Ariel and Athena (one of whom is mute).
- Actor Allusion: In one early issue, Sonic encounters a robot based on Steve Urkel and comments that his voice sounds familiar. Jaleel White, who played Urkel, also voiced Sonic in the cartoons at the time.
- Adaptational Explanation: In the original TV series, King Acorn and Uncle Chuck unknowingly enabling Robotnik's coup was implied to be merely down to Horrible Judge of Character and complacency with their artillery (bordering on an Idiot Ball moment for the otherwise crafty Chuck), while the comic's backstory bothers to show Robotnik's slow manipulation of their trust (and ability to cover up his crueller impulses) along with other stressful factors clouding their better judgement.
- Adaptation Name Change: Sonic himself was the subject of this trope, as "Sonic" was eventually revealed to be a pseudonym. Only his middle name ("Maurice") was revealed in the comics themselves, although his first name was originally intended to be Olgilvie (before the writer responsible left and everyone else swept the idea under the carpet).
- After the End: Yes, believe it or not, Mobius was originally Planet Earth in this verse. But Robotnik's ancestor, Ivan Kintobor, pissed off an alien race after dissecting a peaceful emissary who came to the planet. In retaliation, the aliens bombarded Earth with gene bombs and near wiped out the human race (save a shuttle that was in low orbit at the time). What humans did survive the attack were mutated into Overlanders while most of the animal population became anthropomorphic as a result.
- The Alcatraz: Devil's Gulag served as this, where the prison was home to the worst war criminals on Mobius. It was located up top of a mountain surrounded by boiling water and so was practically inescapable. Snively, Uma, Kodos, and Dragon were just a few who were placed here until Snively supposedly broken them out (it was later revealed to have been Dr. Eggman who was responsible).
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Fiona preferred the "evil" version of Sonic to the real thing, and did a Face–Heel Turn to stay his girlfriend when she found out "Sonic" was really "Scourge". (Well, this is what she claims, anyway... and this is Fiona we're talking about...)
- All There in the Manual: Several issues before the grand continuity reboot, Archie Comics released "The Complete Sonic Comic Encyclopedia", which houses an enormous amount of information that was never revealed in the comics themselves (like the fate of Bunnie's parents), and is in general the best guideline to the pre-reboot continuity in a single source. It's only missing a few details from the small handful of issues that came out after it, but before the continuity was rebooted.
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Robotnik's attack on Knothole in the EndGame arc, the Egg Fleet destroying Knothole, the Suppression Squad taking control of Freedom HQ, the Iron Dominion taking control of New Mobotropolis, Eggman attacking New Mobotropolis with the Death Egg Mk. II and Titan Metal Sonic, and the Battle Bird Armada's attack which destroyed the royal palace.
- Ambiguously Human: The Iron Queen. She looked quite human, but a response in the letters section stated she was actually a badger. Since her reappearance in the "Iron Dominion" arc, she is very obviously human, and Sonic suggested through the Fourth-Wall Mail Slot that the letters column had been trolled.
- Amicable Ants: Fire Ants are Always Lawful Good and help the Mobius and the Guardians of the Master Emerald.
- A Nazi by Any Other Name: Angel Island was occupied for a time by the Dr. Eggman-backed Dingo Regime, whose soldiers not only wore Brown Shirt-esque uniforms, but who imprisoned all captured Echidnas in what were clearly concentration camps.
- And Then What?: Shard asks this of Team Fighters in regards to their quest to rescue Sally, upon finding out that they don't really have a plan for de-roboticizing her.
- Animal Gender-Bender: Walt Wallaby of the Downunda Freedom Fighters, a male marsupial, has a pouch.
- Apologetic Attacker: When Sonic goes to stop the wedding of Sally and Antoine (actually Patch, Antoine's evil Moebius counterpart posing as him) the guards are ordered to stop him. They do, but it's clear they don't want to hurt him and the first even apologizes for the whole affair. They also let him out without any incident when Prince Elias shows up and demands his release.
- Arc Welding:
- Issue 224 revealed that several seemingly unrelated events in the Filler Arc following the Iron Dominion's defeat were actually part of Eggman's plan to convert the Eggdome into a new Death Egg. Issue 233 reveals that many of Geoffrey's past actions were actually part of a master plan to place Ixis Naugus on the throne.
- During the "Enerjak Reborn" arc, it was revealed just about everything Finitevus had done since his introduction had been part of his plan to create a new Enerjak. It was also revealed that he was the unnamed Echidna scientist who had attempted to return Chaos Knuckles to normal by draining his power (the backfire from that being what rendered him albino).
- Armed with Canon: Some of the Penders/Bollers feuding came down to this. Of particular note is the business with Antoine's bizarre behavioral change after the Time Skip: Bollers had intended it to be organic growth, and it was the linchpin for several stories planned down the line. Penders retconned it into having been the result of Antoine having been swapped out for his Evil Twin from another dimension.
- Arranged Marriage: Maximillian and Alicia Acorn. Sally and Anti-Antoine's short marriage was also one of these, until Elias became king and annulled it.
- Arson Murder And Life Saving: In. #77, King Max berates Sonic for frequently disobeying orders up to this point. He soon after acknowledges his frequent rescues and accomplishments, which results in Sonic's knighthood the next issue
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In issue #0 the original mini-series, Robotnik's nameplate listed him as "Supreme Dictator, Industrial Polluter, Megalomaniac, Corrupt Politician, Underhanded Reprobate, Rain Forest Ravenger, Puppy Kicker, Oil Spill Coordinator, Holiday Hater, Insurance Salesman"
- Artistic License – Biology:
- One issue says that porcupines and hedgehogs are related. But in reality, they're not: porcupines are rodents and hedgehogs are insectivores.
- Some of the earliest issues made an occasional pig-related joke aimed at Sonic, which didn't make much sense in any context since, despite the "hog" in their name, hedgehogs aren't related to swine in any way, either.
- Artistic License – Physics: In issue 175, after Eggman takes his taunts a little too far, Sonic has a break in his sanity and races from somewhere near the west coast of the continent to the east coast and back, ramming directly into Eggman's battle robot, in a matter of seconds. The attack merely dents the shield because the robot was tailor-made to fight Sonic and counter his abilities. The problem is that since the fight happens in what's essentially a future version of North America, Sonic crossed hundreds of miles -nearly a thousand- in seconds. Therefore, Sonic would be going somewhere between 200,000 and half a million miles an hour- something Eggman wasn't aware that Sonic could do and obviously never factored into the robot's design. Sonic's friends destroy it. Knuckles' punches probably don't hit that hard.
- Art-Style Dissonance: Jon Gray's pencils are cartoony and hyper-exaggerated. It works great for silly stories, but dramatic stories? Not so much.
- Ascended Extra: The Badniks from the first two Sonic games were major characters early on.
- As You Know: Among others, the "dragons can't lie" plot point in Endgame, never mentioned before or since.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Titan Metal Sonic attacking New Mobotropolis during the fallout of the Genesis Arc in issue #231.
- The Atoner: Dimitri, following his Heel–Face Turn. Knuckles also had elements of this after his stint as Enerjak.
- Author Tract: Ken Penders' run had tones of this. Penders had a very active fixation on gun control laws and gun safety which he brought into the comic aggressively (which made little sense given the vast majority of the characters never used them in the first place) going so far as to turn accidental gun use as the whole reason for the plot-driving war to start. Penders also had a teenage son during his tenure on the comic and he tended to write stories where adults, particularly fathers, were depicted as especially skilled and confident figures who were almost never in the wrong and often outperformed and talked down to the teenage heroes.
- Ax-Crazy:
- Rosy the Rascal, Amy's counterpart on Moebius. She's so in love with Scourge, she wants to bash his head in.
- The villain Kodos becomes this after going crazy from radiation poisoning. Bonus points for actually wielding an axe.
- Flying Frog is also pretty crazy — Scourge actually says that he makes Rosy look sane by comparison.
- Back for the Dead: Hey, it's Sir Connery from back before "Endgame"! Anybody remember him? ...no? Well never mind...
- Bad Future:
- Silver comes from a time after some cataclysm destroyed the world, leaving only isolated pockets of civilization.
- And the X Years Later stories were a Bad Future when King Shadow was running things.
- And the future where Dr. Eggman came from, which he decided to nuke before heading to Mobius Prime.
- And then there's another future, first mentioned in issue 106 and later featured in a Sonic Universe story arc called "Fractured Mirror". This world is ruled by Knuckles as a darker version of his old enemy Enerjak. Knuckles hunts down the single pocket of life that remains, a group of Freedom Fighters led by his own daughter.
- Although thankfully these have been dealt with note
- Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Subverted in the "Enerjak Reborn" story-arc. The Freedom Fighters are desperate to stop Knuckles, who has been turned into Enerjak and gone mad with power, and it seems that they might have to destroy him. Enter Eggman, who shows up with his Egg Fleet and warps Knuckles into a prison where he intends to drain the life from him to power his city. Needless to say, Knuckles breaks free and Eggman almost wets his pants.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Before he became Dr. Eggman, Robo-Robotnik managed to finally gather the bits needed to build the Giant Borg, built a physical body for himself with them, take control of armed nukes and used them to wipe out the ex-cyborg Freedom Fighters, leaving his Mobius in his control. Then he thought that Victory Is Boring and invaded Mobius Prime to "fill the void".
- Bathos: The earliest comics in the series liberally used this. Aside from the basic setup of "Robotnik has already conquered Mobius, roboticized most of its population and is only opposed by a tiny group of Freedom Fighters", they did not take themselves seriously at all, and the comics made frequent pop culture references, puns, outright impossible cartoony actions and frequent fourth wall breaks with little to none of the stronger characterization or worldbuilding that would come to define the comics. While the later comics still had similar comedic elements (a good example of is when Sonic and Sally revisit the burned out remains of Knothole Village, an otherwise melancholy scene punctuated by a Call-Back gag where two nearby trees—which were established in a very early story as being able to communicate through thought bubbles—are shown to still be around and are able to humorously comment on the situation to each other despite being burned to a crisp), they were far more reigned in than the tales that kicked off the series.
- Bed Trick: Yes, really. Issue #150 heavily implies (and Ken Penders confirmed) that Anti-Sonic has sex with Bunnie while pretending to be Sonic.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Evil Sonic before he became Scourge. And Snively's an even better example - he successfully killed off Robotnik only to quickly become Eggman's today instead, and even after Eggman went insane and he teamed up with the Iron Queen, it's obvious that Snively wasn't the one wearing the pants in that "relationship".
- Birthmark of Destiny: Edmund, the first Guardian of Angel Island, had a white crescent birthmark on his chest, a trait that would carry over to every guardian to follow him, including Knuckles.
- Bizarro Universe: Anti-Mobius/Moebius. Not only are the characters in it morally-flipped versions of main-universe ones, Jules and Scourge discuss the opposing histories. Mobius had the Great War, which eventually led to all the heroes of the world fighting a single great evil. Moebius had the Great Peace, which had "stagnated and fallen apart" in ten years with everyone doing their own part to destroy the world.
- Bodyguard Betrayal: Heavy and Bomb, members of King Acorn's secret service, are reprogrammed by Eggman and ordered to kill the royal family after they are "rescued" from Robotropolis.
- Book Ends:
- Issues 225 and 230, with the titles One Step Forward... and ...Two Steps Back.
- The ultimate fate of the echidna race pre-reboot: Multiple factions ended up in pocket zones to due attacks from enemies note or because they were deemed too dangerous by their enemynote . The residents of Albion were attacked by the Egg Legion, and Thrash felt that the echidnas would bring the world to ruin if left unchecked.
- One of the first enemies Sonic fought in the original continuity was the Krudzu Plant. One of the last opponents Sonic faced is the plant's stronger form, Krudzu Hybrid Hydra. Incidentally, this bookend happens immediately after the above.
- Bowdlerise: The first short story included in Issue #11 of the Super Sonic Special series — in which princess Sally Acorn decides to receive guidance from the royal family's liquid Sentient Cosmic Force by immersing herself in a well of it — was subjected to mild bowdlerization when it was featured in the Sonic Select Book series and Sonic the Hedgehog: The Complete Sonic Comic Encyclopedia. In the original print, said story began right off the bat with Sally having just disrobed herself on-panel
in preparation for entering the well, who appears this way for most of its duration. Each illustration depicting her in the reprints was edited to have her wear her signature vest for the entirety of the story.
- Brainwashed and Crazy:
- This has happened to a few characters, but one notable example is what happened to Monkey Khan at the hands of the Iron Queen.
- Knuckles when he became Enerjak falls under this. It is hinted at that all Enerjaks might be controlled by a greater persona as well.
- Sonic Universe Issue 37 revealed that this is what happened to G.U.N. Commander Hugo Brass.
- Breakout Character: Knuckles the Echidna. After his first appearance there was an outsized number of fan art submissions and letters to the editor asking for a reappearance. He started appearing more frequently before giving a full-blown spin-off series that lasted a little over thirty issues.
- Break the Cutie: Hershey during the End Game arc, when she learned that her Jerkass ex-boyfriend Drago Wolf tricked her into [almost] killing Sally. Let's just say that near the conclusion, the traitorous wolf learned the hard way about "a woman scorned"...
- Breaking the Fourth Wall:
- Occurs several times in the earlier issues. One example is Robotnik finding Crabmeat reading a Sonic the Hedgehog Archie Comic. He then punishes Crabmeat for reading the comic of his most hated enemy, before getting the idea to use the other comic books Crabmeat has for ideas for other robots. And yes, the other comic books are implied to be real comics as well. No, it doesn't make any sense.
- Also falling into this category is Eggman's ramblings in issue 205. It appears he's finally figured out that he's in a licensed comic book. He still wants to get that hedgehog, though.
-
Broken Aesop: According to Ken Penders, the intended message of Knuckles and Locke's subplot was that sometimes, even a loving parent can do bad things to their kid while meaning well; reportedly, Penders based it on his own relationship with his father. The trouble is, while this was meant to show that a relationship with a parent can be complex and fraught with difficulty, that doesn't describe how Penders wrote Locke and Knuckles at all—Knuckles bears no grudge whatsoever on Locke the moment he explains himself, and in an issue focusing on Locke's death in the future, Knuckles has nothing but good things to say about him. This causes the moral to instead look a lot more like "your parents always mean best for you, and that justifies anything they might do."
- C-List Fodder: Much of Ian Flynn's first year was spent rounding up and exterminating these by the truckload.
- Call-Back: Sonic Universe #36 references the A.D.A.M. arc when Babylon Garden's Master Core ABIS mentions that the AI had discovered the Garden and tried to use its wormhole generator to bring the Chaos Emeralds from around the galaxy to Mobius, but was unable to without the Garden's power source/key.
- Cerebus Syndrome: Although based on the more serious SatAM cartoon, the earlier comics were much more similar to the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon in tone, with little continuity. The series got more serious and interconnected as it went on. The Endgame arc is pretty much the point where things have fully shifted, and it remained that way through the beginning of Ian Flynn's run on issue 160. Subtly pointed out by Horizont-Al and Verti-Cal; when they first appeared in #2, they were wacky and whimsical characters, always playing around and changing the laws of physics of their dimension for kicks. When we run into them in #59, it turns out the Ultimate Annihilator destroyed their home, they blamed each other during the rebuild, and they turned into giant robots in a never-ending war against each other.
- Chickification:
- Sally Acorn was like this for a while. Thankfully, it didn't last. Surprisingly, though, the lasting effects of it have yet to be Retconned or reversed... Happened to her in reverse over the early issues. Sally grew more competent due to a combination of Cerebus Syndrome, bringing her characterization more in line with Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), and getting her own mini-series.
