History YMMV / SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics

** Creator/IanFlynn's fans believe he has managed to pull off a lot of these, especially regarding plots left dangling or concluded unsatisfactorily by the previous authors.
*** For example, during Penders's run, at one point, Rotor shuts down Fiona's suggestion that they should use guns. He [[AuthorTract simply claims]] that [[{{Anvilicious}} guns are wrong]] and not the Freedom Fighters' way. Flynn later explained it as Rotor feeling guilt over accidentally hurting a civilian while using guns, with Rotor admitting that [[TakeThat he might have overreacted to gun usage a few times as overcompensation]].

--> Oh, there’s been a fair bit…I’m glad that it didn’t get out of hand, I tried to write them with a more [[LikeBrotherAndSister sibling-like friendship]] and most folks picked up on that.

*** Hot Pocket of Destiny [[labelnote:Explanation]]Ian Flynn's description of Knuckles' backstory in [[https://www.sonicstadium.org/2013/05/sonic-stadium-interview-archie-comics-ian-flynn/ an interview]] has caught on.[[/labelnote]]

*** There are also more than a few fans who disown the "Endangered Species" arc (primarily issues 244-246). Due to Archie's lawsuit against Penders, the story had to be rewritten at the last minute. Knuckles' love interest Julie-Su along with the rest of his echidna kind were PutOnABusToHell offscreen. The main antagonist responsible for their disappearance [[spoiler:(Thrash the Tasmanian Devil)]] [[KarmaHoudini got away with it]]. This ended Knuckles' last major story in the old continuity on a massive DownerEnding.

** Princess Sally Acorn. Depending on who you ask, she'ss either the absolute best female Sonic character, if not the best overall character in the franchise, who is the perfect foil and love interest for Sonic, a proactive ActionGirl, has a loving personality, and a positive influence on all the characters; or a very boring and unlovable character whose influence has a very negative impact on the other characters (especially Sonic and Cream), reeks of {{Flawless Token}}ism, and a FauxActionGirl. Not helping matters at all is Sally’s [[SpotlightStealingSquad prominent usage]], which has increased even further ever since Ian Flynn took over as head writer of the comics, causing detractors to label her as a blatant CreatorsPet, while supporters in turn defend said prominence as a necessary move to [[CharacterRerailment undo the damage]] the late Penders/Bollers era had done to the character. And that's without getting into the shipping side of things.

** Mina is depicted as being overzealous and callous for making a public statement about how dangerous NICOLE is and indirectly starting a mass paranoia. However, as [[TheWoobie sympathetic as she is]], NICOLE was shown to be extremely dangerous as a result of the Iron Queen corrupting her programming, leading to Mobians being enslaved and mutilated with cyborg implants. The Freedom Fighters are outraged by Mina's actions and labelled the public as being vindictive, but as she angrily pointed out, people had suffered because of NICOLE, and largely because they were cocky enough to make a huge oversight. It was implied they were taking precautions by that point, but that was closing the proverbial barn door after the horse had bolted. In short: Mina was pretty reasonable that the Freedom Fighters should have done and should be doing way more about NICOLE being a potential threat.

** Princess Sally Acorn. Depending on who you ask. She is either the absolute best female Sonic character, if not the best overall character in the franchise, who is the perfect foil and love interest for Sonic, a proactive ActionGirl, has a loving personality, and a positive influence on all the characters. Or a very boring and unlovable character whose influence has a very negative impact on the other characters (especially Sonic and Cream), reeks of {{Flawless Token}}ism, and a FauxActionGirl. Not helping matters at all is Sally’s [[SpotlightStealingSquad prominent usage]], which has increased even further ever since Ian Flynn took over as head writer of the comics, causing detractors to label her as a blatant CreatorsPet, while supporters in turn defend said prominence as a necessary move to [[CharacterRerailment undo the damage]] the late Penders/Bollers era had done to the character. And that is without getting into the shipping side of things.