- Most of the other female characters got Chickified at the same time Sally did (roughly around #132), but Sally's was so over-the-top that the other cases went largely unnoticed. Thankfully, it didn't last for them either.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder:
- Being evil doubles of the main characters, most of the people from Moebius are too arrogant to work together without trying to backstab each other.
- Bean and Bark betrayed the team Mammoth Mogul hired to hunt down Sonic when Sally offered them more money. When Nack managed to snipe Sonic with a stun laser, they switched right back to Mogul's side.
- Colon Cancer: The "Tales of the Freedom Fighters" stories got a bit out of hand in this respect — consider the verging-on-self-parody title "Tales of the Freedom Fighters Presents: Geoffrey St. John: On His Majesty's Secret Service Part 4: The Mission."
- Compulsory School Age: Inverted. After her Plot-Relevant Age-Up, Amy still has to go to school with Tails and the other children, because despite having a teenager's body, they know what age she really is.
- Continuity Cameo:
- Bean and Bark got a few of one-off appearances before showing up as actual characters later on. Their earlier appearances are impossible to reconcile with their current role, though.
- Issue #134 has some Characters from the UK's Sonic the Comic (Tekno the Canary, Ebony the Cat and her partner Pajaymas, Shortfuse the Cybernik and Metamorphia) make cameo appearances. Licensing issues have prevented them from appearing since.
- The only appearances of Black Doom and the Black Arms aliens are a memory image of Black Doom and a single panel showing the Xorda locked in a war with the Black Arms (which explains why the Xorda never returned to see if their attack on Mobius succeeded). After Worlds Collide, the Black Arms return to Sonic's world in some Shadow-focused Sonic Universe arcs to avenge Black Doom's death (the events of Shadow the Hedgehog occurred in the reboot timeline).
- Mephiles the Dark and Void appeared as inmates in the Zone Jail in Sonic Universe #29.
- Continuity Snarl: Trying to fit Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 perfectly into continuity caused problems. Made worse by the fact that the writers didn't have complete information about the games when they started writing the arcs.
- The Sonic Adventure snarl was particularly nasty, as it involved taking what had been (until then) a relatively archaic world with violent humanoids and trying to force half of the cast into an Ordinary High-School Student scenario and trying to introduce humans that were somehow completely different in personality than the ones met formerly without getting rid of the underlying Humans Are the Real Monsters subtext.
- Sonic Adventure 2 didn't receive a full adaptation, only a tie-in issue that goes over Shadow's backstory and the comic's version of the events leading up to Sonic's arrest, telling the reader to buy the game if they want the full story. This led to some immediate story problems going unexplained, such as the fact that Amy, Tails and Knuckles were all preoccupied with their own plots at the time and couldn't have taken part in the comic's version of Sonic Adventure 2 or that Robotnik's grandfather working for GUN makes little sense due to Station Square and overlander society being separate at the time. Issue 2 of Sonic Universe would later try and address many of the lore conflicts by showing off more of the comic's version of Sonic Adventure 2 through flashbacks.
- In Shadow's first major story arc, there were some issues stemming from the creative team's unfamiliarity with the games, such as Shadow not knowing that Eggman was Gerald's grandson and Eggman claiming that Maria was his half-sister instead of his cousin.
- Corrupted Data:
- In one issue, Shadow retrieves a disk that contains files from Gerald Robotnik about his true purpose. However, the disk is damaged by a Badnik attack and the thing was already 50 years old, so it was starting to decay badly. NICOLE is able to rebuild it enough for Shadow to get his answers, though.
- In #165, the robot ISAAC was revealed to have corrupted data from centuries of wear, though not all of it was corrupted. It also reveals that the person he was protecting for centuries since the Xorda attack, Dr. Robotnkik's ancestor Ivan Kintorbor, is dead.
- Creative Sterility: Part of what drove the fighting between the Dingos and Echidnas. The Dingos were more adept at scavenging already created tech rather than developing their own.Hawking: They weren't innovators. They couldn't conceptualize! They could only copy and adapt that which they learned from others!
- Crippling Overspecialization: Eggman's battle suit in issues #175-7 was specifically designed to outmatch Sonic, which it proceeded to do marvelously. When the rest of the Freedom Fighters got to take it on, it went down in a matter of panels.
- Crossover: One with the Image Comics superheroes, another with Sabrina the Teenage Witch. The book later had a Crisis Crossover with the Mega Man (Archie Comics) for the Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide and Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Unite events.
- Crossover Cameo:
- Chester Cheetah appears in issue 72. For some reason.
- Crow T. Robot, Tom Servo, Robby the Robot, and R2-D2 appear in Issue #52
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- Issue 290 has one of the more surprising cameo appearances in its Off-Panel short: Rat Fink of Ed Roth fame
.
- Linkara, of all people, shows up in a crowd shot in issue 257. This was largely a joke by artist Tracy Yardley as Linkara is a known non-fan of the comic.
- Rocksteady and Bebop are part of the Zone Police prison population who enjoyed tormenting Scourge.
- Patrick Spaziante would often do this with Astal, the protagonist of the eponymous Sega Saturn video game he was apparently very fond of.
- Long before crossing over with Mega Man and other Capcom series, Lou and Siva, the protagonists of the Midnight Wanderers and Chariot games featured in Capcom's Three Wonders, make cameos on the cover of issue #77.
- Crystal Dragon Jesus: The Echidnas have a holy book known as "The Tomes." Knuckles mother is seen praying in an Aurorium, a place filled with stained glass windows and dedicated to the worship of Aurora. They also have a prophecy frotelling the arrival of "The Avatar" and a "Lost Tribe" wandering the face of the planet in search of a "Promised Land." Knuckles' Great Grandfather acts as a spiritual leader for the tribe and is known as a "Mitre" or prophet. He is also known to commune with powerful incorporeal beings that only he can see.
- Crying Wolf: Silver repeatedly getting the "traitor" who was prophesized to bring about the destruction of Mobius wrong did nothing to help his credibility. It was dealt a final blow when he accused Antoine in Issue 235, only for Sonic to drag Silver across Knothole to Tommy Turtle Hospital, where Antoine lay comatose following an attack in the previous issue.
- Culture Clash:
- Overlanders versus Mobians and Echidnas versus Dingoes.
- Heck, Echidnas versus Echidnas, too.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Silver Sonic was a hulking machine, completely invincible to Sonic's attacks and almost knocked Sonic unconscious with a single punch! Fortunately for true blue, it knocked open some of the Death Egg's internal wiring, which he quickly used to short-circuit the robot.
- In his second comic appearance, it used the Master Emerald to become invincible to Sonic's attacks. It took Super Sonic to destroy him.
- Curse Cut Short:
- A particularly infamous example in issue #165:Julie-Su: Let me go, you b—
Rouge: [kicks Julie-Su in the stomach] Bat. Remember it. - Not to mention the innumerable "What the—?"s and "What in—?"s.
- A particularly infamous example in issue #165:
- Cyborg: Bunnie, and her children in the "X Years Later" storyline. The Dark Legion are a group of Echidnas who love to replace their organic body parts with mechanical ones.
- Dark Action Girl: Fiona, Princess Alicia, Lien-Da, Buns, Rosy the Rascal, Conquering Storm, and Julie-Su back when she was a Dark Legionnaire.
- Darker and Edgier: While it didn't originally start out this way, being far more similar in tone to the silly and lighthearted Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon, by the time Cerebus Syndrome kicked in, the comic became this compared to the games full-stop. To put it simply, this comic post-Cerebus Syndrome features many shockingly dark themes and elements like mass murder, genocide, drug overdose, cults, domestic abuse, concentration camps, and characters dying of cancer all onscreen which is all something that the games, even at their darkest, would often avoid showing and instead be fairly lighthearted and kid-friendly adventures that would often shy away from any of these extreme themes. Not to mention that it takes many cues from the already fairly dark SatAM cartoon and often goes even further in providing a rather dark, gloomy, and depressing version of Sonic's world where everything has been taken over by Robotnik/Eggman and the aftermath and constant destruction is often never downplayed. Not to mention that this comic features many of the most vile villains in the entire Sonic franchise including a much darker, viler, and eviler version of Dr. Eggman (both Robotnik Prime and the Robo-Robotnik variant that would go on to replace the former as the Big Bad of the comic).
- Oh yeah, and another thing, the original Dr. Robotnik dies and is Killed Off for Real in this comic in a sharp contrast to the insane Joker Immunity that the Eggman from the games has.
- Darkest Hour: The series has had a few over the years, the climax of "EndGame", the destruction of Knothole, and the Iron Dominion occupation of New Mobotropolis being the most prominent.
- Dark Lord on Life Support: Dimitri was quickly drained of his Enerjak power and left decrepit. The Dark Legion was forced to turn him into a cyborg to keep him alive. Dr. Finitivus, seeking to learn the power of Enerjak, disassembled him, leaving him as just a head in a floating bubble.
- Dartboard of Hate: A heroic example. The Freedom Fighters set up their old Knothole base and in their downtime Ray can be seen throwing darts at a board with Eggman's face attatched to it in issue 175.
- Dating Catwoman: Rouge tried to invoke this trope with Knuckles, much to Julie-Su's annoyance.
- Also, one
canceled story idea was for NICOLE to have a relationship like this with A.D.A.M., though his apparent death has obviously made this impossible.
- Also, one
- Deader than Dead: Being the successful target of Robotnik Prime's Ultimate Annihilator, which is capable of destroying the very particles of its target. Said target ended up being Robotnik himself. And then the Cosmic Retcon literally erased him from ever existing at all in the new universe...
- Defector from Decadence: While they're not full on evil Big abandoned his people, the Felidae, due to their xenophobic and barbaric traditions, which really didn't gel with his laidback, friendly personality. Because of this he's considered an exile in their lands, meaning he's in just as much danger of taking a spear to the face there as anyone else.
- Demoted to Extra: Rotor Walrus has been hit hard with this, he started out as a strong fixture in the Freedom Fighters, then got kicked into this position after issue #125, in fact his jacked-up importance and
Word of Gay relationship in the "Mobius: 25 Years Later" storyline was meant by previous head writer Ken Penders as a way of moving him out of extra status and giving him a much-needed jolt of Character Development. Sadly, when current head writer Ian Flynn took over, he was beaten back down to this spot violently, in both the main comic and the "M:25YL" storyline for quite some time. He eventually regained some prominence when he joined the Royal Council and later made himself a high-tech suit, but not until he'd been largely unseen for several years.
- A group of characters called "The Substitute Freedom Fighters" faded out of relevance soon after their introduction. Currently, they were brought back as councilors on the royal council. One of them, Hamlin, was angry enough about his treatment that he joined the council out of spite for the Freedom Fighters.
- Knuckles has also been demoted heavily since his own spin off comic series ended, likely due to his life on Angel Island making it harder to focus alongside the Freedom Fighters down on Mobius.
- Interestingly, Sonic himself was affected by this - after the Knuckles comic got canceled, Sonic was limited to mostly being stuck in Knothole following the Sonic Adventure adaptation, with Knuckles and Tails getting a lot of the screen time and action in their backup stories, due to a case of
Creator's Pet.
- A lot of this is Lampshaded in the "Off-Panel" comic strips at the end of the Sonic Universe comics, from Knuckles flipping out over the title not exactly being his to Charmy commenting that if he was going to show up in a storyline, it would be here.
- Derailing Love Interests: A problem the comic had, along with the
Romantic Plot Tumor. Cliff Notes version: Sonic and Sally were always in a Will They or Won't They? plot until Mina Mongoose was introduced, then became a Third Wheel for about a dozen issues before Sonic and Sally hooked up... for all of five issues before Sally broke up with Sonic and he found himself being slung around to every other girl around before stopping with Fiona, who then broke up with him to go with his Evil Twin Scourge. Then, after Sally spent some time with Monkey Khan, they finally rehook back up... only for Sally to get roboticized.
- Determinator: When Enerjak comes to take his revenge on Knuckles he tries all sorts of things to break his spirits, from teleporting him to the moon, to the bottom of the ocean, to dropping him from 30,000 meters in the air, but Knuckles will not break.
- Deus ex Machina:
- The Ancient Walkers would often function as such. It even gets Lampshaded by Sonic, who in the aftermath of the Darkest Storm arch, during which the Ancient Walkers met their demise at the hands of Mammouth Mogul, asks who the Freedom Fighter will turn to now if they are ever need in of a Deus ex Machina.
- Lampshaded in an issue when they need something to free NICOLE from her Mind Control. Their choice falls on the Particle-to-Light Organizer and Transporter Device. Don't get it? PLOT device.
- Devil in Plain Sight: Mammoth Mogul's current status. What this means for his future status as Silver's mentor is currently unknown.
- Diabolus ex Nihilo:
- Feist, the 200-foot mystical panda who inhabited the Special Zone and intermittently talks in the third person.
- Tikhaos, a fusion of Tikal and Chaos.
- Didn't Think This Through: Eggman admits attacking Sonic while he was using Chaos Control was "a bit hasty". He reconsiders that position when he spots a gigantic purple crack on the surface of the planet.
- Differing Priorities Breakup: This is was led to Sonic and Sally's breakup.
- Sally had thought that Sonic had sacrificed himself during the Xorda attack. She was left in the sidelines with the rest of the family while her fellow Freedom Fighters continued their battle against Eggman. A year later, Sonic returns, alive and well and they couldn't be happier. Sometime later, Sally decides to get Sonic to rule by her side while her parents rally more people for the war. Sonic, however, hesitantly declines, because he wants to end the war before settling down. Sally's response: An brutal slap to the face and calling him selfish. In front of everyone! After an argument, Sally gives him an ultimatum: Eggman or her, and she leaves him before he could answer. She wouldn't make the breakup official until a few issues later. It would take a few score issues later to mend their friendship, and sometime post-#200 to become a could again.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The Xorda. It's not a good idea to piss them off. Or be at all genetically related to anyone who may have pissed them off several millenia ago.
- Doesn't Like Guns: Ostensibly, the Kingdom of Acorn had a strict "No guns" policy after a previous war was started because two kids were playing with a gun. In practice, this is a Depending on the Writer situation — Bunnie, for example, wielded guns for some time, although she never used them. Rotor's stance on the matter has been inconsistent even in the hands of the same writer.
- When Robotnik returns in the form of Eggman, Sally goes to the Brotherhood of Guardians for help. When they offer to supply the Mobians with firearms she turns them down, effectively ensuring that the Freedom Fighters would have to go without the echidnas' help.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The animosity between the Dingoes and the Echidnas is almost an exact analogy for the Arab–Israeli Conflict. Who plays who is just as much
up to interpretation.
- Don't Try This at Home: In issue 119, Sonic vibrates his molecules fast enough for him and Tails to slip through an energy barrier. A footnote at the bottom of the panel where he does this says "Please don't try at home."
- The Dragon:
- Snively served as this to both Robotnik and later Eggman. For that matter, Lien-Da and the other Dark Egg Legion Grandmasters could be considered Co-Dragons as well, since they're all equally ranked and report directly to Eggman.
- Conquering Storm could be said to have acted as this to the Iron Queen; she accompanied the Queen to the Eggman Empire when she assumed control of it from the insane Eggman, and was later sent back to the Dragon Kingdom to enforce the Iron Dominion's control over the region.
- Ixis Nagus was this to Mogul for a time, and had one of his own in Geoffrey.
- Following the events of "Genesis", Eggman gained a new chief enforcer in Mecha Sally.
- Dragon Ascendant: After the Iron Queen was dethroned, Conquering Storm took over as Eggman's chief enforcer in the Dragon Kingdom. And Snively has briefly been in this position twice - first, when the original Robotnik was killed, and later when he ruled alongside the Iron Queen after Eggman's breakdown. Both times, however, Eggman eventually showed up to put him back in his place.
- Dragon Lady: The Iron Queen. Although technically, she's not native to that region.
- Driven to Suicide: Antoine fakes this when Bunnie fakes defecting to the Battle Bird Armada in SU #18, throwing himself out of a high hatch into the sea.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: After Robotnik was apparently defeated for good (the first such time) and Knothole Village converted into a bustling metropolis for countless freed Mobians and Robians, the teenage heroes were forced to go back to school. Except Sally because she's royalty. Sonic was kind of bitter about it.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- The early comics were very comedic in tone and often even stranger than what came later, with lots of fourth wall demolition, Better than a Bare Bulb gags, and enough puns to make Beany and Cecil proud. This was more due to following Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and using a few video game stages in the early days. Also, Dave Manak and Michael Gallagher were the primary artist and writer respectively, both of whom had a more zany cartoonish style than their successors. Sally was seen with varying colors of fur (red fur with blonde hair in her first appearance, pink fur with black hair up until issue #16 note and Rotor was known as "Boomer" until about issue #6. Roboticization was presented differently, with people with hypnotized eyes instead of out and out robots. The series wouldn't reach the Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) levels until Dulcy showed up in issue 28 and a few characters will still seem odd looking back at them (for instance, look at Metal Sonic in issue #25, then look at him later on). Once other artists and writers began to take over (although Gallagher and Manak never fully left), the art style and overall tone became comparatively more serious for the most part.
- This also extends to its video game tie-ins. Prior to the Continuity Reboot, video game events were done in Broad Strokes; for instance, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was adapted in issue #13 as Robotnik and Snively stranded on the Floating Island, stealing its singular Chaos Emerald without the Death Egg showing up at all (it wouldn't show up in the comics for another two years). After the Continuity Reboot, it was stated that all video games, with the exceptions of Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Lost World, Sonic the Fighters and Sonic Chronicles are canon and happened the way they did in the games.
- The characters' personalities were also vastly different at first. Sally acted like a total brat at times with a massive Never My Fault attitude while Antoine was very much a Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey. Like his SatAM counterpart, Snively was initially very loyal to Robotnik and wouldn't become The Starscream until The Death Egg Saga.
- Eats Babies: The Cat People from the Sonic Adventure adaption outright tell the Chaotix that they eat our young if they get out of line. Julie-Su hopes it's just some sick joke.
- Earthquakes Cause Fissures:
- One of the early comics had Robotnik evacuate Robotropolis because he discovered a massive earthquake was about to hit; when it did, it tore the city a new one.
- The effects of Eggman's tampering with reality during Genesis caused earthquakes that got progressively worse, to the point that they obliterated an entire city-sized factory complex.
- Easily Condemned: Robotnik has rather handily succeeded in framing Sonic for treachery more than once. Granted these were often very elaborate acts of deception, but surely Sonic's closest friends at the very least should have known better, especially considering they've frequently seen what elaborate forms of deception Robotnik is capable of themselves.
- Ecocidal Antagonist: Dr. Robotnik of the original timeline loved ruining the environment in any way possible, considering it his idea of a perfect world. The cover of one comic has him wearing a pin promoting pollution while standing in an industrial area.
- Element No. 5: Originally, Power Rings, however, with the Ixis wizards making a return, it appears that this is replaced with something much Darker.
- Elite Mooks: High-grade members of Eggman's Badnik Horde are designated "Super-Badniks", and all of them encountered so far have proven tough enough to give our heroes a serious challenge.
- Embarrassing First Name: Word of God says Sonic's was supposed to be Olgilvie.
- Embarrassing Middle Name: Sonic's was said to be Maurice. It's since been considered non-canon.
- Enemy Mine:
- Happens with such frequency that Sonic's begun to lampshade it. The heroes have, at various junctures, teamed up with Eggman, Snively, their "Suppression Squad" alter-egoes, the Destructix, the Dark Legion, and even Finitevus. They usually get backstabbed, and Sonic's started to lampshade that, too.
- By and far, the biggest of these situations was when the entire planet united to fight off the Xorda invasion. And naturally, as soon as the Xorda were fought off (and Sonic was sent into space), Eggman stabbed his allies in the back.
- We have a non-Freedom Fighter example in the Babylon Rogues teaming up with their rivals/former comrades the Battle Bird Armada to regain the Babylon Gardens — which, ironically, puts them in opposition to the Freedom Fighters, since the Gardens are apparently under New Mobotropolis.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: In issue 247, after yet another building in New Mobotropolis collapses due to something interfering with the nanites, Cream, after finding the Tails Doll, chews it out over its tendency to disappear... and in mid-sentence, recalls that its previous disappearances have corresponded with the other instances of buildings unexpectedly going unstable, and deduces that the doll itself is responsible. Her expression when this dawns on her says it all.Cream: Bad dolly! I'm trying to take care of you and find your owner, and you keep disappearing! ...Like at the Forget-Me-Knots concert. And this is just like what happened at the civic center...
- Everyone Has Standards: For all of Eggman's atrocious crimes against humanity, Sonic himself was left very unnerved when he finally "broke" him after one too many humiliating defeats. Reducing the doctor to a drooling sobbing maniac was not quite the way he envisioned taking him down.
- The Everyman: The original Freedom Fighters evolved this way over the years, being more understated and "normal" than the cast from the video games. After the Super Genesis Wave, this seems to have reverted.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Finitevus seemed honestly surprised both that Knuckles friends were willing to die for him, and also that Knuckles would refuse to work with him next time they met, after Finitevus' actions resulted in the death of Knuckles' father.
- Eviler than Thou:
- Mammoth Mogul gives Dimitri-as-Enerjak the treatment in Knuckles #9, as he Depowers him."If there are any lessons to be learned, it's one you so obviously forgot! As I begin to absorb the incalculable power you possess, consider this: there is always someone else who is smarter, stronger, and even more ruthless than you."
- Teaming up with the villain du jour and winding up on the losing end of this was also anti-Sonic's second most common gimmick (the most common, of course, being the instigator of Clear My Name plots), although that changed after he got a new look.
- Mammoth Mogul gives Dimitri-as-Enerjak the treatment in Knuckles #9, as he Depowers him.
- Evil Twin:
- Everyone from Anti-Mobius who isn't based on someone who's already evil. Special mention has to be given to Anti-Sonic, who used the Master Emerald to turn himself green, renamed himself Scourge the Hedgehog, and has become a recurring villain.
- Averted with Anti-Knuckles, who's a good guy, just more mellow and pacifistic than Knuckles.note That doesn't stop him from fighting when he thinks he has to, though.
- Finitevus is also something of an evil twin to Knuckles. An accident transformed him into a negative image of Knuckles, and he uses the exact opposite methods that Knuckles does; while Knuckles favors direct action, Finitevus uses his powers over dark magic and subterfuge. And while Knuckles is a Guardian, biologically engineered and trained from birth to be an ultimate protector, Finitevus wants to BLOW IT ALL UP!
- Explosive Leash: When the Dark Legion is stripped of their cybernetics, Lien-Da cuts a deal with Eggman where they will serve him if he restores them; to ensure the loyalty of his new "Dark Egg Legion", Eggman plants bombs on them. When the Iron Queen sets off Lien-Da's bomb, Eggman repairs her and plants another bomb.
- Face–Heel Turn: Sleuth Dog and Fiona Fox play it straight. Later, Geoffrey St. John switches sides — though it turns out Geoffrey didn't actually switch at all; he'd been working for Naugus since before he was introduced.
- Fake Danger Gambit: At one point Sonic sets up a plan to help Antoine impress his father by dressing up as his own Evil Twin and having Antoine defeat him. Then the real Evil Sonic showed up and Antoine knocked him out without realizing it wasn't Sonic in disguise. When he realized he'd actually decked an actual bad guy and won, he fainted. (Which, incidentally, says a lot about just how pathetic Evil Sonic was prior to turning into Scourge.)
- Fake Defector:
- Dimitri, when he joins Robotnik. He lampshades it."You make it sound like I'm purposefully weakening the greatest evil this world has ever known from within."
- Duck "Bill" Platypus of the Downunda Freedom Fighters — after his people willingly joined with Eggman, he did as well in order to make sure they didn't suffer too much under his rule, while still being loyal to his team.
- Dimitri, when he joins Robotnik. He lampshades it.
- Faking the Dead: Humans. For the longest time, all that seemed to be left of humanity (or the closest physiology) was the Overlanders. As it turns out, old school humans had managed to set up a series of hidden cities prior to the Xorda attack, allowing them to survive. They were literally hiding for thousands of years.
- Family Relationship Switcheroo: Hope is momentarily pleased to hear Snively tell her he's discovered they are half-siblings, not step-siblings as they believed, and that he wants her to be part of his family. However, his offer of a big happy family quickly devolves into a rose-tinted vision of world domination, reminding her that he's still wicked to the core.
- Fantastic Drug: In a few issues of Knuckles the Echidna a substance called Lemon Sundrop Dandelion was hidden in hot dogs at an amusement park. After eating the dog most characters would begin tripping balls, though Charmy's friend Mello died of an overdose and Charmy himself almost did as well.
- Fantastic Racism:
- The Echidnas, who became the first to be civilized, looked down on everyone. Still did until Eggman wiped most of their population out and Thrash tossed the rest into another Zone.
- Overlanders, four-fingered humans, were shown to be incredibly war-like and bloodthirsty aginst the furry mobians. It's obvious both Robotniks did nothing to improve that image.
- A handful of Mobians, including Geoffrey St. John, are pretty harsh towards friendlier Overlanders like Nate Morgan, due to the sins of both Robotnik and the Overlanders in the Great War.
- Machines in particular. Naugus, on two separate instances, gleefully ramped up the Mobian's hate of machines, leading to a brief Civil War between Mobians and Robians (roboticized Mobians) and the AI NICOLE being temporarily exiled.
- The Sand Blast Freedom Fighters and their allies hate Robians, to the point that they are prejudiced against them even after they are turned back to normal.
- Not based on race, but the same basic idea is the reason why the Dark Legion broke off from the rest of Echidna society. Their love of technology led to them being persecuted and oppressed by the government.
- The members of the Battle Bird Armada are a mild example of this. They feel that since they can fly naturally, only they have the right to be in the sky, and everyone else should stay on the ground. One member, Speedy, seems to particularly hate Tails, due to his ability to fly naturally despite not being a bird.Speedy: That's right, freak. Crawl. Crawl on the ground where you belong.
- We learn through a flashback in "The Trial Of Gefforey St. John" that Ixis Naugus was able to convince Gefforey into becoming his student by playing off of Gefforey's resentment of Overlanders (Gefforey's father was a soldier in the Great War and was killed by Overlanders during a mission). It would seem that Mobian/Overlander hatred may not be entirely gone yet.
- Fantastic Nature Reserve: An early one issue plot of Sonic the Hedgehog has a misguided intergalatic collector who captures the Freedom Fighters, Robotnik and Snively and put them in one of these. He collect them for their Uniqueness Value, and while he provides a safe place for them, he is compared to a kid who collects ants in an ant farm, even seen tapping on the glass of his reserve when tech-loving Robotnik seems to be acting lazy and not at all responsive to the provided unpolluted nature style environment. He mends his ways and returns them back when Robotnik breaks free and ejects the collector from his ship and the Freedom Fighters rescues him from going adrift in space.
- "Fantastic Voyage" Plot: Issue #33's main story, Sonic must shrink down and enter Rotor's body to fight off robotic germs.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The entire planet.
- The Southern Baronies is basically the American South, but with anthropomorphic rabbits. To draw the parallels further, their militia wore gray uniforms, and sought independence from the Kingdom of Acorn.
- Mercia note is basically Robin Hood England.
- The United Federation is a Hidden Human United States.
- The Dragon Kingdom is basically a mash-up of Feudal Japan and Imperial China.
- Downunda note is obviously an Australia stand-in.
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink
- Faux Affably Evil: Finitevus is one of the most urbane Omnicidal Maniacs you're ever likely to meet. All the better to contrast with Knuckles, of course. Eggman has shades of this, too.
- The Federation: United Federation, a federal constitutional republic which is an ally of the Kingdom of Acorn and a major player in the Second Robotnik War, ever since the Freedom Fighters saved Station Square, the capital city, from Chaos.
- Feudal Future: Elias tried to give the people some more power, but the entire universe collapsing in on itself put a stop to that nonsense and placed his father back in power.
- Fighting Your Friend: The comics used this quite liberally as a plot point:
- Thanks to Unwilling Roboticisation or mind control, the Freedom Fighters or their affiliates will fight each other more often than not. When Eggman starts implementing the Dark Leigion's Legionization method (replacing organic parts with cybernetic ones), some of those soldiers are seen as related to any of Mobius' FF factions in some way, further invoking this trope.
- The "House of Cards" two-parter has Sonic and Tails end up fighting each other, though not because of the usual reasons, but due to Tails' dedication to his parents. Sonic relents once it becomes clear that Tails is more pissed off at him due to the hedgehog's ignorance and how he ended up dating his crush Fiona at the time, even after she betrayed them both for Scourge later down the road.
- Flanderization: An aversion may come from the early comics, which had a much zanier and cartoony format thus exaggerated a lot of the characters' traits compared to their SatAM counterparts, e.g. Sonic existed as a Karmic Trickster with a Totally Radical mannerisms akin to his AoStH counterpart, Sally's somewhat neurotic and no-nonsense attitude was exaggerated into a spoiled, mean-tempered prude and Robotnik was converted into even bigger a bumbling Card-Carrying Villain than his "Eggman" incarnations. This was reversed as the comic's writing tone became more serious and akin to the show, though some genuine cases of flanderization do pop up on occasion.
- Flying on a Cloud: The character Monkey Khan flies around on a cloud, as the character is an homage to Sun Wukong from Journey to the West.
- Foreshadowing: The Moebius story arc gave a few:
- Boomer, while reinventing himself, decided to make himself into an cyborg. When Rotor decided to become an active Freedom Fighter again after suffering a crippling back injury, he had NICOLE make him a suit of nanite armor.
- Buns, the Anti-Bunnie, developed a lethal disease and was abandoned by the Suppression Squad, causing her to seek help from Dr. Kintobor who gave her a mechasuit that staved off her illness. Bunnie would later lose her robotic limbs thanks to Naugus's magic and lost her ability to fight as a result, causing her to abandon the Freedom Fighters. If the story had continued, Bunnie would have willingly gone through legionization to get her robotic limbs back, possibly becoming the traitor Silver warned about.
- Patch, the Anti-Antoine, originally wore an eyepatch just to look cool. During Scourge's conquest of Moebius, the hedgehog made sure that Patch's namesake served its purpose. After being severely injured by Metal Sonic, Antoine's facial bandaging covers his right eye, suggesting that he would have lost it if the reboot hadn't happened.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: The goddess Aurora looked like whatever those who saw her imagined her to look like. To Knuckles, she looked like an echidna.
- Fugitive Arc: Sonic becomes a victim of a Frame-Up in Sally's attempted murder during the Endgame storyline.
- Funny Animal: Though they do retain some traits of their animal origins. Oddly enough, most sea creatures remain the same.
- Furry Confusion: Muttski is a non-anthropomorphic dog: he walks on all fours, can't talk, and is treated as a pet... but Mobius also contains Funny Animal dogs, like Sleuth Dawg. The continuity caused by the Super Genesis Wave changed Muttski so he was a normal Funny Animal like everyone else.