** "Alone on a Friday night? God, you're pathetic", [[http://thankskenpenders.tumblr.com/post/104187077300/home-alone-on-a-friday-night-god-youre actually a photoshopped version of this panel]]

** Like noted above, Archie Comics never had anyone who worked on the comic, before Ian Flynn, sign a contract which explicitly states that the company owned the characters of anyone who worked on the comic. This is likely why Ken Penders was able to file for copyright protection on his characters. For the record, Archie ''claimed'' that they made Penders sign a contract back in the day, but the company was unable to a produce a valid copy of said contract. They claimed that the original was "lost in a fire", while Penders claimed that there was never any contract to begin with. Even if we might not ever know which side is right about the contract, the bottom line is that it was Archie's own fault. They did not check over the policies concerning a creator's ownership rights. Karl Bollers has stated that he technically owns the characters which he created while working on the comic, and that he could file for copyright protection on them just like Penders.

** Issue 130 introduces us to M and ADAM, who are Eggman's [[ArtificialFamilyMember artificial children]]. ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers'' brings us Sage, who Eggman would end up growing to see as a daughter. If Sage and Metal Sonic's cameo in ''VisualNovel/TheMurderOfSonicTheHedgehog'' is to be believed, Eggman also came to see Metal Sonic as a son. The main difference between the duos is that, while in case of ADAM and M, ADAM, the AI, is male, while M, the robot, is female; in the case of Metal Sonic and Sage, Metal Sonic, the robot, is male, since he's, well, an EvilKnockoff of Sonic, and Sage, the AI, is female, what with her being a ReiAyanamiExpy. May cross over to HarsherInHindsight for ADAM, since his primary goal is to [[WellDoneSonGuy make Eggman proud]], and Eggman clearly shows ParentalFavoritism to Sage.

* NarmCharm: Some people have this opinion of the comic's [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness early days]], which mostly consisted of zany, pun-filled, somewhat psychedelic stories carrying a similar tone to the ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'' despite using the more serious freedom fighter setting from ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM''. Those stories were completely at odds with the dramatic tone that would dictate the comic from Mecha Madness onwards and thus are really insane in hindsight, but they can be genuinely fun, memetic and entertaining (especially when taken out of context).

* NarmCharm: Some people have this opinion of the comic's [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness early days]], which mostly consisted of zany, pun-filled, somewhat psychedelic stories carrying a similar tone to the ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'' despite using the more serious freedom fighter setting from ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM''. Those stories were completely at odds with the dramatic tone that would dictate the comic from Mecha Madness onwards, but they can be genuinely fun, memetic and entertaining (especially when taken out of context).

* NarmCharm: Some people have this opinion of the comic's early days, which mostly consisted of zany, pun-filled, somewhat psychedelic stories carrying a tone more similar to the ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'' despite using the more serious freedom fighter setting from ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM''. Those stories were completely at odds with the dramatic tone that would dictate the comic from Mecha Madness onwards, but they can be genuinely fun (especially when taken out of context).

** Many people are probably aware of the whole legal battle that happened between Ken Penders, Creator/ArchieComics and Creator/{{Sega}} in the early 10's, even if they might not be familiar with the comics themselves besides its most bizarre moments. Since then, Penders would go on to feature in various incidents that would put the spotlight on him, like his announcement of "The Lara-Su Chronicles" that so far consists of nothing but bizarre artworks done by himself and implying a possible offscreen sexual encounter between a 20-year old skunk and 15-year old chipmunk, somewhat painting the comic he once wrote in a worse light for those unfamiliar with its actual contents.

** The infamous cover for issue #155, with the lonely, heartbroken Sonic crying over Sally's ArrangedMarriage in a dark corner. The sheer amount of {{Wangst}} displayed is palpable, with the "...Alone" on the corner being the cherry on top. The cover itself has been frequently referred as an emblematic visual of the series' prevalent [[RomanticPlotTumor romantic melodrama issues]], especially those involving [[CelibateHero Sonic]] himself.