- Fusion Dance:
- Upon his destruction, Gamma's "soul" was downloaded into Omega's mind, fusing their thoughts together and granting Omega the ability to feel proper emotion.
- Titan Tails was made from many versions of Tails fusing together.
- The last three remaining Ixis wizards, excluding Mogul, traveled to the sun in an attempt to harness the elemental power of fire, and in the process somehow fused together, creating Ixis Naugus.
- Future Badass: Somewhat averted with Silver. He's quite capable, but he's also a bit too inexperienced and naive, which leads to him making mistakes.
- Gender Equals Breed: The only exception is Jon, the son of Rob O'Hedge and Mari-An. Despite being male, he is an Echidna like his mom. The Sonic Encyclopedia explains this; when Mobians of two different species pair up they typically result in twins — a boy with his father's breed and a girl with her mother's. Single born hybrids are extremely rare, with traits leaning mostly towards one breed, regardless of gender, with a notable trait of the other.
- Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: The Xorda take this to its logical conclusion by having a genetic engineering weapon that functions very much like a nuke. Said weapon also served as the backstory for the planet.
- The Good Guys Always Win: Sonic and co. always defeat the bad guys in the end, no exceptions. Sega even has a mandate that Sonic is never allowed to suffer a long term defeat in the comic—even if Eggman manages to get the upper hand on occasion, Sonic must immediately defeat him in the next story.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: Snively plays hockey with Sonic in issue #33.
- A God Am I: Every Enerjak, Feist, Mammoth Mogul... all tend to give graniose speeches about how powerful they are.
- Grand Finale: #47-50 were meant to finish the series, but the comic's sales numbers back at that time meant that an cancellation was not coming anytime soon and so the series continued. When it came to the real "ending" of the comic, this was ultimately averted with the comic simply ceasing publishing at part 3 of a 4 part Anniversary Special, and then getting unceremoniously cancelled six months later.
- Grand Theft Me: Naugus eventually possessed Geoffrey's body to escape the Body Horror consuming his own.
- Happily Married: Bunnie & Antoine, Bernie & Jules, Amadeus & Rosemary Prower, Elias & Meg, Max & Alicia.
- Happiness in Slavery: According to the Encyclopedia, the Nerbs enjoy how rigid Eggman's oppression is, and many willingly joined the Dark Egg Legion.
- Hate Plague: One of the tools in Ixis Naugus' repertoire.
- Heartbroken Badass: For a variable definition of "badass" (considering he and his team's absolutely dismal fight record), Lightning Lynx in SU#15.
- On the other end of the spectrum, Bunnie between issues 130 and 156, to the point of Chickification.
- Heel–Face Turn: Dr. Robotnik, once. It didn't stick. Long-term baddie Dimitri switched sides after the Iron Dominion arc.
- Heist Clash:
- Issue #165 has Fiona telling the Chaotix about her history and rivalry with Rouge the Bat. This involved Fiona trying to steal some loot or treasure, only to bump into Rouge who would claim Fiona's intended gain for herself.
- The Sonic Universe story "Treasure Team Tango" has a four-way brawl for ownership of a Sol Emerald. Blaze, Amy, and Cream are the only ones trying to obtain it for a just cause, as Blaze is the guardian of the Sol Emeralds, whereas the other three teams are trying to get their hands on it for selfish reasons. Shadow, Rouge, and E-123 Omega are attempting to get the Sol Emerald to turn over to G.U.N. for inspection, Nack, Bean, and Bark are treasure-hunting mercenaries looking to pawn off the Sol Emerald for a fortune, and Jet, Wave, and Storm are looking to nab the Sol Emerald in the name of the Battle Kukku Armada.
- Hell-Bent for Leather: Dark Legionnaire Lien-Da is usually shown wearing some sort of leather outfit. And wielding a Whip of Dominance.
- Heroic BSoD:
- Sonic when he realizes that he drove Eggman insane thanks to Snively's Breaking Speech. However, the writers quickly push this under a rug. It counts as Sonic did really feel terrible about what he did to Eggman.
- Played for laughs with Shadow after Marine tells him she doesn't know as much as she led on about ship building. For several panels, Shadow's expression locks up in one of the most amusing reactions given from a character in the comic.
- Nicole was on the brink of one; what with almost the whole population of New Mobotropolis having turned against her, and Sally's sacrifice, she was barely able to function and unable to face what few friends she has left.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- There have been a few over the years, with Tommy Turtle and Locke being the biggest examples.
- Before the crossover
, Sally and Antoine; the former to the world roboticizer and the latter while protecting Elias. Thanks to the events of the crossover, they're back to normal.
- Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Omega. Even after gaining a "soul" from Gamma, Omega is still a bit too triggerhappy and willing to blow things up.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Nicole, following her brainwashing by the Iron Queen. It wasn't helped any by Mina's protests or Naugus' Hate Plague-fueled smear campaign.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Pretty much every character that could've stopped Robotnik/Eggman but didn't for whatever reason got this at some point, courtesy of the doctor himself in most cases.
- Holier Than Thou: The echidna. They were the first advanced civilization and were active for millinea, seeing the other races below them. They're even like that to themselves.
- A recurring plot in later stories is other fractions conflicting with the core Freedom Fighters, accusing them of being Control Freaks that belittle the contributions of others or ignore suggestions that could have prevented dire consequences. Since strawmen arguments aren't uncommon, to what degree this has substance varies, though compared to the echidnas, the Freedom Fighters at least add up to their ego more.
- Hot-Blooded: Monkey Khan especially, but a lot of the cast has shades of this.
- Hot Consort: Invoked when Sally proposed that she and Sonic become a Ruling Couple [1]
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- How Dare You Die on Me!: Sonic was thought to had been dead after an explosion of alien tech, but was really flung halfway across the universe. He returned a year later and continued his role as a hero. This, however, led to Sally breaking up with him.
- Humans by Any Other Name: "Overlanders." It technically refers to a specific subspecies of humanity. The term fell out of use in the comic after normal humans were introduced and the remaining overlanders integrated into the Federation.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: There has been some subtext in this direction, although there have been subversions and exceptions since nearly the beginning. The Mobians and the "Overlanders" were at war... over what turned out to be a misunderstanding, and there were bastards fighting on both sides of the conflict. Yet humans were portrayed as the more warlike and barbaric species even in flashbacks that predated the war. With the introduction of more sympathetic humans such as Nate Morgan and Hope Kintobar, and the human cities from the games, their image appears to have improved, and the comic refuses to dip back into the old subtext.
- Human Subspecies: The Overlanders and Mobians. Both were the result of the Xorda gene weapons that caused most life (human and animal) to break down into a primordial goop, which reformed thousands of years later. The Overlanders were the physiologically closest to humanity in the comics… until Sonic Adventure had to be adapted, resulting in Homo sapiens Humans appearing.
- Hurricane of Puns:
- The earliest issues lived for this. Most notably, when a wood monster shows up, Sonic pauses the action for two panels solely to get all of the wood-based puns he can think of out of his system.
- Issue #182, where Sonic for the first time goes face-to-face with Enerjak a.k.a. a Brainwashed and Crazy Knuckles:Enerjak: [in response to "Energerm"] Are you quite finished?!
Sonic: [smugly] Actually... Jumping-jak. Ener-tube. Flap-jak. Ener-state. Ener-jak-in-the-box. And come to think of it, "Enerjak" sounds like some kind of sports drink. Now I'm finished.
- Hypocrite: This applies to Sally, Knuckles, Antoine, and Geoffrey in terms of calling Sonic immature, obnoxious, and needing to grow up.
- Sally has been a princess for an incredible amount of time and never just ascends to title of Queen. Contrary to all the obligations that goes with it nothing says she can't be a queen but lead the Freedom Fighters (her father was king and led and army into battle.) She also never steps up and challenges her father but instead chooses to whine that his choices are unfair instead of calling him out and talking to him like an adult but as his little girl.
- Generally most character's flaws Sally claims to mediate, she will often have ten fold. She opposes Sonic's recklessness and failure to follow procedures, though in pressured situations, makes similar impulsive or illy thought through decisions, and is just as willing to defy the Council of Acorn when she believes they are being ObstructiveBureaucrats (despite electing them to position in the first place). She similarly chastises Sonic's overconfidence, though her complacency against the Iron Dominion led to NICOLE being very easily corrupted and New Mobotroplis being taken over (though she at least had the decency to acknowledge this Idiot Ball). She is also shown mediating Monkey Khan's temper throughout the same arc, only to go apeshit at the sight of traitor and Suppression Squad member, Fiona Fox attempting an Enemy Mine, ironically while Sonic and Khan themselves were discussing the offer rather cool-headedly and were left comically stunned by Sally's vicious streak.
- Knuckles often calls Sonic obnoxious and having a big ego, but Knuckles himself is no easier to deal with. His entire training as Guardian basically made an antisocial hot-head who sees every stranger, even children, as a potential enemy and always resorts to using his fists before reason. That being said he's miles better than the rest of his family as he actually tries to help everyone.
- Antoine calls Sonic ego centric and does not play well with others which is sometimes true but Antoine isn't any better. He himself had an ego for a time and in all honesty Sonic has earn the right to brag about himself. Considering he runs head first into battle against tyrants that put him as number 1 on their shit list and never backs down or is intimidated. Antoine can only dream to get that far.
- Geoffrey is the worst among them. He lost both his parents which made him easy to manipulate by Naugus, but here's the kicker...SO HAS EVERYONE ELSE. He's not the only person to lose loved ones. Sonic has had the displeasure of fighting his and other peoples' loved ones and having to break terrible news to people but he learns to move on as there are more important things to worry about. That's impressive considering that in one of his jaunts into alternate dimensions he had to kill that world's version of his own father. Another comes in as Geoffrey is honestly very insecure and has issues with envy. He never fully gets over his jealousy of Sonic's love-life with Sally and successes. This started when Sonic was teenager and he was a grown man and to this day despite being married and having a life he still has some hate towards Sonic.
- Possibly the best example is in Endgame: Despite personally knowing about Robotnik's Auto Automatons, robots that can perfectly imitate people, he still believes that Sonic killed Sally until when Dulcy confirms that Sonic's been framed, stating that dragons can sense truth. Throw in his jealousy, and Geoffrey just inexplicably seems to hate Sonic so much that all he needs is an excuse.
- Arguably even Sonic himself to some degree. While he retains his "like the wind" ethics of the games counterpart, he tends to be one of the Freedom Fighters most wary to others stepping out of line or not listening to him, in some cases bordering a tantrum prone Control Freak. Add to that he has an inconsistent attitude to pacifism and forgiveness, while he has considered sympathy even for his mortal enemy, Eggman at times, he held a rather lengthy violent grudge against both Silver for his rather tasteless (and badly timed) approach to heroics and Knuckles for...just plain out not liking each other.
- Hypocritical Humor: In an early story, Robotnik asks how Rotor can let himself get so fat... while his own stomach greatly hangs out.
- Identical Stranger: Hope Kintobor was introduced almost half a year before Sonic Adventure 2 was released, meaning that her heavy resemblance to Maria Robotnik is purely coincidental.
- Idol Singer: Mina Mongoose.
- Ignored Epiphany: Horizont-Al and Verti-Cal in Issue 59.
- I Meant to Do That: Naugus' reaction to curing Bunnie.
- Immortality: This is Mammoth Mogul's shtick, since he's an Alternate Company Equivalent of Vandal Savage.
- It was Enerjak's shtick too, until Mogul stole his powers.
- Important Haircut: Sally had one done after Nicole rebuilt New Mobotropolis, cutting it from long to her former short-haired look to signify her de-Chickification.
- Improbable Age: The Freedom Fighters started fighting The Empire when they were barely even teenagers, and they won. Eggman still hasn't been thwarted once and for all, but the oldest among them is barely a legal adult.
- Incredible Shrinking Man: One very early issue has Robotnik try to dispose of the Freedom Fighters by shrinking all of them and sucking them into a vacuum cleaner model robotocizer.
- Insufferable Genius:
- An early plot turned Tails into one temporarily, and his evil alter-ego Miles behaves that way full-time.
- Some early issues conveyed Sally as this due to her more blatant temper and stuck up attitude. She mostly grew out of this later on, though retains hints of being a know-it-all sometimes.
- Intercontinuity Crossover
- Interspecies Romance: The various species are more like races or breeds, but let's list them, shall we?
- Geoffrey St. John/Hershey St. John (skunk/cat)
- Antoine D'Coolette/Bunnie D'Coolette (coyote/rabbit-cyborg)
- King Max Acorn/Queen Alicia Acorn (squirrel/chipmunk)
- Sonic's various relationships:
- With Princess Sally Acorn (hedgehog/squirrel-chipmunk hybrid) - lampshaded in a later issue:Bean: Are you and the princess going to marry and have mutant hedge-squirrel babies?
- With Mina (hedgehog/mongoose)
- With Fiona (hedgehog/fox)
- With Princess Sally Acorn (hedgehog/squirrel-chipmunk hybrid) - lampshaded in a later issue:
- Thankfully subverted with the Iron King (Bull) and Iron Queen (Human), who are merely in a relationship of convenience in order to solidify their power base.
- Intimate Marks: Apparently, the royal birthmark is one of these.
- Irony:
- The historical/geographical kind, at least in the original version of Mobius. The location of the capital city of a one world absolute monarchy? Texas. The home of the racist aggressors and oppressors? New England. The reaction of the Freedom Fighters' government to the people's demands for democratic reform? Crush the rebellion, and imprison the leader.
- Both Tails and Knuckles were foreseen as having grand heroic destinies fighting against horrible threats. However when you look through the stories involving said destinies, it's easy to feel that the actual threats were their fault. note
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: For Sonic's sake, Mina took a bullet for Sally. She got better.
- I Was Beaten by a Girl: Vector, Fang, Draco and the Iron King to name a few, many of them to the point of making a Running Gag out of it. The large amount of Action Girls justifies how often it occurs, but the trope's premise is still quoted frequently.
- Jackass Genie: Appeared in a one-shot and behaved this way for no perceptively good reason besides having an attitude problem. At the end, he was put back in his bottle and thrown into the lake.
- Jerkass: Scourge is a huge one in stark contrast with the snarky but usually polite Sonic. Drago Wolf manages to top him and makes Scourge look like gentleman by comparison.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- In regards to Vector, whose character is not a complete Jerkass just a little rough around the edges, during the Knuckles Comic. Throughout the entire comic's run and a little after that Vector never trusted Julie-Su and openly expressed his discontent with her and was poked fun of by his friends and her despite this. Usually his friends would tell him to chill and that he is just being full of it. Maybe but it doesn't change the fact that Julie-Su and her group did try to kill not only Knuckles, but the Chaotix and innocent people. Julie-Su only left the dark legion because she was in love with Knuckles, not because they were extremist or any thing regarding morality. Considering Vector sees Knuckles and the rest of the Chaotix as his only real family and Knuckles being his very first friend he has full right not to trust her and be worried about his friend especially considering the countless traitors and deception both the freedom fighters and the Chaotix have to go through.
- This is made especially evident in issue #27 of Knuckles comic where Knuckles gets pissed and attacks Vector for bad mouthing Julie-Su. Despite Knuckles going through what is essentially puberty it does not change the fact the Julie-Su being around is effecting Knuckles and Vector views it as a negative as Knuckles is both acting strange and not like his usual self and Vector is trying his hardest to get back the echidna he knows and loves.
- During the Mecha Madness arc, when Sonic is temporarily roboticized and set loose on Knothole, Antoine wastes no time arresting him on charges for treason once. While Antoine is a French Jerk who's always hated Sonic, and spends the subsequent trial doing everything he can to make him look undeniably guilty, he does point out that it's definitely suspicious, since Sonic had previously approached them with a plan to let himself be roboticized using a Neuro Overrider to retain his free will so he could destroy Robotnik's empire from within, and the fact that Sonic was roboticized literally right after the other Freedom Fighters vetoed this plan makes it seem that Sonic just disobeyed orders and went through with it anyway. While that's not the case (Sonic was actually ambushed by Nack the Weasel and delivered to Robotnik without the Overrider), even the other Freedom Fighters agree that Antoine's suspicions aren't entirely invalid.
- Shortly after moving into New Mobotropolis, Tails' parents launch a Velvet Revolution with the intent of turning the Kingdom of Acorn into a democracy. While they did so at the worst possible time, right after the war against Eggman escalated to a major degree, their criticisms of the Acorns' leadership are perfectly valid; while King Max meant well, he was still a slave to tradition and Horrible Judge of Character who's decisions and refusal to heed the warnings of others led to the Great War, the destruction of Old Mobotropolis and Knothole Village, and subjected all of Mobius to Robotnik's tyranny for over a decade. Harvey Who makes those very same points when Elias approaches him for help in reclaiming the throne from Naugus, openly stating Amadeus and Rosemary were right and the Acorns don't deserve to rule; he only agrees to help after confirming that Elias is nothing like Max.
- Monkey Khan asks Sonic why they don't just kill Eggman and be done with it considering how much trouble he's caused everyone and the potential evil he can (and eventually will) do, especially considering at the time Eggman was going through a Villainous Breakdown, leaving him more then vulnerable. In issue 225, his point is validated when Eggman himself, having recovered from said Villainous Breakdown, gloats to Sally's face that they could have stopped him from making the Death Egg Mark 2 if they had just finished him off any of the numerous times they had the chance.
- While the Council of Acorn reek of Obstructive Bureaucrat tendencies, with a little bit of petty personal grudges on the part of some such as Hamlin, they make the hindering argument that, despite being the ones to elect them in charge in the first place to keep order, the Freedom Fighters routinely ignore or defy them whenever they don't make the decisions they want, essentially committing treason. Naugus uses this to his advantage when trying to seize the Kingdom, questioning whether Sonic's actions respect the people he vows to protect. Combined with the Freedom Fighters' recent number of casualties and bad decisions against the Iron Dominion damaging the public's trust in them, Rotor can only shrug very nervously at Sonic, unable to offer a good counter argument.
- In regards to Vector, whose character is not a complete Jerkass just a little rough around the edges, during the Knuckles Comic. Throughout the entire comic's run and a little after that Vector never trusted Julie-Su and openly expressed his discontent with her and was poked fun of by his friends and her despite this. Usually his friends would tell him to chill and that he is just being full of it. Maybe but it doesn't change the fact that Julie-Su and her group did try to kill not only Knuckles, but the Chaotix and innocent people. Julie-Su only left the dark legion because she was in love with Knuckles, not because they were extremist or any thing regarding morality. Considering Vector sees Knuckles and the rest of the Chaotix as his only real family and Knuckles being his very first friend he has full right not to trust her and be worried about his friend especially considering the countless traitors and deception both the freedom fighters and the Chaotix have to go through.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- Ash the Mongoose, as well as Antoine before his Character Development.
- Sonic has had this characterization at times, too (though rarely has it been as bad as in Fleetway's Sonic the Comic). At one point, it got so bad that Tails, his best friend, physically assaulted him. He's wised up a little now, though he can still be a Jerkass at times.
- Also, Geoffrey St. John, and Vector some of the time.
- Kangaroo Court: Sonic was once put on trial by Knothole in a literal Kangaroo Court: two kangaroos were the judges. Other than that, however, it seemed like a fair trial.
- Kick the Dog: Fiona and Drago seem to treat this as their personal gospel truth. They just can't stop kicking it. Fiona inflicting this on Tails (who had a crush on her) just for the hell of it (and throwing in a tight slap to rub salt in the wound) is by far the nastiest case of her doing it, though.
- Killed Off for Real:
- Robotnik Prime and Locke are the big ones.
- Also, Tommy Turtle and Sir Connery.
- And Locke was actually Killed Off for Real twice. It was an alternate timeline/future thing.
- And before any of them, Tobor and Kragok.
- Nate Morgan and Colin Kintobor.
- Kill the Cutie: Princess Sally, way more times than necessary.
- Klingon Promotion:
- Lien-Da and her brother Kragok took over the Dark Legion by killing their father, and years later, Lien-Da left Dimitri for dead so that she could take over the Dark Egg Legion.
- And the original Dr. Robotnik (before he became the Big Bad) became head of the Kingdom of Acorn's military by throwing the previous holder of the title into the Zone of Silence. And later, he started off his coup of the Kingdom by doing the same to the King.
- Knight Templar:
- King Shadow from an alternate timeline.
- And the Sand Blaster Freedom Fighters can be pretty fanatic in fighting Robotnik/Eggman. So much so that in their first appearance, they tried to strand Sonic and Tails in their city so that they would always be there to help them fight. Hell, their modus operandi is to practically kidnap anyone traveling through the desert and force them to work for them, as the Chaotix's latest arc shows.
- Know Your Vines: Sonic was picking flowers to bring to Sally, only for a random background character to wander by and inform him that he's making his girlfriend a bouquet out of poison sumac. Then he starts scratching madly, which makes him swell up until he can't move. This, unfortunately, coincides with Robotnik making Pseudo Sonic, a robotic duplicate meant to infiltrate Knothole and discredit Sonic.
- Lame Pun Reaction: The early stories had a few, in reaction to the rampant puns.Sally: What have I told you two about those bad puns?
- La Résistance:
- The Freedom Fighters. Though post-Endgame they became more of a special forces unit reporting to the government of the Kingdom/Republic of Acorn. The Secret Freedom Fighters were this when Naugus took the crown.
- Dark Mobius has an actual resistance. Which, by the time Silver gets there, consists of seven people.
- Latex Space Suit: Issues #74-75 has the Freedom Fighters (Sonic, Tails, Sally, Bunnie, and Antonie) wear form-fitting, if not padded, space suits. With in the comics, all of them are collered white, but on Issue #74, they are color-coded. Most likely to diffentiate the characters on the cover.
- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo:
- The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles appear in the background of one panel in issue #10, remarking that they're in the wrong comic. (It should be noted that Archie Comics produced a comic book series based on the turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures.) The characterization is also probably messed up on purpose. Leo is the one speaking like a Surfer Dude, while Mikey is speaking like Leo.
- Also, in issue #18, Sonic mistakes the badnik Bat Brain's silhouette for the Batsignal and thinks Batman is trying to steal his spotlight.
- The main story (as well as the cover) of issue #8 takes this trope to extremes.
- Sonic Universe Issue #27 shows Scourge (formerly Anti-Sonic) the Hedgehog in prison being harassed by two of his fellow inmates, who strongly resemble Bebop & Rocksteady.
- Sonic Universe Issue #47 shows the Mercian Freedom Fighters liberating a person who strongly resembles Yakko Warner from some underground dungeon.
- Legacy Character: Enerjak. The original Enerjak was Dimitri, an echina cientist who attempted to use a Chaos Syphon to harness the power of the Chaos Emerlds, but it blew up in his face, giving him incredible powers. Later, Kuckles became the new enerjak. There have been other Enerjaks, typically in alternate timelines.
- Let's You and Him Fight: Way too many times to count. Even gets Lampshaded in issue 218.
- Lighter and Softer: Once Ian Flynn became the writer, the comic, while still having darker arcs, generally became much lighter and more comical than the dark drama of the Penders years.
- Living Ghost: An early issue sees Sonic apparently killed in an explosion of one of Robotnik's newest inventions, much the the sadness of his friends who hold a funeral for him. Even Sonic thinks this is the case when he wakes up and finds he cannot interact with anything else. In reality, his superspeed combined with the machine's explosion has thrown him out of phase with reality, a condition that is slowly correcting itself when he suddenly discovers a random passerby can hear his voice but can't see him and that he can grab objects but still walks through walls. Taking advantage of this, Sonic proceeds to help his friends beat Robotnik by using his temporary powers to convince the doctor he's being haunted. By the end of the issue Sonic is back to normal.
- The Load: Antoine was this before he started to pull his own weight.
- Load-Bearing Boss: Referenced by name by Sonic when Eggman's base starts to self-destruct after Sonic defeats him in the Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode II comic adaptation in issue 3 of the Sonic Super Special Magazine.Sonic: Whoops... looks like that was another one of those load-bearing bosses!
- Locked in the Bathroom: During the "Mobius: 25 Years Later" arc, Lara-Su locks herself in the bathroom during an argument. She wants to become a guardian, but her parents are against it.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Knuckles' family was nigh-Machiavellian in this aspect, actively conspiring to keep him in the dark as much as possible "for his own good".
- A Long Time Ago, in a Galaxy Far, Far Away...: Played straight for the majority of the comic, then the Xorda showed up and revealed that Mobius was Earth All Along, and that nearly all the characters are the descendants of mankind.
- Loophole Abuse:
- Elias Acorn is preparing to confront Amadeus Prower after he learns Tails and Rosemary had freed him, knowing that he's attempting to replace the monarchy with a democracy. He tells NICOLE not to wake his parents and alert them of the situation. As the two men fight, a third party steps in to stop the fight - Elias' sister, Sally, whom NICOLE points out he never said anything about.
- After being hacked by A.D.A.M. and forced to help him in his plans, Jules is subsequently ordered to self-destruct after doing so. Jules instead exploits the fact that A.D.A.M. didn't actually specify when to self-destruct to hold it off until Sonic takes A.D.A.M. down.
- A meta-example; while Sega
mandates insisted that Sonic always win or bounce back from a short-term defeat, the writers still found plenty of ways to keep him from becoming an outright Invincible Hero by making several of his victories gruelling or bittersweet. Best shown in issues 175-177: Eggman breaks out a Powered Armor specifically designed to outmatch and outfight Sonic in every way, and Sonic only manages to dent the shield the armor uses despite his best efforts, and Eggman beats him down both physically and mentally. While Sonic manages to bounce back, save his loved ones and friends, and send Eggman packing with their help, he still got his prickly behind handed to him, and Knothole Village was still destroyed.
- Losing Your Head: Due to sudden rapid aging, Dimitri had to have more and more of his body replaced with cybernetic implants. He ended up as a cyborg head in a floating fishbowl.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: Used at least once in an early issue.
- Love at First Punch: Knuckles and Julie-Su, Rob O' and Mari-An. Played for Laughs with
Omega and Blaze.
- Love Triangle: Oh, sheesh... Sonic/Sally/Antoine, Sonic/Sally/Knuckles, Sonic/Sally/Geoffrey, Sonic/Sally/Khan, Sally/Sonic/Amy, Sally/Sonic/Mina, Sonic/Mina/Ash, Sonic/Fiona/Tails, Sonic/Fiona/Scourge, Julie-Su/Knuckles/Rouge... and possibly Locke/Lara-Le/Wynmacher. There may be more, but you get the idea.
- Luke, I Am Your Father:
- A variation occurs with Enerjak, who is Knuckles's distant ancestor. Again when the Dark Legion is revealed to be a bunch of echidnas (and led by one of Enerjak/Dimitri's descendants to boot). Then, yet again when Julie-Su finds out that she's the daughter of one of the Legion's Grandmasters, and Kragok and Lien-da's sister. A more literal example occurs when it's confirmed that Remington is Kragok's son.
- Hope Kintobor was told that her father Colin wasn't her biological father, and Snively was just her step-half brother. It was a lie. When Snively reveals this that they are indeed half-siblings, Hope is shocked but happy at the news. Until Snively goes on about taking over world together as brother and sister. At which Hope breaks down and tells him to get out of her life.
- MacGuffin: Much like the games and Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), the Chaos Emeralds, Master Emerald, and Powers Rings to an extent all play a crucial role in the series now and again. There was also the Source of All, a liquid substance hidden beneath Mobotropolis that plays a critical role in the Acorn Family's rise to power. There was also the Sword and Crown of Acorns made from the Source that possesses great power. The Source and its relice were sought after by Mogul and Robotnik, but were destined to be destroyed.
- Machine Worship: The Dark Legion, a cyborg echidna sect which practically worshiped technology.
- Mad Bomber: Bean the Dynamite Duck, and Bomb after being reprogrammed. Bomb is of literal note because he actually is a bomb. He transfers his programming to a fresh duplicate each time he explodes.
- Mad Scientist: Dr. Robotnik/Eggman, Dr. Finitevus, Dimitri.
- Magitek: Regina is a "technomage".
- Malicious Misnaming:
- Antoine calls Geoffrey Le Pew on account of him being a skunk and possibly as a jab against Geoffrey's pursuit of the Princess.
- Marine gets this pretty hard from Shadow in Sonic Universe #1.
- Manipulative Bastard: Finitevus.
- Scourge seems to have gotten the hang of it, as half of his Universe arc is finding out the Destructix's secrets and getting them to work for him.
- Married in the Future: In the "X Years Later" arc, Tails is married to Mina Mongoose, Sonic is married to Sally Acorn, and Knuckles is unofficially married to Julie-Su. Other characters like Espio and Vector are shown with children, but the mothers are never mentioned.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": The last few panels of issue 224 are the citizens of New Mobotropolis having one of these as they see the Death Egg Mk. 2 rise into the air.
- Meaningful Rename: Around the mid-100s, the Evil Mobius counterparts start renaming themselves to distinguish them from their good counterparts.
- Mecha-Mooks: SWATbots, Combots, Shadowbots, Egg Pawns, Egg Swats.
- Medium Awareness: A regular part of Michael Gallagher's scripts, particularly in the early days.
- Meet Cute: Knuckles & Julie-Su, Rob & Mari-An.
- Mêlée à Trois:
- Sonic Universe issues 21-24 are a four-way fight over a Sol Emerald.
- Issues 162-164 temporarily involved a three-way fight between the Freedom Fighters, Mogul and the Destructix, and Naugus and the Arachne.
- Mirrored Confrontation Shot: The cover
to "Sonic Super Special #1" AKA "Battle Royal," shows Sonic and the Freedom Fighters facing off against Knuckles and the Chaotix.
- Mirror Universe: Moebius (formerly named Anti-Mobius).
- Bizarro Universe: It's not just good and evil switched, although that's how the idea started. Floating Island floats in the ocean instead of in the sky, Scourge's one billionth ring drove Rosy insane when it granted her wish, and Anarchy Beryls (Anti-Chaos Emeralds) drain energy from people after an initial boost instead of the excess power slowly fading.
- Misaimed Fandom: In-Universe Example; Mina Mongoose uses a concert to rally the people of Mobotropolis to start standing up for themselves and stop taking everything the Freedom Fighters say on faith alone.note Thanks to Ixis Naugus' manipulations, instead of the debates and civilian empowerment she was hoping for, the result is a divided and even more fearful kingdom and NICOLE eventually being evicted from the city.
- The Mole:
- The Guardian Tobor, who is really the Legionnaire Moritori Rex, who took advantage of an accident to replace the real Tobor so he could spy on the Brotherhood of Guardians.
- Geoffrey has apparently been serving Ixis Naugus since before he was introduced.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Dr. Finitevus.