** Many people are probably aware of the whole legal battle that happened between Ken Penders, Creator/ArchieComics and Creator/{{Sega}} in the early 10's, even if they might not be familiar with the comics themselves besides its most bizarre moments. Since then, Penders would go on to feature in various incidents that would put the spotlight on him, like his announcement of "The Lara-Su Chronicles" that so far consists of nothing but bizarre artworks done by himself and implying a possible offscreen sexual encounter between a 20-year old skunk and 15-year old chipmunk, somewhat painting the comic he once wrote in a worse light than it actually did.

** Many people are probably aware of the whole legal battle that happened between Ken Penders, Creator/ArchieComics and Creator/{{Sega}} in the early 10's, even if they might not be familiar with the comics themselves besides its most bizarre moments. Since then, Penders would go on to feature in various incidents that would put the spotlight on him, like his announcement of "The Lara-Su Chronicles" that so far consists of nothing but bizarre artworks done by himself and implying a possible offscreen sexual encounter between a 20-year old skunk and 15-year old chipmunk, somewhat painting the actual comic he once wrote in a worse light than it actually did.

** Many people are probably aware of the whole legal battle that happened between Ken Penders, Creator/ArchieComics and Creator/{{Sega}} in the early 10's, even if they might not be familiar with the comics themselves besides its most bizarre moments. Since then, Penders would go on to feature in various incidents that would put the spotlight on him, like his announcement of "The Lara-Su Chronicles" that so far consists of nothing but bizarre artworks done by himself and going on about a possible sexual encounter between a 20-year old skunk and 15-year old chipmunk, somewhat painting the actual comic he once wrote in a worse light than it actually did.

** Many people are probably aware of the whole legal battle that happened between Ken Penders, Creator/ArchieComics and Creator/{{Sega}} in the early 10's, even if they might not be familiar with the comics themselves besides its most bizarre moments.

** Many people are probably aware of the whole legal confrontation that happened between Ken Penders and Creator/{{Sega}} in the early 10's, even if they might not be familiar with the comics themselves besides its most bizarre moments.

* OvershadowedByControversy: One of the most remembered aspects of the ''Knuckles the Echidna'' spinoff book is the fact that Ken Penders appropriated a number of World War II era quotes and poems without crediting the original sources and rewrote them to fit the narrative of the comic book. The most infamous example would be in Issue 22, where Penders took the "First they came..." poem by Martin Niemoller and replaced the ethnic groups oppressed by the Nazis with species of Mobians enslaved by Robotnik. Not only did many find this to be in poor taste but it [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment doesn't even fit within the context of the comic]] as Robotnik's conquest was a sudden military coup that gave no quarter to anyone, not a methodical assault on minorities.

* SoBadItsGood: The early comics were this, being funny due to how lame the jokes were at best. Once it started developing an actual plot, the comic became straight up good.

** A lot of the artwork from the post-Endgame era. Weird, inconsistent proportions, abuse of {{Animesque}} designs and exaggerated anthropomorphic figures were rather commonplace, to the point characters would come off as stupid-looking or [[https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VE4KLo9iIm0/UPTFC-xXLcI/AAAAAAAADVI/uEE_pQ0TEzY/s1600/01.jpg unnecessarily sexy]] in certain cases (not helped by the fact most of the main cast consisted of teens). The Dip story in particular is infamous for this, as it sexualizes Sally, otherwise a cartoon teenage chipmunk that does avert PantslessMalesFullyDressedFemales, to an ungodly degree, making it nearly impossible to "appreciate" the story with any degree of seriousness.

** Some sex jokes involving Scourge, Fiona, Bunnie, and Rouge have been thrown in. They’ll likely go over a kid’s head, but there’s one involving Bunnie calling herself a “sax-cymbal”.