- More Hero than Thou: At the end of the "Enerjak Reborn" storyline, Finetevus reveals that only a Heroic Sacrifice can break Knuckles free of his control. This does not go over as he'd clearly expected: Julie-Su thanks him for the information and volunteers, Archimedes immediately protests it should be him as Knuckles' mentor, and Locke overrides both of them arguing Knuckles will need them and it's his fault in the first place. Finetevus curses them as "grave-eager fools" and attacks.
- More than Mind Control: How Ixis Naugus' Hate Plague works. He can use it to turn people against each other, doing so to drive the Mobians and Robians to civil war, and later to turn the citizens of New Mobotropolis against NICOLE, but he himself notes that he doesn't generate the Hate Plague on its own; he merely amplifies emotions that are already there and blows them out of proportion.
- Murder Is the Best Solution:
- Councilor Gala-Na of Albion displayed this way of thinking on multiple occasions:
- First, by ordering the High Sheriff, Robotnik's Mercia Sub-Boss, dismantled, uncaring that he's Antoine's roboticized father and refusing to risk letting the Freedom Fighters take him back to Knothole in order to restore his free will even after Antoine literally begged her to let them do so.
- Then, when Dr. Finitevus began falling off the deep end after his failed attempt to depower Chaos Knuckles, Gala-Na voted to have him euthanized and put him in custody. This bit her in the ass when Finitevus escaped, informing Eggman of Albion's location and sabotaging their defenses to ensure they'd be unable to fend off his forces.
- When Knuckles becomes the latest Enerjak, Locke takes Sonic and Julie-Su to retrieve an anti-Enerjak weapon; while Sonic and Julie believed it would simply return Knuckles to normal, Locke later reveals to them that he in fact plans to use it to kill Knuckles, not once considering trying to save his son or bring him back to his senses. Julie gives him a major What the Hell, Hero? in response, and Sonic ultimately smashes the weapon himself.
- Councilor Gala-Na of Albion displayed this way of thinking on multiple occasions:
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: The four-armed Bem aliens, and the entirety of the Arachne ninja clan (including Uma Arachnis and her children).
- Narrating the Obvious: All the time in older comics. The writers and layout artists apparently suffered from the unfortunate delusion that every panel had to have dialog in it; they don't really lose this particular delusion, but at least they learn to make the dialog semi-meaningful instead of this trope.
- Necessarily Evil: Finitevus. Sort of. He doesn't show regret for cruelly lying and manipulating people — just the opposite, really — but he's never seen doing it for sadistic purposes alone.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The comic practically runs on this. Standout events are:
- Ceneca-9009's Dark and Troubled Past. She invented a de-roboticizer to help the metallic aliens of Biotex. She learned too late that the Biotexans evolved their metallic bodies as a defense against deadly microbes. Oops...
- Speaking of Ceneca-9009, in issue #118 the Bem kidnap Sonic, Tails, Eggman, and Snively, roboticize the former two, deroboticize the latter, and put them in a fight. Naturally, Sonic and Tails win... but because they won while roboticized, the Bem conclude that Mobians are naturally better-suited as robots and order Ceneca-9009 to turn every Mobian alive into robots. If it weren't for her deciding Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! and deroboticizing the Robians instead, Sonic and Tails would have done more to fulfill Eggman's plans than Eggman ever did himself.
- In issue 225, Eggman tells Sally that if she and the other Freedom Fighters had finished him off any of the times they'd had the chance, they could have prevented him from rebuilding the Death Egg in a more powerful form.
- Sonic's dad and uncle found Robotnik, formerly Julian, and brought him to King Max, who made his infamous decision to make him warlord. Though he helped the Mobians win the Great War, he already had his own plans in action. Uncle Chuck made the roboticizer, allowing Robotnik to make the headway needed to make his empire so fast.
- Originally, Robotnik simply sabotaged the Roboticizer. He had never thought it would work to his advantage.
- Locke. Oh my god Locke. His exposing Knuckles' unhatched egg to a Chaos Emerald let to said child's transformation into Chaos Knuckles, which prompted the Echidnas of Albion to try and siphon it away out of fear of what might happen. During the attempt, however, Saffron and Charmy interfered - causing the excess energy to be transferred into a then-unnamed Finitevus. If Locke left well enough alone and not experimented on his unborn son, the Echidnas wouldn't have been brought to the brink of extinction via the destruction of Albion, and the Brotherhood of Guardians would still be around.
- The Brotherhood of Guardians as a whole. They had a major tradition not to interact with the world at large unless it actively threatened their interests. During the last year or so of Robotnik Prime's reign of terror, he found the Floating Island, weaponized it, and crashed the first Death Egg into it to try to sink it into the ocean. Not once did they raise a finger to stop him. The firing of Robotnik's Ultimate Annihilator helped free the Dark Legion, whose plans are what caused Knuckles' Chaos transformation in the first place.
- Although it was due to bad timing, Geoffrey restoring Naugus to place him on the throne ultimately did nothing more than to weaken the heroes, bolster Eggman's power, and (in Silver's timeline) destroy the world. That is, until the crossover.
- Noblewoman's Laugh: The Iron Queen. Even in print, it manages to be grating.
- No Biochemical Barriers: The Mobius: 25 Years Later series features Sally (chipmunk/squirrel) and Sonic's (hedgehog) kids, among other examples.
- No Macguffin No Winner: In issues 217 and 218, Sonic and Bunnie find themselves stuck in between a chapter of the Dark Egg Legion and the Sand Blasters, who are fighting over an oil refinery. Unable to decide whether to help the Legion chapter (who, despite working for Eggman, are led by Bunnie's beloved uncle) and the Sand Blasters (who, despite being Freedom Fighters, are fanatic Jerk Asses), they ultimately decide to simply destroy the refinery, keeping anyone from having it.
- No Social Skills: Knuckles turned out this way due to the Guardian tradition of Parental Abandonment.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: Sonic's team, and their affiliates, have undergone this many times, even before the Cosmic Retcon even happened, effectively changing the storyline now and again.
- They've lost their home of Old Mobotropolis three times (invaded by Julian, invaded by Eggman, and nuked by their Station Square allies by accident). Knothole revamped from a simply village to a prosperous kingdom while Sonic was mistaken for dead for a year. It was later utterly decimated by Eggman, forcing everyone to take residence in a new kingdom.
- The main Freedom Fighters have been threatened to be dissolved by King Acorn, but was later reinstated. Much later when Sally was roboticized, Antoine was hospitalized, and Bunnie disappearing, Sonic and Rotor realize the old team structure wasn't working and reformed it to Team Freedom and Team Fighters, holding onto members of the old team and introducing new friends into it.
- Julian Kintobor, the first Robotnik, was erased by his own doomsday weapon. After dealing with Ixis Naugus afterwords, Sonic feels this way as Mobotropolis experiences its first moment of peace in years. And then Eggman, the second Robotnik, arrives to "change the game" of the war.
- Knuckles was so used to being the only echidna after his father seemingly passed on, he wasn't prepared to deal with evil members of his race, the return of other echidnas in a formerly vanishing city, the knowledge of civil war history, and, lest we forget, the discovery that both of his parents are alive all along. Later, Eggman invades and destroys both Echidnaopolis and Albion, scattering the surviving echidnakind across Mobius, all before siglehandedly putting them on the endangered species list and using the ramnents of the Dark Legion as cannon fodder...
- "Not So Different" Remark: The Brotherhood is pretty damn hypocritical in their combating the Dark Legion, using the very technology that they convinced echidna society to ban and thereby started the conflict in the first place. The Dark Legion comes close to calling them out on this on several occasions.
- Nuclear Weapons Taboo: Partially subverted in the comic itself; played straight with the Kingdom of Acorn.
- Oddly Small Organization: The Freedom Fighters, though it's temporarily subverted at different points in the series. This later comes back to bite the main characters in the tail when three of the disenfranchised former members of the Substitute Freedom Fighters become leaders in the government.
- Official Couple: In SatAM, Sonic was obviously officially coupled with Princess Sally Acorn. Thanks to Adaptation Decay, Rule of Drama dictates that in the comic, Sonic and Sally are instead in an unending Love Dodecahedron with each other and everyone else. As a result, the comic's writers have a tendency to rewrite the canonical romance to make highly complicated romance plots.
- Offscreen Breakup: Sonic learned from his year-long return from Space that Bunnie and Antoine broke up while he was gone. However, it turned out that Anti-Antoine, later known as Patch, was impersonating the real Antoine while they switched places (against their will, thanks to Anti-Sonic/Scourge). After Patch's defeat, Sonic switched them back again and the real Antoine and Bunnie rekindled their relationship.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Dr. Finitevus believes that the world is hopelessly corrupt and must be "cleansed with emerald fire." He is utterly convinced of the righteousness of his position and quite willing to lay down his own life to achieve his aims.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted with Ray the Manta Ray (leader of the Forty Fathom Freedom Fighters) and Ray the Flying Squirrel (member of the Chaotix).
- One World Order: The Kingdom of Acorn before the events of the comics; Dr. Robotnik's empire after his coup.
- Of course, now it's pretty much broken up. Sonic makes a particular note of the fact that Eggman lost control of his own empire at one point.
- Ontological Inertia: After defeating Dr. Eggman in issue 200, the citizens of New Mobotropolis take to celebrating as soon as they hear the news, believing the Eggman Empire is finally finished. They discover the hard way that just because Eggman's gone down doesn't mean his assets have, and his resources and technology are immediately seized by the Iron Queen, who wastes no time coming at all in coming to the city and taking it over. Monkey Khan chews Sonic and co. for thinking that it'd be that easy.
- Opponent Switch: An early issue has the Freedom Fighters beating their evil selves from another dimension by switching opponents.
- Orwellian Retcon: When some old stories were reprinted in Sonic Firsts, Princess Sally was recolored to match her modern design and all references to "Boomer" were changed to "Rotor".
- In general, compilations often have slight art improvements and corrections for continuity. The most common one is Sonic's eyelids being recolored to blue rather than tan.
- To an extent, the early issues in general used two different discarded color schemes for Sally. This was eventually explained as her having taken a dunk in chemicals that changed her color; it took her some time to remove all the chemicals from her fur, resulting in the color changes
.
- Out of Focus: With such a large cast, it's not uncommon to see many of the characters put on the back burner for awhile. During the Bollers era, Sally seemed to be the one getting Out Of Focused while the early days of the Flynn era had Rotor put into this spot.
- Overly Long Gag: Robotnik's nameplate in issue #0. See Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking.
- Pantsless Males, Fully-Dressed Females: Prior to the reboot, this was something of a toss-up as characters' state of dress varied regardless of gender (SEGA-types tend to go with their canon design, SatAM/AoStH-types with their canon design and original characters tend to be fully dressed). Post-reboot, everyone goes SEGA-standard, meaning guys wear, at least, shoes and gloves while girls are fully dressed.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: In issue 9 Robotnik sent a robotic duplicate of Sonic, Pseudo-Sonic (not to be confused with Metal-Sonic) to infiltrate the base. Everyone knows its a fake immediately save for Antoine who blames the artist for drawing Pseudo-Sonic in silhouette specifically for a Bait-and-Switch.
- Parental Abandonment: Almost every character until Robotnik's death.
- Of particular note is Knuckles, who was left in a wilderness by his father at a young age, and was then spied on by him for a while. This happened to every Guardian before him, but Locke had a particularly hard time with it as his wife wanted Knuckles to lead a normal life. Seeing that she had no say in how her own child was being raised she left Locke.
- Parental Neglect:
- Anti-Jules, to the point that it's implied that Scourge killed him out of resentment.
- Colin Sr., apparently. It's probably why his son turned into The Starscream.
- Parents Know Their Children: Knuckles is transported from the Floating Island to the city of Echidnaopolis. He then is stopped by Lara-Le, an echidna who recognizes him as her son, even though the two haven't seen each other in years. This surprises Knuckles, as his father told him that his mother had died years ago, something she is not pleased to hear.
- Parent with New Paramour: Knuckles is told over dinner that his mother, Lara-Le, intends to marry Wynmacher. He doesn't take the news particularly well and runs off, though this is more out of shock, as he holds no ill-will towards Wynmacher.
- People Puppets: Mammoth Mogul uses his magic to control Mina, Geoffrey, and Tails, making them attack Sonic. And then he threatens to have them kill themselves if Sonic doesn't do what he wants.
- Pet the Dog: Right before betraying the Freedom Fighters to help Robotnik again, Snively makes sure to convince Hope Kintobor to leave Knothole. Why? Because he knows Robotnik is going to attack Knothole soon and doesn't want her to get hurt. This hint of decency gets cruelly subverted later on, when he tries to convince Hope to help him conquer the world.
- Planet Baron: Dr. Eggman strives to be this for Mobius, opposed by Sonic and his band of rebels.
- Plot Armor: None of the core cast are allowed to die or lose to Eggman in the long run due to a mandate from Sega. Side characters are fair game, though.
- Plot-Relevant Age-Up: Amy does this for the Sonic Adventure adaptation, though they still generally treat her as her actual age when that matters.
- Plot Tumor: Knuckles went from living in a wilderness, believing himself to be the last of his kind, to living in a city full of other echidnas and having a family tree that became massively convoluted. Eventually, the echidnas ended up becoming the most important race in the comic. Then, the Eggman Empire came along, and then a lawsuit that was filed by Archie themselves against Ken Penders, and... let's just say there aren't as many echidnas now.
- Pocket Dimension: Knothole was placed in a time zone 3 hours behind the rest of the planet after being hit by a modified Doomsday Device. Sonic was able to fix this several issues later.
- Poorly Disguised Pilot: The Image Comics Crossover story "Parallel Paradigm" was very obviously an attempt from writer Ken Penders to advertise his then-upcoming and ultimately very short-lived original superhero comic, The Lost Ones, which Image Comics was set to publish.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: Back when the writers integrated the game adaptations into the comic's continuity. Elements of the game’s story had to be condensed, expanded, or altered as to fit within the setting. Eventually this was all retconned, and the games are simply canon to the comic.
- One example is the Sonic Adventure adaptation. Up to that point, the only Humans were the Overlanders, who did not have the temperament or culture of the United Federation. The Solution? Have Station Square under a mountain, where regular humans have thrived for thousands of years (and many comic issues) unseen.
- Pretend to Be Brainwashed: NICOLE does this when freed from the Iron Queen's control; she pretends to be subservient until the heroes can turn the tide.
- Primp of Contempt: In Issue #200, Sonic looks at his gloves and gives passive responses while Eggman gives a long-winded monologue about his brilliance before their fight.
- Psycho for Hire: Flying Frog is pretty nuts, while Hunter is one who is played far more seriously, to the point of
Nightmare Fuel.
- Psychopathic Man Child: Eggman became this after Sonic #200. He got better as of #210.
- The Psycho Rangers: The Suppression Squad, who are the Freedom Fighters' Evil Twins from an alternate dimension.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "En! Er! gak!", a fighting-mad Silver getting a heroic second wind.
- Put on a Bus: Because of the legal battle between Archie and Ken Penders over character rights, the "Endangered Species" arc was re-written so all the echidnas except Knuckles were sent through a Warp Ring.
- Earlier, Sleuth Dawg decided he was done and walked out on the comic, promising not to be seen.
- Because of the Penders lawsuit, any character who was created by a former writer of the comic or was inspired/tied to the works of a former writer has been erased from the comic forever thanks to the Super Genesis Wave that Eggman unleashed at the end of Worlds Collide
- Putting on the Reich:
- The Overlanders and the Dingoes on occasion.
- And the Dark Legion from time to time.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad:
- The Destructix, comprised of Predator Hawk, Sgt. Simian, Lightning Lynx, Flying Frog, Sleuth Dawggy-Dawg, and Drago Wolf. Sleuth and Drago left the team, but Fiona and Scourge have taken their places.
- The Badniks—the original Dr. Robotnik's swarm of little animal-themed Mecha-Mooks who served mostly as comic relief in the comic's early days. They'd been forgotten about for ages, but were eventually reintroduced to the book.
- As of Sonic Universe #37, Eggman has a new group of personal enforcers in the Metal Series robots.
- Reality Warper:
- Knuckles, during his time as Energak.
- Feist, godlike ruler of the Special Zone.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Hyper Knuckles. Lampshaded by SonicSonic: [to Enerjak] Hyper Knuckles was way stronger! Or are you just afraid of being pink?
- The Real Remington Steele: Fiona, who was introduced as a Robotnik-created bot years before her real self appeared.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
- Julie-Su and Archimedes both serve one to Locke after he's given up hope that Knuckles can't recover from being Enerjak and suggests killing him. Locke has tried to play off everything he's done for Knuckles as for his own good, but both Julie and Archie are fed up.Julie-Su: Oh, would you STOP IT?! You've had plenty of chances to destroy the son you hate!Locke: I...I don't hate Knuckles! But what he's become...Archimedes: Everything we worked to create. It was our training and your experiments on his DNA and Chaos Energy. That lead to this. But he is not a mistake to bury, Locke. We are as much to blame, if not more.
- Sonic gives one to Eggman in issue #200 while delivering a Curb-Stomp Battle. He regrets it when it contributes to Eggman's Villainous Breakdown. This was in response to a particularly nasty one given from Eggman to Sonic in 175, who did the same thing.
- Sonic gives one to Scourge. This comes back to bite Sonic later as it inspires Scourge to conquer his home world. Scourge later gives a twistedly identical speech to Sonic.
- And then Sonic gives one to Silver after he got the "traitor" wrong one too many times.note Sonic: Listen! There. Is. No. Traitor. I believe in my friends. I believe you're a flake. Each of them is a hundred times the hero you want to be. Now. Get. Out. GO. HOME.
- Julie-Su and Archimedes both serve one to Locke after he's given up hope that Knuckles can't recover from being Enerjak and suggests killing him. Locke has tried to play off everything he's done for Knuckles as for his own good, but both Julie and Archie are fed up.
- Recursive Acronym: ADAM (ADAM Determines Anonymous' Movements).
- Recap Episode: Issue 57.
- Redemption Equals Death: This is the case for the original Metal Sonic, who sacrifices himself to save Sonic and Tails after seeing Sonic go through everything to save his best friend. Subverted after he was rebuilt as part of the Secret Freedom Fighters storyline.
- Remember the New Guy?:
- Similar to the show, Dulcy the Dragon was fitted into the comic with nothing more then a small back-up story introduction which gave her backstory and essentially went "She's been part of the Freedom Fighters all this time! Honest!" Ironically, Dulcy was later phased out of the comic completely.
- Lampshaded example when Dr. Eggman meets a leader of one of his armies known as Axel the Water Buffalo. He's quick to say he recognizes him and recruits him in trying to get to the Death Egg II. Orbot is quick to point out that they've never seen him before and Eggman has already figured that out - he admits that he was too hasty in stopping Super Sonic's Chaos Control and realizes that a lot of Mobius has been altered...
- Red String of Fate: The Soultouch, something that only echidnas have that designates their one true love. Note that "true love" doesn't mean "will always be happy with each other"; affected pairs have been known to divorce, including Knuckles' parents. What does work no matter what is a bit of Mindlink Mates for the pair involved.
- Reimagining the Artifact: The original continuity retains the same basic backstory as Satam, with Robotnik managing to take over Mobius after getting into the monarchy's good graces, and King Acorn and Chuck carelessly left their artillery is in his hands. Since being tricked by Robotnik, let alone an Obviously Evil one, had slowly became defined as an Idiot Ball trait throughout the franchise, the Archie franchise justified this carelessness by reinventing King Acorn from a supposedly wise monarch into a hot blooded old fool prone to terrible decision making, while Chuck's carelessness with the Robotocizer is excused by his depression over the device failing to properly revise his brother (at the time), with him carrying much more visible guilt over the many lives he ruined with this oversight. By contrast, Knuckles and other characters' gullibility towards Robotnik was largely a "fool me once" rule and often excused by being a Fish out of Water, since it would be exceptionally incredulous to keep trusting this far more belligerent take on the doctor.
- Relationship Revolving Door: To say that Sonic and Sally's realationship is rocky is a major understatement. But no matter what croses their path, other love interests, the war at hand, or their own volition, they always find their way back together.
- Renegade Splinter Faction: The Sand Blast City Freedom Fighters - unlike other Freedom Fighter cells, they use dubious methods such as kidnapping Sonic and Tails. And then capturing Bunnie to get revenge. Worse, their maltreatment of ex-Robians led to the creation of a DEL Chapter. That's right, things got so bad that former slaves would rather side with Eggman than live under the Sand Blasters.
- The Reveal: There have been many legends about how Mobius came to be, including the Echidna texts dubbing it "The Days of Fury", but it was eventually revealed that it used to be Earth.
- Rings of Activation: Amy uses the Mystic Melody in #282 to locate the shards of the Master Emerald. This process causes a ring of golden light to form around her head like a halo.
- Sanity Slippage: Naugus starts to suffer this post-Genesis, as a result of the personalities of the wizards who formed him reemerging and fighting him for dominance. This is mirrored by Body Horror, as his body tends to mutate when he loses control and becomes a rampaging beast, though this usually only last a few minutes at a time before he manages to regain control of himself.
- Savage Wolves: A whole mess of them make up a group called The Wolf Pack. However, one of their former members, Drago, is a traitorous wuss. Hebecomes more threatening after getting legionized, but...you can only really do so much.
- Scenery Gorn: Several times during the comics' run; Silver's future, Enerjak's destruction of New Megaopolis, and Eggman's attack on Knothole & New Mobotropolis are just a few examples.
- Robotropolis wasn't exactly a pleasant sight to behold either.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- The Dark Presence.
- Once the Destructix starts to fall apart, Sleuth hands control to Fiona and just walks away.
- Sdrawkcab Alias/Name: Julian Kintobor changes his name to Dr. Ivo Robotnik. What makes it confusing is that there is both a Kintobor family (Robotnik's brother shares the last surname) and a Robotnik family (Gerald Robotnik is Julian's grandfather). The Encyclopedia clears it up a bit: Ivo Kintobor (Robotnik's father) had married Gerrald's daughter, and thus united the two lines. Julian took his father's name, and his mother's maiden name. Though why no one pointed out the strange coincidence regarding their names remains a mystery.
- Self-Made Orphan:
- It's heavily implied that Scourge killed his neglectful father Anti-Jules.
- More clearly, Kragok and Lien-Da of the Dark Legion murdered both their father and their stepmother, the former to become Grandmasters of the Legion.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Mogul.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong:
- Silver's mission is to undo the Bad Future he's from.
- Sonic tried this with both Genesis Waves. He doesn't do a great job.
- Shamed by a Mob: Issue #74 involves this when the freedom fighters discover Robotnik running an outer space sweatshop after they all thought he was dead.
- Shoot the Rope: In Issue 12 of Knuckles the Echidna, an echidna is going to be hung at the gallows. Archer Rob o' the Hedge shoots an arrow to cut the rope at the last second, while Sonic catches the echidna as he falls through the hole in the floor of the gallows.
- Ship Tease: In issue 17 Antoine goes to retrieve a lost power ring for Tails in Robotropolis seemingly oblivious to all the danger there. He retrieves it and Bunnie is revealed to have been secretly tailing him and fighting off anything that tried attacking him. The comic ends with Antoine implying that he knew she was doing it and kissing her on the cheek. Nothing comes of it immediately afterwards but it's easy to see it as a precursor to their relationship later on.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: In issue #74, after the freedom fighters find Robotnik on the walkway of some outer space facility, (note that up until that point they thought he was dead), there are at least two varieties (or maybe three, depending on how you're counting them) of Shut Up, Hannibal! in a row:Sonic: You're toast if you don't tell me what happened to my family and the other roboticized Mobians, Robuttnik!
Robotnik: Come now, hedgehog. Can't you at least take a moment to welcome me back from the dead? Didn't your parents teach you better manners?
Sonic: Why, you lousy...
[Sonic runs at Robotnik, but he's smacked aside]
Bunnie: Ah'll show you manners!
[Bunnie then punches Robotnik in the face, and Sonic and Tails stumble upon Robotnik's sweatshop]
Tails: Sonic, look!
Sonic: I see it, Tails! ALL of the missing robians being forced to work in this suped-up outer-space sweat-shop!
Robotnik: Forced? Quite the contrary, Sonic. I've merely RESTORED their LACK of free will. They have absolutely no say in the matter. How can you say that I've done something wrong? Why, look at all the new jobs I've created!
Sonic: Create this!
[Sonic then runs up at Robotnik and knocks him off the walkway] - Sickeningly Sweethearts: Antoine and Bunnie really border this at times, half their panel time they seem to be holding hands or making gooey eyes at each other. The funny accents (one of which is French) only elevate it at times.
- Sins of Our Fathers: The Xorda take this to almost unfathomable extremes. At one point they dispatched a peaceful ambassador to Earth who was promptly dissected. The Xorda retaliated by gene bombing the entire planet. Several thousand years later, life had come back to the planet. When Knothole Kingdom and Haven's Brotherhood of Echidnas discovered the connection, Sally tried to convince the Xorda to leave them alone due to the humans dying long time ago. But since it all still had genetic traces of the humans who had committed the offense, the Xorda were intent on coming back and wiping it all out for good this time. They failed. Not only because Sonic made a Heroic Sacrifice to destroy a doomsday weapon, but because they once again leave before confirming Mobius' destruction.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: For a while, it reached ridiculous levels with Sonic and Sally. It's calmed down since.
- Species Surname: Sometimes (Sonic the Hedgehog, Larry Lynx), sometimes not (Amy Rose, Sally Acorn).
- Spinoff: An assortment of mini-series, Knuckles' comic, and Sonic Universe.
-
Spiritual Successor: To Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), after the show ended.
- Springtime for Hitler: According to this podcast
, the Iron Dominion arc was a joke pitch Ian Flynn inserted among his actual #200 pitches to make the rest look better, and he had to scramble to make it work when it was approved.
- The Starscream:
- Robotnik's nephew Snively served as his increasingly untrustworthy lieutenant, and eventually set in motion a plan to destroy Robotnik. In "Endgame" he actually succeeds in erasing the original Robotnik from existence.
- Robotnik/Eggman has stated that he knows that Snively and several of his Grandmasters are planning to turn on him, but precisely because of that they serve him to their fullest, because they want to take over a strong empire. He actually applauds Lien Da for an underhanded attempt and chastises Snively for a sloppy one. Eggman has another reason for encouraging his Grandmasters to plot against him, he actually finds it fun to have enemies to defeat, seeing it as just a game to him. But he wants them to be aware of the consequences if they lose.
- Miles, Tails' Evil Twin from Moebius. Originally loyal to Scourge, Sonic's counterpart, he eventually convinced the rest of the Suppression Squad to turn on him, and soon after set himself up as their new leader.
- Conquering Storm is a low-key one, but any advantage she see against Eggman, she more then willing to take such as providing Snively with the Iron Oni to use against Eggman.
- Lien-Da disposed of her Grandfather to gain the role of Grandmaster and tried to overthrow the Iron Queen. This didn't work out too well however.
- Kragok was this to Lien-Da - he had agreed to share power as the Grandmaster after they did away with their father, only for him to take the entire thing.
- Status Quo Is God: Played completely straight at first, with the Freedom Fighters winning little battles but never coming closer to winning the war. Then End Game came along...
- Being a long runner, the status quo has been shaken up rather often since, but you can basically bank on it eventually returning to Sonic and friends vs. Eggman.
- In #197, Zonic even says, "Sonic-Prime has to fight a Robotnik" in response to Sonic telling him the current Eggman was the Zone Cop's problem.
- Story-Breaker Power:
- Power Rings. Ian Flynn explained that he wasn't eager to use them in stories as their wish-granting abilities could easily solve every problem brought up.
- Silver, before the reboot. He had a rough idea of what was going on leading up the traitor's actions, but his not wanting to mess with the timeline more then needed kept him from just talking to the Freedom Fighters and sharing their collective knowledge.
- In the Sonic/Image crossover, Spawn. Chances are he's only there for market value, but had he actually participated in the story, he would've killed all the villains in seconds.
- Superdickery: Issues #28, #203, and #204
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
- Robo-Robotnik/Dr. Eggman, for, well, himself. Continuity treats them as the same character, more or less.
- Bow Sparrow and Thorn the Lop for Rob o' the Hedge and Mari-An, respectively. Rob was originally featured on the preview cover for SU #47, but a new cover was created in the wake of his absence. Also worth mentioning is Axel the Water Buffalo subbing in for Diesel the Bear, a character who only appeared in a single issue.
- Sycophantic Servant: Snively was sometimes depicted as this in the earlier issues — very much in contrast with his later characterization. Crabmeat, however, plays it straight.
- Take That!: One issue has Robotnik mention he had a plan to flood Mobius called "Operation Waterworld", but he had to scrap it because it was too expensive. This is an obvious potshot at Waterworld and its out of control budget.
- Tangled Family Tree: Knuckles's ancestors, the Brotherhood of Guardians, and the leaders of the Dark Legion have been at odds with one another for 400 years. At one point Finitevus lampshades just how many generations have been involved in this feud. This tree is eventually revealed to include Julie-Su and Remington. Look at it here.
◊ And that's just the most recent 400 years. Knuckles can trace his lineage back to Pachacamac, an echidna who lived 4000 years ago.
- Tennis Boss: Silver eventually realizes that the only way to stop a super-powered Enerjak is to reflect his own chaos energy back at him.
- Theme Naming: The Brotherhood of Guardians.
- Third-Person Person: Feist.
- Tickle Torture: In #58.
- Time Dilation: During the Tossed in Space arc, Sonic is transported across the universe and ends up light years away from Mobius. He spends a fairly short time making his way through inhabited space until he makes it to a special Portal Network that allows him to instantly warp back to Mobius... only to be shocked to discover upon his return that on Mobius, an entire year has passed.
- Time for Plan B: Eggman comes up with a series of plans on the spot to counteract Snivley freeing the Iron Queen and piloting an ancient giant robot in Universe #40, though they're more like steps in one large plan, which is probably even more impressive.Plan A: Throw a monkey at them.
Plan B: Throw a roboticized chipmunk at the monkey.
Plan C: GET A LOAD OF THIS!
Plan D: Lock both mechas in place and sabotage the other robot with an omnitool while the Iron Queen's too busy controlling the monkey.
Plan E: Apply pressure to newly-sabotaged robot, and... - Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Four-foot tall Snively dating the statuesque Iron Queen.
- Too Dumb to Live: By the time the series was about a decade into it's run, it became very apparent that Robotnik-Prime's bid in taking over the planet really shouldn't have been as successful, or lasted as long as it did, Freedom Fighters excluded. Note that some of these elements were from before the reboot and thus might not have carried over to the new continuity.
- There were the magic users, including Naugus,note Mogul,note and various others who apparently could have been at least a minor threat to Robotnik, but chose to do nothing. The biggest example for Naugus is in 225: Despite having the power to travel through shadows, so he might've been able to stealthily track Eggman down and kill him, Naugus takes the Death Egg Mk 2 head-on and gets knocked aside since its defenses can block his magic attacks. Immediately after Geoffrey told him not to underestimate the DE no less.
- The Echidnas, who include the Brotherhood of Guardiansnote and the Dark Legion,note and the civilizations of Echidnopolis and Albion.note
- The Overlandersnote and Humansnote which included the entire G.U.N. military of the United Federation.
- And perhaps most alarmingly, the Acorn Monarchy even possessed a pool of magical goo, called the "Source of All" which would allow whatever Royal who bathed in it to have "guidance" through their reign and allowed them to see what future events would come in their time. Despite going through this ritual, King Acorn apparently never saw the Great War and it's instigators, Robotnik coming or his own banishment to another Zone coming from a mile away. Aside from creating the Sword of Acorns & the Royal Crown which possessed great magic, the Source did nothing for itself or the Royal Family, and was ultimately destroyed when Robotropolis was nuked by Station Square, which neither it nor the Royal Family saw coming!
- Took a Level in Badass: Antoine takes several, Evil Sonic when he becomes Scourge, and Dr. Eggman big time after he overcomes his Villainous Breakdown purely with logic, snaps out of his insanity, and puts himself back in the game arguably more dangerous than ever. His return to sanity is even punctuated by quite possibly the most dark and ominous panel Eggman has ever appeared in.
- Especially obvious in issue 225 where he toys with Sonic to stall for time, nonchalantly injures/possibly kills Sally, then he fires his cosmic retcon device while holding a glass of wine, watching Sonic battle his robots from above, to celebrate his absolute victory.
- In Scourge's case, it also included gaining several levels in popularity - the fans like him a lot better when he's not just a cliched Evil Twin.
- Tornado Move: One issue had Sonic take out a patrol of Swat Bots by sticking his arms out and spinning around, creating a tornado. However, Sonic starts bragging without stoping, causing him to spin right into a nearby rock.
- Transformation Exhilaration: Sonic reveals that the Super Sonic transformation always leaves him feeling pepped up and ready for action, even when it expires. This is an important fact when Scourge, Sonic's anti-Mobius counterpart, uses his Anarchy Beryls to become Super Scourge. Sonic reasons that since Anti-Mobius runs opposite of his, forcing Scourge to drop his transformation would leave him exhausted and thus easy to beat. Turns out he's right.
- Transhuman: The Dark Legion are a group of echidnas who are so pro-technology that they willingly augment themselves with cybernetic implants. As time goes by they begin forcibly augmenting other people against their will.
- Trauma Conga Line: Constable Remington. He does his best to ensure that Echidnaopolis (and later Albion) is kept safe and incident-free, and he's kind and respectful to all of the law-abiding citizens; even the outsiders. And how is he repaid for doing his job? ...Held hostage by Enerjak, imprisoned and starved by Eggman for an entire year, brainwashed by Dr. Finitevus and considered for being the next Enerjak, and banished to worlds unknown by Thrash. Poor Remington...
- Trickster Mentor: Archimedes the Fire Ant filled this role for Knuckles, by way of a clever scheme that initially made Knuckles and the readers believe he was being set up as a villain.
- Truce Trickery: When the Xorda return to attack Mobius, Eggman offers up a temporary truce with the Kingdom of Knothole. He claims to have a machine capable of fighting back against the Xorda's doomsday weapon, but it requires Sonic's superspeed to work. King Acorn agrees (after first forcing Eggman into ceding Territory to them) and Sonic is sent out. Unfortunately it turns out while Eggman had been telling the truth about the machine stopping the Xorda weapon, it was also meant to kill Sonic once it's task was done.
- Two Beings, One Body: Naugus' origin details how three powerful magicians, a rhino, a lobster and a bat, fused themselves into one being.
- Undefeatable Little Village: Much like SatAM, Knothole Village/Kingdom was the last bastion of freedom when Robotnik took over Mobotropolis, and the heroes do whatever they can to keep it hidden. Even when he and later Eggman finally find it, the Freedom Fighters manage to drive his forces back. In #175, Eggman pulled out all the stops and uses a powerful fleet to reduce the Freedom Fighter home to nothing. Luckily, the have a new home to go to in the form of New Mobotropolis.
- Ungrateful Bastards: The Nerbs go straight from this to We Want Our Jerk Back!.
- Ungrateful Townsfolk: Mina Mongoose uses her status as an Idol Singer to present a message regarding possible problems should NICOLE be compromised and turned against them as she was during the Iron Queen's occupation of New Mobotropolis; using it to his advantage, Ixis Naugus uses his Hate Plague to amplify all existing fears and paranoia regarding NICOLE, eventually leading to her being exiled from the city completely. The Freedom Fighters respond with this trope: Rotor resigns from his seat on the Council on the spot in response to NICOLE's exile, and Sonic openly wishes that Eggman, who was in hiding at the time, would resurface just so they could see how quickly the citizens went from scorning NICOLE to begging for her protection.
- Unholy Matrimony: Scourge and Fiona. Also the Iron King and Queen, who (thankfully, for
obvious reasons) are just in a marriage of political convenance. And the Queen also had a thing on the side with Snively.
- And if there was any doubt that Scourge and Fiona truly cared about each other, take this into account: after Scourge was arrested by the Zone Cops, Fiona tracked down the Destructix, got them to work for her, and then intentionally got arrested, all so that she could break him out.
- Unmourned Death: Nate Morgan ends up becoming roboticized by Eggman in #100, and in #110, Sonic is unable to stop Station Square from firing nuclear warheads at Robotropolis, which kills all of the roboticized people inside, Nate included. Despite being King Max's closest friend and Sonic's teacher, nobody seems to mourn his loss in particular, and he's never mentioned again beyond this point.
- The Unpronounceable: Dr. Fukurokov. No one in the comics can pronounce it, though Word of God gives the pronunciation as FOO-KOO-ROW-KAWV, after the Japanese word for owl, Fukurou.Fukurokov: One day the world will tremble at the name of Dr. Fukurokov!
Antonie: Maybe, but they won't be able to pronounce it. - Unskilled, but Strong: Enerjak usually is this when he appears. Demigod powers at his minimum, he constantly underestimates his opponents, becomes extremely frustrated with those that he can't simply steamroll over, (causing him to make careless mistakes), and doesn't know how to strategize.
- Unstoppable Rage: Many characters go through this for some reason or another.
- Sonic, most notably, in #50 and #175. You do NOT mess with his friends, family, or home.
- Hershey in #50, after learning that Drago used her in a murder scheme.
- Tails, to a lesser extent in #178, seeing his hedgehog friend act like a Jerkass at the time.
- Do not mess with Ray when Mighty is around, in #175 for instance.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom. This applies to Sonic, Sally, Knuckles, and Tails' respective families. Issue 50 revealed that Sonic's dad and uncle found Robotnik and brought him to King Max, who made his infamous decision to make him the new Warlord. Additionally the brothers drove off a young Regina Ferrum back in the day as well, not to mention Charles invented the roboticizer. During this time up to when they were captured, Knuckles' father and ancestors were aware of Robotnik, but devoted none of their considerable resources to stop him, despite Robotnik once trying to weaponize the Floating island in the Sonic and Knuckles tie-in comic and trying to drive the island into the sea in the Death Egg saga despite the Knuckles spin-off title revealing his family was still living on the island and would've been aware of this; Locke even commented on the Ultimate Annihilator in the spin-off title. And almost immediately after they returned, Tails's parents caused a political reformation that may well have resulted in, in addition to King Naugus, the disaster Silver's trying to prevent.
- Geoffrey as well. He admitted in court that he purposefully avoided warning King Max about Robotnik before his original takeover. By passing up an opportunity like that, he became partially responsible for almost everything in the book up to this point, including his wife's death. His actions may have led to Silver's disaster as well: if he hadn't stolen the purple Chaos Emerald for Naugus, the Freedom Fighters might've used its power to repel Eggman's attack without losing Sally. Since she was roboticized, her team has broken up and according to Silver, his disaster started in the arctic, where Sally was before the crossover...
- Utopia Justifies the Means: King Shadow in the X Years Later timeline.
- Variant Cover: The Post Super Genesis Wave portion of the series started to become more comfortable with featuring many variant cover issues featuring different art work for the cover of a main/standard issue, which would portray a different art style or a more gag-based cover. Even the spinoff Worlds Collide, Sonic Universe and Sonic Boom series would have variant covers for their issues.
- [Verb] This!: See Shut Up, Hannibal!.
- Villainous Breakdown:
- Dr. Eggman.
- Scourge, after he's betrayed by everyone. He expresses a desire to destroy two whole worlds, one of which is his home, just out of annoyance.
- Villain Decay: Taken to the logical conclusion with Eggman in the 200th issue.
- Ixis Naugus has a funny relationship with this trope. In his first appearance, he was portrayed as a strong force worthy of being feared. He had powers that could control the weather and the movement of the earth, and he forced Sonic and Tails into a wild goose chase around the world. Later, he was downgraded to Mogul's servant and was driven insane. He became a major antagonist again, but his paranoia leads to him simply abandoning his plots for Mobotropolis.
- Villain Episode:
- The "Scourge: Lockdown" arc (Issues 29-32 in Sonic Universe) is all about Scourge, Fiona, and the Destructix trying to bust out of the Zone Cops' prison.
- The "Babylonian Rising" arc (Issues 33-36) was mostly about the Babylon Rouges and the Battle Bird Armada competing to get into the Babylonian Gardens. Sonic and his friends show up midway though it's still mostly the villains' story.
- The "Scrambled" arc (issues 37-40) was focused on Eggman dealing with Snively's latest betrayal.
- Villain Team-Up: Happens almost as frequently as the Enemy Mine situations, given the number of villainous factions involved in the series. Almost always ends with them betraying each other.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Ixis Naugus, due to playing to the public's distrust of NICOLE, and his defense of New Mobotropolis during the Death Egg and Battle Bird Armada attacks. And also because Geoffrey's unable to warn the council of what Naugus tried to do in the "Secret Freedom" arc.
- Visionary Villain: Enerjak.
- Wasteful Wishing: A variation. In issue #35, after Sonic collects his one billionth power ring, he's taken to a special zone where he meets the Ancient Walkers. The third says he may ask him one question. Sonic, without thinking, says "Only one?"
- Wham Line: In one story, as Knuckles and his mother Lara-Le argue about Dimitri, she drops a major one to him.Knuckles: Why not hear what Dimitri has to say before giving him the old Heave-ho?Knuckles: Children? I'm an only child, mom!Lara-Le: I didn't misspeak, Knuckles! You're going to have a sibling! I'm pregnant!
- We Come in Peace — Shoot to Kill: When intelligent alien life first found Earth, they dispatched a peaceful ambassador to discuss beneficial trade. Said ambassador was promptly dissected.
- Said almost word for word by the Overlanders in Knuckles Mini-series issue 25.
- Weaksauce Weakness: The Krudzu Plant, the first invention Robotnik sends after the Freedom Fighters in the ongoing comic, ends up weak to water, meaning a simple rainstorm defeats it.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy:
- Knuckles and Locke's relationship has elements of this. Also, Antoine invokes this trope when he tries to earn his father's appreciation after the latter starts acting more impressed with Sonic.
- Snively's lack of appreciation by his father is hinted to be part of the reason for him being evil. Interestingly enough, his father, Robotnik's brother, was also favored over his brother. Hmmm.
- And let's not get started on King Max's relationship with his kids.
- A.D.A.M. towards Robotnik.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist:
- Knuckles as Enerjak. The dingoes also apply, depending on how you look at it.
- Finitevus considers himself one. Though he isn't.
- Lien-Da.
- Geoffrey is one as well — he helped Naugus become king because he honestly believed it's for the Republic's own good. Though now that he's seen Naugus' true nature, he regrets helping him.
- West Coast Team: There are Freedom Fighter teams scattered across the entire planet and even the oceans! The more well-known ones were the Downunda Freedom Fighters, the Forty Fathoms Freedom Fighters and, of course, the Chaotix.
- Wham Episode: The series has went over some gamechanging plot points, though these stand out in particular.
- The Endgame arc raises the stakes in the story. Sally was presumed dead. Sonic was framed for her alledged murder, the Freedom Fighters were scattered, and Knothole was finally discovered and invaded by Robotnik, planning to erase it off the face of Mobius. Everything got better though.
- Issues #124 and 125 reveal that Mobius was once Planet Earth, originally ravaged by a vengeful alien race. When the aliens return to Mobius to finish what they started, everyone on Mobius fought back, and Sonic made a Heroic Sacrifice to save the world.
- Several issues after making his way back to Mobius (after his "sacrifice" shot him halfway across the galaxy), Knothole Village became Knothole Kingdom, and a new Robotnik war begun. While there were some new plotlines, everything else was the way it has always been... expect Sonic and Sally breaking up.
- Issue #175 has Eggman and Snively launching an all-out assault on Knothole, razing it to the ground and capturing most of its inhabitants. While Eggman handed Sonic the most brutal defeat in the series, the hedgehog and his friends rescue everyone an issue after, before relocating to a new home.
- Issue #230 saw Eggman attempt to use a Roboticizer to affect the entire world, after Sonic undid a universe-altering weapon. Sally made her own Heroic Sacrifice to prevent that, only to become a robot herself.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: Hope Kintobor. Her idealism reaches it's breaking point during the "Scrambled" storyline.
- Will They or Won't They?:
- Sonic and Sally did this for a long time. Then they started dating, broke up, and are doing it again.
- Knuckles and Julie-Su had a fair bit of this when they first met, too. And Rouge acts like she and Shadow are dating, but she acts this way to everybody, while Shadow is an emotional cripple with about three years of life experience (most of it pretty horrible), with some serious anger and brooding issues.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Both Dimitri and Knuckles were turned into the crazed god Enerjak by draining power from the Master Emerald.
- Women Are Wiser: Most of the females, while still having their own shortcomings, are somewhat more level headed than their male comrades.
- Sally in particular is the most "normal"-acting character in the comic (though both her and Bunnie had near equally wacky and blundering personas than Sonic and co in the earlier light-hearted issues).
- Notably averted with Lien-Da, who's in her 30's and still acts like a spoiled child half the time.
- Worthy Opponent: Speedy comes to view Tails as one following their initial confrontation, as he goes from calling Tails "freak" to referring to him by name and insisting everyone else in the Armada do so as well. Hell, the next time they meet it almost seems to have reached Friendly Enemy status.
- Would Hurt a Child: Fiona Fox does this both emotionally and physically. She not only breaks Tails' heart right to his face, she has the nerve to give him a brutal and unprovoked slap just to rub salt in the wound. And going from the smile on her face, she enjoyed every moment of it. And even afterward, she has the gall to still exploit his feelings towards her.
- Wrench Wench: Hope Kintobor, in keeping with the family tradition, is quite the mechanical prodigy.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: The Twilight Zone (no, not that one), a pocket dimension where time passes at roughly a quarter of the speed of the main universe. The Dark Legion was imprisoned here for centuries before eventually escaping.
- Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: How Rob O' the Hedge often talks. His cousin, Amy, who comes from the same region, doesn't do this.
- Yet Another Christmas Carol: An early, non-canon story.
- You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: Snively begins to suspect that Eggman is slipping when he calls him by his real name.
- You Have Failed Me: The first Robotnik, often. Eggman has also shown aspects of this from time to time.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: King Shadow to Lien-Da.
- Younger and Hipper: Well, not hipper, per se, but Nu!King Acorn is much younger than the one prior to the reboot, looks more like Ray the Flying Squirrel and isn't a jerk.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: Dark Enerjak has a fondness for yanking out the life-force of his enemies, and putting them into Prelates (robotic copies of the original soul's body).
- Zen Survivor: General von Styker, after his son ousts him from power.